Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the January 30, 2020 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/Tidbits013020.htm             
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




My Latest Web Document
Over 400 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With Statistics --
-
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm

Animated  Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010)

USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The published national debt is a lie
Here's the real federal debt ---
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/about/our_national_debt

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $22 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 



 

Here's a humorous and serious TED talk that seriously argues why the world needs billionaires

https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_eia_where_in_the_world_is_it_easiest_to_get_rich
 

Why did Cuba abandon its socialist/communist dream of equality for everybody?
The Guardian:  This was the egalitarian dream of Cuba in the 1960s: For years in Cuba, jobs as varied as farm workers and doctors only had a difference in their wages of the equivalent of a few US dollars a month.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba 

 

Here's a somber and serious Guardian article on why the Cuban model of income equality for all is a disaster ---
Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing ---

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/fidel-castro-cuba-economic-model

 

The Singapore Dream:  How Singapore's richest man went from welding in a factory for $14 per hour to owning a $17 billion hotpot restaurant chain ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/life-of-singapore-richest-man-from-welder-to-hotpot-billionaire-2020-1

 

While a move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---

https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2

Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth

Jensen Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires.
But is it also supposed to happen under communism? If so, why?

 

One reason is that many billionaires can afford to pour lots of money into high risk ventures. When's the last time you heard about a high risk (think Silicon Valley) venture in Europe?

 


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

 

Excellent, Cross-Disciplinary Overview of Scientific Reproducibility in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2018/12/15/excellent-cross-disciplinary-overview-of-scientific-reproducibility-in-the-stanford-encyclopedia-of-philosophy/

[Researchers] are rewarded for being productive rather than being right, for building ever upward instead of checking the foundations.---
Decades of early research on the genetics of depression were built on nonexistent foundations. How did that happen?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/waste-1000-studies/589684/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20191022&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0

Bob Jensen:  My take on research validation or lack thereof is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

 

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
You must watch this to the ending to appreciate it.

 

Kobe Bryant:  We need to make the most of every minute we have ---
https://www.newsweek.com/i-wont-take-see-you-later-granted-148449

 

And nevertheless conclude that the optimum amount of restriction of immigration is zero point zero, zero, zero? Amazing. Economics are generally skeptical models that yield corner solutions ---
https://www.econlib.org/do-you-talk-about-it-in-open-borders-yes/
Jensen Comment
To the list of questions I would add "Do your talk about the Tragedy of the Commons?"
The problem with open borders is somewhat related to the economic problem of "The Sharing of the Commons" where giving everybody the right to use a free resource leads to everybody losing that resource. At what point will allowing billions of people share in the free medical care, free college, and other scarce resources ruin it for everybody ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

 

History of United States Immigration Laws ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGCkZzrvQkcFbRplBPwBFwmFDs

 

Open immigration can’t exist with a strong social safety net; if you’re going to assure healthcare and a decent income to everyone, you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-net

 

History will prove former President Donald Trump was correct about Mexico one day funding an impenetrable wall --- to keep out over 2 billion starving green immigrants seeking to enter Mexico from the north.
Bob Jensen

 

Some Fatherly Words of Wisdom from Jack Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Investments, to My Sons ---
https://jborden.com/2019/06/16/some-fatherly-words-of-wisdom-from-jack-bogle-founder-of-vanguard-investments-to-my-sons/

 

Milton Friedman:  The Lesson of the Spoons ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/08/spoons-are-in-aisle-9.html
Chopsticks would be even better

 

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/

 

I have a complaint about America today, and it is simple: we don’t love business enough ---
Tyler Cowen
https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2019/Klingbigbusiness.html

 

The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone ---
https://time.com/amazon-rainforest-disappearing/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=20190914&xid=newsletter-brief
Amazon rainforest fires: Everything we know and how you can help ---
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-rainforest-fire-whats-happening-now-and-how-you-can-help-update-indigenous-tribes/
There Are More Fires Burning in Africa Than Anywhere on Earth ----
https://time.com/5665794/africa-forest-fires-amazon/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=20190901&xid=newsletter-brief
If forests go up in smoke, so can carbon offsets ---
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/13/20859156/forests-fires-carbon-offsets-amazon-california

 

"In Praise of Cheap Labor," by Paul Krugman, Slate, March 21, 1997 ---
https://slate.com/business/1997/03/in-praise-of-cheap-labor.html

 

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

It is not that machines are going to replace chemists. It’s that the chemists who use machines will replace those that don’t ---
Derek Lowe

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

 

