Barack is going to Ohio to Increase Our Manufacturing Capacity!!!

You may not have read about it because he wasn't accompanied with his usual wave of unemployment, disaster, debt and racial discord, but Barack recently visited Ohio.

Here's an article that the good folks at Industry Week recently sent me.

President Obama will be in Cleveland, Ohio, today to talk about his plan to strengthen U.S. manufacturing by investing in new technology

.O, God, God almightty help us all...  Most of Barack's "investments" have been in green energy, America's Community Colleges, Solyndra, anti-global warmingscams, infrastructure, canisters of Leprechaun farts, sustainables, and other failed schemes.  

We've got the smallest percentage of our workforce employed than we have in a long, long time, and we're in big trouble. Hillary and Jeb Bush are warming up offstage.  This is sooo...scary.  

H CRAP!!! 

He's got his shirt sleeves rolled up.  that means he's ready to work.  And we all know what happens when he does that...

Manufacturers are adding jobs at the fastest rate in decades with nearly 900,000 new positions created in the last five years. Factory production is up by a third since the recession and factories across the U.S. are experiencing growth not seen since the 90s.

This fool has never even managed a Taco Bell Night Shift....

The new White House and Commerce Department plan looks to take advantage of the latest surge with a series of initiatives including:

Competitions

The Department of Defense is launching a competition for leading manufacturers, universities, and non-profits....

Hey, how would you describe Barack's donor base?  Let's start with universities and non-profits....

 to form a new manufacturing hub focused on revolutionary fibers and textiles technologies. The $75 million federal investment will be matched by more than $75 million of private sector resources.  These private sector resources" are often called "campaign contributions" in the real world.  

Also, there will be $320 million competition to strengthen small manufacturers. Non-profits in 12 states will compete for $158 million in Federal funds matched by $158 million or more in private investment over five years to provide technology and engineering expertise to small manufacturers through the latest round of competitions to strengthen the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)’s network of centers in these states.

Supply Chain Innovation

A new White House and Commerce Department Report describes a dense network of small manufacturers that make up the backbone of America’s supply chains, contributing more than 40% of all manufacturing employment. However, even as their share of U.S. manufacturing employment grows, small firms continue to face stiff challenges in innovation. As the new report finds:

Small manufacturers are playing an increasingly important role in U.S. supply chains and the manufacturing sector overall. Today, small manufacturers employ 42% - or nearly half of all U.S. manufacturing workers - up ten percentage points from their share in the 1980s. 

Dense networks of these small manufacturers are vital to the process of taking a product from concept to market, and the exchange of manufacturing know-how across suppliers is essential for the diffusion of the new product ideas and innovative processes that give U.S. manufacturing its cutting edge.

However, because of the barriers they face, small manufacturers often lag behind their larger peers in adopting critical new technologies. 

Ok, class, raise your hands if you've heard this before....

"Most of our job growth comes from small businesses."  

Heard it before?  

Of course you have.  It's one of those obvious factoids that government gnomes and their media friends love to repeat.  

It's like saying "Most of the growth in forests comes from trees that aren't grown yet."  But they say it like it's brilliant.  Wisdom.  Waaaaay smart. 

For example, a recent survey found that fewer than 60% of small manufacturers were experimenting in any way with 3-D printing, a potentially transformative technology that is especially beneficial for small companies due to its flexibility. In contrast, over 75% of large firms were using the technology.

The White House Supply Chain Innovation Initiative will focus on public-private partnerships and new federal efforts to strengthen U.S. manufacturing overall by closing this gap.

The event will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

God helps us all.  

Barack has come up with another public-private partnership.  

Any time you hear public-private partnership, cover up your wallet, lock your purse in the trunk, and bury the family silver in your back yard.  

The risks are going to be public, and any profits will be privatized.  

I'm sorry for repeating that cliche, but as long as "public-private partnership"is polling well with idiots,Democrats, I've got to repeat it..

Ok, here's my point....

American manufacturing will regain it's place at #1 in the world when we do the following:

1. Reassure investors, manufacturers, and other risk-takers that our government isn't going to confiscate and redistribute any profits.  

2.  Eliminate the risk of hiring someone.  If I hire someone to unload shipping containers, all I want is to have my containers unloaded.  I don't want to take on a dependent.  I don't want to be sued if he's black or brown, and I decide to stop purchasing his labor.  I don't want Nancy Pelosi to dictate what I have to pay him to unload my containers.

