Donald J. Frankenstein is the GOP's version of Boltneck, who was for the use of force in Iraq and Afghanistan before he was against paying for it.
Elon Musk has that effect on people lol.
Don't get the Neuralink from the mad scientist or it could happen to you, too!
Second one for him, third for her.
He'll be 63. She's 48.
"The idea of choking off the amazing flow of immigrants makes me sick to my stomach".
A MAGA ‘Civil War’ on X between Musk and the far right over H-1B visas
The online rift over the H-1B skilled-worker visa program signifies a potential wedge between Trump’s core base and his new Silicon Valley supporters.
Far-right activists clashed online with billionaire Elon Musk and other supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over the need for a skilled-worker immigration program that has long been a lifeblood for Silicon Valley — signifying a potential rift between Trump’s core nationalist base and technology executives who have come to support him.
The fight that spilled into public view over the holiday week could preview a wedge within Trump’s coalition over how to execute immigration policy, an issue that animated Trump’s White House campaign.
The controversy spread across X after far-right activist Laura Loomer on Monday criticized Trump’s choice to name Sriram Krishnan, a technology entrepreneur and investor who was born in India, as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence. She pointed to Krishnan’s previous support for removing some caps on H-1B visas, a program allowing foreigners with technical skills to work in the United States. The policy is “in direct opposition” to Trump’s agenda, Loomer wrote.
The critique ran headlong into tension with some of Trump’s closest advisers, notably Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk; David Sacks who will be the president-elect’s AI and crypto czar; and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-lead a commission to cut government spending. “‘Normalcy’ doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent,” Ramaswamy said. “And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our a--es handed to us by China.”
The
online fight sparked a slew of racist posts from Loomer falsely
describing Indians as “third world invaders" with low IQs, while saying
it is fueling a “civil war” between Trump’s far-right base and the “tech
bros” that have come to support his upcoming administration. ...
1.61 votes for Nixon for every vote for McGovern, the real reason Democrats hated him so much.
The smallest popular mandate belonged to JFK over Nixon in 1960 at 1.0033. Democrats stole that election but Nixon let it pass for the good of the country.
There were smaller mandates, if you count Bush 2000 at 0.98 (Gore 1.01), or Trump 2016 at 0.95 (Hillary 1.04), lol, but those aren't really popular vote mandates now are they?
LBJ was second in 1964 with 1.58, because JFK had been assassinated in 1963. I don't think Jesus himself could have won it for the GOP in 1964.
Third overall was Reagan in 1984 with 1.44, followed by IKE at fourth and fifth with 1.36 and 1.24 respectively in 1956 and 1952.
If back-to-back terms is your yardstick, Reagan was tops with a combined mandate of 1.335, followed by Nixon at 1.31, IKE at 1.30, Bill Clinton at 1.17, and Obama at 1.115. Bush 43 brings up the rear at a distant 1.015.
People who think Trump is a repudiation of Bush 43 Republicanism should consider that Trump's not-back-to-back combined score is now 0.99.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Trump is a transitional figure for the GOP, and certainly not a nationally transformational one like Reagan who destroyed the bipolar world, IKE who re-moralized a victorious but demoralized nation, and Nixon who fatefully opened the door to China.
Unfortunately for the GOP, Trump is mostly just a wrecking ball who is wrecking his own HDQ, and the Democrat threat remains just decimal points away.
Even Hillary's mandate was bigger than that in 2016 lol: 1.04.
The attacks, where drivers mow down people on foot or knife-wielding assailants stab multiple victims, are not new in China. But the latest surge drew attention. ...
In November alone, three took place: A man struck people at an elementary school in Hunan province, wounding 30, after suffering investment losses. A student who failed his examination stabbed and killed eight at a vocational school in the city of Yixing. The most victims, 35 people, resulted from a man mowing down a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai, supposedly upset over his divorce. ...
In eastern Anhui province, a ruling Communist Party leader ... said they must “thoroughly and meticulously investigate and resolve conflicts and disputes,” including in families, marriages and neighborhoods. ...
The Ministry of Justice promised to curtail conflicts by looking into squabbles over inheritance, housing, land and unpaid wages.
Ha ha ha, good luck with that.
More.
The House Speaker election is January 3, 2025.
You've got 34 Republicans pissed off at passage of the American Relief Act on December 20th by Mike Johnson and 170 Republicans.
Hakeem Jeffries has already told everyone Democrats will not help elect Mike Johnson speaker again because he stiffed them on the continuing spending resolution. Democrats are pissed off, too, although 196 did vote Yea on the bill.
