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Buc-ee’s, James Brown and other thoughts

The democrats seem to be thinking that the cessation of SNAP payments will pressure the republicans into caving and okaying the Obamacare subsidies. So let me get this straight, the caring sensitive party on the left is hoping that the cold hearted, “let them eat cake” party on the right is going to be pressured by its base to extending benefits that they have never supported in the first place? Does this make sense to anyone except the congressional democrats?

Tariffs, socialism, rent controls, minimum wages, industrial policy all bad ideas that never die. Schumpeter said that capitalism generates enough abundance to support a large class of intellectuals lacking in practical skills who feel underappreciated in a market economy. Bernie Sanders, AOC, The Squad, and Mamdani are the poster children for Schumpeter’s observation. They can only exist and have appeal in a world of affluence and then seek its destruction. Mamdani wants everyone to have “free” stuff. But who pays for it? The usual shallow press is somehow saying that Mamdani is now the face of the democrat party. Only in their eyes. He could only be elected in places like New York, Boston, Chicago, Portland and maybe San Francisco. But he would be elected for only one term because his policies are destined to fail. Mamdani is not the face of the democrat party, writ large, no matter how much those on the far left and republicans would like him to be. The quickest way to kill the socialist movement is for Trump to declare that he is one.

Will Mamdani be worse than Bill deBlasio?

Have you noticed that no matter how poorly led are the big cities that they keep electing leftists? Explain Chicago to me. Do they really want their cities overrun with illegals? Or are they “sanctuaries” because they hate Trump?

Over 50,000 fans have already signed a petition demanding Bad Bunny be replaced by George Strait. George Strait? Good grief. Someone asked who would I want to see at the half time of the Super Bowl. I really don’t know since all my favorites are dead.

Finally went into a Buc-ee’s. It was 8AM on a Sunday morning driving back to Knoxville from the Georgia farm and stopped at the one at Union Grove. I got diesel for 20 cents a gallon less and I don’t think that I have ever seen so many gas pumps. Then I went inside and was stunned by the sheer size of the place. I wanted a biscuit. Their’s were being assembled by the hundreds on a production line that only lacked a conveyor belt. All were for meat eaters. I asked for one without sausage and was looked at as if I were speaking Induit. So I bought two and threw away the sausage. Really tasty biscuits and eggs. Even at 8 in the morning the place was a zoo. The sausage links, the fudge, hot sauces, tacos, burritos, the brisket, jellies and beaver chips! All the bric a brac was overwhelming. Beef jerky? I now know why there is a beef shortage. I can see why Buc-ee’s has a cult following but it’s probably not a vegan cult. I will probably start stopping there for diesel but not when the line of cars at the exit backs up into the interstate.

One of the benefits of Sirius XM radio is that you hear songs that somehow you missed way back when. Here is a James (the Hardest Working Man in Show Business) Brown song that was new to me. BTW my favorite James Brown LP is Live at the Apollo. My favorite single is “You got the power (with Bea Ford). It was the perfect blue light in the basement slow drag song when I was in high school. What is amazing is that the album “Star Time” is full of hits like Try Me, Bewildered, Night Train, It’s a Man’s World, Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, Say it Loud (I’m Black and Proud) and Please, Please, Please. But this song is new to me. Amazing lyrics.

James Brown

From the LP “Star Time”

I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I’ll Get It Myself)

I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, I’ll get it myself
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself
Do you hear me?
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, I’ll get it myself

[Verse 1]
Don’t give me integration
Give me true communication
I don’t give me sorrow
I want equal opportunity to live tomorrow
Give me schools
And give me better books
So I can read about myself
And gain my true looks

[Hook]
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself
Do you hear me now now
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself

[Verse 2]
Some of us try
As hard as we can
We don’t want no sympathy
We just want to be a man

[Hook]
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself
Do you hear me?
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, I’ll get it myself

[Verse 3]
We got talents we can use
On our side of town
Let’s get our heads together
And build it up from the ground
When some of us make money
We forget about our people, huh, ha
Gonna forget about our honey

Forget about our honey
Do you know, look at here, hey

Come on, I got to have it
Come on, I need it
I got to have it
Come on, I got to have it

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy
Play with your bad self
Come on, baby, come here come here
Got to get myself together
So many things I got to do
So many things I got to see
I don’t need no help from you
Tell everybody, mighty hell
All of these things, baby, ha
I got to do it myself, come on
Hey!

I gotta have it
I, said I, said I, said I, said I, I

[Verse 4]
We’ve used our sweat and blood
Put out every fire, and block up every flood

I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, I’ll get it myself
Do you hear me?
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, I’ll get it myself
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself

[Verse 5]
I’m not gonna tell you what to do
I’m not gonna raise a fuss
But before you make another rule
Let’s start by taking care of us

[Hook]
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself
Do you hear me?
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself

[Verse 6]
Kids, get that education
And don’t you take no bar
Cause we’re gonna get this thing together
And you got to get them all

[Hook]
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing
Open up the door, open up the door
Open up the door, open up the door
Open up the door, hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
I don’t want nobody to give me nothing

Open up the door, huh, I’ll get it myself
Ha!

[Outro]
Can you dig the groove?
Can you make the move?
Can you dig the same?
Can you make me play?
Can you dig the groove?

Wow! Can we get an Amen?

