No Fine-Tuning This

iPhone: it's all tariff-able.

Last September I was certain I was going to buy a new iPhone. However, two developments have upended that Apple cart: 1) the delay in rolling out Apple Intelligence; 2) the newly-announced tariff on goods from China, where most iPhones are made.

The WSJ shows how the 54% tariff on Chinese imports raises the cost of the materials that go into the iPhone by 54% (from $549.73 to $846.59). If Apple wants to maintain the same profit margin of 50% on materials, the price of the 256GB iPhone 16 would have to rise by 54% (from $1,100 to $1,694). Such an increase in price will cause some customers to choose the iPhone's competitors who are not experiencing similar price hikes, or at least hold off purchasing a new smartphone. Apple sales will suffer, perhaps a lot, which explains why the stock has fallen 28% from its all-time high.

I am firmly ensconced in the Apple ecosystem and will buy a new iPhone when the creaky 2018 iPhone XS Max gives up its ghost, but not sooner. The WSJ:

This tariff matter is far from settled. Our advice is to hold off on stockpiling last year’s iPhones, and make that one in your hand last as long as it can.

The Sky Isn't Falling

NASDAQ investors feel the pain and pleasure more keenly than those who are broadly diversified

Even the Wall Street Journal can write the-sky-is-falling headline:

Trump’s Tariffs Wipe Out Over $6 Trillion on Wall Street in Epic Two-Day Rout

The message from Wall Street’s epic two-day rout, which destroyed $6.6 trillion in market value: There is nowhere to hide from Trump’s steep tariffs on goods imported from nearly every corner of the planet.

Manufacturers and retailers. Exporters and importers. High tech and low tech. Big names in virtually every industry were hit, from Silicon Valley behemoths like Apple and Meta Platforms to aerospace manufacturer Boeing to oil producer Devon Energy. Shares of private-equity giant Apollo Global Management lost about a fifth of their value this week, as did United Airlines.

When it was all over, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost more than 3,000 points for the week, or 7.9%, sending the blue-chip index into a correction. The tech-focused Nasdaq plunged 10% and into a bear market, meaning the index had fallen 20% from its previous high. The S&P 500 sank 9.1%.

The Magnificent Seven group of large tech stocks lost about $1.6 trillion in market value, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

“There are a lot of confused, scared and angry people out there,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers.

My portfolio was heavily weighted toward tech stocks during the 2000 dot-com bust and the 2008 financial crisis. Those were nervous times. I didn't understand those crises--and certainly had no confidence in their remedies--but eventually stocks recovered and moved to greater heights.

This time we do understand why markets fell, and it's a reasonable supposition that reversing the tariffs could lead to at least a partial recovery. On the bright side, there's always the chance that they could work in getting other countries to lower their trade barriers during bilateral negotiations. No, the sky isn't falling, at least not yet.

Just Nibbling

My entry points for four stocks

Since the stock market began dropping in February I've been nibbling at stocks that I formerly believed were too expensive relative to their growth prospects. Of course, I had not anticipated the stock market rout from the Trump tariffs announced yesterday, in which case I have bought too soon. (Analysts expect more declines as other countries, especially China, respond with "retaliatory" tariffs.)

I've invested less than 2% of my retirement monies so far and will close my eyes and buy more if declines continue. I am still confident that stock prices will be higher in a year, and though they were not bought at the bottom I will be glad I nibbled.

Tariffs: He Really Meant It

(photo Schiefelbein/AP/American Prospect)

The big news this afternoon was the new tariffs imposed on the rest of the world:

President Trump’s sweeping new tariff plan reverberated through global markets, with U.S. stock futures slumping and the dollar tumbling to its lowest level of the year. Popular stocks such as Apple, Amazon and Nike were among the largest retreaters in offhours trading and oil prices slid.

Here’s what to know:

All U.S. imports will be subject to a 10% tariff, effective April 5.

Trump will impose even higher rates on some nations that the White House considers bad actors on trade. For example, Japan faces a 24% duty and the European Union faces a 20% levy, effective April 9.

China will be hit with a new 34% tariff, adding to previous duties, like the 20% tariff Trump imposed over fentanyl. That means the base tariff rate on Chinese imports will be 54%, before adding pre-existing levies.

The tariffs are pegged to amounts Trump says other countries impose on the U.S. Here’s the math behind the levies.

Some global leaders are vowing to retaliate, while others are hopeful there is still time to strike a deal with the U.S.

Canada and Mexico are excluded from the reciprocal tariff regime. They are still subject to plans to impose 25% tariffs on most imports to the U.S., though the administration has given an exemption for autos and many other goods. Here’s a list of the products and countries exempted from the tariffs.

Trump’s 25% tariffs on foreign-made autos and parts took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET

Four years ago we reflected on the stagflation of the Seventies and how it took years for Ronald Reagan and Paul Volcker to wring inflation out of the system and restore economic growth.

The short-term pain hurt the Republican Party politically in the Eighties and may well hurt it this time as President Trump tries to reset 80 years of globalization and no-import-tariffs "free trade" practiced by the United States and no one else. It was clear to your humble blogger that President Trump did not talk about the pain of his policies in order to get elected, but it is better that he get it out of the way now while his party controls both the House and Senate.

This Time We Mean It

In 2019 we took the Federal Government's warning seriously and went to the Roseville DMV to get our Real ID.

Look for the bear on CA REAL ID's

You will need a REAL ID driver license or ID card if you want to continue using your driver license or ID card to do any of the following:

Board a domestic flight starting October 1, 2020.

Enter secure federal facilities or military bases starting October 1, 2020. (Note: Check with the federal facility/military base before your visit to verify their identification requirements.)

Purchase firearms or ammunition. (Note: Check with the firearms dealer you plan to visit to verify their identification requirements)

Procrastinators have been rewarded, because the Real ID deadline has been postponed three times. However, the Trump Administration seems to be serious when it says that there will be no more extensions.

