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More random thoughts

The University of Pennsylvania has censured Amy Wax a tenured law professor over her comments that some deemed to be racist. She said that because of affirmative action less qualified blacks were admitted to law school. She invited a white nationalist to speak to her class. She was taken to task for saying “All cultures are not equal. Or at least they are not equal in preparing people to be productive in an advanced economy.” I guess Penn has statistics contradicting Wax’s comments on black law students. But they don’t. What they assert is that Wax’s statements violate school policy regarding the confidentiality of the student. I am sure that Penn will now take steps to censure all those professors who have invited anti-Semitic speakers into their classes and censure those who made hateful anti-Semitic comments during the recent proHamas demonstrations.

How about all that media outrage over Nancy Pelosi’s husband selling $500k of Visa stock right before the DOJ announced a major lawsuit against the credit card issuer? Wait. You mean there was no outrage? Imagine the reaction if it had been the spouse of a republican leader.

Kamala Harris said that she would support a suspension of the filibuster to enact a nationwide abortion law. The media nods its approval. Again imagine what the reaction would be if Trump said that he favored a suspension of the filibuster to enact a nationwide ban on abortion. The media would be crying that this would be tyrannical and dictatorial. Media bias on full display.

If the democrats were in the majority in the senate don’t think that a suspension of the filibuster for abortion would be their only act. There would follow giving statehood to DC and to Puerto Rico to insure a democrat majority in the senate forever.

Right now the senate, the Electoral College, some of the courts and the Constitution are what standing between the democrats’ attempts to making the country a one party state. Of course some are questioning why South Dakota has the same number of senators as California. Most want to get rid of the Electoral College so that a republican will hardly ever be elected president. Some want to trash the Constitution to get rid of gun rights, allowing non citizens to vote in federal elections and other pesky restrictions.

Is Biden still president? He did make an appearance with the president of India and of course forgot his name.

I hate the hideous City Connect baseball uniforms. Have you seen Toronto’s? The only ones that are passable are Atlanta’s which look like those worn during a period when Hank Aaron was playing.

Did you see where the House voted against EPA’s tailpipe mandate? Of course it will not pass the Senate and if it did Biden would veto it. What is notable is that the democrats running for the Senate in Michigan and Texas voted against it. Both of those states would be adversely affected if the EPA mandate were enacted. Michigan would lose workers in the automotive industry while Texas would lose workers in the oil fields. Note too that both of these candidates also favor getting rid of the filibuster. 

Congress finally passed a continuing resolution. It expires in December and was stripped if the SAVE act. The only ones who voted against were those who scuttled Johnson’s initial CR (6 months plus the SAVE act) and those who insisted on the inclusion of the bill. I would be shocked if Johnson retained his speakership. But who in his/her right mind would want to lead this bunch?

Trump is now going after John Deere for moving production to Mexico (Deere in the headlights?). He is threatening 200% tariffs on any product produced by an American country outside the US. Trump loves tariffs.

Any comprehensive analysis of the economic plans of both Trump and Harris will find that both will be harmful to the economy. Harris’ $5 trillion tax increase and its unrealized capital gains tax would cripple the economy. It has more handouts which coupled with the increased taxes provide disincentives to both the productive and nonproductive workers. Trump’s tariffs would also devastate the economy raising prices to consumers, reducing real incomes and lowering GDP. 

The jury is out on which set of policies will ultimately be the most harmful. However, one thing is clear. If the democrats can somehow obtain majorities in the House, Senate and win the presidency the American republic will be replaced by the tyranny of the majority, something feared by the Founders. I strongly suspect that those states with republican leadership and legislatures will resist and opt not to bow to the whims of the democrat majority. They will just say no to the EPA mandates and the banning of internal combustion engines. They will say no to the repeal of their state laws on abortion. They will just say no to illegal immigration. The question then would be the reaction of the national democrats and how they would go about getting the republican states to kow tow to their dictates. It should be interesting theatre.

