Friday, February 23, 2018
Hey Trump, why not make 'em wait 'til 26?
There's no there there, just pure, unadulterated reaction.
Marco Rubio entertains infringing the Second Amendment
How about the First Amendment, Marco? Or the Sixteenth? or the Fourteenth? You skull full of mush.
Here:
"If we are going to infringe on the Second Amendment, it has to be a policy that will work," Rubio said in an interview Thursday with AP.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Ironman estimates stock repurchases by corporate America of $628 billion in 2018 due to tax cuts
Here:
What we find is that 2018's projected total of $628 billion in buybacks will break the previous record of roughly $589 billion worth of stock repurchases that was set by U.S. corporations in 2007, which would work out to be about a 7% increase over that previous record.
Time will tell if share repurchases were the right thing for the companies that are choosing this action to have done with the benefits they received from U.S. corporate income tax reform.
Surprise, the tax cuts are showing up in, not your wallet, but enormous stock buy-backs by large corporations, which explains the rising stock market
In other words, so-called sideline cash coming into the market is really nothing more than taxcut cash reallocated to stock buy-backs by corporate America.
Marketwatch reports here:
But now, courtesy of Goldman Sachs, we know where the tax cut is really going. Surprise! It’s paying for stock repurchases by corporations, as Corporate America despairs of investing in much other than dividing the pie provided by near-record profitability into fewer and larger pieces.
Buyback announcements are up 22% this year to $67 billion in just six weeks, Goldman said in a note to clients. This follows a report by benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt finding that 83% of large companies don’t expect the tax cut to boost salaries at all — just help pay for small bonuses companies like WalMart and AT&T gave workers, which reporters soon discovered were, themselves, skewed toward higher-paid, longer-tenured employees in many cases.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Maybe the obvious just isn't obvious in the South
You know, like slavery being wrong: Durham County North Carolina District Attorney drops all charges against Confederate monument vandals, even though there's lots of film.
On the other hand, they must call it North Carolina for a reason.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Laugh of the Day: Michael Moore, useful idiot of Russia-instigated "Not My President" rally 11/12/16
Along with about 25,000 other dimwitted New Yorkers.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Just words: A total joke endorses a total joke
Mitt Romney, running for Senate from a shit-hole Utah, accepts endorsement of President Trump.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Today's installment in unserious America: A movie is a defining moment for Black America
Might as well be talking about Bill Cosby in "I, Spy", or Oprah beating Donahue, or Roots.
What vaporous, ignorant and meaningless lives we live that we elevate the fantasy du jour on a pedestal of meaning, and imagine we find it there.
Antietam September 1862 was a defining moment for black America. All other moments, especially this one, pale in significance.
Indictment of 13 Russians says interference efforts began in 2014, long before Trump was a candidate
Jonathan Turley, here:
Now, the special counsel and the deputy attorney general are saying that there is no evidence of knowing interaction of campaign staff with Russians interfering with the election. The paucity of such evidence follows a year of intensive investigation and the much heralded plea bargains with former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and the expected plea with former campaign official Rick Gates. There is still no evidence of anyone “wittingly” or knowingly colluding with these Russians. Moreover, the indictment says that the Russian efforts began in 2014, long before the candidacy of Trump.
Friday, February 16, 2018
The scam known as Informed Electorate PAC is quite the little money maker for its operators
A commenter has provided the website information from the State of Utah where the Informed Electorate PAC discloses its financials:
https://disclosures.utah.gov/Search/PublicSearch/FolderDetails/1414465
If you are one of the many contributors to this so-called PAC, your full name, address and contribution level are listed there.
And wow, there's an awful lot of gulls out there in America. It's a goldmine of a mailing list, free for the taking.
You'll also be fascinated to learn that for the "privilege" of paying these grifters to take your opinion, for that is what they are in my opinion, shameless grifters, they netted about $1.91 million in contributions in 2017 alone, of which about $1.79 million was expended.
On what? you ask.
Never heard of 'em, right? Most people haven't, which kind of gives the lie to their objective of informing anyone. I search in vain for itemized expenditures under "public relations". Instead I see lots of consulting fees and W-2 payrolls, evidently going to the principals.
Nearly $336,000 in 2017 went straight into the pockets of the President, Brett Payne, a board member Rob Andra, and someone named Joseph Demma, who appears to be related to Stacy Demma the Vice President (who is also the only other listed board member), and presumably the CFO Kenneth Kohfel and other unnamed employees. The reports show that the consulting fees in 2017 stopped being paid in July, and that the W-2 payroll line items start appearing once a month beginning in June.
A company named Fiercecom gets large sums regularly for data management, telephone services and fulfillment. Other regulars include Airespring, Heartland Payment Solutions and Skymail International.
One wonders if any of this PAC's principals have any personal business interests in any of the businesses which provide services back to the PAC.
Someone really ought to look into it, like 60 Minutes, or maybe the FBI.
I wonder what they'd find?
At any rate, for the umpteenth time, no legitimate polling organization asks YOU to pay to give your opinion.
