When I saw that Tesla stock was up today (which is a rare occurrence), I thought Elon was back on Twitter but alas, I found a different reason. Tesla is getting free money.
As mentioned in a previous installment, Tesla is being subsidized by European automakers so they can make their emission goals thanks to the nonsensical fake environmental “science” of carbon taxes and emission credits. Now Bloomberg has published an article that Tesla is also being subsidized by American automakers GM (Government Motors) and Fiat-Chrysler.
For years, Tesla Inc. has hauled in revenue by selling credits to other carmakers that needed to offset sales of polluting vehicles to U.S. consumers. These sorts of transactions have largely been shrouded in secrecy — until now.
General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV disclosed to the state of Delaware earlier this year that they reached agreements to buy federal greenhouse gas credits from Tesla. While the filings are light on detail, they haven’t been reported on previously. They also represent the first acknowledgments from carmakers that they’re turning to Tesla for help to comply with intensifying U.S. environmental regulations.
The deal with GM will come as a surprise to those who thought years of sales of plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volts and all-electric Chevy Bolts would leave the largest U.S. automaker in the clear with regard to regulatory compliance.
Oh, also buried in this article is a nugget about the 2020 election.
And the company wants to bank the credits for future years when emissions rules get tougher — especially if a Democrat beats President Donald Trump in 2020.
“This might not be a bad hedge,” said Mike Taylor, the founder and president of Emission Advisors, a Houston-based environmental credit consultant and broker. “If a Democrat gets elected in 2020, GM may need the credits and prices may go up.”
If you read further into the article …
Tesla has generated almost $2 billion in revenue from selling regulatory credits since 2010.
So between US and European manufacturers, we now know that Tesla has banked at least $4.3 billion dollars just for existing—and producing nothing.
Once again, it is proof positive that in a truly free-market economy, Tesla would not cut it as a viable business. Only because of government interference–direct and indirect–does this company still draw breath.
I don’t get it. Black people are not only agreeing with the KKK and Nazis on their views of race but defending them publicly. It’s been almost 150 years since Lincoln freed the slaves and they still don’t want to leave the plantation. In fact, they are defending the proposition that some men have the right to decide who should live or not live. The strong unilaterally deciding the fate of the weak. Oh, and to them, I’m the racist for pointing it out. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
I could start this blog in many ways, but I know that I won’t move the needle in this arena for most people. Sadly, folks would rather deal with feelings than facts. I’ve known the deck was stacked against truth and reason, but that belief was reinforced on my recent trip to Washington D.C.
I paid a visit to the recently opened museum on African American History. Black folks have had many accomplishments in this country, but I think the narrative is muddled and missing direction. Christianity was missing in places it should have been front and center, but then that’s the trick isn’t it? If black folks were following Christ, then they wouldn’t be agreeing with the KKK and defending the Klan’s philosophy as right.
I also visited the Martin Luther King Memorial and that too was missing something; namely, the endpoint of the racial struggle was missing. The “I Have a Dream” speech was not there. It should have been the cornerstone for all races to strive for the ideal King annunciated when he said, “I have a dream that my four little chi1dren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The goal of the civil rights movement as defined by King was a colorblind society where everyone was looked at as a child of God and we were all evaluated by who we are on the inside not the outside.
King, as a good Republican, knew that the group needed opportunity, but it was the individual that would then be able to stand or fall on his merits. However, those claiming to be successors of King, flipped this idea on its head and embraced a system of never-ending dependency where they just happened to be the leaders. Many of these “leaders” claim to be clergymen but their gospel is not based on biblical truths but Marxism, propaganda from the Klan, Liberation Theology, and other assorted nonsense that tickles the ears of listeners.
Blacks want the Right to Kill Each Other
This false teaching is currently on display all over the Internet and your evening news. Black people are demanding the right to kill other black people without repercussions. Why because black people are stupid and poor and need to be controlled. Not my words, but theirs.
Here are just a few examples.
Ohio Rep. Janine Boyd – D
A female Democrat state representative from Ohio, Rep. Janine Boyd, drafted an amendment last week seeking to have black babies exempted from pro-life legislation dubbed the “heartbeat bill,” which bars babies with detectable heartbeats (around six weeks gestation) from being killed via abortion.
As reported by LifeNews, Boyd’s bill “would have given an exemption to African American women to abort their unborn babies for any reason up to the state’s current abortion limit, 20 weeks.” . . .
“Black slaves were once treated like cattle and put out to stud in order to create generations of more slaves,” argued the Democrat. “Our country is not far enough beyond our history to legislate as if it is.” . . .
Former Planned Parenthood executive turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson ripped Boyd’s targeted amendment, snarking that “apparently a 38% national abortion rate in the African-American community isn’t enough.”
She then continued. “You can’t control women because, I don’t know if y’all heard, but women are the same as humans. And I’m Leslie Dracarys Jones. “Why do all of these weird ass men care what women choose to do with their bodies? I don’t care what you do with your 65-year-old droopy a— b—s.”
“When women have a choice, women have freedom,” Jones exclaimed to huge applause.
“The fact that nine states are doing this means this really is a war on women,” Jones said in conclusion. “You can’t tell me what to do with my body.”
Rapper Offset of the group Migos has slammed Alabama’s controversial abortion law, comparing it to slavery.
The rapper unloaded on Twitter on Saturday evening, criticizing Alabama’s law, which outlaws abortion at any stage and does not allow an exemption for victims of rape or incest. Abortion will only be permitted in the state should the pregnancy pose a life-threatening health risk to the mother, should it become enforced in 2020.
There’s more examples and we’ll get to another shortly. But first a look at how this situation came to be.
Vocabulary: Malthusian
In his magnum opus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, published in six editions from 1798 to 1826, Malthus wrote:
“All children born, beyond what would be required to keep up the population to a desired level, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them by the deaths of grown persons. . . . Therefore … we should facilitate, instead of foolishly and vainly endeavoring to impede, the operations of nature in producing this mortality; and if we dread the too frequent visitation of the horrid form of famine, we· should sedulously encourage the other forms of destruction, which we compel nature to use. Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the country, we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations. But above all, we should reprobate specific remedies for ravaging diseases; and restrain those benevolent, but much mistaken men, who have thought they were doing a service to mankind by projecting schemes for the total extirpation of particular disorders.
Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood p 55-56
Thomas Malthus 1766 – 1834
Vocabulary: Eugenics
Eugenics the study and control of procreation as a means of improving hereditary characteristics of future generations. The concept has sometimes been used in a pseudoscientific way as an excuse for unethical, racist, or even genocidal practices such as involuntary sterilization or certain other practices in Nazi Germany and elsewhere.
Malthusian beliefs coupled with Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” allowed racists the world over to claim a scientific basis for the superiority of one group over another. This fueled calls for eugenics programs; euthanasia, abortion, infanticide, forced sterilization, genocide, and other atrocities. Margaret Sanger–who you are about to meet–was a leading voice in Europe and the United States for these ideals. Her beliefs overthrew the morality of her day and replaced it with one of convenience and death. A belief system which is thriving to this day.
Margaret Sanger racist architect of Planned Parenthood
Margaret Sanger: Architect of American Eugenics
OK, so where did black folks get the idea to kill other black folks? Why, from a white lady named Margaret Sanger and her merry band from the Birth Control League. Sanger has a long history of such rhetorical gems as these:
“More children from the fit, less from the unfit that is the chief issue of birth control.”