“Politically beyond stupid”

Well the stupid party did it again. Instead of uniting to pass a continuing resolution that the democrats would have never let become law, fourteen republicans voted with all the democrats but three to oppose Speaker Johnson’s CR. His CR was for six months and contained the SAVE legislation which would have required documentation to vote in federal elections. Again the republicans should have united around any CR knowing that it would not pass the Senate and if it did Biden would veto it. Then the onus of a federal shutdown would have been on the democrats. Instead the stupid republicans doomed their own CR meaning that any shutdown would fall on them. Mitch McConnell called the actions of the republicans in the House “politically beyond stupid.” Indeed. And who were these recalcitrant republicans? They are Jim Banks, Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Elijah Crane, Matt Gaetz, Wesley Hunt, Doug Lamborn, Nancy Mace, Cory Mills, Mike Rogers, Matt Rosendale, Gregory Steube, Beth Van Duyne and of course our own Tim Burchett. Note that all other members of the Tennessee delegation voted with the speaker as did firebrands Majorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan. I really don’t understand how that fourteen, especially Burchett can be comfortable voting with AOC and the rest of the Squad. 

Speaking of which, have you noticed that the democrats do a much better job of herding cats than the republicans? Case in point is the presidential campaign where the media has transformed the least liked national politician into a beacon of hope and joy who is leading in the national polls. A word of caution here. Harris is leading in the national polls because she is a democrat and will win the majority of votes regardless of her positions. The key is whether she is leading in enough states to give her 270 electoral votes. Currently she isn’t but part of the media campaign is to discourage republican turnout by giving Harris the victory in October rather than in November. Note the discipline of the democrats as contrasted to the republicans. In the campaign nothing has been heard from the left wing of the party. As a good friend of mine has noted, the democrats have hit the Squad and the far left with the “mute” button. What have you heard from AOC who must be having withdrawal pains by not being in front of microphones? Even Omar has shut up whining about the Administration’s quasi-support of Israel. They are letting Harris lie her way to the presidency while the republicans are undermining their own candidate. Some have called the democrats the evil party, Well on this score, the democrats are the smart evil party.

I had lunch with another dear friend. This one hates Trump with a passion and was wearing a cap that said “Prosecutor versus Felon.” We literally have virtually everything in common – life experiences, tastes in clothes, drive the same car with the same color – except politics. He is convinced that Trump will do all he can to be a dictator and do all he can to further enrich his billionaire buddies as opposed to Harris continuing to enrich the democrat’s billionaire bros. We don’t talk about politics. But I found his cap amusing. He somehow has convinced himself that Trump got a “fair” trail in New York, despite having a partisan judge, a partisan jury and convicted on “trumped” up charges that stretched a misdemeanor with expired statute of limitations into a felony. He should realize that when he was growing up in the deep south, that blacks were routinely subjected to the same “justice” imposed by all white judges, all white juries, all white law enforcement and an all white legal system. I guess he doesn’t realize that this mockery of justice makes Trump another black president.

Pander Wars

No I don’t mean battles between those black and white bears from China. I mean the escalating battle between Trump and Harris on who can promise what to what group. You would never guess that both Trump and Harris have degrees in economics. Trump from Pennsylvania and Harris from Howard (one of my academic stops). If both learned anything, it is not evident. Or perhaps politics trumps economics. 

My economics tutor at the University of Georgia was a graduate student, Phil Gramm. Yes that Phil Gramm who told me when we were both in Washington, that as a politician sometimes economics had to yield to political reality. Perhaps that is why Trump first advocated no taxes on tips pandering to Nevada voters. Harris quickly followed advocating the same. Then Trump said no taxes on social security pandering to us old folk. Not to be outdone Harris followed by wanting to give new homebuyers $25,000 in downpayment aid to lower housing costs pandering to young people. I hope her economics didn’t teach that a demand subsidy leads to lower prices. Harris also attacked “price gouging” on food pandering to all those who eat. This would bring back Richard Nixon’s failed price controls. Trump then proposed his own price control scheme by announcing he would back a 10% interest rate cap on credit cards pandering to everyone paying 20% on credit card balances. Well those consumers without the best credit could then kiss their credit cards goodbye. 

