Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the January 31, 2019 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/Tidbits013119.htm           
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time ---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history

Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE 



Wikiquote from Wikipedia --- https://www.wikiquote.org/

 

21 of Michelle Obama's most inspiring quotes on work, success, and relationships ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/michelle-obama-most-inspiring-quotes-advice-becoming-2019-1

 

Corruption in general has a deleterious effect on the readiness of economic agents to invest. In the long run, it leads to a paralysis of economic life. But very often it is not that economic agents themselves have had the bad experience of being cheated and ruined, they just know that in this country, or in this part of the economy, or this building scene, there is a high likelihood that you will get cheated and that free riders can get away with it. Here again, reputation is absolutely essential, which is why transparency is so important. Trust can only be engendered by transparency. It's no coincidence that the name of the most influential non-governmental organization dealing with corruption is Transparency International.
A Conversation with Karl Sigmund:  When Rule of Law is Not Working
https://www.edge.org/conversation/karl_sigmund-when-the-rule-of-law-is-not-working

Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes of chocolates. Criminals on Wall Street and one particular U.S. Congressional Committee stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds. Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poors rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade chocolates. These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors. Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime. Suddenly nobody trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide. Hank Paulson now wants the American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to normal. Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted. Momma always said: '"Sniff the chocolates first Forrest." Things generally don't pass the smell test if they came from Wall Street or from Washington DC.
Forrest Gump as quoted at http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.sport.tennis/2008-10/msg02206.html

Gallup: Americans Say No. 1 Problem is 'Government,' No. 2 is 'Immigration' ---
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/survey-americas-no-1-problem-government-no-2-problem-immigration

 

12 inspiring quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.---
https://www.businessinsider.com/inspiring-martin-luther-king-jr-quotes-2017-1

 

The Atlantic:  The Swiftly Closing Borders of Europe ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/12/europe-france-italy-immigration-border/578179/

Italian Minister tells NGO Italy doesn’t want migrants: “Our ports are closed!” ---
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/italian-minister-tells-ngo-italy-doesnt-want-migrants-our-ports-are-closed/#.XB6WCZMs_Xo.twitter

The enemy is fear
We think it's hate
But, it's fear

Gandhi

 

13 of the (alleged) most famous last words in history ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-last-words-in-history-2017-10

 

19 unforgettable quotes from legendary Marine Gen. Jim 'Mad Dog' Mattis, who quit as Trump's defense secretary ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/general-mattiss-best-quotes-2016-11

 

Here are the Ten Best Pieces of Advice from 2018 Commencement Speakers ---
Click Here

 

The Best Advice from 2018's Celebrity Commencement Speakers ---
https://moneyish.com/heart/the-best-advice-from-2018s-celebrity-commencement-speakers/

 

Women's March Co-Founders Won't Condemn Farrakhan (or anti-Semitism in general), Revealing the Hollowness of Intersectionality ---
http://reason.com/blog/2019/01/15/womens-march-tamika-mallory-farrakhan
Jensen Comment
Unlike MLK marches, the Women's March is becoming a march of hate and terror rather than hope.

The Democratic National Committee ended its sponsorship of the Women’s March ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/dnc-ends-support-for-womens-march-after-reports-of-anti-semitism-2019-1
The DNC condemns takeover by the Nation of Islam

Former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is finally bailing on the Women's March as its leaders continue their failure to condemn anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2019/01/18/debbie-wasserman-schultz-finally-bails-on-the-womens-march-n2539262?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Paul Krugman's Conversion to a 70-Percent Income Tax ---
https://mises.org/wire/paul-krugmans-conversion-70-percent-income-tax-0?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=6b69b92403-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-6b69b92403-228708937

How Illinois Bet on Video Gambling and Lost ---
https://features.propublica.org/the-bad-bet/how-illinois-bet-on-video-gambling-and-lost/?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

The Argument for Expanding Nuclear Power ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/2/21/joshua-s-goldstein-and-staffan-a-qvist-only-nuclear-energy-can-save-the-planet

Could the Yellow Vests collapse the world’s debt-based economy and deal a death blow to globalism?
https://thenationalsentinel.com/2019/01/17/could-the-french-yellow-vests-bring-down-the-worlds-debt-based-economy-and-deal-a-death-blow-to-globalism/
Be careful what you wish for.

