Trend for Oceanic Nino Index 1951-2023

 Long term trend is definitely cooler: La Niña.

Values for the first five measuring periods of the 2024 season are warmer, totaling +7.7: El Niño.

 

RIP Toby Keith 1961-2024

 

Mayor of Chicago deserves a medal lol

If the job gets any harder watch out fam! He may trade you in for a different color.

 

Storms knock out power in California Sunday affecting more than a million, half a million still in the dark

 Story.

 

This is your periodic reminder that the net worth of U.S. households is $151 trillion but there's only $2.3 trillion fiat currency in circulation anyway

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TNWBSHNO

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CURRCIR 

Meanwhile all the gold and silver in the world hardly close the gap: 

 

 

Since the US Airforce started bombing targets on Friday, Iran's recon vessel which was relaying info to the Houthis high-tailed it to the Chicom naval base in Djibouti to hide out

 

The former president of ABC News James Goldston was the Joseph Goebbels of January 6th The Movie

About 6% of the country at best tuned in for the Jan 6th theatrical production, compared with 71% for the Watergate hearings.

 

You can't put bitcoin in your pocket like gold and silver, and gold doesn't require 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually for its existence

Crock of shit this bitcoin is. Same for anything digital.

But crypto has a dirty little secret that is very relevant to the real world: it uses a lot of energy. How much energy? Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, currently consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — more than the entire country of Argentina, population 45 million. Producing that energy emits some 65 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — comparable to the emissions of Greece — making crypto a significant contributor to global air pollution and climate change.     

More.

 

Drudge promotes Kamala Harris because . . .

 . . . her unfavorables are sky high and somebody better do something quick, might as well be me, lol. Timed for the bigger Sunday audience:

PAPER: How Kamala Harris found her groove...

43% of registered voters in the Bloomberg/Morning Consult swing state poll have a VERY UNFAVORABLE view of her.

43% also have NO CONFIDENCE WHATSOEVER that she could fill Joe Biden's shoes.

Her numbers are worst with anyone aged 45+, with total negatives in the vicinity of 60%.

She's a huge drag on the ticket, which is why they keep her on a tight leash.

D.C. anarcho-tyranny proves fatal to ex-Trump U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission official Mike Gill

 

UPDATE: Ex-Trump official shot in D.C. carjacking spree dies..

In a statement, Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said the violence began Monday afternoon when an unidentified person got into a car and shot a male driver before running away. Gill's family said he was the man who was shot. 

Police said the ordeal, which involved a Jeep Grand Cherokee, occurred in about three minutes. The attacker later tried and failed to steal a Mercedes-Benz, according to police. ...

The attacker, identified as 28-year-old Artell Cunningham, was fatally shot by police Tuesday in New Carrollton, Maryland, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said in a statement.

The country went from one illegal immigration extremist to another overnight

 

The Declaration of Independence's Anarcho-Tyranny of King George III holds up pretty well, requires but little updating for today

 He Joe Biden has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Illegal Alien Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

Speaker Mike Johnson: Joe Biden, Kaos Agent

 Speaker Johnson Slams Biden On Border In First Floor Speech: "He's Inviting Chaos And Disorder"

Is four days long enough since Iranians killed American soldiers for them to escape back to Tehran or nah?

 SHOWDOWN: Pentagon plans for strikes on Iranian personnel and facilities approved...

Weather will be a major factor in the timing of the strikes, the U.S. officials told CBS News, as the U.S. has the capability to carry out strikes in bad weather but prefers to have better visibility of selected targets as a safeguard against inadvertently hitting civilians who might stray into the area at the last moment. ... [SECDEF] Austin told reporters the U.S. was trying to "hold the right people accountable" without escalating the conflict in the region.

Another Fed interest rate pause and dashed hopes for a March rate cut, so the greedy money men throw a little temper tantrum

 Core inflation has a long way to go before it's like it was in the Trump era.

Meanwhile the little people continue to pay, and pay, and pay.

Obama affirmative action hire admits she's not up to the task of serving on the Supreme Court

 SOTOMAYOR OVERWHELMED...

 “Cases are bigger. They’re more demanding. The number of amici are greater, and you know that our emergency calendar is so much more active. I’m tired,” she said, per Bloomberg Law. 

In Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll in Pennsylvania, it's still the economy, stupid: More important to women voters than abortion by 29 points, the cost of everyday goods being the most important economic factor

 The women shop. The women remember.

The massive poll results for seven swing states is available here.

The women think Trump is the one to fix it, by 11 points.

 

 

Trump 2024: What doesn't kill him only makes him stronger

 

Now why would they do that lol?

 

MAGA GOES TO WAR ON SWIFT    

Norway, Europe's most anti-semitic country, is also its most fascist economy, centered in dem ebil fossil fuels lol

 Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of the country’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has put money in more than 8,500 companies in 70 countries around the world.

