Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The National Debt has been at $36 trillion plus change since Nov 21
Three months and counting.
The federal government is expected to blow through $7.266 trillion in fiscal 2025.
That's $20 billion EVERY DAY.
The deficit is projected to be $1.781 trillion in fiscal 2025.
That's overspending of nearly $5 billion EVERY DAY.
We need a 25% spending cut, or a 25% tax increase, or some combination of the two.
But Republicans plan to cut taxes by $4.5 trillion and increase spending on the military, on the border, on deportations, and on energy deregulation (ha ha ha, they have to spend money to make money).
This is not a serious country.
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| https://taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/federal-receipt-and-outlay-summary |
Republicans can't take the heat of townhall meetings angry about Elon Musk, RNC official advises curtailing public engagement after just 37 days of Trump chaos, claims the townhalls are astroturfed
House Republicans hit the brakes on town halls after blowback over Trump’s cuts
... “Obviously we’re very aware of those headlines,” a Republican National Committee official familiar with the dynamics said.
“I don’t know that a specific edict is going to come down from on high that they need to stop or anything, but a message I believe has been clearly sent that this narrative should end very soon,” the official said. “Probably the best way for that to happen is no more town halls. Elon Musk’s work still has the administration’s support, period.” ... “Pathetic astroturf campaigns organized by out-of-touch, far-left groups are exactly why Democrats will keep losing.”
Phony baloney Trump, but I repeat myself, takes credit for Ukraine's success provided under Joe Biden
“Ukraine, I will say they’re very brave, and they’re good soldiers, but without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short time,” Trump added on Tuesday. ... Zelenskyy had also noted that any assistance Ukraine was still receiving was a legacy of the previous U.S. administration under Joe Biden . . ..
Reported here.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Remember that Donald Trump betrayed freedom in Afghanistan in February 2020 as coronavirus was about to explode, and in Hong Kong in May 2020 as America was about to explode over George Floyd
Betraying Ukraine is just another day's work in February 2025, but the question is, Who will it next be, in May 2025?
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| "We just signed an agreement . . . the Taliban will be killing terrorists." |
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| "Up until yesterday I still believed Hong Kong has the rule of law." |
If our joke of a president Donald Trump weren't a phony baloney plastic banana, he'd end the United Nations once and for all and save us $18 billion+ instead of using it for his own propaganda purposes
The Council on Foreign Relations here says the cost to the US for the UN is north of $18 billion in 2022.
Foreign Policy here says the annual budget for the UN in 2023 is $3.4 billion.
New York City claimed in 2016 that the UN provides an economic benefit to the city of $3.7 billion in 2014, which means US taxpayers subsidize that benefit to New York City.
Meanwhile the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza was infiltrated by Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct 7 massacre in Israel, which American taxpayers are also subsidizing.
Why is Donald Trump letting this continue?
Why isn't it in the news?
Why isn't DOGE going after that?
Why isn't it a top priority?
Independent voters disapprove of Elon Musk's activities by a 2-1 margin
Reported here:
A Washington Post-IPSOS poll last week found that 49 percent of adults disapprove of the job Musk is doing, contrasting with just 34 percent who approve.
Notably, while Democrats and Republicans broke along predictable lines, independent voters disfavored Musk by a 2-to-1 margin, 52 percent to 26 percent.
Cowardly Republican stooges, but I repeat myself, dummy up on UN vote and Trump appeasement, but Cocaine Mitch comes through
... The two votes on Monday were the latest sign of a dramatic reversal of America’s bipartisan policy since World War II of standing diplomatically and militarily with Europe to defend against the threat of Soviet and later Russian aggression.
It is a shift that congressional Republicans have, with very few exceptions, silently watched unfold.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the most fulsome GOP dissent to date against President Donald Trump’s position on Ukraine.
McConnell, in a statement, called Trump’s unfolding policy reversal
“disgraceful” and “unseemly” and suggested it was a reprise of the
appeasement that led to World War II.
