Sleepless in Midland

Spring forward -- sigh -- why are we still doing this?

There is probably near universal support for an abolition of the twice yearly government mandated time change. It's a shame there are never enough representatives in favor of locking in a time. In Texas someone is always attempting to get the law changed. But like clockwork, those efforts wind down in committee.

In any event, the federal government would have to approve even if Texas lawmakers succeeded.

Maybe we need Sanctuary Time Zones whereby a state would set its time free of federal government rule.

Meanwhile, we all have to suffer this human caused jet lag just so we can somehow benefit from a dubious benefit of going back and forth an hour twice a year.

Related:
Here’s Why Health Experts Want to Stop Daylight-Saving Time;
LockTheClock - Stop Changing Clocks for Daylight Saving Time;
Changing clocks is bad for your health, but which time to choose?;
Florida voted to stop resetting clocks, so why are we doing it March 8?.

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1:48 PM 3/7/2020

Charles Lipson explains why the two parties want to strangle each other

Democrats and Republicans are at odds, to put it mildly. That's not a healthy development, and as Charles Lipson tells us America’s House Divided Cannot Stand. The article is behind a paywall, so here's a long excerpt:

For constitutional democracies to thrive—or even muddle through—voters and candidates have to respect their political opponents. Parties must see the competition as legitimate even amid vigorous disagreement on ideas. This shared sense is a load-bearing wall for democracy.

Over the past decade, the U.S. has become much more divided, sawing holes in this wall and hoping to miss the support beams. Progressives and conservatives agree on one thing: It’s the other guys with the chain saws. A 2018 Axios poll summed up the sentiment: Some 61% of Democrats thought of Republicans as racist, bigoted or sexist. About half of Republicans described Democrats as ignorant or spiteful.

Why do so many Americans see their political opponents in such stark terms? One reason is that many on both sides think the future of American democracy hangs in the balance, that a victory for their opponents could ruin the republic. Conservatives fear the growth of the administrative state—powerful bureaucrats who rule by fiat and undermine elected leaders. For progressives, the perceived danger is Donald Trump. The left sees him as an aspiring dictator who is willing to shred constitutional norms.

The two sides might seem diametrically opposed, but they aren’t. Both could be true and form a vicious circle. If “the swamp” and the “deep state” bureaucracy are out to sink President Trump, he can stay afloat only by fighting them ferociously. The harder he fights, the more progressives double down to defend the administrative state, which their policies have built.

This conflict is sharp, deep and toxic for democracy. It is grounded in the country’s profound ideological divide, now embodied in its two parties, and the shared belief that the stakes are very high, perhaps the highest since the Civil War.

Progressives say Mr. Trump started the fight. He is confronting allies, unilaterally imposing tariffs, and rolling back regulations. He is attacking opponents on Twitter. Progressives—and some Republicans who dislike Mr. Trump—are especially troubled by his attacks on “fake news,” which they consider a dangerous assault on the First Amendment. The left is appalled when Mr. Trump criticizes federal judges, whose independence is central to the rule of law. The left also fears Mr. Trump’s entirely legitimate effort to reshape the courts.

Both sides believe in their mission—and their righteousness. The civil servants and lawmakers who oppose President Trump believe they are saving democracy. They consider it a civic obligation to speak out, leak highly privileged documents, launch endless investigations, and unleash the powerful tools of national intelligence on domestic political opponents. They are guided by what former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey calls “a higher loyalty” that pre-empts laws and procedures designed to prevent such abuses. In their minds, the ends justify the means. ...

Mr. Trump and his supporters believe they are being persecuted by these opponents. They see their views being “canceled” in college classrooms and in the media. Mr. Trump’s supporters see elites treating them with open contempt. And they’re angry about it. ...

And there is no easy escape from this confrontation. Unlike the deep cleavage in the late 1960s, it won’t end when the troops come home. Unlike the divisions in the 1930s, it won’t end when one candidate wins overwhelming popular support. The country is too divided for that.

The division won’t end after the November elections, and the question is how to repair the damage. Democrats will need to acknowledge winners in elections, not resort to calling them frauds. And both parties need to show the tolerance and respect for different views that define a healthy liberal society.

"Tolerance and respect." Easier said than done. But we should try. Arthur C. Brooks suggests we should love our enemies. One step at a time. Let's start with tolerance.

