Market Watch

[D&D]

Nice that we now know who is behind funding illegal immigrant labor into this country.

Record illegal crossing and record high effort to prevent illegal immigration ‘16-‘20
Record illegal crossing and strong effort to promote illegal immigration ‘21-‘24.

We also now know who suppressed information about p*litic@l figures. They are outed and all but the slowest dolts and deniers will know who to trust in the media when it comes to information on candidates.

Maybe I’m getting senile, sure seems like in times past by 1 Jan of an election year we would have the candidates figured out by now. This year, we don’t even know if one or both contenders will be in prison come November. What does that say for our democratic process?

 

[D&D]

This might be commonplace but, there’s a trend in my area where large parcels of forest land are being sold to corporations (and government) which are purchasing it for carbon credits to offset a corporations (or government) carbon footprint. The whole idea seems wrong. Makes me wonder what will happen to these large parcels of forests as the years pass.

Mike

paper bags

 

[rScotty]

Those are maintenance expenses from tax money.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be done. In fact, they must be done. I'm opposed to the term "Investments" being applied to maintenance expenses.

Most of the time when bureaucrats want the public to feel better about the screwing they are about to get it's referred to as an "investment". Call it one of the biggest lies the bureaucrats tell us.

In our system we take out a certain percentage of profits, call them "taxes", and spend that on maintenance and investments.
Whether rich or poor, there will always be some who would rather keep more back for themselves, and others who would rather invest it all in the future.
Keeping too much back is self-serving, investing it all is foolish - some invesments will always fail.
If we disagree about the proportions then the system is healthy & working properly.

rScotty

 

[ultrarunner]

Some may disagree on bait and switch or publicly funded projects taxpayers are still paying long after the entities no longer exist or have moved on.

The reason I say bait and switch is funding presented for voter approval might certainly go to the stated cause but what isn't said is a proportional amount of funding also gets reallocated.

Pro Sports have all but left but the bonds for stadiums remain to be paid.

Some spending boggles my mind like replacing traffic Lanes with bicycle Lanes that no one ever uses in the theory build and they will come.

Plenty of other mind boggling as to why a ocean sandy beaches are closed with law enforcement citing those that ignore when the reason for closure is budget shortfall... but law enforcement is exempt so available but parking is cordoned off... it's a beach.

 

[Hay Dude]

Some may disagree on bait and switch or publicly funded projects taxpayers are still paying long after the entities no longer exist or have moved on.

The reason I say bait and switch is funding presented for voter approval might certainly go to the stated cause but what isn't said is a proportional amount of funding also gets reallocated.

Pro Sports have all but left but the bonds for stadiums remain to be paid.

Some spending boggles my mind like replacing traffic Lanes with bicycle Lanes that no one ever uses in the theory build and they will come.

Plenty of other mind boggling as to why a ocean sandy beaches are closed with law enforcement citing those that ignore when the reason for closure is budget shortfall... but law enforcement is exempt so available but parking is cordoned off... it's a beach.

How about the CA high speed railroads? Theres a boondoggle for ya.
And I‘m a real proponent of railroads

 

[2manyrocks]

Repairing existing roads is maintenance. Bringing fiber optic internet access to rural communities is an investment in economic growth for the area.

Our rural telephone put in fiber optic whether I wanted it or not and has been pushing more expensive internet upgrades. I miss the days of simple, inexpensive telephone service. The phone bill is often more than my electric bill and for what? They aren't incurring the cost of producing electricity at a power plant.

This talk of investment makes me think of what we used to say around the office about investment pitches that said "if you have the money, we have the experience." (But after you invest, we'll have the money and you'll have the experience.)

 

[jyoutz]

Our rural telephone put in fiber optic whether I wanted it or not and has been pushing more expensive internet upgrades. I miss the days of simple, inexpensive telephone service. The phone bill is often more than my electric bill and for what? They aren't incurring the cost of producing electricity at a power plant.

I sure wish that I had your option. All we have in our area is the slow DSL over the old copper phone lines. It makes for slow internet service. Last year I was excited when I saw crews installing fiber optic lines a few miles away. Then they finished with the installation, 1/2 mile south of my property. When I called the company to see if they would be continuing up my way, they said that that was all the funding they had on the rural internet grant. I would be happy to pay more for better service. And I’m pondering why I still pay for a landline phone when all I get are solicitation calls on that line. My wife and I both have cell phones and everyone calls us on those.

 

[two_bit_score]

Repairing existing roads is maintenance. Bringing fiber optic internet access to rural communities is an investment in economic growth for the area.

Fixing our roads, utilities and communication infrastructure creates more economic growth. Thinning our forests reduces wildfire suppression costs. Lots of expenditures can be investments that pay off financially in the future.

Key word - Fixing

You fix things that already exist - maintain them.
Im getting the impression you aren’t actually composing or even reading this stuff you’ve been posting.

You just copying somebody’s talking points?

 

[jyoutz]

Key word - Fixing

You fix things that already exist - maintain them.
Im getting the impression you aren’t actually composing or even reading this stuff you’ve been posting.

You just copying somebody’s talking points?

Do you spend all your time trolling me? Get a hobby.

 

[2manyrocks]

The crew that ran the fiber optic cable ran it under the highway and across 500' of my property to the house in maybe 30 minutes. Later, the install crew took an entire day to get it connected. They couldn't get it to work. So another guy comes out and decides the optic cable is bad right at the house. So he installs a patch thing. Still doesn't work. Then he decides its bad further down the drive. Chops the cable and installs another patch. Still doesn't work. Then he tries to drive his truck down to the telephone pole to check the connection at the main line and gets his truck stuck.

Eventually, he figures out that the optic cable had been cut at the highway by a water line crew that came through after the line was run but before the install crew came out. He spliced the line again and finally got one phone line working in the house, but all the other outlets are dead. He spent another hour or so, but never got the other phone outlets to work, but hey, I have one phone line that works in the house. Some time later, I figured out what they missed and got all the lines working again.

No telling what all that time cost to replace a copper line that worked fine.