Things that can strike a nerve

Certain issues push people's buttons.  One non-scientific measure of what pushes people's buttons are the number of comments people post regarding news articles.  On the LA Times website; as I write this, here are a few examples:

Federal judge declines to order an end to the Obama-era DACA program - 14 comments

Homeless people at almost every LA landmark illustrates the depth of the problem - 9 comments

El Salvador says 3 migrant children separated from their parents were sexually abused at US shelters - 1 comment

US and Canada fail to meet White House-imposed deadline to settle NAFTA disputes - 17 comments

Vegas' salute to the cannabis culture: a 24-foot-long fully functional bong - 11 comments

ER actress Vanessa Marquez shot and killed by police making a wellness check - 114 comments

Where is the collusion (regarding the Russia probe) - 142 comments

Democratic leader's call for In-N-Out burger boycott meets its own resistance - 363 comments

* * *

When it comes to In-N-Out, Californians have some strong beliefs.  The call for the boycott came from Eric Bauman, head of the California Democratic Party.  He learned from a story in LA Magazine that stemmed from a tweet from a Washington DC-based journalist.  Gabe Schneider tweeted out this:

In-N-Out added a new item to their secret menu. https://t.co/VtaCOuiNRp pic.twitter.com/tCRYqFGDEB

— Gabe Schneider 🗞 (@gabemschneider) August 29, 2018

He followed up with this "clarification"

Just some clarity: this statement from @innoutburger is misleading. The company donated to a pro-business PAC that supports Democrats and the CA Republican Party. They did not donate to the CA Democratic Party. pic.twitter.com/O2Kxd2dQsL

— Gabe Schneider 🗞 (@gabemschneider) August 31, 2018

There is just one problem with his clarification.  There isn't a single record of the pro-business PAC, Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy making a contribution to the CA Republican Party.  As you can see from this list of the contributions made by that pro-business PAC, they did not give a dime to the CA Republican Party in the current cycle.  Or the last cycle.  If you can find a Republican officeholder or candidate on that list, please let me know.  I gave up searching for one after checking 20 of them.

* * *

Facts matter.  Claiming something is a fact doesn't make it so.  

Boycotts can matter.  I don't care who calls for a boycott of whom, as long as the call includes the actual facts and not a misinterpretation of the facts.  

When there was a call for a boycott of Chick-Fil-A, I didn't care if people did or didn't join in.  Just as I didn't care years earlier when the support of anti-abortion groups and the Briggs Initiative
by Carl Karcher of Carl's Jr. fast food restaurants led to boycotts of the chain.  I engaged in a personal boycott of them for a long time.  

We are free to engage in boycotts.  We are free to call for boycotts.  But we shouldn't be free to call for boycotts with misinformation.

The murder of Mollie Tibbetts is NOT an immigration issue and other thoughts on a Saturday night

Mollie Tibbetts - allegedly murdered by someone who appears to be in the country illegally

Shanann Watts, Bella Watts and Celeste Watts -allegedly murdered by a man who was born in the U.S.

One murder is on the radar of Donald J. Trump, the other three are not.

Kate Steinle - killed in San Francisco by a man in the U.S. illegally, back in 2015.

Omar Shahwan - killed, beheaded and dismembered in San Francisco in 2015, by a man born in the U.S.

One murder is on the radar of Donald J. Trump, the other is not.

The murder of Mollie Tibbetts is a tragedy.  But it is not an immigration issue.  Any attempt to make it one is simply politics of the worst kind.

According to research collated by NPR, there were four recent studies that confirm that illegal aliens are in fact less likely to commit crimes than citizens and aliens who are here legally.

Her parents do not want her death used in this way.  But there is no chance that Donald Trump would ever respect the beliefs and lives of anyone else.  We saw this on display during the campaign when he attacked Gold-Star parents.

* * *

An American hero has lost his fight with brain cancer.  John McCain's family had just announced his decision to stop treatment of the aggressive glioblastoma he'd been battling since last year.

Donald Trump questioned Senator McCain's heroism during the 2016 presidential campaign.

