America: Where Kings Were Once Toppled January 7, 2025 Commentary by former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt: . . . Donald Trump is the king of the hill. He has taken the proverbial castle, and it is the castle that he must now defend from the horde he incited and will soon disappoint. . . . He will claim that he has fixed everything that is broken in America before very long. He will spin magical yarns about making America great again, and everywhere he goes he will brag about fixing every problem except one. Yours. When it comes to your problems, Trump will say that he doesn’t have the power to do that. . . . Elon Musk has embraced his white South African pedigree with a zeal that would have made even the most vicious Afrikaner beating in a black skull with a club smile in delight. Whether cheerleading for the British racist Tommy Robinson or the German AFD, which holds that the SS was not a criminal organization, Elon Musk is dropping the curtain. Following the connective thread is not difficult— or rather should not be — but for much of America’s media it is a bridge too far. For them, it is better to pretend that it isn’t happening. The news these days is often what can be seen and heard, but is not allowed to be spoken. That’s too bad because the danger is coming closer. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are kings in America. Their courts are happy, fat, rich and powerful. Millions of people whom they disdain and despise cheer for them, and will countenance no criticisms of them. It is good to be the king as they say, but America has always been a bad place to try and build a kingdom. There is a simple reason for that, and it has do with the national character. I remember reading somewhere once upon a time about a land of fierce people who topple kings because “all men are created equal,” and some people have an allergy to tyranny in all its many forms. Listen: there’s a ton to admire and thank Musk for. Anyone who can mastermind a giant rocket that returns snugly to its launch pad for reuse is little short of a miracle worker. If he can find ways to make our government operate more efficiently without at the same time doing terrible harm, that will be great. Remember how badly the Obamacare roll-out went? In came a few Silicon Valley geniuses who got it working in a month. Maybe the same sort of thing can be done to improve other systems. We should all cheer if (for example) Department of Defense bloat can be reduced and our tax-dollars more effectively focused. And there may well be some good things Trump accomplishes, although you can be sure that much of what he takes credit for will in fact have been largely or entirely the work of Biden & Co. Things like the 70,000 infrastructure projects Biden launched that most Republicans voted against . . . and the strong measures to fix the border Trump himself scuttled . . . and — one fervently hopes — the kind of sweeping Mid-East peace deal Antony Blinken has been working so hard to achieve, as described here Sunday. If and when Trump and Musk do good things, we should applaud for two reasons. First, “credit where credit is due.” Second, it will make our criticism more credible when they do awful, appalling things, as their Project 2025 so clearly threatens to do. Those things begin a week from Monday. When good things may begin remains to be seen. (I plan to write soon about one that I can imagine happening — sensible Social Security Reform.)
More Milk And Frank Zappa January 5, 2025 Per yesterday’s post on switching from cow’s milk to soy or oat milk (but not almond): Rich Guess: “Have you ever read James Cromwell’s piece on why he glued his hand to a Starbucks counter?” → I have now! Thanks, Rich! (Cromwell played Logan Roy’s brother on “Succession.”) Executive summary: Starbucks knows soy and oat milk are far better for the environment — yet grossly overcharges for them. To which I would add: they’re missing a great opportunity to educate 50 million customers a week on the virtues of those alternatives. We’re all on this planet together, after all. David Hood: “So, when water is used in agriculture, where does it go? Is it gone forever?” → Clearly not. So (I asked ChatGPT), “does it matter that it takes 20 times more water to make whole milk than soy?” While the water does cycle back into the ecosystem, the context and the way it’s used still matter a lot. Here’s why: Resource Allocation: A significant amount of water used in dairy production is sourced from regions experiencing water scarcity or drought. For instance, parts of California heavily rely on irrigation for dairy and almond production, affecting the availability of water for other critical uses and ecosystems. Water Quality: The water that cycles back often carries pollutants from the agricultural processes, including fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste. This can contaminate water supplies and aquatic ecosystems, impacting both wildlife and human populations. Energy Consumption: Treating and pumping large volumes of water requires considerable energy. Reducing water usage in agriculture directly reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy consumption. Local Impact: When a lot of water is drawn for agricultural use in a specific region, it can significantly affect local water tables and the availability of water for residential use, affecting both communities and wildlife. It also matters that whole milk has more than triple the CO2 impact. UNRELATED BONUS 45 possibly prescient seconds with Frank Zappa Recorded 38 years ago, in 1986.
