Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 16 Number 24 FEBUARY 21, 2019

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THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 2

By ROBERT RINGERSpecial to the Penny Press

This is the first in a series of pieces I’ll be doing on the 2020 Democratic primary derby. I plan to update it periodically, particularly when I see a major shift in the prospects of any of

the candidates.I’m not going to include the army

of no-names who have announced, or who have hinted they might announce, that they’re running — e.g., Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. I doubt any of them seriously believe they have a chance of capturing the Democratic nomination, but they certainly are aware that by running they could raise their public profiles and position themselves for future

political positions or book/speaking deals.

Nor will I include better-known figures like Mark Cuban, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, or Hillary Clinton, because they, too, have no chance of winning. Also, I doubt they will actually run. Obviously, Hillary would be a dream come true for Republicans, because she would have zero chance of winning, but I think Democrats would have her taken out — Vince Foster style — if she dared to announce that she was going to run in the Democratic primaries.

Likewise, I will not be including high-profile people who have already stated that they definitely will not run. These include Andrew Cuomo, Deval Patrick, Oprah Winfrey, and Michelle Obama. Contrary to popular belief, neither Oprah nor Michelle O. possesses a giant intellect, but I’m pretty sure they’re at least smart enough to know that Donald Trump would humiliate them on a national stage.

He would reduce Oprah to tears early on by dismantling her public

facade of being an intelligent, middle-of-the-road figure who appeals to all segments of American life. Oprah realizes that Trump knows her far too well for her to risk getting into the ring with him, especially since she has already badly damaged her reputation by campaigning for Obama and Stacy Abrams.

Trump’s destruction of Michelle Obama would be even more brutal, because he would not hesitate to expose her as the media-perpetrated fraud that she is. Given that the president has never hesitated to attack the physical appearance of his opponents or enemies (e.g., Carly Fiorina and Stormy Daniels), Michelle the Malevolent is unlikely to risk spoiling the media’s absurd portrayal of her as an intelligent, glamorous, gracious woman. Trump would have a field day dismantling all of the media’s doublespeak nonsense about her persona by bringing out her true, snarky personality for all the world to see. Trust me, Michelle Obama is not going to allow that can of worms to be opened.

No-Chance Candidates – Tier 2This is an odd mix of wannabes

whom the media keeps telling us are viable contenders, even though they are not. Only Amy Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard have announced their candidacies, but the others have hinted that they might run. What they all have in common is that they have absolutely no chance of winning the Democratic nomination, regardless of what the FNM would like us to believe.

Bill de Blasio. Bolshevik Bill’s Cuban honeymoon says it all. He’s the real thing — a true commie with delusions of spreading his redistributionist faith throughout America. I hope he runs, because it would be great fun to watch him twist himself into a pretzel with his idiotic anti-American rhetoric. Sadly, I doubt that he will.

Amy Klobuchar. Amy is the ultimate no-name, no brains, no accomplishment joker, one of the many Dirty Dem senators who made asses of themselves with their infantile and outrageous attacks on Brett

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 16 NUMBER 24 FEBUARY 21, 2019

Penny WisdomIf Donald Trump had said he's invoking the National Emergency Military Construction Authority to build a security perimeter in Iraq or Afghanistan or around a military installation in Syria, there would not have been one word of objection from Congress. This is defending our own country. —Stephen Miller

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInside:Wallace, Coulter AreIdiots, Congress Moronic

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT RINGER PAGE 7DOUG FRENCH PAGE 9MERRILL MATTHEWS PAGE 10ROBERT ROMANO PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

The Dirty Demm Presidential Derby

Commentary

Continued on page4

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 4

Kavanaugh. If Klobuchar actually makes it to the first Democratic debate — which she may not — she will be lucky to capture 1 percent support in the polls.

Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard has impressive assets — an Iraq War veteran who is smart, young, pretty, and ambitious. Her problem is that many Democrats harbor an intense dislike for her for many of the positions she has taken, not the least of which are her support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and her past anti-LGBT and anti-gay stances. Gabbard will be around for a long time to come, but her entrance into the 2020 presidential primaries is premature.

Eric Holder. Holder is a hardened criminal who openly referred to himself as Obama’s “wingman.” Hitman would have been a more appropriate description for him. The Fast and Furious scandal, the Philadelphia voter-intimidation incident that he refused to prosecute, and lying before Congress are just three examples of his dishonesty and lack of character. The Dirty Dems are fortunate that Holder has no chance of winning the Democratic nomination, because he surely would turn off millions of voters with his Obama-like arrogance.