A May 7 deadline to get a REAL ID is getting a lot more real—and setting off a mad scramble for U.S. travelers who have yet to get one.

Travelers will need a REAL ID-upgraded driver’s license, identification card or another compliant ID, like a passport, to board domestic flights starting on that date. Despite years of previous delays, federal officials say travelers need to take the May 7 date seriously. At Department of Motor Vehicles sites across the country, it appears many are.

Local DMV offices have added hundreds of appointment slots and extended operating hours to meet the flood of Americans trying to get an upgraded ID in time. From Tennessee to Pennsylvania, people report waiting hours in lines that stretch down city blocks or wrap around buildings. Some have flocked to Facebook groups and other social-media forums to strategize on where to find the least-crowded DMV locations. Others are just venting...

About one in five travelers currently flying through U.S. airports doesn’t have a REAL ID or other compliant form of identification, according to Transportation Security Administration officials. That’s despite the requirement being in the works for decades and states issuing REAL IDs since the 2010s.

If an individual had over five years to obtain a Real ID but didn't and now has to wait in long lines, he will not gain sympathy from me.

The silver lining in all this is that the Real ID should satisfy the requirements to prove citizenship and residency for the new Voter ID laws being enacted in various states. In California we had to provide "social security card, birth certificate, two proofs of California residency, e.g., property tax or utility bill or bank statement." Doing it once was a pain but at least once should be enough.

"Potato Chips for Our Dogs"

(Dickson/Chronicle photo)

Bolinas Beach was covered with jellyfish-like velella velella yesterday:

Velella velella are most commonly found on Northern California beaches in spring or early summer, according to scientists at Point Reyes National Seashore. The oval-shaped creatures are related to jellyfish and are typically bluish in color, measuring up to 4 inches long.

“When the prevailing winds shift, such as during a storm, the Velella are driven towards the coast, where they often are stranded on beaches in great numbers,” according to the national seashore’s website. “As the Velella dries out on the beach, it becomes brittle and transparent, looking like a cellophane candy wrapper.”

One velella velella, aka "by-the-wind sailor" due to its
functional sail on top (Bedolfe/One World One Ocean)

As a Southern California native, [retired professor Del] Dickson said he was familiar with Velella velella but had never seen them in such abundance. He said his German shepherd and Cairn terrier excitedly snacked on the sea creatures, which have a small disc of cartilage surrounded by a translucent sail-like structure.

“We call them potato chips for our dogs,” he said.

The sail is not manipulable, so the by-the-wind sailor, as the name indicates, goes where the wind takes it, even if it means to its doom.

Your humble blogger found velella velella to be interesting, but what piqued his interest was its name. How many other creatures have such repetitive names? Grok said these are tautonyms:

Living things with repetitive names, like *Velella velella*, are relatively rare but not unheard of in scientific nomenclature. These names, where the genus and species are identical, are called tautonyms. Tautonyms are allowed in zoology under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), but they are prohibited in botany under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN). This means that repetitive names can only occur in animals, not plants, fungi, or algae.

Some well-known examples of tautonyms in the animal kingdom include:

*Gorilla gorilla* (Western gorilla)

*Rattus rattus* (Black rat)

*Bison bison* (American bison)

*Gulo gulo* (Wolverine)

*Meles meles* (European badger)

*Velella velella* (By-the-wind sailor)

Determining an exact number of living things with tautonyms is challenging because no comprehensive, up-to-date global list specifically tracks this across all animal species. Taxonomy is a dynamic field, with species being discovered, reclassified, or synonymized regularly. However, we can estimate based on known patterns and examples.

Zoologists estimate that there are around 1.5 to 2 million named animal species as of recent years (with millions more potentially undiscovered). Tautonyms are a small subset of these names, often arising when a species is the most representative or only known member of its genus at the time of naming. Based on anecdotal evidence and lists compiled by taxonomists, there are likely a few hundred tautonyms in zoology. For instance, a casual survey of mammals, birds, reptiles, and invertebrates yields dozens of examples (e.g., *Canis canis* for a wolf species, *Iguana iguana* for the green iguana, *Bufo bufo* for the common toad), but this is far from exhaustive.

Given that *Velella velella* is a hydrozoan (a type of cnidarian), and considering the diversity of marine invertebrates, it’s plausible that many tautonyms exist among lesser-known groups like jellyfish, worms, or mollusks. However, without a centralized database specifically for tautonyms, a precise count remains elusive. A reasonable estimate, based on expert discussions and taxonomic trends, suggests there could be 200 to 500 tautonyms among living animal species today.

Mom's Memorial Service

Yesterday was the Memorial Service for my mother, Doreen Yuen, who passed away at the age of 95 in December.

As with my father's ceremony in 2019, the sacrament of Holy Communion was held at Honolulu's St. Peter's Episcopal, the church she had attended all her life. Mom's service was livestreamed on YouTube, with relatives tuning in from Australia and the U.S. Mainland.

My brothers and I forsook a lengthy eulogy, and several speakers told stories about Mom. The length of the service was about an hour, and the crowd retired to the Parish Hall for lunch and fellowship while our family placed her urn next to Dad. Everyone seemed to enjoy the celebration of her life.

Her obituary is after the break.

Elon Musk: the Wisdom in His Vision

(Citrin-Safadi/WSJ image)

Elon Musk has so many irons in the fire--Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink (part of SpaceX), and DOGE--that it's fair to wonder of he's one of those serial inventors (maybe the most brilliant and successful in history) who gets an idea and tries to make a business out of it.

What makes more sense is that everything that Elon Musk has done is directed toward establishing a human colony on Mars during his lifetime.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the mission of taking humanity to other planets. The company infused its culture with that long-term goal and completed a successful launch of its first rocket in 2008. It eventually developed the Falcon 9 rocket, which could be partially reused, lowering the cost of launches and taking market share from incumbent rocket operators.

