Getting Old, Getting Wise, and Getting Called a Communist

It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that I am old. My body aches in new and exciting ways, I seem to gain weight just by looking at ice cream, and I genuinely don't understand most of what "kids these days" are up to.

But with age comes experience. I’ve lived through a bit of history. My wife was born less than 20 years after World War II. I remember a time in America when politics "ended at the water's edge," a time when Republicans and Democrats presented a united front to the world. We certainly didn't accuse each other of being communists.

That has changed. Now, it seems the MAGA wing of the Republican party doesn't just accuse their opponents of being communists; they state it as a fact. The irony is staggering, because if you look closely at how real-world communist states operate, it’s the MAGA platform that seems to be borrowing from their playbook.

What Does "Communist" Actually Mean?

To be clear, there are two main flavors of communism. First, there’s the theoretical, Marxist version: a utopian, classless society where everything is shared, and everyone contributes "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need." It’s a nice idea where some people happily shovel manure while others design AI chips, and everyone gets paid the same.

Then there’s real-world communism, as practiced by regimes in Russia, China, and their ilk. This version is defined by centrally planned economies, state ownership of major businesses, and a deep aversion to free-market forces along with a heavy dose of kleptocracy.

Does that sound familiar? Let’s look at some recent trends.

The MAGA Playbook vs. Communist Economics

One hallmark of real-world communist countries is direct state intervention in the economy and the protection of domestic businesses from genuine capitalism. Consider these points:

• State Ownership and Influence: When the government takes a direct stake in a private company, like the US government's recent 10% stake in Intel, it blurs the line between state and market. In my 40 years of investing, I’ve never seen anything like it. This move gives a specific company an inside track on government contracts, regardless of whether they are the best supplier. That’s not capitalism; it’s a centrally planned decision.
• Protectionism and Tariffs: Communist countries don’t expect their domestic industries to compete and innovate on a global scale. Instead, they build trade walls to shield them. Raising the effective U.S. tariff rate from 1.5% to 18% is a classic protectionist move. It demands that their citizens/ comrades to bear the cost of protecting politically favored industries through higher prices and lower-quality goods.
• Autocracy and Kleptocracy: Finally, real-world communist states tend toward autocracy, where a single leader wields immense power and often enriches themselves. We’ve have a president who has reportedly made 3 billion while in office just 6 months, tells specific companies to absorb tariff costs, dictates how they should price their goods, and publicly praises CEOs who flatter him while attacking those who don’t. This style of leadership, where personal wealth and state power are intertwined, bears a striking resemblance to figures like Putin, who has amassed hundreds of billions, or Kim Jong Un, who effectively owns his entire country.

A Misguided Label

You might not agree with some in the Democratic party who believe in universal healthcare or a sustainable social security system, funded by higher taxes and closing loopholes for the wealthy. But those policies don’t make them communists. In fact, a strong argument can be made that providing healthcare and retirement security encourages consumer spending and allows businesses to focus on innovation instead of employee benefits.

What no true capitalist would support, however, is increased government ownership of private business, presidents accepting lavish gifts for preferential treatment, or walling off the domestic market from global competition.

So, the next time a MAGA supporter calls you a communist, perhaps the best response is a simple one from the playground: "I know you are, but what am I?"

we leave rural as fuck and daughter and taxes

 Fun updates from our local mountain rescue and Pitkin County alerts.

Once again someone thought they had found a short cut down Capitol and got cliffed out---as the mountain rescue team will tell you, there are no short cuts---if there was a short cut it would be the path.  Luckily they were able to reach help via their Garmin Inreach (sat phone).  Mountain rescue luckily was able to get a black hawk helo to search and find the cliffed out hikers.  AMR (Aspen Mountain Rescue) was lucky to be able to find the hikers because they were wearing black clothing which made spotting them difficult.  For those snotty folks who say why a Blackhawk---the ceiling for most helicopters is 10k feet, these folks were stuck on the side of a cliff at like 13.5 feet and the helo obviously had to work at a higher altitude (drop a basket, climb over and around a 14.1k foot mountain) ---so yea a black hawk was necessary.  Very lucky one was available---very very lucky.

Right after dropping off the hikers AMR immediately got another call about a 17 year old suffering from altitude sickness at Snowmass lake.  This was at about 10.8k feet (high but really not that high however again above the height most helos can work at).  Luckily there was a black hawk helo with its engines warm and it was immediately sent to pick this kid up?  Why?  He was foaming at the mouth--ie moved to HAPE.  He was flown to Aspen then quickly transferred to Denver and put on 35 liters of Oxygen (ie a lot).  He was released 4 days later with no brain damage.  Very lucky.

That is a lot of back country luck---be careful and respect the risks.  At the first sign of altitude sickness head to lower altitudes, and stay on the path---no bushwacking on 14ers.