Trump, of course, loves tariffs and proposed replacing the income tax with a 20% across the board tariff on imported goods, thus pandering to two groups. The first group is all of us who hate paying taxes. The second group is all those who think that somehow tariffs will make us better off when the truth is the opposite. Harris has also been pandering to different groups by affecting a fake accent. Her “Girl, I’m out here on these streets” was truly cringe worthy. I wonder it that lost her some black votes? Then in Georgia she faked a southern accent saying “Y’all helped us win in 2020 and we gonna do it again in 2024”. Hillary Clinton did the same in a speech to a black audience and was mocked. The media has been mostly silent on Harris’ affectation but can you imagine the uproar if Trump tried to sound like a rapper? What about “White dudes for Harris”? Is that pandering? I am waiting for a “Black dudes for Trump” ad. Harris also claims to have flipped hamburgers at McDonald’s while in college. That’s pandering to the working class. She continues to assert that she is the product of a middle class home and that Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth – or was it a silver foot? This is despite having two Phds as parents both in highly paid positions at two of the nation’s best universities (Berkeley and Stanford). Again she is pandering to the middle class. She claims to have had to ride school buses. At least she had buses. When I was growing up in Atlanta in the 1950s, there were no school buses for black kids. We walked to school while the white kids rode. 

We all know that Harris is lying. Bernie Sanders himself admitted that Harris remains a progressive while feigning a shift to the center. That is the ultimate pander. Not be outdone on the pandering front, Trump voiced his support for a Florida bill to legalize marijuana, appealing to all those potheads and those who only smoke for medicinal purposes. He also tried to mitigate the abortion issue by pledging to not support a nationwide ban on abortion and to veto it if it ever came across his desk. Trump also panders by advocating to restore SALT which was part of his tax cutting legislation. That was the limitation on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. That is pandering for voters in high tax – mainly democrat run – states.

So who is winning the pander war? I don’t know but I do know that the loser is the American voter because both campaigns have been silent on most of the policy issues that are important to voters. 

I am a deer hunter – and hunter is the appropriate term. I hunt for only mature deer. The bucks must be at least 6 points and the adult does cannot have fawns with them. It is now bow season in Georgia and I am at the farm for a week. Thus far I have turned down shots because I have only seen fawns or does with fawns. There are bucks out there. My trail camera showed a very nice thick 8 pointer at 3:08AM. I have always said that trail cameras tell you where to hunt at 3 in the morning. In all of my years bow hunting I have only seen two shootable bucks so if one wanders by before the rut in November I will be pleasantly surprised. 

In 2018, Georgia allowed hunting for deer over bait. Tennessee still doesn’t allow it. This has been a game changer for me. Deer bed down on only one part of my farm. It is a 20 acre section of pine forest in the very back of the property where I do not tread. I want the deer to feel safe. About 40 years ago I discovered deer bedding down in a thicket within 200 yards of the house. No more. That area was timbered and the deer disappeared. Although I put in food plots without baiting I would never see a deer during bow season. They were either on the adjacent property or in their sanctuary. My food plots were a miserable failure proving that farming is not genetic. My grandfather grew beautiful crops. My mother could walk through the proverbial desert with it blooming behind her. Me? I can’t grow weeds. I tell people it’s because I have a brown thumb. 

I would take deer only after the acorns started to fall on my ridgeline during gun season. Nevertheless, I would take my bow and go look for deer on the trails leading in and out of their bedding areas. Usually to no avail. My sainted mother would ridicule me mercilessly saying that I could kill the same number of deer if I stayed home. I would tell her she was right in that the probability of seeing a deer was only slightly greater in the woods than in the living room, but I loved being outside.

Being able to bait has changed all that. I now see deer on a regular basis. This year will likely determine whether I continue to bow hunt. Three years ago I had total shoulder replacement to repair a ruptured bicep tendon and a torn rotator cuff. I had to depart with my Mathews solocam switchback compound bow – my favorite weapon of all time and replace it with a crossbow. I shoot a Wicked Ridge RDX 400 which is super fast with the new reverse draw technology. Its main attraction is you use an integrated crank to cock it rather than the traditional rope. It is perfect for people like me with shoulder issues. However, as I have aged I no longer can hold still on a target. There is some movement left and right and up and down. This not critical with a gun but is with a bow forcing me to use a gun rest to minimize the movement. If I cannot hold steady, then I will not take the shot. Like most hunters I abhor wounding an animal. If it is not a kill shot I will not take it. I lost a deer during bow season last year and although I searched three hours for it, I could not find it. I followed first a blood trail which petered out and then scuffed leaves until the deer ran into the creek. I walked up and down the bank to no avail. I can’t bear to lose another. 

