Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the January 28, 2016 edition of Tidbits
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/tidbits012816.htm      
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




Election Information --- http://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/

Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections:  Voting for a Sure Loser Rather Than a Candidate That Might Win in a Race to the Botton
Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections:  Voting for a Sure Loser to Knock Out Winning Candidates
Based upon a comment I heard on CBS News there are signs that the poll support and crowds supporting Donald Trump are largely members of the Democratic Party intent on messing up the Republican Party primary outcomes. These Trump supporters have no intent to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 general election if he should be nominated. Something similar may be happening among the supporters of Bernie Sanders who are really Republicans in sheep white wool.

Top Republicans are working hard to help Bernie Sanders ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-works-hard-to-help-bernie-sanders-2016-1

The USA system of selecting nominees in primary elections that precede general elections possibly are becoming a vicious game.
Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:  Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm

FlackCheck.org --- http://www.flackcheck.org
Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org offers resources that help students "recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular"

RealClearPolitics: Election 2016 --- http://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/2016/

Telecom, Internet, & Information Policy (conservative politics) --- http://www.cato.org/research/telecom-internet-information-policy

Bloggingheads.tv (political commentary --- http://bloggingheads.tv/

OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) --- https://www.opensecrets.org

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
And he wasn't even thinking about Jihads in those days but I am thinking Jihads these days

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley,

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell

If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau

Newly discovered footage of Martin Luther King ---
CNN --- http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/never-before-seen-footage-of-mlk/vi-BBog9bV?ocid=spartanntp

Nearly half of Chicago's young black men are out of work, out of school ---
http://www.chicagonow.com/city-limits/2016/01/out-of-school-out-of-work-young-chicagos-jobs-crisis-hits-blacks-latinos-hardest/

About half of retiring senators and a third of retiring House members register as lobbyists ---
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/15/10775788/revolving-door-lobbying
Jensen Comment
That about says it all.

The 25 Worst Quotes from Donald Trump ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2016/01/19/the-25-worst-quotes-from-donald-trump-n2106456?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Marc Rich continues to pay big  
http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

The selling of pardons on his way out of office
It was a real betrayal by Bill Clinton of all who had been strongly supportive of him to do something this unjustified. It was contemptuous
.
Barney Frank
http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

The selling of pardons on his way out of office
(The pardon) was a shocking abuse of presidential power.

The New York Times
http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

The selling of pardons on his way out of office
But while the pardon was a political mistake, it certainly was not a financial one. In the years following the scandal, the flow of funds from those connected to Marc Rich or the pardon scandal have continued to the Clintons
.
http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

Poverty in Latin America:  You know it when you see it
HOW do Latin America's countries rank in terms of wealth? Whatever answer you have in mind is wrong, according to one measurement or another.

The Economist --- http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/07/poverty-latin-america
Jensen Comment
One of the most misleading measurements is inequality. For example, Chile does poorly in terms of inequality but the poor in Chile do better than most of the poor in other South American nations on such things as education, health care, and employment. So many comparisons are relative.

Black Lives Matter protesters blocked off the Bay Bridge for 30 minutes during rush hour ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/protestors-block-bay-bridge-on-mlk-day-2016-1

Easy to Disprove Lies from Chris Christie at the GOP Debate ---
https://reason.com/blog/2016/01/14/more-easy-to-disprove-lies-from-chris-ch

Trumpism suffers among its critics for a reputation for intellectual carelessness—it’s all political joyriding. Mrs. Palin’s presence does nothing to knock that criticism down, and in fact underscores it.
Peggy Noonan --- http://www.wsj.com/articles/palin-and-the-gops-uncertain-trumpeters-1453422465?mod=djemMER

Trump and the Coal Miner's Daughter: Country Music Legend Loretta Lynn Endorses Trump
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/trump_and_the_coal_miners_daughter.html
Hillary Clinton "just ain't woman enough" to take Loretta's man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W9zQD8KYew

Clinton’s Emails: A Criminal Charge Is Justified:  Hillary’s explanations look increasingly contrived as evidence of malfeasance mounts day by day.
Michael B. Mukasey --- http://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-emails-a-criminal-charge-is-justified-1453419158?mod=djemMER
Mr. Mukasey served as a U.S. district judge (1988-2006) and as U.S. attorney general (2007-09). He is an adviser to Jeb Bush on matters of national security.

