We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I have a better idea. The median household income in the US is around $50,000- 55,000 per year. I suggest, to eliminate inequality, that in the US we tax any income over $50,000 at 100%, and mail government checks to those households under $50,000 to bring them to the mean. Much in savings will come from eliminating all welfare, housing, and government medical programs.
To further level the playing field, all savings and assets should be taken by the government for the greater good. Funds from these can be used for free diapers, condoms, medical marijuana, urgently-needed collegiate safe spaces, and PhDs in anything you want. Cuba figured it out way before I did. Did I mention free TV, cigars, and rum?
As the High Administrator of this evidence-based scientific New New New Deal, with all of the responsibilities, worries, and burdens involved, I will obviously need to expect special compensation. Fidel has how many billions in Swiss banks? Something like that would meet my needs just fine. Even a little less. Special accommodations will be necessary for sub-administrators of course.
This experimental program should begin with government employees and politicians, and proceed to journalists, academics, artists and writers, professional athletes, and to all of Hollywood before moving to the general population. It takes a village to build Utopia so many must sacrifice and continue to work as hard as they used to. For the common good.
Good advice I got (when young) about bar fights is to use elbow to the head or torso, not fist. Far more power, less injury to self. Generally speaking, avoiding bar fights is easier though.
Congrats to New York for finally allowing MMA. Here's Holly:
"In small town America, politics has never been a great way to get rich, but it has been a great way to avoid poverty."
It works just fine and quietly as long as the press leaves you alone. From The Clinton Crime Family.
In Washington,the two big scandals were sex and money. Bill was raping interns again and Hillary was selling national secrets for campaign cash. People forget about the Chinese money, the satellite deal and missile technology scandal. They even had that sap Al Gore out shaking down Buddhist monks for cash. On their way out the door they tried stealing the White House furniture.
This e-mail scandal looks a lot like an influence peddling scandal.
I agree entirely with the post, but it is "old news" now and voters will generally prefer their crook over some sleaze on the other team. The Clinton charity makes Wounded Warriors look like pikers, amateurs.
Role models are rare in the political game and most good folks avoid it as a necessary evil.
I think the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claim that human CO2 is causing warming is wrong. They created the result they wanted, which wasn’t designed to deal with warming but to stop economic development and reduce the population. They selected the data and mechanisms necessary to prove their hypothesis and manipulated the data where necessary, including rewriting climate history. The wider evidence, which is only examined when you move outside their limited definition of climate change, is that the world is cooling.
The major rewrite of history involved elimination of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP). One of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) gang told David Deming in an email that it was necessary to get rid of the MWP. The reason, although not expressed in the email, was because they were telling people that the latter part of the 20th century was the warmest ever. It wasn’t by any measure, from the warm of the MWP to the prolonged warmer period of the Holocene Optimum. The MWP was the most immediate threat to their narrative because it was within a time period people could grasp. They could relate to the idea that Vikings sailed in Arctic waters that are permanent pack-ice today. There was also the graph (Figure 7c) in the first IPCC Report in 1990 that contradicted their claim – it had to go...
I suspect that Dr. Ball is correct, but really who cares about this topic anymore? Other than bureaucrats, moonbats, and government-funded researchers?
I think Trump could conceivably win a general election, although current polls indicate a bloodbath. It's been an interesting 6 months, and the next 6 could be equally interesting. I doubt that he would have done so well with a more compact set of primary candidates, though.
I do not think the Trump phenomenon is about anger, ignorance, or toothless white men. Exit polls I saw indicated that he drew votes from all social classes, ethnicities, and from women. They are not Know-Nothings; they are reluctantly-politicized people. So what is it about? I feel it's a spirit of rebellion and defiance. That is quite American. I think many feel that Washington with its condescending, bien pensant elites and vast, intrusive bureaucracies are diminishing life in America. (But they want their benefits too.) I can relate.
I think upper-middle-class seculars -- and even upper-middle-class religious folk -- don't realize just how much of a minority they are in this country.
Well, it's not that simple but I think many enjoy his anti-effete spirit and his plain talk. He is right about some things, wrong about other things. So is everybody.
On a personal level, I think Trump is a jerk and Hillary! is a revolting human. Given the choice, I'd hire Trump to work for me.
Borders and boundaries are fundamental aspects of human societies. I have to check you out before I invite you into my home. Same with my nation.
I am absolutely opposed to illegal immigration. They are uninvited guests, crapping on our rules and laws. I know that most Dems and the Chamber of Commerce don't care - or want more, but I believe immigration law is a national decision. Laws already exist. They can be changed by Congress.
I have no dislike of Mexicans or Guatemalans. All I ask is that they apply for residency and/or citizenship like everybody else.
The bigger, wealthier, more powerful and more intrusive government becomes, the more citizens tend to feel like little people, rolled over by a distant, indifferent steam roller. Proud, patriotic, tax-paying citizens of a free republic do not like to feel that way. Beneficiaries of the machine don't care.
The answer that I keep gravitating to is that despite the 4.9 percent unemployment rate, the job market is still pretty weak, and probably malfunctioning in some way. This isn't the only possible answer...
What Marco Rubio is all about is Warfare State republicanism. When he talks about restoring American Greatness it is through the agency of Imperial Washington. He has no kinship with Harding, Coolidge or Eisenhower. None of them were intent on searching the earth for monsters to destroy, as does Rubio in every single speech.
And make no mistake. Every time this naïve smart aleck chastises Obama for weak leadership and alleged failure to get the job forcefully done in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and countless elsewheres, the ghost of John Quincy Adams should be hollering in his grave. Stalking the globe for monsters to destroy is exactly what this wanna be little Napoléon is all about.
It's not experimenting. It's politics, not economics. In the New York greater metro area, very few work for minimum wage anyway although I am sure many, especially new immigrants, would be willing to. Still, as every working person knows, the true minimum wage is zero.
