There Are Still A Few Kinks In The System

So there’s this article this morning at CNBC where our rail lines and Mayor Pete are talking about how hard they are trying to unclog our supply chain:

“Ongoing rail congestion at West Coast ports has created an opportunity for East Coast ports, container shipping companies and rail operators to enter into new trade relationships.

In January, ocean carrier Hapag Lloyd, Norfolk Southern, the Port of Virginia, and Union Pacific, collaborated in creating a triangle of trade where West Coast bound freight would be brought into the Port of Virginia and loaded onto Norfolk Southern rail cars. The containers would then be loaded onto a UP railcar in Chicago bound for the West Coast.

“At the end of the first quarter, we began to see the service develop,” said D’Andrae Larry, group vice president of international intermodal at Norfolk Southern. “Since then we’ve seen that service continually grow. So the first and foremost thing was this service was accepted by the marketplace.”

Larry said the idea originated with Hapag Lloyd, which was looking to move West Coast trade more efficiently.”

More efficiently.

I have one container that left Norfolk on June 15th using this new routing.

It arrived in Oakland, California on September 5th.

Yeah, 83 or so days.

Everything is going swimmingly.

As Kliban Once Cartooned: MOUSE

And:

MOUSIE DUNG

You’ll notice the mouse doesn’t actually USE the legislative NAME of “Florida legislation” that became law today. Also, please note they’re not interested in standing up for the “rights and safety” of the 5, 6 and 7 year old CHILDREN, nor their families, who also comprise communities across Florida.

Yes, Yes, A Thousand Times Yes

Can I have a Salted Karma Macchiato please?

This is my shocked face

Americans’ long-running joke about a Starbucks on every corner may be nearing its end.

The coffee behemoth is retrenching in its home market as it contends with sales growth that Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson acknowledges isn’t fast enough. The cafe chain said Tuesday it expects comparable sales to rise just 1 percent globally for the current quarter—the worst performance in about nine years. That’s well below the 2.9 percent analysts were expecting, according to Consensus Metrix.

Starbucks also plans to close about 150 company-operated stores in densely penetrated U.S. markets next fiscal year, three times the number it historically shuts down annually. Shares initially slid as much as 6.3 percent in late trading Tuesday before inching back up. The stock was down 1.6 percent as of 5:24 p.m. in New York.

…The closing stores are often in “major metro areas where increases in wage and occupancy and other regulatory requirements” are making them unprofitable, Johnson said. “Now, in a lot of ways, it’s middle America and the South that presents an opportunity.”

As they say: go woke, go broke.

My Words for You All to Live By Today

"Be vewy, VEWY quiet. You'll fwighten the @Google gurls." pic.twitter.com/l8oEYzWPX4

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) August 9, 2017

I’m Sure Our Prizzy Got Over His Momentary, Elitest Huff at the Brexit Results

…the second he realized what a GREAT distraction from THIS they might just turn out to be.

US durable goods orders fell 2.2% in May vs. 0.5% drop expected

A Brilliant Speech By Daniel Hannan On Brexit

And so very much of his argument applies to us here in relation to our government

Well done, sir.

(thanks to Tim)

To Bloomberg, Everything Is Either Climate Change Or Racism

God, they get annoying. This morning’s example is this long, highly researched, data-packed article on Amazon’s Prime Same-Day Delivery service

For residents of minority urban neighborhoods, access to Amazon.com’s vast array of products—from Dawn dish soap and Huggies diapers to Samsung flatscreen TVs—can be a godsend. Unlike whiter ZIP codes, these parts of town often lack well-stocked stores and quality supermarkets. White areas get organic grocers and designer boutiques. Black ones get minimarts and dollar stores. People in neighborhoods that retailers avoid must travel farther and sometimes pay more to obtain household necessities. “I don’t have a car, so I love to have stuff delivered,” says Tamara Rasberry, a human resources professional in Washington, D.C., who spends about $2,000 a year on Amazon Prime, the online retailer’s premium service that guarantees two-day delivery of tens of millions of items (along with digital music, e-books, streaming movies, and TV shows) for a yearly $99 membership fee. Rasberry, whose neighborhood of Congress Heights is more than 90 percent black, says shopping on Amazon lets her bypass the poor selection and high prices of nearby shops.