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3:05 PM 2/26/2020

Democrats want to raise our taxes

Our government spends too much money, and the only glimmer of hope is that a growing economy can eventually reduce the debt. But if any of the leading Democrats win the presidency in November, we'll have to say goodbye to that economic boom we've been experiencing.

This chart appeared in the Wall Street Journal the other day showing how each much Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, and Warren will raise taxes. It's frightening.

Perhaps we can hope voters will react to it the same way voters did when Walter Mondale announced taxes would go up if he became president.

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1:17 PM 1/28/2020

Quote of the Week -- we're a nation of civic ignoramuses

We have a right to vote but also an obligation to know what the government is authorized to do. Henry Racette hints that we are run by civic ignoramuses who vote. And the quote of the week comes from his article at Ricochet.com titled We the People Are Failing Our Government.

He makes an analogy of an aircraft manufacturer granting hiring authority to people with no aeronautical knowledge. So it goes with our elections where the voters have no knowledge of how the government works or what it's limitations are.

Mr. Racette gives us our quote of the week:

We are failing to provide a competent civics education to our children, and have been for generations. We have a population ignorant of the most basic aspects of government but which we nonetheless exhort to vote, as if merely standing in the booth were the totality of civic duty. A large proportion of the electorate has the legal right to vote but lacks the moral standing to do so because it knows nothing about the thing for which it has a sacred duty of stewardship.

We can not blame the children for the failures of their teachers, who themselves know next to nothing about the nature of our government. I don’t know what it will take to trigger a rebirth of pride and interest in our nation’s history and in the framework on which it was built and the ideas behind it. But if we reach the point where we’re analyzing the wreckage following the crash, it will be too late.

Good point. As mobs deface statues and try to erase important historic events, we really do need more voters who actually know what the heck they're doing.

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3:03 PM 1/21/2020

half billion dollar school bond in Midland hangs by few votes

That proposed school bond was the biggest item on the November ballot. When the results were announced, it won by a hair. But then more votes were counted, and it lost by a hair. Then a box of uncounted votes turned up. Now no one knows who won.

It's a huge embarrassment for Midland, Texas, which typically only gets non-regional news coverage on energy industry developments.

The pro-bond camp say the school district needs new buildings. The anti-bond camp says taxpayers don't need another half billion dollars worth of debt hanging over their heads.

And right now, we don't know which side will prevail. If only those who insist on more and bigger government could pay attention to how it actually operates.

Related:
Midland County officials just found a missing ballot box. It may change the result of a $569 million bond election
Judge appointed to election contest
State Law: Cost is No Concern for Texas School Bonds.

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2:26 PM 12/25/2019

Attorney General William Barr: the constitution called for a strong president.

In Mr. Barr's recent speech he provided an originalist description of the separation of powers along with the history that led to that particular design in our Constitution.

The British monarch was once the supreme ruler of Britain, but over the centuries the power of the monarch was eroded to the point were Parliament became the ruling entity.

The founding fathers of the U.S. saw that and made something of a compromise -- there would be three co-equal branches. While many of us thought the legislature had relinquished much of its power to the executive in the previous administration. The legislature came roaring back in the Trump administration as they tried to thwart every one of Trump's initiatives, tried to block all of Trump's appointments, and are now trying to boot him out of the office.

Here's a snippet from the speech:

The fact of the matter is that, in waging a scorched earth, no-holds-barred war of “Resistance” against this Administration, it is the Left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and the undermining of the rule of law.  This highlights a basic disadvantage that conservatives have always had in contesting the political issues of the day.  It was adverted to by the old, curmudgeonly Federalist, Fisher Ames, in an essay during the early years of the Republic. 

In any age, the so-called progressives treat politics as their religion.  Their holy mission is to use the coercive power of the State to remake man and society in their own image, according to an abstract ideal of perfection.  Whatever means they use are therefore justified because, by definition, they are a virtuous people pursing a deific end.  They are willing to use any means necessary to gain momentary advantage in achieving their end, regardless of collateral consequences and the systemic implications.  They never ask whether the actions they take could be justified as a general rule of conduct, equally applicable to all sides.

Mr. Barr's speech is a good one and can be heard at this C-Span link or read at this justice.gov link

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3:55 PM 11/18/2019

demanding, not earning, respect -- "that's Lt. Colonel Vindman to you"

The story can be found at Fox News under the headline Impeachment witness scolds Nunes for calling him mister: 'Lt. Col. Vindman, please. Here's a quote of the offending segment:

"Mr. Vindman, you testified in your deposition that you did not know the whistleblower," Nunes stated.

