Month: February 2021

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Biden wants to reopen schools. He promised schools would reopen in his first 100 days. But what does that mean?

The Meaning of Reopen

“His goal that he set is to have the majority of schools, so more than 50 percent, open by day 100 of his presidency and that means some teaching in classrooms, at least one day a week,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Teachers’ Unions Roll Over Biden

Please consider the Teachers’ Unions Roll Over Biden

One day out of five? We doubt that’s how working parents define open.

Ms. Psaki is trying to make a virtue out of a humiliating political embarrassment. Mr. Biden figured that his support for the teachers union agenda, along with more money, would get the unions to reopen the schools. Instead he’s discovering what America’s parents have learned in the last year: Unions run the schools, and no one—not parents, not school districts, not mayors, and not even a new Democratic President—will tell them what to do. So it’s one day a week, pal. Get used to it.

Chicago Strike 

Chicago elementary and middle schools were supposed to reopen at the beginning of February. 

They went on strike and are still not open. The strike has ended but they ratified an agreement to “reopen” in March.

There’s that word again. What’s it mean now? The WSJ article explains.

Teachers, who will be prioritized for vaccines, won’t have to return to classrooms if they have an underlying medical condition or live with someone who does.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40% of people in Cook County have a chronic condition. The agreement also requires in-person instruction to be “paused” for 14 days if a single child in a school tests positive for Covid. All of this means most kids will be stuck learning remotely for the rest of the school year.

 What About California?

Incredibly, San Francisco’s school board and union hadn’t even considered a plan to reopen schools for nearly 11 months. Last week the city finally sued the school board to force it to come up with a reopening plan.

Bully Pulpit

If president Biden really wanted to lead, he would stand up to the teacher’s unions. 

The WSJ asked Biden to “use his bully pulpit to tell school districts that don’t reopen classrooms that they won’t get the money.”

The Journal used the word “bribe” and so did I. Appeasement might be a better word, but Biden is attempting to buy off the progressive wing of the party.

Free Money

Instead, Democrats want to send public schools another $130 billion whether they open or not. 

And we also get a new definition of  “reopen”. 

Follow the Science?!

President Biden promised to follow the science. Instead, he is Following the Teachers’ Unions.

That Op-Ed is by Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey. 

Let’s tune into what Christie has to say.

Follow the science. That was Joe Biden’s promise to the American people—until Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers disagreed.

I spent much of my time as governor saying that we needed to put children and parents first in public education. The teachers union in New Jersey spent tens of millions of dollars to oppose my reform efforts and protect the status quo. As a result our per pupil costs were among the country’s highest, and families in many urban districts were held hostage by failure.

In an article published Jan. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, three researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found “little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission” of the coronavirus. Data from reopened classrooms don’t show the rapid spread that has been observed in congregate living facilities and high-density work sites.

The CDC researchers looked at more than 90,000 students in 11 North Carolina districts and found that only 32 students and staff members were infected in school. In the same period, 773 got infected outside school.

CDC Bows to Teachers’ Unions

Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, made the following admission at a Feb. 12 press conference: The CDC wouldn’t “follow the science.” Direct changes in the CDC’s guidance had been made as a result of consultation with teachers groups. To show how far the CDC had moved, Ms. Walensky said that even after everyone had been vaccinated the CDC still might not recommend that schools reopen normally.

The unions pack a lot of financial muscle. I still have the bruises from my battles with them. But President Biden promised Americans an end to these games. This betrayal of our children and their families must end. The long-term mental-health effects and educational deficits created by continuing this policy will be devastating. It’s time to put our children’s interests first in this pandemic.

Is Anyone Else Fed Up With Dr. Fauci’s Forever Moving Goalposts?

On February 26, I wrote Is Anyone Else Fed Up With Dr. Fauci’s Forever Moving Goalposts?

I concluded …

I understand wearing masks. I understand avoiding groups and parties. But enough already. The teachers’ unions will pick up on this and play it for all it’s worth.

Numerous readers blasted my article. One reader commented: 

I am a bit perplexed by this statement; “The teacher’s unions will pick up on this and play it for all it’s worth.” 

I’m not even sure what that means. It sounds like a personal vendetta against teachers, or unions, and totally out of place in this discussion.

My comment clearly was not out of place, but admittedly I provided no explanation, which I should have. 

I had this follow-up post in mind and added this addendum to my original post.

Addendum

I was asked about my brief teachers’ union comment above. I will explain in detail in just a bit in another post. 

I have now explained, hopefully in enough detail, how the teachers’ unions play into this. 

Not For the Kids

I am sick of teachers’ unions and public unions in general. They do not do a damn thing for the kids. 

