Trump Speech to Congress

So what did you think of Trump's speech?  I give him a B...

CNN Trump Speech Transcript
CNN Fact Check

I think he had better get some Democrats on board because I don't think the hard core fiscal Conservatives are going support his spending ways.

CNN Conservatives Balk at Cost of GOP Health Proposal

Trump's Incredible Ability

So given all of the information in the latest NBC / WSJ poll, what detail does Trump decide to tweet about?

And somehow he avoids noting all the other really interesting stuff.  Well at least he acknowledged the validity of the poll... :-)  Here is an interesting piece regarding egocentric "abilities".  Life must be much simpler for them...  If you don't like it - Just create an alternate version.

Why Attend Someone Else's Townhalls?

So continuing on from MP With or Without Erik and G2A Erik P: Wise or Chicken. Kelly, one of the organizers, noted that the meeting was advertised and that everyone was welcome.  So I posed some of our questions over at MP, unfortunately I have no answers yet

"Everyone was invited and welcome. There were Republicans, Democrats, and independents there. There was no screening. The invitation was on an open Facebook page, in the Sun Sailor--twice--and I believe was in church announcements." Kelly

"Question: So did you ever have any indication that Erik would come?

Or is this really just a way to rally the Liberals and gain additional supporters?

I mean it does seem like a brilliant method. Get everyone there and if Erik no shows, people may tend to think he is ignoring them. And if Erik shows and people share their sad stories and he has no immediate answers, he is shown to be unwilling to help.

My question is why would any rational person show up to these events? There seems to be no upside for them..." G2A

After thinking about it some, I guess it makes some sense for Erik not to show up.  I mean he ran as a Conservative, he got elected as a Conservative and therefore he is representing us as a Conservative.  What exactly is the value of attending a meeting where most of the people are the ones who did not vote for him???


And did the organizers think he should start acting like a Liberal after the election?  The whole thing is puzzling...

The Democrats are in Trouble

Now the GOP may have problems, but I think the Democrats are really in trouble.
CNN Progressives Unhappy
CNN Sanders Not Impressed


If they are pushed to go even further Left than Hillary proposed, I am thinking they are going to be relegated to holding offices in the highly urban areas only. How do you think the Democrats can change to improve their standing and influence around the country?

How to Help People

I think this is an interesting exchange from here.  I always find it interesting when a Liberal seems to think they are more caring and generous because they want to outsource solving a problem to strangers with someone else's money.

"Left leaning, liberal, progressive and socialist seem to be the favorite labels for people who want to exercise concerted actions in support of bettering the lives of the people. Individual responsibility does not preclude participating in cooperative efforts for social betterment. If these attempts to provide conditions which will allow society to help its members gain comfort and security are denigrated by calling it socialism then look at our current situation and ask how is that antisocial approach working." Reino 

"Actually I think this applies to both Liberals and Conservatives.  "people who want to exercise concerted actions in support of bettering the lives of the people"  The big difference is that the first group wants to delegate the effort to bureaucrats with funds taken from successful people.  The other groups wants to encourage all private citizens to freely give and help their less fortunate neighbors.

Please remember that the first group fought a war on poverty for 50+ years with trillions and trillions of dollars. Now poverty is still with us, the number of single family households is at an all time high and the academic achievement gap is still a big problem. Maybe it is time to try something else." G2A

White House Block Mainstream Press

Let the law suits begin, our foolish President chose to escalate his war with our Free Press even further, and anger the majority of Americans even further. CNN WH Blocks Press  In an SNL skit they guessed that Trump would only last 2 months before Pence took over...  Maybe they will be correct.

