Call me crazy, but did it cross your mind that today's stock sell-off might be intentional?

Tonight's Trump's first State of the Union address, after all, at which he's set to crow about the stock market. Could be disgruntled folks just trying to create a bad mood, knowing they'll be back tomorrow to buy a little bit cheaper.

The "all items" CPI is up 2.1% year over year, wages 2.5%

Now don't go blow all the 0.4 points all in one place.

CNBC says "Paul Ryan sees 'no reason' for Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein"

You remember Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate.

Mitt Romney saw no reason to light his hair on fire about anything, including Obamacare.

Paul Ryan ditto (especially when he's got that whole Eddie Munster thing going on).

We've had facts vs. alternative facts, but now Nancy Pelosi introduces "classified facts"

Which, since we're never going to be allowed to see them, mean only some people have the true but secret knowledge, right?

So we're supposed to just trust authority, you know, like her.

Nancy Pelosi is Exhibit A for the enemy in The Open Society and Its Enemies, but there are twenty-five more letters in the alphabet, and hardly enough.

Pelosi, quoted here:

"What they're putting forth is a total misrepresentation. It is false," Pelosi told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "In order to refute it, you'd have to tell the facts, and the facts are classified."

Bernie Sanders understands open borders is what the libertarian Koch brothers want, but he doesn't

Here, where he says open borders are harmful to ordinary Americans' wages.

Why is it the only prominent politician who really truly gets it is the socialist Bernie Sanders? Donald Trump, by contrast, has claimed American wages are too high and does not support increases to the minimum wage.

Maybe Bernie's not really a socialist as he claims. True socialists welcome free trade and open borders because they know that equalizing wages globally will hasten the revolution of the proletariat since it widens the gap between rich and poor to the extreme, driving wages down in a race to the bottom, ending in a violent overthrow of the rich capitalist owners.

Instead Bernie believes in the US nation state. If he's a socialist, he's a national socialist. He just can't say it. Instead he calls himself a democratic socialist.

It's too bad nobody cared for ten years about white employment, which didn't recover until 2017

Hey Rush you idiot, 96 million still eating but not working one year after Trump's election

Rush Limbaugh never mentions them anymore, but not because he's finally figured out that these aren't the unemployed. He never mentions them because they don't fit into his narrative world view of Trump's so-called booming economy.

Global stock insanity, Swiss edition: Swiss National Bank balance sheet shows almost $100 billion in US stocks

From the story here:

It’s all fun and good to speculate on the SNB equity price, but I am more interested in what the SNB’s behaviour means for the global markets going forward.

The real problem is that a Central Bank just monetized their balance sheet against another country’s equity market, and instead of getting punished for this reckless behaviour, the markets are celebrating the Swiss good fortune. And I ask you - have you ever seen Central Bankers not behave like a bunch of antelopes on the Serengeti? It is an amazingly disturbing precedent.

Yeah, but can she cook?

Illinois legislature calls the market top, plans to borrow $107 billion and invest it to rescue failing pension system

From the story here:

(Bloomberg) — Springfield lawmakers are so desperate to shore up the state's massively underfunded retirement system that they're willing to entertain an eye-popping wager: Borrowing $107 billion and letting it ride in the financial markets.

He's got Calypso Lou, the anti-Jew, B...B...B...Benny and the Jets

Where the consequences of open borders politics are sitting right next to you, white high schoolers overwhelmingly chose survival in 2016

Annualized rate of economic growth slows from 3.2% in 3Q to 2.6% in 4Q 2017

Imports increased, a drag on GDP.

Expect more of the same if Trump & Co. (yeah, I'm talkin' to you Mnuchin) keep talkin' down the dollar.

DXY was trading above 100 as recently as last April, struggled to achieve 95 in November, and now this morning is trading around 89 after Mnuchin's loose lips at Davos.

It would be nice if this administration got its policy act together, on immigration, trade, the dollar, etc. instead of all these comments which imply they are winging it.

So much winging . . ..

That would be "caffeinated" you numbskull

One of these days Trump may float a trial balloon on immigration we actually like, but the latest one is a nonstarter

The story here says he's now offering a pathway to citizenship to nearly 2 million Dreamers.

Trump needs to understand that his voters aren't going to show up for him if he actually signs an amnesty, and that an amnesty just guarantees that the problem won't go away.