The ABCs of Jacobin:  The unlikely success of a socialist print magazine ---
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/the-abcs-of-jacobin-socialist-magazine.php/

Associated Press Survey of economists: US recession unlikely within 12 months ---
https://apnews.com/31aa637512eb4c53aec954df496955d1
Jensen Comment
Surveys of economists make me nervous

State budgets are expected to do very well in the 2019 fiscal year, and that is translating into more money for public higher education in most places ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Buoyed-by-Solid-Economies/245520/?cid=db&elqTrackId=e130b69176d84f5fb72b7518cd4bbf2a&elq=633c153719be447ea8b9cfa752edca3e&elqaid=22019&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10780
Jensen Comment
What the article fails to do is give credit to the Trump "tax cuts" for increased tax revenues in most of the 50 states.
Tax accountants know the reason why (think about such things as capped property tax deductions)

As usual, a handful of populous states accounted for most of the nationwide increase: The 6.6-percent rise in higher-education money in California made up nearly 30 percent of the national increase. The growth in spending in eight states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington — accounted for nearly 70 percent of the national increase, the survey found.

Judge strikes down Trump administration's plan to add a citizenship question to 2020 Census ---
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/15/supreme-court-citizenship-question-census/2579017002/
Might make it more difficult for non-citizens to vote and even deportation. Besides most of them have phony birth certificates anyway.

'IMPEACH': The Atlantic's March cover makes the case for Trump's impeachment ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-atlantics-march-cover-makes-the-case-for-trumps-impeachment-2019-1
Jensen Comment
Since Trump lived up to most of his campaign promises the big worry is 2020 backlash over impeachment.

376 migrants, including 179 kids, used 7 tunnels to get under the US border fence in Arizona ---
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/376-migrants-including-179-kids-used-7-tunnels-to-get-under-the-us-border-fence-in-arizona/ar-BBSr3jx?ocid=spartandhp

In a rare move, Mueller’s office denies BuzzFeed report that Trump told Cohen to lie about Moscow project ---
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/in-a-rare-move-mueller’s-office-denies-buzzfeed-report-that-trump-told-cohen-to-lie-about-moscow-project/ar-BBSryEP?ocid=spartandhp
Jensen Comment
Is the media now paying Cohen to lie?

Another Media Bombshell Turns Out To Be A Dud ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2019/01/20/another-media-bombshell-turns-out-to-be-a-dud-n2539319?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/20/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Can cities function without a government? In Canaan (Haiti) residents give it a try ---
https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2019-01-15/canaan-haiti-is-a-test-of-how-a-city-can-self-govern?fbclid=IwAR2BiiPm39zwI6dkax1c7HPUIYjE7wz3aoNY3aeeA11Ci8i0aTZOa1B9CjI
Jensen Comment
Remember the Famous Lyric from Porgy and Bess
"Folks that got lots of nuttin, got no locks on their doors"
Of course robbery is only one type of crime, sexual molestation is quite another.

Conservative Groups Targeted In Lois Lerner’s IRS Scandal Receive Settlement Checks ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/01/conservative-groups-targeted-in-lois-lerners-irs-scandal-receive-settlement-checks.html
Jensen Comment
Lerner is also drawing her lifetime pension and did not do any jail time after her confession.

Harry Reid Exposes Greatest Liberal Scam of All-Time ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2019/01/20/harry-reid-exposes-greatest-liberal-scam-of-alltime-n2539256?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/20/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Jensen Comment
In San Antonio we called them "gated communities." Having walls around those communities greatly increases property values.

Economists' letter on carbon ---
https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2019/01/economists-letter-on-carbon.html
Also see
https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2019/01/carbon-tax-update.html
Jensen Comment
One of the problems with a carbon tax is that it may reward worse polluters. For example, replacing gas guzzlers with electric cars and trucks ignores that fact that battery manufacturing is extremely hard on the environment ---
The Guardian:  Tesla's new batteries may be harder on the environment than you think
https://www.theguardian.com/vital-signs/2015/jun/10/tesla-batteries-environment-lithium-elon-musk-powerwall
How green is lithium?
https://www.kitco.com/ind/Albrecht/2014-12-16-How-Green-is-Lithium.html 

Tons of Golf Balls Polluting the Ocean Floor ---
https://theconversation.com/a-teen-scientist-helped-me-discover-tons-of-golf-balls-polluting-the-ocean-109769
Jensen Comment
Think of the many, many more golf balls in landfills.

