News, news for everyone. Maybe some comments on it.

My brother called me tonight, he wanted to correct something I had written; but, he was wrong; but, he did raise an issue about me that I agree with. He thought that teachers and preachers had a duty to interest their listeners. I disagree. I don't write for everyone, I don't waste my time teaching everyone or preaching to everyone. You are responsible for you, I am merely one of a million sources of information. I am not looking for listeners, I only provide information and hope that it reaches the ears of someone who will use it in the right way.

I have to be totally honest, I did not and do not write this blog for society. I don't publicize it and make no money from it. I don't care who agrees with me or believes me, this is not meant to become famous. The article I wrote on Pastor Daniels was not written for her family or the general public, it was for my readers and intended to get them to see beyond the obvious. I am glad that some people found value and comfort in it; but, I never expected that.

I have been collecting articles for the past month or so and have written very little, I will post the links tonight. I am not seeking agreement, I just want to make sure that the information is out for the person that will do something with it, if they find me. I am not trying to inspire people, I am leaving a trail behind for people that are already committed and inspired. It is not that I do not care about the rest of you; but, you are not going to use the information to make the world better, and if so, you are not my target audience, enjoy what you find anyways.

At my retirement a number of people talked about what they learned from me and how it helped them. It wasn't me, I just conveyed information and some people chose to use it in a positive way for them or others. That is all that my posts are meant to be, a resource. Take from it what you will.

Yahoo - Wall Street Journal - Banks urge clients to take cash elsewhere. They are turning away big depositors who don't pay fees and charging small depositors fees so that your money is their money. They don't care about you, they are not banks, they are leaches.

Money - Why Workers Undervalue Traditional Pension Plans. This is a great example of blaming the victim. The article says that workers do not want a guaranteed retirement and that they prefer 401k plans. Would you really rather worry about how the market does than have a retirement that was guaranteed? So, why is business claiming you would?

LA Times - AP - California puzzles over safety of driverless cars. This is just garbage. California has legalized self driving cars and Google has them operating in California. One recently left California and drove to Las Vegas. If you take Marijuana into Nevada you go to jail. Be in a self driving car and you get to be in the show. The powers that be want you to think that they are debating self driving cars, they are not. It will happen and quickly.

Wired - Soon Your Tech Will Talk to You Through Your Skin. Here is an interesting line from the article, "Apple’s new smartwatch can deliver taps of different intensity to your wrist to communicate everything from a new message to GPS directions". Wait, you will be retired to have a wrist communicator to get medical insurance and it will tell you when you are breaking the rules, just like Pavlov's dogs.

The Guardian - Scientists use skin cells to create artificial sperm and eggs. "Skin cells from a woman could only be used to make eggs because they lack the Y chromosome. Those from a male might theoretically be turned into eggs as well as sperm..." If male cells could be used to make eggs and sperm and theoretically, you could have your own kid. We already have kids with three genetic parents, don't disregard the importance of where we are going.

Business Cheat Sheet - How America’s Middle Class Dug Its Own Grave. This article is big business blaming you for not buying American and allowing them to outsource jobs. I didn't know I could get GM to do what I told them and once they outsourced I bought Japanese. You are not responsible for having someone rob you at gunpoint for not killing them before you knew they were going to rob you.

Yahoo - Charlie Hebdo editor: We attack religion when it becomes political. This article is a rather tricky way of justifying bad behavior by confusing two different issues. The first issue is about killing people for free speech, that is wrong. The second issue has to do with attacking religion because you don't believe in a spiritual morality. Politics is deciding what should and should not be allowed. Religions duty is to comment on such matters, not to be ridiculed for having an opinion. ALL law regulates morality and religion should point out when the law is wrong.

BBC News - 'Designer babies' debate should start, scientists say. This is like the article where they blame the middle class for the upper class sending jobs overseas. Most people don't even know that designer babies are already here and outlawing it is too late. The debate ended before most people knew it started. The first set of babies with designer genes (three parents) started over 18 years ago. The first ones have just graduated high school. You cannot put the Genii back in the bottle.

Yahoo - Curbed - The 5 mansions of the billionaire who wants America to live a 'smaller' existence. This guy has 5 mansions as large as 35,000 square feet and he thing the average American should be satisfied with 250 square feet homes so that he can buy a 70,000 square foot house. That is corporate America's view of us, not that we lift up; but, that we live on less.

Bloomberg - Hollywood Deals Stop as David Fights Goliath: Real Estate. This is one of those nonsense articles about how you have power. Some attorney slowed down a few developments that avoided following the rules; but, he didn't stop anything, he just slowed them down. The scum bags will still win because the game is fixed.

