This blog is related to the previous one.  I said that I was not for a national minimum wage of $15 since the standard of living varies greatly from one area of the country to another.  Then a couple of GOP politicians made speeches against the wage increase which serves to make me more for the increase.

Both politicians said that they worked for minimum wages while in school and it was good enough to get them to where they are today.  I understand the allure of the self-made man.  But is the situation the same today?  I am probably a little older than these guys.  But let's assume that we worked for around the same wages back when we were young and they paid for their schooling like I did with medical school.  Back then, the average minimum wage was around $2.80 and my medical school tuition was a little over $3,000 a year.  Today the tuition at my alma mater is over $35,000, more than 11 times when I went there.  So to be able work at minimum wage and save for medical school, the comparable wage would have to be over $30 per hour.  I know that inflation is not as bad in most things as in education, but you get the idea.  So those two guys are actually making a case for increasing the minimum wage.

I can understand moderate Democrats who are in red states like Joe Manchin need to look like they are  preventing the progressives from jamming the minimum wage increase down the throat of the Republicans.  But I wonder how the people in poor states like Manchin's West Virginia feel about not getting an increase?

Then there is the unemployment benefits in the stimulus package.  Manchin was holding out for $300 instead of $4oo.  He finally gave in when the Democrats agree to $300 with the first $10,000 benefits not taxed.  I didn't know that unemployment was taxable.  If you are giving money to help people out, why are you taxing that money at all?

Contrast this with the lower tax rate of dividends and capital gains vs earned income.  Since I am retired, most of my income is from dividends and capital gains.  So I am glad that these profits are taxed at a lower rate than the money I made working before.  I am sure people richer than me pushed to pass these tax laws for their benefit.  But who is looking out for the people who needed the help of unemployment benefits?

 It looks like the Democrats are going to try to pass the 1.9 trillion stimulus bill regardless whether they get any Republican support.  The few GOP senators who want to participate want a bill of 6 billion.  This is way less than economists think would do any good.  There are some who think that 1.9 trillion is still not enough.  I am no economist so I don't know how much is the right amount.  But given the dire situation of many Americans, I think you have to go big, even if it is not bipartisan like Biden wants.

When Obama took over the recession in 2009, he tried to rally Republican support.  So his bail out and stimulus plans were not as big as he wanted.  It turned out, he got no GOP support anyway.  So it is foolish to think in this post Trump era, we are going to get more bipartisan.  It turned out that the stimulus Obama put in was less than optimal in retrospect.  Despite the outcry of Republicans against the bailouts, they claimed later that the recovery was too slow because not enough was done.   So there will be no satisfying the GOP no matter what.  Even Obamacare, which is very similar to Romneycare in Mass. has been attacked ad nauseum by the Republicans.  So I think Biden and the Democrats should seize the moment and pass what they want instead of waiting for a few Republicans to join them.

I do agree that the minimum wage bill is not included in the stimulus bill.  That bill will not help the dire situation right now and we should pass what is passable right away.  I don't know if $15 is a reasonable goal and whether that is good or bad for most people.  But I don't think it should be a national law to almost double the wage over a few years.  Here in California, the minimum wage is $14 starting this year.  Given the standard of living in California, it is justified.  But that should not be the same in states where the cost of living is much lower.  In fact, I think a study should be done in a few years to compare states with minimum wages higher than $15 vs those who are less and see how it affects the workers, the small business owners and the economy in general.  Then we can see whether higher minimum wages is better or not.

 I received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine yesterday.  So far I just have a sore arm and slight fatigue.  Interestingly, I have soreness on the same spot on the both arms even though I only got the shot on one arm.  The arm that got the shot was more sore but the other one had the same type of pain.