I guess no one bothered to tell the #LiarInChief that then Lieutenant Commander McCain was shot down on his 23rd combat mission over Vietnam.  Or that he broke both arms and one of his legs when he ejected from his aircraft.  It is kind of hard to escape and evade with three of your four limbs being broken.

RIP, John McCain

* * *

Kate McClure's car ran out of gas.  A homeless man told her to lock herself in and then he went and got her gasoline with his last $20.  To pay him back, she started a GoFundMe page so that Johnny Bobbitt, Jr., wouldn't have to sleep under a bridge.

Now she and her boyfriend are accused of taking a large part of the $400,000 raised by that page to buy her a BMW and to take vacations.

There is a real need for oversight of these crowdfunding pages to ensure people do not do what this couple is alleged to have done.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

It might be easier for people to accept the apologies of the Pope for clerical sexual abuse if there was more going on than just apologies.  Redress for the victims, transparency about the predators and strong policies to bring a stop to decades of such abuse might make an impact.

I don't think Disney's decision to put Guardians of the Galaxy, Part III on hold is going to do anything to stop the stars and fans of the film from taking the giant mouse to task for firing director James Gunn.

Since she'll never see her father's billions, it is easy for Lisa Brennan-Jobs to say she'd give them to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Would she give them all away if she had them, that might be a different story.  But I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

I'd pay to see the play The 1st Annual Trump Family Special just to watch more of Gina Gershon's spot-on impression of Melania Trump.

Nikki Yovino got off light with only one year in jail after falsely accusing two other university students of having raped her.  The sex was consensual but she claimed rape in order to avoid losing a potential boyfriend.  Both of the men she lied about withdrew from the university and one of them lost his football scholarship.  She deserved more time in the gray-bar hotel.

A taxing proposition or two

Back in 2016, I wrote a blog about tax issues here in California relating to the state's extreme reliance on personal income tax revenue to fill the state's coffers.  Now a story in the Los Angeles Times helps to put the state's fiscal problems into sharper focus.  For both the immediate and long-term future.

This past June marked the 40th anniversary of the passage of California's Proposition 13.  To illustrate it in the simplest terms, imagine two identical houses sitting side by side.  Both are worth $2 million dollars today.  The one on the right is still owned by the same people who owned it in 1978.  That homeowner's property tax bill is based on its value back in 1976, of around $50,000.  The one on the left was purchased in 206 and its property tax bill is based on its then value of $1.9 million.  

Based on a property tax rate of 1.25% of assessed value, the property tax bill of the home on the right would be 1.25% of $50,000, which would make it $625.  The property tax bill of the home on the left would be 1.25% of $1.9 million, which would make it $23,750.  Quite a disparity, isn't it?

The original idea behind Prop 13 was to prevent rapidly rising property values from causing seniors to be forced out of their homes by ever-increasing property tax bills.  Fair enough.  But then came another initiative on the ballot.  Proposition 58 was passed in 1986.  It allowed homeowners to pass on their Prop 13 property tax valuation on to their children.  1996 extended this right to grandparents in situations where both parents of the grandchild are deceased.

The L.A. Times story points out that Jeff Bridges and his two siblings (brother Beau and sister Lucinda) have saved over $300,000 in property taxes that they would have paid had the value of the home they inherited from their mother in 2009 had been subjected to a new property tax assessment at that time.

The way it works is like this.  The home inherited by Jeff Bridges and his siblings was valued at approximately $3.3 million in 2009.  Once the Prop 58 paperwork was filed, the assessed value was reset to only $383,077.  

On the other hand, thanks to federal tax law, the basis of the home was stepped-up from the original purchase price paid by Lloyd Bridges and his wife to its current market value.  So if they'd turned around and sold it immediately, there would have been no capital gains tax on the sale of the home.  

So what if we were to apply the logic of Prop 13, Prop 58 and so on to the issue of calculating the tax on the sale of properties being held with Prop 13 values?

