New Zealand under Christopher Luxon will reverse a ban on oil and gas exploration, push the pricing of agricultural emissions back five years, and encourage more mining

 The agricultural sector including fishing contributes 5% to the economy, and accounts for about 80% of total exports. The farmers who helped Luxon's government come to power had said the environmental policies that the coalition government are reversing would have made dairy and meat too costly to produce. ... 

Climate Minister Simon Watts said the government expects to meet the 2030 target but admitted more work was needed to meet the 2035 target. "The Government is committed to meeting our climate change targets, but the way in which we do this will be different to former New Zealand Governments," he said. "This Government is using a least-cost approach to meet our climate targets. We will not shut down sectors that are boosting our economy and exports." ...

Other sectors the government is targeting are energy and mineral resources. It has said it would allow oil and gas exploration again, which former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern banned in 2018, in a bid to reduce imports of coal, boost fuel exports and keep energy prices for the public and small businesses low.

Reuters

The LA Times wants you to know there are way fewer Trump signs in rural Michigan right now, perhaps because of the Trump assassination attempt

 Some rural and suburban Michiganders also reported a general sense of unease and even fear, particularly those who say they were spooked by the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last month. Kitchen said she “kind of shut down” her previously active Facebook account after the attack, because the political rhetoric got too heated.

Raffy Castro, 22, was fishing for bass from a dock over the Clinton River on Monday afternoon. Though this will be the first election the Sterling Heights resident has voted in, he recalled much higher enthusiasm in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

“I haven’t heard people talking about it,” he said. “I think people are scared, especially with the shooting. I guess people don’t want to portray who they support.”

More.

 

Buy my book: Seppuku for Bigyenners

Traditional safe-haven assets, such as the yen and the Swiss franc, surged on Monday, fueling speculation that some investors were seeking to quickly unload profitable carry trades to cover their losses elsewhere.

More.

US Treasury yields collapsed 6.5% week over week Friday Aug 2, 2024 and year-to-date percentage total return went green across the entire curve

 

UST yields collapsed 6.5% week over week Fri 8/2/24 (down 402 basis points) to an average for the aggregate of the curve of 4.430.

 

YTD % Total Return is now green across the entire curve.

The 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year still had been down year-to-date through Friday Jul 26, just one week ago: -0.26%, -2.31%, and -4.31% respectively.

Now look at 'em:

 

 $TBIL 3.32 $XBIL 3.15 $OBIL 3.06;

 $UTWO 2.98 $UTRE 3.05 $UFIV 3.15 $USVN 3.45 $UTEN 2.94;

 $UTWY 2.33 $UTHY 1.31.

 

 

 

 

 

This should be framed and put in a museum somewhere

 

Britain is exploding with rioting over knife violence which killed three young girls in Southport last week, and the PM Starmer is blaming the right wing

 

Trump attacking the Tennessee Governor Republican Bill Lee is another example of Trump's stupid politics

It's hubris.

Trump continuing his vendetta against Kemp in Georgia in public is some of the dumbest politics I've ever seen

 

As Attorney General, Kamala Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, “Good Morning General”

 

Here:

Four short episodes I would like to share of his month-long internship for Kamala Harris:

Senator Harris vocally throws around “F-bombs” and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others. The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day.

As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, “Good Morning General.”

Never once during the month-long internship did Harris introduce herself to our son (as he was only in an office with 20 paid employees) and staff was too intimidated by her to introduce him. The only acknowledgment was a form letter of “thanks” signed by Harris given to him on his last day of service.

Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members.

I don’t know about you but this is not the workplace of someone who respects her staff. For a woman of color to have employees stand when she enters the room smacks of a bygone era that we, as Americans, deplore and find demeaning. Furthermore, that she didn’t show the quality of leadership skills or even being a decent boss — much less the “class” to approach Gregory at least once during the month to say “Hi, I’m Kamala Harris and I want to thank you for volunteering in my office” — is really troubling. Finally, what is up with the “don’t look her in the eye” instruction? I know I wouldn’t want to work in that hostile environment!

