Social Security. The third rail of American politics. Touch it and die.

   No one with two brain cells is going to reduce social security, no matter what Democrats are claiming on TV. No Republican is that dumb.  There might be a few Democrats who are that dumb but I doubt it.  The current talk on TV about reducing social security is just talk, nobody, Republican or Democrat, is going to do it because the political backlash would be too severe.

Likewise talk on TV about the feds taking money away from social security is just talk from ignorant people.  TV is full of very ignorant people. 

Social security works like this.  Every worker has money taken from his paycheck and given to social security.  In many years, this year for example, social security takes in more money in taxes than it has to pay out in benefits.  The difference is large, billions of dollars.  So what does social security do with the extra money that they will need in a few years?  Answer, they buy US treasury bonds.  They pay modest interest, they are the safest investment on the planet.  America has never ever failed to pay off on its bonds.   And everyone, politicians, economists, business men, who ever,  is against social security investing the money in banks or stocks or anything private, doing such amounts to Uncle Sam investing a lost of money in where ever, which amounts to gaining government control of some private enterprise, at which point it is no longer a private enterprise. And there is no question that US bonds will pay off for social security when social security needs the money. 

 Good Shooting.

This morning's radio claimed that Ukraine shot down 45 out of 50 Russian crew missiles yesterday. Crew missiles are not easy to hit.  They are fast, 600 mph, and fly low which means the radar cannot see them until they a very close.  My radio was tuned to NHPR which is fairly trustworthy and presumably was passing along a Ukraine press release, which might have exaggerated things a little bit.

Attack on Pelosi Home

Paul Pelosi might have saved himself a skull fracture if he had a loaded firearm in a convenient place around his home. Say a bedside table.  I keep an Army .45 automatic in my bedside table.

He might have avoided an attack in his home if democrat district attorneys jailed known criminals instead of turning them loose to roam the streets.  Democrat city officials who defund the police reduce everyone’s safety in their homes.

The Pelosi’s might want to contact an experienced contractor to beef up the security of their home.  A tougher back door for instance.

 Among to zillion law firms advertising for clients in the Camp Lejeune matter we have Kelly Postal.  Their ad says their legal teams are made up of Marines, West Point graduates and Harvard trained lawyers.  I have a lot of respect for Marines, both of my brothers enlisted in the Marines for the Viet Nam war and did combat tours in Viet Nam.  I did the same except I was Air Force.  West Point graduates become US Army officers, for whom I have a good deal of respect.  Then we get down to Harvard lawyers.  They are a turnoff for me.  I wonder how the Camp Lejeune victims feel about them.

Can the US defend Taiwan from invasion by Mainland China?

 Just in the last week, Fox’s military commentator, retired Army general Jack Keane, said that a recent war game on this subject lead to a decisive victory for China and a defeat for us. 

I have to wonder about this.  The Taiwan Strait is 120 miles wide and blue water, deep enough to float aircraft carriers (or any other kind of ship).  China has to get a sizable army across the strait, land the troops on the island of Taiwan, and keep them supplied during the fighting.  Taiwan has an army with a decent supply of up to date American equipment.  China will have to fight hard to gain control of the island. 

   Our best bet to defend Taiwan is to sink the Chinese invasion force as it crosses the strait.  This will start off as an Air Force battle.  China has a lot of airbases on their side of the straight.  We have a dozen aircraft carriers, of which maybe 9 are operationally ready.  The other three are likely in US shipyards for one sort or another of heavy duty work and thus unavailable.  Each carrier has maybe 90 aircraft on board.  The carriers could be stationed on the far side of Taiwan to make it harder for China to strike them. The carrier aircraft can fly right across Taiwan in a matter of minutes.  The Air Force could fly in a lot of planes to Taiwan to fight from Taiwan’s air fields. That ought to give us 800 Navy aircraft and 500-800 Air Force aircraft. 

   China has maybe 1700 combat aircraft.  Maybe half of them are as hot as USAF fighters and the other half is old, slow, and easy meat for USAF F-22s and F35s.  This info comes from pontification at various Internet sites.  These sites tend to denigrate the Chinese Air Force and say nice things about USAF. I don’t know who would win, before a head to head air battle between them.

   The object of such an air battle is for one side or the other to obtain air superiority,  By which I mean to ability to fly low performance (at least by fighter standards) bombers out into the Taiwan strait to sink Chinese ships carrying troops to invade Taiwan.   Other angles, before the air war settles out, US submarines, lurking underwater in the strait of Taiwan torpedoing any surface vessel that needs it.  Chinese aircraft probably cannot sink subs that stay submerged.  No problem for nuclear subs, not impossible for conventional diesel subs.

   So, I can see American air and sea power keeping the Chinese ships under control and off Taiwan landing beaches.  I think this will defeat a Chinese attempt to take over Taiwan.  I don’t know how General Deane’s war game worked and why it showed a Chinese victory.

Codify Roe v Wade.

Biden says he will do it.  Right after the election as opposed to right now when his party controls Congress.  That might change after the election.

I wonder what “codify” means.  Passing a new law that makes some things illegal and other things legal?  What things?  Are these things measurable or can any Democrat office holder say what they are?

Whither the mid terms?

 Waves, will we have one in the oncoming midterm election? You could not tell from the TV news coverage. They talk about Senate contests in a single state, or head to head poll results over a single election. No stories indicating where a lot of voters are heading, just onsey twosey stuff. If there are any poll results over a broad area I have not seen them. I hope everyone gets out and votes in the upcoming election.