Another Debt Crisis Averted - for Now.

Cash Tree in the Garden at the White House

The game continues. Just like the World Series, Superbowl, or Word Cup, the American government's big game has just been played. In this case instead of a winner or loser until the next season, the game ended in a draw - until the next crisis 45 days from now!

We witness this spectacle annually in the USA and most democracies across the globe. We don't know about dictatorships because we are not allowed to see inside them. Keep this in mind if you intend to vote for Donald Trump again.

If you or I go to a bank for a loan we have to prove: the reason for the loan is sound; we have the ability to make payments - the longer the better for the lender; and we have a good track record for doing so, among many factors. If we fail there are plenty of secondary lenders who are happy to charge an arm and a leg for another loan. There are also sharks who will indeed take that arm or leg if you renege on your payments to them. 

Then there are credit card companies who are more than happy to give you more credit even if you have to declare personal bankruptcy. Again lots of debt resolution firms will bail you out for huge fees over a very long time and a vastly reduced lifestyle.

Now let's turn to democratic governments. The choices are similar but the solutions are more severe. They have 4 main choices: printing more money which is always bad; borrowing more money which is easy but also bad; reducing expenses - painful for all of us; or increasing taxes which they often have to do. Too bad the last option always targets the middle class and the poor avoiding the super rich to keep their own government incomes.

This spectacle pulls me in two directions. I am a Conservative at heart and believe in balanced budgets. Governments can only live on endless credit until the next war. So far this has not happened to America. Most of the USA's is with China. Go figure. So when the GOP says it wants to move to more responsible spending and reduction of the debt, they have been just as guilty as their counterparts on kicking the problem down the road when they were in power.

By the same token as a senior retiree I do have a need for government assistance on things like Medicare and pensions, which I paid for during my employment years. If push came to shove I am willing to work for anything extra, especially if funded by the government.

The common factor for both the private sector and governments is that there is no money tree in the back yard. Both have to stop pretending that it exists and that it bears fruit whenever they need it.

Such fruit will turn rotten very quickly. In the USA the fruit is already falling to the ground and they are running out of trees!

#thebrewsterblock

UFOs or if you prefer UAPs

Anomalous phenomena indeed!

Apparently UFOs are no more. Don't think for an instant that they don't exist - it's just that some bureaucrat decided to change their name - twice! They went from Unidentified Aerial Phenomena to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Too bad. UFO had a nice ring to it. I reserve the right to continue to think of the new term "UAP" as "UFO": Unbelievably F--king Objectionable! Regardless I still believe they exist whatever you call them.

My reasoning is simple. With a number of heavenly bodies so large we can't even absorb its immensity, there has to be a planet with a type of life which has itself evolved to the point of entering space for greater distances than we have. It's in the numbers. I might be an alien, or you, or powerful religious leaders. We all know politicians come from a different place but that's another story.

There is some rationale to the new name. Alien phenomena might not necessarily be something that flies. They could be a form of energy. "Beam me up Scottie" might be a reality. Perhaps something has come up from the ocean depths or the centre of Mother Earth.

If these flashes or spots of light reported by military fighters are from afar, it represents a problem - an anomaly in fact. We have a big challenge in our own space program breaking free from Earth's gravitational field. To do so requires huge rockets with enormous amounts of fuel. How can these tiny objects travel similar or greater distances with tiny forms of life inside? A totally different form of energy and possibly dematerializing "life" or the craft themselves and then rematerializing them have to be considered.

The fact that many of these things are supposed to be so small and intent on racing away from our jet craft lends more credence to them being created right here on Earth. Perhaps they are from an enemy or even our own test objects which once again our governments and military have decided to suppress.

Another issue is why or whether a "Roswell" extraterrestrial creature really exists. If so why would our leaders keep it from us? It would be a propaganda bonanza. They could argue that these visitors chose America over other places or that only America had the capability to track and capture them. That would be typical American thinking. I think it is just as likely that they have indeed visited other nations but those nations managed to keep a lid on it. They might even have benefitted more than America from the relationship.

Look at the discovery of dinosaurs or ancient man. Did we have a panic attack over that? Perhaps there is or could be a Jurassic Park somewhere. Are you worried?

All of this sure beats watching foolish stuff on social media , "reality" shows, spending your time idolizing the Kardashians or Taylor Swift! Strange things happen when something travels at the speed of light or (greater).

Perhaps we are starting to experience them in small doses. It is beyond me. It is beyond all of us! One of these days before my current life is over I intend to write about my own Close Encounter and joy ride with aliens. I lived to tell about it but I still can't get rid of my red fingertip!

#thebrewsterblock

U.S. Election 2024

Shake Hands, go to your corners, and come out fighting!

It looks like this is what we will witness in the next American election, 2024. Shaking hands is very hard to imagine. Staring each other down perhaps - Trump is already practicing the stare. There won't be a bell but if there were it should be from the Gong Show, not a boxing ring. U.S. politics and this election is about to out-do anything even Saturday Night Live could conceive. What a shame.

The contrast is sad. Biden is well liked around the world and has decades of experience. Unfortunately that also means he is old by any standard. This cuts both ways. Age brings wisdom and experience but experience also brings age! He would normally be a trusted leader and ally but because of Trump's inexperience, neither Biden nor America can really be trusted anymore.

Trump is a neophyte to politics and leading a country. It showed. It still does. He too is well known around the world but has done more harm to America's reputation than any POTUS in recent history. As a result, Biden is saddled with the fact that Trump has already backed out of agreements. The division between the parties also means that any new GOP President is likely to reverse anything Biden accomplishes more for political reasons than anything else. World leaders can no longer rely on America and they have been observed literally laughing about Trump.

Today at the G20 in India I saw Biden at the right hand end of the row for pictures. He was diplomatic enough to accept this. In the past we have seen Trump literally pushing other leaders out of the way so he could be central in the photo op, narcissist that he is.

In a democracy based on the rule of law, the next POTUS could possibly be a man with outstanding criminal charges who could do time behind bars. Even Nixon was smart enough to resign when he realized the case against him was strong and that his actions had already done much harm to the country.

Biden might not be squeaky clean although no charges have yet been laid against him but his image and reputation are entirely above board. Trump on the other
hand has more lawsuits against him or his companies than anyone I know. He is reputed to be one of the biggest liars on the planet.

Biden cares deeply about people and America and it shows. Trump cares about one person only - Trump, He only considers the country if he can lead it and rule it forever with his rich friends while continuing to rape the country for both.

Here is the rub: those rich friends know he is lying but they also just want to preserve their wealthy lifestyle at any cost. The Trump "base" - those actually vote for the man and do his dirty work - have been totally bamboozled and really do believe him. Just listen to some of them. Hello - the earth is round, not flat, or have you noticed?

Thomas Gray (don't know him either!) once said "Ignorance is bliss". It certainly is in most elections. We can only hope Trump devotees don't manage to make him "great" again. It would be as far from bliss as you could imagine.

#thebrewsterblock