For ZippyPinHead....

Zippy, best I can tell, the recommended way to reduce the level of radon gas in a house is to run pipes underneath the slab foundation and then via fans suck the radon gas out  from the soil underneath (depressurization).  It should be vented to a place well away from the house, definitely away from windows, where it can be disbursed into the atmosphere.  This is not a one time thing, but needs to be running permanently.  Just sucking it out from the soil underneath once and then sealing holes in the slab, such as around plumbing pipes, has NOT proven to be effective as the gas comes right back.  This will need to be an ongoing effort. 

For your reading pleasure:

According to the EPA's "A Citizen's Guide to Radon",^[11] the method to reduce radon "primarily used is a vent pipe system and fan, which pulls radon from beneath the house and vents it to the outside", which is also called sub-slab depressurization, active soil depressurization, or soil suction. Generally indoor radon can be mitigated by sub-slab depressurization and exhausting such radon-laden air to the outdoors, away from windows and other building openings.^[12] "EPA generally recommends methods which prevent the entry of radon. Soil suction, for example, prevents radon from entering your home by drawing the radon from below the home and venting it through a pipe, or pipes, to the air above the home where it is quickly diluted" and "EPA does not recommend the use of sealing alone to reduce radon because, by itself, sealing has not been shown to lower radon levels significantly or consistently" according to the EPA's "Consumer's Guide to Radon Reduction: How to fix your home"

Something else to consider:  This problem, even if mitigated, will need to be disclosed at time of re-sale, and will likely have a very negative effect on value.  Your friend might check with the homebuilders association there in AL to see what experience they've had with this issue and what remediation they might recommend, and maybe even ask if they might be able to recommend an experienced contractor.

If I find anything else that might help I'll pass it on here as an edit.  

Good luck.

S

Also check here:

http://www.forensic-applications.com/radon/radon.html

https://www.rdsenvironmental.com/radon-mitigation/radon-mitigation-basement-and-slab-on-grade/ 

  

New math

We seem to have become a "math challenged" society.  I saw it many times during my 40+ years as a custom homebuilder.  A client would come to me and say they had a hard budget of $    X     .  After learning what they wanted in terms of their amenities, I would advise them they should expect approx    Y    square feet in order to stay within budget.

Then we would all sit down with the architect and they would tell him to cap the footage at    Y    feet, and that they were willing to accept smaller secondary bedrooms, say 100 square feet each...."so make them 12 feet x 12 feet."

That's pretty much how our government has worked for decades.  A succession of congresses and presidents have wanted more than they could pay for.  That's how we got our $19,000,000,000,000 deficit.  We got away with it because no matter how badly we f__ked things up here in America, we were still less f__ked up than the rest of the world.  Smart money "over there" would invest their money here (read:  finance our deficit) because we were still considered a safe, stable country.  It was  all relative.

Tomorrow Prez Trump is going to give Congress his new budget outline.  He's said he was going to dramatically boost defense spending and infrastructure improvement, while not touching Social Security or Medicare.  Oh, and he wants a BIG tax cut, too.  I'm sure the Tea Party is sweating bullets right now!  Their whole reason for being is to cut spending and the deficit, and here a fellow Republican is proposing an increase in both.

"Not to worry" they'll say.  "We're going to increase income by growing the economy by 4% (thereby increasing tax revenues) and by cutting 'waste, fraud, and inefficiency'".

Have you ever heard a competent financial adviser say, "Sure, go ahead and buy that big new vacation house.  You're bound to get a substantial raise any day now.  I hope." And hasn't every president since Calvin Coolidge promised to save money by cutting waste, fraud, and inefficiency?  *still waiting*

The truth is, there are too many powerful constituencies (read: voters, special interests, and campaign contributors) who would scream bloody murder if Congress cut anything that affected them, and if there's anything every congressman loves it's happy voters and campaign contributors, so....

