Saturday, March 23, 2024
The US Senate just passed the funding bill
CNN just reported:
The funding legislation was approved by a vote of 74-24 at 2:02 a.m. ET, more than two hours after the midnight ET deadline for passage of the critical legislation that was approved by the House on Friday.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Compromise spending bill passes US House 286-134 bringing fiscal year 2024 federal discretionary spending to $1.659 trillion through September
WASHINGTON — The House voted 286-134 on Friday to pass a sweeping $1.2 trillion government funding bill, sending it to the Senate just hours before the deadline to prevent a shutdown. ...
The bill, released early Thursday, funds the departments of Homeland Security, State, Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services and various other agencies. Together with the $459 billion bill passed earlier this month, it fully funds the federal government to the tune of $1.659 trillion through September, after months of stopgap bills and negotiations.
More here.
The Roll Call Vote is here, if you want to check how your representative voted.
The argument is perennially NOT about deficit spending, but deficit spending on WHAT.
The projected tax shortfall for all programs for fiscal 2024 is $1.582 trillion, more than half of which will be net interest expense of $0.870 trillion on the exploding national debt. Interest payments on what we have already borrowed now exceed defense outlays of $0.822 trillion.
CBO in early February estimated fiscal 2024 discretionary spending at $1.739 trillion, so today's bill "saves" a mere $80 billion off that.
Mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. is estimated at $3.908 trillion for fiscal 2024.
It's obvious that spending should be cut and taxes raised, but no one has the courage for either.
They should just agree to do both and let the chips fall where they may. Everyone out here will be pissed, vote accordingly, and it would be a wash politically.
Current national debt is $34.5612 trillion and rising.
Israel Defense Forces trick Hamas and its supporters around the world, return to Shifa Hospital killing and capturing hundreds lol
The Jerusalem Post reports:
The IDF announced on Thursday that in its four-day operation in Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, it has now killed around 140 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as arrested around 650 additional terrorists.
... the IDF may have intentionally waited longer for more terrorist senior officials to arrive before attacking. ...
Some IDF sources explained that the terror groups likely returned to Shifa, despite the IDF already having cleaned it out in November 2023, because they did not expect the military to return to the hospital in the middle of Ramadan, with a rise in global criticism of Israel, and with hostage negotiations at a critical point.
I found the source for Trump's well-founded fear of an auto industry bloodbath
CNBC reports today:
Why a small China-made EV has global auto execs and politicians on edge :
There’s fear among global automakers that Chinese rivals like the Warren Buffett-backed BYD could flood their markets, undercutting domestic production and vehicle prices to the detriment of their own auto industries.
“The introduction of cheap Chinese autos — which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government — to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector,” the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a U.S. manufacturing advocacy group, said in a report last month.
BYD sold 1.57 million battery EVs last year, up from just 130,970 all-electric vehicles in 2020. That sales growth was enough to surpass Tesla to become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles in late 2023.
The rise of BYD and other Chinese automakers led Tesla CEO Elon Musk in January to warn that Chinese automakers will “demolish” global rivals without trade barriers. ...
The company has quickly rolled out new and updated products. It’s also rapidly established manufacturing, as it has its eyes set on factories in Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Hungary, Uzbekistan and, potentially, Mexico. ...
Former President Donald Trump – the front-runner among Republicans in the 2024 presidential race – on Saturday suggested instituting a 100% tariff on cars made in Mexico by Chinese companies, should he be elected to a second term.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Fascist Joe Biden makes $20 billion in grants and loans to Intel in Arizona under the $114 billion Chips Act, which is all borrowed money, to buy votes
Democrats are more than willing to hand Joe Biden slush money to buy votes, but $25 billion for a wall? No way.
Bloomberg doesn't even hide it:
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said his $20 billion award to Intel Corp. demonstrated his investments in US industries that had withered under Donald Trump’s tenure, touting a flurry of government spending he hopes will help him defeat his Republican rival in a general-election rematch. ...
Biden trails Trump in several crucial states, including Arizona, as voters remain skeptical of the president’s handling of the economy. Biden is responding by using his bully pulpit, as well as federal dollars, in states to show the public the results of his plans. The president said Wednesday’s announcement would support 10,000 manufacturing jobs, including 3,000 in Phoenix. ...
Intel is the first company to land a preliminary funding deal from the Chips Act for advanced manufacturing facilities. The law provided $39 billion in grants, plus loans and guarantees worth $75 billion to persuade companies to build factories on US soil and reverse a decades-long shift of semiconductor production to Asia.
