To find something, anything, to talk about besides the election. It's been two weeks and all they can talk about is the election. Will this last til New Years? til next Christmas? Who knows?
Part of the problem is the newsies know so little about anything, so they find it hard to write about just about anything. The election is simple to cover. All they have to do is read to polls over the air and then do some pontificating about the meaning of it all. They don't have to get out of their cushy offices, talk to people, take notes, find stuff out. That's hard work. Easier to just pontificate about the polls.
Could it be that nobody is left in the MSM who can write a story about anything except the election?
Monday, November 28, 2016
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The Alcohol Mandate
Carl Icahn wrote an op ed in the Wall St Journal decrying the use a and abuse of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs). These are some kinda chits that concern the addition of alcohol to gasoline before it is sold at the pump. I didn't fully understand Icahn's explanation of how the scam on RINs worked, but he claimed it was driving the smaller refineries out of business and leaving gasoline production to the majors and the big service station chains. Icahn is in the business and probably has it right.
More to the point, the entire alcohol in gasoline program is a scam. Beloved of greenies, who think it saves the planet, and of farmers who see a huge market for their corn, in actual fact, the program just raises the price of gasoline. Growing the corn and distilling it into alcohol consumes more gasoline and diesel (energy) than the alcohol provides. We would get more gasoline for less drilling if we just refined crude into gasoline and sold it.
Back when the alcohol in gasoline scam got started, the greenies were told that raising corn and distilling alcohol would save on crude oil production. So all the greenies, and Congresscritters who thought they could snare some greenie votes fell in line. And all the farmers who correctly saw that massive alcohol production would skyrocket the price of corn got on board, and between the two they had enough votes to slide the mandatory alcohol in gasoline program thru Congress. That was years ago.
The truth is, making alcohol consumes more gasoline and diesel than the alcohol conserves. And the bulk of us motorists (in America everyone is a motorist) are stuck with a program that raises the cost of gasoline. We ought to abolish the whole thing, RINs and all. Maybe the Trump administration will do something about it.
More to the point, the entire alcohol in gasoline program is a scam. Beloved of greenies, who think it saves the planet, and of farmers who see a huge market for their corn, in actual fact, the program just raises the price of gasoline. Growing the corn and distilling it into alcohol consumes more gasoline and diesel (energy) than the alcohol provides. We would get more gasoline for less drilling if we just refined crude into gasoline and sold it.
Back when the alcohol in gasoline scam got started, the greenies were told that raising corn and distilling alcohol would save on crude oil production. So all the greenies, and Congresscritters who thought they could snare some greenie votes fell in line. And all the farmers who correctly saw that massive alcohol production would skyrocket the price of corn got on board, and between the two they had enough votes to slide the mandatory alcohol in gasoline program thru Congress. That was years ago.
The truth is, making alcohol consumes more gasoline and diesel than the alcohol conserves. And the bulk of us motorists (in America everyone is a motorist) are stuck with a program that raises the cost of gasoline. We ought to abolish the whole thing, RINs and all. Maybe the Trump administration will do something about it.
Monday, November 21, 2016
All the News that Fits we Print
The media doesn't admit this, but they really blew their credibility in this election. The bulk of the real citizens no longer believe what they see in the MSM anymore. And, the media wants to keep it up. I hear the word "normalization" passed around. Apparently this means getting off Trump's case for at least a day or two. I hear voices decrying "normalization" by which they mean staying on Trump's case, trashing him, and causing him as much trouble as they can. Somehow, I don't think this is going to rebuild the media's credibility with voters and citizens. At this point, the only media I believe in much are the Wall St Journal and Fox News.
Newest anti Trump tactic seems to be finding offensive ideas on social media, or just inventing them out of thin air, attributing them to the Trump administration, and then running a story about them, or asking Trump or Reince Preibus if they support said offensive idea. The 21st century version of "Have you stopped beating your wife?" question. Let's hope the voters and citizens are intelligent enough to detect the malice in these stories and discount them.
The purpose of a free press is to inform the citizens so they can vote intelligently. Now that the media have discredited themselves with the public, the public is turning to Facebook, the water cooler, and just plain rumor. Not good.
Part of the media's problem comes from the sheer incompetence and ignorance of their staff. They are all journalism school majors, the sort of people who cannot change a light bulb.
Newest anti Trump tactic seems to be finding offensive ideas on social media, or just inventing them out of thin air, attributing them to the Trump administration, and then running a story about them, or asking Trump or Reince Preibus if they support said offensive idea. The 21st century version of "Have you stopped beating your wife?" question. Let's hope the voters and citizens are intelligent enough to detect the malice in these stories and discount them.
The purpose of a free press is to inform the citizens so they can vote intelligently. Now that the media have discredited themselves with the public, the public is turning to Facebook, the water cooler, and just plain rumor. Not good.
Part of the media's problem comes from the sheer incompetence and ignorance of their staff. They are all journalism school majors, the sort of people who cannot change a light bulb.
The Fake News campaign drives the fake Obits off my Facebook
I haven't seen a fake obit (famous celebrity has died) posting to my Facebook page for nearly a week now. They used to pop up everyday. Has the anti Fake News push scared them away or what?
