Reverie

"There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen. "Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil."  - From an essay by Frédéric Bastiat in 1850, "That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen"

 

Hillary Clinton has called for an FBI investigation into the Ford allegation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says "there is no presumption of innocence" for Kavanaugh. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, "Kavanaugh has a responsibility to come forward with evidence to rebut" the allegations. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Kavanaugh "bears the burden of disproving these allegations." Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said, "Not only do these women need to be heard, they need to be believed."
Juanita Broaddrick was unavailable for comment.

 

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford  has named three witnesses to her alleged assault: Mark Judge, Patrick J. Smyth and Leland Keyser. 

Judge, whom Ford claims was in the room during the alleged assault, put out this statement: "In fact, I have no memory of the alleged incident. Brett Kavanaugh and I were friends in high school but I do not recall the party described in Dr. Ford's letter. More to the point, I never saw Brett act in the manner that Dr. Ford describes." Smyth, through his attorney, issued the following statement: "I understand that I have been identified by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as 'PJ' who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post. I am issuing this statement today to make it clear to all involved that I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh." Keyser's attorney issued the following statement: "Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford."
 

Who is....Frank Frazetta 

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.—Saul Alinsky 

I've always found this quote--which comes from an introductory page of his book Rules for Radicals--upsetting. There is a wry arrogance about it that makes me immediately dislike the writer.

Good news. I just received an ad from Honda declaring, "Happiness on sale!"

 

The numbers of practicing female urologists in the United States have risen from 8.5% in 2016 to 8.8% in 2017. For the first time, the  number of women surpassed 20% of all practicing urologists under the age of 45.

Penalty kicks may reach speeds near 125 mph and are usually over within a quarter of a second.

As the press seems to be taking themselves very seriously as sort of "contemporary historians," I wish they would do a better job. Just as we never seemed to get past "Obama is a swell guy," we don't seem to get past "Trump is a dolt."
Whatever Trump is, he is not insignificant--for us or the world. Is he the real democracy? Is he the Ghost of Democracy Future? Is he a failure or the move to the reset button? We have had a lot of bad leaders who did a lot of real damage, so far Trump's worst move seems to be this trade war he seems bent on, bad certainly but nothing like the nightmares of Democracy Past. And is Trump's election dramatically different from the changes in the Democrat Party with the ascension of Sanders and the recent repudiation of Feinstein? Should Sanders be taken very seriously, as opposed to Trump? Would a Sanders presidency be any easier on the U.S.?

The proof of Doublespeak in this culture, if any further proof was needed, was this line from the female commentator in the Wimbledon Mixed doubles: "85% of the time, that shot will go to the woman--not because she's weaker but because the man is stronger." 

Retired NHL goaltender Ray Emery, who helped the Ottawa Senators reach the final in 2007 and won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013, drowned in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. He was 35.


Soccer's histrionics is certainly embarrassing. It makes you wonder if "dive" and diva" have the same etymology. And soccer certainly shows that colonialism had some advantages.

But just as astronomers inferred, from anomalies in the orbits of the planet Uranus, the existence of Neptune before actually seeing it, Mueller might infer, and then find, still-hidden sources of the behavior of this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man."

This is a quote from George Will who has had just about enough of Trump. I actually don't feel his pain. I think that Trump's behavior with the Russians was silly, not evil--but that is what he usually is. He just doesn't have the "gravitas" the previous guys had to paper over their deficiencies. To my mind, he has so far been less damaging than most.



Today, 39 percent of large employers offer only high-deductible plans, up from 7 percent in 2009, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health. Half of all workers now have health insurance with a deductible of at least $1,000 for an individual, up from 22 percent in 2009, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. About 41 percent say they can’t pay a $400 emergency expense without borrowing or selling something, according to the Federal Reserve.

According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, “...one in 10 children enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid program were prescribed opioids between 1999 and 2014, concurrent with the onset of the opioid crisis.” Over 15 years, Tennessee physicians prescribed more than 1.3 million opioids as pain relievers to children and teens on Medicaid between the ages of 2 and 17.

Another study reports that half of opioid prescriptions “were for adolescents aged 12 to 17, about 30 percent were for children aged 6 to 11, and 20 percent were for kids aged 2 to 5 years."

To count as benefits the jobs that are created only in response to tariffs is akin to counting as benefits the extra work and expense that homeowners, seeking to protect their homes from being robbed, put forward in response to an increase in neighborhood burglaries.
 

Heritage Auctions announced the sale of Frank Frazetta’s Escape on Venus for $660,000.  

