Pots and Kettles

What I find fascinating about this Tom Price story is that Trump's travel / security is so much more expensive...  And yet of course Trump does not seem to mind wasting that money.  But of course that make sense since it is spent on him and his family...

My guess is that Trump is just using it to get rid of another employee who fell out of favor with him.  I keep wondering who are these people who agree to work for Trump.

CNN Price Resigns
CNN Trump Travel Costs

Here is an interesting summary of Trump's week. Enjoy !!!
CNN A Week in the Life of Trump

The Dysfunctional Senate

Since we have discussed the increasing polarization of the citizens and our politicians, I thought you may find this article interesting.  VOX This is Not how the Senate is supposed Work


I have no idea how we resolve this since the people on the Left and Right both seem obsessed with listening to their own version of reality and insisting that "those other folks" are evil and trying to destroy America.

The Playboy's Legacy

So what do you think?  Is this a fair assessment or political correctness / feminism run amuck?
CNN Hugh's Legacy has a Dark Side

When Deficits are Good Again?

Since I love to play requests...

"But, whatever, now it's time to focus on the new, awful GOP tax plan. Which, as constituted today per their own document, would actually raise taxes on working-class families with children while massively cutting taxes for corporations and people like Donald Trump." Sean

"...and adding Trillions to the National Debt.  As we all know, adding to the National Debt is terrible, awful, and ruinous when the Democrats do it, so it will be nice to see the Republicans, in denouncing this plan, be consistent for once." Moose


CNN Tax Reform
FOX Trump Sells Tax Plan
VOX Tax Plan
NPR Tax Reform

MN Politicians Wasting Money in Court

Of course being a non-Democrat, I think Dayton is mostly to blame for this silly waste of our tax dollars... Thoughts? MP MN Gov / Leg Standoff Update

"How is this affecting state government?  Well, the whole affair is costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills, although the total price tag is not yet known. The Legislature’s fees won’t be known until the lawsuit concludes, but Dayton’s office has reported about $245,000 in legal fees through August. "

Conservatives Accuse Pope

I have to wonder if the Catholic Church is in for hard times in our modern world.  With all the sexual abuse cases, and now it appears the hard core fundamentalists are pushing back against the Pope's more liberal interpretations.  CNN Conservatives Accuse Pope  Hopefully the Pope can drag the church into this century, or there may be some really quiet churches out there as the old folks die off.


I recently attended an outside wedding in part because the Catholic church would not marry the couple who had been living together.  Go figure...


RNS Decline of Religion
BBC Church Stats

The Guessing Game

Okay these 3 link were posted by FB friends.

1. CBS Why St Paul Teacher Can Not Get a License
2. SM Public Schools Aren't Failing Us
3. MH White Privilege is a Myth

Since you all know me so well, which response goes with which link?

A. That is so true and terrible, we need to do something to improve it.

B. Why would anyone even bother to listen to such an off base hypocrite?

C. Those are some fascinating facts that should be discussed.

Thoughts?

G2A Mpls Teachers

G2A Kids are Kids Are They Not

G2A Ratios Matter

G2A Children Before Adults

G2A Single Family Income

G2A Everything Important by 3

To Stand or Not to Stand?

Well it seems that Trump is following his Standard Operating Procedure...  He is failing to accomplish anything of importance, so to rile up his base he makes up some"villain" to attack.

And of course this has triggered some interesting conversations and reactions.
CNN Sunday Protest Photos

Most interesting to me is watching how different people within one family are reacting on Facebook.  The younger Liberal "Racism is Systemic Folks" posting kneeling is good stuff and the older Liberal member posting kneeling is bad stuff.

As for myself, I think I am in the "kneeling is bad" group.  Though I respect the rights of people to speak freely on their own free time, these are employees who are hired to play a sport and behave in such a way to support the company that employees them.  Their decision to not stand and salute the flag with their other team mates should be a fire-able offense.

As for Trump using the topic as a topic to distract his true believers, I think he is showing just as much disrespect to the flag and the people in the armed services as the kneelers are.

Thoughts?

Healthcare and Welfare Reform Compared

This one seems interesting in that it deems the 1996 Welfare Reform program a failure, and compares the latest GOP Senate Healthcare reform Hail Mary to it.  Thoughts?

Trump at UN?

I am now in Hefei China and very busy, so I will just drop this.


What did you think of Trump's UN Speech?

What to Do about the Deficit / Debt

I am boarding a flight to China soon, so I will write when I can.  I will leave you some links that a couple of my liberal FB friends posted lately.


CC Debt Just Exceeded
FB The Other 98 Percent


Needless to say I raised some questions about how to best address the debt and they disagreed...  Thoughts?


20th_Century_Defense_Spending
Welfare Spending
State of Our Unions
Brookings Pie Chart
Spend vs Revenue

Motivating Students

Here is an interesting article.  Thoughts?
MP Org works to take Fuzziness Out of Motivating


Related Links
Search Institute
Search Publications

Is GOP Its Own Worst Enemy?

I found this an interesting read...   VOX GOP Can Not Pass a Budget


For a different view... Politico GOP Leaders Unveil


BI Tax Reform after Trump Deal with Dems


It is kind of amazing the level of gridlock we are experiencing given that one party is supposedly in control.  The good news for me is that I like a slow moving government. :-)

Campus Sexual Assault

Here is an interesting opinion piece.  My thoughts / questions:

• I always wonder why are the schools involved at all? 
• Why are the city police not dealing with these issues? 
• Why is the Federal government involved in this?