Sunday, November 20, 2016
The Bern and Chucky the Schumer
New democratic Congressional leadership. They were on TV news today. Saying that they would cooperate with the GOP on issues they believe in. As opposed to bucking everything in Congress on general principles. Which makes sense. They gotta pass a federal funding bill shortly or the whole government shuts down. Some time in early December. That will take some Democratic votes.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Electoral College
Democrats have been complaining about the electoral college system since last Tuesday night when Trump pulled ahead of Hillary. It's in the Constitution, right up front, unlike some of the other things judges have invented from the bench. It's the way things have been done since George Washington's time which makes it legitimate in the eyes of most. It works like this, each state gets votes (electors) equal to its Congressional representation, one vote for each rep. and one for each senator. Voters get to choose the electoral college votes (electors) for their state. After the election (sometime in December) the electors get together and vote on who shall be president. The founders originally thought that the electors would be solid citizens who be free to vote for the most worthy candidate. But the parties came up with dependable party men who believe in their party and have always voted a straight party ticket to stand as electors. Which makes the selection of president more democratic than the founders had planned upon.
The other effect of the electoral college is to level the playing field between big states and small states. As a citizen of New Hampshire, I like the electoral college system. It gives my small state more influence in national politics than it would otherwise have. Without the electoral college, the hordes of democrats in California would out vote the rest of the country. I'm not ready to be californicated.
The other effect of the electoral college is to level the playing field between big states and small states. As a citizen of New Hampshire, I like the electoral college system. It gives my small state more influence in national politics than it would otherwise have. Without the electoral college, the hordes of democrats in California would out vote the rest of the country. I'm not ready to be californicated.
Friday, November 18, 2016
The Demographic Imperative for immigration
To be a superpower, you have to have a large population. The reason the United States surpassed the British Empire during WWII is fairly simple. The US boasted a population in those days of 100 and some million, compared to Britain's 40 million. That turnover was peaceful due to close historical ties between the two countries and Winston Churchill who clearly saw that an Anglo American alliance, which he succeeded in creating, could win the war and impose a Pax Americana on the world.
Lesson to be digested. To remain a superpower we have to have a large population. Especially today when we have 320 odd million as opposed to China with a billion, and India with nearly as many. To maintain our position in the world, we must maintain and grow our population. And natural increase is failing. To just maintain a population, to say nothing of growing it, each woman needs to bear 2.1 children in her lifetime. As of today, America's women are just breaking even, and it looks like they will fall further behind in the coming years. Continental Europe and Russia are already far behind, in Russia the figure is down to 1.4 children per woman, and the population of Russia will sink by half in a generation. Which might explain Vladimir's rambunctiousness on the world stage today. He wants to get his licks in while Russia still has the population to do it with.
America has an advantage here. We have created the freest, wealthiest, and most pleasant to live in country in the world. Everyone would like to move here. We have a tradition of welcoming and assimilating newcomers, the old melting pot idea. And, immigrants coming from our south are good Catholics and hard workers. Compare with France and Germany, where the immigrants are low grade Islamics who have not assimilated at all, they are trying to make Europe over into the Middle East.
To maintain our population we ought to admit each year, immigrants equal to 1 or 2 percent of the current population. Say 3 to 6 million immigrants a year. And since everyone wants to come, we can be picky and admit people who will do the country good. Young, healthy, loyal, educated, and law abiding we need. We don't need more elderly, more unemployed, more gang members.
We already have a lot (10 million?) of illegal immigrants in the country. They are picking crops, roofing buildings, waiting tables, probably all for cash under the table. But, many of them, most of them perhaps, are fitting in, finding work, raising their children to speak English, staying out of trouble with the law, paying taxes. Which kinda defines a good citizen in my book. I'm ready to grant to legal papers to good citizens cause we need more good citizens, and in these cases we know who has been good and who hasn't. I don't really care if they slipped into the country illegally. Given their circumstances I probably would do the same thing if I had the guts.
Lesson to be digested. To remain a superpower we have to have a large population. Especially today when we have 320 odd million as opposed to China with a billion, and India with nearly as many. To maintain our position in the world, we must maintain and grow our population. And natural increase is failing. To just maintain a population, to say nothing of growing it, each woman needs to bear 2.1 children in her lifetime. As of today, America's women are just breaking even, and it looks like they will fall further behind in the coming years. Continental Europe and Russia are already far behind, in Russia the figure is down to 1.4 children per woman, and the population of Russia will sink by half in a generation. Which might explain Vladimir's rambunctiousness on the world stage today. He wants to get his licks in while Russia still has the population to do it with.
America has an advantage here. We have created the freest, wealthiest, and most pleasant to live in country in the world. Everyone would like to move here. We have a tradition of welcoming and assimilating newcomers, the old melting pot idea. And, immigrants coming from our south are good Catholics and hard workers. Compare with France and Germany, where the immigrants are low grade Islamics who have not assimilated at all, they are trying to make Europe over into the Middle East.
To maintain our population we ought to admit each year, immigrants equal to 1 or 2 percent of the current population. Say 3 to 6 million immigrants a year. And since everyone wants to come, we can be picky and admit people who will do the country good. Young, healthy, loyal, educated, and law abiding we need. We don't need more elderly, more unemployed, more gang members.
We already have a lot (10 million?) of illegal immigrants in the country. They are picking crops, roofing buildings, waiting tables, probably all for cash under the table. But, many of them, most of them perhaps, are fitting in, finding work, raising their children to speak English, staying out of trouble with the law, paying taxes. Which kinda defines a good citizen in my book. I'm ready to grant to legal papers to good citizens cause we need more good citizens, and in these cases we know who has been good and who hasn't. I don't really care if they slipped into the country illegally. Given their circumstances I probably would do the same thing if I had the guts.
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