Gerrymandering—Hypocrisy on both sides

Both sides of the political spectrum accuse the other side when redistricting comes up every ten years. Oregon gained a seat from the last census, too bad, but those are the facts.

In the 2020 election republicans got 42% of the vote. With another seat under the new redistricting they are expected to win one seat. A supposedly “non-partisan” committee came up with the new districts. The Princeton gerrymandering project run by academics gave Oregon an “F”. Considering that university professors are 80% self identified as progressives, and Princeton is in the headlines limiting speech, this is a bullet to the heart. Or it should be.

Yet. Marc Elias who has stated , “We are prepared and ready to use every legal tool available to make sure that new maps do not unfairly treat voters.” Unless they are republican it seems as he has signed off on the Oregon results.

Mr. Elias’ law firm and Parker Cole (The law firm whose lawyer was just indicted for lying to the FBI during the Trump election) said the republicans weren’t cooperative, as if that justified the result. I am sure if the tables were turned both law firms would be on the warpath, suing everyone in sight. What happened to we should honor the popular vote?

What a bunch of smelly horse hockey. Another state I will never spend any money in.

Afghanistan, Should we have stayed?

The administration is lying about how well the retreat from Afghanistan went, David Petraeus commented that we should have stayed in the current deployed level, around 2500 folks plus contractors, to provide air support. The comments from the MSM that the Army ran away is accurate, the reason being they knew without air support the encroachment of the Taliban could not be stopped. I would have left too.

We stayed too long in a dysfunctional state. By doing so we created a growing obligation to assist those that helped us. I am 74, was an active duty marine from 1970 to 1976. When we negotiated with the communists we promised RSVN funds to continue their fight. Shortly after the treaty signing the democrat majority congress cut off all funds. Shameful. I was sure this kind of treachery would be learned from, but in my life we have shamed ourselves again, again the democrats-mostly.

I read today the Taliban beheaded a female soccer player this week. The consequences of a poorly thought out policy. Secretary Austin should have resigned once told to do what we did. He knew what the results would be.

Sept 24, 21 Fair Share, Tax The Rich

Let’s just tax the rich say the progressives. No one making less than $400,000 a year will see an increase in taxes. This bill costs zero!

  1. The Tax Foundation says 21% of smokers earn less that $35,000 a year, the new excise tax on tobacco burden the lowest income earners 37 times as much as equivalent funds raised through income taxes. They also say as corporations pay more tax, they hire less, lower wage increases, reduce benefits. Teh middle class may not have a higher tax rate but their costs to live will go up.
  2. “Fair Share” What the hell does that mean. 50% of the population pay NO income tax, ZERO. The myth that countries like Finland are the model neglects to point out their income and social security taxes are the same as or higher than ours. Most people pay taxes versus our current arrangement. The US has the most progressive tax system of the OECD countries. https://taxfoundation.org/scandinavian-countries-taxes-2021/
  3. Zero? Depending on who you listen to the taxes raised don’t come close to covering the 5.5 trillion, not even close to 3.5 trillion. Does raising taxes affect the economy? Well sure they do, JFK began lowering taxes in the 60’s and the economy started a 50 year increased growth rate. When the economy doesn’t grow well, think of the EU versus the US, wages don’t go up, promotions are limited, investment is lower, new company creation is lower. How many times must we see countries who think government control is better than private enterprise fail to provide the citizen with a way out of poverty.

The progressives are lying to us. They want something for nothing and the power to control our lives, telling us what is good for us. Are there some good ideas in the bill, yes. Putting all the cost on the feds only grows the ineffective bureaucracy, we want more of the failed federal government control?  More uncontrolled borders? More waste?

Sept 23, 21 Workfare

The 3.5 trillion, or actually 5.5 trillion if if all programs are scored as continuing for 10 years, have many flaws. One of the main ones for me is the lack of connection to working, meaning you get money whether you work or not.

There are some folks not able to work. They deserve our assistance and compassion. We have seen what happens when the other folks get money from the government without the requirement to support themselves. As the economy has opened, businesses across the country are not able to hire workers, the monetary incentive to stay home is too high.

