Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The UK rioting is being blamed on free speech, so PM Keir Starmer aims to end it with . . . totalitarianism
From UK Riots: The agenda becomes clear…
Whatever the truth of this latest incident, and whatever long term aims it might be used to further, this “strategy of tension” has an immediate political agenda already becoming clear – and it’s as predictable as ever.
- Further limit social media/free speech
- Normalise constant surveillance
Attacking free speech is the ever-present, eternal agenda that comes before everything else and it’s been a real pile-on the last few days. ...
You cannot begin to fathom how irritating it is to the ruling class that ordinary people are allowed to just say whatever they want whenever they want – including having the audacity to fact check the media in real time, with no repercussions at all. ...
... it fell to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to formally lay it out in his address yesterday afternoon [transcript].
Pledging to counter the “far-right” with a new police division, and increased use of surveillance and facial recognition technology to “limit their movements”:
Wider deployment of facial recognition technology…And preventive action – criminal behaviour orders…To restrict their movements…
And firing a warning shot across the bows of social media:
And let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them…Violent disorder clearly whipped up online…That is also a crime. It’s happening on your premises. And the law must be upheld everywhere.
He even pointedly made clear his response wasn’t just about now or about countering the “far-right”, rather it was about ALL civil disobedience, for any reason:
A response both to the immediate challenge which is clearly driven by far-right hatred. But also “all violent disorder that flares up […] whatever the apparent cause or motivation – we make no distinction…Crime is crime.”
That means everything.
The storm builds: K-12 employee sexual misconduct against minors produced $1.2 billion in settlements for school districts over the last decade
A review of insurance industry reports, legal blogs and media
accounts by RealClearInvestigations turned up $1.2 billion in
settlements for school districts in the last decade. And there are clear
indications that the pace and amount of legal liability has been
rising, along with the impact that has for taxpayers and schools. ...
“I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg,” Oregon attorney Peter Janci told RealClear-Investigations. “There has been a lot of abuse that happened in schools, and there are more coming forward every day as public education and the sentiment to support victims has grown.” ...
The Boy Scouts are insolvent after a $2.4 billion settlement on more
than 80,000 lawsuits, while the Catholic Church is still wrestling with
the fallout from its long-term harboring of predatory priests, with
their current legal bill standing at $3 billion. The totals for K-12
public school districts could potentially exceed those, given there are
nearly 17,000 such districts in the U.S. with close to 50 million
students today. ...
“In Washington, there’s been a series of laws that created a thriving industry of lawsuits,” Chamberlin told RCI. “Generally, there’s just a real fear of jury verdicts. They are awarding astronomical settlements and sooner or later it will be the taxpayer who is paying these.”
“You have to understand the fiscal landscape of all this,” he said. “So far, our [insurance] policy has been sufficient, but I do worry that at some point in the future we’ll be unable to get insurance. The lawsuits now cover a range of behaviors, and this has spiraled out of control nationally.”
More.
These are the costs of The Sexual Revolution. The final bill is still being tabulated.
Monday, August 5, 2024
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.
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.
Sunday, August 4, 2024
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!
Saturday, August 3, 2024
Friday, August 2, 2024
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.
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.
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