Once again, automotive is building inventory dues to parts shortages. Semiconductors appear to be an issue again or the issue never went away. Much of this is due to automotive OEMs trying to drive parts cost down to the tiers. Many of them are running tight budgets due to the OEMs. They will not hold inventory unless the OEMs commit to it. The other side of this being Ford splitting it business into two parts, traditional fuel vehicles and Electric vehicles. While Electric vehicles may be a small part right now, for sure they are into the semiconductors the same as the older business. Just a lesser amount of them

“Unfinished Ford Trucks Keep Piling Up in Massive Lots Visible From Space” (thedrive.com), Caleb Jacobs

Blue Oval Ford has made use

August JOLTS report: the game of reverse musical chairs in the jobs market is ending

 – by New Deal democrat

Since early this year I’ve been making the point that, because of the pandemic, there have been several million fewer persons looking for work, leaving a huge number of unfilled job vacancies, particularly in the face of a roughly 10% higher jump in demand. This has given employees the upper hand, as there are almost always higher paying jobs on offer for which they can apply. I‘ve also posited that the dynamic would only slow down once some employers throw in the towel, and the number of job openings signficantly declines. I’ve called this “reverse musical chairs.”

This morning we got some very potent news that the game is entering

As you can see bullet spewing weapons takes the lead this week. There are a lot of articles as taken from JAMA Network. which also has more and unlisted here. You are probably also wondering why the term “bullet spewing weapons” verbiage. There was always a discussion on semi-automatic, automatic, revolvers, etc. So, I cut to the chase. We are talking about weapons which spew bullets. Hence the name. Everything else is a mixture of various topics this week. Also the usual healthcare articles and my fav substacks.

Bullet Spewing Weapons and the Public

“After NRA Mocks Doctors, Physicians Reply: ‘This Is Our Lane’,” NPR, Laurel Wamsley. “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,” the NRA tweeted on Thursday. “Half

Solutionary Rail – “A people-powered campaign to electrify America’s railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future“

I was wandering around the internet when I came across the Solutionary Rail site. I was looking for something in particular and was not able to find it. The site itself gives the detail on why railway worker were set to strike. If you don’t know railways carry the bulk of freight (which includes automotive components across the nation from the west coast. Product arriving in containers from overseas in placed on flat beds sometimes stacked two high. Where I am situated, you can see the long trains go by.

We were and are still fighting a supply chain problem in the US which is driving prices, not that the product is more

This is kind of an interesting story. It shows how crazy some of us and it also shows a presence in our military too. Active or reservist military are not supposed to be doing this.

Here we have an off-duty officer of the Massachusetts Army National Guard following a busload of senior citizens in a dangerous manner . . . tailgating. He then confronts them when they reach their hotel.

“An off-duty Massachusetts National Guard Lt. Colonel aggressively follows and confronts a tour bus full of senior citizens,” Cape Cod Times, Eric Williams

A tour bus bringing senior citizens to their East Falmouth hotel on Sept. 19 was aggressively pursued by a National Guard officer from Joint Base Cape Cod. He thought the bus was carrying migrants due to a

Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans were to be the private plans able to deliver more and better healthcare than FFS Medicare. MA plans does offer more services than FFS Medicare. It offers similar services at a higher cost than ordinary Medicare costs. This is accomplished by over coding healthcare issues of participants which in turn increases prices to FFS Medicare.

Random surveys over the years have revealed excessive charges by Medicare Advantage. Detail we have presented can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

As the article title states aggregate Medicare payments to Medicare Advantage plans have never been lower than FFS Medicare spending. Risk adjustment through coding intensity (coding increases) by MA plans year to year

The little weasel Miguel Cardona has a grin on his face. They have been screwing these people over for decades. Department of Education did not check the fine print for FFEL loans. And now that Mohela said they will lose money, they yank the carpet out from under 800.000 people. God forbid they screw over a Federal Loan Servicer. What is Mohela:

MOHELA has worked with student loans for several decades as a private lender. It has been a relatively small player as a federal loan servicer. But in December 2021, the Department of Education announced that MOHELA is taking over the PSLF and Teach Grant programs from FedLoan Servicing. Sep 1, 2022

Looks like Mohela got a sweetheart deal going on with the Department of Education.

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“In a

This popped up on “Letters from an American” just last night. I was too tired to read Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson’s article. So, I missed out on a good message about the income of America’s population. This is a recent commentary by the not-so nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in September 2022. The thrust of the article? “Trends in the Distribution of Family Wealth, 1989 to 2019.”

Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson’s Introduction;

Since the 1980s, the argument for dismantling the government has been that federal regulations hamper the operation of the free market, thus slowing economic growth, while the taxes required to maintain a bureaucratic system take money away from those who otherwise would invest in businesses. The avowed theory is

Yea, I know. Who the hell is Mallory McMorrow.

First let me explain Lana Theis. Lana is a state senator representing the Michigan state district I lived in when I was near Brighton, Brighton Michigan. Lana is Republican and was pretty much protected from being replaced due to state gerrymandering. You may remember her as the Michigan Republican state senator who falsely described McMorrow as a “groomer” in an April fundraising email.

In the fundraising email, Michigan State Sen. Lana Theis of Brighton said colleagues like McMorrow were “outraged” they couldn’t “groom and sexualize kindergartners.”

To make matters worse, Republican Sen. Lana Theis opened a Michigan Senate session with an invocation by claiming children are being attacked

I am not an attorney; although, I have been in all levels of state and federal courts including Certs to SCOTUS. I had to learn by default to get my points across at times. Neither am I to be trifled with if you choose to make BS statements.

I found this SCOTUS article to be interesting as I am seeing similar as an average citizen sitting on the sidelines wondering what plague has infected the courts. Judge Aileen Cannon is a knowledgeable person who I believe has been taken over by an alien. She knows she is wrong. The same holds true for Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch. Barrett has sided with the other women recently which I believe is a good sign.

Kavanaugh is suddenly enamored with state legislators having greater control of election policies.

Kind of a mixed bag of what news was showing up in My In-Box. It was evenly spread amongst various topics. Ford building a battery plant just like everyone else is planning. Wall Street buying up residential homes. That purchasing of houses will come to no-good for the average citizen. ACA Preventive is under threat by a looney federal judge in Texas and SCOTUS has to decide. Non-Opioid pain treatment sounds like a good idea. If you do not like the idea, blame the Sacklers and Purdue. They lit the fuse with their lies. Cruz is “lying” about his bill. It was not a clean bill. “Cruz’s bills would bar schools supposedly teaching critical race theory or advocating for abortion from the funds.” More on that issue later.

Also, an excellent recital by

This is a good one from Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson. It is along the lines of what I would consult in at various companies till I fixed it and was no longer needed. It is an update on what has happened in the United States. Something which has not occurred since pre-Reagan. The nations labor is being “valued” again.

Peter Drucker: “Balance Sheets are meaningless. Our accounting systems are still based on the assumption that 80% of costs are manual labor.”

Labor is less than 10% of the cost.

Ahh yes, the seventies and I was scheduling 4 or more production lines by hours of Labor at Motorola.

