Sunday, March 11, 2018

Quite The Weekend

Welcome to Monday, my sleepy friends.

● Daylight savings sucks.

● So Katy Perry killed a nun. She did it in court. She had sued to force the nuns to sell their convent to her. The nun had a heart attack and died. That's not good Karma. That's really not good Karma. Who the hell sues nuns anyways? Go kick a puppy... you'll spend less time in hell.

● Trump continues to exist and the left is beside themselves with rage about it.

● Bob Woodward actually said that a lot of journalists have become "emotionally deranged" over Trump. This should be no surprise for those who recall Bush Derangement Syndrome. Leftists are simply so incapable of tolerating disagreement that they will develop emotional (rage) problems when the public expresses a different view point. It's easy to see why they always end up building death camps, isn't it?

● So Trump is imposing tariffs on things like steel and cars. Of course, history and logic and theory state that the idea is horrible, but that's never stopped us before. The left has been pushing this idea since before I was born and hasn't stopped until Trump did it -- now they hate it. So why is Trump doing it? Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania. As the left tries to mock him for saying some steelworker's father is dead when he isn't, Trump is winning over union-whites in those three states in big numbers. Keep those states out of the Democratic column and the race is over. Up next... a tariff on foreign cheeses to win Wisconsin and banning sports gambling outside Nevada to win that state. Colorado is probably lost, but maybe the pot will keep a lot of leftists from remembering to vote.

● Whether you like Trump or not, you have to admit that his 2020 slogan is really pretty fantastic. It's "Keep America Great." First, it's simple, easy to remember and tugs at your patriotism -- it's bigger than the candidate. It has obvious (yet vague) meaning too (unlike "Forward."). So it's a great slogan in just a general sense. What makes it even better is that it's the logical follow up to "Make America Great," so it brings a sense of continuation which connects well with the human brain. It's the same reason that several people I know hated the film title "Now You See Me 2" because they felt it should have been "Now You Don't." We like the little sayings, and Trump's slogan feels like one. It also implies that Trump has made America great. I don't think I've ever seen a solid 1-2 punch like this before. Kudos to his marketing team.

● It looks like "bump stocks" are going to be banned and I'm fine with that. Bump stocks let you turn a semi-automatic into an automatic. (For those on that left, it lets you turn an "automatic" into an automatic.)

● We are now starting to see a rush of liars into the #MeToo "movement." Well, let me rephrase that... we are seeing the exposure of more and more liars. The latest is Kate Upton, a semi-famous model who claimed that she refused a huge campaign with Guess because their CEO harassed her. The truth, as told through emails from the time, appears to be that she didn't want to do the lingerie portion of the shoot and Guess fired her.

● California seems to have gone even crazier than usual. They are trying all kinds of stupid stuff. They are trying to interfere with ICE. They are pushing for single payer health care. Their progressives are trying to drive out any Democrat with rationality, like Diane Feinstein and the former mayor of Los Angeles who dared to support school choice once. This is a bit like Lenin killing Trotsky. At some point, we really may want to think about giving the place to Mexico... if they'll even take it.

● Bet on Virginia to take it all in the March Madness Tournament.

12 comments:

LL said...

We shouldn't give California away. We should sell it to Mexico and let them govern it. They'll make firearms illegal the way that they did in Mexico. The payments that Mexico will be forced to make on California (or have it repossessed) should pay the interest on the nation al debt until it doesn't.

AndrewPrice said...

We should sell it to the cartels. They probably have more money.

Critch said...

I hate DST, stupid idea. Isn't needed anymore. Commiefornia is a lost cause. I think Trump is throwing the tariffs out there as a negotiating tool, they can be quickly repealed. Trump does not think like the idiots in DC, he just doesn't. He knows how to negotiate.
I don't get people like Kate Upton, she models bikinis that aren't hardly there and then balks at lingerie, as though she still has any modesty left? Really?

it's interesting that Trump wants to ban bump stocks, for the most part they're really not covered by the 2nd Amendment, in a strictly legal sense, however, I can do the same thing by hooking my finger in my belt loop. I'm sure of course that all the criminals will turn there's in.I'm curious however, if the Feds declare them illegal how are the people who bought them legally going to be compensated for them? And the companies that make them? Hell, the things aren't even serial numbered, how are they going to control them...hint, they can't.