The long-accepted Census Bureau prediction that whites will be a minority in 2044, ending any dominance by the white-heavy Republican Party, is being sharply challenged by an unusual source: the AFL-CIO. The union, which has opened a new push for racial unity, is circulating a new report on race that warns the declining white population is about to receive a big boost from Latinos who are increasingly counting themselves as white.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-latinos-asians-now-claim-white-identity/article/2580732

Life Before the Taliban ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3404803/Life-Taliban-Fascinating-photographs-idyllic-Afghanistan-1960s-residents-free-enjoy-outdoor-picnics-colourful-markets.html

The Cobalt in Your Smartphone Battery Could Have Been Mined By Children on $1 a Day ---
http://time.com/4184726/cobalt-child-labor-smartphone-amnesty-international/?xid=newsletter-brief

Socialism in 20 Quotations ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2016/01/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-socialism-in-20-quotes-n2103130?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

She's shoplifted goods worth £2m, has SIX children by four fathers - and lives off benefits ---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3355779/posts

Family Earning Over $1 million living in NYC public housing ---
http://pix11.com/2015/11/25/family-earning-over-1m-living-in-nyc-public-housing/

Moocher Hall of Fame --- https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/the-moocher-hall-of-fame/

 




Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:  Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm

Table of Contents

Funding Losers

 Communications Juggernauts in Crossover Voting Frauds

Funding Opponent Scandals

Top Republicans are working hard to help Bernie Sanders ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-works-hard-to-help-bernie-sanders-2016-1

Trump part of conspiracy to ensure Clinton presidency ---
Jeb Bush --- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/8/jeb-bush-suggests-donald-trump-part-of-conspiracy-/
Jensen Question
Is such a conspiracy necessary given the slate of losers running as GOP candidates for President in 2016?

The Black Panther: Newspaper of the Black Panther Party ---  https://libcom.org/history/black-panther-newspaper-black-panther-party


8 jaw-dropping tax havens of the super rich ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/8-jaw-dropping-tax-havens-of-the-super-rich-2016-1
Jensen Comment
These havens will undoubtedly become more popular after the 2016 election if Democrats gain a majority in the USA Senate and/or House of Representatives. Without more legislative support for raising taxes on high income USA residents the outcome of the presidential election is not as relevant as candidates want us to believe.


"Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan would cost $13.8 trillion over 10 years," by Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times,  January 20, 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-healthcare-would-cost-138-trillion-over-10-years-2016-1

Jensen Comment
Add to this another $10 trillion for free college education for all and you've got a monumental obligation to be paid by government. But there's really no sweat since the Fed, following the advice of economist Paul Krugman, has already proven that printing money is the best way to pay government bills to avoid taxation and debt.


Immigrants are hosted in just about 20 countries
The USA hosts nearly half of all immigrants; Nordic countries don't show up on the graph ---
https://atlas.qz.com/charts/4JYKtQedx
Look at the graph you will never see shown by the mainstream media in the USA


Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Lew

Lew heading to Puerto Rico to discuss debt troubles (pushing for a Federal government bailout) ---
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/266027-lew-heading-to-puerto-rico-to-discuss-debt-troubles

Puerto Rico's Economy by the Numbers ---
http://247wallst.com/economy/2016/01/19/puerto-ricos-economy-by-the-numbers/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=JAN192016A&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter

Jensen Comment
How can Lew push for a bailout of Puerto Rico and deny such a bailout for Illinois, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Kentucky, and the other spendthrift USA states in seemingly hopeless debt?

One problem in bailing out spendthrift states that are in trouble due to fraud (think public worker pension fraud in Illinois) and fiscal mismanagement at the expense of taxpayers in states that had more responsible fiscal management.

But the biggest problem is the bailout cost --- trillions more of Federal government spending rewarding fraud and mismanagement.

There's a huge difference between bailing out GM, Citibank, and Chrysler versus Puerto Rico, Illinois, California, and the other troubled states. GM, Citibank, and Chrysler paid back all or nearly all the bailout funds. There's zero chance of payback from spendthrift Puerto Rico, Illinois, California, and the other troubled states that are now hopelessly in debt.


Financial State of the States
Truth in Accounting
September 2015
http://www.truthinaccounting.org/library/doclib/TIAFSOS9-2015.pdf

For the sixth consecutive year, Truth in Accounting (TIA) has completed a comprehensive review of the financial reports of all 50 states to provide citizens with a clear picture of their governments’ financial conditions. Despite an improvement in the economy and financial markets, the amount of bills accumulated by the states has not significantly decreased. States still have almost $1.3 trillion of unfunded debt, accumulated despite balanced budget requirements in 49 of the 50 states.

Thirty-nine states have dug financial holes, thus creating a “Taxpayer Burden,” which is the amount each taxpayer would have to send to their state’s treasury in order for the state to be debt-free. If state budgets had been truly balanced, no Taxpayer Burden would exist.

