Yellow Vest protests against high prices of essentials like fuel, electricity, food and water spread to Tel Aviv

Copycat protests are popping up everywhere, in some cases adapted to pre-existing political factions representing disparate issues such as marijuana legalization, which is hardly what it's about in France.

'YELLOW VEST' PROTESTERS SWARM THE STREETS OF TEL AVIV:

The movement which only started a week ago, in mid-December, in Israel, followed the wave of "yellow vest" protests in France that started in May 2018, mainly objecting the high coast of living and rising fuel prices. 

The Israeli copy has similar objectives- stop the rising electricity and water prices, which they believe will directly affect food prices.

Whenever I'm hating Michigan for some reason I just look at this map to remind myself why I'm here

We always rank in the top five for power outages, however.

The French government of Macron raised the fuel taxes causing the protests, socialist interior minister blames Marine Le Pen and the far right

Typical projection. Antifa in the US has been in constant violence mode since 2015 stirring up trouble and attacking Trump supporters and destroying property but everywhere you turn it is Trump and the far right which is said to be the cause of all the violence. These left wing lunatics are the same everywhere.

'This is the start of a revolution': Paris rioters steal police assault rifle, torch dozens of cars and vow to 'stay in the streets until Christmas' as fuel protests continue into the night and spread across France - and even to Holland:

Christophe Castaner, France's Interior Minister, said there would be identity checks and bag searches for all pedestrians in the Champs-Elysees area. 

Mr Castaner has blamed Marine Le Pen, leader of the Far Right National Rally party, for encouraging unsavoury elements to get involved in trouble. ... 

The movement, organised through social media, has steadfastly refused to align with any political party or trade union but has grown into a mass movement amid frustration at Macron's presidency. The 'yellow vests' include many pensioners and has been most active in small urban and rural areas where it has blocked roads, closed motorway toll booths, and even walled up the entrance to tax offices. Chantal, a 61-year-old pensioner who came from an eastern Paris suburb, said she was avoiding the 'hooligans' but was determined to send President Emmanuel Macron a message on the rising costs of living. 'He has to come down off his pedestal,' she said under cold rain on the Champs Elysees. 'Every month I have to dip into my savings.' The immediate trigger for the protest wave was Macron's decision to raise tax on diesel fuel in a move to encourage the driving of less-polluting cars.

CNBC/Reuters can't decide if the socialist spokesman for France's government is a man or a woman

How does anyone think someone named Benjamin is a woman, especially when he clearly needs a shave?

France mulls state of emergency after Paris riots, won’t change policy:

“We have to think about the measures that can be taken so that these incidents don’t happen again,” government spokeswoman Benjamin Griveaux told Europe 1 radio. ... When asked about imposing a state of emergency, Griveaux said it would be among the options considered on Sunday. “It is out of the question that each weekend becomes a meeting or ritual for violence.” Griveaux urged the yellow vest movement to disassociate itself from the radical groups that had instigated the violence, organize itself and come to the negotiating table. However, he ruled out a change in government policy. “We won’t change course. It’s the right direction. We are certain of that,” he said.

Barack Obama lets one go: "Suddenly America's like the biggest . . . gas, that was me, people"

Here.

Whooooooweeeeee, that one smells:

CNN, December 1, 2010: Obama bans eastern Gulf drilling for 7 years

House Committee on Natural Resources, Washington DC, November 8, 2011: Obama Administration Imposes Five-Year Drilling Ban on Majority of Offshore Areas 

Investor's Business Daily, October 16, 2012: Gas Prices Doubled, Obama Locks Up National Reserve

House Committee on Natural Resources Timeline: AMERICAN ENERGY ROADBLOCKS BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION 2009-2013

Climate Change News, January 27, 2015: Obama bans oil drilling in 9.8 million acres of Arctic ocean

WaPo, March 20, 2015: Obama administration tightens federal rules on oil and gas fracking

NYT, June 22, 2016: Obama Fracking Rule Is Struck Down by Court:

The blocked rule would not have affected most fracking operations in the United States, since it would have applied only to fracking on federal lands. The vast majority of fracking in the United States — almost 90 percent — is done on state and private land and is governed by state and local regulations. The rule was unlikely to have stopped most new fracking on public lands, although oil and gas companies complained that it could have slowed operations by creating burdensome paperwork.

