Penny Press 17, 2017 · national political news, it’s virtually the same stuff every day. If...

Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 14 Number 50 AUGUST 17, 2017

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Credits:Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg Floyd Brown Al Thomas Doug French Robert Ringer John Getter Pat Choate Ron Knecht Byron Bergeron

The Penny Press is published weekly by Far West Radio LLC All Contents © Penny Press 2017

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THE PENNY PRESS,AUGUST 17, 2017 PAGE 2

By PETER HONGSpecial to the Penny Press

After the GOP leadership lost health care reform in the Senate by a single vote with three renegade Republicans joining a unanimous

bloc of Democrats, you’d think Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be singularly focused on capturing the 25 Senate seats Democrats will be defending in 2018. You’d think.

Instead, a McConnell-aligned PAC is running a vicious attack ad campaign in the special election for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ open Senate seat in Alabama…

in the GOP primary…against a Republican congressman. Mo Brooks — a conservative, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and one of the three leading candidates to succeed Sessions – earned McConnell’s ireby suggesting that the Kentucky senator step down as Majority Leader for failing to pass Obamacare repeal.

McConnell has placed his support, his money and his political machine behind recently appointed Senator Luther Strange in the August 15th primary. Six months ago, disgraced Alabama Governor Robert Bentley appointed Strange, then the state’s Attorney General, to Sessions’ open seat before pleading guilty to two corruption charges related to a sex scandal and resigning from office. Strange himself faces several ethics complaints related

to his appointment and his days as Attorney General. The Alabama ethics commission has interestingly postponed its hearing on these complaints until the day after the primary.

From his brief Senate tenure, Strange appears to be a relatively reliable vote for Senate leadership, not having had time to distinguish himself – for better or worse. The key word for the Republican leadership is “reliable” – as in a vote they can count on — again, for better or worse.

“Reliable,” as defined by the Establishment, describes neither Brooks nor the other GOP contender, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Chief Justice Moore has gained prominence among social conservatives and is best known

for being removed from office for refusing to remove a replica of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building.

Because Alabama is as red a state as you’ll find, there not much to distinguish between the Republican candidates on major issues; the difference arises in tone, personality and who’s going to hang out with which crowd in the Senate GOP cloakroom. Strange has made his bed with the Establishment wing of the Senate. And, as McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) has demonstrated, they are bent and determined to keep Strange there.

Already, the SLF has announced that it expects to spend at least eight million dollars on behalf of Strange – an unheard of investment in a Republican state in a non-election year. McConnell’s PAC

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 14 NUMBER 50 AUGUST 17, 2017

Penny WisdomFor every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS! —Donald J. Trump

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInside:Maybe Ma BellGuts CNN

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT RINGER PAGE 7DOUG FRENCH PAGE 9DICK RESCH PAGE 10ROBERT ROMANO PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

McConnell Strangely Can't Get Out Of His Way

Commentary

Continued on page4


has run ads attacking both Brooks and Moore, but has focused most of its attention (and money) on Brooks. The attack ads claim that Brooks was insufficiently supportive of President Trump when Brooks served as chairman for Ted Cruz’s presidential race in the primary. And Trump gave an inexplicable, last-minute Twitter endorsement of Strange, a particularly strange move given the friction between Trump and McConnell.

Given Trump’s popularity in Alabama, the attacks have done some damage to Brooks’ standing in the polls. He’s currently running third behind both Moore and Strange, although a recent poll had the race close with Moore leading with 30%, Strange at 22%, and Brooks at 19%. If no one receives more than 50% of the vote in next week’s primary, the top two vote getters in each party will face off in runoffs on September 26 (the general election is scheduled for December 12).

Therefore, Brooks does not need to beat both Moore and Strange; he only needs to place first or second to make it to the runoff. Since voter turnout in primaries tends to be low and difficult to poll, predicting the outcome of this race is treacherous business. McConnell’s money could set up a Moore-Strange runoff, as planned, or the Majority Leader and his Establishment allies could find themselves once again with egg on their faces.

It begs the question: why is Senator McConnell plugging into a safe Republican seat millions of dollars that could be used to defeat up to a dozen potentially vulnerable Democrats in 2018? Is he truly more comfortable with the reelection of Democrat senators who vote as a bloc against the Trump/GOP agenda – than a Senator Brooks (R-AL) who will fight for it?

