Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Five months in, the Trump administration still doesn't have spending under control with the fiscal year to date deficit running 13.5% higher than last year to this point
Deficit FY 2024 through May: $1.202 trillion
Deficit FY 2025 through May: $1.364 trillion
Difference: $162 billion MORE in the hole than last year at this time
I don't care what Elon Musk's DOGE claims, the May numbers from the US Department of the Treasury do not lie.
A tax increase was never more needed.
Well, look on the bright side, at least the barbarians didn't put them to the sword
... Jed Katz, the chair of the board and managing director of Javelin Venture Partners, , referred CNBC to the statement when asked about his and the other members’ resignations.
Like every other member of the board, Katz was appointed to the panel by former President Joe Biden. ...
The average price of gasoline in May 2025 was $3.306 per gallon, 7.2% lower than the average under Biden but still much higher than under Obama or Trump I
Under eight years of Obama gasoline averaged $2.974 per gallon.
Under four years of Trump gasoline averaged $2.488.
Under four years of Biden gasoline averaged $3.563.
The average price of a dozen eggs in May 2025 was $4.548, which is 157% higher than the average price of $1.769 2010-2020
The homeowner with the coop up the street sells his for $5 a dozen, but he was out this morning.
The homeowner with the coop down the street sells his for $4 a dozen, but he was out, too.
At the corner convenience store I had to pay $6.49.
Core cpi inflation year over year in May 2025 is 2.8% for the third month in a row, 55% higher than 2010-2020 average of 1.8%
The not seasonally adjusted trend is flat as a pancake.
The seasonally adjusted trend puts a little down-tilting lipstick on the trend pig, but still rounds to 2.8%.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
GM will not produce EVs at Orion Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit as the company moves production of gasoline vehicles to the US from Mexico to avoid 25% tariffs
GM to invest $4 billion in U.S. plants amid tariffs for Mexican-produced vehicles
... GM said the investment will add assembly of the gas-powered Chevrolet Blazer and Chevrolet Equinox that are currently produced in Mexico to two other plants in the U.S. and convert a large idled plant in Michigan — formerly expected to build all-electric trucks — to make gas-powered SUVs and trucks in 2027. ...
Mark Levin is urging Donald Trump to join Israel in a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities
Mark Levin is up against many individuals in the Trump administration who are anti-war, including J. D. Vance in particular, and Tulsi Gabbard.
Former national security adviser Mike Waltz was of the same mind as Mark Levin.
Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran
Gabbard warns of ‘nuclear holocaust’ in ominous social media video
The White House's Stephen Miller attacks libertarians for opposing the reconciliation bill's immigration enforcement spending
... the White House deputy chief of staff — and chief architect of Trump’s immigration agenda — is taking a sledgehammer to what remains of the libertarian-conservative fusionism that was prominent in the party pre-Trump.
“The libertarians in the House and Senate trying to take down this bill — they’re not stupid. They just don’t care,” Miller said in an interview with conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk last week.
“Immigration has never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. Deportations have never mattered to them; it will never matter to them. You will never live a day in your life where a libertarian cares as much about immigration and sovereignty as they do about the Congressional Budget Office.” ...
Miller’s aversion to libertarians, though, seems to go deeper than opportunistic messaging for the bill. He posted in 2022 that the uprising of the ideology in the House GOP is “how we ended up with open borders globalist [Paul] Ryan.” He blamed libertarian candidates for siphoning votes away from failed Trump-endorsed candidates in 2022 — Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire.
“Another example of how libertarians ruin everything,” Miller said in one post responding to a 2022 Georgia Senate poll. ...
More.
The CBS Poll referenced in the story indicates 55% like Trump's deportation goals but 56% dislike his approach.
Polling on the reconciliation bill indicates most think it will help the wealthy and hurt poor and middle class people, with a third admitting they have no idea what's in the bill. Well, neither did many in the US House who voted for the damn thing.
This points up the political danger of these Christmas Tree bills adorned with something for everyone. They're too complicated to understand and therefore capture little enthusiasm. But Stephen Miller fancifully thinks otherwise:
“By including the immigration language with the tax cuts with the welfare reform, it creates a coalition. Politics is all about coalitions,” Miller said in the interview with Kirk — also praising Trump in the interview as “able to create a winning formula for populist, nationalist, conservative government.”
But not libertarian government.
Monday, June 9, 2025
Mad King Ludwig, who is quite clearly nuts, says LA would have been completely obliterated had he not sent in the California National Guard, proves it by sending in more, and 700 US Marines
“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
“If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated,” said Trump.
Trump called Newsom “incompetent,” and said the governor and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass should be thanking him, saying “YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.”
More.
Different parties, same senility: Aging Trump stumbles up the stairs of Air Force One
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)