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The Morning Rant: J.V. Edition

Lost in the joys of winning day after day is the reality that the federal government is still hemorrhaging money...our money! Spending on healthcare is approaching 30% of the budget, Social Security is about 25% Defense is about 15%, and the rest of the oh-so-vital federal government pisses away about the same...15%. What is going to get nasty is the tab for interest on the debt, which with rising interest rates is going to be a bigger and bigger issue.

This is the one area that President Trump's business experience is not helpful. He is used to highly leveraged deals, with the opportunity to refinance and refinance and possibly just declare bankruptcy if cash flow doesn't cover the debt service. But the federal government doesn't have that option, and he needs to start swinging that budget-cutting axe a lot more forcefully.

Trump sees federal deficit soar in first full year

President Trump oversaw a massive increase in the deficit during his first full year in office, the Treasury Department announced Monday, pointing to rising spending and stagnant taxes that threaten to send the government back into the realm of trillion-dollar shortfalls.

The government ended fiscal 2018 at $779 billion in the red, or 17 percent more than fiscal 2017, which was split between President Obama and Mr. Trump.

I don't know what the actuarial tables will say about this, but it seems like the only way to dig ourselves out of the Social Security quagmire is to stop indexing to inflation and couple that with an option to opt out in exchange for a decrease in the SS tax. Disability and Medicaid could be made more efficient simply by cracking down on the unbelievable abuses inherent in the systems. But...in the long run, without comprehensive overhauls, we are screwed.

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Police are BANNED from sticking poppies on their cars as chiefs are slammed for 'political correctness'

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-- John McCrae
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So...in 40 years the sea rose 16cm, yet there is more land? Could it be that the system is just a tad more complex than the AGW cheerleaders claimed?

Sea Level Shock...Satellite Imagery Shows Coral Islands Expanding! ..."Results Challenge Existing Narratives Of Island Loss"

Paul Kench and his colleagues have now measured the shorelines of all 101 islands of Tuvalu for the last 40 years using satellite imagery. The result: The land area grew by just under 3% during this period, despite a fairly strong regional sea-level rise of 4 mm per year.

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I don't agree with some of the sentiment expressed here, but this isn't a frothing-at-the-mouth rant about police brutality and evil White people.

Four Years After Ferguson - Colion Noir Visits with Local Residents after Michael Brown's death

A bleak history of economic upheaval, antagonism, mistrust and misunderstanding. Four years later, Colion Noir heads to Ferguson, Missouri and visits with local St. Louis residents to explore the issues that led up to and came out of Michael Brown’s death and the riots that followed.

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