YouTubeTV, the World Series and the Oklahoma Sooners

I hate YouTubeTV. As a matter of fact I hate all paid TV. I have tried Directtv, Dish, cable and YouTubeTV. All have disappointed. I have had YouTubeTv for a while but their disputes and threatening to take off your favorite channels are wearing thin. They were going to take off Fox. I thought my other half was going to have a heart attack. They took off the MLB Network but I didn’t care since I was already subscribing to the MLB package – whose blackout policy is ridiculous. Now YouTubeTV has taken off the Disney channels meaning no ABC and no ESPN. The mega giants are fighting amongst themselves and reminds me of the old African saying about what happens to the grass when elephants fight. I don’t care about ABC since I can get it without YouTubeTV. I do care about ESPN – but only during college football season. I watch college football and their College Football Final is my go to show during my Sunday morning workout. If this dispute is not settled before next Saturday’s games, I will discontinue my service and go old school, listening to the games on SiriusXM radio.

It is Google vs Disney. Someone said that Google (which owns YouTubeTV) dictates what we want to see on the web and now they are trying to dictate what we see on TV. I don’t think either cares about the consumer. I really think that what is going on is that Disney wants ESPN to on its own monthly charge app. Disney would probably rather to have an ESPN pay for view package than to have their networks part of the smorgasbord offered by cable or internet TV. I think this is the rationale for their pricing policy to the providers. Disney has shelled out a lot of money to get sports content. 

But I am not a pro football fan. I am a baseball fan. I know I am in the minority. I watched game three of the World Series between Toronto and the Dodgers rather than the Monday night football game between Kansas City and Washington. I was somewhat amazed that the meaningless football game absolutely crushed the World Series game 17.6 million viewers to 11.4 million. Last year when the Dodgers played the Yankees, their World Series game just edged the Monday Night football game 13.6 million to 13.4 million. Obviously the Yankees would draw more viewers than Toronto, although I suspect that the Canadian and Japanese ratings are off the charts.

It’s a shame because this was the most entertaining World Series in memory. Much has been written about the Dodger’s payroll resulting in their having to pay a $500 million luxury tax. But consider that the $100 million that they paid to bolster their bullpen was irrelevant in the series because none of those pitchers actually pitched. All were hurt. They paid a boatload of money to sign Blake Snell who was injured much of the year but did pitch one – and only one – great game in the series. Shohei Ohtani was great in the 18 inning marathon but was mostly ineffective the rest of the series and on the mound in game 7. He did have a couple of hits but the home runs were not by their superstars. Max Muncy, Miguel Rojas (a total shock) and the game winner by Will Smith – none of whom are accorded superstar status – and a game saving incredible catch by Andy Pages were crucial to the victory. Also Clayton Kershaw, perhaps the greatest pitcher of his generation was a mere spectator. This was the best, most suspenseful game seven in memory.

The biggest surprise was the performance of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who?), the Japanese pitcher who was signed to a stunning 12 year $325 million fully guaranteed contract. I was stunned because those contracts invariably turn into albatrosses. Yet in the short run the Dodgers and their fans will say it was worth it. Yamamoto was unworldly pitching two complete games and coming back with zero rest to get the final eight outs in game 7. A most deserving MVP. So the World Series champ has the greatest player (Ohtani) who is Japanese, the MVP (Yamamoto) who is Japanese, their closer (Roki Sasaki) who is Japanese and a manager (Dave Roberts) who is Japanese-American.

These games were on Fox but not broadcast simultaneously over the MLB network. Again I don’t really care since we have a Fox affiliate here in Knoxville. But for those loyal baseball fans that would have been forced to find the nearest sports bar had there been a dispute, it would have been a pain.

Finally, I may have been the only one in Knoxville watching baseball rather than the Tennessee Volunteers and the Oklahoma Sooners. After the baseball game I went to bed and only found out the next morning that the Sooners had won. Speaking of which, do you know where the name “Sooner” came from? Legend has it that when the first white settlers got to Oklahoma that they said “I’d sooner be in Texas.”

The Fed lowers the Fed funds rate – big whoop.

The Fed just lowered its Fed funds target rate by another 25 basis points. I was actually surprised. Although the market had anticipated the fall – and two more before year’s end – I thought the Fed would hold the rate steady. First, the inflation numbers are not looking good and keep edging up. Second, several members of the Open Market Committee had indicated that they favored a hold. It was no surprise that Stephen Miran, the president’s lackey on the Board voted for a 50 basis point drop. But none one pays any attention to him. Only one other member voted to hold. The rest voted for the 25 basis point drop. Actually, I don’t think that the move will have any measurable impact on the economy. In fact the markets actually fell after the announcements. I guess the drop in the rate shows Trump’s influence. After all the threats and bellicose tweets, Powell voted to lower. I was surprised that Lisa Cook did as well. Had I been Cook I would have voted for a 50 basis point rise. Of course the two other Trump appointees, Waller and Bowman, who have been listed as among the finalists for Fed chairman voted for a decrease. Actually I am somewhat surprised that they did not vote along with Miran for a 50 basis point fall. Now there is considerable doubt if the Fed will continue to lower the rate even in the face of rising layoffs and increases in unemployment. No matter Stephen Miran will still vote for a 50 basis point fall– else he might not get his job back at the Council of Economic Advisors.

Another thing to watch is that the Fed has stopped running off its gigantic portfolio of securities. Currently the portfolio sits at $6.6 trillion down from a high of $9 trillion. Recall during the 2007 recession the bolstering of the market by purchasing commercial paper and mortgage backed securities was to keep the market from collapsing. The Fed did the same during Covid. Then the Fed began a gradual runoff of its portfolio – and I do mean gradual. When the Fed purchased the securities it did so by supplying the banking system with reserves and when those reserves are excess reserves they influence the Fed funds rate. Indeed, prior to the fed lowering the rate, the fed funds rate had actually been moving up within the Fed’s target range. 