4.  And finally, it doesn't matter if I'm getting raw material from Canada, Mexico, Cuba, South Africa, or Kenya, it should all come into the country at the same tariff rate.  We have tens of thousands of government Munchkins earning great salaries slapping tariffs and quota restrictions on imported stuff.  All of those people should be propped against a wall and shot.  

5.  We gotta end our public school system, then bulldoze every public school, plow salt into the ground so nothing can every grow there again, and try something different.  

6.  Imagine interviewing high school graduates day after day after day, who can't read a tape measure, fill out an application, or answer a simple question.  

Shit, folks, it ain't working any more. It was good while it lasted.  End it.  Let's do something different.    

I, Smartphone

Nobody knows how to make a smartphone. 
Heck, for that matter, nobody knows how to make a pencil. 

Despite all that, smartphones and pencils get made.  No one tries to plan the entire process, and if an individual or group tried to enforce a plan, the process would come to a halt. 

Enjoy!

 

Who Is The Greedy Bastard?

Imagine a guy who sees that he can save his fellow humans a lot of time, material and money by manufacturing a widget unlike any other.  It would be ½ the cost of other widgets, be less harmful to the environment, and would save consumers’ money so that they will have more dollars available for other necessities or desires. 

The guy buys a few modified widget-manufacturing machines and pays a few people to run them.  The new and improved widgets are a hit.  He swaps the widgets for dollars. 

He uses some of the dollars to purchase new machinery, passes some of the dollars on to his hardest-working employees, and puts his best manager in charge of a 2^nd widget factory.  After about 10 years, he spends some of his money on a new house and a couple of new cars. 

People want his widgets.  But he doesn’t want that many things that other people have.  He doesn’t worry much about new clothes, hitting the nightclubs, or taking long vacations to Europe.  He likes the idea of making widgets.  So instead of swapping widgets for clothes, drinks, cruises or yachts, he continues swapping widgets for money.  He really doesn’t want that many things.  But if anyone were to come up with something he really wanted, he would probably swap some of his money for it. 

After about 20 years, as majority owner of a large corporation, this guy is one of the wealthiest people in the area.  He isn’t ostentatious, doesn’t flash his money around, and gives some to charity.  But mostly he just hangs onto his money, just in case he has an idea for a new product to manufacture, or finds a new location for a factory. 

So… if this guy were to go on buying sprees for mansions, yachts, beachfront spreads, whores and politicians, would he then be considered a greedy bastard?  Or is he a greedy bastard only if he hangs onto his money because nobody else has anything he wants to swap for it? 

And finally, why does any politician who crusades to take away the guy’s money (by force) have a saintly reputation, even though these politicians have never produced any “widgets” that people want to trade their own money or stuff for?

Who is the greedy bastard….the producer who hangs onto his money, the producer who spends his money like a drunk cowboy, or the non-producer who covets someone else’s money so he can give it to his supporters? 

What does it take to be considered greedy? 

On the danger to the U.S. from cheap foreign.....robots

Pardon me while I geek out for a moment. 

Here's the BMW F30 3-Series production video.  Truly amazing. 

Because of spending about a quarter million dollars with Peterbilt a few months ago, I got to tour their mega-factory about 45 miles north of Fort Worth in Denton, TX. 

What this video doesn't properly show is how little inventory of parts there likely is on the BMW factory floor.  Nobody wants to pay for a 3-month supply of parts.  You have to pay for the space that the parts require, money that could be invested elsewhere is tied up in the parts, etc etc etc.  Auto and truck makers save themselves (and therefore you) a staggering amount of money by getting the parts just in time.   The Peterbilt factory, for instance, seemed to have no more than an hour's worth of tires at any given moment. 

Another thing the video doesn't reveal: there are probably different models going down that assembly line.  The robots don't care.  The suppliers all have their parts and components arriving in the correct order.  God, I love this stuff!!! 

But there are always Luddites who don't appreciate the glory of something like this, that the time and money saved by these robots can be applied to other purchases and desires.  Saving the last BetaMax factory (to save the jobs there) doesn't make sense.  Wait a couple of years, and saving the last VHS factory (to save the jobs there) doesn't make sense either.

