Archives for July 2023

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Yesterday, I saw a new ad for Joe Biden. It was terrific: succinct and to the point. In fact, it was perfect.

Simultaneously for all my MAGA friends it revealed the plot of what Biden and the Dems have been up to.

Not just under Biden but stretching back to FDR and LBJ.

These words, spoken by a MAGA Republican revealed the truth! They reveal exactly what those Democrats have been up to all along. TRUTH!

You, me, everyone has a choice to make. Are you going to allow this to continue? Or are you going to stand in the way? (or in Donald Trump’s case hold a press conference and do nothing.*)

PLOT REVEALED!

What Joe Biden and the Dems are up to.

Truth!

Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene, July 16, 2023, Turning Points Action conference, Palm Beach Conference Center, Florida:

“Joe Biden

had the largest public investment

in social infrastructure 

and environmental programs

that is actually finishing

what FDR started,

that LBJ expanded on,

and JoeBiden is

attempting to complete.

Programs to address 

education,

medical care,

urban problems,

rural poverty,

transportation,

Medicare,

Medicaid,

labor unions.

and he still is

working on it.”

This morning I saw another ad from the Dems with sleepy Joe saying, “Come on folks …”

OMG! Don’t blow it. Play that funky Maga woman’s words over and over again. 

She is clear and succinct.

people can understand what she is saying.

Enough with Bidenomics and “Come on folks”

Go with a winner! Go Greene!

In 35 seconds she encapsulated what you’ve been up to.

Don’t try to improve on it. Just beat it!

Beat it good.

Are you for education, medical care, solving urban problems and rural poverty like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Dems are for?

*To be fair to Mr. Trump. My above comment suggested he did nothing. This is not true. He actively sought to centralize power in his hands and use the levers of government against his enemies. and the people. He was kind of amateurish about it, but now he has a team and a plan and he has let us all know that if he gets back in power he will actively put in place thugs, reprobates, and sycophants who will do his bidding. In short, he has said he will do whatever it takes to end our democracy. I just want to be fair and make sure that is clearly stated. 

Friday July 21, 2023

Well, I have to ask what Trump’s game plan is. It seems to be to get re-elected and then pardon himself. That will work for Federal crimes, but not state. Maybe, he’ll run for governor in each state where he’s under investigation? In the meantime his defense seems to be nothing on the merits except to say, “Witch Hunt,” and “It’s a disgrace,” which are two handy phrases to use for any legal situation.

The other avenue open to him is to find one juror who won’t convict him. Given that some 30% of the population seems to believe his “It’s a disgrace” comments then maybe he can pull it off.

However, he has to pull it off in: Michigan, Georgia, Manhattan, New York, Washington DC, Florida, and possibly Arizona. Those aren’t good odds. Especially, when he’s committed crimes right out in the open with no apologies, and he’s admitted to them. 

But he’s got friends in Congress. Mattie Gaetz is on the case. Yup, Mattie-boy is introducing legislation to defund Jack Smith. Way to go!

In other news Jim Jordan has been busy. He got Robert Kennedy Jr. to come in and testify about government crimes or something like that. I guess there wasn’t time to actually bring up any, or was it that there were none to find? Kennedy said he never said that the Covid vaccine was engineered to target blacks and Jews (or was it Covid? I forget.) Then the Dems on the committee played the video of him saying exactly that. He then said that he has never told anyone that they shouldn’t get the vaccine then the Congresswoman from the Virgin Islands read a direct quote where he said that. 

Kennedy’s voice was very gravely. It sounded like too much smoking or drugs. Probably drugs as he has been addicted most of his adult life, having been found guilty of heroin possession. 

But then we got to the meat of the meeting, and the reason why the Republicans called him in, and now I understand! Hunter’s laptop! I’ve never understood the right’s fascination with, and dwelling on, this subject, but now I do.

See, if we could find his laptop it would reveal things that would make millions and millions of people change their votes for Biden! Ah ha. 

It seems to me like the end of The Raiders of The Lost Ark where the Nazis open the Ark of the Covenant and their faces melt off their skulls.

BTW as I think about all the cases against Trump, all the legal cases against him, and all the enablers and sycophants telling him what he wants to hear, I see Pigpen going over the hill in a swarm of depositions, subpoenas, motions, target letters nd grovelers trailing behind with the balloon, “With Hunt” over top.

Moving on. Sheldon Whitehouse at long last got a vote in the Judiciary Committee on his bill to set up ethics standards for the Supreme Court. It passed by one vote, but not before Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Graham had their say.

