SnakeRiverLib

"So, if you like your health care you can't keep it?" That was the question that Jake Tapper put to Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), and candidate for president, on her plan to provide Medicare for all.  She is partly honest on this.  She does want to eliminate private plans, including the plan you get from your employer.  It may be good, it may suck, but it doesn't matter, it is gone. Pretty much every candidate for the Democrat nomination for 2020 has signed on to some form of Medicare for All.  Good, we need to have that discussion.  Now for some facts. It would cost $32 Trillion over the next 10 years.  As a comparison, the federal budget just recently topped $4 Trillion a year.. Now, I demand honesty from the progressives in how this is going to be funded, and how it is to be rationed (yes it will be), and so you should expect no less from me. By eliminating insurance, the administrative pipeline is streamlined significantly. By eliminating pa...

I have been thinking a lot about this lately.  And I am going to share a monologue out of Atlas.  It is not one that people think of, such as parts of John's speech, or Henry Reardon before the Unification board.  It isn't Francisco D'Anconia's speech to Henry Reardon and the guests at James Taggert's wedding reception.  Those are all amazing, and each is worthy of reading.  This one is far more relevant today. James Taggert is the brother of the protagonist of the story, Dagney Taggert.  He "runs" the railroad, meaning he sits in the big chair, does lots of deals that have little to do with the running of the railroad.  He inherited his position literally, but is not even a shadow of those that had run the railroad previously.  Dagney in reality runs the company.  For those that haven't read the book, which you should do, here is brief description of what is happening. The United States, the last non-communist (or People's State) nation ...

No end in sight.  Chuckie says that the President is willing to keep the government shut down for weeks, months, or even years.  The President said he was willing to take credit.  A bill was passed, and he pulled the rug at the last minute, such that McConnell wouldn't even send it to the President for a veto.  He needs to really lay out what he wants, and his expectations, before Congress does their "thief in the night" imitation and leaves DC on the last flights out.  He does carry SOME blame. Maybe it is Speaker Ryan's fault?  Yes, to an extent.  The president gave them time to give him money for a wall, and he said then that that was the last time.  The Speaker, busy planning his retirement, did the business people's bidding by not bringing it up.  I would attribute the GOP loss of the House directly to the failure to fund the wall, or fence, or barrier.  But that is only one part. Ryan doesn't own that part anymore.  Now it...

Where there is a will there could be a wall, or fence, or barrier.  One of these terms has been used at one time or another as a necessity by nearly every one of the Democrats now preferring to shut down (or let shut down) the government rather than let President Trump have any sort of victory on the wall.  Or fence.   Or barrier.  It really is that simple.  Having said that... President Trump has put it all on the table, and what will happen over the next two years will be determined by what happens with the shutdown. Businesses, at least the larger ones don't plan a year ahead, they plan as far into the future as possible.  That is why with the new models in retail (think Amazon) have come roaring into the now, the old models have either adapted (Walmart, Target, others), or established a niche market that works under the Amazon cloud, or goes the way of the dinosaur, (K-Mart, and others hanging by a thread).  This is why big businesses love...

Mr. President, for two years, I have had to defend you from the constant barrage of criticism that comes from DC and most of the media.  You have forced people to either hate you, or defend you, even though they are not one of your people outright.  So, here is an open letter to you. Dear Mr. President. I am frankly disappointed.  You tend to overdo the playground bravado.  You pound your chest indicating how tough you are.  Mr. President, if you are tough, the last thing you need to do is pound your chest.  The media has prodded you into doing it, and we know that you really don't care whether it is good or bad reporting, only that there is reporting.  As President none of that is necessary. I was worried that you would take too much power breaking things in DC.  Of course, paying attention to the media would lead people to believe that you had done exactly that.  You haven't.  It was during the primary and general campaign that I...

Comey admitted to Congress that they had not verified the DNC opp-research prior to using it to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign.  This is a violation of law, and those involved should be prosecuted for it.  Even more so, any information received as a result of that warrant should be inadmissible in a court of law.  Even more so, this whole circus of Mueller's should be disbanded, and an apology issued to the president, his people, and the American people for having attempted a coup by the DoJ. So now we know that General Flynn was allowed to feel comfortable in an interview, not knowing fully that lying to the FBI, even in an informal setting is a crime. So, Comey, bastion of integrity, knowing that the first days of an administration are chaotic,arranged a meeting between Flynn and the FBI, with no counsel. Comey admitted that they purposely chose this time so as to not get any crap from the White House Counsel. But ethics, right?  Trump is horr...

This is my next to final blog post for my Democracy class.  It was published on the class blog November 29, today is December 3, in case anyone has thoughts of plagiarism from this blog to that one. There were a lot of good ideas presented, how to make government better, how to have a bigger role in our grand experiment.  I am antiquated, a dinosaur if you will when it comes to what works and what doesn’t.  These solutions are all great, and in my view, any time we increase interaction with the leviathan is a good thing.  You know what is coming now, don’t you?  But… The founders understood too well what unbridled democracy would lead to.  It was evidenced just a few years later in the chaos of the French Revolution.  Their goal was to create a government that would leave people alone.  They felt that they built in safeguards to protect the citizenry from their government.  But little by little, the government assumed power....