Yeah that worked out great for Afghanistan, might as well try it for Ukraine omg

Cue record needle scratching across the record here.

 

In the aggregate US Treasury yields haven't moved much since the end of November, after which duration began to normalize, but looky here

 On Nov 29, 2024 the yield curve averaged 4.356 in the aggregate, after which we began to see duration normalize.

On Feb 21, 2025 it averages 4.357.

Now, however, there are seven securities in the Bills category, not just six, with Treasury rolling out the new 1.5-month (6-week) security as part of debt-ceiling-forced "extraordinary measures". There are five in the Notes, and two in the Bonds.

Duration normalization has now partly reversed because of the extraordinary measures, at least on a weekly basis, with yields for Notes once again falling below those for Bills on average on Friday.

If you count just the traditional 1MO, 3MO, 6MO, and 1Y among the Bills, the Bills yield average is nearly identical to Notes at 4.2825.

These falling yields may be both signaling and spurring increased purchasing of UST, including among the Notes to lock in an anticipated disappearance of opportunity as Bills issuance surges to fund the Treasury General Account. The increased issuance of Bills means yields fall across the curve, at least temporarily, as investors lock in.

The special 6-week security rolled out at 4.41 on 2/18 and was paying 4.39 on Friday vs. only 4.15 for the 1Y and 4.42 for the 10Y, the latter's lowest yield all month. Falling yields for the 10Y is a specific goal of the Treasury under Trump. Evidently the temporary 6-week Bill is helping them achieve that . . . for now.

Reported Feb 5 and Feb 6:

Bessent's focus on 10-year US Treasury yield may let Fed off the hook

..."The president wants lower interest rates and ... in my talks with him, he and I are focused on the 10-year Treasury," Bessent said. "He is not calling on the Fed to lower rates. He believes that if we ... deregulate the economy, if we get this tax bill done, if we get energy down, then rates will take care of themselves and the dollar will take care of itself." ...

 10-year Treasury yield drops as traders digest news on issuance, fresh data

... The [Treasury] department also said it will be issuing more short-term bills than usual as it uses “extraordinary measures” to keep the government operating while Congress battles over the debt limit. That announcement came despite new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously criticizing his predecessor, Janet Yellen, for issuing unusually large amounts of shorter-term debt. ...

 

 

 

Black Hawk helicopter collision with passenger jet was part of a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission

 Crashed US Army Black Hawk unit was responsible for doomsday readiness

... The three soldiers killed in the collision were part of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, whose responsibilities in a national crisis include evacuating Pentagon officials. Another 64 people were killed in the passenger plane. ...

This is just BS from Speaker Mike Johnson about LNG exports and Joe Biden's memory

 Whatever may be said about Joe Biden's memory, he didn't have a memory lapse in this instance as alleged by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. It's troubling that Mike Johnson would misrepresent this in this way. 

Joe Biden doesn't have a monopoly on "fake shit".

Sir, why did you [President Biden] pause LNG exports to Europe? Like, I don't understand. Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? You understand -- we just talked about Ukraine -- you’re fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine because they’ve got to get their gas from him."

He looks at me, stunned, and says, "I didn’t, I didn’t do that."

I said, "Mr. President, yes, you did. It was an executive order, like, three weeks ago."

He says, "No, I didn’t do that." He’s arguing with me.

-- The Moment Speaker Mike Johnson Knew Biden Wasn't "In Charge" Anymore 

LNG exports to Europe were not paused. And demand in Europe dropped in 2024. Biden signed a temporary pause for pending approvals of LNG exports, not for existing approvals of LNG exports. This and Mike's other comments in the story indicate that he is not exactly reliable on the subject. But he could have easily just looked it up.

Jan 26, 2024:

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports

Sep 4, 2024:

US LNG export dominance tested as Europe's demand wilts

Meanwhile, Mike Johnson didn't tell anybody about this until now? Seems like a dereliction of duty for the man in line right behind the VP to become president in the event of incapacity or death.

And, oh yeah, US LNG export tanker loads hit a seven-month high in January 2025 at 71, through yesterday:

 

 

 

One nutball era ends, another begins

 

That 2018 border wall looks pretty cheap now by comparison lol

 

$86 billion

$25 billion

Ford Motor F-150 Lightning EV pick-em-up-truck sales are a JOKE, and the mainstream media propaganda stories don't tell you that, if they cover the story at all

  Ford sold 7,162 units of the Lightning in Q3 2024, up from the 3,503 units in Q3 of last year. ... Year-to-date, Ford sold 22,807 F-150 Lightning EVs. ... 

