Monday, December 29, 1924. 4 ROH + 4 CO + O2 → 2 (CO2R)2 + 2 H2O

The tradition of releasing movies during the Christmas Holiday season obviously already a thing, Peter Pan was released.

The film was lost and rediscovered in the 1950s, and has been preserved.

The tariff on Oxalic Acid was increased by President Coolidge.

Presidents have been delegated wide authority by Congress to raise tariffs.  With all the current discussion on how Congress intends to take back delegated authority, which is directed at agencies, it'll be interesting to see if it dawns on them that the same situation exists as to the Presidency.

I doubt that will occur.

If it did, Donald couldn't run around threatening everyone with increased tariffs, so the same body of politicians that is outraged by one, will not be outraged by the other.

Last edition:

Boxing Day, 1924. Boundaries.

abels: 1920s, 1924, Chile, Peru, USSR

Trump and the poor

  

After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits

Voters in the struggling Pennsylvania city of New Castle backed Trump hoping he’d curb inflation. But the incoming president will be under pressure to cut spending.

This is a link to a current article in the Washington Post.  It has, of course, a paywall.  You can find it discussed, however, on Twitter.

One of the things that has baffled me about Trump's support to some degree is that people have supported him who are very likely to get a massive dope slap over the next four years.   It's clearly baffled the Democrats as well as they fairly clearly assumed that the economic underclass and those on benefits would support them, given traditional Republican hostility to their interests.

But it does make sense.

The same class discussed here is the one that was badly hurt by the exportation of jobs overseas and, frankly, high immigration rates.  They have something to lose, to be sure, but more than anyone else, they hope for a return of a sort of imagined past.  They can look back when they, or maybe their parents or grandparents, had good high paying jobs that didn't require any real education.

Both parties conspired against their interest.  Allowing high immigration rates and basically encouraging manufacturing to move overseas could have been avoided.  This class, together with the Rust Belt middle class, started signaling that it was enraged well over a decade ago and they threw their support behind, first, Bernie Sanders and then Donald Trump.

But will a government of the super wealthy really care about the plight of these people?

I don't really think that Trump thinks much beyond Trump.  He cannot in any fashion be figured to be what Brands called Franklin Roosevelt, "a traitor to his class".   Trump has frankly viewed some members of this demographic,  namely those who serve in the military, as low class dupes.  

So we now have a real test.  Franklin Roosevelt, love him or hate him, like his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, proved to be massively loyal to the American middle and poor.  Other 20th Century figures who mobilized populists proved to not be at all.  What about Trump?

I'm not optimistic.  Trump can't "lower" prices, save by accident if he causes a Depression.  Populists in Congress are both hostile to spending and hostile to taxes, even though Americans are far from overtaxed by first world standards (and don't have the standard of living of other first world nations either).  "Tea Party" types served up the Kool aide for populists that cutting spending and taxation would serve the interest of the average when it most likely stands just to make hit obscenely wealthy, like Elon Must, wealthier.

On the other hand, a thick massive dose of reality won't hurt certain classes.  There are large demographics that basically have come to live on benefits while simultaneously complaining about the government.  And an argument that some benefits were better coming from the private sector, which has an expectation of conduct, vs the government, which doesn't, can certainly be made.  The "reduced and free lunch" programs locally are an example which I've cited before, which went from helping the poor with, essentially, property tax revenues, to some sort of right.

Well, it's going to be interesting.

Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The Times more or less locally, Part 4. A return to Pre Covid status

US incomes have returned to their 2019 level, adjusted for inflation.

The adjusted rate of inflation was 2.9%.

While people will continue to complain, this is pretty close to being back to the economic status of 2019.

Oil dropped yesterday to $69/bbl.

September 25, 2024

Delta To Pull Out Of Casper Airport, Last Flight Is Dec. 3

Delta To Pull Out Of Casper Airport, Last Flight Is Dec. 3

November 17, 2024

Boeing is commencing layoffs.

