Question of the Day

Via Bookworm Room:

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Minimum wage updates: paging Mayor Jackson!

 art credit: The Tunnel Wall

The Washington Post reports that the state of Maine’s House voted on a bill to reduce the minimum wage for tipped restaurant workers. An earlier Cleveland Tea Party blog reported on Mayor Frank Jackson’s hopes of increasing the minimum wage for City of Cleveland employees.

Today, Thomas Lifson at American Thinker has more on the minimum wage debate:

Minimum wage laws are a perfect example of feel-good statism, in which the professed goal is noble, but the execution inevitably fails and makes things worse.  The state can no more repeal the law of supply and demand than it can the law of gravity.

But don't tell that to the Seattle City Council, which just commissioned a new study intended to get the answer it wants, from a scholar who has contended, in effect, that supply and demand don't really work at the bottom of the wage scale.  The wonderful thing about working with numbers is that by choosing baselines, time periods, and sample bias, you can find almost whatever you want.  As a graduate student who got a Ph.D. in sociology, I saw this clearly and was sickened by people openly proud of the ways in which they got to the conclusions they wanted for ideological reasons.  Nobel laureate Ronald Coase famously summed it up: "If you torture the data long enough, it will confess."

Will somebody tell Mayor Frank Jackson?

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Mayor Jackson proposes increase to minimum wage for Cleveland employees

Photo credit: Washington Retail Assoc.

Cleveland.com reports that Mayor Frank Jackson intends to raise the minimum wage for City employees, so that in order to

raise up the earning power of the bottom end of the workforce. 

The change would affect as many as 500 employees in a wide array of jobs, ranging from clerical and custodial staff to park and recreation workers to police and fire cadets. The workers are both full time and part time, union and non-union. 

InfoWars reports on the actual results of the city of Seattle’s decision to raise the minimum wage:

Helping the “forgotten man” was an important and successful message for President Donald Trump in his election campaign.

He tapped into the anxieties of many Americans who are struggling to find work and are watching as traditional industries disappear or are gobbled up by automation.

While some of this development has been natural, much has been artificially created by bad policies. In particular: the minimum wage.

A bombshell report was released Monday about the impact of minimum wage hikes in Seattle, Washington. The study, conducted by economists at the University of Washington, showed that minimum wage laws significantly decreased employment for lower-income workers.

Additionally, the report found that average hours for low-income employees had also declined since Seattle’s $13 minimum wage law began being implemented in 2015.

Another idea that sounds good at first, until you consider the consequences, both intended and unintended. Speaking of consequences, elsewhere we read that Jeff Bezos’s purchase of Whole Foods will be followed by replacing employees with robotics in the warehouse.

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Military show at IX Center

This blog linked to the Cleveland.com story about the Military show currently at the IX Center. Here are a few photos by CTP’s roving photographer (and his FB gallery is here.)

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Trumpcare: Senate version -- is Portman against it

photo credit: Pat J Dooley Photography

Update: The photographer points out that the flying banner may be a message TO Senator Portman, not sponsored BY Sen. Portman. If so, apologies to the Senator, and here's hoping he considers it.

[Apparently] Senator Rob Portman hired an advertising plane this afternoon to circle the downtown Cleveland area. He is coming out of the gate opposed to the newly-revealed/leaked Senate version of President Trump and Secretary Tom Price’s healthcare bill. If Portman is opposed to the bill, it is probably a pretty good start to the process of repealing Obamacare.

Conservative Treehouse jogs everyone’s memory: 

The original (’09/’10) ObamaCare bill was 2,700 pages and most of the toxic takeover construct was intentionally and ambiguously deferred to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius where she added an initial 74,000 pages of regulatory and compliance rules and procedures. [Those HHS regulations now total 673,448+ pages and growing.]

Conservative Treehouse also has a fascinating analysis of the Trump healthcare plan. His blog post is worth reading in full, but here’s the very short précis:

Under Trump’s long-term (3 step) approach – the non-government healthcare market, the majority of the population, will break free from almost all of the ObamaCare government regulations; and the insurance market will be empowered to provide an insurance product that fits the individual needs of the person purchasing the insurance.

♦Dual System Approaches – Much like Secretary Mnuchin is proposing leaving government (via Dodd-Frank) attached to the “too-big-to-fail” group of banks and cutting all else loose from the regulations, so too is Secretary Price proposing to leave government attached to the “at risk population” (Medicare and Medicaid), the group 99% of all political talking points are structured around, and cut everyone else loose from the regulations.

•Step #1 establishes the ability (decouples ObamaCare).   •Step #2 allows HHS to frame the parallel system (deregulation). •Step #3 establishes the broader parameters for the non-government health insurance market.

The full pdf file of the Senate bill is here. 

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The Consumer Financial Protection Czar and the Trump Administration

The Wall Street Journal has a report about the ill-advised Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and its director Richard Cordray. (The article link is to the CETUS website, since WSJ articles are usually behind a paywall). Cordray was appointed by the Obama administration in 2012 to head up this agency. Prior to that appointment, he had been Ohio Attorney General but had lost his Senate race against Mike DeWine.