Yahoo - Reuters - 'Autisms' A More Appropriate Term Than 'Autism,' Geneticists Say. Let me start with this, the article refers to "affected individuals". Sorry, we are not affected with Autism anymore that someone is affected with their being a jerk or loving or a schmuck. This article basically says that all autistic people cannot be identified by their genes alone as we are each different. That pretty much means that it is not genetic.

Huffington Post - Income Disparity: Corporations Need to Act Now or Feel Pain Soon. I am not doubting the man's sincerity; but, he is still wrong. He argues that the problem is not that there are 1,600 people that own the wealth of a world with 7 billion people; but, that there is extreme poverty. He is wrong. I don't mind that there is extreme poverty and homelessness if people choose not to contribute. I believe that society should reward those who contribute more. The fact is that society does not reward based on contributions. Heck, how many inventions have been stolen from the inventors?

Yahoo - Reuters - Justice Department spies on millions of cars: WSJ. Soon every movement will be monitored. This is coming and when you understand and complain in 10 years, they will say you should have stopped them earlier.

I Have Retired

I am officially retired. It feels strange to even write those words. I don't know what this means for me; but, the time had come. I started working at 12 and worked my way through college. After graduating law school I worked in private industry for a number of years and then I went into government. I spent half my life working in government and made quite a lot of money for my municipality and was proud to be of service to my community.

My next post will be about current events and the news.

I Wet My Mouse

I write from my laptop at a desk in my broom. Today for the first time that I have spilled a drink on it and while the computer is fine, I killed the blue tooth mouse that I use to cut and paste because of my arthritis. I am sitting on about nine links that I have collected to post on and cannot because the touch pad is just too hard for me to use, I will replace the mouse and possibly the laptop too.

As I stated in a previous post, I spent the last couple of weeks out of state in a town with under 10,000 people and three small casinos watching my sisters house and her two dogs. I had consideered moving there when I retire; but, I have decided that doing that is no longer even a thought. There were no good restaurants and I like food. First week was okay and quiet and I started losing my mind the second week. There was nothing to do. I ended up working, calling the office, responding to calls and receiving documents online. It was a learning experience. I learned I must find something to keep me engaged after retiring and I need to stay in the Los Angeles area. I need to be around people.

OKAY, I AM NOW USING A NEW COMPUTER THAT I BOUGHT TODAY.

I went out and got a full on desktop computer with a 24 inch screen. I will get the laptop fixed and use it when I am travelling. I am loving the big screen when I watch movies and stuff. I primarily bought the new computer so I can posting new links to this blog. See you soon.

I Am Back

I have been in another state for the past couple of weeks. I never tell people when I am leaving town and you should never announce such a thing over the internet. I was in a small desert town with mostly retirees. I thought I was going to lose my mind. I cannot let that become my retirement, my life.

I have retired and am looking toward the future and what I want to do, the life I want to lead. I don't want to be in a place that is quiet as a grave. I want to be close to options and I want to take some of them some of the time. I don't want to disengage from society in some sleepy little city of retirees. I need to find a new reason to get up in the morning without burning myself out or having another heart attack.

The next week or so will be full of parties and people thanking me and food. After that I will need some time to figure out what direction I want to take next.

Now that I am home I will start reading the news more and posting more. I hope you have all been well through the holidays.

Cracker Jack, quick post

I hardly ever see Cracker Jacks anymore. I bought some two days ago. Cracker Jack was always known for having a prize in each box. They stopped having prizes and began giving jokes out. I guess they stopped that too. My prize was a card that said the Seattle Mariners won 116 games in 2001. Why would any kid buy Cracker Jack for that prize? I should also point out there were very few nuts. The picture on the bag shows molasses coated popcorn with half and whole peanuts, I did not find even a half a peanut in my whole bag. This is common in industry now. Airlines used to serve salads, they had one olive per salad and decided to stop putting olives in the salad to save money, eventually they only sold sandwiches and gave no salads to most passengers.

Business talks about "value added" activities. I have not seen value added to any product in the last 30 years. The reality in most businesses is how do they increase profits, not value. The best way to increase profits is to decrease the value of what people get while convincing them they are getting the same amount for the same price or slightly more.

When I was a kid I made money shining shoes, delivering newspapers, working at an amusement park, selling greeting cards,  stuffing newspapers (putting the various sections together so they could be delivered, bussing tables at a restaurant (clearing them after people finished their meal) and even selling lighting at a store. Those jobs are gone, I had those jobs between 11 and 18 years old. By the time I graduated college I added selling home supplies (concrete, wood and mixing paint), cabinet maker, waiter, gas station attendant and at least a couple of others things I cannot remember. I held at least 11 jobs by the time I graduated college. By the time I entered law school, I already knew what hard work was and what it meant to take a job seriously.

