14 Comments

1. 

   rickflick on 1st September 2017 at 2:15 pm

   C
   ollege of Architecture and Planning. Ha!

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     Heather Hastie on 1st September 2017 at 2:17 pm

     Yeah. Not a great advertisement!

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2. 

   j.a.m. on 1st September 2017 at 5:57 pm

   Schneiderman is a shameless political hack in a state filled with 2016’s sore losers, where there is no political downside to his abusing his inquisitorial powers to satisfy his constituents’ Trump-hating lust. Given that Mueller must look after his own team’s credibility above all, it would be surprising if he risked getting too close to Schneiderman.

   Of course it’s all a farce. “If there were credible evidence, or even solid suspicion, that Trump or his family had committed a serious state crime before taking office, nothing prevented state officials from investigating and prosecuting them before the election. None did…. The ethos of prosecutorial restraint protects us all. If liberals abandon it in pursuit of Trump, they will have no ground of complaint if he, or some even less savory successor, unleashes prosecutorial power against his political foes.”

   http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/state_attorneys_general_won_t_save_us_if_trump_fires_robert_mueller.html

   According to the CBO, federal employees with a high school education are paid 34% more than comparable private sector employees, and get 93% more in benefits. The advantage lessens at higher education levels, but overall still averages 3% for wages and 47% for benefits. A slightly smaller raise for the already well-paid? Hardworking taxpayers can get behind that.

   Now, it’s fair to say that few civilian federal workers voted for Trump. According to one poll, it was 25%. Donor records show that Clinton got 95% of their dollars. So not only is it ridiculous to say that the president “doesn’t care about workers”, it’s also ridiculous to say that he doesn’t care about the workers who gave him their votes.

   He’s a billionaire who has built big projects all over the world, but he doesn’t understand economics? Yeah, sure — that makes sense

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     Heather Hastie on 2nd September 2017 at 6:12 am

     The investigation into Trump started before the election. Investigations take time. We do not know whether or not anything has been found. We do know that the Trump campaign was prepared to deal with the Russians to get dirt on Clinton, which appears not to have existed.

     Being a wealthy property developer does not require an understanding of economics. It requires an ability to build buildings for less than you sell them for. We know Trump did that at least in part by not paying sub-contractors and hiring illegals. That demonstrates he doesn’t care about workers. When he went outside the property development business he frequently failed.

     Trump believes in trickle-down economics. He believes reducing wages is good for the economy. He believes protectionism is better than open trade. He believes wrong. He doesn’t understand economics.

     He wants to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15%. He believes that will increase productivity enough to make up for the loss in revenue. He does not understand how supply and demand works.

     Trump wants to increase the International competitiveness of US manufacturers. That means reducing costs. One of the biggest costs is labour. There are few ways to reduce that cost:
     1. Increase efficiency and productivity. US workers are already very good in this area by international standards.
     2. Reduce wages. Yes, he really cares about workers.
     3. Replace workers with machines. This is the main reason workers in manufacturing are losing their jobs, despite what they and Trump believe. It requires greater investment in education for all, another area where Trump is failing.

     A universal healthcare system would help boost business, but the current iteration of the GOP won’t admit that and Trump doesn’t understand it.

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     • 

       Mark R. on 3rd September 2017 at 7:30 am

       Thanks for shutting j.a.m. down; he is completely deluded, and it seems to be getting worse. Any time a Trump cultist says there is no there there with the Russian investigation and it’s a witch hunt, just remind them of Bengazi and a private email server. Has there ever been a larger false equivalency? If HC had to go through the year’s of investigations and faux outrage that Bengazi and her private server produced, then surely a Trump cultist can’t begrudge a Trump hater for demanding the same amount of scrutiny; and this time, it’s looking more and more that the outrage will not be fake.

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         j.a.m. on 3rd September 2017 at 2:14 pm

         @MarkR: By all means, pursue the investigation wherever it leads, including Lynch’s obstruction, the inside-job DNC leak, the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation of the House Democrats’ cyber-security staff, and Clinton Foundation slush funds and influence-peddling. Prosecutors must not let up until Bill and Hillary board the prison bus, along with their whole sleazy entourage.

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       j.a.m. on 3rd September 2017 at 2:12 pm

       I realize that President Trump is not your audience’s cup of tea, and that’s fine. But we’re all empiricists here, right? Let’s put animus aside and examine the facts. It so happens that the president’s record of success in deploying capital and creating value — over decades, in a variety of macroeconomic and geopolitical circumstances, and on a scale that very few individuals ever achieve — is a matter of empirical fact. It’s impossible to reconcile that set of facts with a belief that he’s economically naive.

