Free market economy
It ain't so free.
I mentioned in an essay before about Ford spiking the price on a long awaited electric truck from 40k to 54k.
I still believe this was a brazen move to hijack consumers Tax Rebate from under them.
But now, since the new rules that demand US sourcing of battery and materials it leaves only Ford and GM vehicles that qualify.
And one Tesla model.
So in one fel swoop, Biden helped Detroit corner the EV discount marketing America. No imported EV can compete with the advantage of the Rebate.
And then they added a few thousand dollars more for inflation, Doncha know.
In a left-handed way they are laundering taxpayer money into their bottom line profits.
But this is the way government works in America today. To serve the corporate unions through their paid lobbyists to pass legislation to profit from.
If this were true dog eat dog Capitalism at work, none of the too big to fail banks would exist today. Nor would Chrysler (Fiat) or GM.
AIG should have been Enron'd. Snuffed out in 2008.
I've heard this system described as Socialism, in that profits go to the wealthy while losses are spread throughout society.
They use money to power all obstacles out of their way.
I'm so tired of the manipulation.
End rant.
What's on your mind today? The thread is open.
Comments
At the farm this morning
Response will be spotty.
Huge tree limb has come down over shipping container. Will have to cutaway enough to even get the tractor and chain saw out.
Have just a limb saw and dull hatchet.
Deer have come out in force to eat the fresh leaves.
Big leaf maple.
My helpful little four legged elves. One sporting two little newborns.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
We feed downed limbs/trees..
to our domestic deer relatives, our goats! And definitely, helpful little four legged elves they are. And stinkers too!
Hope the days are good at the farm!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning
Sorry about the fallen maple.
Have had to hitch-up a rope to
the fallen branches and tow out
to a cutting area before.
Glad the deer are helping out.
Finances in the US seem on a downward spiral.
Debt, inflation, failing banks, credit deserts but
Wall Street is flying higher than Tim Leary ever was.
I fear electronic currency won't help the little people.
Good luck with the tree and thanks for the OT!
I wonder
how they will make us pay for this war.
Raise taxes?
Lower interest on our bank accounts?
Print more money?
All the above?
Thanks for the post.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
why should we pay for their wars?
it is not like we voted for it
some assumptions need sorting
because the fed can print an infinity of
script does not justify the investment
in destruction
the war pigs are eating high on the hog
while the rest of us gnaw on hooves
the leftovers of insatiable appetite
Well, we just had
another free-market mass shooting here in Denver last night, up on Market between 20th and 21st by the ballpark. They don't know if it was related to the Nuggets winning the sportsball thing or not (fog of war, and all that), but I think it is a safe bet that it involved alcohol, testosterone, and a gun.
We thought about going out to our local publike drinkery to watch the game, and decided against it in part because people are just getting far too weird, far too quickly, around here.
Ran across a shirtless guy doing the open-carry thing with a brand new (still bloody) swastika tattoo all over his chest the other day, when we were in town for the Denver Day of Rock shows. Maybe it is just me, but I think that maybe we should have picked our allies maybe a little better, because those fuckers are popping up all over the place now. I don’t think that encouraging the play-Nazis by sending lots and lots of weapons to the offshore actual Nazis was the right idea. Nazis of any stripe are not cool.
No smiley. Not at all.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
As the Silent Generation passes on
memories of the true nature of Nazis fades. More and more, fascism is seen and presented by the media and think tanks in a sympathetic light. Even Israel is silent about the Ukrainian Nazis.
One could make the argument we now live in a fascist society. Even the Anti- Fascist Movement has been shortened and demonized as ann-tea-fah.
Earthing2s mom was a young girl of 9 when the war ended, but even she unknowingly demonized Antifa.
Narrative works!
Thanks for stopping by.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Fascism, and
its underlying racism, sexism, xenophobia, and undying fear of (and reflexive hatred for) The Other.
By supporting the real Nazis, our owners have made the violent ultrarightwing cool and spiffy again. So the edgelord cosplayers are out in force screaming about The Colored Folks, The Gay Folks, gawd forbid now The Trans Folks, The Liberals, and of course (and as always) The Jooooz. They are not even sure who among that group they should regard as the most subhuman any more, but apparently they regard themselves as being in a target-rich environment. And I suppose that, given those definitions of who to hate this week, they are.
Light fuse, get away. This is going to be a really unpleasant summer, as our local Master Race cosplayers get themselves all juiced up to go kill themselves some more Others. It's the in thing, now, you know.
Faugh.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
The Slavic races
are the New sub humans to hate.
Coming soon, Asians to receive our daily 15 minutes of hate for we've always been at war with Eastasia.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Good morning Earthling1, et. y'all.
Started feeling like shit shortly after dinner last night, coughed all night long, took the test this morning and bingo - I've got Covid. Never would'vd imagined that a human body could produce so much phlegm. Ah well, such is life
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
sorry to hear of your fluish future
had it before it was announced as a thing
took about 2 weeks of purging excess fluids
from the lungish portions of the anatomy
not pleasant, but like most bad dreams
it eventually faded away
good luck
Thanks QMS. I'll keep your timetble in mind,
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Get well before summer is over
Hope you don't have "long covid".
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
thanks for the good wishes.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Yeah, it is not fun.
I am prone to heavy coughing since December, 2019.
Get well soon, el.