“the most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. And the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
For those of you that went to public school or are lifelong members of the Democrat Party, here’s some info you may not have heard.
Margaret Sanger had learned of eugenics from Havelock Ellis. She first acknowledged the place of birth control in the eugenicists’ program when she announced in 1919: “More children from the fit, less from the unfit that is the chief issue of birth control.” Mrs. Sanger usually used the word “unfit” to refer to the mentally retarded and physically deformed. “Birth control,” she said in 1920, “is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, or preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.” Increasingly, she saw feeblemindedness, the bogey of all the hereditarians, as antecedent to poverty or social organization in the genesis of social problems. “The philosophy of birth control,” she said in 1922, “points out that as long as civilized communities encourage unrestrained fecundity in the “normal” members of the population—always of course under the guise of decency and morality—and penalize every attempt to introduce the principle of discrimination and responsibility in parenthood, they will be faced with the ever-increasing problem of feeblemindedness, that fertile parent of degeneracy, crime, and pauperism.”
Margaret Sanger and others considered the most menacing aspect of proliferating unfitness to be the growth of the custodial welfare state. “Protective and paternalistic laws,” said a speaker at the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference in 1925, benefited “the least desirable elements of society.” Such laws, he said, “are usually put forward upon moral or humane or altruistic grounds and in nearly all cases by professional agitators and stupid busybodies… What they actually accomplish is the preservation of the misfit, the degenerate, the low, the unworthy and the more or less defective elements at the expense of the strong and exceptional.” If practiced by the right people, he suggested, birth control could wipe out those evils for which welfare legislation gave at best merely symptomatic relief.
That Spencerian attitude, embracing the familiar tenets of individualism, elitism, and antistatism, provided one base for the eugenics program. In 1922 Mrs. Sanger registered her acceptance of such ideas when she said that if society applied to reproduction the techniques of efficiency employed by “modern stockbreeders,” there would be no need for measures that were “fostering the good-for-nothing at the expense of the good.”
Birth Control in America by David M. Kennedy p 115-117
By 1920 eugenicists were specifically advocating the adoption of birth control by the slumdwellers and impoverished, who had always been Margaret Sanger’s chief concern.
Kennedy p 118
Because of her Malthusian and Eugenic connections, she had become closely associated with the scientists and theorists who put together Nazi Germany’s “race purification” program. She had openly endorsed the euthanasia, sterilization, abortion, and infanticide programs of the early Reich. She published a number of articles in the Birth Control Review that mirrored Hitler’s Aryan-White Supremacist rhetoric. She even commissioned Dr. Ernst Rudin, the director of the Nazi Medical Experimentation program, to write for The Review himself.
Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood p 61
Early on, Planned Parenthood adopted a similar strategy against the church. Margaret Sanger recognized that the church was “the enemy” of her crusade. But she also recognized that· an all-out frontal assault on God’s People was suicidal. And so she put together a “Balak strategy.” She relied on wolves in sheep’s clothing (2 Timothy 3:6).
Margaret began by wooing young and ambitious ministers with the trinkets and baubles of power, prestige, privilege, and position. She doted on them, feeding their sense of self-importance. She enticed them with honors. She invited them to sit on her boards. She patronized their pet projects. She wined them and dined them. She rewarded them with trips, junkets, and tours. She knew just how to tantalize them with attention and appreciation. Her winsomeness was irresistible and her thoroughness was incomparable.
But even without all that alluring charm, Margaret’s campaign to seduce Christians would probably have won support in three broad sectors of the church.
Racists. Especially during the Great Depression when tensions were high and jobs were scarce, racists saw Margaret’s Eugenic plans and programs as an open opportunity to eliminate whole “undesired” races and “dysgenic” classes. Tragically many of them carried out their vendetta in the name of Christ.
Lettie Perkins grew up in a small sharecropper’s cabin deep in the heart of rural South Carolina. When she was just a youngster she remembers a countywide tent revival meeting cosponsored by several large all-White Baptist churches and several social service agencies, including Planned Parenthood. “We were all excited,” she said. “The revival was always the social event of the year. And that year was to be the first time Blacks were allowed to attend. We could hardly contain ourselves. Most of the women bought or made new dresses. We got hats and gloves. We really were going to do things right. It was like a debutante’s coming-out for us.”
The pastor of one of the sponsoring churches spent a good deal of his time for nearly a month before the revival making sure that black pastors in the area turned their people out. “I don’t know why we were so naive at the time,” Lettie told me. “It was so obvious that he was setting us up for something.”
Indeed, he was. On the day that the revival was to begin, Planned Parenthood set up several tents. Blacks were herded into them and “counseled” on the “benefits” of sterilization and birth limitation. “We weren’t even allowed to go into the revival meeting itself until we’d listened to their whole spiel,” Lettie said. “And even then, they segregated us off to one side. Like usual.”
Most of the Black families were outraged. The blatantly racist collusion between Planned Parenthood and the all-White churches was shocking to them, even in that day of raw and festering prejudice. “I can still remember my Mamma just shaking with anger and humiliation,” Lettie said. “Our family never went to church again. Not any church, Black or White. Mamma didn’t want to have anything to do with a faith that could sanction things like that.”
Liberals. But it wasn’t just racists that were attracted to Margaret Sanger’s cause. During the first three decades of this century, the great Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy erupted onto the American church scene. More disruptive than even the eleventh-century Schism or the sixteenth-century Reformation, the controversy forever changed the face of Christianity in this country. In reaction to the Modernists’ emphasis on the “Social Gospel,” most Fundamentalists withdrew from all cultural involvement to focus on “spiritual things.” Meanwhile the Modernists pursued cultural involvement with a vengeance, uncritically embracing every fringe Liberal cause, issue, and organization including Planned Parenthood. Since the conservative Fundamentalists no longer actively opposed them, the Liberals were able to capture the seats of power and influence.
Men who no longer believed the Bible and who were committed to a radical social agenda were easy prey for Margaret. She exploited the Liberal coup brilliantly.
Richard L. Ford was the young idealistic pastor of a large Methodist church on the West Coast during World War II. Already thoroughly infected with Liberalism even then, his congregation sponsored several cooperative programs with Planned Parenthood. ”At the time we were giddy with excitement,” he told me recently. “We felt that we’d been sequestered in a religious ghetto. That we’d been irrelevant for years. Now at last we were doing things that made a difference in the world. Unshackled of every encumbrance-tradition, the Bible, everything-we loyally followed every new fad and fashion.”
A funny thing happened on the way to relevance, however. “I found that I didn’t have answers anymore,” Richard said.
“When people are facing a crisis in their lives they don’t need their pastor to experiment on their souls and minds with whatever the latest pop therapy is. They need answers. When teens are facing a barrage of temptation you just can’t turn them over to Planned Parenthood. That’s like throwing gas on a fire. They need standards. Solid and sure.”