Been there, done that. The country's full. They need to go back. All of them.

Trump is boring me to death with these endless iterations when he's not pissing me off with them.

Andy McCarthy ties a nice little bow around his thesis that Hillary wasn't prosecuted because Obama was implicated in her felonies

The presidency long ago became a law unto itself. Occasionally the tyranny becomes more evident, depending on the level of the lawlessness in the heart of the man, or the woman. Good character, unfortunately, matters more than ever, but is increasingly in short supply, in each of us, in our neighbors and in our politicians.  

From the story here:

As his counselors grappled with how to address his own involvement in Clinton’s misconduct, Obama deceptively told CBS News in a March 7 interview that he had found out about Clinton’s use of personal email to conduct State Department business “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.” Perhaps he was confident that, because he had used an alias in communicating with Clinton, his emails to and from her — estimated to number around 20 — would remain undiscovered. ...

[A]n agitated Mills emailed Podesta: “We need to clean this up — he has emails from her — they do not say state.gov.” (That is, Obama had emails from Clinton, which he had to know were from a private account since her address did not end in “@state.gov” as State Department emails do.)

Correctamundo, Ann: The FBI is first and foremost incompetent

The government shutdown was so boring

And in a few weeks prepare to be bored again.

The problem with Mormon Utah is that it would be OK with having a senator who makes excuses for Antifa violence

A grandmother of Bolshevism over at The American Conservative is upset with her children

Hey, we are the chosen immanentizers of the eschaton, not you!

Kelly Marcum, here:

The left, which continues to decry the social faux pas of cultural appropriation with ever-increasing vehemence, is itself guilty of the very same crime. They, the proponents of a predominantly liberal post-Christian culture, have undertaken a great project of appropriating and reinventing orthodox Christian values. ...

The left has made it its mission to culturally appropriate Christianity and use it for its own ends; in too many cases, it has been allowed to do so and even aided in its efforts by Christians themselves. ...

If orthodox Christianity is to survive in an evermore hostile culture, its practitioners and leaders will need not only to withstand the pressure to accommodate and self-censor, but to repossess their own language and tenets that have been exploited by the left.

Current era GDP growth is underperforming Reagan era growth by 42%

Current era growth of GDP is averaging 4.3% vs. 7.4% during the Reagan era.

That was a boom. This is not.

Sorry, but even by recent standards 2017 was not a booming economy

If essential federal government employees will continue working in a shutdown, haven't we identified who ought to be eliminated?

The non-essential federal employees, who numbered about 850,000 in 2013.

But that would make too much sense for this farce in which we star.

We have the government we deserve.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says a government shutdown would be wisky, weckless and wong

Of course, when The State is all, and War is the Health of the State, it would be.

Quoted here:

“Sen. Schumer, do not shut down the federal government," Ryan told reporters after the House vote. “It is risky, it is reckless and it is wrong.” Ryan added: “The only people standing in the way of keeping the government open are Senate Democrats. Whether there is a government shutdown or not is entirely up to them.” In order to win Thursday's vote, Ryan struck a deal with Freedom Caucus conservatives shortly before a scheduled floor vote on a spending provision. The agreement, which promised the group a separate vote on military funding, is expected to yield enough votes to secure passage of the spending bill in the House.

Looks like Oprah has passed her sell-by date

It turns out Jeff Flake, easily melted by Donald Trump, really was born in Snowflake, Arizona

Jeff Flake's "free press" hardly covered Hillary's health problems but is obsessed with finding something wrong with Trump's

Laugh of the Day: Trump's new easy peasy weight loss plan

At least now we know that Senator Jeff Flake believes everything he reads in the newspaper

Speech here.

"Of course, a major difference between politicians and the free press is that the press usually corrects itself when it gets something wrong. Politicians don't."

Well har-dee har har har at the last person alive to believe in the free press. Check that. John Kasich was pretty darn moved to receive the endorsement of The New York Times. But, come to think of it, Kasich is another failed politician just like Flake. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Meanwhile The New York Post is still just a buck. Get 'em while they're hot.

Life-altering news from CBS just now: DHS chief Kirstjen Nielsen didn't hear Trump say "shit-hole"

Video here.

You may now go back to your normal activities.

