Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the January 14, 2021Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/Tidbits011421.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/

When Antifa received word that Ngo's book was for sale at Powell's bookstore, they decided to show up and demand that the local chain cease selling it all together ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2021/01/11/watch-antifa-demands-a-local-bookstore-stop-selling-andy-ngos-book-about-antifas-nasty-tactics-n2582974?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/12/2021&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Nobody want to be the target of Antif's's arsonists

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/

 

A Letter to My Children Regarding Bernie Sanders ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/a-letter-to-my-children-regarding-bernie-sanders/
A study of Bernie's past reveals a very dangerous man who could bring down the USA

 

The Bill Is Coming Due for China’s ‘Capitalist’ Experiment ---
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-coming-due-china-capitalist-113012069.html
Thanks Wm. Dennis Huber for the heads up

 

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/

The Result of "Too Much Money": Asset Price Inflation and Inequality ---
https://mises.org/wire/result-too-much-money-asset-price-inflation-and-inequality?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=70a67886d5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-70a67886d5-228708937

 

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/

 

The Guardian:  The left must stop mourning Brexit – and start seeing its huge potential ---
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/31/the-left-brexit-economic-uk

 

The New York Times Reporters Are Now Getting the Russian Covid Vaccine ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/world/europe/russian-vaccine.html?action=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage

 

The New York Times Reporters Are Now Getting the Russian Covid Vaccine ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/world/europe/russian-vaccine.html?action=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage

 

San Francisco’s failed experiment of homeless hotels is a cautionary tale ---
https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/san-franciscos-failed-experiment-of-homeless-hotels-is-a-cautionary-tale/

Also see
https://presscalifornia.com/2020/08/10/hazmat-hotel/

 

Biden previews COVID-19 proposal 'in the trillions of dollars' ---
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533420-biden-previews-covid-19-proposal-in-the-trillions-of-dollars

 

Why Mainstream Economic Forecasts are So Often Wrong ---
https://mises.org/wire/why-mainstream-economic-forecasts-are-so-often-wrong?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=939d2c6ac3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-939d2c6ac3-228708937

 

The Schwarzenegger Speech ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/the-schwarzenegger-speech.html

 

Bernie Sanders is now set to become chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, where he will influence some of the most important legislative priorities under the Democratic majority ---
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/12/bernie-sanders-big-budget-plans-458461
Deficits like you've never seen before ---
https://berniesanders.com/

 





Chronicle of Higher Education
Many People Are Seeing Different Facts: Carnegie Mellon Official’s Emails Cast Doubt on the Validity of the 2020 Election

https://www.chronicle.com/article/many-people-are-seeing-different-facts-carnegie-mellon-officials-emails-on-election-spark-outcry?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1892671_nl_Academe-Today_date_20210112&cid=at&source=ams&sourceId=296279&cid2=gen_login_refresh

 

Doubts about the validity of the 2020 presidential election emerged in an unlikely place late last week — the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Many people are seeing different facts and parts of the story about what happened in each state,” wrote Kiron K. Skinner, the institute’s director and a professor, on Thursday to colleagues. “In many cases, there simply isn’t just one set of facts. A research project for some group of us would be to investigate on our own the election outcome in a handful of states. We could be surprised at what we find.”

Skinner, who served on President Trump’s transition team and worked in his administration in the State Department, sent this email and others just one day after a violent mob broke into the U.S. Capitol, spurred on by Trump and right-wing provocateurs falsely alleging election fraud. Her messages — sent to, by some estimates, at least 100 colleagues — at times appeared to express sympathy to those who supported these ideas.

Carnegie Mellon is far from alone in employing or hosting current and former lawmakers and appointees, who often teach at colleges as fellows or visiting professors. President-elect Joe Biden is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

But Trump officials have brought sharp criticism when they come to colleges, in part because of the president’s propensity for lying and campuses’ stated missions to seek truth. Marc Short, Trump’s former legislative-affairs director, served as a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Multiple people left the university in protest of his hire. Harvard University hosted several Trump officials, including the former press secretary Sean Spicer, as fellows.

The stakes of such appointments are perhaps even higher after Wednesday, when the president incited his supporters with lies undercutting the validity of the election. The controversy at Carnegie Mellon suggests as much. As social-media platforms and corporations break ties with Trump and his enablers, colleges may find hiring officials from his administration to be both too controversial and too compromising.