"CNN and other news organizations were blocked Friday from a White House press briefing. There was no immediate explanation from the White House. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico were also excluded from the meeting, known as a gaggle. The Associated Press and Time magazine boycotted the briefing because of how it was handled. The White House Correspondents Association is protesting. The conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network were allowed in. Hours earlier, at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, President Trump mocked and disparaged the news media. He said that much of the press represents "the enemy of the people." "They are the enemy of the people because they have no sources," Trump said. "They just make them up when there are none." He also said reporters "shouldn't be allowed" to use unnamed sources. "

Latest Poll. NPR People trust media more?
CNN WH Says They Did Not Try to Manipulate FBI

Erik Paulsen: Wise or Chicken

MP Scenes from with or without 
ST Erik Skips Meeting
CNN TownHall Meetings

So one of our more Liberal church members setup a Townhall at our Church and asked Erik to attend. Given the number of cars and traffic that I endured dropping my daughter off at an unrelated church event, I think there were more than the reported 600 people there...

Well it turns out that Erik was a NO SHOW... However it seems the attendees still had a good time airing their thoughts, questions and/or concerns. So was Erik's avoidance of the mob wise or was he just being a big chicken who was hiding from his constituents? Rationale?

Cutting Healthcare Costs is Easy, Just Cut Benefits

Just ball parking based on my family, good insurance costs between $4,000 and $5,000 per year per person.  That would be for a good normal employer plan that covers the 10 Essential Elements with low out of pocket yearly expenses. 


In my case the insurance for my family of 5 runs ~$20,000 / yr.  Thankfully ~70% of that is picked up by my company as part of my annual compensation.  Now the puzzle is since the median household income in the US is in the mid $50,000 range.  How do all of those families on the left side of the curve afford good coverage?


Apparently the GOP's proposal is to allow for less complete plans and smaller subsidies.  I am not sure that is a good answer.  Thoughts?


Please remember that I think ACA was an okay law that just needs tweaking:

• Put real teeth in mandate penalties so everyone buys and stays insured. (ie no more "I'll sign up until they install my new hip")
• Open up insurance competition across State lines.
• Eliminate State Exchanges and provide one functional National Exchange. (ie cut mgmt and mktg costs)
• Maybe set rates by State, not region within State. (ie reduce rural peaks)
• Other?

NPR GOP May Trim 10 Essential Benefits
NPR Less Help for the Low Income
PBS GOP Document Plan
G2A Healthcare Cost Drivers
G2A Pre-Existing Condition Fraud

Hey There Big Spender

I am simply amazed at how much Trump has promised to spend going forward... Are you sure he isn't a Democrat? Now with the GOP in charge of the money, how is he going to accomplish this?

And if he does not achieve these spending goals will he accept responsibility for failing? Or will he blame his failure on someone else? Will the buck EVER stop at his desk? I am guessing not since I know people who are very much like him.

FOX Expand the Military
TP Keep SS & Medicare
CNBC $1 Trillion Infrastructure
CNN Healthcare for All
CNN Wall on Southern Border
Politifact Trump Promise Tracker (rated)
Politifact Trump Promise Tracker (not rated yet)

Then there are the costs that he is incurring just through his personal choices and behaviors. From what I read here it seems he has spent ~11 of his first ~33 days in Florida. Plus we are paying for Melania's security at Trump Tower... Did the Trump voters sign up for his maintaining 3 homes, visiting them often and spending literally $10 million /month? What happened to the first family moving to the White House ASAP and focusing on the country?

NPR Frequent Visits Disrupt Life and Cost Businesses
WLOS Trump Visits Expensive: Want Reimbursement
CBS Trump Trips $10 Mil so far
Independent Trump Family More In One Month
Natl Memo 100's of Millions more than Obama
CNN Aides Hesitant to Say Trump is Playing Golf
Guardian Cost Vex NY and Florida Officials

I love this one...  

"President Donald Trump has made visiting his Florida golf courses a near every-weekend habit in the first month of his administration, and his aides are trying to obscure whether Trump is actually golfing during the visits. One possible reason: Trump was a frequent and vocal critic of President Barack Obama's golf habit, regularly slamming the former president for playing golf with many pressing issues before the country. Trump even suggested during a 2016 event in Virginia, in a knock on Obama, that if elected he was "not going to have time to go play golf." "I'm going to be working for you, I'm not going to have time to go play golf," Trump said at the time. Trump has visited his two golf courses near his Mar-a-Lago estate -- Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach and Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter -- six times in his first month in office.

