Casino Mogul Wynn Explains Obamunism

Mark Noonan41 Comments

From Seeking Alpha – a transcript of Steve Wynn’s Earnings Call:

…Well, here’s our problem. There are a host of opportunities for expansion in Las Vegas, a host of opportunities to create tens of thousands of jobs in Las Vegas. I know that I could do 10,000 more myself and according to the Chamber of Commerce and the visitors convention bureau, if we hired 10,000 employees, it would create another 20,000 additional jobs for a grand total of 30,000. I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I’m afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what’s going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing’s going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating. And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime…(emphasis added)

The bottom line:  because of government policies, especially those of President Obama, Wynn simply will not expand his Las Vegas operations.  That is really all that needs be said – Obamunism is destroying the economy and we must change course if we are to prosper.

Cutting Defense

Mark Noonan46 Comments

An article over at the Army Times details some of what may be coming down as government, looking for places to cut, eyes the military:

…Speaking to reporters in Washington, Cartwright said the Defense Department’s internal planners are bracing for budget cuts far deeper than those announced by President Obama in April. Obama proposed carving $400 billion from the defense budget plan over the next 12 years, a cut of about 7 percent.

“The reality is, what you are most worried about a deeper cut? Is there another $400 billion behind the first $400 billion?” Cartwright said. “Now you start to look at things like, ‘Do I want to hollow out the force? Do I want to start to reduce the force size?’ ”…

There is no way around the fact that cuts are going to be made to Defense.  Part of this is the fact that we have a liberal, Democrat President and as they are always short-sighted, they see the defense budget as a bucket of money they can better use paying off cronies and special interests.  The other part of it, though, is the fact that we’re plain and simple broke – we don’t have enough money to keep spending on any department of government as much as we have been.  The problem is not in the fact of cuts, but how the cuts are to be made.

First and foremost, we must ensure that we maintain a military which is not just more powerful than any likely adversary, but so overwhelmingly powerful that any one who decides to fight us has just signed their own death warrant.  There can be no cuts which would reduce the level of training and readiness of the armed forces.  All members of the armed forces must be completely ready to go – down to the last detail – at a moments notice.  There can also be no cuts to the research and development needed to ensure our forces have the technological edge – though there can be a delay in deploying the new weapons; both in making the initial purchase and in fully equipping the entire armed forces with the new technology.

While there really can’t be cuts to pay and benefits, there can be a concerted effort to lower personnel costs.  We can, for instance, refuse to recruit people who are married and/or who have dependent children at the time of enlistment.  We can offer encouragement to longer enlistments, thus keeping both a highly professional force as well as lowering the very high cost of turning civilians in to soldiers (a longer term force need fewer recruits on an annual basis).  We can set up citizens militia units to take over continental defense in order to leave the regular military free to deploy – and thus we might be able to get away with a smaller overall military force (this is a revival of the old volunteer, part time military force which made up the bulk of our immediate reserve until the early 20th century when its functions were taken over by the National Guard…which has now become the ready-reserve for the active duty forces, and thus isn’t actually available for home defense – and the citizens militia could be activated for full time military service in a “world war” sort of emergency”).  We can also concentrate resources in those technologies which multiply the firepower of each individual service member – if our troops deploy, per man, 10 times the fire power of the enemy, then 1 of ours becomes worth 10 of theirs…and thus smaller expeditionary forces can be used.

The biggest caution I can relate is to remember what happened between the World Wars, especially during the Great Depression.  While spending bags of money, the government continually shrank the defense budget.  By the time we went to war in 1941, our soldiers on the front line were ill trained, forced to use obsolete weapons and were heavily outnumbered by the enemy – and we suffered crushing defeats because of it.  These defeats had to be paid for in rivers of blood later.  Defense must do its part to help repair the horrible state of our finances, but it is criminal folly to use Defense as a mere pot of money – the job Defense does it the primary and most important task of government and it must be able to do its job all the time and everywhere.