November 26, 2024

In a monumentally bad idea, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he will issue executive orders imposing new tariffs on all imported goods from China, Mexico and Canada. with the rates being 25 percent tariffs would be imposed on Mexican and Canadian merchandise and 10 percent on Chinese goods.  This was tied, oddly, to his immigration goals.

December 2, 2024

President Elect Trump threatened 100% tariffs against Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. 

Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia if they act to block the US Dollar ast he global reserve currency.

December 3, 2024

From a Fox News broadcast:

We are told that when Trudeau told President-elect Trump that new tariffs would kill the Canadian economy, Trump joked to him that if Canada can't survive without ripping off the U.S. the tune of one hundred billion dollars a year, then maybe Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau could become its governor.

Apparently this was said by Trump in jest by our boorish embarrassment of a President Elect. 

December 11, 2024

$24B merger between grocery giants Kroger, Albertsons blocked by federal judge

Continuous arabica coffee futures on the ICE rose 4.1% to $3.44 a pound beating a record set in 1977 even before it is adjusted for inflation.

December 12, 2024

An Ontario message to Donald Trump from Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

We need to be ready to fight [on] January the 20th. We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin. I don't want this to happen, but my number one job is to protect Ontario, Ontarians and Canadians as a whole since we're the largest province. Let's see what happens as we move forward. But we'll use every tool in our toolbox, including cutting them off energy that we're sending down there.

Frankly, a lot of New York will freeze in the dark without Canadian hydroelectric.

On groceries, the item that a lot of Trump voters naively believed Trump could make the price of "go down":

It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard.

Donald Trump.

D'uh. 

There was no earthly way that Trump was ever going to be able to get the price of groceries to go down and a person would have had to have been bereft of economic knowledge to have believed that.  Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in fact bereft of economic knowledge.  As we've noted here before, that would require deflation, and deflation if prolonged, causes a Depression.

Trump back on November 4, 2024: “A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper.”

Nope, they won't be.

So, now that he's been elected, this promise joins the one to end the war in Ukraine 24 hours after he's elected.  I.e., it'll be broken.

December 13, 2024

Pope Francis.

Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace

I. Listening to the plea of an endangered humanity

1. At the dawn of this New Year given to us by our heavenly Father, a year of Jubilee in the spirit of hope, I offer heartfelt good wishes of peace to every man and woman. I think especially of those who feel downtrodden, burdened by their past mistakes, oppressed by the judgment of others and incapable of perceiving even a glimmer of hope for their own lives. Upon everyone I invoke hope and peace, for this is a Year of Grace born of the Heart of the Redeemer!

2. Throughout this year, the Catholic Church celebrates the Jubilee, an event that fills hearts with hope. The “jubilee” recalls an ancient Jewish practice, when, every forty-ninth year, the sound of a ram’s horn (in Hebrew, jobel) would proclaim a year of forgiveness and freedom for the entire people (cf. Lev 25:10). This solemn proclamation was meant to echo throughout the land (cf. Lev 25:9) and to restore God’s justice in every aspect of life: in the use of the land, in the possession of goods and in relationships with others, above all the poor and the dispossessed. The blowing of the horn reminded the entire people, rich and poor alike, that no one comes into this world doomed to oppression: all of us are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same Father, born to live in freedom, in accordance with the Lord’s will (cf. Lev 25:17, 25, 43, 46, 55).

3. In our day too, the Jubilee is an event that inspires us to seek to establish the liberating justice of God in our world. In place of the ram’s horn, at the start of this Year of Grace we wish to hear the “desperate plea for help” [1] that, like the cry of the blood of Abel (cf. Gen 4:10), rises up from so many parts of our world – a plea that God never fails to hear. We for our part feel bound to cry out and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our neighbours oppressed. [2] These injustices can appear at times in the form of what Saint John Paul II called “structures of sin”, [3] that arise not only from injustice on the part of some but are also consolidated and maintained by a network of complicity.