John Kerry. Gigolo John has excelled at one thing in his life — marrying wealthy women. How can anyone take seriously a guy who doesn’t know how to pronounce Genghis Khan? If he actually entered the race — which I don’t think he will — he would embarrass himself even more than he already has. One of the most detestable reprobates ever.

Terry McAuliffe. A long-time lieutenant in the Clinton Crime Family, the former governor of Virginia is up to his eyeballs in corruption. I doubt he will run, but if he did, Republicans would have a field day exposing his dirty laundry, which is far greater than that of the newest Virginia governor, Blackface Northam.

No-Chance Candidates – Tier 1These are the Dirty Dems whom the media wants us to believe are serious

contenders for the Democratic nomination. With one possible exception, they are not.

Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand is downright embarrassing. She gives new meaning to the word shameless. She will say anything, any time, to any medium if she thinks it might elevate her status. Gillibrand has been caught on video so many times saying things that have come back to bite her that she will make an absolute fool of herself on the debate stage. It is sure to make for great entertainment.

Kamala Harris. As she proves every time she opens her mouth, Unkempt Kamala is a truly vile human being. When she likened ICE to the Ku Klux Klan, it once again underscored the fact that she’s all in with the Radical Left. Not only will she say anything she believes will boost her profile, she also will do anything, as evidenced by her extramarital affair with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — an affair that kickstarted her political career. Truly a disgusting woman.

Elizabeth Warren. Even if Pocahontas changes her name to Hiawatha, she has no chance of winning the Democratic nomination. Her hilarious self-destruction is enough to make one believe in karma. Even though she will not come close to winning the Democratic primaries, watching her gasp for air as she chokes on her own lies should provide a mental orgasm for Republicans.

Cory Booker. Booker is the Dirty Dem version of Li’l Marco — slimy, cunning, and totally devoid of principle. In other words, he possesses all the characteristics needed to be a successful politician. Booker is another one of those truly bad human beings, but he seems to be making a serious effort to hide his true self from the public.

I have to admit that the press conference he gave when he announced his candidacy was impressive. He appeared to be trying to come across as a moderate Democrat, and if that’s his strategy, it shows that he’s actually thought through what his best path to victory might be. Which makes him smarter than most of the other candidates he’s running against.

As a result of pretending that he’s moderating his radical views, I’ve come to believe that Booker could be a dark horse — but only if he’s able to keep up his act, which I doubt he can. The probability is that he will not be able to control himself and will put on another Spartacus performance that will expose him as the embarrassing drama queen that he is.

I view the following candidates as serious contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, not because they’re quality people — they’re not

— but because fate has elevated them into the public spotlight. You might say they are accidents of history.

Joe Biden. One-percent Joe has a real shot at the Democratic nomination, for no other reason than because he was Obama’s stooge for eight years. He’s such a clown, however, that time is against him; i.e., the more he’s in front of the cameras, the more he will screw up and the more support he will lose. Trump would have a field day with Joe’s gaffes, but whether Biden will even make it to the general election is questionable.

Michael Bloomberg. Nanny Bloomberg is America’s version of Napoleon, but he’s far more dangerous than was the famous French emperor. He’s a self-righteous little varmint who seems intent on using his 50-billion-dollar fortune to dictate to others how they should live their lives.

Like all his Dirty Dem cohorts, he’s willing to say anything to get attention. He demonstrated that in his speech at Saint Anselm College when he ludicrously said about President Trump, “He failed at business, and now I think it’s fair to say he is failing at government.” This kind of “don’t believe your lying eyes and ears” stuff is sure to backfire on Bloomberg if he runs, because it’s insulting to all halfway intelligent voters.

Bernie Sanders. Let me make it clear that I have a soft spot for Uncle Bernie. He’s a character right out of the movie Reds — a red-diaper baby who honeymooned in his beloved Soviet Union. I doubt he can win the Democratic nomination — and certainly not the presidency — but this time around I expect him and his rabid supporters to be out for blood now that they realize Horrible Hillary and the Dirty Dems screwed them out of the 2016 nomination.

That’s right, no more stupid comments like “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” Uncle Bernie and his Radical Left supporters are wiser and much madder now, and they might just tear the Democratic Party apart this time around if the Dirty Dems’ shenanigans start up again — which they will. Go Bernie, go!

