An Apocryphal Story that is MOSTLY True but has been changed to protect the innocent that Explains Donald Trump and X---holes

I have all kinds of people in my acquaintance, neighborhood and in my far extended family.  Many are really good folks who I enjoy spending life with.  Most I consider friendly… ish. 

Here’s a composite snapshot of them (I’ll call him Joe):

Joe has never really held down a real job.  Just odd jobs that went no where.  He has an education of sorts but to call him studious would be a mistake.  When I went to visit Joe he had a Motorcycle disassembled on his living room floor.  He’s handy enough.  Smoke filled the air.  How Joe on his limited income was able to buy $5 packs of cigarettes is beyond me.  He has always been on the dole.  Someone bought him a car.  The inside of it is a mess when Joe his wife and kids go somewhere they have to shovel out the garbage from the car to find a place to sit. 

He’s always out of money, but I know many people have given him a great deal and he has been offered decent employment, but he never made it work. 

He’s not a heavy drinker, but has a beer open most of the time.  When you go to his house to check on how Joe and his family are doing there’s always dirty dishes in the sink, clothes scattered around the house, unemptied garbage cans and the area around his trailer house looks like the city dump. 

The light in the kitchen isn’t working, a bulb is out.  Asking about it gets the response, “I’ll get to it real soon as soon as I get the money”. 

Joe shows up at our house often.  Cries the blues how broke he is.  His wife tries to work but she doesn’t have a way to get there because Joe can’t get out of bed. 

So Joe suggests since we have a pretty large house, would it be OK for him and Sandy and the two pumpkins to move into the basement till they get on their feet.  I have seen this story before.  A relative of ours fell for this and he was there for 3 years till they kicked him out.

We have a little pride in the way we try to live.  Try to be clean, try to be orderly, try to be responsible, try to be frugal, and try to live life above the mess.  When Joe came to stay (by himself) for a week when Sandy and the Kids left it wasn’t long before beer cans littered here and there.  I began picking up cigarette butts in my front yard and I don’t smoke.  Clothes began to end up here and there and they weren’t ours.  An empty McDonalds bag showed up in the bushes near my place.  I don’t eat at McDonalds.

Soon the life Joe leads began to become our life.  When we recognized the drift toward slovenly we kicked Joe out.  Sandy didn’t come back.  I don’t blame her.

Don’t get me wrong.  Joe as a person was delightful.  He would even tell you he was a Christian.   He would tell you that he lives by faith.  I have come to the conclusion he isn’t living by faith, HE’S A BUM.   He’s a slob with slob habits.  If we had let him bring his pit to our house permanently our house would have drifted into a pit as well.

AND THAT my friend is why President Trump loves this country and it’s culture than the former occupant in the White House did.  Why he respects what we have here and doesn’t want to destroy it by bringing in global JOE cultures and populations.

If on the other hand you want to be all touchy feely about these things, I’ll send Joe your address and he can move in with you.  Good luck with all that.

My concern about Electric Cars and Self Driving Cars of all types

I am no Luddite.

If the electric car is practical it will sell and people will drive it.

If the self driving car is useful for many purposes people will use it.

My issue is I do NOT trust government.  I trust this one (some), but I do NOT trust the potential for another Obama or worse who loves to control things in power and instituting policies that stop autonomous driving in the name of safety and the climate.

In Europe, India and China they are already moving towards elimination of internal combustion vehicles.  I'm for reducing Pollution and improving air quality.  Here's the rub.  In Europe, a place I lived, everything is 4 hours away at 100 MPH.  Easy access.  If they eliminate IC vehicles that means your likely circle of visitation by vehicle is 75 miles radius.  (150/2 in range)   At that you'll limp in with your last electron.  Or stranded dead in the water 7 miles from home in a bad neighborhood.

This is much like what dictatorships do where they restrict travel.  No getting in your car and leaving town.  They control that because your range is shot.  AND when you sign up to get re-powered, you can't siphon electricity out of your neighbors car.  You can be told, "You do not have authorization from the department of travel to go to Paris".  It's a control thing.  It's not good.

Self Driving cars are even more concerning.  You can drive anywhere your self driving care is allowed to drive.  If you change your mind along the way and want to stop for a burger, nope.  If you have to pee.  Nope.  What is worse it the routes will be soon restricted to self driving cars because you can't have reckless autonomous cars running into the self drivers.

