So sad.
Las Vegas shooting: What will happen to the shooter’s suite at Mandalay Bay? http://flip.it/pCnMzD
Friday, October 6, 2017So sad.
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RANT: This whole kerfuffle is dumb
Friday, October 6, 2017FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL “The 10-Point”
Responding to yesterday’s question on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson denying longstanding rumors about his possible resignation, Allan Muns of Texas wrote: “Why does the press continue to speculate that Mr. Tillerson called the president a moron? And if he did, who cares? Mr. Tillerson can either do his job or resign. Full stop. The president has an excellent candidate for secretary of state currently minding the United Nations for our country: Nikki Haley.” Robert Hugins of South Carolina said: “Mr. Tillerson’s toughest diplomatic challenge doubtless is his mercurial boss. Good luck with that. Regarding the questionable ‘moron’ news story, are staffers inside the State Department and on the Hill who oppose the secretary’s departmental reforms fanning this account?” And John Davis of Pennsylvania commented: “This whole kerfuffle has no more credence than the tabloids in the supermarket checkout line. Mr. Tillerson should have said as much.”
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Who cares?
I’ve called a boss “Hitler” to his face when he voiced an intrusive stupid idea. He often called me a “good pia”.
Strong individuals should disagree.
Not every idea that DJT45 has is a good one.
A President needs the privacy to be told off by his trusted advisors without it becoming a political football.
Argh!
Didn’t Harry Truman’s personal aide “censor” his “rants”? When the fellow died, his replacement didn’t realize this role and hence we heard HST rant about a reported criticizing his daughter’s singing.
Argh!
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POLITICAL: Why isn’t reducing taxes ALWAYS good for Joe and Jane Six Pack?
Friday, October 6, 2017FROM BEHIND THE WSJ PAYWALL
https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-growth-song-remains-the-same-1506722770?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb
OPINION BEST OF THE WEB
Anti-Growth Song Remains the SameCriticism of the new Trump tax plan is oddly familiar.
By James Freeman — Sept. 29, 2017 6:06 p.m.
*** begin quote ***
This week the President and congressional Republicans rolled out their plan to boost economic growth by giving people and businesses greater incentives to work and invest in the United States. Specifically the plan is to lighten and simplify the tax burden on individuals and cut the federal corporate income tax rate, which when combined with state taxes now adds up to roughly twice the average rate found in Europe and Asia.
It seems straightforward that moving the U.S. rate down close to parity with the rest of the world would make the U.S. more competitive and encourage more companies to locate here. And even critics of the plan are evidently uncomfortable trying to argue that people do not respond to incentives.
*** end quote ***
Sorry, but as a little L libertarian who has as an article of faith that “taxes are theft”, I fail to understand how anyone can argue that “higher taxes are good” or that “higher taxes do not suppress economic activity”.
Joe and Jane Six Pack NEED a booming economy where employment is easy to find and well compensated. “Human Resources” should be in high demand — more than at Starbucks, McDonalds, and drivers for the local pizzeria.
Should anyone care that the folks, who pay the taxes, are “rich”? What are they going to do with their wealth? Put it in a vault like scrooge md duck and swim in it. No, they will buy luxuries and invest it. Either way, Joe and Jane Six Pack are going to benefit from it.
Remember when Massachusetts pass a “yacht tax” or Congress passed a “boat tax”, an a lot of boat builders went on unemployment?
It’s just stupid to give money to politicians and bureaucrats, who will waste it on “programs”, when we could give it to “rich people” who will generate jobs.
So what if they live like “kings”, remember that today’s “poor” have “wealth” that the rich in the 1950’s could only dream about.
That’s the secret of capitalism — no matter how much you try, you only get rich by serving the needs of your fellow human being.
Call it “certificates of appreciation” instead of money! You give me a hot dog from your cart , and I give you a “certificates of appreciation” in the form of money.
Argh!
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IOS: Upgrade broke podcast app
Thursday, October 5, 2017Latest upgrade made the app less useful. No longer does it play all the unplayed episodes. How dumb has Apple become. Confirms my decision to leave “apple land” for “google land”.
—30—
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POLITICAL: Bad idea — winner-take-all Electoral College system!
