Author: George Noga

Happy Constitution Day 2019

George Noga
Over 50% of  constitutions fail within 20 years; ours is 232 years old Tuesday. 
Happy Constitution Day 2019
By: George Noga – September 15, 2019

          How well do you know our Constitution? Read on and you may be surprised. First off, it is the oldest charter of government in force; the next oldest is Norway’s, 38 years younger. Over 50% of constitutions fail within 20 years; ours is 232 years old Tuesday. It is pure genius because it embodies a fundamentally correct understanding of human nature and includes effectual checks and balances on the use of power. It is the best document ever created to define the relationship between man and the state.

          The Declaration of Independence established the moral foundation of our nation by asserting that governments are instituted to secure the rights of the people; the Constitution’s raison d’etre is to protect those rights. Since man first walked upright, fewer than 1% of the 115 billion humans who have trod this earth lived in liberty. Here are ten things you may not know or fully appreciate about the Constitution.

1. We the people: The most extraordinary words in the Constitution are the first three, which are the only ones in supersized script. In an era of monarchs and despots, nothing was more radical than the notion that all power flowed from we the people.

2. Coining money: Article I, (section 10) authorizes states to coin money provided it is in gold and/or silver. Private banks and even individuals can issue currency; hence, cryptocurrencies and private currencies like Libra pass constitutional muster.

3. Impeaching justices: Justice Kavanaugh cannot be impeached for conduct before his confirmation. Article III (section 1) states judges hold their office during good behavior. They can be impeached only for crimes committed in office. Moreover, Congress has no constitutional oversight over the judiciary except for impeachment.

4. Counting slaves: The Constitution always refers to slaves as “persons“, not 3/5 of a person. Southerners wanted to count 100% of slaves to achieve equal representation in the House. Northern abolitionists didn’t want to count any – hence, the three-fifths compromise; it had nothing to do with the putative human worth of a slave.

5. Firing government workers: Article II (section 2) implicitly gives the president power to remove executive branch employees. This does not conflict with civil service laws, none of which challenge a president’s powers. Madison said: “If any power whatsoever is in its nature executive, it is the power of controlling those who execute the laws“. Recall that President Reagan once fired nearly all air traffic controllers.

6. Trump and treason: Article III (section 3) specifically defines treason as “only in levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort“. This constitutional definition rules out treason by Trump.

7. Electoral College: The founders established an Electoral College to: (1) reduce fraud by containing it within small jurisdictions; (2) reduce federal power over elections; and (3) discourage regionalism. They created it to achieve stable government that protects our liberty. They well understood that a popular vote can better actualize the people’s will – just like in the French Revolution. How did that work out for the French?

8. No debt default: The 14th amendment (section 4) forbids any default on federal debt. In the recent past, a president and treasury secretary (neither of whom I will name) threatened to default – disregarding their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

9. Constitutional republic: The United States is a constitutional republic. The word “democracy” appears nowhere in either the Declaration or the Constitution. We don’t pledge allegiance to the USA and to the democracy for which it stands; we don’t sing the Battle Hymn of the Democracy; and we don’t have a Statue of Democracy. Article IV (section 4) guarantees every American “a republican form of government”.

10. Unamendable: There is only one part of the Constitution that cannot be amended. Article V states: “No state without its consent, may be deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate.” This means there is no way to change the structure of the senate – despite the babbling of certain young congresswomen and other know-nothings.

      After signing the Constitution, Franklin was asked what form of government had been established; he famously quipped, “A republic, if you can keep it.” And so it remains today. The Constitution is 232 years old but it will survive only if it remains in the hearts and minds of the American people. Happy Constitution Day!

Next week, we present our first ever plan for peace in the Middle East.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

MLLG Back-to-School Special Shattering the Myth About Teacher Pay

George Noga
We debunk one of the most vacuous myths of all time, i.e. that teachers are underpaid.
MLLG Back-to-School Special
Shattering the Myth About Teacher Pay
By: George Noga – September 8, 2019

           We are fortunate to have many readers who teach or have family members who teach; hence, we derive no pleasure whatsoever from any negativity about teachers. Unionized teachers are paid primarily on longevity, not merit; therefore, truly good teachers are underpaid while poor teachers are vastly overpaid. Nonetheless, when taken in the aggregate, teachers are not underpaid for the following reasons.