BBC, December 21, 2016: Obama bans oil drilling 'permanently' in millions of acres of ocean

NYT, October 27, 2018: Driven by Trump Policy Changes, Fracking Booms on Public Lands

One term president: Trump's m/o is to dupe, trick and snooker, whether it's Saudi Arabia over oil or Americans over immigration

'Duped,' 'tricked' and 'snookered': Oil analysts say Trump fooled Saudis into tanking crude prices:

"They're pretty much snookered by Trump," Ross said. "I mean, Trump led them to believe that the Iranian exports would be zero. It turned out they're going to be 1.2 to 1.5 million barrels a day, way higher than people thought."

Hm, now 14 US sailors in reactor room of aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan face drug abuse charges

Gee, where'd they ever get the idea that drug use was ok?

Officials: Ronald Reagan LSD probe bigger than you think, 14 nuke sailors snagged

My latest utility bill: "We are pleased to pass along the savings from federal tax reform"

$4.99-

What oh what will I do with this unexpected windfall?

The New Yorker ignores how wildfires contribute gargantuan quantities of emissions compared with power plants

A Summer of Megafires and Trump’s Non-Rules on Climate Change:

Compared with the Clean Power Plan, [the EPA's new Affordable Clean Energy rules] could, over the next few decades, allow hundreds of millions of tons of additional carbon emissions.

Hundreds of millions of tons over decades, eh?

How about gigatons from wildfires in just one year?

Forest fires may produce as much CO2 as half of all fossil fuels burned:

In 1997, a fire consumed 8,000 square kilometers of mostly peatland in Borneo. Researchers estimated 0.2 Gt of carbon were released in this one area that year, and that carbon emissions from fires across Indonesia in 1997 emitted between 0.8 and 2.5 Gt — or “13 to 40%” of the size of global human fossil fuel emissions. ... 

Other researchers, der Werf et al 2004, looked at fires around the world during the El Nino year and estimated that 2.1 Gt of carbon was released — which explained 66% ± 24% of the extra CO2 emitted globally that year. Bowman et al estimate fires produced emissions around 50% of the size of human emissions. ...

California, Nevada and Colorado could impact climate far more deeply, cheaply and effectively RIGHT NOW by preventing and containing the wildfires which are making moot the comparatively puny plans of the EPA.

The biggest disappointment in today's GDP report was the collapse of private investment

Compared with the average from 2007-2017, the points contributed to real GDP in 2Q2018 by private investment plunged 128%. It was the only category which actually subtracted from real GDP (-0.06 vs. an average contribution of +0.211 from 2007-2017, which includes the subtractions of the Great Recession era).

This was awful, but predicted by just about everybody. The tax cuts were supposed to deliver investment. Instead, they delivered consumption, an orgy of consumption, relatively speaking. The contribution from personal consumption was up 127% compared with the prior eleven year average, some part of which is fueled by borrowing. Total consumer credit outstanding in May hit a new record $3.897 trillion.

And speaking of fuel, the biggest gainer percentage-wise was net exports (oil), its contribution up a whopping 1414% over the previous period average. That's great for the oil business, but consumers are paying over three bucks a gallon for gasoline today. A lot of the personal consumption increase (above) is going straight into the fuel tank.

That's a neat trick of GDP. Export a commodity needed at home, driving up the price which consumers pay, and then the government turns around and counts consumers' misfortune as a sign of a growing economy! Yeah! Reelect the president!