“Beto” O’Rourke. Beto is perhaps the biggest joker of all in a field saturated with jokers. But remember, many jokers have actually become president, Jimmy Carter being the best example of that. Beto’s credentials are paper thin, so he relies on gimmicks like putting his teeth-cleaning appointments on Instagram and coming on stage at his rallies on a skateboard.

He’s become something of a fad with the Dirty Dems, but over the long haul I expect him to outcool himself with his childish, attention-getting behavior. Democratic voters are attracted to clowns, but ultimately even they are likely to grow weary of Beto’s middle-school antics.

Howard Schultz. Schultz is the wildcard in the Democratic presidential race. He’s threatening to run as a “centrist independent,” which has the Dirty Dems up in arms. Like many billionaires, Schultz has long been a guilt-ridden liberal who has instituted some of the most hairbrained schemes imaginable for his Starbucks stores, two of the most embarrassing being his “Race Together” and open-bathrooms projects that made him look like a naïve fool.

Now, the capitalist compartment of Schultz’s brain has started to emerge, and he says he is dismayed by the Democrats’ radical ideas, especially their push for socialism. He says he is also concerned about the national debt and the idea of free, universal healthcare. This, of course, has infuriated most of the Democratic Party, even though Schultz is still quite liberal on social issues.

Clearly, the Dirty Dems have a problem if Schultz decides to throw his hat in the ring. If he runs as an independent, he could, along with Uncle Bernie, succeed in destroying what’s left of the Democratic Party. However, if it actually got to that point, and if the polls showed him doing well, I believe the Democrats might have to eat crow and make a deal with him. They might have no choice but to give him the Democratic nomination in exchange for his promise to adopt a majority of their radical platform.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, we have to see if Schultz actually has the courage to declare his candidacy or if he allows the Dirty Dems to scare him off.

The next installment (update) of the Dirty Dem primary candidates will be when I have something significant to share with you. Stay tuned. Robert Ringer (© 2019)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.

The No Chance Tiers 1 and 2Continued from page 3

Washoe County Republican Leadership Doing a Fine Job

A month after the November 2018 election, I wrote an analysis of the results of recent statewide elections. From total statewide voter turnout data, I came to one clear conclusion: 2014 was the outlier year and the most recent results were quite in line with the long-term trends in Nevada.

Recently, Republican state party leaders and national staff have been trying to pin our 2018 losses on the new leaders of the Washoe County party who refused to knuckle under

to them. They have conned some rural Republicans into repeating their false narrative. But they’ve avoided numbers and facts, sticking to name-calling (“ankle-biters”) and rants.

An even more detailed look at the numbers and facts below shows clearly Washoe County’s new Republican leadership has done a fine job – certainly much better than the state party and national staff did with Clark County in 2018.

The other good news is that the Clark County party now also has new and energized leadership and is getting out from under the thumb of the state party and national operatives. So there is reasonable hope we may overcome the Democrat hegemony in the vital 2020 elections that will determine which party draws the district

boundaries for the next decade.So, to the numbers.As I noted previously, the total

statewide turnout in 2014 was 45.56 percent of active voters, while that in 2018 was 62.51 percent. Delving into the data for the two previous “midterm” elections (i.e., those between presidential elections) I noted the 2006 turnout was 59.16 percent and that for 2010 was 64.62 percent. Hence, 2014 was the outlier event and 2018 was right in the mainstream.

To further test this conclusion, I obtained county-by-county and party-by-party data from the Nevada Secretary of State’s website for the years for which it is available, 2010-2018.

Comparing the results for all four elections and especially comparing midterm and presidential elections separately, one fact jumps out. In 2014, all Clark County turnout, but especially that for Democrats and other parties even more than Republicans, just dropped through the floor. Because Clark County votes total 67 percent to 68 percent of the statewide totals in other years but were only 62 percent in 2014, Republicans had a banner year, led by the other 16 counties.

The Clark Democrat vote in 2014 was only two percent higher than the county’s Republican vote, but in the other three elections the Democrat margin was between 33 percent and 43 percent. Essentially, the Clark Democrats and other party voters in 2014 deserted in droves.

So, we won all six state constitutional offices and both houses of the legislature. Of course, what the governor and 2015 Republican legislative leadership did with that bonanza was despicable. Sadly, it will be

exceeded by what Democrats will do with their big advantage this term. Hence, it is essential for the Clark and Washoe Republicans, who provide 80 percent of our votes, to do well in the 2020 elections.