Zillow says the value of the Bridges' home is currently $6.8 million.  Their gain under federal law would be around $3.5 million.  We could change CA law to require calculation of the capital gains tax on a home with an artificially low property tax valuation so that the gain would be calculated under that original property tax valuation.  In the case of the Bridges' home, that would mean a gain of $6.5 million. 

Obviously this will never happen.  It would be onerous, although it would actually result in additional taxes of $399,000, which is only slightly more than the property tax savings they've realized since 2009.

* * *

But this stuff becomes more critical than ever thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was passed by the Republican-led Congress at the behest of Donald Trump last year.  It limits the ability of taxpayers to deduct their State and Local Taxes (SALT) to a maximum of $10,000.  That means the owner of the house on the left described above is losing more than half of the deduction they are allowed, assuming that home is their personal residence.  For people who are renting out homes they own, there is no limit on how much property tax they can deduct.

Does the name David Tepper ring a bell?  Refer back to that blog written back in 2016.  There are going to be a number of California residents who are going to see very large increases in their federal tax bills because of that limitation on their ability to deduct state income taxes they pay.  Some of them may decide to relocate as a result.  

Let me repeat a statistic or two from that 2016 blog.

In the upcoming CA fiscal year income taxes will be around 70% of the total revenue.
In CA in 1950 income taxes provided only 10% of the total revenue.
In that upcoming CA fiscal year, sales taxes will provide 22% of the total revenue.
In CA in 1950, sales taxes provided 60% of the total revenue.

Those upcoming fiscal year numbers are two years old.  I'm guessing the percentage of total revenue from income taxes have only increased.

Revocation

What do the following people have in common?

John Brennan
Paula Broadwell
Chelsea Manning
Edward Snowden
Reality Winner

All of them had a security clearance.  Four of the five had a Top Secret security clearance.  All of them have had their security clearances revoked.

The question is, why is John Brennan's name on this list?  The answer is, because he had the temerity to criticize Donald Trump.  Mr. Brennan has spent a life in service to this nation.  25 years as an analyst with the CIA.  He went on to be Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama and then became director of the CIA.  I find it exceedingly difficult to characterize what Mr. Trump has done since his inauguration as "service" to our nation.  All he has truly accomplished is to enrich his fellow members of the "1%" at the expense of the rest of us, make this nation the most divided it has been since our Civil War, and embarrass us regularly in the eyes of the rest of this planet.

There was no good reason for the revocation of Mr. Brennan's clearance.  It costs thousands of dollars to do the vetting required to give someone a Top Secret clearance.  That's just for reference.  If for some unknown reason, the #MoronInChief were to come to his senses and give Mr. Brennan clearance again, I doubt any investigation would be required.

Why do former officials retain their security clearances?  Because they are called on to consult with their replacements, or others working for our federal government.  To take their clearances is to deny the nation their expertise in time of crisis.

If there were a valid reason to take someone's clearance, it would be being convicted of the crime of mishandling classified information.  Did they revoke the clearance of retired General David Petraeus?  The aforementioned Paula Broadwell was his lover.  She had her security clearance revoked after their joint misadventures with classified info.  Did he?  I can find no evidence either way.

Mr. Trump gave us some insight as to the real reason why he revoked Mr. Brennan's clearance as he was about to board Marine One.

It isn't in saying that he gave Mr. Brennan a bigger voice.  It was when he said, "...and that's okay with me.  I like taking on voices like that."

He wants these conflicts.  His base loves watching him engage in them.  And they direct attention away from things he doesn't want anyone paying attention to.

Stifling dissent is something he's been attempting to do long before he first ran for the presidency.  The only difference now is that he's ramping up that attempt to a higher level.

Started on Wednesday and finishing up on Saturday morning

Troy Balderson, a Republican and Danny O'Connor, a Democrat are facing off in a special election for the Ohio 12th Congressional district seat in the House of Representatives.  As I write this, 99% of precincts have reported and Balderson holds a slim lead of 1,754 votes.  Joe Manchik, the Green party candidate has received 1,127 votes at this point in time.

Balderson - 101,574 votes

O'Connor - 99,820 votes

Manchik - 1,127 votes

Bear in mind that there are almost 8,500 ballots yet to be counted.  This race is too close to call at this point.

