Category: MLLG Collection of Ultra-Short Posts

Micro Topics – 2016 Election – Latest from BHO

George Noga
Capitalism makes our lives better without any plan for doing so; having such a plan however is a guarantee that our lives will become miserable.
Micro Topics – 2016 Election – Latest from BHO
By: George Noga – December 9, 2018

Micro Topics: Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; promise enough men free fish and you win elections. . . . .  Obama famously said “I have a pen”. Trump has an eraser and it is huge. . . . . The family deported together stays together. . . . . In California you go to jail for using a plastic straw, but crossing the border illegally gets you sanctuary and free stuff. . . . . Che Guevara: “I don’t need proof to execute a man; I only need proof it is necessary.”. . . . Capitalism makes our lives better without any plan to do so; having such a plan assures our lives will be miserable. . . . . There is only one everyday product in America that we must wait in long lines to purchase: a postage stamp.

Micro Topics II: Seen recently around a cauldron auditioning for Macbeth: Maxine Waters, Diane Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. California is like the mythical Germanic kingdom where candy grows on trees, lemonade flows in rivers and the fattest, ugliest and stupidest person is king or, in this case, queen . . . . .  “You can observe a lot just by watching.” (Yogi Berra) . . . .  Jubilee soon will be on the progressive agenda; it’s their version of biblical every 50-year debt forgiveness. . . . . If Trump nominated Hillary for SCOTUS, we could have had the FBI investigate her.

Hidden in Plain Sight: What really happened November 8, 2016? Two reporters spent the entire campaign on parts of the old Lincoln Highway in the American heartland. Their new book, What Really Happened, explains Trump’s victory. The book describes Bonnie Smith, from a small Ohio town. Her parents were Democrats; her husband is a Democrat, she was a Democrat and the county she lives in had not voted Republican for as long as anyone remembers. The county (Ashtabula) went for Obama by 55% twice but Trump beat Clinton by 19 points – a swing of 30 points. The same story played out in hundreds of similar communities throughout the area. Trump stumped there 18 times while Hillary was in California raising megabucks from elites.

Bonnie Smith is a mother of three who worked long and hard to save enough money to open a donut shop. She gets up at 1:30 AM to begin making donuts by 2:30 AM. Following are her words: “I am not sure what happened, but I started to look around my town and country and I was just not in the mood anymore to show up and vote for who my party tells me to vote for. I am kind of like that voter that was hiding in plain sight that no one saw coming. I was right there all along. I’ve seen the job losses here, the rise in crime, the meth and heroin problem, society losing hope and something just gave in with me.” Bonnie’s story speaks for many millions of other Americans.

Barack’s Baaaack: Obama now claims credit for the roaring economy. This from the same person who said, “Two percent growth is the new normal and we should get used to it.” Now, BHO and his acolytes put forth a metaphor of a lid screwed tightly onto a container. They assert BHO exerted superhuman efforts to loosen the lid such that once Trump took over, the lid (presumably holding back the economy) was easily removed and, voila, boom times followed – all due to Barack Obama loosening the lid.

For his entire eight years, BHO did all he could to tighten the lid on the economy, all the while preaching his little sermons whose subtext always was how smart he was and how his opponents were dim-witted, Neanderthal racists. I don’t believe Bonnie Smith and the other good folks in Ashtabula County, Ohio buy into Obama’s metaphor.

Our next post, about the four gifts of Christmas, is the last for this year. 

Slaves, Socialism, Supreme Court and ICE

George Noga
Did the US Constitution consider slaves 3/5 of a person? Can socialism ever appear to work? Can the world run out of money? These questions and more.
Slaves, Socialism, Supreme Court and ICE
By: George Noga – October 28, 2018

Micro Topics: “Medicare for all” is the new cry of lefties. Single-payer health care has been tried and it failed miserably – with Native Americans and veterans. It adds trillions to the deficit, but the real cost is in lives. . . . . “The left destroys everything it touches, sports, comedy, schools, fun, everything”. (Charlie Kirk) . . . . . In the latest PC craze, schools abolish homecoming kings and queens, substituting “royals“. But aren’t royals a privileged hereditary aristocracy? . . . . . For 2015-16, uber-liberal NPR can confirm only 11 school shootings; with 96,300 schools, that is one shooting per 8,755 schools. . . . . Not long ago, liberals and media applauded when jack-booted ICE agents conducted a pre-dawn raid to seize a 6 year old boy; his name: Elian Gonzalez.

