The Economics of Chaos

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Understand: I’m not saying that the economy is in good shape. It’s not. The amazing thing after the abuse it’s been put through in the last 20 years, but particularly the last five, it’s amazing we still have an economy. As in, at least the shell is still standing and hasn’t crashed spectacularly into the dust.

And the reason it’s still standing, I think, as far as I can tell, is that all other economies, the world over, are in worse shape. (Despite all the talk of Russia stronk and China stronk, and South Elbonia stronk.) All of them are made up of more bullshit, obfuscation and stupid than ours.

I’ve been saying for years now that we’re walking over an abyss, and the only thing preventing us from falling is that we haven’t looked down, yet.

In an economy based on fiat and the perception of value, the perception is really really important. Which is why its best not to dissect it too closely.

But Biden — or his autopen — came really close to putting an end to us. Look, yes, we are a middle class couple, we have savings. We are in the time of life when we don’t eat a lot — certainly compared to the early Obama years, when we had at least one teen in the house and initially two — and we don’t have expensive tastes. I will grant you the last few years have involved house repairs and unexpected overseas trips. But still — By the end of last year, I had that rushing headlong into the abyss feeling that if Kamala won we’d be in real trouble for our monthly expenses come the middle of this year.

So did Trump solve everything?

That sound you heard was my bitter cackle. Last I checked, Orange Man Bad was many things, but none of them was “magician.” Nor did being elected furnish him with a magic wand to put everything right by waving it mid air.

And what he’s facing….

Well, it started with…. a lot (We’ll go with a lot) of illegals who are not your standard immigrants to this country, but are here for the benes. They were recruited to come and live off the fat of the land. Since the Obama years, the third world has been blanketed in pamphlets proclaiming that if they come here social justice demands we treat them like kings, and after all the streets are paved in gold, etc. Then there is our craptastic educational establishment. Our hiring systems corrupted by H1B visas (which invites the cheating and corruption of credentials and ability of the third world in.) Our insanely overextended, weirdly administered corporations, some of them already part of the third world corruption system.

There’s other things, like the entire DEI edifice which enshrines incompetence — because hiring or promoting for any reasons other than competence enshrines incompetence — and which penetrates everything. And then there’s catastrophic innovation, which is leaving all of us breathless and feeling like the ground is continuously being yanked out from under our feet. One minute we’re exclaiming in glee at something we can now do, the other confused because the way we’ve always done things is completely altered and we need to learn it all again.

There’s our social interactions and the fact the young people are marrying late, which affects the birth rate and everything else.

And there’s 2020 that ate our confidence in all our institutions and mass communication instruments.

All of which reflects on the economy.

Then there’s stuff like, of course, we’ve de-industrialized to a stupid level, and we must decouple from places like China before their number is fully up. (Beyond the fact that they’re massively unreliable and outright dangerous for things like medicine and defense tech.) This is at the heart of it the reason for the tariffs. We don’t have must time and we must hard-decouple from China, before we’re forced into a harder decoupled, or are pulled into the whirlpool of destruction China is about to trigger. It’s also why we can industrialize faster and better with new tech. Unfortunately that requires better transportation technology and better transportation in middle-of-nowhere-flyover. In fact, those are all things we need yesterday.

It’s too bad Trump doesn’t have a magic wand because what this administration is trying to do is akin to rebuilding a 747 in full flight, without letting it crash. I salute their optimism and can do attitude, and I hope they realize most — if not all — of what they have to do is remove as many impediments as possible, getting rid of as many parasitic structures as possible, and then getting out of the way as American innovation and chaos bursts forth to make everything anew.

So, yes, thank you. I’m not such an idiot as not to realize the economy is still in trouble. I don’t think anyone is.

But I will note that the Democrats are, right now, as we speak, running a full tilt propaganda action to convince us that: a) the economy is Trump’s fault. b) everyone blames Trump for the economy c) if the republicans can’t fix everything within the next year they’ll be punished by the mid terms.

Is any of those true? Much less all of them?

I don’t know. And neither do you. I know they’re quoting surveys, but look, I was born at night but not last night. At this point without a full crawl through the stinking bowels of surveys and polls — and sometimes even with — I don’t believe it.

I particularly don’t believe it when the narrative is everywhere at once, practically in the exact same words.

I PARTICULARLY don’t believe it when they’re basing all this on socialists winning in their blue enclaves of fraud. Or are using that to try to stampede us into believing this everywhere-at-once narratives.

In fact, guys, there might be a pony under all that sh*t. But the sh*t is piled sky-scraper high, so the pony is tiny by comparison.

That I can tell in real-people interactions, everyone pretty much is very aware that the economy is not in great shape and not all is fixed. Job seekers are super-cautious and — still — most job opportunities are largely fictional.

However, the feeling I get is that most people are still drawing a deep breath and going “Hey, at least I can afford to eat! And the prices aren’t doubling every time I go to the store.”

Nothing is sure, nothing is trusted, but there’s the feeling we’re not diving headlong into the abyss anymore.

And there’s a deep, deep distrust of the left, in general.

Look, there’s a big danger in this. Most of how we got in trouble and let the long march in the institutions go on is that we voted for the Republicans because the left wanted to outright surrender to the USSR. This means the Republicans who wanted to go “command economy” but slower got elected despite us not liking them a bit.

In the same way, I suspect we have to elect people who aren’t the rabid dog left, which gives the stupid right a lot of leeway. We’re going to need a ton of luck not to let that take hold.

That is at least as big a danger as the economy turning mobius strip and doing the utterly incomprehensible before we get any kind of hold on it. Or of China finally crashing, before we can afford for them to.

However, most people don’t seem to be idiots. Most people seem to be aware that the economy was in very bad shape and is going to take time to fix.

I don’t hear anyone screaming out for socialism except the ones who have always been doing so.

Chill. This whole “We have to fix everything right now” is part of the left’s usual propaganda to create a sense of panic, and part their attempt to seed the acceptance of massive amounts of fraud in 26.

Let’s hope the administration knows they’re preparing next-level fraud. Again. And is ready to combat it.

And ignore the propaganda.

239 thoughts on “The Economics of Chaos”

  1. Weirdly, I am always more “wake up at 2 am and cannot get back to sleep and give up at 4” over “the other shoe whot did not drop”.

    Hearing the Economy IS OVER! Polls Say Trump is DONE from every Tom, Dick, and Hairy Degenerate (but I repeat myself*) in the Vichy press covices me to breathe easier and buy some of those paper books and Chritmas 🎁 (repeating self #2).

    THEN I get the creeping dread of “what is all the handwaving and shrieking in aid of distracting us from? For the sake of Mrs. Hoyt’s own bad nights, I’ll skip the list.

    Here’s the thing though: The President Trump 2.0 and his Got Serious team was a miracle beyond expectation or hope.

    And now we’ve got powerful allies. Look, it was the French, seriously not the good guys, who tipped the balance for us in America 1.0.

    So why not keep hoping?

    It’s not like the fight has changed, or the enemy, or our determination to stay in it.

    We’re still all building up, over, and around.

    Ca ira.

    *I suppose some are bald. There is a model from some internet contrarian that tracks lack of seriousness in public figures to Good Hair.

    Liked by 6 people

  2. Let’s hope the administration knows they’re preparing next-level fraud. Again. And is ready to combat it.

    Meanwhile, the unadmitted civil war continues. If you protest the fraud, expect the lawfare.

    https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/11/13/no-bearing-despite-trump-pardons-democrat-ags-prosecute-election-cases/

    Despite President Donald Trump’s pardons on Sunday, Democrat attorneys general told The Daily Signal and publicly suggested they plan to continue their state prosecutions against contingent state electors from the 2020 election.

    Democrats attorneys general—from Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin—brought criminal charges against the contingent Trump electors, who were in-waiting if courts or state legislatures found valid reason to reject the result of the closely contested states that went to Joe Biden that year.

    “President Trump’s actions have no bearing on our decision-making or prosecution under Nevada state law,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford told The Daily Signal in a statement.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Do you really think that the jury pool will return convictions? Look at what we’ve already seen in DC. And when the trial jury says “Not Guilty” it’s over, and the prosecution continues.

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    2. well, of course you should expect lawfare. It’s the last bastion they have, just like the USSR’s last bastion was the international court and the press.
      And we’re not in an unacknowledged civil war, we’re in a cold civil war. (Remember the cold war had hot spots, but it was still better than the alternative.) Pray it doesn’t turn hot.

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            1. That’s not quite correct.
              The late 19th/early 20th century political situation was complicated, and sometimes quite violent (such as when the labor unions attempted to launch a revolution across the West).
              But the Democratic party was rather badly fractured during this period. (In fact, the state Democratic parties were so fiercely resistant to centralized control that neither Wilson, nor FDR managed the lift. Bill Clinton was the one finally able to strongarm it. The results speak for themselves.) Much of the unrest saw the Democrats taking the role of junior uniparty member, and fighting to maintain their position against the rising challenger.

