The Office of Governmental Ethics issued a general reminder to the incoming administration that government officials should refrain from endorsing any product, company or service days after Donald Trump tweeted we should go out and buy LL Bean products. Is it possible they have taken it to heart? Or is Team Donald simply picking winners and losers: ‘Yes’ to Beans and ‘No’ to Don’s Johns ?
In an “unpresidented”move, the logo reading “Don’s Johns” (Motto: We’re #1 in #2 ) on almost three thousand portable toilets rented by the government for use along the National Maul during the inauguration are having their logos hidden from view with tape.
Don’s Johns has provided portable toilets for many large events in Washington, including the 2009 and 2013 inauguration ceremonies for President Barack Obama, Weghorst said. No logos were taped over during those events, he said. And here is Don’s Johns homepage — he has testimonies and a blog … really!
The Washington Post reports the Architect of Capitol has come clean and is taking responsibility for ordering the cover-up, which, they say, will bring the toilets into compliance with previously ignored restrictions on Don’s Johns logo “advertizing”.
It could be sensitivity to the Ethics Office warning. Or perhaps someone in the Trump camp is hyper-sensitive after his rumored Russian hotel exploits to the possibility of the logo Don’s Johns being shown around the world and permanently associated with Donald’s Presidential inauguration ceremony. Always protect the TRUMP™ brand — keeping him #1.
Donald Trump is once again demonstrating his knack to distract. Trump found time amid confirmation hearings for his cabinet and a brewing scandal over his relationship with certain Russian men and women to tweet this:
The Trump tweet is referencing a squabble about oversized donations Linda Bean, the granddaughter of the founder of LL Bean, made to Making America Great Again PAC, a Trump campaign organization. These contributions resulted in a call by a group called Grab Your Wallet to boycott LL Bean products.
The AP reported in Maine days ago that Bean’s contributions to Trump’s Making America Great Again PAC that may have been more than ten times the amount allowed for individual donations.
Making America Great Again LLC [not a super PAC, and which also goes by the name “Making Maine Great Again”] was limited to individual contributions of $5,000, according to a letter Wednesday from federal regulators obtained by The Associated Press. Federal campaign finance reports show Bean contributed $60,000 while the group spent $66,862.
The donation to MAGA and Trump’s subsequent tweet of solidarity could prove grating to many people not enamored by the soon-to-be president. LLBean may be just another sporting goods and outdoor clothing retailer to some, but for others the clothing is a sort of liberal/outdoorsy ID badge or icon. Just take a look at former Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s official state portrait.
Howard Dean, as you can see, is practically wrapped in LLBean outdoor iconography. The painting could stand in for the cover any LLBean fall catalog.
And as for Donald Trump? Well he may not know beans about the outdoors but he knows how to engineer a good distraction from his daily crisis — LOOK SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How bad are President-elect Trump’s poll numbers? Well, so bad they may be record setters. You can find the newest Quinnipiac poll results here. And the Washington Post has rundown of how bad they are and what rough a honeymoon Trump is having as president elect. The poll was conducted here in the USA, not Russia.
Trump’s favorability rating, which had risen slightly since the election, is shown by Quinnipiac to be quickly dropping back to record lows for a president-elect. Here are some highlights or low-lights if you want: American voters give President-elect Trump a negative 37 – 51 percent favorability rating, compared to a divided 44 – 46 percent favorability rating November 22.
Vice President- elect Mike Pence gets a split 37 – 34 percent favorability rating. [Note: the second number is the unfavorability rating.]
Does anyone wonder how Vermont GOP Governor Phil Scott’s fellow “fiscally responsible” Republican governors have done keeping their state’s fiscal houses in order?
Well, as early as last spring US News&World Report noted that at least a half dozen Republican-governed states that had been running “real life experiments” with Laffer inspired tax and budget cuts were “awash in red ink, facing nine- and ten-figure deficits heading into the new fiscal year.” So mostly, It’s Numberwang!
In Kansas, as of early this past year, Governor Sam Brownback’s program of budget and tax cutting had created a state budget that’s nearly $1 billion in the red, forcing deep cuts in education, social programs and some services.
Now, with Trump about to be in control of the White House and GOP majorities in the US Congress — all poised to do god-knows-what in terms of tax “reform” at the national level, some GOP red states are now considering the unthinkable — raising taxes to correct severe budget shortfalls.
The GOP tax ideas run the board from raising gas taxes, shifting from property taxes to some combination of sales taxes, gross receipts taxes, and internet sales taxes, and/or raising taxes on alcohol or cigarettes (sin taxes). That’s quite a menu of choices, but not surprisingly for states enjoying Republican rule, raising income taxes on the wealthy or perhaps capital gains taxes seem to be off the table. You may notice too that most of these suggested revenue enhancers under consideration would have a heavier impact on lower-income earners — those already under stress from GOP cuts to education and social services.
And with Republicans’ “real life” Laffer-curve experiments knocking budgets out of whack and their resulting looming fiscal disaster, can you guess what is about to happen in states that now have newly elected GOP governors and majority legislatures? Well … In New Hampshire and Iowa, states now wholly run by Republican governors and legislatures, leaders say they will work to reform the tax code by condensing the number of individual tax brackets or by cutting corporate tax rates.
It’s almost unbelievable, but it appears that states currently on reasonable financial footing but now under Republican control are about to swallow the same GOP tax-cut medicines that failed so spectacularly elsewhere. With President Trump and GOP control at the federal level the Laffer dose could be double strength.
Here in Vermont Democrats control the legislature which likely may save us from a full-scale GOP Numberwanging.
