Quick Takes (v73): The Trump Economy

When folks talk about the reasons they were voting, the economy was high on most lists.

For example, 81% of registered voters said the economy would be 'very important' to their vote, according to a Pew Research poll from September.

According to another September poll, this time from Gallup, the economy was the only issue where a majority said a candidate's positions were an 'extremely important' influencer on how they were going to vote.

A post-election survey from AARP found that more than half of aged 50+ voters 'prioritized economic issues.'

Many other pre- and post-election surveys, and a few boatloads of TV hosts and other pundits (perhaps I should refer to them as potential cabinet members?) have said the same thing, using many more words to explain it than James Carville gave us back in 1992.

There's one part of the economy that may have defied expectations: the 'support your favorite billionaire' part. You know, the political Name, Image, and Likeness, or NIL, sector. And nobody does NIL better than Donald Trump, the Once and Future President (OAFP).

If you ask me, the person who shouted the loudest about our horrible economy and how it contributes to our becoming a failing nation is doing pretty darn well with his followers. On his Bibles alone, he made $300,000, for heaven's sake.

Don't believe me? Take a look at all these things you can get with his political brand - and remember that this is separate from all the stuff emblazoned with the Trump name sold by the Trump Organization. And that merch is separate, of course, from all of the buildings, golf courses (with and without burial plots near the first tee), the winery, and so on.

Hats

Ties

Pins

Pens

Flags

Elves

Coins

Shirts

Access

Bibles

Knives

Decals

Scarves

Wallets

Watches

Magnets

Stickers

Jewelry

Pardons

Banners

Sneakers

Troll dolls

Tote bags

Yard signs

Keychains

Backpacks

Sunglasses

Ornaments

Corkscrews

Dish towels

Shot glasses

Medallions

Wristbands

Golf towels

Cigar boxes

Money clips

Tee holders

Beer glasses

Cigar cutters

Beach towels

Garbage bags

Playing cards

Rubber ducks

Laptop covers

Ear maxi pads

Trading cards

Bottle openers

Books for kids

Cutting boards

Pieces of a suit

Greeting cards

Stuffed animals

Digital 'artwork'

Framed pictures

Bumper stickers

Books for adults

Beer can koozies

Funny eyeglasses

Cabinet positions

Cartoon drawings

Zippered pouches

Government secrets

License plate covers

Orange-haired visors

Talking Trumpinators

White privilege cards

Masks (oh, the irony!)

Mugs (beer and coffee)

Commemorative cigars

Oddly-crafted figurines

Pet attire and accessories

Framed newspaper articles

French fry counter trinkets

Bronze busts (made of resin)

Signed mug shot photo pictures

Decanters (with/without glasses)

Bobbleheads (too many to count)

Two-dollar bills (several versions)

Bronze bust (on sale - save a penny!)

Wine glasses (stemmed and stemless)

Personalized artwork (your name here!)

Personalized merchandise (your religion here!)

Glasses (golf ball- and bullet-impaled versions)

Imagine how much money people are spending on this stuff, in this 'horrible' economy, and imagine how much money he's making off them.

If you're interested, here's a fun bit I found on Quora where someone valiantly tries to figure out if there's a way to figure out how much money the OAFP makes on all of this nonsense.

Wondering on Wednesday (v191)

Ready... set... wonder! 

• I wonder if anyone at all honestly believes that Republicans are not being exactly as partisan in defending the president as the Democrats are in calling for his impeachment? I mean, if we are supposed to believe that the latter is driven by political ideology and dismay about losing the election, why would any sane person think that the former is anything other than blind allegiance to the winner?

• Was anyone else watching or listening to the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on Monday, wondering how cool it would have been if someone - anyone - had stood up and bellowed "OAR-DURRRRRRR" like the recently retired Speaker of the Commons John Bercow? I mean, seriously - the hearing (the couple of hours I listened to before losing patience) - was a cluster of whining and yelling and posturing and gibberish and predictable voice votes and annoying roll calls -- and worse, there was not a bit of charisma exhibited by any of them, least of all the chairman. I was begging for a Bercow, I really was. 

• I wonder, has Christopher Wray been fired yet? I haven't checked Twitter all that much today, but I can't imagine he's going to be the current Director of the FBI for a whole lot longer. Staying with the same presidential tweet, I have to wonder what the "greatest men and women working there" think of their new-found accolades, having been denigrated by the president throughout his time in office. Maybe that's Trump's way of saying I'm sorry?

