Featured Trump tariffs put the US auto industry in disarray

Author blames our engineering ills on the lawyers - while admitting - letting engineering run amok has its own set of societal travails.
Awful simplistic - as it doesn't explain WHY the <37% of US legislators (congress & house that have practice law at one time or have a JD degree) take the fall. Not saying there's a disconnect. From personal experience - it would take 2 semesters for MBA after a JD - so both groups benefit from a deep understanding of the other.
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Bottom-line is that I don't believe there's a minimal education level required to hold office.....is there (Congress)???????
Just a minimal age requirement (35 years old) and US citizen, for the presidency.

 

It appealed to me as far as first order philosophy: engineers create and distribute new wealth, lawyers defend and concentrate old wealth.

 

I think lots of US citizens have a rather distorted view of foreigners.

How many illegal aliens wanted to come to the USA illegally? None of them.

Does that mean they're all a bunch of drug and human traffickers? No, the great majority of people that want to come to the USA and can't legally are not a bunch of criminals. Some don't come because they would break the law and many others the only two laws they broke were crossing illegally and working illegally.

I'm an American that has been all over Mexico and have seen how people suffer things that are so terrible I can't sleep anymore.

I know that that's not the USA's problem, but I can see why some people would feel that crossing a boarder illegally is their only hope.

 

Not even the child traffickers? Or the drug mules? or terrorists?

 

Correction - one other requirement & as Bruce Springsteen would say, "Born in the USA" for the prez.
Age 30 for congress.
No requirement for US Supreme court. In theory one could be 17 years old and failed their GED
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25 for the house of representatives + 7 years as a US citizen and live in the state they represent.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S2-C2-1/ALDE_00013371/

 

In their case it's usually harder to get caught the fewer crimes that can be attributed to them. If pulled over by an immigration officer, showing a valid green card could be the difference between being let go or getting arrested and having further investigations take place.

But regardless, as I mentioned before, the great majority are not dealing drugs, trafficking humans or planning acts of terrorism. The great majority of illegal aliens are folks that just want a life for their family.

 

Illegal is still illegal.

 

Duh. And I never said I condoned crossing a boarder illegally or working illegally or doing anything else illegally.

But coldhearted is still coldhearted.

 

It would be nice if we could encourage our immigration enforcement to catch those criminals.

Thing is, that's hard work. There's no way these guys can meet their quotas if they're bogged down by "filling out the paperwork" and "doing careful investigative work" and "getting true and accurate warrants signed by the judge."

So they just take the easy way out and scoop up whomever they can find.

 

It would be nice if the DNC could pass that word on to a lot of mayors.......


I've always taken a middle position on this issue - which means that I'm hated by both sides.

I believe that if everyone knew the difference between a legal temporary worker, a permanent resident, and a US citizen then it would lead to more grown-up discussions.
I fully support the current administration's immigration actions - especially in "sanctuary cities" where sometimes actual criminals including felons are given protection against federal authorities - leading to the current "scoop 'em all up and ship 'em all out" policy.
If the mayors of the 50 largest cities started actively cooperating with ICE instead of the other way around then deporting the illegals who are in the system would keep ICE busy for the next three years.

Breaking into the US is not a felony.
It's a misdemeanor - THE FIRST TIME.
If you have been previously removed from the U.S. and attempt to enter again illegally, you could (AND in most cases SHOULD) face felony charges with a prison sentence of up to two years.
I believe that in many cases the punishment for this felony could be waived if the illegal is simply barred permanently and removed.
All of this applies to illegals whose only criminal offence is breaking into our country.

There are a non-trivial number of illegals with felony convictions who are still in the country being protected in sanctuary cities if only because local authorities are not allowed to share information that would lead to an easy removal for the illegal felon.
THAT'S what "makes it hard."

I also believe that there should be a path to permanent residency for illegals even leading up to actual citizenship for people who stay out of the system and perhaps pay a steep fine or show a US Armed Forces DD-214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) under HONORABLE conditions, teaching certificate in an under-served area etc...etc..

The idea that illegals are only useful for non-mechanized crop harvesting, lawn maintenance, or in a nail salon strikes me as a little creepy for a nation still coming to grips with a past history of chattel slavery and a late 19th century eugenics movement, but that's ME being ME again.

 

A former Prius owner whose last USA car was a 1973, 400 ci, Plymouth station wagon and some rebadged Asian cars sold by Detroit,

schadenfreude
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Bob Wilson

 

I'll put Teslas down as "Fast" and maybe even "Good".......but not cheap.
Especially when I compare them with my GMC pickup........

