J. D. Vance, the man with a thimble full of principles, says Republicans have to violate the Posse Comitatus Act before the Democrats do

 

Vance: "We Cannot Be Afraid To Do Something Because The Left Might Do It In The Future, The Left Is Already Going To Do It"

Mark Pulte, the father of Lisa Cook accuser Bill Pulte, loses homestead exemption on Michigan property after Reuters investigation finds he committed same infraction of which his son accused the Fed governor lol

Bill is obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer. 

 Bill Pulte accused Fed Governor Lisa Cook of fraud. His relatives filed housing claims similar to hers: Reuters

... Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called “homestead exemptions” for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records. The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence. 

Local tax officials in both states told Reuters that claiming more than one home as a primary residence isn’t generally allowed in their jurisdictions and could be punishable by fines or back taxes. After Reuters contacted tax officials in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to inquire about the dual claims, Darrin Kraatz, director of assessing, on Thursday said the township “as of today” would revoke the exemption on the Pultes’ residence there. ... 

It isn’t clear how much the Pultes may have saved each year because of the Michigan claim, but on Friday property records already indicated the exemption there is now zero.

 

Bye dad!

 

 

Mad King Ludwig tariffs gold bars, making liquidity more expensive for big banks

  Gold futures hit record high after report of US tariffs on gold bars

Gold futures climbed to a record high on Friday after a report that the United States had imposed tariffs on imports of 1-kg gold bars, while spot gold stayed on track for a second straight weekly gain on tariff turmoil and U.S. interest rate-cut hopes. ...  

U.S. gold futures for December delivery were up 0.9% at $3,484.10, after hitting an all-time high of $3,534.10.

The price spread between New York futures and spot prices widened by more than $100 after the Financial Times reported on Thursday that the United States had imposed tariffs on imports of 1-kg gold bars, citing a letter from Customs and Border Protection.

The letter, dated July 31, said 1-kg and 100-ounce gold bars should be classified under a customs code subject to higher tariffs, a move that could impact Switzerland, the world’s largest gold refining hub.

The tariffs on gold bars “will create a dislocation or rather some issues in terms of settlement by big banks” and this was reflected in liquidity prices this morning, with prices jumping everywhere, said Brian Lan, managing director at GoldSilver Central, Singapore. ...

 

Unaffordable Care Act to become more unaffordable for millions in 2026 due to Trump's reconciliation bill, just in time for the election

 

 Why 22 million people may see ‘sharp’ increase in health insurance premiums in 2026

... More than 22 million people — about 92% of ACA enrollees — received a federal subsidy this year that reduced their insurance premiums, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

Those recipients would see “sharp premium increase” on Jan. 1, Cynthia Cox, the group’s ACA program director, said during a webinar on Wednesday.

The average marketplace enrollee saved $705 in 2024 — a 44% reduction in premium costs — because of the enhanced tax credits, according to a November analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Without the credits, average out-of-pocket premiums in 2026 would rise by more than 75%, Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, said during the webinar.

Additionally, 4.2 million Americans would become uninsured over the next decade if the enhanced subsidies lapse, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

That growth in the ranks of the uninsured is on top of the nearly 12 million people expected to lose health coverage from over $1 trillion in spending cuts Republicans made to health programs like Medicaid and the ACA to help offset the legislation’s cost. ... 

ACA enrollment has more than doubled, to roughly 24 million people in 2025 from about 11 million in 2020, according to data tracked by The Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF. ...  

According to Google's AI, there are 22.8 million fewer uninsured 2010-2024, presumably because of Obamacare, but 26.7 million more on . . . Medicaid!

Because of that Rube Goldberg Machine known as Obamacare!

Push here, and it comes out there. And the kicker is Medicaid involves estate recovery for nursing home and other care costs at death, which varies by state.

You can run, but you cannot hide. 

 

 

You would think a president who needs the votes of a senator from Maine to confirm his nominees would give it a minute before imposing tariffs on Canada, its primary trading partner

But you would be wrong.

 

Incompetence from sea to shining sea: Trump releases water needed for summer agricultural irrigation in the San Joaquin Valley to fight fires but that water will simply evaporate in Tulare Lake

 

Acting on Trump’s order, federal officials opened up two California dams

... The two reservoirs are used to hold supplies for agricultural irrigation districts. Nemeth noted that winter is not the irrigation season for farms, which require more supplies to grow crops in the summer months, “so there isn’t a demand” for the water in the San Joaquin Valley at this time. ...

Peter Gleick, a water scientist and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, said dam managers would typically only release large quantities of water in the winter when major storms create a need to make space for large inflows of runoff. But Southern California has been very dry and the snowpack in the southern Sierra remains far below average, so “there is no indication that that’s why these releases occurred.”

“In addition, when those kinds of releases do occur, they’re always done in consultation with local and state agencies,” Gleick said.

“I don’t know where this water is going, but this is the wrong time of year to be releasing water from these reservoirs. It’s vitally important that we fill our reservoirs in the rainy season so water is available for farms and cities later in the summer,” Gleick said. “I think it’s very strange and it’s disturbing that, after decades of careful local, state and federal coordination, some federal agencies are starting to unilaterally manipulate California’s water supply.”

Vink agreed, saying that given how dry it has been in the region this winter, there was no need to make such a release. In fact, he said, farmers were counting on that water to be available for summer irrigation.

“This is going to hurt farmers,” Vink said. “This takes water out of their summer irrigation portfolio.” ...

 

Ha, not me: Whenever mine gets that high I pay it off so there's no interest charge

 Credit card balances above $1 trillion for first time!

Denmark restarts two coal and one oil power station, Germany restarts three coal power stations

From the story:

Orsted said the order applied to “unit 3 at Esbjerg Power Station and unit 4 at Studstrup Power Station, which both use coal as their primary source of fuel, and unit 21 at Kyndby Peak Load Plant, which uses oil as fuel.” ...

A few days before Orsted’s announcement, another big European energy firm, Germany’s RWE, said three of its lignite, or brown coal, units would “temporarily return to [the] electricity market to strengthen security of supply and save gas in power generation.”