Category: Uncategorized

Jobs, jobs, jobs. Any announcement about a new business emphasizes the number of jobs created. Jobs are important. With 330,000,000 people we need to keep a whole bunch working. But is that the most important factor for the economy?

Look at the production of electricity. About 50,000 coal miners and 180,000 in the natural gas industry provide two-thirds of all our electricity. Of course not all coal and gas goes for electricity generation.

A lot of folks want to replace coal and gas with solar and wind. Do you remember when Hillary Clinton promised coal miners they would be retrained to work in the solar industry? Did you wonder if there would be enough job openings to hire all of them?

Here is a number that will relieve that concern, but is really scary: 250,000. That’s the number already working to produce solar energy. Wow, they must be producing a lot of electricity. Actually it’s less than 1 percent. To get half of our electricity from solar about 15,000,000 would be employed. For wind to produce the other half, about 1,000,000 workers would be required.

When it comes to jobs, no industry in this country has been more “anti-job creation” than farming. In 1900, about 30,000,000 worked on farms. Today, with 4 times as many people to feed, only about 6,000,000 are on our farms. Of course, our efficient farm production has created many millions of jobs in food processing and other agriculture businesses.

There is more to a growing economy than jobs.

The Trump Administration released numbers showing how wealthy a lot of their members are. It seems they’re all worth several million dollars, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka. We already knew that most of the Cabinet members are millionaires or billionaires. This report upset a lot of politicians, especially Democrats. Their view is that you’re not supposed to get rich until after you’ve left government, not before. They proudly point to Al Gore, the Clintons and President Obama.

The Republicans are so unorganized in Washington that Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer has offered to help. He says that the Republican nominee for the Supreme Court is unfit, and therefore he should get to pick the next Justice. And since the new Health Care bill did not get out of the House, he and Nancy Pelosi are offering to fix Obamacare for the Republicans. Democrats are awful generous that way. They’ll rewrite the bill, and all the Republicans have to do is write the check.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“About this Politics thing… The (Party) that’s out always looks the best.”

(These are authentic quotes, REVERSED)
“I’m not a member of any organized political party…. I’m a REPUBLICAN.”
“REPUBLICANS never agree on anything, that’s why they’re REPUBLICANS. If they agreed with each other, they’d be DEMOCRATS.”

Here’s a suggestion for the folks in Washington. If Democrats stop claiming that Trump “colluded” with Russia to win the election, and Trump stops claiming that Obama installed surveillance equipment in Trump Tower, maybe Congress could get down to some real work.

Health insurance is one issue they can work on. Keep in mind that out of 330 million, all but about 30 million of us are covered by employer-provided insurance or Medicare. Of those 30 million, many are young or otherwise don’t want to buy health insurance. Others are sincerely poor and can’t afford a good policy. Still others want to wait until they need it and then expect to buy it like everyone else. And others have a health condition that makes them a high risk, meaning the companies need to charge a lot more.  Another important point is that everyone in America, one hundred percent, can receive health care, with or without insurance. It’s the law.

So, while you listen to the Republicans argue among themselves, and watch Democrats stand on the sidelines throwing spitballs at every new idea, only a relative few of us are directly affected. It boils down to who is going to pay for the poor to buy insurance, and how to persuade healthy folks to sign up before they get sick. No matter which side you’re on, the news folks can find a thousand that will be harmed by your favorite plan.

I heard a statistic that 5 percent of us are responsible for 50 percent of the total cost of health care. Now, that gives the nub of an idea: you find those folks and, like in the old days, ride ‘em out of town on a rail. No, no, we won’t do that. But it would be fun to see a few of those folks follow their doctor’s advice for healthier living. Maybe I should be first in line.

