It’s Friday and just four days until the National Elections. Just think readers in a mere 96 hours we will no longer be exposed to campaign ads designed to influence intellectual hemophiliacs. If you let it get under your skin it will drive you to seek therapy, but as regular readers know, a therapist is a jackass who studied psychology so they could understand themselves. If you think I’m bullshitting take a look at the map below, it was produced by the APA (American Psychological Association)
The map shows the distribution of licensed psychologists by county across the country. Here’s what’s interesting about this map. The highest concertation of licensed psychologists are all in areas in which looting and rioting devastated communities – so much for the efficacy of psychology. So what should you do if COVID-19 has you stressed out or if the upcoming election has you worried and to be quite honest it should. Don’t go out and pay some jackass $150+ per hour when you can accomplish the same thing, with better results at no charge by having a shoot the shit.
A shoot the shit is a social interaction during which any topic can be discussed, participants don’t need to know anything about the subject matter being discussed., they are free to make any unsupported comment, use uncensured profanity, insult anyone they wish or change the subject altogether. So, let’s get this therapist crap behind us and let’s shoot the shit.
The November 3rd National Elections are critically important for a variety of reason so it’s important to approach the voting booth with a modicum of understanding. What’s apparent to me is that Democrats are running against Donald J. Trump on the basis of how he acts and how he looks. I hear it from voters, I hear it from candidates.
One of the very unique and indeed greatest features of our Republic under the Constitution is that anyone can run for the Presidency provided they meet a couple of criteria. If he or she meets the criteria, your plumber can run for President of The United States. There is no requirement the candidate be nobility, lawyers, Harvard Graduates, Nobel laureate, male or female, black, white, yellow, brown or poke-a-dot. There is no requirement for prior government experience, of any type, diplomatic experience, military service or be an elocutionist. So, we elected Donald J. Trump because we’ve had it with the political aristocracy. It’s important for you to understand that because it will force you to measure Donald Trump on measurable output.
A) One of the attacks leveled against the President is that he’s mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden campaign is telling voters that he will stamp out the COVID-19 virus by doubling test sites. The stupidity of that comment reveals that the Biden campaign has no idea of what is going on. Why? Quite simply because an individual testing negative today can test positive tomorrow. So, is he planning on testing people daily? Furthermore, if an individual tests positive will he send them into isolation or saran wrap the poor bastard? They are clueless. Has the flu been defeated? Clearly not, so what we do in case of the flu is we take flu shots every year during flu season.
What Donald Trump did was to focus his Administration on parallel tracks. Generally these events follow what in project management parlance is called a waterfall process. In a waterfall approach, we complete one step at a time, which would add a couple of years to this COVID problem. From everything that I’ve seen and read, we will have an approved vaccine by the end of the year, which in epidemiology is unheard-of. So, has Trump mismanage COVID, not even close. But it’s an accusation that plays well on people with an irrational fear of COVID. Are you afraid of catching the flu, quite likely not. Yet the flu takes an average of 35,000 lives a year. Who is vulnerable to the flu, the same individuals vulnerable to COVID-19. So, don’t judge Donald Trump on how he acts or sounds unless that’s what’s important to you.
B) Another attack on Trump is his favoring of the wealthy – utter and complete bullshit. That attack is designed to get you to think the only reason you’re not wealthy is because the wealthy are keeping you down. Part two of that attack is saying that Trump only paid $750 in Federal Tax. So, let’s digest that a bit. Individuals and businesses are allowed to avoid taxes; however, they are not allowed to evade taxes. Tax avoidance comes from utilizing tax laws to reduce a tax liability and tax laws are passed by Congress. Joe Biden was in Congress for 45 years, he along with other members of Congress drafted the tax laws, including loopholes. Tax laws,, for example, allow a homeowner to deduct their mortgage interest reducing their tax liability for the tax year. So, should the homeowner not use that tax deduction? No. Tax laws allow for the creation of investment tools, trusts and a variety of other vehicles that a business or wealthy individual can use to reduce their tax liability. So, Trump paying only $750 in income tax is a non issue provided that it was done legally.
Creating a business friendly environment is important for job creation, growth, entrepreneurship. Governments create business friendly environments through lower taxes, providing capital investment incentives and eliminating regulations. Regulations can add millions of dollars in cost to a business and many of these regulations are politically motivated or designed to impose barriers to entry.
This is just two points that I want to raise with you; my message is simply this, don’t make your voting decisions of the basis of what Donald Trump sounds like, Tweets like or looks like. He cares about you and the country. I rest my case!
Have a fun Halloween weekend and above all be safe. Vote, Vote, Vote, get to the polls.
FOG HORN 