The answer lies in the ongoing battle between McConnell and Establishment strongholds, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and

Tea Party organizations, like the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF). A National Review article in 2013 depicted in detail how the McConnell-SCF feudoverwhelmed the 2014 Nebraska Senate election that resulted in the election of Ben Sasse.

As Sasse’s election illustrates, the Establishment does not have a great track record of picking senators. If McConnell and the Establishment had had their way, Sasse, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul today would not be on the Senate floor. In contrast, senators, like Lamar Alexander, John McCain, and Lisa Murkowski, who were supported by the Establishment when challenged from the right, abandoned their principles and the entire GOP by switching and voting against outright repeal of Obamacare a month ago.

So, how exactly does McConnell truly define who is “reliable” and who is not? Who does he think is on his side? And whose side is he on?

The wily, crafty legislator may have tipped his hand when he complained this week about President Trump’s “excessive expectations” about the progress in the Senate of the Trump agenda. McConnell, who has been in the Senate for 33 years, is at heart a Senate institutionalist – and the traditions of that body, like the filibuster (which Strange supports and Brooks and Trump oppose).

And his definition of “reliable” does not depend on whether you are principled, a conservative, or a supporter of the President – the key is whether you vote with Mitch McConnell and preserving the Senate he loves.

Apparently, Senator McConnell thinks that’s the key qualification for Alabama’s next senator. We’ll see on Tuesday if Alabama Republicans agree.Peter Hong is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government

GOP Establishment Does Not Have Great RecordContinued from page 3

Who Is Minding The Store?

Lately, when we tune in or read national political news, it’s virtually the same stuff every day. If you’re watching a left-leaning outlet like CNN or MSNBC, or reading the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today or HuffPost, it’s almost all about either Russia or some leak from the White House.

If you’re watching Fox, it’s almost always about how the deep state is undermining the Trump Administration or the corruption of the Obama Administration.

The following discussion should not be read as anti-Trump, but simply as appropriate questions

that folks should ask about the federal government. Unless you believe the federal government should be trusted without question, you should be watching with a skeptical eye what is happening inside the Beltway.

Our concern is: “What is really happening behind the scenes in Washington while the media is focusing on just a couple areas of subject matter?”

We hear that a large number of regulations from the Obama years have been eliminated. Which ones, though? We certainly cannot count on the media from any point on the political spectrum to cover this, as they are so focused on Russia or the Clinton Foundation, etc.

Could Trump Administration people themselves be the source of the leaks? Follow us on this one. If

the administration leaks something, Fox will jump all over it as the deep state strikes again trying to bring down Trump. CNN or MSNBC will jump all over it, showing once again how unprofessional our president and his people act.

We have another question: “What is this administration doing while the media is focused on the leaks?” Obsessing about leaks and Russia certainly blinds the fourth estate to the nuts and bolts of what is really going on with the Trump Administration.

For all that any of us know, except perhaps those in the administration itself, our country is being fundamentally transformed behind the scenes without that meddling press getting in the way.

Why is this a problem?Well, if the country is being

transformed in a libertarian conservative way, it is probably good in our eyes. But, we honestly don’t know what direction this transformation is taking, or the long term benefits or damage a transformation could cause.

But, in this age of news organizations being concerned solely about ratings and readership, they lead with what makes the biggest splash. If there’s a political food fight, it’s the featured coverage, while real investigative journalism is dead.

And our country is not better for it.

There was a time, not long ago, when journalists actually practiced true and diligent investigative journalism. In fact, it was expected and revered. It could cost reporters or editors their jobs if they just threw something together and it turned out to be false news, fabricated to make a political point.

Not anymore. Sloppy, aggressive reporting seems to be the order of the day. Get the story out there immediately at all costs. The news outlet can simply “walk it back” later if it turns out to be a fabrication or careless error.

This is damaging our republic. It weakens our Constitution. It ill serves all of us.

We urge the media, both left and the right, to get away from their talking points and rants.

Liberals, drop the Russia matter; if there was any fire under the smoke, we would have seen it by now.

Conservatives, drop the push to press Obama administration officials for specifics on corruption unless and until real evidence shows a basis to prosecute. Meantime, no fishing expeditions.

Focus on what is happening day to day in this administration. What regulations are being eliminated? What changes are happening at the Veterans Administration? What standards are being changed at the Department of Education?

