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PEACE IN UKRAINE?

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My book, “Proud to be American,” is on sale for $17.95 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  It’s a 330-page paperback with 70 articles in nine categories with 70 photos. This well-researched book clarifies numerous important National, International, and Domestic issues that Mainstream Media does not report on accurately or at all. Moreover, it has a provocative introduction and conclusion.

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, had 200,000 Russian troops invade Ukraine on three sides beginning on February 24, 2022.  Why did Putin invade Ukraine and what did he want? He has said that he really wanted assurances that Ukraine would never be admitted as a member of NATO.  The U.S. had told him that decision was up to NATO and Ukraine, not the United States, and also signed a November 10, 2021, agreement to protect Ukraine.  However, Putin also said that he wanted to reconstitute the former Soviet Union and allegedly had a military second only to the United States (so his threat needed to be taken seriously).  Moreover, Putin saw how a weak President Biden left behind in Afghanistan hundreds of Americans, tens of thousands of Afghans that assisted the U.S., $85 billion in military equipment, a huge military base close to China… and therefore could invade Ukraine without concern that the United States would intervene.

Ukrainians have been courageously and fiercely defending their country against overwhelming odds initially using American Javelin missiles to destroy Russian tanks and American Stinger missiles to destroy Russian helicopters and planes and then large numbers of drones that it continuously improved. In 1994, the U.S and Russia had guaranteed Ukraine that it would be protected if it gave up its nuclear weapons.  It unwisely gave them up and consequently made Ukraine much more vulnerable.  At the start of the war civilians were given weapons and taught how to make Molotov Cocktails.  Early in the war Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, rallied many countries in the world to assist Ukraine with weapons, cash, and volunteers to defend themselves against the Russian military.  The United States, however, was Ukraine’s largest defender.  Ukraine is still being slowly destroyed every day with constant artillery, missiles and bombs but Ukraine now has the upper hand with its drones destroying Russia’s energy facilities and killing many more Russian soldiers than Russia is killing Ukrainian soldiers.

President Biden had demonstrated weakness and incompetence, but also, in the time that Joe Biden had been President, a barrel of oil increased in price from about $40/barrel to about $100/barrel (but now the price of oil has retreated back to $80/barrel, up from $65 under Trump because of the Iranian war). $100-oil enriched Russia to the extent that it could afford to have Russia’s military attack Ukraine. $100-oil enabled Russian aggression due to: 1)Biden preventing any new leases on U.S. Federal lands for oil and gas exploration and drilling; 2)Biden stopping the Keystone and other oil and gas pipelines; 3)Biden stopping any oil and gas exploration and drilling in Alaska; 4)Biden significantly increasing fees for drilling on existing leases on Federal lands; 5)Biden stopping off-shore drilling; and, 6)Biden stopping fracking.  Although the rationale for President Biden’s actions were climate change, the world was not technologically ready to cease using fossil fuels.  It might be in about 40 years.  The U.S. had “jumped the gun” and paid the price in massive inflation as well as some of our adversaries, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, being enriched by the high price of oil.

CAN PEACE BE ACHIEVED?

If the United States began arming Ukraine when Russia began moving troops to the Ukraine border in April 2021, the war might have been prevented.  Now, a negotiated settlement is probably the most likely end of the war.  However, things could get a lot worse first, with poison gas and tactical nuclear weapons. It’s in everyone’s interests to end this war since hundreds of thousands Ukrainians and Russians have been killed as I write this post.  In addition, Ukraine is running out of fighters with old men and young teenagers joining the war.

Is peace even possible since Ukraine wants all of the Ukrainian land back and Russia wants to keep Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. It might be possible if each gets enough of what they want to compromise and strike a deal.  However, this is unacceptable to Ukraine…it wants all of its land back.  Moreover, it might be a very bad message to send to dictators, allowing Russia to keep their ill-gotten gains.  So what’s to be done?

The U.S. is coercing Ukraine and Russia to negotiate peace, most likely giving Russia some Ukrainian land.  The fastest and least provocative way to assist in ending this war is for the U.S. to become energy independent again, which it has done. This drove down the world price of oil at which point Russia will no longer be able to afford to continue the war. However, if Putin is not careful, Ukraine might end up defeating Russia and Putin might be assassinated.

 

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IS INCOME INEQUALITY ETHICAL?

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My book, “Proud to be American,” is on sale at Amazon for $16.95 and can also be ordered from most book stores in the United States. It’s a 300-page paperback book containing 68 articles organized into nine categories and with 70 pictures.  My book analyzes complex national, international, and domestic issues and also critiques main stream media and the far-left of the Democrat Party.

A hot political issue is income inequality.  The heart of the debate is that it doesn’t seem fair for some people to make millions while others are living close to or in poverty.  The government already redistributes wealth through taxes and a variety of welfare programs including food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc., but advocates want to see a lot more.  Is this fair?  Is it feasible? Are there unintended consequences for even more income redistribution?  Let’s check it out by first reviewing the scope of the problem:  According to the latest data, the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all individual Federal income taxes and the wealthiest 10% pay about 70%.  However, the bottom 50% of taxpayers only pay about 3% of all Federal income taxes.

The United States’ economy is fueled by free enterprise, also known as Capitalism. Being able to make a better life for yourself and your family motivates people to devote the time, energy and work necessary to become financially successful.  This system, however, does result in some being very rich and some being poor.  Free enterprise, as practiced in the United States, contains economic safety nets to help ensure that no one is destitute.  Even so, some will still be bad off.  Here’s where charities play a large roll, as well as simple government policies, such as those that require that hospitals treat everyone, even when they can’t pay.

For average-income Americans, the Social Security Administration has reported that in 2020, the medium household income was $34,612.  This poor record was the fault of the Federal government in over-regulating businesses, until President Trump’s first term tax cuts reduced the absurdly high (35%) corporate income tax rate that forced U.S. companies to relocate overseas where rates were much lower.  All of these high-tax policies are still advocated  by the Democrat Party, who, in the same breath, say they’re for the “little guy” and for the poor.

Free enterprise is not perfect but has moved billions of people out of poverty in India, China and many other countries. Winston Churchill said that, “the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”  Venezuela is the best recent example of how a wealthy capitalist country becomes impoverished when it converts to socialism.  Income inequality naturally occurs under free enterprise but can be somewhat mitigated through the tax system.  I believe that it should therefore be tolerated but great effort made by government and businesses to naturally raise lower incomes to higher incomes. 

Finally, I never got a job from someone poor.  However, when I became relatively well-off, I was able to give temporary, part-time employment to others needing jobs.  Most wealthy people want to help others in this way.  And billionaires eventually give their money away to charities, their families, etc.  However, if the government took away most of the wealthy’s money, it would surely waste it.

 

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