Understanding

 

AMERICA: A Declining Nation conclusion

There are five key elements to a country's global power and domination:

1. Military/Defense
2. Economic/Technology
3. Culture/Societies
4. Demographics 
5. Resources

While our military is declining, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country on earth.  Will we use them?

Probably not...

But, the threat is still there.

The USA has always had the strongest economy ever since WWII...  our shift away from fossil fuels has damaged our economy relative to the other super powers.

Will we recover?

Hard to say...  but, I suppose that it is possible.

Going completely green is not the answer.

An alternative to electricity must be found.

That alternative could be nuclear fusion.

Our culture/society is the strongest in the world and quite possibly will remain the strongest, however, at the present time, we are divided.  A divided house will never remain standing.  Liberal/Progressives versus the conservatives is a battle that will have no winners...  only losers...  we must find a way to compromise....

We must come to terms with what kind of a country that we want to be.  That is to say:

Do we want to be a global leader and dominate the world with our military, our economy, our technology, and our intellectual property?

OR,

Do we want to be a country that gives as much as it can to its people so that they never have to work or worry about their families and risk losing our global dominance due to this redistribution of money?

Unless the Billionaires are willing to share their wealth, we cannot do both.

Currently, this country has an abundance of natural resources that other countries in the world do not have.  Our ability to grow crops surpasses all other countries in the world.  

What good are all those resources if you don't know how or don't want to use them?

Do we want to continue to dominate the world or do we want to redeploy our resources, technology, intellectual property and cooperative spirits to colonizing OUTER SPACE?

It is entirely possible, that we will have missions to Mars and Venus as well as other planets in the next few years...  certainly something concrete will happen in that regard by 2030 whether we like it or not.

Live on other worlds and not worry about earth is certainly in our future.

If so, then it does not matter if our dominance of earth is lost to another country like China.

HOWEVER,

There is another option that may be hard to swallow but will resolve most of these issues regarding a declining nation...

SHARE GLOBAL POWER WITH CHINA AND OTHER COUNTRIES...

Create militaries and defenses not for aggression but for protection of your citizens should another country try to invade...  like Russia did to Ukraine.

We don't need to be NUMBER ONE...

When the global economy shifts from the WEST to the EAST, what I am suggesting will happen by default, whether we like it or not.

Sharing Power will not work if you are egotistical...

The most difficult concept with which to deal is growing old and losing one's power.

You don't lose power if you relinquish it voluntarily.

 

Reborn

 

China's EVs Going Global

If you bought an electric vehicle in the UK this year, there’s a good chance it was an MG4. The fully electric hatchback, which launched in 2022, sold 5,200 units in the first three months of this year, the second-best selling EV behind Tesla’s Model Y.


With prices starting at about £27,000, it is also substantially cheaper than the Tesla at £45,000. And while MG is one of Britain’s most famous car brands – with a century of carmaking in Birmingham until MG Rover’s 2005 collapse – the secret to its newfound success comes from China. Since 2007, the company has been owned, and the cars made, by SAIC, China’s largest carmaker.


In the past few years, China has been churning out EVs of a quality and price that is making western marques nervous. More than a quarter of new cars sold in China last year were EVs or hybrids, compared with 13% globally. And of the 850,000 electric passenger cars imported to Europe in 2022, more than half came from China.

Xi Jinping, China’s president, has pledged to take the country to net zero emissions by 2060. In the EU, the target is 2050. For both, decarbonising the streets with EVs will be crucial, and China is racing ahead. By 2025, 13% of China’s fleet is predicted to be fully electric or hybrid, compared with 6% globally.


After an astonishing rise, some analysts are wondering if China’s EV industry can continue to accelerate, as the government winds down state support and geopolitical tensions threaten to dampen global demand for its cars.  READ MORE...

Living Off Grid

 

How To Live One's Life

I am not a millionaire

I am not a billionaire

I am not CEO of a Fortune 500 company

I am not an elected official

I am not in a position of power and influence

I am not an expert in anything

I AM AN ORDINARY RETIRED PERSON LIVING OFF OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MONEY SAVED...

What advice could you possibly get from me???

