No ads, no remuneration. Die Gedanken sind wirklich frei. The tyrant "has desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole soul of him: all his life long he is beset with fear and is full of convulsions, and distractions, even as the State which he resembles."
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Trump to step back from efforts to reach a Ukraine peace deal . . . for two weeks lol
... President Donald Trump is signaling that he would step back for now from efforts to reach a Ukraine peace deal, expressing frustration over rising casualties and the failure of the two sides to come closer to a peace agreement.
“I’m not happy about anything about that war. Nothing. Not happy at all,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
He added that he would make an important decision about the future of the conflict in “two weeks,” a phrase that he often uses not to specify a precise time frame, but to indicate that he wants to put off a decision for a while. After that time, he said, “We’ll know which way I’m going, because I’m going to go one way or the other.”...
More.
Gold has easily outperformed the S&P 500 over the last three years
SPX is up about 53% in the last three years vs. gold which is up about 90% (1775-3373).
If stagflation is our future, gold may do even better.
Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at new record high Friday Aug 22 after Powell throws red meat
Dow surges more than 800 points to post record close as Powell speech fuels rally: Live updates
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to an all-time high Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank could begin easing monetary policy next month.
The Dow climbed 846.24 points, or 1.89%, reaching a fresh high and closing at a record level of 45,631.74.
The S&P 500 rose 1.52% to end at 6,466.91. At its session high, the broad market index came within three points of its record.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.88% and settled at 21,496.53. ...
Friday, August 22, 2025
Thursday, August 21, 2025
Tulane University's Walter Isaacson calls out Trump's state capitalism for Nvidia, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices
... “That state capitalism often evolves into crony capitalism, where you have favored companies and industries that pay tribute to the leader, and that is a recipe for not only disaster, but just sort of a corrupt sense of messiness,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” ... Earlier this month, both Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay 15% of their China revenues to the U.S. government for export licenses to sell certain chips there. ...
Trump adds $1 trillion to the national debt in record time and S&P Global underscores its own irrelevance by maintaining the U.S. AA+ credit rating
Trump tariff revenue expected to offset tax bill impact, S&P says in U.S. credit rating hold
... "We could lower the rating over the next two to three years if already high deficits increase ..." lol.
These people are afraid of Trump.
They don't want to be singled out for Trump's daily Two Minutes Hate.
They don't want to be the next Jerome Powell, or Lisa Cook, or Volodymyr Zelensky.
Meanwhile year to date the Trump deficit is running $112 billion ahead of Biden's last deficit. DOGE so-called spending cuts and Trump Tariffs have done nothing to reduce it.
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
The Trump administration's Howard Lutnick doubles down on the state capitalism of the CHIPS Act of Joe Biden
“We should get an equity stake for our money,” Lutnick said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “So we’ll deliver the money, which was already committed under the Biden administration. We’ll get equity in return for it.” ...
Lutnick said any potential arrangement wouldn’t provide the government with voting or governance rights in Intel.
“It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity for the Trump administration, for the American people,” Lutnick said. “Non-voting.”
Intel declined to comment.
Lutnick also suggested that President Donald Trump could seek out similar deals with other CHIPS recipients. ...
“The Biden administration literally was giving Intel for free, and giving TSMC money for free, and all these companies just giving them money for free,” Lutnick said. “Donald Trump turns that into saying, ‘Hey, we want equity for the money. If we’re going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action.’ ” ...
Um, I don't think getting an equity stake was anywhere in the bill.
Just another example of Trump executive branch overreach, but will the supine GOP Congress care?
Monday, August 18, 2025
Two weeks Trump was already at it again on Friday before meeting with Putin on Saturday
It's been a long war against the NFL
“The left targets something it doesn’t like, and they never give up, and they keep going until they ruin it. And I’m telling you, National Football League is in their cross-hairs right now,” Limbaugh said. “One of the most important planks of liberalism, militant feminism, is the vehicle which is being utilized in this latest effort to undercut the game.”
-- Rush Limbaugh, September 2014, here.






