Sorry Almond Milk, It’s Soy By A Mile January 5, 2025 But first . . . On the Brink of Anarchy? By Lucas Kunce: In the late 1800’s wealth inequality was skyrocketing, workers were organizing for power against an elite profit-maximizing class, and political polarization was at a zenith. As a result, people caught political fever, and it became contentious. Check out how familiar this description of the late 1800’s sounds . . . We’ve been here before. Worth reading in full. And now . . . I asked ChatGPT to rank milk based on environmental impact. Instants later: Sure. From least to most impactful: Soy Milk: Uses the least water (28 liters per liter of milk) and land (0.7 square meters per liter) and produces relatively low greenhouse gas emissions (0.75 kg CO2e per liter). It also has low eutrophication potential. Oat Milk: Requires slightly more water (48 liters per liter) and land (0.8 square meters per liter) than soy milk but still has a fairly low environmental footprint. Emissions are around 0.42 kg CO2e per liter. Almond Milk: Uses a significant amount of water (371 liters per liter), but requires less land (0.5 square meters per liter) and has low greenhouse gas emissions (0.42 kg CO2e per liter). Skim Milk: Has a high water use (518 liters per liter) and land use (7.1 square meters per liter), and emissions (around 2.00 kg per liter). Dairy Milk: Has the highest environmental impact across all metrics: it uses the most water (628 liters per liter), land (8.9 square meters per liter), and produces the most greenhouse gas emissions (2.5 kg CO2e per liter) That’s quite a difference! Regular milk requires 22 times more water per liter than soy, 12 times more land, and emits triple the CO2 equivalent. Better still, it may also be healthiest: From most to least: Soy Milk: Packed with protein (7-8g per cup) and essential amino acids, soy milk is great for muscle health. It’s also rich in omega-3 fatty acids which are good for brain health and can reduce the risk of heart disease. Almond Milk: Low in calories and carbs, almond milk is a heart-healthy option due to its healthy fats and high vitamin E content. Avoid the sweetened variants for the best benefits. Oat Milk: This digestible option is rich in fiber (1-2g per cup) and low in fat. It’s especially good for reducing cholesterol and boosting immunity with its vitamin D and calcium content. Skim Milk: Despite having less fat, it retains vitamins A and D, calcium, vitamin B2, B12, and phosphorus. Good for muscle and bone health but lacks healthy fats found in plant-based alternatives. Whole Milk: High in saturated fats which can impact cholesterol levels, but also contains important nutrients like calcium, vitamin D and protein. If you’re an infant or still growing, it may be a different story. Otherwise: soy or oat at Starbucks, in smoothies, and on your cornflakes.
