Friday, January 5, 2018

Links for 1/5/18

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/distinctly-catholic/links-1518
MGB:_Gerald Ford went to Vail often, but I don’t believe he owned a home. Obama was a houseguest in Hawai’i and the Clintons did not own property on the Vinyard. I suspect Pence is either a renter or a guest. If not, Robert Muller, call your office! Either way, Pence could be tolerant in his personal life, although news accounts make that seem unlikely. Whether he is smart enough to know that this issue is running out of steam is another matter. While houses of worship will take some time until they all start celebrating gay marriage, it will eventually happen. Good show to the neighbors for highlighting the fact.

Nothing prevents other power companies or fire departments from sendning crews to Puerto Rico or Haiti just because no one is looking anymore. Eventually, aid formula will see them reimbursed, but it would be niced if they went without that expectation.

Brock was originanlly paid by the vast right-wing conspiracy that went after Clinton. I wonder if he has Gloria Aldred on his speed dial? Still, the chief accuser of Trump was his own bragging. We still have to ask what is wrong with his voters that they still support him, even after the latest book has his own staff proclaim him both insane and stupid?

I think the Cardinal probably voted for Chance.

Politico is a bit too self-conciously right-wing to be trusted to predict the left, although if I have y way, the winning candidate of the Democrats will we more leftist than you can imagine, even more than Sanders. A more likely option is that Pelosi will be running for re-election to President. I hope the Dems pay attention to Governor and I hope that current fundraising is not main basis for saying who will win state-wide races.

Monica Lewinsky was young but she was not a child. Women are attracted to powerful men and unless such men are forced to take a vow of chastity, it is not a public matter and is certainly not grounds to undo an election. It is not like Lewisnky was noticed in the intern pool and brought to the President in a revealing dress, which is different from what happens on the casting couch or the Executive Suite.

In transformational Senate races, every vote counts. The black vote turned out as if a black man had been on the ballot. That usually does not happen in special elections. Likewise, white Republicans developed a conscience about voting againt Moore rather than voting to cancel out black votes. The question is what is going to happen in the next election. In 2006 in Virginia, Jim Webb unexpectedly beat George Allen. All of us had that happen because the margin was so slim and we Virginians made Harry Reid Majority Leader. So far, Virginia has become reliably Blue to the extent we could get beyond gerrymandering. Will Alabama go down the same road? If it can, why not Florida and Mississippi?

The pension crisis did not have to happen. Analysts began requiring full funding of pensions when only PAYGO was necessary. You can fund PAYGO with expansion and your own stock issues. Pensions generate no fees for investment banks and financial advisors. The latter groups actually have that money that should have gone to retirees. We should seize it and distribute to them. Barring that, we must turn to employee-ownership, which will bring back pensions and will install governance systems to never let this happen again. This is one of those projects the Christian Left is working on.

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