The Fed shrinks the portfolio by letting the maturing securities run off which in essence decreases bank reserves which raises the Fed funds rate. Oops. So it is of little surprise that the Fed is pausing the runoff of the securities portfolio. Also consider that the Trump administration is working at cross purposes by continuing to increase the deficit. When the Treasury issues new debt it drains bank reserves which once again raises the Fed funds rate. Thus, the Fed had little choice but to stop the run off of its portfolio.

The Fed had been allowing up to $35 billion in mortgage securities and $5 billion in Treasurys to roll off the portfolio every month. Now that has slowed to only $20 billion a month. In the end the Fed would like to get back to only holding Treasurys. I gave my students last semester a basic problem. If the Fed had a portfolio of $8 trillion and reduced it by $20 billion a month, how long would it take for the portfolio to reach zero – assuming no interest accumulation of the remaining bonds? Only one person could do the math. What is interesting is that Trump appointees Waller and Bowman are in opposite camps. Bowman wants the runoff to continue but to lengthen the period while Waller voted against the decision to slow the runoff.

I wonder how much of this Miran understands. When one looks at the finalists for the Fed chair, if it is not Waller or Bowman, the person appointed to fill the vacancy coming in January will also be nominated to be chairman once Powell’s term expires. In addition to Waller and Bowman, those are Kevin Hassett of the president’s National Economic Council, Kevin Warsh former Fed governor and Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of Black Rock. I know absolutely nothing of Rieder but I think Black Rock’s CEO may well be the most dangerous person on the planet. I believe that Warsh is too independent to be appointed by Trump and Waller and Bowman are there as mere courtesies. I think Hassett would be the most pliable to Trump and would toe the line at least for a while. Then if Powell decides to resign from the board when he leaves as chairman, that will give Trump another opportunity to appoint another lackey. He would then have four of the seven governors. They, in turn can determine the composition of the reserve bank presidents. Times could get even more interesting with the question being how long does a lackey stay a lackey?

Beef, Furniture and American Workers

The president and his surrogates have repeatedly said that the purpose of the tariffs was to protect American manufacturers and replace the foreign workers with Americans. Is it working? Well the 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian beef have aided in reducing the supply of beef and raising its prices. Mission accomplished? Not quite. It seems that prices are rising due to the diminished supply. The beef eaters are unhappy. 

The beef industry is ecstatic but the consumers are not. The president seeks to then have it both ways by suggesting the importation of Argentine beef to beef up the supply much to the chagrin of US ranchers. A consumer wailing of almost equal proportions is the impact of the 50 percent tariff on coffee prices. Some have even raised the question as to whether Trump’s tariffs should be selective rather than global. But imposing tariffs on products not even grown or made in America makes even less sense than the tariffs in the first place. The senate has just voted to rescind the Brazilian tariffs with 5 republicans (you can guess who they were) joining all the democrats. I guess the Kona coffee lobby is not very powerful. The president of course will veto the bill. Isn’t it interesting that in the short run the president has turned the protectionist democrats into free traders?

The president also raised the tariffs on imported furniture to “help” the North Carolina furniture industry where employment in furniture manufacture has fallen from 90,000 in 1990 to less than 30,000 today. In 1990 only about 4 percent of US furniture was imported. Now it is more than half with the imports coming mainly from China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Are the North Carolina manufacturers jumping with joy? Not quite. The remaining firms are dependent upon imported components. Bassett furniture imports most of its fabrics from China. The company also imports fabrics and plywood from Vietnam. This has caused the firm to raise its prices even though 80 percent of its total components are manufactured in the US and the furniture is assembled in North Carolina. The same is true with the other manufacturers who find that the tariffs are causing them to raise prices as well. What about manufacturing coming back into North Carolina? It is not happening for two reasons. First is the cost of US labor and second there is a shortage of skilled workers. One manufacturer said that labor skilled in sewing and woodworking is far between. Those skills basically vanished when the industry contracted over the years. Some companies are offering classes and apprenticeships but there is not enough interest among young people to learn those skills. One employer said “No 23-year-old is like ‘I want to be an upholsterer when I get out of school.” That company and others provide apprenticeships to young people work with the local community college system to help train up students to work on a factory floor. Meanwhile the new tariffs are forcing all to have to raise their prices to cover the higher costs of materials and components. The furniture makers have seen some price resistance among their customers. Cabinet manufacturers sales have fallen year to date as prices have gone up.

Of course this is a repeat of what happened with raising the costs of inputs like aluminum and steel. Research has shown that there was no increase in domestic employment. Rather the opposite happened as workers were laid off in those industries that used the metals as components. The president did not learn this lesson in the first term and has doubled down on it in the second term.

My old employer, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the tariffs and immigration policies will create a labor shortage and slow the rate of economic growth going forward. This of course assumes that these policies will continue post-Trump (which I doubt). There will be labor shortages and a negative impact on food production, construction and industries dependent upon foreign labor. The Labor Department has said in the Federal Register that the reduction in immigration will create a “labor shortage exacerbated by the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens.” The new $100,000 fee for H1-B visas will cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers in sectors like information and educational and health services. But what me worry? The White House said Trump will continue “growing our economy, creating opportunity for American workers, and ensuring all sectors have the workforce they need to be successful.”

Yet it doesn’t look as though U.S.-born workers are entering the workforce en masse as foreign-born workers exit. Instead, the labor force participation rate for U.S.-born workers aged 16 and older has ticked lower over the past year. The White House said “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration’s commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws.”

Au contraire, one labor economist says that the White House is mistaken to assume a decline in immigration helps U.S. workers when job growth slows. “Immigrants both create demand for the goods and services produced by U.S.-born workers and work alongside them in ways that increase productivity for both groups,” he said. “While it is just one factor, we shouldn’t be surprised that opportunities for U.S.-born workers are falling at the same time an estimated one million fewer immigrants may be in the labor force.”