Taxpayer Burden is driven by state governments’ use of out-dated accounting policies to calculate budgets and financial reports. States are not held to the same accounting standards as most businesses and publicly traded companies. Therefore, states do not use the proper tools to balance their budgets. In fact, every year many states go even deeper into debt.

See Article for the Exhibit

TIA also identified the top five “Sunshine” states. These states have a "Taxpayer Surplus," meaning these states have enough assets available to pay their bills, including pension and retirees' heath care benefits owed.

Nationwide, more than $956 billion of promised retirement benefits are not reported on state balance sheets due to out-dated accounting standards. To bring truth and greater transparency to state budget processes, TIA has developed a budgeting system called “Full Accrual Calculations and Techniques” (FACTbased budgeting). FACT-based budgeting would require governors and legislatures to recognize expenses when incurred regardless of when they are paid.

Data for this report was derived from states’ 2014 financial reports and related retirement plans’ actuarial reports.

Continued in 150+ Pages of Detail

The Greatest Swindle in the History of the World
"The Greatest Swindle Ever Sold," by Andy Kroll, The Nation, May 26, 2009 ---
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090608/kroll/print

More on the Greatest Swindle in the History of the World ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm#Bailout 


The $1 billion pledge matches what Wal-Mart Foundation has spent over the past 20 years of its charitable giving to charter schools.|
"The Walmart family has pledged $1 billion to help a polarizing kind of school," by Abby Jackson, Business Insider, January 19, 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-family-pledged-1-billion-to-charter-schools-2016-1


Wal-Mart To Lay Off 16,000 Employees as it Closes 269 Stores Globally (154 in the USA) ---
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-15/walmart-fire-16000-it-closes-269-stores-globally 

Because back in August it did. Back in August, as reported in our August post, Walmart gave three reasons for massive layoffs: theft, weaker dollar, higher wages.
Courtney Kircholl --- http://louderwithcrowder.com/surprised-wal-mart-closing-154-stores-one-year-after-raising-minimum-wage/#.Vp4eQjbSmh0

Jensen Comment
There is widespread reporting that the cause of the closings is the rise in minimum wages. However, no respectable studies to my knowledge are given to support that increases in the minimum wage had more impact than the economic impact of having to raise wages to attract employees. Our local Wal-Mart has had a "Now Hiring" sign in front of the store for months even though the minimum wage was not increased in New Hampshire. Wal-Mart has had to raise wages in for many reasons other than legislated increases in the minimum wage.

Many of the stores are closing in areas having lower income such as in the deep south, Los Angeles, and Oakland. However, my guess is that theft losses are much greater in areas of low income.

Wal-Mart claims that the stores are closing due to the fact that they became unprofitable for a variety reasons, the main reason being that Amazon is taking away more and more business from customers like me who go online rather than take the trouble to go shopping for a tool, a sweater, a case of rice bran, a new ladder, etc. Wal-Mart claims that it intends to become more competitive with Amazon in Wal-Mart's online shopping service, but it has miles and miles to go before that happens.

In the near future, Macy's stores could turn into discount outlets. The stores will sell Macy's brands at steeply discounted prices — up to 80% off. This model copies highly successful brands like TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack.
"Macy's just announced the end of department stores as we know them,"  by Ashley Lutz, Business Insider, January 19, 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/macys-testing-discount-outlets-in-stores-2016-1

"America's most iconic retailers are shutting down stores and laying off thousands and this could be just the beginning," by Ashley Lutz, Business Insider, January 15, 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-and-macys-closing-stores-2016-1

Jensen Comment
Of course the 800-lb gorilla causing most of the damage is the massive convenience and product choices in online shopping. For example, why go to a mall for tennis shoes, sweaters, shorts, dresses, and trousers when more styles and size availability are available on Amazon with free delivery in a couple of days and an amazingly simple free return policy? I hate to admit how much we open boxes, trying things out, and return what we don't quite like.

The food court in the Concord Mall in the NH State Capitol has gone dark with every other store being empty. The anchor stores of JC Penney, Sears, and Bon Ton are like empty tombs.

But there are other causes of the decline in malls. Malls became hangouts for teen gangs and drug dealers. A huge mall not far from our former house in San Antonio closed down not long after the bad publicity of a couple of murders taking place in a huge two-story mall that was already notorious for car theft and hijackings. Other malls in San Antonio have since shut down for similar reasons.

Malls are now targets for every assembly of protesters imaginable like the attempts of Black Lives Matter protesters to disrupt shopping at Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Although the risk is small in the USA relative to Africa, the publicity over terror attacks in malls is certainly not helping the survival of malls.