I, like a lot of people, wanted Mr. O'Connor to win.  This is a race to replace Pat Tiberi, who resigned to take a private sector job in January.  The media described his resignation as being due in part to "frustration."  He'd held the seat since 2001 following his election to replace John Kasich.  It should be noted that the Ohio 12th Congressional seat has been held by a Republican since 1938, with the exception of the years 1981 and 1982.

Here are a few things that are interesting about this race.  Back in 2016, Mr Tiberi defeated his Democratic opponent by a wide margin.  251,266 votes to only 112,638.  Compare those numbers to tonight's figures.  Republican turnout for this special election is less than half of what it was in November of 2016.  Contrarily, Democratic turnout for the special election was over 88% of what it was in November of 2016.  It also must be noted that unlike a lot of the districts where Democrats have the best shots at unseating Republicans in November, this is a district with less of an urban population footprint.  

Did the Green party votes cost Mr. O'Connor victory?  We won't know until the final count is in.  Were some of those votes from Republicans who wouldn't vote for Mr. Balderson but also couldn't cross party lines?  Possibly.  Personally I would like to see the Green party abstain from running any candidates in November, so as not to siphon off votes from Democratic candidates.  That isn't realistic though.

If Mr. Balderson winds up winning, it is a pyrrhic victory at best.  He will have to face off for this seat again in November, probably against Mr. O'Connor.  

* * *

Vasillios Pistolis was a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps.  He has been administratively separated from the service.  The characterization of his discharge (Honorable, General or Under Than Honorable Conditions) was not disclosed.  He also spent 28 days in the brig prior to be booted out of the service.

His offense?  He took part in the Charlottesville, VA "Unite the Right" rally last August and allegedly bragged on social media about how he "cracked skulls" while there.  Two other Marines were discharged last year for their alleged ties to white supremacist groups.

All of the branches of the military have issued directives prohibiting participation in "hate groups" in one way or another.

This issue runs a lot deeper than these few anecdotal examples, and bears further scrutiny.

On a related note, active-duty personnel are not supposed to take part in partisan political activity.

* * *

Delta Gamma is a sorority that was founded back in 1873.  It did not establish a chapter at Harvard University until 1994.  Now, that chapter will be disbanded, by a vote of the chapter's members.  Why did they do this?  Because of an edict from the university that requires ALL single-gender organizations on campus to either go co-ed; or lose the opportunity for members of those organizations to hold campus leadership positions.  The members of those single-gender organizations would also lose the endorsement of the university in applying for post-graduate fellowships.

Some of the members of Delta Gamma's chapter at Harvard will be forming a new co-ed social group, called Kali Praxi.

I get the desire to strive for real equality that drove Harvard to implementing these policies.  Outside of the Greek communities on college campuses, requiring inclusion is a good thing.  But the Greek system of single-gender fraternities and sororities is a long-standing tradition.  While we hear all about hazing activities gone wrong, and extremely bad behavior by a few, what these organizations do is mostly to better the world in which we live.  I don't have a problem with giving fraternities and sororities an exception to this policy.

* * *

John 8:32 may say "...the truth shall set you free" but that doesn't seem to be the case for Doctor Ricardo Quarrie.  He was a cardiothoracic fellow at Yale New Haven Hospital when he was accused of lying to a patient.  The accusation was made by attorney Joel Faxon who was representing Deborah Craven.  Ms Craven was the victim of what Yale New Haven admits was an error made during surgery.  They removed her seventh rib rather than her eighth rib as planned.

The accusations made by Mr. Faxon in the TV interview can be read here, along with his explanation of how he got it wrong, and his "complete retraction" of those statements

The problem is, you can't repair a person's reputation with a retraction.  When you Google Dr. Quarrie's name, the allegations show up at the top of the search results.  It is akin to newspapers blasting someone inaccurately on Page 1 and then printing their retraction and acknowledging their error on Page 42.  It's nice, but it doesn't accomplish much.