Musk’s other businesses have contributed to the Mars goal. Musk has described Starlink, a SpaceX division that uses thousands of satellites to provide high-speed internet connections, as a cash machine for a future Mars mission. After Tesla, his electric-car company, gave Musk a stock award in 2018 valued at up to $55.8 billion, he later said it would be used for his space project. “It’s a way to get humanity to Mars,” he said in court in 2022.

Elon Musk has already stated that the goal of colonizing Mars is to preserve the human race when the earth inevitably experiences an extinction-level event. In that light Tesla and Starlink are "cash machines" to fund SpaceX, and DOGE will reduce concerns about the national debt and help the American government fund NASA.

For those who support DOGE and the space program, however, there is a legitimate disagreement with Elon Musk whether Mars should be a higher priority than colonizing the moon:

The White House plans to propose killing a powerful Boeing-built rocket designed for NASA to launch astronauts to the moon and beyond in a coming budget plan, according to people briefed on the plans. Canceling the vehicle, called the Space Launch System or SLS, would potentially free up billions for Mars efforts and set up a clash with members of Congress who support it...

NASA’s program known as Artemis, its long-range plan to explore the moon and eventually Mars, is being rethought to make Mars a priority. One idea: Musk and government officials have discussed a scenario in which SpaceX would give up its moon-focused Artemis contracts worth more than $4 billion to free up funds for Mars-related projects, a person briefed on the discussions said.

NASA’s long-range plan to explore the moon and eventually Mars is under the microscope. NASA has been working on the Artemis program and its predecessors for years. The cost from the government’s fiscal years 2012 through 2025 is estimated at $93 billion, according to the agency’s inspector general.

In January, Musk called the moon program a distraction in a post on X. Days earlier he had criticized Artemis, saying “Something entirely new is needed.”

SpaceX, Boeing and others have billions in contracts to build rockets, ships and lunar landing vehicles, among other technologies, for the program.

Musk has discussed with officials the idea that SpaceX’s moon-focused contracts, valued at more than $4 billion, could be dropped in favor of Mars plans.

Your humble blogger bows to the genius of Elon Musk but believes that the priority should be the moon, not Mars. It does the U.S. no good to be focused on Martian settlements if, say, the Chinese became the dominant lunar power. The latter could well jeopardize the former, just as Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal had to be taken before going after the real, distant objective of the Japanese homeland.

Elon Musk probably believes that Mars needs to be done while he's alive because the project could be abandoned without him, just as NASA lost its mojo after the Apollo program. He needs to have faith that the American people will see the wisdom in his long-term vision after we win the new moon race.

NASA’s role regarding the moon must be reimagined. As we are starting to see in LEO [Low Earth Orbit], Congress must shift funding and priorities so that the centerpiece of U.S. lunar policy becomes enabling private efforts. These pioneering initiatives cannot remain sideshows to the Artemis-Apollo rerun. It’s time to move American enterprise to center stage and let people lead...

Meanwhile, NASA can turn its central focus to putting the first people on Mars. Even if the first mission is a relative sprint, we’ll be learning skills on the moon we’ll need to go further.

Sock Shoes: A Good Idea But I'll Have to Pass

Brave Pudding also has sock shoes for men

Relishing comfort, and being lazy, I initially liked the idea of sock shoes.

[Brave Pudding] sells one style of sock shoes in multiple colors for $380. Made from recycled cashmere with a small amount of a recycled performance stretch blend for durability, Brave Puddings look just like a sock. But the structured interior and recycled rubber sole make them feel and function like proper footwear...

“I was like, what a strange name and interesting shoe,” said Medine Cohen, who writes the popular style newsletter The Cereal Aisle. “I really quickly tried them on and [thought], ‘These are exactly the right bridge shoe when it’s too cold for sandals but you still want to feel like you’re barefoot.’” (The brand is named for a legend of a woman who defied British soldiers during the Revolutionary War by throwing her pudding down a hill in East Hampton instead of feeding them.)

Not having to put on shoes when coming or going is convenient, but sock-shoes don't solve the sanitation problem of tracking dirt and germs into the house. (We always remove our footwear at the entryway.) And I imagine sock-shoes can't be worn in wet weather.

Wearing slippers solves the sanitation problem, but if you're going to do that an ordinary pair of socks will do (although I personally find the slippers-with-socks look cringey). It's a good idea, but I'll have to pass.

Loco Moco in San Bruno

The DHGS loco moco (Yelp photo)

The basic loco moco --rice, burger patty, gravy, and fried eggs--is a simple dish that's on the menu of nearly every Island restaurant, from plate lunch take-out to fancy hotel dining rooms. A good loco moco is distinguished by quality ingredients and a rich, seasoned brown gravy, and we had not found one in the Bay Area until today.

The Diamond Head General Store is a small Hawaiian-themed store and restaurant on El Camino Real in San Bruno, several blocks south of San Bruno Avenue.

The shelves were stocked with snacks and foods (for example, Spam) that are favorites with the people back home. We bought a few items, but the main reason we were there was to order from the restaurant. In addition to the loco moco ($19)--which I liked but others found a little too peppery--we tried the mochiko chicken ($18), which was excellent. The mochiko flour gives the fried chicken crust a distinctive sweetness, and I'm surprised mochiko chicken's popularity hasn't spread beyond Hawaii.

Portions were generous, and there were enough leftovers to supply lunch or dinner the next day. We'll be back.

They Chose Their Target Poorly

Nike Ajax, Hercules, and Zeus missiles

Before there were Nike Shoes, there was the Nike missile defense system:

Nike missile [was] any of a series of U.S. surface-to-air missiles designed from the 1940s through the 1960s for defense against attack by high-flying jet bombers or ballistic-missile reentry vehicles...

Hercules missile sites in the United States were deactivated starting in 1974, after the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile [ABM] Treaty with the U.S.S.R. Hercules missiles in Europe were replaced in the 1980s by the more mobile and accurate Patriot system. In Asia, Nike Hercules batteries in Taiwan were active into the 1990s, and South Korea continued to maintain active sites past the turn of the 21st century.