              At most, you could say that we’ve been in a cold civil war with Democrats since 1913, but around 1934 would be more defensible (lots of state Democratic parties hated Wilson’s guts).

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              1. I have lived in the South most of my adult life. Have all sorts of family on the Democrat side of things. I assure you “Cold Civil War with Democrats” fits nicely with what has gone on since 1865. Was it more organized in some eras? More effective? Of course.

                Have the Democrats been hijacked by Marxists? Yup. Changes nothing except the level of irrational displayed. Has the South changed remarkably since 1981? Yes indeed, and also not really.

                I know reasonably otherwise-rational Southern folk who wouldn’t vote Republican if Jesus Himself was on the ticket. Not all of them are geezers.

                Really, all the way back to Jackson in some ways. He made it warfare by ballot.

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                1. I’d say older still. There’s an old saying among my people “wherever God plants a church, Satan builds a chapel”

                  Going back to the earliest history when the Federalists scammed the name from the legitimate subsidiary-leaning (power devolved to the people and then the states) founders, we’ve faced a choice between bloody slave-running wanna-be aristos… and a Federal government big enough to stop them, which is, of course, big enough to enslave everyone.

                  The Democratic-Republicans (O.G. republicans) had a point about the rights of the Nations (States) and the virtues of nationalism. They were also Deists, masons, and congenitally incapable of picking their own [expletive-deleted] cotton.

                  They’re the strongest evidence that the Creed* that unites Americans as Americans is not only Christian, merely Christ-friendly. (Though IDK if that’s just my own cultural dislike of Puritans. Even when they’re right – pace the slavery, among many other things – they’re awful)

                  Rambling aside, the conflict is as old as America – our better angels, our vision for a Great Good Thing – and I do think it became outright war at some point after the 1900s and around World War 2: We planted a city on the hill, Satan planted his basement.

                  (*It’s still the blood (people, family, relationships), and the soil (generational connection to a place, the heimat, querencia) AND the creed. Ours is a contract. Because we’re USAians like that)

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      2. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

        – Thomas Paine

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          1. To be “fair”, Paine went to France and became part of the Revolutionary government only to seriously annoy plenty in the Revolutionary government. [Grin]

            Liked by 1 person

      1. I think ultimately SCOTUS stomps that one down, to preserve the Republic if nothing else. But not before a bunch of folks get wrecked by it.

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      2. As I have to keep reminding innocents here and elsewhere, what the laws SAY is FAR less important than what is actually ENFORCED. It’s the difference between software specs and actual use. See also: WPDE.

        The best thing about Trump 2.0 is that he’s actually been a victim of that BS, and he’s appointed people who have too, and when they find something, they at least point that out and try to use those tools for equal justice.

        The worst thing is that most of the crimes occurred, and thus are being tried, in solid blue jurisdictions, where there’s a layer or two of judges before SCOTUS can spank (if CJ Taney Roberts will), and a jury pool, both grand and trial, will simply nullify anything that comes before them. I suspect the opposition knows this, and one reason we’ve seen some indictments is so they CAN get it to a guaranteed Not Guilty.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Hmmm…defendants get discovery. Maybe, at their trials, they introduce evidence of the massive election fraud in 2020? 🤔
          ———————————
          There’s statistically improbable, and then there’s ‘violates the fundamental principles of the universe’ improbable.

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          1. Assuming the judge will allow it (see Judge Engoron for egregious example of excluding exculpatory evidence) and that the jury will pay any attention to it. That’s rather the point of solid blue jury pools, after all.

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  4. Which has the higher word count? Books or politics? Politics isn’t going to pay anything because there is a flood of opinions by people who aren’t writers. The odds you will sway the direction of national politics is very low and the odds cranking out books will improve your personal life are much greater. I say this as a friend. If you have to, set a kitchen timer to wrap up the political commentary. I was encouraged yesterday to see you took a day off for writing. Oh, and that last snippet posted was just lovely.

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        1. Mac has been telling me this for a long time.
          Look, I wouldn’t write about politics if I didn’t have to. why do I have to? Neurosis? mission? who knows?
          I just know I have to. it’s not eating the fiction. the fiction is eating the fiction.

          Liked by 3 people

    2. My biggest problem is fighting Orphans of the Stars to finish Witch’s Daughter. Elly has a tendency to suck all the air out of the room. I’m now trying to appease it with a chapter a night, in return for working on what I want during the day.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. I can’t step away from Dr Z, even though there’s a half dozen angry plot threads agitating in the wings. Cool stuff is on the horizon. Space ships, space suits, space walks may not be everyone’s bag, but they are the things I want. Also, the nu guys are coming, but the readers don’t know it yet. The nu guys are a kep part of the next story arc. Really should be a second book (considering its 154k words heft right now, and the change in the character of the story).

        I can only afford a chapter, here and there. Other bits of life demand too much attention.

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  5. I’ve maybe been along a parallel line, with a draft that I have been feeling.

    Basically “come on bro, while numbers of humans are important, there is not a chance that the PRC is, and the future cohorts of successor state will remain or reach, only three to five times as bad as the US at squandering human potential.”

    The mass murder element is of course one thing, Jinping Xi’s after me, the deluge. But that maybe tops at 1%, not certainty.

    There are two slices of certainty, which impact all countries, and basically the line runs between the US and the PRC. (Bad end, you can maybe talk third world, North Korea, Iran, Russia for competing with the PRC for worse, but… And India’s culture may have serious issues not really discussed here.)

    One slice is the internal peace stuffs, which rhyme a bit with communism, but peace problems are certainly not only communism. These kinda explicitly relate to internal rates of robbery and fraud. True minimums may depend on having a healthy culture where the purported Christianity is concerned. (Okay, also Jews, but Israel aside, Jews are not majorities in most populations.)

    The second is internal tyranny, and undue respect for academic institutions captured by government funding. More or less the frustrating environmentalism.

    The US is bad on the various metrics, the EU is probably two to four times as bad, or worse. And the PRC is significantly bad, they are apparently out right mass murdering in this very day.

    Covid, the green policy shit, socialized medicine, etc. Bad in the US.

    The EU and the UK are not frustrating better than us on these points.

    The PRC has fewer believers and idealists in the green tyranny, but the potential for internal banditry is pretty high, and probably the people in those locations are not going to wake up tomorrow, print off a bunch of guns, and fix all of their bad habits. Black rednecks, the costs on entrepreneurship of life long tenancy.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I think things in India are way worse than we thought. They’ve ALWAYS been a country that pours out people. But now they’re pouring them into places like…. Portugal? There’s something very bad going on there.

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      1. their output of credentialed people is significantly higher than their capacity to use them. Were it not for China, India would lead the world in corruption so no one wants to put much there.

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        2. :grins, or at least shows a lot of teeth:

          And I suspect the credentialed part is exactly what is being threatened.

          Because having credentials is not the same as being able to to the job….

          Liked by 1 person

          1. “having credentials is not the same as being able to to the job….”

            Imagine my shock of beating out not one but two Phd holders for two different jobs. Only one’s salary requirements was outrageous for the location (seriously > $100k for Gardiner Oregon? Don’t blink you’ll miss it along hwy 101. Even outrageous for Reedsport, just south of there. Okay, mine was $30k AND only if job is moved closer to Eugene, which I got. But still …) Don’t know why I beat out the other Phd on the last job. Not my salary ask (didn’t get anywhere near that, suspect they expected me to say “no”. Sorry practicality VS pride won.)

            Liked by 2 people

        2. I get the idea that WP’s algorithm looks askance at less than favorable comments related to places like C****, and possibly I****. I’ve been moderated for comments mildly (by my standards :) ) disparaging certain leftist politicos. There might still be some vestigial WooFloo censorship hiding in the memory banks.

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      3. Internet is now -very- cheap. Folks in India can scout around for opportunities that might have been overlooked back in the fax era.

        There is a whole lot of folks who are never going to have much in India, no matter how skilled or competent. “Caste” still -very- much matters. Their “middle” class is relatively quite low. Anyplace with a higher “middle” is attractive. And the Euros have thrown the door open relatively wide. “_we- are not the crazycakes molesting girls and chopping off heads.” is also a thing.

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        1. Dinesh d’Souza. (“I grew up middle class in X city, my dad was an engineer”).

          The international graduate students in America have questions, and Portugal could seem relatively stable.

          The students hear things, and the universities aren’t exactly giving them the background to be good at the intel study of US risk factors.

          I think maybe the South Americans know us a lot better than the Africans, Indians, etc. And the Mid-East folks may realize some of our levels of salty about the Pro-Gaza shit.

          (I dunno, I do not have necessarily good samples to work from.)

          Liked by 2 people

      4. Well, think a bit about the previously known fundamentals.

        One, it is a country the British welded out of various princedoms, and has previously split into three pieces, along religious lines.

        Two, the religious differences of opinion are fairly well attested.