Here's one idjit Youtube commenter, typical of the tribe:

james alphajet 1 month ago

this robotisation is a shame to the face of human future. thousands of people lost their jobs and millions were spent to fit machines into these transformers factories.
At the end the consumer pays the same and his neighbour lost his job!!

James doesn't understand that what was once the toy of the top .0001% is now available to even the lowest-paid American worker.  Yes, in America, even commoners drive these "horseless carriages". 

Here's Don Boudreaux, chiming in on the video:

Oh, to any of you who watch this video and lament the fact that so very much of the work that was once done by humans is now done by robots, I’ve a question for you: if a bizarre meteorological event occurs that causes millions of brand-new automobiles – indistinguishable in quality, comfort, and performance from the 2014 models now rolling off of the assembly lines at BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, etc. – to rain down safely into everyone’s driveways and parking spaces, would people, as a result, be made richer or poorer?

Here's The Whited Sepulchre, kicking it up to the next level:

Oh, to any of you who watch a random video of South Korean laborers manufacturing your pants and shoes and water hoses, work that was once done by Americans, I've a question for you: if a bizarre meterological event occurs that causes millions of brand-new pants and shoes and water hoses (all of excellent quality) to rain down safely into everyone's homes, would people in the USA, as a result, be made richer or poorer? 

Spank. 
It's called the Law Of Comparative Advantage.  Nations (but not many consumers who are given a choice) ignore it regularly. 

The Chinese Washing Machine Story 2.0

I'm totally buried at work. 
No time to post anything new. 
There's a chance I'll be going back to China soon. 
I'm trying to put together an e-book of these stories. 
Hope you like this one.  It's a re-post from 2007.  This is how it really happened !

**********************

I've been posting old emails from my China trips any time I'm too tired to think but too wired to sleep. This one's from a little more than a year ago, when I made a Quality Control trip to a vendor called "Aifei" in Xiamen.

Wendy is Aifei's #1 sales rep., and translator.

Here goes....

Dear family, friends, co-workers, Moderate Baptists, retail booksellers, and people from the Starbucks on Camp Bowie,

I hope everyone is doing well. I still don’t have Internet access at the new apartment, and haven’t had much free time outside of working at the factory and getting moved into the new place. I’m writing from the Coffee Bar near our new apartment.

Our company apartment is bigger, nicer, and more luxurious than anything that 99% of the Chinese can afford, or have ever seen. I never doubt for a moment that I’ve been blessed, and am very fortunate to have been born where I was born.

All that obligatory gratitude aside, the apartment was designed to look like the Jettson’s. Unfortunately, the utilities were provided by The Flintstones. It’s on the 27th floor of a high-rise that’s still being built by small angry people with lots of hammers.

Let’s start in the kitchen: There is a double sink with cold water only. The left-hand side sink is about the size of a piece of photocopier paper. The right-hand side sink is about the size and depth of a shoebox. Fran will tell you that I can dirty enough dishes, forks, ladles, and colanders to fill both of these sinks just by microwaving one pack of popcorn.

To the left of the sink is the space where the microwave ought to be. But that’s the only space where I can chop up whatever small animals that I’m having for dinner. (The food suppliers, restaurants, and I have a mutual “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy....) So the microwave stays on top of the fridge until needed. There is a dual surface gas cooktop that works great.

Below that is a Thing that’s not quite a Dishwasher. They call if a “sterilizer”. When I asked Wendy why I needed the sterilizer after the dishes had already been hand washed, she said “Bad Water”. I know all about the Bad Water from the medical disaster of my first trip. She also suggested that I leave the dishes in the sterilizer at all times. I asked why. She said “Bad Air”. Considering that they’re always burning huge piles of leftover Asbestos, DDT, Napalm, Agent Orange, etc. all over the countryside, I’m taking her advice. Good Karma.

The refrigerator is small, but will keep beer cold. The only ice trays they sell here are about the size of two playing cards placed end to end. The ice is all dice-sized cubelets. Made from Sparklett’s, because of Bad Water. A minor hassle.

I’ve got two great balconies. One of them overlooks other high-rises, but the other one has a great view of the lake and the bay. That’s where I have my new washer/dryer. (All in one machine.) It has two digital dials, and about 20 buttons. The owner’s manual is only in Chinese, which I’m slowly trying to translate with a Character-Finder dictionary (don’t ask how that works, it’s too tiresome to explain. But I feel like I’m on the Medieval Committee that turned all the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew into the King James Bible.)