New Improved Travel Ban

An example of the Trump stupidity and distraction in action.  This obsession with annoying huge business, universities, states, liberals and moderates etc over the minimal threat (MSN WP New Travel Ban) even as they roll back a logical safety measure.  I will never understand the far Right, let's stop the people without guns from coming here and ensure the mentally impaired can have guns.  Really?

Happy Presidents Day

I thought that was saying because I actually have it off for the first time in my adult working life...  Apparently management needed one more holiday this year !!!

Low Approval Equals Lost Seats

Jerry and I were discussing what Trump's real approval and disapproval ratings are today over here.  My beliefs are depicted in the graphic below. The things I think he is doing that will continue to keep his approval below 50% include:

• His obsession with blocking legal refugees and other travelers from 7 countries even though there is no proven threat.
• His saying he is only deporting violent illegals, while in reality occasionally taking Mothers away from their families.  Separating families and crying children make excellent advertisements for the Democrats against him.
• His continually saying that our Free Press is an enemy of the citizens. (Lugenpresse)
• His continual lying over the stupidest things. (biggest electoral win since Reagan)  I mean hasn't he heard of google search?
• The tendency for him and his staff to make mistakes. (Sweden),  (Bowling Green)

Since he continues to focus on rallying his true believers, fighting against everyone else and focusing on minutia, I really don't see a path to him becoming a President with a high approval rating.  With that in mind, the following article becomes pretty important.  538 Will Trumps Low Approval Ratings Harm GOP  It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 22 months.  Now please remember that I want Trump to succeed, I just don't know how he is going to do it if he:

• does not improve his methods (ie he is NOT a CEO anymore, people do not need to do what he says...  I wonder how long it will take for him to figure that out?)
• continues catering exclusively to his base (ie they are a minority of Americans, he won because the system is thankfully rigged by the electoral college. but that only goes so far.)
• continues speaking/ tweeting before thinking (ie how can any rational person take him serious with all the errors/lies he makes)
• continues picking fights over the dumbest things (ie adults have the self control to know when to fight and when to ignore) (ie number of people at inauguration?  Really?)
• continually gets distracted with the minutia instead of getting focused on the economy and healthcare. 
• continues to try and take credit for everything good and blame others for everything bad. (ie adults know how to share praise and blame)

Trump Misrepresents Polls

Here is what I think is an important diagram, especially since the Trump folks are trying to say they are trusted more than the media.  It is a bit like when the GOP would use polls to say that people did not approve of ACA, and implied that they all thought it went "too far".  When in reality many of those folks really thought it did not go far enough...

Same in this case, the reality is that there are many people on the Far Left who do not trust the Mainstream Media because they think it is controlled by the Conservative Corporate interests. (ie it is too Conservative)  And many on the Far Right who think all those journalists are Liberals...

Where as who trusts Trump is much more one sided, it is his True Believer voters.  And everyone else distrusts him, including myself.

Fox News Poll

Fox News Summary of Results

Slate Reports Regarding Fox Poll

Household Debt: Here We Go Again

Apparently people did not learn from the Great Recession... They are out borrowing and living large again.  It is hard for me to feel bad when the rainy day comes and all these folks have no umbrella.  Oh well.
CNN Money Debt Growing

It is really too bad that Bush and Obama drove up the National Debt to buy our way out of the Great Recession so quickly...  It seems people did not have time to learn valuable lessons, and now our country is deeply in debt if the economy flounders again.  Which it will undoubtedly.
G2A Recession a Bad Thing?
G2A Recession a Bad Thing Revisited?

Trump Inherited a Mess?

Maybe Trump is losing it...

• "As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess."
• "We have made incredible progress. I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we've done,"
• "This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine."
• "We had a very smooth roll out of the travel ban. But we had a bad court," Trump said. "We had a bad decision, that is the only thing that is wrong with the travel ban."

I would say that all of these statement are incredibly incorrect.

CNN Trump Unloads on the Media

CNN Opinion Trump Going Off Rails
Fox News Trump Blasts Media
Fox News Trump I did not Divide America
CNN Trump Regarding Leaks: Then and Now

Iowa to Control Unions?

