Dilbert – When Comics are not Comical

Dilbert 7-29-14 Shot at Apple

It has seemed inevitable that the “Dilbert” comic strip would end with a series of insults. I stopped viewing Dilbert cartoons about two years ago. They seemed like repetitive insults to me. I suspect others have also become tired of the cartoon. Scott Adams, the creator of the strip has made millions of dollars thanks to the coffee mugs, calendars, ties, and other things labeled with the character.

Scott Adams has an estimated net worth of $75 million. He has amassed most of his wealth as the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. At 65 years old he will live very comfortably for the rest of his life.

I feel certain that some hosts on Fox News will spend time defending Adams’ words. Or will they? Even they know the difference between talking politics and discrimination.

“If nearly half of all Blacks are not okay with White people … that’s a hate group,” Adams said, citing polling from Rasmussen Reports. “I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to White people is to get the hell away from Black people … because there is no fixing this.”

The Sad Presidency of Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter was a one term president. Ronald Reagan replaced him. The economy during his presidency was notable for a stagnant economy that included high unemployment and high inflation. It was a time of long lines for gasoline, a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and a siege at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. The 52 hostages held at the embassy were not released until the day after Carter relinquished the presidency. The hostage event, I believe, was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Carter’s presidency.

On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took them as hostages. The hostages were held for 444 days. If there was an effort to free the hostages it was never made public.

Today as Carter is in hospice care almost everyone talks about what a great American and president he was. It’s just not true and most of us know it.

Presidents of the US: President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 7, 2009, with President George W. Bush and former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.(J. Scott Applewhite Associated Press)

War Means Jobs and Profit

Daddy Warbucks couldn’t be happier.  800 people are working at a factory in Lima, Ohio that rebuilds Abrams tanks and “is building 15 to 20 armored vehicles per month, including tanks, it can easily boost that to 33 a month and could add another shift of workers to build more if needed.” Those numbers are reported in an AP article appearing in the LA Times.

I know we need to support Ukraine with military hardware but is that number 15 to 20 vehicles?  Why?  I understand providing munitions but this article was about hardware.

“Part of it is figuring out … what’s the best one that can allow us to get the Ukrainians tanks in as timely a fashion as we can” without disrupting foreign military sales, said Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth.

Sales to who is my question.  I Googled for the answer. U.S. arms exports in 2021, by country

  Saudi Arabia1389
Australia   Qatar   Japan   United Kingdom 4 countries929   906   875   875
South Korea646
Netherlands586
Israel550
Norway                                                                                         455
India  425

United Arab Emirates                                                                 274

Denmark                                                                                    226     

Italy                                                                                      214    

The plus to this situation is the are 800 American families with good incomes.  General Dynamics is earning a good profit for every unit they deliver.  A few other companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are also the beneficiaries of the war machine.

Incidentally if you don’t get it, Daddy Warbucks was a character from the classic comic strip Little Orphan Annie and the stage musical based on it.  He was a war profiteer (someone who makes money through military contracts).

Is NORAD Failing and Why?

On February 1, 2023 a spy balloon was spotted by civilians and recorded by Chase Doak, who captured on video from his driveway. He later described as a “big, round disc in the sky” and obviously posted the photo on line.   What if he had not seen it and photographed it?  Would the balloon tracking and ultimately shoot down ever happen?  The topic of spy balloons would not be a news item.

What we don’t know is whether the balloon was being tracked by NORAD.  I’m not into conspiracies but why wasn’t the balloon shot down over Alaska?  Once alerted they tracked it and when another UFO was identified over northern Alaska it two was shot down.

Then a third UFO was shot down over the Yukon territory of Canada.  Then another UFO was identified over Lake Huron and it too was shot won.

So what is the purpose of NORAD? From NORAD’s web site: The North American Aerospace Defense Command conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America.

NORAD has been asleep or lacks the ability to detect some aerospace invasion. I expect there will be a review of NORAD’s systems by congress.  UFOs flying across our country before being identified is frightening.