1. Logic: Underpaid teachers is a canard promoted by the liberal media. No other job in America has been so consistently asserted to be either overpaid or underpaid. Such a systemic imbalance simply cannot persist for long in a market economy.

2. Apples-to-apples: Those claiming underpayment use false comparisons. They disingenuously assume STEM degrees, earned by students in top deciles of their class, are worth the same as education degrees earned by those mostly in lower deciles.

3. Not results oriented: Teacher pay is based on seniority, not merit. All teachers from best to worst are equal – as is the case in most unionized jobs. In the real world, pay is tied to results. Union rules severely penalize the best teachers and reward the worst. Moreover, what value do unions add if its members truly are vastly underpaid?

4. Private school salaries: If unionized public school teachers truly were underpaid, we should expect to see private school teachers earning more. Instead, nonreligious private school teachers earn 15% to 20% less than their public school counterparts.

5. Objective surveys: Studies document teachers are not underpaid. The BLS National Compensation Survey showed no underpayment. Forbes listed the 25 most underpaid jobs in America; teachers were not among them – same with most other surveys.

6. Post teaching pay: When teachers quit to accept non-teaching jobs, their pay does not increase; this seems to make a prima facie case that they were not underpaid.

7. Lifetime employment: Teachers have guaranteed lifetime employment, a perquisite no one in the private sector enjoys. They can’t be fired for incompetence or even if they are a danger; instead, they are put in rubber rooms with full salary and benefits.

8. Overpaid government workers: Study upon study shows public sector workers are paid about 25% more for the same work than those in the private sector. Since teachers are government workers, it stands to reason they also are overpaid by that amount.

9.  Benefits: Teachers receive lifetime health care for their entire family, uber-generous government guaranteed pensions paid early, and lots of vacation and holidays.

10. Public sector unions: Teacher pay is set by public sector unions based on highly coercive bargaining, is paid with tax dollars and is not driven by markets. As is the case with public sector unions, the pay is higher than comparable private sector jobs.

             Stories about low teacher pay are mostly promulgated by the liberal media that are allied with public unions and government. All objective data and logic point to the opposite conclusion, i.e. teachers actually are somewhat overpaid. To repeat, the pay of good teachers is dragged down by the larger cohort of not so good teachers.

         In an ideal world, all parents would receive vouchers to choose any school. Teachers’ compensation would be determined solely by markets – not tenure. Teachers would be paid according to individual merit, with truly outstanding teachers richly compensated. Poor teachers would be fired and all rubber rooms abolished.

Our next post honors Constitution Day, which is September 17th.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us   

Labor and Capital Day 2019

George Noga
Capitalism is an economic democracy in which every penny has the right to vote.
Labor and Capital Day 2019
By: George Noga – September 1, 2019

          Tomorrow, as we properly honor labor, we should equally celebrate capital, which enhances labor by making it more productive and hence more remunerative. Throughout history, mankind’s labors have resulted only in poverty for the masses. But when capital alloys with labor, it puts labor on steroids and eliminates poverty. Despite capitalism’s astounding achievements, it gets no respect from the media, the public or the academy and only derision from progressives; following are ten reasons why.

1. Capitalism is an economic system; as such, it is without equal. Most (if not all) shortcomings attributed to it by liberals are really political. The role of capitalism is to maximize the economic pie; the role of politics is to divide the pie as, and if, needed.

2. Progressives make false comparisons. They compare ideal socialism (never achieved anywhere) to capitalism as practised.  As demonstrated in our March 24, 2019 post (go to www.mllg.us), capitalism beats socialism in theory, practice and morality.

3. The media are ignorant and biased. Capitalism has stamped out poverty and vastly improved the human condition, but is widely condemned – even by the Pope. Surveys show 95% of Americans are ignorant of capitalism’s stunning accomplishments. The only plausible explanation is ignorance and bias in academia and the media.