A liberal facebook friend posted this with concern.  NPR Iowa Moves to Limit Public Unions


Of course I think it is more important to put the needs of the students before the wants of adults, so we disagree.


I added some comments to MP Teacher Shortage that describe some of the problems.

"As long as ED MN is determined to choke the supply of good high performing Teachers from being licensed in MN, there will be shortages. That is what they want, it helps them when negotiating.

And then there are those terrible steps / lanes / tenure concepts that stifle completion also...  I keep hoping sometime we start putting kids first." G2A

"I am always amused by those that cite the evil empire of the MEA. As a former member of the MEA and also the United Food & Commercial Workers union I can say the former had a lot to learn from the latter. Our local MEA group that represented the interests of the teachers for all wage and benefit issues was a biology teacher, a civics teacher and a math teacher against the best labor lawyer in town, a school board member with large agri-business experience and a wily 30 year Superintendent of schools. They whipped our butts every time. And what our negotiators always came back with was: "well we did not get nearly what we hoped to in actual compensation; but, we did get a better benefit concerning X Y or Z". And the funny part is that by all that "winning" the comp battle and throwing a benefit bone to the workers made the current mess of pensions, 55 Year old retirees and other poorly funded mandates. If they had given an immediate raise and held back on the benefits the teachers would have been happier and the district likely better off in the long run. MEA vs. School District is a fair bargaining situation and the portrayal of the MEA as this omnipotent force that never loses is not reality.

And those terrible steps and lanes? The school identifies curricular goals that they believe will improve teacher performance and then offer incentives for teachers to achieve them. Again, as American as apple pie and a Trump hat. Acting like teacher's do not put kids first is dead wrong. Teachers and their ambitions, abilities and dedication are normally distributed, just like the ambitions, abilities and dedication of professional workers in the private sector and maybe more, because they made an initial career choice with full knowledge of income earning limitations." Edward 

"I personally don't think ED MN is evil, I just think they are focused on doing good by all of their employees. Especially the older ones who are more likely to have power within the organization. And there are unfortunate consequences of maximizing the compensation and job security for the older employees.

ED MN apparently has ~70,000 members, I am pretty sure they can afford good Labor Lawyers and sizable donations to friendly politicians. Otherwise the citizens of MN would not allow:

- the most expensive Teachers to congregate in the schools with the easiest students.

- the newest and least expensive Teachers to be placed with the students who need "the best" Teachers.

- paying and retaining people based on years served and degrees earned instead of their actual performance and capabilities

- the new gifted Teacher needs to wait 10 years before they earn what they are worth." G2A 

"I believe there are 330 school districts in Minnesota. Each of these is a unique bargaining unit that stands on their own for wage and benefit negotiation: So no, not every bargaining unit has the benefit of good labor lawyers. These wages and benefits are the result of fair bargaining. And ain't that the American way?

If you look around your company, I'll bet that those employees with the highest degrees and greatest number of years served correlate well with compensation earned.

The MEA is certainly concerned with the needs of their members; but, to suggest that there is not sincere concern for quality educational results reflects an opinion not based on first hand experience." Edward 

"Sorry, but independent is a pretty weak concept when all of the 330 contracts and pay schedules are public documents. The reality is that they use each other as a "point of reference" to justify their newest demand.

Please remember one of my favorite sayings. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I agree that most teachers entered the field because they do care about children. Unfortunately the system, unions, and employment contracts cause all of the terrible issues I note above to occur.

Please address them if you disagree." G2A

FOX & Breitbart Seek to Distract

It seems that the Far Right media is much more interested in covering the 911 call / caller than the crime.  CNN FOX & Breitbart Seek to Distract The Trump organization:

• Communicated with Russians during the campaign
• Selects Flynn as the NSA Lead
• Learns Flynn is being investigated weeks ago
• Neglects to tell Pence what is happening
• Allows Pence to go on news shows
• Has the White House in chaos

And apparently FOX thinks the leaks are more important than the fact that Trump and crew were cavorting with one our country's biggest enemies.


Go figure...