President Trump stopped in Nashville where he honored former President Andrew Jackson on his 250^th birthday. If Trump ever wants to get any votes in Oklahoma, he should have honored Country Music, and ignored Old Andy. (See below)

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“I am not so sweet on old Andy [Jackson]. He is the one that run us Cherokees out of Georgia and North Carolina… Old Andy, every time he couldn’t find anyone to jump on, he would come back and pounce onto us Indians… Then he would go to Florida and shoot up the Seminoles. Then he would have a row with the government, and they would take his command and his liquor away from him, and he would come back and sick himself onto us Cherokees again… They sent the Indians to Oklahoma.  They had a treaty that said, ‘You shall have this land as long as the grass grows and the water flows.’ It looked like a good treaty, and it was, till they struck oil. Then the Government took it away from us again. They said the treaty only refers to water and grass; it don’t say anything about oil.” WA #267, Feb. 5, 1928

Are you tired of hearing about Russia?

In the last few years Putin took over the country of Georgia and a big chunk of Ukraine. He rolled into Syria on the side of President Assad, not “our” side. Russia threatened to cut off the main source of natural gas for European countries.

Russia is a huge country, but economically it’s small. The whole country produces far less than California, and even less than Texas.

Now whether our Senators or the President’s representatives should be talking to Russian diplomats, I ain’t so sure.  Those birds know what they’re after, and nobody in Russia cares how they get it. But here, when anyone even speaks to a Russian, if the whole of the conversation is not published the next day some Congressman on one side or the other will demand a resignation.

Oprah Winfrey and Mark Cuban say they might run for President in 2020. Apparently they were inspired by my 2016 “Will Rogers for President” campaign and are convinced they can do better. They could be a good ticket if Mark is willing to be Vice-President. Instead of “Anti-Bunk,” their theme would be “2 Billionaires is better than 1.”

The big controversy this weekend was a “wiretap” in Trump Tower. President Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest Saturday morning while everyone else was asleep. Based on all the evidence so far, it seems he uncovered an old baby monitor installed years ago. Can’t blame Obama for that.

The Senate has one more Cabinet member to approve: Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. He was Governor of Georgia at one time, but I think the main qualification is that he is a veterinarian. He’s smart. As Will Rogers said, “The best doctor in the world is the Veterinarian. He can’t ask his patients what is the matter; he’s got to just know.”

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “If I wanted to start an insane asylum that would be 100 percent cuckoo, I would just admit applicants that thought they know something about Russia.” DT #1291, Sept. 14, 1930

“These old diplomats you see sitting around, they don’t look (like) much but they out-deal foreigners all their life.” Jan. 19, 1935

“A man in the country does his own thinking, but you get him into town and he soon will be thinking second-handed.” Sat. Eve. Post, May 1, 1926

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about a thing called “fake news.”  Some big newspapers and television networks have been accused of putting out stories that are no more accurate than what you’re likely to see on Facebook or Twitter. Well, I want you to understand that anything I write should never be considered as “news.” Therefore, I have a clear conscience regardless of whether it’s fake or real.

In Washington, a successful businessman who has hired thousands of workers was forced to drop out as a candidate for Secretary of Labor. Instead the job will go to a lawyer who never hired anybody, at least not with his own money.

For the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt got confirmed, even though about 90 percent of EPA employees don’t like him. Too many environmental employees are determined to keep adding regulations until you can drink a glass of water directly from the Mississippi River. They should go to Pittsburgh or Cleveland and ask an 80-year old person how the air quality compares to the 1950s. Is it 99 percent cleaner?

The EPA has done a masterful job of cleaning up our air and water since it was started in 1970. It met its goals. Maybe it’s time for employees to return to their home states, work in a steel mill or coal mine or on a dairy farm or cattle ranch. See what the conditions are, first hand, and learn about the cost of meeting the latest EPA dictates, such as the “Waters of the U.S.” regulation.