Only 3/5 of slaves were counted per the Constitution but it was not due to southern racists, but northern abolitionists. Nor did the 3/5 have anything to do with the putative human worth of a slave. In 1789, there were 1.8 million freemen in the north but only 1.1 million in the south. The south wanted to count all 650,000 slaves to achieve equal representation in the House of Representatives; the north didn’t want to count any, hence, the 3/5 compromise. The Constitution refers to slaves as “persons“, nowhere as 3/5 of a person. This issue is misunderstood and often demagogued by liberals.

Socialism can appear to work  briefly because socialists plunder a nation’s wealth to create the illusion of progress. They confiscate assets, loot industries, banish managers and pad payrolls with hacks. They strip natural resources and despoil the environment. They run giant budget deficits and borrow all they can before defaulting. They tax the upper and middle classes into oblivion. They hyperinflate and print worthless currency. They pillage banks and make phoney loans to acolytes. They impose price and rent controls and prohibit evictions. They freeze prices and impose currency exchange controls. Wealth creators flee along with their capital and knowhow. After socialists ransack a nation’s patrimony, it always ends the same, i.e. starvation amidst plenty. Never has socialism created sustained prosperity, only short-term pillage and plunder.

The world is running out of money. The supply of money is finite and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Seriously! We can’t just keep printing money because that only inflates, i.e. more money chasing the same supply of goods and services. Space aliens, pandemics or climate change won’t do us in; in the end, the planet simply runs out of money. World government debt is $64 trillion while GWP is $76 trillion for a ratio of 84% and spiraling upward. Total global debt (public and private) is $230 trillion, over 300% of GWP. Who will be the one to borrow the last dollar in the universe?

SCOTUS confirmations are circuses as Congress quit legislating, leaving lawmaking to courts. Uncertainties about vacancies create angst, as justices now can serve 40+ years. To fix this, MLLG resurrects an old, but simple and elegant, idea which may be new to readers. Justices (limited to one term) would serve staggered 18-year terms with one term expiring every 2 years. Every president would have 2 appointments each term. This removes all the angst and uncertainty and no president could ever appoint a majority. Eighteen years is enough to serve; moreover, this change would enable more experienced justices to be appointed because longevity would no longer matter.

Our next post November 4th offers perspective about the midterm election.

Kavanaugh – SunRail – Election Meddling

George Noga
Robots don’t create unemployment – politicians do. 
Kavanaugh – SunRail – Election Meddling
By: George Noga – August 26, 2018

Micro Topics: If liberals were in charge in 1776, America’s founding document would  be the Declaration of Coexistence and New Hampshire’s motto would be Live Free or Coexist. . . . . The Second Amendment exists to protect citizens against tyrannical government and recently it was used twice successfully (Nevada and Oregon) for that very purpose. . . . . Progressive comedy is meant to be serious, but when they are serious, it is comedy. . . . . Robots don’t cause unemployment, politicians do. . . . Under capitalism, both buyers and sellers customarily say “thank you” after transactions because both benefited – unlike under socialism or when dealing with government.

SunRail & Greece: We once wrote that the Greek national railway, Hellenic Railways, could save money by paying every passenger to take a taxi. We yucked it up at this example of socialism run amok and why Greece was bankrupt, never believing such lunacy could happen in America, much less in Central Florida and within just a few years. Silly us! SunRail could pay every rider $35 to take Uber and save money.

The math is straightforward: SunRail costs $34 million to operate; tickets bring in only $1.9 million, creating a loss of $32.1 million. Average ridership is 3,500 for the 254 days each year SunRail operates, resulting in 890,000 riders. Dividing SunRail’s loss by the passenger count, equals over $36; hence, SunRail could pay each passenger $35 for Uber and taxpayers would be better off. Incredulously, government considers SunRail a success and is rapidly expanding it. Even the Greeks weren’t that crazy!

Kavanaugh Causes Progressive Paroxysm: Progressives contort into pretzels to avoid uttering “abortion” in which they believe passionately but refuse to say aloud; they substitute euphemisms like women’s health, reproductive rights and choice but they all mean only one thing: abortion. They demand abortion anywhere, at any stage of pregnancy, at any age and for any reason including gender selection, which is equivalent to femicide. Preposterously, they argue that females must be aborted to protect their rights; i.e. that it is necessary to kill women in order to save them.

