3/17/2019

Thoughts On A Sunday

Our first hint of spring weather – two days of temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s – has ended and we’re back into more winter-like temperatures. The colder temps will slow the melting of ice and snow, reducing the possibilities of ice dams and flooding in the area.

The ski areas in New Hampshire have reported that business was up this year with the weather cooperating by providing more than sufficient snowfall throughout the ski season. While there were no big storms dumping feet of snow, the series of small storms with snowfall totals between 3 and 8 inches gave us more than enough snow to keep ski conditions perfect throughout the season. Our local ski area will be closing on April 7th, a bit earlier than some of the other areas in the state. Since it is a three-season resort they close earlier in order to start making preparations for the summer season.

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It didn’t take long for the clueless Progressives to lay blame for the mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand on both Donald Trump and Chelsea Clinton. (I never thought I’d use those names together in the same sentence because of their identical experiences.)

First, Alexandria Occasional-Cortex blames Trump and the NRA for the actions of the racist Maoist-leaning Australian. Then Chelsea Clinton is accosted for her condemnation of anti-Semitism which her pro-Palestinian accoster equated to Islamophobia, and hence the cause of the shooting in New Zealand. (No, I don’t understand that logic chain either, but then a lot of Progressives don’t really ‘do’ logic, they do ‘feelz’ and programmed talking points. No thought required...or tolerated.)

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern figures she knows how to prevent another such shooting: ban all semi-automatic rifles.

The problem?

While the guns used by the shooter were legally purchased, they were illegally modified. This goes to a problem that many in government always choose to ignore, that being if someone really wants a firearm, there are always ways to get them, legal or not. If the shooter in this case hadn’t had access to legal firearms he could modify, he could have gotten them through illegal means. Most gun control laws apply to law-abiding citizens, not criminals. Criminals don’t care about the law and won’t be cowed by such laws.

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Is CNN doomed?

Yes. Yes it is.

Keep in mind that a lot of its viewership is captive audiences at airports. That is not a formula for continued survival.

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It seems that one effect of the Trump economy is that the number of job openings is greater than the people available to fill them. But don’t worry, the Democrats have a plan to fix that problem and reverse the dynamic, returning us to the bad old days of the Obama economy – high unemployment, low economic growth, high taxes, and business-killing regulations.

But don’t worry, the Democrats will find some way of telling you you’ll be better off with the loss of jobs and confiscatory taxes.

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Are things falling apart in France? If what’s been going on in Paris is an indicator, it’s quite possible.

The Yellow Vest protests are again growing in size and the violence that goes with them is growing as well. When President Macron is only paying lip service to the issues that have fueled the protests did he really expect the protests and protesters to go away? That the protests have also spread to a few other countries within the EU is also telling anyone paying attention that the EU is in trouble.

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If the Democrats can’t beat Trump at the ballot box, they’ll do what they can to keep him off the ballot entirely by making it a requirement for presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns. While a federal law is unlikely to ever make it through Congress and past a presidential veto, that hasn’t stopped the Democrats in two states from trying do just that.

Donald Trump didn’t release his taxes. He refused to bow to liberal media pressure. Yet, for New Jersey, they’re advancing legislation to keep any presidential candidate off their ballot if he or she didn’t release their tax returns. In Washington State, they’re trying to do the same thing last week.

I’m not sure the legislation passes the smell test. Can states force candidates to divulge private information like tax returns as a qualifier for being allowed to run for public office? Is it constitutional? How far will the Dems take it? Will they require disclosure of phone records, text messages, and e-mails next? What about sexual history? How far with these butt-munches go in order to disqualify their opponents from running against their candidates?

One has to remember that the Progressives are all about power. They may use the language of democracy, free speech, privacy, and civil rights, but they are not in favor of any of those things. Their actions prove that want unrestricted power over the populace and will do anything to get it. We’ve already seen their street thugs, Antifa, use violence to intimidate or silence their opponents. Now making sure that only people they approve of can run in elections is another indicator of what they plan to do.

One has to remember that the first president to reveal their tax returns was Richard Nixon. There is no law or requirement for presidential candidates to reveal their tax returns. None. Nor should there be. All a tax return will do is allow the Democrats to point out every trivial ‘deviation’ as some kind of indicator of high level corruption even though those deviations are no different from those of millions of other taxpayers.

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If we need another justification of why we need to get our southern border under control, look no further than the latest outrage by way of MS-13. In this case MS-13 gang members stabbed a teen over 100 times and then set their victim on fire.

These are the type of immigrants congressional Democrats are ‘protecting’ with their opposition to tightening border security and extending the border wall. Even though the victim was affiliated with MS-13, that doesn’t give the Democrats a pass on stopping the flood of illegal immigrants crossing the border.

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If you need another indicator that spring is closing in, I just secured my boat slip for another boating season and have put in a repair order for work to be done on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout, aka The Boat, before it goes back into the water in May. It doesn’t need a lot of work, just routine maintenance (oil change and tune-up) and changing the bar and ring anodes on the stern drive.

Hopefully The Boat will be back in the water by the second weekend in May.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where spring is just around the corner, the snow and ice are melting away, and thoughts of warm days out on the lake are starting to intrude.