John T. Reed’s news blog

When you compare Trump to perfection, he looks bad. But that’s a waste of time.Try asking yourself who would you rather have, Trump or each of his predecessors since, say, 1960:JFK—Stood up to USSR in Berlin and Cuba, tax cut, moon, affirmative action, Bay of PigsLBJ—Vietnam, War on Poverty, entitlements, Civil Rights ActNixon—Vietnam, China, Watergate, price controls, abandoned gold, likely impeachment, resignationFord—Whip Inflation Now buttonsCarter—Israel-Egypt peace treaty, “malaise”Reagan—Iran Contra, tax cuts, Tax Reform Act of 1986, deregulation of S&Ls and resulting S&L debacle, won Cold War, Amnesty, Arms treaties, ended inflationBush I—Desert Storm, “read my lips” tax increases, Mr. Ruling...

http://reason.com/blog/2017/11/10/how-going-a-little-too-far-with-a-girl-a   The Reason magazine article link above says the allegations about Moore regarding the 14-year-old girl do constitute two serious crimes. The age of consent in AL is and was 16.   But the statements repeated again and again that he “molested” or “preyed on” nine teenagers or “children” are arguably libel vis a vis Moore and brazen violations of journalistic ethics and give lie to the claims of the news organizations to the extent they claim to present only factual and logical accounts and analysis.   I have a low opinion of college men who date high school...

One of the gold companies has also been touting silver lately. I bought some this past year. I wanted my wife to sell some gold she inherited but she would not, so I asked if we could at least convert half of it to silver. She agreed.So I watch the gold eagle and silver coins wholesale prices in each weekday Wall Street Journal (listed in a daily section called “Cash Prices”)Silver has been going down lately. Since I bought it as a hedge against USD inflation. The daily price of silver is irrelevant to my use of it. In the...

Regarding moving the US embassy to Jerusalem: It is nobody’s business other than the U.S. where it’s Israel embassy is. I am especially incensed to learn that past presidents have promised to do it then reneged for fear of violence. That is the kind of wimpiness that has turned America into a paper tiger since WW II—and done great damage to us like the 58,000 who died in Vietnam.On the other hand, my fictional Unelected President “Mike Medlock” would move all the funny-hat country embassies to the U.S. In other words, the ambassador to Israel would be in DC. Why? Because...

I do not recommend bitcoin as a store of value. It is interesting as a better, faster, cheaper SWIFT wire, but you must get a trustworthy guarantor of the bitcoin transfer. For example, ask Wells Fargo to transfer $20,000 to Westpac Bank in Australia. They can use bitcoin for that if they want, but if anything goes wrong, Wells Fargo gives you your money back. As far as as I know, neither Wells nor any other traditional bank currently offers bitcoin transfer service.I am greatly alarmed by the popularity of Bitcoin. If you don’t own it now, don’t buy it....