More.

Real Clear Politics becomes The Grauniad lol, The Grauniad is convinced that killing your baby is the winning issue of our time

 

Abortion Is Biden's Strongest Issue. He Should Act Like It

Moira Donegan, Guaridan

The left is upset that Joe Biden isn't more enthusiastic about it, dammit:

 

Biden himself is not a particularly convincing abortion rights advocate. He is, at best, unenthused about the issue. Biden speaks of abortion in stilted, euphemistic terms, talking about “restoring the protections of Roe” or “a woman’s right to choose” more than “abortion”. (He did not use the word in public remarks until he was forced to after facing pressure from activists.) On the stump, he frequently ad libs, straying from prepared remarks to make his dislike of abortion clear. In one set of remarks last year, he unhelpfully offered that he was “not big on abortion”. In remarks this past week, he characterized his own position using anti-choice buzzwords, saying he was opposed to “abortion on demand”. ... Biden is talking like he believes that abortion remains a delicate issue, as if it is something he thinks he will lose by being too strong on.

The slide into the surveillance state picks up the pace as TSA to expand facial recognition scanners from 30 to over 400 US airports

 TSA Expands Facial Recognition Scanners to 400+ Airports...

 “The CAT-2 units are currently deployed at nearly 30 airports nationwide, and will expand to more than 400 federalized airports over the coming years,” the TSA official said, noting that it is currently optional for travelers to participate in facial recognition screenings. Those that decline to do so can notify a TSA agent and go through the standard ID verification process instead. ... During a discussion at the South by Southwest festival in March 2023, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said “eventually we will get to the point where we will require biometrics across the board because it is much more effective and much more efficient.”

Currently optional, eventually required.

Dingbat Pelosi cries Russia! Russia! Russia! when it's Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran

 

Pelosi: FBI Should Investigate Progressive Groups Calling For Gaza Ceasefire, Possible Financial Ties To Russia

Left Wing Turns Airports Into Homeless & Illegal Alien Dumping Grounds

Right Wing Turns Planes & Airports Into DEI Battlegrounds

David Ingram, NBC News

 

Meanwhile:

 

Biden Offers Airports in Atlantic City, on Canadian Border to House NYC Migrants

 

South Jersey leaders oppose proposal to shelter migrants at Atlantic City International Airport

 

Chicago's O'Hare Airport used as a migrant shelter as crisis overwhelms city: 'Like a scene from Mad Max'

 

Migrant families set up camp in Boston airport as Bay State overwhelmed by arrivals: ‘We need DC to act’

 

Hundreds of migrants living in San Diego airport as California battles 'unimaginable' homeless crisis

Three US soldiers killed, 25 injured in drone attack in northeast Jordan

 

Just absolute shit journalism from The Wall Street Journal, by Egyptian American Nancy A. Youssef: "the Oct. 7 start of Israel's war in Gaza"

Administration officials have asked Beijing to convey messages to Iran about avoiding a broader conflict in the region, since the Oct. 7 start of Israel’s war in Gaza.

More.

What happened on October 7th, Nancy?

Israel did not start this war.

Biden administration half-measures fail to prevent another ship damaged by Houthi ballistic missile fire in the Gulf of Aden

Chemical tanker M/V Marlin Luanda called a Mayday after the Houthi ballistic missile attack set it on fire. Coalition forces including France and India responded and the fire was eventually extinguished, but not before the crew temporarily had to abandon the ship.

 

Anarcho-tyrant Joe Biden should be impeached for flooding the country with millions of illegal aliens under his unprecedented false promise of asylum

Under Biden, millions of migrants — in a move that has no precedent in recent history — have been released into the country under a haphazard presumption of asylum eligibility and led down a hazy legal pathway.  Others have been admitted under different programs that lack any clear or permanent path to citizenship. Dealing with the legal fallout from the Biden administration’s decision to release millions of migrants into the country will be the real challenge. ...

The most recent statistics available are from November, when the immigration court backlog reached a record-breaking 3 million pending cases, up from 2 million cases a year earlier. Some migrants may have to wait a decade for a court date. Although the Biden administration has hired more judges over the past three years, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse reports that “more judges and higher case closures per judge have still not been able to keep pace with the flow of incoming cases.”

The result is a self-perpetuating disaster.

More from The Boston Globe.