        Three, the caste system.

        Four, bordering nations, and the army subsets. In particular, Iran is apparently in the middle of a fairly nasty drought. Has a sea border with India, and west India has had Zoasterians for while, hundreds of years. PRC is also something. Nepal has the Maoist situation. Pakistan.

        Five, top caste, the scholarly/religious one. Those seem the ones who went along with the woke international elite consensus culture.

        Six, Modi. I don’t know what is going on with that dude.

        Basically, if we look to the rest of the world, outside India, it would not be surprising for some sort of problem to be in India.

        I, freaking credentialed lunatics trying to start a race war or a religious war.

        II, saneish credentialed people forecasting a race war, and wanting out.

        III, other stupid credentialed tricks.

        Liked by 2 people

  6. The economy isn’t Trump’s fault. It’s the fault of the lazy stupid American workers that need to be replaced by outshoring and H1-Bs according to Trump and his corporate donors. /

    (Yeah, he really put his foot in his mouth during that interview.)

    Then again he is powerless to make any real changes due to the federal judges that actually rule the country and the push back from blue states total fraud on elections and programs like SNAP buying more “voters” legal and illegal.

    And we have no idea what some of the official government “statistics” are for October, because those were supposedly were sabotaged by Democrats. (And the dog ate my homework…) But if this did happen, then Trump doesn’t have any control over the administration at all, which is scary as f.

    US corporate bankruptcies are at a 15 year high. Many of the big tech corporations are fudging their books to cover their AI bubble expenses. Farmers are getting Uranus impacted by corporations, government and foreign imports. Massive numbers of layoffs… etc…

    Trump isn’t done, but it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t at least try to show more progress on the homefront instead of hosting international scum and bankers at the White House.

    Mid-terms are coming, 2028 is coming, and if the Left takes over again , a bunch of people involved in the current adminstration and alternative media should probably should flee out of country considing J6 was just a warm up for the Left.

    And the problem on the right at the state and national levels is that it’s almost all RINOs that serve only their donors. US citizens don’t see any help coming from them.

    Meanwhile I’m stuck in North Texas smack in the middle of Hindus, Islamists and illegals. Thanks US and Texas GOP, for conserving nothing and sabotaging MAGA.

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    1. How on earth are we a decade into Trump and you haven’t figured out the Rabbit trick?

      He sets rabbits off to get the dogs chasing them– as a distraction, as a maneuver, to give folks rope to hang themselves, and so on.

      It’s quite possibly the most consistent tool that he uses…and here you are acting like this time, it’s a totally accurate and directly-to-only-trusted-listeners revelation.

      Liked by 5 people

      1. After thirty years of watching H1Bs and nepotistic in-group hiring destroy the American tech sector for American workers? Damn right I’m going to chase that rabbit if Trump puts his foot ankle-deep in his mouth like he did in that Ingraham interview. I don’t want 4D chess. I don’t want trial balloons. I want America First to actually mean what it’s supposed to mean–Americans First. And if he doesn’t back that up, quickly, he will pay the price for it in the midterms and take the rest of the Republican Party with him.

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          1. A generous explanation is that Trump 2.0 is compromised by members of his team like Trump 1.0 was, but in different ways.

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            1. Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi both worked at Ballard Partners, a prominent lobbying firm with pharmaceutical clients including Pfizer.

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            2. That’s not a generous explanation. That’s your normal crazy cakes, doomer, incitement explanation. But THANK YOU for playing.
              Note you’ve given that statement more play than ANYONE including on twitter. BAH.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. You must see a much, much, milder version of X/Twitter than I do.

                And what I do see, you are to blame since you constantly encourage people to go there on Instapundit and I said. “Why not give it a try? Sarah uses it…” and got an account.

                lol

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                  1. (Checks X feed…)

                    Not following Russia, but many financial, right news, political, technical/computer, Texas, North Texas, and Tru ‘merican cultural accounts. Not a single Russian source or Russian aligned source. Nor any Left related sources.

                    Wait!

                    There are a few former Russians, but they fled to the US and England and are Westernized and are just darn good programmers that talk about tech and work in the financial markets making $$$$$$. More gung-ho about the West than the natives. (You want to see their C++ code?)

                    Sorry to disappoint your attempt at playing Joesph Macarthy. He was right, but in this case you are mistaken.

                    (“Russia, Russia, Russia” – Jan Brady or 2016 -2024 Democrat ?)

                    Unless @DataRepublican is Russian, but I think she lives in Utah. Hopefully her cat gets better.

                    Just a sample of the content I care about:

                    “A migration policy institute reports 44,000 illegal alien students in Tarrant, Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties. It also estimates 1 MILLION students have parents who are aliens.”

                    Or you can follow @amandalouise416 about H-1B research deep dives. They are as detailed as @DataRepublican is on NGOs.

                    Feel free to post your H-1B sources. Or not.

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                    2. How, exactly, does one tell a “True American” from a “Russian bot” on a major social platform?

                      They do understand VPNs and they are smart enough to on-shore their botfarms.

                      Blocking Sov IPs just knocks out the lazy/scriptkiddy/amateurs.

                      Hm. Content would be a clue.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    4. And yet blocking the Russian IPs works surprisingly well. This isn’t the only blog I know of that’s publicly mentioned doing it, and reported a subsequent massive drop-off in certain kinds of comments.

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                    5. There are a whole bunch of relatively amateur-hour Russian dookie-posters that I suspect are mainly intended to show suitable patriotism and Putin-service to allow their Commissars to continue other crimes unmolested. Spam-farming for example.

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                    6. Quite likely. Known Russian nationals that I’ve met in on-line forums often display a level of pro-country fervor and unwillingness to admit to past mistakes that would embarrass the most ardent American patriots.

                      And if you call them on it, they rationalize it by claiming that Americans are far worse.

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            3. You could probably say this with accuracy about any president. The question is how badly and for whom are they skewing/screwing things?

              Looking at the difference between this term and Trump 1.0, I’d say a broad-strokes answer is that Trump’s previous administration was deeply and comprehensively screwed to the leftist/deep-state tune by almost everyone in it, while Trump 2.0 is remarkably unf^cked.

              Totally uncompromised? No. For one thing, humans gonna human; for another, even the best people in politics are adapted to living in a cesspool, and the better adapted they are the better they are at being utter slimeballs without looking like it.

              Still, I think Trump 2.0 is probably a better match for his moment than any president we’ve had since WWII (except Reagan; Trump has a chance to get there). Probably. Maybe. Maybe nobody’s really up to fixing this shitshow. What we’ve got so far isn’t my dream, but it’s actually better than I expected.

              Liked by 3 people

              1. Net result is quite good. I am very much willing to tolerate missteps and the occasional “say what?” moment for the net result.

                Watching Donk heads spinning is amusing! Get them to hold magnets in their mouths and we could power a large datacenter.

                Stubborn jackasses.

                Liked by 4 people

            4. The alternative is AOC and Madmani.

              I do not expect perfection from Trump. Just that he continues upgefooking the Donks more often than not.

              If something better comes along, so to the good. If not, his worst still beats Donkuloids.

              You are not advocating voting Lefty, are you? Or hamstring Trump leaving the Donks free to maneuver?

              Liked by 1 person

                    3. You’d think so, but the Biden* Regime managed to not appoint a single individual that was smarter than the average brick, even by accident. And that’s being generous. Some of them made bricks look intellectual.

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                    4. One concludes they were trying for dumb ones.
                      It explains a great deal when you realize that people whose native abilities would allow them to survive without DEI or such like things are not favored by those who support DEI or such like things.

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                    5. When you can’t tell the boss his directives won’t work, even smart ones will act stupid. What do they care, as long as there is vodka at the end of the day?

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          2. Considering that the default position on the left is “whatever Trump says is evil and wrong”, he just might be maneuvering them into opposing H1B.

            We’ll see.

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              1. At least Vance is being careful not to cause any interview faux pas. I don’t envy him batting cleanup.

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                  1. Trump Smash? Are you saying Green Man Bad? :)

                    Now, if “It’s Clobberin’ Time”, then we could stay with orange. (Haven’t seen Fantastic Four comics since college. Pretty sure Ben Grimm’s color was orange vs tan or brown. No, I don’t do movies.)

                    Liked by 2 people

        2. Yelling at him and explaining why he’s wrong, yes.

          Believing he’s go full buy-in?

          Heck no. Especially not when he just did this same dance with Ukraine and Russia.

          The H1B abuse folks are not any less likely to step on their theoretical manhood than Russia.

          Liked by 5 people

          1. I think Trump -does- like the “cherry pick really bright folks” aspect of H1Bs. To a short extent, I agree this can be helpful where a real bottlenecks exist. Absent von Braun, we don’t get 1960s Apollo.

            The problem is that H1B is rigged to abuse as a cheat.

            Liked by 2 people

            1. And those methods are really familiar to anyone who’s looked into the temp ag worker permits.

              Or how education and experience requirements are used to hire someone who isn’t already in the company, lowering the benefits costs.

