Sleepless in Midland

While other states wrestle with legalizing marijuana, Texas struggles with Sunday liquor sales

State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond (D) introduced H.B. No. 1100 on 1/25/2019 which would remove Sunday from the list of days on which package stores could not sell liquor. New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day would remain on the list.

Seems prudish that such a law exists, but it took a long time to even get this far. In an ideal Texas it would be legal for grocery and other retailers to sell liquor. But no. Prudish attitudes once put into law will linger for a long time. But to be fair to indecisive lawmakers, package liquor stores would fight tooth and nail to retain exclusive rights to sell liquor, and they would pay their lobbyists dearly to make sure lawmakers preserve their exclusivity and prevent more competition.

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2:34 PM 1/30/2019

Howard Schultz is as likely to take votes away from Republicans as from Democrats

Last year we talked about Howard Schultz' interview on CNBC. He said some good things, such as how he would like to stimulate the economy to a 4 percent growth rate. Good. He would like to see entitlement reform. Great!

Dems are trying to discourage him from running as an independent for fear that he would take votes away from the favored Democrat, whoever that might be. But that's a false flag. He's as likely to take votes away from Trump as from Democrats.

There is a strong contingent of Republican and near-Republican never-Trumpers. And they just might like an independent candidate who would favor the things Schultz says he favors but without the bombast that accompanies President Trump. Yet Democrats tend to pull together in lock step. So Schultz would get some Republican votes, but it's not as likely he would take votes away from a Democrat.

As for why Schultz would run, here's an idea from Andrew Malcolm:

Remember Alan Keyes? He was a little-known conservative activist who said he was seeking the GOP presidential nomination several cycles ago.
Backstage at an Iowa TV debate in 1999, I asked him why he was taking up one of the night’s six seats with zero chance of success. He said the “candidacy” would double his speaking fees for the next year.

Mr. Schultz is currently on a book tour. And at the time of this writing, his book is #1 at Amazon.com in the category of Best Sellers in Civics & Citizenship.

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1:46 PM 1/29/2019

Kamala Harris talks the leftist talk

Harris meets two party objectives. First, she's a "free everything" candidate which will attract millions of votes.

Second, she fulfills a quota. She would be the first African American female president! That alone would bring in millions of votes. After all, plenty of Democrats voted for Hillary Clinton because she's a female. So add on Harris' minority status and check two boxes at the same time.

As most everyone knows by now, Kamala Harris had a big rally in which she announced her candidacy. Here's a snippet from nbcnews.com. Kamala Harris hits Trump, promises progressive change in presidential campaign kick-off:

In the first major speech of her campaign, Harris, 54, advocated for Medicare for all, debt-free college, and a tax cut that will benefit working families. She additionally highlighted her record going after Wall Street after the financial crisis and spoke out against the so-called war on drugs.

Oh, and tax the rich. Bankrupting the country is a small price to pay for immediate gratification.

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2:41 PM 1/28/2019

Illegal voting should be bipartisan issue

But no. Unfortunately, it's a Republican problem. And it's a whopper.

The Texas Secretary of State, David Whitley, issued a press release the other day regarding noncitizens on voter roles. Here's an excerpt:

Through this evaluation, the Texas Secretary of State's office discovered that a total of approximately 95,000 individuals identified by DPS as non-U.S. citizens have a matching voter registration record in Texas, approximately 58,000 of whom have voted in one or more Texas elections. Voting in an election in which the person knows he or she is not eligible to vote is a second-degree felony in the State of Texas. Upon receipt of this information, the Texas Secretary of State's office immediately provided the data in its possession to the Texas Attorney General's office, as the Secretary of State has no statutory enforcement authority to investigate or prosecute alleged illegal activity in connection with an election.

Democrat controlled organizations have fought against efforts to clean up voter rolls for years. What a shame that both parties can't agree that people ineligible to vote shouldn't be there. There's the common assumption that illegal votes favor Democrats. So one needn't wonder why so many Democrats attitudes toward border control range from lax control to open borders.