You want Califonria out of the way, let the counties along the coast form Frisco to LA form one state, The Peoples Republic of California and let the rest of the state become three other states,,Voila!, the conservatives win..You ever been to Bakersfield? Everyone there is from Missouri or Oklahoma.

I got to meet Jerry Brown many years ago, about 1976 or so...seemed like a genuinely nice guy, but I think he let's his emotions rule him..

AndrewPrice said...

Critch,

What I don't understand about DST, is that everyone hates yet, yet it lives on. How?

On Upton, I don't take anyone seriously who makes a living selling their body or images of their body. It's like Emily Ratwhatever. She makes a living stripping down and then whines about feminism. Sorry, you're a whore. You don't count.

That's the big open secret about all the gun control stuff. You can't collect it. And you can't stop people from remaking it in other ways. But then, I don't honestly think the left ever intends for gun control to work because that would kill one of their favorite issues.

What's funny about Brown is that he has become the rational conservative voice in California. That's how far out there the state has become.

I agree about splitting California into parts. Then sink the cities into the ocean.

tryanmax said...

I don't know jack about squat when it comes to economics and tariffs, but I do know that I'm not alone and that a lot of "experts" are included in that.

Take for example the stream of allusions to Smoot-Hawley since Trump announced his tariffs. A little clickey-clicky on the Google-machine is all it takes to discover that Trump's tariffs aren't even in the same league as Smoot-Hawley. Yet the doomsayers predict Great Depression 2 (a.k.a. Greater Depression).

Another example, I read a think piece about how trade deficits are okay because a household has a trade deficit with the grocery store. This is such an asinine oversimplification with so many missing pieces that a teen with a part-time job can see through it. (If I spend more at The Buckle than I make at Aunt Annie's, then I have a trade deficit.)

And another thing. Trump put a back-door in his tariffs: an exemption for countries that apply similar tariffs on non-exempt countries. This could potentially lead to a trade zone sans treaty—arguably how it should be done. This also has the potential to shut out China without explicitly targeting China.

Yet the "experts" are acting baffled by this exemption, saying it defangs the tariff. Either they sincerely believe that Trump intends to harm our trade partners, or they're just looking for an easy dig. Anymore, I'm leery of hazarding a guess.

tryanmax said...

Oh yeah, and the "principled" conservative Jeff Flake want to push a bill blocking Trump's tariffs, not because he believes that the authority to apply tariffs belongs with Congress, but because Trump did it.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, Here's the thing...

At a time when everyone believed that the key to economic success was to close your borders and squeeze everyone out of your markets except your own companies, Adam Smith proved beyond any doubt that free trade was the only system that made sense. All other systems reduced wealth.

Since that time, the bulk of human wealth has been created in periods of relatively free trade and economies actually shrunk during periods of protectionism. This is fact.

Protectionism helps a tiny, tiny group of producers but hurts everyone else in the economy.

Yet, the left has tried to cloud this because it means smaller government and they want bigger government to control the people. So they invent these strange theories attacking free trade.

What I think Trump is doing is (1) winning votes in the Rustbelt without actually imposing tariffs, and (2) trying to get trade deals from our partners to make them lower barriers they have put up. In the end, I think you will see a lot of deals that he can announce dropping things like barriers to our foods and higher end products, and he'll punish someone to get votes in the Rustbelt.

AndrewPrice said...

Flake is a real turd. He seems to think his job is to stop Trump. He's John McCain II.

Anthony said...

1) Daylight savings is painless nowadays that most everything is connected to (and reset by) the internet.