For reasons that I don’t understand, this Washing Machine can be programmed to wash one load for up to 20 hours. Yes, 20 hours. I think it has a similar capability for drying times, but I’m afraid to find out. I might incinerate something.

Combine all this with a safety feature that won’t let you open the door when there is ANY water or ANY heat in the machine, and it’s time for ADVENTURES IN LAUNDRY ! ! ! My first load washed for about 3 hours, and dried for about half that many. I don’t have accurate times for the 2nd load on Sunday, because there was a lot of starting and stopping involved - I’d call it 9 hours total. Every time I tried to move from washing to drying, it started a new wash cycle for a random length of time. And of course, the door wouldn’t open. Then, when I did persuade it to go from wash to dry, after about 3 hours of drying, the damn door still wouldn’t open because of the excessive heat.

It was ridiculous. My shirts were held hostage. All the crowbars were back at the factory.

Most businesses here have a little Buddhist mini-shrine/altar somewhere on the premises. They burn incense on the altar in front of the Buddha statue about twice a day. If things are going badly, they will even place sacrificial fruit in front of the statue (apples, oranges, plums, etc. etc etc. Some people try to fake it with plastic fruit, but I bet that doesn’t work as well..)

Anyway, I thought it would make for a funny photo to show Wendy if I took a picture of some fruit in front of my washing machine, as a sort of hostage exchange for my shirts. I put some bananas, oranges, and grapes on the balcony in front of the washer, and went to get my camera. When I went back on the balcony to take the picture, the door was open. The Chinese Washing Machine was apparently satisfied with my offering.

You can’t make this stuff up

My shirts had been washed so many times they were almost transparent. And they will now fit my little daughter perfectly.

The washer/dryer works very hard, and it works for long, long hours. It’s very complicated. And you’re not going to get anything out of it until it’s ready to give it to you. So I’ve named it Aifei….

My driver just showed up to take me to the factory.

There’s more to tell, like the hot water heater that doesn’t hook to either of the sinks or to the shower, but maybe is what keeps the toilet water so nice and toasty. The bed has a Chinese-style mattress - a term I wasn’t familiar with until this trip. “Chinese Style Mattress” translates into English as “If you have a Basketball, you can dribble on it.” But this email is already over-long. This coffee bar has 6 CD’s in the music rotation, and one of them is Christmas music. When “Joy to the World” comes over the speakers, the Chinese workers and customers don’t know the difference, but all the Westerners in the place look up from their laptops and smile at each other. It’s great. I’ve met people from all over the world in this place. I love this country.

Go here if you have time to read the Chinese Dog Story. 

John Bryson doesn't need to have seizures to do harm

Authorities are investigating a series of traffic collisions in the San Gabriel Valley involving U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, authorities said Saturday.

Republicans are offering silent prayers to the ghost of Ronald Reagan, asking that he please, please, please give them a way to prove that Bryson was drunk. 
Democrats are getting indignant because someone at a Karl Rove SuperPac tweeted something snarky about "how do you have 3 crashes in 5 minutes without alcohol not being involved?"

Look, the man had some car wrecks on Saturday.  But he's been known to have seizures.  Four years ago, he apparently passed out in a board meeting and had to be hospitalized. 

It looks he was only in two car wrecks this weekend and chances are the total damage was $15,000.00 or less. 

But drunk or not drunk, stable or having seizures, stoned or straight, car wrecks aren't why John Bryson should be making the news.  Check out Bryson's requests for spending increases from the Department Of Commerce website:

•Advanced Manufacturing: Advanced Manufacturing: $156 million to expand NIST research in areas such as smart manufacturing, nanomanufacturing, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing, including $21 million for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia program, which will provide grants to industry consortia to tackle common technological barriers to the innovation and manufacturing of new products.

•Increasing U.S. Exports: $517 million for the International Trade Administration (ITA), including several key initiatives. The Administration requests $30 million for critical investments in trade promotion to help more U.S. businesses reach the 95 percent of consumers who live outside our borders. This proposal also includes $30 million to send Foreign Commercial Service Officers and locally engaged staff to high-growth markets to help support the National Export Initiative to meet the President’s goal of doubling U.S. exports by the end of 2014. The budget also supports a new trade enforcement unit-- the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC), which will significantly enhance the Administration’s capabilities to aggressively challenge unfair trade practices around the world (details below).