"If you open the borders, my God, there's a lot of poverty in this world, and you're going to have people from all over the world. And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point."
Bernie Sanders
https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-says-he-does-not-support-open-borders-2019-4

 

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so on ad infinitum ---

Augustus De Morgan

Prior to 1980 what was unique about the year of his birth in 1871?
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/De_Morgan.html

Also see
 

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

Gandhi

 

Hermann Weyl born in Hamburg, Germany. He wrote, "One may say that mathematics talks about the things which are of no concern to men. Mathematics has the inhuman quality of starlight---brilliant, sharp, but cold ... thus we are clearest where knowledge matters least: in mathematics, especially number theory." ---
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Weyl.html
Also see Mathematical Analytics in Plato's Cave
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Analytics

 

Almost anything can be preserved in alcohol, except health, happiness and money

A Brief Animated History of Alcohol ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/01/a-brief-animated-history-of-alcohol.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

 

Georges Simenon wrote nearly 200 novels. Hitchcock telephoned one day and was told, "Sorry, he’s just started a novel." "I’ll wait,’ came the reply
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/if-only-georges-simenon-had-been-a-bit-more-like-maigret/

 

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

 

21 outstanding Warren Buffet quotations ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-21-best-quotes-2019-2
Also see
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-25-best-warren-buffett-quotes-in-one-infographic/

 

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

History of United States Immigration Laws ---
https://rapidvisa.com/history-of-united-states-immigration-laws/

NYT:  American history textbooks can differ across the country, in ways that are shaded by partisan politics ---
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html

Jensen Comment
I remember years ago when an American History textbook intended for all high schools in Texas had hundreds of mistakes including the "fact" that the USA dropped a nuclear bomb in the Korean War. Most of these "mistakes" were not typos. Gone are the days when American History textbooks are factual.

 

CNN's Fake News:  CNN Analyst Joe Lockhart Admits He Fabricated Conversation Between GOP Senators ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/755279-cnn-analyst-joe-lockhart-admits-he-fabricated-conversation-between-gop-senators-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=3DQRUwfHbKmcJ1V_NFDY6CkYb3g..A
What's worse is that CNN doesn't care

 

The widespread adoption of electric cars in California is reducing gas tax (road repair) revenue by millions of dollars a year ---
https://kcbsradio.radio.com/articles/electric-cars-cut-into-californias-gas-tax-revenue

Illustration of the "Free Rider" phenomenon in economics, although this is a government policy failure rather than a market failure externality ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-rider_problem

 

Taxing Wealth and Capital Income ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/01/cato-taxing-wealth-and-capital-income.html

 

Sweden: Around 90 Per Cent of 2015 Migrants with Residency Status Are Unemployed ---
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/10/05/sweden-90-percent-2015-migrants-residency-status-are-unemployed/
Migrants have made Sweden’s unemployment rates among the highest in the EU. In Sweden high welfare benefits discourage incentives to even seek jobs. ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/business/sweden-economy-immigration.html

 

Trump Breaks Twitter Record For ‘Most Liked Persian Tweet’

https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/748640-trump-breaks-twitter-record-for-most-liked-persian-tweet-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=2KvkcSGywrCfXsRfotUH4XJ8Trg..A

 

The IRS Decided to Get Tough Against Microsoft. (Using KPMG) Microsoft Got Tougher ---
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-decided-to-get-tough-against-microsoft-microsoft-got-tougher

 

Millions are fleeing high-tax states to pursue a low-cost American Dream ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/millions-are-fleeing-high-tax-states-to-pursue-a-low-cost-american-dream

 

Gangs Really Matter ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/01/gangs-really-matter.html

 

Americans’ financial satisfaction hit an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the AICPA’s Q4 2019 Personal Financial Satisfaction Index (PFSi) ---
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/jan/americans-financial-satisfaction-q4-2019-22785.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=23Jan2020

 

An Oversimplified, Misleading Argument about Inequality and Taxes ---
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/book-review-triumph-of-injustice-oversimplified-misleading-arguments-about-inequality-taxes/

 

Half of all US nurses and doctors are burned out — and they say the healthcare system is to blame ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nurses-doctors-face-burnout-due-to-health-care-system-2019-10
Medicare-for-All won't help since it promises to work them harder for less pay and promises healthcare coverage to possibly millions of immigrants flowing in under open borders

 

Fact Check: Adam Schiff Lied to the Senate About Trump’s Past Concern with Ukraine Corruption ---
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/21/fact-check-adam-schiff-lied-to-the-senate-about-trumps-past-concern-with-ukraine-corruption/

