Watercooler 4/21/16: Hillary Charity Begins at Home: Bill Nye Doubles Down: Min Wage Still Killing Jobs

watercooler

Hillary Charity Begins at Home:

Hillary Clinton takes a lot of heat on this site, but when she does well it’s only fair we recognize it. Turns out in the last eight years she gave fifteen million dollars to charity. On the down side Fourteen million eight hundred thousand of those dollars were given to the Clinton Foundation.

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In a statement, Hillary Clinton noted the family had given $15 million to charity since 2007. The tax returns show $14.8 million of that went to the Clinton Family Foundation.

— USA Today

Hmmm, 99% of your charity to your own personal foundation, which oddly enough is the target of congressional inquires

A congressional effort to force the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the Clinton Foundation is gaining momentum.

According to the lawmaker leading the effort, it’s because Americans can’t understand who made the rules that the charitable group appears to be following.

—-Washington Examiner


Bill Nye And His Terrible, No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Week:

Life has to be a little rough, if you are making your living as a “Expert” in fields you have no particular expertise in. Slip ups and mistakes are bound to happen, and how you react will be incredibly revealing. Are you aware of your limits or are you delusional about your infallibility ? Mr. Nye a mechanical engineer by training showed he apparently knows everything about science including fields he has no training in.

 

In his latest stunt, the former children’s TV show host called out real meteorologist Joe Bastardi over an op-ed Bastardi wrote last year challenging a link between CO2 and global warming. As Bastardi explained in his piece, it’s the El Niño that’s responsible for “spiking global temperatures” this year, not CO2.

Nye took umbrage to this and challenged Bastardi to two wagers, saying in a video posted on Huffington Post:

I will bet you $10,000. I predict that the year 2016 will be among the top 10 hottest years ever recorded. […] I’ll bet you another $10,000 that the decade 2010 to 2020 will prove to be the hottest decade ever recorded.

— Twitchy

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The problem, Joe Bastardi is a Meteorologist and the author of the chart Nye is using to make his points.

Bill Nye stands in front of Joe Bastardi’s chart

Oops. Too add insult to injury Stephen Goddard got in on the action and has his own bet for the Science Guy

Bill Nye wants to make bets about hottest year/decade ever.

My bet for Bill Nye is that the average percentage of hot days (over 90 degrees) at all NOAA United States Historical Climatology Network stations, will be lower this year/decade than it was in the 1930’s.

Are you up to the bet, Bill?  Or do you believe that “hot” means something other than  hot?

—Real Science

Edit/Update: Nature is now reporting that climate change has made the world better


Minimum Wage Laws Still Working Their Magic

If someone on the left ever try’s to say they are more reality based or just believes that government should intervene to make people’s lives better, just ask them where they stand on minimum wage laws.  It literally isn’t rocket science to see what their effect will be before they are implemented. Businesses have sales, they have costs, whats left over is profit. You increase labor costs, you haven’t magically increased sales, the business has to cut someplace. Simple enough, why does anyone have a hard time understanding ?

If logical reasoning weren’t enough, you would think historical facts would bring home the point. Take the example of Puerto Rico.

The heavily indebted island demonstrates the tragic consequences of forcing up the minimum wage out of sync with the market price for labor. Between 1974 and 1983, Puerto Rico was forced to increase its minimum wage in line with the federal figure, where it has remained since 1983. The results of imposing this standardized federal minimum wage have been “substantially reduced employment on the island,” as well as swathes of unemployable low-skilled workers who decided to immigrate to the US mainland to seek work, according to research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Puerto Rican economy is heavily dependent on its manufacturing and tourism sectors, so low-skilled workers tend to form the backbone of the island’s economy. The average hourly wage in Puerto Rico is $11.13, meaning that the current $7.25 minimum wage constitutes two-thirds of the average wage. This ratio is nearly twice as high as on the mainland.

— Foundation For Economic Education

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But hey that’s Puerto Rico, it’s economy isn’t the same as say California where Governor Brown want’s to raise the wage even though “It doesn’t make economic sense”. Except it does happen in California, well except if you work at UC Berkeley.

Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees Monday informing them of the job reductions and said they will amount to “a modest reduction of 6 percent of our staff workforce.”

–Townhall

Well there are 500 people that will soon be enjoying the benefits of an enhanced minimum wage. Actually they may be getting the best of it. They will be collecting benefits, while the people who got the raise will now be paying more in taxes to pay for them.


Hypocrisy From The Left

In the ongoing North Carolina bathroom kerfuffle, both Cirque Du Solei and rock band Boston have announced they will not perform in the state in acts of solidarity.

Cirque du Soleil cancels multiple shows in N.C.
Boston cancels North Carolina concerts because of LGBT law

Oddly enough, Cirque Du Solei has not cancelled their shows in Dubai where homosexuality is subject to the death penalty. Boston will still tour Japan, a country which requires the sterilization of transexuals, and will deny housing, and healthcare to them.


Kids say the darnedest things

From the greatest generation, to the most pliable generation.


Quiz of the day: How Much Do You Know About Nato

My easy to beat score 55%

Drink up That’s it for the Watercooler today. As always it’s an open thread

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