Thursday, April 28, 2016

Trump Is the Best of the Five By Far

He is now talking like he should have before. Sure, his imagination is bigger than the ability to put all his thoughts and statements into reality. But what is new in politics. The non-believers aren't correctly understanding the damage the other four could do. Especially the Clinton cabal.

Monday, April 25, 2016

American Family Association

What a bunch of bullcrap. Do not post or Gmail me. Merle says "go Target and all others". A conservative Christian activist group has gained more than half a million signatures and counting from people pledging to boycott Target over its transgender bathroom policy. The petition started by the American Family Association on Wednesday raises concerns that Target's inclusive stance on transgender rights encourages sexual predators and puts women and young girls in danger, because "a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom." The boycott has more than 503,000 signatures as of Monday morning, marking it as one of AFA's most popular campaigns. "This is the best response we’ve ever had this quick," says AFA President Tim Wildmon, attributing the protest's viral nature to the fact that "everybody knows who Target is, and it’s an easy-to-understand issue." Wildmon says Target stands "to lose a lot of customers who won't come back." But Target is standing by its policy. "We certainly respect that there are a wide variety of perspectives and opinions," says Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder. "As a company that firmly stands behind what it means to offer our team an inclusive place to work — and our guests an inclusive place to shop — we continue to believe that this is the right thing for Target." She added that hundreds of Target stores "have single-stall, family restrooms for those who may be more comfortable with that option." Target made its position public in a blog post last week, stating that the company welcomes "transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity." The announcement comes as legislation on transgender issues in multiple states has spurred several major corporations and businesses to take a stance on LGBT rights. The American Family Association, a non-profit based in Tupelo, Miss., frequently protests on issues that target what it considers traditional family values. Its more recent campaigns include canceling the organization's use of PayPal after that company pulled back on plans to open a new facility in North Carolina, which recently passed a law requiring transgender people using public bathrooms to use the one that aligns with their gender at birth.

Trump Will Win Says Gundlach

Jeffrey Gundlach, star investor and CEO of DoubleLine Capital, predicts that Republican frontrunner Donald Trump will win the White House as voters embrace his campaign’s idea of “Make America Great Again.” “Trump is going to win. I think Clinton and Sanders are both very poor candidates. I know the polls are signaling the opposite. But the polls said the opposite four years ago, too,” he said in an interview with Swiss business magazine Finanz und Wirtschaft. “In the short term, Trump winning would be probably very positive for the economy.” He compares the U.S. electorate’s feelings toward Trump with investor sentiment toward unconstrained bond funds, which became popular as people disdained traditional investment ideas. “If everything you think you know looks unattractive, you go for something that you have no idea about. And that’s an unconstrained bond fund,” he says “The thinking was: ‘Don’t even tell me what you are doing, I do not want to know. Because if I know, I won’t like it.’ The same is true with respect to the elections: ‘Don’t give me a traditional candidate. Give me someone who I have no idea what he is going to do' – and that’s basically Donald Trump.” Gundlach says Trump's economic policies may resemble those from the 1960s with a heavy emphasis on military and infrastructure spending. “He might spend a lot of money on airports, roads and weapons. I think Trump would run up a huge deficit. Trump is very comfortable with debt. He’s a debt guy,” Gundlach says. “His whole business has had a lot of debt over time and he has gone bankrupt with several enterprises. So I think you could have a debt-fueled boom.” Read more: Gundlach: Trump Will Win, 'Idiotic' Fed Has Given Up on Rate Hikes Important: Can you afford to Retire?

Friday, April 22, 2016

Sears To Stay Open in Peoria?

I predict the closing of 2 more major retailers in Peoria within the next 12 months. Meanwhile, the Cub Food Building stays closed and Macy's is closing. Empty commercial buildings abound. If you read my 2800 posts, you will get a hint as to why. Small example is that while the Peoria County Board Chairman says the County is in good financial condition, he also notes that Peoria County Roads need $200 million in repairs but doesn't note that the County owned Heddington Oaks Nursing Home is losing $3 million a year and that the County owned Hanna City Correctional Center is a small disaster.(I will at some point, blog on the interesting details as to how the County got in this dilemma).

He should have also noted that Peoria County Taxpayers own the very questionable downtown museum building and that the $30+ million the City spent on the Warehouse District may or may not return a dividend. I am inclined to say it will not. Nor is any mention of what cost might be assessed to the County for the sewer system or the leaky water system as a County is all inclusive and the Cities and Towns, all lay in the County. Plus, some structures that appear to be in the City, mainly on the south side, are actually the partial responsibility of the County.