I got an announcement that a road was shut due to a cattle drive.  No a lot of areas where you get that in your daily updates.

Our main road in and out of Aspen was shut 3 times in 5 days due to car accidents.

Our 2 main grocery stores were out of eggs and milk and yogurt and ....well you get the point, because we live at the end of the grocery store supply chain and while Aspen is a meme for big money and big ballers we are actually rural as fuck.  

Lastly there have been multiple rescues in other parts of CO for....dogs.  Dogs too tired to hike any further, dogs whose paws were blistered and dogs who were on technical trails and fallen down rock faces that required them to be rappeled out.  Come on folks, mountain rescue needs to focus on humans, don't over work them by bringing your dogs on hikes they shouldn't be on.  This from a guy who hikes with his dogs all the time; there is a time and a place for dog hikes.  Know your dogs and know the hike and get it right.

Lastly, my daughter has lots of retail jobs this summer and is working almost every day.  She is making some bank.  She is also seeing taxes get pulled out of her paycheck.  Pretty funny to watch her get upset about paying $115 in taxes on a gross $915 paycheck.  Love watching the kids grow up.

Why We Trust Real Experience Over AI When It Comes to Ski Racks

As the owner of a small business—Gravirax, makers of rugged, hitch-mounted ski racks—we don’t have the luxury of a massive marketing budget. That means we rely heavily on organic SEO (search engine optimization) to build awareness and reach new customers.

Over the last 20 years, SEO has evolved dramatically. What used to be about listing your site in the Yahoo directory and stuffing in meta keywords, later shifted to backlinks, and today? It’s all about content.

The idea is: if your website has enough high-quality content, search engines—and increasingly, AI—will take notice. Your site becomes part of the web’s knowledge ecosystem, and that leads to better rankings and more visibility.

Can AI Actually Write SEO-Winning Content?

Curious about how effective AI is at content creation, I tested two leading platforms: ChatGPT and Jasper, both known for generating SEO-optimized blogs.

I asked them to write about hitch-mounted ski racks. The results? Predictable.

They hit the right keywords: “high-quality materials,” “ease of use,” “aerodynamics,” “integrated locks”—all SEO gold. The blogs were well-structured with headings, subheadings, and bullet points. But here’s the problem:

There was no real depth. No insight. No experience.

For example:

• They said racks should be made of “high-quality materials”… but never named any.

• They said aerodynamics matter… but offered no explanation or data. No real impact on MPG.  rack aerodynamics

• They emphasized integrated locks… without evaluating how necessary they really are.

The Ski Theft Myth: What AI Doesn’t Know

Take the topic of ski theft, which AI seems to prioritize as a critical concern. But is it?

At Gravirax, we decided to find out. We contacted police and sheriff departments in ski towns. We compiled actual data—something AI can’t do. Here's what we found:

• Reported ski theft is extremely rare.

• Across 2.2 million skier visits to Vail during the 2021–22 season, there were only 24 reported ski thefts.

• That means your chance of getting skis stolen is 0.001% or 1 in 100,000.  ski theft data

That’s not a widespread problem. Yet AI keeps recommending ski locks because it detects lots of online chatter, not actual risk. And those integrated locks? They freeze up in winter, and no one’s writing about the guy trying to thaw his ski rack lock with a lighter or WD-40, or in emergency with their urine.

Real Insight Comes From Real-World Use

AI can’t:

• Call Vail Resorts and ask for skier-day statistics, or fill out forms to request information from police departments.  

• Evaluate how plastic fasteners can crack in sub-zero temps.

• Test how drag coefficients from different rack designs affect fuel efficiency.

• Understand the difference between rust-prone hardware and stainless steel.

• Observe that skiers are not skiing down the hill with pairs of skis stolen from an on mountain restaurant 

We’ve done all that—and we share our findings in the Gravirax blog. Sadly, these insights are often overlooked by both readers and the AI bots crawling the web.

Bottom Line: Content With Substance Wins

If you want to rank in today’s SEO landscape, content matters—but real, useful, experience-driven content should matter more.  Interestingly this calls to mind the parable, 'if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a noise?'  If good content exists but AI doesn't 'know' about it, does it matter.  The answer seems to be sadly NO.

At Gravirax, we don’t just sell racks—we test them, study them, and constantly improve them. That’s the kind of content no AI can generate. And that’s what makes a real difference.

The above was written by AI to optimize for SEO--and interestingly in the process it downplayed the weaknesses of AI.  Maybe Chat GPT can be a bit defensive.  Interesting.  A take away, for employers and employees is real expertise does matter, and some research still requires humans.  AI has not yet won the day, but when I am writing for AI SEO optimization I have to write in its style (bold headings, bullet points, and meta keywords).

