Author: haroldblackphd

This is from a National Review article on the 1992 Democrat platform. How times have changed.

• “The goal of our nation must be to make abortion less necessary” 

• “Republicans brought America a false and fragile prosperity based on borrowing, not income, and so will leave behind a mountain of public debt and a backbreaking annual burden in interest. It is wrong to borrow to spend on ourselves, leaving our children to pay our debts.” 

• “Therefore we call for a revolution in government—to take power away from entrenched bureaucracies and narrow interests in Washington and put it back in the hands of ordinary people. We vow to make government more decentralized, more flexible, and more accountable—to reform public institutions and replace public officials who aren’t leading with ones who will.” 

• “Only a thriving economy, a strong manufacturing base, and growth in creative new enterprise can generate the resources to meet the nation’s pressing human and social needs. An expanding, entrepreneurial economy of high-skill, high-wage jobs is the most important family policy, urban policy, labor policy, minority policy and foreign policy America can have.” 

• “Above all the Revolution of 1992 is about restoring the basic American values that built this country and will always make it great: personal responsibility, individual liberty, tolerance, faith, family and hard work. We offer the American people not only new ideas, a new course, and a new President, but a return to the enduring principles that set our nation apart: the promise of opportunity, the strength of community, the dignity of work, and a decent life for senior citizens.” 

• “To make this revolution, we seek a New Covenant to repair the damaged bond between the American people and their government, that will expand opportunity, insist upon greater individual responsibility in return, restore community, and ensure national security in a profoundly new era.” 

• “We must strive to close both the budget deficit and the investment gap. Our major competitors invest far more than we do in roads, bridges, and the information networks and technologies of the future. We will rebuild America by investing more in transportation, environmental technologies, defense conversion, and a national information network.” 

• “Addressing the deficit requires fair and shared sacrifice of all Americans for the common good.” 

• “We need a national crackdown on deadbeat parents, an effective system of child support enforcement nationwide, and a systematic effort to establish paternity for every child.” 

• “Democrats in 1992 intend to lead a revolution in government, challenging it to act responsibly and be accountable, starting with the hardest and most urgent problems of the deficit and economic growth. Rather than throw money at obsolete programs, we will eliminate unnecessary layers of management, cut administrative costs, give people more choices in the service they get, and empower them to make those choices. To foster greater responsibility in government at every level, we support giving greater flexibility to our cities, counties and states in achieving Federal mandates and carrying out existing programs.” 

• “The success of democracy in America depends substantially on the strength of our community institutions: families and neighborhoods, public schools, religious institutions, charitable organizations, civic groups and other voluntary organizations. In these social networks, the values and character of our citizens are formed, as we learn the habits and skills of self-government, and acquire an understanding of our common rights and responsibilities as citizens.” 

• “Our communities form a vital ‘third sector’ that lies between government and the marketplace. The wisdom, energy and resources required to solve our problems are not concentrated in Washington, but can be found throughout our communities, including America’s non-profit sector, which has grown rapidly over the last decade. Government’s best role is to enable people and communities to solve their own problems.” 

• “Democrats will pursue a new course that stresses work, family and individual responsibility, and that empowers Americans to liberate themselves from poverty and dependence. We pledge to bolster the institutions of civil society and place a new emphasis on civic enterprises that seek solutions to our nation’s problems. Through common, cooperative efforts we can rebuild our communities and transform our nation.” 

MAGA anyone?

I had lunch the other day with a close friend who had on a cap that said “Prosecutor vs Prosecuted”. He is salivating over the prosect that judge Juan Merchan sentences Trump to jail. Never mind that any sentence will be appealed or that the charges were bogus, or that the judge was compromised, or that the judge was biased. None of that matters. What matters to him is that Trump is a convicted criminal regardless of what happens afterwards.

Do you like your cooking? I know a person that along with his wife eats out every night. How can they stand it? I like my own cooking. I make a better pizza than I can buy locally. Also the best chicken enchiladas, chicken and dumplings, venison stew, omelets, meat loaf, salmon patties. I cannot come close to Hattie B’s hot chicken and there is a local restaurant that makes the best baked ziti. However, in the main I would rather eat my own cooking than any restaurant’s.