You only get one chance at this life, so why not experience everything you can and do everything that you can?

Some people want to live their lives exactly like that and I suppose that there is nothing wrong with that philosophy...

Some people want to live their lives following the laws of God and faith's religious teachings and I suppose that there is nothing wrong with that either...

It would then appear that I am supporting the concept of living your life anyway that you would like to live your life....  and, I suppose that I am...

BUT, that is not the way I would say that you should live your life...  although, the 10 Commandments are very powerful and I find nothing wrong with any of them.

BUT, that is not necessarily the way I would live my life...

While my life is 3/4ths over at the age of 75, I lived my life with:

• Integrity - kissing no one's ass for any reason
• Honor - never violating my ethics
• Class - always gave 110% to all my employers

I stopped all those things that I perceived were controlling me, like:

• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Laziness
• Apathy

and instituted:  Discipline and Determination

What then did I do?

1. I made myself goals and followed them
2. I created a budget and followed it
3. I eliminated all of my debt
4. I saved money instead of buying what I did not need
5. I designed a retirement plan

My initial financial goal was to have $500,000 (not including the value of my house) by age 67 and $1,000,000 by the age of 80 which did include the house.

Rationale: at the age of 80, there is not much yard work or traveling that I would be doing, so my plan was to liquidate everything and move into an apartment.

Part of my Retirement Plan included a HEALTH plan.  This plan focused on healthy eating and exercise.  At the age of 40, I stopped smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, eating red meat, fried foods, and sugars.

Caveat:  I knew that it would be difficult stopping red meat unless I allowed myself a hamburger once a month or so.

Once I got used to retirement life and not driving into Knoxville's traffic every morning and afternoon, the stress in my life was substantially reduced if not eliminated.

When I drive anywhere now, I always leave 15-20 minutes before I need to...  so that I do not have to drive fast because I am late.  I drive the speed limit and just watch the cars pass me by as if I was walking.

I make a point of never raising my voice to our three cats no matter what they do.  Getting angry is a pointless emotion to have.

During the day, I keep myself busy with tasks that expand my mind...  and once in a while take afternoon naps.  I need to walk more, but let that stop because of my back fusion surgery and the increased fatigue from my all of a sudden active cancer inside me.

I am comfortable with who I am and comfortable with my finances.  Sure, it would be nice to have more, but I don't need more.  I do everything I want to do when I want to do it.

There are no regrets associated with my 75 years even though numerous bad decisions were made.  Those bad decisions actually brought me to the place I am today...  so, were they really bad?

 

Life Changing

 

Turning Concrete into a Energy-Storing Supercapacitor

What if you could turn concrete into a viable and effective energy storage option? While that might seem a bit out-of-this-world, that’s exactly what MIT researchers have managed to do, according to reports from New Atlas. A paper on the new concrete supercapacitor is also available in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

According to this research, MIT researchers were able to take an idea from 2021 – which said that you could store useful amounts of energy in concrete – and scale it up effectively by simply adding a single additive to the concrete mix. The mixture thus became a combination of concrete, water, and carbon black.

When combined, the three components allowed the researchers to create an energy-storing concrete supercapacitor that was easy to scale up, with it only requiring a change from “1-millimeter-thick electrodes to 1-meter-thick electrodes” to go from powering simple things like LED lights to full-blown buildings and homes.

Further, because many homes are already built on concrete foundations, it’s a system that should be able to easily scale up and at the least negate some of the cost of the power consumption that homeowners are already undertaking through normal electricity bills.

It’s an intriguing idea and one that bodes well for the future of building and architecture, especially given that the researchers say a 1,589-cu-ft block of the concrete supercapacitor would be capable of storing up to 10kWh of electricity, roughly a third of the energy needed to power a home.

From there, it could also be paired with next-generation solar panels, and since concrete is available everywhere, it wouldn’t be hard to incorporate it more widely. However, it’s unclear at the moment just how effective this type of concrete would be outside, where it could get wet, so the experiment certainly requires some more thought and testing before widespread use.   READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

AMERICA: A Declining Nation - part III

I refer to our country as the US of America because to only use the word America is MISLEADING.  North America includes:  Canada, USA, Central America, and South America.  Interestingly enough, Central Americans and South Americans also call themselves Americans...