"Ranking member, it's Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please," the witness responded.

Nunes corrected himself and repeated the statement, which followed questions regarding who Vindman had spoken with about Trump's phone call.

Sounds as though Vindman got a little testy -- like the big shot who got pulled over for speeding. "Do you know who I am?!!"

And it's hard to forget that time Senator Feinstein erupted at some military guy at a hearing because he called her "Ma'am." Maybe Vindman is trying for some payback for that, although he mistook the house for the senate and republicans for democrats.

In any event, respect should be earned. And whether in either case the complainant had actually been dissed, respect should be earned by something other than titles.

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3:41 PM 11/19/2019

Daylight saving or standard time -- can't we just pick one and stick to it?

A week ago we reset our clocks to standard time, and hopefully our circadian rhythms have adjusted. But why should we have to do it?

Florida is trying, bless their hearts. The Florida House and Senate passed a bill which was signed into law last year which had the effect of asking the U.S. House and Senate to pass a bill which would allow Florida to stay on daylight saving time all year. Sounds like a good plan.

Marco Rubio submitted S.670 - Sunshine Protection Act of 2019 which would do that. But it sits in the Senate as a similar bill sits in the House.

Good luck to Florida in it's fight to stop the assault on our sensibilities and our sense of time.

Our government controls the time. Is it really too much to for them to just pick one and end this twice a year change?

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3:54 PM 11/9/2019

Vote yes for amendment prohibiting Texas state income tax

Texas voters are slowly turning Texas blue with the influx of new Texas residents and a determined effort by Democrats.

While the state is still mostly Republican it's probably a good time to make it harder for lawmakers to install a state income tax.

Next month Texas voters will have the opportunity to vote on amendments to the Texas constitution, and the Houston Chronicle helpfully summarizes them in Voter guide: 10 Texas constitutional amendments on Nov. 5 ballots.

Here's what they say about Proposition 4:

What it says: “The constitutional amendment prohibiting the imposition of an individual income tax, including a tax on an individual’s share of partnership and unincorporated association income.”

What it means: Texas has long maintained its anti-income tax position. Current law says that an income tax can be proposed but must be voted on before going into effect. In the past, voters have blocked such attempts at the ballot box.

Proposition 4 would change the state’s constitution and impose an explicit ban on an income tax. If legislators want to remove that ban at any point in the future, they would need another constitutional amendment to do it.

Supporters say this is a symbolic gesture demonstrating Texans’ commitment to a low-tax economy. Opponents say the anti-tax bar is already high, and raising it even higher cuts off a stream of revenue that the state could someday need.

The state of Texas has a high sales tax (around 8%). And that's something many of us don't particularly like. But bringing it down would be a herculean task. And if lawmakers ever did try to implement an income tax, it would be in addition to the sales tax, not as a replacement.

It's not to early to stop any state income tax in its tracks.

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2:36 PM 10/14/2019

Which is better for a country's economy, autocracy or democracy? -- conflicting studies

A few months ago we noted a study which concluded that democracy may not be that important to prosperity. See Poli Sci profs say democracy isn't necessary for prosperity previously at this blog.

The science isn't settled, apparently. For now we see Strongman leaders make for weak economies, study shows. Excerpt:

Autocrats whose countries experienced larger than average economic growth were found only as frequently as you would predict based on chance alone.

In contrast, autocrats overseeing poor economic growth were found significantly more frequently than chance would predict.

There was no evidence to suggest dictators had a positive influence over growth trajectories in the five or ten years after taking power. ...

The same analysis, carried out on dictators overseeing poor economies, to see if they had merely found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, found instead that economic growth dropped significantly after the entry into power of an economically ‘bad’ autocrat.

In short, dictators were shown to have little influence in driving economies up, but often more influence in driving them down.

Confirmation bias has a strong influence on my own analytical abilities, so I'm going with the freedom-is-better theme.

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3:36 PM 10/7/2019

government waste -- agencies practically give money away at end of year to spend what they asked for

A few years ago a friend was boasting about a slightly used computer he got free from his employer. His boss was the United States government. And the agency that employed him had some money left over at the end of the fiscal year which was spent on new computers it didn't need.

The system is set up so that agencies always expect a little more each year, but if they hadn't spent all they got in the previous year, then they wouldn't get as much. That logic has worked for decades. And taxpayers get the bill.