We don’t know much about Kamala Harris’ thoughts on anything. She is not campaigning on her years as vice president. There are precious few positives. She won’t talk about inflation, immigration, foreign policy, energy costs or anything of substance. She hasn’t been interviewed or held a press conference and the compliant media is letting her get away with it. She opposes Israel’s Gaza campaign but it likely not an antisemite given her husband is Jewish. But I wonder if she supports an arms embargo to Israel. Like hiding Biden in the basement, Harris will hide her views and deny all her previous positions throughout the campaign. The question is whether Trump and Vance are disciplined enough to stay on message rather than simply calling names and defending themselves against a hostile media.

Wouldn’t you like to know how Harris feels about Ukraine? About Israel? About Iran? About China, trade, Taiwan, South China Sea, tariffs? About the EU? About the Supreme Court? Electoral College? DC Statehood?

What we do know is that she likes price controls. She likes Biden’s proposed 5% cap on rents. She embraced rent controls. She wants to increase the supply of apartments but somehow doesn’t realize that rent controls discourage increases in supply. She thinks that giving first time home buyers $25,000 will increase housing affordability. Huh? Won’t this just increase prices by increasing demand? Maybe this is a reverse Say’s Law and here demand creates its own supply. She somehow thinks that food companies are price gouging even though retail grocery prices have jumped less than wholesale prices. She fogets that this is a competitive market and that price increases are due to her administration’s actions. Naturally she would increase government by setting up a bureaucracy to limit price increases. She ignores the fact that price controls lead to shortages in products. Some have called this “communist” seemingly forgetting that the last president to impose wage and price controls was that famous red, Richard Nixon. What Harris is actually showing is that her administration will be to the left of Biden’s. 

Neither Harris nor Trump is talking about economic growth. Harris, being on the left, is in the fixed pie camp where for one party to gain, another has to lose. Any learned person should know better. However, Trump isn’t much better. Instead of embracing growth policies, Trump is a retrenching protectionist. Trump ignores small businesses, the growth engine of the economy. Rather Trump is a big business guy. He shut down small business and left the big ones open during COVID. I wish he would set out a small business agenda. Talk about lessening regulations that stifle business. Talk about targeted tax reduction on small business. Become the small business president. Grow the economic pie. Remind Americans about the power of expanding the pie. Talk about why there are so few poor people in America today and those that are poor would be wealthy if compared to the poor 100 years ago. The only way to make America great again is to make the market great again.

Industrial policy and tariffs: At last agreement among the left and right

In a recent op ed piece, one of the most liberal democrats in congress compared his industrial policy views to that of JD Vance. It was a matter of degree. Both favor increased tariffs and industrial policy. However, the democrat is for more immigration while Vance opposes all immigration – even legal immigration. Curious because Vance’s wife is Indian-American. Another difference is Democrats love the Green New Deal and subsidies flowing to their big business bros. Vance says that the Green New Deal will be shut down on Day 1. Both think the FTC’s Lina Kahn is doing a great job trying to rein in what they consider anti-trust violators – even though Kahn keeps losing in court. There is considerable evidence that Kahn’s efforts are making industries less competitive and driving up prices to consumers. But never mind the consequences. Its the appearances that count.

Again, the politicians seeking to reduce prices to consumers often end up limiting consumer choice. Consider that the pharmaceuticals now have to “negotiate” certain drug prices with the government for Medicare inclusion. The result will be fewer new drugs on the market as the companies will not be able fund research with proceeds from profitable drugs. The government pooh-poohs this finding noting that only about 13 new drugs won’t come to the market under the price negotiation mandate. However, those who suffer from the ailments that would have been addressed are ignored. It is no secret that in economies with price controls on drugs, that fewer drugs are available in those countries. But what are a few thousand sufferers when millions can save a few bucks on their drugs?

Speaking of industrial policy, why are there so many Chinese EV companies? One can look to China as evidence of industrial policy in action. The EV industry is a case in point with enormous subsidies from the Chinese government. Currently there are at least 46 EV manufacturers in China. However, every year more and more fail, endangering the viability of the suppliers that service the manufacturers. It seems to me that Xi should have concentrated his subsidies on only a few manufacturers such as BYD rather than wasting billions of all comers. Chinese industrial policy is a drain on their economy and has restricted China’s economic growth and had a negative effect on its people’s well being.