Out and About on a Monday Morning

Mark Noonan36 Comments

If we had to lose the World Cup, better to lose it to Japan than any other nation – they really need the tonic right now.

Just as discretion is the better part of valor, so is cowardice the better part of discretion – so, Obama bravely hid the Dalai Lama when he came to visit.  Come on, Barry – you get a thousand points for meeting with the Dalai Lama in spite of Chinese whines about it, but you lose a million by keeping it low key.  Show some guts, for crying out loud.

Turns out that it’s not illegal to peacefully demonstrate in favor of life.  Who knew?  This whole personal freedom thing could spread like wild fire if this gets out…

Just how dumb is the President?  Mark Steyn takes note:

For the Most Gifted Orator in Human History, the president these days speaks largely in clichés, most of which he doesn’t seem to be quite on top of. “Eric, don’t call my bluff,” he sternly reprimanded the GOP’s Eric Cantor. Usually, if you’re bluffing, the trick is not to announce it upfront.

One wonders:  Did Obama ever live in the real world?  I mean, did he ever have a true friend?  Someone who would rake him over the coals when he was being an idiot?

As Governor Perry is all but in the Presidential race, anyone still thinking that Palin will get in?  They’d both be going after the same constituency along with Bachmann, Cain and Pawlenty.  If I were Palin, I’d stay out of it now – victory over liberalism is more important than any personal ambition, and TEA Party/social conservatives are well represented in the race.

Islamic fashion festival in Milan.  Question:  how would any one know they’re not guys in drag?

Obamunism!  Banks continue to fail.  But now that the economy is all better, the worst is behind us.  Oh, wait…

Venezuela’s dictator, Hugo Chavez, sought the Catholic sacrament of Anointing the Sick.  Yes, that used to be called “last rites”, but it was always just about helping the ill. But, odd that this man who has so ardently fought the Church should run home to it when he hears God calling…or, not so odd.  And hopefully it will cause him to reflect.

Victor Davis Hanson on Obama:

So Obamism did not work, and now is the politically opportune time, before the 2012 election, to follow the famed Obama reinvention stratagem: Cite straw men and extremists on both sides, and put St. Obama plop in the middle as the sober, great dragon slayer, who blames both his contemporaries and his predecessor. Hard to do, I know, when you wasted $5 trillion, but do it nonetheless he has. In the word of Obama, wasted borrowed money is “stimulus,” not so shovel ready jobs are “investments,” and hiking taxes on someone else is “revenue enhancement.”

Yep.

 

 

Gold to $1,600.00

Mark Noonan5 Comments

Geesh – from MSNBC:

Gold prices rallied to record highs above $1,600 an ounce in Europe on Monday, as investors spooked by the euro zone debt crisis and the threat of a U.S. default bought into the metal as a haven from risk…

First off, really wish I had listened to the old man when he wanted to buy gold at $400 or so an ounce.  Secondly, this is the world of investment giving a vote of no confidence to all governments and central banks…this is a flight to safety, and a bet that things will get even worse.

Can’t Keep Their Story Straight

Mark Noonan5 Comments

Two headlines, both from Bloomberg:

Crude Oil Trades Near Two-Day High on U.S. Economy, European Debt Optimism

Asian Stocks Decline on U.S. Economic Concern

And I generally have a lot of respect for Bloomberg’s economic reporting – but, come on!  Which is it?  Are people optimistic or pessimistic?

Honestly, I think it is ultimately a matter of no one really knowing for sure – theories say it should be this, reality is starting to show that it is quite different.   We’re all just waiting at this point – will they pull a rabbit out of the European hat?  Will China manage a soft landing?  Will the US debt be brought under control?  Or does it even matter at this point?  Have things got to a point where no matter what we do, pain is in our future?

I’m of that last view – I don’t think we can avoid some really rough times.  The best we can do with some wisdom and grit is make them bearable while we clear out the mess.  Maybe I’m wrong, but when you get a respected news source with headlines at such variance – and posted just 31 minutes apart – you can be sure that something is screwed up somewhere.

