The Sony flatsceen died yesterday, Bought a new one

I thought I needed a 32 inch TV, at least that is what the dead Sony was.  Came back from Wally Mart with a Samsung UN32M4500 for only $149.  The Sony cost $400 ten years ago.  I could have fit a new 40 inch into the living room, the entire TV is smaller.  The old Sony had a sizable bezel around the 32 inch screen.  The new Samsung has no bezel at all, and I could have fit the next bigger size into the .living room.
  New Samsung has nice video, two HDMI ports, one for the DVD player and one for the cable box.  Apparently Samsung doesn't offer audio outputs jack anymore so I cannot feed the TV sound into my stereo speakers.  It does come with  an internet connection.  The setup program asked for my router password.  I gave it the password from my address book, and that didn't work.  I will have to have a long conversation with the router about that.   Video is good, nice and bright.  VCR  sorta works, but the video is terrible, black and white, heavy checker board, no sound.  Might be the tape, but it probably isn't.  I'll try a known good tape later tonight. 
   It would be nice if  they would mold the plastic casework in something besides gloss black.  The black makes it hard to read serial numbers, model numbers, and connector designations, and to see screws and make fastenings.  

Democrat Presidential Debate

Strange affair.  I missed Wednesday night's warmup show, the TV cable was broken.  Thursday night I managed to get a roof antenna connected to the TV, AND I fixed the cable.  Then I feel asleep before the show started at 9PM.  So I didn't see the shows.  All I have to go on is the after action reports on TV, internet and Wall St Journal.  Since the MSM are all democrats, I figure the chilly reception given the event means it had some real problems.
   None of the two dozen candidates said anything memorable.  All of them came out in favor of medicare for all, free college, student loan forgiveness,  tax-the-rich, let everyone into the country.  Somehow, I don't think any of those ideas is a real vote getter.  In fact, I think they are a voter turnoff. 

NH Senate Session 27 June, Budget Day.

They presented the budget, parts 1 and 2, aka HB1 and HB2, from the last committee of conference.  We didn’t get a chance to amend anything.  Vote it up or down, that’s it.  We had 3 hours of oratory, praise from Democrats, objections to size and new taxes from Republicans.  Seldom did anyone mention a number, such as the number of dollars to be spent.   Democrats tacked a raise the smoking age bill onto the budget.  That is an old parliamentary trick; take something that would never be voted thru by the legislature.  Attach it to something that has to pass like the budget.  It will go thru because the pain of killing the budget far exceeds the pain of letting the rider go thru.  We did so, and the smoking age is now 21 in New Hampshire. 

   Everyone expects the governor will veto this budget on account of too much taxing and too much spending.  To guard against this we passed a continuing resolution that allows state operations to continue for three months or until we do pass a budget for real. 

   Then we went thru a bunch of last minute bills.  We knocked off a bunch with the fast track (consent) calendar.  And we did roll call votes, all 14-10, to pass the rest of  them.  Hopefully the governor will veto the worst of ‘em. 

Congress doesn't do health care anymore.

NHPR ran a long piece on health care yesterday.  They decried the cost and number of un insured.  It sounded terrible.  In this half hour (one hour?) piece they never discussed some things we could do to make things better. 

    First off, we could allow importation of drugs from any reasonable first world country, Canada say, and Britain and France and Germany and some others.  Somalia and Bangladesh need not apply.  Drugs overseas, often of American manufacture, are a lot cheaper than the same drugs in the US.  Why you ask?  Overseas health authorities bargain over price with Big Pharma, or in some cases have the authority to set prices.  Whereas here in freedom loving USA, Medicare and Medicaid are forbidden by law to bargain for a good price on drug purchases.   For that matter, we could rewrite those no-bargaining laws; all they do is increase Big Pharma’s profits. 

   Secondly we could allow health insurance companies to sell policies in all 50 states, no extra paperwork required.  Right now each state requires all insurance companies, in state or out of state, to submit endless paperwork to the state health authority.  The process is so bad that a lot of insurance companies just don’t bother with smaller states like New Hampshire.  This is why New Hampshire only has TWO health insurers.  Talk about opportunity for price gouging. 

   Both of these ideas require federal laws.  And Congress doesn’t pass federal laws any more, nowadays all Congress does is investigate (harass) Trump.   Which is amusing, but it does nothing to reduce health care costs.  Right now, the US spends TWICE as much on health care as any other country in the world and US health is no better than any other first world country.

Harley Davidson to produce motor cycles in China

This from the Wall St Journal.  Harley says the Chinese manufacturer will build the bikes for sale in China.  The piece had an artist's rendering, meaning they didn't have a prototype to photograph.  The Journal described the proposed Harley as " small" to suit the Chinese market.  They said it would have a 382 cc engine which isn't very small.  I rode a 250 cc Yamaha for several years.  The Yamaha had plenty of power, enough to scare me, even when I was younger and crazier than I am now.  Harley has been bemoaning a sales drop off in the US for years.  This is because the big Harleys are too expensive for all but the most well heeled bikers.  They are magnificent machines but they cost as much as a new car.  Which is a awful lot of money for a recreational vehicle.  Up here in snow country you cannot ride in winter, a motorcycle is strictly a summer toy. 

That US drone the Iranians shot down

The TV news shows a picture of a sizable airplane shaped drone,single engined,  jet powered.  I didn't catch the name.  Too big to be a Predator.  They say it has the wing span of a 737 jet liner, and a price, $180 million, that would buy us a new 737.  Seems a bit much for a single engine sub sonic aircraft, with no cockpit, no pressurization, no manual flight controls, no cockpit windows.  Granted such a beast needs an autopilot fancier than most, some high powered camera's and a telemetry transmitter to send the photos back to base.  But I would expect a photo recon drone to cost less than an airliner.  A lot less.

More Free Stuff party offers reparations for slavery

Reparations, cash given to blacks 'cause their ancestors were slaves, surely ought to get more black votes for the Democrat party of more free stuff.  Buying votes, much?  Ultimate identity politics?