 

Will Wilkerson's thread on Elizabeth Warren --
https://twitter.com/willwilkinson/status/1218961206226100225

 

Where does Bernie Sanders stand on the issues?
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/748590-where-does-bernie-sanders-stand-on-the-issues-special?utm_source=c-am&utm_medium=c-am-email&utm_term=c-am-GI&utm_content=06zogopD0FR_-qkpQTYmRsUU8Iw..A

Jensen Comment
Bernie greatly underestimates his proposed spending on new programs. However here's the sum of what are his estimates revealed in the article above (over 10 years):
$56 trillion = ($40 trillion for Medicare-for-All) + ($16 trillion for green initiatives)
But there are a lot of costs (e.g., College for All) that he's not willing to estimate and the cost of a $16 per hour minimum wage across the USA and the cost of open borders that could expand to tens of millions of immigrants per year
Plus he makes no estimate of the cost of oil and gas when the Middle East breaks out in war resulting from the USA no longer protecting Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other nations living under the USA military umbrella in the Middle East.
Even Bernie Sanders is not so naive as to think this nation can survive by instantly ceasing the use of oil and gas for 275+ million vehicles and heating/cooling of hundreds of millions of homes. He's totally naive about what keeps the cost of fuel and gas low in the USA.
Bernie has a lot of other plans such as requiring that 45% or more of every corporation's governing board be comprised of representatives from its labor force. What he fails to mention is why investors will even want to invest in corporations controlled by workers.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/14/politics/bernie-sanders-worker-ownership-plan/index.html
If you control 45% of any large corporation's share in the USA you control that corporation. Elon Must controls Tesla with less than 22% of Tesla shares. The historical record of corporations controlled by rank-and-file employees is not good in part because of the difficulties those companies eventually face in raising capital.

The above article does not mention most of the issues that Bernie stands for at his Website  ---
https://berniesanders.com/?nosplash (slow loading)
Click on "View All Issues" (well not really "all" since he's afraid to mention his open borders plan that he denies but supports in reality)
Electing Bernie Sanders will easily cost the USA over $20 trillion per year not counting the loss in pension funding when the USA capital markets (think stock, bond, and real estate markets) collapse

 

Brian Riedl added the added $100 trillion cost of Bernie's initiatives (not counting the collapse of the capital markets and the loss of most USA penions) ---
https://www.city-journal.org/bernie-sanders-expensive-spending-proposals
That's not counting the $900+ trillion in pension guarantees given to hundreds of millions of open border immigrants.

 

BERNIE SANDERS 'DROVE ME CRAZY,' SAYS HILLARY CLINTON IN NEW DOCUMENTARY: 'NOBODY WANTS TO WORK WITH HIM' ---
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-drove-me-crazy-says-hillary-clinton-2020-election-donald-trump-1483187

 

Paul Krugman:  Bernie Sanders' Campaign Lies---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opinion/biden-sanders-social-security.html
Krugman is still afraid to criticize the Sanders' initiatives as if Krugman is willing to sacrifice the entire USA economy just to defeat Trump

 

Here's why the established Democrats are sabotaging Bernie Sanders ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/754141-heres-why-establishment-democrats-are-sabotaging-bernie-sanders?utm_source=c-am&utm_medium=c-am-email&utm_term=c-am-GI&utm_content=2KvkcSGywrCfXsRfotUH4XJ8Trg..A

 




 

Jim Lehrer’s 16 Rules for Practicing Journalism with Integrity ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/01/jim-lehrers-16-rules-for-being-a-journalist-with-integrity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

To meet such high standards required a rigorous set of journalistic… well, standards—such as Lehrer was happy to list, below, in a 1997 report from the Aspen Institute.

1.      Do nothing I cannot defend.*

2.      Do not distort, lie, slant, or hype.

3.      Do not falsify facts or make up quotes.

4.      Cover, write, and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.*

5.      Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.*

6.      Assume the viewer is as smart and caring and good a person as I am.*

7.      Assume the same about all people on whom I report.*

8.      Assume everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

9.      Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story mandates otherwise.*

10.  Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories and clearly label them as such.*

11.  Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.*

12.  Do not broadcast profanity or the end result of violence unless it is an integral and necessary part of the story and/or crucial to understanding the story.

