Can Tariffs Replace The Income Tax?

Donald Trump has launched his second term and tariffs are once again figuring significantly in US economic policy.  As these policies take shape, the question remains: Will tariffs be the economic powerhouse Trump has suggested?  Or will they destabilize already fragile global markets?  I've pondered the subject here from time to time.

This arrived in my in-box yesterday and are worth a share. 

*Click on the images for a closer look

 

Friday Music

Written by PF Sloan and Steve Barri this song was launched into recording history by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of Secret Agent from 1964 to 1966.  

The Rivers version of the tune rose to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 making it one of the biggest hits of his career.

Here's PF Sloan himself performing Secret Agent Man.....

February Night Sky

There's a couple of things going on tonight and tomorrow that are stargazer-worthy.

First-off is the New Moon for February. 

A bunch of years ago I published a post about the problem of light pollution and how it can mess-up your viewing of the celestial bodies on a dark night.  Tonight offers a terrific opportunity to venture outside and check-out the night sky.  This is because it will be extra dark tonight.  The darkness is a consequence of the new moon.  

With this new moon, the earth, moon and sun will align with one another in a straight line.  The moon will fall between the earth and the sun appearing in front of the sun and hidden by the glare. 

In this alignment the moon is 'disappears' because the side we see not illuminated.  Word to the wise - never observe anything in the direct path of the sun.  Doing so may damage your eyes and cause permanent blindness.  

Tomorrow (Friday) be sure to cast your gaze to the western horizon just after sunset.  Mercury will continue to rise higher above Saturn and you should be able to spot the crescent moon interposed between the two planets.  Binoculars are helpful.

Image credit: Chris Vaughan/Starry Night

 

Word Of The Day

Wankpanzer

 

A perfect neologism for a perfectly hideous automotive phenomenon

The Taco Revolution

If you are a NASCAR fan you know Taco Bell is in the game. 

Nothing new under the sun.

There is this vintage gem from the 1970s.

Taco Bell was promoted on the racing circuit since fifty years ago....

 

The Big Beautiful Bill

Sure, I know that some of you reading this have been dazzled by Elon Musk and The DOGE.  I hate to break it to you but that's just theater.  Entertainment to distract the masses from serious budget stuff.  

Winter is going to turn to spring and spring will turn to summer.  And American families are going to turn to vacation travel.  And when they visit a national park, or battlefield or monument and nobody's picking-up the trash, cleaning the restrooms or a campground is closed the people will be grumpy.  And they'll look at that twitchy billionaire from South Afrika and say:  WTF.  

 

I'll make it simple for you.

Here you go folks.

The House budget.  

A Big Beautiful Bill.

Almost $3 trillion of Big Beautiful Red Ink in that mamajama.

 

 

 

Highway Patrol

Radio Motor Patrol (RMP) is a term used to describe the patrol cars of the New York Cidy Police Department (NYPD).

A NYPD RMP had a short and thankless existence back in 1971.  A 440 cid Mopar Police Pursuit vehicle made no sense whatsoever for the NYPD as most RMPs patrolled at 10 to 15 MPH.  These cars were stripped-down with no options, no prisoner cage, a six-cylinder, warning lights, roof-mounted siren and an analog Motorola radio.  

They ran 24 hours a day and after four years were completely used-up, sold for scrap  or busted-up for parts.  

Which would explain why this vehicle is not a restoration - it is a replica.  You can read about it here.

At The Movies

Once a year, on principle.

Director's Cut.

English Subtitles.

Steak night with a cocktail..... 

Don't Look Up!

Earth safe from 'city-killer' asteroid 2024 YR4!

Hey, Space Fans!

Happy Monday and we're starting off the week with a big (think huge space rock wize) weight off our minds as astronomers just dramatically reduced the potential threat risk of the newfound asteroid 2024 YR4 down to miniscule odds. The asteroid briefly set a record for the highest threat level ever, at a 1-in-32 chance of hitting Earth in 2032.