But does the data really show what Ingraham claims? That "guns are used far more often for killing than self-defense"?
Click Here

Go figure the difference between Blacks versus Latinos approval of Trump
NPR/PBS Poll on Approval of Trump:  Blacks (11%). Whites (40%), Latinos (50%)

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NPR_PBS-NewsHour_Marist-Poll-USA-NOS-and-Tables_1901141631-1.pdf#page=3
At this point in his presidency, Trump's overall approval rating of 40% is about the same as that of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan whereas Barack Obama's overall approval was almost 50%  ---
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo
Huffington Post:  Nancy Pelosi's approval ratings surge to 35% as she stands up to Trump on the border wall although her disapproval ratings did not change so much in the 52%-57% range ---
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nancy-pelosi-polling_us_5c40c939e4b027c3bbbf3672

MIT:  Will people ditch cash for cryptocurrency? Japan is about to find out ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611656/will-people-ditch-cash-for-cryptocurrency-japan-is-about-to-find-out/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=69185384&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--y1g5BQuLMZarpfKJW-HPvXIT9tY3kc-5FXLG5ja28yGzbR18V4Ap1KEh78ctUJCRxSuT72tisD23lpIEx26ZcD-dRXw&_hsmi=69185384

MIT:  France has handed Google a $57 million fine for breaking EU privacy laws ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612809/france-has-handed-google-a-50-million-fine-for-breaking-eu-privacy-laws/?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=69185384&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--y1g5BQuLMZarpfKJW-HPvXIT9tY3kc-5FXLG5ja28yGzbR18V4Ap1KEh78ctUJCRxSuT72tisD23lpIEx26ZcD-dRXw&_hsmi=69185384

Starbucks is teaming up with Uber to start delivering coffee in 6 of the biggest US cities ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-and-uber-eats-team-up-deliver-coffee-in-major-us-cities-2019-1

Europe's mightiest river is drying up, causing a recession in Germany. Yes, really ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-recession-river-rhine-running-dry-2019-1
Maybe you should take that Rhine River cruise before the river becomes a walking tail.

Maxine Waters' Extreme Agenda ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2019/01/23/maxine-waters-extreme-agenda-n2539894?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/23/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

NYT:  Will the Covington Catholic High School fiasco change social media?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/opinion/covington-march-for-life.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Washington Forced Segregation on the USA ---
http://reason.com/archives/2019/01/21/washington-forced-segregation
With a little help from state legislatures and the courts

Oregon Likely to Become the First in the Nation to Adopt Statewide Rent Control ---
http://reason.com/blog/2019/01/18/oregon-likely-to-become-the-first-in-the
Landlords should probably sell now or quickly find alternate uses for rental properties
Who in their right minds would invest in rental property in Oregon?
Owning rental property is headache enough without rent controls.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Recklessly Accuses Lindsey Graham of Being 'Compromised'
http://reason.com/blog/2019/01/17/rep-ilhan-omar-recklessly-accuses-lindse
What she really meant to say is that Sen. Graham is just another Motherfu .... like Trump.

Requirement That Women Constitute 40% Of Faculty Search Committees Resulted In 38% Reduction In Female Hires ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/01/17/male-backlash-blamed-failure-effort-france-hire-more-female-academics?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=f9f4d9af9e-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-f9f4d9af9e-197546105&mc_cid=f9f4d9af9e&mc_eid=2603803487

National Review Apologizes to Covington Catholic Students ---
https://www.thewrap.com/national-review-apologizes-to-covington-catholic-students/

The ultimate political correctness
The last major search engine (Bing) blocked out in China following the banning of Google in 2010 ---

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/24/688101860/china-appears-to-block-microsofts-bing-search-engine
That's one way to restrain plagiarism
But China still loves its 5,000+ KFC fried chicken outlets ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC_in_China