4. Capitalism evolved organically. No intellectual wrote a capitalist manifesto. Adam Smith didn’t invent capitalism, he merely explained what occurs naturally, no eggheads required. No one controls capitalism, whereas socialism requires controllers, i.e. progressive panjandrums, who believe they know what is best for everyone.

5. Self interest (greed) is the basis of capitalism. Greed is an inseparable part of the human condition. The genius of capitalism lies in channeling greed into incentives to serve your fellow man, whereas socialism channels it toward destructive ends.

6. Consumers are sovereign. Intellectuals and progressives enjoy no special status; the common man holds all the power. Sovereign consumers’ decisions about what to buy (or not) makes suppliers rich or poor. Wealth is achieved only by serving consumers.

7. Capitalism doesn’t need intellectuals. Professors are not highly esteemed by markets to which their exalted education and lofty intentions are superfluous. Academics prefer regulation to the chaos of markets and believe their pet theories should override the free decisions of consumers – if necessary, by using the police power of the state.

8. Capitalism is egalitarian. Uneducated blokes can make fortunes by say recognizing markets for cheaper used parts and stripping equipment to harvest them. They repulse elites by both their success and the obscene manner they spend their fortunes. They got rich because they took risks and provided services consumers valued. Meanwhile, poor overeducated pointy-headed progressives go unrewarded and unrecognized.

9. Capitalism brooks no excuses for failure. Success is based solely on one’s ability to provide value to his fellow man. Capitalism is an economic democracy in which every penny confers the right to vote. Its credo is: to each according to his accomplishments, not to his ideas or intentions. Those who fail are found wanting by their fellow man.

10. Progressives covet control over others. They don’t grasp why the poor, unwashed, ignorant rubes in flyover land believe they know what’s best for them. Progressives fancy themselves as heroic emancipators, crushing greedy capitalists, saving helpless victims and then rollicking in the just approbation and adulation of all mankind.

          Capitalism has created a cornucopia of wealth unprecedented in human history, virtually eliminating extreme poverty. Nearly every metric of human well-being is the best ever and continues to improve. Average folks live better than monarchs a few decades ago. Luxuries a short time ago are now affordable at Walmart and Costco. These miracles were created not by, but in spite of, government and progressivism.

         Let’s continue to honor labor on the first Monday in September. As the world’s greatest capitalist nation, let’s also celebrate capitalism and the capitalists who had an impossible dream, took great risks and had the determination to see it through.

Next on September 8th is MLLG’s back-to-school special about teacher pay.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

MLLG Fall Preview – Microtopics – Joe Biden

George Noga
MLLG Fall Preview – Net Neutrality – Campus Crackpots – Robocalls – Biden
MLLG Fall Preview – Microtopics – Joe Biden
By: George Noga – July 28, 2019

         We are taking a short summer break in August; hence, this is our last scheduled posting until our Labor/Capital Day special on September first; however, we may decide to write some impromptu postings during August if the force so moves us.

         Our September 1st post will be followed by a back-to-school blog September 8th and a Constitution Day posting September 15th. We also plan a September posting honoring Ludwig von Mises’ 138th birthday and an ultra special Columbus Day issue in October that is gloriously and triumphantly politically incorrect.

          This fall we tackle, for the first time in 12 years of blogging, the Mideast conflict by presenting our very own MLLG peace plan. Other likely topics include: (1) modern monetary theory or MMT; (2) condor cuisinart, i.e. liberalism and the birds; (3) electoral college/popular vote; (4) laboratories of democracy; and (5) universal basic income or UBI. Also look for updates about the 2020 election and the spending crisis.

        However, the highlight this fall undoubtedly will be our multi-part series on climate change slated to begin in mid to late October. This will be like nothing we have written before on this topic and features a fresh, new look and analysis of this divisive topic. It will be non-political and as factual and objective as humanly possible.

Net Neutrality – Campus Crackpots – Robocalls – Biden

             Net Neutrality: It’s been a full year since Trump abolished net neutrality amidst opposition claims it would usher in poor service, higher cost and a corporate feeding frenzy. The opposite has happened; chalk up another victory for markets.