Progressives also twist into pretzels to oppose Judge Kavanaugh even though their real argument is not with him but with the Constitution. Kavanaugh clearly is eminently qualified and has an impeccable personal narrative, but liberals demand judges who will enact their agenda from the bench. They have given up on the legislative branch and the thought of losing the judicial branch reduces them to paroxysms. However, just as they refuse to utter the word abortion, they refuse to articulate that their real bete noire is not Brett Kavanaugh but the Constitution of the United States of America!

Election Meddling: America is awash in progressive crocodile tears over meddling although the USSR/Russia interfered in every US election since the 1950s. Perhaps Obama ignored the 2016 meddling because he was busy with his own interventions. Following are the top six of meddler-in-chief Obama’s most egregious meddles.

(1) In Kenya he supported Raila Odinga, an Obama relative, whose son is named after Fidel Castro; (2) Israel, where he diverted US government funds to Netanyahu’s opponent; (3) He favored the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; (4) In Honduras he supported leftist Zelaya who defied the Honduran constitution and supreme court; (5) Macedonia, where he destabilized a center-right government at George Soros’ behest; and (6) He publicly opposed Brexit while visiting England just before the vote.

Next on September 2nd, we will post something apropos for Labor Day. 

Collection of Micro and Ultra-Short Posts

George Noga
Government could pay every SunRail passenger $30 to take Uber and that would cost less than the subsidy for operating SunRail!
Collection of Micro and Ultra-Short Posts
By: George Noga – July 8, 2018

Micro Posts: Look upon the Obama presidency as a vaccination that inoculated the body politic with a low dose of socialism which may protect us from later contracting a more virulent form of the disease; don’t snicker; it worked in 2016. . . . . . . Kim Jong Il  reportedly shot 38 under par, including 11 holes-in-one, the first (and only) time he played golf; this is all you need to know about the NoKos. . . . . . . Nuclearization of Iran and North Korea, once considered by all as unacceptable, became irreversible under Obama/Clinton/Kerry – then along came Jones – err, Trump. . . . . To justify his belief in climate change, Obama said carbon dioxide emissions exacerbated his daughter Malia’s asthma; oops, it’s sulfur dioxide (not CO2) that is linked to asthma.

From the WWII Caen Memorial: “Instead of peace, the end of the war saw the creation of two competing economic systems. One was the United States which adopted a messianic form of capitalism emphasizing consumption above equality resulting in an intensely materialistic society. The greater wealth created by its acquisitive capitalistic system was devoted to support a hedonistic life style. The other system, championed by the USSR, was based on common ownership of resources. Although this system proved less efficient, it led toward a much more equal distribution of the wealth in its society.” 

 

Americans buried at nearby Normandy did not fight for messianic capitalism; but the Caen Memorial is right in one way: communism more equally distributed its poverty. And all those people fleeing communism probably could have used a little hedonism.

Climate Claptrap: A recent US government scientific report is hokum. It reports sea levels increasing at a higher rate while failing to note this has occurred often in the past 100 years. It reports heat waves are more common but doesn’t acknowledge the peak was during the 1930s dust bowl years and they are no more common now than 120 years ago. It claims hurricanes have increased in power, ignoring a NOAA finding of no detectable human impact on hurricanes. Remind me; who are the science deniers?

Capitalism and government: If your kids love government and hate capitalism, this may cure them. Capitalism brings us: Uber, Waze, Venmo, Google, Spotify, Kindle, iPhones, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Android, Apple, Disney, FedEx, UPS, Airbnb, internet, Lyft, laptops, notebooks, tablets, 4K-HDTV, Nintendo, iMac, Roku, Amazon Echo, Xbox, and Google assistant. Government brings us: IRS, USPS, DMV, airport security, public schools, Medicaid, taxis, $700 toilet seats, waste, fraud, abuse, Amtrak, student debt and (horrors) SunRail (see below).

All Aboard: SunRail is the second biggest con job in Florida history after the lottery. Every scient person (except teachers, who fell en masse for the lottery) knew exactly what would happen. Ridership is 30% below its worst case estimate and is decreasing! SunRail costs $35 million to operate and fares bring in only $1.9 million. Government could pay every SunRail passenger $30 to take Uber and it would save money. And Uber picks you up and drops you off 24/7 anywhere, any time  – without timetables.

Despite abject failure, SunRail is adding 17 miles and plans more extensions. SunRail makes even Amtrak, which charges $9.50 for an inedible hamburger that costs $16 to make, look good. Amtrak loses $1 billion/year on food for which it has a monopoly.