The wonder of it all is that these snakes have found the ones that will pay, and that Utah has listed them all for the whole world to laugh at.
 |
| This is just one month from the disclosures, October 2017 |
Stock market boom? What stock market boom? It's been a bear market for return since August 2000 . . .
. . . and it could easily continue to be a bear market for return for three more years. The average length of the last three secular bears was 20 years, and we're only at 17.4 years through January 2018. Or, it could all end Monday in tears. Have a nice weekend!
 |
| As good as you think it's been, average return is underperforming the long term average of 9.13% by almost 38%. |
The legacy of Mueller and Comey is yet more FBI incompetence revealed today: Tipster phone call to FBI ignored
From the story here:
PARKLAND, Fla. - Gov. Rick Scott called on the FBI director to resign Friday after the agency admitted that it failed to investigate a tip in January about the Parkland school shooting suspect. ...
The FBI confirmed Friday that a tipster who was close to Cruz called the FBI on Jan. 5 and provided information about Cruz's guns, desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts.
The FBI said the caller expressed concerns Cruz could attack a school.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
We have met the enemy and it's corporate America, for supporting amnesty
Farcebook, IBM you bm we all bm, Microsoft, Marriott and NAM, the National Association of Manufacturers.
Gee, US manufacturers want the cheap foreign labor just as much as the hotels. What was that again about bringing the manufacturing jobs back to America, Mr. President?
Corporate America ADMITS they hire illegals instead of you, here:
Ending protected status for DACA recipients would push them out of the legal workforce – costing companies as much as $1.8 million a day in restaffing, according to the think tank New American Economy. America's corporate titans have cited the potential damage to the nation's labor force in urging Congress to find a solution for those workers before the program officially winds down March 5.
More FBI incompetence: "Unable to further identify the person who made the comment 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter'"
According to the story here.
These malcontents can get a FISA warrant on the basis of Democrat opposition research to surveil Trump, but somehow can't get to the bottom of whose YouTube account was used to post what appears to be the Florida shooter's threat.
Reminds me of James Comey, the former head of the FBI, testifying about the San Bernardino shooting that he did not know how guns are purchased on the internet (they are not).
As I recall, Google can be compelled by a court order, but the FBI was obviously keeping the court busy with something "more important".
These malcontents can get a FISA warrant on the basis of Democrat opposition research to surveil Trump, but somehow can't get to the bottom of whose YouTube account was used to post what appears to be the Florida shooter's threat.
Reminds me of James Comey, the former head of the FBI, testifying about the San Bernardino shooting that he did not know how guns are purchased on the internet (they are not).
As I recall, Google can be compelled by a court order, but the FBI was obviously keeping the court busy with something "more important".
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
The president doesn't need any stinkin' reason to revoke any Executive Order, legal or otherwise
The judges in this country need a good ass whoopin'.
If Trump has any balls he'll ignore this.
The story, "Court orders full restoration of DACA program", here.
Obamas' gay artist Kehinde Wiley uses four to ten assistants in Beijing to produce art cheaper, admits some of his paintings are complete frauds
Kinda like the former president himself, wouldn't you say?
Here:
The spectacle is always carefully staged, particularly with “the boys,” which can sell for more than $100,000. “There are certain ground rules,” says Wiley. Eight to ten paintings per show. Men, usually. Street casting: Wiley goes out with a team to recruit young men as models. Back in the studio, they leaf through art-history books, and the subject gets to decide which old-style work he wants to be portrayed as. He poses for photos, and the photos become templates for full-size paintings, which Wiley produces with his assistants in New York, Dakar, and Beijing.
Or not. In many cases, Wiley acknowledges, none of that official process—the street casting, the selection of poses from art books, the painting based on those poses—happens at all. “The clothing, sometimes completely made up,” he says. “The models themselves, brought in from a fashion agency.” And in at least one case, the “boy” is in fact a girl. “Oftentimes, if there’s a show of ten paintings, four of them will be complete frauds.”
Brian Wesbury is back in the excuse-making business for future GDP
Here, complaining that the upcoming two-year Republican $300 billion discretionary spending extravaganza will crowd out the private sector.
Really?
Really?
Republicans were quite content under Obama to permit deficits of $7,313 billion over eight years, and Wesbury chirped the whole time about his good old Ploughhorse Economy which produced, for him, passable GDP.
Republicans now are rewarding their constituencies through spending, no less than Democrats did under Obama. The constituencies are different.
We'll see if the spending gets as out of control as it was formerly, but the handwringing, given the disparities, is misplaced.
Republicans now are rewarding their constituencies through spending, no less than Democrats did under Obama. The constituencies are different.
We'll see if the spending gets as out of control as it was formerly, but the handwringing, given the disparities, is misplaced.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Friday, February 9, 2018
Investors Business Daily forgets that Bill and Hillary Clinton had FBI files on hundreds in the 1990s
Here in "Russia-Trump Investigation: How Did Hillary Clinton Get FBI, FISA To Do Her Political Dirty Work?".
The Clintons have lots of information on lots of people and have had for a very long time, since they occupied The White House for eight years from 1993-2000. Their unethical and illegal acquisition of the FBI files, Filegate, was a huge scandal in 1996.
That's how they run the FBI.
It's called blackmail.