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2:35 PM 1/27/2019

Liberal Republican Seliger bumped from committee chair

In the last election for a Texas state senate seat, a conservative, small government Republican named Mike Canon ran against an incumbent liberal Republican named Kel Seliger. Seliger won.

As we all know, defeating an incumbent is difficult. But when asked, some of his voters contended that he was "for the children" as if his opponents were "against the children." One friend of mine voted for the incumbent Seliger with the lame excuse that a newcomer to the state senate wouldn't be able to get anything done.

My own vote for Mike Canon was based on my hope that as a low tax candidate he would support the governor's proposed measures favorable to property owners on ad valorem taxes. Those proposed measures are still hanging out there.

But Mr. Seliger was part of the opposition. Empowertexans awarded Seliger a "C" for 2017, his highest ranking during his career in which he earned an "F" overall due to his failure in the area of fiscal responsibility.

Anyway, this long introduction leads us to the most recent development. Seliger got bumped from the Senate Higher Education Committee of which he was the chairman. He was appointed chairman of a newly formed Agriculture Committee. Then Seliger made a rude remark on a radio show, and the next thing he knew, he was booted off that committee, too. Read all about it at Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pulls Sen. Kel Seliger’s chairmanship after Seliger suggested Patrick aide kiss his “back end”.

Well, as for my friend's opposition to a newcomer because he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything, sometimes an incumbent's accomplishments amount to less than nothing. Hopefully, Seliger's challengers will have better luck next time.

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4:03 PM 1/26/2019

Poll results tell us the Medicare for All mantra is having effect

Surprising poll results from *Kaiser Family Foundation.

Some commentators are focused on the number of answers that changed after the disclosure that the Democrat Medicare for All plan would eliminate private insurance companies. See, for example: The Public Loves 'Medicare For All' … Until They Learn What's In It. It's always fun to chortle at Democrat's who offer free everything. But there's another question with results that should put us on alert.

Take a look at question 6b.

Creating a national government administered health plan similar to Medicare that would be open to anyone, but would allow people to keep the coverage they have if they prefer

A whooping 74% answered that they were strongly or somewhat in favor of that option.

So the odds are high that we will be seeing legislation put forward to accomplish that.

*KFF's summary can be found at KFF Health Tracking Poll – January 2019: The Public On Next Steps For The ACA And Proposals To Expand Coverage, and click over to KFF Health Tracking Poll – January 2019 (PDF) to see the actual results.

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9:23 AM 1/24/2019

Fox Friday 1-25-19 -- Identifying characteristics

Recently we highlighted tail features as identification markers to distinguish the foxes who visit the Fox Cam bait station. Today we expand on identifiers.

Look closely and you can see that Stumpy has a nick on his left ear.

In this one there's Stumpy in foreground and Old Crooked Tail in the background.

This one is here because Stumpy looks so good when on point.

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10:57 AM 1/24/2019

Buy stamps now to save a nickle -- price goes up 1-27-2019

The United States Postal Service has suffered from a declining business due to former customers communicating with the internet.

But there are a few old timers around who still send cards for various occasions. I would speculate that Christmas is the main one with sympathy for illness or death of a loved one coming in second.

Anyway, a half buck for a single First Class Forever stamp seemed a bit high when that price was implemented. But now we are looking at a nickel hike to $.55 per stamp. U.S. Postal Service Announces New Prices for 2019.

The new price goes into effect on Sunday, January 27, 2019. Buy them now if you need them.

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3:13 PM 1/23/2019

House Democrats want to push California voting laws onto nation

Many of us in flyover country were stunned by the way ballots in California turned up after the vote results had been announced. And once it sunk in, we were appalled at how California has made it so easy for Democrats to win elections.

Now House Democrats, with the introduction of H.R. 1, hope to inflict the California experience onto the rest of the nation. The bill is 571 pages long and must include every wish Democrats ever had about voting, including the following:

Automatic registration of practically anyone whose name in on record with any state or federal agency;
Online voter registration;
Strict rules against removing names from registration ledgers;
Expansion of voting by mail;
Voting the same day as registering;
Election day holiday;
Giving felons the right to vote;
And much more.