What Warren Taught Us

Here is an interesting piece by Bill and Melinda Gates


Gates Notes Annual Letter


Now how to get all Americans to be more optimistic, that is the question?

GOP ACA Gripes Analyzed

This is an interesting analysis of the ACA areas that the GOP like to complain about. CNN Money Gripes Analyzed  And here is a recent related post on MP GOP Problem with ACA




Just a reminder, I see good and bad things about ACA.  Maybe that is why the GOP is having such a hard time replacing it...

SNL Political Skits Rock

If you need some humor to start the week, here you go.  I wonder if Trump and his cabinet will ever stop giving them so many easy targets?

NPR SNL Skits
CNN Opinion Can SNL Topple Trump

Unions and The Middle Class

So I got this interesting link of the Facebook of a friend who is a teacher in MN.  Of course he finds it horrifying, where as I find it just interesting.  The Atlantic Unions and the Middle Class

Apparently the Teachers in Wisconsin are starting to have to pay something for their great benefits.  This is normal for folks who work in private industry, but apparently it is pretty shocking to folks who have spent their career in the public sector. Then of course there is the idea of people moving between employers, and employers actively seeking to hire the best Teachers.

Then of course there are financial savings, which of course is deemed terrible by the Teachers.  Yet I am pretty sure the local tax payers are happy to hear about.

Wiki Wisc Act 10
WP Walker Anti-Union
NR Reforms Helped Wisc
GB Teachers Union New Role
JS A Hard Fast Fall

I especially liked this quote from the last source. It seems typical of many organizations.

"To labor leaders, Walker is the obvious villain, given his stated desire to conquer unions. In addition to Act 10, he signed a “right-to-work” measure blocking private employers and unions from requiring fees from workers. 

But missteps by labor leaders and a backlash against union political clout helped set the stage for Act 10 years ago, the Journal Sentinel found after interviewing dozens of current and former union members and leaders. And even union leaders see dim prospects for a return to power anytime soon. 

Dave Weiland, an Oconomowoc school district teacher and local union leader, thinks the state union was stuck in a 1920s mentality. 

“The gravy train was running, and they didn’t see the curve,” he said.

Why Do We Have Trump?

Well in case you thought I was going Liberal on you... MP Trump Worrisome

"The problem is that we are facing a critical shortage of critical thinkers and that is why we have Donald J Trump as our President..." Edward

"Well now there is something I can disagree with... I think we have Trump because the alternative was even scarier... And I think that desire by the Liberals to drag the USA into being a democratic socialist state is because there are few "critical thinkers" on that side of the equation.

Punishing people who learn, work, stay married, save, invest, etc with much higher tax rates so that it can given to reward people who do not learn, work, stay married, save, invest, etc seems like the ultimate in "not critical thinking".

Every wise responsible critical thinking parent understands the simple fact that one must promote responsible behaviors if one wants their child to grow up into a mature responsible independent adult. Just bailing them out and giving them things when they behave poorly enables their continued failure." G2A

The Rational Folks Win

As you know, I keep hoping that our new President will stop doing stupid, questionable and irrational things.  Well if he doesn't, and if the House is to spineless to stop him, thank heavens the courts are still there.

I mean Trump signs an executive order to block well vetted people from coming to the USA and implies that there is an immediate and terrible threat from them... Even though there is no history, no evidence, no nothing to back up this urgent, poorly implemented, fear filled order.
CNN 3-0 Court Maintains Ruling Against Ban
CNN Trump's Use of Fear
CNN Former Spy Chiefs View

Hopefully most American's are braver and more rational than Trump believes them to be.

NEVER Safe and Ivanka Merchandise

I just have to say that the idea of a 90/ 120 day ban being blocked ensuring that we will NEVER be safe is so silly that it needed to be noted.  And then he chooses to bring up a "bad high school student" as a point of comparison to the experienced judges.


CNN Power Struggle
"Trump condemned Robart, referring to him as a "so-called judge" and deeming his ruling "ridiculous."  Wednesday morning, he insisted the government must win the case.

"If the U.S. does not win this case as it so obviously should, we can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled. Politics!" Trump tweeted.