Given that U.S.-based Nike missiles have been deactivated for fifty years, it's unlikely that this vandalism is politically motivated:[bold added]

The National Park Service is seeking the public’s help after extensive vandalism was discovered at the historic SF-88 Nike Missile Site in the Marin Headlands.

The incident occurred between the evening of March 15 and the morning of March 19, when someone broke into the site’s magazine, spray-painted hate speech on the walls and spilled hazardous chemicals inside, according to a bulletin released by the Park Service Wednesday.

The vandals “may have sustained chemical burns and may have needed medical attention,” the bulletin noted.

The crime of run-of-the-mill vandalism doesn't match the severity of chemical burns but your humble blogger admits that he doesn't feel very sorry for the perpetrators.

Nike missile display in the Marin Headlands (National Park Service)

Ideological Shoehorning

Shakespeare's birthplace (Brooks/AP/WSJ)

In yet another example of the ideological capture of a venerable institution, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT), founded 1847, is "decolonizing" its extensive Shakespeare properties in Stratford-on-Avon: [bold added]

In 2022, the SBT asked Helen Hopkins, a postgraduate researcher at Birmingham City University who had inspected the trust’s archives for her doctoral thesis, to draw up the indictment. Ms. Hopkins advised that the trust “recognise the role Shakespeare has been forced to play in establishing and upholding imperialistic narratives of cultural supremacy.” The Telegraph cites a research project undertaken by Ms. Hopkins and the trust as saying that to venerate Shakespeare is to support “white, Anglo-centric, Eurocentric, and increasingly ‘West-centric’ views that continue to do harm in the world today.” The idea of Shakespeare’s “universal” genius benefits “the ideology of white European supremacy.” The “racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise harmful” material in the SBT’s collections commits “epistemic violence,” which is academic-speak for rude words. Wait till they read Shakespeare’s!

Ms. Hopkins recommended the cure: to “purge” the SBT of “Anglocentric and colonialist thought,” so that the SBT’s programming can fix “societal inequities that are embedded in imperialism and associated with Shakespeare’s global cultural status.”

When asked for a copy of the plans, a spokesman for the trust sent us a statement responding to the recent press coverage that read in part, “The collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust are a window into what Shakespeare has meant to diverse people across the centuries and around the globe.” But he declined to provide a copy of the report. In a similarly retiring vein Ms. Hopkins has requested that her university library not make her doctoral thesis available to outsiders. This is how “public-facing” institutions react when they are caught betraying the public’s trust.

During the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) England was hardly the dominant European power that it would become two centuries later. In his time many states jockeyed for position, including France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Russia, the Dutch Republic, and Prussia.

Of course, Shakespeare wrote from his Englishman's perspective, but to say that he was, intentionally or not, a white supremacist colonizer is the worst kind of shoehorning the 17th-century world into 21st-century ideology.

In honor of the Bard I hope they limit Ms. Hopkins and SBT's output to written reports and don't cause permanent damage to Stratford land and buildings.

SNAP Judgment

One welfare program where cuts are being strenuously resisted is SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka "food stamps." Your humble blogger agrees with those who want to keep the program intact (after eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, of course).

Economists say that letting recipients choose what they buy allows them to achieve maximum utility for themselves. Handing out cash allows them to do that.

Pop-Tarts: on the naughty list? (Guan/Bloomberg/WSJ)

However, distributing cash is a bridge too far for those in charge of welfare programs. Preventing starvation, on the other hand, is a program that nearly everyone can get behind.

Food stamps still afford a wide range of choices. Food stamp rules and restrictions prevent beneficiaries from using welfare funds to purchase undesirable goods like beer and cigarettes.

Over the years the list of items that food stamps cannot be used for has grown:

Hot Food

Beer/wine/other alcoholic drinks

Cigarettes/cigars/other tobacco products

Gasoline

Dog food/cat food/other pet foods

Vitamins/medicine

Baby bottles/diapers/wipes

Forks/spoons/knives/coffee filters

Toilet paper/paper towels/napkins

Tampons/feminine pads

Soap/detergent

Mobile phone cards

Food manufacturers, in addition to revising their forecasts downward in anticipation of SNAP cuts, now have a new worry: [bold added]

The pain could be even worse for manufacturers of sugary and processed foods if efforts to restrict SNAP purchases of soda gain traction and spread to other indulgences. In the past, states have pushed to exclude soda from food stamp eligibility, but the Agriculture Department has historically rejected such proposals.

Trump Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has signaled she might grant waivers allowing states to impose restrictions.

The narrative is taking hold that sugar is poison; sugar is to health as CO2 is to global warming. Your humble blogger draws the border of the nanny state here. Warn people about the dangers of eating too much sugar, but let them consume what gives them pleasure.

Meanwhile, have a look at the Netflix comedy Unfrosted about the invention of Pop-Tarts. To those of us who lived through the Fifties it's a hilarious remembrance:

A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen, Unfrosted stars writer-director Jerry Seinfeld.

Part of the genesis of Unfrosted was the simple fact that a serious boardroom meeting about cereal is, well, not very serious. “We love the idea of grown-up men in suits talking about cereal all day,” Seinfeld said. “The silliness of how they look and what they talk about just seemed like a fantastic world to be in.

Facing Life's Tests

Janis Horne reads the NT lesson.

Today's New Testament reading was from 1 Corinthians 10. Here's the excerpt that has given comfort to Christians over the centuries:

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Sometimes our problems seem to be overwhelming--last year various family members and friends had serious health issues--and everyone followed all the doctors' instructions in addition to praying regularly. A number of congregations also put us on their prayer lists. We were able to get through the dark times by referring to Paul's words that we could endure the most trying tests.

The science is inconclusive about whether prayer really works to heal illness directly--and not everyone got the health outcome we hoped for--but most of us ended the year in reasonably good shape and good spirits. From where we were a year ago, it's a win and I'll take it.