Of course, Trump wants to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs and on this Biden agreed. The question is why do politicians want to do this. Supposedly it is because American manufacturers cannot compete with the Chinese. If the Chinese were allowed into the US market they would push the American manufacturers out of the market. Does this make sense to anyone other than Trump, Vance, Biden, and Harris? Consider that the manufacturers in the US market sell high priced EVs. If the greenie weenies want widespread adoption of EVs then why should they favor pricing the lower priced Chinese EVs out of the market? I guess they want EVs only for the rich and let the great unwashed be forced to ride mass transit. The main impact of keeping the Chinese out of the US market is to limit the incentive of car companies in the US market to produce better, cheaper, more efficient EVs. Moreover, economists will tell you that Chinese subsidies constitute a wealth transfer from the Chinese to the rest of the world. The Chinese bear the cost of the subsidies while the rest of the world gets an underpriced product. If the Chinese are fools enough to engage in such an economic policy we are bigger fools not to let them.

There is growing evidence that Trump’s tariffs are harming American workers. Instead of protecting jobs, there is a loss of jobs. There are studies showing that a result of imposing tariffs hurts American suppliers who then lay off workers. Recently John Deere has announced the closing of American factories and opening ones in Mexico. Harley-Davison is laying off workers and shifting production to Thailand. Why? First as a result of Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, the EU retaliated imposing an increased 31% tariff on Harleys. The average price of a Harley increased $2,200 forcing Harley to move production of its bikes slated for sale outside the states to Thailand. Harley’s market value fell by over $1.5 billion. Harley’s increased costs to its US customers has helped fuel a 20% drop in US sales. With the Asian market increasing in importance Harley has announced it is moving even more production to Thailand and laying off US workers. What has the Biden Administration done? Instead of getting rid of the tariffs, it has instead given Harley a $89 million grant to its union worker plant in Pennsylvania that manufactures the Livewire, Harley’s electric motorcycle.  Never mind that Harley loses over $177,000 on every electric bike it sells. Not surprisingly, Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey now wants a $7,500 subsidy on electric motorcycles. I can’t be the only one who sees the sheer stupidity in this Rube Goldberg machine. But hey, blame the Chinese for problems caused by US politicians and then waste taxpayers money by incurring more debt.

Speaking of which, have you noticed that neither Trump nor Harris is talking about the national debt? In fact, both of their policy agendas will significantly raise the debt. But what’s another $2 trillion a year?

So much stuff. So little time.

Lithium battery fires are rare but intense. That is why when I considered replacing my Can Am Spyder’s battery with a lithium one I opted for the old fashioned lead acid one. The lithium has a lot going for it. It is lighter, more powerful and longer lasting. However it requires a different charger and I don’t want it in my garage. Too many reports of fires for me.

Media says that the Trump campaign was not prepared for Biden to step down and be replaced by Harris. If that is true then Trump needs a new campaign staff because most of us knew that Biden was going to abdicate.

Trump can’t stop calling names. While on a stop in Montana to support Tim Sheehy in his race to unseat Jon Tester, Trump said don’t be fooled because Tester “is a radical left lunatic like Kamala.”True that Tester professes to be independent while voting with Biden 90 percent of the time but calling Harris a lunatic is off putting to so many of the electorate. However calling her a radical leftwing is on point.

The media is going to brand Trump’s name calling of Harris as either racist or chauvinistic or both. Of course Trump insults everyone friend or foe but he has got to stop it.

I understand why Trump was in Montana. Taking back the Senate should be a priority to the republicans. But Trump needs to concentrate on the swing states and send surrogates to the rest. I am still aghast that he continues to make a fool of himself in Georgia.

Trump and Vance’s campaign theme should be “Where’s Kamala?” The democrat brain trust has decided to emulate Biden’s stay-in-the-basement strategy. It worked. Trump was out there as he repeatedly said “working his butt off” while Biden was in the basement. Biden won. Now Harris is not granting interviews with a press that has elevated her from the lowest ranked national politician to St Kamala. Harris did not even deign to be interviewed in the Time cover article that fawned all over her non-accomplishments. I would be shocked if she debated Trump. All he would need to do is ask her to explain her previously announced positions on anything. I would love to hear him ask if she favors an arms embargo of Israel. It is apparent that the democrats will try to keep her quiet because she will spout some nonsensical word salads and embarrass everyone but herself. It will be interesting to see if they can keep her quiet up to election day.

