We didn’t smash the State yesterday.
Herself had just returned from a nine-day trip, so she got caught up on her trail running and weight training while I settled for smashing a few climbs on the Soma Pescadero in my best socialist-red cycling kit.
I feel some remorse over not making our local May Day march, which drew either hundreds or thousands of people, depending upon your news source.
But I’m certain there will be other opportunities to hit the streets for a cause instead of just ’cause. I mean, fascists gonna fascist, amirite? We will not lack for opportunity.
Case(s) in point:
• West Coast ports are bracing for a tariff-related dent in import volume:
The number of containers scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles is anticipated to drop more than 35 percent next week compared with the same period last year, data from the port shows. And a quarter of the ships that had been scheduled for May have canceled because of light volume, said Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director.
• This means that Beelzebozo’s recession has already begun:
This is how the recession begins. In Seattle, cargo shipments are down 60 percent. Los Angeles will be next. The recession will make its way east from Seattle and Los Angeles as trucks and freight trains carry less cargo overland.
• And businesses are already planning to share the pain with their customers as tariffs start nibbling away at their bottom lines:
More companies are starting to warn that they will have to pass on higher costs to American consumers, raising prices for products like strollers, mattresses, power tools and cast-iron cookware as President Trump’s tariffs take hold.
One thing I keep seeing in stories like these is the shock — shock! — among Beelzebozo Believers that they will be among those assuming the position as his “deals” go down.
Consider Michelle Hall, a 48-year-old secretary in Snohomish, Wash. She found shopping online with Temu “addicting and fun” — until she noticed the “import charges” piling up.
She voted for Mr. Trump in November, initially thinking his trade policies could help reduce the deficit, create manufacturing jobs and make the nation less dependent on foreign countries.
Ms. Hall said she never thought her own costs would increase, and she originally hoped that Mr. Trump would quickly bring prices down.
“I wanted to have faith,” she said. “I don’t have that faith anymore.”
See you on the barricades, Michelle. I’ll take a day off the bike if you’ll take a day off from shopping.
Mad Blog Media 
Is that a 46-30 on the front?
Yep. That’s another of the IRD Defiants in 46/30T I have three of them on bikes now, and just love ’em. If you’re not racing you don’t need anything bigger.
Yeah, I’ve been downsizing the chainrings. Only one left at 50-34 is the Campy set, because it would be obscene to refit the new stuff.
Michelle, stupid oughta hurt, especially you. Do us all a favor and quit voting.
Mr Obrien we need to be more tolerant. If a Trump voter wants to come to their senses and help us correct the course of this misguided trumpworld tanker, we need to say yes, please. If 10% of those voters reconsider their votes in future elections, it will definitely help.
I must admit though that I’m amazed that so many people can be so easily misled and choose to reelect a loser again. Wow, Am I really in this dream? It does make it clearer to me to see how dictators in the past so easily took control of their countries. And yes, I believe the current oval office chair heater intends to do the same and our nation’s nightmare is only just beginning. I do not believe the next general election will be pretty.
With respect to rumors of some kind of a b-day tank parade, has anybody else had a recall of the image of the Tiananmen Square tank protester?
Shawn, I have zero doubt that next go around the Michelle’s will vote for just another MAGA celebrity. They are hard-wired to conservative media 24/7. They cannot reason or think things out. Seriously, we should be demonstrating at and boycotting any/all Fox News advertisers and sponsors. IHeart Radio too which is Clear Channel. These media have no problem broadcasting absolute lies and evil speculation and are the root cause of MAGA (Morons Are Governing America).
Gotta agree with ol’ Herb here. Too many of our fellow citizens are single-issue fanatics who have “done the research” by absorbing talk radio and Faux News to feed their own biases and fears. We can talk some of them off the ledge, but how many?
In this week’s newsletter Charles P. Pierce makes a good point while castigating The New York Times for what he called a “godawful” editorial defending the legitimacy of the 100-Day Reich and urging that any resistance to same be made “soberly and strategically, not reflexively or performatively”:
I think I’ve disagreed with Chazbo exactly once in 25 years, and it was when he covered sports for Grantland. His instincts are nearly always spot-on.
Have to agree. A 10% swing of the Trump Faithful would be enough to swing the election. Hey, Michelle, are you doing better now than you were four years ago? How ’bout those tariffs? Sure, the ideologues will be clueless in their own FAUX News bubbles, but maybe not all of them will be when their cost of living goes through the roof and there are fewer jobs because the self-proclaimed Stable Genius fucked up global trade.
Also, if the Donks next time don’t blow it. No primary season, Gramps waiting till it was obvious that he step down, handing Harris the baton at the last minute. Harris may not have been the best choice. She dropped out so early in 2020 it made her head spin and being Veep is the invisible job. And then she ran with Elmer Fudd. God, there were better candidates out there. I’da picked Big Gretch as a running mate. Or Josh Shapiro. And speaking of single issue, I have to listen to David Hogg telling me to leave the party. Multiply that by a few million red state voters and what do you get? Vance in ’28!
Yes, I don’t believe either that Harris’s VP pick helped her election chances. I’m sure Tim is more than capable but she needed gloss and power to battle the reflective grease on the gop side.
Harris seemed to follow Hillary Clinton’s strategy in ’16: pick a nondescript White guy; heck Tim Kaine and Tim Walz even look a lot alike.
I still think the path to victory for the Donks is picking people from purple and flyover states, rather than someone from the People’s Republic of California. A ballbuster like Big Gretch, for example.
Michele believed everything trumpy dumpy and his minions told her. Tariffs are good he says. So, she voted for him. If she has flipped for whatever reason, then welcome, and start thinking for yourself. But, as Patrick says, as soon as she can buy a metric shit ton of cheap Chinese stuff direct from a Chinese company again, I bet she rejoins the cult.
Meanwhile, here’s what we’re up against, thanks in large part to the decline and fall of the news. People “doing their own research” using a toxic stew of Facebook, influencers, Joe Rogan, The Epoch Times, YouTube, Telemundo talk shows, aggregators, and email threads.
Here is a good book to read on that notion of the decline and fall of news and expertise. I have a copy. Definitely worth a read.
Ol’ Tom writes a good piece. I wish he’d stop reminding us with every article that he taught at the U.S. Naval War College. But other than that, no complaints.
// Ms. Hall said she never thought her own costs would increase, and she originally hoped that Mr. Trump would quickly bring prices down.//
I thought he would only raise prices on arugula, mustache wax, and oat milk coffee creamer. I had no idea the plastic shit I was buying came from China!
That bike sure is nice. I’m glad to hear that you and her got out and enjoyed your respective endorphin inducing escapades. May your weekend be pleasant and as enjoyable.