Greta

Open remark to Greta:

If you don't like the weather, just move.

-the Wizer.

You heard it here first

It was the incompetence of the Democrats that gave us 8 years of Bush 43.
It was the incompetence of the Republicans that gave us 8 years of Obama 44.
It is the incompetence of the Democrats that will give us 8 years of Trump 45.

Who is this working for (I mean for those of us outside the beltway)? Sure, Trump is shaking things up, but at the end of the day, he is doing it for Trump and the Trumpista cronies. If he helps the people along the way, that's mere collateral damage.

If it were just for that, I'd chalk it up to beltway business as usual. But Trump is a seriously bad choice at a worse time. He doesn't understand what made America great in the first place. He conflates the economy with stock market. He thinks China is the enemy instead of one of the countries that facilitates our lifestyle. He  won't move past Russia, resurrecting it every day in a stupid he-said she-said tweet. He wants to act like a fight promoter among Venezuelan dictators and Middle East mullahs. He goes out of his way to belittle people who are better than he is. He wants to slow immigrants, who are going to be the only economic cushion left after the baby boomers retire. The man is inexplicable, unless that explanation includes "madman". In the process, he moves us further away from freedom.

Lately we hear about socialism, like that is somehow Trump's new crusade. I have news. We're only going to get more socialism:

The entire public discussion revolves around what the politicians should “allow” or “forbid” the rest of us to do next, based on an unquestioning assumption of their moral authority to make such decisions for us.

I have just about given up on the process (18 months until the election). There are a handful of Democratic Party candidates that might be better at this than DJT, but their chances of getting good media coverage is nil. The Dems pick someone like Kammy Harris, who isn't up for this kind of fight. Or like Lizzie Warren, who is up for the fight, but doesn't have sharp enough arrows in her quiver.

To be honest, I was hoping for a Republican this time, but I see that isn't going to happen either. Therefore, I am officially calling it: Trump for another term.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

 

 

The cars that can't be built

They still make them, of course; although now they are called CUVs

Eric Peters assigns blame for the demise of the American sedan. He's right. You could get 9 (actually -- 10) people in a station wagon. I know this, because my 7 brothers and sisters and I fit along with Mom and Dad in a Kingswood Estate, at least for long enough to get to church and back.

So, what is a CUV except a bumped up sedan? Most of us boomers require more room than we had back then, but the idea was that a people mover could be fashioned from a sedan, which by the way already had enough trunk room for 6 suitcases.

That need hasn't totally gone away, but it is served by "light trucks" now, some believe to get around fuel economy rules.

Just as it was in those days, the people movers of today are fashioned from a car chassis. It's clearly a high roof version of the sedan. The fuel economy of the CUV is not materially different from the sedan version, either, so there isn't a big incentive to buy the low roof version. 

Soccer moms still need their mini-vans, but the car of the present is no longer a "car". It's a "light truck". Not much different from the station wagon, in concept or execution.

  

ironies

Proudly lifted from the Automatic Earth Blog

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/05/a-guide-to-american-political-ironies/

Who wrote “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal”? Jefferson, a slave owner.

Who was one of the most ardent Abolitionists? Alexander Hamilton.

Was he a slave owner? Yes.

Who won the election of 1824? No one, it was decided by the House of Representatives.

So which party lost? None: all four candidates were Democratic-Republicans.

In response, Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, created the Democratic Party.

Jackson created the Democratic Party as an anti-bank, anti-oligarch, states-rights platform the Tea Party would recognize.

Martin Van Buren, a Democrat, created the first concentration camp for Cherokee Indians in 1838.

Those 17,000 Cherokees owned 2,000 slaves.

Did Lincoln create the Republican Party? No, it was an amalgamation of failed parties: Lincoln was their 1st candidate.

What was the Lincoln campaign of 1860? Non-interference in state slavery.

Why? The decision of Dred Scott in 1857, a slave owned by abolitionists in a state he did not reside. Overturning 250 years of history, the case determined that no slave could ever become a citizen, i.e. freed.

Who was the best known Confederate General? Stonewall Jackson.

What did he do when he sided with the Southern cause? Freed his slaves.

Who else was a top Confederate General? William Mahone.

What did he do? He was the creator of the most successful interracial alliance in the post-war South. His name was purged first by Southern Democrats (for integration), then by modern Democrats (for being a Confederate).

Woodrow Wilson (D) ran an anti-collectivism, limited government, anti-monopoly, anti-bank campaign in 1912. He created the Federal Reserve and is known for founding the modern welfare state.