4. Each of us must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected, beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts that presently plague our human family. Systemic challenges, distinct yet interconnected, are thus created and together cause havoc in our world. [4] I think, in particular, of all manner of disparities, the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on the industry of war. All these, taken together, represent a threat to the existence of humanity as a whole. At the beginning of this year, then, we desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called, together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God’s justice. Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about. [5]

II. A cultural change: all of us are debtors

5. The celebration of the Jubilee spurs us to make a number of changes in order to confront the present state of injustice and inequality by reminding ourselves that the goods of the earth are meant not for a privileged few, but for everyone. [6] We do well to recall the words of Saint Basil of Caesarea: “Tell me, what things belong to you? Where did you find them to make them part of your life? … Did you not come forth naked from the womb of your mother? Will you not return naked to the ground? Where did your property come from? If you say that it comes to you naturally by luck, you would deny God by not recognizing the Creator and being grateful to the Giver”. [7] Without gratitude, we are unable to recognize God’s gifts. Yet in his infinite mercy the Lord does not abandon sinful humanity, but instead reaffirms his gift of life by the saving forgiveness offered to all through Jesus Christ. That is why, in teaching us the “Our Father”, Jesus told us to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses” ( Mt 6:12).

6. Once we lose sight of our relationship to the Father, we begin to cherish the illusion that our relationships with others can be governed by a logic of exploitation and oppression, where might makes right. [8] Like the elites at the time of Jesus, who profited from the suffering of the poor, so today, in our interconnected global village, [9] the international system, unless it is inspired by a spirit of solidarity and interdependence, gives rise to injustices, aggravated by corruption, which leave the poorer countries trapped. A mentality that exploits the indebted can serve as a shorthand description of the present “debt crisis” that weighs upon a number of countries, above all in the global South.

7. I have repeatedly stated that foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets. [10] In addition, different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the “ecological debt” incurred by the more developed countries. [11] Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis. [12] In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice. [13]

8. The cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We will be able to “rediscover once for all that we need one another” and are indebted one to another. [14]

III. A journey of hope: three proposals

9. If we take to heart these much-needed changes, the Jubilee Year of Grace can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy. [15]

God owes nothing to anyone, yet he constantly bestows his grace and mercy upon all. As Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century Father of the Eastern Church, put it in one of his prayers: “Your love, Lord, is greater than my trespasses. The waves of the sea are nothing with respect to the multitude of my sins, but placed on a scale and weighed against your love, they vanish like a speck of dust”. [16] God does not weigh up the evils we commit; rather, he is immensely “rich in mercy, for the great love with which he loved us” ( Eph 2:4). Yet he also hears the plea of the poor and the cry of the earth. We would do well simply to stop for a moment, at the beginning of this year, to think of the mercy with which he constantly forgives our sins and forgives our every debt, so that our hearts may overflow with hope and peace.

10. In teaching us to pray the “Our Father”, Jesus begins by asking the Father to forgive our trespasses, but passes immediately to the challenging words: “as we forgive those who trespass against us” (cf. Mt 6:12). In order to forgive others their trespasses and to offer them hope, we need for our own lives to be filled with that same hope, the fruit of our experience of God’s mercy. Hope overflows in generosity; it is free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, is unconcerned with gain, but aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage.

11. Consequently, at the beginning of this Year of Grace, I would like to offer three proposals capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set them out anew on the journey of hope. In this way, the debt crisis can be overcome and all of us can once more realize that we are debtors whose debts have been forgiven.

First, I renew the appeal launched by Saint John Paul II on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 to consider “reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations”. [17] In recognition of their ecological debt, the more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything possible to forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe. Naturally, lest this prove merely an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness, a new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial Charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples.