• A bit of additional diversity was added to the December Democratic debate, as entrepreneur Andrew Yang has met the qualifications: 4% approval in four approved national polls or 6% in two early-state polls and at least 200,000 unique donors and at least 800 donors in at least 20 states. The qualifiers to date, in alphabetical order (to prevent the Bernie Sanders contingent from freaking out if he's not listed first): Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Sanders,  Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, and Yang. I'm wondering tonight how many of the remaining non-qualifying candidates will continue to stay in the race, especially if this is not the first debate they've missed.

• Folks in the UK go to the polls tomorrow; current polling suggests that the Conservatives, led by Boris Johnson, will prevail against Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, but we've learned on our side of the pond how wrong polls can be. I wonder what will happen if Johnson doesn't prevail, almost as much as I wonder what will happen if he does. Will other countries start making their own moves to leave the EU? And what will our response be, other than tariffs? I mean, there will be tariffs, right?  Trump's still president, after all...

• I know about Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, and Small Business Saturday, but I had to wonder what Green Monday was all about. I only learned about it when I got more than a dozen emails from retailers (they're still coming today, I might add). In case you're in the dark, as I was, the 2nd Monday of December is apparently the day that lots of retailers kick off their holiday sales

There's more - there's always more... but what are you wondering about today?

The Update Desk: Amazon's 'Monopoly'

In a Sunday School post last month, I shared Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's idea that tech companies need to be broken up. Warren's conversation with Ed O'Keefe on Face the Nation started with him asking her why she thought that needed to be done.

Because the giant tech companies right now area eating up little, tiny businesses, startups - and competing unfairly. 

In Warren's mind, platform companies should not be competing with platform users, putting their own products ahead of the competition in search returns, and so on.

So what I'm saying is we've got to break these guys apart. You want to run a platform? That's fine, You don't get to run a whole bunch of the businesses as well. You want to run a business? That's fine. You don't get to run the platform. Think of it this way, it's like in baseball. You can be the umpire or you can own one of the teams, but you don't get to be the umpire and own the teams.

So Facebook would have to sell off Instagram, Amazon would have to sell off Whole Foods, and "all those little businesses that they're running, competing businesses. Yup."

Warren says this can happen under our anti-trust rules that are already in place.

But is this a solution in need of a problem?  Let's take a look.

Tidbits and Trivia (v3)

A quick look at some un-fact-checked facts, quotes and trivia:

• Pee privilege. Ah, yes, Northern Arizona University is in the news again. You recall we last heard about the school because of the gender-neutral terms which students in the English program were to use. Now, it's all about that pee. Signage appeared asking people to think about whether they have pee privilege - you know, not having to question whether you should use his or hers, or not having to fear for your safety while doing your duty, so to speak. Several media outlets picked up the story, with what you would likely guess was unrestrained incredulity, but the folks at Campus Reform let us know that, while the signs were put up, they were "NOT authorized" by the school. 

• It seems 27 Trump administration folks have a net worth of $2.3 billion, or about the same as the net worth of  86% of all counties that voted for Trump - combined - according to financial disclosure statements. Perhaps even more frightening, in an analysis done by the Washington Post and referenced in the article linked above, one third of American households combined have essentially no net worth; many have negative net worth.  How does that happen?

• "If you think you're great, something is seriously wrong with you." So says Marina Abramavic, the Yugoslavian performance artist. Hmmm...

• The Kentucky Coal Museum is installing solar panels on its roof. When all's said and done there will be 80 of them, which should save $8,000 a year. 

• And finally, according to a study reported on Qz.com, 95% of all Americans shopped at Walmart in 2016; 84% shopped at Target. I did neither. 

Nontraditional Holiday Decorating

This year, we have nine Christmas trees, ranging from about 18 inches tall (in the kitchen) to 7 feet tall (in the living room). I know that seems like a lot, and like a lot of work, but I'll be honest: most of them get put away decorated, and I just have to unwrap them the following year, straighten things out, and I'm all set.

I keep saying one of these days I'm going to decorate a tree with stuff I get from the Christmas Tree Shops, and this might be the year to do it.  I know of someone goes there every week, so it's gotta be a great place to get holiday decorations, right? And while we already have a lot of them, I'm not sure you can ever really have too many.

I checked out the chain's website, and look at all the cool stuff I found!

• Sheets, pillows, pajamas and curtains
• portable air compressors, electric heater/fans, and a humidifier
• electric fireplaces, fire starters, and hearth brooms
• lampshades, picture frames, and decorative alarm clocks
• shelf liners, dust mops, and vacuum cleaners
• chocolate fountains, popcorn makers, and a wine-cork lazy Susan
• bake ware, glassware, and silverware
• oven mitts, towels, and pot holders
• dog bones, puppy training pads, and poop bags

If I get the right size tree, I'll be able to put it on my new air hockey table (special event on 12/21), and take it all in sitting on my new bar stool (special event on 12/20).  