           Campus Crackpots: Amherst College Office of Diversity and Inclusion emailed students a 36-page common language guide. Capitalism was defined as “An economic arrangement leading to exploitative labor practices, which affect marginalized groups disproportionately”.   But the piece de resistance is homonationalism defined as: “Why cis-gay and lesbian Iraq War veterans were celebrated for American exceptionalism in contrast to racist/orientalist Iraqi combatants in Central Asia racialized outside of U.S. understandings of whiteness“. Can you imagine 36 pages of this drivel?

          Robocalls: The biggest complaint Americans have is robocalls, of which there are nearly 100 billion each year. This scourge can be ended quickly with a penny tax on outgoing calls above 10 per day. No ordinary American would ever pay this tax but it would cost robocallers $1 billion/year. If a penny tax is insufficient, keep raising it until robocalls are in history’s rear view mirror. This is a simple and elegant solution.

          It’s Just Joe Being Joe: Throughout his 47-year government career, Biden has  been touchy-feely, gaffe prone and susceptible to outrageous, awkward and, at times, bizarre behavior. But he always skated by with people shaking their heads saying, “It’s just Joe being Joe“. Yet, that also was his greatest appeal; people knew and felt comfortable with Biden. Now, the far left crowd has Biden making 180-degree changes to life long positions. Suddenly, it’s no longer “Joe being Joe“. There is only one thing worse politically than “just Joe being Joe” and that is: Joe not being Joe.

Our next post is scheduled for September 1st – to honor Labor and Capital Day.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

Best All Time Montana Moments

George Noga
The best of Montana Moments: our top six attractions of life in Montana. 
Best All Time Montana Moments
By: George Noga – July 21, 2019

         We reviewed all our Montana Moments blogs, selected the twelve best and ranked them in ascending order. Last week we presented numbers twelve to seven (on our website: www.mllg.us); this week we conclude with numbers six to one.

6. Wild West: Echos of the frontier reverberate at Packer’s Roost, an outre biker bar in Hungry Horse, near Whitefish. It is named after convicted cannibal, Alfred Packer, and was Ted (Unabomber) Kaczynski’s haunt while hiding out from the FBI. Vestiges of the old west survive at the Blue Moon Nite Club, just outside Whitefish. A long bar populated two deep by working cowboys, many of whom are wasted, greets those undaunted enough to enter. There is a casino with jangling slots, pool tables, the de rigueur live poker game and rest rooms festooned with avant garde art, if you get my drift. Of course, there is a live country band with dancers attired in full western regalia. The gestalt of all this unfolding at once is an authentic Montana moment.

5. Great Outdoors: It’s hard to imagine a place on our planet better endowed by nature.  There are mountains, rivers and six-mile long Whitefish Lake. Every conceivable outdoor activity for all four seasons is present in spades. The Whitefish ski area is ranked eleventh best in the world (yes – in the world) by Ski Magazine. Each year there are magical days when you can ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon.

4. Rodeo: Every Thursday in summer there is a rodeo featuring locals; it begins with a moving, not-to-be-missed ceremony honoring US, Canadian and Montana flags. One event is youth bull riding for kids as young as eight. There are precautions: the bulls are young, their horns trimmed and the kids wear helmets. Nonetheless, a 50-pound eight-year old is riding a cantankerous wild 500-pound bull. Teenagers with serious hunting knives strapped to their waists freely mingle with the 2,000 spectators. If that happened at a big city high school football game, there would be panic, SWAT teams would fast rope in, the stadium would be evacuated and all knives confiscated.

3. Derby: I belong to a club with a 60-year tradition called Derby. Every Thursday at noon up to 30 golfers (in 3-man scramble teams) play simultaneously and finish in regulation time. Derby participants are ages 15 to 85, low wage to millionaires, scratch to high handicap, uneducated to Ph.Ds and Americans, Canadians, Native Americans and summer residents like me. Some openly smoke dope while others, who are deputy sheriffs, pretend not to notice. Some players have derby nicknames too ribald to print. The repartee is incessant and priceless. Derby is a bona fide Montana moment.

