Wednesday 15 September 2021
FBI and Co. GUILTY in Nasser Probe
Monday 6 September 2021
Can Biden be a True War Time President?
More World Problems to Solve
On August 7th I wrote a piece "Problems for the World to Solve" - together. Read that one if you have not. This is a continuation.The prime reason for our runaway environmental problems including the melting of the ice caps, fires, and super storms is that the world's leaders, both political and business, have ignored them - just kicked them down the road for the next generation. In fact this is primarily business leaders because they usually control the politicians.
Why do they stall? It is simple. Super, super rich people - the one percent - who live so lavish lifestyles we can't even imagine them, are by and large selfish. Not all are but most. Do auto executives really want to get rid of petroleum powered cars? Do oil execs want them to ? Do bank execs really want to teach people not to use credit to buy things they want rather than need? Do politicians really want to make the ultra rich corporations and their execs pay their share of taxes when those same entities finance political campaigns?
What individual really needs to be a billionaire let alone a multi-billionaire?
Let's go back to the title. Trump claimed to be a War Time President. Really? His administration did finally get industry to ramp up production of things we vitally needed to battle COVID. Good for him and those businesses. For the sake of our future, don't stop now.
In conventional wartimes Presidents and Prime Ministers - even dictators - got big industry to do some amazing things. Plants were halted and converted into making planes, tanks, and munitions. Women who traditionally did not work outside the home went to work making all of those things. Remember Rosie the Riveter? Luxury items were put on hold and vital foods were rationed to feed troops.
So why can't these business leaders who were capable of rapid development of aircraft and ships do the same again? We ARE in another war to save this planet. Stalling again will commit our own offspring to disasters only a few generations away. Is the lavish lifestyle really such a personal priority that you are willing to see your grandkids suffer?
Here is the list from August 7th:
Cars: Eliminate petroleum powered ones
Plastics: Eliminate or vastly reduce its use while ramping up ways to re-use and re-cycle it.
Drinking Water: Develop inexpensive ways to convert ocean salt water for those who have no drinking water.
Food: Build more giant greenhouses and stop eliminating farmlands. Develop more proteins from plants.
Energy:We need more clean energy that people can afford
Shelter: China is building multi-floored apartments in one day!
Clothing: Many have none or only one or two garments.
As mentioned, the COVID pandemic provided another example of what can be done in a hurry when lives are at stake. Now how about:
Harnessing the tides. This has begun in some places. The amount of energy available is virtually limitless for our purposes. Use it to power electrical generating plants.
Sunlight: Use focused sunlight through huge convex or parabolic mirrors to boil water (or other liquids?) which then power steam driven electrical generators.
Meat: This is a tough one but cattle create a lot of atmospheric gas. We love our beef but we would probably be better off without it. The land could be used for crops which are more healthy than beef. I now drink soy milk which I prefer and it has more vitamins and minerals by percentage than regular milk from cattle.
Population Control: This is even more controversial than eliminating beef but the world's population expansion is a huge problem. Limits on offspring per couple would help immensely. China has tried this but is considering its reversal. Until some of these other problems are solved it might be a good thing to press the pause button on an ever expanding population. If not mandated, then incentives could be offered.
International Aid: Surely in the long term helping 3rd world countries with education, equipment to grow crops, purify water, and build rudimentary shelter is cheaper than trying to overpower countries with war and military force? The problem is getting international bodies to cooperate.
Pay for Public Resources: Finally my favorite. This really gets those super rich mentioned above very up tight. Several administrations say the rich should pay their share. They don't. Usually the means is going to be income tax - and it should be. But there are other ways.
Living in a home over a certain size per resident should cost a high premium for electricity; gas; water; and property size. The same applies to vehicles and boats with huge engines for sheer enjoyment. The idea that since they "earned it" they should be able to have these things can no longer be justified. In many cases they did not - their parents or grandparents did. Many hard working people can't afford basic food OR shelter.
However the big one is that most of the huge corporations formed by individuals use immense amounts of those same resources to run those businesses. Some are manufacturing and resource processing plants; hotel chains; airlines and shipping to name a few. These businesses all utilize public resources paid for by you and me: electricity; gas; water; roadways; airports; maritime ports; liquid and solid waste. We pay for it but they get to deduct it as expenses thereby NOT paying the requisite proportion of costs to build and maintain all of that infrastructure. Meanwhile we can not deduct our paltry amount of electricity, gas, water, sewage etc. to run our homes.
THAT should change. The businesses will say that if such expenses can not be deducted, then prices will rise. They will. But then other businesses will find ways of becoming more efficient and competitive. Somebody has to buy their products or services.
