Truth, Justice, and the American way. TRUTH: Helping to correct people's misconceptions about history, science, and the state of the world. JUSTICE: Meant in the biblical sense. Fair treatment of other people, rational laws, and assisting the disadvantaged. THE AMERICAN WAY: A classless society where everybody has an opportunity to meet their potential and for economic advancement, regardless of race, ancestry, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Trump Presents a Picture of What NOT to Do

Donald Trump is getting a lot of press, and that might get him a lot of votes early in the primary election voting. But he is representing
  • The top 1%, those who most US citizens assume are criminals or con-men.
    • Older white protestant men.
  • Strong anti-immigration policy in a country where most people's great-grandparents weren't born in the US.
Trump is alienating more than half of our population:
  • Women
  • Catholics and Jews
  • Latin American immigrants
  • Those with a college education
  • Those who would be middle class in a healthy economy
The US used to have a "Know Nothing" party. Apparently, Trump wants to bring it back. He wants to hide the real issues facing this country. Trump isn't even a good business leader - he has had several businesses go bankrupt and has gone through personal bankruptcy.

The advantage of Trump as the Republican presidential nominee is that the difference between Trump and a Democratic nominee would be clear. The voters have had a "they are all the same" view of politicians since Bill Clinton was elected.



Some real issues

  • Do-Nothing Congress: the US congress has ignored the real issues for over 4 years. 
  • Highest per capita prison population in the world.
    • The "War on Drugs" is killing and damaging more people than drugs ever did.
    • Racial tensions are at their highest since the 1970's.
    • People don't trust the police and in most cities the police departments have earned it. Police officers are allowed to lie to people. Police departments "Thin Blue Line" encourages police officers to lie to their own departments.
    • Poverty, a lack of after school supervision, and distrust of police puts our children on a criminal track as early as the age of 10.
  • Most inefficient health care system in the world. We spend more per capita, but our health and longevity are not up to the standards of several European countries.
    • Centralized health care (either government-run health care or single payer health care) improves people's health. Deductibles and co-payments are often high enough to discourage use of health care.
    • People are living longer and are healthy longer. However, the time of senescence (the time between when serious health problems occur and death) is growing very fast. This senescence gap is mostly due to a lack of preventive medicine.
    • Obesity is affecting more people and starting at an earlier age.
  • Crumbling infrastructure.
    • Roads rarely have cracks or pot-holes. When flaws form, the repairs should be designed to last much longer than current repairs.
    • Highways used to be designed assuming that many vehicles would travel between 70mph and 80mph. Highway construction standards have dropped, but the speed and weight of vehicles has increased.
    • Bridges on major highways have to be upgraded regularly. Many bridges in the us haven't been upgraded in over 50 years.
    • Water mains are rarely upgraded or replaced with more modern materials - until they break. Water mains have to be replaced.
  • Worker wages have dropped by over 50% since 1975 (relative to inflation).
    • Most "new jobs" since early 2008 are low paying. The number of new jobs is not close to those lost over this period (the government statistics count new jobs, but not lost jobs).
    • Average large corporation profit levels are at their highest since 1929.
    • The reduction of import tariffs has greatly improved corporate profits and foreign economies at the expense of US jobs and wages.
    • While worker wages have dropped, investor returns have increased.
    • Executive salaries have increased over 100-fold.
  • Children do not get the attention they need to grow-up as intelligent, successful, honourable citizens.
    • The reduction of wages reduces the number of adults who are home after school.
    • Children average a total of less than 20 minutes per week of individual parental interaction.
    • Most junior high school (or middle school) students have already been exposed to hard-core pornography, but have not had adequate education in real anatomy and sex. This is leading to increased violence against minors, increased sexual inequality, increased teen and unplanned pregnancy, and a resurgence of several STDs.



About Me

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Canoga Park, California, United States
Software Engineer with Ph.D. in Computer Science. I have a deep background in the sciences and in computer-human interaction. I was a college professor for 11 years, followed by over a decade of work in industry.