Luckily, vote harvesting isn't yet a part of H.R.1, but if Democrats take the House and Senate in 2020, then look out.

News reports: Nancy Pelosi And House Dems Introduce Bill That Would Immediately Restore Voting Rights For Convicted Felons Nationwide;
House Democrats to unveil political reform legislation as ‘H.R.;
Mitch McConnell: Behold the Democrat Politician Protection Act;
H.R. 1: Democrats Act to Strip State Powers Over Elections.

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3:19 PM 1/22/2019

High profile Californian moving to Texas -- SpaceX Mars rocket

Californians are on the move. And many are coming to Texas, including this high profile outfit. In blow to Los Angeles, SpaceX is moving some Mars spaceship and booster work to Texas:

In a reversal of a deal local officials had touted as a win for Los Angeles tech, SpaceX will no longer build its Mars spaceship and rocket booster system at the Port of Los Angeles. Instead, work to build and test the prototype will be done in south Texas.

SpaceX said in a statement Wednesday that the decision was made to “streamline operations.”

In a tweet, Chief Executive Elon Musk said: “Starship & Raptor [engine] development is being done out of our HQ in Hawthorne, CA. We are building the Starship prototypes locally at our launch site in Texas, as their size makes them very difficult to transport.”

SpaceX has completed assembly of a prototype of the Starship hopper vehicle at its Boca Chica facility in south Texas, where it also plans to conduct tests in which the prototype will launch and go up in the air briefly before returning to Earth.

Elon Musk's car company has had its problems, and it's anyone's guess whether SpaceX will turn out to be a good investment. But the Midland Development Board members who committed taxpayer money to the ultimately bankrupt maker of Xcor and the conversion of the local airport to an air and space port must be crying in their cervesa.

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2:57 PM 1/21/2019

Happy Martin Luther King Day

Those of us over a certain age grew up in a different racial environment -- segregated schools is probably the most memorable indicator. But there was also the general belief that the way things were was the way things were supposed to be.

Then along came Martin Luther King to point out that maybe that wasn't the way things were supposed to be. He opened a lot of eyes.

Anyway, this post is a modest tribute to Dr. King on the day we celebrate his accomplishments. Watch his famous speech here and remember his dream for a future in which it's not the color of a person's skin on which they should be judged but the content of their character. Amen.

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10:16 AM 1/20/2019

Midland, TX, city leaders have adopted the crossing guard mentality when it comes to bicycles

Anyone who has ever directed traffic knows or should know that they should attempt not to impede the flow of traffic. Too often a crossing guard will stop a line of cars and make them wait until a pedestrian crosses the street. They'll stop the vehicle traffic before the pedestrian even gets to the crosswalk. Common sense says that the guard should allow a large block of vehicles to pass before stopping traffic for the pedestrian simply because the pedestrian has the right of way.

Our elected city leaders have adopted the crossing guard mentality when it comes to bicycles. Maybe it's a concern for safety, or maybe it's an effort to encourage people to use bicycles in a misguided attempt to diminish car exhaust. In any event, it is giving rights to a minority over the needs of the majority.

Cities all over the country are doing it. And they're doing it right here in Midland, Texas, smack dab in the middle of oil producing country. See City will be installing downtown bike lanes. The number of people commuting by bicycle has been trending downward. So Midland's leaders are way behind the curve.

Here's a sample of a four lane street converted into a two lane street by the addition of two lane bicycle lanes. Don't strain looking for bicycles. I've never seen a bicycle on this road.

What a waste.

I used to ride a bicycle back when bicyclists assumed every vehicle had the right of way. That was common sense at the time, and it still should be.