The Right to Work: A Fundamental Freedom

tiredoflibbs38 Comments

Now when you hear the words “Right to Work”, what comes to mind?

The right to work at any job no matter what age, sex, race, religion, etc. etc.?  Or, as to the liberals, the right to work as long as you belong to a union?

Well it seems to our “friends” in Washington (who claim to want to create jobs) may stop job creation in South Carolina, a Right to Work state.  South Carolina protects workers’ rights not to join a union nor to financially support a union (and their political cronies in Washington).

Boeing is a great American company.  Recently it built a SECOND production line for its 787 Dreamliner aircraft in South Carolina, creating over 1000 jobs there so far.  The other production line is in Washington State.  But the National Labor Relations Board, created in 1935, has taken exception to this decision by Boeing.  Washington state does not support the workers’ rights as does South Carolina.  The general counsel of the NLRB, on behalf of the International Association of Machinists union, has issued a complaint against Boeing, which, if successful, would require it to move its South Carolina operation back to Washington State.  This favorable decision (to the unions) would be an unprecedented act of intervention by the federal government that would appear on its face “un-American”.  But it is an act long in the making, and boils down to a fundamental misunderstanding of freedom.  What is it called when the government controls the means of production?  But I digress…..

It cannot be overemphasized that compulsory unionism violates the first principle of the original labor union movement in America.  Samuel Gompers, founder and first president of the AFL wrote that the labor movement was “based upon the recognition of the sovereignty of the worker”.  Officers of the AFL, he explained in the American Federationist, can “suggest” or “recommend”, but the “cannot command one man in America to do anything”.

Just after WWI, Gompers opposed various government mandates being considered in the capitals of industrial states like Massachusetts and New York that would have mandated certain provisions for manual labors and other select groups of workers: “The workers of America adhere to voluntary institutions in preference to compulsory systems which are held to be not only impractical but a menace to their rights, welfare and their liberty.

Fortunately, there are signs that voters are recognizing the negative consequences of compulsory unionism.  As we have seen in Wisconsin and Ohio, the state legislators have revoked compulsory powers of government union bosses.  Furthermore, the NLRB’s blatantly political and unconstitutional power play with regard to Boeing’s SC plant is sure to strike fair-minded Americans as what it is – a blatant power grab and its ability to determine where private companies can locate.  The attempts by the pResident and the Democrat Congess (before 2010 elections) at passing card-check and eliminating the unionizing secret ballot was another attempt at grabbing power for their special interest group cronies.

All American workers in all 50 states should be granted the full freedom to associate and not to associate in the area of union membership.

Mmmmm, Toasted Obama: My Favorite!

Mark Noonan39 Comments

From James Pethokoukis at Reuters in response to Goldman Sachs lowering GDP projections:

…Alarms bells must be ringing all over Obamaland today. Unemployment on Election Day about where it is right now? Sputtering — if not stalling — economic growth? To many Americans that would sound like the car is back in the ditch — if it was ever out. Maybe Goldman is wrong, but economists across Wall Street have been growing more bearish.

And recall that back in August of 2009, the White House — after having a half year to view the economy and its $800 billion stimulus response — made an astoundingly optimistic (PDF) forecast. Starting in 2011, with Obamanomics fully in gear and the recession over, growth would take off. GDP would rise 4.3 percent in 2011, followed by … 4.3 percent growth in 2012 and 2013, too!  And 2014? Another year of 4.0 percent growth. Off to the races, America…

Do take a look at that “astoundingly optimistic” White House forecast – as far as Obama and Co were concerned, the stimulus was going to get us rip roaring in to boom economic times.  It is all there – carefully laid our projections about how wonderful things were going to be.  I can only guess that they really believed it – after all, they were being rather arrogant in their assumptions of 2012 victory back there when questions first arose about the effects of the stimulus.  Only people who really believed in it could have looked at the 2010 data and assumed that 2011 would have 4.3% GDP growth (if we’re lucky – very lucky – we’ll see official growth at 2.5% for the year 2011; which is not nearly enough to get things rolling).  The big question:  do they still believe it?