•Attracting Investment to the U.S.: The $517M for ITA includes $13 million for SelectUSA to encourage, facilitate, and accelerate foreign direct investment in the U.S. to create jobs and spur growth.

God help us all.  I work for a manufacturing company, and Obama's Commerce Secretary wants more funding so he can help manufacturers.  Oh sweet baby Jesus help us all.  Please keep my family in your prayers.  Those folks have a worse financial record than Ed McMahon.

Here's more:

*Additionally, as part of the Administration’s efforts to revitalize manufacturing, the President’s budget proposes $1 billion in mandatory funding to establish a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). Through collaboration between NIST, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, the NNMI aims to promote the development of manufacturing technologies with broad applications.

*When it comes to trade enforcement, as part of the President’s plan to level the playing field for American workers and businesses, the President’s budget will invest $26 million in ITA ($24M) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative ($2M) to support a new trade enforcement unit-- the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC), which will significantly enhance the Administration’s capabilities to aggressively challenge unfair trade practices around the world, including in China. The ITEC will represent a more aggressive “whole-of-government” approach to addressing unfair trade practices, and will serve as the primary forum within the federal government for executive departments and agencies to coordinate enforcement of international and domestic trade rules.

They pay people to write that drivel.  With your money.  Taken by force.  I know you don't have time to read thast stuff, but they're asking for more money so they can help you get more money to give to them. 
Here's Assistant Commerce Secretary Michael Camunez, writing about a border boondoggle that ate up a couple of his action-filled weeks: 

At each stop, stakeholders repeated the theme that we—government and business—must work together to change the narrative about the border. The goal is not to diminish awareness of the fact that real security challenges exist; rather, we need to increase awareness that there is more to the border story. Both countries are critical to the economy of the other, and one of our goals for this trip was to highlight the fact that new commercial opportunities exist and that the border serves a critical role in facilitating the essential flow of goods and people between Mexico and the U.S.


Our delegation consisted of U.S. and Mexico government officials and members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We conducted stakeholder outreach events related to the border trade facilitation efforts under the U.S.-Mexico 21st Century Border Management initiative, which was established by Presidents Obama and Calderon in May 2010 as a vehicle to develop and promote a more secure and seamless border between our two countries. These events provided us with an opportunity to share information with stakeholders about the ongoing work and accomplishments of the initiative and to receive important, on-the-ground feedback from them, which can be incorporated into the 21st Century Border Management work streams.

Facilitating initiatives for stakeholder feedback within work streams outreach for increased awareness of changing narratives for an overview of the critical role of the infrastructure's ability to provide feedback for an increased level of dialogue for....

Hell, if you can read two consecutive sentences of that theft-funded drivel without throwing up in your mouth just a little bit, you're a better man than me. 

What's more offensive?  That John Bryson's assistant, Michael C. Camunez,  was paid to write that stuff, or that he's probably next in line to spend the Commerce Department's loot if John Bryson keeps running into cars? 

Let's keep this incident in perspective, folks.  Bryson may have done $15,000 damage on Saturday.  That's nothing compared to the damage he's done since 2008. 

Shut down the Department Of Commerce.  Fold the weather forecasting functions into the Air Force.  Knock down their headquarters building.  Hell, turn John Bryson loose, and let him knock down the building. 

God Help Us All ! Obama is now promoting manufacturing jobs !

Barack Obama is now promoting manufacturing jobs.  Hit this link. 

I work for a manufacturing company as their shipping manager.  This is terrifying.  Doesn't he care about my child?  Our investments in our companies?  Our very way of life ????? 

This is the man who won the Nobel Peace Prize, then kept all the current wars going and got us into a few others.  Now he's going to promote manufacturing?  I can already imagine the Manufacturing Shop Bankruptcy Auction notices I'll be getting in the mail. 

We need Barack Obama promoting manufacturing jobs about like we need his Surgeon General and his wife stomping around the country trying to stamp out obesity. 

Barack Obama is the man who has achieved a teen minority unemployment of 48%. 

This is the man who has had to replace 3/4 of his totally failed economic team, but hasn't changed any of their policies !!!  (You can go ahead and cross out Larry Summers on the far left.  Long gone.)  Geithner is supposedly wanting out also, but he knows that Congress wouldn't dream of letting Obama nominate someone else for the job.  Hell, who would he nominate now that Marx is dead and Castro and Hugo Chavez are both ill? 