There's a least one opinion writer who agrees that we don't need so many bicycle lanes. See Is the bike-lane fever breaking?. Excerpt:

So maybe it’s time for public officials and policy makers to turn their backs on the militant, self-righteous bike lobby and its fantasy of a world in which drivers defer to cyclists as the rightful kings of the road. Bicycles — nimble, healthful, nonpolluting, cheap — have many advantages. But they don’t belong in crowded urban traffic.

Ain't that truth?!

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2:15 PM 1/19/2019

EDGAR hacked -- nothing online is safe

Is anything online safe anymore? It seems not.

Even the SEC's EDGAR go hacked, and two Ukrainian miscreants made millions from trades made with purloined information. The PDF Indictment alleges that the two used directory traversal attacks and phishing attacks to obtain access to "test filings" prior to the actual release of company financial information to the public. By getting this head start they would anticipate how the market would move the stock price once the information was made public then make trades relying on the advance information. Source: Two charged with hacking company filings out of SEC’s EDGAR system.

This passage from the Indictment describes the phishing expedition:

7. It was further part of the conspiracy that the defendants and others employed phishing attacks to send malicious emails to SEC employees that were made to falsely appear as though they originated from actual SEC employees. As a result of the co-conspirators' phishing attacks, which misrepresented their identities, the co-conspirators successfully infected a number of SEC computers with malware. Once these computers were infected, the co-conspirators used them to probe the SEC's network and to steal information to use in their ongoing efforts to gain unauthorized access to Test Filings.

The two Ukrainians are currently on the lam.

But the lesson here is that practically anything online can get hacked.

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1:54 PM 1/18/2019

Fox Friday 1-18-19 -- Stumpy and Black Tip

Except for an occasionally visible scar, about the only way to distinguish the urban foxes is by some visible anomaly about their tails.

Here are two with identifiable tails: Stumpy and Black Tip.

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2:32 PM 1/17/2019

Poll - Beto loses to Too Early For Me To Say -- also, doppelganger in Corona commercial

Beto O'Rourke hasn't yet come out with a hard left position, but that's what is lacking in his appeal to Democrats. Note these interesting poll results. Beto loses to "Too early for me to say." See all the results here.

Via Poll: Trump beats O'Rourke, nearly ties Sanders and loses to Biden in hypothetical 2020 matchups

Meanwhile, take a look at this screen grab from a Corona beer commercial.

Looks just like Beto, doesn't he?

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2:04 PM 1/16/2019

At least Gillette is honest

TV commentators are abuzz about Gillette's social-justice-warrior, anti-male attitude in its most recent commercial. It's as if Mad Men have been replaced by *Mad Women.

But at least we know where Gillette stands. Look at the other commercials on TV with an eye out for this issue and you'll see plenty of ads that insult men much more subtly. Take the Progressive insurance ads, for example. The white men in them are useless idiots.

Decades ago feminists complained about the demeaning portrayal of women in TV commercials of the day. Now it's the other way around. You've come a long way, baby. The battle between the sexes is over, and men lost.

Meanwhile, I have not been a Gillette customer since I purchased a double edge razor at the local grocery store and began using off-brand blades. A comment to a blog post about that change mentioned Astra blades. I tried them, and they're pretty good. Another blade maker is Feather. Both are available through Amazon.

*Surprise: Genius behind man-hating Gillette ad is a radical feminist.

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11:16 AM 1/16/2019

In Europe as fear of terrorism rises so does gun ownership

This is enlightening. Strictly controlled gun ownership means a strong black market in guns. Certain jurisdictions in the U.S. demonstrate that. And Europe provides a pretty good example, too. Take a look at this quote from For the black market, everything stays the same:

But Europe’s shift has been rapid, and notable in part because of strict national restrictions. In most European countries, gun permits require thorough background checks, monitored shooting practice and tests on regulations. In Belgium, France and Germany, most registered guns may only be used at shooting ranges. Permits to bear arms outside of shooting ranges are extremely difficult to obtain.

Strict registration requirements don’t account for—and may exacerbate—a surge in illegal weapons across the continent, experts say.