The New Yorker:  Does (USA) Journalism Have a Future?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/28/does-journalism-have-a-future
Jensen Comment
A free society that has no freedom of speech is no longer a free society. USA Journalism is not threatened by censorship so much as it is threatened by changed priorities of advertisers funding most of USA media. As eyeball preferences changed from newspapers to television and social network sources the advertisers shifted advertising money toward where their ads are more likely to be viewed (think YouTube, Facebook, Google, etc.). Efforts to entice people to continue to pay for electronic versions of newspapers are largely failing because there are so many alternative free sites coming in via cable or satellites.
Unfortunately, newspapers traditionally hired the most journalists to report on local events (city council meetings) and national events (riots in Washington DC). Newspaper reporters are often the major reason why scandals get uncovered from Enron (thanks to a WSJ reporter) to corruption in city government (think Chicago and Detroit where mayors went to prison). Television stations and thousands of blogging sites (including mine)  to date have leeched from news uncovered by newspaper reporters.
When newspaper revenues declined so went job opportunities for journalists.
Once thriving journalism departments in universities are now hanging by a thread due to decline in majors. Journalism enrollments declined as job opportunities evaporated.
I do hope journalism departments find ways of rebounding.
The power and freedom of the press in the USA depends upon it, unlike some other parts of the world (think BBC) where governments provide more financial support of journalists.
To date several major newspapers (the WSJ, NYT, and Washington Post) are propped up by billionaires, but journalism costs are really getting tougher for local and regional newspapers. There are no longer any newspapers being printed in Philadelphia and many other cities and towns across the USA. Each year there are fewer and fewer reporters conducting local investigations of good things and bad things. This is not a good thing for the USA.

NYT:  Is Twitter Ruining Journalism ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/opinion/covington-twitter.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

India's navy has opened a new, strategically located base to keep an eye on China's increasingly active ships and subs ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/r-india-navy-set-to-open-third-base-in-strategic-islands-to-counter-china-2019-1

The new U.S.-China Cold War Will Get Worse Before it Gets Better---
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-23/u-s-china-cold-war-will-get-worse-before-it-gets-better

Say What? Liberal Hero George Soros  Turns Hawkish on China
'UNPRECEDENTED DANGER':Billionaire investor George Soros just went scorched Earth on China during his annual Davos speech

https://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-davos-2019-criticism-of-china-xi-jinping-ai-it-monopolies-2019-1
Jensen Comment
How much will you bet that all the Democratic Party candidates for President in 2020 will avoid talking about the South Pacific saber-rattling of China?

Homeschooling Produces Better-Educated, More-Tolerant Kids. Politicians Hate That ---
http://reason.com/archives/2019/01/22/homeschooling-produces-better-students
Jensen Comment
There are other factors involved, especially selection bias. The homeschooled kids are highly likely to also be among the best students in schools.

How Banning Street Parking in Pontevedra, Spain Brought Families with Kids into the City ---
https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/11/car-free-pedestrianization-made-pontevedra-spain-kid-friendly/576268/?fbclid=IwAR3uuyw9Fz86P0ItwxKNVlaxqnP-bdCoJegYgAgMuo1OaSgfBzTygv1-19c

Predictions for the Global Economy in 2019 from 13 Experts ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/1/24/focuseconomics-predictions-for-the-global-economy-in-2019-from-13-experts

Bloomberg:  At the heart of the powerful bond between Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan military is a criminal enterprise based on drug running, money laundering, fraud and illegal mining ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-25/cocaine-payola-how-maduro-keeps-top-military-brass-in-line?cmpid=BBD012519_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190125&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily .

After White House snub, the Golden State Warriors met with Obama and Nancy Pelosi during trip to DC ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/r-nba-warriors-meet-obama-in-dc-before-beating-wizards-2019-1

In addition to Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom have moved in recent decades towards a more private system (of airport security) based on user fees rather than government funding ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/01/nav-canada.html

Automakers may have completely overestimated how many people want electric cars ---
https://qz.com/1533976/automakers-may-overproduce-14-million-electric-cars-by-2030/
Jensen Comment
The market may not grow to respectable numbers until battery recharging times get closer to times needed to refill fuel tanks of gas guzzlers or electric car ranges grow by leaps and bounds.
Optimism seems to dominate expectations of better technology, but so far alternatives to lithium batteries disappoint, and lithium batteries  take too long to recharge for impatient USA drivers who see no alternative other than owning second cars that are gas guzzlers. Optimism possibly runs highest in China where air pollution is more troublesome and in Norway were taxpayers pay for recharging electric cars.