"The NASA JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) now lists the 2024 YR4 impact probability as 0.00005 (0.005%) or 1-in-20,000 for its passage by Earth in 2032," Richard Binzel, Professor of Planetary Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and creator of the Torino scale exclusively told Space.com. "That's impact probability zero folks!"

Whew!

Quote Of The Day

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen

I am the walrus, goo-goo g'joob, g'goo goo g'joob

Goo goo g'joob, g'goo goo g'joob, g'goo...

- John Lennon

Impoundment

Our Founding Fathers crafted our government to be small.  Not so small and ineffectual as the one under the Articles of Confederation (which the Constitution replaced) even so, limited.  In the century and a half leading up to just before the Great Depression, federal spending consistently hovered-around 3% of GDP; evidence of a constrained government.  With the passage of time things changed.

In an effort to limit patronage and corruption the civil service system was created in 1883.  With the exception of a wartime economy government continued to remain limited in both size and power.  Nevertheless, with the best of intentions, a small bureaucracy was born.

The arrival of Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933 gave rise to a vast collection of regulatory agencies, government-supported recovery programs and creation of various federal safety nets.  Considering the magnitude of a decade-long depression most of this was welcomed by a beleaguered citizenry. And the administrative state grew.

Fast forward to nowadays.  Several generations had come and gone since WWII and all the while government had grown larger.  Allow me to introduce you to the power of impoundment. 

In the simplest of terms an impoundment is any action – or inaction – by an officer or employee of the federal government that precludes federal funds from being obligated or spent, either temporarily or permanently.  Presidents dating back to Jefferson had periodically wielded the impoundment power.  

Naturally, Congress holds the legislative power of the purse.  It is the prerogative of Congress to hand the president a purse full of money; but not the capacity to compel the president to spend the entirety of the contents of the purse.  Presidents retained executive discretion in that regard. 
In 1974, Congress passed a law with the intent to limit the president's power of impoundment. 

The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 created procedural mechanisms by which the Congress considers and reviews executive branch withholdings of budget authority.  It requires the President to report promptly to the Congress all withholdings of appropriations and to abide by the outcome of the congressional impoundment review process. 

Although the basic framework of the act is sound, it set the table for a clash between the three branches of government - Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The Founding Fathers May have been prescient.

Enter the Unitary Executive Theory; a Constitutional law theory according to which the President of the United States has sole authority over the executive branch. It is an expansive interpretation of presidential power that aims to centralize greater control over the government in the White House.

The Executive Branch of the government exists because of Article II of the Constitution, which vests executive authority with the president.  Yeah, in a very short period of less than a month our new president has cut spending authorized by Congress.  Some are sore about this sudden turnabout.  Consider this; if a president is to have reign over the executive branch, has he the authority to eliminate the positions needed to spend that money?  Or can Congress or unelected judges force him to spend it by essentially commandeering executive power?

Therein lies the rub.

This is not rocket science.  If Congress passed a law last year saying money should be spent this year, then it might come as a surprise that a new president can just cancel that spending.  It is already impacting local government where I live.  The seeming abruptness of this is we haven’t had a president in fifty-plus years willing to fully test the limits of their constitutional authority, including impoundment. 

It's still very early in the game and the president has flooded the zone with enough sound and fury as to make one's head spin.

We'll have to wait a bit to see how this plays-out.  Only time will tell.

You're welcome......

At The Movies

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on a voyage to cross the Antarctic.  In 2022, the wreck of the Endurance was finally discovered.

Combining masterfully-restored archival footage from that voyage juxtaposing it with the modern-day quest for the remains, Endurance brings one of history's amazing stories of survival to life like never before.

Its from the people over at The National Geographic Society; so what's not to like.

If you have streaming service you'll find it on Hulu and Disney....

Friday Music

Recorded in 1962 by Booker T. and the M.G.'s this composition has been described as one of the most soulful R&B instrumentals of the era.

Originally composed by frontman Booker T. Jones when he was 17 the final product was the work of studio production.