Next we come to the Department of Education, which used to be part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Has it met its goals of making American students the best prepared in the world? Not even close. Companies have to hire immigrants because we don’t produce nearly enough engineers, business entrepreneurs, and doctors and nurses.  Of course not every student is brilliant. Those should be taught how to weld, saw a 2×4, operate a backhoe, and most important, how to work. I read a report from Florida where hundreds of unemployed Americans were hired to work in the vegetable fields and only a handful lasted a month. The others quit, and had to be replaced by immigrants. Maybe Secretary DeVos can ask a few old retired teachers how they managed a classroom forty or fifty years ago and prepared their students to become productive citizens. I bet teachers have not changed. What changed is the way they are managed from Washington.

Plenty of folks are upset with President Trump. Protests are as common as 5K races, Awards shows, and Cheerleader competitions. You can’t go a week without a million showing up to march and carry placards. But the stock market and other parts of the economy seem to like the direction we’re headed.

California has been so concerned about years of drought they never considered what might happen if it rained.  They built the Oroville Dam fifty years ago, and not once had any water gone over the emergency spillway. Now the emergency spillway is the emergency. Even though the dam is made of earth, not concrete, and is taller than Hoover Dam, legislators have been focused on high-speed rail, snail darters, and environmentalists who hate dams.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “We’re up here working on a picture (Steamboat ‘Round the Bend). We’re working on the Sacramento River. We could have worked on the Los Angeles River, but they’d have had to haul the water too far. I hope some of these relief agencies (will) irrigate the Los Angeles River.” Radio, May 19, 1935

“We are celebrating the birth of George Washington. He was not only the Father of our country, but he was the most celebrated woodsman that ever lived. He gained more fame with his hatchet than Lincoln did with his axe.” Feb. 22, 1925

Trump has heads spinning in his first few days as President. Kinda like FDR in 1933 (see quotes below). FDR used “fireside chats” on the radio like Trump uses Twitter.

Trump nominated more successful business people than lawyers and politicians to key positions. Maybe it should be no surprise that many of those nominees are opposed by lawyers/politicians. They hate to see their clout slip away.

Neil Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme Court to fill the “Scalia” seat. Scalia believed in the Constitution and so does Gorsuch. So why are Senate Democrats battling this pick? Why not wait for the next (potential) Supreme Court vacancy when Trump might want to replace a “liberal” Justice with a Constitutionalist. That should be the battle.

You wouldn’t believe how many travelers and their families were delayed because of the restrictions on people arriving from 7 countries where ISIS dominates. Thousands and thousands were affected at airports across the country. Actually the ruling affected about a hundred who were delayed a few hours; the thousands were hindered by the protesters. Hundreds protested at the Columbus airport even though there was not a single affected foreign passenger arriving.

Later, a federal judge ruled against Trump. When the ‘Muslim Ban’ protesters were informed they had won and could go home, they declined, “Hey, we’re protesters, we’ve got lots of signs: ‘No Wall,’ ‘No Borders,’ ‘Pro Choice,’ ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Some are written on the back of ‘I’m with Her.’”

Ever since Trump’s election, the economy seems to be looking up.  Not sure that’s the reason, but the Dow-Jones topped 20,000, more people are working, wages are inching up, pipeline construction approved, and companies and are announcing thousands of new jobs. Let’s hope it continues. The recovery from the Great Recession was too sluggish with growth of only about 2 percent a year.

I wonder how many sports writers had written their Super Bowl stories in advance with the headline, “Patriots Win Big.”  Kinda like political writers November 8 with, “Clinton elected President.”  Well, it took 31 points in a row, the biggest Super Bowl comeback and overtime, but Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their fifth. The real headline: Brady Deflates Falcons 34-28.

It was wonderful to see President George Bush and Barbara handle the coin toss. He predicted it from his hospital bed a couple of weeks ago. Awesome.