Analysis: Kamala Harris’s controversial record on criminal justice, explained ---
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/analysis-kamala-harris’s-controversial-record-on-criminal-justice-explained/ar-BBSDkje?ocid=spartandhp

Kamala Harris vows to get rid private health care plans:'Let's eliminate all of that.Let's move on' ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kamala-harris-vows-to-eliminate-private-health-care-plans-lets-eliminate-all-of-that-lets-move-on

The New Yorker:  The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson's Archives ---
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/28/the-secrets-of-lyndon-johnsons-archives

Corporation --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation
The Concept of a Corporation ---

https://www.johnkay.com/2019/01/21/the-concept-of-the-corporation-2/

The Young Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto: Its goal is to remake our economic system — and the Democratic Party ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/

Mueller Put on Quite a Political Show for the Media
Much has been made of the pre-dawn arrest of Roger Stone in his home in Fort Lauderdale. To make this arrest, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, probably having delegated the task to his subordinate Andrew Weissmann (who is known for this tactic), assembled a full-scale FBI SWAT team of 29 members, replete with long weapons, body armor, and even a flash-bang grenade or two. The arrest took place at "zero dark thirty" or 5:30 A.M. Nevertheless, a CNN crew was on hand to film the whole thing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/one_way_outraged_americans_can_beat_robert_mueller.html

Former San Francisco Mayor Admits to AFFAIR With Kamala Harris; Boosting Her Political Career ---
https://starpolitical.com/former-san-francisco-mayor-admits-to-affair-with-kamala-harris-boosting-her-political-career/

Something You Will Never See Reported on CNN or MSNBC
NATO head: Trump's tough talk has added $100B to alliance, helped deter Russia ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nato-head-says-trumps-tough-talk-has-helped-alliance

A Federal Shutdown Is an Annoyance (that can be solved) — Interest on $22 Trillion in Debt Is a Problem (that cannot be solved) ---
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/federal-shutdown-annoyance-interest-22-trillion-debt-problem

The U.S. Treasury is set to borrow $1 trillion for a second year to finance the government's unprecedented budget deficit ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-28/another-year-another-1-trillion-in-new-debt-for-u-s-to-raise?cmpid=BBD012819_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190128&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

The Young Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto: Its goal is to remake our economic system — and the Democratic Party ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/

Middlebury Will Divest Holdings in Fossil Fuels ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/01/30/middlebury-will-divest-holdings-fossil-fuels?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8719114625-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8719114625-197565045&mc_cid=8719114625&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
Seems a bit odd given the State of Vermont's heavy commitment (and subsidies) to companies providing biomass (mostly wood chips) to power plants. Many of those power plants are quite small and local in northern New England. For example, our Littleton Regional Hospital in New Hampshire recently built a wood chip electric generating plant for winter heat. It buys most of the wood chips from a nearby commercial wood chip company. Wood chips are much more carbon polluting than natural gas.
The State of Vermont had a political fight over more wind mills or wood chip plants. To date the wood chips are leading in the political fight. Of course Vermont is also promoting solar energy, but the daylight hours are pretty short in the winter.

 




Howard Schultz
One interesting political event of the times is the interview with multibillionaire Howard Schultz on CBS Sixty minutes ---
https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/MD3ISxVkJXgLBsH4lNDrLYsRQWmCJy_X/howard-schultz-small-satellites-big-data-jerry-and-marge-selbee/

Schultz (think Starbucks) was always viewed as a liberal Democrat. But now he's scaring Democrats by threatening to use his billions to run for President as an independent. One of the major reasons he gave for possibly running is the math of Medicare-for-All. He views Medicare-for-All as an economic disaster for the USA along with other wild spending schemes now contemplated by Maxine Waters like trillions for reparations for blacks and native Americans, free college education for all, massive spending on subsidized housing, zero-carbon regulations, open borders, etc. etc.

All these are good causes, but those politicians advocating those causes understand the math the least.

A Federal Shutdown Is an Annoyance (that can be solved) — Interest on $22 Trillion in Debt Is a Problem (that cannot be solved) ---
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/federal-shutdown-annoyance-interest-22-trillion-debt-problem

The U.S. Treasury is set to borrow $1 trillion for a second year to finance the government's unprecedented budget deficit ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-28/another-year-another-1-trillion-in-new-debt-for-u-s-to-raise?cmpid=BBD012819_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190128&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

FiveThirtyEight Blog:  The Young Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto: Its goal is to remake our economic system — and the Democratic Party ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/

In my opinion, Schultz does not want to run for President. He just wants to scare the Democratic Party to come to its senses on the math.

I think he Shultz will threaten to run until the Democratic platform becomes more math sensible.


Uranus --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus

Why Donald Trump is so Adamant About Building a Wall
It has to do with his ingenious theory of why Uranus is the only planet in our solar system that turned to its side (which is true) ---
https://phys.org/news/2019-01-uranus-side-weve.html
Or as astronomers with cautious pronunciation say at cocktail parties:  "Uranus went bottoms up!"

