Rebane's Ruminations
November 2018
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["Policy makers should view the problem from the starting point of today, and resolve to take action on every front. America must restore the norm of gainful employment for all who are mentally and physically able and are not working in the home. The private and public sectors must share responsibility for equipping every American, college-bound or not, with marketable 21st-century skills. Congress and state legislatures should restructure public benefit programs to encourage work and ensure that workers earn a living wage. Finally, the nation must enact public policies that sustain the labor market through downturns, making it possible for every able worker to find a job."  From the dreams of disconnected policy pundits.  (more here) ]

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264 responses to “Sandbox – 23nov18”

  1. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Compassionate Extortion: The Homeless-Industrial Complex
    Regarding one of Seattle’s 400 “homeless” encampments, this one comprised of “tiny houses” run by SHARE, Rufo writes: “Even worse, the organization that runs the Licton Springs encampment, SHARE, effectively uses taxpayer money to lobby the city for more taxpayer money. They operate their encampments on a system of ‘participation credits,’ requiring residents to attend political rallies, campaign events, and city council hearings. At last year’s city income tax hearing at the King County Superior Court, I spoke with a homeless woman who lived in a SHARE encampment who explained that if she did not show up to the court proceeding, she would be kicked out of the camp for one week.”
    She [Owen] explained that DESC’s focus has gone from “helping the homeless to securing government contracts, maintaining a $112 million real estate portfolio, and paying a staff of 900 people.”
    Further, about DESC’s mission, Owen said, “When we started, we kept our costs low and helped people get back on their feet. [Now] It’s more important to keep staff paid than to actually help the poor become self-sufficient.” This explains how a billion dollars a year can be spent on the Seattle area’s homeless problem, it only gets worse.
    So, if you ever wonder how those leftist groups get people in the streets so quickly and so often, now you know. The formula is easy: Issue “homeless” folks some fake outrage, pre-produced signs, and slap a little cash in their hands.
    Or, better yet, just threaten to take away their shelter for a week if they fail to show up for the protest of the week.”
    https://www.lifezette.com/2018/11/how-leftist-protesters-are-bribed-to-show-up-and-make-a-fuss/?fbclid=IwAR1XDeBaLd48W75Ew6um83i6wdULi8BdFSoK4x4zEZTpVZrbfWNyMAYselk

    Like

  2. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    How refreshing –
    Mexico says it has deported nearly 100 Central American migrants a day after they tried to storm the US border.
    The group, among thousands of migrants heading towards the US, was rounded up after trying to cross the border “violently” and “illegally” on Sunday, said the interior ministry.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46339085
    😉

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  3. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    11:22am
    Oh Don, Don, Don.
    Big deal about the caravan. Small potatoes. The Rio Grande Valley sector says that’s nothing, we have 5,000 crossing…..per week. The Border Patrol agent’s association said this morning that if Congress had given POTUS the 5,000 Border Patrol agents he requested two yerars ago, the military would not have beeen necessary at all. But no. The Rio Valley sector was the perfect choke point, but since Texas is undermannened, other sectors now like Lorado are now experiencing thousands of illegal crossing rivaling Rio Valley’s 5,000 per week. After waiting to be caught on the US so they can say “asylum, asylum,aslylum” they are proceeded and given a bus ticket. He said they have loaded folks up on buses with full blown HIV and folks couching blood to take for medical treatment. He said that if they tried to come in legally, we would not let sick people in, especially those with contagious diseases. How appetizing.
    Anyway Don, you missed the real story. The real horrors. The real shocker. How could not see the big picture? Addicted to outrage:
    “Some have even pointed out the odd decision to decorate with red Christmas trees, instead of the usual festive green, saying that they look “bloody” or reminiscent of the dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale.”
    https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/melania-trump-slammed-showing-off-historically-ludicrous-christmas-decor-children-tear-gassed-border-great-way-start-holiday-season-164243278.html
    Guess tear gas and gas chambers are synonymous. Must be a Nazi thing.

