Michigan Cities are Banning People From Renting Out Their Property [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

Michigan Cities are Banning People From Renting Out Their Property [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"While cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids have largely embraced short-term rentals, that’s not the case everywhere, meaning that this property rights issue has come to the forefront.
Home sharing — where people rent out their residential property through companies like Airbnb and HomeAway — has become increasingly popular in Michigan.
And some municipalities are fighting back by banning the practice.
...Page pointed out that short-term rental properties are often second homes, which are taxed at a higher significant rate than homesteaded properties.
The additional tax base of second-home properties plays a vital role in the tourism economies of some towns.
Despite the benefits, this practice has some opponents.
Hotels and members of the accommodations and tourism industry don’t like the competition. 
And some residents and homeowners associations don’t like the flow of people coming through the neighborhood.
These groups have encouraged local government officials to charge excess fees or even ban these rentals.
That’s happened in Traverse City, Grand Haven and elsewhere..."

Lunch video-----The Truth About CNN

Noon-toon

Trump administration sends 'feds,' 20 ATF agents to Chicago - Washington Times

Trump administration sends 'feds,' 20 ATF agents to Chicago - Washington Times:

"The Trump administration has deployed “the feds” to Chicago that the president threatened to send to the city earlier this year to get a handle on gun violence.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday detailed the federal “strike force” being deployed to the city to target violent offenders and investigate gun crimes."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo Declares State Of Emergency For MTA « CBS New York

Gov. Andrew Cuomo Declares State Of Emergency For MTA « CBS New York:
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Just days after a subway derailment in Harlem, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will be signing an executive order declaring a state of emergency for the MTA.
The governor made the announcement Thursday at the Genius Transit Challenge Conference, an international competition with a $1 million prize to come up with solutions to improve the transit system’s reliability.

Cuomo said the state of emergency will “allow us to expedite many of the normal government processes.”
...While he said issues with the transit system have been going on for years, Cuomo said its “current state of decline is wholly unacceptable.”
“The delays are maddening New Yorkers,” he said. “We need ideas outside the box because, frankly, the box is broken.”
...This week, an A train derailment in Harlem left dozens injured. 
Officials said it appeared to have been caused by an improperly stored piece of rail and two track maintenance supervisors have now suspended without pay.
There have also been multiple breakdowns, delays and countless inconveniences for those who rely on the trains. 
Earlier this month, riders were left sweltering underground in a stuck F train.
...“If you underfund a public transit system by billions of dollars, eventually it’s going to melt down,” said Executive Director of the Riders Alliance, John Raskin.
“That eventually is now.”

Government "Travel-care"-----Some subways are literally held together with zip ties | New York Post

Some subways are literally held together with zip ties | New York Post:
"At more than $1 million per subway car, you’d think they’d be held together with something more than zip ties.
A savvy straphanger noticed a homespun addition to her 7 train Wednesday morning when she saw part of the car fastened with zip ties.
“Zip ties used on the undercarriage of a #7train..is this standard?” tweeted MsJaya_B. 
“How often are these checked for wear and tear?”
With all the problems the MTA has had recently, writers can hardly be blamed for thinking the worst.
An MTA spokeswoman said Wednesday that the zip tie was being used as a temporary fastener to attach a cable to the new R186 cars while a special part is being made.
She added that the cable is attached another way, and the zip tie is just a back-up.
“The ties are a back-up way of securing a cable on the subway car.
It’s used in conjunction with other fasteners,” said MTA spokeswoman Beth DeFalco.
“It’s 100 percent safe and only used on some cars on the #7 line. 
We have a specially designed bracket that is being engineered and is set to be installed in the next few weeks.”"
And this: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/06/29/fed-up-commuters-subway-issues/

The World Is Now $217,000,000,000,000 In Debt And The Global Elite Like It That Way

The World Is Now $217,000,000,000,000 In Debt And The Global Elite Like It That Way
"The borrower is the servant of the lender, and through the mechanism of government debt virtually the entire planet has become the servants of the global money changers.  
Politicians love to borrow money, but over time government debt slowly but surely impoverishes a nation.  
As the elite get governments around the globe in increasing amounts of debt, those governments must raise taxes in order to keep servicing those debts.  
In the end, it is all about taking money from us and transferring it into government pockets, and then taking money from government pockets and transferring it into the hands of the elite.  
It is a game that has been going on for generations, and it is time for humanity to say that enough is enough.

According to the Institute of International Finance, global debt has now reached a new all-time record high of 217 trillion dollars…

Global debt levels have surged to a record $217 trillion in the first quarter of the year. This is 327 percent of the world’s annual economic output (GDP), reports the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

The surging debt was driven by emerging economies, which have increased borrowing by $3 trillion to $56 trillion. This amounts to 218 percent of their combined economic output, five percentage points greater year on year.

Never before in human history has our world been so saturated with debt..."

You ought to know!

Reagan Biographer: GOP Must Retain Trump’s Blue-Collar Voters or ‘Democrats Will Run This Country for 50 Years’

Reagan Biographer: GOP Must Retain Trump’s Blue-Collar Voters or ‘Democrats Will Run This Country for 50 Years’:

"“I knew Ronald Reagan had brought us back from the dead before, so I thought I’d look and see how he did it, and I learned that everything I knew about Reagan was wrong, that he was much more of a populist than he had been given credit, and that’s what allowed him to attract the Reagan Democrats that put him in the White House and let him change America and the world,” he said.

Marlow cited a passage of the book which explains that Reagan forged a bond with white working-class voters from the Democrats’ New Deal coalition who were concerned with rising crime and taxes in the Sixties and Seventies, and the lack of respect for American virtues shown by the Sixties cultural revolutionaries."

Approaching 'Solar Minimum' Will Draw Sun Spot Activity To Low Point

Approaching 'Solar Minimum' Will Draw Sun Spot Activity To Low Point:
"Sun spot activity is argued to be the most important factor in earth’s climate, and lack of spots means global cooling. 
Since global warming has morphed into a religion, advocates will not recant their belief that man-made global warming will destroy the earth. ⁃ TN Editor
The sun is heading into a period known as solar minimum, during which activity at the surface will ‘change form.’
In this time, certain types of activity, such as sunspots and solar flares will drop – but, it’s also expected to bring the development of long-lived phenomena including coronal holes.
According to NASA, solar minimum could also enhance the effects of space weather, potentially disrupting communications and navigation systems, and even causing space junk to ‘hang around.’
The sun follows roughly an 11-year cycle.
While sunspots were relatively high back in 2014, they’re now heading toward a low point expected in 2019-2020, according to NASA.
‘This is called solar minimum,’ said Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.
‘And it’s a regular part of the sunspot cycle.’..."

AM Fruitcake

History for July 1

History for July 1 - On-This-Day.com:
Gottfried Von Leibniz 1649, George Sand 1804 - Author Amandine Aurore Lucile Dudevant, Louis Bleriot 1872 - Aviator, first to fly an airplane across the English Channel


Susan Glapell 1882, James M. Cain 1892, Dan Aykroyd 1952 - Comedian, actor ("Driving Miss Daisy," "Saturday Night Live," "Ghostbusters," "The Blues Brothers")


1862 - The U.S. Congress established the Bureau of Internal Revenue.


1863 - During the U.S. Civil War, the first day's fighting at Gettysburg began.


1898 - During the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" waged a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.


1943 - The U.S. Government began automatically withholding federal income tax from paychecks.


1963 - The U.S. postmaster introduced the five-digit ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) code.


1966 - The Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.


1979 - Sony introduced the Walkman.


1980 - "O Canada" was proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.