Notice I said “unions”. There are many excellent teachers, likely the vast majority, who do care about the kids. 

The unions don’t, and never will. 

FDR’s Take on Public Unions

I have commented on public unions and FDR’s take before. 

It’s not just teachers’ unions. All public unions are corrupt to the core. 

Yes, I have a “personal vendetta” against public unions. I am guilty as charged, and proudly so.

However, my “vendetta” is not out of place in regards to Covid and Fauci. And it does appear Fauci bent to the unions. 

Public unions are a corrupt force. They should be abolished.

Even FDR understood this important point. Indeed, FDR accurately predicted what would happen.

To understand FDR’s point, please see Democrats, Here’s Your Chance to Get Rid of Bad Police

I discuss problems with teachers’ unions as well as police and firefighters’ unions. 

I do not wish to condense that discussion down to a short synopsis here.

Please click on the above link for a complete explanation including direct quotes from FDR.

Sky News Australia host Cory Bernardi has just taken a flamethrower to the global elite, telling us we need to be mindful “of any organization with the term “world” in their name” in a monologue which would never see the light of day in most Western nations.

After flaying the World Health Organization (WHO) for ‘giving China a free pass on the Wuhan Flu,‘ while banking $500 million on pandemic bonds, Bernardi demolishes the World Food Program, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Tourism Organization, and the World Trade Organization – for lies, misinformation and climate-related pretzel logic to justify policy.

“All these authorities are pushing an agenda – it’s the same agenda, to decarbonize, deindustrialize, and disempower the Western world. They are part of a concerted plan to redesign capitalism in a new image,” Bernardi says, adding: “That image of course is socialism.”

Spearheading this effort is the World Economic Forum (WEF) that meets annually in Davos, Switzerland.

“The WEF is the architect of the Great Reset, and the fourth industrial revolution. They coined the “build back better” hashtag, that is actually proving so popular with big government elites right across the globe,” says Bernardi. “Under the WEF vision, the Davos attendees will own what you’ll be renting. And trust me on this, it’s not gonna be a philanthropic enterprise.”

“By reducing you to a mere user rather than an owner, the world does actually become more equal, because it will concentrate power, authority and money in the hands of a tiny few, while the rest of us become mere economic vassals for these oligarchs.”

Watch:

Full transcript below (emphasis ours):

There are certain warning signs that we all need to be mindful of. You know, it’s like when someone appears in your life and says ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.’ Well, another warning sign is any organization with the term “world” in their name. So let’s start with a couple. Perhaps the World Health Organization to kick it off. That’s the body that gave China a free pass on the Wuhan Flu, while at the same time banking $500 million through issuing pandemic bonds. That’s right, the World Health Organization was scheduled to repay investors around $500 million in early 2020, unless of course, a pandemic was declared. The investors lost all their money that became the World Health Organization’s gain.

Then of course there’s the World Food Program. It too is part of the United Nations and it actually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. Now all that sounds pretty impressive, until you remember that Barack Obama won it in 2008 just for having the right skin color. And despite spending $8 billion every year on hunger and strengthening resilience against climate change, there are still 850 million undernourished people in the world, and around 780 million obese people. Clearly we need more food socialism.

Then we also have the World Meteorological Organization. It has a crew of 200 and it publishes an annual status of the world climate report, casting horror scenarios about greenhouse gasses, climate change, sea level rise, and sea ice. The 2019 report is a beauty – it essentially says that the Australian bush fires of that year were due to climate change, and makes no mention of the arsonists, or the greens’ insistent on terrible land management policies. By the way, according to the WMO, climate change is also responsible for drought, floods, storms and weather-related damage. Now that made me wonder, what caused them before the Industrial Revolution, or before mankind for that matter.

But we’re also fortunate enough to have the World Tourism Organization, which has “a one planet vision for responsible tourism.” These include the vital buzzwords “social inclusion” and “climate action.” It even has some pretty cool hashtags; #responsiblerecover and #buildbackbetter. And it boasts that by shutting down the world economy this past year, it reduced carbon dioxide emissions by a whopping eight percent. That means there’s only 92% to go before we’re back to living in caves! But saving the planet while we do it.

And of course we shouldn’t forget the World Trade Organization, with lofty goals espousing free trade. Its real mission seems not to be holding China to the same integrity requirements as the rest of the world when it comes to intellectual property protection, trade tariffs and barriers, etc. Thank goodness it has the goal to reduce inequality, which is socialist speak for “taking from the productive and giving to the non-productive.” Someone needs to tell them about history. It shows it never works.