What will eventually happen is there will be, out of absolute dire necessity, a substantial tax increase on the wealthy.  "But how is that fair", the rich will ask?  My answer:  It isn't, but it's sorta like the answer John Dillinger gave when asked why he robbed banks:  "Because that's where the money is."

Fact.

S

America's Chief Incoherence Officer

"So today I'll be up here, but then tomorrow I'll be over there.  Everybody got that?"....said President Donald Trump at his first Cabinet meeting. 

You know how most organizations have a Chief Executive Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, a Chief Technical Officer, etc?  Our government apparently doesn't work like that.  Instead we have a Chief Incoherence Officer, and then a bunch of confused underlings running around the world wondering what the boss is going to say next. 

This week was a good example of that with VP Pence, Sec Defense Mattis, and Sec State Tillerson all in Europe to reassure our allies there, and NATO, that we are solidly with them, just like we have been since we all kicked Hitler to the curb back in '45.   But....DOH!....then our Chief Incoherence Officer (CIO), aka President Donald Trump, piped in by saying they'd better pay up or we're outta there.

And just yesterday our CIO told a room full of influential conservatives that he was going to whip up on those %^&^* errant Muslims, and hours later his National Security Adviser, Lt. Gen. McMaster, came along behind him and said the boss was....ummm.... just having a bad day.  *ahem*

Our CIO also told the crowd our program to expel Mexican illegals was a "military operation", but then his Sec of Homeland Security, a 4-Star Marine General (Ret), had to step up and say no, it was NOT a military operation.  Wha....what?

The only person who seems to be operating on the same wave length as the President is his Senior White House Adviser, Steve Bannon.  Not long ago I wondered aloud if Bannon was Trump's Rasputin?  (Grigori Rasputin was the glassy-eyed mystic/healer who became a favored adviser of the last Russian Czar after convincing him he could heal his seriously hemophiliac son.  He didn't, and his political advice reeked, too.)

Wanna hear an eerie coincidence?  I heard someone on TV recently say Steve Bannon's style was straight out of the playbook of Aleksandr Dugin, so I looked Dugin up and this is what I found:

Aleksandr Dugin

Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a Russian political scientist known for his fascist views who calls to hasten the "end of times" with all out war.  Wikipedia

Essentially Dugin says push, coerce, intimidate, and if it takes a war in order to prevail, so be it.  A nuclear war isn't unthinkable.

And speaking of Russia, what's the deal with Trump's bro-mance with Russia / Putin?  When all our intel guys say they caught the Rooskies red handed meddling in our election, why does Trump just shuffle his feet and yell SQUIRREL?   

Why did Trump's man Flynn tell the Russian Ambassador to not worry about the sanctions we've placed on them?  First Flynn said he didn't say it, then admitted he did and was fired for it.  Now that's a scandal all by itself.  Why have Republicans so far tip-toed around investigating any of this?  (One Congressman lamely said an investigation would take up too much congressional "band width".  HUH?)  Why did Reince Priebus (Trump's Chief of Staff) ask the FBI to say it was no big deal?  Maybe it wasn't, we don't know, but there sure is a lot of smoke.  Something smells!

And just coincidentally, still speaking of Mother Russia, here are a few interesting facts:  Russians are seriously underperforming thinkers.  Russian's share of international patent applications is just two-tenth's of 1%, despite having 2% of the world's population and 5% of the world's college graduates.

Also, due to widespread excessive smoking and drinking, the life expectancy of the average Russian today is just 64, with a 15-year-old Russian boy having a life expectancy 3 years less than his counterpart in Haiti.   Haiti!  (Source: Forbes)

Yeah boy....we really should pal around more with those cool Russians.  Good guys to suck up to, Mr. Bannon.  *NOT*

S

So, you enjoying your $16 Big Mac?

