Rebane's Ruminations
August 2011
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George Rebane

- The Left’s American Dream movement
- UK riots have an unmentionable cause
- California’s popular vote law

Led by Van Jones, our favorite self-declared communist and former Obama staffer, the American Dream Movement “announced the Contract for the American Dream, a new agenda for economic recovery supported by a grassroots movement that progressive leaders say will rival the Tea Party in size and impact.” (more here)  Those progressives can’t get their message straight – one minute they're decrying the Tea Parties as yesterday’s newspaper, and the next minute they’re trying to get something similar going to match its “size and impact”.  This is their second attempt at flattering the TPs; the first was something called the ‘Coffee Club’ or clatch or whatever that was launched into oblivion a couple of years ago.  In any case, one man's dream is another's nightmare.

British social scientists are quietly starting to ascribe the cause of the ongoing riots in the UK to multi-culturalism (gasp!).  It seems that there is insufficient reason to suspect deprivation of this sort or that since Great Britain is one of the most socially generous and culture-compliant countries in the world.  The rioters have been mostly black Africans who have attacked the shops and businesses of other ethnic groups in UK’s major cities.  (The police shot one of their gang members.)  In response, the target ethnics – Pakistanis, Sikhs, Turks, … – have coagulated into defensive ethno-centric vigilante platoons since police protection is sparse and late.  Prime Minister Cameron and other European leaders have already gone public with their assessments of how mulikulti affects their respective countries.  Tough reporting job for the leftwing press.

California quietly took another large step toward Progressive Amerika with Governor Moonbeam’s signing of the National Popular Vote Law.  This law will assign all of California’s 55 electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the nation’s popular vote, regardless of the candidate that won in California.  (more here)  It is another step away from the Founders’ republicanism and toward popular democracy, an inherently unstable and beguiling form of governance that leads to autocracy.  Unfortunately that is the progressive agenda (aka UN's Agenda21) in full swing – eight other states have already adopted similar legislation, and now it's coming to a state near you.  We can already hear the strains of ‘The Internationale’ in the distance.

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33 responses to “Ruminations – 11aug2011”

  1. MikeL Avatar
    MikeL

    I will be laughing when all of the California’s electors go to the next Republican president. This will be great..all of the lefty trash will be screaming how the extremist tea party stole their vote..oh wait Gov JB is a lefty, never mind!

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  2. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Didn’t Feinstein complain about the electoral college in 2000? She and her pals wanted to assign by district which would have goven Gore the victory. Ted Costa had a initiative to do that but he hasn’t responded to me asking about its status.

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  3. toto Avatar
    toto

    The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
    The National Popular Vote bill is a state-based approach. It preserves the Electoral College and state control of elections. It changes the way electoral votes are awarded in the Electoral College. It assures that every vote is equal and that every voter will matter in every state in every presidential election, as in virtually every other election in the country.
    Under National Popular Vote, every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. Every vote would be included in the national count. The candidate with the most popular votes in all 50 states would get the 270+ electoral votes from the enacting states. That majority of electoral votes guarantees the candidate with the most popular votes in all 50 states wins the presidency.
    National Popular Vote would give a voice to the minority party voters in each state. Now their votes are counted only for the candidate they did not vote for. Now they don’t matter to their candidate. With National Popular Vote, elections wouldn’t be about winning states. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. Every vote, everywhere would be counted for and directly assist the candidate for whom it was cast. Candidates would need to care about voters across the nation, not just undecided voters in a handful of swing states.