But, for those that are unable to sustain the rigor of the real world, there is always a refuge in the World Vegetable Center. That’s right, a world vegetable center. This esteemed body devoted 20 years to researching the sweet potato before giving it away because the costs of doing that research were too high. It now focuses on “looking to the wild relatives of domesticated crops to save the human diet from climate change.” Wowee, if only we never cultivated crops the world would be better off, and the climate wouldn’t be changing!

Hey but, what about those hungry people I mentioned earlier? Wouldn’t they be even hungrier?

Well, all these authorities are pushing an agenda – it’s the same agenda, to decarbonize, deindustrialize, and disempower the Western world. They are part of a concerted plan to redesign capitalism in a new image. That image of course is socialism. And it’s spearheaded by the grand daddy organization of them all – the World Economic Forum. The WEF is the architect of the Great Reset, and the fourth industrial revolution. They coined the “build back better” hashtag, that is actually proving so popular with big government elites right across the globe. And they even predict that by 2030, you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy. They call this ‘servitization,’ which is a term and an agenda that looks a lot like servitude to me. The WEF claim that this servitude – I’m sorry, I mean ‘servitization’ will save the planet, and assist the post-COVID-19 recovery.

However, servitization begs the question; if you don’t actually own anything, who will own what you’re renting? Well the answer lies within the WEF premiere forum – that’s at Davos. Davos is the gathering of global elites including big business CEOs, industry chiefs, government leaders, bureaucrats, and multi-billionaires with political agendas. Under the WEF vision, the Davos attendees will own what you’ll be renting. And trust me on this, it’s not gonna be a philanthropic enterprise. They’ll all be looking to make more money than they currently do, and actually to take more control of your life under the guise of equality. By reducing you to a mere user rather than an owner, the world does actually become more equal, because it will concentrate power, authority and money in the hands of a tiny few, while the rest of us become mere economic vassals for these oligarchs.

So make no mistake – servitization is just a new name for economic slavery. It’s socialism on a global scale.

Myanmar has witnessed its bloodiest and deadliest day yet since the start of the Feb.1st coup which saw the military arrest the country’s democratically elected civilian leadership, citing a “fraudulent election”.

Eighteen have been reported killed Sunday in clashes with police and armed troops, which have over the past week increasingly resorted to ‘live fire’ to disperse ‘banned’ demonstrations. “Myanmar police fired on protesters around the country on Sunday in the bloodiest day of weeks of demonstrations against a military coup and at least 18 people were killed, the U.N. human rights office said,” according to Reuters.

Over the past two weeks anti-coup protests have grown increasingly large and visible despite the large army presence – including armored vehicles and armed troops on city streets – and despite a near month-long communications and internet lockdown of the country.

The United Nations human rights office in a statement condemned the use of lethal force, saying, “Police and military forces have confronted peaceful demonstrations, using lethal force and less-than-lethal force that – according to credible information received by the UN Human Rights Office – has left at least 18 people dead and over 30 wounded.”

Rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades have also been used to quell protests, but over the last week social media videos that made it past the junta’s attempts to impose a firewall on the country have increasingly appeared to show live ammo being used, with victims suffering gunshot wounds to the chest, head, and legs.

The footage revealed police cannot shoot the gun properly and a soldier was guiding him and others were happy to do so. It was uploaded by Dawei,Southern Myanmar local news page and says 4 were murdered in the protest#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar#OpCCP #MilkTeaAlliance #Feb28Coup pic.twitter.com/FvyAV7JuWG

— Waiyan Htut (@WaiYanHtut) February 28, 2021

Reuters documented some of the deaths Sunday as follows:

Among at least five killed in Yangon was internet network engineer Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, who a day earlier had posted on Facebook about his concern at the growing crackdown, medics said.

Teacher Tin New Yee died after police swooped to disperse a teachers’ protest with stun grenades, sending the crowd fleeing, her daughter and a fellow teacher said.

At least 9 people died in Myanmar as the military government cracked down on protests on Sunday.

4 protesters were killed in the city of Dawei, where this video was captured, according to military-run television station Myawady https://t.co/NXZhbcMJ1j pic.twitter.com/MucqWUDBNT

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) February 28, 2021

The US embassy in the country has also condemned the crackdown, saying in a statement: “We are heartbroken to see the loss of so many lives in Myanmar. People should not face violence for expressing dissent against the military coup. Targeting of civilians is abhorrent.”

Myanmar riot police charge against protesters as they try to stop more than three weeks of daily protests against the army’s coup. One woman was killed today. ⁦@Reuters⁩ video #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/4Lt38xSBgF

— Matthew Tostevin (@TostevinM) February 27, 2021

Already the Biden administration has slapped sanctions on Burmese military leaders believed involved in orchestrating the coup, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowing more “firm action” to come against military authorities in recent statements.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

We often discuss the deafening silence of professors and writers in the face of campaigns to cancel or censor conservative writers. Indeed, many have supported blacklisting and censorship.