Now, if we can only get Participation Rate back to where it was, just before Covid changed the world.

~~~~~~~~

September 26, 2022, Prof.

Senate Democrats on a Wednesday back a while ago blocked two bills from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas). The bills would be using COVID-19 stimulus funds to bolster school security and mental health resources for students. Sounds like a much -needed idea given past circumstances. Cruz’s proposals:

The Securing Our Schools Act, which was cosponsored by Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), would double the number of police officers in public, charter, and private schools, strengthen physical security measures like alarms and locks, and put thousands of mental health professionals in public schools. The Protect Our Children’s Schools Act ​​would fund that effort, appropriating billions of dollars in unspent education-related COVID funding. Sen. Chris Murphy (D.,

A Capitol rioter who received phone call from the White House on Jan. 6 was identified as a 26-year-old Trump-loving New Yorker who joked about shooting Nancy Pelosi.

I do not have an exact date when this was written. It appears to have been update May 2021. I find it interesting as US automakers are making moves to switch from combustion powered vehicles to electrically powered vehicles utilizing rechargeable batteries to provide the power.

US automaker Ford is so committed to this conversion; it has split its company into two parts. One part for combustion driven vehicles and another for battery powered vehicles. I am sure they are paying exact to the combustion side of the business to get them to hang around. In 2-3 years (if not less), this part of the business will disappear. Perhaps, you might have read about the large battery plant Ford is building in western Tennessee.

Of course over time, the use of

It is refreshing to see Dean Baker using one of the words I use to describe what the FED does when they are hiking Interest Rates. Those FED actions do not create results over night. Because they can’t, read on. Powell appears to be frustrated by the lack of economic slowing.

Maybe there are other issues behind the slow reaction such as supply chains, fiscal stimulus early on, healthcare subsidies, etc. The latter two were vital otherwise we would be looking at another 2008. In 2010 they were throwing people off of unemployment even though there was a lack of jobs. In 2022, there still is a need for Labor. Here is New Deal democrat on September 15:

As I wrote last week, continued claims lag initial claims. I expected them to reverse lower, and

Summary:

More on the Ukraine war, Russia calling up soldiers, Putin’s referendum, and a threat of nuclear consequences if the referendum in interfered. President Biden answers Putin’s threats. New York AG Letitia James filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the family. COA rejects Federal Judge Cannon’s ruling calling it “abuse of discretion.” It appears as though Ginni Thomas will be testifying to the House committee.

September 21, 2022, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson

Russian president Vladimir Putin announced today that he is mobilizing the Russian population to fight Ukraine. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu put that number at 300,000 soldiers. At the same time,

“Diesel Ram Owner Crushes Truck After New Jersey DEP Orders Deleted Emissions Fix,” (msn.com), Caleb Jacobs

One diesel pickup truck owner was hoping to sell his modified diesel engine pickup truck. Unfortunately, the State of New Jersey DEP would not be issuing a new title unless he restored the pickup truck to its former EPA required condition. The DEP issued a violation to back up their demand. This came after attempting to sell the modified diesel pickup on Facebook Marketplace in June.

After attempting to sell the modified pickup on Facebook Marketplace in June, Mike Sebold was contacted by the DEP with a notice of violation. Selling vehicles with deleted emissions equipment is illegal in New Jersey, and rather than returning the Ram to

September Update: “COVID Death Rates by Partisan Lean & Vaccination Rate”| ACA Signups, Charles Gaba

As always, here’s my (Charles Gaba) methodology:

County-level 2020 Population data via U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 CensusCounty-level 2020 Trump vote data via each state’s Election Commission or Secretary of State websitesCounty-level Case & Death data via Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science & Engineering for 47 states; NY Times COVID-10 in the United States github for NE & UT only; & the White House COVID-19 Team Community Profile Report for Florida only.Remember: “Decile” means 1/10th or 10% of the total population (all 50 states + DC).

There’s still a clear and dramatic correlation between how much of the population has

Healthcare and Politics are the heavy hitters tonight. I always feel like I missed something. Feel free to add articles to this in comments. I have a post to complete on the costs and prices on Pharma. You know there is a difference. Politicians usually talk about one or the other. A while back Germany was wondering if the pharma companies would accept their new pharma schedules. It is a reasonable doubt. How would one know if they did not understand all of the costs. The US embarks on a similar mission. I am wondering how this will play out for 20 drugs.

In Politics, I am looking at the DeSantis news. This may catch up with him yet very much like Federal Judge Dearie’s decision to wrap everything up by October 7th for trump. Can Judge Cannon or

The Martha Vineyard pamphlet given to legal Venezuelan immigrants in the US. Florida (as if you did not know where he rules!) Governor DeSantis’s motive was to convince the immigrants to get on the plane in Texas (a suburb of Florida) to go to paradise another city where they could get jobs, cash for eight months, vocational skill training, etc. They were not told the location of this paradise.

“Just hop on the bus, we don’t need to discuss much. And get yourself free.“

Instead of Boston as some of them thought. They ended up in “Martha’s Vineyard.” No surprise at all to me, the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard took them in, gave them shelter, thing they need, and fed them.

Just so you know what Florida Governor “Ronald Dion DeSantis, was