A Marine, A Boomer, A Turk, And James January 3, 2025January 2, 2025 Did you see this yesterday? By a former marine? Trump, Hegseth and the Honor of the American Military In part: There’s a swirl of controversies and concerns around Mr. Hegseth that make it difficult to focus on what’s important. But most notable to me, because it strikes at the core of the honor of the American military, is his signature achievement as a political advocate: helping persuade Mr. Trump to intervene in the cases of three men accused or convicted of war crimes. Afterward, Mr. Trump publicly heralded the men as “great warriors” and later invited two of them, including Clint Lorance, onstage at a private fund-raiser. Here’s how Mr. Lorance earned that invitation. In 2012 he was sent as a new commander without combat experience to lead a platoon of young soldiers deployed to Afghanistan with the largely hopeless mission of defeating the local Taliban and winning over the area’s population. One day he threatened to kill a farmer and his son, a 3- or 4-year-old boy, and a day later ordered his men to shoot within inches of unarmed villagers, including near children. “It’s funny watching” the villagers “dance,” he said. Mr. Lorance’s men, combat veterans, eventually balked at his orders and refused his instructions to make a false report about taking fire from the village. The next day he ordered fire on unarmed Afghans over a hundred yards from the platoon, killing them, and radioed a false report claiming the bodies couldn’t be searched. And here the difference between an idealistic and an amoral vision of America becomes concrete. Because those soldiers, who’d seen combat and watched their friends suffer terrible wounds, turned in Mr. Lorance that evening, 14 of them eventually offering testimony against him in the court-martial that found him guilty of second-degree murder. That testimony meant nothing to the elite media personalities like Sean Hannity and Mr. Hegseth who took up Mr. Lorance’s cause, though. Mr. Trump’s pardon of their former leader was a final betrayal for the troops who served in that platoon. One of them said that he attempted to kill himself when Mr. Lorance became a cause célèbre in right-wing media. Even beforehand, the killings haunted them. “It tainted our entire service,” another explained. Soldiers from other units called them the “murder platoon.” “I thought of the Army as this altruistic thing,” yet another veteran of the unit reflected. “The Lorance stuff just broke my faith.” Worth reading in full. From a Boomer: My wife, who is a very astute observer of history and trends, likes to remind me that most of us at our advanced age grew up during America’s golden age which was not the norm for America but somewhat of an aberration. Before the world wars, America was basically an isolationist country. America came out of WWII as the winner in so many respects and a global leader. We became the manufacturing center of the world, we controlled the international currency, we saw the greatest increase in national health, we created programs like Social Security to help our seniors, we had the Civil Rights movement and we led the world in art, music, movies, plays and even fashion trends. We grew the largest middle class ever known and finally added Medicare to the mix which helped lift seniors out of poverty. However, this was not the norm. If you look back in history, you will find that anti-immigration has been a constant theme throughout our history, with several deportations of foreigners going back to deporting the Irish in the 1800s or the Chinese Exclusion Act, along with deep racism, sexism and several gilded ages with large gaps between the rich and poor. Violence has always been a large part of the American story, one in which we exterminated almost an entire race of people and fought a civil war. Don’t forget our history of slavery followed by Jim Crow, lynchings and violence against blacks. Then there is the fact that women only received the right to an abortion in the 50s. What we are returning to, what Richard Wolff sees as a decline, is really that we are reverting back to our true character. We are becoming the country we were before our victories in WWI and WWII. It’s hard for us who lived in the golden age to watch this happen but nations have personalities and Trump and his merry band of oligarchs, xenophobes, racists, and religious bigots is taking us back to what we once were. I lament the fall of this golden age in America. It was a great ride while it lasted. I’m saddened that my children will not live in such an age, that my granddaughter will have to fight for her health and reproductive rights all over again but our time in the sun may be up as we become who we historically have always been. → Too bleak! We won’t let it happen! 6 LESSONS TO KEEP FROM LOSING OUR DEMOCRACY “I lived through the rise of authoritarianism in Turkey. Here’s what I learned.” Hopeful — and helpful! As is Carville’s prescription: It’s about finding ways to talk to Americans about the economy that are persuasive. Repetitive. Memorable. And entirely focused on the issues that affect Americans’ everyday lives. We live or die by winning public perception of the economy. Both worth reading in full. Pass any of this along that you think might help keep people engaged (#2 of the 6 LESSONS). Have a great weekend.
