Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Monday, June 16, 2025
Israel states that one third of Iran's ballistic missile launch capability has been destroyed
It took Israel just two days to get control of the skies over Western Iran. With that accomplished, destroying the rest of the launchers should come more easily.
Iran's last gasp, ship signals in the Strait of Hormuz jammed from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas
Bloomberg reports:
Ship Signal Jamming in Persian Gulf Worsens as Conflict Widens
Navigation signals from more than 900 vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf went awry over the weekend, creating confusion in the shipping chokepoint as the fighting between Iran and Israel intensified. ... The Joint Maritime Information Center, an international naval task force monitoring the area, warned on Sunday that there are instances of “extreme jamming” of signals from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. ...
Update:
Two oil tankers collided and caught fire on Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz, where electronic interference has surged during conflict between Iran and Israel, but there were no injuries to crew or spillage reported.
With Iran and Israel firing missiles at each other since Friday, interference has disrupted navigation systems near the vital sea route between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world's oil. ...
Sunday, June 15, 2025
Much of Trump's support comes from people with a libertarian habit of mind which insists that what is politically possible and what is perfect must be enemies of each other
Of course he isn't going full TACO, just half TACO with a twist.
Chinese students in America number under 300k annually. Communist Party membership/support will receive more scrutiny.
And helping Israel beat Iran doesn't mean being neck-deep in war.
But this gets traffic, which is the point for social media parasites.
TACO Trump is negative for long term investment, 1Q2025 exports were the worst on record for their positive contribution to GDP
Does anybody ever talk about exports anymore? You know, from domestic production?
... In recent years, a cautious optimism had returned, as supply chain shocks from the pandemic pushed some companies to bring production back to the US.
But frequent changes and uncertainty around where Trump's tariff policy is headed has 'got people spooked,' Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk, told the outlet.
The company sells software used by manufacturers to design factories and improve processes.
'The current operating mode is just the death to long-term investment,' he said.
While construction projects that were already underway are still going ahead, he added, confusion about the future is stalling new work. ...
More.
Exports are a " + " when calculating GDP. Imports are a " - " when calculating it.
Exports' contribution to GDP in 1Q2025 is THE WORST ON RECORD.
No wonder GDP was negative. Outside the pandemic soaring imports had their worst negative impact on GDP on record in 1Q2025.
It's a terrible time to be introducing new huge taxes on imports needed by domestic manufacturers, but that's what Trump is doing.
TACO Trump chickens out on more than just tariffs, calls off the ICE raids on agriculture, restaurant, and hotel jobs to quell heartland rebellion
Stephen Miller most hurt.
On Wednesday morning, President Trump took a call from Brooke Rollins, his secretary of agriculture, who relayed a growing sense of alarm from the heartland.
Farmers and agriculture groups, she said, were increasingly uneasy about his immigration crackdown. Federal agents had begun to aggressively target work sites in recent weeks, with the goal of sharply bolstering the number of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. ...
Inside the West Wing, top White House officials were caught off guard — and furious at Ms. Rollins. ...
But the decision had been made. Later on Thursday, a senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tatum King, sent an email to regional leaders at the agency informing them of new guidance. Agents were to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.” ...
More.
Observe again how quickly Trump is to turn on a dime. The policy changed in less than 48 hours. The last person he talked to can be the most influential, which is not what you want from the leader of the free world. Sometimes he stumbles into the right decision, to be sure, but he can always stumble the wrong way. The tyrant's soul resembles the state which he rules, full of chaos and conflicting desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy.
NBC News: Trump behaved himself at the Army parade, for which the weather did not cooperate
... Prone to delivering long, boastful speeches, Trump kept his remarks brief and made the military the focus. Beforehand, critics had warned he would politicize the event for his own purposes. ...
The winds picked up and a light drizzle commenced just as the tanks were about to roll.
The parade was supposed to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, but it was moved up a half hour in deference to the weather, a Secret Service official said. Army tanks, their treads squeaking against the pavement, trundled along Constitution Avenue under an intermittent drizzle. Hundreds of people were still stuck in line, even as the parade was coming to a close two hours later.