In Part II, I mentioned a declining Middle Class which many people, including experts, do not agree with me, so let me explain my position.

Today, the US of A has three distinct classes:

Upper - Middle - Lower

The lower class lives at the poverty level or lower and quite possible a little higher.  The current poverty level is an income of about $22,000 or less...  so, a little higher might be $25,000.

However, this income is based upon a family not upon an individual.  If both members of the family earn $20,000/year then their combined income is $40,000 and they are no longer living in poverty.  

Another issue to think about, is that earning $22,000 in New York City is a lot different than earning $22,000 in Atlanta or even Knoxville, TN.

BUT...  how far up the money ladder does the Middle Class extend?

• $50,000/family/year
• $100,000/family/year
• $250,000/family/year

In 2023, the average income in the USA was $56, 980

Comparisons - 2023

1. The average Hollywood actor makes $70,000/year
2. The average Professional athlete makes $60,000/year
3. The average NBA player makes $9,000,000/year
4. The average NFL player makes $2,500,000/year
5. There are 22 million (8.8% of the population) millionaires in the USA - 30% of the millionaires are women
6. There are 756 billionaires in the USA

Proposed New USA Classes

UPPER

Greater than $500,000/year, plus Billionaires

MIDDLE

$100,000 to $500,000/year

LOWER

Less than $100,000/year

With the average income at $56,000 most of us fall into the lower class...

NOW... let's add in a wrinkle...

By the year 2025, 80% of the global jobs will be replaced by AI/robots.  The odds are that it will be between 50% and 80% in the US of A.  Some of those displaced workers will be smart enough to work in the AI field, but that vast majority of workers will not be.

The only income these workers will have will be what the government decides to give them.

Since our national debt is already extremely high and wealthy people hide their money from taxes, just where do you think that money will come from?

Will the government print more money?

If they do, it will dilute the value of the dollar, increasing inflation.

Like I said at the beginning, the US of A is trying to eliminate the current middle class and replace it with a smaller but more wealthy group of people.  It is painfully obvious that you will never be in this smaller group of people.

But with AI/robots doing the job, neither businesses nor the government NEEDS PEOPLE.

 

Just Being Nice

 

Evidence that Gravity is Breaking Down the Universe

A scientist claims to have discovered a “gravitational anomaly” that calls into question our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Astronomer Kyu-Hyun Chae from the university of Sejong University in South Korea made the discovery while studying binary star systems, which refer to two stars that orbit each other.


His observations appear to go against the standard gravitational models established by Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, and instead offer evidence that an alternative theory first proposed in the 1980s may explain the anomaly.

Analysis of data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope revealed accelerations of stars in binaries that did not fit the standard gravitational models.

At accelerations of lower than 0.1 nanometres per second squared, the orbit of the two stars deviated from Newton’s universal law of gravitation and Einstein’s general relativity.

Instead, Professor Chae theorised that a model known as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) could explain why these previous theoretical frameworks were unable to explain the stars’ movements.

“The deviation represents a direct evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity at weak acceleration,” Professor Chae wrote in a paper, titled ‘Breakdown of the Newton-Einstein standard gravity at low acceleration in internal dynamics of wide binary stars’, that was published in The Astrophysics Journal.  READ MORE...

Never Die

 

Importance of Family

I alienated my family years ago with my comments and while I do not remember exactly what I said, I know they must have been brutally honest.  I have (or had) a brother and a sister with whom I could never identify.  Their behaviors and beliefs were never shared by me even though we tried many times to understand each other.  Their children are not that fond of me either.

While it is preferred to have a supportive family, it is not absolutely necessary for one to live a normal life with quiet but quality expectations.

It is sad but true that my wife's brother and sister care about me more than my own brother and sister and the age difference does not seem to be much of a problem as it is with my siblings.

Our parents kept us together but now that both of them are deceased there is absolutely no reason why we must continue to act like a happy or relatively happy family.

