Saturday, September 30, 2023

US House passes 45-day government funding bill 335-91 minus Ukraine aid

 The House measure would fund government at current 2023 levels for 45 days, through Nov. 17, setting up another potential crisis if they fail to more fully fund government by then. The package was approved by the House 335-91, with most Republicans and almost all Democrats supporting.

More.



Friday night news dump: IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, 38, charged with leaking tax records in New York Times and ProPublica incidents in 2018 and 2020

 Littlejohn, 38, provided the public official’s tax documents to an unnamed news organization, and the tax information concerning other wealthy individuals to another unidentified news organization between 2018 and 2020, prosecutors said.

In 2020, The New York Times released a bombshell report saying that it had obtained more than two decades of Trump’s tax information and that he had paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
 
More
 
The story has already been scrubbed from the lineup by the weekend kids crew at CNBC.

Regular everyday normal Canadian

 


Friday, September 29, 2023

42 million in the United States have forms of sexually transmitted human papillomavirus which can cause disease

More than 42 million Americans are infected with types of HPV that cause disease. ... Most HPV infections (9 out of 10) go away by themselves within 2 years. But sometimes, HPV infections will last longer and can cause some cancers.     
 
More.     

About 70% of cancers in the oropharynx (which includes the tonsils, soft palate, and base of the tongue) are linked to human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted virus.

More. 

 


 

Gonorrhea cases in the United States are up 135% in 12 years

 From 301,174 cases in 2009 to 710,151 cases in 2021

Chlamydia cases in the United States are up 32% in the last 12 years

From 1,244,180 in 2009 to 1,644,416 in 2021

Syphilis cases in the United States are up every year since 2009, a whopping 294% in 12 years

 From 44,832 cases in 2009 to 176,713 in 2021


The three year and five month embarrassment of core inflation higher than the 10-year Treasury yield finally ended in August

 Yield for the 10-year US Treasury rose to an average 4.17% in August 2023 while core inflation year over year fell to 3.87% in August 2023.

This ends the 3-year 5-month run where core inflation exceeded the 10-year yield, something which has never happened in the data.

The only time core inflation outran the 10-year previously for a comparable period was in 1974 and 1975 when core inflation averaged 7.91% and 8.35% vs. the 10-year yield which averaged 7.56% and 7.99% respectively.

That lackadaisical response to inflation by the Federal Reserve under Arthur F. Burns (1970-1978) prefigured the 1980 resurgence of core inflation to 9.19%. Under his successor Paul Volcker, interest rates were hiked to unprecedented levels to curb inflation. The 10-year yield rose to an average of 13.92% in 1981 as a result.

The current fear is that the Powell Fed has set up the economy for a repeat of this awful period of inflation.

Whatever is said about it, there is no question that inflation is a benefit to the Federal government because it depends on borrowing to finance deficit spending and consequently the debt, now at an unprecedented $33 trillion. Inflation simply reduces that cost to the government over time by making the dollars previously borrowed worth less.

It is true that new borrowing costs much more, but the debt mountain mammoth in the living room is the more pressing problem. This is why the cognoscenti teach that inflation is a good thing.

Extending the duration of inflation at the currently relatively low level has been in the government's interest. The costs born by the public in the form of higher prices for goods, services, and borrowing are becoming routinized so that the voters are becoming inured to the deleterious effects for them while clueless of the benefits for the debt mongers. 

This is particularly the case for voters who have no memory of that horrible inflation which gave rise to the backlash represented by Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, and who now vastly outnumber those who still remember.

It should not be forgotten that Jimmy Carter got elected in 1976 anyway, after the Burns' inflation. The voters then took it all in stride, too, until they didn't.

Same as it ever was.

 




Thursday, September 28, 2023

If Trump can skip the debate so can I

 

 
 

 

Libertarianism breaks a few eggs

STUDY: Cannabis Overuse Linked To Heart Failure And Heart Attacks...

Democrats betray liberalism, become the new authoritarians

 Carl M. Cannon, here:

But the most glaring gap is between conservatives and liberals, i.e., between Republicans and Democrats. On the issue of free expression, at least, Republicans are not the authoritarian party. That distinction belongs to the Democrats, the party launched by Thomas Jefferson — the Founding Father who famously said that if he were forced to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” ...