“‘Peace for our time’ is a noble end, but hope that appeasement will check the ambitions of this aggressor is as naïve today as it was in 1939,” McConnell said, referring to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s famous remark after signing the Munich Agreement and Germany’s subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia. “America is right to seek an end to this war, but an end that fails to constrain Russian ambition, ensure Ukrainian sovereignty, or strengthen American credibility with both allies and adversaries is no end at all.”
Such a “hollow peace,” he said, would “invite further aggression,” a reference primarily to the lesson China might take away from a demonstration of wilted U.S. resolve.
... virtually no GOP lawmakers besides McConnell have directly criticized Trump’s emerging plan . . ..
There's a conservative media blackout on the disgraceful US pro-Russia vote in the UN yesterday, 93 countries vote to hold Russia directly responsible without the US
No stories up at Real Clear Politics.
None at Just The News.
"If we don't cover it, it didn't happen".
Monday, February 24, 2025
In the aggregate US Treasury yields haven't moved much since the end of November, after which duration began to normalize, but looky here
On Nov 29, 2024 the yield curve averaged 4.356 in the aggregate, after which we began to see duration normalize.
On Feb 21, 2025 it averages 4.357.
Now, however, there are seven securities in the Bills category, not just six, with Treasury rolling out the new 1.5-month (6-week) security as part of debt-ceiling-forced "extraordinary measures". There are five in the Notes, and two in the Bonds.
Duration normalization has now partly reversed because of the extraordinary measures, at least on a weekly basis, with yields for Notes once again falling below those for Bills on average on Friday.
If you count just the traditional 1MO, 3MO, 6MO, and 1Y among the Bills, the Bills yield average is nearly identical to Notes at 4.2825.
These falling yields may be both signaling and spurring increased purchasing of UST, including among the Notes to lock in an anticipated disappearance of opportunity as Bills issuance surges to fund the Treasury General Account. The increased issuance of Bills means yields fall across the curve, at least temporarily, as investors lock in.
The special 6-week security rolled out at 4.41 on 2/18 and was paying 4.39 on Friday vs. only 4.15 for the 1Y and 4.42 for the 10Y, the latter's lowest yield all month. Falling yields for the 10Y is a specific goal of the Treasury under Trump. Evidently the temporary 6-week Bill is helping them achieve that . . . for now.
Reported Feb 5 and Feb 6:
Bessent's focus on 10-year US Treasury yield may let Fed off the hook
..."The president wants lower interest rates and ... in my talks with him, he and I are focused on the 10-year Treasury," Bessent said. "He is not calling on the Fed to lower rates. He believes that if we ... deregulate the economy, if we get this tax bill done, if we get energy down, then rates will take care of themselves and the dollar will take care of itself." ...
10-year Treasury yield drops as traders digest news on issuance, fresh data
... The [Treasury] department also said it will be issuing more short-term bills than usual as it uses “extraordinary measures” to keep the government operating while Congress battles over the debt limit. That announcement came despite new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously criticizing his predecessor, Janet Yellen, for issuing unusually large amounts of shorter-term debt. ...
Nutball worlds in collision: Trumpism defends freedom in Europe with its right hand, stabs it in the back in Ukraine with its left, Biden defended freedom in Ukraine with his right, attacked it in America with his left
But The Federalist has its blinders on. Biden baaaaaaad! Trump gooooood!
"Let's see if we can find some naive kid to write a story about it!"
By Defending Free Speech Worldwide, Team Trump Reclaims America’s Global Moral High Ground:
Under President Donald Trump, the suppression of natural rights by Western powers will no longer be ignored by the United States.
Yep, J. D. Vance goes to Europe to beat up on our friends. But suppression of freedom will be ignored, in places like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China. And above all in Ukraine.
This is the essence of libertarianism: Make the good the enemy of the perfect.
But defending freedom where it really counts would take some courage, and they don't have it.
The author of this article, who graduated from college in 2022 with a BA in political "science", ends it touting the execrable Darren Beattie at Marco Rubio's State Department, a Taiwan surrender monkey.
The article is the second in the queue at Real Clear Politics this morning. One goes there looking for some serious editorial judgment and gets this.
