For those of you that know my love of the US Navy, you might think from the title of this week’s missive that TTG is shipping out once again. Au contraire mes amis. The phrase, “at sea”, denotes someone who is confused and unsure of what to do. It describes me to a tee. 

We had great friends over for dinner last weekend. As we lingered at the  table, we discussed our state of the union. It wasn’t bitching or grousing but a sincere effort to at least figure out where the problems reside and if there is any hope for a solution. There was no rancor but thought, especially after too many wines and yet our mutual frustration was palpable. 

I have always tried to solve problems. For some crazy reason, they appear to me with an amazing clarity and simplicity. Ditto the solution. I am not particularly smart but practical. It just shouldn’t  take that long. Now some I have been fortunate enough to act upon and see results. Others have been relegated to my ever growing folder of “100 Brilliant Ideas I Haven’t Done Squat About”. C’est la guerre.

Recent disclosures have demonstrated pretty clearly that a lot of businesses and rich individuals don’t pay taxes. They are not breaking the law but using it to their best advantage. Yet tax reform never sees the light of day. You don’t understand TTG, Congress is overworked. They can’t get to it. Yet we can waste all the time in the world to impeach Trump or fight about voting bills. We work a three day week and take junkets here and there during our numerous “breaks”. Would you hire any of these people to work in your business?  No, but isn’t this our business?

Immigration is the best. We have the same situation at our borders that have been there for decades. The last meaningful reform was in 1986 under Reagan. If you can’t do the math that is 35 years ago. Get real! We need immigrants  for so many reasons but we can’t have them strolling in without any sort of identification. We spend billions on housing and processing immigrants instead of spending that money to better conditions. Am I the only one who sees this? Of course not. 

Education is beyond screwed up. Our test scores are at best mediocre. The system itself was designed in an era where kids had to go to work before and after school. Charter schools are thriving in poor areas because they are succeeding. They are fulfilling a need. Did anyone stop to think for a moment that if it is working might we not want to adopt the theory instead of trying to denigrate it? I know, that is far too sensible to work. 

The key to solving any problem is defining it. You have to be unemotional and pragmatic. Take guns. At 375 million and counting there are too many of them. I understand everyone’s desire to defend themselves but an AR15 is a little over the top. Do you tuck it under your pillow at night in case there is a B and E at your home? The solution, ban assault rifles. No TTG, you don’t understand. They’re taking away my freedom. Hmmm, you may be taking away mine. 

Back to the dinner party and how we can change. You have to start with factual unbiased data. Give me a set of numbers and I can work them any way I want and our newspeople do just that on both sides of the fence. Pin down these politicos with tough but fair questions and not prearranged soft balls. Give me the news without all the editorial content and innuendo. I want to be informed, not entertained. 

Secondly, we have think tanks throughout the world. Instead of opining on the subtleties of a Mideast conflict or the world economic forum at Davos, how about really doing a deep dive on poverty, drugs or our lack of water? Instead of planning our trip to Mars, figure out why people aren’t getting vaccinated and appeal to them as fellow Americans and not a member of this party or that. 

Educate your self. Take just one hour of what you would normally spend watching, Netflix or golf and just start Googling a particular topic. Research some so called specialist on TV and find out if they are really that good? If you find one go even further. 

Why do I do all this? Plain and simple. My kids and grandkids. A lot of what is wrong is because my generation and yours gave out a lot of passes. Run up the Federal tab like there is no tomorrow. Spoil the environment with plastics and pollutants in our lakes and oceans. Let corruption go unchecked because you have to do it to remain competitive. Looking the other way is just as bad as not looking at all. Stop equivocating whether you are a titan of industry, pillar of the church or just a resident of this place we call home. 

Sorry for my petulance. A man in my position should not bitch and moan. Kathy and I have it good here in Fla La Land. You probably do too. But please note it is a not a complaint but a plea for some sane and wise discussion. Just for even a moment don’t think about ourselves but the other guy or girl. We are probably all at sea and looking for land or at least a lifeboat. 

As always

Ted The Great.

Factoids:

There are 18,000 interpreters and their families that are trying to get visas to the US. They face certain death when the Taliban. Our State Department can’t figure out how to process so many applicants.

Go to USdebtclock.org if you dare. Watch the dials spin as they relate to the US debt(28.5 trillion at press time) and rising. 

We spend $60 million a week to house 16,000 underage immigrants.That is $775 per day per child. This is not partisan but a government system that can’t meet the need. 

There are over 7500 think tanks in the world. Some are partisan and some are topic specific. They are very informative as mostly non governmental organizations. Maybe a good place to start. 