Europe’s unregistered weapons outnumbered legal ones in 2017, 44.5 million to 34.2 million, according to the Small Arms Survey. Many illegal weapons come from one-time war zones, such as countries of the former Yugoslavia, and others are purchased online, including from vendors in the U.S.

[Bold added for emphasis.]

Making outlaws of people who only want to protect themselves is not a good government practice.

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3:33 PM 1/14/2019

Gun laws won't stop criminals from getting guns -- DOJ convict survey says half of guns were stolen or obtained from friend or family

If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will ... oh, you know the rest. The point is that the only people who will honor gun control laws are those you don't need to worry about.

The DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics produced a report summarizing the results of a survey among prisoners asking about gun possession and use. One of the most interesting tables tells us where they said they got their guns. About half of the guns were stolen or obtained from a friend or relative. Table 5 can be seen below.

The full report, published in January 2019 -- Source and Use of Firearms Involved in Crimes: Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016 -- can be downloaded here: Link, PDF.

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2:46 PM 1/13/2019

What do California and Texas have in common? They're both going to the left

The state of California made a remarkable turn to the left last year. And while many of us marveled how that turn didn't become evident until after the harvested votes were counted, it happened. And it appears to have been legal.

The state of Texas made a big move toward the left also, and there were no votes harvested, at least as far as the news consuming public is aware. The Democrat wins were due to a variety of factors, but they made some dramatic moves in their goal of turning Texas blue. So both Texas and California are moving farther to the left.

Anyway, what brings this topic to our attention was the remark by Houston chief of police Art Acevedo in Texas Monthly. Link. Here's the quote:

Acevedo on whether he’d consider a run at elected office: “I have not considered public office. I don’t think I’m electable. I’m too far to the left for the right. I’m too far to the right for the left. California [where Acevedo grew up] is to the left what Texas is to the right. Both are too extreme for most of us right now. But I know this: California ain’t going to go anywhere toward the center in my lifetime. But Texas is going to make a turn toward the middle. It’s going to find a sweet spot. And as great as it is to live here now, it’s going to be not only the best place to live in this country, it’s going to be the best place on earth.”

Well, he could always move back to Austin.

Most of us outside the major metropolitan Democrat areas would like to just be left alone and don't see any place where Democrat control has made or would make some location "the best place on earth."

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1:44 PM 1/12/2019

Socialist Democrats claim Sweden is the model not South America -- unaware Sweden has been moving away from socialism for past 20 years

According to Jesús Fernández-Villaverde and Lee E. Ohanian in How Sweden Overcame Socialism, Sweden's roughly 20 year experiment in socialism began to give way to market based system in the early 90s after incomes dropped, unemployment rose, and government debt grew along with transfer payments.

The changes have helped Sweden reach the 15th spot in Heritage Foundations economic freedom Country Rankings. The United States is 18th.

The South American countries that socialism in the U.S. would more likely resemble all rank pretty low on the list.

We should all hope that the people who want to lead us down this path will recognize the problems with socialism and not send us into a long miserable ultimately failed experiment before they can acknowledge what most of us already know.

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3:28 PM 1/11/2019

Fox Friday 1-11-19 -- a rare daytime sighting

Anyone who has perused the Fox Friday archives has noticed the grayscale non-color of the nocturnal photos. We got a rare break when a fox ventured on stage during daylight hours.

Left and right head shots from rear.  What a handsome fellow!

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1:59 PM 1/10/2019

Dems and Repubs need deal that will allow both to save face

There may even be something in Trump's book about allowing the other side of a negotiation a way to save face. But in the current dispute about the border wall, that way is elusive.

Pelosi and Schumer want desperately to humiliate Trump. And Trump probably would love to humiliate those two right back. The stakes are high for all the egos involved, and they really need to compromise. Commentators suggest that Trump would probably give Democrats anything what want as long as he can fulfill the wall promise.

So it has boiled down to a pissing match between the two sides. As others have said, it's too bad that the leading Democrats have prioritized the desire to humiliate Trump over any love they might have for the country.