Again, a cardboard cutout would be twenty points ahead of Harris. That Donald Trump is not ahead is a testament to how perfectly awful he is as a candidate.

The war in the Sudan is horrific and largely ignored by the press. More than 200,000 are dead and 24 million are in need of food. More than 200,000 have starved. In its capital of Omdurman is buried The Mahdi, the legendary Islamic cleric who defeated the Egyptian and British armies and who is said to appear at the End of Times to conquer evil and injustice. Not coincidentally the fans of Dune (of which I am one) recognize the Mahdi as the one who leads the Freemen to save Arrakis. Perhaps many in the Sudan hope that the Mahdi will intercede in these desperate times.

Speaking of the forgotten or the ignored, it is amazing that China can get away with its human rights abuse of its minorities, in particular the Uyghurs.  Also ignored is the systematic repression of ethnic minorities and religious groups such as Christians, Buddists and the Falun Gong who make up over half of China’s forced labor camps.

There are over 70,000 ISIS men, women and children in detention camps in Syria. What is going to happen to those people? Surely you cannot turn them loose to create more havoc in the Middle East.

There are over a million Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. The Rohingya are native to Myanmar where they have suffered genocide. They have been called the most persecuted people in the world. Myanmar has removed their citizenship, restricted their travel, and denied them access to public education and civil service jobs. One over 1.5 million lived in Myanmar and now they reside mostly in camps in Bangladesh. Many fled to Malaysia but that country closed entry. Now many, including unaccompanied children, are migrating to Indonesia in search of a better life. The world ignores their suffering making them the largest group among those whose plight is either ignored or forgotten.

You have to be brave to be a Christian in Nigeria. The Islamic Boko Haram insurgency has murdered over 60,000 Christians since 2009. Yet the world yawns. Over 18,000 churches and 2,200 Christian schools have been destroyed. Remember the abduction of the Christian girls? Well to date over 800 Christians have been kidnapped. Five million Nigerian Christians have been displaced and are now sheltered in refugee camps. There is no more dangerous place in the world to be a Christian than in Nigeria. One wonders if the western world would be so indifferent to this genocide if it were Christians persecuting and killing Muslims?

The Fed is always trying to save us from itself

I wonder if there is an institution subject to more second guessing than the Fed? Ninety percent of the time the Fed is not in the news. Its Open Market Committee mostly meets with scant interest from the media. However, when there is economic uncertainty or economic stress the Fed is in the news front and center. When the economy is experiencing slowing growth, the pundits wonder when will the Fed cut interest rates. Never mind that many economists think this is the wrong policy action, the Fed itself has made interest rates seem like its major tool. When the Fed does act the pundits opine if they waited too late, or acted too soon, or cut enough, or cut too much. When the economy is experiencing inflation, the Fed is urged to increase interest rates. Then the pundits can criticize the Fed for acting too slowly, or too fast, or raising rates too little or too much.

Ironically, the Fed is responsible for the swings in economic activity that it then tries to fix – much like Biden claiming to lower gas prices after his policies increased them in the first place. Central bankers are notorious for creating the ups and downs in the economy and then overcorrecting causing more swings. This what keeps them employed and feeling godlike. Unfortunately most of them really don’t know what they are doing. Very few central bankers are trained in monetary policy. At the Fed, only one governor has that pedigree. The Fed governors tend to be academics who are not monetary theorists, bankers or lawyers. The current Fed chairman is a lawyer not a monetary economist. As a result, they have to rely on their staff – an impressive array of PhDs –  to help guide policy suggestions. However, the staff is not dominated by monetary theorists. In fact, few of the staff at the Board of Governors or the staffs at the reserve banks are monetarists. It would be surprising if there were a consistent Fed policy. Rather it always looks as if they are making things up as they go along.

As it stands now, the Fed has too much on its plate. My suggestion would be to divide the Fed into two. One group would concentrate on monetary policy while the other would concern itself with bank regulation. The monetary policy side would be administered by people who are trained in monetary theory. There are two major schools of thought in this area (monetarists and Keynesians) and one fringe group (modern monetary theorists). I would have representation from all three plus a staff made up of all three views. The other part of the Fed would concern itself with bank regulation and be made up of lawyers, accountants, and bankers. 