If I get to where I am no longer comfortable hunting with a crossbow, I will still go into the woods during bow season. I will still put out bait. I will still till food plots. I will still use trail cameras. I will be scouting for gun season. Bow season gets you into the woods a month before gun season and is invaluable to learning deer movements. Every day I hope to see that barren doe or 8 pointer but I enjoy watching the deer and hoping that in a couple of years, they will be in my freezer.

During this week I have seen and passed on at least 30 deer. All were does and fawns and I let them walk. There was one very large doe but she had two fawns with her. I finally saw an adult doe by herself. I was tempted to take a shot but she went shock still and was looking at something out of my vision. Then she bolted. I never saw what she was looking at. It is over 90 degrees and I am hunting in short sleeves. I’m done and hopefully in two weeks it will be cooler.  I can just hear my mother now. Yes I need to take deer. I am almost out of venison from last year’s hunts. Venison is the only red meat I eat. When I started hunting deer in 1971 I ate only fish and fowl. But I decided that if I were to hunt then I would only eat what I kill. I feed my dogs (now dog) venison with their kibble at each meal. Two years ago when I ran out prior to the season, I went and bought some very lean ground chuck for the dogs. They would not eat it and I gave 20 pounds to a neighbor who volunteers at a food bank. So no shots this time. But it is a long season and I look forward to every day hunting on my ancestors’ land. I think they would be proud of how I care for it.

September 19, 2024

Harold A Black

As widely anticipated, the Fed announced a cut in its Fed Funds target rate. Mind you this is not a cut in “interest rates” as touted by the media. Rather it is a cut in the interest rate on overnight bank borrowings. The cut was 50 basis points which lowers the target range on Fed Funds from 5.25% – 5.5% to 4.75% – 5%. Normally, the Fed moves in steps of 25 basis points so in the past a change of 50 basis points would have engendered a strong reaction in the market. However, the Dow Jones only went up by 100 points which is a rounding error in a market where the Dow Jones sits at 41,503 and is expected to fall back a 100 points a day later. So what happened? The reason there was little if any effect was that the market was anticipating a cut of 50 basis points. Any other change would have moved the market but not this one even some clueless media types called the move “historic”.

Remember the story about the two handed economist – “One the one hand.” “On the other hand”? If the market were excited that a 50 basis point cut would stimulate economic activity by making borrowing cheaper the Dow Jones would have moved significantly up. If the market had thought that the Fed had panicked over the lousy job numbers, the market would have fallen. Rather the market reaction was ho hum – a more wait and see. The Fed is signaling with the 50 bp cut that it has inflation under control and we can have employment growth without an uptick in prices. If the market felt the same way, we should have seen a stronger market reaction. Instead, the virtually stable movement shows caution and skepticism.

Consumers should not get all excited either. Credit card interest rates are notoriously slow to change. Currently sitting at 22 percent, even if the entire 50 basis points were deducted, credit card rates would be 21.5 percent – not a whopping change. Given the demand for credit, those rates will probably stay in the same place. Where some difference will be felt is in adjustable rate loans where the rates that the adjustable rates are indexed will fall causing a fall in the loan rates in the next cycle. Again the rate change will be small. The one area where the 50 basis points will be felt will be in CD rates. For the past year or so, consumers have seen fairly decent CD rates. Now those rates will fall a bit, actually hurting those savers – mainly seniors – who save using CDs. My sainted mother asked me back in 2020 when her CD rates were barely positive “Why does the Fed hate old people?”