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10:29 AM 1/10/2019

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Justice Ginsburg is getting old - should retire

Anyone who served as caregiver for an aging parent will recognize the pattern. Something happens to an elderly person -- a bad fall, the need for surgery, a sudden serious illness, for example. But recovery is slow and is followed by some other problem. The problems are happening more frequently. That's a cycle many of us have seen first hand.

Democrats are right to be worried about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She fell and broke some ribs late last year. Then she underwent surgery to remove cancerous nodes on her lungs -- this being the third operation involving cancer in the past two decades.

Realistically, how long can a person's determination to live keep them alive? No one can say. She should retire. Hanging on just to thwart a president she doesn't like seems too childish for a respectable old lady.

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3:00 PM 1/8/2019

Elizabeth Warren working class hero wannabe

The other day NPR played a snippet from an Elizabeth Warren speech in which she claimed to have been concerned about working class families all her life. Democrats lost working class Americans for the most part years ago, and Donald Trump capitalized on that Democrat party omission. So suddenly Warren has been pulling for that neglected group her entire life.

The one thing Democrats are yearning to get, and lo and behold, Warren was always on it. What are the odds?!!

So she's staking a claim on them early on. Oh, meanwhile, she's trying to do a little battle field preparation with attacks on some of her potential rivals. See Warren tests anti-corruption theme to cheers in Iowa debut where she takes a jab at billionaires who might enter the race.

Well, candidates with less credibility than Warren have gotten plenty of votes in the past. She'll have a tough time besting Beto, the new Democrat rock star. But who's to say whether Warren has a shot?

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2:52 PM 1/7/2019

Banks and other lenders hardest hit by gov shutdown

Most of us out here in flyover country wonder why anyone but government employees, clients, and subsidy recipients should be anxious about the government shutdown.

Banks and lenders will probably not get a lot of sympathy, but they'll suffer when their government employee borrowers and credit card customers delay payments or don't make payments at all during the shutdown. Furthermore, banks and lenders will be under increasing pressure to waive late fees. Some have done it already. See the following headlines, for example:

Auto lenders offer payment relief to U.S. government workers during shutdown;
Wells Fargo to Waive Mortgage Late Fees Tied to Government Shutdown;
Chase to Assist Federal Employees Affected by Government Shutdown.

There will always be people looking for someone to brand as a villain. Trump is their favorite target, and lenders who don't cave may be their next target.

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2:14 PM 1/6/2019

Judicial Watch is doing more for voting integrity in California than the state is doing

We should appreciate fairness any way we can get it. Officials in the state of California seems to have been hibernating while activists collected the mail-in ballots that put several Democrats ahead of their Republican opponents in the November elections. Ballot harvesting is a process that has been outlawed in several states, but not California. Those shady tactics have made conservatives very nervous, because there is no corrective action being taken.

But a victory in election integrity should be celebrated, even if it isn't a cure all. And Judicial Watch's recent settlement with the State of California and the County of Los Angeles is a victory. See Weekly Update: Major Victory for Cleaner Elections in California which will require the removal of ineligible voters from the registration roll. From the article:

The new settlement agreement, filed with U.S. District Court Judge Manuel L. Real, requires all of the 1.5 million potentially ineligible registrants to be notified and asked to respond. If there is no response, those names are to be removed as required by the NVRA. California Secretary of State Padilla also agrees to update the State’s online NVRA manual to make clear that ineligible names must be removed and to notify each California county that they are obligated to do this. This should lead to cleaner voter rolls statewide.

Prior to this settlement agreement, we estimated that based on comparisons of national census data to voter-roll information, there were 3.5 million more names on various county voter rolls than there were citizens of voting age. This settlement could cut this number in half.

Keep up the good work, Judicial Watch.

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2:00 PM 1/5/2019

Fox Friday 1-4-19 -- a startling presence

Something scared them. One is just a blur.

They're both aware. What could it be?

In less than a second one is already up the fence.

