Democrats don’t do dirt

Democrats don’t do dirt.  If they did dirt, Hillary Clinton would have been our 45th president.  For example, when Trump began crowding Clinton on the debate stage, she might have said: “Don’t come so close when your diapers are so full”; or “Don’t crowd people when you need a diaper change!”   And in the present race, when people question Biden’s physical and mental stamina, he could point out that he (Biden) doesn’t wear diapers, in contrast to Trump.  Democrats could have people outside the courthouse to ask Trump whether he needs a diaper change or whether he has considered the prospect of changing his diaper in a jail cell for violating the gag rule.

Proposed Internet law

The promoter of a given product must halve the frequency of messages about that product to a given url for each week said messages to said url go unanswered.

The value of email has been greatly diminished by spam.  My children have stopped checking their email because their inbox is so full of irrelevant messages.  They don't have the time to go through and delete the spam or to identify it as spam for automatic sorting.

Therefore, I propose the above law with means to punish offenders.

Laffer’s Lies

 

Some weeks ago, I tuned to the C- SPAN book channel and was shocked to see Arthur Laffer still suggesting that lowering tax rates could cause higher tax revenues.  That lie, told to Rumsfeld and Cheney over cocktails during Reagan’s presidential campaign 5 decades ago, is responsible for our run-away national debt, our unjust wealth distribution and irrational Republican success (Reagan, Bush II, Trump) – irrational in that working-class voters would not have voted for these three phonies had they known that lowering income-tax rates simply transfers wealth from the national treasury to the richest people on earth, namely bond holders.  This has bankrupted the USA, in that we must borrow from bond holders hence add to our debt to pay interest on existing debt held by those same bond holders, a vicious cycle.  That’s Arthur Laffer’s legacy.

The details are as follows.  From WWII to Reagan’s administration, we had a top tax bracket at or above 70% and our national debt fell steadily from 90% of GDP to 32% of GDP.  We were paying our WWII debt despite costs of the interstate highway system and two more wars.

As soon as Reagan lowered the top tax bracket to and below 50%, our national debt began climbing above 32% of GDP, passing 100% of GDP in 2010 and reaching 122% of GDP today: a quadrupling of national debt.  There was a period of diminishing national debt in the late 90s, quickly stifled by Bush-II tax cuts.  As expected from the Laffer/Reagan tax changes, the wealthiest 1% of our citizens went from receiving 8% of national income in 1980 to receiving 18% of national income in 2010.

Reasonable people predicted much of this when the Laffer curve became national doctrine back in 1980.  To the extent that wealthy bond holders are responsible for perpetuating Laffer’s lies, then it is abuse of power.

Instead of starving the poor or increasing the debt limit, it would be better to back off of the latest tax cut slightly.

For details see:

US Macroeconomic History

                                                                                                                                                            Addendum:  The most important consequences of Laffer's "irrational Republican success (Reagan, Bush II, Trump)" is not the national debt, which can still be fixed; it is the growth of right-wing anti-intellectualism, making rational energy policy impossible.  Instead of Jimmy Carter, we got Reagan who tore the solar panels off the White House roof.  Instead of Al Gore who wanted to combat global warming, we got Bush II who started a criminal war out of spite.  Instead of Hillary Clinton, we got ignorant sensationalist Trump.  Instead of international family planning we got the gag rule and widespread food insecurity, immeasurable suffering and the population bomb spilling out of the southern continents.

Semi-truck Anti-jackknife System

A semi-truck is said to be jackknifing if the angle between its tractor 41 and its trailer 42 increases undesirably – the tractor has veered leftward and is drifting rightward (as in Fig B), or it has veered rightward and is drifting leftward.  The rig becomes an unsteerable, multimillion-dollar threat to itself and others.  Drivers instinctively steer in the direction of drift, which would realign the tractor with its trajectory, if the front wheels could roll freely while other wheels are braked.

We (David M Regen, Samuel M Regen, Ingrid L Regen) recently patented our Jackknife-Prevention System.  It is a set of sensors (lateral-acceleration sensor 15, steering-direction sensor 16) and effectors (front-wheel-brake disablers 18,19) which help restore alignment of a sideward-skidding (drifting) semi-truck tractor 41 with its trajectory 43.  The lateral-acceleration sensor could be a mercury-ball tilt sensor, the steering-direction sensor could be a steering-angle sensor with appropriate processor or a three-way switch without a processor, and the brake disablers could be electrically powered three-way solenoid valves or three-way ball-cock valves.  In essence the system disables both front brakes of a leftward-drifting tractor when it is steered leftward or of a rightward-drifting tractor when it is steered rightward.  This allows the front wheels to advance faster than other wheels, thereby aligning the tractor with its trajectory and making the rig again steerable.  These actions should occur only when the key is on and the brakes are applied, so the sensors should receive signal power from the brake-light circuit and should trigger a relay to pass power from the key-on circuit to the effectors.

