The Economy

My little snapshot: Our church has a food bank once a week we run out of our basement, breads and grains and vegetables and fruits. Well run, warm people, high quality, etc. All welcome, mostly families.

The number of folks coming has doubled in the last six months. We’ve had this location for 10 years.

 

My mother-in-law runs a church foodbank and has said the same thing. Not surprising given the inflation we’ve experienced and savings from the pandemic relief checks running out. I don’t think the inflation rate slowing and people struggling

The one my wife and I help in town has not seen a similar jump, but we live in a pretty impoverished town where it has always been high usage.

 

Comcast announces plan to spin off cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBC and USA

 

After having been a daily viewer foe years, I haven’t watched a minute of MSNBC since the election. I will laugh my ass off when John Malone becomes Rachel Maddow’s boss.

 

Cable company no longer believes in cable; shares rise half a percent.

 

Stunned that Comcast has been holding onto those properties this long. Big media conglomerates are extremely slow to recognize critical changes in consumption -- hello, print -- and cable has been on life support as soon as Internet streaming speeds became fast enough to let people watch stuff on devices not attached to a wall socket.

That's why I find the whole regional sports networks failure amusing, particularly when it comes to biting Sinclair in the ass. If ESPN suddenly realized holding those was a bad idea years ago, how on earth did Fox and Sinclair think it wouldn't bleed capital? CNN, TBS and TNT are basically in the same situation, being passed from owner to owner like a thrift store markdown.

 

Just marinate, for a second, in how this must be received by working class people.

Automakers Want Trump to Keep Federal E.V. Regulations in Place

In fact, most automakers don’t love the more stringent rules Mr. Biden put in place. But they have already invested billions in a transition to electric vehicles, and fear that if Mr. Trump made an abrupt change as he has promised, they could be undercut by automakers who sell cheaper, gas-powered cars. They argue it would harm an industry that is a backbone of American manufacturing and employs 1.1 million people.

Lobbyists and officials from several car companies say the automakers want the Biden regulations to remain largely intact, with some changes such as more time for compliance and lower penalties for companies that don’t meet the requirements.

 

With a shrug, @Alma.

Look, I’m as working class as they come, and I won’t live long enough to buy an electric auto. But to think that’s an issue is the height of myopic privilege.

 

I'm certain - after careful consideration - they figure out that true "Energy Independence!" is "Disconnect ourselves from the Oil Economy" and not, "make us more and more dependent on the good graces of OPEC and Exxon!"

 

Honda ripped out the line I worked on five years ago and replaced it with a battery line that cost half a billion dollars.

It’s why the “discussion” of rolling back EVs is like asking if we should bring back Betamax.

 

And a cassette playing Walkman.