As Amazon has expanded rapidly to become “the everything store,” it’s offered the promise of an egalitarian shopping experience. On Amazon and other online retailers, a black customer isn’t viewed with suspicion, much less followed around by store security. Most of Amazon’s services are available to almost every address in the U.S. “We don’t know what you look like when you come into our store, which is vastly different than physical retail,” says Craig Berman, Amazon’s vice president for global communications. “We are ridiculously prideful about that. We offer every customer the same price. It doesn’t matter where you live.”

All well and good, right?

But WAIT

Yet as Amazon rolls out its upgrade to the Prime service, Prime Free Same-Day Delivery, that promise is proving harder to deliver on. The ambitious goal of Prime Free Same-Day is to eliminate one of the last advantages local retailers have over the e-commerce giant: instant gratification. In cities where the service is available, Amazon offers Prime members same-day delivery of more than a million products for no extra fee on orders over $35. Eleven months after it started, the service includes 27 metropolitan areas. In most of them, it provides broad coverage within the city limits. Take Amazon’s home town of Seattle, where every ZIP code within the city limits is eligible for same-day delivery and coverage extends well into the surrounding suburbs.

In six major same-day delivery cities, however, the service area excludes predominantly black ZIP codes to varying degrees, according to a Bloomberg analysis that compared Amazon same-day delivery areas with U.S. Census Bureau data.

In Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, cities still struggling to overcome generations of racial segregation and economic inequality, black citizens are about half as likely to live in neighborhoods with access to Amazon same-day delivery as white residents.

The disparity in two other big cities is significant, too. In New York City, same-day delivery is available throughout Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, but not in the Bronx and some majority-black neighborhoods in Queens. In some cities, Amazon same-day delivery extends many miles into the surrounding suburbs but isn’t available in some ZIP codes within the city limits.

Bloomberg then goes on and on with this implication that there is some nefarious plot afoot to specifically deny black Prime members the delivery service, this “right” they are yet again having stolen from them.

Because, you see, if you specifically go out of your way to not make decisions based on racial data you are, naturally, a racist:

Amazon, he says, has a “radical sensitivity” to any suggestion that neighborhoods are being singled out by race. “Demographics play no role in it. Zero.”

Amazon says its plan is to focus its same-day service on ZIP codes where there’s a high concentration of Prime members, and then expand the offering to fill in the gaps over time. “If you ever look at a map of service for Amazon, it will start out small and end up getting big,” he says.

This is a logical approach from a cost and efficiency perspective: Give areas with the most existing paying members priority access to a new product. Yet in cities where most of those paying members are concentrated in predominantly white parts of town, a solely data-driven calculation that looks at numbers instead of people can reinforce long-entrenched inequality in access to retail services. For people who live in black neighborhoods not served by Amazon, the fact that it’s not deliberate doesn’t make much practical difference. “They are offering different services to other people who don’t look like you but live in the same city,” says Rasberry.

No, they are not, because THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE. Sorry; in fact, they don’t even CARE what you look like.

And that is their unpardonable sin.

Peak Oil

  
I love it.

Poor Bingster ~ I Know It’s Been a Sucky Day All ‘Round

…so how’s about I save you some time when you get home?

Decadent drinks: 25 yr single malt Hakushu Japanese whisky infused with top-grade Wagyu beef: http://t.co/KzTz2YG4Dx pic.twitter.com/kfyY7BQxpT

— TalesoftheCocktail (@totc) August 24, 2015

Shaping Up To Be An Ugly Monday

Markets down sharply around the world

and the Dow is currently due another 350 lower.

My bourbon stocks at home will be sorely tested over the next few days I reckon.

Tsipras: Drachma Queen

All the bluster, the referendum, all for, er, well, nothing

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras surrendered to European demands for immediate action to qualify for up to 86 billion euros ($95 billion) of aid Greece needs to stay in the euro.

After a six-month offensive against German-inspired austerity succeeded only in deepening his country’s economic mess and antagonizing his European counterparts, there was no face-saving compromise on offer for Tsipras at a rancorous summit that ran for more than 17 hours.