That disturbing silence is evident this week after Amazon appeared to deplatform Ryan Anderson and his best-selling book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement.” 

Now various conservative sites are objecting that a documentary on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas has been reportedly removed from Amazon’s streaming service — a glaring omission during Black History Month.

Amazon has not responded to inquiries as to why the Thomas documentary is no longer available, so it is not clear if this was an intentional or negligent act.

Given the controversy over the Anderson book, the sudden unavailability has triggered objections.

A search this morning still found no availability of the book.  I have not read the book and I am unfamiliar with Anderson’s arguments. However, my concern is not with the merits of its arguments but the effort to prevent others from reading such arguments.

The intentional removal of the book would be another raw example of private censorship. This is the very danger that I discussed in my recent testimony before the House on efforts to use private companies to implement a system of viewpoint controls. There is a great divide on the issue of how to define gender and how legally to address different genders. This book is part of that national dialogue. However, instead of responding to such book with counterarguments, many want to silence the author to prevent others from reading or hearing his views.

A similar controversy arose last year when Target pulled the book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” after a single Twitter follower objected. Target later yielded after a national backlash and allowed people to buy the book.

The Thomas controversy is still unfolding but again there is a concern about Amazon’s manipulation of access to opposing views.  It appears that you can find a DVD version if you put in the term “DVD” but critics have noted that it is difficult to find as opposed to documentaries on justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A search say that the video is unavailable for streaming. It is hard to judge the controversy at this early date.  However, Thomas has been repeatedly snubbed by the Black History Museum and other groups due to his conservative ideology. He should be celebrated during Black History month.  I strongly disagree with some of Thomas’ views but his life is a remarkable story of achievement.

Clarence Thomas was born on the Georgia coast in Pin Point, Georgia, on June 23, 1948. He grew up speaking Gullah, the creole dialect. His home was a one-room shack with dirt floors and no plumbing. He grew up without a Dad, who left him at two.  As a result, at the age of seven he and his younger brother were sent to live with their grandfather, Myers Anderson, and his wife in Savannah, Georgia. He used his Catholic education to overcome segregation and prejudice to eventually go to Holy Cross and gained admission to Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania law schools. After a series of legal positions, he became the chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982 and later became just the second African American to join the Court.

That would seem an incredible life to highlight during Black History month.

What concerns me most is that members are sending letters demanding to know why cable companies are still allowing people to watch Fox News while they say nothing about removing books like Anderson’s. Indeed, as previously discussed, members in the recent House hearing repeatedly stated that they support free speech but not a single Democrat expressly opposed calls for Fox News to be taken off the air.

Yet, when it comes to censorship, members are neither silent nor subtle. When Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey came before the Senate to apologize for blocking the Hunter Biden story before the election as a mistake, senators pressed him and other Big Tech executive for more censorship. Rather than addressing the dangers of such censoring of news accounts, Senator Chris Coons pressed Dorsey to expand the categories of censored material to prevent people from sharing any views that he considers “climate denialism.” Likewise, Senator Richard Blumenthal seemed to take the opposite meaning from Twitter, admitting that it was wrong to censor the Biden story. Blumenthal said that he was “concerned that both of your companies are, in fact, backsliding or retrenching, that you are failing to take action against dangerous disinformation.” Accordingly, he demanded an answer to this question:

“Will you commit to the same kind of robust content modification playbook in this coming election, including fact checking, labeling, reducing the spread of misinformation, and other steps, even for politicians in the runoff elections ahead?”

“Robust content modification” has a certain appeal, like a type of software upgrade. It is not content modification. It is censorship. If our representatives are going to crackdown on free speech, they should admit to being advocates for censorship. Indeed, leading academics had the integrity recently to declare that they believe that “China is right” about censorship.

It now appears that Amazon “robustly” removed a best-selling book on gender because it objects to the conclusions reached by the author. The response from Blumenthal and other members? Crickets.

Iran on Sunday issued a firm and definitive rejection of the Biden administration’s offer of European Union sponsored direct nuclear talks to restore the terms of the JCPOA nuclear deal, according to senior diplomats cited in The Wall Street Journal. 

Perhaps as predicted, the US hasn’t budged from its position that Iran must return to compliance first – in particular on uranium enrichment levels stipulated by the 2015 deal – in order to ease sanctions. Tehran meanwhile has pointed out it’s Washington that walked away from the deal first.

The Islamic Republic has flatly “ruled out” the talks given Washington intransigence on sanctions relief. “Two senior Western diplomats said Iran has ruled out attending a meeting in Europe for now, saying it wanted a guarantee first that the US. would lift some sanctions after the meeting,” WSJ writes.

