Odds and ends

Sometimes there are topics that aren’t lengthy enough for a column but still deserve comment. Today’s column is a collection of those.

The Democrat Party is broke. According to a new Federal Election Commission report, the DNC finished June 2017 $3.3 million in debt. The GOP, on the other hand, reported a robust $47 million on hand in June. How can that be, if Trump is single-handedly ruining the country as Democrats and the media suggest?

The number of people collecting unemployment reached a 17-year low in April 2017. Jobless claims fell below 2 million for the second time in the current eight-year “expansion.” That is good news on the front that there are increasing jobs available. Could the estimated $86 billion in eliminated regulations have anything to do with those numbers?

The USDA reports food stamp use has fallen to a seven-year low. I suspect a combination of increased employment with real jobs, not minimum wage entry level jobs, combined with illegal aliens fleeing the country in record numbers have something to do with that. Hopefully the coming possible layoffs at the DNC won’t affect food stamp usage.

A 16-year-old girl in Alabama was expelled from school for a year for possessing a water gun that was given to her by a friend to hold. In a completely unrelated matter, Venezuelan President Maduro is arming thousands of militia loyal to him after disarming the civilian populace. I wonder if those will be water guns, too.

Along that same vein, applications for firearm concealed carry permits are up nationwide. The increase in applicants comes primarily from women and African Americans. Could this be a result of Obama’s divisive rhetoric, a response to Donald Trump’s view of less firearms restrictions, or a combination of the two?

Two recent studies, one by the National Dairy Council, reveal that in 2016 people were more likely to believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows than believe the national media. I don’t know which is sadder, the media or that Americans have become so removed from their food sources.

In a new study peer reviewed by the U.S. EPA, MIT, and other universities, data provided by NOAA, NASA, and Hadley CRU to GAST (Global Average Surface Temperature) has been proven to contain adjusted temperature data to provide a more favorable view of climate change. In other words, it has been falsified. GAST has been cited as the standard for EPA’s GHG/CO2 Endangerment Finding. There it is, folks. The climate change hoax is unraveling in the face of legitimate, unbiased scientific study.

John McCain recently made the deciding vote against repealing, at least in some fashion, the mandates of Obamacare. Reasons for his vote abound, ranging from a personal vendetta against Trump to providing cover for Republicans who maybe don’t really want to repeal Obamacare. In any event, McCain probably won’t be running again. Let’s hope that Arizona can field a strong candidate with a better record than Jeff Flake, the junior senator from Arizona.

If there is any doubt about the problems with a single payer healthcare system, we need look no further than Great Britain and Charlie Gard. As a refresher, Charlie Gard was an infant with a debilitating birth defect. After being refused health care by Britain, a British court then decided that he could not receive experimental treatment either. Regardless of your stance on the choices of his parents regarding his care, neither a court nor a government should decide the fate of a child.

Want an example closer to home? Look no further than the VA health system. That too is a government run single payer health system. If they can’t get that right, why turn everyone else’s health care over to the government?

The liberals are out in force in Nevada. We had such a barrage of ads urging Sen. Heller to vote against Obamacare repeal that even my granddaughter complained about them. When he announced his opposition to the first repeal bill, the ad focus suddenly changed to Medicaid funding.

Rep. Amodei was not immune, either. He is being urged to keep funding for EPA, even though the examples given in the ads were accomplished by Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, not the federal agency.

All of these ads were misleading and distorted the facts. Liberals don’t know any other way, since the facts nearly always favor the other side. Liberals don’t want any government program to go away, only grow.

Tom Riggins’ column appears every other Friday. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.