And stay well.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Damn, that really sucks otc. Hope you can kick it, and the
sooner the better
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I am not sick, do not feel bad,
do not hurt anywhere, and energy level is pretty damn high, but out of the blue, I will have a coughing "fit". Like, when I answer the office phone, or start my questioning in court...just inconvenient, embarrassing, and I have to assure people I am not a Typhoid Mary, just allergies or some such.
I Don't even get into the Long Covid thing, since I don't want to be blamed for Bad Things by either the pro or anti vaxxer camps.
The damn truth is, I got it during (or from?) an international trip in late Dec. of 2019. COVID did not have a name at that time, nor any preventative protocols. It was unknown, no tests for it. I had planned the trip to Morocco months ahead of this. My illness was diagnosed as flu, which developed into pneumonia, then double pneumonia, then walking pneumonia. I received Z-Pack, stuff like that, for 4 months. So many steroid shots, one butt cheek was larger than the other. (I kid!) By the time I didn't need those typical meds, they were pretty much forbidden in favor of the turn blue and get on a ventilator protocol.
I consider myself so lucky. And, my brother and his best friend went to a casino near New Orleans. Remember how horrid that city's caseload was? And they were diagnosed in December, 2019, with flu. Got the same meds I got. They were very sick, both bed bound for a week or so, and my brother still coughs. Best friend is younger, seems to have kicked it.
Here's your hoping long COVID is like mine. Not sick, just sort of embarassing.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Get well
Quickly! The phlegm from that stuff is awful. I had it before lockdown. Took about two week to start to go away, like QMS said.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
some fun shots by a local shutter bug
Carl Keitner: Images that amuse and inspire
His grand-daughter Lilly at a junkyard
https://www.imagofoundation4art.org/
Sounds like fun
I love junk yards.
Will check it out when I get back to wifi.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Mister Cynical sez
Covid is all a plot to overburden national health systems so that they would become "too expensive" and nations will have to privatize. Biden gets to do what he's wanted to all his life and can claim he was forced to do it. In Britain the Torys can get rid of the NHS and who can blame them? And all it takes is a few million dead and an ad campaign.
It's probably a coincidence (sarcasm!) but I read an article saying that the worst adverse reactions to the mRNA jabs came 3 months after. Paranoid (Yeah, paranoid!) I started counting, and right on schedule I started bleeding. After three hours I went to the ER. They did nothing but do a platelet count, it stopped on its own after 7 hours. A few weeks later I was told I'd failed one of those blood stool tests and I should go in for a colonoscopy (or however they spell it) but I was too busy with the blood in my urine. Another 7 hours in the ER and a CT scan found nothing but 3 pancreatic cysts.
So, a month of hemophylia, two cancer scares, and about a half year later I got a bad headache and a runny nose. (about a week after I heard Dr Campbell say those were the most common symptoms of Omicron) I took a nap and it went away.
On to Biden since 1973
I had to buy a car
After the flood to replace the two we lost. One of the cars I lost was a fairly old Dodge Caravan with low miles on it. We wanted another mini-van like it because we were hauling what was left of our personal belongings around with us like the Joads. There weren't any in the central part of the state. Used ones were selling for ridiculously high prices. My daughter scoured the internet for us for a couple of days, and found two at a dealership about 20 miles away. The dealership added 10 thousand dollars to the sticker price of all the cars there. My better half dickered with him, and got him down to 5000 over the sticker price. What a bargain, right?
Anyway we were desperate and they knew it. They gave us some bs about the supply chain, like there was shortage of computer chips. BS. It's just greed.
So they pissed us off in other ways as well. They wrecked the first van we chose in the yard in a collision. So they had to sell us the only other one they had, which was a little more expensive for the same price. So we effectively got a fairer price but still almost 3000 over sticker.
After this they wanted us to give them a rave review when the survey was sent to us by the distributor. I never do these surveys because what if there is a warranty defect that inconveniences you, adds to your costs, or even causes some kind of damage or injury? What do you mean? You gave us a great review on the survey? Anyway, they were greedy, rude, and careless, so how could they expect a good review? By the way, we've gotten 3 factory recalls in six months.
In any case, I've followed the nonsense in the news about the application of the tax rebate on EVs. My reaction is that if Ford or other domestic dealer raises their price close to or more than the rebate to take advantage of it for themselves, they will lose market share, because the imported cars with Chinese battery components, are probably cheaper with the same quality.
JS posted a link to a Michael Hudson interview yesterday that described why the US economy was hollowed out, and why Biden's ERA and Chips legislation isn't going to fix it. It was a brilliant presentation I thought. How the US economy was damaged beyond repair by elite greed. I especially liked the part where he explained why comparing US GDP to Chinese GDP is misleading.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/06/michael-hudson-on-the-us-economy...
語必忠信 行必正直
I'm waiting for fall sales
to clear the inventory and make room for the new models. I expect to see steep discounting on all import EVs, or I'm not buying anything.
I've had the Leaf for seven years now and the battery pack has lost about 14% of range. But still gets me to the farm on a full charge, about 75 miles, with 25 miles left "in the tank".
Don't know how much more it will deteriorate, but it seems to be slowly leveling off.
The GDP is manipulated and cannot be trusted as accurate.
Thanks for the post.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Flea market economy is more like it
swap and trade their junk for your junk
derivatives, shorts, credit swaps, junk bonds
gangster bansksters, fiduciary fraudsters
an unregulated free-for-all of the wealthy