Later in the day Sunday Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the US must fulfill commitments frist because “The Islamic Republic abided by all its #JCPOA commitments for a long time,” according to a tweet.

The WSJ in its latest reporting underscores that more escalation is just around the corner, which increasingly suggests hopes for a restored deal could be effectively dead. 

The Islamic Republic abided by all its #JCPOA commitments for a long time, because according to Islamic teachings, commitments should be fulfilled. After they repeatedly breached the JCPOA, Iran acted upon the Quranic verse, “…break off with them in a like manner.” [8:58]

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 28, 2021

Amid the ongoing diplomatic back-and-forth seeking some level of breakthrough to get both sides to the table, “France, the U.K. and Germany are working on a resolution they plan to present to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency next week that would censure Iran for its recent steps to expand its nuclear activities and its failure to cooperate with the agency’s probe into its nuclear work,” WSJ continues.

“Iran has warned if the censure move goes ahead it might end an agreement it struck earlier this month with the IAEA that would allow most international inspections to continue,” the report notes.

Iran is still holding out the threat that at any time it could restrict and boot IAEA inspectors from the country – inspections which are only now continuing on a 3-month conditional basis. 

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Twists and turns abound in Progressives’ push for a minimum wage hike.

Progressives Won’t Give Up 

Senate parliamentarian ruled that putting a stepped increase in the wage to $15 an hour in Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan didn’t comply with Senate budget rules.

That ruling did not stop progressives. Specifically, AOC Proposed Abolishing Filibuster Rules among other things.

“Really our options right now, at least our immediate options on this specific issue, is to do something about this parliamentary obstacle or abolish the filibuster,” New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday.

Democrats pushing the minimum wage provision say the rest of Biden’s agenda, including infrastructure investments, immigration reform and measures to combat climate change, is at stake. Representative Pramila Jayapal, head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said this is a moment that’s “not just about minimum wage — it’s all the promises Democrats made.”

“We made a promise to raise the minimum wage,” Jayapal said Friday. “We now have to deliver on that promise to 27 million Americans who are not going to be much convinced when we go back in two years and say, sorry the unelected parliamentarian told us we couldn’t raise the minimum wage.”

Fortunately, however, there is at least one Republican Senator who would not go along with the rule changes for elimination of the filibuster is not likely.

Unfortunately, that will not end the matter. Bernie Sanders answered the Progressive’s call.  

Bernie Sanders Answers the Call

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive independent who is chair of the Budget Committee, proposed an amendment to the virus-relief bill that would take tax deductions away from large corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour. That would provide incentives to pay workers a higher wage, and the fiscal nature of the policy would be more likely to pass parliamentarian muster. Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden also backed using the tax code.

A senior Democratic aide said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering whether to add an amendment to the stimulus that would penalize large corporations that don’t pay workers at least a $15 hourly wage.

Twist Number Three

Two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have said they don’t support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

That we knew in advance. 

On February 4, I commented Biden’s Push for a $15 Minimum Wage Appears Dead.

It Only Takes One

Given the 50-50 split in the Senate, it only takes one Democrat defection to kill any piece of legislation if no Republicans play ball.

Possible Defections

There are three Democrat Senators in the pool of potential defectors.

1. Joe Manchin, Wet Virginia
2. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona
3. Jon Tester, Montana

It seems we have at least two defectors even if Democrats changed the filibuster rules.

AOC Moans

“The fact that we have two people in this entire country that are holding back a complete transformation in working people’s lives, the same people who have held our country together throughout this pandemic, is wrong,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Time Ticking

With time ticking, Democrats Scramble to Add Wage Hike Without Slowing Stimulus. 

Curiously, despite the fact that at least two Democrats will not go along a minimum wage hike, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pondering Bernie’s idea.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering whether to add a provision that would penalize large corporations that don’t pay workers at least a $15 hourly wage, said a senior Democratic aide. That’s the level President Joe Biden proposed to phase in as part of his Covid-19 relief program. 

The prospect of adding a tax measure presents a major complication. Democrats would need to finish writing the new language, vet it, and unite all 50 senators in their caucus behind it.

Will It Stop With Corporate Taxes?

Uh…. No

Asked about the Sanders proposal, House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that a transaction tax has been talked about in financial services. So I would certainly entertain looking at something like that.”

Hawley to the Rescue?

Here is yet another strange twist. 

A Republican, Josh Hawley of Missouri proposed a similar concept Friday. He proposed requiring companies with revenues of $1 billion or more to pay their workers at least $15 an hour. The plan would require that minimum wage to be indexed to a gauge of median wages after 2025.

