Mueller Report

I must admit, I am utterly surprised how little has come from the Mueller Report. But I guess I'm more surprised at the president's unbelievable ability to break out of tough holds and still remain standing. It was said Ronald Reagan was the "Teflon President," but the title seems more fitting for the present office holder.

Yet, as the Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest in the Church of England, George Herbert, said, "God's mill grinds slow but sure."

To use another metaphor, the Damoclean sword is hanging by a gleaming, fiber-thin hair above the president's head. And more and more people have as their mission the cutting of that single, solitary hair.

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About Trump's Recent Move

I had just been reading about the president pardoning Army First Lieutenant Michael Behenna. The whole story seemed surreal. It seemed like something that would cause at least a minor uproar in the populace and among journalists. It didn't.

The president, even more recently, may be preparing to pardon a number of war criminals (beyond Behenna).

Wow!

Will there be an uproar? A minor uproar? A peep?

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Down and Out in New Orleans

I have been wondering how a lot of people afford rent in New Orleans. I frequently see clients that either are not working, working part-time, or working full-time, but making around $8 to $12 per hour. I realize that that lots of people in the city may live with relatives or friends, but even then it still must be highly difficult to pay all your bills when rent for a one-bedroom averages $1,200 per month.

And it puzzles me that the city offers so little to mitigate this situation. Admittingly, the things that are needed to better the situation costs money. Yet, so does the things that are presently being used--police officers, homeless shelters, food kitchens, drug-treatment centers.

As the saying goes, you either pay on the front end or the back end. The powers that be in the city usually go for the latter.

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Common Sense

I just read an interesting article in the USA Today that dealt with Democratic Socialism and inequality in the United States. The intriguing thing about the piece is that it was simply written and made common sense.

It made me think about some of the issues she talked about. For instance, to me, sure, CEOs and owners of companies are expected to make much more money than the average worker. A reasonable question is, "how much more?" (And I know the usual retort to these type of questions is "Well, who's to say how much more is right or wrong?" My simple rejoinder to that is that we do it in hundreds of areas of life--we have to. For instance, we have to make a decision on what age people can drive, what age they vote, what age they can go in the military.)

About 40 to 50 years ago, CEOs made about 30 times what the average worker in their companies made. Now it can range from 100 to 300 times what the average worker makes. Something is rotten in this situation.

The article talks about similar topics and is persuasive. It seems America is beginning to see capitalism in a new light. That is, unregulated capitalism is a train already off the rails. Thoroughly regulated capitalism is a train that is in good working condition and has skilled, watchful eyes on it.

We've seen the former. We need the latter.

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