Finally we have the contribution from government expenditures and investment, also up in a huge way, 1056% over the previous period average contributed (which includes all of Obama's stimulus). We needed the big increase to defense spending, to be sure, but that's for maintaining the possibility of increased standards of living. It's not the same thing as an increased standard of living.

Cue the happy talk. Surely it's five o'clock somewhere.

A booming economy depends on cheaper inputs: To get 1990s-style growth we need gasoline at $1.53 instead of $2.70

The 1999 price of gasoline in H1 averaged $1.038. Adjusted for inflation that would be $1.53 in 2017.

Gasoline on the Fourth of July 2018 averaged $2.87/gallon nationally

But a year ago gasoline averaged $2.25/gallon nationally.

What happened to $2.50/gal gas, Mr. President?

Trump asks for more oil, OPEC delivers

Story here.

A favor to save the Republicans' November election bacon.

Trump request for 1 million barrel per day oil production boost from Saudis and others debated in Kuwait over the weekend

What's this? Trump has to ask the Arabs to do what American producers cannot?

The story is here.

GE's Obama champion Jeff Immelt took its bonds from AAA to one notch above junk, just like its products

From the story here, which never once mentions the problem of declining product quality:

It’s a bad day for a CEO when he announces he’s retiring and the stock goes up. That was Jeff Immelt’s day on June 12, 2017. ... Its bonds, rated triple-A when Immelt became chief, are now rated five tiers lower at A2 and trade at prices more consistent with a Baa rating, one notch above junk.

Did Immelt run GE into the ground?

Look no further than its light bulb business. While GE-branded lightbulbs shifted to compact-fluorescent technology and then to LED with big promises of longevity which never panned out (trust me, I have BAGS FULL of expensive, failed examples of each), it somehow stopped knowing how to make incandescent lightbulbs which worked, too.

I discovered this with its appliance bulbs. A couple of years ago I had to replace an oven bulb after a few years of service from the original one. None of the GE replacement bulbs lasted more than a day. When I went online I discovered the problem wasn't mine alone. Customers all over the country were having the same problem.

I've had a similar experience with another GE appliance component: gas oven igniters. The OEM part lasted just six years. The OEM replacement? Less than two.

Additionally, GE's long-term care insurance business appears to be tracking the same history. It sold off some of that business not long after 911, and what business it has kept in that line has been in the (bad) news lately as well. GE over-promised on some plans it issued and undercharged for them, not realizing that claims would exceed expectations, making the plans unprofitable. I'm sure that's unsettling to policy holders who trusted GE. How long before the long-term care plans of older customers stop working altogether?

And is it just a coincidence that the Fukushima nuclear reactors were of GE design?

Yeah, sure. Just a coincidence.

Gasoline prices are up about 30% since the Trump election

Don't piss gasoline down my back and tell me it's rainin', Senator

Maybe gasoline wouldn't cost as much if we didn't export 8% of our consumption

In 2017 our consumption of gasoline came to 3.40 billion barrels, but that year we exported 0.273 billion barrels, or 8% of that consumption, a new record. Consumption actually fell in 2017 from 2016 when consumption hit 3.41 billion barrels.

The news today says prices are climbing because of increased demand and tighter supplies. But as prices have risen in the last year, miles-traveled are down sharply year over year in January. Growth of miles-traveled had barely caught up with pre-recession levels in 2016 and 2017 and is now on the verge of recession-like conditions to start 2018.

We'll see if any of this continues, but one thing's for sure. Paying $3.00+/gallon this summer isn't what we voted for when we voted for Donald Trump.

150 big spending House Republicans gave away the store in December 2015 in exchange for lifting the oil export ban

The Roll Call vote is here.

Since the vote on Dec. 18, 2015 what we got in return is US debt to the penny increasing by $2.33 trillion through 4/9/18, or 12%, and the price of a gallon of gasoline climbing by 65-cents, or 33%.

Way to go, Brownie!