Bert's Thoughts

  The first sentence of the first Section of the 14 th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”   I doubt that people who voted to ratify the Amendment remotely considered that birthright citizenship would be used allow millions of people gain access to the assets others. (I am still waiting for someone to show me the Article/Section of our Constitution, or its Amendments, where We the People gave the federal government the power to take our money and redistribute it to others.) Whatever it takes birthright citizenship should not be allowed in the United States. Not one of the 27 European Union nations allows birthright citizenship. Of the over 30 NATO nations only the US and Canada allow birthright citizenship. According to a 2024 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, 59% of ALL non-citizen households in the US (legal ...

 The 32 members of the "International" Energy Agency agreed to dump 400 million barrels of oil from their Strategic Oil Reserves onto the market, to knock the price of crude down a little. Guess who gets hammered? 172 million of that 400 million barrels is coming from our US Strategic Oil Reserve. We are a net exporter of petroleum products. Who are we propping up by dumping this oil on the market? We started filling our SPR in 1982. It held over 700 million barrels from March 2008 - September 2011.  When Biden took office, January 2021, it held 638 million barrels. He sold it off until it held only 347 million barrels in August 2023. From a November 2024 press release: The U.S. Department of Energy today  announce d  that 200 million barrels of crude oil have been delivered, contracted at a good deal for taxpayers, an average price of $74.75. following the closure of the most recent  solicitation  to acquire 2.4 million barrels of crude oil for the Strateg...

 This morning I read a BBC article about oil prices and actions by the “International” Energy Agency. The article discussed the increase in oil prices since the attacks on Iran began. It mentioned that oil prices had “spiraled” to $115/barrel at one point. The report stated that there was speculation that the “International” Energy Agency might release 300-400 million barrels from emergency stockpiles. Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. The article caught my interest because it mentioned an “International” Energy Agency that has stockpiled crude oil, for emergencies. The article went on to say that 300 million barrels represented a quarter of oil stockpiled. Some research revealed that there are 32 member countries in the International Energy Agency and that they have a combined public ownership of 1.25 billion barrels of oil (the BBC article noted that global oil consumption is 104 million barrels/day). Members are required to maintain emergency oil stocks...

 Today I read a story about a lady whining that because Trump has cut the size of the Department of Education she can't get the federal government to involved in stopping bullying at a school in Pennsylvania. THIS IS NUTS! https://abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory/families-turn-states-civil-rights-support-trump-dismantles-130779794  The lady wants to get the feds involved because she claims racist bullying is occurring at the Pennridge School District in Bucks County Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from Philadelphia. Some statistics on the school district from https://censusreporter.org/profiles/97000US4218750-pennridge-school-district-pa/ Population of the district 52,740 (Jefferson City School District pop 73,144) Size 91.2 square miles (Jeff 215 sq mi) Race/ethnicity 88% white, 2% black, 6% Hispanic  (Jeff 78% white, 10% black, 4% Hispanic) Median household income $114,538 (Jeff $74,454) Poverty 5.2% below poverty line (Jeff 10.1%) Children under 18 below poverty line 4...

It is beyond comprehension why President Trump is talking about guarantees of Ukrainian sovereignty. Far to much US blood has been shed, and US tax dollars have been spent, protecting Europe. I had hoped that we finally had a president with the balls to tell Europe it was time for them to grow a pair, and to show enough of a “stick” to force them to do something meaningful. I am not opposed to US defense spending. I am opposed to using our tax dollars to defend nations that have the resources to defend themselves. I want us to have the strongest military in the world. I want our soldiers to have the best equipment and training in the world. I want our soldiers to be better paid and have better benefits. It has been nearly 3 years since Russia invaded the Ukraine. The EU nations have spent most of that time whining that the US isn’t doing enough. That is bullshit! They have had plenty of time to gear up their defense industries to provide the Ukraine with everything needed to drive Ru...

  The Republicans appear ready to cave on Medicaid spending, and leave the spending floodgates wide open. The following is a history of the astronomical growth of federal and state Medicaid spending. A generation ago, in 2000, total federal and state Medicaid spending was $206 billion. Remember the promises of how Obamacare was going to save money? In 2010, the year Obamacare was signed into law, total federal and state Medicaid spending was $402 billion. In pre-COVID 2018 total federal and state Medicaid spending was $616 billion. Rather than save taxpayers money it cost us over 50 percent more in just 8 years. In 2024 total state and federal Medicaid spending was $919 billion. Another near 50 percent increase in only 6 years, and over double what it was before Obamacare. There are 133 million households in the US. Of course not all of them pay taxes, but it they did, in 2024 each household would have had to write the government a check for nearly $7,000 just to pay for ...