Friday pussy - late edition

Wars on drugs wars on people. There seems to be a war for everything. There's a war against women at least in some states. But no wars for the right reasons. Nobody is really attacking us although the powers that be would have you believe that little lie. There are no terrorists under the bed and once the troops are pulled out of the middle east, that is if they ever are, the "baddies" will have no reason to get their head scarfs in a bunch. Another "top" (pick one -  Al qaeda / taliban) leader bombed with a drone. These guys are like drug lords, politicians or cockroaches, you get rid of one and another one pops up to replace him. Forget the fact that once you start remotely bombing them you just create more when the neighbors and their kids get wiped out in the process.

Should we really be surprised at all the hostility in the world? It's easy to see how it all came about if you look what's happened over the last 25 or 30 years maybe longer. As far back as the 1950s when America was busy rebuilding Europe and Japan, remember there was no manufacturing left over there we had bombed it out of existence, which gave everybody plenty of work. All paid for with high taxes on the wealthy (something like 90% of everything over $100K if memory serves correct). That paid for everything we no longer have today like 2/3 of a college degree and let's not forget all the field trips for the school kids. But a more sinister aspect came with automation and the trade agreements that slowly made their way onto the scene. Soon factories overseas were rebuilt and they had the luxury of making the latest and greatest products with greater efficiencies. They were cheap at first as countries got back on their feet. Made in Japan was synonymous with cheap until the late 60s when electronics became a hot item. The japanese caught on quickly to western ways of manufacturing but went one step farther, they automated with robots thereby making profit margins higher and labor costs less. The U.S. had no alternative but to move it's operations overseas but at what price? 

Trade deals like NAFDA produced a "sucking sound" of jobs first to Mexico then to China. TV sets that had been made in the U.S. were first being produced in Canada then Mexico and finally China. Gradually our manufacturing power house was being dismantled bit by bit. Services were taking a hit too. ATMs replaced scores of tellers. Entire floors of typists were replaced with desk top computers. Cars that could once be fixed by a backyard mechanic now require an electronics expert and equipment that nobody can afford. Then there's the tech help call centers. Once located near a manufacturing center can now be found on the other side of the planet but good luck getting through and better still getting the right answer. I believe the term is now called customer "no service".

All this has led to our eminent demise and the frustrations we see. Every new dodad with more bells and whistles isn't making things better just more frustrating as just when you got the hang of one thing the new improved model comes down the pike only it's really no better than the last, just more complicated. There is an end point to all this insanity. When everything becomes un-repairably  disposable and there's no place left to dump it. 

Bank fails: There was one bank fail in Florida this week.