13.  Acknowledge that objectivity may be impossible but fairness never is.

14.  Journalists who are reckless with facts and reputations should be disciplined by their employers.

15.  My viewers have a right to know what principles guide my work and the process I use in their practice.

16.  I am not in the entertainment business.*

 



The Singapore Dream:  How Singapore's richest man went from welding in a factory for $14 per hour to owning a $17 billion hotpot restaurant chain ---

https://www.businessinsider.com/life-of-singapore-richest-man-from-welder-to-hotpot-billionaire-2020-1

 

While a move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---

https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2

Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth

Jensen Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires.
But is it also supposed to happen under communism? If so, why?

 

One reason is that many billionaires can afford to pour lots of money into high risk ventures. When's the last time you heard about a high risk (think Silicon Valley) venture in Europe?

 


Over 85% of the non-home capital markets value is owned by the theTop 10%: 
Why is this much more of a problem for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren than if the Top 10% only owed 10% of the capital markets value instead of 85%+?

 

All voters should read

National Bureau of Economic Research

HOUSEHOLD WEALTH TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1962 TO 2016: HAS MIDDLE CLASS WEALTH RECOVERED ---

https://www.nber.org/papers/w24085.pdf

The top 10 percent of families as a group accounted for about 85 to 90 percent of stock shares, bonds, trusts, and business equity, and over 80 percent of non-home real estate. Moreover, despite the fact that almost half of all households owned stock shares either directly or indirectly through mutual funds, trusts, or various pension accounts, the richest 10 percent of households controlled 84 percent of the total value of these stocks, though less than its 93 percent share of directly owned stocks and mutual funds.

Democratic socialists like AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren want to spend over $20 trillion per year in cash (perhaps only $10 trillion annually before open borders are factored in) or green initiatives (think solar panels and batteries everywhere), Medicare-for-All (think cash for doctors, hospitals, and medications), College-for-All (think tuition plus other aid), Housing-for-All (think of all the new homes required), Guaranteed Annual Incomes, free meals for all the children of the USA, and all else that is added on for open borders when tens of millions of unrestrained immigrants pouring into  USA ---

https://berniesanders.com/issues/ (for each initiative click on the Details button)
The Atlantic:  Sanders is a Marxist of the old school of dialectical materialism, from the land that time forgot ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/bernie-sanderss-biggest-challenges/605500/

 

These democratic socialists want to raise as much as possible from the Top 10% before taxing the middle and lower income citizens.
Here lies the problem: If the Top10% owned only 10% of capital markets value the capital markets might survive when Sanders or Warren wipe out the Top 10% of the wealthy.
But in reality wiping out the Top 10% will crash over 84% of the capital markets value!

This alone will cause most of the USA private sector labor force to become unemployed and force Sanders or Warren to make good on promises for government to pay all pensions of those unemployed. They promise to take on all pension liabilities even for business firms who have not paid anything into the government's Pension Benefit Guarantee fund ---
https://www.pbgc.gov/

 

Let's consider the example of the General Motors (GM) 2008 bankruptcy--- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors#Chapter_11_bankruptcy

In theory the economic crash of GM shares in 2008 should not legally have forced GM into bankruptcy when share prices crashed, but the economic reality is that if stock values crash companies like GM that have a lot of debt will be forced into bankruptcy. That in turn could have resulted in unemployment for over 500,000 employees of GM factories, dealers, suppliers, and others impacted by GM closures. In addition the Federal government would've had to pick up the pensions of most of those employees ---
https://www.pbgc.gov/

 

To  prevent such massive unemployment and pension impacts the Government bailed out GM in 2008 ---
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors#Chapter_11_bankruptcy 

Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program the US Treasury invested $49.5 billion in General Motors and recovered $39 billion when it sold its shares on December 9, 2013 resulting in a loss of $10.3 billion.

Jensen Comment
The good news is that the USA economic crash of 2008 did not wipe out anywhere close to 85% of the value of the capital markets of the USA.  The government bailed out GM and some other other companies. The bailouts enticed investors, especially the Top 10%, to put more cash into capital investments like GM shares.
But commencing to take $20 trillion annually after 2023 will out wipe out over over 85% of those capital markets in order to pay cash  for all of the initiatives of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren ---
https://berniesanders.com/issues/
The Top 10% will not have any cash left to put into hopeless capital markets.

 

The real problem is that the $20+ trillion initiatives of Sanders or Warren require cash. If the government confiscated the wealth of the Top 10% and did not not need so much cash it could keep the $20+trillion iinvested in stock shares, bonds, trusts, and business equity, and non-home real estate. But having to covert all that $20+ trillion in value into cash will essentially wipe out the capital markets of the USA.