I've been watching with interest our rapidly accelerating efforts to find and deport the illegals here among us.  President Trump seems to be deadly serious about building a Maginot Line*....er....wall and throwing every illegal he can find over it.  Problem is, I don't think he understands the unintended consequences of his plan.  In his view illegals are just here to rip off American taxpayers, sop up free welfare benefits, medical care, commit violent crimes, etc, and are a huge drag on our economy.  The bigger picture says something very different, however.

Statistics show they commit no more crimes than native born Americans.  They commit less, actually.  Investigations have shown that if you stay at a Trump hotel, you're staying somewhere built at least partially (and cheaply) by illegal Hispanic labor.  That new roof put on your home last year after our devastating hail storms was probably done with (some) illegal Hispanic labor.  

That last restaurant you visited probably had illegal Hispanic dishwashers, busboys, and maybe even cooks.  Did you enjoy your salad?  Who do you think picked it?  Whenever I  drive by a new subdivision being developed I wonder how many of those Hispanic guys pouring concrete are illegal?  And those Hispanic day laborers you picked up to plant those big trees in your yard were almost surely illegal. 

The overwhelming majority just want to live here in peace, far from the crime and gangs they fled, and make a modest living for their families.  Truth is, we need and depend on their labor. 

Prez Trump seems to think illegals don't pay taxes.  Not true.  Look at all the Hispanics shopping the next time you're in Walmart.  They're paying sales taxes.  And their landlords pay taxes on their properties, and charge a prorated amount of those taxes to each apartment they rent out to illegals.  Those tax revenues are shared by the cities, counties and states to fund street maintenance, police and fire departments, schools, etc.

Do some take advantage of our generosity?  Do some sell drugs, pimp their prostitutes, and rob us?  Yes!  So let's round them up and throw THEM back over Trump's wall!  Oops....there's even a kink in that plan.  In recent years the Hispanics coming here are more likely to be Ecuadoran, Guatemalan, or El Salvadoran than Mexican.  When our bus shows up in Matamoros and says "Here ya' go Mexico", they're gonna reply, "Nope, sorry, not ours.  They're your problem.  U-turn Gringo."  Getting even the undesirables out will be much more difficult than we seem to think.

So should we just look the other way and pretend no one is here illegally?  Should we just all meet up on the town square and sing Kumbaya?  No, of course not!  But there are options besides just what FOX News and MSNBC spout at the extremes.  Just remember, you can't always play the poker hand you want....you have to play the hand you're dealt.

We need some courageous politicians (yeah, oxymoron, I know) to step up and codify a realistic plan to have illegals who have been here for a while register, without fear of deportation IF they have proven to be good residents.  Criminals, cheats and bums need not apply.  Then we'll know who's here, who's working and paying taxes, who's contributing, etc, and they can come out of the shadows (and yes, learn English, just like previous immigrants from Italy, Poland, and elsewhere did).  In the meantime let's seriously protect our borders with aggressive, smart, flexible measures that won't piss off half our hemisphere.

We can make this a win / win situation.  Right now we're rushing headlong towards a colossal lose / lose mess.

S
  

*  The Maginot Line, a long line of concrete-and-steel reinforced gun emplacements, no more protected France from Germany than Trump's wall IMO will protect America from Mexico.  

Just watch....right behind the construction crews will come the tunnel diggers and the pole vaulters.  Wanna make a fortune?  Sell 20' ladders in Mexico!  We need to be smart and flexible, and not waste our money building a wall likely to be obsolete before the concrete cures.

The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone's connected to....

Yesterday, in the aftermath of a police shooting in Whittier, CA, the police chief said something that really stuck with me.  He said, "Police work has changed so much in just the past four years.  People today don't want to follow rules....people don't care for each other anymore."

There is so much going on in our society today that is interrelated.  The Whittier gunman had just been released from prison and was a known gang member.  Why do people join gangs?  I've heard it's because they want to belong....belong to a group, a family of sorts.  So where is their birth family?  Are they having to work multiple jobs to pay their bills and not have time to look after their kids?  Has dad (or mom) just disappeared?  Are the parent(s) trying to escape their own troubles by turning to drugs or alcohol?