Monetarists contend that the interest rate fixation by the Fed is misguided. Interest rates are not a unique indicator of the economy. The same interest rate can exist in virtually every economic circumstance: recovery, downturn, inflation or recession. The Fed then manipulates its Fed funds target rate while at times moving its purchases or sales of Treasury bills via open market operations in opposite directions. This is called discretionary monetary policy which central bankers consider their birthright. However, discretionary policy is destabilizing generating economic uncertainty. Indeed, at times the Fed conducts contradictory monetary policy which is akin to driving with one foot firmly on the brake while the other foot is flooring the accelerator.

One result of the Fed’s obsession with interest rates is that it loses control of the money supply. The increased volatility of the money supply then becomes the major destabilizing force in the economy. In order to minimize volatility monetarists favor a fixed rule emphasizing the role of monetary aggregates (M2 and the monetary base – currency plus bank reserves) rather than interest rates. Setting a fixed growth rate in the money supply and ignoring short term fluctuations in the economy and interest rates lead to greater economic stability. Of course, the central bankers are no longer playing god in manipulating stuff in order to look important. The likelihood of the Fed doing that is virtually nil unless forced to by law. The likelihood of the Congress forcing the Fed to do so by changing the law is less than nil. Rather it is hoped that one day a Fed chairman will be finally nominated and confirmed who is an expert in monetary theory. Perhaps only then will the Fed stop being such a destabilizing force in the economy.

Random Thoughts

I’m irritated by lazy journalism of which there are two types. The first is writing the first paragraph and then posting tweets from social media. The second is going out and finding people who say they are affected by whatever is written in the first paragraph. For example, “Thousands of voters are undecided in the upcoming presidential election. Joe Smith is one of them.” Then the rest of the article is about why good old Joe hasn’t made up his mind. Then there are the stories on inflation that don’t analyze the problem but go out and find four or five “victims” and tell their stories.

The Wall Street Journal had an article about Trump and Harris trying to attract the sliver of undecided voters to their side. This was a totally useless piece of misinformation. If there are any undecided voters, then their numbers are so few they can be safely ignored. A dear friend made the brilliant observation that what both sides need to do is to concentrate on their registered voters who do not vote. My friend noted that if you go to the 2020 election, Donald Trump lost because his voters did not vote in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. In Georgia Trump lost by 80,000 votes out of 2.5 million cast. Yet one million republicans stayed home. Trump is responsible for there being two Georgia democrat senators. He bashed the republican governor and secretary of state saying that they helped the democrats steal the election. The result was that fewer republican votes were cast in the runoff elections for senate and both republican incumbents lost. Trump will lose if he and his campaign do not concentrate on getting their voters to quit whining, get off their lazy behinds and go vote.

Trump has gone to Georgia and bashed the governor, cementing the fact that Trump is a fool. Kemp is a Trump supporter saying that four more years of democrat rule would be a continuing disaster. Trump by his childish venting may well cost him the state.

What Trump and Vance need to do is to concentrate on the swing states. They need to stay on message and highlight the positions of Harris and Tim “Little Bernie” Walz. Of course this requires discipline, something that Trump lacks. Vance should never leave the states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He should stay on message. He should never call his opponents names. He needs to talk about inflation, jobs, government overreach, the second amendment, the Supreme Court, lawfare, banning of internal combustion engines, Green New Deal costs and subsequent layoffs, and the border. Personal attacks just turnoff most voters. Mainly Vance, Trump and their campaign should concentrate on getting their voters to the polls. Again it’s voters not voting that lose elections not the “undecided” voter.

Were there demonstrations at the republican convention? I did not watch a second of the convention but I read about it. I don’t recall reading about protests outside the convention hall. So if there were any, then they must have been “mostly peaceful.”

For some weird reason it looks like there will be protests at the democrat convention over Gaza. This is truly bizarre. Most if not all of the protestors will vote for Harris, if they vote at all. Harris and Tim “Little Bernie” Walz are no supporters of Israel and it is highly unlikely that they will continue Biden’s walking down the middle of the road policy with Israel. That the protest groups have morphed from Genocide Joe to Killer Kamala is a real head scratcher.