The Black Panther: Newspaper of the Black Panther Party ---  https://libcom.org/history/black-panther-newspaper-black-panther-party


The Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blogs for the Week Ended January 23

  1. Bernie Sanders Releases Tax Plan: 54% Top Rate On Income, Capital Gains & Dividends, Double The Estate Tax
  2. The 25 Most Influential People In Legal Education
  3. Highest State And Local Tax Burdens Are In Blue States, Lowest Are In Red States
  4. Ian Ayres (Yale), The U.S. News Rankings Keep Dozens Of Weak Law Schools Afloat, Preventing A 'Culling Of Legal Education's Herd'
  5. GAO, Only 38% Of Taxpayers Who Called IRS Got Through In 2015 (Down From 74% In 2010); Wait Time Increased From 11 To 31 Minutes
  6. Bar Exam Carnage Likely Will Worsen In 2016, 2017, And 2018
  7. Louisville Prof: Law School Has Embraced A 'Partisan Liberal Agenda', With Conservatives Treated As 'Outsiders'
  8. Tenure-Track, 405(c) And Legal Writing Faculty: Promotion Standards, Security Of Position, And Gender
  9. Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA), Louisville Exposes An Ugly Law School Secret: 'A Leftist Hegemony Pervades American Legal Education'
  10. The Ten Most Downloaded Tax Papers In 2015

 


How Bernie Sanders helped make an expensive city in Vermont permanently affordable ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-helped-make-city-affordable-2016-1

Jensen Comment
Community land trusts are most frequently used to preserve scenic and historic land amidst a world of developers. Community land trust housing, on the other hand, is used to provide affordable land for building of single and multi-family dwellings amidst soaring or highly fluctuating land values ---
http://community-wealth.org/strategies/panel/clts/index.html
The concept was used long before Bernie Sanders came mayor of Burlington in 1981. When I returned to Stanford for two years in a think tank I rented two houses south of the campus on land owned by Stanford University. The land was developed for employee housing (mostly faculty housing) where an employee could lease a lot for $1 per year for 99 years. The employee then built a house that could be lived in or rented to somebody affiliated with Stanford, although building a house solely for the purpose of rental income was discouraged.

The Stanford leased lots had advantages and disadvantages. In times of soaring land values such as land values in the early days when property east of san Francisco Bay became known as Silicon Valley, Staford employees could build or buy residences that they otherwise could not afford in the vicinity of Stanford University.

However, the drawback is that Stanford employees who owned these properties could not share in the explosion of real estate values near Stanford where a house built for $50,000 in 1975 might sell for $10 million on the open market but not on Stanford leased lots where residence ownership is restricted to Stanford employees.

The same thing happens with the Burlington-area land trusts commenced by Bernie Sanders. Home owners cannot lose or gain in land values on lots that they only rent from a land trust. Owers who instead purchased land on the open market for their houses can either lose or gain immensely on changes in land values in Vermont.

In nearby New Hampshire I have a friend who paid $10,000 in 1978 for four acres of land with great mountain views. Recently that land alone is valued for tax purposes at over $400,000. The bad news is that real estate taes must be paid annually on the value of that land. The good news is that eventually the owner or the owner's estate will have a very nice capital gain that would not have been possible if the land was only rented from a land trust.

Land trusts with cheap lot rental prices become better deals when the lots are already very expensive such as lots next to the Stanford University campus since the 1970s. Not only are the lots made affordable with the land trust but they protect home owners from property taxes on the value of those high-priced lots. Land trust lots are somewhat of a good deal in a soaring real estate market in that the value of those rented lots are shielded from property taxes. This is a good deal for people who plan to spend a lifetime in one home.

But land trusts are less of a good deal for home owners not planning to live more than, say, ten years in a soaring real estate market. The reason may be restrictions of sales of the homes (such as only being able to sell to Stanford University employees) and loss of the capital gains on the land in that soaring real estate market.

The property tax shielding is less of an advantage to Stanford employees who live for decades on leased lots from Stanford University because of California's Proposition 13 ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978)
However, residents of Vermont have no such shield from property tax increases, thereby, making rented community trust lots a better deal from a property tax perspective (the good news). But increase in property taxes co hand-in-hand with increases in potential capital gains (the bad news).

 




Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics


"Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan would cost $13.8 trillion over 10 years," by Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times,  January 20, 2016 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-healthcare-would-cost-138-trillion-over-10-years-2016-1

Jensen Comment
Add to this another $10 trillion for free college education for all and you've got a monumental obligation to be paid by government. But there's really no sweat since the Fed has already proven that printing money is the best way to pay government bills to avoid taxation and debt.


 

Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm 

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/