Category Archives: politics

Federal Government Shutdowns

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve written a few times (the latest here) about the results of Federal government shutdowns. Progressive-Democratic Party politicians always and everywhere are in full-throated panic-mongering about the disaster that is a shutdown. Far too many Republican Party politicians timidly accept the Leftist Party’s claims and seek to do anything, even on bended knee, to avoid a shutdown.

I have a challenge for them, and for all you out there in reader land.

Here are two graphs, the first from Macrotrends showing our GDP growth rate from year to year from 1961 through 2022, and the second from stastica showing GDP levels over the more focused period of 1990-2022.

This is a preview of Federal Government Shutdowns. Read the full post (331 words, 2 images, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

Arizona Governor’s Absence

Posted on by
Reply

Arizona’s Progressive-Democratic Party Governor Katie Hobbs was absent from duty last Wednesday evening through Thursday mid-morning, and the State’s Treasurer, Kimberly Yee, assumed the duty as Acting Governor for the period.

I have questions.

One question is one that several folks are asking: where was she? Neither Hobbs beforehand nor Yee currently has been willing to say.

Another is what happened to the State’s Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, another Progressive-Democrat, and the Attorney General, Kris Mayes (also a Progressive-Democrat)? This is what Arizona’s constitution, Article 5, Section 6, Clause C says regarding succession:

This is a preview of Arizona Governor’s Absence. Read the full post (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Don’t Take that Federal Money

Posted on by
Reply

That’s what Tennessee is considering regarding Federal education funding transfers—$1.8 billion worth, especially since the money comes with mandates and other strings. Breaking the addiction to Federal dollars will sting: Tennessee has collected some $14.85 billion in its own tax revenues through August of this year, which projects to about $22.28 billion for the year; those $1.8 billion represent about 8% of Tennessee’s domestic income.

To see if such a rejection is “feasible,”

This is a preview of Don’t Take that Federal Money. Read the full post (323 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Furloughs and Redundancy

Posted on by
Reply

If the government is partially shut down by Progressive-Democratic Party Congressional politician obstructionism, millions of federal employees could face furloughs, some federal offices may close or work shortened hours.

Those furloughs and closures would give us some interesting data on the usefulness/criticality of those furloughees and offices. Here’s what Slate found regarding these items during the Obama “shutdown” some 10 years ago:

Notice a couple of things here regarding Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden’s threat to stop paying our military members and Party politicians’ threats regarding the VA (right click on the graph and select Open Image in New Tab to get a bigger image). One is the Veterans Affairs level of furloughing: all of 4%. That’s not importantly different from the ordinary absentee rate due to illness, vacation, and so on.

This is a preview of Furloughs and Redundancy. Read the full post (315 words, 1 image, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

What He Said

Posted on by
Reply

The subheadline on Columbia Law’s School Maurice & Hilda Friedman Professor of Law Philip Hamburger’s Tuesday Wall Street Journal op-ed is spot on.

The First Amendment protects the right to hear alternative views, not merely to express them.

Hamburger went on:

People can’t develop their views with any sophistication unless they can consider opinions that enlarge, refine, moderate, or challenge their own. So, when government demands the suppression of some speech and chills even more, it reduces the diversity, value, and moderation of opinion—and thereby diminishes the opportunity for every individual to develop and express his own considered views. Censorship inhibits the output of critical voices, which lessens Americans’ intellectual input, which in turn limits their intellectual output. Reading and speaking are inextricably linked in conversation.

This is a preview of What He Said. Read the full post (306 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)

Fundamentally Transforming America

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve written elsewhere of the Progressive-Democratic Party’s goal, and of the destructive nature of that goal.

Here is the rank and file of the Progressive-Democratic Party, demonstrating how deep-seated is that desire to destroy our Republic:

  • nearly half of Democrats (47%) support censorship, and think speech should be legal “only under certain ­circumstances”
  • one-third of Democrats (34%) think Americans have “too much freedom”
  • 75% think government has a responsibility to censor “hateful” social media posts
  • a majority of Democrats (52%) approve of the government censoring social media posts “under the rubric of protecting national security”
This is a preview of Fundamentally Transforming America. Read the full post (190 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

Bidenomics

Posted on by
Reply

It’s terrific, or so claims our Progressive-Democratic Party President, Joe Biden. Here are some examples of how well it’s working.

  • He [Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics] estimates that the typical American household would need to use 42 weeks of income to buy a new car, as of August, up from 33 weeks three years ago.
  • New 30-year fixed-rate mortgages today carry rates around 7%, up from 3% two years ago.
  • The typical credit card carried a 20.7% interest rate in May, up from 14.6% in February 2022….
This is a preview of Bidenomics. Read the full post (211 words, estimated 51 secs reading time)

ByteDance and TikTok

Posted on by
Reply

Recall that TikTok, a social medium heavily favored by our children, is wholly owned by ByteDance. Recall further, that ByteDance is domiciled inside the Peoples Republic of China. Finally, recall that the PRC’s 2017 national security law requires every PRC-domiciled company to collect and deliver to that nation’s intelligence community any information that community requests. A bonus memory: TikTok’s executive team has been at pains to insist that, in the United States, they operate independently of all of that.

Against that backdrop, there’s this:

This is a preview of ByteDance and TikTok. Read the full post (553 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Featherbedding

Posted on by
Reply

It’s not just for railroads, or auto unions. It seems to have come to the Writers Guild of America. The WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers appear to have reached a tentative agreement, wanting only fleshing out the details and then a WGA rank and file vote.

The tentative agreement appears to include these items:

  • a minimum number of writers per television show
  • guaranteed employment for those writers from conception to postproduction
This is a preview of Featherbedding. Read the full post (229 words, estimated 55 secs reading time)

Student Debt and Savings

Posted on by
Reply

The lede’s lead sentence leads into it.

Everybody knows that US households’ savings soared after the pandemic struck, as the combined effects of checks from the government and fewer opportunities to spend swelled wallets.

Increasing household savings is, in almost all cases, good since we Americans don’t keep a big enough cash cushion against unexpected exigencies, anyway. There was, though, one key area, one Critical Item, that did—and does—represent quite a large opportunity legitimately to spend: paying down the student debt held by one or more members of a household.

This is a preview of Student Debt and Savings. Read the full post (358 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)