If Republicans’ aversion to censorship was transactional, they would have identified Democratic-friendly misinformation for removal. But they didn’t. “Regardless of the partisan slant of the content, Democrats are more likely to support the removal of content, while Republicans are more likely to oppose removing content,” the study noted.

It was Democrats who more often employed situational ethics, giving a pass to misinformation that helped their side. Most Republicans didn’t differentiate based on which way the false headline cut.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

I've wanted Trump to just go away since about January 2019, Newt Gingrich since about 2012

Because it's all "just words", as Barack Obama once said.

 

It turns out that former S&P Sovereign Ratings Committee Chair John B. Chambers, who presided over the AAA downgrade in 2011, is a partisan wackadoodle

 Here commenting about today:

“The external position is about the same, but I think the governance has weakened and the fractiousness of the political settings is much worse, and that has led to government shutdowns, it’s led to fears that the government might default on its debt because of the debt ceiling, and it’s led to a failed coup d’état on the 6th [of] January, 2021.”

And here a couple years ago:

"I don’t think the chance of a default because of a debt ceiling is that high as long as the Democrats control both Congress and the White House, that won’t always been the case. That could reemerge."

 Because, this:

The Wall Street bean counter who trashed America’s global credit reputation is a New Yorker who never studied economics, majored in literature and philosophy, and has a master’s in English lit. ...

Chambers grew up outside Kansas City, Kan., and went to liberal Grinnell College in Iowa, where he was a star on the swim team, ranking eighth in school history in the 1,000-meter freestyle. After graduating in 1977 with a bachelor of arts in literature and philosophy, he went Ivy League, enrolling at Columbia University, where he got a master’s degree in English literature.  ...

S&P was found to have made an estimated $2 trillion error in its 10-year deficit projection but brushed that aside, citing instability in Washington and the fact that the deficit-reduction cuts fell short of S&P’s recommended $4 trillion.

LOL, in article supposedly touting the Cornel West threat, clueless former Green Party candidate Ralph Nader says he prefers Biden autocracy to Trump fascism


 “I know the difference between fascism and autocracy, and I’ll take autocracy any time,” Nader said, according to the outlet. “Fascism is what the GOP is the architecture of, and autocracy is what the Democrats are practitioners of. But autocracy leaves an opening. They don’t suppress votes. They don’t suppress free speech.”

Yeah, every censored, canceled person in America agrees with that, right?

If Ralph Nader is West's friend, who are West's enemies?

The whole farcical thing is here, pretending Biden doesn't now have a record, that he won the House in 2022, and that inflation isn't crushing the worker.



Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Dramatic price action today for 30+ years old Vanguard Treasury funds

VFISX inception date 10/28/1991 New all time low price set today 09/26/2023 close : $9.71

VFITX inception date 10/28/1991 All time low price: $9.57 on 11/21/1994 Price 9/26/2023 close: $9.59

VUSTX inception date 5/19/1986 New all time low price set today 9/26/2023 close: $7.88 

  


 

Monday, September 25, 2023

Senator Menendez starts the week telling an amusing anecdote about all that cash found in his home, doesn't explain how the briber's DNA got on the envelope

 Sen. Bob Menendez suggests cash found in bribery raid came from ‘personal savings’


 

US Treasury yields pushed to new cycle highs last week despite another Fed interest rate pause

 Cash was about the only thing which did better week over week on Friday. Treasuries and bonds generally took a beating, as did stocks.

The UST yield curve aggregate closed up a net 1.27% week over week on 9/22, to an average of 5.0707692, the highest Friday close yet for this cycle.

Yields in the aggregate made a new high for this cycle on Thursday, for an average of 5.0915384. 

Here's the year-to-date performance for key categories using some commonly used Vanguard funds:

Treasury Market VFISX 0.66% VFITX -0.70% VUSTX -5.57%;

Investment Grade Market VFSTX 2.08% VFICX 1.32% VWESX -0.83%; 

Total Bond Market VBTLX -0.03% (+0.44% previous week);

Cash VMFXX 3.58% (3.48% previous week);

Total Stock Market VTSAX 12.95% (16.45% previous week).