As Pethokoukis notes at the end of his article, there is still a very short time left for Obama to change course and have a chance at a reasonably good economy for election day, 2012.  But I mean he’d really have to move fast – in the next few weeks we’d have to see serious proposals to cut the tax and regulatory burden on wealth creation for it to have a noticeable positive effect by election day.  Wait until the end of August and it will be too late – the good news would start to roll in around January of 2013, just as we’re swearing in President Bachmann.  But if they are still retaining their faith in the stimulus, then they’ll do nothing and just cross there fingers that some how, some way, what has thus-far failed will start to work in an astounding manner over the next 15 months.

And if that is the case, then the good news is that Obama won’t be re-elected – the bad news is that the economy will be very much worse before we get rid of him.

 

Race Card, Bottom of the Deck: Democrats as Usual

Mark Noonan31 Comments

We’re all just raaaaacists for arguing with Obama:

 

For 80 years we’ve watched liberalism slowly bankrupt our nation; now it is crunch time and we must cut spending to save ourselves.  This is just something that happens, and happened while our President happens to be black.  Wouldn’t matter if it was President Hillary up there (though I guess we’d be seeeeexist at that point).

This is a sad, desperate attempt to fire up the liberal base for 2012…poll after poll shows sagging support among the left for the President.  It isn’t that these people will vote GOP in 2012, but they might well decide to stay home…not only costing Obama the White House, but causing down-ballot Democrats to lose, as well.  Pulling out the race card is a sure-fire method of getting liberal foot soldiers back in to the battle…because, remember, your typical white liberal is wracked by guilt.  Figuring that “white privilege” is the source of their wealth and well-being, they are easily swayed by accusations of racism.  This may well help perk them up and get them donating and volunteering again, lest those evil, racist, sexist, homophobic Republicans win.

We can expect a lot more of this as 2012 comes in – and in rising hysteria if Obama’s poll numbers continue to crater.

Obama’s Fat Cat Donors Come Through

Mark Noonan15 Comments

The Billion Dollar Man is making his way – and selling himself completely.  From Politico:

About 40 percent of President Barack Obama’s record-breaking $86 million second-quarter fundraising haul came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama’s campaign web site.

No fewer than 27 mega-bundlers managed to collect at least $500,000 for a joint account run by Obama’s 2012 campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

That exclusive circle included marquee fundraisers like Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg, DNC treasurer/personal finance guru Andrew Tobias and former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who was CEO of Goldman Sachs before entering politics.

That group chipped in a minimum of $13.5 million, according to records. In addition, $21.4 million was bundled in amounts of between $50,000 and $499,000…

Thank goodness Obama is fighting for the poor and middle class; if that weren’t the case, all this millionaire and billionaire money would be worrisome.  And we know he’s going after the millionaires and billionaires because he says so – whenever he talks taxes, he’s sure to mention that millionaires and billionaires must pay their fair share.  So, it is amazing that the millionaires and billionaires keep coming through for him…I mean, after all, Obama is promising to tax them more.  In fact, his proposals for taxation always call for hitting those millionaires and billionaires who make more than $250,000.00 per year….

Hey, wait a minute…how many years would you have to work to become a millionaire at $250,000.00 a year?  Four years…if you didn’t spend a dime on anything.  And how many to become a billionaire?  Four thousand years…  You know, now that I think about it, it seems kind of strange that Obama would say a millionaire makes $250,000.00 a year…and downright stupid to think that a billionaire makes that much.  Could it be…?  No!  It couldn’t be that!  It couldn’t be that all Obama is doing is talking about taxing the rich while really taxing the middle class and that is why the millionaires and billionaires are pouring money in to his campaign.  That couldn’t be the case, could it?