Wednesday, February 11, 2026
I'm so old I remember when Jan 2026 full time employment at 48.79% of population was Great Recession level bad
That whole China joining the WTO and globalization thingy has really worked out great for the American middle class amirite?
The winter trend since Jan 2023 has been DOWN:
Jan 2023: 49.32%
Jan 2024: 49.16%
Feb 2025: 48.88%
Jan 2026: 48.79%.
GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska strongly opposes hypocritical GOP scheme to federalize elections
How did Trump and the GOP sweep into power in 2024 with all these illegal aliens voting?
Inquiring minds want to know.
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski comes out against Trump's election bill, with a warning to her party
... “When Democrats attempted to advance sweeping election reform legislation in 2021, Republicans were unanimous in opposition because it would have federalized elections, something we have long opposed,” Murkowski said in a statement. “Now, I’m seeing proposals such as the SAVE Act and MEGA that would effectively do just that. Once again, I do not support these efforts.”
“Not only does the U.S. Constitution clearly provide states the authority to regulate the ‘times, places, and manner’ of holding federal elections, but one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska,” she added. ...
“Election Day is fast approaching. Imposing new federal requirements now, when states are deep into their preparations, would negatively impact election integrity by forcing election officials to scramble to adhere to new policies likely without the necessary resources,” she said. “Ensuring public trust in our elections is at the core of our democracy, but federal overreach is not how we achieve this.” ...
“This is not a federal issue,” McConnell told reporters in January 2022 when the bill came before the Senate. “It ought to be left to the states. There’s nothing broken around the country. The system upheld very well during an intense stress during the latter part of the previous Congress. There’s no rational basis for federalizing this election, and, therefore, there’s no point in having a debate in the U.S. Senate about something we ought not do.”
Ford Motor blames tariff timing and fires at an aluminum plant for earnings miss when it was its electric vehicle business
... On an unadjusted basis, the company’s net loss of $8.2 billion last
year was its largest since the Great Recession in 2008, according to
FactSet. That included $15.5 billion in special charges during the
fourth quarter largely related to a pre-announced pullback in its
all-electric vehicle plans.
Automakers commonly exclude “special items” or one-time charges from their adjusted financial results to provide investors with a clearer picture of their core, ongoing business operations.
Ford reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $11.1 billion, or a loss of $2.77 per share, compared with net income of $1.8 billion, or 45 cents per share, in the same period in 2024. Adjusted for the one-time charges, the company reported earnings of 13 cents per share.
Representatives Massie, Kiley, and Bacon revolt against House GOP and vote with all Democrats to take back Congress' Article I tariff power from the president
Expect tariff votes in the U.S. House in the near future, but not necessarily victories.
... The House Rules Committee on Monday approved language that would block
any House votes disapproving of Trump’s tariffs through July 31. ... The Senate has on multiple occasions voted to strike down tariffs issued
by Trump, while the House has blocked votes on tariff-related
resolutions. The latest prohibition on tariff votes expired at the end
of January. ...
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
To get around the law on national emergencies, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives declares that the next 171 days will not add up to even one calendar day
Remember when the Obamacare provisions in March 2010 were deemed to have passed when they hadn't?
Remember how the Big Ugly Bill which passed last summer under reconciliation rules deemed that the Trump tax cuts of 2017 which had had a cost in 2017 no longer had a cost in 2025?
Remember how your mother told you "Saying doesn't make it so?"
That's how all this works now, including son saying to mom, "Mom, I'm a girl now".
Our rotten society views reality as the enemy.
Monday, February 9, 2026
The bond market has voted Nay Nay on the Fed's interest rate cuts which started in September 2024, but I repeat myself
Worries about softening employment have been entirely misplaced. Jobless claims have been FLAT for four consecutive years.
The Fed was wrong about jobs, just like it was wrong about inflation being transitory.
Why did Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lie about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein?
