SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:32 P.M. ET: 

THEY'RE TAKING ALL THE FUN OUT OF IT – FROM RENEW ECONOMY:  By 2030, you probably won’t own a car, but you may get a free trip with your morning coffee. Transport-As-A-Service will use only electric vehicles and will upend two trillion-dollar industries. It’s the death spiral for cars.  A major new report predicts that by 2030, the overwhelming majority of consumers will no longer own a car – instead they will use on-demand electric autonomous vehicles.  By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of autonomous electric vehicles (A-EVs), the report says, 95 per cent of all US passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand, autonomous, electric vehicles that will be owned by fleets rather than individuals.  Why am I skeptical of this?  We love our cars.  We love owning them.  When has an American kid ever had a dream about riding in a fleet car?  If this be treason...

MORE "PROGRESS" – FROM BLOOMBERG:  In the most cashless society on the planet, even God now accepts digital payments.  A growing number of Swedish parishes have started taking donations via mobile apps. Uppsala’s 13th-century cathedral also accepts credit cards.  The churches’ drive to keep up with the times is the latest sign of Sweden’s rapid shift to a world without notes and coins. Most of the country’s bank branches have stopped handling cash; some shops and museums now only accept plastic; and even Stockholm’s homeless have started accepting cards as payment for their magazine. Go to a flea market, and the seller is more likely to ask to be paid via Sweden’s popular Swish app than with cash.  I will never agree to buying a Milky Way candy bar or a hot-fudge sundae with a credit card.  You mean, no more allowances from mom and dad?  We'd better start defining progress.

FBI TENSION – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  Former top FBI official James Kallstrom said on Sunday that it’s “disgraceful” that Andrew McCabe is the acting director of the agency despite his wife’s cozy relationship to Hillary Clinton operatives.  “It’s actually disgraceful,” Kallstrom, the former assistant director of the FBI, told John Catsimatidis on his “Cats Roundtable” radio program. “Here’s a guy who’s still in the chain of command.”  McCabe, who took over as acting FBI director when President Trump fired James Comey last week, is married to Jill McCabe who took $467,500 from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee during her run for state senate.  She also received $207,788 from the Virginia Democratic Party, which is heavily influenced by Clinton loyalist McAuliffe.  The funds began flowing to Jill McCabe two months after the FBI launched its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server in July 2015.  Just a coincidence, I'm sure.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

May 14,  2017