But not to worry. One of the president’s first actions was to sign an executive order suspending all refugee admissions. The Biden administration was allowing 125,000 per year to enter the country. Well the president has decided to reinstate the program with a cap of 7,500 – the lowest in history. Priority will be given to white South Africans. Apparently he has made up with Elon Musk. With the restrictions on the H1-B program, the shutting down of travel from 19 non-white countries and explicitly stating that “The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa” the president is blatantly seeming to shut down entry by people of color and creating an easier pathway for white immigration. And it isn’t subtle. I wonder what Kash Patel, Vivek Ramaswamy, Harmeet Dhillon, Jay Bhattacharya and Usha Vance have to say about this?

But will the additional workers be need? With the growth in AI. Firms like Ford, GM, Amazon and Meta are laying off workers. Walmart says it can grow without hiring more workers. Michigan State has even developed an AI apple picker. 

So what will happen? Will the president be right? Will we have to wait until next year to see the benefits of his policies? What will happen to the tariffs. Will AI cause fewer native workers to be hired even as immigrant numbers fall? All those are empirical questions.

Another look at immigration

The Babylon Bee is a national treasure. Did you see where they said that the president was declaring the White House an ICE free zone until construction is completed on his new ballroom?

The president is hellbent on shutting down immigration both illegal and legal – unless you are a white farmer from South Africa. The southern border has essentially been closed. Of the migrants showing up at the border, in direct contrast to the Biden years, none have been released into the country. The administration is setting records in deporting the migrants who entered the country illegally. Over 500,000 have been deported. So far more than two million illegal aliens have left the U.S., including 1.6 million who self-deported. Additionally, 485,000 illegals have been arrested by DHS. Of course caught up in all of this will invariably be some US citizens who are mistakenly arrested. For example, 21 US citizens had been apprehended in Florida but after it was reported in the Miami New Times, those names mysteriously disappeared from Florida’s Unauthorized Aliens Encounters Dashboard which is a database maintained by the Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement. But in an enforcement effort conducted on this scale some mistakes are going to be made. The administration should strive for transparency. However, it is laughable that the administrations denies that it is profiling. I bet that those 21 US citizens were not white blue eyed males.

The president also wants to severely restrict legal immigration. It is projected that changes in legal immigration will reduce the number of workers by 2.8 million. Shutting down illegal immigration will cause thenumber of workers to fall by another 4 million. The administration has sought to severely restrict the number of foreign students enrolling in US universities. It has put a $100,000 fee on H1-B workers who come mainly from India and China. There is a new regulation that eliminates “duration of status” for foreign students, researchers, exchange visitors, and international media on F, J, and I visas, and instead cap each status at a maximum of four years. It has shut down travel from 19 different countries. There is probably more.

Many worry how these restrictions, and others, will impact the country. For example, restricting foreign students, especially those involved in STEM research will lead to a diminution is US research contributions. Over half of the US Nobel laureates in 2025 were immigrants. Now foreign universities are attracting these students as well as foreign researchers and US citizens whose research has been curtailed by the administration. Historically about 40 percent of all US Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics and medicine have been awarded to immigrants. I know some of the president’s xenophobic supporters scoff at these numbers and point out that if these researchers did their work outside the US, we would still benefit from their work.

I have mentioned the fear I – and millions of others – felt during the polio epidemics in the 1950s. Well Jonas Salk was the son of immigrants and Albert Sabin was an immigrant from Poland. If denied admission into this country, would they have been able to conduct their research elsewhere and would we and the rest of the world have benefited regardless? There is an economics research paper by Petra Moser and Shmuel San, the restrictive immigration quotas of the 1920s that reduced immigration by 90 percent specifically targeting Jews and Asians significantly reduced invention in the United States, including that by American-born scientists. During this period there were 68 percent fewer patents.

Click to access MoserParsaSan25.pdf

One of my dear friends sent me the story of Omar Yaghi who shared the Nobel prize in chemistry this year. I won’t repeat it here but it is clear that Yaghi born in Jordan to a refugee family is an inspiration. My PhD advisor, the great Karl Brunner was from Switzerland and was one of the world’s leading monetary theorists.

I have written about how much I oppose the president’s “fortress America” policies. I praise his shutting down the massive flow of illegals into the country. I know that criticisms have also arisen from educating the students from countries that are adversarial to this country. I do favor a serious study of our legal immigration policies. What I hope for is a more careful vetting process and a careful delineation of the rules and their justification. I just think it is somewhat ironic that the president shows such distain for immigrants when his wife is an immigrant and the vice president’s wife is the daughter of immigrants.

You are fired! College football coaches versus AFGE

College football coaches being fired

You’re fired! Have you ever heard those words? I have – once. I had just gotten a job waiting tables while at Georgia during segregated times. My white classmates would come into the restaurant and leave me big tips. It was fun but short lived. The white employees were allowed to take their meal in the dining area while the black ones had to eat in the kitchen. I protested and was told to eat in the kitchen or lose my job. So when I took my tray and sat down in the dining room, I was immediately canned. I learned my lesson and from that point on I either worked for the federal government or as a tenured professor. Apparently, job security was important to me.

Today it seems like a whole lot of college football coaches are getting fired while federal government employees are just starting to get scared that they might be fired as well.