The lovely Mrs K and I read a magazine called ‘The Week”. The format is simple. It takes a variety of topics that occurred 7 days hence and gives a short summary. It then quotes various news sources both left and right as to their take on the subject and you hopefully can form your own opinion. Most of the time it works very well. 

It is quite a trip this particular week, from coast to coast, north and south and continent to continent. I love different slants and enjoy hearing what pratfalls and pitfalls happen elsewhere in our world. I came away this week with WTF flashing in red. This planet is getting nuts. We hope to get back to normal after the COVID lockdown. I have not a clue what normal is?

Here in Fla La Land as in other old fart hangouts we yearn for the good old days. We have this distinct memory of a perfect life that happened anywhere from ten to fifty years ago. Name your year. 

Music, cars, photo albums try to recapture the magic. No matter how real nostalgia feels, our world has changed and in a startling way. 

Globalization, technology, social media, gender identity et al were not part of the conversation a short time ago. We changed our thoughts and ideas from time to time but we relied on history and pendulum theories to bring us back to True North eventually. I am not so sure right now. People really look at things differently. 

I wander every so often to the Pew Research website for a look at the latest trends. After the elections some may think polling of any sort is absurd but Pew seems to do a pretty good job, finding whatever pulse there is on issues of the day. They rank “center”on most reviews which for the moment is the best we got. 

I was struck by one category of study,” Generations and Age”. As a Boomer,I think I have a pretty good idea of what my generation is thinking but what about millennials and generation Z’ers? That’s the group from 16-40 years of age right now.  I can see some rolling their eyes and saying who cares? I think we better. 

We Boomers for the most part are white, Judeo/Christian, and a combination of average Joes and a certain select group that achieved higher education. We are living longer than expected, so our numbers are pretty high as a percentage of the population. Sounds great but we are also dependent generation that sucks up a lot of healthcare dollars.  

The new kids are feeling a tad more rebellious than previous groups. They are much more educated. They have the ability to speak out through social media at the drop of a hat. They have found kindred souls not in the workplace but in the hundreds if not thousands of causes they identify with. They have been entitled and like it. They don’t worry so much about their career as their experience of the present. 

I don’t mention this as an alarm but as a reality. We can react in one of two ways. We can ignore them and put them down and say we have the control of the purse. They will change when they get hungry, we say. Life is hard knocks. Get used to it. Or we can try to understand where they are coming from and try to parse true fact from fantasy. 

They have new ideas and they might scare you. One third say they think socialism may not be all the bad. They think the government should be more and more involved in our daily lives and provide more assurances for a predestined future. Religion eventually fades away and there really are no more color lines. 

That last piece is purely demographic. For seniors now, the majority are white. For the new generations, whites are no longer a majority and the world becomes more one of color. Cross marrying or living together are creating families that defy the traditional definition of race. It is said in a hundred years you might not  recognize any difference at all. 

This is just one aspect of our world. Look at global politics from China to Russia to Turkey or Subsaharan Africa. Everybody wants to flex their muscles because it makes for good press and masks a lot of problems. The world is becoming more totalitarian. My way or the highway. If you speak up we will just arrest you and lock you away until this blows over. Democracies have been blindsided and duped. It wasn’t so long ago the world was trying to enable China to become part of the world. Now they want to run it. 

There is a lot going on. You can just ignore it or be part of the conversation. The current topic of Critical Race Theory is an interesting one. Born about 40 years ago it seeks to tie the founding of the US with inbred racism. The government, courts and state law were to serve one purpose. That was to further the wealth and domination of whites. 

In a purely intellectual sense the theory could be plausible. But to label us all racist is absurd. Herein lies the subtlety. I can get my knickers in a knot and it might be justified. Or I can sit down and discuss it in some sort of rational atmosphere. Not screaming or yelling but hopefully intelligent people trading ideas. There are pros and cons. You just have to look for them. Neither side is very good at that. 

It might be naive but I think it is possible to have conversations on a myriad of topics. It would take lot of give and take on all sides. It might take a week or two or perhaps a year or a decade to get to the bottom. Have you got the time? More importantly, do you have the desire to get involved in this whacky world of change? Tough question.

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

Genrations

• The Greatest Generation (born 1901–1927)
• The Silent Generation (born 1928–1945)
• Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964)
• Generation X (born 1965–1980)
• Millennials (born 1981–1995)
• Generation Z (born 1996–2010)
• Generation Alpha (born 2011–2025)

Go to pewresearch.org and look under the topics they delve into. Fascinating or overwhelming? You decide. PS Click on the full list.