But why take foolish chances? Keep an eye on Phil Scott. He may just be settling in but right off has drawn a line in the sand — promising to veto any budget that grows faster than wages or the state economy in the previous year.
The Numberwang game: Once finished, becomes “WangerNumb”, where the players, in a more tense situation, say numbers until one gets “WangerNumb.” In the end, one contestant loses (almost always the same contestant) and is tortured in a way such as being arrested by the police.
Makes about as much sense as the numbers games Republican governors are playing.
For the third year in a row a survey by United Van Lines [Ed. updated link 3/17] suggests Vermont is a desirable location for people wishing to relocate. United is one of the nation’s largest moving companies and has tracked customer state-to-state migration for the past 40 years. In the 2016 national study Vermont moved up from third to the second of the top states with increases of inbound moves.
Moving In: The top inbound states of 2016 were:
South Dakota
Vermont
Oregon
Idaho
South Carolina
Washington
District of Columbia
North Carolina
Nevada
Arizona
Vermont’s jump continues our state’s trend up, which runs counter to other states’ trends in the Northeast. New Jersey tops outbound states with New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania continuing to have substantial outbound moves according to the United Van lines survey.
Despite certain demographic challenges to population growth (aging population, people leaving, and a low birth rate) Vermont is, at least according United’s survey, going against a trend toward outbound growth in Northeastern states. Although our population is staying the same or slightly declining we are doing something right regarding this positive trend.
What was wrong with 2016? Well at least it is coming to a close and various year end lists and polls are appearing. One of them is Gallup’s most admired person poll.
Since 1946 the Gallup organization has conducted a poll of Americans asking them which man or woman in the world they admire the most. Perhaps the good news for Democrats stung by the recent election is that for the ninth year in a row President Obama was the one found to be most admired. Hillary Clinton was named the most admired woman. The poll conducted Dec. 7-11, 2016, was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,028 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Obama won with 22 percent of the vote. Trump came in second with 15 percent, Pope Francis was third with 4 percent and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came in fourth place with 2 percent of the vote.
Obama has the second-largest number of first-place finishes among men. The first place goes to former President Eisenhower, who was named Most Admired Man 12 times.
On the female side, Americans named Hillary Clinton their Most Admired Woman. It was her 15th consecutive year at the top spot, and her 21st time overall at the top of the list, a Gallup record.
First lady Michelle Obama came in second among the most-admired women, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.
Not sure what value any of this has in the bigger scheme of things but given the grim year coming to a close maybe it offers a wee bit of a bright spot.
The not-so-good news is President-elect Trump was only seven percentage point behind Obama. So what was wrong with 2016?
This version of Twas the Night before Christmas is worth hearing at least once a year.It’s suitable for work and guaranteed Trump free!
And it seems this was just one of Art Carney’s “hits” –along with “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”, his spoken-word record, accompanied only by a jazz drummer, poem in syncopation Carney performed “The Song of the Sewer”, sung in character as Norton (This was the character Carney played on the early TV comedy The Honeymooners)
Donald Trump’s buildings are always (he says) the tallest, but according to the Washington Post his cabinet really will, by far and away be the richest one ever! Biggestly!
When George W. Bush assembled his first Cabinet in 2001, news reports dubbed them a team of millionaires, and government watchdogs questioned whether they were out of touch with most Americans’ problems. Combined, that group had an inflation-adjusted net worth of about $250 million — which is roughly one-tenth the wealth of Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary alone.
Commerce Department Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, Jr., is a longtime Trump acquaintance (he managed one of Trump’s bankruptcies). Forbes rates him the 232nd wealthiest person in the US, with a net worth of $2.5 billion.
Ross has worldwide interests according to the maritime news publication gcaptain.com: [Ross] built his fortune investing in troubled companies, including the oil and gas, steel and financial industries. He has a large ownership stake in Navigator Holdings, and his Diamond S Shipping is one of the world’s biggest owners of medium-range products tankers.
As the agency’s name suggests The Department of Commerce is charged with promoting American business in the US and overseas.This includes gathering economic data, enforcing international trade agreements, and issuing trademarks and patents. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is part of the Commerce Department. NOAA (which includes the National Weather Service) manages scientific data on weather, oceans, and climate conditions to assess the health of the world’s oceans. I recall recent efforts by Congressional Republicans to privatize the U S Weather Service.
So fat-cat Wilbur Ross, Jr., as Commerce Secretary may soon oversee NOAA — but under President Trump I doubt he needs a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
Just in case anyone wants to step back (or recoil) from the daily news spew, you know, get away from the daily ‘Donald Trump tweeted this or that’ and coverage of the casting calls to fill his horror-show administration. If that’s the case, then take a load off your feet, slip away for a moment because here’s a bit of practical, perhaps slightly political news from our surefooted neighbors in Canada.
At the WinterLab at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute researchers have studied, tested, and are now providing traction rating for footwear in slippery conditions. In Ontario 2015 accidents involving slipping on ice sent 21,000 people to the hospital. Here in the USA during 2014 there were 34,860 same-level workplace injuries (not from heights) related to ice, snow, and sleet that required at least one day to recover away from work. Canadian researchers discovered that most winter boots sold in Canada (and probably the US) won’t keep you upright in slippery situations.
To test the boots, researchers asked people to walk, first on a level surface covered with ice, then on an increasing incline, first of two to three degrees, and then up to seven to 10 degrees. Then they tested the same boots on wet ice. The boot testers wore a harness as they walked, so when they slipped they didn’t fall. Of 98 models of boots the lab tested on ice and wet ice, only nine passed a slip test.
The top-rated boots got a single snowflake out of three. That meant they gripped when walking up a seven-degree incline, while most of the boots failed to keep people from falling.