If you believe railroads do not count much anymore in the American economy, you need to rethink your thought. For a major automotive company, I was coordinating shipments to and from Asia via container, rail, and ocean. It was not that hard if you understood the lead times, customs, shipping and rail, and the bottlenecks.

Typically we would pick up or ship out of Long Beach or LA. Coming in to us would arrive by rail with the bottleneck being Chicago. Plan 5-6 weeks to get a shipment out of China, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, etc. Customs can be fast if you use a forwarder.

With rail on strike, those shipments would pile up in the ports. Not enough truckers to haul them over the mountains.

Railroads running many more rains with twice

Alan Collinge at Student Loan Justice Org. is showcasing on Facebook various people who still have student loans even after the small loan relief. With these student loan holders, the ten or twenty thousand will go to fees, interest, and penalties as they exist or as rolled into loans. Very little (if it does) will touch the loan origination amount. The funds become gifts to the loan industry which originated the loan or the present holder of these loans. Not much relief for the person holding the loan. In many cases, they will not be able to make the sizeable payments either.

Name: J

State: Kentucky

First generation (and woman) in family to graduate high school and attend college. Started college at age 38 after raising daughter. I had

In an earlier post, Steve Hutkins introduced Louis DeJoy’s new plan centralizing post offices in various locations calling them Sorting and Delivery Centers. Many mail delivery personnel routes would increase in size and routes would be further away and larger. The result could lead to delayed delivery and a further degeneration of service. The result would also include the closing of many neighborhood post offices which existed since Roosevelt if not earlier. Some areas would see a decrease in service.

The USPS is a not for profit entity and is meant to service every citizen regardless of where they live. Louis DeJoy has different vision in mind. One in which would decrease service and promote profitability. ““We’re half way there,” he said,

“September 17, 2022,” Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson, (substack.com)

In 1761, 55-year-old Benjamin Franklin attended the coronation of King George III and later wrote that he expected the young monarch’s reign would “be happy and truly glorious.” Then, in 1776, he helped to draft and then signed the Declaration of Independence. An 81-year-old man in 1787, he urged his colleagues at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to rally behind the new plan of government they had written. 

“I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them,” he said, “For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better

This is one of Alan Collinge’s associates who comment on many of his posts. This also reflects a point I bought up a while back on student loan debt. The size of the loan was large and probably could have been handled. The issue is not so much the loan as it is the interest fees, interest upon interest, paying back the interest first, etc. A $10,000 forgiveness will go to the interest first on the student loan debt and never touch the principal.

Name: Kate

State: NY

My husband and I owe over $500,000 in student loan debt. Half a million dollars. Let that sink in a minute. Most of this is interest due to the U.S. government for Parent Plus Loans we took out for our two daughters to get a college education. To be more precise, that includes

Guest Post by Infidel as posted from his Blog of the same name.

Intro . . .

In the real world, which contains many individuals interacting within a society, overall freedom is maximized when the total ability of all individuals to do whatever they want is maximized.  In practice, achieving this involves a vast number of compromises and trade-offs, because there are so many cases where the wants of one person clash with the wants of another (when, for example, my neighbor wants to play loud music in his apartment but I want to exist in my own apartment without excessive noise). 

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A few observations on freedom, Infidel753

In my post last week about some right-wing bloggers’ fantasies of a civilizational collapse, I listed

A lot of informational news deposited in my In-Box this week. Nothing this week is taken from anywhere else. I think last week, I included one news article from the outside. Political, Economic, Healthcare news are my mainstays.

The usual economics and business news coming from different sources. Yes, inflation is still an issue. I do not believe Powell will not give us a soft landing he thinks he is capable of doing. One issue will help inflation is the supply chain catching up with demand. Usually, it goes to far and creates a surplus.

Political and legal news make for a perfect pairing. Senator Spanky Graham (he looks like an older Spanky) is promoting a federal abortion ban. J&J has been peddling Talc and claiming it was nontoxic.

Has anyone looked at the Nineth Amendment of the Bill of Rights? Because of what is being said about rights not enumerated in the Constitution by SCOTUS and Carol Stewart is precisely why it exists. Some history:

“The Amendment’s origin is fascinating history. James Madison proposed the Amendment to counter the Federalist arguments that a bill of rights was unnecessary or even unwise. The Federalists argued that the government created by the Constitution was permitted to exercise only those powers specifically granted to it in the Constitution. The governmental structure itself with its checks and balances would be the best protection for individual rights. Besides, the Federalist argument continued, a bill of rights might even be dangerous because

I had read Dan’s post, “Total Hypocrisy, Franken Pushed Back on GOP” – Angry Bear (angrybearblog.com). Was kind of wondering if there was an answer to John Roberts. Roberts beliefs are they are innocent, alas how could their decisions be influenced by political beliefs, especially the political influences appointing them, the Federalist Society, their own beliefs, politics, etc. Did I miss something?

As one commenter said, appointees to SCOTUS were never filibustered in the past. Appointments and processes became political, having changed dramatically since Gingrich.

I am pulling from one opinion from a well known attorney, Erwin Chemerinsky. Here is what he said about SCOTUS:

Its decisions always have been and always will be a product of