Macaroni's Popularity Is Tanking; US Gasoline At Global Low -- Making America Great -- November 18, 2018

From this week's "Top Stories":

National: $2.00-gasoline; Trump takes credit; bait and switch

• The data suggests the US has been producing upwards of 12 million bopd for the past two months 
• Huge glut -- but is it temporary? and, here; will it last? Apparently Exxon doesn't think so; photo-shopped? Probably not;

Meanwhile, Macaroni's popularity is plummeting --- after raising gasoline taxes. What in the world was he thinking?

The price of gasoline earlier this year: before the new French taxes went into effect, and before the current glut of oil in the US resulting in US gasoline selling for around $2.00/gallon. Link here. You will have to click on the graphic to enlarge it to see the country and the price of gasoline (or go to the linked article).

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For The Archives: What Really Happened In Texas

Link here.

Data points:

• turnout:

Over 8.3 million Texans voted in the 2018 midterm elections. It’s an astounding figure, especially considering that about 4.6 million voted in the midterms just four years ago. That difference — almost 3.7 million — says a lot about the changing face of the Lone Star State, but Tuesday’s result says more

• margins:

Not only did O’Rourke dominate Cruz in the state’s five most-populous counties, encompassing the urban cores of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio, he also won a higher percentage of the vote there than Hillary Clinton did, suggesting that O’Rourke was a more effective candidate in these key zones than Clinton was

• four urban areas and five urban counties (Tarrant County - Ft Worth and Dallas considered one urban area):

A whopping 43 percent of all votes cast in Texas in 2018 came from these five urban counties. They represent the key to any Democratic hope in this state, and they are only becoming more significant; O’Rourke had to win big in these counties to have any shot at victory, and he did, taking 60.6 percent of the vote and putting himself almost 800,000 votes ahead of Cruz. For comparison, Hillary Clinton won 54.9 percent of the vote in these big counties and outpaced President Trump there by only about 563,000 votes

Two things not mentioned in the article:

• money: most expensive US Senate race in history; it will be more expensive in two years
• surprise: Cruz was surprised; didn't post enough lawn signs; came to the fight late; that won't happen again
• by the way, to post a Cruz lawn sign, you had to buy one for $20; Beto's lawn signs were free for the asking

Strategy:

• will Beto stay off the radar scope and jump in at the last minute, hoping to peak in November, 2020, or will he start his campaign in Iowa next summer; I'm betting on the latter; he will say he is testing the waters; campaigning on behalf of Hillary, others 

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Crazy Arms

Crazy Arms, Bill Price
Without question the best radio station in the metroplex (DFW/north Texas) is KXT, 91.7, an NPR music station. The station plays music 24/7 without commercial interruption. And the best music ever -- very eclectic. Never the same loops.

Three times a year they have a "fund drive" to pay for their operations. As of Thursday, 2:00 p.m., three/four days ago, they said they had only $34,000 left. Once they raised that $34,000 they said their fall fund drive would be over. Tonight, threepointtwofive days later, they are still raising money -- interrupting commercial-free music with the same "non-commercials" to raise money.

$34,000 / 80 hours = $425/hour. My calculations based on their four-hour goals was a yield of about $100/hour. This fund drive will go on for another week it appears.