Rebane's Ruminations

Sandbox – 26jun22

[It appears that the pro-abortion Left is continuing to violate laws and practice violence in demonstrating its opposition to the SCOTUS ruling that overturned Roe v Wade.  Compare the coverage of these protests on the various ideologically oriented media outlets.  None of the protesters seem to know what the ruling really said and how it preserves democracy in the land. gjr]

Sandbox – 16jun22

[Millions of workers are in their hammocks enjoying govt checks and depressing the labor participation rate to 62.3% from 63.4% at the end of Trump’s administration during which time it was increasing for the first time since the 2008 Great Recession.  Yes, during the entire ‘Obama recovery’ more and more people were leaving their jobs.  The participation rate includes worker with jobs and those actively looking for jobs.  This makes the cited 3.6% unemployment rate a hokey statistic; millions more are sitting on their butts enjoying govt handouts while employers are looking for workers and paying excessive wages to those working.  These high labor costs are another one of Biden’s Blunders which contributes to our soaring inflation.  Bumblebrain has given new meaning to ‘loser’. gjr]

Sandbox – 8jun22

[RCP numbers just out on Bumblebrain’s overall approval rating – drumroll please – 25% approve, 61% disapprove.  This is lowest approval rating ever for an American president.  We have a few select readers who should take special note of this rating on arguably the most incompetent and worst performing president the republic has ever suffered under.  And then to demonstrate once more the intellectual capacity of Democrat politicians, Sen Maggie Hassan (D-NH) announced from the Senate floor that she doesn’t have to suffer high fuel costs, because she drove from New Hampshire to DC in her EV, and didn’t have to worry about stopping at any gas station charging astronomically high fuel prices.  You see, charging your EV batteries is free, and that’s how you fight inflation.  Reminds me of the Dem congressman who was worried at a committee hearing that a Pacific island would “tip over” if too many of our troops were stationed on a military base there.  gjr]

Sandbox - 26may22

[Please post your mass killings comments under '... to protect the children'.  Thank you. gjr]

Sandbox – 17may22

[President Bumblebrain rushed up to Buffalo today to make some political hay out of the latest killing spree by a deranged shooter who claims to be a leftwinger, and is accused by the lamestream as being a “white supremacist” rightwinger.  In his speech to the nation our fearless leader’s pabulum included, “I promise you, hate will not prevail.”  What his adoring legions don’t understand is that hate doesn’t have to prevail.  Delivering occasional massacres here and there, hate can just keep boiling along at the current rate, as long as the killers know that wherever they decide to open fire, they will be the only ones with a gun.  gjr]

Sandbox – 3may22

[California’s 2021 population shrank for the second year in a row. (here)  Our local leftwingers have continued to ignore this phenomenon in the large, and most certainly deny its most proximal cause that can be remedied by rolling back the atrocious tax and regulatory policies with which our one-party monopoly legislature has burdened the once Golden State, and continues to do so unabated.  Reporting on this, the lamestream media (e.g. NPR) explains to its audiences that all this is due only to lower birthrates, Covid deaths, and not enough ‘immigration’ (aka influx of illegal aliens).  Nowhere is mentioned the ongoing Great California Exodus of businesses and workers numbering in the hundreds of thousands annually.  The state’s Democrats continue to count on their double dummy constituents to keep them in office and pay no attention to those behind the curtain who have put California at the bottom in about every measured QoL category. gjr]

Sandbox – 20apr22

[Had a wave of nostalgia reading ‘The Last of the Afternoon Newspapers’ by Peter Funt.  The last two are located in Livingston, Montana serving about 4,500 readers.  During my 10-13 age in Indianapolis, I had two paper routes - first one in the city where I carried a large canvas bag of papers strapped across my shoulder, and second one in the suburbs where much bigger saddlebags were permanently on the back rack of my balloon tire Schwinn.  As a kid I worked hard for the $5/week that sometimes was left over from my collections after I paid the Indianapolis News route manager for the newspapers I ordered and sold – every kid was a little businessman who was assigned a territory in which he had to market, deliver, and collect.  It was one of my early lessons about the real world of business.  Have any RR readers had a paper route somewhere in their past? gjr]

Sandbox – 12apr22

[Happy days are here again – California plans to introduce the 32-hour work week with 40-hour pay.  Another product of socialist economics and its new monetary theory coming to a job site near you. gjr]

Sandbox – 2apr22

[I have a hard time trying to imagine the proposed meeting between Zelensky and Putin.  One is an heroic leader of a small country besieged by a world-class dictator, kleptocrat, and thug who, in addition, openly seeks to murder the man with whom he will negotiate.  How in hell will the two talk to each other when Putin is the unprincipled tyrannous maximus who has gratuitously attacked his neighbor with the demonstrated intent to kill as many civilians as he can in order to bring Ukraine to its knees?  How do you talk to a man who wants you dead and has several hit squads in the field under orders to kill you?  gjr]