Autonomous vehicles will be restricted to secondary and unimproved roads. Going for a drive to see the Christmas lights will be a thing of the past.

These "Innovations" reek of control and I'm not happy with that.  Certainly a self driving car makes sense and as an older American having mobility even if I'm not allowed to drive is a good thing.  This for Children as well.

I just don't trust that in the future when all this is in place there will not be some tyrannical government coming along that uses it to reward, punish and control the populace.  Vote for us or you lose your car.  Or I can see someone saying, "If you like your car, you can keep your car".  I remember those intonations from a few years back.

Plus, the idea that someone would use government agencies to abuse power and punish political enemies only needs to look at Obama's use of the IRS, the EPA (See Gibson) and the FCC to overreach.   I don't trust them, no matter who.  

As someone once famously said.  "YOU LIE". He was right.

Ten Reasons Why Higher Education as we used to know it will Be GONE in 15 Years

1.  Higher Education at traditional institutions is no longer affordable.  Those saving for their children's education are running a losing battle.  The big schools will become bastions of foreign and the wealthy student.  This single factor where education costs are outrunning inflation by 25% per year. In 1980 a person could attend the average college for $2320 per year.  In 2016 it was $9140.  This cannot continue long and leads to the second looming tipping point.

2.  College Debt.  During the Obama administration essentially took over all education lending.  Private lenders were left out.  This also meant that there was no limit to the amount colleges could charge.  This became a vicious cycle.  More money freely given ended up impoverishing many students many of whom left college before finishing because of debt.  Student Debt has slowed Household formation, Children and caused people to not build for the future.  This single thing is causing many to look to alternatives to the education system.  This drive will not cease.

3.  Many colleges are biased toward out of state students who pay higher tuition and towards foreign students.  Admissions have been again and again caught not admitting in state tuition payers in favor of more money.  Education is no longer about the learner but the institution.

4.  College Sports (Football and Basketball) have become essentially pro sports and lavish amounts of money spent on these ventures have sucked the life out of academic pursuits.  Worse it the promise of an education without delivering on the promise.  This has become a drug that is slowly killing the promise of what used to be higher education.

5.  Public College President's salaries have gone thru the roof.  The average college President in America at public institutions now equals $428,000.   This means that to keep the money machine rolling, college Presidents focus on fundraising rather than the product, Academics.  It wasn't always so.

6.  A single textbook at the college level now costs average of $82.  In the day of PDF textbooks should be free or of little cost.  This racket means many professors make their students buy their poorly executed text when better exist. In the future technology will replace the bookstore.  The University of Maryland has already eliminated paper textbooks.

7.  The capacity to do mass online courses with accountability has made professors less useful.  In Paris France 42 is already conducting classes without instructors.  And when instruction is needed, that is accomplished from media.  Already media is used to indoctrinate students thru TV, Movies and the internet, it is natural progression to move to this media driven instruction.  Master Classes are now being conducted by media by experts in industry.  If you want to learn how to write books, James Patterson charges $90 and you can attend his class remotely.

8. Education's trend is away from the high priced public institutions and toward the FREE EDUCATION model.  Bernie Sanders hit a nerve, the economics of it all are flawed, but public free college with technology may be the future.  This cannot continue on it's present course.  Many employers now pay for student workers to go to college.  Starbucks, McDonalds among them.  You can't go to Yale or Harvard, but you can get an education.  That is driving the cost reductions to free.  In Tennessee High School Graduates are able to attend community college for free.  Saving for a college education may have already had it's day.

9.  The future will be life long learning,  intermediate education to prepare for the next job.  It might look like Education, Job, Education, Job, Sabbatical, Job, Job, Education, Job  and maybe TEACHING a masterclass.

10.  Education may become free, but housing and food never will be.  That too must change.  Dorms are now like cruise ships.  They are over the top in many institutions.  Not the dorm of 50 years ago.  A return to normalcy will mean that education will become more affordable but won't look a thing like the education of today.

Higher education has reached a tipping point.  It cannot go on.  College Presidents and institutional participants at high salaries will try hard to maintain the status quo.  The odds are very much against them.  Will there be higher education in the future, but it won't look much like the mess we have today.  Learning must return to education. It can, but it means that the old must die and the new emerge.  What that will look like is certainly going to be very different from anything we imagine to think it is today.

Public education must die in favor of education for the masses in a life long pursuit.