No longer able to provide his congregation with decisive guidance, Richard was left helpless in the face of a rapidly deteriorating moral climate. “There wasn’t any such thing as sin any more for us,” he said. “So, not surprisingly, we began to indulge ourselves. Illegitimate pregnancies skyrocketed. Divorce rates soared. And the worse things got, the more we turned to the very organizations that prompted our demise in the first place. Imagine! Going to Planned Parenthood to solve the teen pregnancy epidemic! That makes about as much sense as going to a pusher to stop drug abuse or to a pimp to stop prostitution. But, that’s exactly what we did.”
Compromisers. Margaret Sanger was able to successfully recruit large numbers of Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians into her fold as well. Unlike the racists and liberals who were converts of conscience, these men and women were converts of convenience. They were fine, upstanding Christians who opposed Planned Parenthood’s promiscuous sex education programs. They stood firmly against abortion. Until . . .
Charles Boothe is a respected and admired Christian leader. A former pastor and now the chairman of his church’s deacon board, he runs a community-wide youth ministry. From the expression on his face I could tell that he was deeply disturbed when he walked into my office. “Jeanie, my youngest daughter, is pregnant,” he told me. “She’s just seventeen, a senior in high school. What am I going to do? She has her whole life ahead of her. Why this? Why now?”
We briefly talked through the Biblical options: maternity homes, adoption agencies, alternative centers, and marriage to the father. We consoled one another. We wept together. We prayed together. And we talked long into the afternoon. We embraced warmly when he left.
He then promptly took Jeanie to Planned Parenthood and had his grandchild killed.
I was shocked.
Why? Why would he do such a thing? Why would he resort \ to that which he knew was wrong?
“I’ve always been against abortion,” he told me later. “Always. And I still believe that it’s wrong. It’s murder. But … I tell ya. When it’s your own daughter. . . . Well, I just couldn’t see ruining her life by making her go through the humiliation of an illegitimate pregnancy. And besides, our reputation. . my reputation…. Well, I uh … I just…. Well, you know.”
Margaret Sanger’s “Balak Strategy” proved to be a phenomenal success. Enticing Christians to “play the harlot,” she was able to do what no activist or ideologue possibly could: trap and defeat the church (Numbers 25:18).
It would be several decades before Planned Parenthood would be able to consummate its victory and actually sack the citadel of Christian consensus. But that future conquest in the Supreme Court was ensured by the moral defeat wrought by Margaret’s minions in the church.
Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood 219-223
Facts and Truth
So now you know how it came about that black people have embraced the belief that the way to improve the country is to kill as many black people as possible. Meanwhile, their self-appointed leaders spout meaningless phrases like Black Lives Matter…but not really meaning it. As long as some lives have more value than others, none really have any worth.
Oh, that chick from Saturday Night Live quoted above might want to consider the graphic below showing that those old white guys are trying to save poor black babies from being murdered by their own mothers.
Yet another Celebrity Chimes In
Left-wing activist Emily Ratajkowski is making an anti-science argument to justify the murder of unborn black children as a means to lower the prison population.
And I use the term “anti-science” because Ratajkowski’s racist appeal to decrease the black prison population as some kind of public service is purely driven by a sense of supremacism and has nothing to do with facts or statistics.
Emily Ratajkowski wants to abort black babies to reduce prison population
“This week, 25 old white men voted to ban abortion in Alabama even in cases of incest and rape. These men in power are imposing their wills onto the bodies of women in order to uphold the patriarchy and perpetuate the industrial prison complex by presenting women of low income opportunity the right to chose not to reproduce. The states trying to ban abortions have the highest proportions of black women living there. This is about class and race and is a direct attack on the fundamental human rights women in the US deserve and are protected by under Roe v Wade. Our bodies, out choice.”
Without even attempting to conceal or shade or nuance it, Ratajkowski comes right out and says we need to kill unborn black children before they grow up to become black criminals.
What you have here is a white racist making a eugenics argument cloaked in social justice niceties.
We’ll get to the facts and statistics in a moment, but this must first be made clear: Emily Ratajkowski’s argument, her rationale is no different from what we have heard throughout the darkest parts of human history from the KKK, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s hideous sentiments about black Americans, or from the Nazis about any non-Aryan race.
Before we get to the math that exposes Ratajkowski as the godless supremacist she is, for just a moment let’s assume her thinking is correct– that, in the coldest and most clinical terms, her beliefs make sense. Even so, in order to agree with her, you still have to strip every bit of humanity from a monstrous idea comfortable with the murder of children — based solely on their skin color — for crimes they have not yet committed.
And even Ratajkowski knows that not every black child murdered in the womb is destined to grow up to be criminal, but she is still willing to exterminate, to sacrifice innocent black life as a means to stop the others.
But it’s the math that exposes Ratajkowski… The math is damning.
According to the most recent statistics I could find — and I am using Alabama as my example because it just passed the most progressive pro-life laws and just happens to have the highest proportional number of its citizens in prisons — there are some 45,000 Alabama citizens in federal, state, and local prisons.
A majority of those prisoners, 54 percent are black.
That means that roughly 25,000 black Alabamans are in prison.
Last year, roughly 4,200 black babies were aborted in Alabama, and if you look at the numbers going back to 2006, it seems safe to calculate that over the last ten years, some 50,000 black babies have been aborted in Alabama.
The question, then, is this…
Did the legal murder of 50,000 black unborn children decrease the prison population?
According to the U.S. Census, for every 100,000 black citizens in Alabama, 1,788 end up in prison, which means that of those 50,000 murdered black children, about 2,500 would end up in prison.
What this means is that in order to spare Alabama an additional 2,500 prisoners over ten years (or only 250 a year), Emily Ratajkowski thinks it’s a good idea to literally exterminate the other 47,500 innocent black children.
Emily Ratajkowski believes it is noble and woke to murder 100 percent of unborn black children because five percent might end up in prison.
Emily Ratajkowski is defending the murder of roughly 5,000 black babies per year because 250 might end up in prison.
If you read the rest of the article, it gets even worse for poor Emily.
Some Words of Sanity by Rev Jesse Lee Peterson
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson
The moral state of America has plunged over my lifetime – with the black community leading the way. Men have become increasingly weak, and women angry and out of control. Children grow up without any good examples. I’ve talked to Millennials and younger people who never saw a man of strong character while growing up. Instead, pathetic beta males kiss up to women, thinking they’re showing love and “equality” while bringing out the worst in the women. Today the female-dominated Democrat Party is the party of death.
In New York, the Democrat-majority government passed a new pro-abortion law allowing mothers to kill their unborn children up to the due date. Democrats dubbed it the “Reproductive Health Act,” declaring abortion a “fundamental right.” According to New York Right to Life, the Democrats’ idea of a mother’s “health” involves vague considerations of “age, economic, social and emotional factors.” In reality Democrats put personal convenience above a child’s life, ignoring the rights of the father, spoiling and lying to the mother, who later suffers. Democrats pretend that a human being inside the womb is not a “person” and should die if the mother “chooses.”
Have you ever wondered about the callousness of young black males killing people in America’s inner cities? In a rare honest moment, Hillary Clinton was actually right in the 1990s when she called these killers “super predators” with “no conscience, no empathy.” But consider that these communities are filled with mothers who commit abortions at a higher rate than anywhere in the country – discarding lives like trash. In New York City in recent years, more black babies were aborted than born! In 2009, 57 percent, and in 2012, 56 percent of black pregnancies in the city ended in abortion.