The controversy began when Skinner’s institute published a news release about Richard Grenell, a Trump appointee halfway into his year as a senior fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Institute for Politics and Strategy. Grenell, who was hired by Skinner, has used his Twitter account to spread dismissed claims about election fraud. The release publicized two recent recognitions Grenell received from Trump. It was dated Wednesday, the day rioters broke into the Capitol.

Several people at the university expressed disgust over the timing of the announcement. “Academic freedom is important, but you’re trumpeting evil,” wrote David Andersen, a computer-science professor, on Twitter.

One professor emailed his concerns to a large group that included top administrators, his department’s faculty members, and some students. The university’s president, Farnam Jahanian, replied, saying to colleagues that he shared their concerns and had urged the Institute for Politics and Strategy to remove the post.

Continued in article

Jensen Question
Would your university punish faculty or students who question the integrity of the 2020 election?
It's not politically correct to investigate or question the validity of this election.

 

Bob Jensen's threads on how to be politically correct in academe ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness

 

 


Biden Plans to Build a Grand Alliance to Counter China. It Won’t Be Easy ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-trump-xi-china-economic-trade-strategy-policy-11609945027

With tensions between the U.S. and China rising on many fronts, President-elect Joe Biden will take office aiming to align Western democracies to broadly pressure Beijing, a clear break with President Trump’s go-it-alone approach.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been thinking along the same lines and is a step ahead, setting up an overt competition for global leadership. He has been busy in recent years trying to draw traditional U.S. allies into China’s economic orbit.

Moves this week by both Washington and Beijing are forcing China higher on the Biden agenda. Upon taking office he’ll need to decide whether to overturn recent Trump administration actions. They include delisting Chinese telecommunications companies on the New York Stock Exchange, banning transactions with Chinese-connected apps, including the Alipay payment platform, and blacklisting China’s largest computer chip maker and other firms.

He will also need to decide how hard to press Beijing over its broad crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong.

At the heart of Mr. Biden’s China policy is what he calls a Summit of Democracies that would seek to establish a clear alternative to Beijing’s autocratic rule, said Biden senior advisers interviewed during and after the presidential campaign. The U.S. will also try to organize smaller groups of democracies to tackle specific issues such as advanced telecommunications and artificial intelligence.

For Mr. Biden, resetting America’s China policy means rejecting the current administration’s approach.

Mr. Trump fought with allies on trade and security issues as he took on China and brought actions domestically that have been tied up in the courts, including seeking to shut down or force the sale of the Chinese-owned TikTok video-sharing app in the U.S.

Even so, Mr. Trump changed the tenor of the U.S.-China relationship by confronting Beijing on a number of issues. He also helped shape a growing consensus in Congress and the public that China isn’t just a competitor but also a threat to American global leadership.

Mr. Biden argues America needs to bring multilateral pressure to bear. Otherwise, Beijing can pit one country against another by offering preferential access to its vast market.

“China always saw an escape hatch through their economic relationships with others,” said Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s choice for national security adviser. “Only by closing off those escape hatches would you get China to curb their trade abuses.”

Given the lure of the vast Chinese market, Mr. Biden could face a tough time convincing allies to sign up for a united front against Beijing. China and the European Union, for instance, recently reached an investment treaty. U.S. allies say they can’t be sure of America’s long-term commitment to an international alliance, given four years of a unilateral approach.

China’s leaders will try to ease the tension with the U.S. that deepened during the Trump administration, according to Chinese officials. Beijing plans to dispatch its top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, to Washington shortly after Mr. Biden is sworn in to explore how the two countries could cooperate, said people with knowledge of the matter.

Short-term, there is a trade war to tend to. One issue is what price China is willing to pay—if any—for the U.S. to lift tariffs on about $370 billion in Chinese exports to the U.S. Biden advisers said the president-elect won’t roll them back soon. He plans to analyze the impact of the levies on the American economy and consult with allies before acting. Business groups that opposed the tariffs now say he should negotiate for concessions.

Continued in article

 


 

M1 Money Supply --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply
Especially note the section on M1's link with inflation

 

QE Quantitative Easing --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
Especially note the section on Risks and Side Effects

 

What's Behind the Surge in M1 Money Supply? ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/whats-behind-the-surge-in-m1-money-supply

 


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on January 8, 2021

Good morning. Democratic control of the Senate gives President-elect Joe Biden a much stronger chance of raising taxes on corporations and high-income households.