 

Sanders and Warren realize this and only propose taking a fraction of the wealth of the Top 10% (although AOC, Omar, and Michael Moore want to take it all and are totally unaware of the consequences). This is why Sanders and Warren know they have to get most of the needed $20+ trillion annually from the middle and lower income taxpayers.

 

But $20+ plus trillion per year is just too much for the USA to take on beyond the roughly $4.5 trillion being spent currently by the Federal government. Trying to take so much more cash out of wages and the USA capital markets will totally destroy the USA economy with hyoer inflation. What can be worse than living in socialist Venezuela in 2020 hyper inflation? What can be worse? The answer is living in the democratic socialist world of Sanders or Warren in 2025 USA hyper inflation.
Inflation risk is exacerbated by having the Top 10% owning 85%+ of the capital markets value in 2020 rather than a mere 10% rather than 85%+ --- such that wiping out the Top 10% of investors for democratic socialist initiatives will cause hyper inflation and destroy the USA economy.

 

It's no wonder that Barack Obama and the majority of the Democratic Party are trying to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the 2020 nomination. If they're smart they will also stop other big spending, open-border advocates like Elizabeth Warren from being nominated.

 

Please don't make us vote for Donald Trump just to block doomsday spenders lik Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in 2020.

 

Open immigration can’t exist with a strong social safety net; if you’re going to assure healthcare and a decent income to everyone, you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-ne

And it can't exist with a $20+ trillion annual social program offer for those already in the USA.

 

 


 

Why don't the Top 10% have as much liquidity as they would lik, and why this impacts how much tax they can pay under democratic socialists Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren?
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-compensation-package-tranches-explainer

 

Jensen Comment
The problem with liquidity among the Top 10% is either that they contractually cannot sell their capital investments (e.g., restrictions on stock sales), their millions don't become valuable until markets rise (e.g., Elon Musk's stock options), or they would incur huge losses such as when the owner of a million-acre ranch must sell that ranch for much less than its long-term value due to a shortage of immediate cash buyers? This becomes an enormous problem if these rich folks are hit with enormous tax bills that require cash payments.

 


 

These dishwasher-safe bento lunch boxes make it easy to pack meals for kids to take home after school ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/lunchbots-stainless-steel-bento-boxes-review

 

Jensen Comment
Bernie Sanders has a plan for schools to cook all meals (12 months a year) for children (in preschool and K-12 schools) ---
https://berniesanders.com/issues/reinvest-in-public-education/  (to " Provide year-round, free universal school meals, and incentivizes locally sourced food.")
His home state of Vermont proposes doing that now for all children, but Vermont is still trying to figure out how to pay for it  Vermont will start off using short-term Federal money and state money for free breakfasts and lunches for all children ---
https://www.hungerfreevt.org/universal-free-school-meals-resources
More funding is needed for the long run, including packing take-home meals for after school.
Without having to feed their children parents will have more money to spend on other things --- like paying Vermont taxes.

 

One problem is that Vermont has so many small schools that make it inefficient to cook full meals in a school having very few students (think East Burke having only 77 students) ---
http://www.localschooldirectory.com/state-schools/VT

 

Another problem is that so many Vermonters are shopping in New Hampshire (no sales taxes) and moving out of Vermont due to high taxation on everything ---
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/fun-facts/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-taxes/L6HPAVqSF

Vermont even has a scam to pay $10,000 for people to move to Vermont (it's a scam because only people who pay enough future Vermont  taxes to quickly recover the $10,000 are eligible)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2018/06/03/vermont-wants-to-pay-you-10000-to-move-there-and-work/#37563ae111c9
 


Soft on Violent Crime in Texas:  Harris County’s Dirty Little Secret ---
https://www.houstoncourant.com/houston-voices/2020/harris-countys-dirty-little-secret

 

CRIMES FOR WHICH (New York State )DEFENDANT MUST BE RELEASED FROM CUSTODY, WITHOUT BAIL, AFTER JANUARY 1ST:---
https://www.nicoleforny.com/bail/

• Burglary in the second degree (residential burglary)
• Burglary in the third degree

