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I really don’t think we have appreciated the international calm that was the trump admin. No new wars, troop drawdowns, isis from problem to footnote, Iran in its place, and nato paying for itself.
If not for the domestic disturbances and divisions fomented and embraced by the opposition, it was a pretty good time. Those were bad but largely fomented at least passively by the opposition.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Yeah, the stimulus checks are an interesting thing. I’ve had a couple of other employers mention to me that the stimulus checks actually hurt their ability to employ line workers…turns out when you give people money, they realize they don’t have to work for it. Same for boosting unemployment. It’s all done in the name of “humanity” but actually hurts the search for gainful employment.
I would bet that many of us know family members or friends who stayed on unemployment rather than actually looking for a new job. I certainly do.
That said, it means the money hits the economy faster that it does when the money is given to you and me, but it certainly creates different incentives among parts of the workforce.
Construction is an interesting sector when it comes to stimulus. Our workforce has gotten continually less productive when it comes to construction, meaning we actually create less real output today per unit of labor than we did 20, 40, and 60 years ago. It’s the ideal place for government to spend, because politicians can blow more and more dollars for less and less output, pleasing unions and creating employment opportunities.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Not a bad take by Noonan. She’s way too easy on Biden but then again so is everybody in the news.
Talked to the president of a concrete business with ops in the southeast. His take on the infrastructure spending is that there won’t be people to do the jobs. They can’t find people today and things are blowing and going.
Remember that Biden was in charge of “shovel ready jobs” back in the day…and there was no such thing. Just another political slogan.
The Dems are in power. They get to call the shots. Those are facts. In an era where it’s increasingly acceptable to just call the opposition stupid and then do what you want without them, those facts are going to lead to some really ugly places.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I’m amazed that such cancellation is possible. I realize that some people believe Trump was inciting a riot. I don’t personally see that although I’ll be the first to say he certainly didn’t do a lot to “stop” the march in the Capitol.
Still, how amazing is it that the liberal-tech-industrial complex has essentially run the totalitarian playbook. I’m betting the house of Saud still has a voice on these platforms, ditto Chinese Communists, Cuban government officials, and Antifa fascists.
But Trump is dangerous. I guess.
It only gives him more strength. That’s the irony. They are proving him right on some level.
He’s going to launch a new social media platform and it will be interesting to see how that ramps up. My hunch is it will be the biggest launch of a platform in history. The servers will crash.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Risk management is a lost art for individuals but a must have for companies of any size. Freight carriers usually are on the frontlines of risk management, and I suspect that the freight carriers won’t get pinned down by this one. Where supply chain shocks like this hurt is when companies and governments choose to run supply chains “lean” because they can. Too lean equals too risky.
Why is it a lost art for individuals? Because we have cultivated a culture of blame and bankruptcy where people feel comfortable taking outrageous personal financial risks (like buying cars that cost more than a year’s wages) because other people do it.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Well, to be fair, it’s one massive cargo vessel and also a colossal screw up at one of the key choke points in the whole system.
Kinda like saying that one cog can break the whole clock, which is not really all that surprising.
The fragility of most systems is not in the unknown risks, it’s in the lack of contingencies around the known risks. Closure of the Suez has been a known risk for at least 40 or 50 years due to Middle East politics. If your supply chain doesn’t take that risk into account, then you will pay the price when it closes. I’m not saying it’s prudent to hold inventory against such a risk, I’m just saying that if you don’t you are underwriting the risk in some other way.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)A presidential visit to a disaster zone gives the disaster legitimacy.
It’s a fine line he has to walk. On one hand, blame Trump. But then there’s the other side of the argument where he needs to blame Trump.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Regardless of who is involved, I’m Pretty sure the ship would have been harbor piloted through the canal, and so all responsibility falls to the pilot. I don’t know how the rules work exactly, but I thought the captain is absolved of grounding if the harbor pilot does it. Anybody know?
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I saw the reporter pictures. Imaging being there and not even having the chance to have your question heard. I guess that’s the way the game is played.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Funny. The Biden presser was as expected. Scripted and prepped.
Any commentary on Biden reading prepared responses is met with righteous indignation about Biden actually being prepared vs trump being off the cuff.
cheating is “being prepared” too. We literally just witnessed a show trial of a press conference. It was totally staged.
president Biden is in major decline. I hope he can hang on until 2024 because Kamala is an awful presidential candidate.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)What kind of love did you get as a child, Doc?
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I don’t mind that you are still evaluating trump, I just wish it would come with a hint of appreciation for what was accomplished on Covid vs what was said. Everybody wants to focus on what trump said, but not what his admin did. That is the tale of the tape. His rhetoric overwhelmed his actual substantive policy positions. On Covid, the mask and lockdown advocates have had their say, but it’s trump’s admin that is going to end up saving the day. The agility shown over the Covid crisis is pretty impressive. The production of ventilators. The facilitation of multiple vaccines globally.
it was all so good that nothing Biden has done has actually changed the Covid trajectory. And Biden knows it. Biden is a typical politician. Said 100 million vaccinated in 100 days when anybody good at math would have said that number was in the bag. Nothing big and audacious.
trump said a vaccine by year end and was scoffed at by the “science” believers.
trump is a grade a ass, but he wasn’t always wrong.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Don’t kid yourself. Plenty of dem demographics are vax skeptics as well. Targeted news stories don’t change that.
Trump was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. If he publicized, he was putting himself at front of the line and stealing vaccine from folks who hadn’t already had Covid. If he didn’t, he was acting in secret.
Was trump a vaccine skeptic in public? I don’t remember that. His admin certainly has been vindicated by pushing the vax thread hard. Biden won’t even say much because he know he inherited a gift.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)It’s really hard to believe that something so egregious could have actually happened at one of the so-called national newspapers. However, when it came to Trump, any lie was ok as long as it took him down. Frankly he was too effective at keeping us out of wars and inside of our borders.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)
