What does Trump mean?
It is good to hear that Mac agrees that voter fraud is almost non-existent. Even when Trump stated that he would have won the popular vote if millions of fraudulent votes had not been cast. Is this a lie or a false statement or do I not understand what Trump means.
Speaking of what Trump means, if he did not mean what he said about Mexican illegal immigrants, then what did he mean? There was a lot of outrage by the general populace (at least liberals) so I suspect that more people than I did not understand him.
Speaking of translating Trump. While you explain the above to me would you also translate these. Global warming is a hoax by China. Obama’s birth certificate is fake. Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage presents ‘Absolute conflict’ in presiding over Trump University case. The election was rigged. “That makes me smart” about not paying taxes. “You can do anything… Grab them by the p—.”
And, thank you Mac for agreeing with another of my points. Without government regulations Wells Fargo would still be bilking customers and several more Deepwater Horizons would be ruining the lives of small business owners.
Back to 1789. The Founding Fathers. I don’t recall any health insurance companies back then. Weren’t they using leaches and bloodletting? But let me ask Mac why a colonoscopy only costs $1000 or less in other industrial nations and cost from $5000 to $10,000 in the US? Because the medical industry (including insurance companies) took it from an office visit to a visit in a hospital. I have paid for my health insurance all my life and would not complain about higher taxes to support others who do not have it. So leave the free stuff at home. Mac says the Republicans will give us better health care than the ACA, it will just take some time. How long have the Republicans tried to repeal the ACA? Five years? Six? Still no replacement plan. Will it take them another five year, do you think?
But, I really do want to see the proof that Hillary did not care about Benghazi. So, please Mac, tell me where to find it. Even Trey Gowdy admitted that he could not find the proof.
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
The transition
Where is our society going? Over the last 30 or 40 years, many American jobs have been lost to automation and foreign workers: where there used to be two or more garbage men, one to drive the truck, and one or more to empty the cans into the truck, there is now only one, the driver; where there used to be toll takers at the bridges, there are now smart transmitters, credit card machines, and coin hoppers; where their used to be cashiers, there are now self-checkout machines. Soon, there will be no counter help at McDonalds just a screen, on which you will select your food choices. There will be no cab drivers, only smart cars that will take you anywhere you want to go.
What jobs have been created to take the place of those jobs that the less educated/skilled can perform, in order to be a productive member of society? I hear people say angrily, “people don’t want to work.”. This may be true for some, but if there are no jobs for which you qualify, how can you “get a job!”? Make no mistake, there will always be some folks who will be unable to perform complex tasks, or make high level decisions. How are we going to provide a means for them to be contributing members of society?
For years, we have been denigrating those who hold simple, uncomplicated, or dirty, less desirable jobs. In decades past, any work, well done, was considered honorable. Lest you get too complacent in your mid-level management job, or your tech career, even now, they are building computers designed to make decisions. At Disneyland, programming jobs have been taken from Americans, and given to immigrants, who will work for less. In universities, American professors are being replaced with foreigners who have similar skills. On Wall Street, much trading is done by computer programs, not by humans. In manufacturing, humans have been replaced by robots.
There is a theme here: foreign workers take less pay, computers and robots do not need a living wage nor health insurance. They do not organize into unions. Question is, when everyone is out if work, or has a wage that barely covers food and shelter, and has no money to spend on the products and services companies are selling, who is going to buy these products and services? Then what happens to the profits corporations are now enjoying, and the enormous salaries of their CEOs?
Americans need to return to respecting all honest work and those who perform it. We need to have jobs available at all levels, and pay a minimum wage sufficient for a modest lifestyle. Our citizens’ self-respect will improve, and our society will be strong again.
Janet Swedberg, Kelseyville