[22,807 units lol. Ford sold nearly 751,000 F-series pick up trucks in 2023, so that's like 3% of the 2023 total]

Overall, Ford’s all-electric vehicle sales in the third quarter of this year amounted to 23,509 units, up 12.2% from last year’s 20,962 vehicles. Year-to-date, Ford sold 67,689 EVs, up 45% compared to last year’s 46,671 units. ...

Ford sold 432,429 combustion-powered vehicles in the third quarter, down 2.8% year-over-year, and 1,340,139 units year-to-date, down 1.8% year-over-year.

Reported here. 

That means year-to-date total EV sales are just 5.05% of total combustion-powered vehicle sales year to date.

People aren't buying these dogs.

None of these stories mention these facts.

CBS: Ford to pause production of F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks

CNBC: Ford to halt production of electric F-150 Lightning next month until January

MarketWatch: Ford to Pause Production of F-150 Lightning EV Pickup Trucks

Reuters, to it's credit actually reported some actual numbers: Ford to halt production of F-150 Lightning EV pickup trucks for six weeks :

Ford said this month its Ford-brand U.S. EV sales are up 45% this year and sales of F-150 Lightning more than doubled to 7,100 in the three months ending Sept. 30 - thought [sic] they still represent just 3.6% of all F-Series pickup sales.     

If Ford is smart it will abandon this boondoggle which is going to cost it $5 billion plus in 2024 and even more going forward and just stick with hybrids and hope Donald Trump fixes this mess.

Something funny going on here: Reuters says 63% of blacks plan to support Harris according to NAACP survey, The Hill says 51% of blacks would vote for her today based on the same survey

 

Both stories published Friday the 13th.

 One in four US Black men under 50 support Trump for president, NAACP poll finds

Most Black voters, 63%, plan to support Harris, compared with 13% for Trump, according to the new NAACP survey, which interviewed 1,000 registered Black voters across the U.S. from Aug. 6 to Aug. 12. 

 

Black voters, buoyed by Harris, more excited to vote in 2024 than in 2008: [NAACP] Poll

 

Fifty-one percent of Black voters said they would cast their ballots for Harris if the election were held today. Only 27 percent said the same of former President Trump. 

 

 

 

 

New Zealand under Christopher Luxon will reverse a ban on oil and gas exploration, push the pricing of agricultural emissions back five years, and encourage more mining

 The agricultural sector including fishing contributes 5% to the economy, and accounts for about 80% of total exports. The farmers who helped Luxon's government come to power had said the environmental policies that the coalition government are reversing would have made dairy and meat too costly to produce. ... 

Climate Minister Simon Watts said the government expects to meet the 2030 target but admitted more work was needed to meet the 2035 target. "The Government is committed to meeting our climate change targets, but the way in which we do this will be different to former New Zealand Governments," he said. "This Government is using a least-cost approach to meet our climate targets. We will not shut down sectors that are boosting our economy and exports." ...

Other sectors the government is targeting are energy and mineral resources. It has said it would allow oil and gas exploration again, which former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern banned in 2018, in a bid to reduce imports of coal, boost fuel exports and keep energy prices for the public and small businesses low.

Reuters

Delegates to the Democratic Convention in Chicago can't speak freely in the Democrat Party for fear of being removed by the gang leaders

 

 The fix was in already on Sunday after Biden withdrew and endorsed Kamala Harris. 

All 50 state chairs of the party quickly asserted their endorsement of Harris, according to Reuters.

But the blessed GRAUNIAD found out the truth: Delegates who aren't down for the Harris Cause fear having their delegate status revoked by those state chairs.

It's a gang, not democracy.

Delegates are, by and large, local volunteers expected to spend thousands of dollars to fly to Chicago and attend the convention. It’s often viewed as a reward for activism and dedication, but it’s typically a far less consequential role than it might be next month.

One delegate who isn’t yet old enough to drink expressed his mounting anxiety about how things are unfolding and how little has been predictable.

“I’m a young, young person,” said the delegate, who requested anonymity because he feared being replaced by his state chair. “This is my first convention … And this is scary. It’s super anxiety-inducing, and crazy, and so much.”

More. 

Democracy dies in darkness.

CrowdStrike's George Kurtz has in common the forgotten McAfee glitch which took down computers in 2010, the controversial DNC hack investigation of 2016, and now Friday's global IT glitch

 Other security companies have had similar episodes in the past. McAfee's buggy antivirus update in 2010 stalled hundreds of thousands of computers.

Reported here.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, said in a post on the social platform X. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted.”

Quoted here.