I was taking the dogs out and looked in the mirror

I noticed that I was wearing dark wrap around sunglasses and a flat brim baseball hat.  My skin is dark and my face unshaven.  I wondered if I should grab my wallet.  What if ICE stopped me and I didn't have documentation on my person proving that I was a US citizen. Would I be disappeared to a prison in El Salvador for the rest of my life?  I know that fear sounds crazy, BUT its a heck of a lot less crazy to think that under Trump.  His administration is grabbing people off the street and holding them in US detention centers or deporting them to foreign prisons.  You don't get to call a lawyer or appeal in court.  You are held incommunicado.  That is beyond crazy; it is frightening.

Would it be more understandable if we were at war?  Yes.  Would I take my wallet (and maybe a flak jacket) if I lived in a hot war zone?  For sure.  Is that the world we are living in right now?  Absolutely not.  The only real danger out there is currently our own government grabbing folks off the street and tossing them in prison--please also remember that less than 1% of crime is committed by illegal immigrants.

Another fun crazy fact.  ABC news settled with Trump for a defamation suit Trump brought against ABC news because George Stephanopoulos said Trump was found civilly liable for rape.  That was incorrect, he was found civilly liable of sexual assault.  This is splitting hairs, BUT ABC news agreed to pay $15 million to his library and $1 million to cover his legal fees and apologize.

Abrego Garcia has been accused by the Trump administration of being a member of MS-13 and being a vicious gangster, and a terrorist because he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and has tattoos, and some drunk disgraced cop said he might be a member of MS 13 in an area that has no MS 13 presence.  With zero evidence presented in court that Garcia is dangerous (but a long history in the US of no criminal arrests little less convictions) he has been deported to a prison in El Salvador possibly for the rest of his life.  The US Supreme Court has ordered his return and when President Trump met with the President of El Salvador they both had the hutzpah to tell reporters that neither of them had the power to return Garcia.

If the pain and suffering and damage to character that Trump experienced due to Stephanopoulos mischaracterizing his legal finding as rape vs sexual assault, what should be the compensation for Garcia for being mischaracterized as a gang member, terrorist, human trafficker, who has been imprisoned against a court order, and held against a court order.  Will DJT apologize and write him a check (personally because it shouldn't come from US taxpayers) for hundreds of millions of dollars?  Me thinks not.  This is the America we live in during the reign of Trump.  Do you feel safer?  I don't but I might start bringing my wallet with me everywhere.

its all about the cats and the dogs

Donald J Trump lies.  He lies about everything all the time.  His super power is that he doesn't feel any issues about lying.  He isn't bound by normal human mores that would cause some hesitation or pause when lying.  He has some belief, and then he creates facts and stories to fit the story he has in his head.

We saw this around his businesses where he lied about the size of his assets or liabilities to suit his needs (his assets are huge for getting loans from banks and much less valuable when the tax man asked).  He lies about the whereabouts of top secret files he has stolen from the government.  He lies about the results of an election.  He lies about American being at war and being invaded by Venezuelan gangs.  He lies about, well everything.

An area DJT loves to lie about to fit his narrative is violence in America and in particular who is committing that violence.  According to President Trump we are living in American carnage.  Rape and murder is everywhere, and its mostly the result of illegal immigrants and their woke Democratic overlords.  In Trump's mind when immigrants aren't eating Fido and Garfield they are raping American women and murdering our grandparents and grandchildren.  During his single debate with Kamala Harris he repeated a known lie that immigrants are eating the dogs and cats of Americans in Springfield OH.  Except of course they weren't, and that FACT was known.  Yet in Trump's mind immigrants must be eating dogs and cats because that is the kind of stuff immigrants do.

In Trump's mind immigrants are also rapping and murdering Americans when they take a break from eating domestic animals.  Except they aren't.  In the past couple of years the percentage of rapes and murders committed by illegal immigrants is under 0.3%.  For example in 2023 there were 29 illegal immigrants convicted of murder, out of 19,252 murders.  Is murder or rape by an American citizen somehow not so bad, but one committed by an illegal immigrant 1000Xs worse?  I am pretty sure of the 127k people raped in 2023 stopping the 284 committed by illegals would be nice, but spending that money stopping the other 127k rapes is much more important.

And that brings us to Kilmar Garcia.  Team Trump paints a picture of a violent gang leader.  The courts and the facts are entirely different.  Not only has Garcia not been convicted of any crime in the decade plus he has lived in the US, he hasn't even been accused of any crime.  There are no court cases or accusations against him.  Yes he wore a hoodie, and a bulls hat.  Is that a crime?  Should a brown man in a bulls baseball cap be sent to jail for life in a foreign prison?  Team Trump thinks so.  Is this really a power we want a President to have?  While no President should (or even does) have this authority, its particularly dangers in a man who is untethered from reality.  The ability to disappear anyone he doesn't like.  That is the power of a despot, not a President.  If that doesn't make you want to take to the streets in protest then any true understanding of freedom and democracy must have died in you.