2. Whitefish: For a town of 6,500, Whitefish offers more than many cities 50 times its size. It is picturesque; many commercials you see are filmed there. It sits at 3,000 feet altitude in a valley, resulting in perfect summer weather and mild winters given its 48 degree latitude. It has a year-round full symphony orchestra, fine dining, live entertainment, non-stop festivals and several top-notch golf courses. It is the western gateway to Glacier National Park and only seven miles from world class skiing.

1. Glacier National Park: GNP is the crown jewel of NW Montana. It is (by far) the best national park of the many we have visited. It is so remote and with so little lodging, it remains relatively uncrowded – although that is changing. Its major artery, Going-to-the-Sun Road, is as spectacular as it is iconic. The only tricontinental divide in the USA, where water flows to 3 oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic), is in GNP.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

Twelve Best Montana Moments – Part I

George Noga
The best of Montana Moments: our top twelve stories about life in Montana. 
Twelve Best Montana Moments – Part I
By: George Noga – July 14, 2019

         We have posted many Montana Moments over the years. Now, we have identified the twelve best, ranking them in ascending order. Herein we present Montana Moments numbers twelve to seven; we conclude next week with numbers six to one.

12. USA Today: During our first summer in Montana 15 years ago, we were unable to find national newspapers like The Wall Street Journal or USA Today. One day we drove by a large general store and my wife went in to see if they carried any of those papers. She asked the perky 16-year old girl who waited on her if they carried USA Today. The teenage girl pondered the question for a few moments and replied: “We don’t consider ourselves part of the USA.” It is easier to find national newspapers in Whitefish these days, but the attitude of the sprightly, high-spirited girl persists.

11. Bulldog Saloon: On Whitefish’s main street sits Bulldog’s, a retro bar, restaurant and poker room. It is packed with locals and Canadians because it accepts Canadian dollars at par for booze – a 30% discount. In the back is a poker table straight from a western movie set where a nightly game of Texas Hold’em takes place. Families with young children patronize Bulldog’s, despite restrooms festooned with “art” that would make a porn star blush. Last year I saw a 12-year old boy taking photos in the restroom with his cell phone. Check out Bulldog’s website: www.fart-slobber.com.

10. No crying in Montana: I was about to play golf with 3 Montana friends when the starter permitted a group of women to go ahead of us. When challenged by one of our group, the starter replied that one of the women had cried and he felt sorry for her. One of my Montana friends immediately said, “There is no crying in golf.” A split second later, the other two Montanans exclaimed in unison, “There is no crying in Montana.“

9. Central Avenue at 2:00 AM: Whitefish’s main street is lined with saloons, many with live music and live poker. In summer, especially on weekends, they are packed. By law, they must close at 2:00 AM. At precisely that time something inenarrable unfolds. Hundreds of well-lubricated young people (along with a certain septuagenarian poker player) simultaneously flood onto Central Avenue. The ensuing fifteen minutes is reminiscent of the Star Wars cafe scene and is an unforgettable Montana Moment.

8. Bear Bell: The club where I golf has a “blind” approach to the 18th green. To signal the group behind that it is safe to hit, upon completing the hole departing players ring a loud bell. When the bell inevitably rings, I act surprised and concerned and tell my out-of-town guests that was the “bear bell”, warning that a grizzly bear is nearby. It works every time and the reactions from my unsuspecting guests are priceless.

7. Gun Culture: When police pull over cars, they expect to find firearms; it is normal. When alarms go off in stores, the explanation is always the same, i.e. the customers are packing and simply forgot to leave their guns in the car. Preteen kids own real guns and get hunting licenses at age eleven. Youth deer hunting season is so popular all Montana schools close. Until a few years ago, it was okay for kids to bring their guns to school. A local PTA raffled an AK-47 “assault” rifle to raise funds. The local community college offers a course in gunsmithing. Despite the ubiquity of guns, the Flathead Valley gun homicide rate is incredibly low – one homicide every four years.

