Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the December 31, 2020 Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/Tidbits111620.htm             
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




The Jewish Express:  A Brief History of Antifa: Part I ---
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-brief-history-of-antifa-part-i/2020/06/14/

The Jewish Experess:  A Brief History of Antifa:  Part II ---
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-brief-history-of-antifa-part-ii-antifa-in-the-united-states/2020/06/24/

FBI director calls Antifa 'a real thing' ---
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/516911-fbi-director-wray-calls-antifa-a-real-thing '

Antifa group continues occupation of Seattle-area hotel with plans to stay permanently for free ---
https://thepostmillennial.com/antifa-takes-over-seattle-area-hotel
Did you notice how the major media no longer reports these takeovers?

According to The New York Times, potentially 90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html

My Latest Web Document
Over 600 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

Debt to GDP Ratio by Country 2020 ---
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-national-debt/

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

MIT's Links to Covid-19 Trackers Around the World ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/1000961/launching-mittr-covid-tracing-tracker/

Johns Hopkins University:  Updated Map and Table on the Number of Coronavirus Cases for Every Nation ---
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Accuracy is subject to wide margins of error for every nation and varies greatly between nations.

Covid019 in New Hampshire ---
https://www.nh.gov/covid19/

The best maps for comparing counties and towns in your state are provided by your state. For example, here's the map showing the distribution of cases for New Hampshire counties and towns ---
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-coronavirus-map/32009329#
 


 

Beautiful News Daily (news and statistics to offset all of today's bad news) ---
https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/

 

 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

 

Miracle of Chile --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
Movie:  The Chicago Boys of Chile ---
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chicagoboysenglish

 

How to Fix Economic Inequality? ---
https://www.piie.com/microsites/how-fix-economic-inequality

 

Cuba’s Dubious Miracle ---
https://www.hoover.org/research/cubas-dubious-miracle

 

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

 

After 40 years of capitalism, China’s income is divided almost as unequally as America’s ---
https://qz.com/1591961/thomas-pikettys-new-research-shows-rising-inequality-in-china/
China has more billionaires than any other country in the world (and generating more at a higher rate than any other nation) ---
https://qz.com/1919974/china-created-a-record-number-of-billionaires-despite-covid-19/

 

What's Wrong With a Wealth Tax?
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/whats-wrong-with-a-wealth-tax

 

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?

 

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

 


 

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

 

I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write ---
Voltaire

 

"This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone"
John F. Kennedy at a White House party

 

Harper's:  A Letter on Justice and Open Debate --- |

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/thomas-chatterton-williams-on-race-identity-and-cancel-culture

 

Scientists suggest US embassies were hit with high-power microwaves – here’s how the weapons work
https://theconversation.com/scientists-suggest-us-embassies-were-hit-with-high-power-microwaves-heres-how-the-weapons-work-151730

 

The Guardian:  American classics among most ‘challenged’ books of the decade in US (protesters want them removed from libraries and schools) ---
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/28/classics-books-most-often-challenged-and-banned-in-us-banned-books-week-to-kill-a-mockingbird
Bob Jensen's threads on banned books
 

In 1785 the state legislature of Virginia unanimously rejected a proposal from evangelicals to free the state’s slaves ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/09/virginia-fact-of-the-day.html

 

When the Great Scorer comes to write against your name, one unforgiveable sin (racial profiling) outweighs all the good you've done in life.

Bob Jensen

 

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

 

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

 

Taiwan’s Crowdsourced Democracy Shows Us How to Fix Social Media ---
https://wearenotdivided.reasonstobecheerful.world/taiwan-g0v-hackers-technology-digital-democracy/

Germany and Merkel at Crossroads ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/gilgutknecht/2020/10/04/germany-and-merkel-at-crossroads-n2577429

 

James Baldwin Talks About Racism in America & Civil Rights Activism on The Dick Cavett Show (1969) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/08/james-baldwin-talks-about-racism-in-america-civil-rights-activism-on-the-dick-cavett-show-1969.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+OpenCulture+(Open+Culture)

 

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. And it’s an unreliable guide to the future

Bill Gates, “The Road Ahead”

 

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

 

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

 

China ‘forcing Uighur Muslims and other minorities to work in cotton fields’ ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-forcing-uighur-muslims-and-other-minorities-to-work-in-cotton-fields-6vz3750t6
Socialist and communism advocates often overlook instances of slavery forced by governments rather than capitalists