Maybe its just me and my memory but didn’t it used to be that athletic directors waited until the end of the season to fire their coaches? No more. With the season barely halfway over Arkansas, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Florida, Penn State and most recently LSU have fired their coaches. No matter the high buyouts – Penn State’s Franklin’s is $49 million and LSU’s Kelly’s is $54 million– these coaches were fired. The buyouts still don’t reach Jimbo Fisher’s astounding $77 million from Texas A&M but big money seems not to matter anymore. What is interesting is that in every case, the fired coach was replaced by someone already on the staff. Obviously, you cannot bring anyone new into a program at midstream but elevating someone already there doesn’t make sense to me – although Tim Skipper at UCLA produced three unlikely wins after taking charge. Some schools like Wisconsin and Florida State appear to be waiting until the end of the season to fire their coaches. Others are likely Boston College, Nevada, Michigan State, North Carolina and maybe NC State, Kentucky and Mississippi State.

One name being mentioned for big time programs is Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman who replaced Brian Kelly when Kelly bolted for the big bucks at LSU. Freeman has the best job in college football. It may not be the highest paying but it is the one with the most job security. Notre Dame is a legacy national brand. It can recruit five star athletes from all of the country. It has its own TV contract and most importantly it is not in a conference. Kelly goes to LSU where he has to beat Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss , Texas, Oklahoma and my Georgia Bulldogs. Freeman has usually only a couple of tough games on the schedule and then plays Navy and Boston College. This year Notre Dame loses to Miami and Texas A&M but still will make the college playoffs if they win out – as they likely will. However, job security comes at a cost. Freeman is only the 26^th highest paid college football coach with a base salary of $7.5 million. Bonuses push it to $9 million. The highest paid coach is Georgia’s Kirby Smart at $13 million – and I wonder how do you spend $13 million in Athens, GA? Ryan Day of my Ohio State Buckeyes is second with $12.5 million. I am sure that Freeman has a price. The question is what would it take to get him to leave the most secure job in college football?

Government workers cry uncle

Although it must have been painful, the country’s largest federal employees union has asked the senate democrats to throw in the towel and agree to the continuing resolution proposed by the republicans. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 federal government workers, called on Chuck Schumer and the democrats to vote for the House-passed spending bill to reopen the government. On the republican senate side some are urging John Thune to evoke the nuclear option and kill the filibuster. Thune had previously said that he would not do this, but the pressure is mounting. Of course killing the filibuster also kills any reason for any majority to compromise with the minority. So much for the senate being the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”

The union president said “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today,” No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay today. It’s long past time for our leaders to put aside partisan politics and embrace responsible government.” To put this into perspective I think this union has endorsed every democrat nominee for president since its inception. But now that federal workers have started to miss paychecks, they are pleading with the senate democrats to fold and pass the CR.

There is also the threat (gasp!) of federal workers facing for the first time, unemployment. Normally federal employment means job security. But Trump has threatened that security with layoffs and permanent firings. This is unheard of and may be another motivating factor in the labor union’s plea to Schumer, et al. In the private sector, layoffs are a way of life with announcements being made every day. In fact Amazon just announced that it was laying off 30,000 employees. Consider out of about 2.2 million federal employees who began fiscal year 2023 only 12,804 (0.6%) were terminated. Not surprisingly, the average federal civil servant has worked for the government for 11.8 years, more than four times longer than the average job tenure for private sector employees. The median annual salary of federal employees is about $100,000 or more than 60% higher than the median for full-time private sector workers.

Workers in manufacturing were five times more likely to lose their jobs last year than federal workers. Workers in construction were 10 times more likely to lose their jobs. No wonder the federal workers are now scared. Heaven’s forbid that they get fired! But the stubbornness of the senate democrats is imperiling federal workers job security so fold Chuck fold!

This exciting Supreme Court term

I don’t think that I have ever called a Supreme Court term exciting But this one is. This Supreme Court docket is Trump dominated. The court is now hearing the Louisiana case on racial gerrymandering. The implications being if the court rules against racial gerrymandering then the some states many then gerrymander blacks out of seats like Texas is trying to do to oust Al Green and Jasmine Crockett from their seats. Some say as many as 19 minority seats, mainly in southern states might be affected. The court is also hearing the Colorado case on “conversion therapy” where Colorado stopped a Christian therapist from counseling minors on changing their gender identity.

As to the cases directly tied to the president, the court is finally going to hear if the president has the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Mind you, if the courts rule against the president there are other legal avenues under which the president can impose tariffs temporarily. Another case deals with the “independent agencies” that are ostensively under the executive branch and whether the president can fire members of those agencies. The case before the court involves a member of the Federal Trade Commission. This is different from the cases involving the Fed and the National Credit Union Administration. The president has tried to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook on the grounds that she committed mortgage fraud and therefore can be terminated for cause. With NCUA the two democrat members of the agency were fired without any explanation. Since the legal structure of the Fed and the NCUA are similar, the court may rule of whether the president has the authority to dismiss members without cause as well as for cause.

Then there is birthright citizenship which the administration has lost in the lower courts and likely will lose at the Supreme Court. There are cases involving immigration. The president used an 18^thcentury law to deport the Venezuelan gang members to that El Salvador jail. The court will also hear cases involving states that ban transgender athletes for girl’s teams. BTW, why haven’t I heard anything about transgender athletes who want to compete for boy’s teams?Another case involves voting by mail and whether ballots can be counted received after Election Day.

There have been over 30 rulings regarding the president’s actions but the Supreme Court has yet to issue a full ruling on the legality of any of them. I guess the time is now. The president has been pushing the limits of executive power and the court will decide which if any of these actions are constitutional. Regardless, as I have often said, the democrats should be in favor of all that the president has done so that the next democrat president can avail himself (or herself) to them. Instead of course the democrats will be applying pressure on the court in the media accusing the conservatives as Trump’s lackeys if they rule for the president.