History Unfolding January 1, 2025 But first . . . What you should know about Jimmy Carter. Such a good life — and consequential presidency. Also . . . What you should know (and we should have been saying) about egg prices — and all the rest. . . . Both the Avian flu outbreak and the resulting rise in egg prices are results of Trump and GOP policies: deregulation, removal of safety protocols, zero antitrust enforcement, and encouraging price gouging. The same can be said about other issues. The rise in housing prices and scarcity of supply is directly traceable to GOP policies that allowed private equity and hedge funds to commoditize homes and trade them and the mortgage notes as securities. The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio—which MAGA blamed on President Biden—was caused by Trump’s deregulation of railways. The baby formula shortage during President Biden’s administration, which was also blamed on Biden, was caused by Trump’s deregulation. . . . [In seeking your vote], Trump and Republicans promised they would fix everything—and they’re already admitting they were lying. Mortgage rates are going up right now because of fears about Trump’s policies. Prices are rising at your favorite stores because of Trump’s tariffs. And yes, the so-called holy grail of this election—egg prices—are rising because of Trump. Don’t let Trump and the Republicans blame anyone else. They said they’d fix things. They lied. Blame them, and message it loudly and clearly. Worth reading in full. And now . . . History unfolding. What you should know about The Fourth Turning, published in 1997 . . . [“The authors look back five hundred years and uncover a distinct pattern: Modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting about the length of a long human life, each composed of four twenty-year eras—or “turnings”—that comprise history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth.”] . . . . . . as discussed last month by my fellow Baby Boomer, David Kaiser. He concludes by asking: . . . How has Trump, who has a very tenuous grip on reality, cannot absorb real information, and relies on intimidation to get himself through every situation he faces, won the allegiance of the American people? Why has he not paid a penalty for his complete absence of self-restraint, both personal and political? To which he has two answers: First — trite though it may sound — there is a little bit of Donald Trump in all of us — as Sigmund Freud, among others, certainly understood. All of us have chafed to some extent under traditional emotional and legal restraints and at some level have dreamt of denouncing them and letting ourselves go. And indeed, that I think is why the media can’t wait to headline Trump’s latest outrage. His rants are a new form of pornography — one apparently of which the public never tires. More importantly, the loosening of those restraints–personally, culturally, intellectually, and politically–has been perhaps the biggest mission of the whole Boom generation since it reached young adulthood in the late 1960s. Its first great political victory was the elimination of the military draft, that compelled young men to surrender two years of freedom–and perhaps their lives–for the common good. They liberated the arts from restrictions on subject matter and language, and tore down successive strictures against various forms of sexual behavior. They cut taxes and continued ending economic regulations. They have legalized various forms of gambling. They destroyed the respect for facts and traditions in my own profession of academia, with fateful consequences. And under Bush II, they arrogated to the United States to undertake any war anywhere in the world that served its idea of a greater good. Too many Boomers in too many fields have not allowed anything to stand in the way of what they wanted. Seventy years ago, a giant of an earlier generation whom I had the great good fortune to meet, Edward R. Murrow, concluded his broadcast on the evils of another demagogue, Joe McCarthy, with a chilling quote from Shakespeare: “The fault, dear Brutus, was not in our stars, but in ourselves.” So it is again. What my generation has done was only human. The self-restraint which, as the Founders realized, was essential to make the American experiment work, had weighed upon too many generations for too long. It could not, human nature being what it is, endure indefinitely, and it didn’t. It had indeed gone too far in some ways, and humanity has benefited from loosening some of those restraints. Now it will fall to future generations to re-establish some of those restraints and enable us to live together and solve new problems in the large, cooperative communities which their vast numbers now need to survive. Again, worth reading in full. Wishing you a healthy and happy 2025. It should be quite a year.
