Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Truckers
2. Epstein
3. Education
4. Gerrymandering
5. Cattle
6. Space
7. Pennies
8. Hospitals
1. Truckers. The next front in the war to clean up the democrat open borders crime spree is commercial driver’s licenses (CDL’s). These popped into public consciousness two ways. First, and most obviously, the new drivers don’t speak the language, can’t read the signs and don’t know the rules of the road. This translates directly into higher accident rates. Second, and more perniciously, drivers licenses are a form of ID used to allow a holder to vote. A number of blue states (Tampon Tim Walz’s Minnesota is one example) are handing out drivers licenses to illegals as quickly as they can print them. Estimates for the number of CDL holders nationwide vary wildly, ranging from 1.3 – 5.3 million. Truckers associations estimate 3.6 professional truck drivers, 1.6 million of them over the road, 18-wheeler, interstate truckers. Transportation Secretary Duffy estimates states illegally issued around 194,000 CDLs to drivers unable to speak English, about one in every ten CDLs today. Cali admits to illegally issuing over 17,000 CDLs to illegals. DoT is in the process of revoking those licenses. As usual, the activists on the DC Court of Appeals got themselves involved, claiming that DoT did not go through the proper process issuing the new rules, placing themselves firmly on the side of illegals over public safety. The triggering event for the renewed scrutiny was an accident in Florida last August when an illegal from India attempted an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike. As his trailer obstructed the road, a minivan slammed into it killing three. The driver is charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter. His attorney is a civil rights attorney rather than an attorney specializing in vehicular accidents, so you can expect how his defense is going to unfold.
2. Epstein. Democrats chasing the mythical Trump – Epstein connection got their wish last week as congress passed legislation direction Bondi’s Department of Justice to release all remaining Epstein files. The legislation was passed by veto-proof majorities in both Houses of congress and signed by President Trump midweek. DoJ has 30 days to release the documents. Democrats are now in the position of a dog who just caught the vehicle it has been chasing, asking ‘What do we do now?” Their problem is that Epstein was closely tied into the democrat power apparat and had very little to do with Republicans in general and Trump, who he hated, in particular. After seeming to futz around with responses to the incessant Epstein attacks, Trump finally settled on a simple, concise message: Epstein is a problem for democrats, among them Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman. The futzing around was A:B testing of the message before deciding what to use. At the same time. James Comer’s House Oversight Committee released thousands of Epstein emails and SMS text messages between him and members of congress, all democrats. The text exchange between him and Virgin Islands congress critter Stacy Plaskett during a Feb 2019 hearing taking testimony from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen documented Epstein feeding her questions during the hearing. Plaskett has a long working relationship with Epstein since before he was convicted as a sex offender. An attempt to censure her in the House last week failed mostly along party lines. Rep Jasmine Crockett loudly and publicly proclaimed that Epstein was a donor to former congress critter and current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. The problem is that there are a lot of Jeffery Epstein’s in the US. The donor was actually a neurosurgeon from NY. She blamed the mistake on Google and the incompetence of her staff. Final example is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffiries soliciting campaign cash from Epstein, something Jeffiries vehemently denies. There will be more of this. I don’t think it will go well for the theater kids. As the documentation is released, expect democrats to claim the Trump DoJ sanitized the documents, scrubbing all the awfulness. Appropriate response to this mythical claim is that if whatever was in the files was so bad for Trump, why didn’t either the O’Bama or Biden Do(In)J release it when they had the chance over 12 years in office starting in 2009?
3. Education. Looks like the Trump administration is finally serous about shutting down the Department of Education. Perhaps the best argument for doing this is that education has gotten worse during the nearly 50 years since Jimmy Carter and the post-Watergate democrat majority in congress created it. Spending oodles of money with increasingly poor results is not a winning message. We have a couple examples of its complete worthlessness. First would be during the shutdown, when more money was spent while kids weren’t in school. DoEd never attempted to push back against the Teachers Unions demand for continuing, endless school closures all in the name of protecting union members from what they claimed to be COVID-carrying kiddos who don’t get COVID. The second example is quite recent, as 43-day long government shutdown likewise didn’t seem to have any impact. If DoEd is nothing more than a pass-through speedbump, why not send the education money directly back to the states rather than laundering it through a federal bureaucracy? Better yet, why tax it away and launder it back at all? We all know the answer why: to elect democrats. But it is getting harder and harder to make that case in public.