Until this week’s Georgia runoff elections, Mr. Biden’s plans for tax increases were running into solid opposition from the Republican-controlled Senate. But now, Democrats will hold the White House, Senate and House simultaneously for the first time in more than a decade, and they are poised to use that power.

During his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden proposed raising taxes on corporations, estates and high-income households, reversing key parts of the 2017 tax cuts passed by Republicans and reprising policies that the Obama administration couldn’t get through Congress. For corporations, he would raise the tax rate to 28% from 21%, impose a minimum tax on companies with lower effective tax rates and increase taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign earnings.

“The issue was always, could Democrats get something on the floor? And the answer to that is now clearly ‘yes,’” said Steve Wamhoff of the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “Biden did win after campaigning on raising taxes on corporations and raising taxes on the rich.


Harvard Business Review:  Imagine a Hiring Process Without Resumes (or other background checks) ---
https://hbr.org/2021/01/imagine-a-hiring-process-without-resumes?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_notactsubs&deliveryName=DM113277

. . .

While it may not be feasible for every business, the concept of “open hiring” is an innovative, counterintuitive strategy worth considering if your organization finds it difficult to recruit and retain dependable entry-level workers. This approach, which eschews resumes, interviews, and background checks, focuses solely on human potential and provides employment to anyone willing and able to work. Some of these requirements, like background checks, may be necessary in sectors such as education, government, healthcare, and finance. But for industries that rely heavily on front-line talent — manufacturing, distribution, retail, and food services, where candidates can be trained on the job — open hiring offers the opportunity for more diverse talent that would otherwise be passed over or ignored.

Open hiring shifts resources to invest in workers, rather than finding ways to exclude them. Most important, this approach allows companies to build more resilient businesses and address one of today’s greatest social challenges: providing economic opportunities for people often viewed as unemployable.

Since 1982, Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, which produces millions of pounds of baked goods annually for customers like Ben & Jerry’s and Whole Foods Market, has used this approach while building a successful business with 70 Open Hire employees. New hires are offered a position when their name comes up next on the list of people who have expressed interest in working at the bakery. No resume, job interview, background check, or drug test is required. As a result, the business has virtually no hiring costs.

Greyston then invests about $1,900 in hard and soft skills training for new bakers, as well as providing access to extensive wraparound services. Understanding that a job is just the first step for many in achieving success, the bakery connects employees with health, housing, childcare, and transportation needs to resources that will help keep them employed. So, when a young baker starts consistently showing up late for work, a counselor intervenes and may discover the employee’s childcare arrangements have fallen apart. The counselor then works with the employee to find a solution that benefits his family and the business.

This model has enabled Greyston to build a profitable business over its 38-year history, while also putting money back into the community of southwest Yonkers. Greyston recently calculated that it generates nearly $7 million of local economic impact annually through public assistance savings, increased tax revenue, as well as reduced incarceration costs.

Greyston is now working to scale open hiring and guide other employers in adopting this innovative staffing approach through its Center for Open Hiring (one of us, Sara, is the director). About half a dozen businesses have successfully adapted this model to their operations.

One such company is The Body Shop, the international cosmetics company, which piloted open hiring in one of its distribution centers. The Body Shop typically hires 200 seasonal employees to handle the holiday rush in its warehouse located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Adopting the open hiring approach in late 2019, recruiters asked people just three questions:

  1. Are you legal to work in the U.S.?
  2. Can you stand on your feet for eight hours?
  3. Can you lift up to 50 pounds?

The results? Executives said they were able to quickly fill positions with fewer resources during the holiday rush. Turnover among the seasonal workers was down 60% over the previous year and warehouse productivity increased by 13%. Management reported the best hiring season in the distribution center in years. Due to this success, The Body Shop now is expanding this new hiring practice to other entry level positions in their retail stores.

While your company may not be able to adopt open hiring as broadly as Greyston Bakery, it is possible to apply parts of the practice — and philosophy — to ease your hiring challenges in specific departments or functions. Here are four keys that are essential for open hiring to succeed:

Tie Open Hiring to the Company’s Mission

“You have to be passionate and persistent,” said Trish Patton, vice president of HR at The Body Shop. “I wasn’t going to drop this idea. It’s what we should be doing for our business and our communities, and it leads back to our purpose — that we exist to fight for a fairer more beautiful world.” As with any strategy, you must tie the benefits of open hiring back to your business needs and, once committed, successfully navigate any barriers to implementation. For instance, Patton reports, “We thought we had to roll out unconscious bias training to our managers before we could do this. But, instead, we said there’s never a good time to do this. We have to start sometime. You don’t have to have it perfect. Just try to make change a little bit at a time.”