How do we end that practice? Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, has a modest proposal:

To that end, Ms. Ernst has proposed the End-of-Year Fiscal Responsibility Act. The legislation, which she said has the support of many federal procurement officers, would mandate that spending in the final two months of each fiscal year not exceed the average spent in the previous 10 months.

What has happened year after year is departments, loath to come before appropriators with flush accounts, rush to deplete their coffers, according to Open the Books, a nonprofit group that tracks government spending.

Found at Feds rush to spend 20% of $500 billion in one month in 'use it or lose it' spending spree. It's a good starting place.

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3:39 PM 9/24/2019

Lizzie Warren took an ax and gave the economy 40 whacks

Elizabeth Warren is *looking increasingly like the candidate who gets the Democrat presidential nomination. Should any Democrat get elected as president in 2020 that would be bad news for the economy, given that they are all running on the theory that the more free stuff they can promise the more likely they are to win.

Liz Warren may not be the worst, but she has made some truly awful remarks, for example, echoing Obama's "you didn't build that" excuse for taxing the rich. Except in her case, it's a proposed tax on assets. Real property owners are well acquainted with that concept. Applying a tax to assets other than real property will require a huge bureaucracy of appraisers that will tell people how much their personal property is worth. Hiding assets will become a new pastime for the bazillionaires Warren targets.

Mona Charen makes a cogent argument against the Warren plan:

The only way to achieve a Scandinavian-style welfare state is to do what the Scandinavians do — tax the heck out of the middle class.

Elizabeth Warren’s approach is 1960s Great Society stuff. She would build public housing, throw money at the opioid epidemic, break up big tech companies, break up agribusiness firms, introduce a new corporate profits tax, and on and on. Implicit in every plan is the notion that the government is competent to spend money and run things for everyone’s benefit. That worked so well the last time.

The economy will suffer, the good times will end, and everyone will suffer -- except the rich who Warren so much wants to punish.

P.S. The title of this piece is a play on the words of the Lizzie Borden poem.

*At the time of this writing, Election Betting Odds has Warren at the top of the heap at 40.2% and the next runner up, Biden, at 24.3%.

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2:18 PM 9/22/2019

Happy Constitution Day 9-17-2019

September 17, 1787, was the day delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution. And while Constitution Day isn't a work holiday, we should celebrate it anyway.

It's a great constitution, and it will continue to serve us well if we let it. There are despotic regimes out there with great constitutions that aren't followed. The strength of a constitution depends on the people respecting it and our government following it.

As Ronald Reagan said:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

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5:49 AM 9/17/2019

Slavery in 2019

Byron York tells us about the NYT's latest effort to sway voters in the next election in New goal for New York Times: 'Reframe' American history, and target Trump, too. The reframing puts slavery front and center and will attempt to make "race the central theme of Times coverage for the remaining two years of President Trump's term in office."

It's all partisan politics, but those of in flyover country might wish that they could tackle the real problem of modern day slavery with the same fervor they attack Trump. The State Department periodically publishes a report on slavery, and you can download the most recent one at https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-Trafficking-in-Persons-Report.pdf. Or see the overview at 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report.

A screen shot about the Western Hemisphere should appear on the right. Note that Cuba and Venezuela are the only two countries in this hemisphere that are Tier 3 countries. (Tier 3 is the worst in terms of slavery.)

We last talked about this in 2012 in a blog post titled Slave states - present day. Looks like Cuba was in Tier 3 then, too. But Venezuela wasn't. Hugo Chavez and his successor must have thought Friedrich Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" was a how-to manual.

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2:57 PM 8/19/2019

James Comey making payments on his insurance policy -- donating to Democrats

The headline says it all James Comey and Wife Donated Nearly $20K to Democrats This Year.

Republicans are gunning for him because of his corrupt actions in the FBI which were directed toward the efforts to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. Comey's chances improve drastically with Democrats in the House and Senate. But his best chance is with a Democrat president.

It's self preservation. It's his insurance policy.

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6:07 AM 8/19/2019

The way Dallas Morning News sees West Texas

A left leaning newspaper in a left leaning metro area looks beyond it's boundaries and sees a cartoon. My word processor counted 1,013 words in this article, so if the old saw about words and pictures is close to accurate, that's worth one picture.