 


 

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Now controlled by Muslims, Hamtramck bans flags like the gay one, lesbian Attorney General of Michigan Dana Nessel calls it a national embarrassment

 Ha ha ha ha ha.
 
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is a lesbian, weighed in after the resolution passed. 
 “I ask the city of Hamtramck to use its voice to speak up for all its people, take down the wall you have now built that has made this proud city into a national embarrassment,” Nessel (D) said at a protest rally at the park across from City Hall. “Make no mistake, homophobia, transphobia are indeed forms of evil as much as Islamophobia is.”
Allahu Akbar.

For a good time, call Angela: The Libertarian Party is very interested in RFK Jr for Election 2024 but not Justin Amash lol


 In July, Mr. Kennedy met privately with Angela McArdle, the chair of the Libertarian Party, at a conference they were both attending in Memphis — a meeting that has not previously been reported.

 “He emphasized that he was committed to running as a Democrat but said that he considered himself very libertarian,” Ms. McArdle said in an interview, adding that they agreed on several positions, including the threat of the “deep state” and the need for populist messaging. “We’re aligned on a lot of issues.”

 “My perspective is that we are going to stay in touch in case he does decide to run,” Ms. McArdle said. “And he can contact me at any time if that’s the case.”

More.

Depressed stroke victim on meds who can't even dress himself tells Menendez to resign


Sen. John Fetterman is first Democratic senator to tell Sen. Bob Menendez to resign

Saturday, September 23, 2023

The only reason Democrat Senator Bob Menendez didn't keep his cash in the freezer like Democrat William J. Jefferson was because it wouldn't all fit in there


  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Authorities found more than $100,000 worth of gold bars in Menendez’s home, and $480,000 in cash — much of it hidden in closets, clothing and a safe.

More

 

 

 

 

"In a subsequent raid, agents found $90,000 in marked money in the freezer of Jefferson’s Virginia home."

 

Climate phony Barack Obama wanted young people to stay angry and frustrated about inaction on climate in 2021 and promptly installed a 2,500 gallon propane tank on his estate in 2022

Video of the climate phony in 2021 is making the rounds here.

 

Martha's Vineyard Times June 7, 2022


Governor Kathy Bart Simpson Hochul of New York now: ""If you're going to leave your country, go somewhere else"

 Then:


 Yikes.

What did the Hot Dog Nazi say to the lesbian?

 

"No wiener for you!"

Green Party candidate Cornel West gives Trump the edge over Biden in latest Emerson National Poll

 


Cornel West has been shaping up all summer long to be the real Operation Chaos candidate for Election 2024 in Emerson’s polling. Biden doesn’t need to worry about RFK Jr unless he, too, goes third party.

From the Emerson College Polling September National Poll here :

In a general election rematch between Trump and Biden, 45% support the former president and the current president respectively. Ten percent are undecided. When Green Party candidate Cornel West is added to the ballot, Trump holds 43% of voter support, Biden 42%, while 4% support West and 11% are undecided.

China's Marxist vision of state control and redistribution never went away


 

What is a communist? One who has yearnings
For equal division of unequal earnings.
Idler, or bungler, or both, he is willing
To fork over his penny and pocket your shilling.

- Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849)

 

… it’s back, says Rudd, and Xi’s Marxist vision means greater control over the private sector, an expanding role for state-owned enterprises and industrial policy, and the quest for “common prosperity” through redistribution — all of which is likely to shrink economic growth, he concludes. Rudd is the current Australian ambassador to the United States. …

Stevenson-Yang is … one of the few who isn’t puzzled by what’s happening in China, after living there for more than 20 years. The CCP “was always going to decouple. Once the party had acquired enough power, enough resources, enough money, it was always going to decouple,” she told CNBC.

The reforms that began in 1979, she says, “were always meant to be temporary, in order to bring in more resources.”

More.

Bankruptcy estate of FTX sues Barbara Fried, Stanford Law ethics expert, for encouraging son to skirt disclosure rules

 

Very amusing.

We’re law experts, see. This is how you get around the law.

