JUST SOME POSTS

 This post will be a bit different as I do not have a dialog or point to make specifically. Our government is divided into three separate but equal parts - the legislative branch - the House and Senate, the judicial branch - the Supreme Court, and the Executive - the Presidency and all departments and cabinet. We normally speak of "control" of government relating to what party has the majority in the House, Senate, and the Presidency. Control of all three, along with the power of the Presidency to nominate Supreme Court judges and the Senate's power of approval of the nominees means that control of the Congress and Presidency is a powerful thing indeed.  I was thinking about what party has controlled Congress and the Presidency in recent times. I defined "recent" as after WWII - 1947 to current - 2025 as I write this. I came up with a chart showing the party in majority in the House, in the Senate, and holding the office of the President for each two year term o...

The current administration is being labeled with many names. Most of these are due to two of the major activities being carried out (or that are being tried to be carried out!) - dealing with and deporting illegal aliens and government spending. I will leave the former for later after just saying that having a country where anyone can show up and get similar (or better?) benefits than long-standing citizens, there is a serious issue. Starting out by breaking the law is no way to start a relationship. But, enough of that subject. On spending. Since reading details does not seem to be what a lot of folks do these days I will break it down to the heading of this post - WE ARE BROKE! I am going to offer many facts and figures to document this, but if you don't read any further, remember that fact.  I have not given my list of absolutes in a while, as I do not post nearly as much. I have been writing books for the last seven years and that takes time that I would have spent writing here...

 I have not written here for a while. Over the past six years or so I have put a lot of writing time into some books. They are all on Amazon and/or Kindle. The first book, which the subject of was my first attempt at blogging- my wife's fatal illness. She was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy in 2005 and passed away from complications of MSA in 2011. I started a blog as an outlet for me and turned it into a book in 2018. It is now available as a Kindle e-book, an Amazon paperback, and an Audio book at either location. The title is: "Living With a Snow(wo)man". (just type in the title or J. Scott Poole or Dr. Scott Poole - both names are in Amazon.) My second book is a compendium of my days selling on the road with tips and such for salespeople. It is entitled; "The World's Oldest Profession and how to excel at it" again by Dr. Scott Poole. It is available as a Kindle e-book or Amazon paperback. The third and fourth books are compilations of my poetry an...

  People say time passes. You have probably heard this all your life. I understand the thought but disagree with the premise.   Yes, from a strictly literal sense time passes or goes by. In a more precise sense, I think time does much more. Time is not a passive thing that is gone in an instant. Time cannot pass. This instant is gone, and another follows.   Time alters. Time destroys. Time is boring. Time also can build. Time can entertain. Time is smells. Time is sights. Time is tastes. Time is sounds. Time is anticipation. Time is participation. Time is dreams and time is memories.   Time does not pass. Time was. Time will be. Time IS.                                                  ...

We (the all-encompassing global we) are facing war daily, and have for quite a while. Now, I know the way I face these wars and those that live in Ukraine, the Middle East, Western Sahara, Cyprus, Yemen or any of the other 30 or so places where actual gunfire (and worse) are occurring every day face them is impossible to compare, however war is still top of mind if you follow any news at all. I have noticed, as someone old enough to remember many wars, that wars now are expected to be "clean". What I mean by that is any deaths are reported as abominations. Death should never be taken lightly and I am not dismissing the horror of war and any deaths. However, war is war. In my opinion and the opinion of many others, we are facing constant warfare in no small measure because we do have this expectation of no civilian deaths and minimal damage to anything not purely military in nature. Surgical strikes are not just expected, when a surgical strike does not work, it is condemned. ...

 Well, even though the media is doing what they always do and making the budget dispute now seem to be unique and disastrous, it is neither. Just since 1980 there have been 10 government shutdowns. Some were for only certain branches of the government (in a bit of disclosure, I am not sure how the government can only shut down only some parts) and some were for only one day (actually only part of one day).  The last two were during the Trump administration. Those times the executive branch (Trump administration) wanted to set some limits on spending and the Democratic controlled Congress did not. The entire government was shut down for three days in January 2018 and then in December of 2018 the majority of the government was shut down for 35 days into January of 2019.  During the Obama administration there was a complete government shutdown for 16 days. The Obama administration was trying to increase spending and the Republican led Congress was trying to set limits. (See ...