Greenpeace: the Sword Cuts both Ways

Greenpeace ships in 1976 (Wilson/SFGate)

As I entered the working world in the 1970's, the first non-religious, non-educational charity I donated to was Greenpeace. I agreed with its save-the-whales campaign and didn't see any compelling reason that whale-hunting benefited humanity, especially if it meant the extinction of a species.

A few years later I found that my donations had been redirected to Greenpeace's efforts to shut down nuclear power plants. I called, first to complain that their advertising was dishonest, then to ask that my donations be allocated solely to save-the-whales.

Instead of listening to my request, the Greenpeace person spoke about the dangers of nuclear power and why Greenpeace was right to prioritize stopping nuclear. I immediately ceased donations to Greenpeace. I had learned a valuable lesson about the fungibility of money and the trustworthiness of organizations, even those that are titularly non-profit.

Since then Greenpeace has expanded to embrace other leftist causes, most of which I do not support. Advocacy is one thing, but they've finally been spanked for crossing the line to property damage and blocking business operations. [bold added]

The environmental lobby Greenpeace is finally getting its just deserts after a North Dakota jury on Wednesday ordered it to pay $667 million in damages for its thuggish campaign last decade to block the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Pipeline company Energy Transfer LP provided compelling evidence during a three-week trial that Greenpeace defamed the company and abetted vandals. Its organizers trained protesters and even brought lockboxes they used to chain themselves to construction equipment. Protesters lobbed human feces and burning logs at security officers and vandalized construction equipment.

Greenpeace sought to get the pipeline’s financiers to pull out of the project by erroneously claiming the company’s “personnel deliberately desecrated documented burial grounds and other culturally important sites,” among other falsehoods. Energy Transfer said this malicious campaign delayed the pipeline’s construction and increased its costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Greenpeace’s defense? Not our fault since it didn’t expressly order the vandalism even if it did train protesters. But even Greenpeace USA’s then executive director boasted it had played a “massive role” in the protests. The jury agreed.

The judicial system is often used by leftists to halt activities that have been approved by the legislative and executive branches. The verdict against Greenpeace shows that the sword can cut both ways.

Beautiful on Many Levels

(Photo from NASA/YouTube video)

Tuesday's splashdown was beautiful on several levels.

The esthetic beauty of the capsule being framed against a bright blue sky and deep blue ocean, surrounded by four symmetrically arranged orange-and-white parachutes;

The epistemic beauty of American technology that gave stranded astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams a ride home; and

The empathic beauty of the safe return of two people from a parlous situation.

It'a a relief to celebrate a happy event while keeping politics mostly (but not completely, sadly) out of it.

Social Security Nostrum Undermined

In one of his usual tweets slamming the Trump Administration, Mark Cuban undermines a Democratic nostrum for social security funding:

You do realize that social security is returning the money you pay out of your paycheck ?

And the administration said they would not reduce payments in any way

You good with making it harder for seniors to confirm the bank accounts ? Potentially leading to them not be able to…

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 19, 2025

Social Security payroll taxes are imposed upon wages, salaries, and other earned income up to a ceiling of $176,100 in 2025. The employee pays 6.2%, or $10,918.20 into the SS system, and the employer matches the tax so that a total of $21,836.40 is credited to the employee. When he retires, the employee gets his money back, plus a return, as Mark Cuban says.

Some liberals want to eliminate the tax ceiling so that executives who make, say, $2 million, will remit payroll taxes of $248,000. Left unsaid is their advocacy of a ceiling on benefits; the millionaire retiree won't get his money back in order to keep the system solvent.

The problem with the liberal solution is that Social Security will stand revealed as just another welfare program, another transfer from rich to poor. Social Security was never sold as a transfer program but originated by FDR as a retirement program where participants received benefits proportionate to their contributions.

Although I disagree with most of what Mark Cuban says, give him credit for acknowledging a truth about Social Security that many on his "side" won't acknowledge.

Would You Keep Paul McCartney Waiting?

CNBC's Jim Cramer was bantering with fellow stock market commentator David Faber when Jensen Huang (shown in background) arrived nearly half an hour early for an interview with Cramer.

Jensen Huang and Elon Musk are the rock-starrish two most famous businessmen on the planet (the difference is that they're mobbed by nerdy guys instead of women).

Others who used to hold that lofty position, like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, have reduced their roles in the companies that made them centi-billionaires.

It's a sign of Jensen Huang's humility that he patiently waited for Jim Cramer to finish his segment, although Jensen is even busier than normal at this week's Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in San Jose.

This blogger's question to Mr. Cramer: would you keep Paul McCartney waiting?

It's Only Abnormal to Some

Pride parade on 6/30/24 (Zimmrman/SFGate)

The SFGate reporter calls it a "very abnormal" development, but to this observer it's not surprising at all. [bold added]

Several longtime corporate sponsors of San Francisco’s Pride celebrations are pulling their funding for the festivities, leaving Pride organizers searching for another way to raise $300,000.

In the past four weeks, multiple companies told San Francisco Pride, the nonprofit behind San Francisco’s annual Pride Parade and Civic Center celebration, that they would not support the 2025 Pride celebrations. In an interview with SFGATE, San Francisco Pride’s executive director, Suzanne Ford, said she was “really disappointed” by the developments.

In their communications with San Francisco Pride, the sponsors all cited a lack of funds. None of them mentioned the political climate. But Ford noted that it was “very abnormal” for several multiyear sponsors to suddenly drop their support for the event...

Ford told KTVU-TV that those sponsors included Comcast; Anheuser-Busch, the company behind Budweiser and Beck’s beer; wine company La Crema; and Diageo, the beverage company that produces Guinness, Smirnoff and other alcoholic drink brands. Aside from Comcast, all of those companies specialize in alcoholic beverages, a market that has become more volatile as Americans’ drinking preferences shift...

San Francisco Pride has budgeted $3.2 million for its events on the weekend of June 28-29, Ford said, and of that sum, corporate sponsorships are meant to cover $2.3 million. The companies that withdrew represented a combined $300,000 in funding.