Utilizing a twelve-bar blues progression accompanied by a Hammond M3 organ the song was originally released by Stax subsidiary, Volt records.  The song peaked on at Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 September 29, 1962  and rose to Number 1 on the R&B singles chart.

Originally ranked Number 181 by Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time it was reassigned to Number 418 in a 2021 revision and was no longer the sole instrumental.  Further honors include a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award in 1999,  Inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2012 and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2018.

Green Onions.....

On This Day In History

 

Sixty-three years ago, February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet Earth. 

Time flies when you pay attention to a lifetime of advances in space exploration.

He went on to become a United States senator and flew to space again on the Space Shuttle STS-95 mission. 

John Glenn passed away at the age of 95 on December 8, 2016; a true American hero.

The Right Stuff is what made America great...... 

Is There Beer In Heaven?

One of the age-old existential of questions of countless generations of our forebears all the way back to the origins of fermented malt beverages has been:

Is there beer in heaven?

I'm here to offer evidence affirming its existence.  Depending-upon your belief traditions. 

The Vikings held firm to the belief that a goat dispensing endless beer awaited them in heaven.

It's true.  The belief anyway.

According to Norse mythology, the Vikings believed in a celestial goat named Heiðrún, who resided in Valhalla, the grand hall of fallen warriors. Heiðrún fed on the leaves of the sacred tree Læraðr, and from her udders flowed an endless supply of mead (a honey-based alcoholic drink), which sustained the warriors who had died in battle.

So, while it wasn't exactly beer, it was a never-ending supply of mead—pretty close! This endless feast and drink were part of the reward for warriors who fought bravely and earned a place in Valhalla.

The national Museum of Denmark describes current knowledge of Viking's pre-Chrisianity belief system as a patchwork quilt of information.  However, the two most most renowned sources on the old religion are the collection of poems on Norse gods and heroes in the Poetic (or Elder) Edda and the retelling of the Nordic myths in the Prose (or Younger) Edda.  The latter was written by Snorri Sturluson around the year 1220 AD.  Both describe Heiðrún, the goat in heaven.

Of note is the fact that is was Viking influence, during their rule over the Emerald Isle, that Christianity was introduced to the pagan Celts.  Which may explain why many of us refer to Guinness Stout as:  Mothers Milk.  But that is a story for another time.

____________________________________________________________________________

*That's what's so cool about the blog.  Come for the occasional politics and opinion; stay for the arcane....

Noteable Quoteable

You should have never started it.

- President Donald Trump

Don't Look Up

In the unlikely event that you haven't got enough things on your mind to worry about; here is a tidbit that crossed my news feed recently.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered on December 27 of last year and is estimated to be 196 feet wide - about the size of the Statue of Liberty and 27 million miles distant. If it were to strike planet earth there is a high probability that it could result in significant damage; likely similar to the 1908 event which flattened a vast forested area in Tunguska Siberia.

Yesterday NASA announced that this chunk of galactic rock  had an estimated 3.1% chance of impacting earth on December 22, 2032 - a 1 in 42 chance of collision.

It is useful to note that the probability of an impact can change as additional data is collected.  Asteroid 99942 Apophis was initially considered at high risk of colliding with earth; and with continued monitoring these worries were ruled out. 

NASA and other space agencies are actively monitoring 2024 YR4 as the asteroid is currently rated as a 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale ranking this as a close-enough encounter with a 1% or greater chance of impact capable of causing localized destruction.  Who knew?  As events unfold the asteroid's trajectory and probability of impact will be updated.

If the impact probability remains significant there are further options.  NASA could attempt to deflect the object by means of altering its trajectory.  NASA mounted a successful DART mission in 2022 to test the feasibility of this as a defense strategy. 

With a 3.1% probability of an impact this is worth paying attention.  Of course there is a much higher probability that Elon Musk will dismantle and defund NASA, furlough all of the agency's slothful and ungrateful workers, disappear the NASA.gov website, strike the name from all of the empty buildings and for good measure supplant it with his own company.

In which case I recommend you interview a contractor who can construct for you a sturdy bunker.  