In 2011, Cleveland Tea Party’s Ralph King pointed out that the position of the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is, “in more accurate terms Consumer Financial Protection Czar”:

The director of the CFPB is empowered to regulate almost any industry for any reason and cannot be removed for any reason other than malfeasance. The position is a five-year term, so the next president will have to deal with Cordray regulating our economy, despite the president’s wishes.

And now that next president, President Trump is having to deal with it. And the Wall Street Journal (article titled “Trump to Cordray: You’re Not Fired”) reports that the “Treasury Department has made an excellent case for dismissal.” Further in:

The problem is that Mr. Cordray won’t accept curbs on his power. Dodd-Frank states that the President may remove the director only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” rather than at-will like other agency heads. Yet the report enumerates a litany of ways in which Mr. Cordray has flouted the law.

Treasury notes the “CFPB has avoided notice-and-comment rulemaking and instead relied to an unusual degree on enforcement actions and guidance documents.” The Administrative Procedure Act requires regulatory agencies to issue formal rule-makings, or at least formal guidance, to explicate law. Mr. Cordray says “facts and circumstances” guide the bureau’s legal interpretations.

. . .

Mr. Cordray’s term doesn’t end until July 2018, and implementing Treasury’s reforms as well as attendant rule-makings could take more than a year. Meantime, Mr. Cordray can continue shaking down businesses with enforcement that he hopes will propel his expected campaign for Governor in Ohio.

Some take-aways: The WSJ may point out the excellent case for Cordray’s dismissal (not to say the elimination of the agency itself), but it’s not about legal niceties, it’s all about politics and power. Mr. Trump is still surrounded by hostile deep state operatives, bureaucracies, and Congressional Uniparty opponents who ignore Obama Administration scandals and refuse to respect existing laws  (think Lynch, Comey, and the FBI; or Susan Rice unmasking of political opponents; or Lois Lerner’s IRS scandal, and on and on)….  So it may be obvious that Cordray and the CFPB are on the wrong side of the law, but The Uniparty and Corporate Media don’t much care. Trump is probably choosing his battles.

I decided to blog on this not only because the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its director represent more of the swamp to be drained, but also because Richard Cordray may very well run for Governor of Ohio. Voters should know what he’s been doing. The full WSJ report is here.  

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Cleveland Tank Plant * Military show at IX Center

Photo credit: The Fighting 1:18th.com

The IX Center opens its military exhibition this week. Via Cleveland.com:

Rare tanks, Howitzer guns, historic military planes and hundreds of swap meet tables with thousands of items of memorabilia and vendors will be together under one roof for the first time at this month's World of Tanks Cleveland Tank Plant Homecoming Military Show and Swap Meet, which runs from June 22-24 at the I-X Center.

The former tank plant, which has been converted into the largest exhibition space in the United States, played a key role in producing heavy equipment used in battles in Korea and Vietnam in addition to arming American allies. Its historic role in the country's history led to the selection as the host of the 42nd annual Military Vehicle Preservation Association convention and the homecoming military show and swap meet.

Bill Perrien, Executive Vice President for the I-X Center, said the event is unmatched in scale and scope.

"There's something here for everyone from former employees of the tank plant, veterans, people with interest in military history, right down to the kids — boys and girls are fascinated with tanks and military machines."

Read all about it here.

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Alicia Colon on political hysteria

 (Jake Fuller's cartoon appeared with the article at Jewish World Review)

Alicia Colon’s column on the occasion of President Trump’s birthday is, as usual, thoughtful. Her title is “When Losing an Election Makes You Lose Your Mind” – and it will probably resonate with Cleveland Tea Party people. Here are a few extracts:

The presidential election of 2016 was an entirely different ball game because the man who won was a completely different animal.

A billionaire nonpolitician was elected who was also very dangerous to the settled bureaucratic elite in both parties because he is uncontrollable by the special interests that rule Congress. The wrath and derangement that spilled forth after the election and continues still is unprecedented yet not completely surprising.

Although it made absolutely no sense, the hype for a Hillary Clinton presidency was relentless and overpoweringly waged in all sources, including the media, the Internet and social networks.

There were very few critics asking the important question --- why this woman?

She carried more baggage than an airport porter yet only one candidate (Trump) chose to call her a criminal.

. . .

It is clear that the Democrat Party has become the amoral party of progressives aka Marxists and not the one my family grew up with. There are no Zell Millers or like-minded thinkers left here.

. . .

If you're a conservative who voted for Donald Trump even though he wasn't your first choice, you may have ended up ostracized by the Democrats in your family or have ended up writing off a number of friends who've expressed contempt for your choice. It's a very wise policy not to discuss politics or religion but hard to do when your career is about politics.

I've been called a moron, a deplorable, unhinged, and worse by those whom I once believed were reasonable but have now lost their minds. I choose not to return that vitriol for those I care for and hope that one day they will come to their senses and realize the sky is not falling and our POTUS may succeed in making America great again.