So Republicans absolutely need those 34 to re-elect Johnson to speaker on Jan 3rd.
But let's say they don't, and the process drags out like it did with Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The 2024 election results go to Congress in joint session for casting of the electoral college votes on January 6th, but that wouldn't happen without a speaker to swear-in the new House.
Jan 6, 2025 could be disrupted for Trump.
Very amusing.
Discussed here.
Elon Musk has had 12 children with three women, six of whom were with a Canadian.
Our democracy is a constant state of revolution, overthrowing incumbents in favor of successors who also will soon face revolution.
Here.
Revolution, in the form of periodic mass elections fought by all available means of money, brains, and even - after the Gracchan method - physical violence, is exalted into a constitutional process.
-- Oswald Spengler, The Hour of Decision, 1934
The real conservative cannot stand it that eternal truths, laws, and morals are subjected to a referendum every few years. A country which does this is perverse. And no real Lutheran would abide it, let alone a true Roman Catholic.
The House Ethics Committee gathered evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida paid multiple women for sex, including a 17-year-old high school junior, used illegal drugs like cocaine and ecstasy and obstructed efforts by Congress to investigate his conduct, according to a draft of its findings obtained by Just the News.
“The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress," stated the draft of the report slated to be released this week.
The draft report also said it did not find evidence that Gaetz had
engaged in sex trafficking as some had alleged, concluding that all the
women who traveled with Gaetz out of their home states did so
voluntarily even if they accepted payments for sex. ...
More.
"Tens of thousands of dollars" were involved 2017-2020.
President Biden used his clemency authority Monday to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row to life without parole, in one of the most significant moves taken against capital punishment in recent presidential history. ...
Biden's actions come shortly after he pardoned 39 individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes, and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic.
Monday's announcement also follows controversy over Biden's pardon of his own son, Hunter Biden, for gun and tax charges.
More.
DAVID MARCUS: De facto President Trump's handling of shutdown threat was a masterclass
Maybe James Braid, new Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, knows lol.
 |
| Is this James Braid? |
When detectives reached out to accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s mother after the first photos of the suspect emerged, she said she wasn’t certain it was him – but told investigators the shooting “might be something that she could see him doing,” a New York Police Department official said Tuesday.
Here.
The House roll call vote (366-34-1-29nv) is here. 34 Republicans voted Nay.
The Senate roll call vote (85-11-4nv) is here. 10 Republicans voted Nay, as did pinko commie Bernie Sanders.
The continuing spending resolution includes NO extension of the suspended debt ceiling time limit demanded by president-elect Trump, who now gets to waste his precious time trying to primary all 170 Republicans in 2026 who just voted for this
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL,
something he had threatened on Wednesday.
170 House GOP just told Donald J. Trump Nay Nay by voting Yea, proving once again that he is just a paper tiger.
Meanwhile the debt ceiling and the income tax remain chief among the failed gimmicks of the Progressive Era, dating to 1917 and 1913. The one hasn't stopped the debt from exploding to $36 trillion, and the other hasn't paid that bill.
The continued existence of these gimmicks serves to remind us, but only periodically, of the lies we tell ourselves, which is why we have to keep them.
Dow bounces 800 points Friday on encouraging inflation data after rough week: Live updates
Key Fed inflation measure shows 2.4% rate in November, lower than expected
These people are incorrigible liars.
Headline pce inflation ticked up from 2.30% year over year in October to 2.44% in November.
Core pce inflation ticked up from 2.79% year over year in October to 2.81% in November.
"We expected worse! Buy stonks!"
And so they did.
Both stocks and fixed income down at the same time is a real bummer, you know, like in 2022.
UST yields in the aggregate tonight are at 4.45 vs 4.356 at the end of November.
UST yields have risen 375 basis points net in the aggregate in the three months since the Fed started cutting the Fed Funds Rate on September 18. That's +6.93%, which is hilarious.
Second continuing spending resolution goes down in flames, after Elon Musk and Donald Trump said Nay to the first one, which never even came to a vote. Speaker Johnson and the Democrats had worked on that compromise deal for three months.
The roll call vote is here.
CNBC story here.
Extremely amusing.
 |
| The Republicans Who Said Nay |
Making chumps of us all.
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that Congress should get rid of the debt ceiling, a day after he came out against a deal reached by congressional lawmakers to fund the government before a shutdown occurs.
In a phone interview with NBC News, Trump said getting rid of the debt ceiling entirely would be the “smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely.”
“The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge,” Trump added.
