Precision

This is another example of people who are not that smart with too much time on their hands. They're sitting around bored on public assistance or as a student with a cushy BS major. A nice big cut to the welfare system and reforms to higher education will stop most of these protests. People working 40 hours a week don't have time to protest nor do students with a challenging curriculum.

Great trip to NY over the holiday. The Guilderland rest area on I-90 in Schenectady is closed so if you're traveling to/from MA you have about 40-50 miles between rest areas. Elsewhere along the way, there's plenty of "text stops" but they don't have any services. The state-run bathroom-only rest stops are worse than a porta potty. At least we didn't get stuck in construction delays this trip!

Today's news..... ICE arrests Brazilian illegal immigrant child rapist in Martha’s Vineyard "ICE said the Brazilian, identified as 37-year-old Saulo Cardona Ferreira, had received "multiple criminal convictions" in Brazil in 2019 for raping the child and had been sentenced to 14 years in prison, but he had fled the country." "ICE said that in FY 2022, it arrested 46,396 illegal immigrants with criminal histories, which included 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses." Rest assured, if they're making it to Martha's Vinyard, they're making it to your hometown.

Had not seen this posted, from March of this year. New York leads the US in highest overall tax burden. Tax Burden by State (2023) Top 10..... Overall Tax Burden by State, Overall Rank State Total 1 New York 12.47% 2 Hawaii 12.31% 3 Maine 11.14% 4 Vermont 10.28% 5 Connecticut 9.83% 6 New Jersey 9.76% 7 Maryland 9.44% 8 Minnesota 9.41% 9 Illinois 9.38% 10 Iowa 9.15%

It's going to be.........PANDAmonium!

Looks like the Israeli response after Munich in '72.

Your "it is what it is" comment is spot on. The pandemic (2020), housing crisis (2008) and 9/11 (2001) required the government to dramatically increase spending. The problem was that once we were past these emergencies the government never paid for the required stimulus or even returned to a balanced budget.

Both parties that are responsible for the 33 trillion in debt that has accrued over the past 40+ years.

Raise taxes, cut spending and reduce services.

Info on Moody's downgrade from a few days ago. As a reminder Fitch issued a downgraded back in August. Why Moody's Cut Its Outlook for the US Economy KEY TAKEAWAYS Moody's credit rating agency has downgraded the U.S. economic outlook to "negative" from "stable." The move brought immediate criticism from President Joe Biden's administration. It is the latest in a series of issues flagged by rating agencies about the strength of the financial status of the United States.

Wind Power Industry is struggling and will continue to do so. Wind power industry in moment of reckoning as stocks fall and earnings crumble "In a report published last week, Allianz Research noted that the eight largest renewable energy firms in the world reported a combined total $3 billion decrease in assets in the first half of the year. The whole sector is grappling with rising construction and financing costs, quality-control problems and supply-chain issues, the report said." "Some projects in the U.S. but also in the U.K. are at risk of being abandoned if governments do not offer support. As these projects were initiated before the energy crisis, with guaranteed feed-in-tariffs that were low, they are now becoming more and more unprofitable."

I really felt Christie was off base last night when he said that rich people should not be collecting Social Security (link below). I have a couple of problems with his position. First, Social Security has always been pitched as a "trust fund" with the general understanding that everyone contributes with higher earners contributing more but eventually receiving more. The contributing/receiving is graduated which provides a fair incentive for people to earn more so they have a higher benefit during retirement. Taking Social Security away from high earners (or anyone who contributes) turns the "trust fund" into a tax. Once pandoras box is opened I expect next will come "means testing" for benefits and punishing middle income earners who saved for retirement or have pensions through their employer. Through "means testing" I could see scenarios where those who earned/contributed little to Social Security receive as much as responsible earners who saved for their retirement. Second, "rich" is very subjective which Christie conveniently did not define. It's easy to be on stage and call out Warren Buffet but what about those further down the ladder? How do you determine "rich"? If you use income earning $100k/year could be "rich" in WV but in NYC you would be close to average. If you use a net worth calculation, many farmers or elderly with nice houses have properties worth millions but may barely be surviving. Ask a farmer shoveling manure how "rich" they feel. ‘Rich people should not be collecting Social Security,’ Chris Christie says at GOP debate

NYC spent $523,000 each for 7 electric plow trucks, at a total cost of over $3.6 million. After testing they found...... “In our test of the non-diesel rear-loaders, we found that they could not plow the snow effectively. We need them to go 12 hours and so I do not see today, given the current state of the technology, a path forward to fully electrifying the rear loader portion of the fleet by 2040.” New York turns back to diesel snow plows and leaves electric vehicles behind Anyone looking to purchase a lightly used electric plow truck should give the clowns in NYC a call.