 

U.S. physicists rally around ambitious plan to build fusion power plant ---
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/us-physicists-rally-around-ambitious-plan-build-fusion-power-plant  

 

A short history of corruption in Illinois ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/a-short-history-of-corruption-in-illinois

 

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

 

DHS: Illegal Border Crossings Surge In Anticipation of Biden Presidency ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/11/dhs-illegal-border-crossings-surge-in-anticipation-of-biden-presidency/

 

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

 

Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings ---
Heinrich Heine
https://thecritic.co.uk/in-defence-of-knowledge/

 

It is by now well known that some of the greatest modern philosophers held racist views ---
https://aeon.co/essays/racism-is-baked-into-the-structure-of-dialectical-philosophy  ---

Also see
https://aeon.co/essays/racism-is-baked-into-the-structure-of-dialectical-philosophy

 

Assorted Charlie Munger Quotations ---

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-charlie-munger-12-best-quotes-2020-5-1029210949

 

RIP Walter E. Williams ---
Walter Williams, R.I.P. | National Review
Also see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams

 

Walter E. Williams:  Insults to Black History ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/24/insults-to-black-history-n2571095?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=06/24/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  The Leftist Effort to Revise American History ---

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/08/05/the-leftist-effort-to-revise-american-history-n2573650?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/05/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Disgusting Professorial Teachings ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/10/21/disgusting-professorial-teachings-n2578378?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/21/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  The True Plight of Black Americans

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/10/the-true-plight-of-black-americans-n2570249

 

 

Walter E. Williams:  Institutional Racism ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/08/26/institutional-racism-n2574936?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/26/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams: The Fight for Free Speech
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/10/07/the-fight-for-free-speech-n2577499?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/07/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Back to Academic Brainwashing ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/08/19/back-to-academic-brainwashing-n2574500?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/19/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167


Walter E. Williams:  The Devil and Karl Marx ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/09/16/the-devil-and-karl-marx-n2576177?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=09/16/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Profit of Freedom and Capitalism ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2020/12/09/dr-walter-williams-prophet-of-freedom-n2581244?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=12/09/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Is Racism Responsible for Today's Black Problems? ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/07/29/is-racism-responsible-for-todays-black-problems-n2573212?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/29/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

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/

 

Walter A. Williams:  The Nation's Report Card
How are K-12 schools doing under President Trump versus President Obama?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/06/the-nations-report-card-n2568167?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/06/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Jensen's Comment
Most K-12 schools were probably doing better when I was a child than they're doing today. The downhill slide is greatest in the gang-ridden schools, drug-infested urban schools like Chicago and New Orleans. Throwing money at such schools is not the answer until life at home recovers. Finland knows this, which is why Finland's dads spend more time with school children than the moms or the teachers.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/04/finland-only-country-world-dad-more-time-kids-moms

 

Walter E. Williams:  Insane News Tidbits ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/27/insane-news-tidbits-n2569329?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/27/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

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

 

Rep. Ilhan Omar Calls For “Dismantling” of US “Economy and Political Systems” (VIDEO) ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/944250-radical-seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-vows-to-overthrow-the-united-states-and-replace-with-a-socialist-world?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=1Cugtgg08BDw-1AwBlaN1Qmmriw..A
Jensen Comment
Republicans are most grateful that Omar played a huge role in getting Biden nominated

 

Republican women flipped numerous House seats in 2020.---
https://www.vox.com/21562289/republican-women-election-records

 

California Voters Rebuked Their Governor, Legislators at the Ballot Box ---
https://reason.com/2020/11/13/california-voters-rebuked-their-governor-legislators-at-every-turn-on-election-day/

 

Report: Belgian nursing homes failed patients amid pandemic ---
https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-coronavirus-pandemic-nursing-homes-belgium-europe-b23dd8c702f43ab9abf0e5b51ff468c9

 

Bernie Burns AOC? Tells CNN Good Progressives Do Not Support 'Defunding Police' ---
Click Here

 

Only about 10 percent of Manhattan office workers were back as of Sept. 18, more than six months after the coronavirus pandemic upended life in the Big Apple, the Wall Street Journal had reported, citing data from commercial real estate services firm CBRE Group Inc. ---
https://nypost.com/2020/10/23/de-blasio-disses-manhattan-midtown-is-not-center-of-universe/

