There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.
Daniel Dennett
Chart of the Day: Keep Ex-Im Dead!
Image of the Day
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| via Catholic Libertarians |
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| via LFC |
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| via LFC |
Rant of the Day: Former Obama, now Rand Paul, Supporter Eric July Rants on Economically Illiterate Leftists
Trump and the Damaging of His Brand
One of the things you learn in marketing is to be wary of tarnishing a carefully cultivated brand's hard-earned reputation. For example, Cadillac has a reputation as an American luxury car. If you slapped a Cadillac nameplate on a low-end car, it could cheapen the brand. Trump has put his name on almost everything and the results have been unimpressive:
There’s more than buildings, of course. Trump bragged that Trump Mortgage — anybody remember Trump Mortgage? — soon would be the No. 1 home-lender in the United States; it is defunct. Trump vodka is no longer on the shelves, though there is Trump-label vodka served at some Trump properties. The Trump board game, the GoTrump.Com search engine, the New Jersey Generals and the United States Football League in which they played, Trump University, which lives on only in fraud investigations . . . none has exactly set the world on fire.But I think Donald Trump's eccentric views and toxic personality have undermined his own brand; it goes beyond losing lucrative contracts with NBC and Univision. Oh, make no mistake; up until now, he's been running away from the rest of the field of 17; he's even zoomed ahead of favorite sons, like Graham of SC, Cruz or Perry in Texas and Bush or Rubio of FL. But there are some signs he might be peaking, e.g., he's placing third in Wisconsin, and Carson is creeping up on Trump in Iowa. Trump went too far with his anti-immigrant pitch, which alienates the largest-growing minority group, Latinos, possibly a death wish for the party. He's not only losing to a weakened Clinton but to Sanders.
Trump's third-party threat is empty; like Perot, he has no chance of winning, plus even if he could, he would have an adversarial relationship with either party. I think a lot of his current GOP support is soft; it's more protest in nature. But when push comes to shove, after 8 years of Obama in the White House, I don't think GOP voters want to put another Democrat in the White House, and a Trump on the top of the ticket kills the Republicans on the lower part of the ticket. So far, Trump is defying gravity, but I think he's gotten as high as he is going to get 25-33% of the vote; don't misunderstand me--the Know Nothing/anti-immigrant wing is there, but I suspect if Trump is seen as the threat to the GOP's chances in the 2016 election, we could see something happen which would change the playing field--e.g., Speaker Boehner finally brings up immigration reform in the House. It's possible that Obama vetoes it to help Dems in 2016, but I don't think so--I think he wants immigration reform on his legacy. I would not be surprised if there are some covert negotiations going on right now. But if I was RNC chair right now, I would be strategizing with Boehner and McConnell, to do something. It would undermine Trump's campaign (he would no doubt take credit for the Congress taking up the issue, of course.) All this is speculative, of course.
In Anticipation of Biden 2016....
Just How Clueless is Hollywood? Consider Director Tarantino...
You supported Obama. How do you think he’s done?Facebook Corner
I think he’s fantastic. He’s my favorite president, hands down, of my lifetime. He’s been awesome this past year. Especially the rapid, one-after-another-after-another-after-another aspect of it. It’s almost like take no prisoners. His he-doesn’t-give-a-shit attitude has just been so cool. Everyone always talks about these lame-duck presidents. I’ve never seen anybody end with this kind of ending. All the people who supported him along the way that questioned this or that and the other? All of their questions are being answered now.
(LFC). Politicians are pretty great for one reason: They come up with the best worst ideas. It's the crowds of voters that take them seriously you got to be wary of.
We are tracking immigrants like parolees and those under house arrest? Is this the land of the free? No doubt he would like us all to wear ankle bracelets so the NSA could track the movements of all Americans so the NSA can collect vendor records. Just say no to Big Brother Christie...
(Reason). No, a New Uber-Like App for Yellow Taxis Won't Save This Dying Industry.
Yellow Cab in Orlando has an app that predates Uber by several years and is functionally identical, including storing credit card info and real-time GPS tracking. Uber is trendy..
That's why the cab companies in Orlando are bitching about Uber, I guess. You're putting lipstick on a pig; taxidrivers are paid different, are locked into territories, start off with a high daily fee before they make a nickel, etc.
(Independent Institute). "The tax treatment of health benefits must follow the tax code. It cannot lead it. Governor Jindal has not proposed a massive overhaul of federal taxation. Even Senator Rand Paul’s proposal to rip up the IRS and start again would give us a 14.5 percent flat tax on household incomes above $50,000 (for a family of four). The federal government would remain the dominant tax collector and still fund welfare programs."
All of these plans are still a perversion of the ideal of a free market in health care; we need consumers more vested in efficient health care spending, and I don't believe in tax gimmicks which effectively serve to artificially lower the prices of health care and are intrinsically morally hazardous.
But to the extent these Republican proposals serve to eradicate the unconscionable double standard with individual/household policies being paid with after-tax dollars and end central government rule-making and shift dollars and regulatory authority to the states (although I still want state markets to be more open/competitive than they have been, with certain anti-competitive barriers to entry) more consistent with the principle of Subsidiarity, they are a positive step forward and the only sustainable alternative to the growing government failure in health care policy.
(National Review). Some call it “passion,” but it’s much worse than that
National Review, breaking ground as a Transgendered news outlet by dressing itself as Conservative.
There is nothing conservative about an economically-illiterate, volatile, vain, incompetent, unprincipled asshole like Trump. Only his cultists are gullible enough to believe he's not trying to buy the Presidency with his uncivil behavior and cheap demogoguery.
He doesn't need to be president we need him to be president. Go get M Trump
I don't need a thin-skinned, incompetent, unqualified, self-serving right-fascist to be my President. Only retarded cultists need him.
“Trump’s Worst Argument” is a WSJ Editorial explaining Donald Trump idiot assertion that because he is so rich, he cannot be influenced by contributors. What he is really saying is unless you are a Billionaire, you should not be running for President because you might be influenced by Special Interest Campaign Contributions. The broader the support a Presidential Candidate has – the less likely he will be influenced a single contributor. What is Donald Trump’s Agenda besides making ridiculous statement about immigration and trade and foreign policy that are absurd? http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-worst-argument-1440368198
The OP is spot on; when the gullible, delusional Trump cultists say that that he can't be bought, they tacitly ignore it means that he can buy everybody else and they also ignore the fact that the unqualified, ill-tempered, incompetent, unprincipled, self-serving right-fascist is trying to buy the Presidency. How many people has he admittedly bought political favors from? What kind of a person does that make him? It's like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse. Anyone who believes he knows what Joe Six-Pack is going through is delusional; anyone who believes only rich people are incorruptible is absurd--I would never work for the bastard at any price.
Academic
- Washington State students risk a failing grade in one course if they use any common descriptors professor considers “oppressive and hateful language.”
- In another class, students will lose one point every time they use the words “illegal alien” or “illegals” rather than the preferred terms of “‘undocumented’ migrants/immigrants/persons.”
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the original office via Peter Schiff |
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| Courtesy of Gary McCoy via Washington Examiner |
Tina Turner (with Ike), "River Deep, Mountain High". I think where I first heard of this song was in liner notes by George Harrison on a Phil Spector compilation, calling it something like the perfect track. I agree, and it's high on my personal all-time favorites.