If the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was available and I can choose, I would have chosen Johnson.  The Johnson vaccine uses old technology for which side effects from that type of shots are well known and mild.  There has not been long term side effect from that technology.  The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use new technology so we don't know for sure if there are long term side effects.  Plus, Johnson is a one shot deal and the others are two shots.  From what I heard, the second shot has worse side effects.  But I would recommend that everyone get a vaccine whenever it is possible and not wait.  The quicker we get enough people vaccinated, the quicker we can end the pandemic.  The chances of any bad side effects are small from any of these vaccines.  

The storm across Texas and other parts of the country has affected the vaccine distribution.  In LA my in laws were not able to get their scheduled second shot at Dodger stadium when the shots did not arrive.  I was lucky my appointment in my county was not postponed.  But I am sure the delay in LA was not an isolated incident in the country.

 Ted Cruz is at it again.  He and other GOP leaders in Texas are whining about failure of wind turbines in the cold weather proves that this methods of green energy cannot be trusted in an emergency.  The emergency is that almost a quarter of Texas has lost power since the weekend due to the cold weather.  But wind turbines are only responsible for less than 10% of the energy in Texas.  The fossil fuel sources of energy, particularly those from natural gas, have been failing also due to freezing pipelines.  So it is rather hypocritical to call out wind turbines when the old fossil systems also have failed.

Besides nature, the political system of Texas also should be blamed for leaving millions of Texans without power for several days.  Texas has its own electrical grid so that it would not be under federal regulation.  There are three main grids in the U.S., the Eastern grid, the Western grid and Texas grid.  So even if other states want to, they can't help Texas.  Cruz laughed at California last year when there were power outages here.  He said the government in California could not provide for basic civilization.  For a guy who advocates Hong Kong to secede from China, who advocated for insurrection in the Capitol, it is not surprising that he made such a stupid comment and has to eat his words today.

But regardless the fact that parts of Texas want to secede from the Union or that people like Cruz and Governor Abbott are saying stupid things about energy, we need to help Texas in this dire situation.  Every part of the country can have catastrophes.  From hurricanes in Florida and other southern states, to tornados across the Plains and the Midwest, to heavy snow storms in the North, to earthquakes and wild fires in the West, we face natural disasters frequently.  We have to help each other whenever these disasters hit.  We are always in it together.

 Well, I guess Tom Brady is Superman!  I can point out that K.C. played poorly, not like the team with the best regular season record.  I can point out that K.C. committed stupid penalties on defense.  I can point out that they somehow gave up a touchdown at the half after seeing how Brady did that to GB two weeks ago.  I can point out that TB coaching staff out coached the K.C. staff.  But hey, there must be some reason that Brady has played in 10 Super Bowls and won seven.  This time at age of 43, playing on a different team and system.  There must be some reason that New England did not make the playoff this season and TB wins the championship after not making the playoffs for who knows how many years.

I guess Bill Belichick is a lot smarter when he has Brady, and not the other way around.  But at least Belichick is smart enough not to accept the Medal of Freedom from Trump.  Bruce Arians is a lot smarter this season at 68, the oldest coach to win the Super Bowl.  Given that, maybe Brady can work with others.  Maybe he can help Fauci in the battle against COVID.  After all, Brady is not just the GOAT, but he is really Superman!

 The craziness of the GameStop buying frenzy is rocking Wall Street. I find this sticking to the big hedge funds amusing.  I am also happy that this is making some small investors rich.  But I am concern that some unsophisticated beginning investors are going to get hurt badly.  Reddit is pushing investors to go into silver now.  I think this means that stocks like GameStop are going to drop soon.  Small investors who had buy in recently will have bought high and will end up selling low and lose money.  While hedge funds may lose billions, most of them can survive the losses.  A small investors who loses a few thousands may be in much more trouble.

I think most of the hedge funds have gotten out of the positions by now.  So there won't be much more loss for the MAN.  More buying of these stocks that are way overvalued will make this a pyramid scheme now.  Those who bought early and are encouraging others to jump in now are like those at the top of the pyramid.  They will benefit but those who jump in now will be at the bottom and lose.  So my advice for anyone who is not in, don't get in.  Those who have bought in, take your profit and run now!  