Turning specifically to Washoe County, it’s notable that Democrats there made a great leap forward from 34 percent of the Washoe vote in 2014 to nearly 37 percent in 2016, rising to 37.5 percent in 2018. However, Washoe Republicans improved their percentage of the county-wide vote slightly this year, too, with the other parties taking the losses.

Washoe County had the highest turnouts of their registered voters for all three parties: 74.9 percent for Democrats, 74.4 percent for Republicans and 58.5 percent for the others. In Clark County, Republicans got 67 percent, Democrats 62.5 percent and others 48.8 percent. In the other 15 counties as a group, Republicans got 63.2 percent turnout, Democrats 61.3 percent and others 46.9 percent.

With cracker-jack organization and strong local fundraising, Washoe Republicans won 19 of 23 contested local races, including one city council and two school board flips. Of the six state constitutional and two federal races on which the whole county voted, Republicans won four. In Clark County, Republicans won no statewide and federal races, while in the other 15 counties as a group, they won all.

If the new Clark leadership joins and matches Washoe and the ever-steady other 15 counties, we can win in 2020.

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 5

The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:Las Vegan Kurt Busch who used to be known as the NASCAR jerk has apparently grown up. He has donated 100 tickets to every 2019 race to be given to current and former military. Folks who are interested can go to vettix.org where those who gave can receive.

President Trump for sticking to his guns and declaring a National Emergency under the act of the same name to use funds available under that act to build the wall. His advisor, Stephen Miller, in the process of slapping down Chris Wallace told Wallace that Trump would veto any joint resolution from Congress disapproving of his declaration. Build That Wall!

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi who spewed nonsense like vomit after the President declared a National Emergency. And then, there’s Robert Francis O’Rourke who says that walls end lives. Not that any of these clowns want to have any proximity to illegal aliens. They want us to take the risk, not them. www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Capand

Bronx Cheers

RON KNECHT

Commentary: Ron Knecht

Fox News’ Chris Wallace, to go all Ann Coulter on him, is an idiot. (She’s a moron.)

The son of the inimitable Mike Wallace seems to have decided that President Trump’s National Emergency declaration is, somehow, wrong and, to support his unsupportable position, is hanging on to a slim fact—that 90% of the drugs seized are coming through ports of entry. He brought that up to Trump advisor Stephen Miller on last week’s Fox News Sunday and Miller slapped him down so hard that even Wallace’s late father must have winced.

Here’s the problem with that Wallace’s paper thin “fact”.

Given the drugs being consumed in the United States today, that’s not a pimple on this nation’s butt.

The truth is that we have no idea how much is coming through unsecured areas.

Let’s put this another way.

Here’s what we DO know. Much of the heroin, fentanyl and cocaine coming into the country is coming from sophisticated drug cartels. Do you think these guys are sending drugs through ports of entries so they can lose them? Is it possible these same cartels are also sending drug shipments through unsecured areas? You think?

As my kids would say, Duh…

On what planet does a nation as wealthy and powerful as the United States not secure its borders. On what planet is a wall considered immoral as stated by Nancy Pelosi and Robert Francis O’Rourke?

In January, just miles from where I live, there were four murders committed by an illegal alien—two in Reno and two in Douglas County to the south. This guy had a speeding ticket in 2018. He should have been deported then. But nooooo. That’s a “low level” crime because it seems that his first crime of crossing the border illegally is hardly a crime at all.

And, if wanting to deport someone who is already in the country illegally for any reason makes me a racist, so be it. You can call me and my fellow Americans Mr. Jim Crow.

What this is all about is hatred for Donald Trump. He had

the gall to win an election he was supposed to lose to Hillary Clinton by 7 points.

If he cured cancer the opposition would be yelping that he is overpopulating the planet,

And then, there is Congress.

It has an approval rating of somewhere between 11 and 18 per cent which is to say that even their mothers don’t like them.

Immigration reform has been on the docket since the Reagan Administration and nothing has been done.

That’s because one side, the Left, wants a permanent underclass with voting rights and the other side, the Right, wants cheap labor.

The American people—those who live outside of Washington, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco—just wants Congress to do its job. And its job is not precluding all immigration—just that of people we don’t know and cannot verify as law abiding.

The nonsense from both sides in their defense against the President’s invocation of the National Emergencies Act of 1976 is that this isn’t an Emergency.

We would submit that if drug cartels, murders and allowing these humps in our nation essentially unchecked because of activist judges isn’t an emergency, maybe we need to blow up Iowa with a tactical nuclear weapon and see if that’s an emergency.

