Clueless

I know that politicians are completely ignorant about everything not political or legal — and even then, they’re not especially bright — but Elizabethan ignorance on everything can only be truly appreciated by acknowledging her academic credentials.  [/snark]

Even by her own heritage of ignorance, however, Elizabeth Warren’s latest broadside against Big Grocery must rank among her greatest cock-ups.

“What happens when only a handful of giant grocery store chains like Kroger dominate an industry? They can force high food prices onto Americans while raking in record profits.” Warren claimed that “a handful of giant chains” had replaced the wide selection of smaller stores that used to dot the American landscape, and she called for the use of the government’s antitrust power to “break up these giant corporations.”

Ah yes… let’s blame an industry for price gouging — an industry that traditionally runs on 0.75% net profit margins.

Remember, by the way, that while I know a few things about some things, and almost nothing about a whole lot more, when it comes to the supermarket business, I know everything about it.  That’s not a brag, nor even an exaggeration;  it’s what comes from close to a third of a century of experience in and around the industry.

So hear me now when I saw that Reason Magazine’s Joe Lancaster has it exactly right:

In actuality, for much of the last year, grocery stores have seen enormous boosts in revenue, but not increased profitability, for the simple reason that everything has been costing more:  not just products, but transportation, employee compensation, and all the extra logistical steps needed to adapt to shopping during a pandemic.  Couple that with persistent inflation—which Warren also recently blamed on “price gouging”—and it is no wonder that things seem a bit out of balance.

She is clueless, a fraud and incompetent.  All she has is Marxist dialectic by which to formulate her idiotic positions on every topic under the sun — dialectic which when translated into policy has boasted a record of 100% failure — and the sooner the citizens of Massachusetts vote this moron out of office, the better the country will become.

Quote Of The Day

Truthfully, it’s the newspaper article of the day:

Djokovic is the whipping boy for angry Australians who realise their two-year obsession with zero-Covid has done their country more harm than good but still can’t bring themselves to admit it.

In fact, it’s the Australian government who are the angry ones, because they’re the ones who panicked.

The most devastating thing for public health in Australia has been two years of some of the most draconian and ultimately failed lockdowns in the world, including the near total closure of the international borders, illegally banning citizens trapped overseas for much of that time.
Such a policy meant, until the inevitable Omicron outbreak, there was virtually no natural immunity, so Covid is now predictably ripping through society, as it was always going to.

Small wonder that the Aussie population is getting pissed off.  And there are elections looming…

Quote Of The Day

From Heather Mac Donald:

So far, however, the most concrete fallout from the January 6 tantrum is not a “dagger at the throat of democracy,” as President Joe Biden put it in a speech from the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. There was no chance that that clownish crew of disorganized, deluded Trump acolytes would reverse the election outcome or permanently halt the vote certification. The real consequence of January 6 is rather the excuse that the riot gives the Left to go after conservative causes and conservative speech, all in the name of fighting an imaginary white-supremacist threat. And to ensure that the pretext remains vital, leaders from Biden on down are peddling distortions and unctuous, newly found patriotism.

Read the whole thing, for one of Heather’s normal, clear-eyed analyses.

Coming Attractions

What do you do when you’re so far in debt that your annual interest payment amount is so high that it’s getting close to your annual income?

Why, all you need to do (according to the U.S. government) is borrow (and spend) more and go deeper into debt.

We all know what happens in the end:

After decades of irresponsible, profligate federal spending by Congress and presidents, and the Federal Reserve printing money like we may run out of ink any day, our economy now has an entrenched addiction to easy money and Congress has the same addiction to spending whatever it wants, regardless of revenues. There is never even a serious discussion about living within its means.

Read the whole thing, although you probably don’t need to.

Hollywood Useless

I remember once watching a movie where the bad guy screwed a silencer on to the muzzle of his revolver (!) and how people looked at me like I was the crazy one, when I burst out laughing during what was supposed to be a suspenseful scene.

All my Loyal Readers will know why I was laughing, of course, because we are all familiar with the term and concept of “cylinder-gap flash”.

I was reminded of the episode when I saw this GIF over at Kenny’s place:

Note the initial size of the gas explosion at the cylinder gap…

Never Left It

According to some idiot (no link because TIME magazine, fukkem):

It’s Time to Go Back to the Joy of Social Drinking

As pandemic lockdowns ease and we return to ordinary life rhythms, the revival of social drinking should be embraced with euphoric gusto. The shared experience of music, happy chatter, effortlessly synchronized conversation, rising endorphin levels, and reduced inhibitions catalyzed by a few glasses of ethanol has been impossible to replace with Zoom chats, and it is something we’ve been desperately missing. Let us look forward to once again celebrating the ancient, distinctly human joy of sharing a pint or two among friends.

Yeah, I suppose he means something like this:

…this:

…this:

…or even this:

Hate to say it, buddy, but that’s the way I always drink and no, I didn’t stop during the Covidiocy.