The more important move by the Fed will be the next one. The market is actually anticipating that the Fed will continue to cut by another 50 – 75 basis points by the end of the year. Unless there is some crisis, the Open Market Committee will meet in November and December meaning another 50 basis point cut might occur at one of those meetings. However, at this meeting of the Open Market Committee, one Fed governor argued for a smaller cut this time and perhaps next, while two governors indicated that this one cut might be enough.

On the political front there are some that will argue that the rate cut will help Kamala Harris by goosing up the economy prior to the election. Lawrence Kudlow is in this camp and he should know better. He argues that the cut wasn’t necessary right now and if there were one, then only 25 basis points should occur. Yet the markets indicated that anything other than a 50 basis point cut would have been met with a much more sizable reaction. No action or a 75 basis point reduction would have sent the markets tumbling in disarray. History has shown us that when the Fed moves in a direction or magnitude not anticipated then markets behave almost irrationally. 

What about future cuts? Will they have an impact on the election? In a word, no. The election is November 5^th and the next Open Market Committee meeting is November 6-7. Although I do not want to get into the technical weeds, the market is concerned with the natural rate of interest. This is unobservable but is the real rate of interest (nominal interest rate adjusted for inflation) that occurs at full employment with a stable rate of inflation. Some estimates say this rate should be 2.5 percent. So a very crude calculation is that if the Fed Funds rate is 4.75% and the natural rate is 2.5% then the Fed will have to cut the Fed Funds rate even more going forward.

Did you watch the Harris-Trump “debate” – which was actually the Harris/Muir/Davis-Trump “debate”? I didn’t since I can’t stand hearing either Harris or Trump talk. I watched a baseball game instead. But I did read about it. What was interesting was that major media enthusiastically declared Harris the winner. However, she did not get a bump in the polls. In fact, Trump (the loser) went up a point. Interviews afterwards showed that the voters were not satisfied that Harris was asked few policy questions and that the moderators were clearly biased against Trump.

A question was asked about the failure of the Israelis and Hamas to reach a deal and that the administration has been unable to break the stalemate and “what would you do?” Harris is said to have endorsed the two state “solution” which both sides reject and Trump said that if he were president October 7 would not have happened. Trump should have said that the US has no business trying to broker a deal and that the Israelis are too smart to take seriously a State Department made up of bungling incompetents.

The op ed page of the September 13 edition of the Wall Street Journal had two interesting articles on our republican brand of democracy. Jonathan Turley has a piece detailing how leftist law professors are writing, and no doubt teaching, that the Supreme Court is a threat to democracy. The so-called threat involves Supreme Court decisions that protect the individual, minority factions and smaller states against the tyranny of the majority. A leftist professor calls this “limiting the power of the majority.” Thank goodness for that. One professor even stated that if the democrats have majorities in the House and Senate and the presidency, then they should take legislative steps to insure that the Republicans “will never win another election.” Now who exactly is the “threat to democracy?” This is frightening stuff. As any student of history will tell you, the majority is often more times than not on the wrong side of history. An America under mob rule would have total disregard for the rule of law and disintegrate as a nation. Some on the left want to trash the Constitution, abolish the Senate and remove all checks and balances on the executive. They of course are assuming that the democrats will forever win the popular vote for president. But like Harry Reid’s getting rid of the filibuster in order to get Obama judges confirmed, what goes around, resulting in the three Trump Supreme Court appointees.

The second article detailed eighteen defeats by the Biden Administration in the courts. Eighteen! These were examples of power grabs by the FCC, the Department of Education, the EPA, the FTC and the SEC. All were declared unconstitutional. Judges appointed by both republicans and democrats made the rulings illustrating how egregious were the administration’s dictates. Many of the suits were brought by the state republican AGs, who seem to be the only republicans taking the time to protect our rights. What I am curious about is whether without a constitution, how would the courts decide right and wrong and the limits of governmental power? The constitution is a rule book and without out it, do we revert to English Common Law with procedural remedies instead of substantive rights?

