Allow me to draw some logic to the legitimacy of the Trump presidency. Trump empathizes with Vladimir Putin as a credible leader during election campaign. Russian public demonstrates in the streets over corruptive behavior of Russian government. FBI investigators cast no doubt on Russia’s covert attempt at influencing the 2016 general election. The FBI head (Comey) is fired having firmly established in his mind that the Russian attempt to influence the U.S. election is of national significance and should be provided resources accordingly. One particular individual close to Trump who had been assigned the position of National Security Adviser lied to the Pentagon regarding income he had received from Russia and lied as well referencing “insubstantial contact” with foreign nationals when in fact he had sat two months earlier beside President Putin at a national gala (NY Times). Today we learn that Trump untrue to his word has not yet isolated himself from his business empire which possesses international sources of revenue. The conflict of interest arising incites law suits from two state attorney generals. Per Comey testimony, Trump asked ex FBI Director Comey for his “loyalty”. Trump, as testified by ex FBI Director Comey, requested Comey to drop any investigation of disgraced ex National Security Adviser Flynn in spite of Flynn’s association with Russia and deceit with U.S. authorities. Then there’s whatever else could be lurking and not yet presented.
Monthly Archives: June 2017
If The Flames Leave
You know it’s not going to happen because Calgary is a good market for an NHL franchise and the whole executive of the Flames organization knows it. Brian Burke would be well served to keep his tongue wagging about hockey instead of what he thinks Calgarians need. There are enough marginalized hockey fans in Calgary obediently paying their income tax, their excise tax, their property tax, their GST, while transferring wealth toward some neighbour’s Child Tax Benefit payment in our socialized way of life that if you piss him off just a little bit more, he’s likely to just give you the finger and walk away from those season tickets.
Here in Calgary there’s been a destructive force working on city revenues, namely commercial property tax from an office sector which is staggering through vacancies in the downtown core. Consequently, the city has had to shift the tax burden outward and if you don’t think they’ll come for you out there in the burbs, think again once saddled (pardon the pun) with an enormous capital expenditure via one new unnecessary arena. We’ve become a people of want instead of need. We want to keep up with the Jones’. We want the upgraded BMW. We want to have a nicer arena just like our rivals because our ego is bruised when the competition comes to town and they know what we know about their nice place.
Income taxes went up in 2016. The top marginal rate is now 47 per cent and this is only of those pesky income taxes you get to pay. Yes, the rate grows incrementally until you get there, but it was supposed to be temporary to fund world war one. Then you and yours decided you needed an awful lot from your governments like sports arenas and a health care system that has doctors laughing at you for paying them so much. That’s okay. They laugh in private.
Here you are in a conundrum because your favourite musician is skipping the Saddledome because of some idiosyncrasy associated with this practical structure of strength seating some 17,000. Some beer glutton thinks he needs the extended bathroom that a new facility would provide ’cause he apparently can’t be entertained on anything less than a six pack of Molson’s best. Then there’s the “revenue model” referenced by the silver haired hockey has beens now execs sitting lofty in their glass enclosed perches claiming more from the parking, more from concession, and more from the city ’cause “we are the culture that Canada craves”.
I say no. I say call their bluff with a Bon Voyage to Quebec City – that market that couldn’t sustain the Nordiques back in the ’90’s. We know that the Stampede can pack the Saddledome for the first two weeks of July. For some reason acts still show up. The Hitmen and Roughnecks would retain their home turf while the Circus, the Cirque….and soccer could find fame from the departed Flame. Yes Soccer and the River Dance and more music with more dates on the calendar. There could be variety shows, acrobats, art shows and exhibits. A modernization of the Dome’s innards could accommodate for sets made to order. Figure skating competitions and showcases could return with frequency. Events representing human splendour and wonder could grace a stage tired from the moribund movement of a puck too many days out of the year. Your venue could be revived as a city centre piece for cultural reform with a return on investment actualized through solid management and imagination.
ABC Reports Cringe Worthy Comey Testimony
I’d call it something different than “cringe worthy”. I’d call the details espoused by Comey in his testimony of Donald Trump nothing more than the typical bully like egocentric behavior representative of Trump’s conduct throughout the presidential campaign and what also seems now apparent in his business conduct throughout the years evidenced by the volume of law suits thrown at him.