Next week, we present our top six all time Montana Moments.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

The Last Best Place in America

George Noga
“For some states I have admiration, even affection, but with Montana it is love.” (Steinbeck)
The Last Best Place in America
By: George Noga – July 7, 2019

           Our first Montana Moments posting was in 2013. We were taken aback by its sudden popularity and we reprised it each summer. After 6 years, we are running out of new material about our summer home in Whitefish, in the Flathead Valley of NW Montana. This post champions Montana as America’s last best place. The next two posts, perhaps the final ones in this series, rank our top twelve Montana Moments.

         Americans have become disconnected from the natural world and the human world and poisoned by political correctness, environmental wackiness and obsessed with safety at all cost. Montana reconnects such people to the real world and to a vanishing civilization where everyone has a different attitude about life and risk. Montana, like a time capsule, whisks visitors back into this mostly forgotten world. In that magical land, where giants once roamed, people live at a pace driven by the beating of their hearts rather then by the pulsation of personal electronic devices.

        In the Treasure State, the cycles of nature are omnipresent. June ushers in a cornucopia of vegetables; in July the Flathead cherries are ripe, followed in August by huckleberries and melons and by peaches in September. The outdoor activities are without equal. In summer there is hiking, fly fishing, golf, rafting, floating, kayaking, mountain biking and every possible water activity. In fall and winter there is hunting, skiing, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing and even the Aurora Borealis.

“Like a time capsule, Montana whisks you back to a half-lost world.”

         The human world also is magical. There is a weekly summer rodeo, which includes youth bull riding – beginning at age eight. Guns are a normal part of everyday life; the local PTA once auctioned off an AK-47 for its fundraiser. Youth deer hunting season (starts at age 11) is so popular that all Montana schools close for its two days. Whitefish, with a population of 6,500, has a full time symphony orchestra, live theater, fine dining, cabaret and nonstop festivals. Vestiges of the wild west persist and still continue to exert a powerful influence on Montanans’ culture and attitudes.

            Montana is 750 miles across from North Dakota to Idaho and larger than Japan. There are fewer than 7 people per square mile, making its population density 48th in the US; only Alaska and Wyoming are less dense; it is the same density as America in 1790 and only 8 percent as dense as the USA is today. Montanans are so accustomed to its vastness that anything not on a grand scale seems trivial to them. Even today, most residents think nothing of driving 100 miles to attend a dinner or a dance.

         There are few developed places in our fourth largest state; Billings, its largest city, has but 110,000 people. Everywhere in Montana, within a few minutes drive, one can find a peaceful prairie, quiet meadow, majestic mountaintop or a rippling stream flush with trout, where you can be alone with nature and replenish your soul.

          This is the simple majesty and grandeur – both natural and human – of Montana and what makes it the last best place in America. And even for those who have shuffled off this mortal coil, Montana is the best last place in America.

Next week: MLLG’s top twelve Montana Moments – numbers 12 to 7.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

Democratic Party Debates: 2016 Deja Vu

George Noga
America, as described by the Democratic Party candidates, is unrecognizable.
Democratic Party Debates: 2016 Deja Vu
By: George Noga – July 5, 2019

           This impromptu posting offers our impressions of the Democratic Party debates. The candidates inhabit an America that is unrecognizable. The country they describe is straight from The Grapes of Wrath or from a Dickens’ novel, such as Hard Times, which details the soul-crushing conditions in Coketown, a fictional English town.

      The Democrats’ America is racist, homophobic, xenophobic and inhumane; everyone is drowning in student loan debt. Corporations are rapacious monopolists bent on polluting our air and water. We are wallowing in historic financial inequality; all but the top 1% are failing. Systemic corruption infects healthcare, guns and climate change. America is riven by class, race, and income; women live The Handmaid’s Taleand blacks Jim Crow. President Trump is a devil and Mitch McConnell is a fiend.

        How do the Dems square their Dickensian vision of America with the fact that 71% of Americans (60% of Dems) say the economy is doing well and where every metric of environmental and human well-being is the best it has been and is getting better? Who are voters going to believe, the Democrats or their own lyin’ eyes?

