All posts by howiemaui

Do I Have The Right To Be Political?

I know I have been slacking off, it’s because I have been trying to please so many, that I have forgot my blog is not about pleasing people, and I will go to the extent, at times it does not even please me at times. It seems that I find myself spending hours and hours on Facebook and forget that this is not how life should be. There is a real world away from my Macc laptop, once it’s close I feel lost to what to do. Being seventy-one of age, and an only child, I feel that all the time I spend in front of my computer is really a cop-out of not wanting to face reality. Pretty sad I must say, getting old, trying not to think about death, and worse of all, trying to relive the past, like could of done anything better, probably not.

Last week I got a very much need wake-up call, in fact two of them, a friend of mine, a lifetime smoker, was advised to get a chest x-ray, and not surprising a nodule was found on his left lung, we don’t know if it’s cancer, more tests have to be performed, for now I can only pray, the other alarming news I received was that the sister of my high school’s best friend was struck by a truck, as she was walking to the bank to drop of her company’s reciepts, a ritual that she has been doing for years, died. Tears and tears and a painful heart told me right then, to stop everything I was doing. Just shut up, no thinking, a minute later I finally realized don’t question why life happens the way it does. I need to give myself a game plan for both me and my wife, no one else matters, Teresita, the only person who has helped me when I was sick and in pain, needs to retire, and we can spend every day to enjoy our lives together. It means keeping what we really need, and calculate if we have enough money to at least live the next twelve years, with no financial problems. With the stock market starting rumble, it’s a good time to go back to the way my grand parents use to make money, just leave it in the bank, and if they were lucky, they would ger a free toaster. Sounds secured, and sure is better than to lose tens of thousands of dollars and end up being toast.

Oh yeah, I never answered what I started to ask myself, do I have the right to be political, yes and no, is it going to offend a lot of people, is it going to aggrevate me, will it make an ass hole, will I regret what I say, are people laughing at me, will my wife feel embarrassed, am Ireally going to make a difference, and mostly of all, am I just waisting my time? I can’t really say yes or no, I will just have to take it one day at a time.

The Super Moon and President Trump’s Speech.

The morning after last night’s President Trump’s State of the Union sppech, I found myself wanting to ask my early morning, super moon if I missed something while listening to President Trump’s speech? I first noticed, that he did not acknowledged, the Supreme Court presence, maybe it was because of the absence of Suoreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I did not mind that, but I just wanted to hear if finally are we goung to have an  affordable alternative to Obama Care? His speech focused on making America stronger and great again, the emphasis on jobs, defense, and immigration, There were momemts of sadness, by seeing the parents of an American student who was tortured in North Korea and eventually returned to the United States to die, the parents of two Afro-Amereican girls who were murdered by the m13 gang(illegal immigrants), and North Korean man, who desparately escaped his country after having his legs amputated, were strong points to President’s paln to make America great again. Yes we need a stronger defense, especially directing warnings to North Korea, yes unemplyment hass fallen, and I like the gains in my investment accounts, but being a senior and especially a handicap senior, I was hoping, perhaps praying that he would a sure all of us Americans, that we are going finally going to have affordable health care, and assurance that Medicare will be secured for at least a couple of more decades. Nope, the cosest things he did say that the price of perscription drugs have to come down, and Americans should not have to travel abroad to to receive experimental medical treatments.

It was very disturbing, but there are three gallant knights, Jeff Bezoz of Amazon, Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, and Jamie Dimon of  JPMorgan/Chase are trying to see if they can fix our health care cost delemna. Thanks for your help, but I think the laast thing I want to do is having to depend on corporate America for taking care of my health. Even though these three visionaries mean well, this a much to big of a committment for them to solve, health care makes up close to eightenn percent of our GNP, 3.3 trillion dollars, that’s ten thousand dollars per each American. Thanks, but no thanks, this is definitely a priority that President Trump should of taken care of much sooner than his plans to build a wall shielding us around Mexico.

Oh well, the next super moon might again appear in another one hundred and fifty years, hopefully my dream of affirdable health  will be a reality when the next super-duper moon appears.

 

Who Needs A Stock Broker?