              Among dozens of other things that are built on the same damaged foundation which are more accurate readings of the actual-words, rather than the increasingly insulting interpretations that Larry here throws out.

              Liked by 1 person

        3. I’m from an ag family.

          I’m familiar with medical.

          Which is why I recognized a lot of the “fixes” pushed for H1B were designed to make it hurt so much that they were ripped out before any improvement could be made, and discredit the very idea of actually fixing the issue.

          I want America first to mean ACTUALLY FIXING THE DAMN ISSUE, not putting a patch on it because one small aspect of it– and yes, looking at healthcare, it’s a seriously freaking small aspect of the damage done– because gosh, it is finally hitting folks who work in an office.

          Actual reform of the various “bring in folks from outside of the country” programs could reverse some fifty years of damage done to agriculture. It could remove the strangle-hold on medical training that is then used to justify bringing in ever more “foreign trained” specialists.

          Trump has REPEATEDLY shown that he does these things, pisses off the folks who didn’t notice until decades old abuses finally hit them, and then works on reform of the root issue rather than treating the symptom.

          Liked by 4 people

      2. The interview was a “basket of deplorables” moment.

        “Hey voters that elected me, you are too stupid to employ.” (“Too busy to explain, I have to entertain terrorists and dine with bankers…”)

        That’s a false flag? Maybe it’s 7D chess….??? Maybe 2015 Trump got replaced by a double or is going senile?

        Like

        1. You could have simply said “no, I have not been paying attention.”

          Hope you have fun running off after the rabbit, hopefully you don’t manage to screw up the adults working through reasonable reforms.

          Those of us who have been paying attention to this noticed the poison pills showing back up for reform.

          Liked by 3 people

          1. You got any more of that “Qanon – Trust the Plan” nose powder left over from the 2020 election?

            A good number of people ain’t buying that sack of poo anymore. The administration needs to watch their image.

            I’ve been looking at jobs/market data for the last 3 decades and dealing with the outsourcing and migration consequences from inside the industry just as long. It’s not good.

            Yes, reform is complicated. But you don’t signal that “My supporters are dumb lazy rubes” a year before the mid terms while tens of thousands of them are being outsourced or under employed.

            And here’s the rub: My team gets busier and makes more money the worse the economy gets. So we track this and are staffing up for a potential crash. :(

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I already gave examples.

              You just keep screaming that the end is coming and oh gosh we’re betrayed, and totally ignoring literally this year examples.

              So, you either can’t see, or have dang good reason to act like you can’t grasp it.

              Liked by 4 people

              1. I’m looking at results/messaging with an eye on the 2026 elections,not a decade out.

                I am also from an ag family. (Whoopee! Want to swap weather and crop failure stories? How about sausage making? Weed control? Irrigation? Silage?)

                But my forte is financial and other data analysis. Plus about a decade of voter rolls and election fraud investigation, plus tilting at governments local and state.

                Regards of the complexity of the tasks the administation is attempting, if the messaging isn’t right, they will lose in 2026. And they are making some rookie mistakes. (No, that’s just a red flag to lure our enemies… snort…)

                I’m of the belief that there is too much to fix before the 2026 election considering the primaries start in about 4 months for the early states like Texas.

                And some point whatever “investigations” will have to result in much larger actions that look positive to the base. Saying we will fix this over 5 or 10 years doesn’t work when your opponents may be in power to reverse everything in less than 3 years. Especially since everybody in the world can vote in blue states. (Red states too in many cases! Ask me about Texas…)

                So, short of invoking the Insurrection Act to clean up elections and other major fraud, I don’t think taking the scenic “Trust the F-ing Plan” route is going to restore the Republic for the citizens.

                I have a wild hair of a thought that we will still be sacrificed for the “betterment of the world” by the major share holders, but that’s just another “conspiracy theory” and those never, ever are correct. Right?

                Like

                1. You are blowing smoke so hard your eyes are bugging out.

                  If you gave a ragged fig about messaging, you wouldn’t be spouting the insulting and inaccurate paraphrasing of what you’re supposedly objecting to.

                  And yet… here you are, acting like a president wanting to be able to accept the cream of the crop from the world, and then immediately pivoting to “hey, companies, you need to freaking TRAIN PEOPLE instead of demanding they show up pre trained and ready to do the job you’re hiring them for” is an insult to Americans.

                  Maybe you’re incapable of learning.

                  That’s a you problem.

                  Liked by 3 people

                  1. Well I’m America First but I’m not going to worship or ignore the President especially when he makes a questionable/very stupid comment. That’s Democratic behavior.

                    “If you say one bad thing about Trump, the Republic may fail!!!”

                    That’s not any better than “Trust the Plan!”.

                    Try shifting your personal Overton window further right. Or at least cite some research instead of acting like a pod person and pointing your finger screaming “Russian” like a Democrat again.

                    Like

                    1. Just because the rabbits work on you does not mean they are going to work on me, nor most of the other folks reading here.

                      Just like you’ve been doing all week, you try to get those goal posts into orbit and then use social manipulation on… a bunch of Odds.

                      Moron.

                      But we already figured that out from you going “Hey, insulting the blog host. That there is a good tactic” earlier this week.

                      Liked by 3 people

    2. We will likely have net negative immigration this year, visa programs or not, higher naturalization rates or not.

      That’s promising, in spite of what Trump (and…Haley?) said.

      I’m not convinced he’s doing the rabbit trick here. I think it’s more likely Trump, being basically an old-school Democrat, believes “illegal immigrants bad, legal immigrants good.” That would still be true without the work visa abuse. He might not understand how abused it is.

      Still, the results have been in the right direction so far, if not the right magnitude.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Except what he said was NOTHING like what LIG is reporting. And he’s right. We need H1Bs in… medicine for instance. Why? Because the conditions are now so abusive fully trained doctors are leaving in all directions.
        Also because we’re not training nearly enough. And because Obama (spit) made them graduate 60% women, who are less likely to stick with it. And because– Yeah, all of that.
        So right now we need them. Except he IMMEDIATELY said we need to train more Americans. And there was NOTHING about lazy and stupid. That’s all in the heads of the disinformation agents and the chowderheads who believe them.

        Liked by 2 people

    3. Mid-terms are coming, 2028 is coming, and if the Left takes over again , a bunch of people involved in the current adminstration and alternative media should probably should flee out of country considing J6 was just a warm up for the Left.

      Damn you can be an absolute retard sometimes. Yes yes, let’s move from solid fortified ground which has been successfully defended and expanded repeatedly, and instead go flee into an indefensible bog with no cover overlooked by enemy’s guns.

      A collaboration between Grima Wormtongue and Screwtape could not give worse advice.

      Liked by 3 people

          1. well, yes. Same as the groypers, etc. etc. etc.
            Fine, I concede. You’re right. He’s retarded AND on the other side.
            But hey, he thinks I’m gullible.
            Not gullible enough to believe his bs.
            However, let’s admire him. He’s either freelance or wasn’t furloughed. Unlike the other one.

            Liked by 3 people

    4. Note: Workers doing the Marxist ranting about “boomers” taking it all / oppressing us is lazy/stupid. To the extent workers buy into that Marxist class warfare crap, they-are- lazy/stupid.

      Tried to buy breakfast this morning at 0600 because had to work this morning. Had trouble finding an open fast food because despite the 6am posted door times, the hard working smart folks were all no-shows.

      Like

      1. A couple of years ago I made an appointment at a nearby dentist due to a broken tooth. I was just minding my own business, eating some peanut M&Ms when there was a crack and I was suddenly chewing rocks. A molar that had been filled 40+ years ago broke apart.

        Next morning at the dentist, they couldn’t do anything because none of the dental assistants showed up for work. I waited more than an hour.

        Finally gave up and found a place called Dental Express. They took me as a walk-in, put a temporary cap on it, had me back in a week later to replace it with a permanent crown.
        ———————————
        Government can’t turn failure into success, but it sure can turn success into failure.

        Like

      2. He never said anything about that also. This is all in LIR’s mind.
        As for things opening early or all night diners. This is what 2020 stole from us. And I’m still salty.

        Like

      3. Had trouble finding an open fast food because despite the 6am posted door times, the hard working smart folks were all no-shows.

        Maybe if those totally not abusive often Boomer certified managers could grasp the concept of “a regular schedule” they’d be able to get better quality workers to show up regularly, rather calling through a list of people to come cover for someone that was scheduled for 6AM on a school day even though their employment contract specifically noted they have to be at home on those days for child care.

        With a side dose of “closed the store last night, at midnight, and were scheduled to open six hours later.”

        But regular schedules make it so someone can get a second job, and if they have a second job they aren’t on call at all hours to cover for obvious planning insanity.

        So you don’t get folks who show up when they are scheduled this week, the people who can find a way to make that function go work somewhere else.