         They want to take private health insurance from 177 million Americans who are happy with theirs. They advocate open borders, eliminating checks at points of entry, including airports. They want to increase taxes and to eliminate fossil fuels. Their solution to everything is more government, even to the point of socialism.

         The candidates preached to Americans as though they were unrepentant sinners, who must be instructed about what is morally right and wrong. They relentlessly tarred Americans as heartless bigots. The elites, the left and the media all are oblivious to how this endless sermonizing disgusts the irredeemable deplorables in flyover land.

       When Democrats weren’t sermonizing or patronizing us with their high-school Spanish, they were busy virtue signalling. They fatuously reminded us of their mixed-race families, homes in diverse neighborhoods, military service and immigrant roots. They reveled in their desperanto quasi-victimhood, medical problems and student loan debt and reminded us about just how compassionate and caring they really are.

        The biggest contretemps occurred between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden when Harris excoriated Biden for his stance on forced busing in the 1970s. This is telling for several reasons. Harris tarred Biden as racist for opposing busing; but busing was wildly unpopular, opposed by 96% of whites and 91% of blacks. Biden was right to oppose busing and Harris wrong to attack him for it. Nonetheless, Harris was credited with claiming Biden’s scalp and Biden was so clueless, he couldn’t defend himself.

          The Democrats are making all the same mistakes (and then some) that they made in 2016 and, if they continue, they will reap the same outcome. A sane voter looking for an alternative to Trump did not find one in the debates. And if the Democrats keep on denigrating ordinary Americans, it will be as Yogi said, deja vu all over again.

Next on July 7th, we begin our popular summer series, Montana Moments.  
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

Independence Day 2019

George Noga
What do marauding extraterrestrials, progressives and Muslims have in common?
Independence Day 2019
By: George Noga – June 30, 2019

        This is an update of our most popular July 4th posting inspired by the movie Independence Day, in which extraterrestrials, having despoiled their home planet, invade Earth with the objective of stripping it of all its resources, rendering it uninhabitable and then moving on to do the same to other planets. An alien race plundering planets, leaving them dead, failing to learn from it and then replicating such behavior on other pristine worlds repulsed everyone who saw the movie. Yet, this exact same behavior pattern is being aped today by progressives and others.

         Liberals have despoiled their blue state homes via decades of failed progressive governance including sky-high taxes, mindless regulation, gun control, failed schools, mandatory unionization, rampant crime, political corruption, high living cost, massive debt, huge unfunded liabilities and sanctuary for illegal immigrants. After rendering their home states uninhabitable, they flee these bleak dystopian wastelands where everyday life can be toxic. They invade red states with much lower taxes, less crime, fewer regulations, right-to-work laws, lower cost of living, balanced budgets, better schools, gun rights and where everyday life is freer and more humanistic.

          The transplanted liberals, who move to red states by the millions, love life in red state America; none ever return to their blue state snake pits. However, just like the marauding aliens in Independence Day, most transplanted progressives continue to vote for the same pernicious and destructive policies that turned their home planet (blue states) into the veritable hell holes they desperately fled. Inexplicably, most invaders from blue states don’t make the connection between the policies that doomed their home states and the different red state policies that attracted them.

        Progressives aren’t the only ones mimicking the Earth-invading aliens. Muslims are deserting their home countries in droves to emigrate to western democracies. They flee their noxious homelands so they can speak, vote, live and worship in liberty and build a much better life for their children. Instead, they copy the marauding aliens and attempt to turn their new homes into replicas of the entropic rats’ nests they fled including Sharia law, genital mutilation, honor killings and subjugation of  women.

         There are other groups impersonating aliens bent on destroying the planet. Today, there are over 5 million Puerto Ricans living in the US (1.2 million in Florida) while only about 3 million remain in Puerto Rico. Most vote for the same failed policies that depredated their troubled island. Political dysfunction caused much more devastation than Hurricane Maria. Then there also are El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

       It’s hard to draw distinctions between planet-destroying aliens of Independence Day and progressives, Muslims and Puerto Ricans. They each have despoiled their own world, moved on to new worlds and are despoiling them. There is one critical distinction: the aliens of Independence Day, after destroying Earth, could move on to other planets; that option is not yet available to us. When will they ever learn?