To Your Good Health December 30, 2024December 28, 2024 SAVE A FORTUNE ON DRUGS A friend with some kind of “drug plan” he says he doesn’t understand paid only $1,600 for a 90-day supply of Truvada. It would have cost nearly $6,000 without insurance. Or . . . He could have paid $42 at Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs (and from now on, will). I’ve long recommended Cost Plus Drugs. It’s no good for something you need right away; but for pills you take regularly? It’s saved me so many thousands of dollars it’s ridiculous. Here is Mark Cuban on health insurance (and/or the longer Wired interview from whence it comes). Mark Cuban for President? If we want a business guy famous from TV, I sure wish we had the Shark Tank star, not the Apprentice. SAVE A FORTUNE ON DEMENTIA As I’ve long pitched you, there’s ample peer-reviewed evidence to suggest that a few hours a year exercise with BrainHQ (a company in which I’m a small investor) will significantly lower your risk of developing dementia . . . lower the frequency and severity of auto accidents . . . and, if you’re an NFL quarterback, improve your performance long past the age other quarterbacks have retired. If only Kay Granger were one of your fellow readers and had followed this advice. Congressional ‘Gerontocracy’ Worries Resurface After Member Found to Be Living in Senior Facility. Dementia is costly in so many ways. And seems to be largely preventable. CORRECTIONS Friday, I said “Intel” when I meant “Qualcomm.” Oops. And a day or two before, I said “million” when I meant “billion.” Just going to prove that young people have senior moments, too. (Well, young-ish.)
Is The Stock Market Getting Ready To Collapse? December 27, 2024December 27, 2024 But first . . . SELF-DRIVING CARS Daniel N.: “You’re doing the public a great disservice by pushing back on self-driving technology. For example, Google’s robo-drivers are now clearly 10X safer than human drivers. That means that over a hundred people now needlessly die each day that we delay deploying this life-saving technology. As I understand it, the current requirement is to report robo-driver collisions and not human-driver collisions. The better answer would be to report all collisions in comparable fashion so that the danger posed by human drivers is readily apparent. But it seems clear that we can’t have that. So, paradoxically, the public is better served by avoiding the sensationalism that currently accompanies the robo-driver-only accident reporting.” → I agree we shouldn’t discourage self-driving technology. Data on human-error collisions have been readily available for decades. In 2022, for example, there were nearly 6 million police-reported crashes, more than 90% of them due to human error. There is every reason to think auto-pilot and self-driving systems will keep improving; little reason to think humans will. So the safety data should grow ever more skewed in favor of these technologies. Tesla and other car makers with good safety records (relative to humans) surely have the resources to get the word out. An even more powerful way to get the word out should be the free market. If self-driving cars have 90% fewer accidents, auto insurers will be offering big discounts to reflect that. And to the extent such cars do cause crashes, it may be the manufacturers — not the drivers — who are held liable. Another reason the insurer can afford to charge drivers less if they’ve chosen a vehicle with this capability. Rather than remove the reporting requirement, as the Trump transition team seems to be aiming to do, it should push for more publicly reported data. That would be in everyone’s interest — including Tesla’s. You can be sure the auto insurers themselves will be keeping track, even if the incoming administration chooses not to. And now . . . IS THE MARKET GETTING READY TO COLLAPSE? Quite possibly — though just when is of course impossible to know. The market has always collapsed from time to time. It’s not the end of the world when it does — and a buying opportunity for people with cash on the sidelines. People like Warren Buffett, who at last report was sitting on $325 billion (it’s probably more now). Tesla could just keep doubling every three months, but it currently pays no dividend and sells at 125 times earnings. As one of my smartest friends astutely observes: “It’s a car company.” (Ford sells at about 12 times earnings; Toyota, at about 10.) And, though tariffs could protect Tesla’s U.S. market for a while, Tesla’s Chinese competitors offer the world a similar product at a lower price. Nor is the market for cars likely to grow at some astonishing rate. Yes, in what we hope will be a more prosperous world, more people will be able to afford them. But many of those people live in populous areas where it makes increasingly less sense to pay a fortune for a car that sits idle 90% of the time — and endure the expense and hassle of buying it, registering it, parking it, insuring it, repairing it, and driving it. Why do all that when you can just summon a chauffeured