Sunday, June 15, 2025
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Israel has started attacking Iran's oil sector in Bushehr Province this morning, which will concern China since it imports 16% of its oil from Iran, buying 90% of Iranian oil exports
The cash China provides Iran in this transaction funds the ballistic missiles raining down on Tel Aviv this week.
Friday, June 13, 2025
Anti-democratic airhead DHS Secretary ICE Barbie says Feds are in LA to liberate it from duly elected governor and mayor
We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and
burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have imposed.
Imagine if the Democrats interfered like this in Wyoming or West Virginia. Republicans would throw a fit like they're doing in LA.
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Israel makes sausage of Salami
Israel attacks Iran, airstrikes kill Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami
... Iranian state media reported that Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] was killed in a strike. ...
Beyond Tehran, Iranian news channel IRINN reports that there were airstrikes on the city of Natanz, which is home to a key nuclear facility. Also hit were targets in the city of Khandab, where a heavy water nuclear reactor is located, and Khoramabad, the site of a ballistic missile base. ...
Charles Breyer, Senior US District Judge of the Northern District of California, rules Trump acted illegally in federalizing the California National Guard
... At one point, the judge said, “We live in response to a monarchy,” noting that there is a difference between the president and King George III, the British monarch on the throne at the time of the American Revolution.
“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not,” Breyer wrote in his order.
“His actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the judge wrote. “He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”
Breyer said that none of the three conditions required for Trump’s federalization of the Guard under a certain federal statute existed, namely the U.S. having been invaded or in danger of being invaded; a “rebellion” against the federal government; or the president being unable to execute U.S. laws.
“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’ ” Breyer wrote.
And he said that “regardless” of the outcome of California’s lawsuit against the administration, Trump’s federalizing of the Guard without the consent of Newsom “alone threatens serious injury to the constitutional balance of power between the federal and state governments.”
“And it sets a dangerous precedent for future domestic military activity,” Breyer added. ...
More.
It's stupid for Trump to riff off today's producer price report and call Jay Powell names because the number is likely to be revised higher, and besides, that's just poor form, old boy
May 2025 core producer prices, aka core wholesale prices, were reported today up 3.02% year over year. That will doubtlessly be revised up, especially as we get farther away from May.
Today's chart indicates April was up 3.18% yoy, but was originally reported at 3.1%. The latter was already rounded up, but the former rounds up to 3.2%. We'll see if that gets revised higher in coming months as well.
March was up 3.91% yoy we are told today, but originally it was reported at 3.3%.
February was up 3.74%, but originally reported at 3.4%.
January was up 3.92%, but originally reported at 3.6%.
December was up 3.74%, but originally reported at 3.5%.
The average up revision, including April, has been 0.3.
Be that as it may, we have in the May report nine consecutive months with core producer prices up in excess of 3% year over year.
Meanwhile for the nine years 2012-2020, the average increase was 1.62% yoy. I don't call producer prices rising at a rate 85% higher than that in May 2025 good news. It may be "less bad" news, but that doesn't make it good news.
Trump's a jerk to Powell. Vance is a very polished jerk. Remember his treatment of Zelenskyy? Stephen Miller is a jerk to Rand Paul. If you've seen the Trump cabinet in action, many of whom are political losers, you've seen even more insulting jerks. They may be descendants of the people of Jerkola for all I know, but I can only speculate.
What they lack in intelligence they make up for in bad manners
... Trump claimed at the White House that lowering rates by 2 percentage
points would save the U.S. $600 billion per year, “but we can’t get this
guy to do it.” “We’re
going to spend $600 billion a year, $600 billion because of one
numbskull that sits here [and says] ‘I don’t see enough reason to cut
the rates now,’” Trump said. ...
Trump’s insult came hours after the Labor Department reported that U.S. producer prices rose less in May than some economists anticipated. ...
... “I’ve just been told that I’ve been uninvited from the picnic; I
think I’m the first senator in the history of the United States to be
uninvited to the White House picnic,” Paul told reporters. “The White
House is owned by the taxpayers, we are all members of it, every
Democrat will be invited, every Republican will be invited, but I will
be the only one disallowed to come on the grounds of the White House.” ...
Taco, taco, taco man . . .
Most retail execs expect Trump to walk back ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, survey says
"Liberation Day" was just a trial balloon.
Yeah, but half of employers pretend to pay
Half of Your Employees May Be Pretending to Work, According to a New Survey
It’s called ‘ghostworking,’ and a recent poll of workers shows that it’s more prevalent than you think.
... Fully 23 percent of people (nearly 1 in 4 workers) admitted to walking around the office with a notebook so that they look purposeful and busy, while 22 percent have typed away at their keyboard entering nonsense. Though it’s rarer, 15 percent have faked being on a phone call so they appear busy, and 12 percent scheduled nonexistent meetings so they had an excuse to not do real tasks. ... 47 percent of employees said they waste more time working from home, while 37 percent said they waste more time in the office. ...
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.
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