 

Anti-Kaepernick' NFL veteran Burgess Owens elected to US Congress ---
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/17/burgess-owens-us-congress-nfl-colin-kaepernick

 

The Squad Adds Members To The Democrat Anti-Israel Caucus ---

https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/11/election-fallout-the-squad-adds-members-to-the-democrat-anti-israel-caucus/

 

Tear Down Trump's Walls and Open the Flood Gates
Biden Has Promised to Undo Trump's Immigration Policies. How Much Is He Really Likely to Reform?

https://time.com/5909571/joe-biden-immigration-policy/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc&utm_campaign=newsletter+brief+default+ac&utm_content=+++20201129+++body&et_rid=31883121

Well, Maybe Not
Swedish Academic Rejects Alleged Economic Benefits of Mass Migration ---

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/22/swedish-academic-rejects-alleged-economic-benefits-mass-migration/
 

 

Why would Elon Musk move to Texas? The answer could be in the billions ---
https://fortune.com/2020/12/04/elon-musk-moving-texas-from-california-capital-gains-taxes/

 

Bloomberg:  It doesn’t take very many ultra-wealthy Americans changing their address to wreak havoc on cities’ finances ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-16/what-happens-when-the-1-move-to-miami-and-austin

 

FiveThirtyEight:  The 40 Weirdest and Best Charts We Made in 2020
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-40-weirdest-and-best-charts-we-made-in-2020/

 

New York Times Admits Biden ‘Didn’t Win Back’ Working Class ---
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/joseph-vazquez/2020/12/08/new-york-times-admits-biden-didnt-win-back-working-class

 

The Hispanic Republican ---
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/11/book-review-the-hispanic-republican/

 

Elon Musk Takes Tesla’s War on Labor Unions to Germany ---
Elon Musk, Labor Unions Prepare to War as Tesla (TSLA) Enters Germany - Bloomberg

 

Following an FBI investigation this summer, more than 1,000 researchers who had hidden their affiliation with the Chinese military fled the United States, the Justice Department reported ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/more-than-1000-visiting-researchers-affiliated-with-the-chinese-military-fled-the-united-states-this-summer-justice-department-says/2020/12/02/9c564dee-34e1-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html  

 

Financing Social Security Through the Years ---
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/12/03/icymi-financing-social-security-through-the-years/   

 

WSJ:  Stock Buybacks: What Every Investor Needs to Know ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-buybacks-what-every-investor-needs-to-know-11607185864?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst  

 

Massachusetts School Allegedly Bans ‘The Odyssey’ by Homer ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/12/massachusetts-school-allegedly-bans-the-odyssey-by-homer/
Some classics are just not politically correct

 

Socialist Member of Seattle City Council Facing Recall for Allegedly Abusing Office ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/12/socialist-member-of-seattle-city-council-facing-recall-for-allegedly-abusing-office/

 

Illinois Is Ground Zero for the Pension Crisis (taxpayers in 49 states asked to should pension fraud and mismanagement in Illinois) ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/illinois-is-ground-zero-for-the-pension-crisis

Illinois' and Chicago's budget gimmicks ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/illinois-and-chicagos-budget-gimmicks

Vermont gets 3rd worst financial transparency score in the country (mostly due to unaudited pension reporting) ---
https://www.ethanallen.org/vermont_gets_3rd_worst_financial_transparency_rank_in_country  
 

A short history of corruption in Illinois ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/a-short-history-of-corruption-in-illinois

Chicago violence: 5 killed, 29 shot in another bloody weekend ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-violence-5-killed-29-shot-in-another-bloody-weekend

Bloomberg:  Goldman Sachs is weighing whether to become the latest financial giant to take a chunk out of New York City, as it considers dissing the market hub in favor of Florida for one of its key divisions.
Goldman Plots Florida Base for Asset Management in NYC Blow - Bloomberg
Jensen Comment
Higher taxes and police department defunding are igniting business firm moves from various large cities. Socialist political machines will devastate cities like NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, LA, etc.

