Rebane's Ruminations

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]

Sandbox - 23sep21

[My how time flies when you're having fun.  Apologies for letting the last Sandbox get a little too ripe.  At our house we were busy with our last eagle on final, guiding it in for a secure touchdown.  gjr] 

Sandbox – 13sep21

[New revelation about Facebook’s history of selective gatekeeping and lying was discovered by the WSJ and is reported here.  gjr]

Sandbox – 29aug21

[The genesis of our wildfires.  Here’s a topic everyone is afraid of discussing.  Almost all of our wildfires are manmade – they are started by indigents, crazies, and people with a political agenda.  The fires started by accidents and natural causes are well-known, few and far in between.  However, our politicians, liberal activists, and media of all hues treat western wildfires as if they were ‘acts of God’, and therefore their genesis need not be questioned, let alone examined, any further.  Given the number of annual wildfires, notice how rare is there any subsequent mention of arson investigations or what these may have discovered.  It seems that the ‘vulnerable underprivileged’ have a natural right to start fires and then be left alone.  And it is not a stretch to imagine the damage anti-American terrorists can do in a free country by simply setting wildfires with easily fabricated, time-delayed pyrotechnic devices.  But from what the public sees, our authorities neither suspect nor pursue such errant behavior – the fires just magically flare up and cause totally acceptable devastation.  gjr]

Sandbox - 23aug21

['I am NOT a victim'  Worth watching before YouTube censors it, especially by our portside progressives.  gjr]

Sandbox – 14aug21

[Mark Levin’s American Marxism has been #1 nationwide since it was published some five weeks ago.  It is an exhaustive compendium of America’s body politic and can serve as a handbook for anyone researching items of national concern.  It is also a page-turner that contains an enormous number of substantial quotes drawn political writings that precede Marx, include him and buddy Engels, and go on to the socialist literature that has swept us through the 19^th and 20^th centuries, terminating with the outpourings of today’s Left and their more strident neo-Marxist organizations.  Unless you know the stuff in the book, you are at best lobbing small caliber rounds, and more likely shooting blanks.  Levin is a good wordsmith with whom those on the Left and Right should spend time, first, to learn more completely their own ideologies, and then to discover what really drives the other side beyond the daily ad hominems and diversionary dollops of fake news.  gjr]

Sandbox - 4aug21

['If Biden is Serious About Covid, He'll Protect the Border' writes Manhattan Institute scholar Jason L. Riley.  gjr]

Sandbox - 26jul21

[Yet one more indicator that we are no longer smart enough to govern ourselves as a free nation was the most recent WaPo/ABC poll in which 51% of respondents were satisfied with Bumblebrain’s handling of the economy – ignoring literally every related factor that is promoting the economy coming off of its C19 hiatus (thanks to Trump) while blind to the administrations plans to pass tax and regulation legislation to stifle the economy, launch rampant inflation, and push national debt to historical records not even seen during wartimes.  gjr]