“It’s an attempt by the Dems to pack the court.” 

Whitehouse replied, “The Court is already packed.”

“It will end democracy as we know it” or something like that. What? The comment is so out there that one is gobsmacked, and it’s hard to reply. The bill would give the Supreme Court 180 days (six months) to set up their own ethics committee and if they didn’t, then one would be imposed on them. Hum. Where’s the ending of democracy?

Women’s Soccer tonight at 9pm. Thank God.

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Michigan’s Attorney General has brought charges against the 16 folks who signed on to be fake electors declaring Donald Trump to have won that state when they knew otherwise.

So what? So it’s eight counts each with a 14 year term in jail.

Lemms see, 14 x 8 = 120 years. Most of these people are in their 70s. So they’ll get out of jail when they are 190. Sounds fair. How about ten years off for good behavior?

And these folks are heads of the Republican Party in Michigan. That’s okay, you can run the party from your jail cell, right? I mean the current front runner, if he wins might have to rule the country from a jail cell. A state jail cell because he’ll pardon himself on Federal charges but still.

The question becomes, “which state?”

Trump has so many criminal acts he is charged with, in so many jurisdictions, it’s hard to know where he’ll go to trial first and where he’ll spend his first night in jail. 

Important questions remain, like – “Will we get to watch as they shave his head?”

“Will he wear a set of gold diamond encrusted handcuffs designed by his daughter when he does the perp walk?”

“Will Jared be right behind him doing the walk?”

“Will Ivanka?” (I did nothing. – We know.)

So many questions.

When I heard the news people reviewing the cases and the states and the possible dates for trials I saw Pigpen, Charles Shultz’s comic character who was always dirty and was surrounded and trailed by a cloud of dirt, but it was Trump not Pigpen (I could tell by the hair), and in the swirling brown cloud trailing him were subpoenas and torts and arrest warrants, and all kinds of legal stuff flying out behind him. And people, loyalists, trampled underfoot.

The thing that gets me is how little defense he has been able to mount. Other than saying his stock phrases, like, “It’s a disgrace what they are doing,” and statements we’ve all heard before he seems to have little to argue.

One thing I’ve learned through all this is that the law is written in such a way as to say, “Blah blah blah means if you have done the following things you are guilty of the crime of Blah blah blah.”

Volume two of the Mueller Report lays out ten charges against Trump. Six of them there is no question. The evidence is there in black and white. Four might need a little help. Prosecutors have said that any prosecutor with one (or both) arms tied behind their back could get a conviction based on that report. Why that hasn’t happened I don’t know.

Last night I heard Jamie Raskin say that if Trump is convicted of Insurrection he can no longer serve as President. I think that’s what he said. I wonder if Trump would still be entitled to Secret Service protection?

If I heard the Congressman correctly then I guess we wouldn’t have to impeach him again and find him guilty to remove the Secret Service protection?

So many questions.

Meanwhile, a young man won Wimbledon. Perhaps a new era is dawning?

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Okay. let’s start with music and economics. Jerry of the Grateful Dead has been gone for thirty years, Stevie for 35. Now, the Dead say they are playing their last gigs in San Fran. They’ve said this before. We’ll see.

Taylor Swift is the first woman to have four albums in the top ten at one time. More remarkably, the Fed has commented that her Era’s Tour has affected the U.S. economy. I knew she had been affecting local economies when she came to town, but now the Fed can discern positive upticks due to her work. Wow.

There is new reporting that the Republican Party, Donald Trump, and his enablers have developed a plan that if he comes to power again he will, with their help, destroy our democracy. Maybe, some think this an over statement, but consider that they have a name for this project. It’s written down on paper and they are figuring out strategies and assigning people to roles. This compliments what Trump has been saying at his rallies. This is not idle back room talk. This is right out in the open.

Consider these ideas: Destroy the civil service so Donald can put in sycophants to steal our money and do his bidding, put the Judiciary and all investigative bodies directly under his control, and have the Federal Trade Commission report directly to him. This would mean we would get rid of the people in government who know what they are doing and replace them with stooges; the President could squash any investigation into himself or his buddies and he could sic the FBI or the IRS on his enemies, and he could direct businesses to pay him money or be forced out of business.

Meanwhile, let’s count the cases agains Trump:

Jack Smith #1 – he documents case at Mar-a-Lago,

Jack Smith #2 – the Jan 6th insurrection,

Fani Willis’ Georgia election,

New York #1 – Latisha James,

New York #2 – Alan Bragg,

New York #3 – rape (or was that resolved? one was),

Arizona AG Investigation into fake electors,

Michigan AG Investigation into fake electors,

At 2 o’clock today Willis is supposed to announce something.