What was the point of all the drachma drama if he was just going to kick the can down the road anyway?

I mean, does anyone really think that the Greek economy will suddenly start producing surpluses?

All he’s managed to do with this emotional Mediterranean chest pounding, whipping up the populace with all his “humiliation” talk, is reserve himself a spot on a lamp post it seems to me.

In the end he collapsed like a wet gyro.

Touch MY Entree

…I kill you.

“A young French Muslim shouts in Paris restaurant “People can’t eat because it’s the ramadan“. After he reverses tables, and throws food on the ground.”

We’re Going VERTICAL, Mav!!!

This Could Be The IPO For Me

Yummy yummy

Malaysian maker of edible bird nest products plans $30 mln Nasdaq IPO

Malaysia’s Swiftlet Eco Park Holdings Sdn Bhd, one of the country’s largest makers of products developed from edible bird nests, said on Monday that it plans to list on the Nasdaq stock market.

The company aims to raise $30 million through the offering of a 30 percent stake and the listing is expected within 18 to 24 months, Chief Executive CH Tan told reporters after signing an agreement with New York’s QMIS Finance Securities Corp , its consulting partner for the IPO.

Swiftlet Eco makes coffee, skin care products, puddings and candies with nests made from swiftlets’ saliva, a delicacy that has been popular in China for its alleged health benefits for hundreds of years.

Swiftlet saliva.

Unions Now Repackaging Definition of “Intimidation”

…to mean “when they’re standing on YOUR front porch ~ UNINVITED ~ and you have to chase them off”.

Union cancels Boeing vote, claiming gun-toting workers told it to take off

The union looking to organize workers at Boeing’s South Carolina plant has put its plans in a holding pattern, claiming workers are so opposed to signing up that they chased labor leaders off their porches at gunpoint.

In Florida we mighta coulda have shot them. Castle Doctrine and all.

Sinking Like a STONE

US Producer Price Index down 0.5% in Feb vs. up 0.3% expected

U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fell in February on weak trade margins, pointing to muted inflation pressures that could argue against an anticipated June interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

The Labor Department said on Friday its producer price index for final demand fell 0.5 percent after dropping 0.8 percent in January. It was the fourth straight monthly decline in the PPI.

Unexpected.

MacDonald’s Is Hitting the ReSet Button

…again. Perhaps the gobbledygook coming out of corporate gives one an idea of WHY they’re tanking.

“Creating consistently relevant and satisfying customer experiences have been hallmarks of McDonald’s business and historic success,” the company said in a statement.

“However, consumer needs and preferences have changed, and McDonald’s current performance reflects the urgent need to evolve with today’s consumers, reset strategic priorities and restore business momentum. The goal going forward is to be a true destination of choice around the world and reassert McDonald’s as a modern, progressive burger company.”

Perhaps if they went back to BURGERS as their focus, life wouldn’t be treating them so harshly?

Just a thought.

WHAT “Economic Recovery”?

The assertion perturbs a couple CNBC anchors.

Better Bring a Potholder in Your Briefcase for That Sidewalk Chili

…now that’s it’s going to be in a paper cup. YEE-OUCH!

De Blasio announces #NYC ban on plastic foam containers, riling food vendors http://t.co/3EHe0Tl6E6 #FNPolitics pic.twitter.com/PC79vLTeXp

— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) January 9, 2015

One More Excuse Down First Thing This Morning BUT! Fear Not

Our hero will veto it anyway.

BREAKING: Nebraska Supreme Court tosses Keystone pipeline lawsuit, says plaintiffs don't have standing.

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 9, 2015

What Happens When The “Reset” Button Becomes…

…the “EJECT!” button?

Russia risks Soviet-style collapse as rouble defence fails

Russia has lost control of its economy and may be forced to impose Soviet-style exchange controls after “shock and awe” action by the central bank failed to stem the collapse of the rouble.
“The situation is critical,” said the central bank’s vice-chairman, Sergei Shvetsov. “What is happening is a nightmare that we could not even have imagined a year ago.”