So Kamala stole Trump’s bad idea of exempting tips from taxation. Trump cried foul. Woopie. What did he expect? He made the announcement while pandering to a crowd in Nevada. As thanks, the workers’ unions in Nevada are now endorsing Harris.

Trump also has pandered to us old folk by advocating that Social Security payments should be tax exempt. He would be better served by proposing to exempt the pay of active duty military from taxes.

I have yet to hear Trump speak on the $2 trillion national debt. Of course the debt grew like Topsy during his term due to Covid. But that proved to be just a jumping off point for Biden and his trillion dollar infrastructure bill and the Chips bill. Trump is likely not saying anything about the debt because at heart he is too a big spender. Didn’t Trump propose building 10 new “freedom” cities on federal land? This would make Biden’s spending look like Reagan’s. He also wants to build flying cars – he must be a fan of the Jetsons.

Trump also wants the president to have a say in the Fed’s decision making particularly with regard to monetary policy. I guess he has forgotten the consequences of a progressive democrat president. Trump, himself, with zero knowledge of monetary policy would be a disaster as well. Having the Fed report to the president is a bad idea. It would be akin to having presidential input to Supreme Court decisions. 

August is a melancholy month

Pardon me if I publish a variant of this every year.

August is a melancholy month. Mother’s birthday is August 6 and Dad died on August 13. Mom would have been 106 this year having died April 14, 2020 at age 101. On August 6 every year I send out birthday greetings for her to my children and to my nephew and niece. They in turn send texts saying how much they miss her. One of my granddaughters called me to see how I was doing. I love her for thinking about me. 

Dad’s memory doesn’t engender the same emotions. Not that he was loved less but the feelings are somehow different. He was a strict disciplinarian who tolerated no excuses. I learned to never openly disagree with him but say “yes sir” and then do or think what I thought was best. Perhaps the only time he revealed a different side to me was when he was in his 80s and said “Please tell me when I become a fool.” He was getting solicitations that he said occurred only because of his age. Obviously, those scams were working or else they would not exist. Dad said that only a fool would agree to whatever was being solicited. He never became a fool. 

He died on August 13. He knew that he was dying. He told me that although he wanted to live until November 19 which would be his 89^th birthday, he had changed his mind and just wanted to make it to August 30^th – my daughter’s due date with his newest great granddaughter. She was born at 6AM on August 13^th and Dad died at 6PM the same day. But he knew of his great granddaughter and knew that my daughter to her everlasting credit named the new addition “Savannah”. Dad graduated from Georgia State College which is now Savannah State University. That the then all white state legislature took his school’s name to give it to an all white college in Atlanta always irritated him. Dad was a great man and I wrote about him on Father’s Day. He worked two full time jobs and retired from both. During the day he taught biology and eventually became a high school principal. At night he was a postal clerk. He did his best to be a dad but was time constrained.

Mother took the active role in all our lives. She too had a dominant personality and was generous with her advice. I would never consider living in Atlanta because I knew that I would have little peace. When my brother was living (he retired to Atlanta), they would talk several times a day. Even though he had a washer and dryer, he took his clothes over to the house to do his laundry. Several times a week, they would have dinner together. When he died, mother was devastated. He was the favorite. She called me and said that instead of our customary once on Sundays at 5 o’clock call, I now had to call her every day. So at 7AM we said good morning and at 7PM we said good night. Often my phone would ring at all hours of the night so I made Everette Harp’s “Night Calls” her ringtone. I miss hearing her voice and when I hear “Night Calls” I still reach for the phone. Only now there are tears in my eyes.  

Twenty plus years ago a friend and I bought some land in upper east Tennessee to hunt deer and turkey. I would get up at 3 in the morning and drive the 1 ½ hours to get in the tree stand before sunrise. After hunting I would drive back to Knoxville and then repeat. My other half said “Why don’t you buy a small camper so you don’t have to keep going back and forth?” So I went to an RV show and bought a 17 foot travel trailer. I put it on the land and had electricity run to it. I now had a hunting lodge where I could go, take my dogs and relax after a day’s hunting. That started my love of campers.