The actions to restore alignment of a sideward-skidding trailer-hauling tractor with its trajectory will also help restore alignment of any sideward-skidding vehicle with its trajactory, thereby reversing spin-out of any vehicle, including a trailerless semi-truck tractor.  Semi-truck drivers fear spin-outs as much as jackknifes.

A tractor can become misaligned several ways.  For example, the driver might apply brakes when the tractor’s right wheels are on a slippery area (liquid or gravel) or vise versa.  The tractor will veer to the side with greater traction.  If it veers leftward (as in Fig B), it will drift or skid rightward, and vise versa.  Another jackknife cause is braking while turning -- for example, braking while changing lanes, braking while dodging an obstacle or braking while exiting the highway via an off-ramp.  The trailer's inertia pushes the tractor's rear in the direction of the trailer's trajectory 43.  This push, being off-center with respect to the tractor's footprint, constitutes a spinning force to exaggerate the tractor's yaw.  Front-wheel unbraking in response to appropriate steering of a sideward-drifting tractor will restore alignment regardless of cause.

We contend that our jackknife-prevention system is effective under circumstances where alternative systems might fail.  We hope to licence our invention to at least one established semi-truck manufacturer or air-brake manufacturer.  The patent can be seen at:  JACKKNIFE PREVENTION SYSTEM  

Below is how the Jackknife Prevention System can be  conveniently implemented:

Design and Manufacture of Anti-jackknife/Anti-spinout Module

The Anti-jackknife System disables a semi-truck’s front-wheel brakes when the tractor is skidding sideward and the front wheels are steered in the direction of skid, so as to restore alignment of the tractor with its trajectory when the front wheels roll freely.

We have designed a module (Fig 1, below) with the steering-direction sensor 20+30 and lateral-acceleration (tilt) sensor 11 both in a single module which surrounds the steering column 1 and is anchored to the firewall via a brace 42,43,44 on which a relay 60 is mounted.  It's prototype is illustrated below:

The steering direction sensor has a rotor 20 pressed to the steering column 1 and bearing a strong magnet in its top front edge, and a stator 30 surrounding these and bearing a steel ball in a tunnel just outside the magnet's course, the tunnel having left-side conductors and right-side conductors.  The steel ball following the magnet joins the left-side conductors with each other when steering is leftward or joins the right-side conductors with each other when steering is rightward.

The sensors are essentially robust three-way switches (left on, right on, mid-off) connected in a left-side series and a right-side series from the key-on circuit to a relay which activates front-wheel brake-disabling valves.  If the mercury ball moves left and the rotor's magnet pulls the stator's steel ball left, then volts and amps pass to the relay which sends power to both left and right brake-disabling valves 18,19.  If the mercury ball moves right and the rotor's magnet pulls the stator's steel ball right, then volts and amps pass to the relay which sends power to both left and right brake-disabling valves 18,19.  No other condition activates the brake-disabling valves.

For tractors with antilock brakes, it may be possible for their front ABS valves to double as anti-jackknife/anti-spinout brake-disabling valves 18,19.

Memorable Music Making

Almost a decade ago, Bill and Larry Brown created a couple of BGA events: 1) an evening of Camp HyLake songs and reminiscing on stage in the auditorium,  2) Camp HyLake reunion lunch followed by spontaneous recollections and a couple of camp songs in the athletic building.  Both events were led by some of us octogenarian guitar-playing camp alumni.

We met a few times to prepare for these occasions and to enjoy some country tunes from our youth.  One of them sounded pretty good, Blue eyes crying in the rain.  The lead singer in this video was Larry Stumb, who assembled some pickers perhaps a year later to lead music down at the Nashville Rescue Mission for morning devotionals led by one of Larry’s friends.  We did that several times over the next year or so.  Preparing for those events evolved into a song circle that met every few weeks at the homes of the pickers, early on in Larry Stumb’s back-room den, then in Coach Stewart's sun room and eventually in Bill Brown’s basement den.