I guess I don’t need a financial advisor, after thirty five years I also had to face the reality that I expected someone, or it’s company going to make me finally secured when I got fired on New Year’s eve, 2011. If all of these brokers had a crystal ball, they would not have to ask people like me to make commissions.

Call me a sore loser, but what I found out some thirty  years later that I should of just put my money in a large well deversified mutual fund, and DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!, let it ride. Many of the mutual funds are larger than the biggest corporations of the Dow 30.

The rules have changed for our investment accounts, I need to get advice from a financial advisor I have to pay a one per cent fee of my porfolio, sure I need to pay $250.00 a month to someone to sell one of my posistions, that eventually went up some $20,000.00. As I listen Jim Cramer while I am writing this blog, I find it quite helpful, but he is just one one person trying to help his viewers to understand the stock market. Hopefully he can help me to keep me on the right financial path.

No matter what, I am going to keep my fingers crossed.

 

 

Let’s The Dreamers Help Pay For The Mexican Wall.

With nearly a million “Dreamers” illegal immigrants waiting their faith if they will be able to still live in the United States, why can’t we tax them, lets say five per-cent of their income to help President get his wall built around Mexico? We are not gaining anything financially by exporting them back to where they came from, so let’s tax them accordingly. Who knows after ten years, maybe theycan pay fot at least half of the wall? There is no free lunch, at least we can make something positive from this pathetic situation. I think we have more serious problems in this country, health care, education, and defense. Let’s hope someone can figure it out.

Donald Trump, Why Don’t You Just Admit, You Don’t Want To Be President?

Yesterday was a national holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., it was suppose to be a day of remembrance, of a man who gave his life so many minorities can regain their respected american rights of freedom, instead it was a day of feeling so resentful that we have a president of the United States wh rather be enjoying his game of golf  on one of his many golf courses then visiting an Afro-American church praying with his fellow Americans, or perhaps revisit the steps of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. King delivered his “I have a Dream” speech. Instead I had to read about the dreams of so many so called illegal imigrants have lost their resident status and for many who entered the United States at an early age either will be deported, or will will have to re-apply for citizenship. What was suppose to be a day a remembrance for a great American, was the start of just wanting to now why someone who has no feelings for one of our great Americans, wants to be our forty-fifth president? We have the right to know!

Walmart, By Raising Your Minimum Wage To $11.00 Might Be Our Health Care Solution.

Today Walmart just announced that they are raising their minimum wage to $11.00 an hour might the answer to solving the problem in this country for receiving the affordable health care that they find hard to purchase. Well this might be partially true, by raising salaries  means a lot more people will trying get a job, any kind of job, just to put food on their table and and have a little bit leftover to pay their rent, or maybe the reverse. My point is that Walmart can start implementing twenty-four hours a day medical centers that can be equipped with Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists, but to do that they a lot more employees to help run the store.

You are probably snickering at me, why in hell would any medical professional would in all places work in a Wal-Mart, and at night or in the early hours? Simple, MONEY. The average family physician in the United States makes in an average of just $145,000.00, a liitle less than our US Senators, they still have to pay their medical insurance, staff, rents, and supplies and still make themselves accountable to both to the US government, and the demanding insurace companies. It’s about time our government realize that we have a medical insurance crisis in this country, and we need doctors, medical professionals, so let’s finally give them a Break for all the long years of schooling, and not to mention still having to pay off  their gigantic student loans. Medical professionals should not have to pay any taxes, whatsover, and the government should resume their medical insurance. At the present rate that the typical family physician is paid, ($145,000.00), at a 40 hour week comes out to be a little less than seventy dollars an hour, before taxes. Wal-Mart can certainly afford to pay their new doctor employees one hundred dollars an hour, or maybe even more, they will not have to pay for medical insurance, and now become our new medical clinics around the clock.

I know that this is not the total fix to our health care problem, but maybe it might be the start of having affordable medical clinics and pharmacies around the United States, and start a new trend in this country, let’s take of our Americans at an affordable price, and hopefully this will reduce so much of the sky high cost of health care insurance in this country. Sure this is not going to replace our much needed hospitals, but in the long end, it will bring down the costs of medical care in this country.