Genocide of the black race is not ok. Glenn Kaiser said, “The way you treat the person you love the least is the way you love God the most.”
Glenn Kaiser
God gives life and takes it way, when someone put themselves in place of God, their actions repeat the lie from the Garden, “ye shall be as gods…”
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Proverbs 14:12
Folks a day of reckoning is coming, if its not here already, and I don’t want to stand before Almighty God being judged because I said nothing when they came for the unborn, the elderly, the weak, and feeble. Jewish folks keep saying we should never forget the Holocaust, but they ignore the one in their midst. We kill 50 million babies worldwide each year and over 60 million in our country since 1973—38 percent of which are black—but most people don’t care.
The bottom line is we have reaped the whirlwind. The church is supposed to be salt and light to a culture, an ethical firewall, but those before us were ill prepared for the tsunami of challenges to their beliefs. They failed to have an answer to the hope that was in them. The wolves have scattered the flock, but pockets of resistance are fighting back. Sadly, too few voices are crying in the wilderness.
If we are holding out for a political solution, we are putting our faith in the wrong basket. Only the transforming power of God can make any move to uphold life permanent. If Roe is overturned, much more work needs to be done. Our side wants to be left alone while the other guys are all in on serving the State because government power is their god and for many, abortion is their sacrament. Their defeat is certain, but it would be nice to see it in our lifetime.
While you’re downloading Grand Illusions, look for Political Polytheism and read that too, then we’ll talk.
In the circle of people we know here at ReallyRight, are some gents, try as they might, just can’t seem to find the “right” girl. After hitting their mid-to-late 20’s, the selections dwindle. By the time men enter their 30’s, it’s just darn hard to find a women without the baggage that accompanies broken relationships.
Guys take heart, for your problems may be solved. No more do you need to rely on Grindr, Tindr, Retriever, Dogpatch, Match, or other websites. No, all you need a few simple items: Your good ole Facebook account and “… (about $50), along with two goats, a pig and some yams.”
What a bargain. For the same price as a date to Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse and a bottle of wine you can have your very own wife.
Below are excerpts from Monica, a real Facebook bride.
Monica, 16, is one of two sisters sold as wives to men who found their photographs on their father’s Facebook page and contacted him. She and her 14-year-old younger sister never wanted to get married until …
The sisters belong to the Becheve community, a large tribe of 17 villages in Obanliku where there is a long tradition in which young girls—often referred to as “money women” or “money wives”—are sold in exchange for food or livestock or cash, or to settle debts.
Their respective husbands got in touch with their father after seeing the Facebook page where he posted photos of his six daughters to draw the attention of his tribesmen. The men of the clan have found the new technology helps to extend and expand their … traditions.
“My father knew nothing about Facebook until my elder brother bought him a smartphone and convinced him to join Facebook and post our photographs whenever he likes,” Monica told The Daily Beast.
“It is young people who convince old men to look for wives on Facebook,” said Monica
In effect, they use Facebook, quite literally, as a face book, although the actual exchange of money or goods does not take place online.
So gents, here’s another avenue to explore for relationship opportunities.
Disclaimer
Getting married is a risk which may cause you great distress instead of happiness. Brides come as is, with no instructions, pre-nup, or warranty. The article implies that such women are trainable and willing to work but that is based on the testimonial of one bride and may not be your experience. If this doesn’t work for you, please sue Facebook and not us because they have lots more money. Thanks — ReallyRight management
Wow, I thought I was tough on Tesla but others are really piling on. The consensus is that their stock is heading down to about $100 per share. However, Morgan Stanley is even more dire.
Morgan Stanley cut its bear (worst-case) forecast on Tesla’s stock from $97 to just $10 on Tuesday, citing concerns about the company’s increased debt load and geopolitical exposure.
“Our revised bear case assumes Tesla misses our current Chinese volume forecast by roughly half to account for the highly volatile trade situation in the region, particularly around areas of technology, which we believe run a high and increasing risk of government/regulatory attention,” the research team, which included analyst Adam Jonas, said in the note.
But it’s not just the Tesla bears making cautious calls. Financial services firm Baird also cut its Tesla estimates Tuesday, lowering the company’s stock to $340 from $400, while T. Rowe Price, for years one of Tesla’s biggest investors, sold around 81% of its holdings over the first three months of 2019.
The article also couches the story as Tesla can overcome all the adversity but they are hoping that Tesla can change. I don’t know about you, but the last guy selling hope and change was to total disaster.
Oh, there is a bright spot. Like Microsoft propping-up Apple in during the Clinton Administration to avoid accusations of a monopoly, other auto makers are paying money to Tesla so they can build cars that people want to buy and still meet the emission standards set by the government.
Carmakers across Europe are striving to meet a 2020 EU target of average car CO2 emissions of 95g per kilometer. To avoid the fines, the EU allows automakers to pool their fleets together and purchase credits from other automakers with a surplus. Last month, Financial Times revealed a deal between Tesla and Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) worth “hundreds of millions of euros”. According to the Financial Times, the understanding is now worth around €2 billion ($2.3 billion USD). The deal with FCA is expected to be an extremely great boost of money for Tesla but FCA should keep in mind that the sale of emission credits will not last forever. The new regulations while helping Tesla financially are pushing other carmakers to release their own all-electric vehicles as nobody in the industry is ready to keep dispensing billions to their own competitors.
Elon Musk with the look that says, “It’s not personal, it’s business”
Tesla has also introduced another price cut for its cars. OK, actually they raised the price of their cheap cars by $400 and cut about $300 off the higher priced vehicles. Contained in the story are these choice words.
The moves come as Tesla’s stock is under pressure from investors who are becoming skeptical of CEO Elon Musk’s ability to turn a profit and keep the business growing, all while balancing demands of developing a self-driving ride system and building new products such as a small SUV, a pickup truck, a new roadster and an electric semi.
“The business fundamentals of Tesla always have been shaky, but the stock price has been buoyed by the story that this is a company that was going to do huge things,” said Navigant Research analyst Sam Abuelsamid. “What we’ve seen in the last month or so is people are starting to recognize maybe that wasn’t really true.“
Last quarter was among the worst for Tesla in the past two years. Sales tumbled 31% in the period. Musk predicted another loss in the second quarter but said Tesla would be profitable again by the third quarter.
Tesla’s slide in value continues. The gap between what Elon Musk promises and what he can deliver is finally becoming apparent to more people. Investors took a risk on his out-of-the-box thinking but clearly he has failed to deliver on the promises. Once governments quit propping him up, the market will get to decide his fate.
Lastly, we have no word on anybody accepting the bet for $10K that Musk is right on his predictions even though it’s been out there for the better part of a week. Nevertheless, Mr. X has contacted me and is ready to serve Kool-Aid for whoever takes the wager.
Oh, the children in his neighborhood have offered their tea set and a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies for use at his Kool-Aid party.
Tesla backers out there, would you bet $10,000 that Elon Musk is right? We here at Really Right invite you to pony-up or quit telling me I’m wrong about this modern-day P.T. Barnum.
Oh, before I get to the details of the wager, Tesla stock closed Friday at $211.03. The stock was at $370.13 in mid-December.
Former hedge-fund manager Whitney Tilson isn’t shy about his bearish outlook on Tesla.
…he predicted the stock would finish 2019 under $100 — so far so good on that particular vision.