Jill Stein announces her run for president as the Green Party's candidate, again. Biden's Road to Re-Election Bid Just Got Rougher After Another Left-Winger Announces Run In 2012 she received 0.4% of the popular vote, in 2016 she received 1.1% of the popular vote.

So, you're willing to give up your Social Security benefit for the war in Ukraine? Sunk Cost Fallacy - The phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial. "the sunk-cost fallacy creeps into a lot of major financial decisions"

When we're 33 trillion in debt and running 1.7 trillion yearly budget deficits unbounded aid to anyone should be scrutinized. Ukraine has already received 75 to 100 billion from the US, how much more do we give?

I didn't realize that the 75 to 100 billion dollars already given to Ukraine was no aid, must be the new math. How much more do we send there, another 50+ billion a year until the war ends? When does it end or what if it doesn't? In the meantime, how much are we willing and able to send to Israel and the rest of the world? When the conflict in Ukraine ends how many regions of the world will we have neglected in order to fund a lost cause? I'll give you a consistently bad idea, paying 879 billion in FY2023 to service the debt. What I'm hearing from DC Democrats is that a 1.7 trillion-dollar deficit in FY2023 doesn't matter because they don't know how to do math.

We should fund our interests in all of the couple of dozen conflicts around the world. Also, let's be fair and throw 75 to 100 billion at each conflict so as not to give preferential treatment to Ukraine. When it's all said and done, we're only talking about another 2 trillion dollars. What's that to a country already 33 trillion in debt.

Would you like me to limit the list to over 100,000 deaths or over 1,000,000 deaths? How far back in time shall we go champ?

That's pretty much what I thought you would say. Though tragic, the plight of the Palestinians is minor compared to Native Americans, Jews, Rwandans, Armenians, Ukrainians, etc, etc, etc. At some point the Palestinians and the world need to move on from their loss of land, just like it has done hundreds of times in the past.

How about compared to Native Americans or any other ethnic group that lost land due to war or colonization? Should any group that lost land at any time have the right to commit terrorism to get that land back?

Embarrassing to see someone from the Rochester area making national news. Didn't know he was from Pittsford until I saw it on World News Tonight yesterday. Cornell student accused of threatening to kill Jewish students will remain behind bars

Just to provide some clarity as most people can't put a half trillion dollars into context..... Israel's GDP for 2023 was projected to be $564 billion which is less than Michigan. Israel's GDP would rank them at 15th in US states and 29th among nations. Per Reuters the war is costing Israel $248 million daily. Israel to amend budget, Gaza war direct cost at $246 mln daily

Saddam Hussein financed terrorist groups with safe havens in Iraq for Abu Nidal and the Palestine Liberation Front. The connection with Al Qaida specifically was not established but it did not matter. The Bush administration was going to actively root-out terrorism in whatever country it could. I'm sure you recall that the US administration called the effort "The war on terrorism". Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was no need for a smoking gun. Although Saudi Arabian citizens were responsible for performing the 9/11 attacks there was no proof that it was financed by the government. That is why Saudi Arabia was not held responsible whereas Iraq (who was funding terrorism) and Afghanistan (who was harboring terrorists) were. Maybe you should spend less time posting nonsense and pick up a book, learn a little history son. I'm guessing you were at most a child during 9/11.

The Iraq war of 2003 and the invasion of Afghanistan occurred as a result of 9/11. Maybe next time don't commit acts of terrorism against the US if you don't like the response. At least the US does not purposefully try to kill women and children unlike the 9/11 terrorists. I'm sure you don't see a difference.