Again, the threat to democracy warning by the democrats is full of it. The rulings by the courts show that the Biden Administration disregard for the rule of law is itself a threat to democracy. Once more the only thing democratic that the democrats want is a popular vote for president. Nothing else. They do not want an authoritarian rule not a democratic one. If they are so keen on democracy, then let them put all of the mandates of this administration to a popular vote and see if the majority want boys in girls’ locker rooms, want all internal combustion engines to be banned, want solar farms in their communities and windmills offshore, want all fossil fuels outlawed and all the rest that this administration has tried to impose by edict.

The sign says “You cna’t fix stupid but you can vote it out” Not if the democrats have their way. Remember you may vote your way into socialism but you will have to shoot your way out.

Let them vote!

The stupid party strikes again!

The democrats govern by raising taxes and increasing handouts. How do the republicans govern? The answer is very badly. The republicans are in the majority in the House of Representatives and all spending bills originate in the House. So why has spending increased to where this year’s deficit is an astounding $2 trillion? It’s simply because republicans are incapable of getting their act (and it is an act) together. Speaker Mike Johnson has a better chance of herding cats than getting the dysfunctional republicans to act in concert. Consider the annual kabuki dance known as the budget. Since the republicans have neglected to pass the 12 spending bills before the September 30 deadline, Johnson introduced legislation for a continuing resolution (CR) to continue funding the government. Mind you, the republicans have had all year to pass those spending bills. Johnson’s continuing resolution would have kept government spending at its current levels for six months and included Chip Roy’s SAVE act which requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections which is already illegal because it was clear that many republicans were not going to vote for the continuing resolution without the SAVE Act attachment so Johnson included it. 

Understand that with the addition of the SAVE Act, the democrats were going to vote against the continuing resolution. It might have passed the House but Chuck Schumer and the democrats in the Senate would have defeated the bill. Anyway our president in absentia said that he would veto it in the unlikely instance that it reached his desk. I guess he would have come back to DC from the beach. Without passage of the continuing resolution, the government would go through another semi-shutdown. Only this time, the democrats would be blamed if the CR had passed the House.

Did the House republicans pass the CR? No. Johnson was forced to withdraw the bill because over a dozen republicans including our own Tim Burchett said that they would vote against it. Burchett is against CRs period saying that it is “terrible legislating.” Indeed it is but in today’s House, I would like him to give us a better alternative. Perhaps our congressman can tell us how his better legislating can pass a budget. Some republicans were against the CR because it continues funding at the current level of spending prompting one dissident to say “we have been in the majority for this term and have not cut a cent.” Again, how do you cut even a cent with the democrats in control of the Senate and the White House? Still others were against the bill because its six month timetable. The hawks moaned that the six month CR would limit increases in military when additional spending is necessary to combat all the threats in today’s world. The Pentagon agreed as did many prominent Senate republicans. Thus you have republicans who won’t vote for the CR because it does not contain additional spending, albeit for the military, versus republicans who want to cut the budget. Herding cats is easier than dealing with this bunch.

Also Johnson favored a six month CR that would have put the budget decisions in the hands of a new Congress with perhaps majorities in both the House and the Senate and a republican president. A three month CR would have left spending with this Congress that would not have approved any budget anyway.

Mind you there is an election in November. If the republicans cannot pass either a budget (which is impossible) or a CR (which seems equally impossible) the blame for a government shutdown will be squarely on their shoulders. Tim Burchett is in a safe district but republicans who are in competitive races may face angry voters. If the republicans can’t get their stuff together when they are in the majority then why send them back to Washington? The only reason to vote for a republican is the specter of democrat majorities in the House and the Senate along with a President Harris.

Random thoughts

Are we seeing a collective losing of minds? I would have thought that the murder of the six hostages by Hamas would have united the world against the terrorists. Yet much of the anger has been focused at Netanyahu for not negotiating a surrender to the murderers. Over 200,000 Israelis marched to protest Netanyahu’s refusal to give in the Hamas’ terms for a truce. Campus protests around the world continue to support Hamas despite their brutality. What am I missing?

The treatment of Jews on some campuses is shameful. No encampments should be allowed and those students that set them up should be suspended for the year. Any student harassing or attacking another student should also be suspended for the year. Hate speech, signs and slogans should not be tolerated and met with suspension. The campus should be a place where all can feel safe regardless of race, religion and belief. The problem is that many of the campus administrators are anti-Israel and support the protestors. What the administrators should do is to visualize what actions they would take if the protestors were anti-LBGTQ.

