QUICKIES…

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We often list Ohio as the site of political crimes. Later in today’s postings you’ll see an update of several items but we wanted to mention the most current. Recently, three Columbus, Ohio Zoo officials were caught stealing $2.1 million. They have pled “guilty” to multiple felony charges and are facing sentencing. Normally such crimes would garner up to 33 years imprisonment but in Ohio we can see the GOP judge playing down the whole mess. First, the people who hired and were to oversee them would be embarrassed. That’s not good. Second, no animals were hurt so PETA probably won’t care. Those PETA folks can be a real pain in the *ss. Third, the GOP may need to access some of the stolen money for political campaigns–now or in the future. (There was NO MENTION that these three individuals were asked to return their stash.) Fourth, they may be friends with people who could harm the judge’s chance for re-election. Fifth, the judge may be expecting a little “gravy” for a light sentence (from the unreturned booty). So you see, there is still hope that this nasty little episode can end with “and they all lived happily ever after”.

Did you know that in all of history only twice has a candidate for leader of a country been a convicted felon? It’s true. In 1923 Adolph Hitler attempted to overthrow the German government, was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail. In 1932 he began pushing the Nazi Party and was eventually placed (out of fear and ignorance) in the role of a dictator. We know how that turned out. Fast forward to today, Donald Trump is a convicted felon, tried to bulldoze the peaceful transfer of power process and now is running again. If you study a bit of history (remember Trump bragged that he read Hitler before going to bed), you’ll see multiple striking parallels between what Hitler did and what Trump is trying to do. We invite you to look it up. See the defunding of German police, the personal oath required by Hitler, the Gestapo and SS fear mongering (think “white supremacists”) and all the other similarities. History has a way of repeating itself. Let’s not let that happen.

An important fact is being overlooked by the American people. The current members of Congress are sleeping on the job. Typically each session passes 700 to 800 bills covering all kinds of issues–big and small. But the current Congress has 65 bill passes on its record. Yes, it’s an election year but the people’s work must get done. Bickering, back stabbing, name calling and threats have no place in Congress. Yet that kind of reporting is all we hear in the nightly news. The House–controlled by the GOP- won’t introduce bills because they know the Senate won’t cooperate. And the Senate won’t pass bills because the House won’t provide funds. The current pending government shutdown threat is a perfect example of this impotence. Writing to your Congress person won’t help. They’re all fixed on November 5th. Be sure to vote–if you want to change the activity level.

A GOP judge shot down the latest attempt by the Biden Administration to forgive student loan debt. We’ll say it again. Joe Biden proposed this program in the second month of his term–this not just a vote-getting ploy. Second, would you rather have the billions of dollars in the hands of the government or in the hands of young grads who will use those funds to buy cars, homes, appliances and stimulate the economy? Biden is trying to grow the US economy but the GOP only sees the potential loss of votes. Remember in November.

An update on the economy…”made in America” is fading and we need to recognize and deal with that fact. The August Jobs Report showed an increase in all job categories except manufacturing where a decrease of 24,000 jobs was noted. Let’s face it. Our standard of living is much higher than China, Korea, Pakistan, India–higher that almost all other nations. We had an $8 billion trade deficit last month and it is growing. China is our biggest import source. (And, BTW, China holds more of our national debt than any other nation.) Beyond that we depend on China for critical materials like lithium and other rare earth minerals so a national security angle also comes into play. Trump said “it’s easy to win a trade war with China”. What do you think?

In previous posts we commented on the professional golf world. Well, things are still at an impasse. Recently Jay Monahan, the US Tour PGA Commissioner, explained that the American tour was exploring its options with the Saudi Tour. The Saudi’s seem to be offering $1 billion to the US tour. Of course, the devil is in the details and the money and the control. The Saudi’s will expect to control the tour business and the PGA will resist. The problem is and always will be trust. Currently network ad money supports US tournament purses. But–if the Saudi money is integrated into the US tour and the relationship fails–the US tour will need to re-boot. From Jay Monahan’s viewpoint “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. This deep-seated lack of trust will keep the two sides apart. Even if current talks appear to resolve all points of contention–they will not. The big question we ask is: why do the Saudi’s even care about golf? That sport is hardly popular in the Middle East and the cost of play there is prohibitive to the general population. So what do the Saudi’s hope to gain? Also, lurking in the background is the Trump-Crown Prince connection that caused the US tour to avoid Trump’s golf courses for tournament play. How will that be appeased? Stay tuned.