Saving the planet is indeed a war. Super rich people are in the best position to wage it without becoming more rich in the process. Some very rich people have already given back to the society that made them rich and still are: Bill Gates; Warren Buffet; Ted Turner; Many celebrities too numerous to mention are also giving back.
The super rich I have in mind make the net worth of most celebrities pale by comparison.
Cough up guys. You will help restore the the American Nightmare to the American Dream.
Tuesday 31 August 2021
Some Good Things About Getting Old
Good Things About Aging? Really?
Although I am getting older I am actually still here on the right side of the grass realizing that I am getting older. Many people I used to know and love - like my parents - are not. With a minor twist on Descartes' famous saying: "I think, therefore I still am". Good for me.
When the first person addressed me as "Sir" he/she was not a child but another adult. I was pissed since they were not much younger than I was. It still happens at the gym. Now it doesn't bother me - as much! I take it as a sign that some of what my parents taught me - respect - still exists. Some people actually compliment me - then ask how old I am! Hey, there are younger people working out who don't receive the same compliments. Surely that is good.
I get to talk to some pretty amazing looking younger women who - I hope - don't feel like I am hitting on them. Maybe they do, but they don't say it! If I were their age today's women would speak their minds more bluntly than when I was younger.
I don't have to pay the unbelievably high rates for car insurance that young people do. I take satisfaction in knowing that the insurance companies have the statistics to back up the rates. They know who are the bad drivers and they are not older people.
Senior discounts - what could possibly be wrong with that - especially for golf?
Drugs - most of my prescription drugs are covered by our provincial medical plan.
Time. My time is my own. I can do whatever I want. To be honest this is probably the biggest benefit that I am wasting the most.
Getting up and going to bed or even taking a nap. I can do any of these whenever I want!
No boss - I hated having a boss and even being one. No more - I am my own. This is the one which would be the most important if there were ever a second life. I wish I had started some kind of business to be my own boss.
Grandchildren. I don't have any kids so this one is not in my list. It is however high on everyone else's list so I include it here.
There is some food for thought. OOPS - please don't go to the fridge! My bad.Don't get me wrong - younger is WAY better! But if you have to make the most of things this list is a start.
Wednesday 25 August 2021
A Sincere Apology
Hatred was Not my Objective
Not everyone is willing to apologize - for anything. I am one who will apologize when I feet the need and I feel such a need.There are over 350 posts on this blog. They often get intense when I feel strongly about something. Such topics include Trump; his followers; those who attacked The Capital Building; other politicians; and those unwilling to get a COVID shot among others.
It has recently come to my attention that when I used the term "Jabasses" to describe anti-vaxxers I went too far. I accept that and to any that I hurt I hereby apologize. Someone went so far as to imply that this was incenting "hatred." In my opinion, that goes too far. I never write to cause people to hate. If I used the term in any of my posts, it was most likely saying that I personally hate something. I will temper my use of the term in future.
I have removed "Jabasses" from the posting.
What I had in mind when I wrote the piece were people like those in the recent incident involving a school board meeting. Someone who merely expressed their desire to have kids wear masks at school was met with near violence. Their car was surrounded and rocked when they tried to leave. They required an escort. One man was banging on the window saying that he knew where the occupant lived and that they would never be safe again - they should stay inside. Now THAT is fomenting hatred.
On January 6th, building a gallows and calling for Mike Pence to be hanged and Nancy Pelosi to be harmed or killed as well - THAT was hatred.
Most of my former post was also devoted to castigating those who protest just for the sake of it. There were people stating that the Feds under Biden would be coming door to door trying to force people to be vaccinated. That was a blatant lie and the speaker knew it. I was directing the term at those people and any of the "you can't make me" crowd.
So there you have it. To me a little well intended apology goes a long way. I hope it does here also.
Sunday 22 August 2021
On Becoming Forgetful
What was that Great Beginning Again?
Wednesday 18 August 2021
Tarnished American Image
Black Eye for Biden
This current affair is tragic for so many people. Bottom line for me is that the U.S. should have learned from the Soviet Union's invasion of the same country in 1979. They were big and powerful but lost to rag tag militants in a type of war they did not know how to fight. They got out relatively quickly and cleanly. What on earth made America think they would do any better? They might argue that this is different but is it really? Tell that to the thousands who will be slaughtered by the Taliban.
