No, not that kind of dump…Oh, first this:
PLEASE click on the tiny “Read on blog” link or the post title itself in the email notifying you of a new post. Thanks.
Even though readers don’t seem to be clicking on the tiny to the point of being illegible “Read on blog” link (or the post title) I will continue to publish my request, at least for awhile. WordPress’ new way of displaying email notifications of the publication of a post continues to hurt readership numbers.
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I sent the link to North Dakota, Economic Powerhouse to BL, one of my Econ professors in college and later (much later) someone who hired me and paid me a gracious sum to help with an economic impact study. I wrote that I didn’t know if dividing per capita GDP by price level was valid, but that I did it, anyway. He replied that he had done the same thing in a study he had completed as a consultant.
Something BL wrote, unprompted by me, was right on the mark: “It’s sad to see the extent to which knowledge, expertise, rigorous analysis, and thoughtful commentary have fallen into such disrepute in our country.” So-called “social media” is a plague and, for not the first time, woke is a cult detached from reality.
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Let the link dump begin:
FUCK Al Jazeera! This piece reports on the discovery of documents that prove SIX Al Jazeera “journalists” are Hamas or PIJ operatives.
Sorry, but the Black Lives Matter “movement” was/is primarily a scam. From one of its “co-founders,” a piece of shit whose name will never appear in this blog, who siphoned off money to amass a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio all in white neighborhoods, to these examples as reported in a recent piece from The Free Press titled, “How BLM Blew $90 Million,” the “movement” appears to be little more than a bunch of grifters taking advantage of others.
Today, the BLM brand is widely recognized as a scam that lost $6.2 million in the last fiscal year.
Earlier this month, Tyree Conyers-Page—a.k.a. Sir Maejor Page—the 35-year-old former leader of the BLM chapter for Greater Atlanta, was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for money laundering and wire fraud. Instead of spending the $450,000 raised from 18,000 donors to “fight for George Floyd,” Page splurged on tailored suits, nightclub bar tabs, an evening with a prostitute and, as he texted to a friend, “a big-ass” mansion in Ohio.
Page is not an outlier. Take Melina Abdullah, co-director of BLM Grassroots, who media reports accuse of using the organization’s money to pay for vacations to Jamaica and her own personal expenses. Though Abdullah has not been charged with a crime, California’s attorney general has threatened to revoke her organization’s tax-exempt status if she fails to turn over its delinquent tax filings and late fees by Sunday.
“Abdullah has denied the allegations, but at least $8.7 million in donations is unaccounted for,” writes investigative reporter Sean Patrick Cooper in his first piece for The Free Press. “The answer to where the money went may come soon.”
This piece is about the Israel Defense Forces identifying a Hezbollah bunker UNDER a Beirut hospital that contains $500 million in gold and cash. Those assets have not been amassed to help the people of Lebanon. Given Israel’s intelligence successes that allowed it to decapitate Hezbollah and Hamas in short order, I think this report is more than credible.
The following is not so much a link to an article, but a remark by Dr. Jan Garavaglia, a long-time Medical Examiner who is known for her long running TV series, Dr. G: Medical Examiner. “So much of what we see in the morgue is self-destructive behavior.” I will opine for not the first time that most, maybe all, of the disparity in life expectancy in the US compared to other developed countries stems from poor lifestyle choices and not from delivery of health care.
OK, to some automotive stories…Tesla ≠ Police Car, this article from Hemmings is titled, “California Police State Teslas Don’t Make Great Police Cars.” From the piece:
“In fact, according to a report by San Francisco news outlet SFGate, several police chiefs who oversee various Californian jurisdictions agree that Tesla EVs in general (not just the Cybertruck) pose multiple challenges for frontline operations.
While the Irvine Police Department plans to utilize its Robocop-esque Cybertruck for its Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) initiative, other jurisdictions have said that Tesla EVs lack appropriate interior space, cost too much to modify for police use, and can cause issues with their advanced autopilot technologies. A lack of charging infrastructure also continues to be a concern.”
Ah yes, that’s the People’s Republic Of Crazifornia for you. Who knows how many more electoral votes the state will lose by the 2032 election? Again, when they can people and businesses vote with their feet.
This piece from Classic Cars is one of many reporting that Chevrolet sent a 2025 Corvette ZR1, you know the one with 1,064 horsepower, to a test track in Germany. At the High-Speed Oval Track at ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg in Germany the car set a two-way average speed of 233 MPH on the northbound and southbound straightaways. From Classic Cars and Chevrolet:
I have reached a point where I no longer have to have the most horsepower in the neighborhood. Been there, done that…Still, the fact that a car with a four-figure HP output–stock–is about to be sold again in the US warms my heart, at least a little.
This Hagerty article is about five vehicles that are gaining in value in what Hagerty describes as a slow market. One of those is a car that is very much a product of its time both in styling and in GM using its customers as beta testers, the Pontiac Fiero. From Hagerty:
Not the greatest angle for a photo, in my opinion. I have always thought the car’s angular lines still look good after 40 years. People forget the car was successful upon its 1984 model year launch selling almost 137,000 units. As problems surfaced and people realized the car was very under-powered (a deliberate choice so as not to compete with the Corvette), sales plummeted. By 1986, only 84,000 were produced and that year saw the introduction of a version where a V-6 was standard equipment.
Although my interest in cars was at its nadir in this period, I was very much aware of the Fiero. I have always been attracted to the look of a car, first and foremost. Yes, I want it to be a good performer, but if it is unappealing to me aesthetically I don’t care if the car can fly at Mach 2.
Although my own life is often out of balance, I strive for it. When it comes to cars, I desire cars that look good AND perform well. I will sacrifice some performance for looks, but usually not the other way around. Yes, here is my F-Type.
Rolling sculpture, in my opinion, and it accelerates, handles and brakes well. It is the embodiment of what I want in a car at this stage of my life.
As always, I welcome thoughtful comments about the topics published in this blog or about almost anything else. Remember, though, that I have to approve comments before they appear so keep your submissions civil.
#TimeForADump