Some of the planned flyovers had to be canceled. Still, the crowd gathered on the National Mall looked up appreciatively as helicopters flew overhead in formation.
The parade came on the 250th anniversary of the Army and, as it happens, Trump’s 79th birthday. ...
More.
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Israel has started attacking Iran's oil sector in Bushehr Province this morning, which will concern China since it imports 16% of its oil from Iran, buying 90% of Iranian oil exports
The cash China provides Iran in this transaction funds the ballistic missiles raining down on Tel Aviv this week.
Friday, June 13, 2025
Anti-democratic airhead DHS Secretary ICE Barbie says Feds are in LA to liberate it from duly elected governor and mayor
We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and
burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have imposed.
Imagine if the Democrats interfered like this in Wyoming or West Virginia. Republicans would throw a fit like they're doing in LA.
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Israel makes sausage of Salami
Israel attacks Iran, airstrikes kill Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami
... Iranian state media reported that Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] was killed in a strike. ...
Beyond Tehran, Iranian news channel IRINN reports that there were airstrikes on the city of Natanz, which is home to a key nuclear facility. Also hit were targets in the city of Khandab, where a heavy water nuclear reactor is located, and Khoramabad, the site of a ballistic missile base. ...
Charles Breyer, Senior US District Judge of the Northern District of California, rules Trump acted illegally in federalizing the California National Guard
... At one point, the judge said, “We live in response to a monarchy,” noting that there is a difference between the president and King George III, the British monarch on the throne at the time of the American Revolution.
“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not,” Breyer wrote in his order.
“His actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the judge wrote. “He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”
Breyer said that none of the three conditions required for Trump’s federalization of the Guard under a certain federal statute existed, namely the U.S. having been invaded or in danger of being invaded; a “rebellion” against the federal government; or the president being unable to execute U.S. laws.
“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’ ” Breyer wrote.
And he said that “regardless” of the outcome of California’s lawsuit against the administration, Trump’s federalizing of the Guard without the consent of Newsom “alone threatens serious injury to the constitutional balance of power between the federal and state governments.”
“And it sets a dangerous precedent for future domestic military activity,” Breyer added. ...
More.
It's stupid for Trump to riff off today's producer price report and call Jay Powell names because the number is likely to be revised higher, and besides, that's just poor form, old boy
May 2025 core producer prices, aka core wholesale prices, were reported today up 3.02% year over year. That will doubtlessly be revised up, especially as we get farther away from May.
Today's chart indicates April was up 3.18% yoy, but was originally reported at 3.1%. The latter was already rounded up, but the former rounds up to 3.2%. We'll see if that gets revised higher in coming months as well.
March was up 3.91% yoy we are told today, but originally it was reported at 3.3%.
February was up 3.74%, but originally reported at 3.4%.
January was up 3.92%, but originally reported at 3.6%.
December was up 3.74%, but originally reported at 3.5%.
The average up revision, including April, has been 0.3.
Be that as it may, we have in the May report nine consecutive months with core producer prices up in excess of 3% year over year.
Meanwhile for the nine years 2012-2020, the average increase was 1.62% yoy. I don't call producer prices rising at a rate 85% higher than that in May 2025 good news. It may be "less bad" news, but that doesn't make it good news.
Trump's a jerk to Powell. Vance is a very polished jerk. Remember his treatment of Zelenskyy? Stephen Miller is a jerk to Rand Paul. If you've seen the Trump cabinet in action, many of whom are political losers, you've seen even more insulting jerks. They may be descendants of the people of Jerkola for all I know, but I can only speculate.
What they lack in intelligence they make up for in bad manners
... Trump claimed at the White House that lowering rates by 2 percentage
points would save the U.S. $600 billion per year, “but we can’t get this
guy to do it.” “We’re
going to spend $600 billion a year, $600 billion because of one
numbskull that sits here [and says] ‘I don’t see enough reason to cut
the rates now,’” Trump said. ...
Trump’s insult came hours after the Labor Department reported that U.S. producer prices rose less in May than some economists anticipated. ...