He will do this in spite of all the mainstream media, leftwing pundits, social media, the entire Democrat Party, RINOs, Hollywood celebrities and Soros minions spending his billions waging phony protests against him.

I will continue to pray for President Trump's success and I encourage the rest of the deplorables to wish him well.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Read the rest here.

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NBA Finals

If you've been watching the NBA finals, you might find this one of Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry funny....

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Senator Sherrod Brown in the news

art credit: Pinterest

Matthew Boyle at Breitbart reports:

Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio finds himself in serious political trouble after he inaccurately accused Breitbart News Network and chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon of being anti-Semitic last week. Bannon is the former executive chairman of Breitbart News.

Last Tuesday, Brown appeared at a Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) event in Washington, D.C., and bashed President Donald Trump’s White House and Breitbart News Network. He spoke after Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a former Breitbart News national security editor who is now a senior White House aide. Now, Brown is under fire as both the head of ZOA and the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2018—Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel—are calling him out publicly as he continues to refuse to apologize and correct his inaccurate statements.

Read more here.

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Climate change Quiz

One of the cultural gems in Cuyahoga County is the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in University Circle. Here are images from today’s visit, including our magnificent national bird posing for the camera. (Photo images can be embiggened by clicking on the image).

But two of the images show that political correctness has entrenched itself in the educational fabric of our cultural institutions. I doubt that the withdrawal by the US from the Paris Climate Accord will make a difference, but for Cleveland Tea Party members –- Pop Quiz: spot the two politically correct images.

Images by Pat J Dooley Photography

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D-Day : 73 years ago today

Today is the 73^rd anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944. These photographs were taken with an old Brownie Box camera by the skipper of the first LCT to successfully deliver troops and equipment onto Utah Beach that morning. The grainy smoke-filled image was taken at H-Hour.

 Cleveland Tea Party salutes our veterans, past and present.

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Headline of the Day

Gary Varvel cartoon via The Political Insider

Headline of the Day (at Townhall blog):

Bernie Sanders Got a $795,000 Advance For a Book Ranting About Terrible Rich People

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Trump, Climate Treaty, and America's Sovereignty

photo credit: conservative tribune

E. Jeffrey Ludwig at American Thinker had some inspiring observations after listening to President Trump’s Rose Garden speech explaining his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Ludwig singled out this paragraph from the speech (his emphasis):

There are serious legal and constitutional issues as well.  Foreign leaders in Europe, Asia, and across the world, should not have more to say with respect to the U.S. economy than our own citizens and their elected representatives, thus, our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of America's sovereignty. Our constitution is unique among all nations of the world. And it is my highest obligation and greatest honor to protect it. And I will[.] ... It would once have been unthinkable that an international agreement could prevent the United States from conducting its own domestic economic affairs, but this is the new reality we face if we do not leave the agreement or if we do not negotiate a far better deal."

Before taking  look at a few of Ludwig’s further thoughts on this speech, I would note that the EU folks took the bait, and they don’t even know it. The headline at The Independent:

Trump prides himself as being the ultimate deal maker - but he just broke one of the best deals we had

The Guardian reports that France’s new President, Emmanuel Macron responded (my emphasis): “I tell you firmly tonight: we will not renegotiate a less ambitious accord. There is no way,” said Macron. In other words, Trump slammed the door, and Macron et al nailed it shut. What cards are they left holding?

Ludwig comments on Trump’s decision to invoke America’s sovereignty in his speech:

In saying these words, President Trump announced to the world that we are departing from the trajectory of the U.S. toward globalization. . .

Sovereignty has not been discussed in the public square for a long time.  . . .

Trump is thus speaking against not merely membership in the Paris Agreement.  By speaking of our sovereignty, he is throwing down the gauntlet to our entire strategy of world relations during the post-WWII period.  His reference to sovereignty suggests to this writer that he is forthrightly bucking a 72-year trend toward multilateralism, a 72-year trend of diluting American sovereignty.  He is saying no to a furtherance of the many financial and legal compromises made when entering into to such extensive networks.  With great clarity, he closed his announcement by saying, "In other words, the Paris framework is just a starting point.  As bad as it is.  Not an end point."

Seeing that our continued membership would be the beginning of a further phase towards global governance, the president decided boldly to say "no."  We can conclude that his "no" is likewise to be seen as a first step – a game-changing, powerful, proactive step – toward regaining our precious sovereignty.

Read the rest here.

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A Good News Day

art credit: pinterest

President Trump announced that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Treaty. Time to pop a cork. Another campaign promise kept.

Conservative Treehouse has the video of the President’s announcement today in the Rose Garden. 

Meanwhile, Steven Hayward at PowerLine blog is monitoring the liberal splodey heads in his aptly titled “Let the Hysteria Begin.” Check in for updates.

And tonight at 9, the Cavs meet the Warriors in the finals. Go Cavs.

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