Daily Rant 11/21/2024

So Matt Gaetz is out!  And oddly, the House Ethics Committee report on Mr. Gaetz suspected sex trafficking activities has shuffled off to some dimly lit smoke filled back room archive.  Might that be transactional?  

Might be setting the tone for all the cabinet nomination frolic to come.  Nearly all the nominations the president-elect has floated: Ms. Gabbard, Dr. Oz, RFK, Mr. Hegseth lack obvious qualifications for their jobs.  Are they merely stalking horses for the candidates the president-elect actually wants?   Will we be lucky enough to hear something along the lines of:

"Let me tell you, folks, my Cabinet picks were absolutely fantastic, okay? The best people. But the swamp? They can’t handle greatness—they’re jealous, they’re scared. They don’t like when I pick people who are loyal, who know how to win. They want the same old, tired people who never get anything done. Believe me, the Senate fought me every step, but we’ll find a way. We always do!"

And then we’d be entertained by:

"Last time, folks, some of you made a big mistake. A huge mistake. You turned my pick down—terrible decision, really. But now, you’ve got another chance. This time, you better think very carefully, okay? Are you going to stand with me, with America, and approve Pam Bondi—an incredible choice, believe me—or are you going to do the same thing as before and try to block greatness? Because let me tell you, the voters? They don’t forget. They never forget.

And if you think for a second that I won’t fight for this, then you don’t know me, folks. I’m giving you an opportunity—right here, right now—to make the right decision. Do the smart thing. And if you don’t? Well, let’s just say, you’ll regret it. Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. Let’s win together. Thank you!"

Of course, the president-elect is now a lame duck.  Can’t make any promises that don’t happen in the next two years.  Come the congressional elections in 2026, anything could happen.  And if America’s households aren’t feeling any more flush, anything will.

Daily Rant 9/11/2024        Score of Shame (SOS)

What did we hear at the debate?  When Kamala got a yes/no question or the Donald could remember the question, what did we hear?  Most importantly, those cats and dogs quivering in

fear in Springfield, Ohio can breathe easy.  Pet eating was just another MAGA rumor.  The Springfield city manager has spoken and no pet culls destined for the stewpot have been observed.  That keynote issue put aside, we can focus on the basics: keep America strong; create American jobs, make our households well by cutting taxes.  

So, Sounds great but how do we actually get that done?  The tool they both talked up is tariffs.  Been a staple of the anti-China trade war since Trump got elected in 2016 and then Biden piled right on.  What are tariffs?  Just a customs levy on imported goods from select countries and industries.  The highest tariffs?  Check it out…  The politicians will say that the importer gets stuck with the tariff.  How does the importer get well? They just pass it on to - you guessed it - the consumer.  That’s you and me.  What happens to those $$ collected by customs?  That’s Uncle Sam holding out his paw.  Yep…tariffs turn into yet another tax on you and me.

The TaxFoundation.org reports Uncle Sam’s net take from tariffs in 2022 at $100 Billion.  How much is that for you and me?  Run the numbers and you get $300/household.  That’s a hidden tax that we wound up paying via inflated prices on foreign goods.  Another way of measuring the cost is loss of jobs and productivity caused by those higher prices.  Per the TaxFoundation we lost 142K jobs in 2022 due to tariffs.

(taxfoundation.org)

Is there a better way?  How about tax incentives?  Give threatened domestic industry a tax break.  Seems pretty straightforward to work out a deal with Ford/GM/Tesla or solar panel manufacturers that pairs tax incentives with retail price breaks.  Kinda how the EV credit works today.  But why limit the breaks to cars and EV’s?  À broad focus on everything that goes into retail prices would bring benefits directly to those households that have been affected by the tariff wars.  

Seems too easy.  Seems a shame that Uncle Sam would lose all those tariff revenues.  And for all you SOS fans.  Stay tuned.  Still tracking.  Still upside down.

Daily Rant 9/10/2024        Score of Shame (SOS)

And it ain’t getting any better.  At least in terms of mentions, the New York Times clearly favors the Donald.  Nearly twice as many mentions on the front page of what they say is their nemesis over the “rational choice”, Kamala. Looking forward to the debate.  Will that upend the trend?

Daily Rant 9/9/2024        Score of Shame (SOS)

The SOS for today has improved!  Kamala is edging ahead in the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.  LATimes and the New York Times are still pounding the drum for the Donald.  And it is a pounding of the drum.  Whether positive or negative, if the message keeps repeating it will unfortunately bear remembering.

Our focus prediction methodology (FPM for those into such things) makes extensive use of AI and data analytics but is so simple so very simple that even a child can do it: (1) bring up the newspaper web page, (2) do a control F, type Harris or Trump into the search window and (3) read off the hits.  Perhaps not quite as sophisticated as a 538 poll but gets the job done.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings…

If you’d like your favorite rag added to the score, just send a quick note to [email protected].

Daily Rant 9/8/2024        Score of Shame (SOS)

Dunno if the world has noticed but most of our journalistic media seem to believe that the Donald is pretty much off his rocker.

An LATimes lede (8/15/2024):

“Trump is either delusional or confused. He’s unfit for the White House either way”

From the New York Times (7/11/2024)

“Opinion | Donald Trump Is Unfit for a Second Term…He failed the tests of leadership and betrayed America. Voters must stand up to him in November.”

And the Washington Post weighed in early (June 30, 2020):

Opinion | Trump shows us what ‘unfit’ means… Trump’s record of failure — delaying his response to the coronavirus (and then undercutting health professionals’ advice, thereby allowing the pandemic to resurge); attempting to enlist foreign powers (certainly Ukraine and allegedly China) to further his own reelection; appointing a flock of utterly incompetent and ethically challenged advisers — is so damning that he will likely hold the distinction of being America’s worst president.

So you’d think that these fine purveyors of journalistic craft would publish content in line with their beliefs.  If they really believe what they’ve printed, you might expect to find a solution, a way out of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).  And you’d be wrong.  

À quick scan shows the Donald maintaining his grip on journalistic focus.  Number of hits in today’s issue for the Donald vs Kamala

Pretty obvious who is winning the media war.  Pretty sad about who is helping him win.