        Like

          1. Yeah– it’s amazing how many places are hiring teenagers, now that they have decided the effort of “actually pay attention to legal requirements for the job” is in the scope of their duties in scheduling.

            Like

        2. Can’t recall seeing anyone over 60 in a fast food manager slot lately.

          have discussed the no-shows with managers. The very young see nothing wrong with blowing off work. And expect to keep working.

          not all. Local “hate chicken” joint cherry picks the good ones. Difference to nearby GiantLegacyCorp is striking.

          LocalHateChicken also hires a whole bunch of special needs folk. Who bust ass working and are genuine gold.

          Lol. I just pulled a 12+ hour Saturday, pulling our butt out of an unexpected fire, and never thought to ask about maybe someone else swapping out. Job wasn’t done. I wasn’t done. Hooah and all that.

          off to slumber. Brain fried.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The Hate Chicken place near where I live is open right at 6am.

            Though I can’t seem to get anything from them on Sunday when I’m hungry. ;-P

            Liked by 1 person

          2. Can’t recall seeing anyone over 60 in a fast food manager slot lately.

            The actual managers, as opposed to assistant manager to make them hour-keeping exempt.

            They aren’t working the store front.

            Which is a major issue with the system.

            not all. Local “hate chicken” joint cherry picks the good ones. Difference to nearby GiantLegacyCorp is striking.

            LocalHateChicken also hires a whole bunch of special needs folk. Who bust ass working and are genuine gold.

            Special needs means they have to meet the legal requirements for that employment, which means they are not going to do the oh hey you’re on in an hour thing.

            Yeah, they get better results.

            Lol. I just pulled a 12+ hour Saturday, pulling our butt out of an unexpected fire, and never thought to ask about maybe someone else swapping out. Job wasn’t done. I wasn’t done. Hooah and all that.

            You aren’t going be facing not being called in at all so that you don’t go over 40 hours as a result of that, either.

            Or better, you’re being called in because on Monday someone didn’t show up for their shift, and now they’ve hit you in the “adjust so we don’t hit too many hours” juggling.

            Hope you didn’t make any plans if they actually managed to put out the schedule a day or two prior!

            Like

              1. There’s some kind of a thing where you can go over 30 hours and as long as it’s a one-time occurrence (that is, they short you on hours for the next several weeks) it’s not treated as now full time, but 40 hours still trips the “overtime pay” thing.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. 40 hours per week or 80 hours per pay-period to trip the overtime? Seen both with son’s job. Hubby’s job paid overtime after 8 hours/day, including “paid” *lunch. (6 to 6 = 12 hours, 7 – 3 = 8 hours, 7 – 5 = 10 hours).

                  (*) Couldn’t leave the job site. Ate when “not busy”, or just sat and ate. PTB tried to force unpaid lunch time. But that meant allowing employees to not only leave the job site, but they said they’d shutdown the job site whether left or not for the mandatory lunch hour. Never got to the concept of staggering lunches, because that would only apply to sites with multiple employees. Too many locations with single employee. Shutting down sites for lunch hour would torque both truck drivers and some yard managers. Never mind some yards shutdown for their unpaid lunch (or what gave PTB the idea). Union said couldn’t have different rules for different locations. Hard enough to place someone at no to low overtime locations as it was (couldn’t request a specific site, but could complain about lack of overtime, and get away with it, if been shuffled between those assignments regularly).

                  Like

            2. “being called in because on Monday someone didn’t show up for their shift, and now they’ve hit you in the “adjust so we don’t hit too many hours” juggling.“

              –

              Or (and?) depending on classification, employer is hit with *60 hour/week maximum. Paperwork done by shift supervisors, can go beyond the 60 hour/week work maximum (excluding unpaid lunch), but not manufacturing or general hourly employee (exception for emergency categories ???).

              (*) Oregon. Not union rules. Deep pocket lawsuit against an employee’s employer because a vehicle accident was caused by someone falling asleep at the wheel after continuous overtime (averaging > 60 hours), required or not. Salaried professionals (managers) are exempt, including salaried exempt (gets overtime), so not “because hours are tracked”. Or why son as shift supervisor often made more money per pay period than his not exempt salaried manager. His managers quarterly and annual bonus percentage was higher so not quite a toss up on whose gross annual earnings were higher.

              Like

              1. I know that 60h/week maximum type stuff is part of why you’ll sometimes end up with more “managers” than straight up employees.

                Seriously, the system is major league messed up.

                That is why hyper-fixation on one small area that just happens to be hitting folks in “good jobs” now is a terrible ideal.

                Like

                1. “60h/week maximum type stuff is part of why you’ll sometimes end up with more “managers” than straight up employees.“

                  –

                  Or “professional” classifications. Cough – software/IT. And my former colleagues wondered why when offered consulting when I retired I said sure “hourly”, not project. Guarantied could say a project would take 10 hours, knowing full well I could do whatever in an hour or two. But no, not “quite right”, most likely incomplete or flat out wrong specifications from client. It was always something. They’d take the full 10 hours and then some.

                  Liked by 1 person

  7. China and India are in very bad shape and for the same reason–dearth of an entire generation of females. Both are and always have been patriarchal societies. China’s one-child policy meant all non-male children were aborted. Similarly in India although by less coercive means, technology that allows for sex selection has led to a similar generational imbalance. I wonder sometimes if the transgender movement isn’t a CCP plot to give the US the same problem.

    The H1-B abuses are the type of thing that gives free enterprise a bad name. I know competent people who were thrown out of their jobs (Sign the NDA and train your barely English-speaking replacement or kiss your severance pay good-bye.) I also saw the idiotic rush to off-shoring back in the Clinton era and beyond under the delusion that China would become a big market for our goods. Trump and his team are slowly grinding away at these things, but what took 30 years to tear down will take some time to rebuild.

    I don’t know if MAGA will succeed, but at least somebody is trying.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. What’s been encouraging is all the onshoring to build new semiconductor fabs.

      Now we need onshoring to build new assembly factories. Automated pick-and-place means domestic lines will be just as efficient here as in the Middle Kingdom, with the plus that nobody will be running the printed circuit board line for 16 extra hours daily using grey market crap devices and grey market underselling those crap fake assembled boards to rip off their real board customer (real thing, discovered when end customers were calling the real company with warranty problems, but those boards were fake – they discovered their trusted board assembled supplier was running three shifts, but only one for them).

      The Middle Kingdom may be high-trust to other companies owned by party officials, but it is a low-trust society to everyone else, especially foreign devil customers.

      .

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Now we need onshoring to build new assembly factories. 

        Yep, I know why Trump touts the big announcements of onshoring deals, but it will take time to actually build these factories. Keeping my fingers crossed for the generations that follow me.

        Liked by 3 people

        2. There’s also the risk of what Hyundai apparently was pulling – i.e. build a big factory in the US, bring in foreigners to “get things going”, and then never actually get around to training locals on how to do the job (i.e. keep bringing in the foreigners to work there). Fortunately, the fact that the Hyundai plant got raided indicates that the administration is aware of the problem, and other companies that might be inclined to pull it have been warned.

          Liked by 5 people

            1. Reminds me of the bad old days of junior high, when I was new in town and the favorite game of all the jerks at school was to take something away from some lone nerd and play keepaway with it, laughing and jeering as their victim ran to and fro. Frequently the victim never got his stuff back, but the humiliation and helplessness provided the real injury.

              This was horrifying and new to me. And being in the lone nerd category, I knew I was a prime target, so I decided on a strategy: pick a vulnerable member of the keep-away team and, when he had my stuff, kick off my own personal game of smear the queer (the early ’80s were a time of gross insensitivity and rampant bias, as you know). Maybe I’d get my stuff back, maybe not. But I could sure as hell ruin their fun.

              I’ve greatly enjoyed watching Trump find his own ways to ruin the cool kids’ fun.

              As for me, although some people did pick on me in other ways, nobody ever tried that particular game on me. Maybe luck, maybe they somehow knew I wouldn’t put up with it. (Postscript: Some retrograde dumbass did try it much later, when I was in my mid-20s. He regretted it.)

              Like

              1. All the better if you relentlessly and patiently STQ each in turn. Can be spread over weeks. Ambush.

                Let your theme music be “The Planet Killer” from Star Trek. And they ain’t Kirk.

                Liked by 1 person

    2. I don’t know if MAGA will succeed, but at least somebody is trying.

      This.

      Right now, the thing that gives me fits is what gives Sarah and others hope: we’ve decentralized and uncomplicated so much stuff that between 3D printing, AI, drones, and things like CRISPR, having a Mad Scientist lab/machine shop in your basement is a real possibility.

      And one of the constants of the Left and Islamics is a Gotterdammerung fixation that will lead to someone being stupid enough to try something insane.

      They can’t ALL be incompetent, and “we only have to be lucky ONCE.”

      Liked by 3 people

  8. On a completely unrelated tangent, you’d mentioned previously that you’re number dyslexic? I think eldest daughter has the same issue; we’re doing double digit subtraction and she seems to be assembling the digits at random.