Joe Biden buys 78,000 more votes, total vote-buying program to date adds $144 billion to the national debt
4 million voters purchased.
Biden cancels nearly $6 billion in student debt for 78K public service workers
The
White House has approved nearly $144 billion in federal loan
forgiveness for about 4 million borrowers in total, according to the
administration.
Biden deals bloodbath blow to auto industry, EPA finalizes rule requiring 67% of new cars and trucks sold to be electric by 2032
The administration forged ahead with its plan despite pleas from thousands of car dealerships across the country, warnings from industry leaders and major manufacturers slashing production. Demand in recent years has failed to meet growth expectations. ...
“This rule is delusional,” the senators said. “This is the Biden administration’s attempt to get rid of the internal combustion engine without congressional authority.” Sen. Joe Manchin III, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, was ready to side with Republicans. He called the rule “reckless and ill-informed.” “The federal government has no authority and no right to mandate what type of car or truck Americans can purchase for their everyday lives,” said Mr. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee.
At the current pace of sales growth of all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the U.S. would take decades to meet the administration’s 2032 goal. ...
The EPA wants 67% of all new light-duty vehicles and up to 32% of medium-duty vehicles to be electric by 2032. That includes a mixture of all-electric, plug-in electric hybrids and battery electric hybrids.
More.
Last August the FBI gunned down 75-year old Craig Deleeuw Robertson in his Utah home, two days ago the ATF mortally wounded 53-year old Bryan Malinowski in his Arkansas home
Utah man suspected of threatening President Joe Biden shot and killed as FBI served warrant
Arkansas airport executive shot during attempted search warrant, police say
Totally normal.
Jerome "Arthur Burns" Powell ignites gold fever
The London PM gold fix soared 437% between 1970 and 1978 using average prices.
Gold is up about 60% since Powell became Fed Chair in February 2018. Gold has risen from about $1333 to $2142 on an average basis.
Gold hits fifth record high in March on Fed rate-cut view :
Gold prices on Thursday hit record highs for the fifth time this month after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled it would press ahead with three rate cuts in 2024 despite elevated inflation.
Spot gold was up 1.1% at $2,209.65 per ounce at after hitting an all-time high of $2,222.39 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures soared 2.4% to $2,212.40. ...
Despite recent high inflation readings, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is still likely to reduce interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point by the end of 2024, but that it also depends on further economic data. ...
Lower interest rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion . . ..
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
If he can resign, so can Joe Biden
Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar unexpectedly resigns
Remember all those women who resigned about a year ago?
Jacinda Ardern
Diane Feinstein (announced she wouldn't run again)
Lael Brainard
Christine Wilson
Nicola Sturgeon
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Guttmacher: Over 1 million abortions in 2023, 60% by pill
From the story:
[The 2022 Supreme Court decision] led to a growing reliance on a two-pill regimen to terminate pregnancies, with U.S. abortions administered by pill increasing 10% since 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.
The Institute's report is published every three years and based on data collected from U.S. abortion providers.
The survey found over 1 million total abortions were provided through the U.S. healthcare system in 2023, the first time that number exceeded a million since 2012. ...
The survey likely undercounted the number of abortions in the U.S. since it did not account for terminations obtained outside the formal U.S. healthcare system, such as those done with pills mailed from abroad.
Judge Sharon Coleman, Obama-appointed chaos agent, simply declares illegal alien has a right to own a gun despite what the law says
"The Court finds that Carbajal-Flores' criminal record, containing no improper use of a weapon, as well as the non-violent circumstances of his arrest do not support a finding that he poses a risk to public safety such that he cannot be trusted to use a weapon responsibly and should be deprived of his Second Amendment right to bear arms in self-defense," Coleman, who was appointed under President Barack Obama, wrote in her eight-page ruling filed March 8.
Carbajal-Flores was charged under Title 18 of U.S. Criminal Code, which legally disallows undocumented individuals to possess firearms and ammunition "or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce."
The story is here.
Antifa's anarchist dream comes to Haiti: Bullet ridden bodies in the streets of the safe part of town
Haiti violence: Residents see no end to crisis as capital city reels from gang warfare
By Will Grant, BBC News, Cap-Haitien, Haiti
Reuters
"Port-au-Prince is in panic mode," a friend in the Haitian capital texted me.
Residents of Petionville, a wealthier area of of the city, are shaken after their most violent day so far in the country's spiralling security crisis.
More than a dozen bullet-ridden bodies lay in the street - the victims of the latest gang rampage.
As well as the early morning killing spree, the home of a judge was also attacked - a clear message to the country's elites vying for power.