Alexander Hamilton:  The Federalist Papers #22 A: The Articles of Confederation Lead to Uncoordinated Trade Policy and Military Free-Riding ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2020/12/13/alexander-hamilton-the-articles-of-confederation-lead-to-uncoordinated-trade-policy-and-military-free-riding

Law prof advocates for Black Americans votes to 'count twice' ---
https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16499
Why stop at twice?

Chattanooga library suspends protest leader C-Grimey to investigate burning of conservative books ---
https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2020/dec/04/book-burning/537313/

Capitalism at Work:  China will overtake US as world's top economy in 2028, think tank says ---
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/china-will-overtake-us-as-worlds-top-economy-in-2028-think-tank-says
China already has more self-made billionaires than any other nation

Trump Haters Paul Krugman vs. Ray Dahio Differ on the Risks for Tens of Trillions More in Government Debt and Printing of Money

Paul Krugman: Learn to stop worrying and love tens of trillions more in government debt (to fund trillions for green initiatives, national healthcare, free college, bailout of states, guaranteed annual income, reparations, etc.) ---
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/paul-krugman-learn-to-stop-worrying-and-love-debt/ar-BB1bHp6u 

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio breaks down how US debt and money-printing binges have formed a 'classic toxic mix' that could set it on a downward spiral towards revolution and civil war ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/ray-dalio-principles-toxic-forces-threaten-us-civil-war-revolution-2020-12

Running Out of Other People’s Money ---
https://www.cato.org/policy-report/mayjune-2015/running-out-other-peoples-money
Most of the real government true debt is not yet booked as debt (such as unbooked entitlement obligations for Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security obligations, etc.)

The U.S. Treasury market came close to a meltdown in March, revealing a rickety system that threatens “national economic security,” a Stanford professor says ---
Click Here

Say What? 23.6% of All US Dollars Were Created in the Last Year ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/23-6-of-all-us-dollars-were-created-in-the-last-year  
Jensen Comment
Don't believe the economists that say simply printing money for government spending above what is taxed and borrowed is not inflationary!





Before Biden and Harris Introduce Trillions More in New Government Spending Programs, Where Do Your Tax Dollars Now Go ---

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/where-does-your-tax-money-go
For example, how much is the current Federal budget for interest on government debt in this period of nearly zero interest rates?


 

Forwarded to me by a friend on December 4, 2020

GLOBAL WARMING Update

 

Read till the end.  

 

The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from the Consulate at Bergen, Norway.


Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard of temperatures in the Arctic zone.


Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.


Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.


Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.


Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.


Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coast cities uninhabitable.

 

I must apologize. I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2 , 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post 96 years ago. This must have been caused by the Model  T Ford's emissions or possibly from horse and cattle farts.


Snopes verified the article did in fact appear in 1922!

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/warm-welcome/

 

The conclusion by by Snopes

 

As interesting as this nearly century-old article might be from a modern perspective, however, it isn’t substantive evidence either for or against the concept of anthropogenic global warming. As documented elsewhere, the warming phenomena observed in 1922 proved to be indicative only of a local event in Spitzbergen, not a trend applicable to the Arctic as a whole.

 


Paychecks of Washington DC Power Players ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-trump-fauci-aoc-pelosi-mcconnell-schumer-earn-make-2020-12?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Business_Insider_select&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8&utm_campaign=Insider%20Select%202020-12-26&utm_term=INSIDER%20SELECT%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW

Anthony Fauci's $434,312 paycheck
President Trump $400,000 plus a lot of very special benefits including Air Force One
Pence earned $253,300 in 2020
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley earn $193,400 per year
House speaker Pelosi makes $223,500 plus special benefits like a jet plane (she got a larger plane after complaining about the size of her first plane)
Most House and Senate lawmakers take home $174,000 in pay each year plus generous expense accounts
Justice Amy Coney Barrett will earn a salary of $265,600 per year as the newest member of the Supreme Court

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
For many top government leaders, think AOC, the salaries are a pittance compared to what they make on the outside from investments, lobbyists, book royalties, speeches, etc.