I also ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world. Here I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations. This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation. [18]

In addition, following in the footsteps of Saint Paul VI and Benedict XVI, [19] I do not hesitate to make yet another appeal, for the sake of future generations. In this time marked by wars, let us use at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the poorer countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change. [20] We need to work at eliminating every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones. The future is a gift meant to enable us to go beyond past failures and to pave new paths of peace.

IV. The goal of peace

12. Those who take up these proposals and set out on the journey of hope will surely glimpse the dawn of the greatly desired goal of peace. The Psalmist promises us that “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss” ( Ps 85:10). When I divest myself of the weapon of credit and restore the path of hope to one of my brothers or sisters, I contribute to the restoration of God’s justice on this earth and, with that person, I advance towards the goal of peace. As Saint John XXIII observed, true peace can be born only from a heart “disarmed” of anxiety and the fear of war. [21]

13. May 2025 be a year in which peace flourishes! A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises. [22] May we seek the true peace that is granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world.

14. Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such as “a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed”. [23] With such gestures, we progress towards the goal of peace. We will arrive all the more quickly if, in the course of journeying alongside our brothers and sisters, we discover that we have changed from the time we first set out. Peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible.

15. Lord, grant us your peace! This is my prayer to God as I now offer my cordial good wishes for the New Year to the Heads of State and Government, to the leaders of International Organizations, to the leaders of the various religions and to every person of good will.

Forgive us our trespasses, Lord,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace,

the peace that you alone can give

to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart,

to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters,

to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you,

and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor.

From the Vatican, 8 December 2024

December 17, 2024

Canada's Finance Minister resigned.

This of course gave the chance for our bratty twelve year old president elect to make another one of his snotty tweets.

The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!

Where this conduct comes from, and why its tolerated is another question.

December 18, 2024

Elon Musk is campaigning against the bill that would provide stop gap funding until the next Congress convenes.

December 19, 2024

The Fed is cutting interests rates.

December 20, 2024

After tanking one continuing budget resolution, following his super wealthy "DOGE" appointees, Trump supported a second, which tanked last night.

And here we enter interesting territory.  In spite of widespread public belief to the contrary, Trump was set to inherit a strong economy.  Now he's tanking it.

EMERGENCY VIDEO! SHUTDOWN??

December 21, 2024

A CR passed but House Republicans defied a Trump request to raise the debt ceiling.

Why would Trump want to raise the debt ceiling if he intends to be true to the spirit of his campaign?

And now Trump is threatening the EU with tariffs if they don't up oil and gas imports, which are already at capacity.

Related threads:

September 10, 2024. Pearls Before Swine.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part 3. The Decarbonizing the West and Electronic eartags Edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2024, Agriculture, Alcohol, Canada, Cattle, Climate Change, Coal, Computers, Disease, Economics, Health, Internet, Labor unrest, Railroads, technology, Unions, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Blog Mirror: Farmers need a reality check about Trump's reckless tariff war | Ben Palen

 

Farmers need a reality check about Trump's reckless tariff war | Ben Palen

Getting the Economic Dope Slap

The law of unintended consequences is a frightful thing.

It's possible, with things lining up the way they are, that Wyoming populists are about to get the biggest economic dope slap in the state's history.

Of course, the rest of us will get it too.

Wyomingites drank the populist kool aid and went back for more bucket sized additional helpings.  Shoot, the average Wyoming voter was practically drunk on the stuff, having started imbibing about a decade ago.  In going for Trump, they were voting for a return to an imaginary 1950s, sort of, combined with an imaginary 1930s, combined with an imaginary 1960s.  Full employment for all "real" Americans, none of these Spanish speaking brown folks, a uniting of our economic extractive needs with a concept of science as we want it, not as it is, and the sexual morays of the mid 1970s, really.

Average Wyoming candidate on campaign trail.

