New Republican presidential candidate, Tim Scott

I saw Tim Scott on TV today, doing his acceptance speech. He is officially in the presidential race now.  I was impressed.  This guy gives a good speech, had his audience cheering on the applause lines.  I have not gotten a hold of a printed copy of his speech to check where his political stuff is coming from, but it all sounded good.  I might vote for him.  To win, he has to give that speech to a lot more Republican audiences.

The federal debt limit.

We have one.  It says that the US cannot borrow money above the debt limit.  US Treasury is saying that they will need to borrow more to pay the government’s bills starting in June. Speaker McCarthy has written and passed a bill to raise the debt limit and do some noticeable cutting of federal spending. No spending cuts, not debt limit increase.  Needless to say the Party of More Free Stuff (democrats) does not want to go along with any kind of spending cuts.

   It should be possible to dicker and come up with a compromise that has enough spending cuts to satisfy Republicans and spends enough for feed democrats.  Right now Biden and WRBA are not negotigiating; they are junketing way out in the Far East.  They won’t be home til Monday.   With out Biden and his heavy duty advisors at the table, face to face, nothing can get done. 

   Default is not the problem, despite what the TV keeps saying.  Default is the failure of the US to pay its obligations, namely federal bonds and treasury bills when they come due.  Federal tax revenue is about 60% of the needed money to run the government and pay the obligations.  Obligations are like 10% of the tax revenue.  Do a little trimming, pay some suppliers late, and we have plenty of money to pay down on bonds and T-bills.

   I expect when Biden and WRBA get home they will be able to cut a deal with the Republican and McCarthy and get on with things.  

Biden wants to put our lights out.

Slow Joe Biden wants to put our lights out.  He wants his Environmental Pollution Agency to require that fuel burning electric power plants reduce their emission by 95%.  Wow. That is like ordering all our power plants to shut down.  It cannot be done.

Consider a coal plant.  Let’s burn a ton of coal to make steam to turn the electric generators.  Coal is pretty much pure carbon.  The ton of coal burns by combining with two oxygen atoms to each carbon atom.  This gives 3.6 tons of carbon dioxide up the stack for every ton of coal burned.  There is nothing you can do to improve this.

Gas fired plants are a little bit different, but the end result is about the same.  

 

In New Hampshire we ought to have a New Hampshire bureau that sets reasonable performance standards for electric plants and inspects New Hampshire plants for compliance with New Hampshire standards.  Out of state trouble makers who cause trouble for our electric generators are sabotaging our electric supply and should be thrown in jail.     

Reparations in California

California ought to become amusing.  They have promised “reparations” of $1.2 million (per individual? per family? Per extended family?)_to not well defined groups.  California is $8 million in debt.  It will take many many times $8 billion ($200, $400, $800 billion?) to pay the proposed reparations to every one eligible for them.  The TV has not been clear about who might be eligible.  Good luck California.  I will bring popcorn.

Keep on Trucking. Anywhere but California.

 California is going to ban the sale of diesel trucks as of 2036.  Was I a trucking company or a mere owner-operator, I would start thinking about relocating out of California.  Reregister all my vehicles some state outside of California.  They did not say if they would permit out of state trucks with good paperwork to drive into California.  If they go that far, I would look of out-of-California customers to serve. 

  I am glad I bought a new Chevy this year.  I am beginning to hear talk about banning the sale of real cars (internal combustion engines) and forcing us all to buy battery cars.

Did the Army helicopter accident in Alaska happen in daylight or after dark?

 Three people were killed and a fourth injured.  They haven’t said when the accident occurred.  If it occurred after dark, did the helicopters have their running lights burning? They should be.  Only reason for flying without lights might be a training mission for flying formation in the dark.  Which is very dangerous. 

You can bring your kids reading up to par.

You can bring your children’s reading, arithmetic, science and other subject’s grades up to par. Start out by getting your kids teacher to give you the kid’s test scores.  This will give you something to compare progress against.  If the teacher won’t show you your kid’s test scores go the next school board meeting and complain. 

   To learn reading, the kid has to read.  Which means you have to have some appropriate books in the house.  For real young kids Dr Seuss is great.  Likewise Shel Silverstein.  Take the kid[s] book shopping with you.  Comic books (graphic novels) can be good.  Check to see of the kid likes it, and check to see if you like it.  You can refuse to buy any graphic novels that you disapprove of. 

  For older kids Tolkien is great.  Likewise an Oz book, Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, Fletcher Pratt stories, especially “Battles that Changed History” is fantastic.  Science fiction, Robert Heinlein, Jerry Pournelle, Andre Norton,  Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, E. E. Smith, L Sprague DeCamp, Larry Niven, and many others. 

   Then you have to encourage the kid to read.  Sit down with your kid and a good book.  Read a paragraph to the kid.  Ask the kid to read a paragraph to you,  When the kid strikes a word that he doesn’t know, let him work on it for a bit and then tell him how it is pronounced and what it means. 

   Then the kid will need to know phonics so he can sound out new words.  When the kid is just starting to read, he will hit a lot of words he doesn’t know.  With phonics the kid can sound the word out and get it.  For phonics the kid need to know the sounds of all 26 letters of the alphabet.  The Alphabet song is good for this. The he needs to know the five vowels, and the long and short sounds of each of the five vowels, and some of the rules that make vowels long or short.  For instance if the word ends in E the vowel is long.

   And, very important, read a bedtime story to the kid[s] every night.  This shows the kid[s] that reading can be fun after they learn how to do it.

   You are probably better at choosing books for your kids than any teacher.  My youngest had nothing but age inappropriate, or boring, or nasty dystrophies worse than 1984,  or heart breaking stories like the one about a young girl Afghan who had her favorite pet camel seized by the Taliban and used to fed the troops.

   After a year of this kind of practice that kid will be reading better, maybe reading at grade level.