Monday, July 14, 2025
Kevin Hassett is full of it as usual
That makes no sense.
Buying costlier U.S.-made goods over foreign goods would naturally boost inflation, quite apart from new tariff differences in price.
Meanwhile the core pce inflation rate in May 2025 year-over-year was 3.88% higher than it was in April, the 65% majority of which is services but still includes goods.
That's what the 0.1 point rise from 2.577% to 2.677% means.
The May 2025 rate is actually slightly higher than in May 2024, which means we've made no progress in the last year.
. . . with liberty and justice for all
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No Man can be a sincere Lover of Liberty, that is not for increasing and communicating that Blessing to all People; and therefore the giving or restoring it not only to our Brethren of Scotland and Ireland, but even to France it self (were it in our Power) is one of the principal Articles of Whiggism.
-- Robert Molesworth (1656-1725)
Gallup poll shows backlash to ugly Trump immigration enforcement, record 79% now say immigration is a good thing
The percentage saying immigration is a good thing has been slowly rising since the 2002 low at 52% to a record high 79% now.
The percentage saying it's a bad thing has been steadily falling since the 2002 high at 42%, now at just 17%, a record low.
The ten-point underwater spread in 2002 is now sixty-two points in 2025.
Donald Trump has completely botched the issue, putting the stink of his ugly behavior on it for the foreseeable future.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
A new climatology graph not previously shown here: Trend for total seasonal annual snowfall for Grand Rapids, Michigan
Seasonal measurements run from July to June.
Like the precipitation graph for Grand Rapids (recently updated), this one shows the same wetter trend over the last century plus, which makes sense given the cooler Pacific ocean trend shown by the Oceanic Nino Index (update forthcoming), and given the moderating winter heating demand shown by declining trend for heating degree days (also recently updated):
After the shot in Butler, Satan entered into him
 |
| And after the sop Satan entered into him. -- John 13:27 |
Saturday, July 12, 2025
They're leaving the dogs, they're leaving the cats . . .
ICE raids are leaving some L.A. cats and dogs homeless
... Pets belonging to people who are deported or flee are being left in empty apartments, dumped into the laps of unprepared friends and dropped off at overcrowded shelters, The Times found.
"Unless people do take the initiative [and get the pets out], those animals will starve to death in those backyards or those homes," said Yvette Berke, outreach manager for Cats at the Studios, a rescue that serves L.A. ...
"Pets are like the collateral damage to the current political climate,” said Jennifer Naitaki, vice president of programs and strategic initiatives at the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. ...
Trump's stupid bullying of Jerome Powell is analogous to his stupid bullying of Canada's Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney
Jerome Powell doesn't set interest rates.
The Federal Open Market Committee sets interest rates. That's why the release of the committee's prior meeting minutes is always keenly awaited and is by itself a major market mover. Powell's is one vote among many on the FOMC:
Where
interest rates should be today, and when they should be reduced, is
already a topic of debate inside the Fed, a decision, it should be
noted, that cannot be made unilaterally by the chair. Powell’s
leadership and professionalism does not appear to be a concern within
the halls of the central bank. Certainly, none of his colleagues,
present or past, have made the case that he is incompetent.
Similarly the Canadian Prime Ministers' control over trade decisions is also muted, deferring as they must to provincial and territorial authorities.
Trump bullies people like this who cannot make unilateral changes to policy in order to make himself look like an assertive leader to his equally stupid followers.
That's why people like Larry Kudlow disgust me. He knows what I am writing is true, but he joins in on the pig pile nonetheless.
Greater things are at stake in this than interest rate policy. Trump is playing with fire.
The New York Times eulogizes one of its sources from the past with contempt, David Gergen, who has succumbed to Lewy body dementia at age 83
... Years later, he expressed contempt for President-elect Donald J. Trump. “A bully — mean, nasty and disrespectful of anyone in his way,” he wrote in a 2021 column for CNN. ...
Mr. Gergen wore his 6-foot-5 frame comfortably and was graced with an easygoing manner, verbal quickness and a ready laugh that made him popular with many White House reporters. He also leaked information often enough to be labeled “the Sieve” by some of them.
That reputation fed speculation that he was Deep Throat, the shadowy figure who provided The Washington Post with insights into the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s. That source, however, was confirmed in 2005 to have been W. Mark Felt, the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. ...
The spin “had nothing to do with ideas,” Mr. Gergen said. “It had nothing to do with anything that was real. Eventually, it became selling the sizzle without the steak. There was nothing connected to it. It was all cellophane. It was all packaging.” ...
Mr. Gergen was the author of a best-selling book, “Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton” (2000). The book offered lessons for would-be leaders that tended to be little more than bromides, advising them to develop “a capacity to persuade” and “an ability to work within the system.” He revisited the topic in a 2022 book, “Hearts Touched With Fire: How Great Leaders Are Made.” ...