Trump’s people have on the other hand been quick to criticize any of the conservatives who rule against the president as “wobbly” or something worse. Of course, the president himself has not minced words on decisions that he disagrees with. The president’s supporters have also been very vocal. Here’s our Andy Ogles (R-TN) “Judges targeting President Trump are political hacks and their decisions belong in my SHREDDER.” “This is a judicial power grab. Plain and simple,” Chad Mizelle, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff. Mike Lee (R., Utah) has called for impeaching “corrupt judges.” When Amy Comey Barrett ruled against the president, one hack said “Amy Coney Barrett shows the danger of Republican DEI.” Mind you, John Roberts joined her in that particular opinion but somehow escaped being called a DEI hire. I wonder why?

With all this inflamed rhetoric. Some judges and their families have been physically threatened and even attacked. This is not confined to the loonies on the right. The loonies on the left are also motivated to threaten judges that rule for Trump. Recall the assassination threat to Justice Kavanaugh. Judges say that intimidation does not affect their rulings. That may be so, but in today’s charged political atmosphere, they would best watch their backs. 

I, for one, will be glad when all of this is resolved by the court. I think the president has a legitimate right to know the limits of executive power. I am interested in seeing how the president responds to any ruling against him. Thus far he has not disregarded lower court rulings against him. Will that continue?

Where’s the beef?

The person who oversees our family farm was complaining about the price of beef. He said “Would you believe what ground beef costs?” I told him that I actually had not looked in the past 50 years since I only eat the venison from deer that I had harvested myself. But I am sympathetic. He was hardworking all of his life and is now retired with his wife 100 percent disabled due to a heart condition. He said that they couldn’t afford today’s prices and was wondering what had happened. I told him that the local grocery store usually ran a special BOGO on ground turkey at least once a month so he should check their weekly ads. Ground turkey? He looked at me like I was speaking in tongues.

The high beef prices are due to a number of factors. One is the herd is smaller than it has been in decades. That along with Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Brazil which further reduced the supply of beef has led to these high prices. Now isn’t this what the president wanted? By restricting imports of beef due to the tariffs, beef prices have soared and US cattle ranchers are making record profits of over $700 per animal. So the cattle growers should be ecstatic. They may be, but per my conversation with the overseer, the American public is ticked off. Not to worry. Our intrepid president says that the cattle growers should voluntarily lower their prices and he will import beef from Argentina.

He said “The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil. posted on if it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years —Terrible!” “It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!” 

OK so let’s get this straight. The president is taking credit for raising the price of beef to the consumers resulting in record cattle prices while asking the cattle ranchers to voluntarily lower prices. He then said that maybe he will import more beef from his buddies in Argentina. “One of the things we’re thinking about doing is beef from Argentina.” Trump told reporters “We would buy some beef from Argentina. If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”

Needless to say that elicited a howl from the cattle folk and their representatives in Washington who sent the president a letter protesting such a move. Trump’s Department of Agriculture said that it would move to increase the size of the herd through expansion of grazing on federal lands. Maybe that will help eventually increase supply but cows do not pop out of the heifer fully grown like Athena from the head of Zeus.

One agriculture economist said that the president needs to take a course in supply and demand (where have you heard that before?) saying “If you want to increase the supply of beef long-term, you don’t do it by lowering prices.” Elementary. I will repeat: you don’t induce producers to increase supply by lowering prices.

So now we have a conundrum. Beef prices are at a record high, cattle growers are making record profits but the consumers are angry. The president wants it both ways, he is patting himself on the back for raising tariffs to restrict the supply of beef but he wants the cattle ranchers to lower their prices or else he will import beef from Argentina. If he heaven’s forbid, rescinds the tariffs, the ranchers will be ticked off as beef prices and profits fall. The president got himself into this mess. It will be interesting to see how he gets out of it.

Axioms of the Hunt – 2025

I only know one other deer hunter in Knoxville but at the family farm it is a completely different story. Professors tend to be snobs and are aghast that I hunt. But as I remarked once to a snobbish colleague, if you don’t hunt, fish, hike, camp, or ride motorcycles, why do you live in Knoxville?

It is now deer season in Georgia and it is time again to revisit my axioms of the hunt. We have just changed over from bow to gun. I spend an inordinate amount of time at the family farm and in the woods. Venison is the only red meat I have eaten since 1971. I spend a good deal of time looking at deer, but only if the deer oblige. During bow season I was overrun with deer. I passed on shot after shot. The bucks were small and had no more than 4 points. I do not shoot immature deer. The does were either small or with fawns. I do not break up family units. 

Although the fawns are weaned I will not shoot the mamma doe. I wait until the rut comes in November when the does chase away the fawns. I do not shoot immature bucks under 6 points. I passed on the biggest doe I have seen because she had such good genetics, I want her to have big babies. But I did finally see a mature doe by herself and took her with a crossbow at 40 yards. I had to give up by beloved Mathews Solocam compound bow that I have used all over the world when some good old boy sabotaged a hang on stand, cutting through the straps. I stepped on the platform in the dark at 6:30 in the morning Georgia and fell 20 feet. When I came to and saw I had motion in my arms and legs I went to the emergency room. I had bruised ribs and a shoulder that the doctor described as being a mess. So hello total shoulder replacement and goodbye compound bow and hello crossbow. The likely saboteur is gone and the father and son from Florida who lease the land next door are nice guys. 

Last year was the first one that I did not take a deer. I ran out of venison and since that is the only red meat I eat, I did without. Now that it is gun season, all the deer that were around during bow have vanished, replaced by hen turkeys. I have just spent a week in the woods and only saw 5 deer total. Only one was a marginal buck of 6 points. My cousin told me he would have taken it but I passed. It is a long season.

