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By Charles M. Phipps on May 8th, 2019 
There’s been a lot of hullabaloo the past few days since Facebook banned some controversial activists – Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, and Louis Farrakhan – for what Facebook called promoting or engaging in violence or hate. Other pages were apparently taken down at the same time, with no notice or announcement given by Facebook. Dan O’Donnell o News/Talk 1130 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin reported the Wisconsin Conservative Union Facebook page was also removed without warning.
Newstalk 1130 – “I was surprised by this,” said Wisconsin Conservative Union administrator Bob Dohnal, who said on The Dan O’Donnell Show that a friend called him Thursday night to let him know that his page had vanished. “It’s about 2,000 of the conservative leaders around this state. Nobody is talking about revolution or anything like that. It’s just been a place where everybody can exchange ideas and talk about candidacies and stuff.”
Dohnal added that he never received any warnings […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 13th, 2018 
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts kicked off her 2020 presidential campaign last month. While she hasn’t officially announced a presidential run, her latest proposal could have no other purpose than to solidify her socialist bona fides with the hardcore left in the Democratic Party. She calls it the Accountable Capitalism Act, which is ironic since there is nothing capitalist about her plan.
Warren is taking a page from the playbook of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and proposing that the government seize control over every business with more than $1 billion in revenue.
The euphemistically dubbed “Accountable Capitalism Act” would place all businesses with more than $1 billion in revenue under complete and total federal control. The feds would dictate to these businesses the composition of their boards, the details of internal corporate governance, compensation practices, personnel policies, and much more. Control of these businesses would shift from those who actually built them to politicians and bureaucrats who would no […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 12th, 2018 
Who would have ever thought that California liberals would want to put a stop to a free lunch? Well, it’s happening, due to tech companies providing free food to their employees so they don’t have to leave the building to eat.
Observer – In San Francisco, many local restaurants are suffering from a shrinking customer base as a result of an increasing number of tech companies in the area that offer employees free lunches provided by company-owned cafeteria. The problem has become so dire that the city is considering a new law to prohibit new companies entering the area from running employee cafeterias.
But as it turns out, San Francisco is hardly the only place in America’s hot tech scene that’s mulling an “anti-free lunch” campaign.
Facebook, which offers employees fully subsidized meals on its main campus in Menlo Park, Calif., won’t be able to offer the same perk to employees at its new campus in Mountain View, Calif., home […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on June 8th, 2018 
The ‘Fight for $15’ movement at McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants is having an effect that the protesters probably didn’t count on. The demands for $15 an hour or a ‘living wage’ have motivated McDonald’s to begin mass deployment of self-order kiosks. I first wrote about these kiosks four years ago when they were in the testing phase and, apparently, they’ve been a huge success.
OK Politechs – These are automated cashiers. That’s right, these machines will take your order and your payment, but never walk off the job to demand more money, never talk back to management, never want an extra smoke break and never call in sick. The testing in Romeoville will answer some important questions for McDonald’s – Will the public want to use them? Can they perform the necessary functions while being user-friendly? Are they cost-effective?
To be cost-effective they need only cost less to purchase and maintain than the wages paid to a human. An […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on May 28th, 2018 
Last week the NFL announced that the national anthem rule for 2018 requires players to stand. After a season of sparse attendance at games and low television ratings, it appears the NFL owners have decided to try to put an end to the controversial kneeling during the anthem by doling out punishment to players and fines to teams for noncompliance. The backlash from players has been swift with many angrily denouncing the decision. The new policy has also been attacked by some on the right who decry the League’s attack on ‘free-speech.’
David French, a senior writer at National Review, wrote a piece for the New York Times in which he labeled those in favor of the policy a “conservative mob” and the policy itself to be “corporate censorship.”
New York Times – The United States is in the grips of a free-speech paradox. At the same time that the law provides more protection to personal expression than at any […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on January 29th, 2018 
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier in California, one of their leading politicians steps up to the plate. Ian Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California’s lower house has decided that the big problem his state needs to address is straws. Yes, straws. Not taxes, not immigration, not crime, not the abysmal California budget. Straws.
Calderon has introduced a bill to stop restaurants from offering their customers a straw unless they ask for one. The penalty set forth in the bill for giving an unrequested straw is up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. I suppose they think the thousand dollars isn’t much since Nancy Pelosi said a thousand dollars is just “crumbs.”
Calderon said in a press release that his bill is designed to “create awareness around the issue of one-time-use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans.”
Six months in jail and $1,000. For […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on January 22nd, 2018 
One of my first few blog posts when I started this site was about the city of Baltimore and its soda tax. In an attempt to balance the city budget, the city council passed a two cents per container tax on beverages. Pepsi’s response was to shut down production at the Baltimore plant, putting 75 people out of work. Grocery stores reported sales were down because nearby counties did not have the tax. I learned today that the tax increased to five cents per container in 2013.
Early last year the city of Philadelphia passed something similar, imposing a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened and diet beverages. The tax is imposed at the distributor level but any moron can tell you costs are always passed on to the consumer. The tax amounts to a $1.44 increase on a six-pack of 16-ounce bottles.
In March last year, Pepsi cited the tax when announcing 80 to 100 workers would be laid off […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on January 16th, 2018 
I finally got around to seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Sure, it’s been out for quite a while, but I don’t like big crowds at movie theaters so I always wait to go see a film. I typically wait so I’m not in a packed theater with a bunch of people who don’t know how to be quiet. And going to see this movie just validated my thinking since there were only six other people in the theater and four of them acted like they were watching it in the privacy of their own living room. People seem to be a lot ruder at the theater than in the past.
It seems like everyone who has seen Jedi has written a review for it so I suppose one more wouldn’t hurt. And I won’t be holding back on spoilers so if you haven’t seen it yet, you’ve been warned. Actually, if you haven’t seen it yet, you might want […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on January 20th, 2017 
Last year I wrote a post about a payday loan bill that Senator David Holt submitted and later pulled in which I agreed with him about the concepts of the free market and that government should not be in the business of saving people from their own bad decisions. Senator Holt sent me a message on Twitter thanking me for my remarks and saying he appreciates someone willing to state limited government principles. He also said that “Someday I’ll do something you don’t like.”
We’re there.
Yesterday, Senator Holt took to Facebook to announce his proposed bills that would give Oklahoma teachers a $10,000 pay raise. Senate Bill 316 would provide the raise and Holt introduced twelve separate measures to provide the funding. One of these measures, Senate Bill 331, increases taxes. To be fair to Senator Holt, SB331 is not an increase in tax rates but a removal of sales tax exemptions. But the net result is Oklahomans will […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on February 29th, 2016 
Last week, Oklahoma State Senator David Holt announced on Twitter that he was pulling Senate Bill 1314 after public opinion came out strongly against the bill, saying he did not feel it would pass. The proposed bill would have allowed companies in Oklahoma to lend up to $3,000 with interest capped at twenty percent per month, which would be $600. Senator Holt indicated he thinks such a loan would be bad for those borrowing but that it should be legal anyway.
Oklahoma Watch – The lending program, known as a flex loan, is similar to payday loans and critics say it can lead to the same results – an endless cycle of debt.
Holt said members of the payday lending industry approached him about writing the bill, SB 1314, in order to avoid pending federal regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The industry requests align with his goal of less government regulation of private industry, Holt said.
Holt agreed […] → Keep reading
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