From the story,

FTX sues Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, aims to claw back some of the $26 million in gifts and property :

The filing characterizes the correspondence as Bankman lobbying his son to “massively increase his own salary.” Within two weeks, the suit claims that Bankman-Fried had collectively gifted his parents $10 million in funds coming from Alameda, and within three months, the couple was deeded the $16.4 million property in The Bahamas.

According to the partially-redacted filing, Bankman-Fried’s parents also “pushed for tens of millions of dollars in political and charitable contributions, including to Stanford University, which were seemingly designed to boost Bankman’s and Fried’s professional and social status.” Fried is also accused of encouraging her son and others within the company to avoid, if not violate, federal campaign finance disclosure rules by “engaging in straw donations or otherwise concealing the FTX Group as the source of the contributions.”

Bankman-Fried’s parents are legal scholars who taught at Stanford Law School. His mother is an expert on ethics, while his father specializes in taxes.

Trump threw a tantrum on January 6th, blaming mommy for not stopping it is pathetic

 

Trump: Nancy Pelosi Is Responsible For January 6th

There's an old saying which says don't get in the way of your enemy while he's busy destroying himself.

And she didn't.

Trump is indeed responsible because he scheduled the event for that particular day. He could have chosen any other.

No one is responsible for the crowd getting out of control but the crowd, but Trump is responsible for the unique intersection between the crowd and the Congress on January 6th.

The Democrats’ prosecution of the trespassers has been wildly excessive, just to make an example of Trump for his childish stunt.

We are children behaving like children, and we have the government we deserve, on all sides.

 

The ugly Americans' ugly children

 

Overall, adults in the U.S. are least likely to say that kids having good manners is an especially important quality — just 52% of them said so in 2017, according to a report released this month by King’s College London. That makes the U.S. the country least likely, of the 24 countries surveyed in recent years, to believe good manners are crucial for kids.

This is a significant drop from 1990, when 76% of U.S. adults said it was a very important quality for children to possess, the data shows. …

Another factor that falls under the broader idea of kids being well behaved is if they listen to their parents or other adults. But even fewer U.S. adults said that obedience was a key quality for kids — in fact, it fell far behind in all countries compared with having good manners.

The country that values obedience the most is Nigeria with 58%, followed by Mexico and Egypt with 57% and 56% respectively. The U.S. falls into the second half of the table with 21%.

The whole thing is here.

The decline was inevitable, I suppose, with the decline of religion.

But things were already bad enough in 1958.

They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They are loud and ostentatious:


 

 

 

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Trump's Miss Universe trans policy in 2012 was endorsed by GLAAD lol

 '“For more than two weeks, the Miss Universe Organization and Mr. Trump made it clear to GLAAD that they were open to making a policy change to include women who are transgender. We appreciate that he and his team responded swiftly and appropriately,” they said in a statement.'

The story from June is here.

We've had an unprecedented three consecutive years now where inflation has remained higher than the 10-year UST yield on an average annual basis, and our hapless FOMC looks set to make it four

 There were just two years of this in the 1970s inflation, and they too were consecutive.

Anyone who calls Jerome Powell an inflation fighter is an idiot, or a stooge for the status quo of inflation profiteers.

This is all on the backs of the people, but where is the angry mob?

So medicated, so drugged, and so otherwise anesthetized by bread and circuses that the elites don't even bother to hide the truth.


 




Core inflation higher than DGS10 yield in 2020, 2021, 2022 (annual average)

Core inflation higher than DGS10 yield January through July 2023 (monthly view)

Let's check in on the US Treasury yield curve and year to date performance of selected Vanguard funds

The UST yield curve aggregate closed up a net 0.68% week over week on 9/15, to an average of 5.006923, the first Friday close this cycle in the 5s.
 
As expected, fixed income isn't doing well in this rising-rate environment. Stocks have done surprisingly well this year, and even cash has beaten bonds.
 
YTD performance:
 
Treasury VFISX 0.68% VFITX -0.26% VUSTX -4.12%;
Investment Grade VFSTX 2.21% VFICX 1.73% VWESX 0.00%; 
Total Bond VBTLX 0.44%; Cash VMFXX 3.48%; Total Stock VTSAX 16.45%.
 
Other popular vehicles: 
 
$SPX 16.37%
$AGG -2.12%
$TLT -8.38%.