    Like

  4. George Rebane Avatar

    GeorgeB 1148am – Mr Boardman, please pay attention to my meager efforts at such coverage 😉
    https://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2018/11/ruminations-23nov18.html

    Like

  5. George Boardman Avatar

    Dr R, the Trump tax cuts were supposed to save these jobs, along with the tariffs he was going to slap on imports. It looks like the Arvil Runyons of the world have been conned again.
    Meanwhile, the 1 percent are laughing all the way to their yachts.

    Like

  6. George Rebane Avatar

    GeorgeB 134pm – Mr Boardman, your reckoning on American jobs would be appreciated as a positive addition to these pages. How would you ‘bottom line’ (new verb) the impact on American jobs (especially for the minorities) that Trump’s policies have had viz today’s historic unemployment lows? Or does your Trump tally include only the jobs lost in the ongoing dynamism of the country’s job markets?
    BTW, good column in today’s Union.

    Like

  7. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Well it looks like NID’s assertion that we need a new Dam because of Climate change is being verified by the the Fourth National Climate Assessments report that:
    “The world’s leading scientists agree that climate change is human-induced and warn that natural fluctuations in temperature are being exacerbated by human activity.”

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  8. George Rebane Avatar

    PaulE 256pm – Whatever it takes to build the damn thing.

    Like

  9. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So George it appears that you are in agreement with NID that we need the Dam because of Climate Change.

    Like

  10. George Rebane Avatar

    PaulE 308pm – A textbook example of the faulty logic you frequently apply in these pages – thank you!

    Like

  11. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Just trying to point out the irony in your positions George. If NID is wrong about their view that Climate Change is the essential reason for building a Dam then you should point that out. If they don’t really believe that then they are guilty of fake news by using a false reason to justify building the Dam to gather support.

    Like

  12. Walt Avatar

    Well,, “O” “saved” GM. (at a HUGE cost to us taxpayers, and not to mention screwing over bond and stock holders)
    Trump made it even easier to sell cars. Maybe if GM built cars that people actually WANT TO BUY,,, things would be better.
    Imagine that GM is pulling the plug on the Volt.
    I have always been a GM guy. They made good trucks.(Pre-Obummer) The one I have today is 17 years old, and still runs just fine. Just one or two minor issues in all these years.
    Lets see your electric ECO buggy last that long.

    Like

  13. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    For your reading pleasure
    Wow
    trump is down -22 in latest poll by the Right on the money Gallup poll.
    https://news.gallup.com/poll/203207/trump-job-approval-weekly.aspx?version=print
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/Gallup_9_27_2018.PDF

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  14. George Rebane Avatar

    PaulE 336pm – For whatever reason would I (or any other reasonable person) ever start debating with anyone who is willing to do the right thing, if even for the wrong reason? If I lose my argument re climate change, and they build the dam, it doesn’t matter what I said. However, if I win and that removes their basis for building it, we all lose. That’s like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Readers here know very well my positions on both the dam and on ‘climate change’.

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  15. Walt Avatar

    See a Doc for your O.C.D. Paul. And for your P.E.C.D., T.D.S. B.D.S., and any other D. or S. I have missed.

    Like

  16. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    “Just trying to point out the irony in your positions George.”
    -Punchy 336pm
    Bullpucky, Punch. We’ve been over this and it’s clear as clean spring water that you’re intentionally misrepresenting George’s words using logical fallacies to get his goat.
    There is no irony there.