Earlier this month, Ford announced that San Francisco Pride was ending its relationship with Meta, the parent company of Facebook. The social media giant recently ended its major diversity, equity and inclusion programs and scaled back its content moderation policies. In an interview with KGO-TV, Ford noted that the nonprofit was pausing its relationships with sponsors that don’t align with San Francisco Pride’s values.

One interpretation is that the "political climate" risks harm to sponsors of LGBTQ programs. A different explanation is that businesses are finally free to say "no" to causes that they felt they had to support because of what could happen if they didn't (see Tesla cars and dealerships for examples). I don't wish ill upon Pride and for their sake hope that a trickle doesn''t become a waterfall.

St. Patrick's Day 2025

San Francisco's Front Street is traditionally closed on St. Patrick's Day, when crowds descend upon Harrington's Bar and Grill. Mayor Daniel Lurie posted photos on X (example right) earlier today to show that San Francisco party life is coming back.

This was the first major San Francisco example of California's "Entertainment Zone" bill that was passed last September: [bold added]

Existing law authorizes the creation of entertainment zones (via local ordinance) in the city and county of San Francisco. The legislation permits consumers to leave the premises of a beer manufacturer, wine manufacturer, or on-sale licensee with open containers of alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises within an open container entertainment zone if the necessary conditions, requirements, and guidelines are adhered to.

Good on San Francisco and the State for legalizing what thousands of people do anyway every St. Patrick's Day. Below is a photo of Front Street on St. Patrick's Day 2005, when your humble blogger worked in the Financial District.

Front Street, St. Patrick's Day 2005

Simply a Return ro Mainstream Liberalism

(Image from US Catholic)

Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Erika Bachiochi pushes back against the extremes (radical feminism to women's inferiority) of Catholic views about women by asking Catholics to take another look at the "feminist" Pope John Paul II (1920-2005): [bold added]

As a Catholic legal scholar, I have been an outspoken critic of a radical feminist ideology that treats transgenderism and elective abortion as core elements of “gender equality.” I agree with ["The Case for Patriarchy" author Tim] Gordon that those ideas are antithetical to Christianity. But by misreading fringe views as central to the early cause of women’s rights, he and other like-minded reactionary Catholics now claim that all feminism is “diabolical” or, in the words of the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, “one of the worst things to ever happen to Western civilization.”

John Paul II would beg to differ. Thirty years ago he called on women to “promote a ‘new feminism’ ” and thereby transform “culture so that it supports life.” Seven years earlier in his apostolic letter “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women,” he corrected historical interpretations of Scripture that had assumed women’s inequality. Affirming husbands’ responsibility as leaders, the pope wrote that “in the relationship between husband and wife the ‘subjection’ is not one-sided but mutual.” The “new feminism” he described wouldn’t imitate “models of ‘male domination’ ” but rather work to “overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation.”

It would be disrespectful of the thought that went into Pope John Paul II's letter to excerpt a phrase or two, so your humble blogger won't do that. Let's just say that the apostolic letter spends some time on Genesis 3:16 ("Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you") and why the interpretation that women are inferior to men is incorrect.

In politics, religion and culture much of what people call "conservatism" is simply a return to mainstream liberalism as it was 15 to 30 years ago.

The Ides of March

The Ides of March (March 15) was marked on the calendar centuries before Pi Day (March 14). According to Grok:

The Ides of

(Image from Getty.edu)

March is a date on the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15th. In the Roman system, the "Ides" marked the middle of the month and were originally tied to the full moon. For March, May, July, and October, the Ides fell on the 15th; for other months, it was the 13th.

Historically, the Ides of March is most famous for the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. A group of Roman senators, led by Brutus and Cassius, stabbed Caesar to death at a Senate meeting, fearing his growing power threatened the Republic. The event was later dramatized by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, where a soothsayer warns, "Beware the Ides of March."

Today, it’s often referenced as a symbol of betrayal or a turning point. Since it’s March 15, 2025, right now, you’re living through it—hopefully with less drama than Caesar! Anything specific you’re curious about regarding it?

Julius Caesar was the first Shakespeare play I read. At first I was disappointed that the play was really about Brutus, who was one of the assassins of the famous conqueror. Then we delved into the play, stewarded by our very capable 7th-grade English teacher. To this day I remember "et tu, Brute", "the evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones" and of course "beware the Ides of March."

Were it not for Shakespeare, I doubt anyone would know--or care--about "Ides" (the middle of a month).

3.14159265

Today is Pi Day, and we commemorated the occasion by ordering an extra-large #2 (salami, mushrooms and sausage) from Toto's.

π is the Greek symbol for the value of a circle’s circumference divided by its diameter. Pi is the first irrational number (a real number that cannot be expressed as a ratio of integers) that I ever came across. The elementary-school arithmetic books only took pi out to four digits, i.e. 3.1416, but that felt unsatisfying. I looked up pi in the library and memorized it to eight digits,3.14159265. After high school I never had to use pi in a calculation, but I still know it, just like long-defunct telephone numbers.

BTW there was a lunar eclipse today. The congruence of the moon and pizza on the same day prompted me to play the 1953 Dean Martin hit while munching on Toto's #2.

When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie, that's amore
When the world seems to shine
Like you've had too much wine, that's amore

I'm a Takeout Kind of Guy.

Before

I was going to prepare the calamari this weekend, but the box defrosting in the refrigerator started leaking, and evening plans changed.

In order to reduce the fishy smell I wiped the refrigerator right away. Then I had to clean the squid. I reviewed various YouTube videos to remind myself of the steps involved, and it looked easy. Of course. reality was different.

Removing the spine was difficult. It didn't just pop out with a tug from my fingers as the YouTube instructors demonstrated. I had to slice off the tip and pull the spine from the tail end.

After

After a little over an hour I had finished cleaning the squid. I squeezed some lemon over it and put it in an airtight glass container before it went back in the fridge.

I do get satisfaction from cooking but don't plan on doing this again soon. With regard to calamari I've decided that I'm a takeout kind of guy.

