The Frankish Reich

I watched Bill Maher last night. The guest did do a good, spirited defense of the purpose behind Trump's tariff wave. I will point out that she forgot the 5th strategic/national security interest Trump says he must protect. It is wine and champagne (umm, "sparkling wine"). OK, all snark aside, a few facts: - Manufacturing output is not the same thing as manufacturing employment. Yes, 1970s manufacturing continued to provide jobs that allowed workers and their families to achieve a middle class livelihood: home ownership, the ability to save for retirement, etc. But it was at a cost - the use of human labor for heavy, literally back-breaking jobs (I had a great uncle who could barely walk after years in a Buffalo tire factory). Those jobs are now automated if they are performed in developed economies at all. And if steel production "returns" to the US, it is certain that steelworker jobs won't follow in anything like the numbers we used to see. Efficiency, they name is Elon Musk and the automated manufacturing process. Given the political environment, it is quite clear that Trumpism will also not bring back union jobs, which were part and parcel of keeping more money with the middle class than with the ownership/capitalist class. - So Sam Stein had a point about peak manufacturing output during the Biden years (since output is not employment). So his female guest (I don't recall her name) had a point about income and wealth distribution in America, 1970s vs. 2020s. And Bill Maher had a point about Trump's tariffs being about some kind of nostalgia for a bygone era of U.S. manufacturing that we will never see again, regardless of what tariff he slaps on aluminum and steel next week. Remember that from an economic perspective the numerator is output and the denominator is something like man-hours when we talk about something like "efficiency" or "productivity." Those jobs are gone, whether they've gone to low-wage men in China or high-tech machines in Fremont, CA.

My secret admirer busted again. How did he know that I mentioned the Trump assassination attempt? No one quoted me. Answer: he is fake ignoring people. What kind of fool does that?

Right. I don’t know if this Mike Davis is really that dumb a lawyer or whether he just thinks you’re all too dumb to realize this is flat out wrong.

Because I have kind of a special interest in Justice (both the concept and the Department), I am currently suffering through a mentally challenged old man ramble on and on and on about Bobby Knight, Indiana basketball, and his near-death experience on the Mount Calvary of Butler PA.

You will eat your turnips and be happy. But I do feel compelled to defend the lowly turnip. I have made a very tasty (and hot) ultra low carb pork green chile stew with turnips substituting for potatoes. They are really good if cooked correctly in a dish that doesn't depend on their flavor but rather on their texture.

Did Alan Simpson get everything right? Of course not. But he was an honorable, decent, witty man who tried to move the country in the right direction. The 1986 Reagan amnesty was a perfectly defensible deal at the time, largely ruined by lax enforcement in subsequent years. The US would be a very different - and I say much better - place today if both parties hadn't completely ignored the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles budget commission. And in retirement he did not become a lobbyist. He joined an ordinary (yeah, it was personal injury) law firm and made money the old fashioned way, by suing people.

I just delay liked this. For obvious reasons.

⬆️ Meanwhile, perhaps a, umm, I don't know, vaccine scientist? would care to weigh in on how his life has been devoted to the destruction of freedom in the name of public health. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/14/opinion/pre-vaccine-america.html

COVID? No, not anymore, because the pandemic is over, silly. Would have been over sooner if my advice had been adopted.

Hmm ... Barkley, Trubisky, Keenum, Trubisky ... generic white guy fits the bill

Oh, I stand corrected. About the same in the broad market (SPY). Ooh. Maybe we should add in Trump 2.0's first 50 days to correct that.

MMR should be mandated. No exceptions other than medically inappropriate (compromised immune system, etc). So too polio, HPV for girls* according to current medical guidelines. Feel free to try to argue otherwise. *as assigned at birth. haha

The usual bs. Trump 1.0 not counting the first 9 months of COVID, because of course Trump's inept management (or lack thereof) of that doesn't count. So you tell me: why is consumer confidence lower today than it was when Biden left office?

Remember the Biden "vibecession" anyone?

Still ignoring me by obsessing over me. He's really good at that.

"Never confuse activity with accomplishment" - John Wooden One of my favorite quotes of all time by a man who knew what it means to be a winner. The Madness of King Trump II. Trump has lost it. Paul Krugman says it best: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/a-mind-is-a-terrible-thing-to-lose When Trump first began talking about turning Canada into the 51st state, many people treated it as a joke. But Trump doesn’t appear to be in on the joke. He just keeps doubling down, even as the people of Canada grow ever more outraged. No sane leader would imagine that it’s a good idea to threaten a heretofore friendly but proudly patriotic neighbor and ally with annexation. But a sane leader is exactly what we don’t have. And look beyond what Trump and Musk have said to the actions of the people they’ve chosen to oversee key public agencies. Robert F. Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services, refuses to respond to a measles outbreak with a clear call for vaccinations, instead suggesting that people take cod liver oil. The secretary of agriculture has suggested that Americans respond to high egg prices by raising their own chickens. How did the highest levels of U.S. government become infected by madness? Well, this is what you get when you give flawed people — people prone to grandiosity, vindictiveness and paranoia — so much power that nobody dares tell them when they’re going too far. Cowed Republicans and timid Democrats have effectively given Trump and Musk the freedom to become the worst versions of themselves. And the whole world will pay the price.

News you can use! Exactly what I've been doing here ... giving people life hacks on how to spend within their means. Which is usually met with ridicule, so watch your back.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was 56% of white people. Let's listen to the words of an expert analyst: "Vance said he noticed as a child that his peers seemed to fall into two groups: “My grandparents embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking. My mother and, increasingly, the entire neighborhood embodied another: consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful.” What might the government do differently? Vance notes that hillbillies love to complain, a la Trump, that the system is holding them back. “Never be like those f—ing losers who think the deck is stacked against them,” Mamaw used to tell her grandson. And yet hillbillies create so many varieties of misery for themselves. Vance recalls that in high school, a neighbor ran a bath, took some painkillers and passed out. When she awoke, the bath had overflowed and ruined the top floor of her house. “This is the reality of our community,” Vance writes. “It’s about a naked druggie destroying what little of value exists in her life. It’s about children who lose their toys and clothes to a mother’s addiction.”

Well, with absolutely zero new contributions (and of course there would be new contributions) and average annual returns of 6 percent, it would double in 12 years ... but of course you knew that. I mean you know it now.

Sounds like a winner! Did I miss the part about annexing Belgium too?

Victimhood and oppression. "We've been treated very unfairly by [Canada. The EU. Ukraine. Everyone but Russia.]"

First he came for then lumber, and I did nothing because I am not a lumberjack. Then he came for the steel, and I did nothing because I am not an autoworker. Now he comes for the French wine and champagne? Let the masses awaken ...

You need to study this a little more. My example was a 45 year old planning to work 15 more years ...

What we knew for a long time, finally found to be true by a federal judge: They. Are. Lying. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trump-education-department-layoffs-lawsuit-state-attorneys-general-32c6441f?mod=WTRN_pos1&cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_165&cx_artPos=0 “It’s a sad day when the federal government would fire a good employee and say it’s based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said. He pointed to employees who were told they were fired for cause despite stellar performance reviews. “That should not be done in our country,” he said. “It was a sham to avoid statutory requirements.” Alsup also criticized the Justice Department for what he characterized as attempts to stonewall the challengers in their attempts to gather more details about the firings, including attempts to depose acting OPM Director Charles Ezell.

Down 7+ percent since Trump took office.