Did Bob Dylan Sell The Copyrights To His 600 Songs To Avoid A Higher Capital Gains Tax Rate In The Biden Administration? ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/12/did-bob-dylan-sell-the-copyrights-to-his-600-songs-to-avoid-a-higher-capital-gains-tax-rate-in-the-b.html


Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk intends to move to Texas after becoming exhausted of high taxes and regulations in California ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/blab/pop/1021824-ironic-progressive-elon-musk-fleeing-california-for-this-state-because-of-regulation-taxes?utm_source=c-pm&utm_medium=c-pm-email&utm_term=c-pm-GI&utm_content=1Cugtgg08BDw-1AwBlaN1Qmmriw.. A
Also see the CNBC article on this ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-plans-to-move-to-texas-friends-and-associates-say.html

Elon Musk Takes Tesla’s War on Labor Unions to Germany ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-02/elon-musk-labor-unions-prepare-to-war-as-tesla-tsla-enters-germany?cmpid=BBD120220_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=201202&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily  

The CEO’s charm offensive has won over much of the country—except for some of its auto workers.

As Tesla Inc. builds its first European car factory, in a patch of forest outside Berlin, Elon Musk has been on a relentless charm offensive. He’s pledged to create thousands of jobs; he tweets in surprisingly good German; and, during the site’s topping-out ceremony in September, he donned a heavy-duty cord vest and wide-brimmed black felt hat like those traditionally worn by local craftspeople.

The message has been warmly received, with politicians fast-tracking approvals for the factory and locals clamoring for jobs in a region that struggles to attract investment. On Nov. 30, the Tesla chief executive officer swooped into the German capital for the third time in as many months to accept an award for his entrepreneurial achievements from the publisher of the influential Bild tabloid.

But there’s one corner of the German economy where the lovefest feels more like a standoff: the powerful 2.3 million-member IG Metall labor union. The group is on a collision course with the billionaire that threatens to either undermine Musk’s ambitions or diminish the power of an organization that’s long had an outsize role in the country’s auto industry with its demands for better wages and shifts in strategy, backed up by the very real threat of strikes.

Continued in article


Is this good news or bad news?

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 Tuesday to ban smoking tobacco in apartments (and college dorms), but made an exception for cannabis ---
CNN International on Twitter: "The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 Tuesday to ban smoking tobacco in apartments, but made an exception for cannabis https://t.co/lG19QGAEIy" / Twitter
Is smoking cannabis less of a hazard in terms of fire danger and lung disease caused by first and second hand smoke?

Purportedly San Francisco provides free meals, booze, cannabis and narcotics to homeless people it houses in some of the City's most luxurious hotels. One of the reasons is to motivate addicts to stay off the streets.


 

Update from La-La Land:  Here's a list of crimes on LA's new DA's do-not-prosecute list ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/crimes-las-prosecute

As of Tuesday, many misdemeanor cases will be declined or dismissed prior to arraignment unless "factors for considerations" exist. The list of offenses includes trespassing, disturbing the peace, a minor in possession of alcohol, driving without a license, driving with a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug and paraphernalia possession, being under the influence of a controlled substance, public intoxication, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest.

In addition, prosecutors will not seek the death penalty and those accused of misdemeanors and low-level felonies will be referred to community-based programs. 

For juveniles, those accused of misdemeanors will no longer be prosecuted.

Jensen Comment
It's illegal to sell booze and tobacco products to young teenagers, but it's now deemed OK for them to steal it.
Parenting is more dangerous since teenagers can now beat up on their parents.
It's OK to drive drunk and even damage property as long as no innocent bystanders get hurt.
Getting a restraining order is a waste of time and money.
You can now have a party on Barbara Streisand's beach house lawn.
Anybody is allowed to trespass.

Legal Definition of a “Misdemeanor” in California Law ---
https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/laws/misdemeanor/

Common “aggravated” misdemeanors include (but are not limited to):

·    Domestic battery — Penal Code 243(e)(1),

·    Driving on a suspended license — Vehicle Code 14601 VC,

·    DUI without injury — Vehicle Code 23152(a) and(b), and

·    Violating a restraining order — Penal Code 273.6 PC.

What are some common misdemeanor / felony wobblers?
https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/laws/misdemeanor/#2

·    Brandishing a weapon — Penal Code 417 

·    Elder abuse — Penal Code 368 

·    Assault with a deadly weapon — Penal Code 245(a)(1) (possibly punishable as a misdemeanor).