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  4. toto Avatar
    toto

    In 1969, The U.S. House of Representatives voted for a national popular vote by a 338–70 margin. It was endorsed by Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Bob Dole.
    On June 7, 2011, the Republican-controlled New York Senate passed the National Popular Vote bill by a 47–13 margin, with Republicans favoring the bill by 21–11. Republicans endorsed by the Conservative Party favored the bill 17–7.
    Jason Cabel Roe, a lifelong conservative activist and professional political consultant wrote in National Popular Vote is Good for Republicans: “I strongly support National Popular Vote. It is good for Republicans, it is good for conservatives, it is good for California, and it is good for America. National Popular Vote is not a grand conspiracy hatched by the Left to manipulate the election outcome.
    It is a bipartisan effort of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to allow every state – and every voter – to have a say in the selection of our President, and not just the 15 Battle Ground States.
    National Popular Vote is not a change that can be easily explained, nor the ramifications thought through in sound bites. It takes a keen political mind to understand just how much it can help . . . Republicans. . . .Opponents either have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea or don’t fully understand it. . . . We believe that the more exposure and discussion the reform has the more support that will build for it.”
    http://tinyurl.com/3z5brge
    http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2011/05/16/national-popular-vote-is-good-for-republicans/
    Former Tennessee U.S. Senator and 2008 presidential candidate Fred Thompson(R), and former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar (R) are co-champions of National Popular Vote.
    Saul Anuzis, former Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party for five years and a former candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee, supports the National Popular Vote plan as the fairest way to make sure every vote matters, and also as a way to help Conservative Republican candidates. This is not a partisan issue and the NPV plan would not help either party over the other.
    http://tinyurl.com/46eo5ud
    http://www.thatssaulfolks.com/2010/04/01/national-popular-vote-why-i-support-it/
    Some other supporters who wrote forewords to “Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote ” include:
    Laura Brod served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2003 to 2010 and was the ranking Republican member of the Tax Committee. She is the Minnesota Public Sector Chair for ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and active in the Council of State Governments.
    James Brulte who served as Republican Leader of the California State Assembly from 1992 to 1996, California State Senator from 1996 to 2004, and Senate Republican leader from 2000 to 2004.
    Ray Haynes served as the National Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 2000. He served in the California State Senate from 1994 to 2002 and was elected to the Assembly in 1992 and 2002
    Dean Murray is a member of the New York State Assembly. He was a Tea Party organizer before being elected to the Assembly as a Republican, Conservative Party member in February 2010. He was described by Fox News as the first Tea Party candidate elected to office in the United States.
    Thomas L. Pearce served as a Michigan State Representative from 2005–2010 and was appointed Dean of the Republican Caucus. He has led several faith-based initiatives in Lansing.
    By state (electoral college votes), by political affiliation, support for a national popular vote in recent polls has been:
    Alaska (3) — 66% among (Republicans), 70% among Nonpartisan voters, 82% among Alaska Independent Party voters
    Arkansas (6) — 71% (R), 79% (Independents).
    California (55)– 61% (R), 74% (I)
    Colorado (9) — 56% (R), 70% (I).
    Connecticut (7) — 67% (R)
    Delaware (3) — 69% (R), 76% (I)
    DC (3) — 48% (R), 74% of (I)
    Idaho(4) – 75% (R)
    Florida (29) — 68% (R)
    Iowa (6) — 63% (R)
    Kentucky (8) — 71% (R), 70% (I)
    Maine (4) – 70% (R)
    Massachusetts (11) — 54% (R)
    Michigan (16) — 68% (R), 73% (I)
    Minnesota (10) — 69% (R)
    Mississippi (6) — 75% (R)
    Nebraska (5) — 70% (R)
    Nevada (5) — 66% (R)
    New Hampshire (4) — 57% (R), 69% (I)
    New Mexico (5) — 64% (R), 68% (I)
    New York (29) – 66% (R), 78% Independence, 50% Conservative
    North Carolina (15) — 89% liberal (R), 62% moderate (R) , 70% conservative (R), 80% (I)
    Ohio (18) — 65% (R)
    Oklahoma (7) — 75% (R)
    Oregon (7) — 70% (R), 72% (I)
    Pennsylvania (20) — 68% (R), 76% (I)
    Rhode Island (4) — 71% liberal (R), 63% moderate (R), 35% conservative (R), 78% (I),
    South Carolina (8) — 64% (R)
    South Dakota (3) — 67% (R)
    Tennessee (11) — 73% (R)
    Utah (6) — 66% (R)
    Vermont (3) — 61% (R)
    Virginia (13) — 76% liberal (R), 63% moderate (R), 54% conservative (R)
    Washington (12) — 65% (R)
    West Virginia (5) — 75% (R)
    Wisconsin (10) — 63% (R), 67% (I)
    Wyoming (3) –66% (R), 72% (I)
    http://nationalpopularvote.com/pages/polls.php