2) The nun was suing Katy Perry to keep the church from selling some property to Katy Perry.

3) Trump is beside himself with rage everyone isn't Sean Hannity or pre-rebellion Bannon. Nothing like reading headlines of the president calling a random reporter a SOB during a public rally.

Speaking of said rally, it will be telling if the candidate Trump was promoting loses given Republicans (including but not limited to Trump) normally win that district by 20 points.

4) Its a nice slogan.

5) Its hilarious that despite his big talk, Trump went as far as the NRA let him go with gun control and no further (they support the bump stock ban but oppose raising the age minimum). Still, at least he did something.

6) I forgive Kate Upton. I will forgive her quite a bit. I once read the phrase 'a woman who looks like she was designed by a man'. That perfectly describes Upton. *Cough* But I digress.

7) I just read about how there is a liberal movement to abolish ICE, because kicking out non-citizens is fascist or something. High idiocy.

8) Trump's tariffs are silly but they might pay off for an election. I doubt they will pay off for long because it will quickly become clear that the jobs aren't coming back.

There is a lot of government meddling around the world in the steel industry but the biggest problem of steel workers has been increased efficiency. The industry needs far, far fewer workers than it used to.

https://www.marketplace.org/2016/08/09/world/steels-decline-was-about-technology-not-trade-0

In the four decades beginning in the early 1960s, the steel sector lost 400,000 jobs — a five-fold drop, according to Allan Collard-Wexler, assistant professor at Duke, who examined the history of the industry using detailed census data.
Initially, “we thought this was going to be all about trade,” he said. He was in for a surprise.
Even though jobs disappeared, actual steel output declined by a small amount, roughly 20 percent — nowhere near accounting for the loss in jobs. Steel production wasn’t leaving the United States as much as it was just requiring fewer workers.
“It was increases in the productivity of the steel industry that are generating this huge drop in employment,” said Collard-Wexler.
Specifically, something came along called the minimill – essentially a process for recycling scrap steel and turning it into higher quality steel.

AndrewPrice said...

Anthony,

1) It's not painless on my body... or the body of my kids... or my wife... or parents... or anyone else who complains about being thrown out of rhythm. I don't know anyone (present company accepted) who doesn't complain about it.

2) Every article I've seen says Perry filed the suit and legally speaking that makes sense given the nature of the proceedings. ...in a lawsuit they brought against her and the other nuns at the convent. ...Perry and the Archdiocese of L.A. sued Hollister

3) 5) Typical Anti-Trump comments. Let it go, Anthony. You'll feel better.

4) Surprising growth. :)

6) I wouldn't really forgive someone who falsely accused me of sexual harassment and tried to get me fired. People like that are really bad news.

7) This started in California maybe a month ago. California has been trying to find a way to stop ICE from deporting anyone and this has been their latest attempt after the sanctuary cities thing started to fall apart on them.

8) Trump's tariffs won't create jobs. They will destroy jobs. But no one will figure that out because you can't point to any specific job destroyed. That said, this is one of those things where I don't think the results matter. Trump is seen as trying to help these people (people ignored by both political parties) and I think they will turn out for him in greater numbers in 2020 than in 2016 and that gives him these key states.

Anthony said...

2) I stand corrected.

3) The truth is the truth. Like fellow big talker Obama, Trump may prove to have banana peels for coattails. 2018 will tell.

6) Joking. Sexual harassment is a terrible thing to falsely accused someone of.

8) I agree tariffs won't cost votes I'm saying the electoral bounce will be a short one when they don't trigger a reversal in the shrinkage of the steel producing workforce. Of course Trump and the Dem nominee might get in a bidding war in 2020 (promising subsidies, tariffs and maybe big projects) and Trump could win that war.

AndrewPrice said...

Anthony, That could be but I don't think most people are smart enough to figure out if the policies they want actually work for them or not? The Wall is another one that won't work, but will still make people happy. It's policy by placebo.

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