You can learn more about the science of tracking a predicting all of these near-earth objects that keep you up at night. 

Worth a Visit

Via a pal of mine...

 

Day Is Done

The sun continues its relentless march north as we slog our way towards spring.

Shot an azimuth of the setting winter sun.....

 

Observations

From a Face Book friend I've known for a very long time there is this:

 

The Real Luxuries In Life

Time

Health

A quiet mind

Slow mornings

Ability to travel

Rest without guilt

A good night's sleep

Calm and routine days 

Meaningful conversations

Home-cooked meals

People you love

People who love you back 

Schneehund

Plowed, blown and shoveled out.

Officially, 8” on Friday, another 5” yesterday and 3" overnight.

I’m calling it snowshoe depth.

My dog is insane about snow……

 

Don't Look Up

On this day in history thirteen years ago a meteor entered the atmosphere above Chelyabinsk Oblast in the southern Ural region of Russia.  It exploded with the force estimated to be more than thirty times that of the nuclear device used on Hiroshima.  

Likely originating from the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter it was estimated to be approximately 60 feet in diameter and 9100 tons.  Its approach to earth was a shallow trajectory with an estimated speed of 43,000 miles per hour.  The blinding light was visible up to 60 miles distant and exploded in an air burst at an altitude of about 18 miles (97,000 feet).  Remarkably, nobody saw it coming as its radiant (direction of approach) was from the sun.  

Even more remarkable, there were no deaths; although, almost 1,500 individuals sought medical treatment for injuries mostly from indirect injuries (broken glass) as a consequence of the shock waves from the blast.  7,200 buildings in six cities across the region were damaged. 

In the aftermath of the air burst a significant number of small meteorites fell in areas west of Chelyabinsk; described as gravel falling from the sky. In 2013 Russian scientists identified a two foot sized chunk buried in the muddy bottom of Lake Chebarkul.  It was recovered, broke the scales used to weigh it and split into three pieces.  

This meteor event is the largest known object to have entered the atmosphere since the Tunguska event in 1908 which destroyed a large forested area in a remote part of Siberia. 

Word Of The Day

I taught eighth-grade language arts (English) in an earlier life so I can totally relate to this.

 Word of the day....

 

 

Patron Saint

In the Roman Catholic tradition of the Christian faith Valentine is the Patron Saint of betrothed couples, happy marriages, love, lovers, bee keepers, fainting, epilepsy, plague, travelers, and young people.  His feast day is today.   

As a consequence of so little being known about the man the Church removed St. Valentine from the General Roman Calendar in 1969.  Nonetheless, he persists as a recognized saint.  

One of many stories about Val is that he was imprisoned for committing the most heinous of crimes - marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians being persecuted by Emperor Claudius of Rome.  Angered to the point of rage Claudius commanded Valentine to renounce his faith or be beaten with clubs and beheaded.  Refusing the emperor - Valentine was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269.  

In case you’re wondering if Valentine was a real person - archaeological excavations have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him.  In 496 Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration honoring his martyrdom.   

Today his relics can be found throughout the world – including his skull at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome.  

 

Happy Valentines Day

 

Friday Music

This bluegrass instrumental was composed in the common breakdown format by Earl Scruggs.  It was recorded and released by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs along with the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1949.  

In 1968,  the 1949 version recorded by Mercury Records along with a new version recorded by Columbia Records were simultaneously listed at No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.  In 1969 Flatt and Scruggs were awarded a Grammy for Best Country Performance, Duo or Group and were subsequently inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  In 2002, Scruggs won an additional Grammy for a 2001 performance featuring Steve Martin on second banjo, Albert Lee, Vince Gill, Randy Scruggs on guitars, Marty Stuart on mandolin, Jerry Douglas on dobro, Leon Russell on organ, Gary Scruggs on harmonica and Paul Shaffer on piano.  Wow!

In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

The number of times it has been covered or used as background music is too many to tally.  

Foggy Mountain Breakdown....

Begging The Obvious

How Many Federal Worker Resignations Would Be a Lot?