Wyomingites don't really want to go back to the past as it really was, particularly on some of the things the way I feel they should be.  Divorce isn't going to be hard to get, for example, and there's not going to be a criminal penalty for screwing around.    No hyperinflation either, and no economic depressions.

Well. . . 

The past so many envision, and there's some truth to the depictions,  and what we imagine we want again, except with tattoos and only the laws we actually like and think we remember.

Donald Trump, fresh from his political recovery thanks to a Democratic Party that couldn't get a clue and the rise of malevolent populism is threatening to throw a 25% tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico and a 10% one on goods imported from China.  Apparently we can p.o. the Chinese, but not as much as we can Mexico and Canada, safely.

Or maybe not p.o. the Chinese at all. During the campaign Trump talked about 60% tariffs on China.  10% on China combined with 25% on Mexico and Canada actually conveys a trading advantage on  China, while raising the costs of prices at home.

The United States is the largest goods importer of goods in the world.  China was the top supplier of goods imported into the United States, followed by Mexico ($454.8 billion), Canada ($436.6 billion), Japan ($148.1 billion), and Germany ($146.6 billion).

The United States is the world's second largest goods exporter in the world, behind only China.  Canada is the largest purchaser of U.S. goods, around 17%.

That's probably about to change.

What do we import?  Well, darned nearly everything, even food from Mexico.

What do we expert, darned near everything, including even petroleum.

We're going to be paying more for everything, and we're going to be exporting less of everything, as we get hit with retaliatory tariffs.

And that's assuming our neighbors are nice.  They might not be.  If I was the P.M. of Canada, I'd tell Americans living in Canada to pack up and go home.  A lot of them are up there on business.  And I'd end cooperation with the US on defense.

And oil?  Well, the Saudis are seriously threatening to drop the price per barrel to $49.00, which would wipe out most U.S. production.  Again, if I were the Canadians, and the Mexicans, both of which produce a lot of oil, I'd join them.  They probably won't, but that's what I'd do.

So, Wyoming populists, even without retaliation, you are going to pay more for absolutely everything. We all are.

And a lot fewer of you are going to have jobs. Same for us all.

Well, at least you can be happy about deportation. . . and a lot of you will, at long last, be deporting yourselves to your own states.  You'll have to. There won't be any work here.

Seriously, blaming Canada?

 

What the crap?

How the DEA views it:

Doesn't seem like Canada is the problem. . . . 

But then who pays attention to the facts anymore?

Tuesday, November 17, 1914. Strained resources.

At Ypres, General Albrecht ordered all attacks to cease to allow reserve units to move to the Eastern Front.  The Allies did not detect this change for three days.

And. . . 

Falkenhayn Calls Off Western Offensives, Suggests Peace

The United Kingdom doubled income tax to cover war expenses.

Last edition:

Monday, November 16, 1914. Occupying Tsingtao

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Austro Hungarian Army, Bergmann Offensive, Blog Mirror, British Army, Federal Reserve, Imperial Russian Army, Ottoman Army, Serbia, Siege of Tsingtao, World War One, Zaian War

Saturday, September 10, 1774. Edenton Tea Party.

Penelope Barker organized 51 women in Edenton, North Carolina to protest taxation without representation.

Last edition:

Friday, September 9, 1774. The Suffolk Resolves.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Blog Mirror, Colonial North America, Massachusetts

What on Earth does the Republican Party stand for?

Ronald Reagan was the first President that I was able to vote for, or against (I voted for) in my lifetime.

The GOP of that era was far from perfect, but I knew what it stood for.  

It was pro life, pro defense, tough on crime, pro fiscal responsibility, and overall conservative.

People have claimed that for the Trumpist GOP, but what of it?