CNN reports that Dr. Quarrie is spending $900 a month for an online reputation company to try to repair the damage to his reputation.  Mr. Faxon should be bearing that expense, but Dr. Quarrie won't be suing him.  Agreeing not to sue was the price of obtaining the statement of retraction.

* * *

CBS Board of Directors Fail to Take Swift Action and other Tuesday Thoughts

After The New Yorker published its expose where six women made allegations of sexual misconduct against Les Moonves, the CBS Board of Directors held a meeting on Monday, July 30, 2018.  They did not fire him.  They decided to hire outside counsel to investigate the allegations against him.  They did postpone the meeting of the company's shareholders that was scheduled on August 10, 2018.

Firing him might have been premature.  Letting him continue his duties is insufficient.  They should have asked him to step aside temporarily.  A suspension with pay while the investigation was ongoing.

Making this situation even more intolerable is that there are newly released allegations that Mr. Moonves, along with other CBS executives have engaged in the destruction of potential evidence in the ongoing struggle between Moonves and Shari Redstone for control of the entertainment giant.

He should step aside until the sexual misconduct situation is resolved, one way or another.  If he is cleared, no harm done.

* * *

The Houston Astros just made a trade for relief-pitcher Roberto Osuna.  What makes this a big deal is that Osuna is currently serving a 75 game suspension for violating the Major League Baseball policy regarding domestic violence.

The following is an excerpt from the statement published on the MLB website:

"My office has completed its investigation into the allegation that Roberto Osuna violated Major League Baseball's Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy on May 8, 2018," Manfred said in a statement. "Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Osuna violated the Policy and should be subject to discipline in the form of an unpaid suspension that will expire on August 4th."

Osuna is an outstanding closer.  The kind of key addition that gives the Astros a better chance of repeating as World Series champions.

Robinson Cano is a MLB superstar in the 5th year of a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Seattle Mariners.  He is serving an 80 game suspension for violating the MLB policy on Performance Enhancing Drugs.

At the moment, the Mariners are trailing the Astros by three games for the lead in the American League Western Division.  In the race for the Wild Card, Seattle is currently in position to play the Yankees, if the season were to end today.

The big difference between Cano and Osuna is that under the current policies of Major League Baseball, Osuna is eligible for postseason play while Cano is not.

Yes sports fans, it is okay to commit domestic violence and once your suspension is lifted, you can appear in postseason play.  But if you cheat by using a PED, your season ends at the end of the regular season.  This makes no sense.

Nor does it make sense for the Astros to trade for someone, albeit someone who has not yet been convicted of anything, who is in Osuna's situation.  It is a slap in the face of every fan of their organization.

Jeff Luhnow is the president and general manager of the Astros.  He rationalizes that it is okay to trade for Osuna in spite of his team's stated zero-tolerance policy toward domestic violence; because it happened BEFORE he joined the organization.

This is bullshit, pure and simple.  The only reason they considered doing this is the overwhelming desire to win.  While we cannot conclusively identify the person who first said (or wrote) "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying" that is the prevalent attitude in professional sports today.

I'm not saying that trading for Osuna is cheating.  But it is definitely proof of the moral bankruptcy of the Astros organization.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

I find it disgusting that a recent poll indicates that 11% of those who identify as Republican or lean Republican think it is "appropriate" for Russia to interfere in our elections in order to maintain Republican control of Congress.  Another 29% say "it isn't appropriate but it wouldn't be a big deal."  That's 40%.  Trump says he is more popular than Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln would roll over in his grave if he were aware of where Trump has taken the Republican party.

Yes, that's Trump crossing the swamp.

What does it say that I read two articles regarding Amazon.com today?  One pointing out that the parents of Jeff Bezos initial investment of just under $250,000 in 1995 might be worth as much as $30 billion today and another one describing how workers who get injured on the job at Amazon fulfillment centers are treated horribly.

It is kind of amusing seeing the closest Harvey Weinstein gets to the movies these days is seeing a double-feature at a multiplex.  For the curious, he saw the newest iteration of Mission Impossible and Transylvania 3.