    Where there any techniques you’ve found to help with that?

    Thank you!

    Like

    1. Colored filters can help with some forms of dyslexia. Your eyes constantly move while you’re reading, and in some people, the rod and cone cells don’t all respond at the same speed. Parts of what you see arrive before or after other parts, wind up out of place, and the visual cortex can’t assemble the image accurately. Filtering out some colors of light so only one set of cells are active can thin out the jumbled data.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Sigh. Make her aware she has a problem. Then have her triple verify she copied numbers in the right order.
      For my kids just knowing they had the problem was the killer improvement for their math. They also each have tricks, if you want me to ask them? I know there are books and videos teaching people how to deal.
      And don’t be too despondent: Knowing they had a problem, both kids ran out the math their college offered. Math was never a problem. Younger son is a genuine mathematical genius like his dad. (He’s also a writing genius and a drawing genius. And one of those peculiar people who never want to do that which comes easily to them. Sigh. Child my parents wished on me. I don’t know if I’d be a writer if changing languages and cultures hadn’t been so challenging.)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I’ll start with the copying and see how that goes. One of the challenges she’s got is ADD, and math isn’t something she likes to fixate on, so we will see how that goes first.

        She is very sharp, but not that interested in math. Drawing she’ll fixate on hard, but not so much math.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. It’s all a plot. All of it.

    Remember, as a wise old wizard once said.

    “Hobbits as miserable slaves would please them far more than hobbits happy and free. There is such a thing as malice and revenge.”

    TPTB who are part of the plot expect to see us all ( whoever they can’t kill off first) as miserable slaves. Tanking the worldwide economy is only part of it. Destroying our families is another.

    Don’t give them the satisfaction.

    Stay happy and free. And keep the necessary things where you can find them in the dark. And do your best to keep communication lines open to all loved ones. Battle field conversions are a thing and you want them to know who to go to in need.

    Meanwhile, I’m off to second breakfast. Doing my part to stay happy and also free.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. No one does HappySpite like Infantry. (grin)

        Thus “Don’t worry. Be happy.” takes on an ominous tone when delivered from behind a bayonet.

        “Oh, that wasn’t for you. I am self affirming.”

        (GRIN)

        Liked by 5 people

    2. Or to paraphrase an overly proud individual on the other side with more cunning than sense,

      It’s better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

      Like

      1. ???

        Hell already has a ruler. Heaven is the best bet. Service Guarantees Citizenship. Would you like to know more? Enlist!

        (grin)

        Liked by 2 people

          1. ??? Did you forget to check the batteries in the snark detector? I mean really, mine was over the top.

            But to take yours at face value, even -that- one serves. Lol.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I think what threw me was when you referenced the ruler of Hell, given that’s who I was quoting (via Milton).

              And yes, you’re right. Even he serves, though he hates the fact.

              Liked by 1 person

  10. “It’s also why we can industrialize faster and better with new tech. Unfortunately that requires better transportation technology and better transportation in middle-of-nowhere-flyover. In fact, those are all things we need yesterday.”

    :looks at recent crashes where the truck drivers weren’t from ’round here: Well getting the regulations out of the trucking industry and cleaning up the fraud there would be a very good start. Anyone got their Rep Senators and Rep House members’ numbers so they can bend their ears on that point? Loudly and persistently? I’m given to understand 50 letters will get their attention, because they consider that “a lot.” I think people who have Rep Senators and Rep House critters can do well over that number, given the right impetus.

    :glances at economy: I’d call that a good impetus, no?

    Liked by 2 people

      1. George Ryan did time for far less, but he was a Republican and that scandal basically ended the Illinois Republican party in statewide races.

        I’ll not hold my breath that there will be a single arrest in California, despite the larger scale and brazenness of the crimes.

        Liked by 2 people

            3. I was thinking of the ones that violate federal law, thus are auto-void.

              Some for example with “no name given”.

              Those are void.

              Liked by 1 person

  11. Speaking of H1Bs, how much of that is fraud? There are instances of multiple companies owned by the same people filing more petitions so that they have a higher chance of getting one approved. (If you find an IT company with [generic company name] that hits every square on your buzzword bingo card, that’s a clue.) I’ve heard those stories from a relatively small cog in the machine who sees a small number of H1Bs. H1B fraud has to be an iceberg.

    I’ve seen stories about people running scams to help other folks get ‘U’ visas. People stage crimes so they can stay here…

    And speaking of Third World corruption, if you read news stories about how there aren’t very many foreign truck drivers in the US, that’s pretty blatantly a lie. There are about 3.5 million truck drivers in the US. In FY2025, truck drivers made 14 million inbound border crossings. I couldn’t find a a breakdown of the nationality of the drivers. If truck drivers mirror the US population as a whole, about 1.4 million of them have a passport. I found some Canadian statistics that show in FY2025, about 700,000 US plated trucks entered Canada and about 5 million Canadian plated trucks entered Canada…so, if you hear stories about how there are no foreign truckers driving in the US…that’s a lie. Foreign truckers making pickups in the US to deliver in the US is a cabotage violation, so, there’s some fraud.

    Almost any where you look past the surface in our immigration system, you can easily find fraud…

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I’d be very surprised if the H1B system is anything less than 90% fraud.

      That said, there are honest people using it; I may be naive/uninformed, but I’m pretty sure the company I work for is one of them — practically obsessed about hiring for competence and expertise, and given its disadvantageous physical location and challenging line of work, good people can be hard to find. Plenty of H1B folks working here, but they’re filling gaps, not pushing out Americans.

      The C-suite here is *very* upset about tariffs and possible H1B restrictions, but I can’t summon much sympathy for them. Yes, it seems unfair and imposes an unwelcome cost on the company, but if the bleeding isn’t stopped, the whole society (economy and all, including your business) could go kaput, and “fair” will factor into it even less than it does now.

      Liked by 6 people

      2. Everything in India is patronage. All jobs are paid for. Same with H1B. The hiring managers are making mint. We have no antibodies against this behavior because the cultures are fundamentally different.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. For each and every H1B the company has to jump through hoops to prove they tried and failed to hire U.S. Persons for that job.

        The main issue in tech is H1B indentured servitude has been going on for so long that it has impacted what majors U.S. students graduate with. If you spend years getting that difficult challenging EE (nowadays likely an MSEE as the entry bar) in a specialty that is jammed with grossly underpaid indentures, your post graduation prospects are dim.

        The pain of a hard burn is likely the only way to cauterize the H1B wound.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. This. It’s turned into a chicken-and-egg problem. But the only way we can even start to get a handle on it is to take the H1B program out back and Old Yeller it. And the student visa problem along with it. Then we can think about coming up with something more efficient, more fraud-resistant, and most importantly, much smaller.

          As for nepotistic hiring, that will be much harder to handle. You would have to discriminate against putting Indians in management and that ship is (a) illegal and has (b) already sailed. I’m not quite sure how you’d fix that. But if we destroy the H1B program and start loading up positions for American out of college again, we can at least start to fix it for the next generation.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. re: the illegality of discrimination against certain nationalities, smart organizations may have to take a page from the Left’s playbook and do it anyway…just in a roundabout, sneaky way. When I worked in the university system, the state passed a law banning the consideration of race in college admissions, aid, and scholarships. Using race as a criteria for those things did not stop or even slow down; it accelerated and got done by proxy methods instead.

            Like

            1. They passed one of those laws here in California (voters passed it, and the legislature has been trying to get voters to overturn it ever since), and the admissions offices switched to zip codes.

              Like

          2. As for nepotistic hiring, that will be much harder to handle. You would have to discriminate against putting Indians in management and that ship is (a) illegal and has (b) already sailed. I’m not quite sure how you’d fix that.

            No it’s really simple: you actually use the discrimination laws against them.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I wish. My employer continues to happily sailing along bringing in Indians left right and center, both employees and contractors, and the useless HR department says nothing. Because they are, of course, An Diversity even when they are 75% of a department (like mine, if you include both contract and FTE). Very few, maybe no, publicly traded companies are going to buck the proxy voting power of the big and liberal institutional investors like Blackrock and Vanguard unless there is a massive stockholder revolt, and that will VERY rarely happen. So if Blackrock and Vanguard want DEI (and they do) then DEI there will be and the hell with every non-discrimination law in existence. Until those massive companies are taken care of, and then their Fortune 500 clients are prosecuted for anti-White discrimination and C-suite managers end up doing jail time? Not much will change.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. No, unfortunately what has to happen is that a whistleblower (either someone working at the company, or someone who applied and didn’t get hired despite being qualified) needs to file a racial discrimination complaint with the Feds. My understanding is that the latest USSC ruling on the matter means that employers can’t duck behind the “affirmative action” excuse anymore.