On a “Will Rogers” personal note, his great niece, Doris “Coke” Lane Meyer died last week at age 97. She was the daughter of Will’s sister, Maud Rogers Lane and the last relative old enough to remember him. I was fortunate to see her about every year, at the celebration of Will’s birthday in November. She was 15 when her “Uncle Will” died, and had delightful memories of his visits home to Oklahoma.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “America hasn’t been as happy in three years as they are today… The whole country is with (President Roosevelt). Even if what he does is wrong they are with him. Just so he does something. If he burned down the Capitol we would cheer and say, ‘Well, we at least got a fire started.’” DT #2054, March 5, 1933

“Say, this Roosevelt is a fast worker. Even on Sunday… why this President closed all the banks and called Congress in extra session.” DT #2055, March 6, 1933

“America can carry herself and get along in pretty fair shape, but when she stops and picks up the whole world and puts it on her shoulders she just can’t get it done.” DT #2063, March 15, 1933

 

On Friday at noon a million people in Washington saw Donald Trump become our 45^th President. On Saturday a million women were in Washington complaining about the job Trump is doing as President.

A fellow has to be careful what he says these days. Years ago a guy could say something witty or sarcastic, and even controversial, and people would say, ‘Oh, he’s just trying to be funny.’ But now, if you put something on Facebook or Twitter it don’t take much to get ‘em riled up. I put this on Facebook last night: If Hillary Clinton watched the millions and millions of women marching in over a hundred cities she must have been disgusted with them, “Where were you on Nov. 8 when I needed you?”

Although President Trump has no laws passed, it seems the women’s protest was related to birth control. A lot of the women were wearing hats that looked like a cat, ironically unaware that the main method of birth control for cats is spaying.

Ringling Brothers circus has been forced to shut down. The radical anti-animal groups HSUS and PETA took away their elephants. As Will Rogers noted in 1928, putting on a stage show without a name performer would be “like Ringling bringing in his circus and announcing that he is sorry but the elephants, clowns and horses were not with it.”        The circus will soon be history, so HSUS will take on zoos, rodeos, county fairs, and farms that produce eggs, milk, steak and bacon.  HSUS gets their money from people who sign up for a $19 a month forever commitment (thinking the money is going to local animal shelters), and includes a bunch of the women who marched in their cat hats.

As President Obama moves into retirement, we want to compliment him and his family for serving as a role model for our youth and young parents for 8 years. The family flew to Palm Springs for a vacation in sunny California. The only problem is rain and floods arrived with them. Maybe they can go kayaking on a golf course.

The New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons won their football games today over the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers. Both games were lopsided; the combined score of the two was 80 to 38. Let’s hope the Super Bowl is more exciting.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“(Roosevelt) is a fast worker. He was inaugurated at noon in Washington, and they started the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, and before it got halfway down there, he’d closed every bank in the United States.” Radio, Apr. 30, 1933

“There is nothing impresses ‘common folk’ like somebody that ain’t common.” DT #612, July 12, 1928

“Things in our country run in spite of government; not by the aid of it.” DT #1930, July 28, 1930

“People don’t change under governments; the governments change, but the people remain the same.”  There’s Not a Bathing Suit in Russia, 1927

“Every man gets an opportunity once in a lifetime.” DT #2077, March 31, 1933

The country is preparing for an Inauguration in a few days. We have gone 24 years with just three men holding the reins, and folks are not sure what to expect from the next one.

Since the election President Obama has been giving orders left and right, trying to cement his legacy. And Trump has been giving his opinion on practically everything. On January 20, they will reverse roles. Trump has used Twitter for his pronouncements; Obama will use the media to stay in the news.

Have you been invited to the Inauguration? Are you going? Eight years ago a million people filled the Mall all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. This year there is more news about who is not attending the Inauguration than the ones who are. Protesters may outnumber the ones there to honor the new President. And the next day, more busloads of protesters have promised to show up. Now, I know that Trump is a fast worker, but it’s doubtful he will get any laws passed through Congress in 24 hours, so what are they going to protest?

The ones who have a beef with Trump are lawyers. The lawyers and other lifelong politicians have been running the government as their own, and Trump wants to replace a bunch of ‘em with business people. Paper companies are worried because it takes a lawyer a thousand pages to write a new rule, and a top business person will say the same thing in a page or two.