I can see that our largest corporations will play a significent role in help solving what I think is our number one priority in this country, affordable health care.

Thank You Walmart, and a special thanks to Dr. Sam.

 

Oprah, You Just Assured Donald Trump A Second Term As President.

Oprah busuggesting any kind of living human beings “have to die” implies that you, or anybody else has the right to suggest they can play God, and wish that human lives can end. I think I know the implication you were trying to imply, that racism will stop when we know longer have human beings that are racists, however through out history there has been wars afyer wars either based on religion or political belefs. It’t ain’t going to ever happen. There is just too many different kind of people on the planet, and you for one has certainly been bledded to rise up from peverty and have become a billionaire. People revere you, and feel that you have a lot of goodness in your heart, however this time you said one sentence too much, and you might of scared many white people, that you as our first Afro-American woman president of the United States might feel very strongly against the “white people” who don’t like “black people”. I truly agree with you that we do have a race problem in this country, but it’s a problem that will always will remain with us.

I can see how President Trump won the election, he told the American people what they wanted to hear, we need new jobs, we have a Muslim problem, we have an imigration problem, we pay too much taxes, we don’t need Obama Care, and we need to “Make America Great” again, you know what, he has made not just the rich richer, but most of the working Americans who have investment accounts, and we know that money talks, and if he can find a solution  to have affordable health care, there is no way in Hell that any right American will vote for you or anyone else. Celebreties like you, can talk about all the short givings that Donald Trump has, and I for one think there are many, but the bottom line, is about survival and money. Maybe we need to run the country as a buisness, there is so much we need to address, I now I couldn’t do it, but I know that I need my social security, and I hope I can find a solution to have affordable health care for my wife to be able to retire.

Hopefully there will be a solution, one thing for sure.

“Thou Shalt Not Kill”.

$18,000,000,000.00 For A Wall Around Mexico?

PRESIDENT TRUMP, I can see your concern about bational security, but I think spending eighteen billion dollars that could actuall be put to better use, might be the solution of stopping such imigartions from Mexico into the United States, and help reduce the huge costs of health care in the the United States. Why can we not build hospitals and nurtsing homes in Mexico to gelp allieviate the financial burden that so many American families have to face.  For most of our senior citizens who had to liquidate their investment accounts because of their Required Minimum Distributions the year after they turned the age of 70 qnd 1/2, and trying to make ends neat it seems that for a population who worked so hard to attain the American dream that their remaining years has turned into a night mare.

Just think of all the jobs that could be created in Mexico, and of course the billions of dollars the United States would save on Medicaid and Medicare payments, it’s a Win-Win solution for the both of us. There certainly be fewer Mexicans wanting to sneak in the United States, and who knows this might finally lead to having affordable health care in America, God Forbid, who wants to live in a country with healthy people for a change?

Congratulations For The Dow Jones 25,075.13, But?

I never thought the Dow Jones average ever reaching 20,000 yet alone 25,000. I do have to say that this time Predident Trump certainly has pressed my kind o button, and at my age, seventy-one its a welcome relief for a senior who has not made a pay check  in a very long time, hopefully it does not crash.

It seems too good to be true that maybe there will be some financial hope for me and my wife can live out our lives with the basics of life’s essentials, still being able to keep our home, affordable health care, and still be able to recieve the social security, and my investments in the stock market stays at a decent level. Every day I keep seeing on our social media cites, as Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter a continuous bashing of Donald Trump, and its starting to me me worry. Is this “The Calm Before The Storm”, or maybe things will work out, as I ever hope it could be.

I wish someone could finally ask our president and his congress what can we really expect in the Trump’s legacy. Right now, I just seeinng a  Hell of a lot of praying and paying,

Please President Trump, Press My Button.

It doesn’t President Trump whether you hace a bigger button to press than what North Korea has, it’s about time that you start pressing our buttons of happiness, affordable health care, and an assurance that the people of the United States have a future to look forward to. Right now I see my interest rates going up, my social security is in jeopardy, and my wife who  is disabled has to work two more years to qualify for medicare. I am tired about tax cuts, and bringing jobs back, cut the crap, and start asking us hard earning Americans what they need NOW. We are just getting by financially, and I am for one is Scared.