From the Chronicle of Higher Education
The essayist (former long-time journal editor for Phi Beta Kappa Society) who mocked Jill Biden’s degree, and was widely derided in return, has been lobbing grenades at colleges for decades ---

https://www.chronicle.com/article/joseph-epstein-is-not-a-fan-of-the-modern-university?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1834765_nl_Chronicle-Review_date_20201221&cid=cr&source=ams&sourceId=296279&cid2=gen_login_refresh

You may have heard that Joseph Epstein wrote a column in The Wall Street Journal arguing that Jill Biden, soon to be the first lady of the United States, shouldn’t call herself “Dr.” even though she has earned a terminal degree in education and has every right to employ that honorific. You may have also heard that his column was not generally well-received, inspiring rebukes from the likes of Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and his former employer, Northwestern University (which said it “strongly disagrees with Mr. Epstein’s misogynistic views”). But were you aware that Joseph Epstein has other opinions about, for example, how college presidents these days are ridiculous figureheads who lack the gravitas of their predecessors, or why the real problem with the current crop of undergraduates is that their parents hugged them too much?

Well, he does. And he shares these pungent critiques, and many more like them, in his recent book, Gallimaufry: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits. It should be noted that although Epstein is enjoying — or maybe enduring — an unexpected cameo in the national news cycle, it’s not as if he just burst onto the hot-take scene. His publisher, Axios Press, calls him “the greatest living essayist writing in English,” a superlative that rules out a host of worthy contenders, though what’s unquestionably true is that he is among the language’s most prolific. Gallimaufry contains 528 pages’ worth of his musings. His 2018 collection, The Ideal of Culture, is a mere 572 pages. And there is no shortage of other volumes with droll titles for the Epstein completist: With My Trousers Rolled, Once More Around the Block, Narcissus Leaves the Pool, The Middle of My Tether.

For more than two decades, Epstein was the editor of The American Scholar, the magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. His stewardship there was not without controversy. He wrote the following assessment of feminist scholars in 1991: “The feminists roll on, perpetually angry, making perfectly comprehensible the joke about the couple in their West Side Manhattan apartment who, having been twice robbed, determine to protect themselves, he wanting to get a revolver, she a pit bull, and so they agree to compromise and instead get a feminist.” That, along with an eyebrow-raising line about “dykes on bikes” directed at the feminist scholar Catharine R. Stimpson, prompted Joyce Carol Oates, the novelist, to write that it was an “embarrassment” that Epstein served as editor and that his “resignation is long overdue.”

Overdue or not, he didn’t resign, although five years later he was fired. In his new collection, he blames his ouster on that vague catch-all, political correctness. “As for the reason for my being fired,” he writes, “it had nothing to do with politics, since I made it a point to clear the journal’s pages of all contemporary political content, but to do with my not running any articles in the journal on the subjects of feminism or African-American studies.” That wasn’t because he was necessarily against running such articles, he contends, but because he “wasn’t interested in the clichés on the subject and hoped for work that went beyond standard victimology.” At the time, The Chronicle quoted one professor as calling Epstein a victim of the culture wars (there was one then too) and another as saying he “has been driving people crazy for years.” Take your pick.

Epstein, who is 83, was bemoaning changes in college life, and in the rest of society, long before many of those skewering him on Twitter — or their parents, probably — were born. In his essay “Immaturity on Campus,” he shakes his head ruefully at the fact that, when he began teaching, in 1973, jackets and ties were no longer de rigueur for male professors, and not all female professors wore skirts. Epstein believes that the classroom power dynamic has shifted too far in favor of students, and he traces that trend to asking them to evaluate their professors. “Who ever said that students were in a position properly to judge the true quality of teaching?” he writes. He cites a fellow professor’s decision to bring doughnuts to an early-morning class as a pathetic example of “sucking up,” and hopes the “doughnuts received a strong evaluation.”

Those evaluations helped lead to rampant grade inflation (“somehow the grade of C jumped up to B ). “At the school where I taught, a proudly left-wing teacher was said to give black students automatic A’s as an act of reparation,” he writes. What’s more, some students started referring to professors by their first names, which for Epstein suggested more than a casual, hallway familiarity: “I recall a young female student, on the edge of tears, during an office hour, asking why I had marked up her papers, as she thought, so severely. ‘Jerry [an associate professor in the same department],’ she said, ‘is never so hard on my writing.’ Hmm, ‘Jerry’? I concluded there was a good chance The deeper problem, in Epstein’s estimation, is that today’s college students have been on the receiving end of unwarranted encouragement from their parents. Epstein says he was once tempted to scrawl “too much love in the home” across an undergraduate composition that fell short of his standards. Epstein himself did not suffer from the same surfeit of affection; in fact, he doesn’t remember ever being hugged by his parents or told that they loved him. (The book includes an essay that spells out why “being hugged by a man … is not my idea of a swell time”).

