Important headlines for August 3rd - South Florida's most overrated destination & San Francisco's best commentary
Bottom Line: These are stories you shouldn't miss and my takes on them...
Excerpt (From Reader's Digest): Why It’s Overrated: For bachelorette parties and weekend getaways, the glitz of this strip of coast in Florida is enticing. But no matter when you tour, the year-round pretty weather makes for overpriced-everything and bum-to-bum beaches. It’s fun, sure, but travel blogger Lindsay Cale says there’s much more beautiful and unique experiences to be found in this state.
What to Do Instead: Cale recommends staying in the Wynwood neighborhood in downtown Miami where streets are lined with vibrant street art, boutiques, and gelato stands. Its location is great too: “You can easily catch an Uber to soak up the sun on the beach, but spending time in Wynwood will quickly turn Miami into one of your favorite cities,” she says.
Hot Take: No argument here. And no offense intended to South Beach. You're either all about it or you're probably over it in about 5 minutes.
Trump Is Getting Good Results, Benefiting All Americans Grady Means, SF Chronicle
Excerpt: I didn’t vote for Trump, don’t understand him, don’t think he has a great grasp of the issues, don’t care for his style.
But, he is also getting results in domestic policy:
Unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics and women are, dramatically, at new lows. That is real progress, which could be quickly undone by the hare-brained socialist schemes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic candidate for New York’s 14th congressional district, and Bernie Sanders.
Lower tax rates for companies and high-income individuals have attracted capital back to the United States; capital that sat offshore during the years when Obama couldn’t complete a speech without spitting out the words “taxes” and “fairness.”
These numbers also highlight a Faustian deal buried in the tax bill: When you lower tax rates on the rich and companies, the economy grows rapidly, and everyone gets richer, including the rich and the companies. When you “tax the rich” out of “fairness,” the economy does not expand as quickly, unemployment does not go down as much, and the poor get relatively poorer — or at least, not as rich.
It’s also worth noting that when you go after profitable “companies,” you hurt the U.S. economy and jobs, but you especially hurt worker-investors and union pensions. “Companies” are owned largely by middle-class investors and union pension plans. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and others were always honest in laying that out.
So, would you rather have “fairness,” with higher taxes on the rich and companies, higher unemployment among minorities and everyone “fairly” poorer? Or would you prefer to have everyone better off, including the rich? America or Venezuela? You choose.
Of course, this is all a matter of personal choice, but my guess is that African Americans, Hispanics and women will be less and less prone to fall for the socialist rhetoric of “fairness” and may decide that Trump actually is delivering something far more real to them than the identity-politics trope of the radical leaders of their “movements.” I’m willing to predict a partial shift of these voters to Trump in coming elections.
Hot Take: I feel like standing and applauding. And this was in the San Francisco Chronicle. There are two sides to stories and one side to facts. Those who stand in opposition to this progress definitively care about their political party more than the well being of the average person trying to make a better life for themselves and their family.
Until Tomorrow...