Seventy-five thousand have submitted resignations as part of Elon Musk’s “fork in the road” offer. 

But 150,000 voluntarily leave every year anyway.

Feel free to parse the data here. 

EDIT To Add:

A federal judge in Massachusetts allowed the Trump administration's bid to offer "deferred resignations" to federal workers who voluntarily leave government service to continue and lifted a previous court order pausing the program's deadline.

Shortly after the ruling, Office of Personnel Management spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said in a statement that the office was "pleased" with the court's decision and that the deferred resignation program was closed as of 7 p.m. Wednesday. Roughly 75,000 federal workers have accepted the offer to leave their government positions, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The White House had expected as many as 200,000 workers to accept the offer.

 

February Night Sky

Venus is the Roman Goddess of Love and among other things is associated with beauty, desire and fertility.  In ancient Greece she was the Goddess called Aphrodite.  

In astrology, Venus is the planet of lover, beauty and harmony.  If you're looking to get your romantic vibe on it is Venus who communicates with other significant planets in your life.  If Venus is getting along with Mars or Jupiter you might feel more passionate and lucky in love.  If Venus is on the outs with Saturn and Neptune your relationships will be challenged by insecurities and trust issues.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and what I know for sure is that normally bright Venus will attain her highest state of brilliance tomorrow evening.  Over the next several weeks our bright planet will fall closer to the western horizon losing more it its brilliance all along.  By the time March rolls-around Venus will disappear from view to emerge in the morning sky in April.

Happy Valentine's Day.....

Winner Winner....

Chicken Dinner.....

I happen to believe that the bone-in, skin-on, chicken thigh is a thoroughly underrated menu item.   Excellent dollar value too.

Season only with fresh-cracked pepper and sea salt. 

Start skin-side down in a cold skillet. Cook 40-50 minutes on medium or until browned. Flip and cook 15 minutes more or until 160F.

Set aside on a plate to rest and make pan gravy from all of the deliciousness in the skillet. 

Serve with some mashed baby reds and fresh frozen whole kernel sweet corn.

Elegant chow in a simple way.  

Perfect when you’re snowed-in…..

Noteable Quoteable

Some people think of God as an outsized, light skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky. Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.

 Carl Sagan ; Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

Stay Back 100 Feet

Best tailgate message seen in a long time...

 

February Night Sky

Native Americans have long grown familiar with this moon.  Members of the Cherokee nation refer to this month’s full moon as the Bone Moon.  This was a consequence of depleted food stores and the necessity of cracking-open bones to access the marrow for survival food. 

NASA image

Those of the Kalapuya nation referred to this as the Out of Food Moon.   For others it was the Little Famine Moon or the Hunger Moon.  For the Cherokee the association with hunger and starvation also included a brush with death.  And the people use this as an opportunity to communicate with dead ancestors during the Bone Moon.   

Indeed, these ancient native tribes named this moon after the way trees cracked in the cold, or how people had to huddle around a fire for warmth.  My own people – the ancient Celts – remember this as the Moon of Ice as it is associated with the coldest month of the year. 

On a more upbeat note it is the Hopi tribe of the southwest who call this the Moon of Purification and renewal. 

This close association with the renewal that is marked by the arrival of spring is much more appealing to me than bones and death.  We have modern refrigeration, canned vegetables, grocers, central heat, wood stoves, Merlot and streaming internet television.  Starvation is rare and the entertainment possibilities are endless. Nevertheless, turning your eyes to the heavens is a delight all its own.   

 

February's full Moon  - called the Full Snow Moon - reaches peak fullness tomorrow evening February 12 although it will appear full tonight and Thursday evening.  For the best view of this Moon be sure to watch for it to rise in the east and reach its highest point in the sky around midnight.   

Fingers crossed for cold, clear winter sky gazing.

 

Monday Morning Visitor

24F and sunny. 

One of the simple things that brings me joy is grabbing some fresh air while walking the doggo. 

Bonus today makes an appearance at the 30 second mark. 

