Something To Think About Archive

In a recent interview, investor Leon Cooperman points out that neither candidate for President is talking about cutting annual budget deficits much less reducing the National Debt that is more than $35 trillion, double what it was just ten years ago, and 120% of GDP. Instead, both Trump and Harris are proposing cutting an entire income category, tips, from taxation. It’s absurd.

It’s been said that “There are very few people who don’t become more interesting when they stop talking.”

As an EV seller, as of last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office reports that Tesla has received an estimated value of tax credits worth almost $2.5 billion. Tesla’s latest results showed that more than half of its second-quarter profit, a record $890 million, was attributed to the sale of regulatory credits to rival automakers that use them to meet emission rules. That money, taxpayer money, is essentially pure profit to Tesla.

Theodore Roosevelt believed that “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

It’s been said that “Old age means that you will never own all the dogs you wanted to.”

The late great comedian Bob Newhart said: “If you can laugh, you can get through it.”

Psychologist and philosopher Willam James believed that “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

Writer Barbara Hower once noted that “I’ve never known anybody who doesn’t have insecurities. You harness them and make them work for you.”

We get that playing politics isn’t softball but Democratic Party leaders stripping Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil of all her committee assignments at the state capitol is pure payback for her decision to switch parties putting her more in line with her constituency. But, rather than hurting her, it has hurt us by robbing her district of representation on committees that could be impactful.

According to author John C. Maxwell, “If you think you are leading a team. Department or organization and no one is following … you are just out for a walk.”

Author William A. White once observed that “I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday, and I love today.”

We presume that the late Martin Mull was talking about the obsession with online so-called “influencers” when he asked: “Why be influenced by a person when you are one?”

Coach K says that “Courage gives a leader the ability to stand straight and not sway no matter which way the wind blows.”

“You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments;” says tennis champion Roger Federer. “That to me is the sign of a champion.”

After spending $230 million on a temporary Gaza port pier that was constructed in May to bring aid to Gaza and operated for a total of just twenty days, the Pentagon shut it down last month citing several technical and logistical issues affecting its operations. In other words, it was a bad idea executed poorly that did nothing as intended and that cost us real money that could have been spent on real American, and even mid-east, problems.

Steven Wright notes that “Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.”

“The way to get started,” noted Walt Disney, “is to quit talking and begin.”

It’s been pointed out that saying Congress and the White House spend like the proverbial “drunken sailor” is an insult to drunken sailors everywhere.

A wise person acknowledges his mistakes. A fool will defend his.

La Rochefoucauld said: “Few people know how to be old.”