In an effort to kick-start Detroit, Barack H. Obama destroyed 650,000 cars with his stark raving mad Cash For Clunkers program.  That's the same economic philosophy of the old Soviet factories that made things, melted them down, and then made them some more.  It guaranteed full employment, it destroyed valuable resources, and was stark, raving mad. 

Barack Obama decided to invest your money in Green Energy.  His pet investment, Solyndra, went bankrupt a while back, and they just pulled the plug on LightSquared. 

Did Barack Obama inherit a bad economy?  Yeah, but at this point, most of us are sick and tired of Obama talking about what he inherited.  There are entire families of Rockefellers and Hiltons and Vanderbilts who don't talk about what they inherited as much as Obama has. 

Barack Obama tried to help the economy by ladling out pork to donors at unprecedented levels, $650 billion worth.  Call it the stimulus plan, the porkulus plan, whatever.  It didn't work.  Hell, he could have mailed out $6,500.00 checks to the 100 million households in America and at least gotten a political bounce out of it.  But no, it went to cronies and pet projects that Democrats had wanted to get under the Christmas tree for a long, long time.  I challenge you to name a half-dozen of those projects that an impartial jury would declare successful.  No fair Googling.  If someone spent $650 billion for your benefit, you should be able to remember something to brag about. 

Barack Obama presided over our downgrade from AAA to AA+.  Most presidents would spend the rest of their term hiding out in the Rose Garden, but Obama is out there trying to help manufacturing !!!!!

Do I need to mention "Recovery Summer"?  Way back there in 2010?  Do you feel better now?  Recovered? 

Please, Barack, stay at the house.  I apologize for dragging your wife into this at the top, but hell, she doesn't know what she's talking about.  You don't either.  Admit it.  Please stay home.  You've got two beautiful daughters who need you, just like I need my job.  I like manufacturing. 

We have a lot of competition from overseas, and but we don't need any protectionist legislation or goofy new tax schemes coming from Washington during your administration.  The last thing we need right now is your help. 

There's an old handyman/manufacturing/contracting poster that goes something like this....

Our rates are....

$50.00 per hour


$75.00 per hour if you watch


$100.00 per hour if you help


$150.00 per hour if you did the job, then called us to fix it

Our great-grandchildren will be fixing your "job" for a long time. 

Please, please, please, don't promote manufacturing.  I'm begging. 

Navistar and Cummins: Working with government to force you to purchase new trucks

From The American Machinist website, via Quick Manufacturing News. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are set to mandate cuts in fuel emissions ranging from 10 to 20 percent starting in 2014, for a full range of gas and diesel trucks, both on- and off-highway models. The full impact of the proposal would not be felt until 2018, at which time the vehicle manufacturers would be expected to have raised their average fuel-efficiency rating from 6 to 8 mpg.

The government has issued a decreee.  You WILL invent a semi-tractor that gets an average of 8 miles per gallon. 
These are the people who can't consistently deliver Sports Freakin' Illustrated to East Fort Worth. 
These are the people who can't go in, kick the snot out of some nomads on camels, declare themselves the winners and get the hell out of Afghanistan. 
After hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart's fleet of relief supplies beat them into New Orleans.
What could cause them to throw down an edict like this one? 
Back to The American Machinist....

...In their announcement, EPA and DOT projected that their comprehensive program will “reduce GHG emissions by about 250 million metric tons and save 500 million barrels of oil over the lives of the vehicles produced within the program’s first five years.”

And how much energy will be consumed in the production of these new miracle trucks?  The article doesn't say. 

But overall, it's bullshit.  If the trucking industry can find a tractor whose fuel economy justifies the purchase of a new truck, the trucking industry will buy that truck.  It's that simple. 
What could possibly be behind this insanity? 
Let's continue....

Responding to the announcement, diesel engine and truck manufacturer Navistar International asserted its ongoing fuel-efficiency improvement and GHG reduction initiatives, and affirmed willingness to working with the federal government.

Ahhhh...now we're getting somewhere.  Can you believe that a truck manufacturer, someone in the business of selling new trucks, has actually affirmed its willingness to work with the federal government in forcing truckers to buy their new wonder trucks? 
Go here to see a list of the government's employees that Navstar is "working with" by giving them lots of money. 