Lutnick and Epstein were in business together, Epstein files show
... Lutnick, the former chairman of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald who at one point lived next door to Epstein, told the New York Post in October that he and his wife Allison had cut ties with Epstein in 2005, deciding after taking a tour of Epstein's New York townhouse, "I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again."
However, it appears Epstein and Lutnick continued to maintain contact and emails show they arranged calls and planned to have drinks in 2011.
The following year, the couple and their four children planned a visit to Epstein's island, Little St. James, emails show. Lutnick was invited for lunch on Dec. 24, 2012, and later, Epstein's assistant wrote on behalf of Epstein, "it was nice seeing you."
Their Adfin deal was signed four days later. ...
By the time Epstein and Lutnick agreed to buy stakes in Adfin, it had been more than four years since Epstein agreed to enter a guilty plea to Florida state charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. The case brought forth allegations of far broader sex trafficking and victimization of girls, but it wasn't until 2019 that Epstein was charged with federal felonies including trafficking. He died in jail in the weeks after his arrest. ...
... Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., urged Lutnick to step down after The New York Times reported the Trump ally interacted “regularly” with Epstein, according to files released by the Department of Justice relating to the notorious sex offender. Massie was the lead Republican on the Epstein Files Transparency Act that compelled the release of the Epstein files.
“He should just resign,” Massie said on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday.” “Howard Lutnick clearly went to the island if we believe what’s in these files; he was in business with Jeffrey Epstein, and this was many years after Jeffrey Epstein was convicted.”
He added: “He’s got a lot to answer for, but really, he should make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign.” ...
Why is NBC afraid of the truth?
... NBC has denied editing the crowd audio, although it is difficult to resolve why the boos so audible in the stadium and on other broadcasts were absent for US viewers. ...
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Trump's corrupt state capitalism, but I repeat myself, is anti-American, anti-competitive, and advances long-standing Democrat objectives, which is one reason big business is keeping its big yap shut
When the Democrats can't get what they want, a Republican chump comes along who does it for them.
The power of existing businesses will only get stronger thanks to Trump, so mum's the word.
The Trump administration’s portfolio of equity stakes in U.S. companies has reached a scale that is unprecedented outside economic crisis or wartime....
“It is a invisible barrier to startups and new market entrants,” said Scott Lincicome, an international trade lawyer affiliated with Cato Institute. “Why would you ever want to enter a market that you know your chief competitor is backed by the U.S. government?”...
The Trump administration’s approach is a major ideological departure for the Republican Party, which has traditionally championed free market capitalism and excoriated government intervention. The Democrats have typically been the party of industrial policy and intervention in markets.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, introduced an amendment to Biden’s CHIPS Act that would have allowed the government to take stakes in companies that accept federal funding for semiconductor manufacturing. The measure ultimately died in the Senate....
Top executives have voiced virtually no public criticism of the Trump administration taking stakes....
Before the U.S. took its stake in Intel, Trump said CEO Lip-Bu Tan was “highly conflicted” and called for his resignation over his ties to Chinese companies. The comments sparked a brief sell-off of Intel shares....
Trump bought 433.3 million shares of Intel in August 2025 at $20.47, about $3 off its recent lows around $17.66, risking taxpayer money, not his own.
America's bailouts of banks and then businesses in past crises have paved the way for Trump's full-blown state capitalist interventions in the private sector, buying company stocks with the people's money, making loans, and taking direct control
Trump is turning America into China, but all America cares about today is the Super Bowl.
The Trump administration has made unprecedented equity investments and obtained other stakes in at least 10 companies over the past year. ...
In the past, the U.S. has taken temporary stakes in companies in the context of bailouts, said Peter Harrell, who served as the senior director for international economics under President Joe Biden.
“With these companies, it’s a very different thesis,” Harrell said. “The government is kind of acting as a strategic investor to put capital into these companies so that these companies can achieve both a commercial return but also, at least in theory, some kind [of] national purpose.” ...