Some senior Democrats stopped short of endorsing the idea of a tax penalty as part of the pandemic-aid legislation when asked about it on Friday.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal said, “I don’t know what is going to happen in the Senate so I hesitate to comment.” He also emphasized the importance of meeting the deadline for the aid bill of March 14 — when enhanced unemployment benefits approved in December expire.

That’s one Republican but two are needed without losing someone like Democrat Jon Tester of Montana.

Where Is This Headed?

Perhaps the solution is what I suggested on February 4.

Compromise?

Might there be a compromise?

That’s possible. The $11 proposal of Manchin could fly or perhaps something a bit higher like the Arizona minimum wage of $12.15.

Possible Republican Defections in Smaller Hike

• Arkansas Min Wage $11.00
• Maine Min Wage: $12.15
• West Virginia Min Wage: $8.75
• Arizona Min Wage: $12.15

My guess is either $11.00 or $12.15 will fly especially if small businesses are exempt.

Bad Idea

A wage hike is a bad idea. 

Q: How is that possibly going to induce businesses hard hit by Covid to hire?
A: It won’t. It would encourage them to not hire, outsource, or use robots. 

While the House passed Biden’s bill including a wage hike yesterday morning, for reasons noted above it is Dead on Arrival in the Senate.

Authored by Andrea Widburg via AmericanThinker.com,

The headlines were about the fact that, when Megyn Kelly appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show on Friday, she complained about the way her children’s pricey private schools in New York were indoctrinating them with pro-transgender values and anti-white animus. Bill Maher to his credit, agreed with Kelly that matters are getting seriously out of hand, at least when it comes to the anti-white hatred that’s becoming the norm in education. Maher’s always been a bit of maverick, though. The real surprise was the enthusiasm his audience showed for that sentiment.

For conservatives, nothing that Kelly said about her children’s experiences in New York’s toniest private elementary schools came as a surprise. Kelly said that, while she and her husband identify as “center-right,” she was okay with the fact that the schools were on the left side of the political aisle. That changed, though, when “they went hard left, and then they started to take a really hard turn toward social justice stuff.”

One of the hot-button issues was the schools’ efforts to normalize transgenderism, a form of body dysphoria that’s recognized as a mental illness when the subject is anorexia, not sex. Kelly told Maher that, when one of her sons was in third grade – that is, 8 years old, the school “unleashed a three-week experimental trans-education program.”

Not only did the children find it terribly confusing, but Kelly also said that what was going on was more like coercion than teaching tolerance. Thus, she said, “It wasn’t about support — we felt that it was more like they were trying to convince them. Like, come on over.”

The same pressure was applied to her other child who, in kindergarten was made to participate in a class project that saw the children writing to the Cleveland Indians to complain about their mascot. “He’s six,” she said. Can he learn how to spell Cleveland before we activate him?”

That’s when Kelly dropped a line that should be at the forefront of every single parent’s brain as he or she fights the school’s efforts to coopt American children:

“If he’s going to be activated, Doug [Kelly’s husband] and I should do it.”

It’s up to the parents, not the schools, to set values for the children – but of course, that’s not how leftists see it.

[ZH: Michael Burry had a similar thread this morning]

#Indoctrination is real. This was sent to me. A #FirstGrade teacher. The KGB agent warned us long ago- Nothing is more threatening to America than the anti-American indoctrination of our K-12 and University students. #participationtrophy mindset is America’s #kryptonite. pic.twitter.com/gzAFe56byP

— Cassandra (@michaeljburry) February 28, 2021

Maher then chimed in that he’d been hearing from parents – leftist parents – about the relentless anti-white activism the New York schools, both public and private, are pushing.

And this is what I’ve heard from parents – and these are all liberal, by the way – who say, “My kids are not ready to be told they’re white supremacists.” You know, I’m not ready to be told.

[snip]

You talked about this letter the school put out. … Can I read some of the things that are from this letter, lest people think I’m losing my mind?

“There’s a killer cop sitting in every school where white children learn. White children are left unchecked and unbothered in their homes,” one sentence starts.

Well, how old do you have to be before you can just be unchecked and unbothered. You know, what age to you get bothered?

“I’m tired of white people reveling in their state-sanctioned depravities, snuffing out black lives with no consequences.”

You know, “go reform white kids.”

You know, it bothers me so much that I have to be on this side [Kelly’s side] of this issue. Because I’ve always been a civil rights advocate. You know, don’t make me Tucker Carlson. You’re the f***ing nuts. This is insane.

“As black bodies drop like flies around us by violent white hands.”

There is racist problems in this country. But this is hyperbole, and this is making people crazy.