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Sunday, February 4, 2018
YOUR average hourly earnings are NOT up 2.9% as widely reported, for example by Larry Kudlow this weekend
Yes, average hourly earnings of TOTAL PRIVATE, seasonally adjusted, is up 2.9% year over year in January 2018.
Well, whoop dee do. Not seasonally adjusted it's up only 2.2%.
What to believe?
Average hourly earnings of TOTAL PRIVATE reports as much of the total universe of earnings as possible, but that's not the universe of 80% of American workers. It includes everybody, including the higher rollers in the top 20% whose big increases can skew the reported number dramatically.
80% of American workers inhabit the world of production and nonsupervisory workers, whose average hourly earnings have always been tracked by the government going back to 1964.
Seasonally adjusted those earnings are up 2.4% year over year in January, but not seasonally adjusted BARELY 2%, a below average figure for the measure which is in keeping with what's been going on since 2008.
The little guy in this country has been getting crumbs from the masters' tables since 2008 when the routine increases averaging 3.4% before that went away. The new era averages a gain of 2.2% year over year, a cut of 35%.
The biggest gain in recent memory was 2.8% for January 2017, meaning most workers got their best increases since 2008 in 2016, not in 2017, and the 2% gain for 2017 means . . . THIS IS NOT A BOOM.
When the average worker starts getting ROUTINE year over year increases above 3% you'll know things are better.
They aren't.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
The Nunes memo simply shows what we've all known for years: The Swamp is evil, yes, but more importantly incompetent
If the entire intelligence community, including the head of the FBI, can conspire with the Democrat Party and the Russians to try to keep Trump from being elected AND FAIL, you just gotta say . . .
Way to go, Brownie!
Rush Limbaugh's "Not Working But Still Eating" soars to new record in January 2018: 96.7 million
Some economic boom, huh.
Friday, February 2, 2018
Rep. Lee Zeldin uses Twitter very effectively to summarize the meaning of the so-called Nunes memo
NY-1 has a good one here. Everything you need to know in about seven short lines.
According to Trump's own government, he's either destroyed 72,000 jobs a month since his election or created 182,000 per month, take your pick
And if it's +182,000 per month, that's not a jobs boom.
A jobs boom would average well north of 200,000. Even the most recent three month average is south of that, at 192,000 per month.
Year over year in January total nonfarm is increasing at best by 176,000 per month, or 2.1 million a year, not the 2.4 million Trump claimed in his SOTU message.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. But these are Trump's, both the lies and the reality.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Climate Update For January 2018
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Climate Update for January 2018
Max temp 58, Mean Max temp 48
Min temp -11, Mean Min temp -3
Av temp 24.9, Mean Av temp 23.7
Precip 2.12, Mean precip 2.05
Snowfall 12.6, Mean snowfall 18.5
Snowfall season to date 46.1, Mean Snowfall season to date 41.4
Heating Degree Days 1235, Mean Heating Degree Days 1271
HDD Season to date 3678, HDD Mean Season to date 3759
It takes a cuck to make a cuck: Another president betrays his supporters
Here:
The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age — that covers almost three times more people than the previous administration. Under our plan, those who meet education and work requirements, and show good moral character, will be able to become full citizens of the United States.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Sorry, Trump didn't create 2.4 million jobs "since his election", and even if he did, that sucks
Total nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted, stood at 146.393 million in November 2016. In December 2017 the level was 148.346 million, an increase of 1.95 million.
Seasonally adjusted, the increase went from 145.170 million to 147.380 million, an increase of 2.21 million.
The former figure is 150,000 per month (13 months), the latter 170,000 per month. Meanwhile Trump is claiming 184,462 per month.
These are terrible numbers, including Trump's, which however also appear to be cooked on a bonfire.
In a booming economy, monthly increases well above 200,000 are indicated. That's what we got under Reagan and Clinton, but not now, not by a long shot.
Turn away from these Establishment Survey numbers and consider the Household Survey figures and the picture looks even worse.
Not seasonally adjusted the sum of usually full-time and usually part-time is up just 1.216 million in 13 months. This has been seasonally adjusted up to barely 1.9 million. We're talking 93,500 per month to 146,000 per month, quite the spread. Not exactly confidence inspiring numbers.
The truth is that employment gains have gone soft in 2017 compared with 2016, down about 15%. In the 13 months up to November 2016, total nonfarm jobs seasonally adjusted increased at a monthly pace of not quite 200,000 which was nearly 18% better than under Trump so far.
Trump better hope hiring picks up soon, or this charade will quickly be seen for what it is, all hat and no saddle.
Still waiting for the boom.
Memo to Trump: We need jobs before paid medical leave from them
Compared to twenty years ago, total employed in this country as a percentage of population is lagging by 2 million.
Maybe the president ought to think about remedying that first. What good is paid medical leave from a job I don't have?
This is what you get when the daughter has the president's ear instead of the voters.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
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."
Monday, January 29, 2018
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.
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Saturday, January 27, 2018
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.
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.
Friday, January 26, 2018
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 . . ..
Thursday, January 25, 2018
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.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
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.)
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Monday, January 22, 2018
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