No Labor for Labour

 Politics is not the art of the possible. It is choosing between the unpalatable and the disastrous.--Gailbreth



Pirates were pushing their charities last night. "Most important thing we do," says Nutting. Certainly drafting isn't.
Women's soccer was exciting yesterday.
I have another PT appointment today. Last week was almost fatal.

There was a funny viral video showing International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde watching Ivanka interlope at the G20. It must be hard for these people. The IMF has very high standards, like former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. And the Press can easily point out the inferior players.

What “multiculturalism” boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture—and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

The most popular drug globally continues to be cannabis, with an estimated 188 million people having used it in 2017, according to the study. Cannabis usage is most prevalent in North America, where there are an estimated 56.6 million users, followed by Asia with 54.2 million. One-third of Israeli men in the 15-to-64 age bracket and 28.5% of those in Jamaica used cannabis at a greater frequency than all other countries measured, the study said. American men followed at 21.4% while Canadians and New Zealanders rounded out the top five with 19.1% and 18.6%, respectively, according to the latest data available.
Israel & Jamaica?

Reparations: To have a child born with the hereditary right to expropriate another's goods or efforts is a virtual definition of royalty. 

Ronald Wayne sold his copy of a 1976 contract he’d signed with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for $500.  A nerdy collector’s item.  Why hang on to it? A couple of decades later, in 2011 that document sold at auction for $1.59 million. Oh, and the document itself gave Mr. Wayne 10% of Apple which, had he not sold it back to them 12 days later for $800, would today be worth $92 billion.

Rising housing costs in the nation’s most popular urban centers have slowed their growth. That’s speeding an exodus of residents to suburban communities, which now account for 14 of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the U.S., causing strains along the way.(wsj)

Monetary scholar Judy Shelton already devised the creation of Treasury Trust Bonds — five-year Treasuries redeemable in either dollars or gold. They could be enacted either through legislation or as a Treasury initiative.

A menu with an interesting Side Dish from Mama D's Diner in Little Rock, geared to stop “date night food-theft:” 



On this day in 1988, in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistook for a hostile Iranian fighter aircraft. Two missiles were fired from the American warship–the aircraft was hit, and all 290 people aboard were killed. The attack came near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, when U.S. vessels were in the gulf defending Kuwaiti oil tankers. Minutes before Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down, the Vincennes had engaged Iranian gunboats that shot at its helicopter.

                           No Labor for Labour

Coming up with ideas is easier than you thought. This is from an article that appeared in Great Britain by Martine Berg Olsen showing the perils of work and the obvious need for us to chose starvation over heat prostration. There have been a lot of editorial consideration of this idea, that is to say it is not from The Onion.

"The Labour Party is discussing plans to bring in a 10-hour working week and slash pay by 75 per cent to tackle climate change. The radical report titled The Ecological Limits of Work by the Autonomy Group states unless current carbon emissions are cut there would be an ‘unprecedented decrease in the economic activity’. It says the sustainable work week would likely be ‘well below 10 hours per week’. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who has previously backed a four-day working week, said: ‘This is a vital contribution to the growing debate around free time and reducing the working week.’ Leo Murray, adviser to Shadow Treasury minister Clive Lewis, said: ‘I like this take a lot.’ Lewis has previously backed another controversial report from the group on reducing the working week.

He said that ‘working less may actually be the key to better distributed, sustainable, economic prosperity’. Critics have said the suggestions would wreck the economy. Chairman of the Conservative Party Brandon Lewis told The Sun: ‘The reality is this policy would slash people’s earnings and hammer the economy. ‘It could mean businesses having to cut jobs and wages. People could be left out of work and workers would take home less in their pay packet each month.

 ‘Labour don’t know how to handle the economy and it would be working people who would suffer with fewer jobs, lower wages and higher taxes.’ Autonomy’s director Will Stronge said last month: ‘Becoming a green, sustainable society will require a number of strategies – a shorter working week being just one of them.’ This comes after Philip Hammond warned Theresa May her plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 will cost £1 trillion. The prime minister is set to put the target into law as one of her final acts before she leaves No 10."