4. Gerrymandering. While the redistricting wars are increasingly being fought out in federal courts, at least a few of the Rules of Engagement (ROE) are apparent. First, is that Gerrymandering to get a political outcome is acceptable while Gerrymandering on a racial basis is not. While SCOTUS has not ruled on the second as yet, it is likely this will be the case. The problem comes when a redistricting map drawn for a political outcome is challenged on racial basis. This is beside the fact that any time a conservative (or white or male) does anything, it is instantly and loudly accused of being racist. Last week’s example was a legal challenge to the new Texas redistricting map, redrawn in response to Gavin Newsom’s new map for California. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on the new map, ordering the 2026 congressional elections to proceed under the 2021 map. The ruling was immediately appealed to SCOTUS and stayed by Justice Alito pending SCOTUS hearing. The Fifth Circuit opinion was notable in that it was issued without including a dissent from the 2:1 majority (an O’Bama and Trump judge voted against the new map, a Reagan nominee dissented). The dissent noted that the ruling was among the most brazen examples of judicial activism seen in his 37 years on the bench. What this majority is telling Texas is that politically based Gerrymandering is good for me but not for thee, hardly equal rights under the law.
5. Cattle. Half a century ago, there was an ad campaign for Chiffon margarine that ended with the tag line “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” complete with darkness and thunder. Turns out that warning is applicable in the real world, this time with raising methane-free cattle. Green European nations have catered to the demands of greens with varying levels of silliness and intrusive government diktats. One of the mandates is to somehow decrease methane emissions from cattle. This isn’t so easily done, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The vehicle being tried is including an additive to cattle feed called bovaer, supposed to be capable of decreasing methane emissions from cattle a whopping 30 – 45%. Turns out the additive doesn’t play all that well with cattle, making a noticeable number of them sicker than normal with what is best described as digestive issues and related illness. Denmark legally requires the additive, leading to reports of collapsing cattle and reduced milk production. Norway suspended its test program last week pending an investigation. Like all things climate, it is difficult to wade through the garbage masquerading as actual data to find out what actually is going on. Governments are loathe to admit a mistake and the greens are too busy cheerleading to notice. The general public, always easily spooked, are making choices not to bring either the dairy products or the meats into their homes, further increasing marketplace pressure on farmers involved. This sort of foolishness happens every single time governments get themselves into the business of dictating means and methods in order to reach some predetermined outcome.
6. Space. Two bits of news from the commercial space world last week, one good, one not so good. Jeff Bezos Blue Origin successfully flew their second attempt at their New Glenn heavy lift reusable rocket. The launch went well, and the first stage was successfully recovered, landing on their barge in the Atlantic. This version of New Glenn is capable of putting 45 tons into orbit. An upgraded version should be capable of over 70 tons. Should they figure out how to turn sorties with it, it will be a worthy competitor for SpaceX Starship, currently capable of putting around 77 tons into orbit, with the V3 variant capable of 150 tons. The only problem with Blue Origin is that they work far more slowly than SpaceX does, though they are looking at 12 – 24 flights with this system in 2026. The bad news comes from SpaceX, which rolled their first V3 stack out for testing last week. Testing didn’t go so well, as the oxygen tank ruptured during pressure testing, blowing out part of one side and buckling part of the other. The test stand did not appear to be damaged. The rupture is expected to delay the first launch attempt well into January. The bad news is the failure. The good news is that it was not an explosive failure. Expect SpaceX to address the problem much quicker than expected.
7. Pennies. The last penny was minted Wednesday in Philadelphia, marking the end of 238 years of the penny being an official part of US currency. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, as the cost of its replacement, the US nickel may be even worse. Toward the end, pennies cost about twice what they were worth to manufacture. Their possible replacement, the nickel costs just over 13 cents to manufacture. The banking association believes there are some 250 billion pennies in circulation, about 750 per citizen.
8. Hospitals. Elon Musk is revolutionizing a broad swath of industry, most of it in an attempt to make colonizing Mars (and other nearby bodies) affordable. One of his predictions is the positive impact that Tesla’s Optimus robot will have on medicine, in short, robot hospitals. Color me somewhat skeptical, not because of the ability to create and prove the new technology, but rather the rate of acceptance of the new tech by the general public. As an example, take a look at EVs and self-driving. Musk went from a neophyte in the auto manufacturing world into running one of the most valuable corporations on the planet. In building the Tesla vehicles, he had to figure out how to make EVs not only affordable, but sufficiently operable and reliable that the general public actually wants them. Today, the Tesla vehicle is one of the best designed EVs on the planet. While currently pricey, they do seem to hold their value as an EV. But the thing that will make them popular is self-driving without human monitoring. This tech is quickly evolving to the point where it is arguably as good as or better than a human driver. My guess is that self-driving EVs will displace Uber, Lyft, the cab and other similar rental vehicles in urban, suburban and population dense parts of the nation. As battery storage, weight, charging rate and reliability improve, their use will extend into more rural areas. Expect to see similar expansion of the Tesla Optimus into medicine, where the robots start doing the mundane sanitation tasks and gradually expand into the more complex ones. Over time, they will displace humans starting with tasks that require the least skill and training. We are on the precipice of having to relearn lessons from a century’s worth of killer robot / rogue tech entertainment. Musk may end up being right that the solution to expensive health care is robot hospitals, though I think a proper diet and physical activity will go a long way to mitigating that problem. The best thing of all is that all Musk’s new tech is directly applicable to colonizing Mars or any other body in the solar system.
More later –
- AG