Next on July 7th, we begin our popular summer series, Montana Moments.  

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Democratic Party 2020 Presidential Candidate Positions

George Noga
Democratic Party candidate positions for 2020 election; we can’t make this stuff up.
Democratic Party 2020 Presidential Candidate Positions
By: George Noga – June 23, 2019

        The first debate among Democratic Party presidential candidates is this week. MLLG has compiled a compendium of the positions publicly advocated by declared candidates. It is presented for our readers in no particular order. Sic loquitur pro se.

1. Payment of reparations for slavery
2. New wealth tax of 3% per year on assets
3. Late term abortion – up to the moment of birth
4. Restoration of voting rights for released felons
5. Impeachment of President Trump
6. Raising the top personal income tax rate to 70% (from present 37%)
7. Refusal to repudiate anti-Semitism by Democrat members of Congress
8. Free college tuition for all
9. Medicare for all (It’s not really Medicare; it’s Medicaid.)
10. Raising the corporate tax rate to 35% (from present 21%)
11. Abolition of the Electoral College
12. Amnesty for illegal aliens
13. No gun rights for released felons (See number four supra.)
14. Capping interest rates on all credit cards
15. Packing the Supreme Court by adding up to four new justices
16. Federal jobs guarantee to everyone
17. Minimum wage of $15 per hour
18. Infanticide: “Make the baby comfortable while deciding whether to kill it.”
19. Impeachment of Justice Kavanaugh
20. Voting rights for felons still incarcerated (including Dzhokhar Tsarnaev)
21. Citizenship (voting rights) for illegal aliens
22. Voting for 16-year olds
23. Green New Deal including no air travel or cows and one car per family
24. Abolish ICE – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
25. Deep cuts to defense spending
26. Abolishing senate filibusters
27. Single payer government health care for all
28. Federal licensing and control of all large corporations
29. Strict new gun control measures including confiscations
30. Federalizing all voter registration
31. Abolishing or changing the method of representation in the US Senate
32. Ending all private health insurance and insurance companies
33. Reinstituting the Iran nuclear deal
34. Statehood for DC, PR, VI, Guam: 8 new senators; 14 new electoral votes
35. Tearing down existing walls on our southwest border with Mexico
36. Raising the estate tax rate to 77% (from present 40%)
37. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord
38. Raising the payroll tax by 2.4 points – equivalent to 15%
39. Means testing Social Security
40. Taxing capital gains as ordinary income
41. Removing all caps from the payroll tax
42. Taxing unrealized capital gains each year
43. Jailing corporate executives for regulatory violations
44. Cash distribution of $1,000 per month to everyone (UBI)
45. Forgiveness of all student loan debt – $1.5 trillion
46. Federal payment to teachers of $315 billion over 10 years
47. Outlawing all state right-to-work laws
48. Increase fuel economy standards for all cars
49. Halt all energy leases on federal land
50. Spending $5 trillion (unspecified) to control emissions
51. Opposition to nuclear energy (cleanest energy we have)
52. Creation of new Americorps – to plant trees on marginal land
53. Prohibiting the private practice of medicine (Medicare for America bill)
54. Federal licensing of all firearms – must be renewed every 5 years
55. Abolition of payday loans – by mandating ultra-low interest rates
56. Have the USPS (postal service) make low interest loans to consumers
57. Imposition of a VAT – value added tax on the entire US economy
58. Added 7% corporate tax on reported income higher than taxable income
59. Free government provided health care for all illegal aliens
60. Legalization of recreational marijuana throughout the United States
61. Require companies to obtain equal pay certificate from the US EEOC
62. Dictate national paid leave policy for the entire private sector
63. Mandate federal preclearance for states to pass any new abortion laws
64. Federal taxpayer funding of abortions (repeal of Hyde Amendment)
65. Breakup Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon
66. New exit tax of 40% of assets for any American giving up citizenship
67. Federal government pays all rent for anyone in excess of 30% of income
68. New promises are being added at the rate of 2-3 each and every week
Next on June 30 is our special Independence Day posting; don’t miss this one!
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us