Now he’s out with another anti-Tesla missive.
“Tesla is a zillion miles from Musk’s promise of Level 5 by the end of this year and a fleet of a million robotaxis by the end of next year,” he said in an email to investors that was posted on ValueWalk.
“Level 5” is basically the point at which cars are capable of driving themselves anywhere, under any conditions, with no limitations. Of course, none of those cars are on the road currently, and critics are doubtful we’ll see them anytime soon.
In fact, Tilson is so confident that it won’t happen he says he’s willing to wager anybody who thinks otherwise. What’s more, he’s willing to bet $10,000 that Musk doesn’t even come within a year of either of those promises.
If Musk is right, you get $10K. Easy-peasy. There’re no limits on the number of people that can bet on Musk. It’s open to all takers. So, all you true believers out there, time to break-out your checkbooks. Remember, money talks and b.s. walks.
P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a suck born every minute and two to take ‘em.” Well here’s your big chance to prove him right. Ya’ll have fun betting with Elon. Oh, and rumor has it our very own Mr. X is willing to buy any takers of the bet a cold pitcher of your favorite Kool-Aid brand drink. The way I figure it, that’s the only thing you’ll ever get for making this bet, so my advice is take him up on it.
I ran across an article about a pastor that in one Twitter storm announced that he quit his job, his faith, his family, and his god. While this case is extreme, I don’t think this man is alone. I would like to look at his post and go thru it. The posts were assembled on a reddit page.
The Pastor, Dave Gass, ministered at Grace Family Fellowship in Missouri.
Grace Family Fellowship was founded as First Baptist Church of Pleasant Hill in 1867 with 18 charter members. God has been faithful to us for over 150 years! We are centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we desire to make disciples of all nations.
Gospel centrality not only means that we declare the gospel, but also that we demonstrate it with our lives. We do this by being good neighbors, befriending our coworkers, working for the good of our city, and caring for the least, the lowest, and the lost.
The church website does not list any background, biographical information, or qualifications of its pastoral staff; thus I don’t know the specific flavor of Baptist or seminary preference of this particular congregation. However, having spent many years of my life as a Baptist (ages 13-22), I know the distinctives of their beliefs.
The reddit page where the tweets were reassembled into an essay has some errors. The biggest error is that some paragraphs were repeated in their entirety which really disrupts the flow. Other errors are related to spelling and grammar-some purposefully done.
I will quote the pastor’s presentation without the repeated paragraphs and periodically insert my comments. I believe this topic has application beyond this particular set of circumstances and touches on the reasons that many youth are falling away from organized Christianity. Several of his accusations against the Church have been stated by others.
Oh, and as an added bonus, following my take on Pastor Dave’s Twitter storm, there is as Paul Harvey often said, a “Rest of the Story” moment which may make you reread this letter again, this time in a different light.
Note: Just for easier reading, I will show Pastor Dave Gass’ letter excerpts with yellow background throughout this post. Bible quotes in red and any other quotes in blue.
I’m not a Christian anymore: a thread. After 40 years of being a devout follower, 20 of those being an evangelical pastor, I am walking away from faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades in the making.
When I was in 8th grade and I was reading greek mythology, it dawned on me how much of the supernatural interactions between the deity of the bible and mankind sounded like ancient mythology. That seed of doubt never went away.
The pastor makes many truth claims in this article which are either outright distortions or untrue. Equating the God of the Bible with Greek mythology is just the first. The God found in the historic Creeds which are a summary of the Christian Faith as found in the Bible are diametrically opposed to the Greek, Roman, Germany, Egyptian, Sumerian, or any other belief system in the world. Monotheism didn’t evolve from polytheism and he knows it. In fact history shows the opposite to be the case.
Gass also may be invoking a variation of the heresy known as modalism. Some falsely believe that God is portrayed in the Old Testament is petty, cruel, and harsh (thus the comparison to Greek mythology) but suddenly in the New, God is displayed as loving and compassionate. I have heard others express such beliefs from the pulpit but again this is not derived from Scripture but ignorance.
I was raised in a hyper-fundamentalist family, and it felt good to be in a system that promised all the answer and solutions to life. The problem is, the system didn’t work. The promises were empty. The answers were lies
We are not called to be followers of a system, a religion, or a set of rules. Baptists are really big on reducing Christianity to a set of negative propositions. The old saying about, “I don’t, smoke, drink, or chew and I don’t go with girls that do” is really true in some circles. Except you need to add prohibitions to dancing, rock music, mixed bathing, interracial marriage, smoking, Sabbath breaking, organized sports, etc. I have encountered all these rules at one or more churches in my lifetime; often in writing. The song line, “I was dealing with a system, now I’m dealing with the King” comes to mind.
As an adult my marriage was a sham and a constant source of pain for me. I did everything I was supposed to – marriage workshops, counseling, bible reading together, date nights every week, marriage books – but my marriage never became what I was promised it would be
The more times I read this paragraph, the more I get the feeling that he was trying to reduce marriage to a set of rules that could be followed to be successful. Marriage is a relationship that takes daily effort. The Bible makes a direct linkage between being a pastor and having a successful marriage.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? I Timothy 3:5
There is a lot of “I”, “me”, “my” in this essay. This guy is as self-focused and full of hubris as President Obama.
Biblical Marriage is not about what I can get out of the relationship. Instead, it is about what I will do for my wife because I care for her. I put her first. I am commanded to love her as Christ loved the Church and gave His life for it (Ephesians 5). I put my wife and children first every day. That is my job as a husband and father. This is not always easy nor was it promised to be. We’ve had our struggles but when my wife knows that I put her first, then she is willing to follow my lead. At our wedding, she promised to “honor and obey” because that is biblically what she is supposed to do.
I was fully devoted to studying the scriptures. I think I missed maybe 12 Sundays in 40 years. I had completely memorized 18 books of the bible and was reading through the bible for the 24th time when I walked away.
Pastor Gass followed all the “rules” for being a good Christian. So what? Our faith is a relationship based in love not a spiritual checklist. He sounds like Saul of Tarsus.
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Philippians 3:4-6
As Baptists are quick to point out, head knowledge and heart knowledge are two different propositions.
I devoured all the “christian apologetics” books that came out, and none of them answered my questions regarding the nature of god and the problems I found within the Scriptures. I found these books to be trite, dismissive, and full of pseudo science and evidence.
I don’t know what books the pastor is referring to, but the use of the word “all” covers more ground than he could possibly cover. Josh McDowell, Ray Comfort, Ken Hamm, Walter Martin, Greg Bahnsen, Henry Morris, Kenneth Gentry, Gary North, David Chilton, Ray Sutton, and Francis Schaeffer are just a few of the guys that I can think of that Pastor Dave has clearly not read. I have read much by these guys and there are many more. Yes, the selection at your average Christian bookstore—if there are any still out there—is lame but as a seminary graduate you should know better than I where to get such books.
There are defects in Baptist theology but that is not the Bible’s problem. Some apologetic books are defective in the sense that you can’t reason yourself to Christ. You can prove He exists because we already know that He does (Romans 1:19-21), but only special revelation can teach us how God restored our relationship with Him.
I think these comments by Pastor Dave also reveal a defect in the Baptist church model where the local pastor is not accountable to any other clergy. They are purposely and proudly left to fend for themselves as they shepherd their flock.