• Robbery in the second degree (aided by another person)
• Robbery in the third degree
• Manslaughter in the second degree
• Criminally negligent homicide
• Aggravated vehicular homicide
• Vehicular manslaughter in the first and second degrees
• Assault in the third degree
• Aggravated vehicular assault
• Aggravated assault upon a person less than eleven years old
• Vehicular assault in the first and second degrees
• Criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds
• Criminal possession of a firearm
• Criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree
• Criminal sale of a firearm to a minor
• Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and second degrees
• Criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first and second degrees
• Criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds
• Use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense
• Criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child
• Patronizing a person for prostitution in a school zone
• Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child
• Possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child
• Promoting a sexual performance by a child
• Failure to register as a sex offender
• Bribery in the first degree
• Bribe giving for public office
• Bribe receiving in the first degree
• Arson in the third and fourth degrees
• Grand larceny in the first, second, third, and fourth degrees
• Aggravated cruelty to animals
• Overdriving, torturing and injuring animals
• Failure to provide proper sustenance to animals
• Animal fighting
• Unlawful imprisonment in the first degree
• Coercion in the first degree
• Criminal solicitation in the first degree
• Criminal facilitation in the first degree
• Money laundering in support of terrorism in the third and fourth degrees
• Making a terroristic threat
• Obstructing governmental administration in the first and second degree
• Obstructing governmental administration by means of a self-defense spray device
• Promoting prison contraband in the first and second degrees
• Resisting arrest
• Hindering prosecution
• Tampering with a juror
• Tampering with physical evidence
• Aggravated harassment in the first degree
• Directing a laser at an aircraft in the first degree
• Enterprise corruption
• Money laundering in the first degree

 


 

2016 Presidential Election --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence 

 

Where was Trump's strongest base in 2016?
https://williammarble.co/docs/vb.pdf

A surprising fact about the 2016 election is that Trump received fewer votes from whites with the highest levels of racial resentment than Romney did in 2012. This fact is surprising given studies that emphasize “activation” of racial conservatism in 2016— the increased relationship between vote choice and racial attitudes among voters. But this relationship provides almost no information about how many votes candidates receive from individuals with particular attitudes. To understand how many votes a voting bloc contributes to a candidate’s total, we must also consider a bloc’s size and its turnout rate. Taking these into account, we find that Trump’s most significant gains came from whites with moderate attitudes about race and immigration. Trump’s vote totals improved the most among swing voters: low-socioeconomic status whites who are political moderates. Our analysis demonstrates that focusing only on vote choice is insufficient to explain sources of candidate support in the electorate.

Jensen Comment
The main point of the above article is that the media overstates the importance of the race dogma in elections. Both the liberal left and the authors of the above paper probably do not give enough credit to the boost Trump got from choosing Christian conservative Mike Pence as a running mate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence
Pence probably would not have won had he been the 2016 Presidential candidate, but he appealed to the Christian conservative bloc (that includes many black and Hispanic voters) that had doubts about Trump's morals and religious commitment.  Pence was viewed by this bloc as a "safe" backup when his becoming President was and still  is only a heartbeat away.

 

This also raises food for thought about choices for running mates for whomever wins the Democratic Party nomination. For example, many African American and Hispanic voters are Christian moderates who worry about the progressive anti-Christian and open-border trends in the USA. Over and over Texans prove that many, many Hispanics oppose open borders and many African Americans despise the disproportionate number of aborted black babies. Bob Jensen is a strong supporter of abortion rights in general but then he's not running for any kind of political office.

 

I doubt that any of the Democratic Party 2020 candidates would choose an anti-abortion running mate. But an anti-white and socialist (think AOC) running mate would be an election disaster for the Democratic Party.

 

Did Hillary Clinton's choice of XXXXX as a running mate help her nearly as much as Mike Pence helped Donald Trump?
Do you even remember the real name of XXXXX?

 


 

Walter E. Williams --  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams

Unappreciated Crime Costs ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/01/15/unappreciated-crime-costs-n2559445?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/15/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Criminal activity imposes huge costs on black residents in low-income neighborhoods of cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia and many others. Thousands of black Americans were murdered in 2019. Over 90% of the time, the perpetrator was also black. Leftists and social justice warriors charge that what blacks have to fear most is being shot and killed by police, but the numbers don't add up. For several years, The Washington Post has been documenting police shootings in America. Last year, 933 people were shot and killed by police. Twenty-three percent (212) of people shot and killed were black; 35% (331) were white; 16% (155) were Hispanic and 201 were of other or unknown races. The high homicide rate within the black community doesn't begin to tell the full tragedy.

Crime imposes a hefty tax on people who can least afford it. They are the law-abiding residents of black neighborhoods. Residents must bear the time cost and other costs of having to shop outside of their neighborhoods. Supermarkets that are abundant in low-crime neighborhoods are absent or scarce in high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. Because of the paucity of supermarkets and other big-box stores in these neighborhoods, some "experts" and academicians have labeled them as "food deserts." That's the ridiculous suggestion that white supermarket merchants and big-box store owners don't like green dollars coming out of black hands. The true villains of the piece are the criminals who make some businesses unprofitable. By the way, these are equal opportunity criminals. They will victimize a black-owned business just as they would victimize a white-owned business. The high crime rates in many black neighborhoods have the effect of outlawing economic growth and opportunities.