As far as the company and it's owner?
When Starlink's $80 "Residential Lite" plan is available in my area my intentions are to ditch my current internet provider, because I live in Hurricane country and we cannot continue to have "above average hurricane seasons' forever.......
I'm also hoping to see a few Starship launches once the early adopters finish paying their share for the up-front costs.
Perhaps in P-Can.

 

As a youngster raised for some years in what was considered the poor side of town so to speak (Compton CA) - where non-whites are/were a majority - versus our present state - where the largest minority are indigenous native americans (<6%) - it's pretty obvious there's a major FALLACY that only illegal aliens will work as restaurant dishwashers, landscapers, roofer helpers, busboys, laborers, car wash dryer/vacuum etc. It was a weirdly eye opening - experience. People do whatever they have to to put food on the table - including yours truly.
As for schadenfreude - judging another as enjoying another's pain?
Best to read or re-read Mathew 7: 1&2 again.

duno - - turns on how 'used' & optioned. 2-yr-old 4x4 Duramax can still bring in $60k

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Legal judgement is not the same as seeing and remembering hands on experience with truly crappy products. For example, I hate to remove parts in the engine compartment to change the left rear spark plug of that 400 ci engine. Forgiveness is NOT forgetting.

However, I am pleased to understand you’ve bought a Detroit car/pickup, schadenfreude. Like chastity, a well earned reward.

Bob Wilson

 

The farm workers from Mexico have been getting us our produce at better prices since California was still part of Mexico. Let them come and do that hard work. My immigrant grandparents came and worked hard in factories in Chicago, or other businesses. It’s true they went through Ellis Island. Average American kids can’t do crop farm work by hand, and what they can do they expect 200k per year salary for light work, imo.
So let the Mexican workers come and gain citizenship by legal channels at the border like my grandparents did, what’s wrong with that? We need more workers to compete and keep inflation down. Don’t worry if they have browner skin.

 

I can’t afford to operate anything other than my Tesla and BMW EVs. Solar roof is saving $100-150 per month and I drive as many miles as I wish everyday.

My Tesla is over 160,000 miles and the BMW over 75,000 miles. Free miles out to a radius of 100 miles from Huntsville. It is called independent living.

Bob Wilson

 

In the 70s, our pastor more than once mentioned he was picking cotton in the early fifties - right alongside legal migrant Farm workers. It's not just migrant workers that will do hard work for low wages. On the other hand?
Gavin Newsom requires $20 an hour minimum for flipping burgers. What do you think our/ your strawberries or other manual labor intensive crops will cost at those rates -

 

I did a 5-year mile for mile cost analysis for my current '23 GMC Sierra Pro (base plus towing and a very few convenience options) and a base T3 with federal tax kick-backs.
This was prompted by an executive decision from my CFO to 'get a truck!'
I tried to get a small Toyota but once again I was saved by the folks in Aichi, JA.
The decision on my part came down to either a GMC Pro model or a base T3......provided that I could have talked my CFO into getting a compact BEV.
You CAN tow with a T3 a little, and I have a trailer rated for 3000# so 'technically' a T3 'could' meet my needs, even if it is a small car with one fewer seatbelts, horrible ground clearance, and a reduced road trip capability.
I ran the numbers and showed my work.
At the end of 5 years the GMC crushed the T3 in overall cost of ownership taking into account the real-world street value of each after 100,000 miles, taxes, insurance, registration fees, projected gas and electricity prices, etc...etc....
Repair estimates, were not factored since these are subjective and thus it was (and is) presumed that each vehicles would be cost-free for repairs for the first 100k miles and I factored in things like routines for the truck with a 3000 mile OCI for filters, and I presumed one set of replacement tires for each.
The T3 started out being VERY cheap to operate but not cheap to own - and after the first 100,000 miles there is a dizzying drop in street value because of the (false, IMHO) presumption that a $15,000 battery replacement is inbound.
Actually?
Since they're not spreading rock salt on the sidewalks down in HELL, the whole GMC v T3 was really nothing more than a thought experiment, but it is good to know that I got the vehicle that I wanted more AND that the TCO is lower than it would have been with a BEV - even though I would have had a GREAT excuse to stop at Buc-ees for an hour....TWICE during my sojourns to the home sod severla times a year.

Currently, the Tesla is at an additional disadvantage in my prognostications since I presumed at the time that we would continue to have high gas prices - so it would appear that over two years ago I made the right call.
The current blue-hair mafia rage against Musk is a 'push.'
It is making Teslas cheaper to buy in the near term but it's not doing much for the residuals on the back side.
what effects the tax kickbacks being eliminated is also not doing Tesla, but 2-1/2 years ago they were a non-trivial factor.

Statistics is still a 'science'
BUT....
Math is still math.