Trump suggested that the debt ceiling is a meaningless concept — and that no one knows for sure what would happen if it were to someday be breached — “a catastrophe, or meaningless” — and no one should want to find out.
“It doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically,” he said. ...
In his call Wednesday for Republicans to ditch the negotiated bipartisan short-term spending bill, Trump also demanded that lawmakers increase the debt ceiling — something that hadn’t been on the table at all.
I can't wait for Moody's to downgrade the USA from Aaa to Aa, to make it a Trinity of lost AAA.And why not? It's only pSyChOlOgIcAl.
Those UK reporters really don't have a firm grasp of the timeline. They prefer to concentrate on the gossip and innuendo.
A particular target for the First Couple is said to be former house speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the effort to push Biden out of the 2024 election race – personally calling him and demanding he quit in the hours before he withdrew on June 21.
More.
No one really knows what Pelosi said to Joe, or when she said it, but it wasn't on June 21 lol.
CNN reported on Wednesday July 17 (updated Thursday July 18) that Pelosi had been in California since Friday July 12, one day before Trump was shot in Butler, PA, and that she claimed she hadn't spoken to Joe Biden from July 12-17 even though CNN said it had four sources saying she had:
This phone call would mark the second known conversation
between the California lawmaker and Biden since the president’s
disastrous debate on June 27. While the exact date of the conversation
was not clear, one source described it as being within the last week.
Pelosi and Biden also spoke in early July. ...
A Pelosi spokesperson told CNN that the former House speaker has been in California since Friday and she has not spoken to Biden since.
The CNN timeline leaves room for Pelosi talking to Joe Biden as described in the story on Friday July 12, or even the day or two days before that.
CNBC reported on Sunday July 21, the day Joe dropped out, and relying on one source, that Pelosi spoke with Joe on Saturday July 20, but Pelosi's spokesman also denied this, consistent with the denial to CNN:
A spokesman for Pelosi later told CNBC after publication of this story “not true. Speaker Pelosi has not spoken to the president since she left Washington more than a week ago.”
Pelosi was in North Carolina on Saturday July 20 giving a tepid pep talk about the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris ticket:
In her roughly half-hour speech, Pelosi said the president’s name only sparsely, and primarily in reference to his role in passing legislative priorities.
UST averages tonight: Bills 4.365 Notes 4.410 Bonds 4.695.
Low duration issues yield the least, long duration issues the most, and the middle looks like the middle should look, middling.
That's how it should be.
Low duration issues have been dominating the curve, yielding the most. Why, just at the beginning of the month the 1MO still yielded 4.75, more than any other security. Tonight the 1MO yields 4.44 and the 20Y yields 4.74, the leader. The yield laggards are the 6MO and 1Y at 4.30. That's what you want to see happen.
The Fed today dropped the Federal Funds Rate 0.25 points to 4.25. I expect the short end to keep moving lower as a result, and the middle to rise more in tandem with the long bonds as inflation continues to bite.
But we shall see.
The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index is down almost 7% this month, to date.
Meanwhile, more inflation for the rest of us, which Powell has never really tried to stop. You know, like Christianity hasn't failed, it just hasn't really been tried.
Republican House Majority in Peril
The Republican wafer-thin majority in the House of Representatives is facing growing uncertainty as GOP members of Congress line up for Donald Trump's Cabinet. ...
[Victoria] Spartz's move [not to caucus with the Republicans] could throw the slim Republican majority in the House into peril amid other GOP members of the House being tapped to serve in Trump's Cabinet. ...
Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon has also been nominated to serve as labor secretary. ...
Waltz has already submitted his resignation and, combined with Gaetz's resignation and the possibility of Spartz refusing to caucus with Republicans, as well as Stefanik and Chavez-DeRemer being confirmed to Cabinet positions, the Republican majority could collapse, jeopardizing their ability to advance Trump's agenda.
Waltz counts, Gaetz counts, and Stefanik counts, taking the 220 win down to 217 temporarily. Spartz not caucusing with the GOP creates a 216-215 GOP majority, not a 215-215 tie as Newsweek shows. Spartz remains a Republican, however, and presumably will vote with the Republicans.
The uninformed Newsweek writer is from . . . the UK lol.
And, of course, Drudge just repeats the stupidity:
Republican House Majority in Peril...
Interpreted politically one could say yields for notes and bonds reversed their slide starting in October as Harris' lead evaporated at the end of September and bond markets started to bet on a Trump win, bringing with it higher deficits because of his proposed tariffs and tax cuts.