... “I’ve just been told that I’ve been uninvited from the picnic; I
think I’m the first senator in the history of the United States to be
uninvited to the White House picnic,” Paul told reporters. “The White
House is owned by the taxpayers, we are all members of it, every
Democrat will be invited, every Republican will be invited, but I will
be the only one disallowed to come on the grounds of the White House.” ...
Taco, taco, taco man . . .
Most retail execs expect Trump to walk back ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, survey says
"Liberation Day" was just a trial balloon.
Yeah, but half of employers pretend to pay
Half of Your Employees May Be Pretending to Work, According to a New Survey
It’s called ‘ghostworking,’ and a recent poll of workers shows that it’s more prevalent than you think.
... Fully 23 percent of people (nearly 1 in 4 workers) admitted to walking around the office with a notebook so that they look purposeful and busy, while 22 percent have typed away at their keyboard entering nonsense. Though it’s rarer, 15 percent have faked being on a phone call so they appear busy, and 12 percent scheduled nonexistent meetings so they had an excuse to not do real tasks. ... 47 percent of employees said they waste more time working from home, while 37 percent said they waste more time in the office. ...
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Five months in, the Trump administration still doesn't have spending under control with the fiscal year to date deficit running 13.5% higher than last year to this point
Deficit FY 2024 through May: $1.202 trillion
Deficit FY 2025 through May: $1.364 trillion
Difference: $162 billion MORE in the hole than last year at this time
I don't care what Elon Musk's DOGE claims, the May numbers from the US Department of the Treasury do not lie.
A tax increase was never more needed.
Well, look on the bright side, at least the barbarians didn't put them to the sword
... Jed Katz, the chair of the board and managing director of Javelin Venture Partners, , referred CNBC to the statement when asked about his and the other members’ resignations.
Like every other member of the board, Katz was appointed to the panel by former President Joe Biden. ...
The average price of gasoline in May 2025 was $3.306 per gallon, 7.2% lower than the average under Biden but still much higher than under Obama or Trump I
Under eight years of Obama gasoline averaged $2.974 per gallon.
Under four years of Trump gasoline averaged $2.488.
Under four years of Biden gasoline averaged $3.563.
The average price of a dozen eggs in May 2025 was $4.548, which is 157% higher than the average price of $1.769 2010-2020
The homeowner with the coop up the street sells his for $5 a dozen, but he was out this morning.
The homeowner with the coop down the street sells his for $4 a dozen, but he was out, too.
At the corner convenience store I had to pay $6.49.
Core cpi inflation year over year in May 2025 is 2.8% for the third month in a row, 55% higher than 2010-2020 average of 1.8%
The not seasonally adjusted trend is flat as a pancake.
The seasonally adjusted trend puts a little down-tilting lipstick on the trend pig, but still rounds to 2.8%.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
GM will not produce EVs at Orion Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit as the company moves production of gasoline vehicles to the US from Mexico to avoid 25% tariffs
GM to invest $4 billion in U.S. plants amid tariffs for Mexican-produced vehicles
... GM said the investment will add assembly of the gas-powered Chevrolet Blazer and Chevrolet Equinox that are currently produced in Mexico to two other plants in the U.S. and convert a large idled plant in Michigan — formerly expected to build all-electric trucks — to make gas-powered SUVs and trucks in 2027. ...
Mark Levin is urging Donald Trump to join Israel in a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities
Mark Levin is up against many individuals in the Trump administration who are anti-war, including J. D. Vance in particular, and Tulsi Gabbard.
Former national security adviser Mike Waltz was of the same mind as Mark Levin.
Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran
Gabbard warns of ‘nuclear holocaust’ in ominous social media video
The White House's Stephen Miller attacks libertarians for opposing the reconciliation bill's immigration enforcement spending
... the White House deputy chief of staff — and chief architect of Trump’s immigration agenda — is taking a sledgehammer to what remains of the libertarian-conservative fusionism that was prominent in the party pre-Trump.