Donald has said on the campaign trail that The Presidential Records Act let’s him take whatever he wants because he’s (or was) the President. This is the exact opposite of what the legislation says. Jack Smith in his latest filing to the Florida judge has asked for a pretty standard protective order concerning classified information, but he has made a few things very clear, like saying that whatever materials are presented are and will be the property of the U.S. government.

I’m betting that Trump’s lawyers are saying things in court that are much different than what their client is saying on the campaign trail. One reason is that they could lose their law license if they knowingly lie in court. The other reason is that the case is not about the Presidential Records Act. It’s about espionage. Hopefully, the lawyers understand this.

In the Jack Smith documents case his lawyers said they were objecting to things. Smith has repeatedly asked what. No answer.

Trump’s lawyers tried to get Fani Willis dismissed from her case. The strongest reason they had was that she attended a fund raiser. It was for one of the fake elector’s opponents. It took the Georgia Supreme Court less than a day to throw that out.

Onto more fanciful stuff. Marjorie Taylor-Greene gave a speech this weekend. She was pointing out all the stuff Biden was doing and linking it back to some guy I think she just discovered named Lyndon Baines Johnson or LBJ. She said Biden was trying to finish the work of LBJ that was started by FDR. Things like helping people with their education, medical bills, civil rights and so much more. Terrible. The White House put out a statement thanking Ms Greene for pointing this out.

Meanwhile, Ms Boebert is saying the church should direct the government. Isn’t that what bin Laden wanted?

Meanwhile, 19 Republican AGs are asserting a claim that they have the right to demand medical records of people. Not only in state, but if said resident goes out of state, for say an abortion because in their state it is not allowed. So they, the AGs, should be able to hunt down their residents.

One group in Ohio has been posting an ad showing a couple in the early throws of making love. They reach for a condom in a drawer and are stopped by a Republican politician’s hand on a wrist saying they can’t do that and he’ll stay in the bedroom and watch to make sure they don’t break the law. That’s what it’s come to.

Republican politicians realize anti-abortion stuff is very unpopular so they are pivoting to attack the gay community and say the laws they want to pass are about that, hoping people won’t notice.

Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis has had to lay off a bunch of his staff. He’s running out of money. Turns out he’s not very good at running a campaign. It also turns out he’s not very good at running a state. While malaria is being reported in his state he’s oblivious and he’s got no one in the top spots in health to deal with it.

Also, a sheriff is bringing charges against DeSantis for his stunt of shipping migrants to northern states. Hum.

Sunday, July 16, 2023

An Inverted Yield Curve is when an investor can make more money buying short term treasury bonds than long term, which is kind of nuts. Why would you invest your money locked up for a longer period of time than a shorter period and make less? 

This is typically taken as a sign that the economy is headed for a recession.

However, economic signs for regular people suggest otherwise. Like jobs (up), inflation (down), etc.

Many of the conservative economic elite seem to want a recession.

Meanwhile in real America there are problems. Here’s one:

Most financial advisors recommend spending no more that 1/3 to 1/4 of what you make into your housing. That means rent or mortgage payments.

So let’s do a little fun with math, two examples:

The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. 

There are 13 weeks in a quarter. If you work 40 hours a week that’s 520 hours.

520 x $7.25 = $3,770.00 per quarter 

(there are 13 weeks in a quarter. this makes calculating a monthly average more accurately than taking 4 weeks a month.)

Or $1,257 a month.

$15,084 a year.

That means, according to financial planners, 

In the U.S, a person can only afford to spend between $314 and $419.00 on rent.

That is if the 1/3 to 1/4 of their money is to be spent on housing.

In Maryland the minimum wage is $13.25.

Or $6890 per quarter, 

$2,297 per month

$27,560 a year.

In Maryland rent should be between $573 and $765 a month.

An 897 square foot apartment costs $1,706 per month in the U.S. according to Google.

And that they say that is the average apartment.

A general rule of thumb for determining poverty is when you have to choose between buying food or paying your rent.

If you are making the Federal minimum wage you are falling behind every month by $449.00. ($1,257 – $1,706 = -$449.00)

If you are in Maryland and making $13.25 you have $591 left over for food.  ($2,297 – $1,706 = $591)

None of these calculations include money for medicine, doctors, car payment, gas, phone, entertainment, or shoes.