If You Walk on Four Legs It's OK

Last month we noted how coyotes were responsible for decapitating baby seals. No action is being taken against the culprits, although "coyotes are not threatened or endangered in California" and estimates of the population range between 250,000 and 750,000.

I suppose the killing of baby seals by coyotes is regarded as just the natural order of things. What is not part of the natural order is the killing of seals by humans.

The government is above anthropomorphizing seals to
get your sympathy (CA Fish & Wildlife--Bodega seals)

Headline: Authorities investigating sea lion beheading offer $20K in rewards

Federal authorities are offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information about who may have decapitated a sea lion that was found on a Bodega Bay beach on Christmas Day...

An eyewitness told law enforcement that they saw a man decapitate the dead sea lion using a black 8-inch knife, place the head in a clear plastic bag and then ride away on a black fat-tire e-bike, NOAA Fisheries Public Affairs officer Rachel Hager confirmed to SFGATE in an email. The suspect is described as being approximately 30 to 40 years old, dressed in all black.

Sea lions, like all marine mammals, are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits the harassment, hunting, capturing or killing of these animals. Violating the act can result in hefty fines and even jail time.

Despite their protections under federal law, California sea lions continue to face threats from human interactions. In October, a man in Monterey was caught on video whipping sea lions with caution tape, causing them to stampede down a ledge along the Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail. The NOAA previously confirmed to SFGATE that it was investigating the incident for harassment.

Earlier that month, a 2-year-old sea lion was shot on Bolsa Chica State Beach in Orange County. The sea lion was taken to a rescue center, where it later succumbed to its injuries and died. NOAA spokesperson Michael Milstein previously confirmed to SFGATE that sea lion shootings are a regular occurrence in California, with an estimated 20 killed each year.

Your humble blogger could point out that the logical conclusion of the new hierarchy of values is that coyotes have more rights than human beings (who can't kill or even "harass" seals) or that seals have a greater right to life than human fetuses (whose killing is not a crime in California), but that would not change the mind of any one who subscribes to the new values.

Maybe we can agree that what's happened to English grammar is abominable? "An eyewitness told law enforcement that they" avoids using "he" or "she" but clearly can't be "they" because there's only one eyewitness. "They," however illogical and grating, was chosen to avoid the toxic masculinity of the "he" in traditional English.

By the way, I do agree that some action should be taken against the man who decapitated the seal, especially if he killed the animal. If it was dead already, then public exposure IMHO would be sufficient.

I Like the New Rules

Ribeye steak

The efficacy or non-efficacy of vaccines get the headlines, but the Trump Administration's challenges to long-running assumptions about diet may turn out to have greater significance. [bold added]

In 2005 federal recommendations dropped from 6 ounces of animal protein a day to 5.5 ounces of any type of protein. Worse, the guidelines use an inaccurate “ounce equivalent” measure to equate different protein sources. The body can synthesize at least two to four times as much protein from beef, eggs and pork as it can from “ounce equivalent” quantities of kidney beans, nuts or peanut butter.

[Brooke] Rollins and [Robert] Kennedy should reject suggestions from an expert committee that the 2025-30 federal guidelines place an even greater emphasis on plant-based proteins and that they recommend “reducing intakes of red and processed meats.” As the Agriculture Department found in 2010, there is either “no relationship” or a “limited inconsistent” relationship between any protein type and chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The National Academy of Medicine should also increase its recommended 0.8 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Studies find that 1.2 to 1.6 grams is a better range for weight loss, muscle maintenance, recovery from illness and overall well-being, especially for children and older adults.

In short eat more protein, and get it in the form of meat, not plants or insects.

Searching for Squid

For the first time in a long time I had a hankering for home-cooked calamari. Back in the 1980's it was plentiful and cheap, and I became reasonably proficient at cleaning and slicing squid.

I was surprised to see that Safeway did not carry calamari, either fresh or frozen. I searched Lucky supermarket and got the same result.

Finally, I went to 99 Ranch, which has a large selection of fresh fish and shellfish, but I had to go to the frozen section to find calamari.

The 99 Ranch freezer had a half-dozen calamari items, and most were from mainland China. The one box that was sourced in the USA was more expensive ($19 for three pounds) than the Chinese products, but I wasn't going to risk consuming a product that probably had higher levels of heavy metal contamination.

The box label said that the squid was "wild caught in area FAO77." Below is the world fishery map from Wikipedia. Area 77 is the Eastern Central part of the Pacific Ocean.

The squid is defrosting in the refrigerator. In a few days I'll wash, clean, and braise it. If it turns out well, I'll be returning to 99 Ranch for another box.

Lent: No More Happy Talk

It's the first Sunday in Lent, so Christians know what that means: no more happy talk.

The Gospel was from Luke 4, which describes how Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, where the devil tempted Him to use His power to feed Himself, seize authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and show that the angels will guard Him from harm. Jesus, of course, turned down the devil. On the latter temptation the lady minister said:

And then there’s what I see as a temptation to see God as the cosmic protector. If we believe all will be well, our lives will run smoothly. We’re going to be sheltered from all those bad things that happened to other people, people who don’t believe like we do, right? We won’t even dash our foot against the stone-- that’s what scripture says, right?

But God doesn’t prevent bad things from happening to us. That’s not how it works. Some people are miraculously healed. Others aren’t. Some might lose their home in a flood or a fire. Others don’t. Some people die at the hands of others, or in plane crashes or natural disasters, and some people seem to live lives of ease while others endure great suffering. I don’t know why. Things happen and at times it seems that there is no rhyme or reason.

Lent is a time of reflection, and of the testing of the faith with age-old questions of why bad things happen to good people and innocent babies, and why a just God would allow a terrible thing to happen. The usual words of comfort seem hollow, and we are in the wilderness.

