Drinking Coolaid

Posted on 21 August 2018 by eehines

The NLMSM has done it. In deep drafts. And, no, I’m not writing about the recent collusion among NLMSM outlets one Sunday to write coordinated “opinion” anti-Trump pieces.

No, it’s even more blatant than that. Here is an example of how deeply the NLMSM has drunk of ex-Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s (D) coolaid that half of Americans are irredeemably deplorable racist, misogynistic, homophobes and ex-President Barack Obama’s (D) coolaid that we’re all just a bunch of bitter Bible-clinging gun-toters in flyover country.

MSNBC political analyst John Heilemann had this to say about those not on the Left and so too ignorant to agree with him:

This is a preview of Drinking Coolaid. Read the full post (220 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)

Free Stuff

Posted on 21 August 2018 by eehines

In some places, that apparently includes free labor. At least that’s Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro’s view. He’s going to

raise wages by nearly 6,000% and…devalue the already-embattled currency by 96%….

Let me get this straight. The bolívar fuerte (ironic name, that; it translates to “strong bolívar”) already is next door to worthless, Maduro is going to replace it with the sovereign bolivar that’s as much closer to worthless as he can get it (taking five(!) zeros off the face value of each piece of paper, which the sovereign bolivar does—the mechanism of the devaluation), and then he’s going to give workers even more of this useless “wage.”

This is a preview of Free Stuff. Read the full post (300 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Corporate Free Rides

Posted on 20 August 2018 by eehines

Alex Sanchez, Florida Bankers Association President and CEO, is worried about corporate welfare.

The problem with modern American credit unions boils down to a simple question: why should a family of four pay more income taxes than a $90 billion financial institution? That’s the total amount of assets held by Navy Federal Credit Union. Yet it is exempt from federal and state corporate income taxes, as well as sales taxes (and, in my home state of Florida, intangible taxes). This is corporate welfare.

This is a preview of Corporate Free Rides. Read the full post (292 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

Income Equality

Posted on 20 August 2018 by eehines

William Galston doesn’t think we have enough, and it’s the successful one’s fault.

[T]his [trade leaving nations generally better off] is small comfort to those who lose out, especially because the winners rarely compensate them commensurately.

Galston is operating from a blatantly false premise here.

He does have a couple of solutions to offer.

First, they [government] could significantly expand the earned-income tax credit to bolster the incomes of workers somewhat higher up the income ladder. Second, they could implement a broader program of wage subsidies that would raise the wages of lower- and middle-income earners toward a specified hourly target.

This is a preview of Income Equality. Read the full post (173 words, estimated 42 secs reading time)

Distractions

Posted on 19 August 2018 by eehines

Mark Warner (D, VA), Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has objected to President Donald Trump’s revoking ex-CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance.

This might be a convenient way to distract attention, say from a damaging news story or two. But politicizing the way we guard our nation’s secrets just to punish the President’s critics is a dangerous precedent.

This is neither politicization nor punishment, but a safeguard of our nation’s secrets. No one, regardless of rank, once they leave government service should have a security clearance. They neither have a need to know nor a need for access, the two Critical Items—both of which must be present, not just one of them—for granting clearances. Trump’s only error here is in not ordering the revocation for all persons who have left government service.

This is a preview of Distractions. Read the full post (243 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Surprised

Posted on 18 August 2018 by eehines

Writing on the topic of our applying economic pressure on Turkey as a means of getting an American hostage (among others) freed, Greg Ip expressed surprise and worry about the weaponization of trade in his Wednesday Wall Street Journal article.

Trade wars may be morphing into something more dangerous: financial wars.

This, though, merely exposes his misunderstanding of international trade. Such trade is far more about national policy applied internationally than it is about economics, and international finance is just a tool of that trade venue. Trade has always been “weaponized;” it has always been about achieving national political goals, of which economics is merely one.

This is a preview of Surprised. Read the full post (222 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)

What Are You Going to Do about It?

Posted on 17 August 2018 by eehines

“The Vatican” has proclaimed its regret for the decades of abuse in Pennsylvania of 1,000 or more children by hundreds of the Vatican’s priests.

The abuses described in the report are criminal and morally reprehensible. Those acts were betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith.

The Church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur[.]

On the other hand, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General has pointed out the skill with which this perfidy was executed.

This is a preview of What Are You Going to Do about It?. Read the full post (236 words, estimated 57 secs reading time)

“We’ve Never Been Great”

Posted on 17 August 2018 by eehines

The soul of the Progressive-Democratic Party is Bernie Sanders’ and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ blatant, enthusiastic socialism. Now the Party’s heart is revealed, as well. Here’s New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) at a bill-signing event for, ironically enough, an anti-human trafficking measure:

We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great[.]

Of course, Cuomo has denied what he meant, but keep in mind: he’s a talented, smooth politician for whom words are stock in trade. He knew what he was saying.

The fact is that the first time he spoke, he spoke from his heart. He’s just speaking politically with his corrections.

This is a preview of “We’ve Never Been Great”. Read the full post (184 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

A Crisis Deepens?

Posted on 16 August 2018 by eehines

The People’s Republic of China has a serious debt problem, but its economy is still slowing (note, though: slower growth still is growth). To try to control and reverse the trend, the PRC’s central bank is lessening capital requirements for the nation’s banks, pumping more money into the financial system, and urging commercial lenders to offer more loans at cheaper rates to small businesses. Their answer to too much debt seems to be to pile on more debt, lower the backstop against failing loans, and devalue through inflation the currency needed to repay the debt.

This is a preview of A Crisis Deepens?. Read the full post (154 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

The Will of the People

Posted on 16 August 2018 by eehines

The West Virginia House of Delegates has returned articles of impeachment against every one of the sitting Justices of the State’s Supreme Court. One Justice, Robin Davis, has resigned her post, doing so before any of the impeachment cases proceed to the West Virginia Senate for trial. In her resignation press conference, Davis complained

The majority members have ignored the will of the people who elected the justices of this court. They have erased the lines of separation between the branches of government.

This is a preview of The Will of the People. Read the full post (238 words, estimated 57 secs reading time)

A Plebe's Site

Quam bene vivas referre, non quam diu.

Category Archives: politics