I am not sure if Robinhood is being bought off by hedge fund companies or other rich people on Wall Street to limit the buying of GameStop.  But it is really doing the small guy a favor at this time.  Don't buy unless you have money to burn to make a political statement.

 The Democrats sent the article impeachment to the senate yesterday.  I think it is a waste of time as there is no way that 17 GOP senators are going to vote to convict.  Then  Trump is going to claim victory again even though this time a majority will vote against him.  The only thing that maybe accomplished is that it forces the GOP senators to vote for and against Trump.  By siding with Trump, those senators in not safe seats will lose votes.  After all, if causing insurrection is not a crime, then what is?

To show that Trump's influence is still important in the GOP, look at Oregon and Arizona, two states that voted for Biden.  The GOP in Arizona voted to censure Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake and its own GOP governor due to their not supporting Trump's effort to overthrow the election.  Given that Arizona just voted for Biden and elected two Democratic senators, it would seem the GOP is committing suicide in a state they have a chance to win back in the near future.  In Oregon, they voted to censure the Congressmen who voted to impeach Trump.  Given that Oregon is a blue state, it would seem that the GOP is trying to become totally irrelevant in Oregon.  But we now know who controls the GOP in that state.

I think that people like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley should resign or kick out of the senate.  Their support of Trump, their lies about the election and incitement of the rioters make them as guilty as Trump.  Of course, nothing will happen to them in the senate but hopefully it will cause them in the ballot box in the future.  By the way, in October 2019 two senators went to Hong Kong to egg on the demonstrators.  One was Ted Cruz.  I did not know the other guy at the time as he was new.  That guy called for independence of Hong Kong.  That senator?  It was Josh Hawley.  Hard to imagine anyone would be accused of causing insurrection against both China and the U.S. in less than a year and a quarter!

 Had no power in the house for 41 hours, starting 5 am on Tuesday to 10 pm on Wednesday.  So missed all of the inauguration.  Seems that nothing bad happened, so that was good.  If we had violence then our democracy maybe questioned.  Now the world see that we still have peaceful transfer of power.  We can still be the leader of democracy in the world.  If anyone has comment or insight on the inauguration, please write in, as I saw nothing live.

Now comes the hard part for Biden and Harris:  how to govern such a divided country.  There is one advantage for Biden.  Like when Obama started in 2009, things can't really get much worse.  The financial situation was bound to go up for Obama and the Covid-19 situation is bound to get better for Biden.  But in both cases, almost half of the country is against them and rooting for them to fail.  McConnel said that he wanted to make Obama a one term president from day one.  He has not said that about Biden but he is sure strategizing it.

Biden started right away to reverse some of the executive orders by Trump.  While I agree most of these changes, it is a problem if every 4 years we change the goals of the country.  If we keep changing courses every four years, lots of money and energy will be wasted and we are still back to square one.  What Biden and whoever follows him will need to convince the public is what our long term goals will be.  For that to happen we need bipartisanship.  I am all for getting rid of the extreme right wing politics of Trump.  But I don't want the extreme left to dominate the next four years either.  We should try to work on things that we obviously agree with.  Like improving our infrastructure.  I think we can all agree that we should not have power outage for 41 hours when there is no hurricane, tornado or earthquake!

 As I watched the events of the past week unfold, there are just too many things for me to rant about.  So I am going to write a few things down and talk about them quickly.  If any of these things you want to discuss further or something else you want to rant about, feel free to do so.

1.  The first thing to come to mind as I watched the insurrection was that it was predictable.  If a bunch of men carrying automatic weapons can storm into the capitol of Michigan to protest restrictions due to COVID, you can be sure that a march into D.C. on voting conspiracy is bound to turn dangerous.  If there is a plot against the governor of Michigan, what are the chances that lawmakers in D.C. not be threatened?

