Podcast 4/21/2016: Moderate Headaches

In this episode, Vinny and I discuss the never-ending saga of marijuana legalization in Vermont, our frenemy Saudi Arabia, the criminals behind the impeachment of Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, the bizarre but prevalent notion of political moderates, New York's primary, fraud in the Northeast Kingdom, the NFL concussion settlement, and more.

http://s51.podbean.com/pb/34b76ec08239f06a7215f684f8fe5cd9/57229f6d/data2/fs181/958366/uploads/Podcast_4-21-2016Full.mp3

NSFW

Notes:

• Speculation on the still classified 28 pages of the 9/11 report.
• A little on the bill that would allow American citizens to sue Saudi Arabia for terrorism.  In my view (and I'm certainly not a lawyer) this would set a bad precedent and potentially open us up to all sorts of legal action.  Could citizens of Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Iran, El Salvador, and/or Iraq sue us?  Would everyone in the world just start suing each other?  Declassify the 28 pages, stop selling them weapons, and stop helping them in Yemen, but allowing civil action might be a bad idea.
• Foreign workers accounted for roughly 30% of Saudi Arabia's population in 2014.
• A look at what is behind the push to impeach Brazil's Presiden Dilma Rousseff.
• The massive fraud in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.  Looks like the underlying investment return was supposed to come from the sales of property and rents on condos.  In retrospect, it seems like people should have been much more skeptical.
• The extensive alleged criminal past of California Representative and former chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Darrell Issa.  It involves grand theft auto, arson, fraud, gun play, and drunk driving.
• Issa's net worth may be closer to $220 million rather than the $500 million figure I cited.

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Podcast 4/9/2018: Panama

On this episode, Vinny and I discuss the Panama Papers and we ponder creating a series of profanely-named shell corporations to hide various activities of The Vomiting Brain.  We also talk about Bernie Sanders' interview with the Daily News, what a huge dick Rick Scott is, and then Charlie Rangel stops by briefly.

Sorry, this one was late.  We had some sound quality issues, which necessitated editing, which created nonsequiturs (more than usual), which necessitated more editing.  Plus, I'm lazy.

http://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7trkf-5e788b/download

NSFW

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Notes:

• Daily News interview with Bernie Sanders
• MetLife's "too big to fail" designation being overturned.
• Vox on the Panama Papers
• Planet Money sets up a shell company.
• According to Planet Money, Deleware is unique in that they don't require any identification to set up a company.  Fortunately, setting up bank accounts is harder.
• Florida Governor Rick Scott presiding over widespread Medicare fraud as CEO at Columbia/HCA.  He pled the 5th 75 times.
• Rick Scott being called out on being the asshole that he is...

• Rick Scott proving that he is the asshole that we all think he is...

• Seriously dude, you're the governor; don't you have some governing to do?
• Sir Mark Thatcher, first of his name of House Thatcher, was among those named (thus far) in the Panama Papers for hiding his money offshore.  Thatcher was also a co-conspirator with a mercenary named Simon Mann in a failed coup attempt of Equatorial Guinea.  Mann is British not South African as I mistakenly said in the podcast.

It's Tax Time! (FY15 Re-Release with More Forms)

 

It's time to do your civic duty and pay your taxes or rather for most of us, fill out a form to verify what the government already knows. It really is silly when you think about it, the IRS actually does your taxes exactly like you and if you make a mistake, they will correct it.  Hell, they'll even correct it if you made a mistake in their favor and then refund you for the correct amount.  So this begs the question, why do we need to file a return at all?  Can't they just send us what they think our income was and ask us to either verify it or dispute the amount?  Why all the extra confusing paperwork?  I don't know with certainty, but I would venture to guess that it has a lot to do with why our government often does silly nonsensical things: lobbyists.  Intuit Inc., the company that brings us TurboTax, ranks 702 of 16,793 in terms of campaign contributions according to Opensecrets.org.  Tax preparers like H&R Block also contribute substantial donations.

Republican Presidential Candidates Should Put Their Barrels Where Their Mouth is

Ted Cruz via abcnews.go.com

As some of you may have heard, there is a petition circulating to allow open carry of firearms at the Republican Convention.  With an expected crowd of 50,000 in what is looking like a contested convention; with white supremacists, religious zealots, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the freedom-loving critters that form the base of the Republican Party in attendance, the need to pack heat has never been greater.  I for one cannot think of a better place to allow the full exercise of the Second Amendment.

This is how we determine which candidates are true patriots.  The buzzkill brigade otherwise known as the Secret Service is just big government getting in the way of the aspirations of our citizenry, undermining their Second Amendment rights, and jeopardizing their safety.  The candidates must demonstrate both their faith in the Second Amendment and free market principles by refusing Secret Service protection.  With the remaining candidates' net worth ranging from $3.5 million to $4-8 billion, they should have no trouble hiring security and I'm sure there are a number of members of the Aryan Brotherhood that would gladly offer protection to Donald Trump.

Naysayers will contend that arming attendees fueled with drugs, alcohol, and a strong sense of victimhood; in the great American shithole known as Cleveland, with protestors sure to be in the streets, the National Guard and Ohio State Police under the command of John Kasich, the convention could end in a bloodbath.  That is a small price to pay for freedom.

Merica!