Trump Theory of Planetary Tilt
His theory actually resulted from a nightmare he had just before setting out on the 2016 campaign for the USA presidency.

 

Astronomers are not sure just when Uranus tipped to its side, but Trump's theory is that at some point the entire population (around 2 billion)  of the southern Western Hemisphere of Uranus commenced migrating to the north in search of economic safety nets (free medical, free education, free housing, free transportation, free sex, free drugs, food stamps, etc. etc. etc.)
At some point the shift in weight in the Western Hemisphere forced Uranus to tip on its side.
What might've prevented this disaster is an enormous wall between north and south that would've kept the population weights balanced between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres of Uranus.
It then became Donald Trump's main mission in life to keep the Earth from tipping

So now when the Earth similarly tips to its side, we should blame Nancy Pelosi for making people on earth walk on all fours and clutch to anything that might prevent them from falling into space (known on Uranus as becoming spaced out).

Instead of a wall in the Western Hemisphere on Earth, Europe could have opened its borders to Africa to counterbalance the hemispheres.  Then the Earth would have only sunk a bit lower and changed its orbit. But 2018 Europe closed its borders to illegal immigration which one day will make the dwindling population of earth sorry that a wall was not built across the Western Hemisphere --- separating south from north.

The Atlantic:  The Swiftly Closing Borders of Europe ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/12/europe-france-italy-immigration-border/578179/

Italian Minister tells NGO Italy doesn’t want migrants: “Our ports are closed!” ---
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/italian-minister-tells-ngo-italy-doesnt-want-migrants-our-ports-are-closed/#.XB6WCZMs_Xo.twitter

The enemy is fear
We think it's hate
But, it's fear

Gandhi

 


Microsoft will spend $500 million on building affordable housing in Seattle ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-to-spend-500-million-on-affordable-housing-in-seattle-2019-1

Good News for 49 States
California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatens to cut state funding from cities that don't approve enough (affordable/free) housing --
-
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-housing-money-budget-20190110-story.html?fbclid=IwAR0vTk5Hu0HcbC-C1-uD3ESqZthvbmiR3zTG730GaVsItgxFt54455Z1voA

Jensen Comment
The biggest question is who benefits and who loses from California state funding of cities. To extent that state funding of the homeless presently attracts homeless migration  to a town or city, some residents probably think less state funding is a good thing since a goodly percentage of the homeless are lousy workers and scary neighbors. To the homeless of course sleeping and pooping on the street adds pain to misery compared to free or almost-free housing.

To the extent that state funding of a city attracts more quality labor (think of how hard it is to attract workers at California's Tesla plant close to Silicon Valley), state funding of housing probably helps the Tesla company and Tesla customers nationwide. And  affordable housing is essential for workers like the police, fire fighters, trash haulers, and teachers. Palo Alto and other Silicon Valley cities now provide subsidized housing for these essential workers who could not otherwise afford Silicon Valley prices. But the housing quality is marginal at best.

Mostly there's an enormous definitional issue of what is "enough housing" and "affordable housing"" If the affordable housing is an enormous deal in San Francisco you will never have "enough housing," because hordes of people needing affordable housing and welfare support will make their way all the way to San Francisco from Chicago, Miami, St Louis, Sugar Hill, and wherever.

A lot of the businesses having HQ 1 in California will seek HQ 2 elsewhere just like Apple is investing a billion dollars for HQ 2 in Austin, Texas.

What's affordable housing? Tesla builds cars in a massive tent for assembly lines because massive new concrete factory buildings are just not affordable at the moment. A tent is "affordable."

Affordable homeless housing will be like having new Atlantic City casinos for gambling addicts, free booze on Bourbon Street, and free services at Nevada brothels.

San Francisco is the poop-street capital of the USA in large measure because it's one of the most famous sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants, good pickings for pan handlers, and the drug-partying culture of the USA. You're never going to get enough affordable housing in SF for the homeless if more and more and more keep flocking to SF for housing, freedom from ICE, and high times on the streets.

California has a lot of great universities who seemingly have tremendous influence on hearts and dysfunctional influence on heads.

Having "enough affordable housing" a very human way in theory to clean up the poop on San Francisco streets, but with tens of millions of new residents there will never be enough housing and more housing will make PhD poop --- Piled Higher and Deeper.