Trains are deeply embedded in progressive DNA. When liberals hear the word train, they become catatonic and involuntarily begin to chant their mantra: “all aboard – all aboard – all aboard“. This is in part due to their aversion to cars and fossil fuels but trains have a more primal attraction for progressives, i.e. their desire for collectivism and disdain for individualism. Cars freely go whenever and wherever, making the driver the master of his fate. Trains go on a timetable devised by government experts, who know better than individuals what choices are best for them. All aboard!

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More Montana Moments is next as we explore Montana’s Canadian Connection

MLLG Collection of Ultra-Short Posts

George Noga
Education spending before and after the lottery – Hate crimes really are political crime. Thirty reasons why Hillary lost – Participation trophies –  Americans’ New Way of Life
MLLG Collection of Ultra-Short Posts
By: George Noga – May 27, 2018

       From time to time we bale together a short stack of pithy topics that, although blog-worthy, cannot justify an entire 500-word posting; this is one of those times.

Lottery and Education: MLLG compared Florida’s per pupil spending on education before and after the lottery. The year before voters approved the lottery (1985), Florida spent $4,060 per pupil – equivalent to $8,000 in 2017.  Actual 2016-17 spending was $7,500 on a comparable basis – $500 less per student than before the lottery. This is unsurprising; anyone with a modicum of walking-around sense knew lottery money would supplant other money over time. What’s truly pitiable is that clueless teachers, who fervently bought in to this three-card monte, are still teaching our kids.

Why Hillary Lost: Hillary has proffered myriad reasons why she lost; following are a few she omitted: Marc Rich pardon, sniper fire in Bosnia, trashing Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky, calling half of America deplorable, cheating Bernie Sanders, Vince Foster, travelgate, Whitewater, cattlegate, troopergate, $15 million Chelsea condo with campaign funds, Loretta Lynch interference, accepting stolen debate questions, secret server, deleting 30,000 subpoenaed emails, destroying phones and hard drives, Benghazi, Haitian thefts, Russian uranium deal, Wikileaks, Anthony Weiner, compromising top secret data, Clinton Foundation pay for play, avoiding Michigan and Wisconsin and just being an all-around horrid person.

Self Esteem and Participation Trophys: Self esteem is unearned confidence and hence a lie. American students fed self esteem rate themselves high even though they score below average. Such students will feel good about themselves as they flip burgers while their foreign counterparts own the place. I once supported a charter school in a tough neighborhood. The students were indoctrinated in self esteem and bought into the hype as did their parents. Unfortunately, they learned nothing else; the school’s test scores tanked; the school failed and the students were even worse off than before but they had their participation trophies. Self esteem must be earned through achievement.

New American way of life: A guy with a girlfriend and 2 children receives $90,000 per year as follows. Buy a house, live with your girlfriend, don’t get married and continue to use your parents’ address. Rent to your girlfriend for $900/month paid by Section 8. Your girlfriend receives Obamacare, cell phone and utilities, $600/month food stamps and free college tuition. You each claim one child on your tax return and both claim head of household for credits of $1,800. Your girlfriend claims disability (easy) for another $1,800/month. Married couples get none of these benefits but by following this plan, as many now do, they receive $90,000/year. Is this a great country or what?

Airbnb and Uber Under Attack: Deep blue cities and states continue attacking Airbnb and Uber at the behest of their unionist paymasters. Progressives insist any two people can share a marriage but are adamantly opposed to two people sharing a ride or an apartment. Liberals likewise believe in a woman’s right to choose provided her choice is not about where to school her children, owning a gun, joining a union, buying health insurance and obviously not about sharing a ride or apartment. While Uber and Airbnb were investing in transformative technology, taxi owners were investing in politicians and morphed into powerful, politically connected, state-sponsored cartels.

Hate Crimes are Political Crimes: Millennia of conflict and confrontation were needed to purge the world of the notion that a crime against one person should be treated differently than the same crime against another person. Hate crime laws diminish the actual crime and contain different standards of justice for different victims. Whether or not a crime is a hate crime is purely a political decision which ultimately depends on whether charging a hate crime advances a certain political narrative. Hate crimes, thought crimes and hate speech are throwbacks to the middle ages and the inquisition.

Next: The second anniversary of the Pulse nightclub tragedy. Do not miss this one!