CNN DeVos is right about Campus Sexual Assault


And for a different view WAPO Why DeVos is Wrong


And one more Politico DeVos to Scrap


Thoughts?

Does US Have a 3 Party Government Now?

Sorry I have not been posting and commenting, however I am out West helping Mom and Dad with some family business activities.  Which of course usually means I am working to do as Father says without losing it...  Some times I succeed and sometimes me and the dog go for a long walk. :-)


So what do people think of Trump working with the Democrats?
CNN Trump Breaking 2 Party System?

No Cake For You !!!

One of our favorite topics is in the news again. You know my view...


If you are LGBTQ, find a business owner who wants to be an active part of your most special day!!!


CNN Religious Freedoms vs LGBT Rights

Trump and DACA

Personally I think Trump made the correct decision in this case for the following reasons:

• Congress needs to be forced to deal with this.
• The DACA status was not a good long term solution.

Now let's hope Congress finds a way to give these young adults a path to citizenship.  And this entices the DEMs to cough up some money for the border wall / security. Thoughts?


MP DACA
Hill: Trump Says Nothing to Worry About

Election Commission Using Private Email

From Sean:

"Where are all the Republican e-mail scolds now -- when it's been revealed that the Pence-Kobach Voter Suppression Commission appears to be conducting much of its business using personal e-mail accounts, which would be a violation of federal law.

TPM: Election Commission Uses Personal E-mail for Official Business "

Urban / Rural Divide

Here we go again... But it does have some interesting graphs.

"I always find it amusing when folks want to lump suburbanites into the "urban" bucket. We know from their voting that many of them including myself associate with the folks in rural MN much better than the urban folks

The reality is that much of the spending on rural roads is so that us urban and city folks can get to cabin country and our beautiful parks. I am pretty certain the folks who live near Brainerd had no need for a huge highway and bypass. And do you think the North Shore residents need huge roads to handle their local traffic?

The reality is that much of the tax revenues come from the folks who live in the burbs. They are the citizens who fund both the urban and rural areas of the state. So I think the Urban folks should stop acting like they are paying all the bills...

The big cities receive a huge amount of local government aid and school funding from the state. And those coffers are filled by the well to do suburbanites that people here like to disparage." G2A

What to Do About North Korea?

My personal vote is that we place about 10,000 conventional missiles and maybe a couple of nuclear missiles in Japan and South Korea that are aimed at almost every military or government location in North Korea...  Then we let North Korea do whatever they want to do. (except sell their bombs to other rogue states)  And hopefully this will help North Korea understand that they will be utterly destroyed if they bomb the US or our allies.

All of Trump's blustering and the military fly by drills are just silly.  I am a big fan of the "walk softly and carry a BIG STICK" concept.

CNN NK Defies Trump (no duh...)
CNN Mattis Promises (really)
CNN Stop Trade with China (yeah right)
CNN Haley at the UN (no more talks, NK can not be trusted)

Thoughts?

Who is the Stupid Idiot?

So Jerry and I got in an interesting discussion over on the Harvey Post.

"Yes, I have noticed idiots and stupidity abounding for decades. I learned long ago that part of the difficulty was with "information processing" styles, with "Sensors" and "Perceivers" particularly ill-suited to working with "Intuitive Thinkers" and vice versa. But it is only recently that I discovered differences in matters of information RECEIVING, as mentioned.

 

As a result, I am attempting to change old habits of communicating, along the lines you suggest. Sometimes people are convinced better by empathy than by sledgehammer logic. All that said, I refuse to give up what I know and believe just because somebody else refuses to acknowledge the truth. Desiderata " Jerry

 

"So how do you KNOW that YOU are not the idiot? Or the one suffering from poor information intake?" G2A

 

"Because I know what I know. If I thought I was wrong, I wouldn't be trying to convince you I'm right. I wouldn't even know how to begin to do that; it is tough enough trying to convince you that YOU are ill-informed or misinformed, or Fallen prey to some other "information processing error.."

 

And I have admitted previously that, depending upon one's selection of facts in a complex issue, one can arrive easily at a false conclusion, especially when the previously-mentioned biases are at work. So I remain open to proof that I have indeed missed the truth of the matter. The problem is that, in this case, I have yet to see any to the contrary which is as strong (for example, specific) as what I already have in the affirmative.

 

Go ahead. Convince me. I repeat: can you offer any proof that these climate models can predict a "global" temperature 100 years from now with any degree of accuracy? if I am indeed misinformed, try informing me before accusing me of "poor information intake." Jerry

So the circular logic of the argument fascinates me...

• How does one know that they are not the stupid idiot?
• Because they know what they know...

So let's test this and I will use Peter and Paul for an example.

• So Paul knows for sure that climate change is being strongly impacted by human activities.
• Therefore Paul is not a stupid idiot.
• So Peter knows for certain that human activities are having no significant negative impact on the Earth.
• Therefore Peter is not a stupid idiot.

Oh this is SO CONFUSING... Apparently they are both smart and capable with opposite views of reality...  My questions still stand:

• So how do you KNOW that YOU are not the idiot?
• Or the one suffering from poor information intake?