Radical Islamic terror seems to be ramping up. It used to be during a war we would hear how many had died in various battles. Now, there’s no declared war, but every day the newspapers have another story about an attack: a shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport, a truck ramming soldiers in Jerusalem, a fuel truck explodes in a Baghdad market, slaughter in Aleppo. And if somehow ISIS misses a day, we can depend on Chicago to kill and maim a few. Even Al Capone would be shocked at the Chicago murder rate.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “How do we stand all this uncertainty? Here it is ten days till inauguration time and we don’t know what (President-elect) Hoover is going to do and we don’t know what (President) Coolidge is going to do. Mr. Hoover ought to announce his Cabinet at once, for lots of times a Cabinet attracts more attention between the time they are announced and the time they take their seats, than they ever do afterward.” DT #801, Feb. 19, 1929

“Say, this (new President) Roosevelt is a fast worker. Even on Sunday when all a President is supposed to do is put on a silk hat and have his picture taken coming out of church, why this President closed all the banks and called Congress in extra session, and that’s not all he is going to call ‘em either if they don’t get something done.” DT #2055, March 6, 1933 [the “bank holiday” lasted 5 days]

“If there is one thing that a Politician hates it’s somebody that is not in their business.” May 31, 1928

“They talk about civilization. Say, there ain’t no civilization where there ain’t no satisfaction, and that’s what’s the trouble now, nobody is satisfied.” WA #367, Jan. 5, 1930

Will Rogers wrote about 3 of the 4 teams in the 2016 college football playoff games, Alabama, Washington and Ohio State (but not Clemson).

The University of Alabama was selected to play in the Rose Bowl, Jan. 1, 1926, against the University of Washington. Alabama was a huge underdog because southern schools had no respect from college football powerhouse teams in the North and West.  But that changed when Alabama won 20-19.

Will Rogers was at the Rose Bowl game and wrote, “I could tell from the way they played that the whole of Alabama was a football fool. And if Washington thinks it was a fluke, I will bet my last piece of rope and chewing gum that “Old Tuskegee,” the monument to Booker T. Washington, can come out here and confirm the victory. After seeing that game you will never make me believe that the Civil War was fought on the level. Poor refereeing must have beat ‘em.”

Alabama played again in the Rose Bowl, Jan. 1, 1935, and beat Stanford 29-13. Will was there, and had written a week earlier that pro football had become so popular by passing the ball more, “Audiences like clever passing and lots of scoring, not 0 to 0, or 7 to 6…. Well Alabama must [have read my article] because they just said it’s easier to throw this thing over there than it is to carry it over and, as a consequence, 85,000 people went nutty… I don’t blame Stanford for not getting in the way of those passes. Why, those things would kill you if they hit you.”

Will Rogers also wrote about Ohio State University football, in January 1927: “Dr. Wilce, the Ohio State coach, just showed me their new stadium, seating 100,000, built by hard study and excellent scholarship. They can seat 200 students to every book in the university. They lost to Michigan [17 to 16, on Nov. 13] by a kick after touchdown. He has 400 students practicing day and night to kick goals… I suggested they practice making another touchdown, they then wouldn’t have to worry about the goal kicking.” (Coach John Wilce was also a professor of clinical and preventive medicine.)

On Saturday undefeated Alabama beat Washington 24-7, and Ohio State was shutout by Clemson, 31-0, setting up the championship game January 9.

OSU could not score a touchdown and their kicker missed 2 field goals, handing them the first shutout since 1993. Urban Meyer makes enough coaching football he doesn’t have to moonlight as a professor of medicine.

As I prepared to write this last column of 2016, I looked back at the first one on January 3. Although I made no prediction on the divisive presidential race that was developing, I believe the opening paragraph hinted at the eventual outcome:

“President Obama (has pondered) the most important issues facing the country in his last year as president: stagnant wages, stagnant stock market, high unemployment rate for minorities, higher costs of health care, soaring national debt, Islamic terrorism in America, Russian aggression, Chinese cyber-attacks, and Islamic terrorism in the Middle East. After all that pondering he announced that the biggest issue is… gun control.”