I am still a Biden fan compared to Trump. Hell I'd support Donald Duck for President over Donald Trump. But Joe slipped up on this one. Yes Trump signed the deal with the Taliban but did not bring troupes home. He had campaigned on ending the war. Biden followed through on this but is left holding the bag. Was that clever of Trump's people or just another broken Trump promise?
The fact still remains Biden could have done a far better job of providing for safe passage for the thousands of people who helped America. It will be a big stain on his legacy which is a shame. The Trump camp must be overjoyed.
This is only part of a much bigger picture. Trump did a lot to ruin the reputation of America abroad with broken agreements and his total lack of Presidential qualities. Nations actually laughed at him. America however, has a long history of invading and sticking their nose in the business of other places where they don't belong. It is one thing to respond to a world need such as World Wars I and II. Viet Nam, Cuba, Iraq, and Afghanistan to name just a few were not undertaken to save the free world in alliance with others.
America always has an ulterior motive beyond saving the locals and spreading its own version of a so-called democracy. Not everyone wants the American version. Again as I have said before, read "Teahouse of the August Moon" a 1951 novel by Vern Sneider. I was in high school but the mockery of America and its ways did not escape me even in the 1960s.
If America wants to be great again it should do more of true humanitarian work in disaster areas. To be fare, so should many other rich nations. They could have quickly ended slaughters in Africa - for example Ruanda's genocide. Areas of complete famine could be assisted with housing and clean water and agriculture.
In these circumstances America will argue that it can't invade a foreign nation. The truth is that if there are no diamonds, oilfields, or strategic military positions to be gained by America, it turns a blind eye. Invasions and conflict are also good for its own munitions business and for strengthening the military. Charitable efforts are not.
If America wants to re-gain the high ground, it should be pressuring its allies and its foes to do more in the way of charity for the have not nations and peoples.
It won't happen. Greedy American billionaires behind the politicians and who really wield the true power will never allow it.
Sunday 15 August 2021
On Being North of 50
Where is that reset / reboot button for life?
I am writing this not to bore you with the details of my life although I am sure I will but hopefully to stimulate similar thoughts for you. You should not live in the past but a little reminiscing is just fine.For most kids I suspect - certainly for me - one was my 13th. Becoming a teenager was a big one. Teenagers were always the "older" kids. It meant that in the summer I could attend teenage dances at our cottage. The problem was that most kids in my class were 1-2 years older than me. So when my time came, it was a "been there - done that" for any friends.
At 16 I could drive and I did. At 18 I could enter a pool hall and go to the USA to drink (from Canada), and for me it was my introduction to sex. Perhaps that alone makes it one of the biggest. It is also the age of majority in Ontario, but I did not feel like an adult yet. I should note thankfully that I was not conscripted and sent off to war either.
My biggie was becoming 21. Then I could legally drink and buy alcohol. I had already become an adult but somehow this one meant I was not a kid anymore - no excuses.
Thirty seemed like a big one - it always does. Before that however, from 21 to 30 I led the life of an overactive but often lonely bachelor. It happened to be the year I met my partner and we have been together ever since. Mostly I recall attending her brother in law's 50th birthday and thinking: "Wow - he is old. Some day I will get there!" So he was twenty years my senior. Now my 50th was over twenty-five years ago - scary.
Forty was another biggie but somehow not as big as thirty. People often buy you a forty ouncer of booze. We had already moved into a house and that has occupied most of my spare time since.
As already mentioned, the big "50" for someone else was the one when I recalled thinking: "Wow - he is old. Some day I will get there!" My partner arranged a secret surprise birthday and had gone through many of my files (not good) to find names of people she really didn't know. I was astonished when I had parked the car and walked into this banquet hall - she really pulled it off well. She had me thinking it was to be just family. I was astonished. In the pictures, to me I still didn't "look" 50 but maybe my view is somewhat slanted!
And that brings me to 60 and 70. Somehow these were two more non-events - just indications that indeed time marches on at an amazing pace. My next 10th will be 80 and yes, that one is a biggie. For most men their horizon after that is questionable. Supposedly they don't live as long as women but I always said that was voluntary on our part!
My mom lived to be 100 and my dad almost 83. I hope I have her life genes.
Now in retirement I look back. That is what this post is all about. There are so many things I wished I had done differently. Perhaps one sign of a successful life is that you would not have changed anything. That does not say much about mine.
Just had a silly thought: I always joked that I wish there were a reset / reboot button for life. One accepted symbol is now the circle with a vertical stroke from its centre to 12:00 (see below). Kind of resembles a navel - a useless part of the body after birth.
There you go. Perhaps the navel was supposed to have been our reset button - only to be used once. This was way before Steve Jobs. He never would have had a button - even a belly button. OK. How many of you are looking at yours? Don't bother. It doesn't work!
