Just Plain Talk

Time flies when you are having fun!!! Where did the time go?? It is already December 1st!! Wow!!! Pretty soon, it will be Christmas! I have a question... why do we say pretty soon??? Is soon pretty?? Who, when and how were the words started to be used with soon? I really do not know, and who cares?? If you really care, then do a research and blog about it!!! Or ask someone. I am sure there is at least one person out there that is very smart and knows when pretty came to being with soon! In the meantime, let us go on with our blogging....

The first thing on my list is the billionaires, e.g., Buffett, Gates etc, etc.. going on a trip to China. They were going to see about investing in a business overseas. It also showed how these billionaires do not have to go though security and the customs! Of course, they would not have to go through the TSA and the infamous pat down/ groping because they have their own luxurious jets!! It must really be nice to be able to go anywhere without any worry about money or anything! They were also trying to talk to the rich Chinese about charity. I guess charity is not really in the vocabulary of the Chinese people. It might take time to persuade them to part with their precious yuan to help the less fortunate! Any, comments???

The fall of the dollar. It seems that China and Russia have dropped using the dollar for trading. They will each use their money now. What will happen to the dollar??? It will probably be weaker and more devalued! Wouldn't that be good for the US economy??? If the dollar is down, more people will come to America to buy mercandise, is it not?? I remember a few years back, I saw at the mall some people from Canada coming to the US to buy since their money went up!!! Can you imagine that? Canadian money is equal or higher than the American money now! I remember about 20 years ago that $1.00 US was equal to $1.50 Canadian! Sigh! Gone are those days! Oh, well. Comments, anyone???

Federal deficit. What are the plans of the US government to reduce the deficit??? Plenty, from what I heard. Are you ready?? 1 - Raise the age for social security benefits. My goodness, that is bad for the older people, they really will not enjoy their golden years! Excuse me, some seniors are not enjoying it now either! Some went back to work to make ends meet! And there is quite a bit of seniors that filed for bankruptcy! 2 - Change of the tax laws that will cost an average taxpayer $1,700 more per year! Yikes!!! That is not good!!! 3- Raise the Medicare premium. Oh, oh. This is not good either! By the way, they are also cutting down the doctor's fee by 25 % come January 1st!!! They have not given an increase to seniors for 2 years now!!! 4 - End the home mortgage deduction! What??? That is the only thing people can deduct from their taxes, since they took out the other deductions! My! My! My! What is the world getting into??? 5 - Raise gasoline taxes!! Goodness gracious!!! What will gasoline cost?? $7.00/gallon??? Wow!! Today, gasoline was $2.92 /gallon. It is outrageous!! If the gasoline go up, then everything will go up!!! Then what are people supposed to do??? Live on the streets???

Federal pay freeze. The federal employees are not going to have raises for the next 2 years! Woo..hoo....Except they already had a big chunk of raise for the last 2 years! Even if they do not get a raise, they are still better off than the private sector when it comes to pay rates!!! Right????

Unemployment. It is still very high! And many people will lose their benefits come Christmas or have already lost their unemployment benefit last month, the end of November! What will happen to these people??? I am not sure but I am praying to God that our government will do something to alleviate the unemployment and hopelessness that seems to be the norm in our society now! Can the billionaires do something for America and the people in need??? They will probably say, " what do they care?" I do not know, maybe I am thinking that there might be someone with money and nice enough to do something to make the lives better for our people! Isn't there a country that helps their people???

I think that is it for now. Let me talk about something lighter now. Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting last night. Wow!!! That is a huge Christmas tree that was lit up and witnessed by hundreds of people! And there was a bevy of celebrities that made the occasion really festive, like Jackie Evancho, Terry Fator, Jessica Simpson, Susan Boyle and Josh Groban. It was indeed a very nice celebration to herald the start of the Christmas season in New York City!!!