Lyft or Uber? And in a few years may be able to summon a driverless Lyft or Uber for even less. Tesla is probably the most overvalued big market-cap company, but there are lots of others that, while less egregiously overvalued, are overvalued all the same. (And don’t forget: in a market panic, many good stocks become irrationally under-valued for a while. Irrationality swings both ways.) An example of a preposterously overvalued, insignificantly small company — it has just $5 million in annual sales — is DJT. It, too, could just keep going up and up, at least for a while. But what if its huge annual losses never become profits and it has to sell more and more stock to stay afloat? Or what if its chief asset, Donald Trump, doesn’t live forever? Steve Jobs didn’t and Apple has done just great; but can the sober-minded investor expect the same of Trump Media? The nice thing about “our” stocks is that — though some may collapse or disappear — they are neither overvalued (in my view) nor particularly tied to the stock market as a whole. The most obvious example is PRKR. It could lose all its lawsuits and go to zero. But if it recovered $1 billion or $2 billion from Qualcomm, et al, that would be a rounding error to them, but potentially $10+ a share to PRKR. So even in a bear market, the stock would likely jump well about its current 85 cent price. Similarly, if ANIX were to succeed in curing ovarian cancer, or its breast cancer vaccine proved effective — giant ifs, to be sure — then whatever the state of the stock market, its shares would likely be worth many times what they sell for today (not least because they have been beaten down, I’m guessing, by year-end tax selling pressure that ends Tuesday). At another is extreme BKUTK — not a crazy swing-for-the-fences like most of the things I suggest, a sleepy community bank selling at less than 7 times earnings. Whatever the market does, it seems not worth selling. Not least because, if the past is any guide, bear markets eventually end. Somewhere in between those extremes of aggressive speculation and hoped-for deep value, lies CNF. On the one hand it is selling at under 4X earnings. On the other hand, it’s Chinese (even though it trades on the New York Stock Exchange), so who the hell knows? In short: a “speculative value stock,” to be bought only with money you can truly afford to lose. It’s fallen so far for so long, I have to assume there’s been significant year-end tax selling; so I’ve been buying. [Speaking of losers . . . there is RECAF. I haven’t sold because the pain I’d feel seeing it go to zero pales beside the anguish I’d feel, having sold, if it somehow soared. But if you bought a meaningful number of shares between February 28, 2019 and September 7, 2021, click here to possibly join a settlement that entitles us, as a group, to some share of what appears to be about $5 million after legal fees and currency conversion. It’s likely not worth the time and effort if you bought only a few hundred shares; I can’t imagine it will cover a very large percentage of our losses. But if your loss, whether on paper or realized, has been large enough that getting even a modest slice back would be meaningful, follow the instructions very carefully and email your documentation no later than January 9.] Back to the question at hand. Is the Market Getting Ready To Collapse? If you didn’t click that link before, you might want to click it now. James Scurlock makes a strong case for being concerned. You certainly don’t want to be in the market “on margin” (i.e., with borrowed money) or with cash you might actually need in the next year or three; and you may want to have some meaningful amount of cash on the sidelines, like Warren Buffett. That said, Buffett (and Scurlock) would be the first to agree that in taxable accounts, there’s a huge cost in trying to “time the market,” because each time you take your gains, if they’re large, you pay a big chunk in taxes. That really crimps the power of compounding. So if you won’t need to sell any time soon . . . and are not the type to panic and sell at the bottom . . . then, in taxable accounts, it can certainly make sense to hold for the long term and pay no attention at all.
It’s Chrismukkah! December 24, 2024December 25, 2024 Which last happened in 2005, and so I offer two gifts: > A rotten little kid’s brutal letter to Santa (2 minutes, adults only). Who raised this kid?! Satan? > An Easy Way to Calculate — And Double-Offset! — Your Carbon Footprint. I took the 5-minute test and rejected most of the suggestions. I already do a lot of this stuff and am too selfish to do much of the rest. But a couple of the ideas were thought-provoking, and at the end I found a painless way to possibly double-offset my footprint for just 60 cents a day . . . far less than the $2.32 a day you can save just by adopting my selfless iced tea routine . . . and a very big deal indeed. Whatever your religion or lack of same, the spirit of Christmas is the best in us, and the last word always goes to Tiny Tim. Happy Chrismukkah!