We loathe sleeping in hotels – and this was before COVID. We enjoyed going to baseball games in Cincinnati and in Tampa Bay. We also had friends near Asheville, Kingsport and in Florida. We also loved to go to motorcycle rallies. So I bought my first toy hauler. It was 38 feet long with a garage. We now could take the motorcycles with us. We could sleep in our own bed and when we took the bike out, the garage became the dogs’ room. We went to Colorado, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Asheville and Florida. One year while at Bike Week in Daytona we saw a 42 footer with 1 ½ baths. We bought it but only kept it for a couple of years. It proved to be too big and was too long for many state and national parks. We sold it and got a 36 foot toy hauler instead. When we turned 70, I sold the motorcycles and bought a 36 foot fifth wheel. We had plenty of room for the dogs and us. It meant that we had to unhitch the truck because we no longer had the bikes. But we adapted. 

Recently, we downsized again, buying a 28 footer. It completed our end-of-life migration. Unlike the midlife crisis, the end-of-life is where you downsize, sell the Porsche convertible, buy a SUV, sell the motorcycles and get a three wheeler. The shorter fifth wheel suits us. We still hate hotels. We have had a steady stream of German Shorthaired Pointers and a couple of Scotties. Now for the first time we only have one dog, Lili – a nine year old GSP. I love dogs. I love their companionship but neither of us wants to bury another one. I have a pet cemetery at the farm in Georgia. I visit them every morning when I am there and tear up each time I pet their headstones.

We no longer go to motorcycle rallies and now we only camp close to towns where we have friends. It is likely that in a few years we will too old to keep traveling with the fifth wheel. Now that it is deer season we will winterize the camper and store it until spring. When we finally sell it, we will probably spend our vacation time at the family farm near Gray, GA.

I don’t look forward to the day when I am too old to go back and forth between Knoxville and Gray. I love Knoxville. It is perfect for access to hunting, fishing, riding motorcycles and camping. Now most of my friends are here. Yet I feel no greater pleasure than being on my ancestors’ land. I will hate leaving Knoxville. But Georgia is home. I was born there, grew up there and educated there. I went from a totally segregated world to one of 7 black students at the University of Georgia. Trial by fire is an understatement. But I am better for it and maybe so are the state of Georgia and its flagship university. In the end I will go back to Georgia and its red dirt. I want to die on the land that gave my family independence, dignity, economic freedom and the courage to stand against Jim Crow and southern bigotry.

Harris’ has chosen her DEI vice president. Her pick of Tim Walz rather than Josh Shapiro shows the fear that the democrats have of the pro-Hamas crowd and confidence that the vast majority of Jews will still vote democrat regardless. The democrats take the Jewish vote for granted much like they do for blacks. Shapiro might have helped Harris carry Pennsylvania. Walz will not help carry Minnesota since Minnesota will vote democrat anyway. That Walz can help in the rust belt is debatable in that because of his record, he is not likely to have appeal beyond hard core democrats who are going to vote for Harris anyway. So the only reason for Harris to pick Walz rather than Shapiro is that Walz is not Jewish.

Harris is 59 and Walz is 60 though he looks much older. He is a younger version of Bernie Sanders – who not surprisingly backed him. The Wall Street Journal listed some of his “accomplishments.” Here they are from the August 6^th edition:

• Increasing taxes, though Minnesota already has the fifth-highest top income-tax rate among the states, 9.85% at $193,000 of earnings for a single filer. Mr. Walz added a 1% surtax on net investment income above $1 million, while reducing deductions, and the Governor wanted more. 

Minnesota is a rare state that still levies a death tax, up to 16%, on top of the federal 40% rate, which is one reason the state is losing taxpayers to better climes. 

• Making an estimated 81,000 illegal immigrants in the state eligible for driver’s licenses, along with health insurance through the MinnesotaCare public marketplace. 

• Funding “the North Star Promise Program, which provides free college for students with a family income under $80,000,” including illegal immigrants. 

• Creating a state system for paid family and medical leave, capped at a combined 20 weeks a year and funded by a 0.88% payroll tax. 

• Mandating that public utilities generate 80% carbon-free electricity by 2030, ramping up to 100% by 2040. He’s a fervent believer in “climate action.” 

• Subsidizing electric vehicles by “requiring EV charging infrastructure within or adjacent to new commercial and multi-family buildings,” as the Governor’s office bragged. 

