ChicagoBoyz KC Meetup, 10/7-9

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[7/13 UPDATE: Truman Library substituted for Nelson-Atkins]

So, I shot my mouth off at the Denver meetup about doing the next one in KC, and Jonathan reminded me yesterday that I should set a date. I knew I wanted to do it before the midterms, and looking at my calendar, the first weekend of October is best, so there you go.

Strawman schedule:

  • Friday (7th) evening
    • First Friday in the Crossroads (north-central portion of ZIP code 64108); we will meet at a predetermined spot and poke around for at least a couple of hours
  • Saturday (8th) morning
  • Saturday (8th) afternoon
    • MAIN SESSION, venue TBD but probably ~25 min S of museum
    • early dinner, B.B.’s Lawnside BBQ, 5 min from probable main session venue
  • Saturday (8th) evening
    • weather-dependent: Powell Observatory, Louisburg, KS, ~35 min from B.B.’s
    • alternatively, we just hang out at B.B.’s for the live music or go somewhere quieter nearby, 5-10 min away
  • Sunday (9th) morning/afternoon
    • brunch, venue TBD
    • Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 10 min from downtown Truman Library, Independence, 20 min E of downtown KC

Next Steps/Non-Steps:

  • Interested parties, provide contact info in comments, using such discreet conventions as “john [UNDERSCORE] doe [AT] provider [DOT] com”, unless you know that I already have a good e-mail for you, in which case just indicate that you hope to attend.
  • Airport code is MCI, due to early-’70s optimism about trying to name it “Mid-Continent International.”
  • I don’t pick a hotel, but you are advised to begin your search in 64108.
  • A vehicle is a sine qua non in the KC metro, which is physically large and low-density, with all that that implies. You may wish to coordinate/combine with other attendees.
  • In general, the above venues except for the Nelson will have some kind of admissions charge, and the Nelson gets you on parking (typically $10).
  • The “main session” will be in a conference room and ideally consist of multiple ≤ 30-minute presentations, each of which is followed by Q&A/discussion. I may attempt to get this video’d. You will need to let me know if you expect to be a presenter.

Random Pic

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very high tech

Clever Chicagoboyz stay safe from rising sea levels.

There’s a winner in Sec. Buttigieg’s low-carbon vehicle competition.

Buy low, get high.

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Brian Deese — The Musical Tribute Continues

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I first heard of Brian Deese during the Obama administration, when he was appointed as one of the ‘Czars’ for the auto industry…and I was inspired to write this little song.   (with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan)

I see that Mr Deese–now the Director of the National Economic Council–is much in the news lately, most recently for this interchange:

CNN: “What do you say to those families that say, ‘listen, we can’t afford to pay $4.85 a gallon for months, if not years?'”
BIDEN ADVISOR BRIAN DEESE: “This is about the future of the Liberal World Order and we have to stand firm.”

So, I saw no alternative other than to resort again to a musical form of expression.   Here, to be sung to the tune of “I’ve been working on the railroad”, is the next song in my continuing tribute to Mr. Deese:

I’ve been workin’ up at Blackrock
All the livelong day
Hung out there during the Trump years
Yeah, I really liked the pay!

Had to package those investments
Rise up so early in the morn
Hear the other partners shouting
‘Brian, blow our ESG horn’

Now I’m back here in the government
Washington, DC
Surely speaks well for Joe Biden
That he’s impressed with me

I explain that economic problems
Are surely not our fault at all
Whatever it may be the numbers say
Or those charts up on the wall

Someone’s in the kitchen with the data
Someone’s in the kitchen I know-o-0-0
Someone’s in the kitchen with data
Watching the inflation quickly grow

And singing
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
CPI and PPI up wo-wo-wo-wo
Fee-Fi-Fidly-I-O
Watching the inflation quickly grow

What you going to do about it, Brian?
What are you and Biden going to about it woo-woo-woo-woo
What you going to do about infla-tion
Seems like the folks are getting a clue

They’re singing
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
Can’t afford to drive or eat wo-wo-wo-wo
Can’t afford to pay our rent or mort-gage
Watching the inflation quickly grow

Need to polish up that narrative
Why there’s nothing we could do
Have to let the prices rocket up
Or the Liberal World Order is so screwed

We’re singing
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
Nothing we could do about it wo-wo-wo-wo
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
It’s best to let those energy prices grow

Advanced Incompetence

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The grim and cynical judgment is that advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from deliberate malice. I am certain that grimmer and more cynical commenters than me have long since concluded that the advanced and mind-boggling incompetence of the Biden Administration is indeed indistinguishable from deliberate malice, at least as far as results are concerned. The staggering increase in the price of gas at the pump is the one thing that almost everyone, save the impossibly-out-of-sight-rich are feeling. When the price leapfrogs twenty cents a gallon from one day to the next, it excites notice from ordinary people, who need to drive to the jobs that they still have. And what is the barely sentient vegetable in the White House, or the individuals who are manipulating his strings doing about all that? Essentially nothing, save lip service and pointless gestures.

They want gas prices to go sky-high. No, that’s the take-away. In their fantasy-world, having the price at the pump be equivalent to prices at European pumps will move us all gently, painlessly, and inexorably towards driving electric cars, (and living in high-rise prole cubes in big cities, and eating protein derived from bugs) never mind that the tech and infrastructure to support that kind of thing isn’t even remotely possible, now or ever.

Nope the Biden administration wants us unbiddable red-state, fly-over proles to suffer, to grind us all into the dirt. They want this, they are panting for it, orgasmically. Mostly because we don’t and won’t do what they order us to do, and so we must be punished for disobedience.

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Very Nicely Put

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The Constitution is not the law that governs us, it is the law that governs those who govern us.

–Randy E Barnett, quoted here.