Day 921

Day 921 Monday July 15, 2019

476 Days until the 2020 election and 558 days until the Inauguration

Did Trump make racist tweets?

I have a water sprinkler attachment on my hose that has a dial on it. I can turn it to: “Sprinkle” or “Flood” or “Fan” or “Jet” or “Mist” or any number of water settings.

I mention this because my Trump-o-Meter has similar settings.

The Trump-o-Meter can process any comment by Trump and translate it into real English and/or note the veracity of the comment.

It has multiple settings depending on the amount of sarcasm, spite, malice, or humor you want.

It also has various voice settings, such as Chris Rock, Cher, hillbilly, Republican etc.

The output from the question, “Did Trump make racist tweets?” elicited no response at first.

I had to hit return several times. I thought perhaps I had thrown the computer into a “dead hang.”

This is a state where the computer doesn’t know what to do next and so does nothing.

It turns out in the case of my question “Did Trump make racist tweets?” the Trump-o-meter was waiting for more input. After I hit several Carriage Returns, it came back to me with this”

“When?”

I put in “This weekend” and hit Return.

Again it sat there for a considerable amount of time. I was just getting ready to hit Return again, when it came back with this:

“You’re kidding, right?”

I responded, “No, I’m not kidding. Did Trump make racist tweets this weekend?”

Ever since I put in the AI upgrade this sort of thing has been happening. The Trump-O-Meter seems to be getting slower, I would have thought giving it artificial intelligence would have helped. I don’t think so.

After pausing for damn near 45 seconds it finally spat out:

“Of course.”

I responded, “Of course, what?”

“Of course it was racist. Are you stupid or something.? My mama would have whipped me for such a dumb ass question.”

(I had apparently spun the dial* to “Chris Rock” mode.)

*okay, it not really a dial. Okay? It’s a slot machine looking window on the app** and I apparently let my mouse wander over to that part or the screen where it hovered on the window and then I must have tapped the mouse, which activated the Pointer which spun the mode dial and landed on “Chris Rock.”

** Please do not ask me to send you a copy of the Trump-O-Meter. I can’t give you the new release (2.0). I’m sorry.***

*** You can have the original Beta version:

BETA RELEASE – TRUM-O-METER

(This release of the Trump-O-Meter only responds to “yes/no” questions.

Here is the full release: (Write this down or cut and paste to your device.)

Did Trump say, “Yes.”?

Trump-O-Meter, Analysis and Answer:

“NO”

Did Trump say, “No”?

Trump-O-Meter, Analysis and Answer:

“YES”

###############    End of Trump-O-Meter – Beta Release)

(not guaranteed to work when Fox News is broadcasting unmuted in same room)

In other news, oh no, same news, Trump said four Congresswomen should go back to America.

That’s not quite how he said it, but close enough. He managed to say it in a white nationalist way.

Okay, moving on. Paul Ryan has written a book. Jeff Flake has made a comment. Both are saying the same thing: neither they, nor most members of the Republican party have the balls to stand up to a bully. What do the recommend for their fellow politicians still in office? Keep quiet and maybe it will pass. 

Meanwhile AOC and three other “women of color” have called it like they see it and boy oh boy are people pissed. Some folks don’t like hearing the truth. Have you seen the picture of Mike Pence at our concentration camp? Have you seen the same picture but with Nazis? (Okay, it’s not the same picture, just the same juxtaposition of people in a similar situation.) Some folks (like say the president) don’t like it when AOC and others call what we are doing at the souther border what it is – putting people (children) in cages in concentration camps. 

Remember when someone tried to say it was like summer camp? 

Hey, why not have Baron Trump spend his summer at one of those camps?

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about those lovely folks in that bar in England where the Fox News reporter was that started screaming “Fuck Trump.” I’ve suggested that could be a chant at every sports event world wide. I picture cheerleaders holding up signs. You know like the ones that they flash to one side of the stadium and then the other. Nothing like a nimble perky young lady holding up a sign saying, “FUCK” and when the crowd responds then her pal holds up a sign in the other directions saying, “TRUMP”

They could start off slowly and then pick up speed:

FUCK………….TRUMP

FUCK………….TRUMP

FUCK………….TRUMP

FUCK…….TRUMP

FUCK…….TRUMP

FUCK…….TRUMP

FUCK…TRUMP

FUCK…TRUMP

FUCK…TRUMP

FUCKTRUMP

FUCKTRUMP

FUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMP

YEAHHHHHH!!!

Moving on. Bill De Blasio was on Morning Joe. His main point (and this will save you 25 minutes of his babbling) was that the Democratic Party needs to be the party of the working people – again.

That took multiple rounds of saying the same thing, but then he said something mildly interesting and then something absolutely stunning.

He said every Dem should be against NAFTA and the new trade bill is just NAFTA 2.0. (Mildly interesting, and I’m not sure on the basis for his conclusion is very strong. However, as political fodder it’s great.)

Then he said something truly stunning. I’ll call it revolutionary. He said labor unions should be allowed to organize across national borders. 

What? Wow. It makes sense from a working man’s point of view and an economist’s POV. I mean if auto-workers could negotiate for factory jobs regardless of where the factory was located this would stop a lot of the exporting of jobs to somewhere  where the labor was cheaper. But … but … Isn’t that Marxism? (or Communism?, or Socialism? or something bad?)

I haven’t read the Communist Manifesto in a long time. Maybe, I never read it, and only skimmed it. I can’t remember. What I do remember is the phrase “Workers of the World Unite.” I hope that’s right. Isn’t that what de Blasio is suggesting?

What the heck?

What this really is, in terms of economics, is what is known as “The Farm Problem.”

Except that it is applied to workers not farmers and their produce.

The farm problem is this – if farmers are all growing the same crop then:

When conditions are good, everyone has plenty to sell and the price for their crop drops,

When conditions are bad, no one has anything to sell and prices for their crop is high.

In either condition the farmer ends up with little money.

Economists look at their models and they talk about “elastic” and “inelastic” demand and costs ( The terms for costs are different (“fixed” and “variable”) but the idea is the same.)

Inelastic demand is demand for stuff you got to have no matter the price.

(eg You need gas to get to work.)

Elastic demand varies with the price.  

(eg It would be nice to take a road trip, but if the price of gas is too high, you won’t take that trip.)

Farmers face the same thing with crops but they are looking at expenses. It costs something to buy the seed and fertilizer. Those costs are fixed. IE you can’t change those prices. What costs are variable? Labor. that is if you are doing it yourself. In the farm problem, the farmer can pay himself nothing, and often does, Economists say that, in this case, all the variable costs have been squeezed out (or is it elastic costs?) either way what ever can be done for free or next to nothing is where the farmer is left.

And they are left with nothing. Zero, Nadda. Zilch. This pisses off farmers. But that, in a nutshell, is “the Farm Problem.” 

Then there is the problem with football stadiums and the problem with labor, each of which is, in a weird way, similar to the farm problem.

If you have corporations that can move willie nillie to wherever there are too many people for the amount of work available, then those corporations can get people to work for next to nothing. How low can they go? Look at the farm problem, they will work for the amount that barely keeps them alive. (Football stadiums is in a weird way similar but in the opposite direction, as are the Olympics, cities or counties will pay a lot to have the Olympics or a football team. The economics make no sense, but they go ahead anyway.)

What’s the solution for workers? Bill de Blasio thinks it’s unions and letting them negotiate around the world. 

Think that’s bad?

Got anything better?

PS Bats! In this case fruit bats, also known as dog bats because of their large bodies. As night approaches they swarm out of their home. Hundreds and hundreds of them – thousands dotting the sky.