It was with those words that the amazing thing happened: Maher’s audience applauded. Over the years, Maher’s audiences have always been trained seals, reliably clapping at every hard left, anti-George Bush, anti-Trump, pro-Obama statement the host utters. But this time, he said that the BLM rap pushing Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) on American society is dangerous insanity – and the audience clapped.

When evil or crazy people — that would be the BLM, CRT crowd – take the bit in their mouths, there is no stopping the extremes to which they’ll go. Perhaps the reaction from Maher’s audience is telling us that the American people are finally ready to rein them in. After all, a leftist audience realized, as Kelly and Maher did, that the left’s anti-white racism is going to destroy America.

Watch the full interview below:

So much for President Biden’s call for “unity” as a mob of Antifa rioters (who as a reminder do not exist in reality as Biden previously noted that is “just an idea”) ran wild through the Pearl District of Portland on Saturday night, vandalizing buildings and spray painting anti-police messages. 

Around 2100 PT Saturday night, Portland Police Bureau dispatched officers to the pearl District of town, home to shops, restaurants, bars, and residential living. 

A statement released by police titled “Windows Broken During Pearl District Protest, Arrests Made” said the march lasted for two hours. Officers had to intervene when Antifa rioters began “destructive acts” on private property. 

Portland Police announced this message over the loudspeaker to rioters: 

“To those marching in the Pearl District: Officers have observed and community members have reported members of this group have damaged buildings in the Pearl District. Immediately stop participating in criminal behavior including damaging property. Failure to adhere to this order may subject perpetrators to detention, citation, arrest, or use of crowd control agents, including, but not limited to, tear gas and/or impact weapons. Immediately stop participating in criminal activity.”

Police were in short supply last night due to “multiple shooting incidents across the city.” A dwindling police force is no thanks to the social justice warriors in the Portland City Council, who defunded the police budget by $15 million, eliminating 84 positions. 

Further, police have been restricted on the type of non-lethal weapons they can use. Tear gas is currently banned in the metro area. So while multiple shootings constrained officers – videos and images of the rioters, uploaded to Twitter last night, show numerous buildings vandalized, including a Chipotle, Starbucks, and Safeway.

Rioters can be heard smashing windows. Some tagged buildings with the acronym “ACAB,” which means: “all cops are bastards.”

Overnight, #antifa destroyed numerous businesses in Portland’s Pearl District as part of a pre-planned riot. People were inside this Chipotle at 1201 NW Lovejoy when antifa attacked the building. Watch this video with sound on. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/2LfMAaSrjy

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) February 28, 2021

The mob targeted a Starbucks.

One Antifa member attacked a “random woman,” tweeted Andy Ngo.

Person associated with the BLM-antifa protest group fights a random woman at the Portland riot. Apparently the woman (in lighter clothing) didn’t approve of their violence on the streets. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/RHitFtN5HX

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) February 28, 2021

More buildings were targeted. 

A mob of #antifa destroyed business windows & smashed up cars in the Pearl District of Portland overnight in another pre-planned riot. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/Gm4qJBWxdd

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) February 28, 2021

A police vehicle was destroyed. 

#Antifa destroyed a vehicle at their Portland riot in the Pearl District overnight. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/U9vUXyGHnB

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) February 28, 2021

Bike cops were dispatched for crowd-control measures. 

“I just think you guys are funny, like why are you yelling at the police?” A tourist confronts some of the group along the march route #Portland #Oregon #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/gAqqUzc7nO

— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) February 28, 2021

Police didn’t give a figure on the mob’s size, but it appears dozens showed up for the destructive march. 

A large mob of #antifa gathered in NW Portland overnight to smash up businesses & property. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/tWBe0jn2hO

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) February 28, 2021

After two hours of chaos, police only made two arrests before the crowd dispersed before midnight. 

Darell Kimberlin, 31, was issued a criminal citation for criminal mischief in the first degree. A juvenile was also arrested for interfering with an officer. The 17-year old (unnamed) was released to his/her parents. 

Last month, an Antifa mob attacked an ICE building in South Portland. Even the mayor of the city has turned on the radical left group, calling them “lawless anarchists.” 

Portland is also struggling with socio-economic turmoil. While tens of thousands remain unemployed due to the virus downturn, violent crime is surging in the left-leaning city. 

Since last summer, rioters have inflicted millions of dollars in damage across the metro area – with no end in sight nor “unity” – this kind of chaos will only increase under a Biden administration. 

What’s the government’s solution to keep these crazed leftists off the streets? More helicopter money?

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Is that really what you want to spend your time doing, paying higher taxes?

“No matter how much money I make, they will always print more. I can’t print anymore time.”