I think my readers tend to be older and ask them to consider what opportunities exist for young people to get a job and learn to provide for themselves or about the value of a dollar or their efforts. Our experience is not theirs. Young people today are taking jobs as unpaid interns if they have the resources to on the hope of networking and creating a resume. People with no college degree don't have much better opportunities, they get to work for minimum wage at a fast food restaurant or WalMart, those are the biggest employers in the country, not auto manufacturers or aerospace or even tech companies. We don't need children working anymore, we have enough workers, more than enough to fill the jobs we have.

We don't need both parents working anymore, two incomes with no children while getting by is the new American dream. That is the best that young people can hope for and there is no toy in the box of Cracker Jacks anymore.

An Aging Population and Finding Something to Write About

Not reading any interesting news. That is not quite true, I have not seen any news that needed a comment from me. I have nothing to say about Charlie Hebdo that hasn't already been said by someone. My opinion on the economy has not changed, stocks will crash; but, I don't know when, I have no date for it. There is no new tech that is worth discussing that I have not already posted on.

I deleted about 10 recent drafts because as I was writing them I could tell they were not going anywhere and just saved them to come back to later. I came back to them and they still went nowhere.

I do not have writers block, I just lack any material of interest that has not been repeated by others already. Wait, I do have something to discuss.

Pew Research - Baby Boomers Approach 65 – Glumly.

The article says that for the last 5 years, 10,000 baby boomers were expected to retire each day and that will continue for another 14 years. That is about 300,000 a month or 3.65 million a year. The highest the birth rate got in America was 25.7 in 1957 (according to the US census) and the current birthrate is only 13.8. The birth rate has pretty much gone down since 1965. No matter what we do, the population is and will continue to decrease. As the boomers die, this will become apparent as there will be not enough people to replace them in the workforce.

Here is what I want you to consider, the people that run this country have known this for a very long time. A report was issued by the Rockefeller Commission in 1972 that talked about what was coming, the relevant chapter is Chapter 2.

Chapter 2: Population Growth

The report specifically goes into what these boomers retirements will mean. President W. Bush had another report that looked at the impact of boomers retirements when he was in office. I cannot seem to remember the name of it; but, I have linked to it before.

During the late 1960s and the 1970s we were steadily told about overpopulation if the birth rate did not increase and it did not. In fact we are facing a decrease in population. We saw part of the effect this had during the decade before the market crash as the unemployment went very low and was considered too low. Companies were increasing wages and taking people with less experience to just fill the jobs.

Some of you are wondering why I mention birth rates and retirements at all. I mention it because the government and business have been planning and anticipating this for over 45 years. That is part of the purpose of outsourcing and globalization. Now is an interesting little fact, when men get jobs they are more likely to marry and have children, when women get jobs they are less likely to have children or certainly many children. I should note that one of the fastest growing areas of home buyers is single women, that has been true for 20 years and women now make up the majority of college graduates.

We are told that the baby boom was caused by returning vets; but, it continued for 20 years long after they had returned because we needed new workers. Don't forget the boom hit it's peek in 1957, 12 years after the end of the war. American industry boomed after World War II and it was easy to get a good paying union supported job, as a consequence wages saw real increases and housing became affordable. In the early 1960s the "American Dream" was to get a good job, get married, move to the suburbs and have 2 to 3 kids.

We are creating five classes of people in America. The poor, the working poor (low paying jobs for life), barely getting by class (not paid enough to have the American Dream, the average worker), middle class of professionals and small businessman and a class of the very well off. The number of poor will increase until the population begins reducing, then they will be offered low paying jobs. The working poor will increase as we know already, jobs have come back to America; but they are not the jobs that left, they are low paying primarily. The barely getting by class will increase as a percentage of the population and people with jobs. The middle class will shrink and only be populated by professionals and small business owners. That is the future.

Happy 2015

To all my dear readers. I will post again soon. Currently I am in the process of retiring and it is more complicated than I had anticipated.  An article for you in the meantime.

Technewsworld - Self-Driving Concept Cars Impress at CES.

Read the whole article if you want to be prepared for the future. The Ford executive expects self-driving cars to be easily available by 2020, that is in 5 years and one vehicle (an Audi) drove 550 miles to Las Vegas in the last couple of weeks for a big electronics and tech convention. Self driving cars will change transportation in the same way that computers and the internet changed the world.