I’ll let the lawyers dual on the subject of “obstruction of justice” but as far as my coherent rational mind sees it, if a sitting president makes a request of the FBI to drop an investigation, one should not even need to delve into the motive for such a request. The FBI is independent of the White House and operates on behalf of the security of the nation with classified information which passes between and throughout presidential tenures. If the FBI is confronted with data which it deems is compromising to the security of the nation, it has an incumbent responsibility to act on the data while incorporating its sense of relevancy. These men and women are specialists in what they do and should be availed necessary funding if at their core they believe a matter requires investigation in the spirit of defending their country.
The United States citizens chose a president with values inconsistent with those necessary to occupy the oval office. It’s that simple. However; in the two party system, I would place the blame entirely on the delegates bestowed a responsibility for anointing a genuine leader with integrity. The sad footnote to the story is that some of the man’s ad hoc platform is what the U.S could use but now with Trump’s credibility undermined, the execution of such platform is cast in doubt. How does the old saying go….if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it’s a duck. If it tweets like a child, emotes like a child, insults like a child, and refers to its genitalia like a child, then it’s likely a child. Unfortunately, more drama at the executive branch will be unfolding while the U.S. copes with a national debt growth rate at the highest in its history and a dysfunctional parliament refusing to cooperate for the good of the nation.
Girl Most Likely
Sometimes I think entertainment pundits forget why we go to the movies. We go as a form of escape discovering hilarity, empathy and thrill in the misadventures of fictional characters. Those cerebral critics seem to believe that if a story line is overly contrived with outlandish happenstance, then entertainment value is somehow compromised. On the contrary, A Girl Most Likely has quirky freshness where the writer injects obscure creativity in the character of Ralph, some positivity amongst family dysfunction, and the occasional scene only accommodating to abnormal characters. Funny dialogue abounds with law enforcement after rear ending of a Porsche by bedeviled protagonist Imogene (Kristen Wiig). Sex is normalized without an F bomb dropped even once. A reptilian shell encapsulates in more ways than one. Weirdness becomes triumphant. The elite become lame. What’s not to “like”.
Three Prominent Doomsayers
As part of my financial education, I took a course called “macroeconomics”. The discipline was certainly more interesting than its cousin “microeconomics” because macroeconomics dealt with topics such as the money supply in association with fractional reserve banking, central banks, interest rate policy, inflation, gross domestic product, international trade, and government fiscal policy. To this day I recall one moment sitting in class when my professor referenced the financial transaction evident when a new dollar bill is created. The banking elite make reference to “open market operations”. In Canada, if the “Bank of Canada” feels compelled to stimulate the economy, it does so by purchasing government denominated securities (treasury bills, bonds) in the open market. Consequently, the seller deposits its cheque thereby increasing the capacity for the seller’s bank to lend against the increase in its “reserves”. Money becomes available to a qualified debtor. The scariest part of this transaction is skimmed over by academics. Where did the Bank of Canada get the money to purchase these securities on the open market? You guessed it – the Bank of Canada pulled it from its printing press. What compliance formula did the Bank of Canada need to adhere prior to firing up the press? Well, none. That’s right, none. It used to be the case prior to 1928 in Canada that new money could only be created with a proportionate increase in gold reserves (gold standard). In 1991, the Canadian government enacted legislation abolishing any responsibility of Chartered Banks to hold cash reserves. Hence; in the event of a sudden loss of confidence in the Canadian dollar, a wide swing in inflation / deflation, a material reduction in a debtor’s ability to repay loans, those first patrons to the ATM win.
Modern economic theory has aligned to the sentiment of D.H. Robertson from Cambridge University who in 1948 stated, “The value of a yellow metal, originally chosen as money because it tickled the fancy of savages, is clearly a chancy and irrelevant thing on which to base the value of our money and the stability of our industrial system.” Today, three particular economic doomsayers, namely Jim Rickards, Peter Schiff, and Martin Armstrong have gone on record to refute the sentiment of Mr. Robertson in lieu of our current monetary system’s weakness.