Just when you thought it was safe to go out… Brett, after more tequila, decided to take me up on a dare and consequently got eaten by an alligator (this will be tomorrow’s Florida Man story). Moral: Ignore the Jew, especially when there’s a reptile involved. But do pay attention to these first rate news stories that (((we))) generously throw out there for discussion.

 

I’m beginning to lose all respect for the business school program at Wharton. How do they turn out someone with this sort of remarkably muddled thinking? Or with a total ignorance of the history of Smoot Hawley? Or about how globalization has led to local manufacture of so-called foreign brands?

Trump has said imposing tariffs on foreign cars could push Americans to buy more U.S. automobiles, helping U.S. workers. But critics think tariffs would drive up the cost of all cars and pass those inflated prices on to consumers.

Commerce Department officials are now considering a variety of options to address Trump’s insistence that cheap foreign cars are flooding the U.S. market, and some of those measures would stop far short of imposing tariffs, two people briefed on the discussions said. But several of Trump’s advisers think he is expected to follow the approach he took with steel and aluminum imports and choose the most severe restrictions and his favored tool — tariffs across the board, according to the three people briefed on White House discussions.

SFX: palm to forehead

 

But at least the ladies like him. The poor and stupid ladies, that is.

Just 44 percent of white women voters with college degrees approve of Trump, while an even smaller 36 percent of white women with graduate degrees approve. By contrast, among working-class white women, views are split evenly.

Oh, and old ladies.

Among the youngest cohort of white women, Trump’s approval rating is a pathetic 32 percent, whereas among white female senior citizens it’s a very strong 51 percent.

 

The inevitable happens in Canada.

The Toronto City Council has voted overwhelmingly to urge Canada’s federal and provincial government to ban the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition in the largest city in the country. The council’s 41-4 vote came two days after a man shot two people to death and wounded 13 others in the city.

Here’s an idea: ban shooting at people. That should work.

 

There’s so much conflated in this article, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Some 13.5 percent of the U.S. population — 44 million — is foreign born, the highest level ever, and many are not proficient in English, choosing to speak Spanish at home instead. A report from the Migration Policy Institute found that 22 percent of the U.S. population does not speak English at home. The share was highest in Nevada at 31 percent and Florida at 29 percent.

Funny, when I was a little kid, we lived with my grandmother who was an immigrant- and her English was definitely not proficient, nor did it ever become so. Yet for some reason, we still didn’t speak Spanish at home. And like it has ever been, my parents and their siblings were perfectly bilingual, and my generation (except me, because we lived with Bubbie) could only speak English. Huh.

 

The spirit of sending someone a dildo from “Hugh G. Rexion” is alive and well.

Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a report of a suspicious package at 2:30 p.m. PT, LAPD Public Information Officer Mike Lopez told USA TODAY. The officers then called in a Los Angeles Fire Department hazardous materials team. “The package was addressed to ‘Anne Thrax,'” Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said in a statement.

I’m sure you imaginative types will come up with better aliases.

 

Rand Paul dishes shit and gets shit. The article was ho-hum, but the comments are a rich delight.

Bob Rousseau: Too bad Rand Paul’s neighbor didn’t beat him harder. Rand Paul is a useless waste of good air. John Brennan, Clapper, Hayden, and Comey are the Best of the best…true Americans who served their country 40x more than Trump. These American Law Enforcement, and Intelligence professionals deserve our gratiitude for speaking out to protect the United States from Trump and his Anti American fascist authoritarian policies and behavior.

You tell ’em, Bob!

 

Speaking of delights, this is the Gray Lady today, albeit not menopausal.

And lately, women — and transgender and nonbinary people who menstruate — are talking about it in public more than ever before. There are new products and services on the market, from menstrual cups to period underwear to medicinal cannabis and “period coaches.”

Period coaches?
“C’mon, BLEED! BLEED!”

 

I don’t usually do the Old Guy Music on weekday posts, but hey, what the fuck. Lee Barber is the greatest songwriter you never heard of, and this delightfully horrifying tune comes off his latest album. By the way, he also did the featured painting on this image, and his visual work is just as disturbing and wonderful as his music.