In Wonder whatever happened to traditional conservative values? Look no further than West Texas the picture Roy R. Reynolds draws if of a high school:

If West Texas were a high school, Lubbock would be the star athlete and Amarillo the class favorite. El Paso would be out behind the gym, smoking cigarettes with more dangerous friends named "Juarez" and "New Mexico."

Midland and Odessa would be the rich kids running student council.

How about the matter of perspective?

The matter of perspective is why West Texas cities, towns, farms and ranches need to band together to create a political force in the state. The state population is 29 million and growing rapidly, mostly in the urban centers on the eastern side of the state.

Actually, if one looks closely at the local government entities in Midland one sees a bluish hue. "Tax and spend" is the unspoken mantra. And with the annual high income stream from sales tax revenue -- which always seems to surprise them -- their main problem is how to spend the money.

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3:14 PM 7/29/2019

Entitlement reform is a mirage in the desert of government discipline

The last U.S. president who attempted entitlement reform was George W. Bush. And Democrats whooped and hollered when he admitted defeat in a state of the union speech.

So what do we do when those tiny cries for fiscal responsibility are barely noticed? One of those voices, found in Invisible no more: Social Security will soon slide into insolvency is trying to bring some attention to the problems ahead. His introduction sums up the problem this way:

Some time next year, as the ranks of retirees swell, the Social Security system in the United States will pass an ominous tipping point and start the slide into insolvency.

For the first time in nearly four decades, the government program that provides retirement checks to older Americans will pay out more in benefits in 2020 than it takes in. That will force the program to dip into a rainy day fund that will be depleted in about 15 years.

The only solutions are tax hikes, reduced payments, raising the retirement age, or a combination of all of them. Will our lawmakers have the ability to solve this problem? The problem has been known about for some time, and lawmakers opted to procrastinate. The longer they wait, the worse the solution will feel to those affected.

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1:21 PM 7/22/2019

It's funny how people living in democracies are dissatisfied with how democracy is working

A Pew poll obtained some remarkable results when they asked residents in multiple democracies whether they were satisfied or dissatisfied with how democracy works. See the results at The countries where people are most dissatisfied with how democracy is working. The image on the right is a snap shot of the chart on display there.

The Pew analysis suggests that whether a particular economy is good or bad has a bearing on how the residents feel about democracy. But with the U.S. economy doing well at the moment, it's odd that 58% are in the dissatisfied column. But there's something else that factored in -- whether elected officials care what ordinary people think. In that one, 58% in the U.S. described their country as one in which elected officials do not care about the people.

Now it's starting to make sense. And that helps explain why Donald Trump remains so popular and congress not so much. But there's still the mystery of why so many Americans seem to want socialism, a system which requires so many untruths and false promises to get established but which will lead to great disappointment when it becomes obvious that the people in government will benefit to a much greater extent than the ordinary people.

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3:46 PM 6/7/2019

Out with the old -- city of Midland, Texas, loves to ditch the old and build anew

Local tax collecting entities are flush with tax revenue due to the high property taxes and the windfall from sales taxes during the boom time. It's almost as though they are in search of ways to spend all that money.

Building fire stations don't usually get much objection, and the plan for a new Fire Station #5 was presented to interested people the other night in a "town hall" talk and slide show. The old station will be demolished and $4 million building will take its place.

But here's the way it rubbed me the wrong way. There was much talk about how deteriorated the old structure had become. Well, here's a secret that must have been well kept from the decision makers in the city government. Old buildings need upkeep. If the owner doesn't make repairs, the building will eventually deteriorate. The houses in the neighborhood of Station #5 are as old or older than the fire station. Some are in disrepair, and those that got the needed repairs over time are in good shape. It's a shame that no one deemed that old fire station was worth repairing when they were needed. But when you're flush with cash, why not junk it and build a new one? We'll mollify the complainers with that glistening new building.

P.S. One of the first things they plan to do is have the asbestos from the old building removed. We've probably all seen asbestos removal workers decked out in space suits. But what about all those people living down wind from that site? Where are their space suits?

P.P.S. Here's a PDF scan of the Fire station 5 brochure.  (Note the handicap parking spot in the firefighters' parking lot.  Not sure what to make of that.)

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3:11 PM 5/24/2019

government crackdown on opioid use is causing a lot of pain for people who need the drugs

"We're here from the government, and we're going to cause you a lot of pain." That's the consequence, surely unintended, for the crackdown on opioid pain medicine for the other problem, addiction to the pain meds.