The world's literal breeding ground of insanity is mostly Muslim

Laugh of the Day: Ann Coulter opens Shit-hole Air, one free one way ticket back to the shit-hole of your choice

High-tech Norwegian toilet vs. High Haitian toilet: Any questions?

This one burns it up.

This one should just be burned.

Laugh of the Day: Nitwit cycler surveying the world's literal shit-holes by bike laments "open deification" when she means "defecation"

She botches "defecation" not once ...

I know that's how I like my gods, openly deified. :/

Can't say much for the rest of her English either, but if you need a writer, she wants you to know she's available! Yikes. All that fresh air isn't doing much for her self-awareness now is it? At least she acknowledges the clear superiority of Western toilets.

Here.

... but twice!

Did you know food stamp recipients soared 3,639,173 in October 2017?

An increase of nearly 8.7% from September 2017, the month prior.

We now have 45.6 million on food stamps when a year ago October it was only 43.4 million.

The Florida data is up 2.58 million from September to October due to Hurricane Maria, and Texas is up 1.3 million due to Hurricane Harvey. 

Trump has already caved on The Wall in the "negotiations", settling for 700 miles instead of 2,000

What a loser.

The Washington Times reports here:

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, is seeking a much less dramatic wall than the “sea-to-sea” version he touted during the 2016, campaign, presenting Congress with a scaled-back version that would cover 700 miles and cost $18 billion over a decade — though the president said he figures it can be built much faster and cheaper. ... Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer this week also declined to draw red lines on the wall, saying he saw progress in Mr. Trump no longer seeking a 2,000-mile-long barrier. ... A proposal from the Homeland Security Department, submitted to Congress last week, called for $18 billion in fencing and another $1 billion in new roads to patrol the fencing. The fencing would involve upgrading existing barriers and adding new ones, extending the current 654 miles of barriers to about 970 miles, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Anita Kumar for The News & Observer never once mentions DACA is illegal while bashing Stephen Miller

Open borders Republicans along with Democrats like Dick Durbin are trying to make Stephen Miller the problem when Obama's illegal executive order on immigration is the real offense against the rule of law. Meanwhile feckless members of Congress from both parties would be delighted to have President Trump take all the political heat for a deal SO THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO.

Anita Kumar is their useful idiot Swamp Thing in the press, here.

Kumar is a former WaPo reporter.

Ann Coulter skewers Donald Trump's utter lack of seriousness

Rand Paul doesn't have much of a memory, or imagination

NeverTrump is so yesterday, now it's . . .

FormerTrump.

Tucker Carlson on DACA: What was the point of running for president if Trump signs on to amnesty?

Story here.

Good on ya, Tucker.

In December 2006 5.094% of the population was unemployed, in December 2017 5.129%

Looks like we ended up liberating Europe in order to destroy it, and ourselves

War on cigarettes but utter capitulation on pot

Oprah's the very definition of unfaithful woman: Turns on a dime

The new McLaughlin Group episode one: Tom Rogan has really porked out since McLaughlin's death

Better watch it buddy or you'll look like Jack Germond before you know it.

You can watch episode one in its entirety, here.

Rogan did a passable job, but appeared nervous and distracted. He'll need to focus and be himself if he wants to moderate the debate to be at all entertaining.

Evan McMullin was a real dud, mixing populism and white nationalism together in his incoherent analysis. Memo to McMullin: Steve Bannon is incoherent, don't imitate him. Pat Buchanan tried to set him straight, but as usual the young don't listen to the old.

The other two old warhorses, Eleanor and Clarence, looked like they were just happy to be there to go through the motions.

then

now

Jack Germond

Real weekly earnings of non-supervisory employees are the same in 2016 as they were in 1980

$749, and that's an improvement.

Discussed here.

"Burlington [Vermont] Man" my foot: Looks like another Muslim Man from out of town to me

Hey Trump, DACA is ILLEGAL, not a bargaining chip

Full-time job growth under Trump: At least America doesn't really suck again

Senator Grassley says Comey's leak of his own memos included classified information

From the story here:

A top Republican senator said Wednesday that it appears former FBI Director James B. Comey leaked classified information in his effort to shape the narrative surrounding President Trump’s decision to fire him. ... He said he’s personally reviewed the seven memos, but was forced to do so in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF. “The FBI insisted that these reviews take place in a SCIF because the majority of the memos are classified,” he said. “FBI personnel refused to answer factual questions during the document reviews, including questions about the chain of custody of the documents I was reviewing, the date that they were marked classified, and who marked them as classified.”

