Free Republic

Why do we think the government, the Congress in particular, can or will do anything to stop inflation? It's solely because of the Congress that we have inflation, basically caused by the government spending more money than they take in with taxes. Since tax increases are too visible and unpopular, the Congress applies the biggest and worst tax of all in the form of inflation simply by pushing more worthless dollars in the economy, devaluing the money already there. Americans are mostly too stupid to realize the value, or worth, of things is still the same. What's changed is the value and worth of our money, thanks to the Congress. Our money is only worth a fraction of what is it was in the past in terms of purchasing power. If only the government would use the accrual method of accounting, that would provide a true picture of total liabilities, our national debt would five or six times what is reported. Again, thanks to the Congress.
The feds have no business offering grants, or donations to other countries, or for doing may more than the Constitution specifically allows since whatever they do is with borrowed (devalued) money. Perhaps the Congress should hire Bernie Madoff as their money advisor.
At least with inflation, the impact of that insidious tax affects all citizens, except of course, those that get even more ‘free’ federal dollars to offset inflation.
Any politician that thinks they can put the burden of inflation on corporations is either seriously stupid, or a damn liar. Same with any politician that thinks they can increase the corporate tax without that new burden being passed on to their customer. How did we get so stupid? Oh yeah, the public school system.

I have to call BS on this. The Port of Baltimore is not dependent on the bridge when in fact rail and truck shipments don’t use the bridge anyway, and what few trucks may use the bridge simply go a few miles out of their way to avoid the route across the bridge. The impairment to the port is the blockage of the assess channel caused by the fallen bridge structure. Except for possible bureaucratic ineptness, once the bridge structure is cleared from the main channel enough to allow passage of ships, the port is no longer affected.

I understand how this would affect consumer prices in WA, but how does this affect consumers in the other 7 western states?

Are the parasites being paid when they’re out of the classroom where they pretend to teach?

The preliminary NTSB report explains what happened. What occurred had nothing to do with any particular president in the past. The railroads, with the consent of the federal bureaucracies, have been reducing crew size to where only two crew members were required in the cab of the lead locomotive of this particular 149 car train. The caboose and rear end crew has been eliminated altogether. The larger number of crew members that might have observed a mechanical failure have been replaced with HBD (hot box detector) devices placed strategically along the tracks. Most detectors also detect other mechanical failures.
In the case of the East Palestine derailment, three HBD devices were involved. One 30 miles before the derailment that detected a moderately heated bearing at 38 degrees above ambient temperature well under the 170 F threshold indicating a problem needing attention. The next HBD, 20 miles before the derailment, detected a bearing temperature of 103 degrees above ambient temperature, also below the threshold indicating a problem needing attention. BUT, the HBD located just prior to the derailment reported a bearing temperature of 253 degrees, a critical condition requiring that the train be stopped as quickly as safely possible. The engineer started normal braking, followed by an automatic emergency brake application, most likely caused when the train air line was severed at the start of the derail causing the entire train to go into emergency braking. The result is what we’ve all seen on TV.
The crew appears to have done everything correctly. We’ll have to wait for the final NTSB report for a conclusion, but one could not logically assert the automatic safety devices are a perfect solution. Nor would a larger crew necessarily observe the problem. Perhaps the end result will be better management of hazardous loads that are present on nearly every freight train.

Yes, a good lesson. Unfortunately they haven’t learned anything from the lessons so far, and won’t likely learn anything from the fuel shortage lesson.

I’m definitely not pro abortion, but if there’s a silver lining in all this, the California voters have now reduced the reproduction rate of liberals.

Is it beyond the ability of NBC to write an unbiased story?

I’ll start planning my vacation for 2070 on the Arctic Ocean. I’m sure by then they’ll have some nice resorts on the seashore by then where I can sunbathe go snorkeling, and play in the surf. I’ll start right away to cancel my plans to vacation in the Caribbean.