Trump---the problem is the mouth

 The one thing that is certain about Trump is all kinds of crap will spew from his mouth hole.  From COVID won't be a problem, to drink bleach to cure COVID.  Or there are good guys on both sides (yes the crusader in chief against antisemitism on college campuses doesn't have a problem with guys with tiki torches chanting 'jews will not replace us' in Charlottesville).  

Specifically with tariffs, the rules change by the hour.  The rational for tariffs change by the minute.  Team Trump claims he is just a flexible negagioter but he isn't.  He just spews constant crap.  But of course much of what comes out of the President of the United States isn't crap, and even if it is its impactful crap.  We ignore him at our risk.  He said he loves tariffs and he has started a tariff war.  He has said he will do whatever it takes to deport people he finds threatening and he has ignored habeas and the rule of law to do just that.  

What is remarkable about the verbal diarrhea that spouts from the Presidents mouth is not just the crazy uncertainty around positions, but the positions themselves.  If we were to go back to college statistics class and look at the potential distribution of stuff a president might say or propose it would look like a bell curve and the distribution of positions would bounce around a bit but around a certain central core of what political scientists would call 'norms'.  Like maybe we try to raises taxes a bit or cut taxes on investment a bit but not lets eliminate the IRS.

President Trump has no norms.  There is no center.  There is no bell curve distribution of comments and views.  A quick list of things to consider:

1. He pardoned violent insurrectionists who attacked the capital to prevent the peaceful transfer of power

2.  He talks about staying in office beyond two terms

3.  He parrots Russian talking points about who started the Ukraine war (hint its Russia)

4.  He proposes turning Gaza into a Trump resort

5.  He proposes making Canada the 51st state

6.  He proposes taking over Greenland--from our NATO ally

7.  He launches a meme coin

8.  He has a publicly traded stock

9.  He refuses court orders to bring back someone he illegally deported (too bad not so sad)

10.  He threatens to pull Harvard's tax exempt status if they don't agree to .....well lets put it in Trump speak, 'be his bitch'.  Now I could point out that many evangelical churches have become much more explicitly political than Harvard supporting Trump from the pulpit but that is not the point---the point is you either obey the most powerful man in the world or he will hurt you.

The center point for all past presidents bell curve of thoughts was around democracy, the center point for Trump is around personal power---and that is autocracy pure and simple.   

Trump---the Art of the ....screw up

 I have a confession to make.  Karoline Leavitt owns me (ie owns the libs).  The verbal diarrhea that spews from her mouth is so voluminous and noxious I find myself crying, screaming and shaking in disbelief all at once.

And when she, and the rest of the cabinet all talk about DJT as the greatest dealmaker of all time, all I can say is NO.  No fucking way.

Why?  Well to be a good deal maker you need

1. a plan or goal

2.  people to believe your word

3.  some level of expertise

What Trump doesn't have is a goal for his tariffs.  And for sure no one believes him.  He changes his actual tariff policies multiple times a day.  He screws up the rates he is charging (China 125% or 145% who the heck knows---the Trump administration for sure doesn't).  There will be no pause or there will be a 30 day pause or there will be a 90 day pause and there will be no exceptions or there will be exceptions for electronics wait no there won't be exceptions for electronics.  The only thing efficient about any of this is they are not bothering to publish it in the Federal Register saving us taxpayers money (and of course not making any of these tariff announcements legally binding but then again who cares if they are legal).

Some bottom line of stuff to know:

1.  Prior to Trump Tariff Tantrum (TTT) our average tariff rate was 2.5% that we paid on average on imported goods (when we were getting raped a pillaged by everyone including penguins).  Now even after the 90 day pause on the liberation day tariffs the average rate on imported goods is 25%.  

2.  The world used to trust us to be a pretty honest country for both security guarantees and economics/business. Why?  Well we fought and bled for Europe in WW2 and then airlifted food, material and spent money on ensuring European freedom.  We spent a ton of money on defense to protect our neighbors.  And if the cost of massive free trade growth allowing our economy to outpace all others was a 2.5% tariff we paid it.  In less than 100 days Trump has destroyed all that.  Other countries are going to arm (including nuclear arm) themselves because America can't be trusted.  Our ability to compete on the global economic stage will be severely hampered.  For what reason?  To bring back some manufacturing jobs?  To raise a tariff/ tax on American consumers?  To make socks and shoes in Alabama?  

3.  And that ain't even the half of it---Team Trump has stopped counting stuff so we won't even see the country get less healthy, unable to access social security, students doing worse, life span contracting.  The only constant is the enrichment of Trump and the adulation from his courtiers.  and for $12 you can buy your gold plated Trump lapel pin to show your loyalty just like his staff does.