    Like

  17. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    “So George it appears that you are in agreement with NID that we need the Dam because of Climate Change.”
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=289554315004403&set=gm.519458568569647&type=3&theater&ifg=1
    —————
    Changing gears: The source of the devil weed has been traced to the central CA coast.
    https://www.facebook.com/191559474779358/photos/a.191560918112547/321073441827960/?type=3&theater
    Helpful hint # 447:
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101880468892536&set=gm.519477728567731&type=3&theater&ifg=1

    Like

  18. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    “Maybe if GM built cars that people actually WANT TO BUY,,, things would be better. ”
    It strikes me that they just have the same problems as the other companies.
    . Too many car manufacturers and overproduction
    . Average age of car fleet continues to increase
    . Everyone is a bit lost as to what to do right now. Battery and self-driving cars aren’t quite there yet, but you dont want to spend billions of dollars on a new gasoline line that might be quickly obsolete.
    Answer? Back off, sell only what you know you can sell, wait a bit for any big bets.

    Like

  19. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Scenes, I remember Doug Keachie, back when the Chevy Volt was just released, taunted me with it saying I’d be buying one within a year or two. At the time I looked at the range and the fact that running the heater really drained the battery, and thought no bloody way would that ever fit my needs.
    Looks like my reaction to it was shared by many.
    I’m continuing to drive an ancient Saturn L300 sedan, a boring bloody four door with iffy parts availability (thanks to Obama’s killing of the Saturn side of GM) but it’s reliable. The wheels have not yet fallen off. Someday they will.

    Like

  20. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Oh Canada. Goodbye to the Impala. Once had a 63’ Impala I bought off a used car lot for 200 bucks, tax and fees included. Front panel smashed. Turned the key, it fired up, and drove that thing across several states from the northern border to the southern border, to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. Finally gave it away to a impoverished single mother with child…still running fine. 🙂
    “If GM Canada is indeed turning its back on 100 years of industry and community — abandoning workers and families in Oshawa — then this is a callous decision that must be fought,” she said in a statement.
    The Oshawa operation became a Donald Trump talking point during Canada-U.S. trade negotiations, according to a Toronto Star report about an off-the-record aside during an interview with Bloomberg News over the summer.
    “Every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala,” the U.S. president was reported to have said. The Impala is built at the GM plant in Oshawa.
    https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/general-motors-to-announce-closure-of-oshawa-plant-affecting-thousands-of-jobs
    GM is closing a plant in Japan as well. At least the Cadillac will survive to live another day.

    Like

  21. George Rebane Avatar

    Administrivia: Gentlemen – did anyone notice this morning’s update to Ruminations re GM? Please keep your topical comments under the relevant RR posts. Thank you.

    Like

  22. Paul Emery Avatar

    Fair enough George (4:22) So that sounds like a case of the end justifies the means. Either that or you believe that NID sincerely believes in climate change and the necessity for a Dam based on that. If that is the case then NID has joined the overwhelming numbers of climate change believers.
    From NASA:
    “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals1 show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree*: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position”
    https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

    Like

  23. Paul Emery Avatar

    Looks like the Repubs are gooing to lose another House seat-making it 40!!!
    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democrat T.J. Cox has edged ahead of Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao in California’s Central Valley, where votes continue to be counted.
    Cox trailed since election night but pulled ahead by 438 votes Monday, according to new tallies in the 21st Congressional District.
    The Associated Press had declared Valadao the winner but votes counted since Nov. 6 narrowed the race, and the AP retracted its race call after Monday’s updated vote count gave Cox a lead.
    Democrats already have seized six GOP-held House seats in the state, delivering another blow to California’s long-struggling Republican Party.
    Cox made the race a referendum on Valadao’s support for President Donald Trump.
    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california/articles/2018-11-26/democrat-edges-ahead-in-california-us-house-contest

    Like

  24. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Q: Should those not ‘born women’ (people with testicles) be allowed to bunk and shower with women who have just been raped by people with testicles in rapeshelters?
    A: That’s hate speech. Ban me.
    “Twitter also recently banned “deadnaming”—the practice of referring to a trans person by his or her legal name, or birth name. This also likely played a role in Murphy’s suspensions and ultimate ban.
    “Even Amnesty International voiced real disgust with Twitter’s lack of policing actually awful tweets: “Twitter’s inconsistency and inaction on its own rules not only creates a level of mistrust and lack of confidence in the company’s reporting process, it also sends the message that Twitter does not take violence and abuse against women seriously – a failure which is likely to deter women from reporting in the future.”
    “Yet instead of clamping down on things like pornography, unwanted sexual advances, threats, and crude imagery, Twitter started suppressing accounts of people who didn’t embrace its preferred version of progressive ideology……”
    http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/25/twitter-permanently-bans-feminist-writing-men-arent-women/