Sandbox – 23mar22

[With the sans-mea-culpa discovery of Hunter Biden’s emails by the leftwing media, we now have a widely available example of how the Dems impacted the 2020 election without necessarily messing with the ballot stuffing and vote counting itself.  As Bryan Caplan (Myth of the Rational Voter) showed some years back, the media can readily impact the outcome through the mass swaying of votes by how it covers and covers up news that shape voters’ attitudes.  You cannot censor lies without also censoring truth – it was ever thus.  gjr]

Sandbox – 13mar22

[The lying season from Washington is now in full swing, perhaps more intense now than since the Great Depression.  The Democrats’ demonstration of wholesale ineptitude and incompetence requires a steady stream of whoppers that I challenge anyone to compare in scope and national impact with what Trump has been accused of.  And the feckless Republicans along with conservative media like FN allow progressive pundits and politicians to get away with lame stats like ‘more oil has been pumped under Biden than Trump.’  Even if true, any 3-digit rightwinger should immediately point out that such residual pumping capacity was made possible under Trump and his legacy encouragement of America’s energy independence.  On his first day Biden started doing everything he could to cripple US fossil fuels production.  gjr]

Sandbox - 28feb22

[A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.  Well, there's a very simple answer.  Nobody bothered to check the oil.  We just didn't know we were getting low.  The reason for that is purely geographical.  Our OIL is located in: ALASKA, California, Coastal Florida, Coastal Louisiana, Coastal Alabama, Coastal Mississippi, Coastal Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.  But our dipstick is located in the White House! (H/T to correspondent)]

Sandbox - 21feb22

[Still no internet, and ATT can’t figure out why.  Three tech teams have worked on the problem to date, and one is here now.  Bear with me, and spare prayers gratefully accepted.  gjr

Sandbox - 10feb22

[Now that we are an inflation nation, anyone care to predict how much of the dollar will be destroyed this year?  gjr]

Sandbox - 31jan22

[I draw your kind attention to the brouhaha that my 'Democrats' Newspeak' invited when it was published in the 29jan22 Union.  gjr]

Sandbox – 20jan22

[I’m interested in how our liberal readers contort themselves to overlook the disastrous first year of the Biden administration – mostly by regurgitating their ongoing TDS affliction.  Never mind 'this is now', keep your eye on 'that was then'.  The recent AP/NORC poll puts the whole thing into a perspective that should be of interest to our liberal poll watchers.  gjr]

Sandbox - 9jan22

[Apologies for such a big interval between fresh sand.  Too many other good topics to address directly.  gjr]

Sandbox - 27dec21

[Well, the old year is going out like a lion.  The whole county got plastered with its biggest snow storm in years, and there's more to come.  Power went out 1215 this morning, and our new 24KW powerbox has been humming along ever since.  Everybody will be ordering propane.  Time to hunker down, stay warm, and pray for RAIN.  gjr]

Sandbox - 15dec21

[Bumblebrain again promises that the feds spending an extra $5T this decade under its BBB plan will be the best thing for the economy since "it will cost nothing" by taxing the bejeezus out of everyone in sight.  You really didn't believe that "only those making over $400K" did you?  What is it that makes all leftwingers terminally stupid about economics and as to how humans respond to armed confiscation?  Perhaps that mental deficiency is a prerequisite for becoming a leftwinger.  gjr]

Sandbox - 27nov21

[While not overflowing, the last Sandbox was getting a bit dated.  So here's a fresh one that you can fill with holiday cheer, or not.  gjr]

Sandbox – 15nov2

[With today’s signing of the trillion plus ‘infrastructure bill’ the Democrat perfidy is made visible.  The bill contain1s so little (about $100B) for actually fixing roads, bridges, etc that municipalities are not prepared to issue massive new amounts of municipal bonds – usually a jurisdiction’s ‘matching funds’ to garner federal subsidies.  Therefore, the outstanding tax-free municipal bond prices are rising and their yields falling.  The infrastructure bill is yet another Biden travesty that misses the mark as the feds (the Fed) continue printing new money.  So the question stands – name ONE thing that Bumblebrain has done right.  gjr]

Sandbox - 30oct21

[Happy End of Fire Season!  Exit question - what potion should one take to get excited about the World Series this year?  gjr]

Sandbox – 16oct21

[Looking at the increasing number of stores with empty shelves and long lines of customers waiting to buy what’s left, we are told by Biden’s lackies that all this signifies another administration success as a sign of a booming economy where the people are exhibiting their ample ‘buying power’ that outpaces the nation’s ability to manufacture enough goods.  The same arguments were made in the USSR when newsreels showed Russians standing in long lines waiting to get into stores with empty shelves.  gjr]

Sandbox - 8oct21

{The Hill reports (here) the Dems are getting real worried that Trump will run in 2024.  One of our readers has specialized in telling all who will listen that Trump's candidacy would be a blessing for our Left.  He should provide his fellow ideologues a great deal of comfort if he would share his reasoning with them.  gjr]

Sandbox - 3oct21

[“Falling Unemployment Adds to Worries About the U.S. Labor Market.  A lower rate could signal that many people are staying out of the workforce, which could add to employers’ hiring difficulties.”  This is among the flood of maladies that Bumblebrain’s socialist policies and promises now causing suffering and hurt in the land.  Has anybody yet found a SINGLE THING that he and the Dems have done right?  gjr]