Social Security and Medicare are Running out of Money

Sadly the congress of the United States delays confronting serious problems to the last minute. The debt ceiling was reached in January and there is casual discussion about adjusting it or doing major budget changes while the treasury secretary juggles the bills that are due now. We have an even big problem looming that will impact everyone.   

Social Security and Medicare are running out of money.

Medicare’s trust fund is projected to be exhausted by 2028. Social Security’s trust fund is projected to be exhausted by 2035. When that happens the money each fund will dispense will be equal to incoming receipts.  According to the Washington Post payments to doctors and health plans will likely be 90% of current reimbursements starting in 2028 and a 20 percent cut for all seniors receiving a Social Security check in 2035.

So, those are the two basic options to solve these issues: raise taxes or cut benefits. You could do similar things today. For example, to make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years, legislators could raise the tax rate from 6.2% to 8.1%. According to current actuarial projections, this would fix the problem until 2095.

Democratic lawmakers say that both Social Security and Medicare can be addressed without any cuts to the program — an approach expected to be codified in Biden’s upcoming budget, which is set to be released next month. Some liberal lawmakers have pushed for a one-line change to federal law that would require general funds from the Treasury Department to be used to pay off the shortfalls in the programs and make beneficiaries whole. Some liberal advocates, meanwhile, have pointed out that tax hikes would take care of the funding shortfall. One proposal to lift the current cap on earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes, endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and others in the Democratic caucus, would extend funding for the program for decades. That cap is now about $160,000.

Will congress do anything before the last minute?  Not likely.

President Joe Biden is Riding High

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech was a success in ways that he could not have predicted. Republicans were laid bare as a noisy group with no plans for making the country a better place.

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: “Oh, absolutely. I mean, they literally played into his hands. You know, I don’t know if the people of the White House as they were drafting it at Camp David this weekend envisioned that happening the way it did, but it played out perfectly. And you know, I’m looking back at the end of that whole sequence where he was engaging back and forth with the Republicans, he said, so tonight, let’s all agree to stand up for seniors.” And everyone did standup. That settled the talk of some Republicans wanting to dismantle Social Security and Medicare.

Republican lawmakers defied House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s call for civility and interrupted Biden’s speech several times. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called Biden a “liar” and other Republicans shouted “border”— a reference to their claim that Biden hasn’t done enough to stop illegal immigration.

A Whopping 72 Percent Approved of Biden Speech — Including 43% of Republicans.

Was this a start of a 2024 presidential campaign or does this mean his next two years as president will enable him to leave office with a smile on his face?

Is NORAD really doing its job?

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is a United States and Canada bi-national organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. Aerospace warning includes the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands.

So how did a Chinese balloon the size of three buses end up flying from Alaska to Canada and then across the United States? Is NORAD really doing its job? There were many uninhabited places that the balloon could be shot down in Alaska and the North West Territories of Canada. So arguing that they did not want harm coming to populations does not hold water.

The Sunday morning news shows had guests that gave politically motivated commentaries. Of course the Democrats defended the actions of the Administration and GOP guests attacked. No surprise. Sadly no one provided real answers.

Update on February 6, 2023 is horrifying.

“Every day as a NORAD commander, it’s my responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those threats,” Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command said when asked about the three other balloons.

“And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out, but I don’t want to go into further detail.”

U.S. Economy is Doing Great!

America’s employers added a stunning 517,000 jobs in January, a surprisingly strong gain in the face of the Federal Reserve’s higher interest rates. Given that employers added less than 300,000 new jobs in each of the past three months and the Federal Reserve has increased borrowing costs for the past year the January jobs report is astonishing.

After reaching a horrifying rate of 8.5% in March of 2022, the inflation rate was down to 6,5% this past December.

So with jobs plentiful, employers offering higher pay, and inflation declining is this economy in trouble?

The answer is an emphatic NO.