The 1976 law does not set parameters on what a President declares an emergency. Our buddies in Congress passed that law and delegated those responsibilities to the President and Commander in Chief.

If the Washington and New York based media doesn’t think this is an emergency, perhaps they ought to ask the folks in Tulsa, or Peoria or Dallas.

They might find out that only in Washington does an emergency mean something which could cost you your elected position.

FRED WEINBERG

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 6

OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Coulter, Wallace Are Idiots, Congress Composed of Morons

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 7

Take the Little Bimbo SeriouslyBy now, you know all about AOC’s Green New Deal and have probably

been splitting your sides laughing. But I once again caution you not to brush her off lightly. The reality is that this enthusiastic little bimbo is probably going to be around for another 50 years or more, so it would be wise to take her seriously.

That’s right, I said 50 years. We know from experience that any Radical Left congressperson who comes from a Radical Left district has a lifetime job. Exhibits #1, 2, and 3 are Granny Pelosi, Dickie Durbin, and Chuckie Schumer, none of whom ever have to worry about being reelected.

So, while I don’t want to give AOC too much of my writing time, her meteoric rise to fame makes it unwise to completely ignore her. Of course, I have to be careful what I write, because I don’t want to be accused of child abuse.

That said, let’s all swallow our pride and take a cursory look at AOC’s latest SNL skit — the Green New Deal. The formula is simple: GND = SOC. SOC, of course, is an acronym for Same Old Crap, which is exactly what the Green New Deal is.

That’s right, none of the ideas in the GND manifesto are new. It’s the same old crap (i.e., wish list) that the Radical Left has been spewing out for at least two hundred years — at least since the heyday of that drunken old lunatic, Karl Marx, and his wealthy sidekick, Friedrich Engels.

In other words, the Radical Left plays the long game. And make no mistake about it, the long game has always been about bringing Marxism to America and exterminating those immoral folks who stubbornly cling to their outdated beliefs in capitalism and individual sovereignty.

Which brings us to another Green New Deal formula: GND = RI. No, the “RI” doesn’t stand for Rhode Island. You guessed it, it’s Runaway Inflation. As anyone who isn’t handicapped by an economics degree from Boston University knows, no matter much you raise taxes, you will never bring in enough money to pay for everything for everybody.

So, what’s the solution offered by AOC and her green comrades in arms? Simply borrow whatever you need! Unfortunately, though this idea is appealing to low-information Radical Lefties, borrowing has its limitations. Do you really believe China will continue to empty its piggy bank to support the United States of Free Stuff? Of course not.

Enter the phenomenon of “monetizing the debt,” which is a euphemism for borrowing from ourselves by creating “money” with no inherent value. It’s a complete scam, of course, a criminal activity that ultimately leads to runaway inflation.

Throughout history, dozens of countries have embraced this scam, with the result always being runaway inflation. A handful of examples include Weimar Germany, Brazil, Greece, Argentina, Hungary, and, most recently, Zimbabwe.

Runaway inflation is more powerful than any invading military force, because it makes it virtually impossible to engage in everyday commercial activity. In a runaway inflation, businesses refuse to accept paper money in exchange for their goods and services, and people are afraid to enter into long-term agreements because they have no idea what money will be worth in the future.

In a country caught in a runaway-inflation spiral, a final collapse of the economy begins when people start guessing at what future prices will be. This sets off a chain reaction where sellers increase prices even faster than the supply of money increases; i.e., panic eventually pushes prices up faster than government’s inflation of the currency.

It is at that point that government faces its last chance to avoid a total collapse of the economy. As the great libertarian economist Henry Hazlitt

put it, “Every inflation must eventually be ended by government or it must ‘self-destruct.’”

Worst of all, since very few people understand why their paper money is losing its value, the move toward a dictatorship begins to look appealing. And guess who loves dictatorships? The Radical Left!

On a more fundamental level, the question becomes: Why are people not able to resist the temptation to venture down the road to serfdom and runaway inflation? The answer is because they have no knowledge of either history or economics — not to mention the evolution of dictatorships — thus they are easy prey for a charismatic leader who promises them easy solutions to their problems.

When it comes to history repeating itself, I never tire of sharing one of my favorite Thomas Sowell quotes that perfectly sums up why people continue to be attracted to socialism, which is the driver of runaway inflation: “Everything is new if you are ignorant of history. That is why ideas that have failed repeatedly in centuries past reappear again, under the banner of ‘change,’ to dazzle people and sweep them off their feet.”

