Friday, November 25, 2016

ALLIGATORS IN THE SWAMP

Author's Note. Trill is a fictional female acquaintance who makes it possible to write in a style that is comfortable for me.

My Dear Trill,

Like you, Trill, I am both dismayed and amazed. Americans have chosen a litigious, scorched Earth businessman to run the country, along with his businesses, with his kids assisting. How this will all play out one can only imagine. The last time a businessman held the office was in the administration of Herbert Hoover, and we all know what occurred then. But hang on to your hat and hope for the best. There may be a rough ride ahead.




Friday, November 18, 2016

DEAR SENATOR

Author's note:  Letter sent to Senators Sanders, Warren, and Feinstein.

Dear Senator:

I want to tell you of my concern regarding Congressman Ryan's  plan to gut Medicare and replace it with what he calls a Voucher System. In other words, telling the elderly population: "Here's some money. Now go find yourself a medical plan in the private sector," at once  ballooning costs because Medicare doesn't  bear the expenses of overhead, advertising, profit and excessive executive salaries common to private insurance companies.
While this may not be a difficult thing to do for those just entering eligibility for Medicare, it creates an enormous problem for the huge population of seniors who are living in care homes, retirement homes, etc., who need to rely on others to make judgments of this sort for them. Ryan's plan opens the door to rampant fraud, ranging from the emergence of countless "entrepreneurs" that are bound to spring up to "assist" elders, to the managers of care facilities who find themselves channels for a new source of Federal money that are too good to ignore.
The Ryan idea is riddled with opportunities for fraud. Not that the existing system is free of it.
A better plan would be Medicare for all. It could be styled so people would be entitled to a partial refund if they took care of their health and didn't use Medicare. That way everyone wins. The nation gets healthier.

Sincerely,

Edward Hujsak


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

TRUMP AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Author’s note: Trill is a fictional female acquaintance who makes it possible to write in a style that is easy for me. 

My Dear Trill,

      Discouraging, isn’t it, global warming and the Sixth Extinction are upon us, some say already at an irreversible stage and we have placed a climate change denier, someone who says climate change is a hoax perpetraterd by the Chinese, in the White House; someone who promises to restore and elevate the coal industry.
This will likely occur without his assistance, as the EPA (an agency that the future president  promises to abolish, but probably will meet resistance) has recently instituted a program to accelerate the number of charge stations in the country, thus easing a problem  for an ever growing number  of electric cars, which it recommends. This of course will increase the demand on the grid, causing energy suppliers to build more power plants. which will probably be coal burning because they are cheap to build. 
So you see, Trill, electric cars will turn out to be largely coal burners. Moreover, they will hasten global warming because the overall thermodynamic efficiency of an electric car is much lower than the gasoline powered cars being produced today, when its batteries are charged from power plants that burn fossil fuels. 
Admittedly, in some cases they make sense, for example where power is provided  from hydro, geothermal,wind, solar, and arguably nuclear. But all those put together provide only a third of the U.S. power generated.
      I sincerely doubt that in the next four years much will happen to abate climate change. The United States and China are the world’s biggest coal consumers for power generation and China has not stopped building more power plants, Japan is accelerating the building of new plants and the United States is expanding existing capability and has new plants under construction or in planning.