In the past, it was necessary for families to stay together and not just to harvest crops but for protection as well.  The larger the family the more protection that could be offered...  and the more hands there were when it came time to harvest the crops.

With the advent of the railroad and the motor vehicle, families became more mobile and more children left the comforts of home, to seek out their future in other states.  Sometimes, these states were close by and sometimes they were on the other side of the nation.

The mobility increased with air flight and with private jets, flying from one location to another was just like driving a car there except quicker and someone else did the driving.

Unfortunately, the family unit is no longer important in today's society; in fact, in some instances having a family is a hindrance instead of an asset.  I am speaking of those jobs where one stays away from home, months at a time.

What comes to mind here is the military and 18 wheelers that drive from coast to coast.  But they are not the only ones...  salespeople oftentimes leave home on a Sunday and do not return for a couple of weeks and then only 1-2 days with family before it starts all over again.

Being separated from a spouse and children is not the same as being separated from siblings.

As one gets older, one finally realizes the importance of family and when looking back on one's life, wished it had been done a little differently...  when one finally looks back, it is typically too late.

Tomorrow Always Becomes Today

Today, I had a PET Scan...  it was not a big deal.  You are a little more enclosed than a CT but not as enclosed as an MRI.

There is some kind of cancer growing in me and the Oncologists are not sure if my Lymphoma has transformed into Large Cell Lymphoma or into something else.

A biopsy was take a while back and was sent off to an outside lab for gene sequencing.  This sequencing is supposed to help the doctors determine which protocol of drugs to use to fight this cancer.

The PET scan is indicating which lymph node lights up the most so that it can be surgically removed and analyzed to determine the same thing that the gene sequencing is supposed to determine.

Not sure why we are doing both...  seems a little redundant to me unless the results from the gene sequencing are not back yet.  But then there is the scheduling of the surgery and more time needed for further testing.  Surely the gene sequencing will be back long before all that happens.

So again, what's the point of the PET scan?

Are we doing tests now just to make money for the hospital and saving my life is secondary?

No Respect for Law & Order

When I was 15 years of age (1962) I had no respect for law and order.  This lack of respect lasted until age 20.  During those teenage years, I was involved in breaking and entering, grand theft auto, stealing, and larceny.  Most of these crimes took place in Alexandria, Virginia, Durham and Graham, North Carolina.  Some of these crimes took place in Europe and in the Middle East.

I wasn't the son of someone who was wealthy or in a position of power.  I was just someone, seeing how far I could push the law and get away with it.

I lost my desire to be a criminal while I was in college but there were still desires in me up until the age of 30.  After 30, I reverted back to the way I was supposed to have been from the getgo.

At 75 years of age and 45 years later, I am appalled by the lack of respect for the rule of law that people who live in the big cities have.  My crimes were created simply out of curiosity, nothing more.  Today's crimes revolve around tens of thousands of dollars.

It seems like every other day, the news is reporting where a group of people, both males and females, walk into a store and in front of the security guards (who have been told to do nothing) they walk out of the store with merchandise valued in the thousands.

Shift from the big cities down to our southern border and we have immigrants coming into this country illegally...  and they know that they are entering illegally and don't seem to care.  A few agents are trying to stop the crossings, but their efforts are like spitting into the wind.

Does anyone believe that anyone one of these illegal immigrants will automatically start obeying all our laws?

I cannot imagine what fool would believe that.

Will these immigrants want to become US citizens?

My answer to that question is yes.

Do the Democrats believe these illegal immigrants will become Democrats?

My answer to that question is also yes.

What these immigrants do not realize is that in a couple of years 2025 or maybe 2027, most of the available jobs in the USA will be conducted by AI/robots.

What are these illegal immigrants going to do then?

Break more laws to feed their families?

My answer to that question is yes.

It takes discipline and determination to change your basic personality.  It was not easy for me to turn things around, but I did.  I also quit smoking after 25 years, cold turkey...  this too takes discipline and determination and will power.

All these illegal immigrants WILL CHANGE OUR COUNTRY.  They could change it for the better or they could change it for the worst.  I don't know which way it will go...  but, if crime continues in these big cities...  then it is likely to spread elsewhere.