Ask questions and actually do some good old fashioned investigative reporting.

If what is happening is actually something that should benefit the country, report on it that way. Show some balance.

However, if what is happening could do long term, significant damage to the public, it needs to be investigated and reported to our citizens as well.

We count on a free press to protect our republic, regardless of who occupies the White House.


The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:The University of Nevada, Reno which will not expel or fire Peter Cvjetanovic, a UNR student identified as a marcher in a Friday white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the university’s president said. A picture of an open-mouthed, tiki-torch-toting Cvjetanovic from Friday’s “Unite the Right” march was posted online Saturday and went viral. Since when would a state university expel a student who—to the best of anyone’s knowledge—was not doing anything illegal for simply protesting? Who’s the moron who even asked the question?

President Trump for indicating he is close to a pardon for former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio who was convicted by a federal judge for doing his job. The next thing Trump should look at is whatever happens in the Las Vegas Bundy trials. More than one way to get even with Obama’s so-called judges.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro who barred the defense in the retrial of the Bundy defendants from referencing constitutional rights to freely assemble and to bear arms. She also prohibited mention of alleged misconduct or excessive force by law enforce-ment. She’s not a judge, she’s exactly the kind of person President Trump was complain-ing about when he took on the judiciary during the campaign. www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Capand

Bronx Cheers

Commentary: Ron Knecht & James Smack

RON KNECHT and JAMES SMACK

So it has come down to this:

Some 20-year old subhuman drives a Dodge Challenger into a crowd of people at a rally against taking down a statue of Robert E. Lee and the fault belongs to Donald Trump.

I saw the Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia say it on TV.

Are the networks going to blame President Trump of the total eclipse of the sun being unequal across the country, too? How about blaming him for the fact that Danica Patrick has never won a NASCAR race.

If Trump takes a strong position against the fat little North Korean thug, there’s a leftist media group which will undoubtedly say he is fat shaming.

If he takes a less strong position, than he’s not taking a strong enough position.

If he brings a peace treaty between Hezbollah and the state of Israel, than they’ll complain he’s anti-Christian.

If he were to offer Hillary Clinton a cabinet position, the left would disavow her.

If he said that Hitler was a bad guy, then they’d say he was misunderstood.

Let me put this in terms we all understand.

The mainstream media as a collective are nuttier than a fruitcake.

But, there may be some hope.

AT&T, which now owns entertainment assets like DirecTV, has purchased Time Warner. It looks like the deal will close before the end of the year.

The lefty business press keeps writing that it will probably

unload CNN.

Somehow, we don’t see it. AT&T is not a liberal company. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the reddest of red states. Its Board is in the business of making money. In the current environment, dumping CNN as opposed to fixing it might be silly.

And, if the company keeps CNN, it is doubtful that CNN stays the way it is.

I could be wrong. The lefties want AT&T to guarantee its editorial independence. That, indeed, would be a stupid decision on the part of CEO Randall Stephenson. That would be like buying North Korea and keeping the little fat thug as its leader.

I could be wrong.

It is possible that Stephenson might close the deal, look under CNN’s hood, decide there is no way to fix it and make it Les Moonves’ problem at CBS.

But you don’t buy a company like Time Warner to unload its biggest divisions.

If there’s one thing that AT&T has it is management. The very thing CNN is lacking.

And the recent moves made by Rupert Murdoch’s idiot children at Fox News have opened a nice big hole should Stephenson covet the kind of money FNC was making before all the upheaval the children brought about.

So it really gets down to this.

Is Ma Bell buying Time Warner to make lots of money or is it playing a prevent defense.

We’ll soon see.

FRED WEINBERG


OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Maybe AT&T Guts CNN Like A Pig


Are the Polls Wrong Again?In my recent article titled “The Better What?” I speculated that the Dirty

Dems are almost certainly going to be overwhelmingly defeated in the 2018 midterms. However, I added the caveat that the only two things that can prevent a Republican landslide victory is too much Donald Trump chaos or the anti-Trump Republicans in Congress succeeding in stopping his agenda.

Since that article was published, the Internet and FNM have become so radioactive with stories about Trump’s demise that I felt it was important to go into this topic in more detail. The clincher came when Laura Ingraham was talking to some dunderhead Democratic operative (don’t even know his name), and at one point, in trying to bolster his view that Donald Trump’s presidency was all but over, he sneeringly said that even Republican intellectuals like Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol have turned against him.