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  5. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    You would need a Constitutional Amendment to make those changes.

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  6. toto Avatar
    toto

    The presidential election system we have today is not in the Constitution, and enacting National Popular Vote would not need an amendment. State-by-state winner-take-all laws to award Electoral College votes, are an example of state laws eventually enacted by states, using their exclusive power to do so, AFTER the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, Now our current system can be changed by state laws again.
    Unable to agree on any particular method, the Founding Fathers left the choice of method for selecting presidential electors exclusively to the states by adopting the language contained in section 1 of Article II of the U.S. Constitution– “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . .” The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly characterized the authority of the state legislatures over the manner of awarding their electoral votes as “plenary” and “exclusive.”
    The constitution does not prohibit any of the methods that were debated and rejected. Indeed, a majority of the states appointed their presidential electors using two of the rejected methods in the nation’s first presidential election in 1789 (i.e., appointment by the legislature and by the governor and his cabinet). Presidential electors were appointed by state legislatures for almost a century.
    Neither of the two most important features of the current system of electing the President (namely, universal suffrage, and the 48 state-by-state winner-take-all method) are in the U.S. Constitution. Neither was the choice of the Founders when they went back to their states to organize the nation’s first presidential election.
    In 1789, in the nation’s first election, the people had no vote for President in most states, only men who owned a substantial amount of property could vote, and only three states used the state-by-state winner-take-all method to award electoral votes.
    The current 48 state-by-state winner-take-all method (i.e., awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in a particular state) is not entitled to any special deference based on history or the historical meaning of the words in the U.S. Constitution. It is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, the debates of the Constitutional Convention, or the Federalist Papers. The actions taken by the Founding Fathers make it clear that they never gave their imprimatur to the winner-take-all method.
    The constitutional wording does not encourage, discourage, require, or prohibit the use of any particular method for awarding the state’s electoral votes.
    As a result of changes in state laws enacted since 1789, the people have the right to vote for presidential electors in 100% of the states, there are no property requirements for voting in any state, and the state-by-state winner-take-all method is used by 48 of the 50 states. States can, and frequently have, changed their method of awarding electoral votes over the years. Maine and Nebraska do not use the winner-take-all method– a reminder that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is not required to change the way the President is elected.
    The normal process of effecting change in the method of electing the President is specified in the U.S. Constitution, namely action by the state legislatures. This is how the current system was created, and this is the built-in method that the Constitution provides for making changes.

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  7. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Say what? The electoral college is in the Constitution specifically for the Presidential election. That office is the only nationwide elected official. You need to read it again. Article 2, Section one.

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  8. toto Avatar
    toto

    The Electoral College is the set of electors who vote for presidential candidates.
    Unable to agree on any particular method, the Founding Fathers left the choice of method for selecting presidential electors exclusively to the states by adopting the language contained in section 1 of Article II of the U.S. Constitution– “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . .”
    The current 48 state-by-state winner-take-all method (i.e., awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in a particular state) is not entitled to any special deference based on history or the historical meaning of the words in the U.S. Constitution. It is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, the debates of the Constitutional Convention, or the Federalist Papers. The actions taken by the Founding Fathers make it clear that they never gave their imprimatur to the winner-take-all method.

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  9. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Is there a consensus Libertarian view on the matter?