1.  Pro life?

The GOP went into this election cycle claiming responsibility, which it had every right to do, for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which returned the abortion issue to the states.  Not surprisingly, however, a controversial issue remains controversial.  Now the GOP is running from the issue as quickly as it can.  It took its pro life plank out of its platform, where it's been for decades.  And now we have Trump, who has flip flopped on the issue for decades, stating this, in regard to a proposed six week provision in Florida:

I think the six week is too short, there has to be more time

This is really a simple issue.  Either you believe that life starts at conception, or aren't sure when a human is a human and therefore you err on the side of life, or you think killing only matters at some arbitrary point in time in which you can't stomach it.

At best, the Republicans here can claim to support State's Rights, but pro life?  Donald isn't.

Added to that is this, which gets also into the next topic.

I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment.

We want more babies!

IVF means the creation of large numbers of embryos that are later killed, and in Catholic theology, IVF  is regarded as a moral evil.  

It's notable that Vance, who is a Catholic convert, has made some statements now generally supporting IVF as he runs towards Trump and away from his Faith.

2.  Fiscal Responsibility?

Trump added 8T to the federal debt in his term in office.

And he proposed, prior to Harris, cutting income taxes on tips, which has no logical defense.  Income is income.

Trump has stood for tax cuts, which have amounted to tax cuts for the wealthy.  People, including the wealthy like Elon Musk, have noted the country is going bankrupt.  Well, this is a big part of the reason why.

Back to the above, the GOP whined endlessly about Obamacare, and now proposes to expand government support for an insurance payment. What the crud?

3. Pro defense?

The Republican willingness in many quarters to abandon Ukraine says all you need to know about this. Added to it, Trump has a weird relationship with Russia that has never been explained.

Much of the current GOP wants to return to isolationism, which worked oh so well during the 1930s.

4.  Tough on crime?

Running Trump says all you really need to know on that.

This party, in spite of what its supporters believe, stands only for reelecting Donald Trump, and nothing else.

Mind you, there were signs of this happening for some time.  The entire spectacle of Evangelical Christians lashing themselves to the decks of the Trump serial polygamy ship was never easy to fathom.  National Conservatives came on board in a calculated fashion, thinking that when Trump shuffled off his mortal coil they'd be in charge, only to see the less popular portions of their beliefs mocked and categorized as "weird".  The Hawk Tuah girl was embraced by the Lynyrd Skynyrd branch of the populist whose Christianity is rather thin and not hardly of the Mike Johnson New Apostolic Reformation variety.

So what does that do to the populist movement in the GOP and the GOP in general?  Well, quite a few real Republicans are abandoning ship, particularly those cultural conservatives who were never really Trumpites, but believed there was a moral obligation to support the GOP due to its cultural conservative positions.  The American Solidarity Party is suddenly getting a lot of attention because its actually prolife.  But a lot of the Trumpites now stand for nothing but Trump and will go down with him like stormtroopers in Berlin on May 2, 1945.  Locally those politicians who have arisen in the Populist Freedom Caucus will keep on saying the same things they've been saying, even as their leader is saying the opposite.

Populism always gets co-opted in the end.  Here, it already has been.  Conservatism, for its part, was simply killed in the party.

Wednesday, August 18, 1824. The Mexican General Colonization Law.

Mexico's new government passed its General Colonization Law allowing foreigners to gain title to land that was at least 20 leagues from the border of another country or at least 10 leagues of the coast. 

Colonist would be exempt from taxes for ten years.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 14, 1824. Return of Lafayette.

Labels: 1820s, 1824, American Revolution, New Jersey, Personalities, United States

The 2024 Election, Part XIX. The Clerks say "M'eh" edition.

June 6, 2024

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray informed County Clerks that they may not use drop boxes in the upcoming election:

The County Clerks in turn met yesterday and informed Gray, that yes they can:

The topic of drop boxes has figured prominently in far right wing conspiracy theories even though there's no evidence whatsoever that they were involved in corruption in the last U.S. election, and certainly did not in the Wyoming election.  Sec. Gray used 2000 Mules prominently in his campaign, which apparently focuses on them, with that film having been completely discredited.  The conservative company which distributed it recently pulled it and apologized for it.

