5/20/2018

Thoughts On A Sunday

The presence of summerfolk was unmistakable this weekend, despite the rains we had on Saturday. Lot's of out of state plates on the various vehicles filling our local roads, lots of boats being towed towards their summer berths, and a lot of folks at the local big box hardware stores pickup up needed items to get their summer places ready for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

Some of the seasonal eateries have been open for the past couple of weekends and will be open all week long starting on the aforementioned Memorial Day weekend.

If the weather forecast for the next 7 days holds, next weekend's weather will be perfect for the unofficial start of summer.

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The First Street Journal has another post on The Success of Socialism, particularly when it comes to dealing with the problems of obesity. This one is number 16 in the series. Links to previous posts can be found at the web page.

It still amazes me that people actually believe that socialism is a good idea when so many examples abound showing it is a very bad thing. Some of those examples go all the way back to 1620 AD. You'd think that after 400 years of experimentation socialism would be perfected, if it were at all possible. But as history has shown us it is not. But that doesn't stop every generation from trying to “polish the turd” that is socialism.

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Speaking of socialism and keeping in mind Thatcher's aphorism - “Socialism works until you run out of other people's money” - a number of blue states have found out that they can no longer ignore their looming fiscal crisis.

With the change in the tax code that has eliminated so-called SALT (State And Local Taxes) deductions from income tax returns, the actual cost of running many of these just-about-broke states is coming to the forefront. States like Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and, of course, California are likely to see either a mass exodus from their states or one heck of a tax revolt now that their heavily taxed residents can no longer reap the benefits of the SALT deductions. For many that means thousands of dollars they can no longer deduct from their returns and more federal income tax they'll have to pay. It also means that more fiscally responsible states' residents will no longer have to subsidize those in heavily taxed states. (Residents in more lightly taxed states subsidized those in heavily taxed states because they didn't have nearly as many state or local tax payments to deduct.)

The days of being able to depend upon 'other people's money' to pay for all of the over the top programs, kickbacks...err tax incentives, and outright feel good but worthless 'help' given to the less fortunate (those less fortunate residents being created by the very states 'helping' them) or fading away. The actual costs of supporting all of that can no longer be ignored or hidden.

Maybe we can hope it will help bring fiscal sanity to the blue states, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Work intruded into today's posting efforts, meaning I spent a few hours this evening on-line in an effort to close out some paperwork for a couple of ongoing projects before I take a little vacation time starting late this week.

I'm not going anywhere for vacation. Rather I'll be home working on The Manse to get it ready to list for sale. There are a number of last tasks to complete before listing it and there isn't enough time on the weekends to accomplish everything, hence taking a few days off.

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I thought I'd seen everything.

I was wrong.

Apparently someone somewhere thinks that paper bags are now racist.

Just when I think SJWs can't get any stupider they prove me wrong.

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And that's the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer is almost (unofficially) here, more boats are appearing on the lake every day, and where I still haven't mowed the lawn yet.