Austrian economist and Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek blamed the phenomenon of history repeating itself not only on ignorance, but on people’s stubborn attraction to self-deception, to wit: “It seems almost as if we did not want to understand the development which has produced totalitarianism, because such an understanding might destroy some of the dearest illusions to which we are determined to cling.”

But whether it be ignorance or self-delusion — or both — the welfare state and its natural bedfellows, runaway inflation and totalitarianism, are the result.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that the Green New Deal has any chance of being adopted in its totality any time soon. It’s a childish manifesto that is likely to sink the Dirty Dems in the 2020 elections unless establishment Democrats are able to silence the crazy radicals in their own party.

Let’s get real: The biggest threat to humankind is not climate change. The biggest threat to humankind is progressivism, an Orwellian term intended to mask the endgame, socialism and/or communism. Progressivism is nothing more than a psychotic urge to control all aspects of life — especially the lives of others — which, if left unchecked, is sure to bring forth the dark forces of tyranny.

As to my little friend, Alexandria Moronio-Cortez, I’m sorry to have to break the news to you, but there is no climate-change crisis, there will never be trains that go fast enough to glide across the water to Hawaii, working folks will never be willing to support those who are unwilling to work, and free college tuition is nothing more than an Uncle Bernie fairytale. Oh, and by the way, in case you haven’t heard, the last presidential election was about getting rid of “massive government intervention.”

Now, don’t go getting all depressed on me, AOC. There is a silver lining to all this: Even if none of your socialist fantasies come true, in a free market you will always be able to buy a farting cow for emotional support. ROBERT RINGERRobert Ringer (© 2019)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.

Commentary: Robert Ringer

www.pennypressnv.com

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 8

“Profit is an Opinion; Cash is a Fact”As the DJIA shot up 300 points yesterday, the New York Times

reported, Halfway through the first quarter of the year, analysts now expect

profits of companies in the S&P 500 to decline by 1.7 percent from the same period last year, according to data from John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet.

Stephen Grocer points out these same analysts last October had projected earnings to surge 6 percent from a year ago. Then at the start of this year, the analysts trimmed their guesses to a 3.3 percent increase. Now, they are catching up with self-described drama queen Stephanie Pomboy who appeared on Fox Business January 2nd. She predicted negative earnings reports would drive the markets lower by 30 to 50 percent. Pomboy is president of MacroMavens, which provides macroeconomic research and commentary to the institutional investment community.

Grocer echoed Pomboy’s point that negative earnings will drive stocks down,

Corporate profits are by no means a perfect proxy for the health of the United States economy, the world’s largest. But they exert heavy influence over the direction of the stock markets.

And while Jerome Powell sees no recession in sight, Grocer writes,“If companies’ first-quarter performances turn out to be as weak as

analysts expect, the United States will be on track for what the financial community calls an earnings recession, which occurs when corporate profits shrink for two straight quarters.”

Last year sported boofo earnings growth, so there is no where to go but down. But, what do earnings and financial statements really tell

us? In his brilliant book “Finance and Philosophy: Why We’re Always Surprised,” Alex J. Pollock explains, “Unfortunately, by the very nature of accounting and of human minds, it is impossible for financial statements to be simply matters of ‘objective fact.’”

Pollock, distinguished senior fellow at the R Street Institute in Washington and former president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, cites accounting expert David Solomons, who said the “setting of accounting standards is as much a product of political action as of flawless logic.”

“Profit is an opinion; cash is a fact,” is the investment proverb. Profit calculations are,“matters of opinion and philosophy, not matters

of fact or mathematical proof,” writes Pollock. “They can be and are endlessly argued about and are subject to large shifts in current fashion.”

Yes, and the current fashion according to Michelle Leder, reporter and founder of Footnoted.com, who appeared recently on Jim Grant’s podcast, is “companies are just making up metrics.” Ms. Leder says investors must read the fine print and reminds us that publicly-traded companies empty their financial trash on Fridays after the market closes.

There is now such a thing as adjusted, adjusted, adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization). Silicon Valley companies are especially prone to eschewing GAP rules and creating financial statements in a form that suits their fancy. All the while, the SEC looks the other way.

As earnings, good or bad, are announced, remember, the numbers have been massaged to look better than they really are.

With that, David Rosenberg tweeted today, “We are on the precipice of an earnings recession and the market is soaring.”

Perhaps, not for long.