 

Under anarcho-tyranny, government fails to enforce the laws and perform the functions it has a legitimate duty to enforce and perform, while it invents laws and functions it has no legitimate duty or valid reason to make or carry out. ... While one characteristic of anarcho-tyranny is its propensity to criminalize and punish the innocent and the law-abiding while refusing to punish the criminals, another is its refusal to enforce the laws it has already enacted and to enact more laws that have no effect on real crime and that further criminalize the innocent or restrict their rights. ... Under anarcho-tyranny, the state creates a problem (which sometimes actually has some connection to reality), declares an emergency or crisis—the drug war, drug emergency areas, the carjacking crisis, Islamic fundamentalism—and then exploits that problem as an instrument by which it continues to enhance its power, though neither the fake problem it exploits nor the real problem that exists is affected.

More from Sam Francis.

Core pce inflation is out and shows itself running ahead of the 10-year US Treasury yield for four consecutive years 2020-2023, which is unprecedented

Jerome Powell is the biggest phony inflation fighter the country has ever seen.

He was appointed by Trump! So much winning!

Core pce inflation previously exceeded the ten year yield in 1974-75 and in 2012 (barely).

The Fed's primary inflation-fighting tool has been the Federal Funds Rate, but it let inflation run wildly out of control before even lifting a finger to stop it in March 2022 when the Fed finally acted and started raising the rate.

It is a shameful episode which has benefited businesses which hiked prices higher than inflation to goose profits, and the federal government which desperately needed to devalue its mounting debts, all at the expense of the average American.

The lack of outrage over this is a study in the depth of American servitude. Slavery didn't end in 1865 for African Americans. It became the common lot of us all.

 

 

Ann Coulter: Ron DeSantis was filled with hubris from 2022 and misread the room, thinking the whole country was his Florida oyster

His 20-point victory in 2022, when Republicans were wiped out in the rest of the country, made DeSantis disinclined to consider the advice of people who were just trying to help him. ... DeSantis was running as if the entire voting population consisted of people with kids under the age of 18. In fact, that’s only about 20% of voters.

More.

I said as much last July, noting that 70% of Americans think having illegitimate children is morally acceptable.

The country is literally demoralized, which explains why it has the leadership it has, except in places like Florida, at least through 2026.

Florida is one of twenty-five states where governors are term-limited.  

New Hampshire primary exit polling on the illegal alien invasion shows Nikki Haley's vote came overwhelmingly from Democrat voters

New Hampshire primary exit polling shows Nikki Haley's vote is overwhelmingly in the bag for the new crazy asylum gimmick for illegal aliens flooding the border under Biden, which means her voters were mostly from Democrats. 

 . . . two-thirds of Haley voters said that undocumented immigrants should be given the chance to apply for legal status.

More.

The gimcrack redefinition of the asylum system under Joe Biden is simply the latest Democrat m/o at work about everything: Find a work-around around the law when you don't have the votes to change the law.

That explains the National Popular Vote Compact, Obamacare, student loan bailouts, et cetera. Redefining millions of illegal aliens as asylum seekers is simply the latest example.

New Susquehanna poll shows Biden +8 in Pennsylvania, Republicans who missed Quinnipiac poll on 1/8 already showing Biden +3 there think this is new

 Polls didn't just suddenly turn in PA.

The Susquehanna poll shows Trump underperforming with Republicans at 77%.

That is probably because of senior citizens.

Previously Quinnipiac showed PA senior citizens overwhelmingly supporting Biden 60-37, and Trump with his lowest favorable rating among seniors, at 33%. 

They probably had friends who died of COVID and blame Trump.

 

As stock indexes make new all time highs, it's still a 7% world, not a 16% world

The current $SPX world, from Aug 2000 (market peak) to Dec 2023, dividends reinvested, average per annum return: 7.019% nominal.

The previous world of similar length, Apr 1977 to Aug 2000: 16.246% nominal.

Remember that no one even dates the bull market conditions of the past starting from 1977. The Reagan bull began in the summer of 1982. But even from 1977, it was a completely different, better world for investors.

The rate of nominal return per annum was 2.31 times better in that world.

Investing $100 per month in the previous world produced over $258k. Investing $100 per month in the current world has produced only $103k.

The following Vanguard mutual funds have inception dates in the year 2000. They reflect the same reality.

I show nominal average annual return since inception for each fund in 2000 through 12/31/23, per Vanguard.

Performance in red beats average SPX nominal 7.019% since 2000, but none by much. Remember that through 12/31/23 stocks generally were only recently buoyed by exceptional returns, after a down year last year. $VTSAX, the total stock market index, was up a whopping 26.01% in 2023.

VIGAX 8.21 Growth Index

VFIAX 7.62  500 Index

VTSAX 7.90  Total Stock Market Index

VEXAX 8.22  Extended Market Index

VSGIX 8.93  Small Cap Growth Index Inst.

VESIX 4.47  European Stock Index Inst.

VSMAX 9.01 Small Cap Index

VBAIX 6.70  Balanced Index Inst.

VBIAX 6.57 Balanced Index

VPKIX 3.40  Pacific Stock Index Inst.

