George Rebane
Lord Keynes famously asked a critical journalist, 'When I get new information, I change my mind. What do you do?' Rebane Rule – A politician 'flipping' his views is welcome only when accompanied by what new information was received when which then caused the change.
The Union has invited Ms Hilary Hodge to be their new liberal columnist. Ms Hodge will lend her voice to the growing progressive cohort that is now escaping to the hinterlands from the metro areas they have fashioned in their own image, and which are no longer suitable places to live. (Her website here) In her inaugural column she gives a fine account of herself emphasizing her liberal education, professional career, and that she is gay. She has a “passion for small business” and is a fellow Rotarian with me in the Nevada City Rotary Club. RR welcomes her and looks forward to her commentaries on “local and national economic issues, policies, and trends.”
The Left’s propaganda about Congress being in “gridlock” continues on all fronts – most recently in county clerk-recorder/registrar Greg Diaz’s column in the 8mar16 Union. The informed reader knows that is not true. The federal government is in a polarized gridlock because the administration has a demonstrated socialist agenda that prevents the passage of legislation from a majority Republican Congress. Congress is doing just fine, but the leftwing lamestream continues the steady drumbeat that only the GOP are the obstructionists – the sound of the one hand clapping.
The cover-up of intelligence from the Central Command (Pentagon’s Mideast military) is another Obama scandal in waiting that our exciting election histrionics have put on the back burner. It turns out that on-the-ground intel analysts in Afghanistan report that their dire findings have been ‘sanitized’ by the Pentagon to provide the administration with appropriate political cover during this election year. This is one of the many reprehensible after effects of Obama’s purge of uncooperative flag officers during his tenure in office. Autocrats (cum tyrants) – e.g. Stalin and Hitler – have always had their toadies tailor news from the front to be more palatable in order to avoid early ‘retirement’ in its various forms.
Universal gun registration – to track the movement of firearms – has always been gun control’s preamble to gun confiscation by government central planners. Such programs are successful to the extent that populations are ignorant. In America (see also RR comment streams) well-rehearsed progressive peans of denial are heard every time Second Amendment proponents point out another incidence of such confiscation accomplished or in the offing – see Canada’s recent experience (here).
In ‘Transformation of Economics’ University of Ohio economics professor Richard Vedder argues that in America economics has morphed into “political economics” along these major lines –
• Diminishing returns to research.
• Economics as ideology in camouflage.
• A disconnect between economic reality and public policy
• The rise of the nonuniversity research centers
• A major cause of America’s economic malaise: the government’s war on work
This insightful read concludes with – One reason living standards in the U.S. have stagnated: There were 12.7 million fewer Americans working in January than there would have been with the 2000 employment-population ratio. Disability insurance claims have roughly tripled in the past generation (despite greater inherent workplace safety because of the declining relative importance of manufacturing and mining); government-subsidized student loans and grants have lured younger Americans away from work; extended unemployment benefits prolonged unemployment; and food stamps now go to nearly 30 million more Americans than 15 years ago. The government has provided much more income that is only available if people do not work. So fewer do. As Charles Murray has noted, this phenomenon has contributed to declining social cohesion and arguably even largely explains Donald Trump’s electoral success.
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