CNN Even a Bad Student

"Seeking to lend his own legal argument for the order banning travel from certain Muslim-majority countries, Trump insisted that US president's have wide authority to determine who may enter the United States. As he read from US immigration law, the President declared that even a "bad high school student" could understand the language and find in his favor.  "I think it's sad, I think it's a sad day," Trump told a group of major city police officers and sheriffs in Washington.

And just to the string of silliness...  The POTUS attacked a company because they dropped his daughter's merchandise.  How many weeks until impeachment?

CNN Trump Blasts Nordstroms

DeVos: GOP Fails the Kids

Well 50 of the GOP Senators disappointed me again.  They put politics ahead of the needs of our nation's children. As noted previously, this woman has ZERO qualifications for this position and yet they gave her the job to make Trump happy.  What are they thinking???


CNN DeVos Confirmed
CNN DeVos is a Vote for Re-segregation
NPR DeVos Confirmed
Fox News DeVos Confirmed
BBC DeVos Uproar


BBC DeVos Hearing Grade:

"Betsy DeVos's confirmation hearing was scheduled for last week, but it had to be pushed back because she hadn't completed her government ethics review. After her performance on Tuesday, the Trump team may have wished the nominee's appearance could have been delayed even further.

The billionaire education-reform activist who has donated hundreds of millions to Republican causes made news for all the wrong reasons. She seemed uninformed about an ongoing debate about how to measure student performance and unfamiliar with the Individuals With Disabilities in Education Act, a federal law that requires public schools to make accommodations for disabled students.  

She illustrated a point about states deciding whether to allow firearms in schools by noting that Wyoming classrooms may need guns to defend against bears.

Notable quote: "I share president-elect Trump's view that it's time to shift the debate from what the system thinks is best for kids to what moms and dads want, expect and deserve."

Grade: C-minus. "I respect, think highly of Betsy DeVos," tweeted conservative commentator Ana Navarro. "But clips of her confirmation hearing made me want to cover my eyes."

Ignore The Lying Polls

Trump's ability to deny reality is simply amazing.  I have been discussing the term Lugenpresse. (ie Lying Press) It was a term most famously used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Wiki Lying Press

I like to assume good intent when starting to evaluate someone's behaviors, however it is getting really hard to give Trump the benefit of the doubt with this "fake news" and "lying news" attack tactic he has been employing.

He is going to have a real hard time convincing the majority of Americans to trust and believe in him if he keeps it up.  He is like the boy who cried wolf too many times.  I think someone forgot to tell him that this is not 1930's Germany, we have a very strong free press, no strong government press, millions of bloggers , etc and all of us are happy to tell the Emperor that he is not wearing any clothes.
CNN Negative Polls Are not Fake News
Fox News Negative Polls

Putin / USA Moral Equivalence

I am not sure if this is funny, sad or scary...  Thoughts?
CNN Trump Deflects Poorly
Reuters Putin Wants an Apology
Fox News Interview Preview
WIKI Journalist Deaths


Maybe that is why Trump likes Putin...  Trump is jealous because he wishes he could silence his media critics permanently like Putin.  Alec Baldwin would probably be at the top of the list.

The Rule of Law

I think Trump seems to be having a real hard time understanding that he is not the Emperor of the USA...  And that our system of checks and balances is there for a very good reason.
CNN Trump Insults a Federal Judge
MSN Trump Continues to Assail Judge

He puts out a half baked and questionable executive order, and instead of admitting it...  He insults a Federal Judge that was nominated by a GOP President.  And then tries to pawn off the responsibility for any potential issues on the Judge.

He is sounding a lot like a self centered CEO.  Claiming accolades when things go well, and blaming others when he fails.

The System Works

I really love our incredibly frustrating system of checks, balances and gridlock.

Now the question is what will the POTUS do now, double down on his dumbest act so far or start listening to the State department experts and the business leaders?  Thoughts?