Comey's original memo calling Hillary "grossly negligent" has been released

From the story here:

The full draft, with edits, leaves little doubt that Comey originally wrote on May 2, 2016 that there was evidence that Clinton and top aides may have violated both felony and misdemeanor statutes, though he did not believe he could prove intent before a jury.

Mongrel tastes for a mongrel people

"Rap overtakes rock as the most popular genre among music fans"

Screw the will of the voters: Marijuana is poison and government should fight it

But the new face of Republicanism is a dope, too:

Sessions’ plan drew immediate strong objection from Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, one of eight states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

Gardner said in a tweet that the Justice Department “has trampled on the will of the voters” in Colorado and other states. He said the action would contradict what Sessions had told him before the attorney general was confirmed and that he was prepared “to take all steps necessary” to fight the step including holding up the confirmation of Justice Department nominees.

Read the whole thing here.

Scott Rasmussen thinks 15 million will drop Obamacare because now they can, and 6.5 million others already pay a fine

From the story here:

Last year, an estimated 15 million Americans would have dropped out of Obamacare if they could. Now they can. Another 6.5 million paid a fine rather than sign up for coverage. This means that more than 20 million people directly benefit from the repeal of the mandate.

NONE of the increase to working age population aged 25 to 64 since 2005 has gone to household formation . . .

. . . either as renters or homeowners in their own right. They've ALL (and then some) gone to doubling-up on net, mostly with family.

The face of the declining middle class in 2016 was concealed as 15 million more lived in doubled-up households than in 2005

Zillow reported (here) in December that working age adults in 2016 were living in doubled-up households at a rate of 30% compared with 21% in 2005.

That works out to roughly 32 million in 2005 at the 21% rate vs. 50 million in 2016 at the 30% rate, using the Working Age Population data from FRED.

Had the rate remained 21% in 2016, just 35 million would be living doubled-up instead of 50 million. 

That's 15 million more adults who can't afford to buy, and can't even afford to rent, thanks to the feckless performances of George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama.

h/t Jeffrey Snider, Alhambra Investments

Trump disbands election integrity commission over costs to taxpayers of legal battles from state challenges

Way to go, Brownie!

Story here.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, climate update for December 2017

Grand Rapids, Michigan, climate update for December 2017

Max Temp: Actual 61, Mean 53, 2017 Max 96, Mean Max 94

Min Temp: Actual -12, Mean 4, 2017 Min -12, Mean Min -7

Av. Temp:  Actual 24.4, Mean 28.3, Annual Actual 50.3, Annual Mean 48.2

CDD:         2017 Actual 719, Annual Mean 690

Rain:          Actual 1.96, Mean 2.43, Annual Actual 39.43, Annual Mean 34.52

Snow:        Actual 32.9, Mean 16.2, Season to Date Actual 33.5, Season to Date Mean 22.9

HDD:        Actual 1252, Mean 1131, Season to Date Actual 2443, Season to Date Mean 2488 

The warming need as expressed by Heating Degree Days thus far into the cool season increased considerably in December and is now running just 1.8% under the mean to date overall.

The year 2012 remained the warmest full year on record by average temperature at 52.8 F going back to 1898, followed by 1931, 1921, 1998, 2016, 2010, 1938, 1939 and now 2017 at 50.3 F placing ninth. The cooling need in the warm season as expressed by Cooling Degree Days was 4.2% above the annual mean. 2017 actual average temperature exceeded the annual mean average temperature by a similar value, 4.35%. The record year 2012 exceeded annual mean average temperature by 9.5%.

Laugh of the Day: Hillary for Senate . . . from Utah!

Stocks haven't really been worth all the trouble since the year 2000

Yahoo and HuffPo call this "normal" winter weather: It's not

Here. But hot summer temperatures evoke global warming headlines. 

The mean monthly lowest minimum temperature in Grand Rapids, Michigan in Decembers is +4 F. With today and tomorrow to go, we're already at - 12 F, the third coldest on record.

Average temperature in December 2017 so far ranks 32nd coldest out of 126 Decembers, the 75th percentile. Normal would be the 50th percentile. So it's definitely colder than normal, while not absolutely record setting.

