Month: May 2012

So it Shall be Written, So it Shall be Done

If you’re in Minnesota you likely know about the “vote” being taken by our “representatives” at the Capitol regarding the Vikings Stadium. I use the word vote in quotation marks because this isn’t a vote, it’s a formality. The bottom line is this stadium was ensured to be built the second Zygi Wilf, the owner of the Vikings, said he wanted the state to fork over a large part of the stadium’s cost. Zygi is a politically well-connected billionaire meaning anything Zygi wants Zygi will get, he merely needs to make the right deal. Apparently he made the right deal since the Minnesota House voted in favor of the stadium:

The Minnesota Vikings won a decisive and long-awaited political victory late Monday when the House passed a public subsidy package for a new stadium, sending the project marching toward final passage at the State Capitol.

When the final vote was announced, two dozen Vikings fans — most clad in team jerseys — cheered loudly outside the House chamber and sang the team’s fight song. Afterward, amid chants of “Build A Stadium, Save Our Team!” Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak made his way through the crowd and was congratulated by smiling fans.

The final vote came after a day of high drama and a weekend of intense lobbying by Gov. Mark Dayton and the team, and produced a relatively easy 73-to-58 approval in the House. Though Republicans hold a majority in the House, DFLers did the heavy political lifting on the final vote, producing 40 of the 73 votes. The victory was also noteworthy because House Speaker Kurt Zellers — the leading Republican in the House — voted against the project.

There is much to be said about this entire fiasco. First let me address the rampant hypocrisy involved in this decision. Many people who are demanding the state pay a chunk of the stadium are also demanding the state tax the wealthy more. In fact the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) is usually the party working to increase taxes on the wealthy yet were the ones to vote most favorably towards a publicly funded stadium. The hypocrisy is almost palpable, they just voted to give a bunch of money to a billionaire. Perhaps they believe the state should tax the wealthy more but subsidize the super wealthy?

Outside of the hypocrisy a question must be asked: what do the Vikings have to offer the politicians? Deals like these must be mutually beneficially and therefore Zygi must offer something of value to get his subsidy. Unfortunately these deals are always performed behind closed doors and thus we never learn about them until after the fact. Beyond campaign contributions I believe another thing of value was likely offered, jobs. When things were looking bleak for the Vikings stadium deal the National Football League (NFL) entered the game. What does the NFL consistently try to do? Get public funding for stadiums. What do you need to get consistent public funding? Lobbyists. As a general rule politicians are often offered plush lobbying positions by large corporations for favorable legislation so I wouldn’t be surprised to see several prominent Minnesota “representatives” receive jobs with the NFL after they exit politics.

What’s done is done. I am merely a commentator and thus have no power to influence the game, but I do have the ability to make some predictions. It’s no secret that the economy is getting worse, which would make an intelligent person ask why the Vikings want to build a new stadium now. With a crumbling economy won’t people become less willing to buy tickets to see a game? Of course. Does it matter to the Vikings? Absolutely not. Why? Because the same arguments they use to get public funding for a new stadium can be used to get ticket prices subsidized.

Zygi Wilf isn’t an idiot and thus has likely already come up with the same idea I’m about to present. Throughout this entire stadium fiasco the primary argument used by proponents of public funding for the stadium have been based on supposed economic benefits brought by the Vikings. The beauty of such arguments is they can be used to justify almost any subsidy. Let’s step ahead several years where further economic failures have caused ticket sales at Vikings games to falter. Zygi, seeing his profits plument, has decided he needs another subsidy. How can he sell it? Easy. All it has to do is tell the politicians that he will sell off the Vikings if they fail to be profitable. Such a sale would cause them to move elsewhere and thus deprive Minnesota of the economic benefit the team supposedly brings. Since the Minnesota economy is already at a very vulnerable point the loss of the Vikings will cause complete collapse and therefore the economy of Minnesota depends on subsidized ticket prices from the state. Using this argument the politicians will vote to subsidize some arbitrarily chosen percentage of ticket prices so more fans can enjoy the games and the Vikings can remain profitable. It’s all for the greater good after all.