       Business confidence is up, consumer confidence up, stock market up, housing market up, unemployment down — because real people get that a leader with real world experience and accomplishments is going to have a better grasp of economic reality than a lifelong ivory tower politician like a Clinton or an Obama. What your argument boils down to is not that the president doesn’t understand how value is created and exchanged, but rather that he doesn’t share the left’s political nostrums.

       Nobody “believes reducing wages is good for the economy.” Increasing productivity, however, is the only sustainable way to raise living standards. And when the president happens to raise the wages of well-paid government workers by slightly less than authorized, that can’t honestly be described as “reducing” anyone’s pay.

       As for “trickle down economics”, there’s no such thing, except on bumper stickers:
       https://fee.org/articles/there-is-no-such-thing-as-trickle-down-economics/

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         Heather Hastie on 3rd September 2017 at 2:25 pm

         The improvements in the US economy are not just since Trump took office. The improvements have been on a steady trajectory up since long before he won the election. They are the result of changes made during the Obama administration. There is nothing he has yet done for which he can claim the credit.

         Business confidence is up – that is definitely a point in your favour. However, it’s starting to tank. Business believed there was going to be tax reform, which is needed big time. The biggest problem with your tax system is it’s too complicated. It has too many loopholes and other things. The biggest companies are already paying tiny amounts of tax.while smaller companies are getting screwed. The playing field needs to be levelled and repaired, and if Trump does that, I will applaud him. It doesn’t look like that’s getting done right now.

         The US also needs work done on its infrastructure. That would be far more valuable to the economy than repealing Obamacare, he would have got the support of some Democrats and he could rightly criticize those who didn’t support him.

         I acknowledged he did well as a property developer. It is in other areas that he didn’t, and doing well as a property developer, as I said, doesn’t require an understanding of macroeconomics.

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3. 

   Lee Knuth on 2nd September 2017 at 4:32 am

   Hope the law goes through and that all Australians who wish to marry can.

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4. 

   nicky on 2nd September 2017 at 6:42 am

   The 1st of September is officially the first day of spring in SA. I tried to point out on many occasions that the spring only begins the 21st of September, but that does not get one kudos (‘brownie points’?), on the contrary, one is considered a pompous weirdo or a party-pooper nerd. So I gave up. Spring it is (and I have to admit it is not snowing now) Hooray! 🙂 How is that in NZ?
   Surprised that a civilised(?) country like Australia does not recognise same sex marriages yet. If even the ultra-regressive-Christian USA can? I mean, what harm can it possibly do? (As a former Dutchman I can only but support it 🙂 )

   This 3 owl shot is absolutely priceless. Can’t be better: ‘Owl Fail’ ? Oooh, that little leg. One could kiss it.

   There is much more to comment on, but it really is too much. How long are you planning to do these tweet selections? Is it for a circumscribed period or a more permanent feature?

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     Heather Hastie on 2nd September 2017 at 12:31 pm

     1 September is the 1st day of Spring here too. It says on one of my calendars that it’s the first day for the whole southern hemisphere, but I have no idea if that’s official.

     Most states in Australia now recognize same-sex marriages that happen elsewhere, which is why so many same-sex Aussie couples come here to marry. It’s just that they can’t marry there.

     I’m thinking I might make this a permanent feature, though there will be times when I won’t be able to do it because of things happening in the real world. I’m trying to increase my physical capacity when it comes to writing. Today’s comment was actually about that, but I changed it to marriage equality in Australia. I might explain more fully another day.

     A lot of it depends on whether people like them. It’s not getting me any more subscribers. (I lost a few over my Charlottesville post,.) It might be that people don’t like their e-mails being cluttered up with getting something every day too.

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       nicky on 3rd September 2017 at 4:40 am

       In NZ too? I thought it was a typically South African quirk. It is so arbitrary, this first of September, why not the 3rd of September or the 31st of August?
       On the 21st of September night and day are of equal length and after that the days get longer until the 22nd of December, summer solstice, when summer starts and the days shorten again. On the 21st the Sun is in Zenith at midday at the equator, I mean, it makes geographic-astronomic sense, real sense. Four seasons. At least in the Northern hemisphere Autumn begins on the 21st of September.

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         Heather Hastie on 3rd September 2017 at 6:53 am

         I don’t know why, but here it’s just done on calendar months – 1 Sep, 1 Dec, 1 Mar, 1 Jun. Easier to remember perhaps?

         There are also Maori seasons that are slightly different to the equinoxes etc. They were used to determine things like harvest time and are determined by moon phases as well as the sun. We celebrate them, along with the sun dates, too. Maybe the official 1st of month approach is a way of not favouring either.

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           Ken on 3rd September 2017 at 11:06 am

           I’ve never heard a convincing answer as to why kiwis reckon the seasons in this way. Perhaps it’s just that quaint “she’ll be right” kiwi shorthand again. Being from the north, I’ve taken to referring to the first three weeks of Sep as the interregnum between Winter and Spring 🙂

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