Go here to learn about an economic concept called Regulatory Capture. 

“While it’s too soon to evaluate all elements of the proposed regulations, we are committed to engaging with the EPA and DOT on this issue,” stated Daniel C. Ustian, Navistar chairman, president and CEO. “We look forward to working together with government and industry leaders in the months ahead to implement changes that will benefit the customers and communities we serve with cleaner, more fuel efficient commercial vehicles.”

This farce is going to make Cash For Clunkers look like The Louisiana Purchase. 

Another major engine builder, Cummins Inc., expressed support for the regulatory proposal, too.

A shocker, I know.  But yes, Cummins Diesel is supporting a proposal that forces people to buy their newer products. 

“For some time now, Cummins has advocated for consistent and responsible regulations that recognize the needs of business, offer clear direction and provide incentives...

....provide incentives..... That's another phrase for "Giving Cummins Diesel Your Money"....Go here for a summary of the campaign donations they've made in exchange for (ahem) incentives. 

 ....to companies that create innovative technologies as well as jobs in this country,” stated Cummins Engine Business President Rich Freeland. “We look forward to working with the EPA, DOT and other stakeholders in developing the final rule.”

Didn't you just know that they would all have a seat at the table, and that they would all look forward to sitting down around it?  The manufacturers, the regulators, and their whores.  Can you believe that Rich Freeland referred to that unholy crew as "the stakeholders" ???? 

Everybody will be there, working together in a bipartisan fashion to screw the people who actually purchase and operate the damn trucks.  
Brilliant. 

Reducing taxes on imports - Good. Bush tax cuts - Bad.

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed a bill meant to reduce costs for U.S. manufacturers and help them regain their footing in the shaky economy.


The law would reduce and suspend tariffs (i.e. - taxes) on certain materials U.S. companies must import to make their products. It passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support.

The president signed the bill into law in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

The National Association of Manufacturers says the new law will help create jobs, cut costs for businesses and consumers and boost U.S. exports. The industry trade group says studies show the bill would increase production by $4.6 billion and support 90,000 jobs.

Please allow me to repeat part of that last sentence....Cutting taxes on things that we import will "help create jobs, cut costs for businesses and consumers and boost U.S. exports. The industry trade group says studies show the bill would increase production by $4.6 billion and support 90,000 jobs."


Now, let's apply that same logic and reasoning to ALL imports.  Do you think that would help us prosper?  Would tearing down our current insane protectionist tariffs against sugar and wheat help American families? 

Well, the really long answer is....yes. 

So can someone please explain to me, using little bitty words that I can understand, why it is that Numb Nuts will sign a bill lowering taxes on imported raw material (because that will help the economy and create jobs) but he's wanting to let the Bush tax cuts expire?

The Texas Trade Surplus

From a Slate.com essay on why Texas is doing so much better than the rest of the nation:

....(Texas) surpassed California several years ago as the nation's largest exporting state. Manufactured goods like electronics, chemicals, and machinery account for a bigger chunk of Texas' exports than petroleum does. In the first two months of 2010, exports of stuff made in Texas rose 24.3 percent, to $29 billion, from 2009.

That's about 10 percent of the nation's total exports. There are more than 700,000 Texan jobs geared to manufacturing goods for export, according to Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership. "A lot of it is capital goods that the Asian, Latin American, and African [countries] are using to build their economies."

So....should these Asian, Latin American, and African countries worry about their trade deficit with Texas? 
Heck no. 

What matters is how much "stuff" you swap, and who you're swapping with doesn't matter.  It's all about trades per hour.   
Should Fort Worth residents worry about their trade deficits with cities on the other side of Highway 360 ?
Should Texas residents worry about their trade deficits with states on the other side of the Red River?
How about countries on the other side of the Rio Grande? 
Or the Pacific? 

The lines of latitude and longitude of the factory simply...do....not....matter.  The more you restrict trade, the fewer options your manufacturers have for sourcing raw materials and for exporting finished products. 
Penalizing trade serves no purpose but to negate the gains provided to society by technology, labor, ingenuity, determination and progress. 
If Target or J.C. Penney has a sale on items that you want to purchase, would you avoid those stores because the low prices aren't fair to Wal-Mart?