• Passing one of the nation’s most permissive abortion statutes that has essentially no limits and no age consideration for minors. 

• Declaring Minnesota to be a “trans refuge,” with a law saying that the state will ignore a “court order for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child’s parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state.” 

• Establishing automatic voter registration and letting Minnesotans sign up for a permanent absentee ballot option. 

So much like Trump’s pick of JD Vance (nee: “Little Trump”), Harris has picked Little Bernie. I said previously that Trump obviously felt that Vance would help him in the Rust Belt states and didn’t see the need to broaden his appeal to non republican voters. Else he would have picked Nikki Haley – remember JFK picked LBJ – or Tim Scott. People one said that Biden’s pick of Harris meant that there was a possibility – however faint – that Harris might become president. Well that possibility is faint no longer. If Trump were elected and did not serve out his full term – remember he is 78 – then we would get a president Vance. Do you really want JD Vance as president? I don’t. But I don’t want a president Walz either. And you thought a Trump-Biden or a Trump-Hillary or a Trump-Harris race was a conundrum? A Vance-Walz campaign would produce a president worse than any of the above. How in the world do we now have a political system that produces these awful choices of deciding to vote for who you think will do less damage to the country?

Harriet Barfield Black

August 6, 1918-April 14, 2020

That Kamala Harris will win the majority of votes for president shows the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in instituting a representative republic rather than a democracy. Harris is clearly not competent to be president – but again, neither is Biden.

Trump continues to be his own worse enemy. He goes to Georgia and lambastes Brian Kemp who had magnanimously endorsed Trump at the republican convention. Trump is the reason why the democrats took control of the senate when he discouraged republican voters in Georgia from going to the polls. The election of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossloff was the result. Trump needs to shut his mouth and not tweet about anything except the actions of the Biden Administration.

Speaking of which, where’s Waldo – er Biden? Have you heard anything from him on the tanking of the Japanese stock index, the growing threat of wider war in the Middle East or Maduro reneging on his promise to have a fair election in exchange of lifting the oil sanctions? Me neither.

By the way, even though the press was hysterical about the market correction almost impling that the US market had crashed, it was mere hyperbole. The market went down only 2%. The Japanese market fell 20%. The reason for the decline was the Japanese central bank finally raising its bank rate to a paltry 0.25%. But when you have had negative rates, I guess 0.25% looks enormous. Investors had been borrowing money in Japan at those rates and investing abroad at higher rates. Maybe the Bank of Japan was signaling that cheap money days are ending. Will the Fed now raise rates in September?

The Fed is between a rock and a hard place. Any action on its part will now be deemed political. If it had raised rates at the last Open Market Committee it would have minimized any criticism (except from Trump). Some are now saying that if the Fed cuts rates it should be by 50 basis points rather than the traditional 25 bp. That would be a bad thing. A larger than anticipated cut would roil markets by signally a stronger imminent recession. The markets would tank. Word to the Fed: Don’t do it.

Much has been made of the weak job market numbers. Of course, the Harris campaign blamed Trump. Again, the truth is that the job market has been weak for a couple of years. Most of the hiring has been in governments and services at minimum wages. Very little job growth has been in the other sectors.

The polls now tell us that Harris is now slightly favored over Trump. Talk about gaslighting! Let’s see what they say in a month. Isn’t it curious that the least popular national politician with an approval rating in the 30s is now favored to become president? Only a fool would believe that. Are we now fools?

Harris’ DEI vice president pick is Tim Walz again proving that the vp doesn’t matter. Walz is not going to counter Vance in the rust belt states. He was picked because he was Bernie Sanders’ choice. Of course, the country elected Bernie Sanders although it thought it was electing the “moderate” Joe Biden. But once in the White House, Biden adopted most of Sanders’ agenda. Like Harris and Biden, Walz supports unlimited abortion and the LBGTQ trans agenda. Harris’ selection of Walz again shows that the most influential democrat is not even a democrat. 

The press is now saying that a recession would doom Harris’ chances. That is total BS. Harris’ chances are doomed because of the Biden Administration’s disastrous term.

Lastly, my mother would have been 106 today. She died at 101 and was a wonderful person. We all miss her deeply.