Archive for the ‘business’ Category

At SOTU Trump Reminds me of Tip O’Neill, Sam Rayburn and Why I’m no Longer a Democrat

Posted: February 4, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, business, culture, economy, elections, politics, trade
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President Reagan & Speaker Tip O’Neill (Left) President Eisenhower & Speaker Sam Rayburn (right)

For a very long time you would have described me as a Tip O’Neill Democrat. We shared the same faith, came from the same state and shared the same values. I read his books watched his speeches loved his fight for the working man, and regretted that I didn’t take a day off to meet him at a book signing not too long before his death.

I left the Democrat party in the 90’s (and the GOP in 2013) but as I watched President Trump’s State of the Union Speech I was thinking of Tip O’Neill and Sam Rayburn who 1st put him on the rules committee and the path to power in the house. Like O’Neill and before O’Neill Rayburn was a man of the people who had never forgotten the American worker and the American Farmer and all the country owed them.

I thought of them as the president talked about jobs, taking care of Americans, protecting freedom of speech, freedom of religion and talking about American manufacturing and striking back at terrorist who targeted Americans etc etc etc.

I was thinking of them because it hit me that with one very prominent exception from Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema

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…Democrats remained sitting as they president talked about gains for women, minorities and American workers.

I thought back to my youth watching these speeches as a political junkie and remembered Tip and remembered all I read about Sam and thought of how he would have reacted to all of those things Donald Trump was speaking of.

They would have been on their feet clapping.

Sam Rayburn and Tip O’Neill would be what you might call yellow dog Democrats, people who were so loyal to their party that if said party nominated a yellow dog for office they would vote for it vs any Republican but as much as they loved their party they loved America more.

They would have been cheering American victories overseas, they would have been cheering American jobs, they would have been cheering freedom of religion, they would have been cheering higher wages, more opportunities for blacks, Hispanics and women and both Speaker Tip O’Neill and Speaker Sam Rayburn (unlike Speaker Nancy Pelosi) would have been smart enough to make damn sure that their fellow democrat members were standing for these things as well.

In 2010 at CPAC while interviewing some local transit workers in DC I was asked why I was a republican. I answered on camera that as a believing Roman Catholic I felt I was no longer welcome in the Democrat party. I submit and suggest that neither Tip O’Neill nor Sam Rayburn be welcome in the party either because they were more interested in success for America and Americans than in who got credit for that success.

I think it’s a great mercy that neither lived to see what their party had become.

Footnote While Mr. Sam & Tip would be ashamed of what their party had become they’d be damn proud of Senator Kyrsten Sinema tonight.

House Democrats are Trying to Californicate the Country

Posted: January 25, 2020 by julietteochieng in business, economy, war
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Cassandras and Dead Canaries. You figure it out.

by baldilocks

As I indicated here, I had been lazy about the leftward descent of California and it took the outrage of California Assembly Bill 5 to get me up off my duff, so to speak.

It began yesterday when I attended a rally in West LA to repeal the bill. It was sparsely attended but the two hours went by very quickly due to several eloquent, fiery and informative speakers like Kira Davis and freelance writer and novelist Kirsten Mortenson. Kira says that the rally had only been planned a few days before it happened.

And, in addition to advising us to contact Gavin Newsom’s office, along with our state senators and assembly critters, one of the speakers provided us with some hair-raising information, which Kira talked about a week ago at Red State:

By now you’ve probably heard at least a little something about California’s shocking new “freelancer” bill that went into effect January 1, 2020. Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) is sweeping and vague but basically it redefines the relationship between employers and employees, effectively ending independent contract work and killing the “gig economy”.  The bill – sponsored by a defiant Lorena Gonzalez (D-80) – was aimed at getting to Uber and Lyft, essentially forcing them to unionize. It is no accident well over 35% of Gonzalez’ (reported) campaign donations come from California unions. With a Democrat supermajority in Sacramento and a feckless state GOP, there was almost no opposition. The bill sailed through and against the hopes of independent workers across the state Governor Newsom signed it into law. (…)

Independent contractors across the nation could soon be suffering the same fate as their California counterparts. A federal version has passed through committee and now sits in the House of Representatives waiting for a floor vote. This is not a drill. This is real. (…)

Somewhere between September of 2019 and December of 2019 someone added an amendment to [H.R. 2474] that was a simple copy and paste of California’s AB5. In fact, it is so awkwardly jammed into the text that it can be nothing other than a literal copy and paste.

We should have known that the U.S. House of Representatives wasn’t just playing Impeachment Inquiry Games during the time in question.

Interesting thing about the rally: there were several entertainment freelancers there who I am almost certain are not conservatives and are definitely not fans of the president.

Did that matter? Of course not. And if there’s anything that can bring left, right and middle together, it’s politicians overreaching directly into pockets. But they are doing more than that.

They aim to hinder free and lawful capitalism. Think about what that will do for the economy should H.R. 2474 see daylight.

Kira:

SURPRISE!

A letter from sponsoring Democrats has already been signed and is sitting on Nancy Pelosi’s desk right now. The date? January 9, 2020. This bill is on your doorstep and no one has said a word. [JAO: See letter at link above.]

If they can cripple the Trump economy, they will do so by any means necessary and as fast as they can.

People from other states heap a lot of scorn on us California conservatives for what we let happen to our state over the decades. But this – and Virginia, and, no doubt, countless other forms of tyranny are happening in your state and our country while you laugh at us.