Thanks for dropping-by Philly……

DOGE Update

In the aftermath of the inauguration of Donald Trump we've witnessed the exiling of DOGE Bro Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk's waffling on his promise of $2 trillion of government spending cuts.   

I have two DOGE updates:  Privacy and Theatrics.

Last week we learned that a federal judge halted access to the US Treasury's payment systems by Elon Musk's team of DOGE apparatchiks. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general accusing the president of failing to faithfully execute the nation's laws when he granted DOGE unfettered access to the federal payments system.

The White House had previously defended the DOGE's access as READ-ONLY, yet in the ruling the judge specifically invoked the Watergate Era Privacy Act of 1974, which states:  no agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person or to another agency.  

Let me begin by making abundantly clear I'm all about rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.  I embrace audits that adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. I believe in accountability. I place a high value on transparency. I hold close Reagan's admonition to Trust, But Verify.  Privacy is at the top of my list; which happens to be why I applaud the court ruling.

I would not voluntarily release my tax returns, charitable contributions, investment account and banking information, social security records, medicare details (including health records) or any other personal identifiers or privileged information to anyone without my prior written consent and assurance this information would be safeguarded.  

Rooting out fraud while simultaneously erecting appropriate firewalls to protect the integrity of a citizen's privileged personalty are not mutually exclusive. In my previous life my employer guarded this same information on behalf of their clients as if it were the Crown Jewels.  A security breach was always on the short list of of existential risks facing any financial services firm.  

To-wit, a couple of my MAGA pals think I'm nuts.  I'm overreacting.  Between you and me, for a couple of guys who howl at every opportunity about their impeccable conservative credentials; privacy ranks close to the bottom of priorities.

Go figure.  

Considering that Mr. Musk hasn't passed senate review or approval, has not received a security clearance, issued written ethics guidelines, or defined for anybody what he and his team intend to do with this data; naturally many of us have concerns.  Will they safeguard your identity?  Share it with whomever they please?  Retain it indefinitely?  Sell it?  Blackmail people with it? 

The question to you, dear readers, is the defense of personal information unreasonable?  

Would YOU voluntarily release the foregoing to Elon Musk without reservation?

Ponder that.

Meanwhile, DOGE has dismantled a Federal agency - USAID.  I've substituted a WIKI web link as the official .Gov website has been disappeared.  Meanwhile the name of the agency has been stricken from the building.  

Image - NBC

To be clear, the loss of USAID has no direct impact on my life so I don't have a dog in this fight.  Although I wonder if this signifies that we've thrown-in the towel on soft-power influence in response to stuff like Communist Red China's Belt and Road initiative, or North Korean and Soviet designs on African natural resources. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I want to highlight the messaging power of what is known in political vernacular as a Play to the Base*  

Both Democrats and Republicans engage in these dramatic flourishes; and in this instance Elon Musk is championed for slaying the Great White Whale of foreign aid corruption.  Apologies for the Herman Melville metaphor but Trump is a master of this sort of theater.  

Consider this:

As crazy as it sounds opinion polling suggests that a plurality of Americans believe anywhere from 25 to 31 percent of the entire federal budget is foreign aid.  Wasteful fraud and abuse.  Every last damn dollar going to ungrateful heathens.  Naturally, that belief is fallacious because it is opinion and not fact.  US foreign aid (economic, nutrition, health and military) has historically hovered around 1% of the entire US budget; with USAID a small part of that total.  I've blogged about this before.

2023 aid managed by USAID totaled about $40 billion. You and I would likely agree that this sounds like a king's ransom to an average American; correct?  Yet in the grand scheme of our federal budget it is pocket change in the government's couch cushions.

If you unpack the numbers in the context of the entirety of the federal budget the savings amounts to 2% of Elon Musk's $2 trillion savings boast. 

Considering the context of erasing an entire agency; and assuming Washington never feeds another hungry Sub-Saharan child, vaccinates any heathens suffering an epidemic or offers any similar disaster aid these savings become basically permanent.  I take no issue that they are savings.  They are permanently exceedingly small.  