2.  The lack of preparation of this protest was shocking.  As noted above, it is predictable what may happen.  During the Black Lives Matter march, there were tremendous police presence with riot gears.  They were deployed all over, including the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where no lawmakers were in danger.  The BLM protests were peaceful and yet 300 arrests were made.  So far only 80 or so are arrested this time even though many of the perpetrators were seen on camera.

3.  Not only were preparations poor, some cops were seen letting protesters go where they want by removing barriers for them.  At least one cop took a selfie with them.  You have to wonder how much our law enforcement has been infiltrated by white supremacy groups.  I am sure that if these people were black or wore a turban instead of MAGA hats, the response from law enforcement would be quite different.

4.  In interviews, some of the Trump supporters said that they were there because they had no choice as local government and the courts are against them.  This is laughable.  In Georgia, for example, the governor and secretary of state are both Republicans.  The SCOTUS has 6 of 9 conservative justices, 3 of which were appointed by Trump.  The idea that these people got cheated is absurd.  

5.  The Trump supporters still think Trump is their savior.  Don't they realize he just want to use them.  He has no loyalty to them.  He told them to march to the capitol and he will march with them.  Where was he?  He abandoned them and after it was over, condemned them for the violence.  He abandoned all those around him, including Pence, Sessions, Barr etc.

6.  Yet his supporters still think all those abandoning Trump are traitors.  They threatened to hang Pence.  They harassed Graham at the airport.  

7.  There is no doubt that Trump incited the violence.  But what about people like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Rudy Giuliani?  They also got blood in their hands.  

I will stop for now but may rant more later.  One last thing, I don't think impeachment will do much good.  As with last time, it will just make Trump a victim.  Although more people, including Republicans, want to kick him out now, there are no two third majority willing to do so in the Senate.  We have too many things to do right now to invest time on this.  With the Biden administration needing to hit the ground running, we need to get his cabinet confirmed as soon as possible.  So we cannot waste time having a trial in the Senate now.

 I am pleasantly surprised that the Democrats appear to win both senate races in Georgia last night.  Both results will be contested by the GOP in the coming days with one of them going to recount for sure.  But the fact that the Democrats are likely to win both is shocking to me.

Perdue almost got the majority in November which would have meant no runoff.  Warnock was in first place in the other contest but if you add all the GOP votes vs all the Democrat votes in November, the GOP would be ahead.  Given that Democrats usually turnout less in non presidential elections and the fact that Trump is not there to pull down the GOP tickets, it would seem like the GOP would retain control of the Senate.

Things didn't look good when the exit polls showed that people over 65 turnout more than in the general election while the youngest group turnout less.  Also, due to the fact that the votes that were cast before yesterday tend to be more democrats, it was expected that the Democrats would have early leads with the GOP doing better as the night went on.  So when the GOP candidates took the lead, it looked really bad.  But some of the Democrat stronghold reported late and the tide turned as Wednesday approached.  It was a miniature version of the general election.  Another rollercoaster ride that was not good for my health.

Once again the Democrats owe the black community.  They delivered again with record turnouts and record margins for the Democrats.  Stacey Abrams will be revered for years to come in the Democratic party.  Will this lead to more power for blacks in the party?

Trump was the big loser yesterday.  Frankly, he has been the big loser period.  Those who rode his coattail must be regretting it today.  The question is, don't the Republicans see that Trump was a novelty act that is no longer appealing to the country?  He has no morality and no competence.  Why do people like Ted Cruz kiss his butt?  Cruz buys Trump's conspiracy theory.   One of Trump's conspiracy theory was that Cruz's father was involved in killing JFK.  I think this tells us more about Cruz and others like him than about Trump.

Well, more craziness is expected as the crazy people in the GOP are going to challenge the electoral college result today.  What will Pence do?  And what would Trump say about Pence afterward when it is clear that Pence can't overturn the election.  To all those who support Trump, it will be clear again that he will dump you if you don't do everything he asks you, even if it is to commit treason.