Thoughts On A Sunday

It is actually looking like winter around the Lakes Region, with actual snow on the ground that isn't melting away and disappearing later in the day. I figure we'll be seeing these small hit-or-miss storms throughout the winter as the first few storms tend to set the pattern for those that follow.

Frankly, I won't be disappointed were that to be the case this winter as we could use a break after last winter which saw weeks of below zero temperatures and one snowfall after another only days apart, with some topping 18 inches. The snow didn't melt away and some road surfaces weren't cleared until March.

****************

Spoken like a true socialist.

Bernie Sanders has been making all kinds of promises about what his administration will do for the people, but like most progressives, he won't tell anyone how he'll pay for everything for everyone. I guess he'll use the usual “magical thinking” to make all of the funds appear from nowhere, or he'll pull something from the pages of the Marxist Economics Handbook, or worse, use Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged as a guidebook.

Heaven help us all.

****************

The New England Patriots defeated the Kansas City Chiefs at Foxborough last night, 27-20. They'll play either the Denver Broncos or the Pittsburgh Steelers next week.

****************

There is one area where I actually agree with Bernie Sanders, as does David Starr: Reinstate Glass-Steagall and break up the large banks into separate operations, meaning commercial banks and investment banks. That the two were allowed to merge after Glass-Steagall was repealed during the Clinton Administration was one of the things that lead to the housing meltdown.

****************

Have you noticed that all of the Democrat debates so far have been scheduled for a time when it was unlikely anyone would be watching? If it wasn't taking place during a hotly contested NFL game it was during one of the college Division I football games.

Tonight's debate starts at 9PM, a night when not nearly as many people will be watching TV. I expect Madam Secretary and The Good Wife will see more viewers than the debate.

One has to ask, was this done on purpose? In my mind, I'd have to say yes because if the Democrat debates had as many viewers as the Republican debates almost everyone would see the Democrat candidates are weak, particularly Hillary.

****************

I've been wondering the same thing.

Neoneocon asks why hasn't Carly Fiorina caught on? She offers a few answers:

I think it was a combination of things. She is one of three people in the race who haven’t got experience in political office, and she was the least well-known of the three prior to running. Therefore, because people didn’t have a backlog of impressions about her, smear campaigns have had greater force because they fill in the blanks. When she began to rise, for instance, and people were just getting to know her, I noticed a veritable flood of commenters arriving on blog after blog after blog spouting the same talking points over and over. It was clearly some sort of organized effort, although by exactly whom I don’t know.

Read the whole thing.

****************

“There is no pause – the satellites are lying!”

Yeah, I'm sure the Warmists will be touting this as a reason to ignore the hiatus in warming. But if one looks at the data from pristine weather stations (stations located in areas that have not changed over the past 100 years plus) in the US and balloon data from all over the world, it matches what the satellites have been reporting since 1979.

So it all comes down to the Warmist version of “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

****************

Glenn Reynolds states “I'm so old, I remember when low oil prices were good news.”

That it's “starving a rogues’ gallery of countries that hate us” is an added benefit even if it's burning some oil investors.

****************

Techie alert!

Comcast is bad enough when it comes to customer service (there are a number of forums online that can attest to that), particularly when dealing with Internet service. Now they're nagging their customers while they're web browsing to upgrade their modems.

I can see if someone wants to up their connection speed but they're using an older DOCSIS 2.0 or 1.1 modem. Then it makes sense. But what if they're perfectly satisfied with the speeds they have? Do they really need to switch to a faster (or much faster) modem than the one they have now?

Is Comcast pushing for everyone to upgrade to one of the new DOCSIS 3.1 modems even if they presently have a DOCSIS 3.0 modem? (DOCSIS 3.0 is capable of speeds up to 300Mbs. DOCSIS 3.1 can handle 1Gbs or more.) Just how fast is fast enough?

****************

My post yesterday addressed the unintended consequences of raising the minimum wage, particularly when it is raised beyond all reason.

As a follow-up there comes the news that Walmart has reconsidered building new stores in poor Washington DC neighborhoods, seeing it as a money losing proposition in light of the District's minimum wage rising to $11.50 and proposed new minimum of $15 an hour. District leaders are angry that “Walmart has gone back on its promise”, but when the economic conditions changed that made the proposed new stores unprofitable right from the get go, why would Walmart build them? They aren't in business to lose money.

****************

Perhaps this is a good time to mention yet another example of the unintended consequences of artificially raising the cost of doing business.

In this case Connecticut has raised taxes to the point that it's been driving both businesses and wealthy residents to relocate out of state. The latest corporation to pull the plug in the Nutmeg State: General Electric.

If GE leaves how long will it be before a number of other deep pocket corporations will head for lower cost states?

From the Connecticut governor’s office on down, Democratic officials argue that the GE move to Boston had nothing to do with taxes. Instead they say it was an effort to merge with Boston’s high-tech culture.

When you tax something more you get less of it. Art Laffer’s famous curve has kicked in with a vengeance in Connecticut, where higher tax rates are producing lower-than-expected tax revenues and killing jobs and growth.

It’s no coincidence that well-to-do residents are moving to zero-income-tax Florida, and major corporations like GE are seeking greener pastures. It’s also no surprise that GE boss Jeff Immelt began talking publically (sic) about a corporate relocation right after Connecticut passed its gigantic tax hike last summer.

You know it's really bad in Connecticut when neighboring Massachusetts is seen as a more tax-friendly state even though it's often derided as 'Taxachusetts'.

They'll be more than welcome to take a look at New Hampshire as well as it has no state income tax or sales tax.

****************

And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the lake is still mostly open water, the snowfalls have been minor, and where we've only had to fire up the snowblowers twice so far.