Many people reading that likely scoffed and rolled their eyes but I believe my prediction is pretty sound. We must only wait and see (and if it does happen I’m going to be doing the biggest “I told you so” dance anybody has ever seen).

Idiot Endorses Moron

Coming as no surprise to anybody who actually pays attention to politics Rick Santorum has officially endorse Mitt Romney:

In a late-night email, he urged his supporters to back the presumptive nominee in order to deny President Barack Obama a second term.

Mr Santorum said he was impressed by Mr Romney’s “deep understanding” of economic and family issues, following a meeting with him last week.

I’m told that during his address Santorum said he was unable to endorse Ron Paul in good conscious because of Paul’s stark opposition of war and his lack of hatred for “brown people” and “the gays.”

The only reason Santorum’s endorsement means anything to me is because he holds bounded delegates. Bounded delegates are those who are stuck voting for a candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC). The question of what will happen to Santorum’s bounded delegates when he suspended his campaign last month has been the subject of debate. With his officially endorsement of Romney the question raised (at least in my opinion) is whether or not Santorum’s bounded delegates will now be bounded to Romney.

I’m sure somebody can point to an official RNC rule regarding this but I have no delusions of the RNC actually following any set of rules. They’ve already threatened to not seat any delegates from Nevada if the state sends too many Ron Paul supporters. It would be trivial for the RNC to announce that any delegate bounded to Santorum must not vote for Romney. Of course doing that would put their justification for threatening Nevada into question. The RNC claimed its threat against Nevada was done because they didn’t believe the Paul supporters would obey the RNC rules and endorse the candidate they were bounded to. Many of Santorum’s supporters were vehemently opposed to Romney for various reasons and outright refused to give the former Massachusetts governor any support. These people may not play by the RNC rules either so it would only make sense if the RNC refused to seat any delegates from states that hold bounded Santorum delegates.

Once again I’m really hoping the RNC pulls something incredibly shady with this situation. The faster people wake up and realize the Republican Party isn’t for the people or by the people the quicker they can reduce the party to ash and hopefully start one or more new viable parties.

The Twin Cities Isn’t Kind to Metal Bands

At this rate metal bands aren’t going to come anywhere near the Twin Cities. First the lead singer for GWAR dies have playing here and now the lead singer for Opeth got into a car accident on his way to last night’s show.

I swear to Thor if anything happens to Sabaton when they “>come next week I will burn the entire Twin Cities region to the ground.

My Predictions for France

France, like the rest of the world, is facing economic ruin. The government has been doling out money so long that they’ve racked up a debt they can never hope to pay off and unemployment continues to creep up. To solve this problem the French have elected a socialist.

Think about that.

Due to economic failures the French elected a socialist. That’s like having a convicted repeat child molester babysit your children. Either way the new president of France, Francois Hollande, is calling for a 75 percent tax rate on those who earn more than 1 million euros a year:

“Above 1m euros [£847,000; $1.3m], the tax rate should be 75% because it’s not possible to have that level of income,” he said.

[…]

Mr Hollande himself renewed his call on Tuesday, saying the 75% rate on people earning more than one million euros a year was “a patriotic act”.

“It’s a signal that has been sent, a message of social cohesion, there is an effort to be made,” he explained.

“It is patriotic to agree to pay a supplementary tax to get the country back on its feet.”

Did you get that? It’s patriotic to have 75 percent of your wealth stolen! This idea isn’t going to fly as history has demonstrated. What most people who demand the rich be taxed don’t stop to consider is that the rich are wealthy enough to leave a country at will. The United States doesn’t have anywhere near a 75 percent income tax and many wealthy individuals are still renouncing their citizenships over the high taxation:

This year almost 1,800 people renounced their American citizenship and Green Cards as published in the Federal Register, thanks to a costly and timely tax requirement.

So here are my predictions for France, most of which are torn from the pages of Pictures of a Socialistic Future [PDF] (a great book written in the 1800s that successfully predicted what conditions in socialist countries would be like).