The source of this quote is correspondent T.D., who shared the story of an acquaintance of his who was offered a high-paying and very demanding corporate position that would have left him nominally wealthier in terms of money but much poorer in terms of time and energy remaining after trading away the bulk of his time and energy for the higher pay.

The acquaintance turned the position down and cut the number of hours he was working, with this explanation: “No matter how much money I make, they will always print more. I can’t print anymore time.”

The point here is that central banks and state treasuries can always print more money, a process which reduces the purchasing power of the money they’ve issued. We can trade more hours for more money, but this extra money buys less.

No matter how much more of our time we trade for more of this created-out-of-thin-air currency, we will never be able to overcome their power to create near-infinite currency, which put another way is the power to devalue the money we trade our time for and thus devalue our time.

This is an asymmetry that should inform our decisions going forward: They Can Always Print More Money But We Can’t Print More Time.

In other words, they can devalue the money we trade our time for at will but we can’t create more time.

As catalogued in the monumental history, Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the 17th Century, the history of governments’ response to crisis is depressingly repetitive: virtually without exception, every government devalues its currency in response to the soaring costs of conflict (and placating elites) and the concurrent plunge in tax revenues.

The common experience seems to be that the government-issued money loses 90% or more of its value.

In the era before central banks could create trillions of dollars with a few keystrokes, this was accomplished by recalling silver or gold coins and replacing them with coins with little intrinsic value.

In the case of the mighty Ottoman Empire of the 1600s, the empire recalled all copper coins (“small money” used for everyday transactions) and restamped it at a face value triple the old value, in effect wiping out two-thirds of its purchasing power.

Diaries of commoners in every regime not shredded by war record that the 90% devaluation of the money was just as devastating as the floods, droughts, food shortages and soaring taxes that were all part and parcel of the official response to crisis.

That money is losing purchasing power faster than we can earn more of it is a fundamental transformation. In the good old days of two generations ago, making 25% more money still added purchasing power to our incomes, even after deducting 5% for inflation (laughingly estimated at 2%) and another 10% in higher taxes paid because the extra income pushed us into a higher tax bracket.

We still netted an additional 10% of purchasing power.

But if history is any guide, then we can anticipate 20% inflation (grossly underestimated by authorities to avoid outright revolt) and 20% higher taxes (often hidden in higher “user taxes” and other flim-flam) on our additional earnings, leaving us with less purchasing power even after we traded every available hour for the additional income.

Stuck with trading our time for devaluing currency, we will be poorer in what really counts– our time and energy–and poorer in the purchasing power of our income.

This increases the temptation to gamble whatever money one has to outrace the authorities’ devaluation, and indeed, 2020’s rampant speculative bubbles generated a widespread illusion that the agile gambler could easily outrace the devaluation.

For example, take $2,000, gamble it all on the highest-volatility stocks, and turn it into $200,000. Oops, and then run the fortune to zero.

That’s the problem with relying on a hot hand in the casino to avoid trading time for money: the vast majority of punters lose in the casino, especially when the tide that’s been raising all boats ebbs away.

(Governments love gamblers who win, of course; if you live in a high-income tax state, add 9% to the federal tax rate of 32%, and be prepared to “share” 40+% of your casino winnings.)

The other approach is to reduce our need for money to a very low level so we’re not forced to trade what we cannot create more of–time–for something that’s rapidly losing value.

A second related approach is to trade our time for time-honored forms of money that have intrinsic value. While I have been on record since 2016 as saying positive things about cryptocurrencies, including my own proposal for a labor-backed cryptocurrency (A Radically Beneficial World), the historic stalwarts in the intrinsic value camp are gold and silver.

But anything with intrinsic value will do: grain, tools, nails, shelter, etc.

Having the skills to generate goods and services of intrinsic value is very much like “printing money with our time” because our skills make our time valuable, not in terms of what government currency is worth but in terms of the value others find in the goods and services we generate with our skills and time.

History informs us that governments inevitably respond to crisis by devaluing their currency and by raising taxes. In the current era, the more money commoners earn, the more taxes they pay, as taxes are progressive. The less we earn, the less taxes we pay.

Politically, this cannot change much, for as people become poorer, their ability to pay taxes diminishes. So taxes will rise on high earners, not on those earning relatively little. It may well be that every dollar of nominal gain in income will simply pay higher taxes. Is that really what you want to spend your time doing, paying higher taxes?

They Can Always Print More Money But We Can’t Print More Time. So what do we spend our precious time doing? Running the Red Queen’s Race with devaluing currencies, or lessening our exposure to the theft of our time by currency devaluation and taxes?

It’s not an asymmetry we will have to address tomorrow, but the time will come when it presses on us like gravity itself.

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