“We believe in the autonomy of the local churches, free of any external authority and control.” –Grace Family website
If your church is independent, then who is your pastor’s pastor?
The more I read and studied the scriptures the more questions I had. Literally from the first chapter to the last, so many problems. And the more I learned about how the scriptures were canonized, the less I could believe in the “inerrancy” model that I had to espouse.
The Pharisees read the Scriptures and didn’t understand them either. When I was running around in Baptist circles we used to talk about nonbelievers being unable to understand the Bible because they were reading someone else’s mail.
I always marvel when a person claiming to be a Christian denies the authority of Scripture. The Bible is an all or nothing proposition not a cafeteria where we can only pick the things that we like.
We have more evidence of the truth of the Bible than any previous generation and more availability of copies of the Bible and this ironically has translated to a decline in the number of believers. We, as a people, have forgotten God and take for granted the blessings that he has given. We are not thankful for his blessings.
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21
I can see why Pastor Dave might have a problem with the cannon of Scripture when he doesn’t vest any authority in The Universal Church. The true Baptist knows only the local level and rejects the continuity of the faith. But the Church was created by Christ who rules and governs it. The Church is the only institution that will last forever. Christ commissioned first Apostles and then Bishops to oversee local congregations. It was those holding the office of bishop that met to discuss and decide the cannon of the New Testament. (The Old was never in dispute.) When Baptists reject the authority placed over The Church, is it such a leap of logic that they could question the cannon? (Although most don’t since the cannon was decided by the early and undivided Church.)
In 40 years I never witnessed a single event that was supernatural. Not one. Time and again I watched people die of cancer. I did funerals for 47 people from the age of 4 to 96. I prayed in faith with hundreds of people for healing to no avail. god didn’t answer prayers
This guy is really selfish, blind, and dumb. I see miracles all the time. No, not the quadriplegic picking up their bed and walking out to the parking lot kind but I know God could do it if he wanted. Seeing my son born, having the wife that I do, being alive, watching the fall of the Berlin Wall, getting safely to and from work each day, having a place to live, my marriage are all miracles. Miracles happen all the time but apparently this man of God thinks the world is governed by chance, coincidence, and randomness.
Dear pastor, none of us get out of here alive. We can exercise, eat right (whatever that is), get regular check-ups, take multivitamins, or whatever, but we will all die of something. You of all people know this to be true. You sir, are a most selfish and ungrateful person.
My devoutly christian parents were abusive, my marriage was a sham, prayer was never answered, miracles were never performed. People died, children rebelled, marriages failed, addictions occurred – all at the same rate as non believers. The system just doesn’t work.
Here is a summary of the above lamentations. He blames his parents, his wife, and God for failing him and his expectations. The bottom line is that his ministry made no difference to the people under him thus when it comes time to affix blame, it was God’s fault.
I pastored mega churches & tiny churches. I did college ministry, camp ministry, youth ministry, music ministry, preaching ministry, church planting – everything in the church except work in the nursery. And what I saw was people desperate for the system to work for them.
thousands of teenagers at a time, wrote blogs, was published, formed curriculum, taught workshops, was an up-and-comer reforming my denomination. The whole time hoping at some point it would click, and become true for me.
An inescapable reality that I came to was that the people who benefited the most from organized religion were the fringe attenders who didn’t take it too seriously. The people who were devout were the most miserable, but just kept trying harder.
Christianity for this man is a system of rules but notice that there is never a single word about a relationship with Christ. Christians are followers of Christ not followers of church.
A constant theme in this essay is that this man is trying to be good enough for God. He is pursuing salvation thru works not trusting in the grace of God. He is in the same place as Luther before comprehending grace in the book of Romans or Saul on the Damascus road.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? Matthew 7:22
All the while, the experience I had within the church was that a lot (granted, not all) people use the church for power and influence. Many involved people in churches use it as their small kingdom for personal control and ego.
And the entire system is rife with abuse. And not just from the top down, sure there are abusive church leaders, but church leaders are abused by their congregants as well. Church people are just shitty to each other.
I spent my entire life serving, loving, and trying to help people in my congregations. And the lies, betrayal, and slander I have received at the hands of church people left wounds that may never heal.
I get the feeling reading to this point that the pastor views his office or calling as being more spiritual than being a plumber or carpenter. Yes, some people go to church to be seen or perceived as being spiritual without really knowing Christ. Read Machiavelli. In The Prince, he says people should appear to be religious but don’t really let it affect the way that you live.
Depending on the particulars, in a Baptist church, the congregation is ruled with an iron fist by either the pastor or the board. When things are good this seems to work but in the face of conflict, it can be very destructive.
One undercurrent thru this document is a sense of pride. I really get the vibe of an “I’m better or deserve better than I got” attitude. I also sense a real lack of thankfulness for the blessings that he has been given. It’s more of an “I deserve” sense of entitlement. Almost a strain of the prosperity gospel where it’s God’s will that we all be healthy, wealthy, happy, and comfortably upper-middle class.
Sorry pastor but last I heard, a church was a hospital for sinners. We all suffer from a fatal case of sin nature. Only when we look to Christ can we begin to overcome—by God’s grace—our propensity to wrong doing. As a congregation, we confess our sin and enjoy Communion with Christ on a weekly basis, something you seem never to have experienced.
This massive cognitive dissonance – my beliefs not matching with reality – created a separation between my head and my heart. I was gaslighting myself to stay in the faith.
Eventually I could not maintain the facade anymore, I started to have mental and emotional breaks. My internal stress started to show in physical symptoms. Being a pastor – a professional Christian – was killing me.
The pastor finally hit the wall and could no longer maintain the façade of a believer. Please note that he viewed himself as “a professional Christian” as opposed to the rest of us. Also, note that he admits to self-deception. You will see this again as you read further.
During this time I also found something amazing: I found a handful of people who were more Christian than any Christian I had ever met – and they weren’t Christian. I found love in places where love wasn’t supposed to exist. I found acceptance among people who were godless.
I learned that love is real. That acceptance is possible. That life is vibrant and full. But the church burdens people with fear, shame, and guilt, all for the purpose of maintaining control. I now see the church as a system perfectly curated to control people and culture.
I was a part of a system that enslaves people, and I was both a slave and a slave driver. We called chains freedom, and misery happiness. We had impossible standards that we could not meet so we turned the attention on others so the spotlight wasn’t on our own inadequacies.
These words sound familiar to many of us. Claims of finding acceptance and love outside of God, Christ, Christianity, and the Church are the same arguments that homosexuals use to try to prove they are not notorious sinners and should be accepted without the need for repentance. “…hath God not said?” seduced Adam and Eve into error and that refrain still does today.
Instead of God’s Law measuring us and driving us to repentance, we prefer using our feelings as the measure of all things. When comparing ourselves with others, we tend to do well on whatever scale we choose to utilize. However, God doesn’t grade us on a curve, we all fall short. Measuring others by our standards is simply a form of self-deception or as Romans says, exchanging the truth for a lie.
Love—be it God’s love for us or ours for each other—is beyond the scope of what this pastor discusses. Again, Christianity is not following a set of rules but a living relationship with our Savior. We can never perform well enough to gain God’s approval. The Bible says our righteousness, our best good deeds, are nothing but used tampons (flithy rags) in God’s sight. It is Christ that did the work not us.