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  10. Ben Emery Avatar

    The Electoral College (electors) is embodied in the Constitution in Article 2, Section 1, and in the 12th Amendment.
    Instant Run Off Voting
    http://www.instantrunoff.com/the-basics

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  11. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    How do you like the new police state, using cell phone jammers to prevent images from escaping from a BART station, in order to cover up police activities like the murder of the mentally ill man in Fullerton, CA, by six (6) VI cops who beat is face into hamburger. It took five days for him to die.
    On the international economy, we got a new dog from the pound, a beautiful German shepherd, but she has heart worms. One company in Europe makes the cure. The stuff is out of stock. Uncertain as to how long the wait will be, despite ordering it two weeks ago.
    The rising economies of India and China have enough affluent dog lovers that the stuff has gone scarce. Wait til that starts happening with human medical drugs and devices, maybe then the rt wing will realize exporting jobs was really DUMB!

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  12. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    It is an interesting race, to see of the Tea Party Republicans can defund the opposition through making the economy even more rotten before 2012 elections, and it look like it might be working, except for Obama’s reported 1 Billion dollar war chest.
    The left has many many versions of the Tea Party, but no unifying theme, equivalent to the 3, 4 or 15 principles of the TP. The Coffee Club still exists on FB, along with MoveON and a host of others. They did rally enough to knock of 2 of six in WI, however. Time will tell.

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  13. George Rebane Avatar

    The “dumb” transfer of pharma manufacturing to other countries is the direct result of American tort laws and the litigious environment that the lawyer class has created here. The pharmas are not the only companies that have successfully sought such relief overseas. The progressives deny all of this because the legal profession is a cash cow for the left. Witness what is driving physicians out of business and what got left out of Obamacare.
    Re jobs. If a capitalist must create 2 jobs overseas in order to create one wealth creating job in the US, should he be dunned for that? How should we treat the profits he makes from his overseas operation? Should we let him bring the money home?

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  14. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    California’s STRS will have no problem charging me state income tax on my STRS pension, if I move out of state, there is no reason why the USA cannot charge taxes on profits made abroad.

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  15. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    American lawyers have run it all from the beginning. They are the ones that set up corporations as “people” way back in the 1850’s. They are the ones that keep the courts underdefunded, so that there are huge backups. How do they do it? They make sure that no laws will ever be passed limiting the over-representation of one occupational group in the legislature. There are such laws elsewhere, and we need them here.
    We also need a 10% flat tax on all the gross income generated by any event started by filing a paper in court. This would of course include settlements in and out of court, and would generate more than enough cash for quick hearings in courts on all matters, and end the quadruple billing where a lawyer has four clients cooling their heels in the hallways, while collecting $250/hour, “waiting” for a courtroom to open up.
    I promised Michael Dougherty I would publish this concept every chance I got, as he was so good to me and my family.

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  16. George Rebane Avatar

    DougK – You seem to be citing Cal STRS as some exemplar and paragon of virtue on tax policy. Since most countries already charge US corps profit and other taxes on operations within their jurisdictions, do you propose to add more US taxes on top of these? If so, why not pass laws that simply illegalize US multi-nationals?

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  17. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    Interesting commentary on the Tea Party in Reuters:
    http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2011/08/12/the-tea-partys-blue-deal-for-america/
    article ends with:
    “Another dialogue should begin on how to create jobs and involve the private sector, which is sitting on more than $3.6 trillion in cash. Activities that are harmful to society — such as pollution, junk food, smoking, gambling, alcohol and trading speculation — should be heavily taxed. Use the revenue to create 21st Century jobs that pay a living wage and fund public education and clean energy.
    Compromise and social progress need to have a seat at the table. The alternative: Chaos, economic despair, social unrest and a lower standard of living. We need only look to the streets of England or the Arab world to see how gross social inequity eventually translates into anarchy.”