Ancient Freezer

 

NASA, SpaceX Sending Humans to an Asteroid

Recently, NASA developed a plan to send a crew of astronauts to an Earth-approaching asteroid, called Prospects for Future Human Space Flight Missions to Near-Earth Asteroids. The plan has its origins in a speech delivered by President Obama at the Kennedy Space Center in 2010.

Obama’s remarks were meant to quell a firestorm he created when he canceled the Constellation Program, the last attempt to go back to the moon. As a consolation prize, he proposed sending a crew of astronauts to an Earth-approaching asteroid before launching a crewed expedition to Mars. The new proposal, not yet funded, is an updated version of the Obama plan, using the SpaceX Starship instead of an Orion launched from a Space Launch System rocket.

The Obama proposal was not a serious one. It quickly devolved into something called the Asteroid Redirect Mission, which envisioned diverting a small asteroid or maybe a boulder from an asteroid into lunar orbit, where it would be visited by an Orion with a crew. No one took the idea seriously.

Dr. Richard Binzel of MIT, one of the world’s leading experts in small, celestial bodies such as asteroids and comets, was especially scornful. Instead, he suggested a survey of Earth-approaching asteroids, some of which might prove to be a threat to Earth.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission died a quick and unlamented death when President Trump assumed office and started the Artemis program that redirected NASA to send astronauts back to the moon before sending crewed expeditions to Mars. Unlike previous attempts to return to the moon, Artemis has met with considerable technical and political success. Artemis 1, an uncrewed mission around the moon, succeeded brilliantly.

President Biden, soon after assuming office, made Artemis his own. A crew has been selected for the Artemis II circumlunar mission to take place no earlier than late 2024.  READ MORE...

Books

 

AMERICA: A Declining Nation - part II

 The US of America was once the number one nation in the world economically, militarily, educationally, healthcare, democratic freedoms, and quality of life BUT NO MORE...

• Our military is weak and smaller than the military of China which includes, naval ships, soldiers, air crafts, and support vehicles.
• Our educational system (K-12) is now ranked 15th in the world instead of number 1.  Businesses are reporting that college graduates are coming out of college without the proper knowledge.
• Our healthcare system which includes pharmaceuticals is above average but incredibly costly for the average American.
• Our social programs are still not the best in the world but are very costly to maintain which is increasing our NATIONAL DEBT.  The debt also includes Social Security and Medicare.
• Our criminal justice systems favors the wealthy and whites to the expense of other minorities.
• Our larger cities are playgrounds for and hotbeds of crime and violence.
• Our national security system cannot stop the flow of illegal drugs into the country.
• Our politicians are corrupt and care more about their re-elections than solving problems.
• Our idiotic rush to green energy is not only destroying our strong economy but also destroying the middle class.

Most of the people in this country will tell you that they favor moving into a green energy enviornment but want to do so gradually.  Haste makes Waste... as Benjamin Franklin used to say.

• A few daring journalists reported that the USA did not have the infrastructure to support electric vehicles but no one listened.
• A few daring journalists have reported that it cost more to recharge an EV than it does to fill up a vehicle with gasoline.
• A few daring journalists have reported that moving away from fossil fuels took us away from being energy independent. (costly).

Not only has the US of America lost its energy independence but it has also lost the respect from the rest of the world except our closest allies in Europe.

OPEC (largely composed of Middle Eastern Countries but now includes Venezuela and Russia HATES the USA...

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) HATES the USA...

Saudi Arabia and numerous other nations have declared that they will no longer use the US dollar when they trade internationally...

Note:  without the support of the rest of the world, how strong is the USA really?

CHINA has declared publicly that they will defeat the USA economically...

CHINA's GDP in the next couple of years will be larger that the GDP of the USA...

CHINA owns ONE THIRD of all USA debt...

Do you really think the US of America is going to come out from under?

Wealthy people hide their money from taxes.  If the US of America increases taxes, it will not be on the wealthy.

If the US of America continues to grow its social programs, it can only do so at the expense of the military.

Will Europe or NATO really come to our aid if BRICS, lead by China, attacks us?