Wednesday, November 28, 2018

The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+22 -- Wednesday, November, 28, 2018 -- The Bill & Hillary Show -- Tickets Going For $6.55; 3,300 Tickets Bought

Updates

November 29, 2018: the Bill & Hill show -- we will get to the ZeroHedge link in a second, but whatever happened to "civic duty"? I would have thought a former president would have some "class" and speak publicly at nation's high schools and colleges for free. But then again, Ulysses S Grant found himself in trouble financially at the end of his life and with the help of Mark Twain wrote an incredible memoir which left him/his family financially sound. So perhaps it's fine. But we don't see the Bushes do it? I don't know. Maybe they do. But Barack, Bill, Hill -- all sort of pathetic -- now that link from ZeroHedge. Even at $6.55/seat, the stadium was 83% empty. Photos and story at the link.
Unfortunately, as the image above shows, the supposed-power-couple's draw is starting to fade as the  Daily Mail reports that just 3,300 tickets were sold in the Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto, which holds 19,800.
If the costs of staging the tour end up costing more than the "gate," one wonders if the tour will be curtailed? Bill & Hill may have made a mistake announcing the entire tour schedule. It might have been better to keep it "open-ended."

Original Post 

A huge "thank you" to Don. I was looking for this information; couldn't find it. Here it is, the real price folks are paying to attend the Hillary-Bill show -- as opposed to the advertise price ... LOL.

From The Daily Mail which seems to follow US current events better than any US media outlet:
  • Bill and Hillary Clinton are beginning a paid speaking tour
  • Their first 'Evening with the Clintons' event is at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto 
  • Interviewed by Canadian politician and diplomat Frank McKenna, the Deputy Chair TD Bank Group 
  • Bill Clinton said the U.S. had 'compromised' its moral leadership in the world under Trump 
  • Hillary Clinton had a short coughing spell about an hour into the talk  
  • Live Nation bills as 'one-of-a-kind conversation'
  • The tour began on a day with major developments in the Russia probe on the heels of auto plant closings announced in the U.S. and Canada 
  • There were empty seats both in upper level seats and on the ground floor, where tickets were pricier 
  • One ticket was going for $6.55 in the final minutes before the event
  • Hillary: 'We have a president and those closest to him who have their own personal commercial interests' in Saudi Arabia
There is no risk whatsoever of any of these events being sold out. No reason whatsoever to buy tickets ahead of time. Walk up at the last minute and pay $6.55. My hunch: a lot of Democratic foundations will give away free tickets.

Advice: if they want a larger crowd, serve free food.

If they want a standing-room-crowd, serve free beer.

Wow, can you imagine if you paid $500 / ticket when they first went on sale, and you attended the event sitting next to some yuppie who paid $6.55? Wow. Is "pissed-off" spelled with one "s" or two?

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Global Warming


For the archives, otherwise I would not post and I would not care. Link here.


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Back in 1958: We Worried About The Coming Ice Age


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Flake

The mainstream media continues to float this trope: that Trump's judicial nominations are in trouble now that Senator Jeff Flake's attempt to pass a "protect-Mueller" failed. Flake said he would not support any more Trump judicial nominations if his bill failed to pass, bringing the US Senate to only 50 GOP members that might support Trump nominations.

The state of Missouri just re-elected their GOP US Senator which means as of January 20, 2019, the GOP will widen their edge -- albeit very slightly -- to 53 - 47 in the US Senate. I doubt there are many nominations to vote on between now and January 20, 2019, with all the holidays the US Senators will soon be taking.

The bigger issue: funding the government. By the way, all that talk about shutting down the government over funding for "the wall"? All political theater. In two separate funding bills, Congress has authorized slightly more than $3 billion for "the wall." You can get a lot done with $3 billion -- especially if it's just concertina wire.

Regardless, it has been stated many times that "the wall," in fact, is being built.

And regardless of whether the spending bill is approved or not, apparently 75% of the budget has been funded in previous votes. Trump will have lots of fun explaining why he's mad at GM for laying for about 3,000 workers in the US just before Christmas, and then he, himself, shuts down the US government, laying off many poverty-paid public employees just before that same holiday -- a holiday Trump says is very, very important to him.

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Vaudeville

Burns and Allen
Bill and Hillary -- An Evening With
Algore -- a 24-hour telethon to save Earth
Schumer and Pelosi -- half the act is back

On Politics

5 comments:

  1. An odd repeat on the weather=climate argument given you agreed with me and then made the same error once again.

    Meh, maybe the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report is a bit more detailed than the Drudge Report's links. Hint: Climate Change models don't predict everywhere gets hotter nor that there won't be below average cold snaps. The smallest unit one should focus on is global average temperature over a year. Better yet to zoom out and see how that varies from century to century and millennium to millennium.

    I say all of this knowing us hairless apes value in group clout far more than we do evidence in many cases. Truth at social cost isn't very advantageous.

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    1. Not so odd (a repeat). I used to do it much more often but have tried to minimize my global warming posts. We're all watching different movies.

      Delete
  2. I'll add that I give this critical commentary as ignoring the reality of MMCC is a massive blind spot when analyzing the state of energy in the US and the world. I can't understate how big of miscalculation it is, I have trouble coming up with a comparison.

    I'm actually working on a spreadsheet to take some of the carbon tax proposals into consideration. So far it's looking... devastating. If you're of the opinion we make it to 2028 without some sort of tax on carbon, I'd like to hear why you think that is.

    Some contextual homework: Milton Freedman on externalities.



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    1. Some people think we already have a "massive" tax on carbon, especially in Europe. Folks in New England are already paying a huge carbon tax; they just don't call it that.

      I just hope a massive carbon tax is not too late to save the world by 2028. I know in 1994 we were told we just had ten more years to do something. And in the 70s or thereabouts I remember the news magazine cover stories of the coming ice age. I wasn't reading Harper's in 1958 but apparently there were worries about the coming Ice Age back then.

      Anyway, enough of this. Need to get back to my reading.

      Delete
  3. I'll also add, that I'd personally be very happy for this problem to not exist. I've got millions in the ground there that could provide me with a pretty nice material life in it can continue unimpeded. However, I have to balance that against eight billion other people sharing the biosphere contemporarily and the people of the future. On the flip side, the oil haters have to take into consideration the great great good cheap energy has done. Simply turning it off would cause mayhem.

    There is no easy way out of this one. I'm generally optimistic though, we are problem solvers, although we tend to patch things up at the 11th hour rather than following the axiom: a stitch in time saves nine.

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