Wilson was re-elected on the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War.” He immediately forced the reluctant nation into WWI.

Herbert Hoover, as Secretary of Commerce under Calvin Coolidge during the Crash of ’21, demanded economic aid and bailouts, but Coolidge, “the great refrainer,” refused. The market immediately recovered.

Hoover was President during the Crash of ’29. He gave unprecedented bailouts to help the economy recover. It never did.

Roosevelt campaigned against Hoover for being “ the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all our history.” He outspent Hoover tenfold.

Did Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” the greatest stimulus and spending program up to that time, end the Great Depression? No. It was going strong in 1939.

What did Roosevelt campaign on? He promised to keep us out of war in Europe.

Who was Time’s Man of the Year in 1938? Adolf Hitler.

Who was Man of the Year in 1939? Joseph Stalin.

1942? Joseph Stalin.

Wars under “anti-war” Democratic Party: 93 years, 46.5%. 625K deaths since 1864.

Wars under “pro-war” “Republican” Party: 107 Years 53.5%. 12K deaths since 1864.

Who voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act? Republicans 80% vs. Democrats 69%.

Who filibustered it? Southern Democrat Strom Thurmond.

Who signed it? Lyndon Johnson, a southern Democrat.

Where did Thurmond go? The GOP, who had voted against him and against southern segregation.

What did Richard Nixon campaign on? “Law and Order” and a “secret plan” to exit Vietnam. He immediately bombed Cambodia and was later impeached for a burglary.

Who said “the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now” and “Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary” ? John F. Kennedy.

Who gave the greatest modern tax cut? John F. Kennedy (income and capital gains, signed by Johnson).

Who most increased the postwar Federal deficit? Ronald Reagan 186%.

Who most increased taxes? Ronald Reagan, 1982 (as % of GDP, excluding Obamacare and Johnson’s one-year tax).

Who called young blacks “Superpredators”? Hillary Clinton, 1996.

Who put the most black men in jail? Bill Clinton, under the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act.

Who cut welfare most? Bill Clinton, 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Act.

Who was called the first “Black President”? Bill Clinton (“white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime.” –Toni Morrison, 1998. I swear this is true).

What was George W. Bush’s platform? Smaller, less-invasive government, lower taxes, and no foreign wars.

Who are the Neoconservatives? “Liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party”.

Where did these Liberal Democrats finally prosper? Under G.W. Bush and on Fox News, e.g. Bill Kristol.

Which President won the Nobel Peace Prize? Barack Obama. (As did Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter)

What was his legacy? War every day of all eight years, with +50,000 official strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria and unofficial attacks in Ukraine, Sudan, Niger, Cameroon, Uganda, and elsewhere, as well as 3,000 drone deaths.

Wow, anything else? Due to his intervention, Obama, the first black president, caused the creation of an open-air black slave market in Libya.

Who campaigned advocating a Syrian no-fly zone expected to cause WWIII with Russia? Hillary Clinton (D).

Who campaigned for peace talks and de-escalation with Russia? Donald Trump (R).

Who sent 164 missiles into Russian ally Syria? Donald Trump (R).

Who advocated against the recent attacks? “Far-right” speakers Rand Paul and Tucker Carlson of Fox News.

Who advocated for the attacks? “Left” speakers Fareed Zakaria, and Rachel Maddow with left media Slate and Mother Jones.

What was the actual breakdown? 22% of GOP supported Syrian airstrikes in 2013 vs 86% for the same strikes in 2017.

And on and on. Got it? Know which side you’re on? History, party platforms, personal beliefs, economy, all clear?

Another Narrative, Dashed to Bits

So, this is a story, a black woman surprised to realize that a man wearing a confederate flag shirt is somehow not a racist.

It's ultimately tragic that it has come to this, that many people think the flag of the Confederacy is somehow conflated with racism. The truth is, the cause of the Confederacy was just, even if the motivation of all its participants was not.

In order to learn all of the lessons of the Civil War, it is important to separate the issues and analyze them independently and thoroughly. There were people on both sides of the slavery issue that wanted secession. Just as there were many racists fighting for the union.

Hopefully people will start to get it.

The Neo-Luddites among us

Andrew Moran recently published a good summary of the benefits of automation for the workforce of the past, present, and future. I think most people know these facts intuitively, but there is always a lot of noise and distraction coming from special interest groups who hope you won't notice recognize the truths of economic reality.

The US government has us ever leaning towards socialism with whatever bits and pieces of disconnected truthiness they can gather into a narrative basket. For example, they state how hard it is for a family to live on less than $15/hour, without disclosing that it is precisely their actions that make this impossible in the first place. Years of dollar devaluation have led to dollars being worth pennies. This is the problem that they say they are trying to fix by reducing the value of the dollars you already make even further.