“The libertarians in the House and Senate trying to take down this bill — they’re not stupid. They just don’t care,” Miller said in an interview with conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk last week.
“Immigration has never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. Deportations have never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. You will never live a day in your life where a libertarian cares as much about immigration and sovereignty as they do about the Congressional Budget Office.” ...
Miller’s aversion to libertarians, though, seems to go deeper than opportunistic messaging for the bill. He posted in 2022 that the uprising of the ideology in the House GOP is “how we ended up with open borders globalist [Paul] Ryan.” He blamed libertarian candidates for siphoning votes away from failed Trump-endorsed candidates in 2022 — Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire.
“Another example of how libertarians ruin everything,” Miller said in one post responding to a 2022 Georgia Senate poll. ...
More.
The CBS Poll referenced in the story indicates 55% like Trump's deportation goals but 56% dislike his approach.
Polling on the reconciliation bill indicates most think it will help the wealthy and hurt poor and middle class people, with a third admitting they have no idea what's in the bill. Well, neither did many in the US House who voted for the damn thing.
This points up the political danger of these Christmas Tree bills adorned with something for everyone. They're too complicated to understand and therefore capture little enthusiasm. But Stephen Miller fancifully thinks otherwise:
“By including the immigration language with the tax cuts with the welfare reform, it creates a coalition. Politics is all about coalitions,” Miller said in the interview with Kirk — also praising Trump in the interview as “able to create a winning formula for populist, nationalist, conservative government.”
But not libertarian government.
Monday, June 9, 2025
Mad King Ludwig, who is quite clearly nuts, says LA would have been completely obliterated had he not sent in the California National Guard, proves it by sending in more, and 700 US Marines
“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
“If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated,” said Trump.
Trump called Newsom “incompetent,” and said the governor and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass should be thanking him, saying “YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.”
More.
Different parties, same senility: Aging Trump stumbles up the stairs of Air Force One
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Different parties, same dopium: The Trump administration might get less blow back from these immigration raids if they tried just a little bit to appear less like Joe Biden's fascist police state
... There were “at least 10, 15 marked and unmarked units right in front of me. Surrounding the side of my house, I have 100 yards to the street, cars lined all the way up to the street, long guns pointed at me, heavily armored vests, ballistic helmets, ballistic shields, a battering ram,” he said.
He said his daughter “took note” of an FBI agent in the back of the house, and there were at least five federal agents on his porch “with M-16s pointed at me and now my wife as she entered the opening of the door.” ...
Agents Use Military-Style Force Against Protesters at L.A. Immigration Raid
... The raid at the clothing wholesaler began about 9:15 a.m. in the Fashion District, less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall.
It was an extraordinary show of force. Dozens of federal agents wearing helmets and green camouflage arrived in two hulking armored trucks and other unmarked vehicles, and were soon approached by a crowd of immigrant activists and supporters. Some agents carried riot shields and others held rifles, as well as shotguns that appeared to be loaded with less-than-lethal ammunition. ...
Saturday, June 7, 2025
An AI-induced economic collapse is coming in one to five years on the heels of millions losing their jobs to AI and on the spending of those millions drying up
... This time, it's not blue-collar and factory workers getting whacked — it's college graduates with white-collar jobs in tech, finance, law, and consulting.
Entry-level jobs are vanishing the fastest — stoking fears of recession and a generation of disillusioned graduates left stranded with CVs no one wants.
College grads are now much more likely to be unemployed than others, official data show.
Chatbots have already taken over data entry and customer service jobs. Next-generation 'agentic' AI can solve problems, adapt, and work independently. ...
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful AI firms, says we're at the start of a storm.
AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20 percent in the next one to five years, he told Axios. ...
Critics say universities are churning out graduates into a market that simply doesn't need them.
A growing number of young professionals say they feel betrayed — promised opportunity, but handed a future of 'AI-enhanced' redundancy. ...
Well, if spending collapses those blue-collar and factory workers won't have anything to do either, now will they?
Prices for everything might very well reset much lower in a deflationary spiral.
Imagining being in charge of addressing all that.
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