If we continue down the path were on, the power shortages will likely be as bad as predicted, if not worse. Unfortunately our politicians don’t learn by observation thinking their pronouncements and edicts will magically provide the power we need going forward. Germany and Australia are learning the hard way. Renewal energy is not a bad thing, but just not as dependable currently as thermal sources generated with fossil fuel, at least not so for the foreseeable future. As stated, battery development has a long way to go to fill in the gap. So, we can expect less reliable power, at higher cost, and likely a downgraded way of life.
This not unlike the attempt of our current administration to make electric vehicles magically become the panacea for transportation by simply reducing the fossil based energy supply before the technology is developed for viable electric vehicles. How much easier is it to develop alternatives in a robust economy as opposed to a depressed, or even destroying the economy while doing expensive research and development. The use of fossil based fuel to generate electricity for electric vehicles, along with the rare minerals needed to manufacture the batteries is a subject needed thorough review.

In California where the legislature is pushing EV’s, the current SoCal Edison time-of-usage electric rates are $.17 kwh except for peak usage time roughly 3 to 9 pm, when the rate jumps to $.34 kwh. And that only applies if your neighborhood is not experiencing a brownout, or blackout due to demand exceeding electrical supply. If that happens you may have to walk to work, even further reducing your transportation costs. So, you plug in your car when you arrive home at 6 pm, your kwh usage to charge a near fully discharged battery would be 40 kwh. So, the first three hours at 3 kwh per hour would cost 3 hrs x 3 kwh x $.34 per kwh or $3.42 for the first three hours, The remaining 31 kwh would be 31 kwh x $.17 kwh or an additional $5.41 or $8.69 for the overnight charge, assuming you depleted most of the charge with your commute. And the quoted rate is for the 1st tier. If your charging demand takes you into the 2nd or 3rd tier, the cost would be even higher. I’ll leave it to someone else to factor in the initial cost of the EV, and the cost to replace the battery.

The other good thing is that we wouldn’t even have to fully exploit our domestic oil reserves. Just having the oil available to market would put us in a strong negotiating position with the foreign producers that mostly hate us. We wouldn’t have to beg for oil, demeaning ourselves as our president is wont to do, but instead we tell the other producers what we’re willing to pay for it if they want to sell it. The foreign producers need to sell the oil far more than we need to buy it. Unfortunately it’s beyond the intelligence of the present administration to understand this.

Who better than healthcare workers are in a position to manage their own healthcare, jab or no jab?

I’m a senior citizen that grew up and worked all of my life in California. California was actually a great place to grow up, and work. I attended LAUSD schools from kindergarten through the 12th grade and actually learned something. The variety of things to do and see in California is without equal. And, I should mention, my great-grandmother was born in California, although I don’t know in what city. My grandfather’s affidavit of birth only list his mother’s place of birth as California, no city mentioned, Four years ago I purchased property out-of-state and began moving out of California. I now live outside California full time and have no plans to ever go back. Amazing how a political party can take something great and beautiful and bring it all to ruin. I blame Newsom and his cohorts in the legislature and cities for the demise of a beautiful state. When you leave the state, be sure to turn the lights off, unless the power goes off first.

Both the U.S. and Canada have a history of rebellion against tyrannical political regimes. With each country, tyrannical leaders imposed mandates and taxes to control the population. The political climate in 1837 in Canada, and 1776 in the U.S. were manifestations of discontent with corrupt and tyrannical leaders and governments. The contemporary tyranny we see today is very similar to what caused the revolutions in the U.S and Canada. We now have power hungry politicians on both side of the border that see control of the population as their only way to maintain their power. We celebrate the revolutions of the past, so perhaps the current revolutions should be a cause for celebration.

First of all there are alternate routes both north and south of the park. I figured this out and I live 3000 miles away in Oregon. Second of all, Biden has no money to give the city to fix the bridge. All he can do is create more debt, on top of monumental debt. So Biden should go back home, if he can find his way, and let Pittsburg and Pennsylvania fund the repair of their bridge. .

And an increase in taxes will fix either one of them

Any organization that depends on HR to screen applicants is foolish. When I was still working, before retirement, I had to instruct some HR departments to send all applicants and resumes to my department for evaluation. In general, few HR departments have a staff qualified to evaluate candidates for highly technical positions. Before that HR was screening out viable applicants, and sending duds that lacked basic qualifications or experience.

How sad that the journalist today lack the wisdom and curiosity to ask relevant questions. The rise in hospitalized cases begs answers to a lot of questions, none asked, and none answered. In addition to your questions, how many of the hospitalized patients had the jab?

Go Wrong, Go Wrong, Go Wrong, Go Wrong