So here are my axioms of the hunt.

As always, thank you for reading my musings. I sincerely appreciate you. 

HB’s Axioms of the Hunt

1. The wind will always be at your back (this is different from running where the wind is always in your face).

2. If by some miracle the wind is in your face and you suddenly hear a deer, the wind will shift to your back.

3. Murphy says that “if it can go wrong, it will”. Hunters know that Murphy was an optimist.

4. Deer will always pick the least assessable place to die.

5. If your gun (or bow) breaks, your 42 blade leatherman’s tool will not have a tool that fixes it.

6. When you take it go get it fixed, the repairman will say “In my 30 years I have never seen this happen.”

7. In bow season the deer will be in muzzleloader range. In muzzleloader season the deer will be in gun range. In gun season, the deer will be no where to be found.

8. If you can shoot a doe you will only see does with fawns.

9. If you can only shoot a buck, you will be overrun with does.

10. Deer calls never work. However, the best way to call a deer call is to take a leak.

11. Anyone who claims to have success grunting and rattling is lying.

12. If you see the buck of a lifetime walking down a path, you will only have a lefthanded shot (if you are righthanded and vice versa).

13. If you see the buck of a lifetime and you are bow hunting, the arrow will fall off the rest when you draw.

14. If you hunt a road where deer always cross, they will only cross when you are looking in the other direction.

15. If the outfitter has a success rate of 100%, it will be lower when you leave.

16. Animals shrink if you shoot them.

17. If you only shoot deer 6 points or better, you will only see 4 pointers and spikes.

18. Deer only look up if you are in a tree stand.

19. A turkey always struts one foot past the exact distance that number 6 shot can travel.

20. Camo is about as effective as a deer with a sofa painted on its side can hide in your living room.

21. Hunting clothing billed as no-scents makes no sense.

22. Buck lures only attract hunters to buy them.

23. The only people who swear by grunting and rattling for bucks are the ones who sell them.

24. Primos calls if they work at all must only work on Mississippi deer and turkeys. They sure don’t work in Georgia or Tennessee.

25. If you leave your stand at noon, the deer will walk by at 12:01.

26. The only purpose of scouting before the season is to find out where the deer were.

27. A person who looks down their nose and sneers “You kill bambi!” isn’t worth knowing.

28. If you go on a hunting trip with a group, expect to be the only one who doesn’t kill anything.

29. If you are hunting your own land without seeing anything all day and suddenly you hear something coming down a path, it will be your dog.

30. No woman is worth your time unless she thinks you look cute in camo.

31. Do you have more success stalking or still hunting? Neither.

32. Is the best time to hunt early, midday or late? None of the above.

33. Deer will always walk down the path you are not hunting.

34. Walking into a McDonald’s full of hunters for an early morning biscuit always causes the place to go quiet. Maybe my camo patterns are clashing?

35. Anyone who tells you that a deer smells better than a person is obviously a European.

36. Anyone who asks you why do you own so many different caliber rifles is obviously stupid because it doesn’t make sense to own ten rifles of the same caliber.

37. Since camo wearers look like trees and grass, I guess this makes them environmentalists.

38. Most muzzleloaders were designed to hangfire only when a big deer shows up.

39. That Al Gore rather than the inventor of the Loggy Bayou climbing stand was awarded a Nobel prize is a travesty.

40. My favorite t-shirt says “Conservation through incompetence.”

41. If God didn’t want you to kill deer he wouldn’t have invented the pickup truck.

42. If God didn’t want you to hunt in the cold rain, he wouldn’t have invented GoreTex.

43. If Al Gore got the Nobel prize for inventing GoreTex, then I guess I am ok with it.

44. Since I have never seen a woman who looks like a Victoria Secret’s model, I presume that all about those women are fakes, the product of computer imaging. Similarly, videos that show bucks grunted and rattled-in are fakes.

45. Those who can smoke in a tree stand and deer will walk by even though the wind is wrong and seem to kill big deer every time are the chosen few – of which I am not one. Maybe I should start smoking.

46. A person who claims not to like venison has never eaten my cooking.

47. Jerky is not a food since it cannot be broken down by saliva and chewing. It must be swallowed whole.

48. That jerky is not a food was proven when after I tried to eat it, I gave it to my dogs – who also refused to eat it.

49. I am a small deer specialist. Typically, I only see immature deer (which I let walk).

50. Anyone who says that if you kill a trophy animal every time you hunt then it would not be fun is a fool.

51. The hunter the outfitter describes as being “the luckiest hunter I have ever seen” will always be a person in camp. That person will not be you.

52. Recurve bowhunters are snobs and are hunting’s equivalents of fly fishermen.

53. The longest week I ever spent in my life was in a camp in Alberta hunting for bear and all the other hunters shot recurves.

54. There are 6 things that every bow hunter must do in order to shoot accurately. When a trophy deer approaches you will do five of them.

55. If you believe that nonsense about buying all that expensive no scents gear so you can “Forget the Wind – Just Hunt”, let someone release your dogs one hour after you go in the woods.

56. Game cameras tell you where to hunt at 2:03 in the morning.

57. The one hour before sunup is the longest time of the hunt – much longer than the 5 hours or so that follow.

58. Nothing is more satisfying than being able to furnish your own food.

59. Sure you can kill just as many deer sitting at your kitchen table as you usually do in the woods, but coming home even empty handed to your dogs makes it all worthwhile.

60. My dogs have always been fed a mixture of kibble and venison. Last year I had to feed them lean ground chuck. They wouldn’t eat it so I gave it to a local food bank.

