Something To Think About Archive

According to columnist Herb Caen, “The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever.”

It’s interesting and not a little troublesome to watch the opposing national parties merge at the extremes: Progressive Mayor Mamdani and J.D. Vance are both critical of Free Markets and the globalization that saw unsurpassed U.S. economic growth. And both think that the government should own or control certain commercial enterprises. Right-wing Steve Bannon, for better or worse, sides with AOC and Bernie Sanders wanting to ban data centers essential to AI. President Trump, who at one-time argued against Mitt Romney’s ideas for immigration controls, agrees with DSA Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed that we should end the filibuster, the guardrail against one-party rule. It’s upside-down world in America today.

Tennis champion Arthur Ashe said: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Remember that “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”

When you have to swallow your own medicine, the spoon always seems to be big.”

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said: “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

It’s been said the “Leadership is less about what we know and more about what we’re willing to discover.”

Congress and the White House have to face the fact that ever-expanding budgets for defense, forever wars and entitlements will mean higher and higher debt limits and borrowing at higher and higher interest rates will be required to service the growing national debt. It is simply unsustainable. Meanwhile, due to Congress’ past missteps in entitlement reform, it’s been reported that Social Security will run out of cash in about six years requiring across the board cuts. Bottom line? A baby born today owes nearly $400,000 in federal debt and unfunded entitlement liabilities.

Tennis great John McEnroe believes that “…one of the hallmarks of a champion — any champion — is the ability to absorb losses and regain confidence immediately.”

Benjamin Franklin once noted that “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”

It’s been said that running into debt isn’t so rough, it’s running into your creditors, that’s the problem.

It’s only math: The National Debt is $40 trillion. A trillion is a thousand billion which is a thousand million. So, if you taxed a thousand billionaires $1 billion or a million millionaires $1 million you would reduce the deficit by 2.5%. And then, at present spending rates, you would have to do that every 4 months just to keep up with the ever-expanding national debt. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Artist and author Charles Mackesy asks: ‘Imagine how we would be if we were less afraid.”

The latest price tag for California’s high-speed rail line that was supposed to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles is now $126 billion nearly four times its original estimated cost of $33 billion. Approved by voters 18 years ago with a 2020 completion target, the project has been bogged down by legal battles, cost overruns and politics. Crews have yet to lay a single track, even though they’ve already spent $15 billion and the project isn’t expected to be fully operational until 2040. By then we’ll all be flying in personal electric flying machines.

Writer Richard Yates advises us to “Never say anything that doesn’t improve on silence.”

Remember that “There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.”

Peruvian-American writer Carlos Castaneda believed that “We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”

According to Teddy Roosevelt: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done. And self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

W.A. Nance wrote: “No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.”

We admit that we have an issue with the proliferation and endless marketing of online sports betting as something that may not end well.  Given the lack of control social media has over its users how can we be sure who is betting, how old they are and whether or not they have a gambling problem? And now, with a proposed crypto bill in the Senate, there’s the possibility that so-called “prediction-market operators” like Kalshi will be allowed to treat sports betting like it was commodities trading poses even greater risks with none of the guardrails of legal gaming and it will be especially damaging to the recognized tribes whose profits go to support the welfare of their members as well as their communities at large.