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  18. George Rebane Avatar

    We should note that in DougK’s 1202am, the cited article was written by progressive columnist John Wasik. His views on how the world works is almost diametrically opposite from those held by conservatives.
    Wasik’s maintaining that “compropmise and social progress” do not “have a seat at the table” in today’s public dialogue is a both gratuitous and specious argument. Where in hell does he think the Democrats have been sitting since FDR got elected, in the basement? (Also see Van Jones’ new American Dream Movement.) The socialists are both dominant and ascendant.

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  19. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    “If so, why not pass laws that simply illegalize US multi-nationals?”
    Tax them the same way they pay the workers, as much as you can get and still leaving them a tiny profit (salary, paid to the workers, in the corporation’s place).
    Taxes and strong unions are the workers way of getting the corps by the short hairs, much as exporting jobs and paying illegals are the corps way of getting the workers by the short hairs.
    It’s a dog eat dog world out there, George, and each side claims the moral high ground. Been that way for a long long time.

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  20. Russ Steele Avatar

    Glenn Reynolds suggest it is time one again to remember Robert Heinlein’s quote on the conditions of man:
    Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
    This is known as “bad luck.”

    I want to take a moment and thank those few that helping me exceed the norm. Thank You!

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  21. George Rebane Avatar

    DougK – “dog eat dog world out there” indeed. The problem with your 215pm punitive taxing approach is that none of your ideological peers have been able to find the proper tax policy that attracts investment and intelligence in sufficient amounts to form competitive corporations that can hire workers at the ‘fair wages’ you and yours demand.
    And again, let the unions with all their smart workers start their own companies. Until then, Russ offers wise words from Heinlein above.

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  22. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    So how do you explain the 1950’s, when one professional salary afforded purchasing a house in the hills of Berkeley, and today’s equivalent assistant prof salary can barely afford rent?
    There are 50 million plus guns in this country, as somebody has pointed out. At some point the slide of wealth upwards and the landslide of poverty into the middle class may not be conducive to a civil society. I am not advocating violence, I am simply observing history, and wonder just how much concentration of wealth into the hands of a very tiny minority you are able to stomach yourself.
    I ask you once before, if Koch or equivalent managed to manipulate the government and the markets such that he could kick you our on the streets, just how happy would you be with your own, “abject poverty” and just what would you be inclined to do about it? You never answered.
    How, you ask, could that happen? Just jack property taxes through a legislature controlled by biggest money, pandering to the unwashed masses, and then buy up the foreclosures for a song, and add your name to the unwashed masses. There’s probably a lot of Chinese who’d like your house, and who have enslaved enough workers, to make enough cash to buy it for four times its current value.
    Good luck with your abject poverty stuff.
    Another way, raise the taxes on every patent you own until you have to sell them to Koch Industries. If I can think this stuff up, so can David and Charlie.

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  23. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    Douglas – I’m sorry your dog has heart worms. We moved to the area in the late 70’s and no one told us about heart worms until her yearly checkup. It was too late. My uncle in Brown’s Valley warned us that the “cure” would end up killing her. It did eventually. That was all pre-internet, and we found out later that the medicine you want has been pushed out of this country by lawyers suing on behalf of clients that are grieving their dead doggies. Blame a litigous society and a govt that caters to lawyers’ pockets. We’ve had 2 other dogs die due to the medicine prescribed to ease their pain. The internet is buzzing with folks salivating to sue because their fido died from the side effects of these drugs. We knew the risks and it paid off big time for one of our dogs (she perked up immediately and lived another 2 happy years) and another died the night he started the drug. It may have been his last night anyway. They both would have been put down very soon anyway, so we felt it was worth the risk. There are huge pending lawsuits from a lot of grieving owners. The companies have fled the states. Blame the left, my friend – they are driving away the drugs you and our canine friends need.
    As far as your (and the left, in general) rant about folks sitting on cash – I seem to recall it’s not your property. I don’t tell what to say or think, and I don’t try to take your stuff. You have no right to other’s property. Capische, buddy? Or are you inviting us all over to loot your belongings? I know, that’s different – that’s MY stuff. But other folks have no right to their stuff.