In low-crime neighborhoods, FedEx, UPS and other delivery companies routinely leave packages containing valuable merchandise on a doorstep if no one is home. That saves the expense of redelivery and saves recipients the expense of having to go pick up the packages. In high-crime neighborhoods, delivery companies leaving packages at the door or supermarkets leaving goods outside unattended would be equivalent to economic suicide. Fearing robberies, taxi drivers, including black drivers, often refuse to accept telephone calls for home pickups and frequently pass prospective black customers who hail them on the street. Plus, there's the insult associated with not being able to receive pizzas or other deliveries on the same terms as people in other neighborhoods.

Another often-overlooked impact of crime is lower property values. Homes that wouldn't fetch $10,000, $20,000 or $40,000 suddenly fetch hundreds of thousands when large numbers of middle- and upper-income people purchase formerly run-down properties and fix them up. This is called gentrification, where wealthier, predominantly white, people bid higher rental prices thus forcing out low-income residents. As a result of gentrification, there is greater police protection and other neighborhood amenities increase.

Many make the erroneous assumption that black people don't care about crime. But black people strongly disapprove of the day-to-day violence that's all too common in their communities. What compounds that problem is a deep mistrust of police in poor black neighborhoods. This distrust, along with fear of reprisals by black criminals, causes an atmosphere of noncooperation with the police. It creates the "stop snitching" principle. This principle of snitches being worse than criminals themselves only exacerbates the crime problem in black communities by giving aid and comfort to the true enemies of the community -- those who prey on the community and have little fear of being brought to justice. In some cities, less than 10% of murderers are ever charged.

For decades, the problems of blacks could be laid at the feet of racial discrimination. Our ancestors started a civil rights struggle and won. Today, the most devastating problems of blacks are entirely self-inflicted such as high illegitimacy, family breakdown and unsafe communities. These problems have little to do with civil rights. But as long as blacks buy into the notion that white racism is the source of their problems, the solutions will be elusive forever.

 


How to Mislead With Statistics

Can ‘White Resentment’ Help Explain Higher-Education Cuts? ----
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-White-Resentment-/247921?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&cid=at&source=ams&sourceId=296279

Blunt discussions of racism are increasingly showing up in research of state higher-education issues. A recent study into state appropriations for public colleges is one of a growing number of efforts to try to understand how considerations of race are driving policy decisions.

The researchers found that Republican lawmakers were more generous to higher education in places where there was a higher proportion of white students enrolled as undergraduates.

Take state appropriations, for example. Most studies of the issue rely on the assumption that state lawmakers are seeking to make rational choices in doling out tax dollars. One common explanation is that higher education serves as a sort of “balance wheel” for the state budget: Money for higher education increases in good economic times and decreases when state revenues fall, according to a new paper by Barrett J. Taylor, at the University of North Texas, and Brendan Cantwell, at Michigan State University.

But Taylor and Cantwell eyed instead a more sinister explanation. They suspected that Republican lawmakers, who are overwhelmingly white, would be less generous to an increasingly diverse higher-education landscape. “Republican officials may be more skeptical of higher-education funding when the presumed beneficiaries of government spending are racially diverse,” they posit in their paper.

Cantwell and Taylor looked specifically at places where Republicans controlled both the legislative and executive branches of state government. And they measured how state appropriations differed when the undergraduate enrollment is either more diverse or less diverse than the overall state.

They found that Republican lawmakers were more generous to higher education in places where there was a higher proportion of white students enrolled as undergraduates. “The findings are quite robust,” said Cantwell, an associate professor of educational administration.

People might interpret those results very differently depending on their political leanings, Cantwell said, because the study doesn’t establish that Republican lawmakers are actively choosing to spend less on diverse populations of college students.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This is one of the many articles that the Chronicle disallows comments, because the Chronicle is opposed to opposing viewpoints that it cannot referee in letters to the editor (only a miniscule number of letters are published).

This article misleads by not looking for other causes in the decline in state appropriations for higher education.

