America: Run By The Rich, for the Rich

America's new slogan should read: run by the rich, for the rich. After winning power by tricking white voters from the countryside, Trump showed just who he cared about in yesterday's announcement about tax cuts. When he stated that he was going to drop the tax on corporations to 15% he didn't acknowledge that rich people have already incorporated themselves to take care of of this new classification.

Trump has put more billionaires and multimillionaires into his cabinet than anyone in history. They all will love this new tax plan because it benefits them. If there  already weren't already hundreds of different ways in which they can cheat the system, Trump helped by  providing some more.

This tax plan will put more rich people on top, while leaving the poor further away from any tax equity. The alarming distance between the rich and the middle class in this country is destroying America. Instead of providing the help that white rural voters wanted, he's made things much worse.

My family's been here since 1620, but apart from the time when John D Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan controlled a large part of the money, this is the worst of times.

United and American Don't Care About Their Passengers

As you may have heard, United airlines forcibly removed a passenger from a plane because they had overbooked the flight. The anger towards United has cursed through the Internet and the stock is falling. Because the passenger was Chinese, Beijing is very angry and many Chinese-Americans are cutting up their United cards.

But this could just as easily happened on an American flight. Because the National Institute of Health was paying for my wife to lecture on Alzheimer's at a conference at the Max Planck Institute she had to fly on an American flag carrier. I bought a ticket and accompanied her to Europe. American stranded us in Berlin. Then they stranded us at Heathrow and I was threatened with arrest as I managed to get my wife and I on a US bound plane. American couldn't care less.

I'm disabled and in a few weeks I'll be flying to Syracuse to see my brother who's ill. My only choices are United and American. I need to have a wheelchair waiting where the Sky Caps meet passengers so I can be loaded on the plane. United and American don't care. Maybe they will have the wheelchair there or maybe they won't. Wish me luck.

Fatherhood and the Presidency

Fatherhood has an impact on the presidency. Barack Obama was a good man, and there is not been a stain on his eight years in office. He was also a great father who helped produce two  fine young women.

Donald Trump doesn't have the same integrity. He lies easily and is surrounded by a lot of suspect individuals. But he, too ,is proud of being a parent. Because of this, when he saw the "dead babies" he was infuriated that anyone could do something like this.

The low point of Obama's administration was after he had drawn a line in the sand, and after Assad had used poison gas on ordinary people, he wiggled out of the situation.

When people, like Trump, are used to taking action they respond quickly to horrendous acts.

When someone comes out of academia and they see something bad, they form a committee.

Why weren't Chairman Xi's Comments Translated Into English

When the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party come to visit America he's usually greeted at the White House. Afterwards, both he and the president speak outside and translations are provided for the chairman's comments.

Because Trump always spends his weekends at one of his golf properties (costing America a fortune) these talks took place at his Florida golf course.

Trump said what he thought about the dialogue. Xi, speaking softly in Mandarin, made his comments. Trump, who hopefully had a translator, said he agreed with Xi's comments.

My Mandarin is bu tai hao. I can't give you the translation from putonghua into English. Nobody translated it. You still can't find a translation on the Internet. Something smells to high heaven.

People in Boxes vs. Sociopaths

Many people put themselves in boxes. For example, evangelicals may think of themselves as Christians, but may only care about whites who think like they do. The head of the Christian Century, an important publication, had created the word evangelical to describe certain Christians. After this group went overwhelmingly for Trump and his racist message, this distinguished theologian said they no longer deserve that designation.

In addition to those who put them themselves in boxes and only care about others in their box, there are the truly dangerous people.

These are people like Donald Trump and El Chapo, and other drug kingpins, who are incapable of compassion for anyone that is not in their family. Because they can't empathize with others they are more dangerous than those in boxes. Under no conditions would they ever understand what others are feeling. Therefore they are incapable of changing, or growing. Putin is like this, so of course he'd want an American president who was as soulless as he was.