Great Moments in Real Estate Marketing

You don't need this home if Susie just wants to go to Cal (Street view/Merc)

Palo Alto homes have always commanded a premium over already-pricey Peninsula real estate because of PA's highly rated school distrct. This, however, is next level. [bold added]

A home listed for sale at $4.8 million on Friday in Palo Alto boasts that since its 2017 rebuild, the children of every subsequent owner have gone on to Harvard or Stanford, “paving the way for even greater achievements.”

“Now, it is ready to pass on its extraordinary energy to the next family,” the listing reads.

The five-bedroom, four-bathroom home appears to have been staged to highlight the children’s academic success — the framed diplomas and acceptance letters are poised above the mantel, featuring prominently in some of the photos.

That's a lot of pressure on the child. If he or she doesn't get into Stanford or Harvard (or an Ivy or MIT or CalTech), the parents will have overpaid substantially for a comparable house that they could have gotten for at least $1 million less in other Peninsula cities.

Let's hope the feng shui is strong with this one.

The Affection for Avocados

CA: you call that an avocado?

It was only after moving to the Mainland that I fully appreciated Hawaii's home-grown fruits. Relatives and friends grew mangos, papayas, bananas, lychee, and avocados, all of which I received fully ripe (and free, of course).

California supermarkets carry these items, usually imported from the Philippines and Mexico, but they're half the size and picked for transport before they're ripe.

BTW, it's illegal to hand-carry fresh produce on flights from Hawaii to California in order to prevent the spread of fruit flies.

Hawaii: now that's an avocado.

Of all these tropical fruits, it was the avocado that has exploded in popularity. The reasons are free trade with Mexico and ripening technology.

We have developed such a voracious appetite for this versatile fruit that the U.S. now annually brings in nearly 3 billion pounds of avocados. In fact, 90% of the avocados that Americans eat are imported—and close to 90% of those imports come from Mexico.

It’s hard to remember a time when their availability was so limited that avocados were more like a luxury item. Except that time wasn’t very long ago.

They were only allowed into the country from Mexico in 1997. They weren’t accessible across the country until 2007. Now they are beloved everywhere in America—and not just because they are healthy and delicious.

“The success of the avocado industry is rooted in our trade relationship with Mexico,” said David Ortega, a Michigan State University professor of food economics and policy...

Now a professor at the University of California, Riverside, [Mary Lu Arpaia] started her career there in 1983, when unripe avocados sold in grocery stores felt like baseballs. But it was around that time when avocado researchers became obsessed with an idea that would revolutionize their industry: ripening.

To increase awareness, demand and sales, avocado growers realized they had to give consumers a product they actually wanted, something just firm enough to buy in the morning and eat for dinner that night.

Basically, avocados had to be more like bananas.

It was a simple insight that would change the industry forever. Through a series of experiments, researchers figured out how to improve ventilation on pallets of ripening avocados.

As soon as Americans were able to grab softer avocados in a grocery store, they began filling their shopping carts with them. These days, you can feel a bunch of plump avocados and pick the ones that are immediately ready to be smashed into guacamole. But that’s only possible because of all that ripening progress.

“It laid the foundation for this avocado renaissance,” Arpaia said.

To home consumers the imposition of a 25% tariff on a $9 package of six (6) avocados to $11.25 won't reduce purchases much but it will definitely affect restaurants where guacamole and avocado toast enjoy high margins.

Avocados, like eggs, are not as important to the economy as gasoline or electricity but are of symbolic importance. The majority of Americans will probably allow the Trump Administration some time to work through new tariff and trade arrangements, but the trick will be in ascertaining when patience will run out.

Paia and Its Cemeteries

Paia Hongwanji Cemetery (Forrest and Kim Starr)

SFGate travel writer Eric Brooks stumbles upon abandoned graveyards. On the pathway to Baldwin Beach Park near Paia, Maui

There, just beyond some overgrown grass, was what looked like a group of headstones. Next to that, another 5 to 10 feet away, were more headstones. I rounded the corner to see an entire graveyard surrounded by sand and unmaintained brush. I estimated maybe 100 headstones in all...

Baldwin Beach Park and much of the surrounding land used to be owned by Maui’s Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company, or HC&S, a titan of the top industry in Hawaii for many years, according to Lucienne de Naie, author and docent at Hale Hoikeike at the Bailey House, a local history and art museum located in nearby Wailuku.

“The big boom in sugar cane came in the 1880s and 1890s,” de Naie told SFGATE.

That’s when plantation owners, keen to take advantage of the growing sugar cane business, began to import contract workers from countries like Japan, China, the Philippines and Portugal. “There were little camps of Japanese workers; the plantations tended to segregate their workers,” said de Naie, a resident of Maui since the 1970s who knows Paia very well. “The Chinese workers would live in another, the Philippine workers would live in another and so on. The camps had communal activities.”

...Citing a book called “Island of Maui Cemetery (Map & History) Directory,” de Naie was able to pinpoint the original name of the cemetery as the “Paia Hongwanji Cemetery.” It was associated with a Buddhist group called the Makawao Hongwanji, she added, which opened a temple in the area in 1908. The group moved not too far northeast to Upper Paia in 1917, later relocating about 7 miles southeast to Makawao in 1968, according to their website...

“Paia is the cemetery capital of Maui,” de Naie added. “For a small town, it probably has nine to 10 recognized cemeteries. It’s amazing how many cemeteries are there. Catholic, Protestant, Chinese and Mormon cemeteries. It’s a very easy place to dig, with the sand dunes. You put them where you can easily dig.”

Paia boy Fred, my father-in-law

My father-in-law (1922-2001) and his seven siblings were born in Paia. On a trip 35 years ago he showed us his old two-story house, now a tourist shop, and the old Maui High school buildings in a defunct sugar cane field. He regaled us with stories about the best fishing spots, the mischief he and his brothers got into, and life in old Paia town with Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and Filipino children. (I won't use the names they actually called each other because they would offend modern sensibilities.)

Later we drove along the narrow cliffside rode to the Hotel Hana, where my inlaws honeymooned. Then we visited his half brother George in Kahului, and we flew back to Honolulu. Little did I know that it would be the last time I would visit central Maui.

Carpe diem.