For the finishing touches, I'll make garland out of extension cords, and use a shower curtain for a tree skirt. And finally, for the tree topper, I'll use one of their cute metal bird houses. 

I better hurry before all of the good stuff is gone...

A Kiss Before Bouckville

Every August, My Sweet Baboo and I head both east and back in time to the Madison-Bouckville Outdoor Antiques show. 

We’ve gone every year that we’ve been together, and it’s now part of our ‘must-do’ list. We do own some antiques, nothing special and sadly, we don’t have any of those ‘oh my goodness’ items that we see on Antiques Roadshow. You know, the vase that someone picked up for two bucks on the last day of an estate sale that’s a rare Tiffany and worth tens of thousands? Yeah, that's never happened to us (or anyone I know). 

We will buy things if we can reasonably convince ourselves that we’re getting a deal, but we’re more lookers, happy to wander in and out of booths in our famous hazy, hot, humid weather, working our way up and down row after row after row in a field looking for just the perfect….well, whatever perfect thing we find. 

We’ve had some comical adventures along the way, including two that are always mentioned as our Bouckville trip draws near. The first is the time I took everything I needed – tote bag for carrying purchases, umbrella for the scattered thunderstorms we usually encounter, allergy medicine. Everything I needed, except my wallet. 

It made for interesting shopping, as you might imagine, because my eyes were likely bigger than my own wallet, but definitely bigger than MSB’s wallet. I think I kept my spending to less than $40 that day, and I can confidently say that I repaid him for my purchases immediately upon arrival home.

Another trip started strong – I found a couple of great Christmas things at one of the first booths we visited. Remember, the show is advertised as 1000 dealers, so the things you see at the first place you stop might likely be found at any number of other places - but the price may not be found later. So, being some what impetuous, and having my wallet with me this time, I decide to try a little negotiation. I got the price I wanted, paid for the things, and dropped them in my tote bag. Off to a great start! It didn't take more than about 10 minutes for me to realize that carrying around a tote bag containing cast iron Santas was going to make for a really, really long day. 

One year, we opted to not go into the main show field, but instead focused our attention on the many dealers that set up shop on both sides of Route 20, and we were not disappointed. I would guess that we must have seen close to 500 dealers just wandering around. Signs were up everywhere, pointing to parking, food, and 200 dealers! 75 dealers! 100 dealers! Three huge tents full of dealers! Another hundred dealers! For some reason - we haven’t figured out why - it seemed like a more friendly, more social atmosphere on the street than in the field. With only one or two exceptions, everyone was smiling, laughing, and having a good time. I was able to continue my concerted effort at enjoying myself and trying to overcome our famous CNY malaise, and had some fun in the process. 

One example? We were taking a break and enjoying a rare breeze while nearby a woman was trying to decide if she should pay $25 for a full length fur coat. The owner of the booth told her she looked terrific; we told her she looked terrific, but she wasn’t convinced. She stood on a chair and checked out how she looked in a car window, but she really wanted to see what it looked like. None of the nearby booths had a mirror. We encouraged her to buy, not because we had any skin in the game, but because the coat looked great and even if she only wore it one time, it would have been worth the money. 

As we walked away, she was still talking to herself about whether to get the coat. And then, lightbulb – I remembered I had my digital camera. So, back I went to the booth, the woman and the coat, took a few pictures of her, and let her see what it looked like. As soon as she saw the pictures, she was convinced, and bought the coat, a huge smile on her face. There were many other smiles too; we laughed with a couple who sold art tiles, dating back to the mid-to-late 1800’s, who were astonished when they overheard someone say the tiles were ‘just like the ones they have at Home Depot’, or the person who thought that a gorgeous tile with a $100 price tag really could be had for one dollar. 

There was a lot of stuff that caused My Sweet Baboo to wonder why on earth anyone had made the item in the first place, beyond wondering why anyone would buy it for a second time now. And of course we smiled at our finds: an expandable silver trivet, to go along with the others in my collection; two small art glass tiles that will complement our living room nicely; a bird print; an old brown bottle from a defunct Syracuse business; a great doorknob to add to the garden; and a couple of old printer’s plates that look really cool, even for folks who can’t read backwards. 

Next year, come August, we’ll get geared up for the Bouckville trip again. And like I always do, as we’re leaving the house, I’ll give My Sweet Baboo a kiss and thank him in advance for the day we’re about to have. One way or another, I know we’ll have a good time, even if we don’t buy a thing. And I know if I do find some cast iron, we’ll pick it up on our way back...