Additionally, you can’t rent an apartment unless you can show paystubs for the last year. You have to prove you have had the means to pay for said apartment for the last year! What if you can’t? Too bad.

So where do those people go? The people who can’t pay $1,706 a month? They go somewhere cheaper. If you look at cheap rents on Zillow, you find $1,600; or maybe $1,500, but it’s the same problem. You have to prove you can pay, and there’s an application fee.

And some people wonder why we have folks living under bridges in tents?

Let’s say you are living week to week, and then something happens. You get hurt at work or the company you work for goes bankrupt or the contractor refuses to pay you, or you get thrown in jail. It doesn’t matter what it is – the fact is the money stops coming in but the bills don’t.

The landlord demands rent, the car is threatened to be repossessed, the phone is about to get cut off. What can you do? Nothing.

If this goes on for a month you are broke, homeless, with no phone you have no way to contact anybody, nothing to eat. What do you do?

A long time ago, we used to try to solve these problems. Now we either bitch about them or point fingers at the person in trouble and move on. But those people have nowhere to move to. They are stuck. Too bad. Next.

When FDR was President he was worried about putting people “on the dole.” It was his Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins who created programs to help people create jobs and give people dignity,

It wasn’t a dole, but a necessity. 

She was aided by Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, who traveled the country and looked at conditions and made personal appeals to her husband to do something about whatever the problem was. Ken Burns in his documentary about Roosevelt read a letter from a woman addressed to the President that said if he didn’t fix whatever it was she’d have to write to Mrs. Roosevelt. Where’s our Eleanor now?

Teddy Roosevelt was the same way. He was constantly replying to people who needed help and dictating letters to instruct others to take action based on his authority. His most famous action was in the coal strike. Previous presidents had used armed troops to put down strikes. Roosevelt on behalf of the government acted as a third party arbiter. When the coal bosses refused to negotiate on working conditions Roosevelt said he’d send in the army to operate the mines. The bosses said, “You can’t do that.” Roosevelt said, “Watch me.” That was the beginning of labor negotiations in this country.

(Actually the quote was more pointed than that but I didn’t find the exact quote.)

We use to solve problems. We use to have people in Congress who recognized the problems and talked about how to solve them. Now, we only have one party doing that while the other is chasing rabbits down conspiracy holes.

And trying to destroy the very fabric of our country and society.

I had someone I knew from grade school. I ran into her at a reunion. We traded emails and became Facebook friends. She warned anyone who came near her that she had extreme political views. She spent a lot of time posting stuff from “Prager University.” It was economic nonsense mostly. I spent a month pointing out the flaws and asking questions of her. Like, “why is a right wing conservative commentator pretending to be a university?” Her answers were of two types, “Everyone knows he’s not,” and some kind of economic idea that involved 501Ks or monetary policy (a la Ron Paul “we are all Austrians” ) etc. I spent a month pointing out the fallacies of the arguments. (No, everyone does not know Prager is a fat blowhard. And 501Ks are nice if you have money, What if you don’t? etc.)

It was like trying to blow out candles on a birthday cake that had those candles that appeared to go out then light up again.

It’s a wack-a-mole game: Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hillary’s emails, immigrants, people don’t want to work, why are we paying taxes so they can go to college for free?, secure the southern border, remember when …

If you ask for a solution it’s either pixie dust or it’s shut up you don’t understand.

Yeah?

So here’s a simple one. If you’re broke and you need to spend $30 or $40 to put in an application for a job or rent – where are you going to get that money?

And then your application gets refused and you don’t get that money back, now what?

John Oliver last season had a show about rental increases. When housing got cheap, big money bought it up. Now, they are increasing the rental rates. They say, it’s a real opportunity. Well, yeah. With no choice what will people do?

Live in a cardboard box under a bridge.

This is America.

This is what it has become.

We used to solve problems.

We have some really big problems.

Yeah, but what about …?

PS I think it mandatory that we mention poor besieged Donnie. He asked, “Why isn’t Biden being charged with The Insurrection Act?”

Why indeed.

Well, maybe he didn’t insurrect? How’s that?

So, I have to ask, as others have, why would DJT ask the question?

Hum. Maybe somebody else will get charged with insurrection, huh?

Stuart Rose, head of the Oathkeepers got 18 years  for sedition, and DOJ protested saying that’s not enough.

How much is insurrection? Seems worse than sedition.

I think it’s hanging. Yeah. Hanging. Trust me on this. (No, I haven’t looked it up. should I? Wonder what Prager has to say about that?)