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Why do the authors make an exception allowing background checks for all government jobs but not all private sector jobs?

In my opinion, employers that are not allowed to look at resumes and make background checks will instead develop skills testing that can become more discriminatory. For example, a law firm that cannot ask about previous experience of a job applicant may resort to a fairly stiff law exam that favors candidates with greater testing skills.


A Small Tax Change Is a Boon for Permanent Life Insurance (especially for wealthy taxpayers)  ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-small-tax-change-is-a-boon-for-permanent-life-insurance-11610283602?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst

Federal lawmakers’ big year-end spending package includes a little-noticed revision of the tax code that is likely to boost sales of life insurance, particularly for wealthy Americans.

The law lowers a minimum interest rate used to determine whether combination savings and death-benefit policies known as permanent life insurance are too much like investments to qualify for tax advantages granted to insurance. The interest-rate floor was put in place in 1984 to weed out policies that were mostly investment vehicles with a thin layer of insurance. Lowering the rate allows owners to put more in the savings portion.

And it makes it more feasible for insurers to offer policies, since rates have tumbled so far in the past decade that the 1980s-era minimum limit is now well above long-term government-bond yields. That has led insurers to warn they might quit selling some of the policies.

The reduction in the interest-rate assumption was effective Jan.1 on new sales.

A summary by the U.S. House staff said the revision was necessary “to reflect economic realities” and give consumers “access to financial security via permanent life-insurance policies.”

“It will create some new opportunities for clients,” said Katie Nentwick, a managing director at Long Road Risk Management Services LLC in Phoenix, which assists investment advisers with arranging and managing insurance plans.

Owners of permanent-life policies defer taxes on their investment gains, and their beneficiaries receive the death benefit tax-free. The policies are designed to be in place for a buyer’s entire life, and allow a buyer to accumulate money to help fund the policy’s future costs and to tap prior to death.

The year-end change by Congress will generally increase the amount of money that policyholders can contribute to their so-called cash-value accounts, though some restrictions remain. This change applies to buyers of all income levels, though wealthier people would typically be better able to afford extra payments into a policy.

“Given the impending rise of income-tax rates, this represents a unique opportunity for high-net-worth investors and investment advisers,” Ms. Nentwick said. She said it could take months to know details of how it will play out, as many insurers must redesign products and obtain regulatory approvals.

An analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation in May showed that the lower interest-rate assumptions could reduce federal income-tax revenue by about $3.3 billion over 10 years.

Continued in article

 


Which state has the cheapest natural gas?
https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/natural-gas-rates-by-state/
Jensen Comment
Most of New Hampshire does not have access to natural gas. The small natural gas market in NH is probably the main reason natural gas prices are high. We can buy relatively expensive propane delivered by tank trucks, but propane apparently is excluded from this study. Most homeowners in NH use fuel oil furnaces, although homes and businesses are slowly putting in renewable energy for home use. The short days in NH limit the advantage of solar relative to states further south, but we do see more and more solar panels up here in part because electricity is so expensive --- 
https://www.nh.gov/osi/energy/saving-energy/incentives.htm
Because of our extensive forests, wood pieces and pellets are popular forms of renewable energy in NH. Many homes have wood and oil/propane combinations. Wood and other biomass alternatives constitute renewable energy alternatives that spew carbon into the atmosphere. Wind farms are more popular in the plains states (think Iowa) and states with lots of ocean shoreline. We have high winds in New Hampshire, but the wind is less predictable than in some other states like Iowa and our ocean exposure is very small.

It would be interesting for cost accounting students to investigate alternative energy cost trends in various states. One complication for the future will be the impact of Biden's green initiatives on these trends.


Cybersecurity Insurance Has a Big Problem:  There's Literally Not Enough Money to Keep the System Viable Under Some Realistic Scenarios ---
https://hbr.org/2021/01/cybersecurity-insurance-has-a-big-problem?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_notactsubs&deliveryName=DM114280
A similar problem arises under pandemic. insurance!




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/