Upon the 75 percent tax rate becoming law many of the wealthiest in France are going to abandon the country and renounce their citizenships. After enough people start fleeing France the government will implement Soviet-esque border controls and prevent those with means from leaving unless they leave something behind as a hostage collateral. From there things will only get more draconian since the massively jacked up tax rate won’t actually improve economic conditions but will do quite the opposite. Not wanting to face the prospects of being successful people in France will cease any attempt at real entrepreneurship or turn entirely to the black market. As a last resort France may turn to issuing their own money again, which will be printed so fast hyperinflation will be guaranteed.

Basically France is fucked if they continue down their current economic road.

You Need the States Permission for Everything

It seems you need the state’s stamp of approval to do anything, including reincarnate:

In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.” But beyond the irony lies China’s true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region’s Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country.

I’m not sure what China is thinking with this one. They want to reduce the influence of the Dalai Lama but I’m guessing Buddism doesn’t stipulate that the state must give one permission before they can reincarnate.

Honestly this ruling is just weird, I wonder if the politicians stopped to consider how this law would be enforced before passing it.

Carry Permits Up in Hennepin County

Even though, according to some gun control advocates, gun ownership is down the number of carry permits being issued in Hennepin County are way up:

Applications for gun permits were up 54 percent from last year over the first four months of 2012, according to a report released Monday by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials said the sheriff’s office has received 1,875 applications for permits to carry a gun over the first four months of the year. Over the same time last year, there were 1,220 applications that were received, an increase of 54 percent.

Last year was the second-busiest for new gun permit applications since the permit law took effect in 2003. Officials said renewal applications account for about 20 percent of total applications, and renewals are required every five years.

A 54 percent increase? That’s pretty good, especially when only 20 percent of the applications were for renewals.

Looks Like Maine Won’t be Seating Delegates at the Republican National Convention

Ron Paul ended up taking a majority of the delegates in Maine:

With Mitt Romney’s GOP presidential nomination all but decided, Ron Paul supporters took control of the Maine Republican Convention and elected a majority slate supporting the Texas congressman to the GOP national convention, party officials said. The results gave the Texas congressman a late state victory.

In votes leading to the close of the two-day Maine convention, Paul supporters were elected to 21 of the 24 delegate spots from Maine to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla. The 24th delegate’s seat goes to party Chairman Charles Webster, who has remained uncommitted throughout the process.

Of course this likely means that Maine won’t be allowed to seat any delegates since the Republican National Convention isn’t too keen on the serfs choosing somebody besides Mitt Romney.

Just Because I’m Paranoid Doesn’t Mean They’re not Out to Get Me

Last year I decided to abandon third-party Internet services such as GMail, Google Calendar, and even WordPress.com. Everything now sits securely on a server in my apartment where I maintain the exclusive right to access it. Why would I go through the trouble of maintaining my own server when there are many great free service providers out there? Because things have gotten to the point that you can’t trust anybody to maintain your secrecy:

he FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.

The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

As the police state ramps up it’s going to be harder and harder to know your data is secure on servers you don’t directly control. Most people probably don’t care because they feel as though they have nothing to hide but the golden rule of backdoors is that anybody can use them. If there is a backdoor one need only discover how to access it, which is why most manufacturers don’t like putting backdoors into their software. There is also the fact that the state doesn’t need to know what I’m doing, if they want to know they can get a fucking warrant.

If you don’t believe the United States is a police state you’re not paying attention.

The War on Climate Change

The United States likes to declare war on everything. We have the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terrorism. Now Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is working hard on declaring a war on climate change:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared global warming a national security threat yesterday during a speech before an environmentalist group in Washington, D.C.

“The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security,” Panetta told the Environmental Defense Fund last night. “Rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

I’m sure a Global Warming Enforcement Agency is being created and drones are being deployed to bomb those who working to forward global warming. Those who deny global warming or release research demonstrating global warming as a fallacy will likely be arrested and tossed into federal prisons.