    Like

  25. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Quotes:
    The Gipper: “I urge you to beware the temptation … to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of any evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil.”
    For the record: “I think the [special counsel] report is going to be devastating to the president and I know that the president’s team is already working on a response to the report. … I still don’t think it’s going to make a criminal case, because collusion is not criminal.” —Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz
    Non Compos Mentis: “That’s not the law. They should be allowed to come in [and] seek asylum. That’s the law.” —Rep. Elijah Cummings rejecting Trump’s plan to make caravan migrants wait in Mexico
    Non sequitur: “Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime. It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America.” —Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
    Hot air: “People are going to die if we don’t start addressing climate change ASAP. It’s not enough to think it’s ‘important.’ We must make it urgent. That’s why we need a Select Committee on a Green New Deal, & why fossil fuel-funded officials shouldn’t be writing climate change policy.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
    The BIG Lie: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” —Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
    … “I wish Chief Justice Roberts were right. I wish there were not a politicization of the judiciary. But it’s not just politicians. … It’s been happening for 50 years that we have used political terms to describe judges.” —Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)

    Like

  26. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Don the closet sports fan:
    Shifting gears to Mississippi. Boy, this must be a prelude to the special election for Senate. For the first time in my memory, unsportsmanlike conduct was called on every player from both teams.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3sp5HxIHJlQ&fbclid=IwAR0-lUIe_npi6lu24RxhaKe6lduvLmTyB0brfmxsrUpKyF-0J8VdP1Xc81Y

    Like

  27. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Twitter bans another one for no reason given, which BTW, is against Twitter’s own policy,
    lol. The Iraq vet and former R canidate for Congress had the classiest response I have ever read.
    Taking the high road with class, grace, and the truth.
    https://thefederalist.com/2018/11/26/twitter-banned-literally-no-reason-end-theyll-lose/

    Like

  28. Paul Emery Avatar

    wow
    Dems win house by the most total votes in history.
    The raw vote margin, which is slightly over 9 million, is the largest gap between the two parties in the history of midterms, according to Wasserman. And the 8.1% spread between Democrats and Republicans is, according to Princeton professor Sam Wang, a larger percentage-point differential than in any recent wave midterm election including 1994 (R+7.1%), 2006 (D+8.0%), 2010 (R+7.2%) and 2014 (R+5.7%)
    https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/politics/2018-midterms-democratic-wave/index.html

    Like

  29. Paul Emery Avatar

    Todd writes:
    “the R’s were victors on election night”
    Huh? the Dems flipped 40-yes that’s 40 House seats and flipped 8 Governorship’s. The Pubs are up 2 in the Senate. You consider that a Victory Todd? Goodness you are delusional.

    Like

  30. Walt Avatar

    Take THAT ECO nuts.
    https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/27/supreme-court-dusky-gopher-frog/
    “A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to designate a 1,500 acre tract of land in Louisiana as a “critical habitat” for the endangered dusky gopher frog, even though the species has not lived there for decades.
    “I am really overjoyed that an eight to nothing court agreed with me that the service’s decision was absurd and nightmarish for property rights in the United States,” landowner Edward Poitevent told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a Tuesday interview.”

    Like

  31. Walt Avatar

    Keep sniveling Paul.. LIBS lost PLENTY more when “O” (the SOB you voted for) was around.
    Keep digging for that pony.

