Sunday, December 15, 2024
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Mitch McConnell, 82, has five of nine lives left, sprains wrist in fall
Mitch fell in 2019 and broke a shoulder, requiring surgery.
Last year he fell and was hospitalized with a concussion.
Mitch is a childhood polio survivor who in the US Senate saw to it that Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court were confirmed.
I have had nothing good to say about Nancy Pelosi ever, but I wish her well all the same
Having a hip injury at 84 is really bad news. It can be a death sentence. I don't wish that on her, and neither should anyone else.
Friday, December 13, 2024
Inflation impact on low income households is more like 6.3% when weighing necessities higher, says retail expert Howard Jackson
The Wall Street Journal reports here, also saying low income wage growth now lags everyone else's:
Howard Jackson, president of retail-focused firm HSA Consulting, estimates that inflation has actually averaged about 6.3% over the past 12 months for low-income households. Jackson said this estimate adjusts the consumer-price-index basket to weigh necessities—such as rent, utilities and food—higher than things they tend to spend less on, such as cars, furniture, clothes and consumer electronics. His estimate considers what items constitute the food basket, based on surveys of low-income consumers. “If you don’t have much money, you keep your pair of jeans a lot longer. Those are the purchases that get deferred,” Jackson said.
Spineless jellyfish Pete Hegseth does 180 on women and gays in the military lol
Hegseth does a 180 on women and gays in combat
Hegseth has called policies allowing gays and transgender troops to serve in the military part of a “Marxist agenda.” But on Thursday, when he met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), reporters asked him whether he thought gays should serve in the military, and he replied, “Yes.”
And once an unapologetic critic of women serving in combat roles, Hegseth called women “some of our greatest warriors” during a recent Fox News appearance. ...
Hegseth has been working to explain himself behind closed doors. [Senator] Collins, after meeting with him for nearly 90 minutes, told reporters that he had backpedaled on women in combat. ...
“He was asked in our post-meeting gaggle [with reporters] whether he was supportive of women in combat and his answer was he was supportive of that,” [Senator] Hawley said. ...
“I heard he was changing his tune a little bit on women in combat,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a Trump ally. “Sometimes you make comments that you don’t really want to stand by, sometimes, you know, when you’re not up for confirmation.”
Thursday, December 12, 2024
More inflation: Core producer prices, aka core wholesale prices, have been up four months in a row measured year over year, the last three increases all above 3% yoy
3.2%, 3.4% . . . and 3.5% year over year now in November 2024.
Overall prices are up 3% yoy in November.
Wholesale prices rose 0.4% in November, more than expected:
Final-demand goods prices leaped 0.7% on the month, the biggest move since February of this year. Some 80% of the move came from a 3.1% surge in food prices, according to the BLS.
Within the food category, chicken eggs soared 54.6%, joining an across-the-board acceleration in items such as dry vegetables, fresh fruits and poultry. Egg prices at the retail level swelled 8.2% on the month and were up 37.5% from a year ago, the BLS said in a separate report Wednesday on consumer prices.
The Fed is expected still to cut again at the next meeting despite all the evidence pointing to persistently high and increasing inflation, hiding behind the skirts of fear of job losses, a smokescreen for gifting easier money to speculators, and to federal authorities who now need to finance $36.1 trillion in the national debt at lower rates.
20Y and 30Y bonds are revolting, demanding 4.624 and 4.551 as we speak, now the highest yields across the curve, as the short end yields in US Treasury bills come back down to earth.
Now that Democrats have lost everything, The New York Times has nothing to lose by telling the truth about their illegal immigration tsunami under Joe Biden
The numbers in the Times analysis include both legal and illegal immigration. About 60 percent of immigrants who have entered the country since 2021 have done so without legal authorization, according to a Goldman Sachs report based on government data.
The combined increases of legal and illegal immigration have caused the share of the U.S. population born in another country to reach a new high, 15.2 percent in 2023, up from 13.6 percent in 2020. The previous high was 14.8 percent, in 1890.
Story here.
People should give Joe Biden more credit. He promised this immigration disaster, and boy did we get it, good and hard. Nothing sucks like success.
Joe defended it during the Democrat debates in 2019, and invited it during the final 2020 debate with Trump, and America voted for it.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Looks like Chuck Grassley's efforts paid off: FBI director Wray to resign
Thank you, Chuck.
Kash Patel incoming?
Before you get your hopes up about Kash Patel's capacity to do a good job, remember Wray was also a Trump appointee to replace the fired James Comey, and he turned out arguably worse than Comey.
Robert Mueller III was appointed by George W. Bush and assumed office exactly one week before 9/11/01. Neither of them kept us safe. And then they pursued the wrong guy in the anthrax attacks.
We have more than two decades of ugly feeling about the FBI to overcome.
FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign before Trump takes office
CNN data guru reports that Americans' trust in the FBI is at its lowest point 'this century'
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Meanwhile paper tiger Donald Trump is caving, too, can't guarantee anything lol
Trump told the “Meet the Press” host that he would work with Democrats to find a way to preserve Dreamers’ legal status. He said he would not ban abortion medication, fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell or order the prosecutions of his political opponents. ...
During the campaign, Trump proposed tariffs of 10-20% on all imports — and 60% on goods from China. Welker asked whether he could “guarantee” that Americans won’t pay higher prices under those tariffs.
“I can’t guarantee anything,” Trump replied.
Senatrix Joni Ernst reportedly caving on opposition to Pete Hegseth
Many, many women have caved to Pete Hegseth.
Here.
Daniel Penny has escaped his unjust prosecution by Alvin Bragg
The vile New York Times says "Jury Acquits Choker" instead of "Jury Acquits Man Who Stopped Subway Threat".
Monday, December 9, 2024
The Buffett Indicator in the news
Some people are paying attention.
The last chart below tracks the average annual valuation from 1920 through last year, based on the S&P 500. The average level for 2024 will depend on the third and final estimate of annual GDP at the end of March 2025. 209% is a real time snapshot using the Wilshire 5000 index.