DOUG FRENCH

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 9

Commentary: Doug French

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 10

Will Californians strike a blow for lower taxes and gasoline prices?

This past fall, Californians had the opportunity to get the government out of their pockets — or, more accurately, out of their gas tanks. Not completely, but it’s a start.

In 2017, the Golden State’s legislature increased gasoline and diesel fuel taxes and vehicle fees. Proposition 6, on the November ballot, would have repealed those tax increases and required voter approval for future gasoline and vehicle fee increases. The measure failed to pass. Californians should have known better.

That year’s 12-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase pushed the state’s gas tax to 55.22 cents per gallon, the second highest in the nation after Pennsylvania. That’s on top of the federal gasoline excise tax of 18.40 cents per gallon.

The stated goal of the tax increase was to raise about $6 billion a year for road repair. But when it comes to gasoline and diesel taxes, what states claim and what they actually do can be two different things.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, California raised $4.8 billion from the state’s gas tax in 2016 — before the additional 12-cent tax took effect. Nearly $4 billion went to “highway purposes.” But $578 million was redirected to mass transit and $247 million was spent on “general purposes.”

There’s more. The state collected $6.97 billion from motor vehicle registrations. And while most was devoted to highways, $709 million was spent on mass transit and $304 million, as well as $408 million from toll revenues, was spent on general purposes.

So of the various California gasoline taxes and car fees, $1.3 billion was redirected from road repair to mass transit and $960 million for general purposes. Would Sacramento have needed that 12-cent increase if

it had funneled all of that revenue to road repair?California is not alone. Nationwide, the FHA says that about 25 percent

of gasoline taxes are redirected to mass transit and other purposes. And those other purposes vary significantly. For example, about 25 percent of gasoline taxes in Texas are redirected to public education.

Now, states are free to spend gasoline tax and fees however they choose. But it’s duplicitous to impose a tax ostensibly for the purposes of road and highway building and repair and then redirect those funds to other purposes. And then whine that the state needs even more money for infrastructure.

Another problem: gasoline taxes are some of the most “regressive,” meaning they hit lower-income folks harder than they do higher income.

Liberals tend to strongly oppose regressive tax structures; they prefer a “progressive tax system” — one that imposes higher rates on higher-income people.

Yet many of the states with the highest gasoline taxes — e.g., California, Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, etc. — can be some of the most left-leaning states.

Put bluntly, high-gas-tax states don’t have a revenue problem. They have a spending problem. Had California utilized all those gasoline- and car-related tax revenues for road building and repair — nearly $2.3 billion — it wouldn’t have needed to raise the gas tax.

States need to be held financially and politically accountable for spending decisions. If they claim they need a gasoline tax increase in order to repair the roads, that’s what they should use the money for. But they won’t unless voters hold them accountable.

Californian voters failed to do that this November. Other states should learn from their mistake. MERRILL MATTHEWSMerrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @MerrillMatthews. This piece originally ran in The Hill.

Commentary: Merrill Matthews

Dems Go Off the Rails in Green New Deal, Two High-Speed Rail Projects

The Green New Deal may already be coming off the tracks.By far the dopiest part of the plan was the now-retracted summary

offered by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that proposed “get[ting] rid of… airplanes” and replacing air travel with high speed trains, stating that a goal of the resolution is to “[b]uild out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary.”

On that breathtaking news, high-speed rail suddenly became a central focus of the plan, a lynchpin to the overall goal of reducing U.S.-based carbon emissions. Aviation fuel accounts for more than 10 percent of U.S. petroleum-based carbon emissions at more than 246 million metric tons a year and almost 5 percent of the total, according the Energy Information Agency.

Many Americans were horrified that the convenience of air travel might be eliminated by the plan, and so the statement was quickly retracted by Ocasio-Cortez, with Democrats and news outlets practically tripping over themselves to assure the American people they don’t really want to ban air travel to lay the tracks for high-speed rail.

Perhaps off of the bad press from that botched rollout, two prominent high-speed rail projects in California and Florida suffered major setbacks on Feb. 12.

First, it was announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) in his state of the state address that a planned $77 billion high-speed railway from Los Angeles to San Francisco had been cancelled, saying, “there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A.”

“Let’s be real,” Newsom said, adding, “The current project, as planned, would cost too much and take too long.”

Then, a planned IPO by Virgin Trains USA (Brightline) for Feb. 13 that would run higher-speed rail from Orlando to Miami has been indefinitely postponed. Bloomberg News described Virgin Trains USA as a “money-losing Florida railroad running behind schedule on its own projections” in its reporting on the IPO’s cancellation.