Don’t get him started on college presidents today. Back in Epstein’s time, that office was occupied by scholars of stature like Robert F. Goheen at Princeton or Alfred Whitney Griswold at Yale. Now he can only dimly recall that “the president of Harvard is a woman, or was a woman until recently.” Presidents are no longer the towering intellects of yore, according to Epstein. These days, when college presidents aren’t “hanging with the wealthy in a position of unspoken but obvious subservience,” they are being “photographed in sweaters and neckties surrounded by racially and ethnically diverse students.” It is a sorry state of affairs, he believes, though Epstein expresses sympathy for the diminished institutional leaders. “In our time every university president is a minor-league Ozymandias, within the small compass of his realm a king of kings — and yet a king without any real power to change things that matter.”

It would be unfair to suggest that Epstein’s oeuvre is endless spleen-venting at the supposed failures and absurdities of modern higher education. He can be a witty guide to the work of writers he admires, like P.G. Wodehouse, who also tended to view anything newfangled with a jaundiced eye. He delivers memorably caustic assessments of Susan Sontag (“the great American savant-idiot”) and Isaiah Berlin (after considering whether he was a writer or a scholar, Epstein wonders “if he were either”). He defends the despised typeface Comic Sans and chronicles his own ill-fated forays into facial hair, comparing a mustache he once grew to — brace yourself — a “Guatemalan illegal alien.” He is a man who is not afraid to take an unpopular stance or risk offense while making a crack.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
After students acquired power through their teacher evaluations, the media grade in the USA actually jumped from C to A-
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
I think students would rather get easy A grades than donuts.

Final Grade Option:  University of Texas lets students decide if they want to keep their final grade, despite 'unintended consequences' ---
https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16412
What if recruiters commence to equate the "Pass" grades with "C" grades?

 


With Centuries-Old Techniques, This Farm Is Preparing for the Future No modern methods or machinery required — just crops cultivated by hand in incredible, climate-proof quantities ---
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/permaculture-bec-hellouin-farm-france/

. . .

There is no tractor or plow in this place of constant growth. The farmers do not use fossil fuels, nor artificial fertilizers and pesticides. The manual work saves costs and reduces their carbon footprint. But there is also another reason. A tractor designed for modern farming could not plant more than three rows of carrots on the barely one-meter-wide strips utilized by this farm. At Bec Hellouin, four times that density of crops is grown in that amount of soil. “We cultivate radishes, carrots, lettuce and cabbage in 12 rows on this space,” says Charles.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Much can be said for the above ventures into farming on land not amenable to mechanized large-scale food production. But we should not extrapolate this article to world production of  grains (corn, soybean, and wheat) production from giant farms in the USA's Midwest or the mechanized vegetable production in California where my son is connected by marriage to a 5,000 acres of rice and tomato farm using enormous Caterpillar tractors, giant combines, etc. Yes you can now plant and harvest rice and tomatoes with robotic tractors, combines, and trucks. The produce is untouched by human hands. The trucks taking harvests to processing mills could even be driverless if the laws permitted such deliveries without drivers.

The modern world with over seven billion hungry people cannot and will not return to farming without machines --- big and better machines. What the above article fails to compare is the productivity of our present mechanized farms with productivity of what they would become today if we banned the machinery and chemicals of farming. We can now longer feed the world with hunting, gathering, and non-mechanized organic farms and food factories.

I'm reminded of the following remarks of Milton Friedman about the lesson of spoons.
Milton Friedman:  The Lesson of the Spoons ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/08/spoons-are-in-aisle-9.html
Chopsticks would be even better than spoons in providing more and more workers with tools to move the earth.

 




Updates on Medical Insurance

 

The good, the bad, and the ugly of England's universal health-care system ---
https://theweek.com/articles/789287/good-bad-ugly-englands-universal-healthcare-system

 

 

 

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

 

COMMON SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS (DRUG ADDICTION) ---
https://www.addictiongroup.org/resources/faq/sud/

 

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