Why is San Francisco ... covered in human feces?
Nathan Robinson
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/18/san-francisco-poop-problem-inequality-homelessness


What the major media wants to keep secret:  The reasons behind the good news
State budgets are expected to do very well in the 2019 fiscal year, and that is translating into more money for public higher education in most places ---

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Buoyed-by-Solid-Economies/245520/?cid=db&elqTrackId=e130b69176d84f5fb72b7518cd4bbf2a&elq=633c153719be447ea8b9cfa752edca3e&elqaid=22019&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10780
Jensen Comment
What the article fails to do is give credit to the Trump "tax cuts" for increased tax revenues in most of the 50 states.
Tax accountants know the reason why.
It's probably too soon to measure the Laffer Curve benefits of the Trump tax cuts. States are benefiting more from increased tax revenues due to caps in itemized deductions like the capped property tax deduction and the changed limits (to 10%) on when medical expense deductions can kick in.

As usual, a handful of populous states accounted for most of the nationwide increase: The 6.6-percent rise in higher-education money in California made up nearly 30 percent of the national increase. The growth in spending in eight states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington — accounted for nearly 70 percent of the national increase (in state revenues), the survey found. The five-year trend for higher-education appropriations also continued to improve, the survey found. State spending on colleges has increased more than 18 percent since the 2015 fiscal year, with just seven states seeing declines over that period.

 

Laffer Curve --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

Red-Faced OECD:  Data On Corporate Taxation Inadvertently Provides Strong Evidence For Laffer Curve ---
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2019/01/18/data-on-corporate-taxation-inadvertently-provides-strong-evidence-for-laffer-curve-n2539278?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f

So tax rates have dramatically fallen but tax revenue has actually increased

Jensen Comment
One of my favorite bloggers is a long-time University of Michigan economist (now at the University of Colorado) named Miles Kimball. The title of his blog is "Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal." ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/

Two problems with the Laffer Curve is that, if it works according to theory, there are often long lags that opponents jump on too soon as being evidence of failure. The classic example here is that the Reagan tax cuts benefited Bill Clinton years later rather than Ronald Reagan.

And supporters of the Laffer curve are stupid if they claim it always works. Tax rate reductions are greatly affected by amounts of change and economic circumstances at the time of reducing the rates.

It's probably too soon to measure the Laffer Curve benefits of the Trump tax cuts. States are benefiting more from increased tax revenues due to caps in itemized deductions like the capped property tax deduction and the changed limits (to 10%) on when medical expense deductions can kick in.


Sikkim’s (a tiny state in India known for exporting hydro power and tourism) ruling party has announced an ambitious plan to implement a universal basic income for every one of its 610,577 citizens ---
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/sikkim-says-it-will-become-first-state-to-roll-out-universal-basic-income-5531093/

Jensen Comment
It helps to have a "natural resource" (hydro power) to export that will pay a lot (most?) of the public sector bills. Quebec is trying to export the same resource but is having trouble with rural USA states refusing to allow transmission towers leading down to the USA big cities.

And there's an enormous difference when trying to have a negative income tax for 600,000 people versus 1.3 billion people. I doubt that the economics for 600,000 people can be extrapolated to all of India.

 

I have similar problems when people try to compare a Nordic-nation economics and health care and education based on 5 million people with the a nation having 300+ million people. There are enormous problems of scale and corruption that seems to be inherent in scale.

 

Interestingly, Sikkim and Vermont have the roughly the same populations (600,000). But Vermont has very little natural resource to export except for timber and faces enormous competition from other states having more timber. Trying to be a progressive state with egalitarian distributions Vermont shoots itself in the foot with counterproductive high taxation.

 

A few years back Vermont even tried to fund its own single-payer health care system (something like Medicare-for-all), but without oil wells, hydro plants, or some other highly-valued resource to export the liberal Vermont legislature gave up on a single-payer health system. In fact, the high taxes led to physicians fleeing the state to open up practices in nearby New Hampshire. Now many Vermont people have to travel to New Hampshire for health services. 

 

Vermont has a new experiment --- give families $10,000 to move to Vermont, have them work remotely from Vermont,  and get much more than $10,000 back later with high taxation.
Program that pays workers $10,000 to move to Vermont and work remotely is now accepting applications ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/10/vermont-will-pay-you-10000-to-move-there-and-work-remotely---.html

 

Erika and I have several physicians that used to practice in Vermont. Now these doctors practice in New Hampshire not far from the Vermont border.  These physicians won't be moving back for the $10,000 even if they could commute or practice medicine online.