Podcast 4/2/2016: The "Bernie or Bust" Movement and Minimum Wage

In this episode,  Vinny and I throw some cold water on the "Bernie or Bust" movement.  We then move on to discuss the political and economic justifications for a raise in the minimum wage.

http://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-cavrx-5e1988/download

Notes:

• Zephyr Teachout is running for the House in New York's 19th Congressional district.  If you're serious about progressive policies then consider donating to her campaign or voting for her if you reside in the 19th.  She's from Vermont, for what it's worth.
• Russ Feingold is a progressive candidate for US Senate (and former US Senator) in Wisconsin. Again, the above applies.
• Tim Canova is challenging incompetent DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Democratic Primary for Florida's 23rd congressional district.
• The minimum wage went from $0.40 in 1945 to $0.75 in 1950 to $1 in 1956.  
• From 1948 to 1960 unemployment was as follows (BLS): 

Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

• 1948 3.4 3.8 4.0 3.9 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.9 3.8 3.7 3.8 4.0
• 1949 4.3 4.7 5.0 5.3 6.1 6.2 6.7 6.8 6.6 7.9 6.4 6.6
• 1950 6.5 6.4 6.3 5.8 5.5 5.4 5.0 4.5 4.4 4.2 4.2 4.3
• 1951 3.7 3.4 3.4 3.1 3.0 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.5 3.1
• 1952 3.2 3.1 2.9 2.9 3.0 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.1 3.0 2.8 2.7
• 1953 2.9 2.6 2.6 2.7 2.5 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.5 4.5
• 1954 4.9 5.2 5.7 5.9 5.9 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.1 5.7 5.3 5.0
• 1955 4.9 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.3 4.2 4.0 4.2 4.1 4.3 4.2 4.2
• 1956 4.0 3.9 4.2 4.0 4.3 4.3 4.4 4.1 3.9 3.9 4.3 4.2
• 1957 4.2 3.9 3.7 3.9 4.1 4.3 4.2 4.1 4.4 4.5 5.1 5.2
• 1958 5.8 6.4 6.7 7.4 7.4 7.3 7.5 7.4 7.1 6.7 6.2 6.2
• 1959 6.0 5.9 5.6 5.2 5.1 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.5 5.7 5.8 5.3
• 1960 5.2 4.8 5.4 5.2 5.1 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.5 6.1 6.1 6.6
 
• There were other things going on beside the minimum wage increase during this time like the baby-boom, soldiers returning from WWII, soldiers going to Korea, the G.I. bill, and the normal cyclical trends of the economy, but based on the above data I don't think it's necessarily reasonable to expect massive unemployment because of a minimum wage hike.
• During the same period of time as noted above inflation ranged from 10.2% in January of 1948 to -2.9% in October of 1949.  Again, there was a lot going on during this period of time. Since the 1920's the economy had been pretty volatile, so it takes a very selective reading of the data to pin it on a minimum wage increase (Inflation Calculator).  EDIT I just realized I cited the two extremes that occurred before either of the minimum wage increases.  Inflation from 1945-1960 was as follows:


• 1945 2.3 2.3 2.3 1.7 2.3 2.8 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.2 2.3
• 1946 2.2 1.7 2.8 3.4 3.4 3.3 9.4 11.6 12.7 14.9 17.7 18.1 8.3
• 1947 18.1 18.8 19.7 19.0 18.4 17.6 12.1 11.4 12.7 10.6 8.5 8.8 14.4
• 1948 10.2 9.3 6.8 8.7 9.1 9.5 9.9 8.9 6.5 6.1 4.8 3.0 8.1
• 1949 1.3 1.3 1.7 0.4 -0.4 -0.8 -2.9 -2.9 -2.4 -2.9 -1.7 -2.1 -1.2
• 1950 -2.1 -1.3 -0.8 -1.3 -0.4 -0.4 1.7 2.1 2.1 3.8 3.8 5.9 1.3
• 1951 8.1 9.4 9.3 9.3 9.3 8.8 7.5 6.6 7.0 6.5 6.9 6.0 7.9
• 1952 4.3 2.3 1.9 2.3 1.9 2.3 3.1 3.1 2.3 1.9 1.1 0.8 1.9
• 1953 0.4 0.8 1.1 0.8 1.1 1.1 0.4 0.7 0.7 1.1 0.7 0.7 0.8
• 1954 1.1 1.5 1.1 0.8 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.0 -0.4 -0.7 -0.4 -0.7 0.7
• 1955 -0.7 -0.7 -0.7 -0.4 -0.7 -0.7 -0.4 -0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 -0.4
• 1956 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.7 1.1 1.9 2.2 1.9 1.9 2.2 2.2 3.0 1.5
• 1957 3.0 3.4 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.3 3.3 3.7 3.3 2.9 3.3 2.9 3.3
• 1958 3.6 3.2 3.6 3.6 3.2 2.8 2.5 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 1.8 2.8
• 1959 1.4 1.0 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.7 1.0 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.7 0.7
• 1960 1.0 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.4 1.4 1.0 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.7


• Other empirical studies (namely Card and Krueger), have shown little to no increase in unemployment even when wage levels differ in neighboring states.  In the case of Card and Krueger, the minimum wage increased in New Jersey to levels above that of neighboring Pennsylvania.  The result was no discernable loss in employment compared to Pennsylvania and no noticeable rise in prices in affected restaurants.

NSFW

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