Thursday, October 5, 2017http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/27/electoral-college-change-from-winner-take-all-syst/
Lawsuits aim to change winner-take-all Electoral College system by 2020 presidential race
*** begin quote ***
The votes have been counted and President Trump has moved into the White House, but the campaign to upend the Electoral College is far from over.
Lawsuits aimed at striking down the winner-take-all system and giving electors more freedom to change their votes have been in the works since Mr. Trump won the Electoral College vote but not the popular vote on Nov. 8.
The idea is not to eliminate the Electoral College, which would require a constitutional amendment, but to require states to implement a system in which electors cast ballots based on the percentage of the popular vote.“It’s crazy that our nation’s least-democratic election is the one for president,” said Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School professor and founder of Equal Citizens.
The group kicked off a project Sept. 14 aimed at filing lawsuits on behalf of a Republican voter in a blue state and a Democratic voter in a red state, with the goal of overturning the winner-take-all system in time for the 2020 presidential race.
*** end quote ***
Hasn’t ANYONE realized that ANYTIME we muck with Dead Old White Guys’ Constitution we SCREW it up?
Argh!
Pick the Constitutional Amendment — other than the 21st which repealed the 18th — and study the unintended consequences.
Here’s a few to stimulate your thinking:
- 17th — Allows the people to elect United States Senators by voting — result unfunded Federal mandates on the States.
- 18th — Made it illegal to make or sell alcohol in the United States — created “organized crime”.
- 19th — Gives women the right to vote — created the Progressive movement that socialized everything.
- 22nd — Limits the number of times that a person can be elected president — created “lame duck president” that ensure an impotent executive in the last two years of the Presidency.
- 26th — Lowers the legal voting age to 18, allowing 18- to 20-year-old United States citizens to vote — extends voting to the “dumbest” least-experience part of the population.
You can add or extend your own.
Bottom line: Constitutional Amendments have lasting Unintended Consequences!
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The votes have been count
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ECONOMICS: Unless they are defended by the government, cartels always break down
Wednesday, October 4, 2017https://www.garynorth.com/public/17188.cfm
The Economics of Assistant Coaches’ Bribery
Gary North – September 28, 2017
*** begin quote ***
There is a fundamental rule of economics: unless they are defended by the government, cartels always break down. They can be sustained only by government intervention. The government protects the cartels from members of the cartel who break the rules of the cartel in order to increase market share and thereby increase net income. The government makes cartel-busting a crime. In the case of the movie and also in the case of the latest scandals, net income is really what it is all about.
What we are seeing is the intervention of governments around the country to defend the NCAA’s cartel. If it were not for government intervention to keep coaches from paying full ticket for the valuable services of the best players, major universities would be forced to pay millions of dollars to these players, just as professional sports teams have to pay their players. A free market would prevail.
Top collegiate basketball coaches today are paid multimillion-dollar salaries. The head coaches don’t want to lose this income. In contrast, assistant coaches are not paid huge salaries. They are tempted to do under-the-table deals that are against the financial interests of the NCAA’s cartel. None of the coaches being accused of bribery is a head coach. No head coach is going to risk his $4 million annual salary for penny-ante payoffs to recruit top players.
If we had a free market in college education, there would be no legal restriction on the use of the word “college” or “university” imposed by any state on profit-seeking educational ventures. There would be no government money used to build sports stadiums. There would be open entry. Private college tuition would fall at all but the premier schools. College athletes in the top-ranked sports universities would be paid full ticket.
*** end quote ***
Ignoring for the moment that these alleged “bribery” charges may not — or should not be — considered accurate, why do we have cartels in sports?
Why are the Taxpayers funding sports stadiums?
Why are the Team Owners (i.e., “State Universities”) allowed to keep “indentured servants” working (i.e., playing games) for them?
Argh!
We need to get the Gooferment out of all of there!
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SURVIVAL: Why don’t we plan for natural disasters?
Tuesday, October 3, 2017http://news.trust.org/item/20170927215847-o173x
Cash demand soars in Puerto Rico after hurricane hit ATMs, card systems
by Reuters — Wednesday, 27 September 2017 21:52 GMT
By Jonathan Spicer, Robin Respaut and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
*** begin quote ***
NEW YORK/SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Demand for cash in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico is “extraordinarily high” after power outages knocked out electronic transactions and ATMs but needs were being met for now, a Federal Reserve branch said on Wednesday.