No, I’m not kidding. He really said that. Is the man so stupid, so out of touch with reality, so filled with hatred that he actually believes that those wildly cheering Trump supporters at his recent West Virginia rally give a hoot about what Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol think?

Alert the media: It’s precisely because of the existence of people like Krauthammer and Kristol that millions of people voted for Trump. Their enthusiastic support makes it clear that draining the swamp is not just a catchphrase to them. On the contrary, they’re deadly serious it.

Listening to desperation statements like the Republican intellectuals comment, coupled with all the misleading polls (more on those in a moment) that are being shoved in our faces on a daily basis, has actually strengthened my suspicion that not only are Republicans not going to lose in the 2018 midterms, they’re going to win in a tidal wave fashion.

Nevertheless, as I said in my previous article, because of those same two factors I alluded to, I can’t give a 100 percent assurance that it’s going to happen. That said, let’s take another look at the two factors that could stop a Republican tidal wave.

Again, the first is Trump himself. That’s right, Donald Trump is the only person in the world who can stop Donald Trump. I don’t need to elaborate on Trump’s foibles, since everyone on the planet is intimately familiar with them. If the man didn’t go out of his way to hurt himself, I honestly believe even the fake polls would have him at a better than 50 percent approval rating.

The other factor that’s a threat, not only to Trump but to the entire Republican Party, is the GOP establishment that is absolutely committed to taking him down — yes, even if it means destroying the Republican Party by losing the House and Senate in 2018 and the presidency in 2020. I have absolutely no doubts that Democratic-loving anti-Trumpers like Richard Burr, Jeff Flake, and Thom Tillis are willing to lose their own Senate seats if that’s what it takes to destroy the president.

Okay, let’s put these two threats on the back burner for now and take a closer look at what’s really happening with the polls. The biggest factor that wishful-thinking pollsters are purposely ignoring is that, to the Dirty Dems’ dismay, we still elect presidents via the electoral college system.

That being the case, when Horrible Hillary got 4 million more votes than Trump in California, what it actually meant was: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! It’s much like baseball, a game in which a ten-run win is worth no more than a one-run win. Thus, whether you win by one vote or 4 million votes in California, you still get the same number of electoral votes — 55. In other words, just about all of those 4 million excess votes Hillary captured were wasted.

The Founding Fathers were prescient, indeed, in that they seem to have anticipated the emergence of a rogue state like California when they determined that elections should be decided by the electoral college. As the Dirty Dems discovered in 2016, people in Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, et al have no interest in being controlled by the social justice champions who run California, New York, Illinois, or any of the other blue states whose leaders are obsessed with racism, LGBT rights, nonexistent global warming, and redistribution-of-wealth schemes, and it’s the electoral college that protects them from such tyranny.

Keeping this in mind, the more I read about Trump’s demise, the more certain

I am that the 2018 midterms are going to produce a tidal wave of victories for the GOP. This, despite the fact that I doubt the White House soap opera will completely disappear over the next 14 months.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see General Kelly out the door (by his own hand or Trump’s), because he may try to cramp DT’s style too much. Steve Bannon and R.E. McMaster are vulnerable as well. And while he’s at it, I wish Trump would send his daughter and son-in-law back to New York. Not only are they both liberals, they also provide juicy targets for the FNM.

In any event, even if the shakeups continue, it will have no effect on Trump’s supporters, so don’t be fooled by the FNM and the misleading polls. Their constant drum-beating makes me suspect they’re actually terrified. It strikes me as a classic case of “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

In addition, all kinds of good things are happening for Republicans that the FNM is ignoring. Perhaps the biggest of these is when West Virginia’s Democratic governor Jim Justice announced, at a Trump campaign event in his home state, that he is switching his allegiance to the Republican party. It was an absolute bombshell, yet the FNM virtually ignored it. When a governor in your party jumps ship, what does it tell you about the party’s fragility? Trust me, it has the Dirty Dems panicked.

I have to believe that Trump also has people pressuring West Virginia’s Joe Manchin to follow Governor Justice’s lead and switch parties. Should that come about, it would be another huge blow to the Dirty Dems, because, while hapless Mitch McConnell is talking about moving on and shoring up Obamacare, the fact is that Joe Manchin could become the 50th vote needed to repeal it. (Sorry about that John McCain, but your vengeful No vote could end up not being enough to stop the Trump Train after all.)