I also suspect that before long, the privately owned Dozer Baseball Field owners will be asking for more money from the City to keep up operations. In case you missed it, the City has already forgiven the club over $1 1/2 million of your money.

Hmmm.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Ruling Class Thinks They Know How To Run Your Life Better Than You Do

I blogged that  old saw several times over the years. In some cases they are correct. Examples would be people who beat their wives, gamble away their assets and are unable to resist abuse of alcohol and drugs.

And murderers and chronic thieves.

On the other hand, look what they have done to Peoria. If you think taxes are high you haven't seen "nuthin" yet. Roads are terrible, architecture is some of the worst in the country, they further polluted to Illinois River  and drug use by over 80 % of the population over 10 years old will remain partially consistent due to what Roger Monroe once called a fellow board member a "phony Christian". Can't sue me, I've got it in writing.

Speaking of phony Christians, I believe there is a guy named Cruz, a favorite of the Republican Establishment to be the next PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

Now it's said that highly religious Utah leads the nation in pornography viewing so thee passed a bill to stop it. Ho, Ho, Ha Ha.

Hmm.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Boehner Picks Paul Ryan???

Ryan is a good guy but he is a numbers man. The country needs a STRONG leader. He doesn't pass any of the tests except his ability as a numbers man. Plus he really didn't furn for this office. However he would be better than anyone the Republicans have picked so far.

Boehner wasn't the right guy for the job and you could count one him to pick another loser.

My conclusion? If Ryan is drafted as the GOP nominee, he will lose by a sizable margin to any Democrat. Then, again, I have already said you can count that no Republican will win in 2016 unless the corrupt Hillary is indicted.

Fat chance of that.

Peoria, Il. Streets And Sidewalk Tragedy - Anyone Care About Why?

Today, I had another of my numerous observations of one of the prime reasons the streets and sidewalks disrepair ranks as one of the worst in the nation. Starting this morning 8-9 A.M. a crew of 5-6 men and 5-6 vehicles, numerous barrels  and flags, down 2 of the four lanes closed on Pioneer Parkway across from Barracks. Later a supervisor or inspector arrived in another vehicle. One of the trucks parked behind another truck never moved till quitting time when the whole crew and all the pieces departed.

I estimate the cost to the taxpayers was about $4000. For scraping off the top layer of about 150 feet. Sometime they will be back to lay the new top layer adding another $4000 to the overall cost including wages and pensions. When you multiple this by the hundreds of thousands of streets that need repairs and considering the amount budgeted is $1 or 2 million this year, you can look forward to another year of mainly bad streets and sidewalks in Peoria.

Remember, the City Streets Manager said he needs $7 1/2 million a year for the next 5 years to bring his department up to 75% of normalcy.

Two of the four lanes on Pioneer Parkway are closed and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to put a top layer that will go bad again as they only scraped off the top of these two lanes and how long these lanes will be closed.

I suggest using alternate routes until all four lanes open again which could be days. Add the delay of business people trying to get to and from the jobs and the cost goes up another 20%.

This is not a new problem. 15 or more years ago I wrote a letter to the City Council when there were 13 "workers" and 13 vehicles repairing a strip about 1 foot wide and 100 yards long in front of my house. How many days. More than one day because they came back a week later, cleaned out the excavation (again) and filled it. It going bad again and getting worse each year. One of the workers spent a lot of time reclining in the grass while others sat in their vehicles listing to music. Did I get a response from anyone including Pat Nichting who was my city rep.? You guessed it. No.

Back to my question. Does anyone really care other than to complain? Once when I stopped to watch, they foreman called the police. When the policeman pulled up and asked what I was doing, I told him I was watching Peoria's finest at work. He laughed and pulled away. Believe I blogged on this before.

When visiting with a departed roads and sidewalks manager, he said one of the main reasons he resigned was because the union ran his department.

Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Klump. Klump, I Drop Trump

He was on the right track. He exposed what was wrong with this country. Now I believe he is wrong for this country. I will vote for no one the Republicans have running now. No, of course I wouldn't vote for the Clinton cabal nor the Socialist/Marist even though this country is heading for Socialism and has been for decades.

May be the first presidential election I would sit out in my memory.