Even so, in the eyes of Trump supporters Musk is a Giant Killer.  

The melodrama of sweeping furloughs of slothful and ungrateful government workers, the erasure of an entire agency along with the trope of chiseling the name from the facade of the empty building is as close as you can get to modern-day angry Jesus giving the money changers the heave-ho from the temple.  

The theatrics are priceless.

So, let's agree this scalp in Musk's belt in only the first three weeks of the administration is yeoman's work. Or is it like the Battle of the Greasy Grass?  Spoiler Alert: The plains Indians took many scalps and still lost the war.

Ask yourself this:

Is the DOGE willing to hunt and scalp the prize 800 pound gorilla?

Or the administration to settle on collecting some small scalps for Reality TV* and forfeit the war?

Only time will tell.

Pro Tip Alert!  Be sure to stock-up on popcorn and adult beverages.  Both a Budget Reconciliation and the Debt Ceiling are in the on-deck circle.  I'm told it's gonna be easy peasy as Trump controls both Houses of Congress.

 

The Bitter End

The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on January 16, 1919 and went into effect on January 17, 1920.  This amendment prohibited the production, sale and transportation of alcohol in the United State.  This dry spell lasted from 1920 to 1933.

Naturally, prohibition didn't sit well with Wisconsinites and it was a clever tavern owner from the peninsula who found a legal work-around that kept him in business throughout the prohibition years right up to modern times.

Tom Nelsen operated Nelsen's Hall, a dance hall and saloon on remote Washington Island, thinly populated by people who referred to themselves as islanders.  Isolated from the mainland it was a terrific location for a scofflaw.   

Nelsen recalled seeing bitters for sale at a local drug store in Sturgeon Bay.  Bitters are a 90-Proof beverage.  During the prohibition years a doctor could prescribe the dispensing of alcohol for the treatment of various medical disorders.

It was a German physician, Johann Siegert, who would become a pioneer in the bitters industry.  Dr. Siegert lived with his family in the town of Angostura, Venezuela having moved from Germany in 1820 to serve as the Surgeon General of the Armies of Simón Bolívar. By 1824 he perfected the formula for Amargo Aromatico used in his medical practice as a medical elixir for the troops.  Angostura Bitters were born and eventually branched-out to the mixology surrounding the consumption of adult beverages.

Firm in the knowledge that 90-Proof bitters were used to treat digestive disorders the enterprising Nelsen applied-for, and received, a pharmacist license for purposes of dispensing medicinal alcohol.  He prescribed shots of bitters to his regulars and was able to keep the doors of his watering hole open.  Unfortunately, even very distant Washington Island eventually drew the attention of federal agents who charged him with violating the Volstead Act.

At the County Seat in Sturgeon Bay, the state made what they considered to be a straightforward case that Nelsen was selling alcoholic beverages and operating a speakeasy.  As the story goes Nelsen, testifying in his own defense, claimed that bitters were medicinal and could be purchased at any pharmacy.  Arguing that the taste was so foul the concoction couldn't possibly be anything but medicine he invited the judge to take a sip.  Recoiling from the taste the judge ruled in favor of Nelsen agreeing that no beverage served in a bar could taste so bad.

Consequently, Nelsen continued to legally serve his island customers their bitters and remained in business until prohibition was subsequently repealed making Nelsen's Hall the oldest legally continuously-operated tavern in Wisconsin.  Reputedly, Tom Nelsen consumed a pint of bitters a day (16 shots) until he passed at age 90.

Nowadays, Nelsen's Hall and Bitters Club is the world's largest purveyor of Angostura Bitters.  The pub sells 1.5-oz. shots of bitters - more than 10,000 shots a year.  Enjoy a shot and you are inducted into the club and receive an official membership card. 

Located at W19 N1205 Main Road, Washington Island, WI 54246 - at the very end of the peninsula.

Story, historic photos and more about this here. 

 

 

Nelsen's Hall Bitter Pub Review Washington Island, WI  6-15-24