It's mostly anecdotal, but the evidence is piling up that people are suffering. See, for example, Chronic pain patients report struggles under tighter opioid regulations and Chronic pain patients say opioid crackdown is hurting them.

Take a look at 2017 CDC Survey results for the flavor of comments pain patients have about the new rules. Here are a few chart captures:

Doctors who have run afoul of the rules have to jump through several hoops in order to practice again. In that regard, note the difficulty some people say they have finding a doctor who will prescribe pain meds

Right here in Midland, Texas, patients of Dr. D'Agastino were left in a lurch when his practice was shut down due to inadequate patient monitoring and prescribing to patients whose urinalyses returned positive for marijuana. He entered into an agreed order which you can find by searching for his name at the Texas Medical Board website. He agreed to attend classes, pay a fine, and allow another physician to monitor his practice for a period of time. Hopefully, he will be back in practice soon, and his patients can get some relief from their pain.

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2:38 PM 5/11/2019

Unnecessary procedures drain Medicare

Yesterday we talked about the Trump administration's plan to change the Medicare reimbursement to replace the fee-for-service program with a flat rate. I noted that the fee-for-service program resulted in too many unnecessary procedures and surgeries. I didn't make that up, it first came to my attention in a C-span program about Health Care Mistakes and Costs in which Laura Beil and Martin Makery discussed that subject, among others.

Dr. Markey told about how he is occasionally invited to speak at gatherings of medical professionals. And at a dinner with a few drinks to loosen tongues, those professionals might describe how they would perform unnecessary surgeries because of the financial incentives. Watch the video linked above to hear for yourself.

Dr. Markey has a couple of articles in the Wall Street Journal. In How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us he focuses on medical errors but adds this:

The human toll aside, medical errors cost the U.S. health-care system tens of billions a year. Some 20% to 30% of all medications, tests and procedures are unnecessary, according to research done by medical specialists, surveying their own fields. What other industry misses the mark this often?

Hopefully the new reimbursement scheme will help stall the pending medicare insolvency.

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1:31 PM 4/24/2019

Turbotax vs taxpayers. Turbotax wins in Congress

We touched on this the other day in No easy way to prepare tax return anytime soon. But with tax day here, maybe it's an appropriate subject to revisit.

The idea is that the IRS could provide free software for taxpayers to use in preparing the forms themselves. But there is a lot of money to be made in the industry of tax return preparation. And the industry fought hard to keep the gravy train rolling.

In short, the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 sponsored by John Lewis (D-Georgia) makes it illegal for the IRS to create its own online system of tax filing. A win for the tax prep firms and their lobbyists.

Related:
Free IRS software for filing taxes to be banned by US Congress in win for TurboTax
Congress Is About to Ban the Government From Offering Free Online Tax Filing. Thank TurboTax.
Filing Your Taxes Is Already Difficult. The House Just Passed a Bill That Keeps It That Way Forever.

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1:34 PM 4/14/2019

Use it or lose it is the taxing entity attitude about excess revenue

One of the things that is or at least should be annoying to voters is the "use it or lose it" mentality of the agencies on the receiving side of the tax equation.

It probably occurs at the top of the top agencies and works its way down to the bottom levels.

Here's an example of that happening in plain sight, albeit at the lower level. Midland College is a taxing entity in Midland, Texas. And there's a plan on the books to build a new dining hall even though the old one is quite sufficient to serve the students and the public. But with the booming economy, tax revenue is high, and the college has money to burn.

The article on the right was in the March edition of the school newspaper -- the Midland College Press.

The budget for the new dining hall jumped up by a million dollars simply because they had the money, not because of any need. It's almost as if they searched for a way to spend the money.

The students will not learn any lesson about fiscal responsibility from this. In this era of "free everything," that lesson will have to wait for the next recession. Or as Margaret Thatcher famously said, "the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

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2:32 PM 3/22/2019

Poli Sci profs say democracy isn't necessary for prosperity

For a long time Americans have been proud of the accomplishments and prosperity of the United States, and we were taught that we owed that to the democratic form of government. Now two political scientists tell us that democracy may not be that important to prosperity.

See Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk in When Democracy Is No Longer the Only Path to Prosperity. Here's a snapshot:

Since the 1890s, countries like the U.S., Great Britain and a small band of other democracies have dominated the global economy. As recently as 1995, 96% of all people who lived in a country with a per capita income over $20,000 (in today’s terms) were citizens of a liberal democracy. With the exception of a few oligarchs perched atop stagnant and repressive societies, only democrats got to enjoy real affluence.