Another problem on the horizon for the Dirty Dems is the mounting discomfort for the grand old lady of American Indian folklore, Pocahontas. While she was blustering to her base that “You haven’t seen nasty yet,” a real Indian by the name of V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai suddenly entered the picture by announcing he is challenging her for her Senate seat in 2018.

Mr. Ayyadurai, a Ph.D. from MIT, is a self-described “real Indian” who is hoping to win the Republican nomination in Massachusetts and run against “the fake Indian.” Even if he doesn’t win in such Radical Left political territory, he could sure make life embarrassing for Pocahontas and the Dirty Dems.

Also, pro-Trumpers are finally stepping up to the plate and taking it to the enemy from within. Hedge fund owner and Trump ally Robert Mercer is donating $300,000 to support a primary opponent running against Trump hater Jeff Flake in Arizona. In Nevada, another Trump hater, Dean Heller, is being targeted by rabid Trump supporter Jerry Tarkanian, son of UNLV’s legendary basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian.

If you look at the number of seats the Dirty Dems have to defend in red states alone, it’s easy to see how Republicans could reach a 60-seat majority — or more — in the Senate and also add seats in the House.

Finally, as I have previously pointed out, even if Trump’s favorability numbers are real, they’re probably good enough to get him reelected in 2020, because Bernie Sanders might just start a new party and split the Democratic vote. Or, if Bernie actually secured the Democratic nomination, it would be an automatic loss for the Dirty Dems.

Finally, if Trump is successful in getting Mitch McConnell off his ass and gets Obamacare repealed and big tax cuts passed, his real favorability ratings could rise to the area of 50 percent. So the way I see it, it’s Trump’s game to lose, because, now that I think about it, I don’t believe his wimpy internal enemies can withstand the pushback from his supporters.

In summation, don’t be misled by the FNM and the shaky poll numbers that show Trump and the Republicans losing ground. It’s hogwash, plain and simple. ROBERT RINGERRobert Ringer (© 2017)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.

Commentary: Robert Ringer

Elon Musk Preys on Short Memories

Evidently, Tesla is in-between taxpayer subsidy checks, because the company is floating a $1.5 billion bond offer to keep the lights on. The rating agencies are calling the bonds “junk.” Road Shows to pitch the paper started Monday with Elon Musk and his lieutenants explaining how the company would pay the money back given the car maker, solar panel peddler, and government gift taker has yet to make a profit, or maybe he doesn’t have to. Musk, according to Bloomberg, “brought his charm offensive to the debt market at a meeting for bond buyers in Manhattan on Monday and came away with orders for $600 million after just a few hours.”

“It’s a well-oiled routine,” Bloomberg reports. “Musk previously tapped his cult-like followers in the equity market for capital eight times in seven years to fund Tesla’s growth. Apparently, his pitch works on debt investors, too.”

Sky News reports, “So far, Tesla has been raising money to pay its bills with a combination of equity offerings and convertible bonds, which eventually convert into shares. In March, the company raised $US1.4 billion through a convertible debt offering.” Taxpayer cash was charitably left out of the article.

“Following the announcement, Standard Poor’s reaffirmed its negative outlook for the car-maker and assigned a “B-” rating for the bond issue - deep into junk credit territory,” Sky reports. “SP also maintained its “B-” long-term corporate credit rating on Tesla.”

Moody rates the issue “B3” and the company overall “B2” because “ if Tesla ends up in serious financial trouble, its brand name, products and physical assets would be of “considerable value” to other automakers.” In

other words in a bankruptcy liquidation Tesla’s assets will fetch a decent price.

Famous Tesla bear Jim Chanos said a year ago on CNBC,the“brazen Tesla bailout of SolarCity” is a “shameful example of

corporate governance at its worst.”“SolarCity, whose bonds were yielding 20 percent yesterday, is a

company headed toward financial distress. It is burning hundreds of millions in cash every quarter, a burden that now Tesla shareholders will have to bear, at a total cost of over $8 billion,” said Chanos, who has previously disclosed bets against both firms.