More.
Republican David Gergen was on the wrong side, you see, even if he was a centrist.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Elon Musk/DOGE cuts failure continues: Federal deficit spending is 5% higher year to date through June than it was last year at this time, according to the monthly statement of the U. S. Treasury Department
The fiscal year to date deficit October 2023-June 2024 was $1.273258 trillion.
The fiscal year to date deficit October 2024-June 2025 is $1.337372 trillion, $64.114 billion higher than a year ago, or 5%.
This dope who works for Trump can barely speak English, is just looking for any way he can to oust Fed Chair Jay Powell
These people make me sick.
The renovations were approved in 2021 and won't be finished until long after Powell leaves next May.
It's an investigation with a pre-drawn conclusion, that's all.
... “When you go to the nation’s mall, you see the construction of this palace ... upwards of $2.5 billion massive cost overrun, and we want to make sure we have facts as to the largesse and the extent to which it’s overrun,” Vought said during a “Squawk Box” interview. “I think it just points to the fundamental mismanagement of the Fed under the chairman.” ...
″The problem with Chairman Powell is he has been late at every turn,” Vought said. “It’s time to lower rates. You have a problem there. But again, this is about the largesse and the fact that he has systemically mismanaged the Fed, and that is evident by what we’re seeing with regard to this monstrosity, this Palace of Versailles, on the National Mall.” ...
“This certainly has to do with the fiscal mismanagement of the Fed, of which [interest rates] is one aspect of it,” he said. “We are going to zoom in over the last several days on this. We have new commissioners at the National Capital Planning Commission who are asking very tough questions.” ...
Ron Insana: Why Trump’s new attack on Powell should be so troubling to investors
... If
I were a foreign investor witnessing the ouster of a Fed chair,
replaced by a presidential supplicant, I’d sell the dollar and U.S.
bonds and head for the hills. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
The great impediment to a U. S. - Canada trade deal which most people in the U. S., including our dunce of a president, don't seem to understand is that it's not Mark Carney standing in the way, it's Canada's sovereign 10 provinces and 3 territories
Canada is today's poster child for America's bad old system of states' rights.
Canada does not have free trade with itself, let alone with the United States. Imagine not being able to drive an 18-wheeler cross country.
... When Carney made his campaign promise, he was talking about cutting red tape put up by the federal government — not the rules set by the provinces, which have the most authority in this area. ...
There is no comprehensive list of existing internal trade barriers. Even some lobby groups have told parliamentarians they don't know how many barriers their own industries face.
There isn't even consensus on what all counts as a trade barrier. ...
Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has repeatedly stated that most of the barriers are at the provincial level, testified to the Senate that she will meet with her provincial counterparts on July 8 to discuss next steps.
One major obstacle is in Freeland's crosshairs: Canada's patchwork of interprovincial trucking regulations.
"One of three areas that I will be putting on the agenda at that meeting is trucking," she said on June 16. "It should be a lot easier than it is to drive a truck from Halifax to Vancouver. We need to get rid of conflicting requirements."
Unaffordable Care Act to become more unaffordable for millions in 2026 due to Trump's reconciliation bill, just in time for the election
Why 22 million people may see ‘sharp’ increase in health insurance premiums in 2026
... More than 22 million people — about 92% of ACA enrollees — received a federal subsidy this year that reduced their insurance premiums, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.
Those recipients would see “sharp premium increase” on Jan. 1, Cynthia Cox, the group’s ACA program director, said during a webinar on Wednesday.
The average marketplace enrollee saved $705 in 2024 — a 44% reduction in premium costs — because of the enhanced tax credits, according to a November analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Without the credits, average out-of-pocket premiums in 2026 would rise by more than 75%, Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, said during the webinar.
Additionally, 4.2 million Americans would become uninsured over the next decade if the enhanced subsidies lapse, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
That growth in the ranks of the uninsured is on top of the nearly 12 million people expected to lose health coverage from over $1 trillion in spending cuts Republicans made to health programs like Medicaid and the ACA to help offset the legislation’s cost. ...
ACA enrollment has more than doubled, to roughly 24 million people in 2025 from about 11 million in 2020, according to data tracked by The Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF. ...
According to Google's AI, there are 22.8 million fewer uninsured 2010-2024, presumably because of Obamacare, but 26.7 million more on . . . Medicaid!
Because of that Rube Goldberg Machine known as Obamacare!
Push here, and it comes out there. And the kicker is Medicaid involves estate recovery for nursing home and other care costs at death, which varies by state.
You can run, but you cannot hide.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Undersea UFO expert Republican Tim Burchett (TN-2) says the Biden administration destroyed the Epstein client list lol
Atta boy, Tim, blame the Democrats.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes a client list associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration.
“I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.” ...
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