A while back, I wrote that the one thing a person might be able to argue as a “success” for 47 was his “border control.” The reason I suggest it’s only an arguable success is that he accomplished his greatest achievement by being overtly cruel and unreasonable, but, it seems to have worked. NOBODY wants to come to the US anymore. One can only guess at how many want to get the hell out.

So, in a completely unrelated topic, the World Cup is getting ready to play out. Oh, I guess it IS related, since whole blocks of hotel reservations are being canceled at an alarming rate. Well, alarming to the hotel industry. They’re being canceled because of that line up there, ‘NOBODY wants to come to the US anymore.’

The World Cup is being played out this year among three different countries, Canada, Mexico, and the US. I’m thinking two of those countries are going to feel a real economic boom from the impact of tourism. That third country there? The US? Yeah, there’s going to be an economic impact there, too. I just suspect it’s not going to be so much of a boom and more of a bomb. Nice work, Donny. It seems like everything you touch turns to…well, you know…

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Kevin Warsh is the guy 47 wants to replace Jerome Powell as Fed Chair. 47 wants Warsh because Warsh is a loyal toady who will manipulate interest rates as dictated by 47, who destroys everything he touches, or, perhaps, Warsh’s own investment needs. He’ll be the richest Fed Chair in history. He sat for the Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing and said, get this, that the Fed would be “independent of the White House.”

He managed to say it with a straight face, too. Nobody in the room believed him, of course, but the Republicans all acted like it was straight from God’s lips, near reverential. Powell’s term ends in the middle of May. He says he’s staying so long as he’s being investigated. 47 says otherwise. Sooner or later, 47 is going to get his way. When he does, the dollar is going on a roller coaster that likely ends with deadly crashes…

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I saw a clip of Fox Not-News mouthpiece Jessie Waters, whose own mother doesn’t seem to like him much, saying that Virginia had “gerrymandered the state” in the recent election where Democrats just won a new mid-term district mapping battle. He was close to right. What he meant to say was “RE-gerrymandered the state.” It had already been gerrymandered to the Republicans benefit. That’s okay in the Republican mind. That didn’t become a bad thing until Democrats did it back to them. Now it’s a real outrage…

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Climate change is real. A broad swath of people in our failing nation insist otherwise. Climate change doesn’t care WHAT they say and just keeps getting worse. It’s caused by lots of things but one of the main things is burning fossil fuels. Obviously, making gas and selling it is legal. It just also happens to contribute to environmental devastation, wreaking havoc where ever it goes.

The link between burning fossil fuels and climate change is clear and proven so various environmental groups are suing oil producers, trying to get them to take some responsibility for their actions. Mostly, they want the oil producers to clean up their act – literally. Republicans in Congress are currently working to shield large oil companies from their responsibilities.

They are trying to pass a bill called the ‘Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026,’ because getting the oil companies to clean up their messes is a “shakedown.” If they succeed in this thing, the new federal legislation would dismiss pending climate accountability lawsuits, void all climate Superfund laws, and block similar future efforts. Good for oil. Bad for the planet, worse for humans.

It seems the industry is on the move. Right now, they know they have a small window to use a large-enough group of greedy but stupid people to protect them from their actions. To be clear, they want to keep doing what they’re doing, regardless of the cost. They just don’t want to be held responsible. And the Republicans are working overtime trying to help.

Remember when immoral Republicans in Congress passed the ‘Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act’ in 2005? That one protected gun makers from the consequences associated with the use of their product. Now innocent victims of gun violence can often NOT get redress through the courts because of that law and the oil industry is using it as a model to try and shield themselves from culpability.

Every day, it feels like the Republicans have gone all in. Every day it looks like the cons are close to losing power and they need to get all of their evil legislation passed and in place before that happens. Have you ever seen one of those boxes full of money blowing in the air? A person goes in and for a minute or so tries to grab and pocket as much of the money as they can. That’s how conservative lawmaking looks to me, today. They want it all and they’ve only got a short time left to try and get it.

I, for one, don’t think governments should be protecting industries from the effects of their businesses…

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Ah, Capitalism. “Build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” Right? Not so much. Still thinking about climate change, the world should be pushing to get off of burning fossil fuels as quickly as it can and electric cars are one good source to do that. If we continue the mousetrap-as-car metaphor, the best mousetrap in the world is made in China.

US car manufacturers DID beat a path to a door, too. The door to the White House, where a corrupt President slapped such high tariffs on the Chinese cars, they can’t be brought into the US. The US manufacturers know they can’t compete with the Chinese cars. Can’t? Won’t, more likely. And now, because of mealy-mouthed politicians, they won’t have to.

But nobody gets to tell me we live in a Capitalist society when competition is NOT king. If the Chinese build a better car, they build a better car. If competing car companies can’t match that car, the Chinese are going to clean up. Capitalism. The minute you ban that open competition, you’re banning Capitalism. Regardless of the stories you might hear, this is why American-made electric vehicles cost so much.

I suspect if this were a truly Capitalist nation, the Chinese car company BYD would have dealerships in every city and ‘Tesla’ would only describe Nikola again…