I don't deny that some racism and bias against higher education spending are involved by some lawmakers, but the principle cause of the principle cause of the proportionate decline in in state appropriations for higher education is the rise in budget demands that take priority over higher education, mostly Medicaid. Medicaid is heavily funded by state taxpayers, and costs of medical care and medications rose faster than inflation. Added to this demand for funding is the increased numbers of people eligible for Medicaid that arose by increasing the income levels for eligibility for Medicaid that came about with Obamacare.

 

The Medicaid Expansion Cheat ---
https://mises.org/wire/medicaid-expansion-cheat?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=326849ea12-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_31_06_15_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-326849ea12-2287089

The Washington Post:  Medicaid is Out of Control. Here's How to Fix It ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/medicaid-is-out-of-control-heres-how-to-fix-it/2017/03/19/05167e9e-0b2e-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html

. . .

But the most significant Medicaid fact is this: Although three-quarters of Medicaid recipients are either children or young adults, they account for only one-third of costs. The elderly and disabled constitute the other one-quarter of recipients, but they represent two-thirds of costs. 

How could this be? Doesn't Medicare — not Medicaid — cover the elderly and disabled? Well, yes, but there’s a giant omission: nursing home and other long-term care. Medicaid covers these for the poor elderly and disabled.

At the federal level, spending on the elderly — mainly for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — is already crowding out nonelderly spending, as the Trump administration's 2018 budget shows. Now pressures are tightening on states. 

Because they pay 40 percent of Medicaid, its escalating costs compete directly with state and local services — schools, roads, police, parks, sanitation — and lower taxes. Medicaid's “entitlement” nature means that anyone who qualifies for support must get it. By contrast, schools and other state services get what seems affordable. Slowly, Medicaid is usurping state priorities. 

Medicaid now claims nearly one-fifth of states' general revenues, reports Robin Rudowitz of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Under present law, the squeeze will worsen.

Fortunately, there’s a sensible solution to this problem. It isn't to gut care for the elderly. Instead, we should transfer Medicaids long-term care to the federal government, which would pay all costs, probably by merging with Medicare. In return, the states would assume all Medicaid’s costs for children and younger adults, give up some or all of their federal aid for K-12 schools and, if needed, trim other federal grants to ensure financial neutrality.

At the outset, there would be no obvious winner. For every dollar of higher federal spending on long-term care, there would be a dollar offset in lower spending on medical care for children and younger adults plus less generous federal grants. But over time, this swap of responsibilities would make sense for everyone. It would concentrate oversight for the young at the state and local levels while aid to the elderly and disabled would be firmly lodged at the federal level.

Consider. For states, spending would no longer be tied to demographic trends — an aging society — they can't change. Controlling schools and a child-centered Medicaid, they would be in the best position to fight child poverty, which is arguably the nation's most serious social problem. The rising costs of long-term care, a national problem, would not handcuff them.

As for the federal government, it would control all major programs for the elderly and disabled. The present splintering is undesirable. It means that a fifth of Medicare recipients are so-called “dual eligibles,” belonging also to Medicaid. This raises costs and complicates caregiving. If benefits for the elderly are to be cut (say, by raising eligibility ages), that job is best done if the federal government can choose from all programs for the old.

Unfortunately, there is little support for this sort of swap. Commentators (including this reporter) periodically propose it and praise its benefits. But national politicians seem uninterested. They prefer instead to bleed the states.

 

Jensen Comment
Hence if you take long-term care expenditures out of state Medicaid budgets you would have more state money for higher education.

Sadly, the Federal government is already running at a trillion dollar deficit. We can just keep expanding the deficit. Other solutions are needed.




Updates on Medical Insurance

 

The American College of Physicians, unlike the American Medical Association and virtually all other medical/hospital associations, endorses Medicare for All and a public choice option ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/american-college-of-physicians-endorses-medicare-for-all-2020-1

 

Jensen Comment
According to the article the ACP believes that Medicare-for-All as envisioned by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will alleviate workloads and physician burnout. Nothing could be further from the truth. The open border advocacy and promises of free medical services to anybody that immigrates to the USA will greatly overburden physicians. How naive can you get.

 

Half of all US nurses and doctors are burned out — and they say the healthcare system is to blame ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nurses-doctors-face-burnout-due-to-health-care-system-2019-10
Medicare-for-All won't help since it promises to work them harder for less pay and promises healthcare coverage to possibly millions of immigrants flowing in under open borders
 

 


 

If you’ll hit age 65 soon and are still working, here’s what to do about Medicare ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/14/medicare-rules-and-costs-for-people-age-65-who-are-still-working.html
Also keep in mind that if you retire early such as at Age 62 you're not eligible for Medicare until Age 65

 


 




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/