Some say everyone deserves a UBI. But if the UBI keeps folks at home, not contributing in whatever way they can, then the economy doesn’t grow fast enough to accommodate population increases from births and immigration. Thus, the old problem of spending other peoples’ money hits us, the money runs out.

Modern monetary theory says we can borrow as much as we want without consequences. I love theories. Unfortunately most go the way of the flat earth theory, no proof. History is filled with examples of economic theories that fail, sentencing the bulk of those upon whom they were enacted to penury, loss of freedom, etc. Except for the theorists, they seem to come out all right.

An example, Burlington College, run by Bernie Sanders wife. She had a great theory on how to breath life into the college. Well, her theory killed it.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/politics/jane-omeara-sanders-burlington-college.html.

Susan Collins, the senator from Maine commented on the 5.5 trillion bill as not containing work requirements in a recent speech to the senate. The Democrats targeted her in the 2020 election to be defeated, spent tons of money and failed, the people of Maine felt she represented their views and resisted the effort. They were characterized with invectives similar to those our last president was criticized for by the progressives, hypocrites, uh yeah.

This is only one issue with this monstrosity coming from the progressives.

 

Sep 22, 21 John Durham, Press Coverage

John Durham just indicted Mr. Sussman, a lawyer with the law firm closely associated with the HRC campaign for lying to the FBI. He represented himself as a concerned citizen exposing the link between the Trump campaign and a Russian bank. What he didn’t do is tell the FBI he was an integral part of the HRC organization.

We have seen light starting to come to the alleged effort to attach Trump to the Russians as false. Already an FBI lawyer has pleaded guilty to changing a document before the FISA court to allow Carter Page to be surveilled. What he deleted would have disallowed that surveillance.

We know the MSM gobbled all this up with gracious enthusiasm and filled the airwaves with little or no investigation.

I watch both CNN and Fox, CNN has mentioned the indictment, but only mentioned. I wish I had a way of seeing how much time both networks spent talking about John Durham’s investigation.

By the way, I can’t stand Trump as a person. I did agree with about 60% of his policies.

 

Peace

Oct 3, 21. Hearings on Afghanistan and other issues

 

I had a chance to watch about three hours of the hearings in both houses of Congress, and then watched the highlights over the next couple of days.

  1. Biden lied, people died. “I was never told we should leave military folks in Afghanistan.” Either he lied, or his memory of such an important piece of advice was forgotten, if forgotten that may be even more scary. All three witnesses verified the advice was passed on.
  2. Whether we should have been there for 20 years is a good question, but since we were there we have an obligation to protect those before we leave. We were holding the Taliban with our air support. Many leaders, including this one and the past two presidents, put deadlines in writing. Stupid move. Hopefully we have learned something the time around.
  3. Biden lied, people died. “We will stay until all are out.” Guess not.
  4. Milley overstepped his license by talking with the authors. My experience in  the military, even as a lowly captain in the marines, was never to offer opinions about politics, even within my unit. Secretary of defense Mattis said in his book he would never give opinions about a sitting president. He resigned over a matter of principal, a a disagreement with Trump over Syrian policy. Milley should have resigned; he said resigning is a political move, that is correct, it is. But, if he really felt lives were at risk, as well as the strategic safety of the country, he should have. If he had maybe Biden would have changed his mind. I read a piece in the “Daily Signal” about Milley in which the following deserved requoting.” In December 2018, Trump nominated Milley, previously chief of staff for the Army, for the position of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff against the advice of his defense secretary at the time, Jim Mattis, and the incumbent chairman, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford.” Disregarding advice due to arrogance and self absorption is a common ailment.
  5. HR McMaster wrote a book when he was a colonel, “Dereliction of Duty” that highlights the lack of principle generals during Vietnam were unwilling to challenge the directions from the commander in chief. They knew body counts were wrong. They refused to listen to those in field who told the truth about our strategies. Groundhog Day!

I am disheartened that lessons taught were forgotten. I am ashamed we left so many behind. I am angry that the offer from the Taliban to provide security for all of Kabul was declined. I am bewildered that our airbase just north of Kabul was abandoned, it was so much easier to defend.

I thought at 74 we were passed this. Secretary Gates’ was prescient when he commented on how many times Biden got foreign  policy wrong.

Peace