 Here it is headed towards the middle of the fifth month of 2023, a year that I began promising myself I would start posting regularly again! Oh well... I am moved to do this post due to the totally manufactured "debt crisis" that Congress is foisting upon us, the taxpayer - AGAIN!  Why do we have to raise the debt ceiling again? What is the debt ceiling? Why does any of this matter? The debt ceiling was put into place in its modern form with the Budget Acts of 1939 and 1941. This established a limit to how much debt could be incurred by Congress to try to cap the cost of borrowing and spending. The issue has been, especially of late, that Congress just passed another set of rules saying they could increase this limit at will. (obviously assuming that the two parties could agree on the amount and vote it through) So, the limit is really just a suggestion, more or less. The debt ceiling has to be raised because Congress/the Federal Government is spending more than is being tak...

  Age is just a number. You are only as old as you feel. Ageing is just another word for living. It's not how old you are, it's how you are old. You probably have heard most if not all of those statements. Depending on your age when you heard them, you may have chuckled, or you may have just ignored them. What is old? Age IS a number. We use it to have a measure of someone's maturity, although it is not a very good indicator of this. As for how old one may feel, I cannot speak for others but for me that means there are days I have one foot in the grave and others that I should join in a T-ball game.  To a 4 year old, a 10 year old is - old! In fact, I have a formula - if you are from 5 to 15 in age - someone that is half-again older than you - rounded up to the next whole year, is old (for clarity - I am not talking "ancient", just old). For example, a 6 year old would consider a 9 year old - old. They can stay up later. Instead of being in first grade, they are i...

 I have been studying the potential effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the response by the rest of the world on the economy. Some facts on Russia and its economy – Russia has a very large supply of certain minerals and natural resources, and they constitute a large percentage of the world’s supply. For example: Russia provides 10% of the world’s petroleum. Of that, they supply 40% of Europe’s natural gas. As a reference, 25% of all energy consumed in Europe is from natural gas. Russia is the top supplier in the world of grain – mostly wheat, of fertilizer products, and of nickel. Nickel is necessary and critical for production of stainless steel, and of lithium-ion batteries. They are also the top producer of palladium. This rare metal is used in electronics, catalytic converters, and many other industrial uses – like the batteries mentioned above. Russia is the #2 producer of platinum and aluminum. Both critical construction components in high-tech devices. T...

  I just looked at the date of my last post and saw it was four months ago! I did not realize it has been that long. As I have mentioned here a few times after a pause like that - I don't not write due to a lack of inspiration or ideas, I don't write due to too much inspiration and too many ideas. I have four or five ideas for a post almost all the time. I cannot decide which to do, or I feel I have done a similar post in the past, or whatever reason - and I just don't do the post. Well, here I am again. Speaking of doing similar posts, I decided this would not be about the pandemic or the vaccines (although I do still have a LOT of thoughts on that subject), I also decided not to do politics/political commentary, at least not directly. There are some that will consider this post political commentary - and maybe it is. On with the show... I was looking through my Facebook feed just now and came across a couple of posts showing "the way we were" or nostalgia/nostal...

I had hoped not to do another Covid-19 post, but here I am - doing one! As I noted in a previous post, I have been amazed at the sheer panicked response to this virus. I guess since I do not watch any TV news, nor ever watched a press conference by anyone concerning the virus, maybe I have missed some of the worst hyperbole. Maybe since I actively work on my health and especially my immune system regularly I have not been as affected by it. I am not sure. Let me start out by saying I am not an anti-vax'er, at least by my standards. I do have and get the DPT and MMR vaccines. I have been vaccinated against polio and smallpox. I have also had the Covid-19 vaccine, and am what is still referred to today as "fully vaccinated" with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (more in a moment on that). In the spirit of disclosure, I have never gotten a seasonal influenza shot, and at this time I cannot ever see myself getting one. Currently I am also not planning on getting a Covid-19 ...