“And if you don’t want to believe me, consider this: The combined market drop in the value of both companies is more than the equity value of the deal itself — which means that Tesla shareholders think SolarCity shares are essentially worthless,” Chanos said. “Finally, it is hard for me to believe that this deal was not being contemplated when Tesla, and Mr. (Elon) Musk himself, sold shares just a few weeks ago.”

Musk intimated last year that Tesla wouldn’t have to raise capital in 2017, but Chanos scoffed, “they’ll have to unless he’s suspended the laws of arithmetic.” And here we are now again after Musk recently raised money in the first quarter.

Tech debt has been down this road before. The dot.com “euphoria allowed companies to obtain debt in order to grow their young businesses, instead of using equity,” Mark Holman, chief executive officer of London-based TwentyFour Asset Management, said in a note to clients. “This ultimately ended in pain for investors as default rates soared in the later part of 2002 to 2003. This is why we always frown when new technology is mentioned in the same sentence as fixed income.”

Elon is taking equity and debt investors with short memories on quite a ride.

DOUG FRENCH


Commentary: Doug French


Designing a Solution to our Nation’s Productivity Crisis

America is mired in a productivity crisis.According to the most recent government data, American workers’

productivity over the last decade has grown at less than half the annual rate it did between 2000 and 2007. Last year, our collective level of productivity edged up just 0.2 percent. Compare that to the late 1990s, when productivity jumped an average of 2.8 percent a year.

This lack of productivity growth is behind a host of economic ills, including our sluggish economy and stagnant wages.

Employers must make work a better place to be. They can start by designing and building more engaging workplaces, ones that empower people to work in ways that suit them best. Treating workers as individuals with unique work styles and needs will boost engagement — and make them more productive in the process.

The productivity crisis has real, dollars-and-cents consequences. Gallup reports that 16 percent of workers are actively disengaged. They’re “miserable” and “destroy what the most engaged employees build.” The tab for that behavior is outrageous — between $483 billion and $605 billion a year in lost productivity.

Just over half of workers are neither engaged nor disengaged at work — “they’re just there,” as Gallup put it.

Only one-third of workers are “engaged” — invested in their organization, and trusted, respected, and heard by leadership.

That’s a problem, given that “engaged” and “productive” are effectively synonymous.

There are plenty of ways to turn this state of affairs around — investing in worker training, and development; improving communication between bosses and the rank-and-file; and offering more flexible working arrangements, to name just a few.

Better workplace design can facilitate all three — and many more.For example, employers that encourage their charges to get up and move

around throughout the workday have seen big productivity gains.One study of Bank of America’s call centers found that giving staff the

opportunity and space to interact with one another over scheduled breaks increased “cohesion” — that is, how tightly the staff felt connected to one another — by 18 percent. The level of stress reported by employees decreased 6 percent, and employee turnover fell 28 percentage points, to just 12 percent.

The workers in the study collectively performed better — and in so doing saved the company some $15 million a year.

That space for interaction can take a variety of forms — everything from outdoor walking paths that enable impromptu meetings to stairwells at the center of the office that can double as stadium-seating for company-wide meetings.

These are the sorts of environments wherein millennials spent their college years working. And they’re what this youngest generation of workers expects in the workplace. Employers have little choice but to accommodate their desire for “collegiate design;” after all, millennials are now the single-largest cohort within the U.S. labor force.

Unfortunately, employers haven’t been doing so. Only 16 percent say that their workplaces comport to the preferences of this newer crop of workers. It’s no wonder that 89 percent of new hires say that they feel “lost in transition” in the workplace. That feeling manifests itself in higher turnover — and lower productivity.

Making American workers even slightly more productive could pay billions of dollars in economic dividends. Those dollars would redound throughout the economy in the form of higher wages, greater profits, additional tax revenue, and more upward mobility for workers.

Will employers make the workplace great again? Billions of dollars are riding on it. DICK RESCHDick Resch is the CEO of Green Bay, Wisc.-based manufacturer KI (www.ki.com).

Commentary: Dick Resch

Glimmer of Hope in Jobs Numbers, but Tax Cut Spark by Congress Still Needed for Growth

So far in 2017 the U.S. has added 1.4 million new jobs through July, the fastest pace of job creation at this point in the year since 2014, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.

If the jobs keep coming at their current pace, another million jobs will be added by the end of the year, bringing the total to 2.4 million new jobs in President Donald Trump’s first year in office. Not too shabby.