All this in what is supposedly the safe part of town.
Unicef's executive director, Catherine Russell, has called the situation in Haiti "horrific" and likened the lawlessness to the post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max.
Certainly the latest violence in Port-au-Prince is a reminder, if any were needed, that Haiti remains closer to anarchy than stability.
In that malaise, the UN has also estimated, because of the closure of so many hospitals in the capital, some 3,000 pregnant women were at risk of having to give birth with no maternity care.
Remember the $13 billion poured into Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake?
Money is no match against guns, which are strictly prohibited in Haiti, so the vast number of law-abiding people there are completely defenseless against the gangs.
Shithole Chicago commie mayor Brandon Johnson drives out the wealthy and property prices down
From Bloomberg here:
The historic Gold Coast, featuring 100-year-old mansions, opulent condos and designer boutiques, has lost some of its most illustrious residents and appeal in recent years as the city’s high taxes and crime encouraged the wealthy to relocate. Those staying in Chicago are opting for more modern homes in trendier areas, leaving Gold Coast properties sitting on the market for months.
Now a plan to boost taxes on the sale of homes of $1 million or more could further depress deals in the neighborhood, whose residents include the billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Known as the “mansion tax,” the measure will be on the ballot during the Illinois primary on Tuesday. ...
It’s unclear what impact the tax will have on property prices and whether it will generate the revenue that the mayor’s office expects. Los Angeles passed a similar measure increasing transfer taxes for properties over $5 million in 2022, but the measure only generated $142 million, a tiny fraction of the over $900 million it was expected to bring in. ...
The Gold Coast currently has 113 homes on the market at $1 million or more, according to Zillow. Only Streeterville, directly south of the Gold Coast and along the famous Michigan Avenue shopping strip, has more.
In the broader area of the Near North Side, which includes the Gold Coast and Streeterville, homes over $1 million have spent an average 123 days on the market, almost double the average in the rest of the city, according to Chicago Association of Realtors data collected from 2021 to 2023.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Steve Sailer on communist fellow traveler J. Robert Oppenheimer the movie: wut, lol, yikes, sheesh, um, holy cow, and yeah that's California
admirably (perhaps excessively) historically accurate
the welcome clarity of the sound
the porkpie hat with the wide Western brim
the movie is overly critical of Oppenheimer
a nuclear weapon hasn’t been used in anger since 1945
Oppenheimer had a long track record of misjudging Stalin’s character . . . as head of the world’s most glamorous academic organization, the Institute for Advanced Studies, a job at which he was superb due to his polymathic near-infallibility of judgment
I try to hold glass-half-full opinions of scientists like Oppenheimer and Millikan and admire them for their historic accomplishments rather than cancel them for their mundane political opinions [even though] The Soviets tested their first fission bomb in 1949, largely due to having (at least) four spies at Los Alamos [thanks to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mundane political opinions]
Here.
Oppenheimer's deep involvement with the communist Haakon Chevalier began as early as 1937 at UC Berkeley
Allan H. Ryskind, here:
The FBI had opened a file on Oppenheimer as early as 1941, after he had failed to immediately inform superiors that three men in Berkeley, California, had been solicited to obtain nuclear secrets for the Soviet Union and that both he and his brother Frank had been urged to help them. One of his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley was Haakon Chevalier, who worked with Oppenheimer on various Communist enterprises and who urged him to give Soviet Union Premier Josef Stalin what he wanted.
The Bureau opened its file on Oppenheimer after he had attended a December, 1940, meeting at Chevalier's home that was also attended by the Communist Party's California state secretary William Schneiderman and its treasurer Isaac Folkoff, each of whom was being wiretapped by the FBI.
In early 1943, Chevalier had a brief conversation with Oppenheimer in Chevalier's kitchen, with Chevalier mentioning that a scientist, George Eltenton, could transmit information of a technical nature to the Soviet Union about our progress on the highly secretive atomic bomb project that Oppenheimer was working on.
He initially rejected the overture to assist Eltenton but failed to report the incident until August of 1943. His failure to promptly report what was clearly a Soviet espionage effort would become central to the decision to revoke his security clearance. Oppenheimer did not report the recruitment effort until six months later. In subsequent interviews with Army security, he admitted he had been approached, but he refused to name Chevalier or anyone else who might have been involved. Not until December, 1943, in response to a direct order from Groves, did he name Chevalier.
From 1937 to 1942, he was a member at Berkeley of what he called "a discussion group," which was later identified by fellow members Chevalier and Gordon Griffiths as a "closed" or "secret" unit of the Communist Party for Berkeley faculty.
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