You better wake up and smell the tyranny. We here in California will fight our version of it; yes, belatedly. But what good will our push-back do if the whole flocking country is AB5’d?

Yeah, the U.S Senate will probably kick it down, but the question remains …

What are your sweet and pristine state legislators up to?

If I were you, I’d find out. Don’t wait around like we did.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

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Funeral Lines, Jimmy G Speculation, Schilling waits, Impeachment yawn and Optimistic Trump vs Greta prophet of doom Under the Fedora

Posted: January 22, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, business, culture, economy, News/opinion, politics
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Yesterday I went to the wake for Mike Romano the Butcher that I wrote about here.

Mike ran the last butcher shop in Fitchburg, he wasn’t a big pol, a famous celeb or anything else but even with an empty church across the street the parking was impossible, the lines were impossible and from end of the line to the recieving line was over an hour.

Just because a man cuts meat for a living doesn’t mean he didn’t make a difference.

Speaking of making a difference we are now hearing all kinds of “Should the Patriots have traded Brady” talk now that the 49ers are going to the Superbowl to face Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

This is how spoiled people Brady has made people. You have a guy who made it to the superbowl in consecutive years and was one defensive stop by his team from winning two rather than one and people are assuming it would have automatically have happened if someone else was at the helm. To those folks I ask this: How many times has Aaron Rogers gone to the Superbowl? Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger? The lot of them combined have neither played in as many Superbowls as Brady nor won as many yet are all clearly HOF QB’s.

That’s how hard it is to get to the Superbowl so if you thing that you could just plug in anyone and win ask Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes if they are happy they didn’t have to go through Brady to get to where they are today.

Curt Schilling missed the HOF again this time getting 70% of the vote 5% shy finishing third behind Larry Walker and Jeter who both made it in.

Sports writers are notoriously liberal and they will never forgive Curt Schilling for being an unabashed conservative, particularly in an age of Trump. Next year will be the real test with the weakest HOF lineup in a long time. I have a feeling given the choice between voting in Clemens and Bonds (who finished 4th and 5th & both deserve elevation) or Schilling, the sportswriters will either forgive the steroids users rather than give Schilling the nod, particularly if (ok when) Trump wins re-election.

You’ll not I didn’t write or tweet word on the impeachment trial. Since the ending is a foregone conclusion and the only question is if we will hear from Joe Biden’s son or not I don’t see how it’s worth my time or yours.

Finally Yesterday the President during his speech at Davos noted a long list of doomsday predictions that failed to come true over the last fifty years and also talked about the success of America and his optimism and put it all in perspective:

“This is not a time for pessimism, this is a time for optimism,” Trump said as Thunberg watched from the audience. “We must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers.”

Greta of course game another speech of doom

“Our house is still on fire.” “Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour.”

Outside the conference center, five helicopters circled like petroleum-hungry vultures.

She chided the jewelry-rattling audience. “You say children shouldn’t worry. You say, ‘Just leave this to us. We will fix this, we promise we won’t let you down.’ ” She paused. “And then, nothing. Silence. Or something worse than silence. Empty words and promises, which give the impression that sufficient action is being taken.”

“Let’s be clear,” Thunberg said. “We don’t need a ‘low-carbon economy.’ We don’t need to ‘lower emissions.’ Our emissions have to stop. And, until we have the technologies that at scale can put our emissions to minus, then we must forget about net zero. We need real zero.”

. I suspect she will still be given plenty of lip service and those trying to retard US energy production will continue to help finance her but in the end people follow leaders, particularly optimistic ones with a record of success so it’s not going to be a surprise on whose message is going to win.

Trump impeachment leads my list of recent legendary flops

Posted: December 15, 2019 by John Ruberry in Always look at the bright side of Trump, business, comedy, culture, elections, elections, entertainment, fun, media, News/opinion, nfl, Sports
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By John Ruberry

Here’s a list of great flops in recent times. Feel free to add your own in the comments section.

Here we go.

Trump impeachment.
Battlefield Earth movie.
The XFL. (Yes, a revival is planned.)
Jussie Smollett’s hate crime.
Joe Walsh’s Republican primary challenge against Trump, as well as those of William Weld and Mark Sanford.
New Coke.
Cop Rock TV show.
Watermelon-flavored Oreos.
Heaven’s Gate movie.
Bernie Madoff.
Jar Jar Binks.
The Cleveland Browns firing Bill Belichick.
ESPN becoming woke.
Theresa May’s call for a snap parliamentary election in 2017.
Cheetos lip balm.
Paris Hilton.
The Big Ten conference inviting Rutgers to join.
Anything related to Anna Nicole Smith.
Mars Needs Moms movie.
Manimal TV show.
Jeremy Corbin’s term as head of the Labour Party.
Pontiac Aztek.
The San Diego Chargers move to Los Angeles.
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, “I was born to be in it.”
Google Glass.
CNN’s decision to become the impeachment network.
Rosie O’Donnell on The View.
Michael Avenatti’s presidential run.
Enron.
Motorola Rokr phone. (I was given one of these by my employer at the time. It was truly a dreadful device.)
Heinz purple ketchup.

Now some of these debacles can also double as hoaxes, such as the “racist assault on Smollett. And of course the impeachment of Trump, which of course is stumbling along despite the lack of evidence that a crime was committed.

Witch-hunter in chief in the House, Adam Schiff, dabbles in screenplay writing. Perhaps a Schiff-scripted movie might make it on a future list.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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