This turned out not to be true, so I deleted the original post about it

 

Wow, if this is her idea of a good husband, wait until you see her executive branch

 

Joe Biden's job got out-sourced to a worker from India, and like many of you he had to train his replacement in exchange for his severance package

 

Trump captures 15 Kamala Harris policy whoppers in two tweets which no journalist has asked her about since July 21

 

The percentage working full time in the US now averages 49.63 for the first seven months of 2024, down from both 2022 and 2023

 The percentage working full time in the US rose to 50.26 in July from 50.03 in June and now averages 49.63 for the first seven months of 2024. That's down from 50.06 in the first seven months of 2022, and down from 50.20 in 2023.

Not a good sign.

 

 

Michael Anton lol: Leftists argue that the otherwise implacably racist US statesmen of the 19th century left us one instance of openhearted liberalism in the 14th Amendment called birthright citizenship

 The idea that the framers intended to extend citizenship to anyone whose parents snuck across our border is absurd and betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the nineteenth century American mind.

I note, however, how convenient it is for leftists who constantly attack all past American statesmen for being implacably “racist” to suddenly discover this one instance of their openhearted liberalism. Really? The same bewhiskered, frockcoated “racists” up to their eyeballs in white supremacy nonetheless decided to open America’s borders to the entire world? It’s an obvious lie of convenience and should be dismissed with contempt.

More.

Kim Strassel: the GOP needs to be engaged in a whole-of-election message reminding Americans of the ugly Biden policies of past and present, and Kamala’s promise to carry them into the future

 The libertarian-inclined in the GOP want the message restricted more or less to the economy, inflation, immigration, and crime.

Biden: Forgotten But Not Gone

Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal

 

Strassel points out Biden is continuing or proposing the following to help cement support for Harris on the left:

Student loan giveaways

Nationwide rent controls

A plea deal for the 9/11 terrorists

$2.2 billion for farmers, ranchers, and owners of forest land who experienced discrimination

Million$ in new grants for women's health, state climate programs, tribal fisheries, youth skills programs

Signage everywhere thanking Biden's infrastructure law for road improvements

New rules protecting workers from heat

New prevailing wage rules for clean energy workers

New chemical and air toxin crackdowns

New regulations for wildlife refuges

New regulations on offshore drilling

Higher efficiency standards for commercial equipment and residential boilers

A crackdown on so-called junk fees for extras like family-seating on flights.

 

Polling has shown inflation and illegal immigration have been the top issues, which of course doesn't mean other things can't be issues.

 

Strassel doesn't seem to get that the green energy war on fossils fuels is the top problem for the economy, driving up the cost of everything, while the massive illegal immigration feeds competition for the housing no one can afford anyway, not to mention crime up and wages down for the bottom half of the country. 

 

And of course, the Trump tax reform disappears if Harris is elected, among other horribles. 

Stephen L. Miller says the world wakes up to men competing against women in sports, Donald Trump promises to end it

Libertarian Justin Amash is hoping the Hamas vote in Michigan will cross over and help him in his quixotic quest to upset Republican favorite Mike Rogers in the Aug 6 open primary

 “In a matchup with Democratic frontrunner and former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin, I’m uniquely positioned to win votes from liberals, progressives, and independents — and Michigan’s sizable Arab American community — who are repulsed by Slotkin’s commitment to endless wars, unconstitutional spying, and weaponized government.”

Justin Amash, quoted here. 

Democrat Elissa Slotkin is Jewish.

"many of his key positions align with the left"

Kamala Harris is African American now lol

 

Next to Whites, employment level increases 2021-2023 have gone mostly to the foreign-born, well ahead of America's Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians

White:                 7.825 million

Foreign born:      5.124 million

Hispanic/Latino: 4.390 million

Black/African American: 2.802 million

Asian:                  1.658 million

 

All figures are from the not-seasonally-adjusted data sets.

 

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, July 2, 2024:

 

Unprecedented U.S. immigration surge boosts job growth, output:

 

The current U.S. immigration surge is unprecedented. ... Recently released 2023 data on immigrant work permits cast doubt on the lower [US Census Bureau and Social Security Administration] immigration estimates in Chart 1 and are broadly supportive of CBO’s higher numbers. ... household survey data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) are consistent with CBO estimates of immigration in 2023.