How do you deal with spam calls? I answer all calls, even those from “unknown caller.” In some cases, those calls are from people that I want to talk to. However, if there is any delay from the time I answer to the person on the other end talking, I hang up. The delay tells me it is a robocall and likely spam. If they call back – which is rare – I do not pick up and let it go to voicemail where very few messages are left.

The other day I went into a local restaurant for lunch when a diner stopped me. He said he was a former student and was in my class in 2007. He wanted to tell me how much he disliked me while in my class. He especially hated that I did not use multiple choice/ true-false exams and took off a point for misspelled words. At the start of the semester I gave the students a list of words that had to be spelled correctly (capital, usury, principal). Students still persisted in misspelling these and others. He then told me that forcing him to spell correctly was one of the best things that happened to him and belatedly he wanted to thank me. Too bad those teacher evaluations can’t be revisited.

I think one of the best indicators of my classroom instruction was the semester in which one of the student evaluations read “Dr Black hates white students” while another evaluation complained “Dr Black hates black students.”

It seems like the Atlanta Braves have had targets on their backs the entire season. Ronald Acuna, Jr was thrown at. Michael Harris, Travis D’Arnaud, Austin Riley and then Whit Merrifield have all lost significant time after being hit. Yet in the hit by pitch per game statistic (yes, such a statistic exists) Atlanta ranks only 21^st at 0.35 players hit by pitch per game. Seattle leads the majors with 0.70 players hit by pitch per game. With more and more pitchers throwing 100 mph, being at bat which has always demanded a bit of bravery becomes even more of a challenge. What can be done? As Merrifield pointed out, when a player gets hit and has to leave the game, the pitcher faces no punishment unless it was determined that he was intentionally throwing at the batter. A friend of mine suggested that in the case of hit by pitch, the batter be awarded second base.

Only the leftist media would consider Liz Cheney’s endorsement of Kamala Harris newsworthy. Cheney is a completely irrelevant ex-politician who hates Trump. Harriet Hageman’s “Fed Up” speech remains one of my favorites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcONyHZCBS0. Cheney’s dad also said that he would vote for Harris. BTW if you google “Dick Cheney will vote for Harris” you will have to scroll down six pages before you find a single story that is not in the leftist press. But then no one ever accused google as being fair and blanced.

I hate all tv providers

Do you hate the TV providers as much as I do? I have had cable, Dish, DirecTV and now YouTube TV. I hate them all. I had cable until my provider got into a spat with ESPN and took it off the air. I lost a week of college football which occupies space when I have little else to do. So I dropped the cable and went to the Dish which then had a dispute with another network at an inconvenient time. I went to Directv which then had a spat with TNT and TBS. Satellite tv was a pain especially during bad weather. I then went to YouTube TV.  Then YouTube tv had a spat with Bally Sports and I lost the Braves games. I almost changed to Fubu until I found out that it did not carry TNT or TBS and some networks that my other half watched. So I stayed with YouTube TV. Then they dropped the MLB Network forcing me to buy the MLB package. The Braves are still blacked out since they do not carry Bally Sports but I can listen to the broadcasts. I wish MLB had a package to include all the teams that are blacked out. But my patience is wearing thin with YouTube TV. Comcast had a dispute with ESPN right at the start of college football. Enough is enough. Now if YouTube tv takes any network I watch off the air, I will dump it. Anyhow, I have Roku and look at only a few of the networks on YouTube tv.

Ideally I would like to stream with all the news channels for my other half, stream MLB and college football and then one where I can pick and choose the networks. My grandchildren watch very little network programing and stream instead. I do not watch movies so I have no need for the movie networks. I don’t watch the basketball or hockey and watch the NFL if I have nothing else to do. The NFL is abusing its fans. It is moving more and more games to pay for view. I read that if a fan wanted to look at all the NFL games it would cost over $1,200. I am not an NFL fan so I won’t buy the NFL package, subscribe to Prime Tv, Netflix, ESPN+ or any of the rest. Are you going to pay for a Prime TV subscription to watch NFL on Fridays? I’m not. I will watch a baseball game instead.