Today’s reality is very different. Our analysis of International Monetary Fund projections shows that sometime in the next five years, the total GDP of countries rated “not free” by Freedom House will surpass that of Western democracies. The combined economies of democratic countries like the U.S., Germany, France and Japan will be smaller than those of autocracies like China, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Rather disappointing. But perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that given a choice, people would rather be rich under a dictator than poor under democracy. The ideal would seem to be rich and free.

However, in many autocratic countries the prosperity flourished in the time prior to the shift to autocracy. Foa and Mounk added this to the mix:

a growing number of countries have learned to combine autocratic rule with market-friendly institutions, and they have continued growing economically well beyond the point at which democratic transitions used to occur.

Should those autocracies continue prospering at the current pace let's hope Americans don't decide that maybe a dictator is a better basis for government than democracy. In that regard, the current push for socialism isn't an especially good sign.

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3:07 PM 3/5/2019

What's with the left's fascination with trains?

Years ago when citizens of Houston were contemplating a light rail system in the city a friend explained that some people were really wowed by the idea because they played with electric trains when they were children and never grew out of it.

That love of trains is playing out again as we see with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal. From NPR:

"Overhauling transportation systems" to reduce emissions — including expanding electric car manufacturing, building "charging stations everywhere," and expanding high-speed rail to "a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary"...

As children, our electric trains probably came from Santa Claus. And to many, Uncle Sam is Santa Claus.

But bringing the real world of high speed rail dreams grinding down to school zone speed, the other day California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a shift in priorities that would de-emphasize the $77 billion rail plan in California which has been going on for the past decade with hardly anything to show for it:

“Let’s be real. The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long,” Newsom said about the train, which is under construction in the Central Valley. “There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency. Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were.”

Reality set in. A cross country high speed system in the U.S. would be incredibly expensive. Maybe taxpayers should take up a collection and buy model trains for members of congress to try to satiate their train fantasies.

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2:36 PM 2/13/2019

Midland, TX, city leaders have adopted the crossing guard mentality when it comes to bicycles

Anyone who has ever directed traffic knows or should know that they should attempt not to impede the flow of traffic. Too often a crossing guard will stop a line of cars and make them wait until a pedestrian crosses the street. They'll stop the vehicle traffic before the pedestrian even gets to the crosswalk. Common sense says that the guard should allow a large block of vehicles to pass before stopping traffic for the pedestrian simply because the pedestrian has the right of way.

Our elected city leaders have adopted the crossing guard mentality when it comes to bicycles. Maybe it's a concern for safety, or maybe it's an effort to encourage people to use bicycles in a misguided attempt to diminish car exhaust. In any event, it is giving rights to a minority over the needs of the majority.

Cities all over the country are doing it. And they're doing it right here in Midland, Texas, smack dab in the middle of oil producing country. See City will be installing downtown bike lanes. The number of people commuting by bicycle has been trending downward. So Midland's leaders are way behind the curve.

Here's a sample of a four lane street converted into a two lane street by the addition of two lane bicycle lanes. Don't strain looking for bicycles. I've never seen a bicycle on this road.

What a waste.

I used to ride a bicycle back when bicyclists assumed every vehicle had the right of way. That was common sense at the time, and it still should be.

There's a least one opinion writer who agrees that we don't need so many bicycle lanes. See Is the bike-lane fever breaking?. Excerpt:

So maybe it’s time for public officials and policy makers to turn their backs on the militant, self-righteous bike lobby and its fantasy of a world in which drivers defer to cyclists as the rightful kings of the road. Bicycles — nimble, healthful, nonpolluting, cheap — have many advantages. But they don’t belong in crowded urban traffic.

Ain't that truth?!

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2:15 PM 1/19/2019

IRS uses sneaky switch to raise taxes

The recent tax cut law reduced the tax bite on many people. But the law also required the IRS to implement a slower moving measure of inflation. The IRS has put it in effect, and the result will be a slower growing standard deduction. So tax payers using the standard deduction will pay a higher tax for a longer period than they would under the old rules.

This comes to us by way of wsj.com: Trump Tax Cut to Be Eroded Next Year by Inflation Switch (titled "New Calculus on Inflation Erodes Tax Cut" in the print edition). Alternate link.