The missing link remains robust economic growth. So far in 2017, the economy is only growing at an inflation-adjusted 1.9 percent annualized, still not shaking off the doldrums following the financial crisis that began a decade ago.

In fact, the economy has not grown above 3 percent since 2005, and not above 4 percent since 2000.

In other words, businesses are expanding at the moment, taking on new employees, but if this is not met with increased growth and profits, the expansion could be short-lived.

Similarly, considering the exuberance around current stock valuations — the S&P 500 is up more than 18 percent since November — if robust growth is not restored to the economy this year, it is easy to foresee a scenario where spending and investment is pared back.

Once that tipping point is reached, equity valuations could go into correction as businesses start cutting back on staff and the next thing you

know, the economy is not growing at all.Like all things, time will tell. It has been 8 years since the last

recession, so we may be overdue.On the other hand, the recovery was so lackluster — the worst

recovery on record — that might make the next recession harder to predict. If there was no boom, why should there be a bust?

All of which makes the monthly jobs numbers something to watch. Although the last crash came in the fall of 2008, the job losses had begun at the end of 2007 and continued throughout 2008, with unemployment rising.

On the other hand, the dotcom bubble popped in 2000 while the economy was still adding jobs, with the recession and job losses following. Meaning adding jobs is no guarantee of success.

In 2000, the equity bubble popping was the leading indicator. In 2007, the job losses and foreclosures wave led the crisis. In the next recession, rising interest rates and bond bubble popping could become a drag on the economy. Or sovereign debt. Or further implosion of emerging markets.

The further we get from the last recession, the more likely the next one becomes, making the lack of Congressional action on items like the Obamacare repeal or tax cuts all the more frustrating to the American people — who in 2016 voted for President Trump to provide a spark to ignite the economy and get Americans back to work.

But Trump cannot do it alone. Congress needs to do their job, too, on behalf of the American people. It’s not a partisan issue. If Trump succeeds, America succeeds. But where is Congress? ROBERT ROMANORobert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy of Americans for Limited Government.


Commentary: Robert Romano


Watching Outfor Our Country, County and CityLIKE A HAWK!

KELY 1230AM

Ely’s Radio Station293-1875 Georgetown Ranch

Unmistakable Media BiasThe bias in the media against President Donald Trump is often very

subtle, but unmistakable. For example, consider this blurb yesterday from an article by Julie Bykowicz and Erica Werner of the Associated Press…

“Trump launched a barrage of criticism at (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell over the collapse of the seven-year GOP campaign to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act…”

Except…that’s not what happened. Trump didn’t “launch” an attack against Mitch McConnell.

TrumpRESPONDED to an attack by McConnell, who blamed Trump for ObamaCare repeal’s failure; saying Trump was new to DC and had unrealistic expectations.

Trump didn’t punch; he counter-punched. Which he’s known for. You could look it up. Yet nowhere in the reporters’ report does it mention that McConnell started the fight. Go figure.

In the same report, the “reporters” note that some Senate colleagues have come to McConnell’s defense in the spat with the president. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) went as far as to say without McConnell we wouldn’t haveNeal Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

That’s a laugh. With a 52-48 majority in the Senate, Republicans could have confirmed the eminently qualified constitutionalist with Forest Gump as Majority Leader.

PS: Screw Marshawn Lynch.The Oakland Raiders’ running back opted to sit on his arse eating a

bananaSaturday night as the National Anthem was played before the start of the NFL team’s pre-season game against the Phoenix Cardinals in a protest against alleged racism.

The Colin Kaepernick-wannabe is being victimized to the tune of $4.5 million a year!

Raiders coach Jack del Rio said he told Lynch, “I’m going to respect you as a man. You do your thing.”

Yeah, jerk, “do your thing.” And I’ll do mine. Boycott the Raiders as long as you continue boycotting the Star Spangled Banner. CHUCK MUTH


Commentary: Chuck Muth Every week in Nevada, someone is trying to screw us.

Most of the time, we elected that someone.

That's why we conserva-tives NEED a WEEKLY voice.

That's why the Penny Press has made sticking up for us little guys a whole new Nevada tradition.

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Penny Press 17, 2017 · national political news, it’s virtually the same stuff every day. If...

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Transcript of Penny Press 17, 2017 · national political news, it’s virtually the same stuff every day. If...