The IPO had been panned a few days earlier by The Motley Fool’s Eric Volkman, who wrote, “Many people would love to see a viable alternative to the car and the airplane. The thing is, though, that passenger rail is a hard endeavor to make viable, hence its frequent subsidization by government bodies.”

Volkman added, “Ultimately, as a traveler and a person concerned about our dependence on the car, I want Virgin Trains USA to succeed and thrive. As an investment writer, I wouldn’t bet on that happening.”

Underscoring the lack of private interest in these projects, Virgin Trains USA has been depending on government funds, having already received approval for $1.75 billion of private activity bonds from the Department of Transportation and is pursuing another $3.7 billion Railroad Rehabilitation

& Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan on top of that.After the IPO’s cancellation, perhaps the question the Department of

Transportation should be asking itself is if investors won’t be backing these projects for which there is not sufficient demand, then why should the government? Moreover, does the Trump administration really want to be underwriting high-speed rail projects that are a cornerstone for this Green New Deal?

No wonder Ocasio-Cortez calls for public funds to subsidize these rail projects and wants to make air travel “unnecessary” — which has become one of the dominant forms of long-distance travel — passenger trains simply cannot otherwise compete.

Probably because they’re obsolete. Just saying. What is this, 1850? Clearly, high-speed rail is fantasy project of the Soviet-style Green New Deal 10-year plan, a major boondoggle which you’d really have to ban planes to make viable. Not even California wants to buy into this. The U.S. has other significant infrastructure needs to address. Why are we wasting so much money on trains? ROBERT ROMANORobert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 11

Commentary: Robert Romano

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Who Are Republicans’ Worst Enemy? Sadly…

My longtime friend Rich Galen makes a great point on his Mullings blog regarding the cost of The Wall…

“Remember, Trump wants $5.6 billion for a couple of hundred miles of some kind of physical barrier along the border with Mexico. We are $22 TRILLION in debt. The Wall represents 0.025 percent of the national debt.”

Rich continues…“Say you made $100,000 last year. If I said I needed you to donate 0.025

percent of your salary to a worthy cause…you might think that 0.025 percent represents a pretty hefty number. It’s twenty-five dollars. About two glasses of wine at your favorite watering hole.”

Build. The. Wall.Yet Republicans, when in the majority in Congress for the last two years,

failed to do so…forcing the President to do it by way of executive order today; a decision already criticized by some of the same GOP members who didn’t get the job done when they had the chance.

Republicans are their own worst enemy.* * *The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, continues her effort to pass PAID

family leave. But where does the government derive the power to force private businesses or taxpayers to pay people not to work?

This is not a conservative proposal by any means. This is something you’d expect to find in socialist AOC’s “Green New Deal.” Thanks, but no thanks. Yet a number of Republicans support it.

Republicans are their own worst enemy.* * *There was never any doubt that Democrats would pass a revised version of

the background check ballot initiative correcting the flaw in it that prevented implementation. But would have been nice if supporters would at least be intellectually honest about it.

The fact is, the bill being passed (SB143) is NOT the same as the one BARELY approved by voters. In addition, the odds are had the revised version been the one voters voted on it likely would have LOST. Any claims to the contrary are simply false.

What gun rights supporters should do is gather enough signatures to place the revised bill on the next general election ballot as a REFERENDUM and let the people of Nevada weigh in on the new provisions.

Have yet to hear a single Republican legislator call for such an effort. Republicans are their own worst enemy.

* * *Some guy named Omar De La Rosa was hired to work on campaigns for the

Assembly Republican Caucus last year – and proceeded to LOSE two incumbent GOP seats and failed to pick up the one seat with a Democrat incumbent and a Republican voter majority. Epic fail. Total incompetent.

But as is far too common in GOP politics, many of these guys fail upwards. Indeed, De La Rosa is now working for the caucus for the 2019 session. And he somehow found a way to hand the opposition the GOP’s talking points briefing on the background check bill to opponents on a silver platter.

“Thanks to the right for these!” tweeted Battle Born Progress, a far-left gun-control organization, including photocopies of Omar’s briefing on February 11. “Someone should tell the right about how to properly work email and the internet.”

Lovely. Republicans are their own worst enemy.

SCHUCK MUTH

THE PENNY PRESS,FEBUARY 21, 2019 PAGE 14

Commentary: Chuck Muth Every week in Nevada, someone is trying to screw us.

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