Most Sundays in the Fall I am hunting unless it is raining. Then I will watch the NFL if it is on network tv– maybe. At night if I watch at all, I will turn it off at halftime. So I am wondering if the NFL will alienate its fan base and start losing viewers. Right now is a golden age with billions in TV contracts, sky high team valuations and diehard fans. But the league feels that the demand for its product is inelastic allowing it to continually raise prices and basically screw its fans. The NFL right now is a national sport with fans tuning in regardless of who is playing. Kansas City Chiefs versus Baltimore Ravens draws a national audience. Baseball on the other hand is a regional sport. Few fans outside the home area will watch other teams play unless it is a national brand like the Yankees or Dodgers. You won’t likely see a national broadcast of the Kansas City Royals versus the Baltimore Orioles. But I will watch it on the MLB Network.

As to the tv providers, I’ve about had it. Sooner or later YouTube TV is going to make a favorite network go dark. The next time that happens, I will cut the cord and stream free on Roku. I will get my local (free) channels just like in the olden days and say goodbye to the rest. I think the providers are digging their own graves and I will help shovel dirt on them.

Do you want fries with that?

Kamala Harris claims to have worked at McDonald’s to earn extra money while in college. The left wing media merely nodded its head and accepted the admission without question. The right wing media lost its mind, delving into employment records and questioning Harris’ sincerity. Of course, if Trump or Vance had made the statement the media’s coverage would be the opposite. Just like all the attention made about Vance’s comment on childless cat ladies which dominated the left’s reporting for weeks, the Daily Beast and MSNBC would have devoted at least a week of investigative reporting of Vance’s possible employment at McDonald’s.

Was it true that Harris worked at McDonald’s?  Maybe. I worked as a bus boy at IHOP during high school because my father insisted that we work during the summers unless we went to summer school. One summer I worked construction as a hod carrier. In college, my parents forbade me from working insisting that I spend all my time studying. So of course I worked to buy a car that my parents never knew about. I would drive it to the bus station and ride the bus home. I waited tables at a local restaurant in Athens that no longer exists. I got fired. All the white help could take their once daily meal in a section of the dining room but all the black help had to eat in the kitchen. When I decided to eat in the dining room instead, I was fired. Now I doubt very seriously if any of the above is documented in any fashion. Just like I doubt if there is any record of Harris’ time at McDonald’s. I really don’t care. What I wonder about is what Harris learned from working at McDonalds. My parents insisted that we work to learn the discipline of work. Get up. Get to work on time – although Dad insisted that on time was 5 minutes late. Make some money. Save it for a particular goal. Work hard and be rewarded. But most of all, realize that without a college education you were condemned to low paying menial jobs like busing tables and carrying hods. 

Did Harris learn these things at McDonald’s? Did she realize that many if not most of McDonald’s managers started out flipping burgers and asking if you wanted to super size your order? BTW I guess that is what they say at McDonalds because I have not been in a fast food restaurant in the past 30+ years except when I used to stop by Hardee’s for hot tea and a couple of biscuits at 6 AM enroute to a deer stand.

I read one report scoffing at Harris’ claim stating that as the child of two PhDs it is likely that she is making stuff up to seem down to earth. But I know the need for extra cash and perhaps she (like me) didn’t want to ask her folks for more money. Again, did she understand that very few of McDonald’s employees work there as the major earners in their households. Most are dependents. Most will look at this as a starter job not a permanent one. Importantly, Harris should realize that many are adversely affected by government mandated increases in minimum wages. She would now see automation replacing even low wage workers as management is forced to substitute capital for labor. She should see the cost of fast food rising making it more difficult for poorer households to eat out. She should realize that this is the consequence of her advocacy of policies which make energy more expensive and is inflationary. The disappointment is that Harris does not seem to have learned these things from her job at McDonald’s. Her response is likely that of the typical leftist devotee: push people out of work and make them totally dependent upon the largesse of the state. The poor become unemployable and then have to resort to welfare and the black market. Let them eat cake.