Category: politics

09:35 – It was 43F (6C) and drizzling when I took Colin out this morning. The next few days are to be more of the same.

Barbara and I got quite a bit of kit stuff done yesterday, with more today and over the weekend. We’re in pretty good shape right now on finished goods inventory for this time of year. As we build subassemblies and kits, we’re doing an eyeball inventory, noting down stuff we’re short of. I need to get some of that stuff on order.

Trump’s coronation is today. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised that he’s still alive. Enemies of the powers that be have a habit of dying unexpectedly. It’ll be interesting to see what Trump actually does during his first week as king. He promised a lot, almost none of which he’ll be able to deliver even if he has the complete cooperation of Congress and Supreme Court, which he won’t.

His three major promises–to eliminate ObamaCare, to expel illegal aliens, and to bring back the jobs that have been lost–are all impossible to fulfill. The first because the public, including his supporters, will not accept what it will take to eliminate ACA, most particularly allowing health insurance companies to exclude pre-existing conditions; you can’t buy fire insurance if your house is already on fire. The second because the public simply will not accept what it would take to secure our borders and expel those who are already here illegally. And the third, as I’ve said repeatedly for years, because we are now in the early stages of a jobless economy. The vast majority of ordinary people have no skills that are worth paying much for, and with increasing automation that’s not going to change.

Trump is stuck between Scylla and Charybdis on all of these issues and more. Even with the best of intentions, which I don’t concede he has, and with the complete support of the rest of the government, which he doesn’t have, there’s not much he can do. People are going to be dissatisfied with Trump’s results, and not just the progs. Trump’s base will be just as upset with what he does and doesn’t do. Trump has put himself in a position where no one will accept excuses for his failures, which will be legion.

He talks a good game, but ultimately money talks and bullshit walks. I wish him the best, but I’ll be very surprised if he accomplishes any of his stated goals. So I’ll pick up my guitar and play.

As the theme music for the TV series Justified says, “Long Hard Times To Come”. Keep prepping.

09:19 – Happy MLK day to any of my readers who celebrate it. It’s a normal workday for us.

The weather continues spring-like. It was 43F (6C) when I got up this morning, gray and damp with heavy fog, but not raining. We’re to have more of the same for the next few days.

We got enough made up yesterday of everything we need to build another smallish batch of chemistry kits, enough to fill four or five outstanding orders and have another several remaining. We’ll build forensic kits next, and then back to build more chemistry kits. At this time of year, I don’t want to get too much inventory built up, because it’ll just sit on the shelves. January sales are usually pretty decent. A lot of homeschoolers are ordering for the spring semester, as are a lot of schools and universities. Come February, sales will drop off severely. It’s our worst month. Some years, we sell barely a dozen kits the whole month.

And I see from the front-page headline in the morning paper that ObamaCare is about to be replaced by TrumpCare, AKA “Insurance for All”. I was kind of hoping it would instead be “Insurance for anyone who wants it and can pay for it”.

If Trump gets what he wants, the biggest losers are likely to be the pharmaceutical companies, for whom the gravy train may be coming to an end. For decades, Americans have been paying much, much more for pharmaceuticals than citizens of any other country, often ten times as much or more. That’s because other countries, including the EU and Canada, negotiate fiercely with pharma companies, particularly American ones. The gloves are off. Even many of our allies negotiate with American drug companies under the threat of ignoring their patents and producing their drugs locally.

Trump says that Medicare and Medicaid (and, presumably, TrumpCare) will no longer pay what the drug companies ask. Instead they’ll take advantage of their volume-purchasing power to negotiate lower prices for drugs. American consumers will no longer be the goose that lays the golden eggs. If you own any stock in pharma companies, now may be a good time to sell it.

Pharma companies have been abusing these sweetheart deals for decades. If and when they go away, Big Pharma will be hurting badly. All or nearly all of their profits come out of American pockets, most of that from American taxpayers. If Trump also cracks down on patent abuses, which have been rampant, he essentially kills drug development by US pharma companies. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing.

Over the last 30 years or so, most of the “new” drugs that have been developed have been, at best, minor improvements on existing drugs. Things like reduced dosage frequencies or minor changes to formulations that allow the pharmas to obtain new patents on what amount to existing drugs. As far as actual new and useful drugs, there haven’t been many, nor are there likely to be many if things continue as they are. Pharma companies have gone from being developers of new and useful drugs to managing their existing portfolios to maximize revenue. Like most people, I have little sympathy for them. The hugely increased price of things like epinephrine injectors and synthetic insulin pretty much sums up the state of things. Nothing new, other than ridiculously increased prices.

09:19 – Things are warming up. It was 37.4F (3C) when I took Colin out this morning. The driveway was about 25% covered in ice with standing water on it. Most of that should be gone by tomorrow.

Barbara just left to head down to Winston. She has an eye doctor appointment this morning, lunch with a friend, errands this afternoon, and then she’s spending the night at her sister’s house. Errands again tomorrow morning and then she’ll head back up to Sparta, stopping at Costco on the way out of town. Costco has a $3 off sale on 2-packs of 48-ounce peanut butter, so I added two 2-packs to her list. Twelve pounds of peanut butter to go into LTS food storage. The open jar in the kitchen has a best-by date of May 2015, and neither of us can tell any difference between it and fresh. If we just stuck the four new jars on the shelf and forgot about them, they’d still be perfectly fine for at least another five years, and probably longer.

When I checked the thermometer in the garage this morning, it read 44.3F (7C), so I think we’re past any danger of stuff freezing out there, at least until the next extremely cold spell. It’s still a bit chilly for us to work out there, but we did pick up a small 1,500W (5,100 BTU/hr) radiant space heater that we can use for localized heating if we do want to work out there.

We’ve had a flurry of science kit orders over the last couple of days. With about 33% of the month gone, we’re at about 53% of January 2015 revenue, so we’re likely to be on track or better for the month.

I see that Obama, that asshole, broke down in tears while giving his final speech as president. Only fitting, considering that his actions as president have had most of us Normals in tears for the last eight years. I hope that over the next couple weeks Obama suffers an incredibly painful illness, communicates it to all of his family and staff and the Congress, and that they all die in agony just as Trump is inaugurated. I guess that’s too much to hope for, but hope springs eternal. The only Good progressive is a Dead progressive. Of course, what no one ever admits is that Trump, too, is a progressive.