CSotD: Friday Short Takes
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The other day I was listening to NPR coverage of what was then the upcoming Pennsylvania special election, and they interviewed someone who said that, really, things were going pretty well under Trump, because the economy was doing better and he was pleased with his tax cut.
I like Gary Varvel's cartoon, but Congress certainly isn't the only ones ignoring the 20 trillion pound gorilla.
Which I suppose shouldn't come as a surprise, given that Rent-to-Own places remain in business and people are happy get 0% financing, assuming it adds nothing to the price of a new car because they think car companies don't mind losing money.
And of course anyone with an Internet connection is continuously bombarded with ads hoping to get them to cash out the equity in their homes or maybe refinance to lower their monthly payment and piss away the advantage in origination fees.
Maybe this is one time when Congress really does represent the public, because it's plain that Joe Sixpack would rather eat the marshmallow now than have two marshmallows in twenty minutes.
Fortunately, the gummint is going to step in and fix this problem: Dear Leader is appointing a TV host as his chief economic advisor and it's too bad Monty Hall is dead because he'd have been perfect.
We'll have to settle for having Larry Kudlow, who has a consistent record of choosing the door behind which stands a goat.
But we're in an era of Feel Good Politics, in which you cut taxes and put money in people's pay envelopes and then work to take it back later by cutting Social Security, raising the retirement age and slashing Medicare and Medicaid.
Yes, those liberals told us so, but who are you going to believe, them or the dooley elected president and his genial co-host?
And now McMaster is out as head of security. Good thing Trump watches Fox and not Cartoon Network or he'd be trying to appoint Inspector Gadget.
Here: Have a video clip.
Real data? Well, it depends on what you mean by real.
We only know the things we want to know.
Data-driven hiring
As long as we're on the business beat, today's Alex provided a laugh of sorts, keyed in to what I've recently said about how HR screens applicants to make sure nobody interesting or innovative slips through and gets hired on a hunch.
My then-wife was hired as public information director for a liberal arts college in the late 70s based on her journalism degree, her work as a tech editor and as editor of some small publications and her boss's instinct that she'd be good at the job.
Which she was: Years later, I was in a conversation with a j-school professor who had been a reporter in those days and mentioned something my ex did regularly for the local press, to which she responded, "Yes, but she was really special."
When she left the job, the applications to replace her were from people who had specific academic training not just in public relations but in actual collegiate information directing, and her boss observed, "If you applied today, I couldn't hire you. We'd get sued."
But then I'm an old fart and I miss a lot of things, not just the days before academic cookie cutting took the place of teaching people to be interesting.
The younger folk are mourning the demise of Toys R Us, while I always thought the chain was a crappy plastic corporate attack on toy stores owned by people who liked to laugh and who would seek out really cool, interesting stuff that made kids laugh, too.
And yesterday I read on a local website an article by a guy who said that, while an old favorite campus pizza joint near Dartmouth had closed, it was okay, because Dominos was opening a shop there.
In a democracy, people get the pizza they deserve.
I suppose those nasty faux-pizzas will likely be made by interesting people whose resumes don't have the exact right points to get them past the Human Relations goalie anywhere else.
Speaking of Local Business
Local cartooning can be not only puzzling to outsiders but of very limited interest. However, Mike Marland's latest is on a topic that is even puzzling to insiders and of great interest to everyone simply because it is so very bizarre.
New Hampshire appears to have a Department of Governmental Bootlegging and Money Laundering.
If you've driven through, you might have noticed Wal-Mart-sized liquor stores along the Interstate. New Hampshire has state-run liquor stores with low prices that lure people from out of state and we just hope they keep the bottles corked until they get to Massachusetts or Vermont or Maine or Quebec, after which we don't give a damn.
But it now appears that some of those "tourists" have been purchasing Hennessey's cognac in quantities so massive that they have to divide their purchases into parts to keep their tab below $10,000 and avoid federal reporting requirements.
And you would think that, when people drop by the liquor store to buy $24,000 worth of cognac, and when certain state stores are stocking up on ridiculously out-of-proportion quantities of the stuff, it would raise some questions.
And it has, but with NHPR reporters, not with the state officials. In fact, quite the opposite.
I made some remark about it to a clerk at our local outlet and he said they were under orders not to discuss it.
On account of New Hampshire is a really nice state and it would be a shame if something happened to it.
Shameless Plug
Friend of the Blog Brian Fies has popped up on the San Diego Comic Con™ guest list. I was pleased to see that the fact that his cartoon about the fire that destroyed his house and neighborhood is being expanded into a book is no longer a deep, dark secret.
We'll feature it here when it happens.
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