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Trump is setting records at Rasmussen Reports for record high disapproval at 57%, record low total approval at 41%, record high strong disapproval at 47%, and record low approval index at -20
I dunno, was it something he said lol?
To be entirely fair, these low numbers were already achieved on Feb 5, the day Trump posted the Obama ape video. The low numbers went up in the morning and reflect polling from the previous day(s).
The Obama ape video was just a coincidence.
I think the low numbers are a reaction to Trump's Monday call for federal interference in the coming elections.
Nancy Pelosi's Speakerships were a double-whammy of obscene spending unprecedented in the post-war which never delivered on the economic growth
The double whammy burger you order never looks as good as the picture.
Why everything sucks since the Great Recession: Real GDP in the 18 years since 2007 has been growing at a compound annual rate of just 2.004%
The compound annual growth rate before that, for the 60 years from 1947 to 2007, was 3.469%.
We're doing 42% worse.
It's uncanny.
Friday, February 6, 2026
We're already close to the first: As of Feb 2026, the average interest rate on the U.S. National Debt is 3.4% while the compound annual rate of nominal GDP growth from 3Q2007 to 3Q2025 is only 4.3%
One path to U.S. fiscal disaster is most alarming — and most likely
... An Everest of debt is an incentive for an inflation crisis to reduce the value of existing debt by paying lenders with debased dollars. But inflation would become baked into the expectations of investors, who would demand higher interest rates. Then R>G would bite: When interest rates paid on debt exceed the rate of economic growth, a crisis intensifies as rising interest rates depress economic growth. ... The most probable, and most ominous, outcome would be a gradual crisis. ... Nothing unsettles a middle-class nation more rapidly than inflation, a component of all of these crises. ...
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Hi yo sil . . .
... Spot silver prices were trading almost 12% lower at 8:32 a.m. ET, at around $77.42 per ounce ...
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
We had a lousy 4-day federal government shutdown and the Feds now need until Feb 11 to report jobs, but private payrolls came out today with a pathetic +22k
Just skipping along the surface of a lake like a stone headed under.
The maggots like Steve Bannon are trying as hard as they can to provoke violence to justify invocation of the insurrection act and martial law
I just signed up to become a permanent mail-in voter after seeing this today.
Was the 2024 election stolen, Steve, you moron?
Total disapproval with Trump makes new second term high 56% at Trump-friendly Rasmussen Reports
His total approval was 56% on the first day of polling of the second term, 23 Jan 2025.
His total approval now at 43% revisits that low first hit on several days in early December.
Quite the reversal in just over one year.
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
The biggest number in this story is $293.6 million
Wake me when the New York Post writes a story entitled:
Trump's $75 billion ICE Police State rammed through right-wing Congress at taxpayer expense under phony reconciliation rules
The New York Times on the global economy had me and then it lost me
Because it, like too many commentators, uses an obsolete dollar index in DXY, which measures dollar strength or weakness relative to just SIX currencies: EUR, JPY (!), GBP (!), CAD (!), SEK (!), CHF (!).
The Federal Reserve has developed broader indices weighted to the countries the U.S. trades with the most.
U.S. GDP is $31.1 trillion.
EURO ZONE GDP: $16.5 trillion.
Japan: $4.3 trillion.
Great Britain: $3.6 trillion.
Canada: $2.3 trillion.
Sweden: $0.6 trillion.
Switzerland: $1 trillion.
Global GDP: $117 trillion.
... It’s as if cars, instead of slowing down at a flashing yellow light as expected, started speeding up. ...
The traditional connection between the American economy’s performance and the value of the dollar has also been snapped. Uncertainty tends to increase the dollar’s value compared with other currencies as investors seek a safe haven in risky times. But the dollar has sunk to its lowest level in years. ...
Analysts backed down on their predictions that Mr. Trump’s tariff blitz last spring would cause higher prices ...
