I believe it's been that way in China for some time. Even "Winnie the Pooh" was banned completely.

I think both sides of the isle try to accomplish that in some way or another, but one side of the aisle has actually gone pretty far down that road lately...

- By getting in bed with social media (and silencing voices which they disagree with),
- Turning their back to violence toward their political counterparts (think riots over the last year you probably know little about)
- Using the media as their mouthpiece (except for Fox news and a handful of others) (think Hitler)
- Pressuring big corporations to force you to get a shot, or lose your livelihood ("Now it's time to do what you're told" - Fauci)
- Canceling everyone they don't agree with (think like us or lose your livelihood, etc)
- Shall I go on?

You can try to call the Repubs fascists, dictators, etc. but from where I sit, it seems the other side is the one that is forcing people into submission through the use of corporations, propaganda, direct force, school systems, etc. You may think it's fine right now, but this will turn back on you when the other side wins, and they will.

If you make everything about politics (and your team winning) anymore, don't you think it's time to shrink the government to have less say in your life to make you think this way? Seems like common sense to me, but what do I know.

I am definitely an independent in the USA. Never been a repub or a dem. I won't join a team. Teams go rogue.

Term Limits

... and as always, I hope you learned something.

This article uses IRS data to make their case: IRS: California shrank by 165K taxpayers, $8.8 billion in gross income (I honestly don't know if this is right-wing media or not, but there are many more articles akin to this.)

This article uses IRS data to make their case: IRS: California shrank by 165K taxpayers, $8.8 billion in gross income (I honestly don't know if this is right-wing media or not, but there are many more articles akin to this.)

There is some evidence that entrepreneurs are leaving the state due to "high taxes and over-regulation". I've also read (and watched) several people's "Goodbye California" letters who will argue that Cali is the "least business friendly state" (I hear that one a lot). They can keep more of what they earn in other tax/regulation friendly places, so they go there. This is a fairly common theme.

Technically, there may not be an exodus from Cali, but the net population has declined to the point where "California’s tepid growth will lead to it losing a member of the U.S. House of Representatives after reapportionment occurs later this year. That’s a first for the state." (from the article linked in this comment).

The state where I live has a flood of New Yorkers moving in permanently. I have met a few from Cali, but not many. Mostly NYC residents anymore.

Seriously?

Comparing taking the Covid vaccine to being a WW2 vet?

My father (had me at an old age) was a B-17 Bombardier who volunteered to go to war. He received the purple heart on a mission over Germany (flak embedded in his hip). He knew the risk, and took it. Went right into it.

If you're so frightened of the Covid virus, it's your choice to stay home or otherwise protect yourself. If you can't stay home because you need to make a living, then you might begin to understand why reopening is vital. Quit your job and stay at home -- solidarity to those who were forced to close (many unnecessarily). The destruction is horrific on many more levels than Covid.

My personal belief is that Florida did it right(er than most).

I disagree! It seems to me he's anti-Covid-vax (temporarily) for now.

If he's been vaccinated for other things, and decides he's not sure what exactly he is putting into his body is safe (not enough time to test), he has that right, and frankly, I think it's wise, if you're not in a high risk category. Just stay masked.

Since when is a good thing to verbally abuse someone (or odx, cancel etc.) into doing something that isn't harming you or anyone else? On this and other things you'd life to have in life? Good luck in the long-term with that.

...so to speak.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

If you raise taxes, people leave. If you raise corporate taxes, companies move their HQ's (inversion) to other competitively taxed countries. If you over-regulate, people bring their business elsewhere.

There is evidence of this happening in the major US cities (who need more tax $$). They raise taxes (of all kinds) and make it more difficult to do business (in the name of tax revenue/permits, etc) and drive the highest earners out first.

It's really a law of nature, like it or not. People tend to like to keep the money they earn and to run their business without being taxed (etc.) every time they turn around.

Before you get all over me for sounding like (fill in blank here), keep in mind that I'm not against taxes and regulation. Both have an essential place in the world... I am referring to high taxes and over-regulation when it shouldn't be necessary.

Ummm. I don't disagree that we have work to do to keep our earth livable, and improve what we've created. I'm all about that...

But you don't seem to realize that these same (panic) claims have been made by reputable scientists (climatologists, etc.) for many decades now.

Some were sure we'd be well on our way to another ice age at this point, and others were sure we'd be under water, or very close to it.

Spend some time on Google, searching for past climate predictions...

You've been duped by politics and the media for far too long. They want you to panic so you'll play into the hands of politicians for a grab of power and economies.

This just happened a couple of days ago when my wife and I went to our son's school. It's the only time I am aware of that this happened.

She was driving our Golf SportWagon with Keyless ignition. She thought she put the car in park and proceeded to get out of the car. I saw the car to slowly roll forward and 'yelled' for her to stop the car. She quickly noticed and hit the brakes and put it in park properly. No harm, thankfully.

No warning of any kind, either.

The funny thing is that I wouldn't have thought of this as a recall (or manufacturer) issue, as it's a keyless ignition and a person could very easily do this. Our VW didn't warn us though and that could be a problem of theirs.

I was surprised to see Assembly in the top 10. Perhaps I shouldn't be, as I'm not in the world which uses Assembly, and I haven't even played with it since college back in the day.

Forgive my ignorance here, but why the popularity of Assembly? It's impressive to say the least, but I'm unfamiliar with the world that lives in that language.

Happy Monday!

I received a copy of Pyst as a gift when it came out. I never opened the package and still have it in the cellophane. Maybe it will be worth something long after my demise.

It just goes to show you... in my many years of watching thing like this (and also from the accurately described observations of Milton Friedman), when you raise taxes, people (etc.) leave. Ultimately it spirals downward where there is less tax revenue, so taxes need to be raised more (or something needs to happen).

Look at the inversion which happened over time, as corporations (evil or not) moved their headquarters to other countries where the tax rate was competitive and much lower than here. Then look at what happened when the corporate tax rate was lowered.

This same thing is happening in other cities with higher tax rates, or ways that the municipality gets your money (via regulations, ridiculous fines, and so on). People will look to move to a place that doesn't nickel and dime them to death. This (obviously) isn't true for everyone, but it tends to lower the tax base if it goes on long enough and taxes, et. al., continue to increase.

Although what I am saying may not be popular, it tends to be true. Please don't blame the messenger.

I had to convince my wife to take the day off, and it worked. We had three different locations in mind which were each in totality and about 2.5 hours from home, so we watched weather.com up until we had to make a decision and leave.

It was to be partly cloudy to mostly cloudy in all locations at the time the eclipse was going into totality, but at the last minute, one location (in KY) changed to sunny, so we made the decision and took off after dropping our son at school (he has already started school here).

It worked out perfectly. We had little traffic and found a clearing in some remote corn field where we stumbled across 8 other adults who were some extremely nice people and shared their space with us.

We had 2:37 seconds of darkness, got some great images, and the other group we were with shared champagne while listening to Dark Side of the Moon. It was amazing and we both drank in the experience.

Needless to say, my wife was grateful for talking her into taking the day off.

I saw this when I went to Google Finance to check my stocks yesterday after the market close. I own and/or follow several of the affected stocks.

At first I thought "Whaaaat?!?!?" Amazon lost 87% in one day!? Cisco down 14%? Apple way down, Microsoft up 5_ (something) points... so obviously it seemed fishy, but still small panic... So I went to Yahoo finance, same things. Uh oh!

I then began searching for new on the NASDAQ and didn't find anything relevant to a tech shakeup or any stocks that got killed on the same day, so I looked for other stock price sources, and saw the real prices. My heart stopped racing and went about my day.