April 30, 2016:  CrowdStrike was contacted by the DNC outside counsel to discuss a suspected breach.  This was CrowdStrike’s first involvement in this matter. (p6)

More.

 

Macron loses nearly 100 seats in the French National Assembly and Drudge calls it a win lol, Le Pen gains many seats despite Macron deal with left to pull hundreds of candidates

 MACRON GAMBLE PAYS OFF

Macron has gone from 350 seats in 2017 to 251 in 2022 to a projected 160 now.

Macron calling this snap election in France when he didn't have to was just as dumb as Sunak calling one in the UK. Sunak had to resign as the left clearly won, but Macron will wish he had to resign as he faces three years of a hung parliament divided by left, middle, and right, each with 140-200 seats and no clear winner.

289 seats are needed for an absolute majority.

Le Pen's party increased its presence in the assembly from 88 seats to 140 to 160, depending on who you read tonight. Her influence is steadily growing while Macron's is withering.

The plot to sabotage Le Pen was hatched immediately in the wake of her party's stunning performance in the first round on Jun 30.

Everyone's pretending to be shocked by today's results because they don't want to admit what just happened.

Macron sold out to the left.

 

 

Supreme Court rules Obama can't be prosecuted for executing American citizens by drone while he was president, Democrats shaken, dismayed, hopeless

 

 Supreme Court rules ex-presidents have broad immunity, dimming chance of a pre-election Trump trial

 US Supreme Court rules Trump has immunity for official, not private acts

 

Germany's Alternative für Deutschland is against EU bailouts of Greece and Italy and against EU membership for Ukraine

 

In discussing the party's policy platform, Weidel said AfD's future allies in the European Parliament should oppose the disbursal of taxpayer money to the "debt states" of Europe - a reference to countries such as Italy and Greece - and the idea that Ukraine belongs to the European Union, after it opened membership talks this week.

Reported here.

LOL, Supremes overturn obstruction charge against Jan 6er who was in the Capitol for a whole four minutes, count 'em

It was 6-3, with Barrett defecting to the liberals and Jackson defecting to the conservatives.

Fischer was accused by prosecutors of charging at police guarding a Capitol entrance. Fischer, at the time a member of the North Cornwall Township police in Pennsylvania, got inside the building and pressed up against an officer's riot shield as police officers attempted to clear rioters, according to prosecutors. He remained in the Capitol for four minutes before police pushed him out, they said. ... Federal prosecutors estimate that about 250 of the roughly 1,400 people charged in the Capitol attack could be impacted by the ruling. ... about 50 Jan. 6 defendants were convicted and sentenced on the obstruction charge with no other felony. Of those, about half are currently serving a sentence of incarceration, less than 2% of all charged cases. [Right, like that makes it OK, Reuters?]

More.

Supremes overturn 1984 "Chevron deference" to federal agencies, forcing Congress to either give teeth to regulatory ambiguities and so pay the political consequences they otherwise avoided, or defer to judges deciding for them from now on

 

 My guess is they'll tend more to let the judges decide, because Congress is, in fact, timid, lazy, phony, tiny, and small, same as Obama.

It's complicated, but it's a good thing because it restores accountability to the political sphere. No one elects the agencies. But that will cut both ways, seeing how politicized the judiciary has become.

It's also a BFD. The New York Times is in a panic over it.

An attorney for the commercial fishermen said Chevron deference "incentivizes a dynamic where Congress does far less than the Framers (of the U.S. Constitution) anticipated, and the executive branch is left to do far more by deciding controversial issues via regulatory fiat."

 

More.

Those Libertarian Party ideals like "live and let live" really have come a long way

 One Libertarian Party member shouted: 'Donald Trump should have taken a bullet!'

Reuters: Trump was undeterred in front of Libertarians

 Undeterred, Trump poked fun at the crowd, saying if they did not back him, they would continue to garner just a tiny portion of voter support in national elections.

More.

Scouting America for new victims

 

Boy Scouts victims begin receiving settlement payouts as appeals continue

Reuters, September 19, 2023

The Boy Scouts of America’s $2.46 billion settlement trust has begun sending payments to men who were abused as children by troop leaders, under a bankruptcy settlement still facing appeals from a minority group of abuse survivors.

The initial payments are being sent to 7,000 claimants who chose a "quick pay" option under the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy plan, with the first 70 claimants paid on Tuesday. Those claimants will receive $3,500 without going through the lengthier evaluation process that awaits 75,000 others who filed claims.

 

Barack Obama, austere religious scholar, has nothing to do with the current outbreak of anti-semitism at Columbia University

 

 “mostly, my years at Columbia were an intense period of study . . . I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk.”