Automation has always been a way to increase productivity, and is naturally a deflationary phenomenon. If you can make 11 widgets for a dollar, when you could only make ten before, you've just increased the value of your dollar. This is the unyielding promise of automation.

Our government and their cronies deploy policies that counteract this natural process. I was stunned when a few years back, the Federal Reserve (a government sponsored enterprise) stated outright that they want to eliminate 2% of each of your dollars' value, on average, every year. This is what they mean when they say they want to target 2% inflation. They are now achieving exactly that with the latest results on inflation. In doing so they limit the ability of people to provide for their families at a lower wage rate.

The surprising thing is this is an overt collusion between government and the banks to induce an extra 2% (or more) tax on everything you buy. Automation, which until now was the one thing you could rely on as a way to improve your life, may not be enough. And that's growing insurance that  the Luddites will soonget another shot at manipulating their victims.

Listing Agent

This morning while I was extracting some bits from the interweb, I came upon a click-bait site, sponsored by KBB  , No, don't click it. It's an inconsequential site that forces you to look through 11 pages to get to the end and find out which is the "best" luxury car under $35,000. You see a lot of sites like this, from "The ten things you should never tell your wife" Or "You won't believe these compromised celebrity pix, especially # 345".

I get it. Really I do.Content writers get paid by the click, so sites will try to raise up their click counts in order to make their money. Usually it takes one or two clicks before you know you've been had.

I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that Kelley Blue Book, a respected reference resource at one time, would take the high road and give you a straight up article delineating 10 cars worthy of your consideration. But no, this was a waste of time. I figure others, like me would be eager to see if the list held any secrets to reveal from the automotive market. We're all within a few short years of needing another car, and this kind of information might be good for future reference.

Unfortunately, KBB wants you to labor through all eleven slow loading and advertising infested pages. I was one of the unfortunate many who waded through every slide. However, when I saw it was a click bait trap, I decided to make the best of it. I pirated the list.

So, as a public service, I present to you, totally click and ad free, Kelley Blue Books' idea of the 10 best luxury cars under $35,000. Remember, power windows may not be included. Notice that almost half of the vehicles aren't even actually cars, so it's not an honest list. It is however, free; and hey, it's not even my list, so cut me a break.

Without further ado, I present KBBs 10 best luxury cars under $35,000.

10. 2018 Acura TLX
9. 2018 Buick Regal Sportback
8. 2018 Audi Q3
7. 2018 Mercedes CLA
6. 2018 Acura RDX
5. 2018 Mercedes GLA
4. 2018 Cadillac ATS
3. 2018 Audi A3
2. 2018 Lexus NX
1. 2018 Infiniti Q50

Aren't you glad you saved the 11 clicks and minutes of suspense?

Getting Education

Teachers are running protests in Arizona and Colorado, following similar activities in Oklahoma and Kentucky. I think it's time we faced the obvious truth: This isn't working for anybody is it? The kids aren't really getting an education. The teachers aren't really doing what they are there to do.

It's time to send the kids home. Send them home, and have their parents deal with them. Let real solutions emerge from the predicament.

The parents who treat schools as glorified day care, can find better day care, closer to home, and more personalized, at that. The ones who really did want their kids to get an education, well, there's plenty of unemployed teachers, now. Some of them might be good enough to teach, and now only have to deal with students who are properly engaged in the task.

It's time to re-roll education and how it is done.

Exodus

They say The Donald can't take a joke, since he skipped out of the White House Correspondent's Dinner, a charity event. Well, apparently, there weren't any jokes; just some tired lefty whining points. Everybody has lost their flipping sense of humor.

They've also lost their grip on reality. Honestly, I can't see how anyone could conclude that voting for a democrat is an improvement. I think political discourse has devolved to the point where we just need to all go our separate ways. Another point for broad secession.

I see where a Grand Exodus from the Blue States will commence as a result of the crazy new tax laws. Nothing against people leaving California, Illinois, and New York for Nevada, Texas, and Florida. It will spark some long needed changes to tax policies in those states. One thing to keep in mind, though: It would have only taken 800 more progressives moving to Florida to put an Al Gore into the oval office. If we think things are bad now, what happens when Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico turn back to the dark side.

Candace for President

If this is "Far right", then bring on much more of it.

Jim Kunstler has a good take the "Victim Cartel" machine called the Democratic Party, and where they may be headed now.