Ferri Tales

Two things should be very clear after Donald Trump's coronavirus press conference: (1) he has no idea how to handle a real crisis , and (2) his appointment of Mike Pence as coronavirus czar will make matters worse. Trump's method of operation is to lie about everything, even when the facts and evidence show otherwise. However, this scheme becomes very obvious when the facts and evidence affect what Trump claims to be his sole masterpiece -- the stock markets. After 5 days of free fall, Trump finally held a press conference that contradicted the conclusions of medical experts at the same podium. Trump said he has everything under control even though, over the past few years, he had gutted and maligned the agencies capable of responding to this very same crisis. Experts said that the situation will get worse. Markets believed the experts because the next day, the DOW fell almost 1200 points. By the spring of Trump's first year in office, there were 700 vacant ...

Mike "Mad Mike" Hughes, who claimed to be a self taught rocket expert, died on February 22 after his home-made steam powered rocket crashed in a California desert 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The launch was supposed to carry Hughes to a height of 5000 feet and provide evidence that the Earth is flat. His death was confirmed by the San Bernardino sheriff's office and confirmed by Hughes publicist, Darren Shuster. Shuster also said that Hughes professed to believe that the Earth is flat only to raise money and publicity for his stunts. A video of the flight shows what looks like a parachute ripping from the vehicle immediately after launch. The crash shortly thereafter was a freefall impact with the ground because the remaining chutes failed to deploy. This flight was to be preliminary to others that were planned to reach high enough for Hughes to determine any curvature of the planet. Flat-Earthers believe all photos of our planet from planes and rockets ...

Trump's actions against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman should turn the stomachs of all members of our military forces and all military veterans. Vindman received a Purple Heart medal after he was wounded in an IED attack in the Iraq War in 2004. Trump fired him from the National Security Council because Vindman responded to a legal subpoena by the House of Representatives and he told the truth. His testimony, among others, resulted in Trump's impeachment. Trump also fired Vindman’s brother in retribution. Trump was not removed from office by the Senate because spineless Republican Senators, currently the majority, refused to hear witnesses or allow documentary evidence to be entered. Even though Republicans agreed that Trump did attempt to extort Ukraine's president, and that Trump was and is obstructing Congressional oversight, they didn't care -- except for Mitt Romney, the sole Republican Senator with a spine and a conscience. Trump and his acting personal attorney...

Tax Free Money Suppose that you wanted to give someone a tax free gift of $1,000. How much do you have to give them if the tax rate is 20% ? A quick calculation would add 20% of $1,000 or $200 to the amount, and give $1,200. But 20% of $1,200 is $240, so the recipient gets only $960 instead of $1,000 after paying the tax. The recipient gets $40 less than intended, so adding $40 for a total of $1,240 would seem to be the remedy. But the tax on this is $248 leaving the recipient $8 short. This is an iterative problem which requires repeating the above procedure many more times to calculate the required total so that the recipient nets $1,000 after taxes. The sequence, a geometric infinite series, is as follows: where S is the required sum, and n approaches infinity. The sum increases as shown below: The iterations in [2] ending with 0.32 totals to 1249.92. More iterations show that the required total is approaching 1250. There is an easier way. Factor out 1000 in [1] gives: Multip...