Now let's connect some dots:  For many decades government statistics have proudly reported the increase in productivity for the last quarter or the last year.  This means the same number of people can now produce more with the help of new technology, or the same amount can be produced using less people.  What used to take 10 workers to do can now be done with robots being operated by just 2 workers.  So where did those 8 displaced workers go?  Unemployment statistics say they have jobs somewhere, but they're probably working for dramatically less than they were before.

To make up for the pay cut, and to be able to maintain the standard of living they were used to, many take on a second job.  Meanwhile they're being bombarded by TV, the internet, etc, urging them to buy even more stuff.  It's a viscous circle, everyone looking out for themselves, wanting more and more, while not even having time to love and care for their own kids.

Is our system of "capitalism on steroids" partially to blame for this decline in our values?  Investors, usually operating through their 401K-fueled mutual funds, and hedge fund managers, don't give a damn about the laid off workers.  They don't care about the product being produced by the companies they invest in, whether it's a quality product or not, whether rules have to be "bent" in order to squeeze out another $.50, or anything else.  All they want is maximum profits, no excuses.  If American workers can't come through for them, others somewhere else can.

What has happened to us?  Capitalism is a great system, fact, but somewhere we stopped working for the common good and started looking out only for #1.  One extreme wants others to give them something, while at the other end they yell "I've got mine, screw you!"

Rarely do we need much more stuff.  A coffee maker is a coffee maker.  If you can't see your 65" TV, you don't need a 75" TV....you need glasses!  There's no need to trade in your 3-year-old car with 40,000 miles for a new, shinier model.  We're being suckered by marketing.  We want our friends to look at us and think we're really "cool".  We've become narcissists to one degree or another.  "Look at me, look at me!"

Here's the final conundrum:  We can live very comfortably with less, giving us more time to care for our kids, hopefully keeping them out of gangs and off drugs.  But if we don't buy more and more stuff, more people will lose their jobs, and we begin the cycle all over again.  Productivity is good....to a point.  Then we must face the unintended consequence of being too productive for our own good.  That productivity sweet spot is elusive.

Problems are easy to identify.  Answers are hard to find.  *sigh*

S

Are stereotypes EVER accurate?

I recently received an email from a gun club in Frisco that I frequent inviting me to attend a presentation regarding a bill now pending in our legislature that would do away with any restrictions* on carrying a gun in Texas.  No more classroom training, no familiarization with Texas liability laws, no proficiency exam, nothing.  Just buy a gun and strap it on.  YeeHaw!

It was that knee-jerk "YeeHaw" that got me to thinking.  When most of us think of people carrying guns we often imagine some toothless bubba with a beer in one hand and a gun in the other.  I don't fit that profile, but am I the rule or the exception?  I checked.... 

If you were to look under the jackets of many businessmen in just my zipcode, for example, you might find a high quality, well maintained firearm.  The statistics say it isn't uncommon.

And inside the purses of a surprising number of well coiffed ladies you'll likely find a nice 9mm handgun in its own little pocket.  Women handgun owners are a fast growing market.

In fact, my zipcode in Collin County, just north of Dallas, has about 85,000 residents (including children), and 3,853 of them are licensed to carry.  In fact we're the 6th most heavily armed zipcode in the state.  And by "armed" I mean licensed to carry a concealed handgun.  There is NO restriction* on keeping any kind of handgun, rifle, or shotgun in your home or your car.  Factoring that in I can only imagine how heavily armed we might be.

I went on to check the other top 25 Texas zipcodes with the highest number of concealed carry handgun license holders and found that they, too, were from areas with a fair demographic mix of all income groups, races, genders, etc.  I've visited many and don't remember seeing any toothless, knuckledragging, beer swilling bubbas stumbling down the streets.  They were just average looking people driving average cars, going about their business.