CNN Judge Blocks Travel Ban
CNN Facts Still Matter

Government Control

So Jerry has been advocating for more government regulations and oversight lately.  Yeah really. :-)

He is supporting the travel ban, the cutting of funding to organizations who include abortion as an option, the increase in voter ID and he has always been luke warm on LGBT rights.  His logic is that we can not prove that no fraudulent voters are voting, that no terrorist have snuck in with the refugees, that being LGBT is a physiological state of being, when a human life begins, etc so we should create government regulations and hurdles because...  Here is where this led to.

" I agree... Let's force Trump to come clean and sell his businesses...

You are sounding like a Liberal... We need more regulations and checks and burdens because you can not prove that someone is not polluting, being fraudulent, etc.

As I say often, there is a reason both the Dems and GOP are under the line on the Nolan diagram... They are regulation and government control obsessed. Just about different things.

The GOP:

• someone may sneak by, let's pass a law and regulate
• a pregnant woman may choose wrong, let's pass a law and regulate
• a few inappropriate voters may vote, let's pass a lwa and regulate
• someone may kiss the wrong person, let's pass a law and regulate

It is very sad... G2A 

"Some very nice false choices, there." Jerry

Please remember that I like the Nolan diagram, for me it explains things pretty nicely and this is my favorite that I found on a quora site. What I like about it is that it depicts what seems to be reality, both parties are more than happy to use the government to control people to their way of thinking.  Maybe that is why we have SO MANY LAWS and SO MUCH GOVERNMENT...  Thoughts?

Trumps Tweets

Here is an interesting site that reports Trump's Tweets.  And notes some of the context that he neglects to mention.

Trumps Most Incompetent Pick

Can anyone tell me what makes Betsy DeVos qualified for this position?


And why so many GOP politicians are willing to ignore her lack of experience, education, management experience, etc?


CNN Unprepared and Unqualified
Snopes DeVos Qualifications

Coal Jobs vs Clean Water

Who needs clean water anyway...  Does anyone have any idea what the GOP was thinking here?


Fox News Regulation Rollback
CNN Feds Roll Back Stream Protection


From the Fox article:

"Rule to lessen the environmental impact of coal mining on nearby streams

The rule would maintain a buffer zone that blocks coal mining within 100 feet of streams, but imposes stricter exceptions to the 100-foot rule. It also beefs up requirements for monitoring water quality and restoring corridors near streams to protect fish and wildlife.

FOR: Environmental groups and some Appalachian residents say greater protections are needed to preserve healthy drinking water and ensure mining companies don't leave an environmental mess after mining ceases.

AGAINST: Coal mining companies are already facing pricing pressures from greater reliance on natural gas and renewables, and they said the rule would lead to the loss of tens of thousands of direct mining jobs and many thousands more indirectly as massive volumes of coal would become too expensive to mine.

Maybe they truly don't want to keep our water safe...  I am assuming mining and processing coal includes some interesting chemicals.  

Gorsuch for SCOUTUS

It is too bad that Trump has so little faith in his nominee that he is already fearing that they can not secure 60 votes.  Did he pick someone who is that biased to the Right?  This continual effort to politicize the SCOTUS is so annoying.  Thoughts?


MP Gorsuch for SCOTUS
CNN Evangelicals vs Atheists
CNN Trump Urges Nuclear Option
CNN Pelosi on Gorsuch

Too Many Mega Rich

A conservative used Community Voices to throw a flaming dog turd in the midst of the Liberal crowd over there.  MP OXFAM is Wrong  Here is my first comment in case it does not make it...  Thoughts?  OXFAM Report

"How does the huge population growth amongst the poor populations and developing countries affect this discussion? Human Population Growth Chart

In America we know that single parent households are often poor. How does robbing from Jane's household (ie 2 kids and helpful partner) to pay for Paulina's household (ie 2 kids and AWOL partner) help to fix this continuing generational poverty issue?

Remember that the "War on Poverty" failed in many ways. If you doubt this, look at how many more single Parent households there are now and how so many kids are left behind in K-12.

Personally I am indifferent to how much money the wealthy have. I am more interested to hear how to get back to 2 Parent households and well educated kids. :-) Just giving people money has failed terribly. The unintended consequences are too tragic.