As for enslaving people, Pastor Dave do you really want to go there? The Bible says in Romans that we are dead in our trespasses and sin. We are enslaved to sin. None of us are righteous. There is no hope. But then Paul writes about us partaking in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:22-23
Dave, the dark side seduced you. That’s not anything new or a George Lucas thing, it’s a Genesis thing. You are more comfortable being a slave to sin. Gary S Paxton called it “That prison called freedom.” Cue Keith Green singing “So you wanna go back to Egypt.” Dylan was right, “You gotta serve somebody.” Our options are serving sin or God; there is no third option.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30
Eventually I pulled the lever and dropped the bomb. Career, marriage, family, social standing, network, reputation, all gone in an instant. And honestly I didn’t intend to fully walk away, but the way the church turned on me forced me to leave permanently.
For those of you who want to yell at me, that’s fine. I know that many will call me an apostate, say I was never really saved, that I was a wolf in sheeps clothing, and that a hotter hell awaits me. And to you I say I love you. My heart is tender toward you.
To those who have been in my congregations or under my teaching/preaching I sincerely apologize. I thought I was right. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I could fake it until I made it. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I love you.
I have lost everything. I gave literally everything to serving Jesus. And walking away has cost me everything. All I can hope for is that the second half of my life can be full of love and genuine human relationships. I was wrong. I’m not faking anymore
So faced with a crisis of continued hypocrisy or getting out, the good pastor quit his job, his marriage, his reputation, etc. He flushed his whole life away to start over. This was necessary because “the church turned on me and forced me to leave.” It’s one thing to have conflict in a church which does happen but to be shown the door by the congregation, now that’s a new wrinkle in this tale.
He apologizes—well sort of—saying that he lost everything. Then curiously he claims that “I gave literally everything to serving Jesus”. This is the only mention of Jesus in the whole account.
Again, I get the vibe that he was trying to do good works to become acceptable to God but following the church playbook proved a fruitless and futile venture. And, now failed by his parents, wife, congregation, and God, with nowhere to go, the pastor gets booted from his own church and has nothing to show for it. Bummer!
But folks, the story doesn’t end here.
As promised, the Rest of the Story.
Paul Harvey
A Twitter user quote tweeted Gass’s thread, saying “There is something simply off in this thread…something about the language rings alarm bells, makes me skeptical. But at the least if it is truthful (background wise) it speaks to the foolishness of churchianity. Real faith lives in the real world.”
Justin Tuttle responded to the tweet, saying “Yes, he was my pastor when he ‘walked away.’ He actually just slept with a married women in the church and got caught. He never repented and they still live together.”
“Last year all the information came to light,” Tuttle added. “The affair happened for almost a year before it was uncovered. So the whole, ‘I did everything right in my marriage’ part was kinda funny until I saw how many people liked his story.”
So now you’ve read the tale of Pastor Dave Gass; a man that literally threw it all away so he could roll in the hay with another man’s wife. I know Baptists stay away from the Ten Words but it’s funny that Pastor Dave followed all the manmade rules but not God’s. I think that his whole Twitter storm was just a tantrum on why he shouldn’t repent.
Dave, I have some bad news for you. Every clergyman that I know that followed his “little brain” to be with someone else’s wife, had his stay on the planet cut short. You may be seeing Jesus sooner than you planned on.
Apple is having a bad week. First the US Supreme Court says their app store is likely a monopoly and can be sued in lower court as such (without specifically ruling on the merits of the case) and then China and the US are at loggerheads over trade and tariffs.
Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt Apple Inc. a major setback in an eight-year-old lawsuit over the App Store on Monday, but the bigger news is the big effect it could have on Big Tech.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that plaintiffs have a right to sue Apple in a class-action lawsuit that alleges monopolistic behavior in the App Store resulted in overcharging. While the end result for Apple is uncertain for now, the ruling appears to be positive for consumers who buy services on platforms owned by Apple and other tech companies, because it gives them the ability to sue for alleged monopolistic pricing practices.
The case was filed in 2011 by four iPhone users who alleged Apple had unlawfully monopolized “the iPhone apps aftermarket” and that Apple locked iPhone users “into buying apps only from Apple and paying Apple’s 30% fee, even if ” the iPhone owners want to buy them elsewhere.
Apple closed down nearly 6% on Monday after news of a major escalation in the U.S.-China trade war.
China said on Monday that it decided to raise tariffs on some U.S. goods after President Donald Trump threatened to further raise tariffs on Chinese imports last week. The trade war is affecting a lot of different stocks, but Apple seems to be hit harder than most. The Dow Jones Industrial index dropped 2.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.5%.
Apple is especially vulnerable to a trade war with China for two primary reasons.
First, it assembles its iPhones primarily in China. Although it has a lot of American suppliers — it spent $60 billion on American suppliers in 2018 — iPhone assembly is done in mainland China.
The other reason is that Apple, unlike other big tech companies, makes a substantial amount of its money by selling its products to Chinese consumers.
OK so what does Apple have to do with a Tesla fire? Well this story is from Apple Daily. No word on whether this is a subscription service offers by Tim Cook and company but here’s the story.
A Tesla Inc electric car caught fire in a parking lot in a Hong Kong shopping mall, the Apple Daily newspaper said on Tuesday, but no one was injured in the blaze, whose cause was not immediately known.
The electric car burst into flames 30 minutes after being parked in the city’s San Po Kong district on Sunday, the newspaper said, with three explosions seen on CCTV footage.
OK, so pop quiz. What is the acceptable way to fight a Tesla fire? Can you just pour water on the burning battery or would this be an environmental offence, especially here in California? Do the synthetic materials used in its construction give off cancer causing fumes? This vehicle certainly must come with a Prop 65 warning label. When fully involved, is it a Class D fire? 45 minutes to burn may be normal if water is not allowed.
Apple crashing and Tesla burning, oh, what a week (and its only Tuesday).
Yep, leave it up to Democrats to push for their “green” agenda and then screw the folks that drink the Kool-Aid thinking that they are socially responsible and saving the planet. You and I know this is utter crap, but some folks are slow learners.
Illinois drivers are learning that utopia isn’t cheap. If you own a Tesla or other electric vehicle, the Illinois legislature thinks that you can afford an annual registration fee of $1,000 per year. Why? Because electric vehicle owners don’t pay their fair share of gas taxes.
Electric car owners in Illinois could take a large hit to their bank accounts after lawmakers proposed an extreme hike in registration fees for electronic vehicles in the state.
The proposal would raise the annual registration fee to $1,000, more than 57 times the current amount of $17.50.
Illinois officials believe the legislation will raise $2.4 billion for future projects, the major one being roadway improvement, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The bill was introduced last week by Chicago state Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Democrat who says the registration fee hike is imperative to help fund necessary infrastructure improvements.
The reason for the extreme hikes are that electric vehicles don’t provide the state any gas tax revenue.
Oh, Liberals in the state are outraged:
“It’s outrageous,” Tesla owner Nicoletta Skarlatos, 56, told the Chicago Tribune. “I thought Illinois was progressive and would want to encourage EV (electric vehicle) ownership.”
