Saturday, April 30, 2016

Kick It

See if it moves.
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
Ronald Reagan

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Broadband Access Regulation

Congress.org presents MEGAVOTE, April 11, 2016, for Georgia's 13th Congressional District.

Recent Congressional Votes

  • Senate: Trade Secret Theft – Passage
  • Senate: Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization – Cloture on Motion to Proceed
  • Senate: Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization – Passenger Seat Sizes

Upcoming Congressional Bills

  • Senate: Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization
  • House: More Banks Operating Under the Federal Reserve's Small Bank Holding Company Policy
  • House: Financial Stability Oversight Council Overhaul
  • House: Broadband Internet Access Regulation

Recent Senate Votes:
Trade Secret Theft – Passage, Vote Passed (87-0, 13 Not Voting)
The Senate passed legislation, as amended, that allows the owner of a trade secret that is misappropriated to bring a civil action if the trade secret is related to interstate or foreign commerce.
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted YES
Sen. David Perdue voted YES
This appears to be a fine tuning type of  action. Generally I would have thought that trade secrets would be covered by patents, or possibly we are speaking of something more general in nature.

Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization – Cloture on Motion to Proceed, Vote Agreed to (98-0, 2 Not Voting)
The Senate agreed to a McConnell, R-Ky., motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to an unrelated bill (HR 636) consisting of three bills that would reduce taxes on small businesses. The chamber is expected to amend it with language that would authorize $33.1 billion in funding for FAA programs through fiscal 2017, including those related to unmanned aircraft, equipment certification, and aircraft control system technology. Sixty votes were required to invoke cloture.
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted YES
Sen. David Perdue voted YES
More book keeping. The Senate would never broach the thought of interrupting business travel. The FAA gets pretty much what it wants as long as it does not include the right to strike. Which brings up an interesting thought, what do you think President Obama's reaction would be is the traffic controllers threatened to strike? Blame it on Israel?

Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization – Passenger Seat Sizes, Vote Rejected (42-54, 4 Not Voting)
The Senate rejected an amendment that would require the FAA Administrator to prohibit air carriers from reducing the size of seats on passenger aircraft.
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted NO
Sen. David Perdue voted NO
As a larger person, I have always struggled with the way seat sizes have constricted. That said, I have also understood that for more money, I could have more space. That the Senators from Georgia would follow hat the carriers wishes are is little surprise. Delta is big business in this state.

Upcoming Votes:
Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization - HR636
The measure would authorize $33.1 billion in funding for FAA programs through fiscal 2017, including those related to unmanned aircraft, equipment certification, and aircraft control system technology.
Slam dunk, consider passage a formality.

More Banks Operating Under the Federal Reserve's Small Bank Holding Company Policy - HR3791
The measure would require the Federal Reserve Board to modify its Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement to allow bank and thrift holding companies with assets of up to $5 billion to operate under the policy, up from the current limit of $1 billion.
This one will be tougher, because I would presume that Wall Street pressure would be to keep the restriction heavy on the small bank competition. I predict a failure to pass.

Financial Stability Oversight Council Overhaul - HR3340
The legislation would modify the funding of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Office of Financial Research by making that funding subject to the annual appropriations process, beginning in fiscal 2017. The annual assessments made on bank holding companies and designated nonbank institutions to raise funding to finance the two entities would continue.
Morons considering legislation written by the very people the document is meant to control.

Broadband Internet Access Regulation - HR2666
The measure would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the rates that Internet service providers may charge for broadband Internet service.
Doomed from the start. Frankly either way the vote goes. The Federal government must have total control of this medium, especially after POTUS yielded internet domain control to the United Nations. There will be international demands to use internet access as a tollgate for taxing those that have it. The money will be promised for providing the same benefit to the less fortunate, and largely be used to grease politicians pockets. Other rumblings we are hearing relate to "fairness", the government wants to squelch free speech, especially that speech that is critical liberal governments seeking global unification.

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Copyright (c) 2016.

Knock Knock


Weren't those guys rascals?

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Somalis In Atlanta?

This is a reminder of the famous movie Gone With the Wind and Aunt Pittypat Hamilton about to have psychotic breakdown because the Yankees are about to invade Georgia.
Yankees in Georgia?
Our esteemed governor Nathan Deal has made a fine mess things by ignoring entirely, the majority of voters, succumbing to the demands of business and ignoring the will of the people. Now we learn Nathan Deal has failed to stop, probably encouraged, the Federal government to place Somalian refugees in Atlanta. Here is map detailing the number of persons placed in different cities.
Atlanta has 169 new persons that most likely will be on welfare, receive housing assistance, receive food stamps and resist assimilation entirely.
Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, Los Angeles or New York City are some notable cities, very large cities, that have not received any Somali refugees.
As Mammy would have said.
"It just ain't fittin."
One thing is for sure, like the countdown watch the world has on President Obama's term of office, Georgians like me cannot wait for the Governor Nathan Deal to be retired, out of the picture.

Friday, April 15, 2016

New York Values

A New York newspaper endorses Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz’s New York Values - The New York Sun
What I enjoy most in these articles, is the comments. Having a personal favorite and bias toward Senator Cruz, I find the comments to the author and each other, attacking the Senator, to be humorous. Senator Cruz is consistent in application of his core principals, to the point of sounding self-critical. He may disagree with particular liberal policies, but consistently states that issues not enumerated by the Constitution are the domain of the states. The domain of the states is important in that local government is better tuned to the needs of the local peoples. That the Trump followers persist in calling Cruz a liar is like the pot calling the kettle black. Donald Trump's policies seem to be starting to gel, but the vague, sales pitch type, approach that has been the hallmark of this populist candidacy are bereft with contradiction all of which can much more easily by assigned to willful deception.
When Senator Cruz spoke of New York values, much of the remainder of the country understood, at least in to predominant red states, have grown weary of the bombastic, me first, attitude, of liberals in the Atlantic corridor.
Anyway, if Donald Trump wins the nomination, I will vote for him.
He deserves that much, for not being Hillary Clinton.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

I Feel Bad About Enjoying This

Tyrone had trouble in school; his teacher was always yelling at him, "You're driving me crazy, Tyrone, can't you learn anything?" One day Tyrone's mother came to school to see how he was doing. The teacher told her honestly that her son was simply a disaster, getting very low marks, and that she had never had such an unmotivated and ignorant boy in her entire teaching career. Tyrone's mom, shocked at the feedback, withdrew her son from school and moved out of Detroit, relocating to Cleveland. Twenty Five years later, the teacher was diagnosed with irreversible cardiac disease. Her doctors all strongly advised her to have open heart surgery, which only one surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic could perform. Left with no other options, the teacher decided to have the operation, which was remarkably successful. When she opened her eyes after the surgery she saw the handsome young doctor who headed her surgical team smiling down at her. She wanted to thank him, but could not talk. Her face started to turn blue, she raised her hand, trying to tell him something, but quickly died. The doctor was shocked, wondering what went wrong so suddenly. When the doctor turned around to leave the room, he saw Tyrone, now a janitor at the Clinic, had unplugged the life-support equipment in order to plug in his vacuum cleaner. If you thought that Tyrone had become a heart-surgeon, there is an extremely high likelihood that you will vote for Hillary.