At the comics auction in Chicago, which was held in May, another Frazetta painting, Death Dealer 6, sold for nearly $1.8 million to boost the total return from that auction to just over $12 million. Each was a world record. 

Death Dealer, I think

Golden oldie:
http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/11/jfk-movie-and-problem.html

JFK: The Movie and the Problem steeleydock.blogspot.com The Thanksgiving holiday, one of the best holidays and certainly the best secular one, has been spoiled for everyone who was awake and think...

Immigrants, whether legal or illegal, may apply for the U visa if they are victims of certain crimes, including stalking and domestic violence, and if they help law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution. The U visa, created as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, allows the alleged victims to remain in the U.S. while assisting law enforcement, and they can then become eligible to adjust to lawful permanent resident status. A man I know married an illegal and she immediately charged him with domestic abuse. He wandered mystified through the legal system (he was jailed and eventually went to trial, his employer actually stood by him but his neighbors are still suspicious of him) and the case was eventually thrown out. He is seeing a therapist; she is now a permanent resident. The number of such cases in the country is supposedly 58,000 a year. Former Arapahoe County (Colo.) District Attorney Michael Steinberg, who now specializes in such cases, said, "anyone who enters the country illegally and can produce a restraining order or affidavit, even with no hard evidence of abuse, is likely to be approved for a work permit and permanent residency."

This is interesting, if true. There is a lot of stuff floating around about it, especially how easy it is to develop a stalking profile.

According to a new study published Tuesday in the International Journal of Cancer, people who eat at least two hours before going to sleep or before 9 p.m. “have a 20% lower risk of breast and prostate cancer than those who eat after 10 p.m. or go to bed shortly after supper.”
So, how exactly would you do this study?

Gabe Rivera has died. What happened to him was a nightmare. He was the first round draft pick that the Steelers thought would be the new Joe Greene. They took him--and not Dan Marino.

A sunken Russian warship estimated to contain 200 tons of gold bullion and coins was discovered about one mile off the coast of the South Korean island of Ulleungdo. Today, that amount of gold is worth 150 trillion won, or $130 billion, CNBC reports.

According to a new report by President Trump's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Medicaid had 71 million recipients in 2016 and cost $566 billion, counting both federal and state contributions. (The program is jointly funded.) SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) spending in 2016 totaled $71 billion for 44 million beneficiaries. TANF is the smallest program of the group, with spending of $31 billion for 3.9 million recipients.

In a CEA study in 2013,  there were about 17.2 million adult Medicaid recipients who were neither disabled nor elderly. The comparable figure for SNAP was 18.6 million beneficiaries. In both cases, about half the recipients didn't work at all and nearly another 20% worked fewer than 30 hours a week.

There are rumors of creating a work requirement.

"Because men have been getting on my nerves lately. Every day I read the newspaper, and I just think — brothers, what’s wrong with you guys? What's wrong with us? I mean we're violent; we're bullying — you know, just not handling our business." --Mr. Obama, encouraging us to be better.

Professor Tim Groseclose, author of "Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind," makes the case that were the media truly fair and balanced, the average state would vote the same way Texas votes, in favor of Republicans. But media bias gives Democrats a bump of about 8 to 10 points. Of 20 major sources of news, Groseclose found about 15 years ago, 90% lean to the left.
8 to 10 points! Really?

The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of over 500 national reporters, editors and media executives and found that only 7% self-identified as 'conservative."
(This appeared in an article asking, who manipulated public opinion more, the Russians or the media? It did not raise the question of malice.)

In 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign, a French soldier discovered a black basalt slab inscribed with ancient writing near the town of Rosetta, about 35 miles north of Alexandria. The irregularly shaped stone contained fragments of passages written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic. The ancient Greek  passage announced that the three scripts were all of identical meaning.

Englishman Thomas Young made progress with the initial hieroglyphics analysis of the Rosetta Stone. French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832), who had taught himself ancient languages, ultimately cracked the code and deciphered the hieroglyphics using his knowledge of Greek as a guide.


Since 2003, global debt has soared. As a share of the world economy (gross domestic product), the increase went from 248% of GDP to 318%. In the first quarter of 2018 alone, global debt rose by a huge $8 trillion. The figures include all major countries and most types of debt: consumer, business and government.

This is of particular interest to people who are suspicious that the trade wars recently being initiated will result in a decline and thus stress interest payments and repurchases.

Aaaaannnnddddd.....a graph:

Source: The Daily Shot