Apparently, less than 10 Wyoming counties actually use drop boxes, but the clerks en masse rejected Gray's directive.  If he wants to actually enforce his view, he'll have to attempt to get a court order, which risks the embarrassing possibility of losing as well as making people mad that a state official is suing local clerks.  If he doesn't take legal action, however, he'll look politically emasculated.

June 12, 2024

A bunch of states held primaries yesterday.

Nancy Mace held off a Republican challenger in South Carolina.

Trump backed Kelly Armstrong won in North Dakota.

June 14, 2024

And if this election wasn't weird enough:

Cheyenne City Clerk Says Artificial Intelligence Candidate For Mayor Is OK For Election

 June 15, 2024

The Presidential election continues to get increasingly surreal.

Business executives who met with Trump recently, in some instances, came away a bit shocked by what is obvious. CBS reports that some:

“said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” 

D'uh.

That's been the case for quite a while, and it's really showing.   Consider this from last week:

I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery’s underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’ By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately. Do you notice that? A lot of shark … I watched some guys justifying it today: ‘Well, they weren’t really that angry. They bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were not hungry, but they misunderstood who she was.’ These people are crazy.

Eh?

There's plenty of reason to be concerned that Trump is in some state of mental decline.  These statements are certainly alarming, to say the least.  At this point, moreover, it's being willfully blind to suggest that Joe Biden is mentally impaired and not suggest the same thing about Trump. 

Trump suggested last week that he'd look at replacing the income tax with tariffs.  That would throw the country into a Depression.

Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, himself no spring chicken, was photographed amongst Trump's Senatorial acolytes last week, and then giving him a birthday cake.  Dr. Barrasso is just that, a physician, and there's no real reason to believe that he's a Trump fan, but that's the case for a lot of those photographed smiling at Trump, all of which is both sad and alarming.

June 17, 2024

A record-low number of Democrats will run for Wyoming’s Legislature this year

June 21, 2024

A Sixth Cent sales tax will be on the ballot in Natrona County.  

June 25, 2024

An article on Hageman's primary challenger in the GOP:

Democrat-turned-Republican challenges Wyoming’s Harriet Hageman for U.S. House seat

Helling has a less than zero chance of unseating Hageman.  What this item really reminded me of, however, is just how old these candidates are.  Helling is an old lawyer.  His bar admission date is 1981, which would make him about 70.  Hageman's is 1989, which I knew which would make her about 61, old by historical standards although apparently arguably middle-aged now.

Barrasso is 71.  Lummis is 69. John Hotz, who is running against Barrasso, has a bar admission date of 1978 which would make him about three years older than Helling.  Seemingly the only younger candidate in the GOP race this primary is Rasner.

This isn't a comment on any of their politics, but rather their age.  Helling is opposed to nuclear power, a very 1970ish view.  With old people, come old views, quite often, even if they're repackaged as new ones.

June 26, 2024

Boebert won the GOP primary in her new district in Colorado.

Democratic member of "the Squad" Jamaal Bowman lost his primary race in New York to moderate Democrat George Latimer.

June 27, 2024

Trump-endorsed Riverton Utah Mayor Trent Staggs lost the Republican primary to Representative John Curtis for the Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney. Trump-backed state Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams lost the primary to Jeff Crank. Trump's endorsed South Carolina 3rd Congressional District, candidate pastor Mark Burns, lost to nurse practitioner Sheri Biggs.

Trump endorsed Gabe Evans, defeated Janak Joshi for the Colorado's 8th Congressional District nomination.

Related threads:

Is anyone else reminded of the Simpson's?

Last prior edition:

The 2024 Election, Part XVIII. The list.

Going to the hardware store. A note on taxes.

Socialism is when the government does stuff. And it's more socialism the more stuff it does. And if it does a real lot of stuff, it's communism.