 

You have to be really dumb to know that this $10,000 is a state-sponsored scam.


Yellow Book of Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Auditing_Standards

Scope of sheriff’s office audit becomes investigative ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/scope-of-sheriffs-office-audit-becomes-investigative 
Also see (not free)
https://www.miamiok.com/news/20190124/scope-of-sheriffs-office-audit-becomes-investigative

 




Bob Jensen's threads on health care ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

NYT:  Choosing the Right Health Savings Account ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/your-money/health-savings-account-hsa.html

NYT:  Fixing Medicare
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/opinion/fixing-medicare.html


 

Democrats’ 8 plans for universal health care. Here’s how they work ---
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/13/18103087/democrats-universal-health-care-sanders-jayapal

Obamacare funneled a significant amount of money to hospitals and insurers, while a single-payer system like the one proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-V.T.) would cut provider payments and largely put private health insurers out of business ---
http://reason.com/blog/2018/12/12/even-democrats-are-divided-over-medicare


 

Kaiser Family Foundation:  People love Medicare-for-All until they're told it'll raise their taxes to  the $30+ trillion cost:  Then support nosedives  ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-poll-support-for-medicare-for-all-fluctuates-with-details-2019-1
Jensen Comment
Virtually all nations with national health plans raise the funds needed with taxation at all levels of income. Estimates of USA's cost run $30+ trillion over ten years, but a lot depends upon who is covered (severely ill or disabled immigrants crossing the border illegally for dialysis or other expensive health care), what is covered (think long-term nursing care). and capital costs (will government build hospitals and medical centers?).

Wealth Tax --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax

Even if wildly successful Senator Warren's wealth tax would only pay $2.75 trillion of the $30+ trillion cost ten-year cost of Medicare-for-All
Elizabeth Warren's proposed wealth tax would raise $2.75 trillion over a ten-year period from about 75,000 families, or less than 0.1 percent of U.S. households ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/elizabeth-warren-to-propose-new-wealth-tax-economic-advisor.html
Jensen Comment
This could have all sorts of economic consequences. One is that most of those 75,000 wealthy USA families have their wealth tied up in long-term investments like real estate (think of Trump hotels, Ted Turner's ranches in Australia, Amazon's many shares owned by Jeff Bezos), etc.  Warren's Wealth tax could force liquidation of these long-term investments to pay the $2.75 trillion wealth tax. If you want your top millionaires and billionaires to move out of the USA this is a sure-fire way to wave bye bye to them and the $2.75 trillion that becomes uncollectable.
Wealthy taxpayers are probably not worried with a conservative Supreme Court.  Arguably her proposal requires an amendment to the USA Constitution because her wealth tax proposal is extremely disproportional.---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax#United_States
You can read more about wealth taxes at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty
Why did liberal Sweden axe its wealth tax while at the same time lowering its top income tax rate from 87% (1979) to 65% (1990) to 56% (2002)? ? ---
http://ftp.iza.org/dp11475.pdf
Elizabeth Warren would probably prefer that you do not study experiences of all disastrous Scandinavian wealth taxes and very high marginal income tax rates that were later greatly reduced to stimulate the economy (called supply side (Laffer Curve) economics) ---
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MarginalTaxRates.html

PS
Those 75,000 wealthy taxpayers now invest in hundreds of billions in tax-exempt bonds (called municipal bonds) that underlie the building of most schools and municipal buildings in the USA. The muni bond market would nosedive if most of those 75,000 people sold their tax-exempt bonds and moved these hundreds of billions in investments off shore on their way out of the USA. That's not a cost that the naive Elizabeth Warren factored into her proposed wealth. What's the incentive for a billionaire who moved to Switzerland to continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the USA muni market?

I suspect that Elizabeth Warren knows that her wealth tax would be an economic disaster. I think she's just trying to get votes from financially-ignorant voters. It's all politics and no sense other than she's trying to fend off the radical anti-capitalist "young" left wing of the Democratic Party.

The Young Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto: Its goal is to remake our economic system — and the Democratic Party ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/

 




Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm




Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm 

Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Summary of Major Accounting Scandals --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals

Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:

Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Enron --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

Rotten to the Core --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

American History of Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm

Bob Jensen's fraud conclusions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on corporate governance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance 

 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

·     With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier

·     With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams

·     With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR

·     With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave  --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Bob Jensen's threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

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