Even by DXY standards, the dollar is not weak at 97, well within its long term average range between 95 and 105.
And The New York Times is ignoring that wholesale prices increased at a higher rate in 2025 than in either 2024 or 2023.
Traffic fatalities surged during the COVID-19
pandemic. This research highlights the fact that disadvantaged
communities bore the brunt of the increase and calls for holistic
solutions to promote equitable access to safe transportation.
Yes, the dollar weakened in January 2026, but within a big picture environment of a strong dollar not a weak dollar
The nominal broad U.S. Dollar Index last averaged below 120 in December 2023.
Gold and silver climbed to all time highs in January 2026, defying the standard narrative that precious metals are the haven of choice when the dollar is weak.
 |
| 117.89 on Jan 30th |
 |
| 119.22 average in Jan 2026 |
Average yields on 20s and 30s are higher in January 2026 than when Trump was elected in November 2024, voting Nay Nay on what's going on
 |
| Yield on the 10Y is still lower but is saying Me Too |
Gold and silver rebound but remain well off their highs, about -12% for gold, almost -29% for silver
Gold and silver bugs view it as a buying opportunity.
Gold and silver rebound, pulling global mining stocks and precious metal ETFs higher
... Spot gold was last up about 5.5% to $4,921.29 per ounce. Gold futures in New York gained more than 6%, hovering at around $4,936.60 as of 4:48 a.m. ET.
Spot silver rose over 9% to settle at around $86.70 per ounce. Silver futures in New York were up 12% at $86.49. ...
Gold had hit a record high of $5,594.82 on Thursday January 29th, silver
hit a record high of $121.64 the same day.
Monday, February 2, 2026
American Greatness confidently tells us that the American and French revolutions had nothing whatsover to do with one another when French financial support of the American one lead to theirs
Seen here:
... The two revolutions had nothing whatsoever to do with one another ...
They had more to do with one another than not.
Louis XVI unwisely spent literally billions of dollars he did not have supporting the American revolution. His motivation for support was revenge against Britain. Most of it was piled up as high interest debt which the rich of the French aristocracy and of the Church refused to pay but the peasantry could not. Add famine into the mix after trying to squeeze blood out of that turnip and boom.
Donald Trump is spending $75 billion we don't have to round up illegal aliens in the streets using militarized police, but he refuses to punish the employers who get rich off their labor. He got elected promising to cut food and energy costs but here we are one year later and those things still cost a fortune.
Two Americans have been murdered in the streets by government agents.
You can see where this could go, but American Greatness can't.
American Greatness doesn't think too highly of New York Mayor in 1969 John Lindsay of whom it is ignorant, Thomas Jefferson who somehow got elected president, and Thomas Paine whom George Washington found very useful in 1776
Seen here:
... they insist that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” and that we should all be given liberty or given death. It doesn’t seem to matter much to them that the first of these proclamations is entirely made up; that the second was written by a “gentleman-farmer” who spent the American Revolution on a diplomatic mission in France and then, mindlessly, supported the French Revolution, even after it turned bloody; and that the third was uttered by a simpleton who was never really an American and who actually served in the French Revolutionary government. ...
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Monthly mean average temperature in Grand Rapids, Michigan has been below normal for three consecutive months
Actual monthly mean average temperature in Grand Rapids vs. average monthly mean since 1892:
November 2025: 38.7 F vs. 39.1
December 2025: 26.0 F vs. 28.5
January 2026: 20.2 F vs. 23.8
Totals: 84.9 vs. 91.4 = -6.5 degrees F or 7.1% colder.
On an annual basis just a handful of years since 1999 have been at or lower than average temperature of 48.1 F:
2000 48.1
2003 46.8
2009 48.0
2014 46.5.
Snowfall in 2025-2026 to date:
66.2 inches vs. 41.6 normal to date. Annual mean = 66.8 inches.
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