…Michal Dybula, from BNP Paribas, said the rouble’s plunge risks setting off a systemic bank run. “A large-scale run on deposits, once under way, would make capital controls pretty much unavoidable,” he said, adding that the authorities may start by forcing state-controlled companies to sell foreign assets and repatriate funds.
In Washington, the White House said it had no intention of easing pressure on Russia to halt the freefall. “It is president Vladimir Putin’s decision to make. The aim is to sharpen the choice that he faces,” it said.
President Barack Obama will not veto a law passed by Congress imposing a raft of new sanctions against Russia, even though he warned previously that it goes too far for European leaders and risks splitting the trans-Atlantic front. The measures include $350m of military assistance to Ukraine, and authorize Mr Obama to impose curbs on energy companies investing in Russia, as well as to prohibit credit to Gazprom.

…After years of bluster and suggestions by Mr Putin that the US is a paper tiger, the Kremlin is now coming face to face with the cataclysmic consequences of what it has done by invading Ukraine and changing Europe’s borders by force. By the same token, Washington needs to move with care since it would be a geostrategic miscalculation of the first order to push a nuclear-armed Russia too far into a corner, or to perpetuatue a cycle of grievance.
Anthony Peters, from SwissInvest, said Russia’s leaders had misled their own people and have until now been in denial about the crisis engulfing them. “Not since Soviet times have we seen such steadfast refusal by the Kremlin to acknowledge the presence of severe political and economic problems while sacrificing the people in the name of orthodoxy. The Russian people are legendarily stoic in the face of hardships but beware if, and when, their patience runs out,” he said.
The rouble crash has doubled the cost of servicing nearly $700bn of external debt owed by Russian banks, companies and state bodies, mostly in dollars. They must repay $30bn this month and a further $100bn next year. Oil giant Rosneft has requested $49bn of state aid to weather the crisis.

I have complete confidence that our Super Geniuses in DC will manage to engender the worst possible outcome.

That’s the Gift they have.

These are dangerous times, and we are ruled by petulant children.

German Green Chickens May Soon Be Coming Home To Roost

If you’ve got a few minutes read this to get an update on how things are going with Germany’s drive to generate only Green EcoPower.

Here’s a hint: not well.

Dodged A Wee Bullet They Did

When the Scots were all ready to use that Sweet Sweet North Sea oil money to finance their independent dreams in September, Brent crude was at $96 per barrel.

Right now it’s $64.00

Much like Russia, Norway is hosed

The governor of Norway’s central bank says western Europe’s biggest oil producer is facing a major economic slowdown as crude prices continue to plunge.

“Our job now is that we need to prevent a severe downturn in the economy,” Oeystein Olsen said today in an interview after a press conference in Oslo. “Overall, that is presently the major concern of the board. That explains why we have reduced the rate.”

…Oil prices have plunged 44 percent from a June high, the worst decline since the financial crisis erupted in 2008. Norges Bank estimates oil investments will decline by 15 percent next year, with the risk of “spillover” effects on the rest of the economy and rising unemployment.

Norway depends on the oil industry for almost a quarter of its economic output and has built an $860 billion wealth fund from its offshore revenue.

I laugh every time I see a Prius.

And I wish I had bought that bigger SUV…

Between His Encouraging “Folks” to Burn Down the Country and THIS

…I’m starting to think this President really, REALLY doesn’t LIKE most of us.

Obamacare offers firms $3,000 incentive to hire illegals over native-born workers

Under the president’s new amnesty, businesses will have a $3,000-per-employee incentive to hire illegal immigrants over native-born workers because of a quirk of Obamacare.

President Obama’s temporary amnesty, which lasts three years, declares up to 5 million illegal immigrants to be lawfully in the country and eligible for work permits, but it still deems them ineligible for public benefits such as buying insurance on Obamacare’s health exchanges.

Under the Affordable Care Act, that means businesses who hire them won’t have to pay a penalty for not providing them health coverage — making them $3,000 more attractive than a similar native-born worker, whom the business by law would have to cover.

If you can get to work through the “understandably angry and resentful” sweet Michael Brown protesters blocking every traffic orifice in the name of that martyred man-child in YOUR city, check it out.

I can’t WAIT to see what the Poison Pen President does next to his chattel milling about in the amber waves of grain.