My point is, stereotypes of gun owners are no more accurate than that of all Mexicans being murderers, all Blacks being on welfare, or all politicians being crooks.  Umm...well...3 out of 4 ain't bad.  *wink*

S

*Unless you're a felon, have a restraining order against you, and a few other specific disqualifiers.

So is it the message, or the messenger?

There seems to be a disconnect in America today between what some of our politicians are saying and how they are saying it.  I think in many cases the ideas they espouse might be acceptable to many of us, but for one reason or another it's the person conveying the message that is unacceptable.  Example: 

President Donald Trump is reviled by many because of his caustic, misogynistic style.  In general, though, his ideas of securing our borders, renegotiating our many trade agreements, working overtime to keep our companies here vs closing shop and moving overseas, etc, are not out of line with what most Americans want.  I think Trump was elected President in spite of himself, not because of himself.  He keeps saying, to borrow from Muhammad Ali, "I am the greatest!" when in fact 60% of us can't stand the guy.

Likewise, Bernie Sanders seemed to gain traction when he talked about health care for all, free college education, an end to corporate manipulation of our political process, out-of-control banks, etc.  To many these concepts, or maybe slightly scaled back versions of these concepts, had great appeal.  But when they heard it coming from an old school, firebrand, avowed socialist democrat, with the key word being SOCIALIST, they walked away.

I personally feel all these ideas have merit.  Our borders need to be secure, of course.  A literal $15Billion wall might be ill conceived, but aggressive patrolling, high-tech security measures, etc, are reasonable.  

In-depth vetting of refugees and immigrants is not unreasonable, especially those from dysfunctional, violent countries, which today by default usually means Mid-East countries who are majority Muslim.  The key is them being scrutinized because they are from dysfunctional, violent countries, not because they are Muslim.

Why are we giving tax subsidies (write-offs) to companies to help them offset their costs of laying off American workers and moving overseas?  If they want to move, let 'em, but the costs of their move, including the retraining of their laid-off workers etc, should be paid by them, and not just dumped off on the American taxpayers.

Our trade agreements today are heavily skewed in favor of everyone in those agreements except the US.  I don't think we need any preferential treatment, but the playing field does need to be leveled.

A highly educated and healthy workforce is essential to our security and prosperity.  Funding these goals, even if they mean higher taxes, would be in our NATIONAL INTEREST.  We shouldn't pick and choose who we want to be healthy and who we want to keep sickly.  A vibrant economy needs everyone to be healthy and contributing to the maximum.  

And we need workers equipped with today's skills, not with yesterday's high school level rudimentary skills.   We should properly subsidize education to keep pace with the 21st Century, especially in certain critical disciplines.

Corporations, especially banks, will by their nature look out first and foremost for their best interests, screw the rest of us.  They are too nearsighted to realize their greed will eventually "kill the goose that laid the golden egg."  Corporate manipulation of our political system by their PAC's and campaign contributions should be forbidden. 

So you see, many of the ideas that came from both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders are IMO not out of line with what most Americans are thinking.  We just need to have them presented by candidates who come with less negative baggage.

S 

Whatcha gonna do?

Life's a bitch.  Everyone feels stress of one degree or another on a regular basis.  The single mom wonders how she's going to feed her kids with payday still a week away.  The owner of a small business hopes he can make payroll on the 1st.  Any of us would probably freak if we got a hospital bill or a "tuition due" notice demanding tens of thousands of dollars by Friday.

Can you imagine the stress a President of the United States feels when his country is attacked on his watch, or when the world's economy is crumbling and everyone is looking to him to fix it?  Just look at these President's before and after photos.  Talk about stress!  Yikes!  

There have been times in history when the President was unable to continue in his job due to illness or injury.  Woodrow Wilson, for example, suffered a stroke, and Dwight D. Eisenhower had a heart attack.  In 1965 our Constitution was amended to spell out who would take over in such an emergency.

When Ronald Reagan was the victim of an assassination attempt in 1981, the 25th Amendment kicked in and VP George H.W. Bush took over temporarily until the President recovered and could return to work.  