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  24. George Rebane Avatar

    DougK, your questions about inequity are valid, but your remedies have led to worlds much worse than the original malady. Inequities will always arise in societies with individual liberties, and the freer the society, the more will be the difference between the richest and poorest. Equality and liberty are necessarily two ends of a see-saw – the French Revolution lied.
    The real questions are 1) do the poorest have an acceptable quality of life, and 2) does society provide the poorest with the opportunity to become the richest?

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  25. Ben Emery Avatar

    1600 house parties were held and at those parties 26,000 ideas were given to help rebuild the American dream with jobs and strong social safety net.
    In two days of releasing the contract to the public 175,000 people have signed it. Do you think our Mr. McClintock will sign it?
    “Momentum is already gathering behind the Contract. Yesterday, joined by 100 members of the American Dream movement, Rep. Jan Schakowsky unveiled her “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act” in Chicago. It would create 2.2 million jobs by putting people to work rebuilding infrastructure, teaching our children, and protecting our communities, and pay for it by taxing millionaires and billionaires.” http://rebuildthedream.com/
    Basically it is letting the “temporary” Bush tax breaks that created a net private sector job loss over the two terms expire. This increase in tax revenue will fund the rebuilding of our crumbling outdated infrastructure.

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  26. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    BenE, your link was to a “progressive” leftwing website called Campaign for America’s Future. My God man, they are so leftwing Stalin would be pleased. You obviously are stuck and really have no idea how a job or a business is created. Oh, and after perusing the weblink, tell us all who would be in charge of the socalled grand idea? Sheesh!

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  27. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    The Koch fortune was based in part of Pappy Koch hobnobbbing with Joe Stalin and building him oil refineries. Milo Minderbinder is a great fictional portrayal of the same kind of man, in the novel, “Catch 22.”
    What is an “acceptable quality of life?”
    Does it include the right to die when if you had more money you would live?
    Tarps are not OK, but tin roofed pole barns with dirt floors are fine?
    By the USA building codes, how many people are living in substandard homes, even allowing for grandfather clauses?

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  28. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    How much of the USA housing stock is being allowed to melt back into the environment, due to banks keeping them off the market or over pricing them? If the Left was causing that much damage to the nation’s collective wealth, you’d be yelling “treasonous terrorists!”
    As we saved our heartworm infested dog by adopting from the pound two weeks ago, so we are “saving” a house, a piece of the USA collective wealth, much to the joy of our new neighbors in Marysville. The house next to us is still vacant, going on 2nd year, but being maintained by a private owner. We looked at dozens of houses the banks neglected, before selecting this one as “do-it-yourself-able.”
    The banks, classic capitalists, are strictly looking out for their short term bottom line, with no concern for the damage they’ve done to the USA.

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  29. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Sorry DK but your disjointed comments are too archaic to reply too. KISS man!

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  30. Douglas Keachie Avatar

    Have a Samantha’s Orthagonal on me, Todd.

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  31. Bonnie M Avatar
    Bonnie M

    Russ…thank you for Robert Heinlein’s quote on the conditions of man. As Abe Lincoln put it…America’s a place where the little guy could get a fair shake. Freedom to create and enjoy the reward, if you want to put forth the effort. Too many whiners today, who envy others for what they have, without considering the achiever’s effort and risks involved. All this talk about companies moving to other countries. Don’t you think our government encouraged it? Gov regulations combined with the unreasonable demands by labor unions encouraged business migration to other nations seeking to improve their economy. Most favored nation during the Clinton era was China….and look how far they’ve come. Wouldn’t it be nice if our government looked at us the same way?

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  32. RL Crabb Avatar

    Yes, nice to see old Bob Heinlein, one of my favorite authors, quoted. You Tea Party conservatives should remember his views on morality, social engineering, and oppressive religions.

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  33. George Rebane Avatar

    BobRL, in his biography Heinlein’s social philosophy is well summarized. He readily and sadly admitted that the critters on the third planet were not ready to implement it.

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