Even though Hillary Clinton captured the popular vote thanks to big city Democrats who favor tighter gun control, rural voters gave the Electoral College vote to Donald Trump.

If you heard this week that the United Nations had taken a major step toward peace in the Middle East, you might assume the UN was forcing Assad in Syria to resign and Iran and Russia to pull out of Syria so the country could have peace and millions of refugees could return home. Or maybe a UN plan to wipe out ISIS. But no, they voted to punish Israel. The United States could have vetoed that action against our closest friend in the region but President Obama declined. Now, if you wonder why he waited until his final month as president to abandon Israel instead of doing it in his first year, you don’t understand politics. Mr. Obama prefers friendship with Palestinians over Israel, and most of the UN agrees with him.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“There is very little dignity, very little sportsmanship, or very little anything in politics.” DT #1949, Nov. 2, 1932

“Politics is not the high class, marvelous thing that lots of you picture.” Nov. 10, 1932

“Well, there is lots more good cheer this Christmas than last (or the last three). It’s in the heart, in the confidence and in the renewed hope of everybody.” DT #2306, Dec. 24, 1933

 “Well, Christmas has passed. I was just thinking if there was some way to make the Christmas spirit continue during the other days of the year, why we would be the most happy and wonderful Nation on Earth. Gosh, if all of us that was able would just feed and do things for folks without waiting till Christmas. I think we mean well, but we just sorter got in our heads that about one day a year pays our obligations off, then we swell up and hide our Conscience till the next gift day comes along.” WA #628, Jan. 6, 1935

America lost a hero last week. You probably know John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, on Feb. 20, 1962.

But that was not the beginning of his service to the country. He left Muskingum College (Ohio) in 1942 to fly fighter planes for the Marines in World War II. He also flew 63 combat missions in the Korean War and then became a test pilot, setting a transcontinental speed record in 1957. In 1959 he was selected as one of our first seven astronauts.

After retiring from NASA, he returned home to Ohio. He was elected to the Senate in 1974 and served 4 terms. As his Senate career was winding down, in 1998 he returned to space for 9 days on the Space Shuttle. He was 77.

Still not ready to completely retire, he became an Adjunct Professor at Ohio State University in the unit that was later named the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. He spent a lot of time on campus until a few months ago.

I enjoyed a story in the Columbus Dispatch today. The Editor told of a chance meeting with Annie and John Glenn two years ago. They had stopped at the newspaper office to pick up the morning paper. In a brief conversation Mr. Glenn talked about how valuable newspapers are to society. His own appreciation began with his first job: delivering the local paper in New Concord, Ohio.

John Glenn may be remembered for his courage and heroism in the air, but he was a down-to-earth, common sense, easy-to-talk-to gentleman. One of a kind.

Donald Trump is interviewing a wide range of potential Secretaries of State. Observers are debating whether the Secretary needs to be a seasoned diplomat or if an international businessman, such as the top man at Exxon Mobil, could deal with these foreign leaders without losing his shirt.

You have heard complaints that Trump only selects billionaires or Generals for top positions, but what could be wrong with selecting successful people. They seem to know how to hire, train and work with the good people, so why can’t it work in the federal government. I don’t know if it’s ever been tried before.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “What constitutes a life well spent? Love and admiration from your fellow men is all that anyone can ask… You must judge a man’s greatness by how much he will be missed.” WA #139, Aug. 9, 1925

“Diplomats are nothing but high class lawyers; some ain’t even high class.” WA #5, Jan. 14, 1923

“(Europe’s) diplomats are trained; it’s their life’s business. Ours make a campaign contribution and wake up in Belgium and don’t know which ocean they crossed to get there.” Jan. 19, 1935