It's pretty easy to see when a President is disabled when he/she has bullet holes in them or is in a full body cast, but how can we tell when a President is MENTALLY incapable of performing the duties of the office?

The 25th Amendment says the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet can simply declare a President disabled and the Veep takes over.  If the President contests this, Congress decides with a 2/3 vote required to turn the country over to the VP.  But how can we tell if someone has gone "nucking futs"?  A CAT scan can't see it.  An X-ray can't see it.  A blood test won't show anything.  It's only the OPINION of a mental health expert.  It's a very inexact science.

Does a judge get a say if the President is to be declared mentally incompetent, as in the civilian world?  (The 25th Amendment doesn't mention it.)  If so, which judge?  The Supreme Court?  How long might that take?  Who runs our country in the interim?  Who has control of our nuclear codes until it's decided?  If it's a decision outside judicial review, does that mean we're putting it all in the hands of the 535 most distinguished *snort* scoundrels in the land?  (Now that should cause a spike in Imodium sales!)

I believe this is something we need to give serious thought to.   As they say, "Plan for the worst, hope for the best".

S

Heads they win, tails we lose

Have you heard the story of the family who "won" tickets to a super-popular concert, only to come home afterwards to find that thieves had backed up a truck to their house and hauled off everything they owned?  They'd been "played", big time!

That's what is happening right now to America.  Prez Trump has taken us all on a world-class election experience, but now we're back home looking around and finding that we've been picked clean by Russian strongman Vladimir "Pootie Poo" Putin.  He's playing us.

"The Donald" Trump has had his feet propped up on the Oval Office desk for less than a month now, but has spent all his time so far, except to tweet something about a North Korean missile launch, dealing with his Executive Order boo boo, his ongoing fight with the courts, his obsession with 3 million (invisible) illegal voters, trying to get some of his dud cabinet choices....think Sec Ed DeVos and that burger flipping (Hardee's CEO) Puzder guy....past the Senate, and now dealing with the Mess Formerly Known As General Mike Flynn.  LOOK....OVER THERE!   

Meanwhile Pootie Poo is running amok, doing pretty much whatever he wants around the world.

Read my finger!

Russia today has no intention of vacating Crimea, and is in fact ramping up their efforts to destabilize Ukraine further.  Russia has successfully propped up its Syrian puppet Assad, while leaving the fight to defeat ISIS essentially to the rest of us.  He has strengthened his ties with Iran, even setting them up with a state-of-the-art air defense system.  

Meanwhile the Iranians are harassing the US and others in the Persian Gulf, funding the Houthi rebels in Yemen to the detriment of our ally (?) Saudi Arabia, yada yada, all while receiving a wink and a nod from Putin.  The Russians have also installed nuclear-capable cruise missiles in Kaliningrad (Russian property sandwiched between Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) in violation of our nuclear arms treaty dating back to the 1980's.  In response, I'm not even sure Trump withheld his Valentine card to his good buddy Putin.

Buoyed by their successful tampering with our recent elections, the Russians are now actively attempting the same in the upcoming elections in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe.  And Putin's response:  "Nope, wasn't me.  I've been busy scraping my mother's bunions."   

And we just say, "Well, OK then.  Sorry to bother you.  Yuck, yuck."

The European Union is trying to NOT become the next Humpty Dumpty, and NATO is wondering if the US has their back (and their front, too).  Advantage Pootie Poo.  The Russians even have an intelligence gathering ship parked off our East Coast (which probably happens more often than is reported).

Can you name for me one place in the world where Russia is not working overtime trying to put the screws to us?  We have become backbone-less.  

All the while, President Trump is furious that his man Flynn was caught telling the Rooskies to not worry about the sanctions we have in place against them, but not by the fact that he did it!  He seems to love leaks when they help him, but blows a fuse when they go against him.  Hello, goose / gander?