Trump/Vance don't have the moral high ground. They are just the cowardly other side of the same old hypocritical American coin.
Trump appoints another election loser
Ex-Secret Service agent and conservative media personality Dan Bongino picked as FBI deputy director
... Bongino ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2012 and for congressional seats in 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Florida, after moving in 2015. He lost the three races. ...
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Ironically enough, Kash Patel at FBI might, might turn out to be resistance
FBI Nominee Kash Patel Warned Elon Musk Is Becoming "One Ginormous Trust"
Kash Patel ripped into Elon Musk in unearthed podcast episodes
... “So, what scares me is, like,” Patel continued, “you wanna talk about a monopoly? It is the ultimate monopoly. Is he going to execute the businesses and allow others to compete? On free speech platforms, that is? Is he just going to buy everything up, and then become one ginormous trust—for lack of a better word, a monopoly—which is supposedly illegal under antitrust laws?” MAGA stalwarts such as Vice President J.D. Vance have been vehemently against monopolistic behavior and Trump even ran on a quasi-anti-trust platform. ...
“What's he going to do with all the data? That's my concern,” Patel said. “The data collection — he's got a global wifi satellite system, in space, for the world: Starlink. He has Tesla, he has, as I said, the SpaceX program, and now he'll have Twitter.” ...
“Do you allow the CCP to have backdoors? Like other companies, like TikTok, has done in the past, and sell Americans’ data? Or provide Americans data directly to the CCP for future use against American and American interests? Those are questions that people should be asking, I think, rather than fixating on the ups or downs of Elon buying Twitter,” Patel said. ...
In one post from July 2023, Patel accused Musk of being “big tech colluding with our government to censor our elections,” adding: “Your cheap Titter [sic] posts and your Mickey Mouse clown droppings do not absolve you,” as first reported by The Daily Beast. “You are as bad as FBI/DOJ n you and are making millions from the disinformation campaigns. You are a complete and total fake who cares only about $.” ...
Kash Patel Tells FBI Staff To Ignore Elon Musk's Demand: Report
The new Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Kash Patel has reportedly told the agency's staff to ignore Elon Musk's request to justify their work or lose their jobs.
"For now, please pause any responses," reads a message sent by Patel on Saturday to all FBI personnel, calling for employees to wait for a coordinated response from the bureau. ...
Now the Trump administration is imitating the most odious revolutionary rhetoric of the Obama administration
We are fundamentally transforming our country for the better, truly restoring our government, the 27-year old know-nothing says, when they're actually gutting it.
These people all think they're so smart.
They think they're cutting something down to size which is already on its knees. Federal employment today has hardly been lower as a percentage of civilian population in the post-war. The low point was achieved already in 2018. The Leviathan State is a complete myth.
If Trump truly restored our government, he'd be hiring dramatically, not firing.
For all of Trump’s and Musk’s talk of efficiency, their policies will likely slow down the government. The state needs capacity to perform core tasks, such as collecting revenue, taking care of veterans, tracking weather, and ensuring that travel, medicine, food, and workplaces are safe. But Trump seems intent on pushing more employees to leave and making the civil service more political and an even less inviting job option. He bullies federal employees, labeling them as “crooked” and likening their removal to “getting rid of all the cancer.” A smaller, terrified, and politicized public workforce will not be an effective one.
To start, let’s dispense with the notion that the government is too big. It is not. As a share of the workforce, federal employment has declined in the past several decades. Civilian employees represent about 1.5 percent of the population and account for less than 7 percent of total government spending. According to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, seven out of 10 civilian employees work in organizations that deal with national security, including departments—such as Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security—that the public supports.
The reality is that the federal government has long faced a human-capital crisis. ...
More.
The country is $36 trillion in debt because it is not taxing enough, and hasn't been taxing enough since Ronald Reagan. We pretend we can borrow to infinity for what we want, but we can't afford it all anymore. That is why they're surrendering to Putin, and taking a meat cleaver to DC.
This is not a serious country, otherwise a South African wouldn't be running it.
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