61. I’ve hunted plains game in South Africa, bear in Canada, elk in New Mexico, red stag in Argentina and seriously big deer near Eagle Pass, Texas. But nothing beats being at the family farm hunting on the lands of my ancestors.

Trump’s Office of White House personnel is a joke

The president has pulled the nomination of Paul Ingrassia to be head of his Office of Special Counsel. Ingrassia had previous tweeted a number of racist text messages that became public. Ingrassia had texted to a group of fellow Republicans that “MLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his ‘holiday’ should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.” Ingrassia also texted using an Italian slur for blacks, “No moulignon holidays … From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth. Every single one needs to be eviscerated.” He also said that he had a “Nazi streak.” No wonder that his nomination was pulled. The question is why was he nominated in the first place?

As one conservative commentator put it “Ingrassia had no business being anywhere near a federal job, let alone a Senate-confirmed position running an office charged with enforcing federal ethics rules.” Indeed, the the republican party should not be a welcoming place for people like Ingrassia or the young fools that were texting vulgar messages back and forth engaging in racism, misogyny and antisemitism. JD Vance (not one of my favorite people) even made excuses for them saying “The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. Telling “edgy,” “offensive” and “stupid” jokes is “what kids do.” Pardon me, Mr Vice President. That is BS. Being vile and crude is not what smart kids do, only stupid ones. It is no excuse to say “Well the left does it” as so sharply demonstrated with all the vile, vulgar and demonic comments following the Kirk assassination. I find Vance’s remark just one of many examples why I think he is not qualified to be president. I want these fools not to be in the same party that I am in, much like my parents were republicans by default given all the rabid racists in the democrat party of the old south.

The president who has a penchant for firing people needs to fire someone at White House personnel. In my experience, presidential nominees are vetted prior to be nominated. When I was being considered to be on the first National Credit Union Administration Board, I was interviewed by White House personnel. That individual turned out to have been babysat while growing up in Baton Rouge by the wife of my dear friend the late Dr. Bob Kirk who was the University of Tennessee’s first black tenure track professor. After I passed muster, he told me that he was recommending me for the position but before the nomination could be announced, that I would be vetted by the FBI who then interviewed my colleagues, friends and references. Even my neighbors were interviewed. One called me wondering why the FBI was asking questions about me. I assured them it was for a possible nomination by the White House, nothing more.

Didn’t they do this with Ingrassia? Apparently not. This has got to be embarrassing to the president and I wonder if heads rolled at the office of White House personnel. This president needs to clean up his own house and tell these staffers that they are fired. The president should be embarrassed.

Yet this, of course, is not the first time one of the president’s nominees has been withdrawn. The media wants you to think that the republicans in the senate are rubber stamps for whatever the president wants. In many cases this is true but when it is apparent that a nominee cannot be confirmed by the republican majority, the name is withdrawn. In this case, the president is setting records for Ingrassia makes an astounding number 49 withdrawals. No other president has even come close.

Newsweek has even listed them:

1. Adam Boehler (special presidential envoy for hostage affairs)
2. Alan Boehme (assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs)
3. Alina Habba (U.S. attorney for New Jersey)
4. Brent Sadler (administrator of Maritime Administration)
5. Brian Quintenz (chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission)
6. Charlton Allen (special counsel)
7. Cheryl Mason (assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs)
8. Chris Pratt (assistant secretary of State)
9. Christopher Gilbert (U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia)
10. David Eisner (assistant secretary of Energy)
11. David Rader (assistant secretary of Commerce)
12. David Weldon (director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
13. Edward Martin (U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.)
14. Elise Stefanik (United Nations ambassador)
15. Erwin Antoni (Labor Statistics commissioner)
16. Frank Bisignano (Social Security commissioner)
17. Gregory Autrey (NASA CFO) 
18. Janette Nesheiwat (medical director in the regular corps of the Public Health Service)
19. Jared Isaacman (NASA administrator)
20. Jared Novelly (New Zealand ambassador)
21. Jason De Sena Trennert (assistant secretary of the Treasury)
22. Jeffrey Bornstein (under secretary of Defense)
23. Jeffrey Kaufman (member of the Farm Credit Administration Board)
24. Jennifer Locetta (alternative representative of the U.S. for special political affairs in the U.N.)
25. Jennifer Mascott (general counsel for Education Department)
26. Jennifer Wicks McNamara (Vietnam ambassador)
27. Jeremy Ellis (inspector general, Department of Housing and Urban Development)
28. John Bartrum (assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs)
29. John Lavalle (governor of the U.S. Postal Service)
30. John Simermeyer (chairman of National Indian Gaming Commission)
31. Jonathan McKernan (director of Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection)
32. Karen Brazell (under secretary for benefits at Department of Veterans Affairs)
33. Karen Evans (under secretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security)
34. Kathleen Sgamma (Bureau of Land Management director)
35. Kevin O’Farrell (assistant secretary at Department of Education)
36. Landon Heid (assistant secretary of Commerce)
37. Leo Brent Bozell III (CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media)
38. Luke Petit (assistant secretary of the Treasury)
39. Mark Brnovich (Serbian ambassador)
40. Michael Duffy (under secretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment)
41. Michael Jensen (assistant secretary of Defense)
42. Penny Schwinn (Deputy Secretary of Education)
43. Ryan Cote (assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs)
44. Sara Carter (National Drug Control Policy director)
45. Stella Herrell (assistant secretary of Agriculture)
46. Terrence Gorman (chairman of board of veterans’ appeals)
47. Theodore Cooke (commissioner of reclamation)
48. Yehuda Kaploun (special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism)
49. Ingrassia

Why isn’t Matt Gaetz on this list?