“Imposing fees on EVs that are over 400 percent more than their gasoline-powered counterparts is not only unfair, it discourages promising new technology that will reduce our dependence on petroleum, reduce emissions, and promote the Illinois economy,” Rivian spokesman Michael McHale told the Chicago Tribune.
OK, learning opportunity for Liberals and low information voters…Progressive means getting financially screwed by the government because government can never really be too big, and after all it is your god and the proper way of worship is giving your all to the divine. “Green Agendas” and “Carbon Footprints” are all about centralizing power in the government by reducing your freedom. There is not now nor ever was any manmade climate crisis. It is hubris and arrogance to believe that is even possible. Oh, sorry, hubris is:
English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of his or her mortality.
Oh, those of us using internal combustion engines are not exempt from the wrath of the legislature.
The bill would also make things more expensive for residents who drive non-electric cars. The state’s gas tax would go up 19 cents to 44 cents a gallon, fees for driver’s licenses would double and the registration fee for non-electric vehicles would go up nearly 50% from $98 to $148.
The article concludes:
Illinois was seventh in electronic vehicle sales last year and there are about 15,000 registered in the state. Over 200,000 electric vehicles were sold last year, about two percent of total U.S auto sales, according to Jenny Acevedo, an analyst with auto research firm Edmund.
“Every automaker has broadcast loud and clear that the future of automotive is autonomous and electric,” Acevedo told the Chicago Tribune. “Certainly, going from $17.50 to $1,000 in terms of registration isn’t going to move the needle in the direction the industry is hoping.”
Did you note in the above that only two percent of autos sold in the country were electric, yet Tesla is now reportedly the number three US automaker. Using what metric? Sorry but production numbers do matter to us in the real world.
Prediction
If this law is defeated, look for it to be followed-up with a mileage tax. I think that is the real plan here, but you need to mold public reaction to be that $1,000 per vehicle is harsh but a mileage tax on electric vehicles is “fair”. This “fairness” is a Liberal buzz word for spreading the misery. Note that no one is disputing the premise that vehicle taxes should be increased, its just a matter of how to do it. Most electric vehicles are purchased by the wealthy so making them pay more is going to happen. I have always said the greatest so-called benefit of electric vehicles is not paying the gas tax but politicians will fix that loophole.
Some folks around the social orbit our editorial staff just don’t have a clue what economic mischief is afoot at the “Bill Mill” so I thought I would break it down for the slow learners. If you are a low information voter or a 90-Day Calendar Guy, this includes you.
Prop 13
Proposition 13 has been a protection on property taxes for Californians since Jerry Brown was governor the first time. If you have no clue who Rose Bird is then it was implemented was before your time. No one serving in the Legislature is old enough to remember the world before Prop 13 was enacted thus they have no idea what an economic benefit this has been to California businesses and homeowners.
Reasons for Prop 13
The holy grail of many Liberals in this state is to dismantle the protections afforded by this ballot proposition. The most logical way is to bifurcate the law by separating business from residential property. Most interpretations of this arbitrary split result in rental property ending-up in the business bucket. Give our “housing crisis”, all this will do is result in even more upward pressure on rental prices. Having businesses and residential property taxed at different rates is only the first step in scrapping Prop 13. At some point, residential folks will get stripped of their protections too.
Prop 13 allows max property tax increase of two percent per year
Rent Control
Using the “housing crisis”, California voters will be given another opportunity to enact rent control in 2020. Again, if this ballot measure does not implement a statewide rent control program like the one just implemented in Oregon, it will be a big step in that direction. I think rent control is likely to pass next time. If not, it will keep showing up on the ballot until it does. Look for the ballot title and summary to be the Affordable Housing Act of 2020 or something similarly deceptive.
2017 graphic–before Oregon enacted rent control
Sales Tax
Many services are currently exempt from charging sales tax. Since the Board of Equalization has been gutted, I see a path cleared to changing the law to get rid of most protections and subjecting virtually everyone and everything (except diapers and tampons) to sales taxes. Thus your haircut, car repair, tax preparation, attorney, etc. will cost you even more.
Summary
The above will all be sold on the basis of class warfare to economically illiterate people—mostly public school graduates—as a punishment on “the wealthy” because they believe that people can only get wealthy by screwing the “little guy”.
Ultimately, these issues will not be decided on what is best for you but on whether the Democrats are happy with the revenue stream going to Sacramento. This is allegedly a time of surplus revenue but I have my doubts. We know the long-term prognosis is bad but whether the folks at the Capitol have a clue… Oh, please don’t pin your hopes on that.
Anyway, the words quoted by H.L. Richardson keep flowing thru my mind, “But look what we let them keep”. Let’s hope the legislature keeps their hands out of our pockets but I don’t think they can help themselves.
For those not following Tim Cook’s tenure at Apple, things are still imploding at technology’s me too company.
5G
Remember Apple’s lack of 5G phones in 2019? The explanation finally came to light and Apple found a path forward. After being backed into the corner, Apple buried the proverbial hatchet with Qualcomm and as a result, Intel cancelled their research and development of 5G technology. So Apple will now be sporting the same Qualcomm 5G technology as Android phones only selling it for their usual high mark-up.
Apple’s settlement with chipmaker Qualcomm means it can fire up the engines on 5G iPhones.
Apple on Tuesday reached a settlement in its gnarly legal fight with Qualcomm. The dispute revolved around a royalty dispute over Qualcomm’s premium modem chips. The settlement included an undisclosed payout from Apple to the chipmaker.
Previously Wall Street analysts had voiced concerns that Apple was lagging in the race to faster 5G phones, in part due to its fight with Qualcomm.
Soon after news broke that the companies had settled, Apple’s chosen supplier for its future 5G smartphones, Intel, announced it was pulling out of the 5G modem race entirely. “It has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns,” said CEO Bob Swan.
Apple announced its financial results for its fiscal Q2 of 2019, the company’s revenue was down 5% over the previous year. Apple did not reveal how many iPhones it sold in the quarter.
According to a recent report from IDC, iPhone sales are down some 30% over the same time last year, with an estimated 36.4 million iPhones sold.
In its Mobile Phone Tracker for the first calendar quarter of 2019, IDC estimated that Apple only shipped 36.4 million iPhones, which it stated was a 30.2 percent annual drop, whittling down Apple’s share to just 11.7 percent of a total of 310.9 million global smartphones shipped in the quarter.
That figure put Apple in a distant third place behind Samsung’s nearly 72 million units and Huawei’s almost 60 million units. Because Apple sells only premium phones—as most analysts define as selling for about $400 or more—it’s not surprising that high-volume vendors of mostly lower-end phones would be outselling Apple in terms of unit sales.
However, IDC’s portrayal of more than a 30 percent drop in iPhone units over the previous year is nothing short of shocking. It’s also, as Cybart noted on Twitter, not just “embarrassing” but “impossible to achieve given Apple’s stated iPhone revenue.” Cybart stated that “IDC isn’t close with their iPhone unit sales estimate for the quarter that Apple just reported.”
In addition to being busted throttling battery life in their old phones, Apple has now been busted overstating the battery capabilities of their new phones.
Living for the 90-day cycle has its drawbacks and they are on full display for anyone willing to open their eyes. Clearly excellence and innovation take a backseat when you are a slave to churning-out dividends every quarter just to stay alive for the next financial report.
