News and Views
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Local “Defenders of Democracy” Promote Coronation for Nominee Within 24 Hours of President Joe Biden Announcement, Reject a Mini-Primary
Read more: Local “Defenders of Democracy” Promote Coronation for Nominee Within 24 Hours of President Joe Biden Announcement, Reject a Mini-PrimaryIt took roughly 24 hours, but Councilmembers on Montgomery County’s legislative body, sometimes called the “MoCo Council”, quickly and dutifully coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris as the potential US Presidential Nominee for their political club/tribe in 2024. Their proclamations of loyalty and (seemingly) enthusiastic endorsement of Vice President Harris as the “blue tribe” nominee…
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Parents, it’s time to declare our independence from union control of schools
Read more: Parents, it’s time to declare our independence from union control of schoolsIndependence requires courage, conviction, and a clear vision. In a letter to his wife on July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote: “Through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory; I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph.” Just as our…
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Why is college tuition so expensive? Because of Monifa McKnight’s contribution to administrative bloat
Read more: Why is college tuition so expensive? Because of Monifa McKnight’s contribution to administrative bloatThe outrage over Monifa McKnight’s appointment to a cush job at the University of Maryland centers on qualification: does she really deserve that job after her horrific behavior at MCPS? There’s another aspect of her appointment that needs to be discussed: necessity. Study after study has identified the causes of an American university’s outrageous tuition.…
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MCPS Juniors and Seniors: Ditch the SAT, the colleges need you more than you need them.
Read more: MCPS Juniors and Seniors: Ditch the SAT, the colleges need you more than you need them.I was talking with a general contractor a few weeks ago. He was dismayed at the bills he gets from plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, and disaster remediation specialists. “It costs me $250 just to get a plumber to walk through the door,” he wailed. “In 10 years they’ll be asking for a whole lot more.”…
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The Many Times CE Marc Elrich “Gets Personal” When Discussing the Political or Mundane
Read more: The Many Times CE Marc Elrich “Gets Personal” When Discussing the Political or MundaneWhen does the political get “personal”? Increasingly, with MoCo County Exec Marc Elrich, it appears to occur whenever someone has a different policy idea or theory on governing than him. Take, for example, his recent personal jab on Reardon “Sully” Sullivan as reported by Adam Pagnucco (himself reporting on Fox 5’s Tom Fitzgerald’s interview with…
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Jawando, Mink, and Sayles throw cannabis prisoners under the CASA bus
Read more: Jawando, Mink, and Sayles throw cannabis prisoners under the CASA busUnder the Revenue Act of 1862, the Union seized land from Southern landowners, and eventually auctioned those lands to freed slaves. In 1865, General Sherman issued Special Field Orders 15, allowing the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, dividing it into parcels of 40 acres to be settled by…
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MoCo Chief Exec Sweats Out the Heatwave, Demands All A/Cs Be Turned Off “In Solidarity” with Him, Mother Gaia
Read more: MoCo Chief Exec Sweats Out the Heatwave, Demands All A/Cs Be Turned Off “In Solidarity” with Him, Mother GaiaCE Marc Elrich (Democrat, 30+ years in office) has been without air conditioning at his Takoma Park home for about a month from June-July (per a radio report by WMAL Newstalk local), as he waits for an A/C unit part to be delivered. Yesterday, the sweaty and fed up Montgomery Chief Executive issued a strongly…
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Positive News on Licensing
Read more: Positive News on LicensingYou probably know the maxim “even a broken clock is right twice a day.” The earliest instance we have of that maxim is from London’s The Spectator, a daily publication during the years 1711–1712. Just as today’s coffee shops provide free WiFi to bring in customers, so London’s coffee shops shared copies of The Spectator…
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Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable Sensibilities
Read more: Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable SensibilitiesHere at Clean Slate MoCo we are very cautious about discussing issues at the national level. I’m begging an exception for this post, because we have a confluence of policies at the national and local level that can only be considered a war against the poor. In May 2024 President Biden increased the tariff on…
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Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity never
Read more: Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity neverOne of the most amazing books I ever read is Poverty and Prosperity by the economist Deepak Lal. In that book, Professor Lal outlines how freeing the economic markets in India and China raised fully one-fourth of the entire world’s population out of crushing poverty and wealth inequality within 40 years. This book is so…