Some Thanksgiving Trump/Defense Fact Checking
Donald Trump celebrated Thanksgiving by handing out turkey sandwiches and potato chips to the Coast Guard while regaling them with stories of the F-35: Donald Trump returned to a favourite subject on Thursday, telling a US coast guard audience the air force was ordering a new plane that was “almost like an invisible fighter”….Trump first…
My Quasi-Annual Black Friday Post
According to the retail industry, “Black Friday” is the day when retail profits for the year go from red to black. Are you skeptical that this is really the origin of the term? You should be. After all, the term Black ___day, in other contexts, has always signified something terrible, like a stock market crash…
Congress Is Hearing From the Teamsters About Driverless Trucks
Alexis Georgeson/Tesla Motors via ZUMA This is sort of fascinating: In its race to embrace driverless vehicles, Washington has cleared away regulatory hurdles for auto companies and brushed aside consumer warnings about the risk of crashes and hacking….New Trump administration regulations don’t require industry to submit certain safety assessments, leaving it voluntary. And legislation —…
How to Handle Thanksgiving With Your Crazy Relatives
I’m lucky enough to have a family that’s all in sync politically, which means that Thanksgiving is a fun time for everyone. But lots of families aren’t so lucky: they have that one crazy relative who makes the whole holiday awkward with their constant TV-inspired rants about retrograde politics. So what do you do if…
Please Cut the Crap About Red States Subsidizing Blue States
The New York Times reports that many state governments are concerned that the Republican tax plan will hurt them: Of primary concern is the Senate’s plan to repeal the state and local tax deduction….The tax break is claimed by people across the nation, but is more heavily utilized in higher-tax states like Oregon, California, New…
Inflation is Weak, Weak, Weak
The Wall Street Journal reports today on the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve. They’re still planning to raise interest rates in December, but “many participants” are worried about weakness in inflation: Minutes of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 meeting, released Wednesday with the usual three-week lag, indicated that officials thought persistently weak inflation could…