Day: July 6, 2017

Closing Thought–06Jul17

A Turn For The Worse?

US Congressman Scalise that was shot during a baseball practice has taken a turn for the worse and is once again in ICU…..

Lawmakers from both parties were praying for Rep. Steve Scalise Wednesday night after the congressman’s condition worsened and he was readmitted to the intensive care unit at a Washington, DC hospital. The MedStar Washington Center Hospital says the Republican, who was shot during practice for a congressional baseball game three weeks ago, was readmitted to the ICU “due to new concerns for infection” and his condition is listed as serious, Politico reports. Scalise spent nine days in intensive care after being shot in the hip during the June 14 shooting. He required several surgeries after the bullet fractured bones, injured internal organs, and caused severe bleeding.

Scalise has been hospitalized since the shooting, in which four other people were injured and gunman James Hodgkinson was fatally injured by police. Earlier this week, Rep. Phil Roe told Tennessee station WJHL that he hopes his friend will recover enough to attend the University of Tennessee and Louisiana State University football game this fall, the Washington Post reports. “He’s just out of bed. He’s not able to eat yet. But he is getting better,” Roe said.

IST would like to wish Rep. Scalise a speedy recovery and his family all the best……

My day is finished….join me tomorrow for much more stuff…..have a good day…..chuq

Another War Death

Sad day when I have to write another post on the death of a US soldier in combat…..this time it is in Afghanistan……

A 19-year-old American soldier has died in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province from wounds received in an attack, the Pentagon has announced.

Private First Class Hansen Kirkpatrick of Wasilla, Alaska, died on Monday when he was struck by “indirect fire,” a military term that usually encompasses rockets, mortars, or artillery, the US military command in Kabul said in a statement. Kirkpatrick was assigned to the US Army’s 1st Armored Division, which is based in Fort Bliss, Texas.

Two other American soldiers were also wounded but their injuries were not expected to be life threatening and they were receiving medical treatment, the statement said.

Sadly this will not be the last for The Trump administration is considering adding several thousand troops, largely in a training and support capacity. A delegation of senators visited Kabul on Tuesday and called for a new strategy ahead of an expected Trump review later in July on the United States’ longest war, now in its 16th year.

They, the Pentagon, thinks that a surge won the war once before so let’s try it again…….

Source: Another Surge in Afghanistan Would Be Folly. I Should Know—I Was Part of the Last One. – Mother Jones

Einstein has a quote that fits here.

“Stupid Is As Stupid Does”

There are times when you just shake your head at the amount of stupidity that invades our society…..like on the 4th when NPR Tweeted out the DoI, 140 characters at a time and then the push back from people that did not know it was the DoI……

NPR marked the Fourth of July by tweeting the entire Declaration of Independence, but it seems some Twitter users didn’t recognize what they were reading. The AP reports the broadcaster tweeted out the words of the declaration line-by-line Tuesday. Some of the founders’ criticisms of King George III were met with angry responses from supporters of President Trump, who seemed to believe the tweets were a reference to his presidency. One tweet read, “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Another said: “and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.”

A Twitter user accused NPR of condoning violence while trying to sound patriotic. The user apologized after the misunderstanding was pointed out. Another asked if the tweet was talking about the US’ current foreign agenda, asking if Americans were the tyrants. Others were under the impression NPR was trying to provoke Trump with the tweets and praised the outlet for doing so. Many, recognizing it was the Declaration of Independence, said how history is repeating itself. NPR broadcast its annual reading of the declaration for the 29th straight year on Independence Day. This is the first year the tradition has been extended to Twitter. A spokesperson says the tweets were shared by thousands of people and generated “a lively conversation.”

The Tweets fired at NPR are just amazing……read some of them for yourself…….some of the replies will just amaze you……

Apparently the DoI is no longer required reading in school…..how many of those that attacked consider themselves a “Proud American” and “Patriotic”?
Seriously?

Congress Considers Banning Tourism to North Korea

Seriously?

There is no ban in place right now?  You mean the way that Americans keep vanishing in NK and so far it is okay to go there on a holiday?

US legislators are considering a tourism ban to North Korea. While there are many reasons not to visit the hostile country, such a restriction would be an illogical overreach in government policy.

Actually, don’t. The Kim family regime has been kidnapping American citizens and using them as leverage against the United States government—what Korean experts call “hostage diplomacy”—for years. And on the off chance you haven’t heard, earlier this month it sent University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier home with a fatal brain injury after first sentencing him to fifteen years of slave labor.

Source: Congress Considers Banning Tourism to North Korea | World Affairs Journal

Holy Crap!  How many Americans have been imprisoned in NK over the years?  And yet you can still get a visa?  Better yet, why would you want one?

First of all, what moron wakes up one morning and says “hey a trip to North Korea might be fun”?

And yet almost every year we read about an American that has gone to North Korea and then been arrested for espionage or something as lame…..and they keep coming…..exactly what is the big attraction that drives some to want to visit?

This boggles the mind that there is still a way to get a visa to visit NK…….seems like that would have been one of the first sanctions to go into place….but apparently no one thought that far ahead.

I mean…..really?

Free Markets! Just Stop It!

Thoughts From the VOMITORIUM

Free markets!  Free markets!  We hear this time and time again from our politicians especially those on the Right….we must have free markets for this country to move forward.

What poppycock! (I wanted to use a stronger word but some of my readers may have sensitivities that I may not know about)……

This term has been used so much that few know what the Hell it means….but they will vote for the loudest toad that uses it ad nauseum….

I recently had a sit down with a friend—-coffee and pastry was delightful—a conserv friend…..we started talking about trade. world trade and my friend being a good conserv started going on about the “free markets”….free markets this and free markets that……as usual I had to point out that the free markets that he so loves do not exist…..in the pure economic sense.

As usual these conservs know not of what the speak….once I started my friend immediately started in on the “socialism” thing….anything that does not meet with their approval is deemed “socialism”…that is a retreat of the ignorant.

First of all….what are the “Free markets”…..Where buyers and sellers can make the deals they wish to make without any interference, except by the forces of demand and supply.

The term “free market” is sometimes used as a synonym for laissez-faire capitalism. When most people discuss the “free market,” they mean an economy with unobstructed competition and only private transactions between buyers and sellers. However, a more inclusive definition should include any voluntary economic activity so long as it is not controlled by coercive central authorities.

In short there are few “free markets’ although the illegal drug trade comes closest to any….

Economic sanctions, quotas, tariffs all are regulations of sorts and go against the perceived benefits of a “Free Market”……

Our new president wants to punish countries like China for dumping steel none of that is part of a free market…..

Time to find a new term to name the economy/markets in the US…..time to stop using a term that does not define the market economy of the US…..