Friday 13 August 2021
Did You Keep Score When You Were Young?
3 Lies you can count on: Age; Golf score; Number of Partners
I was the worst of all combinations - a late starter and then a long time bachelor who tried to make up for lost time. I'm pretty certain of the number but will keep that to myself. I seldom went all the way just to carve another notch in the bedpost. Things just happened but I have to admit I spent a lot of time looking for the opportunity. For me, "No" always meant no long before it became a catch phrase.
Wednesday 11 August 2021
Best Vaccination: Laugh at Yourself!
Where did all the girls go?
After turning twenty one,
I bought a brand new car.
A sports job with a five speed box,
And glances from afar.
No Triumph, Sprite, or MGB
Too commonplace you see.
I found the Fiat 1-2-4
Sport Spyder was for me!
At every light some one would say
"I really like your car!"
Positano Yellow you could
Spot it from afar.
For girls it was a magnet.
How could I ask for more?
On sunny days with soft top down
It even would seat four.
Although those days were long ago.
They seem like yesterday.
I wonder if I had one now
Would I still feel that way?
My other half still harbors the
Convertible allure.
With modern folding hard tops they're
Much better that's for sure.
She loved the new Miata so
I bought one as a gift.
With automatic I still miss
My rapid five speed shift.
For sure this Mazda goes Zoom Zoom,
But I don't feel as free..
It's bumpy, noisy, small and so
I always bang my knee.
Getting in is difficult
But with the sun o'er head,
I think about the beach and of
The care free life I led.
If I Zoomed by you today
You might have heard me shout.
"Please call 9-1-1 for me -
You see I can't get out!"
#thebrewsterblock
Saturday 7 August 2021
Problems for the World to Solve
Let's Get Together
Remember the song "Let's get together, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!" (Haley Mills; Robert and Richard Sherman)? It is one the world should be singing, translated into many languages with the same refrain but new lyrics.Some of the world's greatest problems - COVID for example - would be better addressed by international cooperation. The International Space Station is a great example. The problem is that much of the needed funds are now going towards the goal of self preservation or being ready to destroy the other guy. This must make God or our alien creators and masters proud.
Here are some suggestions from which we would all be beneficiaries, including other living things like plants, fish, and animals. There would have to be an agreement that any new invention or technology which resulted from the combined effort could not be patented. That way any country would be free to allow private industry to help without any monopolies locking up the creation out of financial greed.
Let's hear some of your thoughts. Comment below.
CARS: Thankfully this is being addressed albeit slowly. Petroleum powered cars must go. This alone will help to purify the air and slow down global warming. Petroleum will always be needed for commerce, construction, and travel but there are hundreds of millions of cars, most being extremely inefficient.
PLASTICS: I doubt they will disappear but some like shopping bags and drink / water bottles could go. Replacement products are needed. There is hope with the commercials I am seeing involving three major soda companies and their new bottles.
DRINKING WATER: More high volume low cost desalination technology is needed. Israel is advanced in this area. The whole world should have access to clean, safe, drinking water.
FOOD: I have read that there is enough food to feed the world but not everybody has access. Large scale food greenhouses already exist. You can't always spread crops laterally but you can go vertically, just like residential buildings. Sharing such technology would allow current countries who can't grow crops to do so.
ENERGY: Solar, wind, and harnessing the tides are all possibilities here with minimal progress in each. Another known technology is the use of the sun's rays to superheat a liquid using huge parabolic lenses. This is ultimately used to boil water for a steam engine, which then drives a generator. Combined knowledge here could be shared and large plants built in the hottest areas of the world. Electrical power could then be transported in conventional towers and cables.
SHELTER: Many of the poorest have never had a home. I saw a video once about someone who was building stacked homes out of large concrete sewer pipes. Sounds crude but these were liveable. What about spent shipping containers and tractor trailers once they are off the road. Now they end up in some farmer's field. Quonset huts would also be like a palace to those with no home of their own.
CLOTHING: Right up there with food and shelter. Used clothing is already collected - for a profit. Governments could do it, on a non profit basis (cover costs only) for the needy both here and abroad.
There are lots of possibilities where combined genius can be used for common good. Surely re-directing government money from charitable handouts to jobs for the betterment of the human race is desirable.
It easy to talk about taxing the super rich and certain corporations so that they pay more to fund common benefits, many of whom pay none. These are good causes to which the extra cash could be directed, rather than to executive salaries and bonuses, and politicians' pensions.
What are your ideas?