Residents and tourists were counting their dwindling banknotes in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which crippled the electrical grid and communications network, turning the Caribbean island into a largely cash-based economy.
*** end quote ***
Looking away from the immediate string of disasters, why hasn’t the “wise and all knowing maters of the Universe” (i.e., Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats) planned for national disasters?
Each time “we” have one, be it wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, floods, it like “we” have never experienced it ever before.
As a retired IT executive, Disaster Recovery was a recognized need. And, while getting proper attention and funding was never easy, it got done. Often the expense was minimized by proper recognition of the relative impact and possible frequency with a dash of innovative architecture.
It seems like the politicians and bureaucrats LOVE disasters (i.e., “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” — Rahm Emanuel)
I mean if “we” had forward thinking Federal and State Gooferments, then wouldn’t we have some “trust funds” set up. Of course, that would require some fiscal discipline. But in Genesis 41:54 (“and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said, then there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread”), Pharaoh listened to Joseph and put something away for a “rainy day”.
Why can’t “we”?
Argh!
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WSJ: Think tank trashes GOP reform without evidence
Monday, October 2, 20172017-Oct-02 1216
FROM BEHIND THE WSJ PAYWALL
Tax Policy Center Propaganda
The media’s go-to think tank trashes GOP reform without evidence.
By The Editorial Board
Oct. 1, 2017 4:26 p.m. ET
*** begin quote ***
Republicans face an uphill battle on tax reform, not least because opponents are willing to invent evidence to stop it. Take Friday’s Tax Policy Center report claiming to be clairvoyant about details of the Republican reform “framework” that haven’t been proposed.
The Tax Policy Center is a joint project of the left-leaning Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute that the media routinely labels “nonpartisan.” Its record of hostility to any GOP tax reform that cuts tax rates shows the opposite. And the latest evidence of bias is its willingness to jump to conclusions about the GOP plan before crucial details are known.
*** end quote ***
I “love” how the Leftists can “invent” evidence for the stuff that they oppose.
Argh!
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RANT: HRC demonstrates she, and the D’s, are tone deaf
Monday, October 2, 20172017-Oct-02 1058
The LV tragedy is not the time for politics when the dead are unburied.
*** begin quote ***
Congressional Democrats chose not to wait for all the facts to come in before immediately pushing for increased gun control measures following the Las Vegas shooting Sunday night that left 50 people dead and more than 400 injured.
*** and ***
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attacked the National Rifle Association (NRA).
“Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again,” Clinton wrote.
*** end quote ***
ALSO
The media is reporting it was “machine guns”. But I’m not sure that is accurate.
Argh!
At least it was not a “ISIS attack”. If that’s any saving grace.
I wonder if this was some type of “false flag” event. The guy they are naming as the shooter has no reported gun background, hunting, and|or no military training. That’s odd. Very very strange.
Argh!
Dona Nobis Pacem
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RANT: This captures why I won’t fly
Monday, October 2, 2017https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/airplane-mode
Airplane Mode
Elbow-to-elbow seating, oversized comfort pets, midcabin standoffs — and passengers armed with their smartphones. A new era in air travel has some Americans tweeting mad.
By JAMES RAINEY SEP 26, 2017
*** begin quote ***
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME someone told you they loved flying? Or even said they liked it? Or that they couldn’t wait to get back in the air?
In the spring and summer of America’s flying discontent, it’s likely your anxiety began to mount long before reaching the jetway. You felt nickeled and dimed by charges for everything: extra leg room, a snack, a thin blanket, an advance seat assignment. If you weren’t blindsided by a tumultuous curbside check-in, you might have stumbled over new complexities at a security checkpoint (Coming soon: mandatory screening, in separate security bins, of almost ALL electronic devices!) or arrived at your gate to find there was nowhere to sit.
*** end quote ***
This story struck a chord with me.
The last time I flew for pleasure I went first class. I figured it was my last trip to Las Vegas. Who knew it would be my last airplane trip.
I saw the “great unwashed” in the back of the plane and the sheer discomfort they were in.
From time to time, I read the horror stories.
No way I’d do that again.
I’d like to visit friends, but it has to be by car.
I think of John Madden, who never flew, as a new “patron saint”.
Ahh, the good old days. Gone for good.
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