Richard D. Wolff.¹

I saw them there when I went into the hardware store, but they were talking to somebody and I didn't have to engage them.  I was not so lucky on the way out.  I glanced over as there oddly enough were cookies at the table and I thought for a moment it might be an effort to raise money for something like the Girl Scouts, but there were no girls there.  Only two women, whom I'd guess were in their 70s.

Them: Excuse me sir, are you a registered voter?

I'll be frank, I really hate the initiative and referendum process.  I figure most people sign the petitions to get something on the ballot, as they are polite and don't really want to offend the signature takers.  Eons ago, I was like that myself.

I've long since being that way.  Most of the time I refuse to sign the petitions, but I don't engage the petitioners in debate.

And I didn't this time.  I wish I had.

The rest of the brief conversation:

    Me: Yes (said in an irritated tone).

    Them: Would you like to sign our petition?  If passed, it would drop property taxes 50%.

    Me: No (said in an even more irritated tone).

By the time I got home, I was irritated with myself.  I wish I had engaged them in conversation.  If I had, what I would have said is this?

Oh?  Property taxes in Wyoming, which has no income tax, pay for police, fire departments, basic city sevices and education.  Why do you hate policemen, firemen and teachers?

That's brutal, but that's the truth.  If we don't tax property for these things, we have to tax something else, or go without.

This city has had two reported teenage murders in the last month, and a lot of killings here just go unreported. We have a developing violent gang problem.  I'm not even going to bother with the drug problem that comes with living in a city that's on an Interstate Highway.  We have a homeless problem due to other municipalities busing their homeless to our city.  All of these ties right into what I just noted.  

Badly educated people are a major social problem that ends up being a burden on emergency services.  

The "I don't want to be taxed" movement really came about, no matter how it is thinly intellectually justified, as property taxes have risen significantly in the state in recent years.  The reasons are several fold, one simply being that county assessors falsely suppressed raising them, as property values raised, as they're elected officers and they were chicken about it. The State, which has the duty to distribute the taxes, finally got after them to do t heir jobs, and they've been having to do them. That's raised taxes.

Another is that a certain attitude in the state has encouraged people to move in, although a large number move right back out. Those who move in are largely older, having made their lives elsewhere, and having educated their children elsewhere. They sold their houses high in those places, where they should have stayed, and don't want to pay for anything here. Additionally, a lot of these people have real populist views, and would be just fine with not educating anyone in their declining years as they'll be dead as a door nail when current children become ignorant voters themselves.

For that matter, some of the recent imports have washed up from regions where education in particular is lacking.  This is particularly the case for people who have come up from the South.  Steeped in a sort of ignorance themselves, they aren't thinking things through, and regard education as some sort of left wing conspiracy. This has unfortunately seeped into American conservatism itself, and is now sort of a rallying cry.

Property taxes are rising just because of people like this.  They sell out their homes for a pile, and then come here and buy new ones at inflated prices.

I'd really like to know what these people would propose to cut, if we didn't have the property taxes.  They likely have no idea. The same people who would cut property taxes would go to a city council meeting and complain about a pothole, which is filled, basically, with money from property taxes.

Property taxes are, moreover, more fair than people suppose. If you have property, you have means. It's telling that these complaints come from old people, not young couples. Renters aren't paying property taxes.  And if the property taxes are too high, it may mean you exceeded your means, or you have multiple properties.  In the latter case, sell one, that will reduce property values and help distribute the scarce resource. 

Footnotes.

1.  A relative of mine uses this quote frequently, which is where I heard the first part of it.

I looked Wolff up, and he is an academic Marxist, which I'm not in any sense.  Marxism is proven murderous crap. But the quote is not without merit.  Every democratic society has governments which do a lot of stuff, and by and large the public really likes the stuff it does if it benefits from it, and doesn't if somebody else does.  Some of the most subsidized industries in the US completely fail to realize that and their members loudly complain about the government.  Trucking is, for example, a prime example.