It seems a bit sneaky. But at least it was the lawmakers who wrote it, not the IRS doing it on its own.

Meanwhile, some good news: As predicted, GOP tax cuts prompt record tax revenues. Unfortunately, the government is still in the red as spending is still outpacing revenue. And worse, no one seems to care.

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2:07 PM 11/17/2018

Which is worse - gov worker visits 9,000 porn sites or spreading malware on gov network?

Two wrongs definitely didn't make right in this government worker's case. From the OIG Report:

We found that - redacted - knowingly used U.S. Government computer systems to access unauthorized internet web pages. We also found that those unauthorized pages hosted malware. The malware was downloaded to - redacted - Government laptop,which then exploited the USGS ' network. Our digital forensic examination revealed that - redacted - had an extensive history of visiting adult pornography websites. Many of the 9,000 web pages - redacted - visited routed through websites that originated in Russia and contained malware. Our analysis confirmed that many of the pornographic images were subsequently saved to an unauthorized USB device and personal Android cell phone connected to - redacted - Government issued computer. We found that - redacted - personal cell phone was also infected with malware.

This came to us by way of Sophos' NakedSecurity at Gov worker visits 9k porn sites without protection, spreads infection. Among the protections recommended by Sophos is their own web filter.

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10:50 AM 11/1/2018

Sortition -- Replace Politicians With Random Citizens

So I was station surfing on the car radio and stumbled on an interview with Brett Hennig on NPR's Ted Radio Hour. He had an idea that is tantalizingly simple. In a word, it's Sortition, defined at wikipedia as "the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates."

Here's an example of how it works. (From the the NPR show found here: Brett Hennig: Should We Replace Politicians With Random Citizens? Link goes to transcript.) To wit:

HENNIG: This seemingly absurd idea is actually based on hundreds of experiments worldwide where this actually happens and happens well. Ireland is the most recent country to have randomly selected 99 people to talk about their constitutional ban on abortion, to talk about how they can tackle climate change, to talk about other things like fixed-term parliaments.

This 99 randomly selected sample of people went through weekends of deliberation informed by experts with public input into that process, and they came up with the proposal, supported by around two-thirds of them, to abolish this constitutional ban on abortion, which was then put to a referendum, and about two-thirds of the Irish people agreed with them. If these people are so good at it, why do we still need politicians?

He explained the weak point common with currently existing democracies:

HENNIG: Elections produce people who are good at winning elections. And to be good at winning an election, you need a massive war chest of money. You need to be charismatic. You need to be able to inspire people with ridiculous tweets - I'm not sure. But it doesn't mean that you're good at making policy, at lawmaking.

So I would actually argue that a random representative sample with good process informed by experts who, of course, don't have power - they just have the power to give information - would result in better policy. Of course, you would potentially need these people to go through an induction process where they learn about how the system goes or how lawmaking is made, et cetera.

The other option - that we hand over the running of our country to a group of experts - is exactly what authoritarian regimes argue. China, in theory, is run by groups of experts.

Federalism in the U.S. provides us with 50 laboratories. California is renowned as the great experimenter, so there's a good project for them to try. Unfortunately, it would require the politicians currently in power to relinquish some of that power. And that's difficult to imagine.

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5:54 AM 10/14/2018

County Commissioners love playing Santa Clause with taxpayer money

Stewart Doreen is really doing a bang-up job of keeping readers of the Midland Reporter-Telegram informed about the Midland County Commissioners spending of taxpayer money. In the latest he tells us this Proposed budget includes 9 percent raise for commissioners.

The Midland Texas County government is awash with money from tax inflow. And who can forget how surprised they were that a booming economy would cause a big jump in sales tax revenue? If only taxpayers could be that lucky.

So the county has money burning a hole in its pocket even after giving away a whopping $12 million to other taxing entities. For a refresher about that, see County answers call for collaboration. And see previously at this blog: Taxpayers are ignored in Midland County wealth distribution scheme.

If we are lucky, the winner of the County Judge slot in November will do some belt tightening. Although, it's hard to be optimistic since he will have to battle an entrenched entitlement minded commissioners court.

In any event, kudos to Stewart Doreen for maintaining a newsman's tradition of being a government watchdog. There were times when it appeared as if he were serving as a lapdog for the city council, so it's nice to see him dig into the county commissioners.

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9:02 AM 8/22/2018