Republicans are no more going to go after Flynn than the Democrats went after Hillary over Benghazi or her emails.  The American people's interest, and perhaps even their security, seems to matter less to our politicians than preserving their own power and privilege.  *sigh*
  
S


 

The Bowling Green massacre....Kellyanne Conway was RIGHT!

Recently President Donald Trump's political consultant, Kellyanne Conway, said on national TV that Muslim terrorists were here, now, and among other things were responsible for "the Bowling Green (KY) massacre".  She immediately caught hell from the news media who pointed out that there never had been a Bowling Green massacre, and that this must be another of her "alternative facts".  I have since put on my investigative reporter hat and learned that she was possibly RIGHT!

Consider:  On February 12, 2014, in the middle of the night, a 40' wide, 30' deep "sinkhole" opened up under the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, near the site of General Motor's Corvette final assembly plant.

 

Eight classic Corvettes were brutally murdered in this savage "sinkhole" incident, including:

• 1962 black Corvette
• 1984 PPG pace car for the Indy 500
• 1992 white 1 millionth-built Corvette
• 1993 ruby red 40th anniversary Corvette
• 1993 ZR1 Spyder on loan from General Motors, a design study that was never built.
• 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette, a one-off tuner model.
• 2009 white 1.5 millionth-built Corvette.
• 2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil" on loan from General Motors, the show car for the re-introduction of the ZR1, last built in the early 1990s.

But now, according to a brilliant conspiracy theory (that I'm putting forward in this post), it may not have been a "sinkhole" at all, but a Muslim bred-and-trained "sinkMOLE".

Moles are well known to be prodigious diggers.  It's entirely possible that a mole, or more likely a team of moles (I'll call it MOLE Team 6), burrowed their way underneath the National Corvette Museum, creating a huge void that eventually gave way and swallowed up the eight classic cars. 

OH, THE HORROR! 

What better way for radical Muslim terrorists to strike at the Heartbeat of America than to kill eight innocent Corvettes?  Therefore, I must conclude that Kellyanne Conway was right.  There WAS a Bowling Green massacre.  Good call KC.  ;)

S

Credit where credit is due

In the three weeks since President Donald (Donnie John) Trump was inaugurated it seems his administration has been plagued with the "Ready, Fire, Aim" syndrome.  His Executive Orders have almost become comical in how half-baked they come out.  Not surprisingly, all Democrats, many Independents, and even a growing number of Republicans are shaking in their boots, wondering what's going to hit the fan next.  

The good news in all this is that Saturday Night Live has no shortage of material to run with.  There's no such thing as "bad" publicity, right?  Right?

But to be fair, I can think of one thing that Prez Donnie John has done that he should be commended for.  On a regular basis (so far) he has held meetings with business leaders as diverse as Intel, Ford, GM, and all the airlines, small business groups, labor groups, and even special interest groups, supposedly to find out what's on their minds and what he can do to get them to ramp up hiring.  

Some of it has been for show no doubt, as when the CEO of Intel announced that they were spending $7Billion on a new facility in Arizona that will all total add 10,000 new jobs.  Donnie John of course took credit, even though it later turned out that Intel had been planning this for several years.  Still, momentum being what it is, expect others to jump on the bandwagon, too. From his perspective it might be an "ugly win", but it's still a win.  Kudos.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday all the stock markets shot through the roof on the news from the Oval Office that we could expect a major announcement in a couple of weeks on tax reform.  "It's tremendous, just incredible.  You'll love it!  Really, you will."

This could be trickier to get through than you might think.  A big tax cut sounds great, until you realize that it will swell the Federal deficit even more, something the hard-core GOP deficit hawks are going to balk at.  The sales pitch will be that the deficit will be offset by more tax revenue due to increased business activity / lower unemployment.  

The Democrats will throw right back Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's failed attempt to do this very thing, leaving his state with a terrible budget mess.   

What do I think?  I think it will be interesting.  *wink*

S