We were all in our eighties and unsteady, so we decided to name ourselves “The Stumblers” – alluding to our infirmities and honoring our founding member, Larry Stumb.  Early on, Bill’s energetic young friend and helper Ashlie Jewel joined the group and became the sine-qua-non of the circle, as can be appreciated in the following videos:  I am weary  and  Last Cheater's Waltz .

I had to quit a few years ago, having dozed off at a few traffic stops on the way home.  Larry Stumb became too crippled to continue and he died about a year ago.  He was the consummate people person, interested in and supportive of everyone he knew.  His devotion to country music was inspiring; his knowledge of it encyclopedic.  This long-lasting song circle, The Stumblers, keeps on regenerating itself owing to Bill Brown's generous hosting and Ashlie's loving direction.  It is a worthy tribute to its namesake, our modest and devoted friend, Larry Stumb.

Ethical international relations

        Sometimes I try to analyze complex systems, to articulate cause-effect laws and to describe mechanisms accounting for them.  For example, what is evil, and what are its causes?

  Basic drives to preserve and enhance the self characterize all living things: single cells, plants, animals, families, species, religions, ethnicities, geographic regions.  Selves typically relate to nonselves (others) competitively, predatorially and/or selfishly.  Thus, our natural drives often cause suffering.  Unnecessary or unjust suffering is evil.

    Generosity toward offspring is common and constitutes preserving and enhancing the self.  Truly altruistic relations among non-spousal adults are rare.

Typically we, ourselves, lack the empathy to appreciate the evil done to others.  We are even thrilled by the sight of competitors, enemies and perpetrators harmed by our agents (military,  law enforcers).  We even dream of inflicting such harm.  Concern for our enemy’s suffering seems unpatriotic.  Concern for a perpetrator’s suffering seems misguided, though perfectly consistent with understanding of scientific determinism.

Sadly, my tribe has made many harmful mistakes over the years.  For example, we as White People should have treated non-whites more justly for centuries.  We as Americans should have behaved more rationally in Palestine, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Lybia and Syria.  Many of our actions were in response to and for the sake of wealthy insiders.  Some were criminal.  Many could have been avoided by application of ethical standards, including Just War Principles, UN Charter and Geneva Conventions.

Our sanctions of Venezuela are irrational and spiteful.  We, the USA, are causing unnecessary and unjustified suffering in Venezuela, and that makes our actions evil.  By the way, their economic woes are due to the oil-price drop and amateur leadership, not communism.  The Russia embargo might eventually raise oil prices and help Venezuela.  It would be in our interest to help them get their oil industry up and running.

Likewise our sanctions of Cuba for the past two decades are irrational and spiteful.  Their attempts at managed economy haven't threatened us or anyone else for several decades.  Back in the Bay-of-Pigs and Missile-Crisis days, we had real conflicts, but that might have been avoided had we respected Cuba's sovereignty.

We should reconstruct our relations with these two struggling neighbors along ethical lines.

The Ukraine War

Some thoughts about the Ukraine war:

    It seems to me that the Russian convoys could have been stopped just inside the Ukrainian border, had there been a little forethought.  

    1. Ukraine should have placed tank barriers near the border crossings decades earlier, certainly after the Crimean invasion.  Many barriers could have been permanent and others could have been positioned when the threat became imminent, not to obstruct domestic traffic prematurely.  An array of disabled tanks and trucks on and about the border-crossing roads would be a barrier to those lined up to invade.

    2. Ukraine should have built up an arsenal of anti-tank/anti-truck drones, as soon as such weapons became available.  All too late, they are using drones effectively to drop explosive darts on the vulnerable tops of tanks.  Drones could deliver a wide variety of non-destructive and non-lethal vehicle-stopping and personnel-stopping bomblets.  These would be essentially radio-controlled fireworks that scatter Gorilla Glue on windshields and other vision ports as well as on personnel and door parts, or that spread itching powder and nauseating odoriphores on or in vehicles.

    3. Ukraine should have installed anti-aircraft weapons around its cities to be manned by trained teenagers and women.

    4. Ukraine should have accumulated a substantial fleet of fighter planes and pilots over the post Soviet years, these planes being stored beneath reinforced concrete surfaces and tested systematically.

    5.  There was a time when access to the Black Sea might have been a reason for Russia to conquer south-east Ukraine.  That reason seems invalid now that Russia has Georgia.