                Liked by 1 person

        2. It’s doing a number on working conditions in medicine too. We have entire departments of entire medical establishments where the primary language is Chinese.
          BUT ALSO the hoops? Are mostly faked at this point. They were already in the 90s when husband, looking for jobs, found that most of the ads asking for the impossible — like proficiency with a software that’s only been out for six months, but they ask for five years experience — were there so they could say no one met them and they needed H1B visas…. Eh.

          Liked by 3 people

            1. The 90s was before 20 years. Hugs the Moose. Look, we’re getting old.
              And yes. The problem is …. they can’t just stop it cold. Because everything will collapse.
              Building barriers and demanding companies train employees (Which LIG weirdly omitted from what Trump said. Uh. I wonder why. Then again he also heard lazy and stupid, somehow!) means we should eventually be able to stop the train. Oh, maybe in a year or so. If a miracle occurs here.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. Wait a minute….the 90s were over 20 years ago?!

                When did THAT happen!

                Geeze I’m old.

                But so much wiser. At least I know a commie is a bad person no matter how long they natter on about how unfair it is that other people have money and that everyone with a dollar more than them should give all they have earned away.

                So it’s all good.

                Liked by 1 person

                  2. BIL is planning their 40th in 3 years, September. Which will also be, middle sister’s 45th, October; and our 50th, December. “How even?” I know. Right?

                    Like

              2. I’d easily settle for no more H-1Bs issued, and all H-1Bs go home at the end of their current three-year term. No green cards, no extensions, no renewals, no exceptions, don’t let the door hit you on the way back to Hyderabad, do not pass GO, do not collect 2 lakh rupees. Three years from enactment, there are zero H-1Bs in the United States and they are not to be replaced by ANY other visa type until that point is reached. Likewise some of the other visas that work similarly to the H-1B (there are dozens). That to me is the absolute minimum we should be looking at right now. Stop the program, let them attrit as their visas expire, deport them if they overstay, let time bring it down to zero, then see where we are.

                As for student visas, those I’d like to just see gutted and sent home by the hundreds of thousands, just to break the power of the academic complex if nothing else. But I am one of those people who is “burn it all down” about certain things.

                Liked by 1 person

            2. Well over 20, year well-well. Heh. That stuff was synthesized to document compliance hiring of H1B folks, and had been for a long time, back in 1988 when I got my first tech cubical job.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. I can’t swear to the ’80s. But definitely ’90, ’96, ’02 – ’09, which were the years I was actively looking (tech). Not looking over son’s shoulder as he has looked for work, especially chemistry. Wouldn’t know what the software equivalent *dodge would be there. Do not remember any that companies were using for forestry. Helps that the jobs there are extremely physical. That problem was the owls.

                (*) Software dodge = 5 years experience in tech only released 6 months, and even beta available no more than 12 to 18 months.

                Liked by 1 person

          2. Re fake hoops – oh, yeah, big time. Entire departments dedicated to doing this proforma fiction writing. They were even still using newspaper ads as proof they tried well after newspaper classified sections were a joke. But that stuff gets pointed to by H1B Indenture defenders to “prove” these are jobs ‘murricans won’t do.

            Liked by 2 people

              2. I used to comment obsessively at The Truth About Guns (don’t go there anymore; it started declining after Farago sold it), and the keyword auto-moderation went absolutely wild during the covidiocy, to the point where one out of every three comments I made got binned for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if words like “defender” got added to some great big, secret list of insurrectiony, violence-coded dog whistles used by evil gun nuts.

                Liked by 1 person

        3. What I’m hearing, though, is that a large chunk of the people who graduate in the STEM fields are ultimately ending up with jobs outside of those fields. This suggests that even if some H1Bs are required, there are a lot that aren’t.

          Liked by 5 people

          2. FGastest H1B reform EVER – every H1B hire is an automatic 10% reduction in the pay (with any sneaky bypassing meaning firing of ALL parties involved in the subterfuge – possibly criminal charges as well) of the hiring critter.

            Practical? Probably not. Just a beautiful dream…

            Like

    2. “Speaking of H1Bs, how much of that is fraud?”

      Most of it. The company or hospital has to show that there are no Americans to do that job. Given the employment stats for doctors and engineers, that is clearly not the case. But the INS lets them slide anyway, because Reasons.

      I’ve seen Somali goat herders get a Green Card in a week so they can work at a pizza factory, where a Canadian with two degrees AND an MD couldn’t get one in ten years to work at an under-served hospital in Hooterville MidWestern State. Because Reasons.

      Personally I believe some (most) of those reasons come in fat brown envelopes delivered to Certain Individuals by hand, but I’m just some guy.

      I did notice though that DOGE did not go after the H1B on their own, and also that Elon did not seem super confident and forthcoming talking about it on Joe Rogan recently. Almost as if somebody scared him.

      So many fat brown envelopes. Who’s to say where some of those ended up?

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Musk has spoken in favor of H1Bs at points. Given the kinds of companies he runs and the things they do, I suspect he only uses them when he *really* needs them (and I don’t think SpaceX is legally allowed to use them). He’s probably not the kind of guy who’s going to bring in a foreign worker just to save a few bucks. If he does it, it’s probably because he thinks the foreigner will actively contribute. So his view on them is probably different from that of most of the rest of us.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I’m crashing after getting a little overstimulated (1), but Musk’s position is likely to be complicated.

          He definitely started with a pro bias, and got burned over it.

          But also, he has money to spend on private intelligence, and he came out of a very bad situation. (South Africa during the Cold War.)

          He does not want to screw up his defense contracts, he does not want to get run out of the coutnry, he does not want stupid people working for him, and he aslo want people who can keep his desired pace.

          (1) long day, nice event at work, but I would be crashing at this point of my schedule anyway

          Liked by 1 person

      2. I think some of thr Reasons are well-meaning thoughtlessness. “Poor Fateh from Mogadishu will never find a job if we don’t help him! Alec with his two degrees will find a job in no time, he doesn’t need help!”

        The mindset is everywhere. Whether it’s actual oikophobia (fear and hatred of the familiar) or misguided “charity,” the fundamental assumption is traditional institution/individual doesn’t need help, but the outgroup/religion is poor and needs the help of good people to find its feet. The fallacy is that the traditional thing is immortal and invulnerable and so whatever they do that attacks it doesn’t matter.

        Liked by 3 people

    3. https://x.com/amandalouise416/status/1989168894448148612

      —

      We’ll be exposing documents showing thousands of H-1B workers with no real jobs…just waiting to be sold to clients when work appears. This is what the industry calls “the bench.”

      These workers aren’t hired for special skills. They’re hired because they’re cheap, dependent, and easy to control.

      They’re trained after arriving, their resumes are rewritten, and the cartel goes a step further… offering kickbacks to make sure their benched inventory gets the job before Americans ever get the chance. (And yes .. we have the receipts.)

      The “bench” alone shatters the lie of a worker shortage. If thousands of H-1B visa holders are being stockpiled and sitting idle, waiting to be sold into jobs, that’s not a shortage ..that’s a surplus

      Americans never stood a chance:

      This system isn’t about finding talent; it’s about following the money. Every layer.. the labor broker, the hiring manager, the immigration attorney, even the regulators (USCIS) gets paid when a foreign worker fills the job. They get nothing when an American does. This criminal enterprise wasn’t selling software or innovation, it was selling visas and people, and America’s own immigration system enabled it.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. There have been convictions. For example, both Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Cognizent have been convicted (more than once, I think) for fraud or other misconduct. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop the companies from doing business in the US, unfortunately (likely in part because it would break their existing service delivery contracts with local companies). But authorities are keeping an eye out for this sort of stuff.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. “Understand: I’m not saying that the economy is in good shape. It’s not.”

    Compared to what? Look north young lady, and see the bullet you dodged striking home. Money is fleeing Canaduh and -running- south to the USA as hard as it can go.

    China is a puddle a mile wide and an inch deep. Everything they’ve built in the last 20 years is made of Styrofoam and chicken wire with stucco sprayed on it. China has a huge navy… of tuna boats. They look like destroyers and frigates, but they’re tin-can fishing boats behind the paint. One hit and that’s it. Sea drones, anyone?

    The Russians are still driving cars from the 1980s and trucks from the 1950s, and they do not have container shipping. Yeah that’s right, freight arrives and gets hand-bombed out of the containers into a box truck right at the port. Because why would you start a container freight company and have it stolen from you by an “oligarch”? You wouldn’t do that.

    Russia started trying to invade Ukraine in 2022, thought they’d mop up in two weeks, and they’re STILL THERE. Because no container freight, army of useless conscripts, and trucks from the 1950s.

    [Side note, did y’all know a HIMARS rocket launcher can be resupplied by one (1) female soldier, five feet of fight’n fury, with a truck? Yep. She drives up to the HIMARS, uses the crane on her truck to drop the container of missiles onto the launcher, then boogies out of there with the empty can to get a re-load. Five girlies and five trucks in the rotation, you can shoot missiles all day long. Russian trucks don’t have cranes. They do every tube one at a time, by hand.]