    Like

  32. George Rebane Avatar

    M 236pm – While your “Sieg Heil!!!” does not reflect well on your historical knowledge, the report you link to is appreciated. I think Trump is off his gourd with a suggestion like that. All kinds of other countries have and continue to run state-sponsored news stations, but one dimension of America’s exceptionalism is that we don’t. Well almost, NPR comes real close to being the premier trumpet for all things leftward.

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  33. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Walt
    So are you contending the Republicans “won” the mid term elections?

    Like

  34. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Just speculating on what the State News Service would be like. Would the reporters and writers all be government jobs? State sponsored TV, Newspapers, Radio, Internet, Movies ??? How far would it go?

    Like

  35. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    George Rebane | 27 November 2018 at 03:11 PM Don’t we already have that? Radio Free Europe and all the other ones transmitting into those crappy countries?

    Like

  36. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Walt we actually were ahead of the democrats here in California on election night Congressional races they had targeted. But as we have seen here and across America, those late counts and delayed counts and found ballots seem to always favor a huge democrat advantage.

    Like

  37. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    News update
    RR’s favorite Judge Andrew Napolitano paints a grim picture for admitted crook Paul Manifort that will make it impossible even with a Pardon to stay out of jail.
    ” Napolitano explained that Mueller designed the plea agreement in such a way that it is “pardon proof.”
    “The guilty plea is 175 pages long. In my career, I have never seen one like this. It was so carefully crafted by Bob Mueller and signed by Paul Manafort, that at the time he pleaded guilty to the charges he was indicted for — which was basically bank fraud, money laundering, and some form of commercial bribery of foreign officials in federal court. He also pleaded guilty to uncharged state crimes in New Jersey, in Virginia and in California.”
    He added, “Why did they do that? To make it pardon proof so if President Trump, which he can do, does pardon him for the federal crimes the state prosecutors in those states already have his guilty plea.”
    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/fox-news-legal-analyst-stunned-at-how-mueller-made-it-impossible-for-trump-to-save-manafort/

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  38. ***M*** Avatar
    ***M***

    ,,,George@311pm,,,lol,,,I have been watching ”’Man in the High Castle on Amazon”’…

    Like

  39. ***M*** Avatar
    ***M***

    ,,,you know it’s bad when even Geraldo Rivera ”’the token tortilla”’ thinks FN reporting sucks,,,
    https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/geraldo-rivera-calls-fox-news-171045843.html

    Like

  40. ***M*** Avatar
    ***M***

    ,,,Watch out GM,,,Trump might cut your allowance you bad boys,,,
    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-warns-u-may-cut-off-gm-subsidies-192533890–finance.html

    Like

  41. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 27 November 2018 at 03:32 PM
    Just speculating on what the State News Service would be like.

    No you’re not…..you’re doing your faux Larry King bit again! Just speculate if you want explore the topic Punch.

    Like

  42. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: M | 27 November 2018 at 03:50 PM
    ,,,George@311pm,,,lol,,,I have been watching ”’Man in the High Castle on Amazon”’…

    What a coincidence…..I’ve been watching “The Man with the Full Diaper” on the Depends™ channel. Impressive performance dugsKKKi.

    Like

  43. Walt Avatar

    Fake news Paul rides again. “RR’s favorite Judge Andrew Napolitano”
    You can’t help making shit up, can you J.Acosta of Nevada City?
    Hes been wrong more than he’s right. Besides. He’s a damned Lefty.
    He might be your “favorite”. I don’t really recall anyone here other than you singing his praises.

    Like

  44. Walt Avatar

    So now their victims. Everyone is a victim these days. Every Proggy is claiming to be a victim of some sort.
    https://www.foxnews.com/world/caravan-migrants-accuse-us-border-agents-of-repression-by-using-tear-gas
    Not “repression”,, REJECTION.

    Like

  45. George Rebane Avatar

    M 353pm – This may really come as a surprise to you, but Geraldo is a flaming liberal – one of several on FN that speaks highly of their willingness to host opposing voices. Care to compare it to MSNBC?

    Like