Gasp! It's the Creature From Behind the Door!

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3:25 PM 1/3/2019

High Minded Mitt lashes out at Trump

What should we make of Mitt Romney's diatribe in WaPo against Donald Trump?

He attacks Trump in Mitt Romney: The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character falls short. The attacks are directed at things such as the departure of cabinet members he liked and Trump's drop in European popularity polls. But he begrudgingly agrees that many of the things Trump has done are good for the country.

Romney believes that a president should be an example for the rest of us. To wit:

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.

That's a high minded goal, and maybe someday a president can accomplish that. But it will be hard to find a candidate who posses those qualities and could get elected president. Romney, who is more critical of Trump than he ever was of Barack Obama, certainly couldn't.

Sometimes it takes someone with a strong General George S. Patton type personality but who is not particularly likable to get things done. Someone like Donald Trump.

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2:06 PM 1/2/2019

Mexican president decides to improve economy -- What took him so long?

Some years ago a friend who was sympathetic to illegal immigration remarked sarcastically that Americans who opposed illegal immigration would get their comeuppance when Mexico's economy lured American citizens there to get work. My response was that a better economy in Mexico was in everyone's best interest.

It might be hard to get a good economy in a socialist environment that's infused with criminal narco-gangs. But it's worth a try, and it's long overdue.

And what do you know? Obrador is actually trying to make that happen, at least in the Northern part of Mexico. From Reuters: Mexican president decrees tax cuts for U.S. border region:

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s new leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday decreed tax cuts for northern states that he says will help power economic growth and deter migration to the United States.

An executive order in the government’s official gazette granted lower rates for both value-added and income taxes in more than 40 municipalities bordering the United States, an area that has become a flashpoint over U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies to deter immigrants, including building a wall.

Lopez Obrador’s tax cuts could reduce government tax income during 2019, when he will implement a budget that seeks to use spending cuts to help fund new social welfare and infrastructure projects.

At an event in Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Leon on Saturday, Lopez Obrador said the minimum wage in the northern strip of municipalities would rise to 177 pesos ($9.00), nearly double the national level, starting Jan. 1, and that fuel prices would be set on a par with U.S. prices.

“This is a very important project to boost investment and job creation,” Lopez Obrador told business leaders.

The decree seeks to give an edge to northern Mexican businesses, which compete with U.S.-based companies across the border.

It's in everyone's best interest that the Mexican economy could improve to the point that its citizens don't believe that have to escape the regime in order to prosper.

See also Jason Hopkins' article Mexican president fighting illegal immigration to US by cutting taxes, improving economy of own country. Alternate link: Mexican President Fighting Illegal Immigration To US By Lowering Taxes.

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3:01 PM 1/1/2019

An electric vehicle worth waiting for -- Rivian R1T pickup truck

Whenever I was asked whether I would buy an electric vehicle my reply was "I'm waiting for a Toyota electric pickup truck."

The theory was that Toyota would have worked out the major bugs in EVs by the time they tried it on a pickup truck. You've heard the old saying: "Be not the first on whom the new is tried nor the last to cast the old aside. Toyota isn't there yet, so I'm still waiting.

But here's one that's getting in on the early action. If it does all they say it will do then it will be quite a vehicle: tough and powerful with a long range of battery life. From the Rivian R1T website:

Up to 400 miles without recharging;
Able to drive through water three feet deep;
0-60 in 3 seconds;
Four motors cranking out a total of 740 horsepower;
Starting price of $61,500 after Federal Tax rebate.

They are speculating that they might be available a year after production starts in 2020. But anyone who has followed Tesla's development will know that early predictions aren't always reliable. In any event, the R1T certainly looks like a step in the right direction.

Now if only Toyota would make one.

Meanwhile, Cnet.com has a writeup about it:Meet the Rivian R1T, a 400-mile, all-electric luxury pickup truck.

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3:16 PM 12/31/2018

P.S. Does the front end of the R1T remind anyone of the Edsel?