    So you know, could be worse. ~:D

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Russians all seem to suffer from brain rot sometimes. Who launches an attack into Ukraine in late February? Are you kidding me? Did they learn nothing from the Germans and Napoleon? Apparently not.

        Tank war in the mud! Genius! And here we are, three years later, they’re sniping each other with FPV drones, and the front lines haven’t moved ten miles in a year.

        And still hand-bombing all the freight. I suppose we should be grateful.

        Liked by 3 people

    3. No trucks with cranes, all logistics in small crates, and no use of forklifts and palletized cargo, let alone containerized, at supply depots or at field supply points in Formerly Red Army propaganda were a major tell to western observers that their loggie stuff was stuck back 80 years ago in the Great Patriotic War.

      Liked by 2 people

    4. How well do the tiny ladies do changing truck tires under field conditions? Un futzing the crane? Getting the M2 machinegun out of the arms room and onto the truck?

      (grin)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Dunno, some of those girls are stronk like bull. ~:D

        I figure they could handle the HUGE fricking tires the same way I do, let gravity do all the work and be McGuyver about the lifting and carrying of heavy crap. Amazing what you can do with a pinch bar and a come-along when you don’t get to go home until it’s fixed. The -big- tires, even the boys use the crane. 240lbs, you’re not getting that down off the rack yourself.

        Un-f*ing the crane, that’s depot-level unless all you’re doing is rewinding a kinked cable or replacing a leaking hydraulic line.

        Like

        1. M2 machinegun – get your squad’s weightlifter. Have him carry the receiver chunk from arms room to motorpool 500-700+m away. Watch in amazement as he presses the thing up on the track/truck like a toy. Rest of squad adds all the removable bits.

          The -real- ironmongers carry the -assembled- gun, less tripod, and raise it up.

          (goggle)

          Last time I saw ladies trying to move an M2, it took four of them to pick up the gun with a pair of straps they had made, and carry it, while the rest of the ladies carried the removeable chunks. Worked, and they obviously had practiced.

          Liked by 2 people

  13. Having lived through the Ford/Carter economy and how long it took for the Regan recovery to kick in… IOW BTDT, not going to start hysterics base on random internet bots and fruitcakes pimping for the DNC/FSB/MSS

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Exactly! Same here. We were just starting out (-ish), during the Carter years. We survived that. Not near as bad.

      Trump 2.0, and team, has been only in office, hmmm, 10 months. They’ve been fighting the courts and bureaucracy every step of the way. They are whittling as fast as they can.

      Like

  14. ”…at least prices aren’t doubling…”

    True that. And I have data. From my Costco receipts:

    Half&half – 7.69 last Monday and 7.69 last March. It did go up a bit from 6.99 last December due to Bidenflation.

    Cheddar Cheese. – 12.49 last March and 10.99 last Monday. CHEAPER!!

    chicken pot pies – 12.99 last February and 12.89 last Monday.

    water softener salt – 7.99 last March and 7.99 last Monday.

    the coffee did rise noticeably over the year bringing it back to where it was in 2023. Prices just all over the place.

    And milk. 2.75 in January and 2.59 now.

    I see mostly stable or decreasing prices. Don’t trust the media liars

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Interesting. I’ve been hearing about coffee prices going up — usually delivered in a sky-is-falling tone — but it doesn’t seem egregiously expensive to me, and nobody’s saying how it compares to previous prices. And all three things are perfectly explained if the price has just gone back up to where it was under der Bidenfuhrer.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Coffee crop had some hits this year. Chocolate has had several bad years, and is far more restricted in origin than coffee. (and comes from places that are often basket-case batguano crazy)

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Super fancy coffee, like MomRed drinks, has gone up 1/3 over the past four years. Chocolate covered espresso beans (a weakness of mine) were $7 for a half pound. They are now $11/half pound. The latest jump came this summer, from nine to eleven.

        Less fancy coffee has risen, but not by as much.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Cheddar Cheese. – 12.49 last March and 10.99 last Monday. CHEAPER!!

      But—this is important—was it Tillamook?

      (I swear, the 2.5 pound Tillamook block has barely moved in price in 15 years. Other stores, it’s $15.99 for the 2 pound baby loaf, but Costco has barely moved the needle.)

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Our kids will go through three 2.5lb blocks in ten days, that’s why.

          And it’s not really settling. Tillamook is our baseline for sharp cheddar. Of course, we’re on the West Coast, so that makes sense.

          Like

            1. Because Tillamook is good?

              Understand that there was a year or two when we were so broke that we weren’t buying cheese, because we could afford the store brands, and most of them were no good. Tillamook is our pricing baseline because of that. Fancier cheeses are on an “as available on discount” basis.

              Liked by 2 people

        1. Like Tillamook, but prefer Cabot. Locally, Cabot’s a bit cheaper. But you generally can’t get Cabot west of the Mississippi.

          We got to tour the Tillamook plant a few years ago (erk, may have been pre-Covid) and it was very well run. An example of a big working co-op. My biggest disappointment was not getting to the cheese sampling bar. Just too many people already there scoring cheese.

          Like

        1. “Pinconning“

          –

          Never seen it. We typically have specialty cheeses (special kiosk), generic (Kroger), and Tillamook/*Bandon. Not even the local dairies (Dari Mart, Lochmead) have cheeses. Sour cream, cream, milk, etc., but not cheeses. Do have a cafe restaurant, and some of Costco’s per-prepared dishes that specialize with Wisconsin cheddar and other cheeses. But not the cheese blocks.

          (*) Both on Oregon coast. Bandon used to be a separate company but acquired by Tillamook decades ago now. At least it wasn’t shuttered as originally feared.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. One of my favorites — Cougar Gold: https://creamery.wsu.edu/cougar-cheese/ Sharp cheddar. White, not gold, comes in a can. Deeee-licious… We buy a few cans every year when they have sales on the end cuts. It gets even better as it ages.

          The white cheddar descriptions on the Pinconning website are exactly what you get if you leave a can of Cougar Gold in the fridge for a couple-three years (or 10 or 20…somebody had a tasting of 32-year-old Cougar Gold once, and the alumni magazine was all over it). I’ma have to get hold of some of that Pinconning…sounds amazing.

          Like

      4. Our Costco Tillamook has gone up to $10…from $7, in six years.

        It’s literally cheaper than the shredded store brand on sale at the grocery store.

        I use to joke we had Costco memberships just to get cheese, but these days? It’s actually paying for the membership.

        Like

        1. You have a larger family count than we do. Even just with the 3 of us, Costco membership, even with recent membership raise, shopping alone pays that. I’m not buying anything in bulk that can’t be used quickly or stored long term. That isn’t counting the 2% executive membership and Citi Costco credit card returns.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. :laughs: Oh, gads, that reminds me of a “discussion” with a relative… she couldn’t see how we did any shopping at costco.

            “Everything is in too big of containers to get used before it goes bad!”

            She was, at the time, single– and her office had a lunch bar. So the only thing she ate at home was dinner.

            As opposed to our then half dozen minions, all of whom are home all day.

            Boxes of Costco cereal are the only ones that don’t get used up in two days!

            Liked by 1 person

  17. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS WRONG, IT DOESN’T MEAN THE SCREAMING ISN’T A PSYOPS:   The Economics of

  18. My health insurance premiums are not going up. Neither are another guy’s and he lives several states away and works at an entirely unrelated industry. No matter what time I go home from work there are 18 wheelers moving goods along my stretch of freeway. It’s an artery from west to east and they’re in my way BTW just sayin. The ‘sale prices’ at my local grocery store keep being consistently pre autopen.

    Gasoline prices here are still heinous but we get our gas from CA.

    Like

    1. Our gas just dropped to $2.99/gal at Costco. Been dropping steadily. Don’t drive I-5 much, but every time it is steady with the large 18 wheelers, single, double, and triples. Does not matter what time or what day. Even taking the passes into the interior or coast the 18 wheelers are rolling, singles and doubles (triples not allowed on highways).

      Liked by 1 person

  19. Strange.

    I thought I “clicked the box” but I’m not getting comments.

    And yes, it “shows” that I “clicked the box”.

    Like

  20. The Orange Thing is a good metaphor. “It’s clobberin time!” Is good for 2028 hats, but he will be retited to Troll Emeretus Croceus by 2029.

    Hulk gets more collateral damage. Underdog maxxes it out.

    Like

  21. The stupid right only has a chance to get in if we ignore the primaries and (and the campaigns that lead up to them)

    In the general election, if the choice is the stupid right or the insane left, the stupid right needs to win.

    But in the primaries it’s the stupid right vs the non-stupid right.

    Like

  22. “the economy is still in trouble”

    Hemp prohibition looks to destroy a lot of small businesses and small farmers. There are efforts to get a better bill in place before planting season decisions. It will definitely spawn a number of legal fights. The economy does not need the adjustments this will require at this delicate point.

    Like

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