Musk – Part II December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 Yesterday’s post about forming a shadow cabinet — Professor Timothy Snyder’s excellent idea — had a heavy dose of Musk. (And one senior moment — I said Musk paid $44 “million” for Twitter when of course it was billion.) Today: guess why Musk blew up the deal to keep the government open? Heather Cox Richardson explains: . . . Musk blew up the agreement by issuing what was an apparent threat to fund primary challengers to any Republican who voted for it. He apparently scuttled the measure on his own hook, since Trump took about thirteen hours to respond to his torpedoing it. Musk expressed willingness to leave the government unfunded for a month, apparently unconcerned that a shutdown would send hundreds of thousands of government workers deemed nonessential into temporary leave without pay. This would include about 800,000 civilian employees of the Pentagon, about 17,000 people from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and those who staff the nation’s national parks, national monuments, and other federal sites. Federal workers considered essential would have to continue to work without pay. These essential workers include air traffic controllers and federal law enforcement officers. Military personnel would also have to continue to work without pay. Taking away paychecks is always wrenching, but to do it right before the winter holidays would devastate families. It would hurt the economy, too, since for many retailers the holiday season is when their sales are highest. Musk—who doesn’t answer to any constituents—seemed untroubled at the idea of hurting ordinary Americans. ″‘Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill,” he tweeted. In the end, Congress passed a bill much like the one Musk scuttled, but one of the provisions that Congress stripped out of the old bill was extraordinarily important to Musk. As David Dayen explained in The Prospect, the original agreement had an “outbound investment” provision that restricted the ability of Americans to invest in technology factories in China. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Bob Casey (D-PA) had collaborated on the measure, hoping to keep cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as the jobs they would create, in America rather than let companies move them to China. As Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) explained, Musk is building big factories in China and wants to build an AI data center there, even though it could endanger U.S. security. McGovern charged that Musk’s complaints about the spending in the bill were cover for his determination to tank the provision that would limit his ability to move technology and business to China. And, he noted, it worked. The outbound investment provision was stripped out of the bill before it passed. And, HCR goes on to explain, a provision to lower health care costs was also stripped out of the bill. As always, she is worth reading in full. So much more to say, but with Christmas and Chanukah just hours away, let me just wish you all the happiest, healthiest, merriest, and most meaningful. Every day is a gift!
Let’s Form A Shadow Cabinet (And How To Make 700 Times Your Money In Three Months) December 21, 2024December 22, 2024 Human error is responsible for thousands of U.S. auto accidents each year. Tesla’s auto-pilot isn’t perfect either. We know this because car companies are required to report auto-pilot accidents. Tesla doesn’t like that requirement, so the Trump transition team is moving to scrap it. That’s the bureaucratic nub of it. This 11-minute video brings it to life — and death — in living color. The next segment in the same show reviews a list of Trump hires . . . segues into an interview with Tim Snyder that describes our slide into oligarchy . . . and asks what the hell do we do now? The whole thing is only 9 minutes, but if you’re pressed for time, at least watch that last piece, because Professor Snyder proposes forming a shadow Cabinet to whom the press could turn for comment . . . not only on the bad stuff the Trump team is doing, but also on the good stuff we’d like to do. Musk invested $277 million in electing Trump. Since Trump’s election, his net worth has increased by about 700 times as much (about $200 billion). Autocrats and oligarchs are thrilled with Trump’s win — Putin foremost among them — but so are most MAGA supporters. At least for now. They know Trump’s going to: . . . give them great healthcare at a fraction of the cost (after 9 years’ hard work, he has a concept of a plan) . . . . . . drive down the cost of groceries by: (1) adding tariffs to the price of the food we import; (2) deporting low-wage workers who bring to market the food we produce here . . . . . . reduce the deficit by lowering taxes on the uber-wealthy and further strangling the IRS. It behooves us, I think, to stay engaged.