VVIAX 7.18 Value Index

VEMIX 6.37 Emerging Markets Stock Index Inst.

VIPSX 4.49  Inflation Protected Securities

 

These are but a shadow of the former things which obtained in the previous world.

When your main third party candidate is the complete wackadoodle you only feared he was

 

Start to finish the wheels were never on the DeSantis bus

 

DeSantis Over Before It Started is the truest headline Drudge has posted in a long time

 DeSantis should never have run this cycle in the first place, but once in, you gotta be in it! This withdrawal after one lousy contest is just pathetic. Not being prepared to run through Super Tuesday March 5th is the sign of an unserious candidacy.

But the worst part is DeSantis quits quoting Churchill about having the courage to continue is what counts. DeSantis is not continuing, hello. Doesn't he realize he's implying he has no courage?

This is just awful.

This guy is finished, for good.

 

 

He didn't have the wisdom to refrain from running in this election cycle, and he didn't have the courage to continue beyond Iowa

He's done, along with the country.

Volodymyr Zelensky is still fighting, however.

 

 

 

Mediate's Jan 6 for dummies: When Pence ignored Trump’s plea, a mob stormed the Capitol lol

 

Here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, if only Mike Pence had been at the center of this universe.

Pence issued his statement disavowing any unilateral authority over electoral votes just as he began to preside over the Joint Session of Congress, at about 1:02pm. He couldn't have cut it any closer, holding his cards close to his chest until the very last second. He had still been working on this letter at 9:00am.

A large mob had already gathered around the Capitol by 11:00am, with bad intent, and eventually succeeded in pushing back the Capitol police to the Capitol steps before the time Pence even began to perform his duties inside, at about 12:53pm, or issue his statement.

It took these rioters more than another hour to breach the Capitol, which subsequently brought proceedings in the Senate to a halt at 2:13pm, and in the House at 2:29pm.

Trump didn't finish speaking at the Ellipse 1.6 miles away until 1:10pm., a 30-minute walk from the Capitol, just after which the Joint Session had split up to debate separately the Arizona slate of electors.

Meanwhile Trump, Michael Moore's human Molotov Cocktail, was already having lunch by 1:25pm, enjoying the mayhem.

Ugly Americans: Romney doesn't care that American civil juries have become a circus of vindictive retribution and obscene excess

Romney Rips Voters Who Don't Care Jury Found He Raped Woman...

JURY: TRUMP SEXUALLY ABUSED, DEFAMED CARROLL MUST PAY $5M IN DAMAGES 

Jury awards De Niro ex-assistant $1.2M for sexist workplace discrimination...

Jury Finds Realtors Conspired to Keep Commissions High... Awards $1.78 billion damages...

She accused her ex of revenge porn. Jury awarded her $1.2 BILLION!

Idaho jury hits Ammon Bundy with tens of millions in damages in defamation suit...

JURY: ALEX JONES DAMAGES $1 BILLION...

Fox to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle election defamation lawsuit

 

Cop told to 'tone down your gayness' awarded $20 million...

Actor Geoffrey Rush Awarded $1.9 Million in #MeToo Defamation Case...

Hotel dishwasher awarded $21 million after boss made her work on Sundays...

University of Virginia Dean Awarded $3M in ROLLING STONE Defamation Case...

Sportscaster Erin Andrews Awarded $55M Over Secret Recording...

Man awarded $10m for SEGWAY accident while blindfolded...

Burglar's family awarded $300,000 in wrongful death suit...

Man Awarded $650K for Eye Injury Sustained During Lap Dance...

$240,000 awarded to man forced to cover Arab T-shirt...

Jury ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $2.9 million in compensatory damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine after church members cheered his death at his funeral

Peter Navarro chose allegiance to the separate and equal power of the Executive, of which he was a part and which the Legislative transgressed in a political witchhunt

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department wants former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to spend six months behind bars after being convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena. ...

“The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law,” prosecutors wrote in Thursday’s sentencing memo.

 More.

Joe Biden buys 73k more votes, now totaling over 3.7 million

The Biden administration has now canceled more than $136 billion in student debt for over 3.7 million Americans, according to the White House.

More.

Third continuing resolution since September passes Congress to fund federal government into March

WASHINGTON — Congress passed a bill on Thursday that would prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend and keep federal funds flowing through March 1 and March 8.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 77-18 on final passage after considering a few amendments. The Republican-led House soon followed suit, passing it by a vote of 314-108.

The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the funding expires Friday at midnight.

It is the third stopgap bill since last September as the divided Congress struggles to agree on full-year government funding bills. ...

The first stopgap bill led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker. His successor, Johnson, is seeking to avoid the same fate by selling the conservative victories in the latest deal.

More.