Climate shmimate. These idiots can't predict bupkis three days out let alone from month to month and century to century. All year long average temperature has been running warm, until December ruined their little global warming narrative.

Bwaaaaaaahahahahaha.

In 2016 1.8 million immigrant invaders, highest ever: Where's The Wall Mr. Trump? Where's the tracking of visa holders?

Donald Trump, president of the Jews

Video here.

Let this be a sign unto you: The era of libertarian looting ushered in by Reagan now reaching apogee will be followed by another FDR-like "progressive" era of welfare statism

Bernie tapped into the amorphous socialism clamored for by today's young people who face dim job prospects while saddled by large college debts for degrees incommensurate with what's available in the job marketplace. This is the direct result of the takeover of public education from bottom to top by the left. It never delivers what it promises, except for hope.

As "millennials" replace the Baby Boom at the polls, their vote will transform America, and already has. Obama and Bernie were signs of this. Expect a return to high taxation of the rich, even larger federal government, and the transformation of existing welfare state programs into universal systems.

Like it or not, that's the future. Patriotism will take the form of socialism for Americans instead of for the world.

Now that Republicanism has thoroughly committed itself to globalism, libertarians are advised to take the money and run. 

Little Marco admits Republican tax bill went too far helping corporations

Story here.

Great. But he still voted for it. 

No Profile in Courage Award for you, mister.

Michael Savage, crackpot: Emphasizes "wildlife and the earth" at dinner with President Trump

Recounted here.

Trump got elected on the issue of illegal immigration. There has been no progress on the wall in a year, and Savage decides to use his valuable meeting time with Trump to talk about . . . environmentalism. As if environmentalism will be important politically in the midterms.

What a nitwit.

We're being overrun and Savage decides to get all wet.

We're doomed I tell you.

Alt-right critic Amanda Marcotte says white supremacists are harder to see at the end of 2017

Everyone's harder to see right now. They're all inside because it's like - 11 degrees F outside.

Here:

White supremacists may be harder to see at the end of 2017, but the problem they represent is not going away any time soon.

Uh oh: A North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea this year has anthrax antibodies

UPI reports here:

South Korean authorities did not identify the soldier, who was either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax, but did confirm he had developed immunity to the deadly disease before he defected, local news network Channel A reported Tuesday.

Rich guys Charles Barkley and Shaq are just going to pocket their big tax cuts from Trump

Reagan era tax "reform" killed the golden dividend goose: Monthly yield hasn't been 4% or better since 1985

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas commandeers woman's first class seat on United flight

Then claims racism when the woman complains.

Story here, where Yahoo doesn't name the congresswoman in the headline. In fact Yahoo doesn't name her until paragraph ten. But it does provide photos of the obese black idiot.

Over three months after Hurricane Maria, electricity won't be restored to all of Puerto Rico until May 2018

Way to go, Brownie!

Story here.

Read it and weep, suckers: Trump tells his rich friends at Mar-a-Lago that they just got a lot richer

"You all just got a lot richer," Trump tells friends, referencing tax overhaul

'The president himself on Sept. 13 -- long before the bill was finalized -- said the wealthy would not benefit from the GOP tax overhaul.

'"The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs -- jobs being the economy," Mr. Trump said.'

Laugh of the Day: What's the difference between Tiger Woods and Santa?

Santa was smart enough to stop at three hos.

Trump is scrambling to deal with a not physically fit Navy he inherited from Obama

From the story here:

The Navy will grant a clean slate to nearly 50,000 sailors with fitness failures in their records, part of new shakeup for fleet-wide fitness rules announced Thursday.

A new Navy-wide message instructs commands to immediately stop discharging sailors for fitness failures and to cancel any pending discharges for sailors slated to be kicked out after March 31. The change applies to both enlisted and officers.

The message also unveils a new set of rules for the Physical Fitness Assessment, bringing to an end the rules forcing sailors to leave the Navy if they failed two fitness assessment tests in a three-year period. ...

The new Physical Fitness Assessment rules are part of a broader effort to keep more sailors in uniform at a time when the Navy is trying to increase end strength by over 4,100 by the end of the current fiscal year in September 2018. ...

As of July 2017, the end of the last official PFA cycle, more than 43,000 sailors have at least one failure in the past three years; another 5,477 have at least two failures on the books, according to the chief of naval personnel.