Rick Kinnaird

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?)

Friday, July 14, 2023

Well, Joe Biden was in Helsinki where he reaffirmed America’s support for NATO, and he made it clear we were supporting Ukraine for however long it takes. Compare that to five years ago. Trump was there and talking about breaking up NATO if other countries didn’t pay up, as if they were delinquent renters. Trump also sided with Putin at that time over our own intelligence services, and he held secret talks with Putin, the topics of which we’ve never been privy to. 

Let’s quickly review Trump’s foreign policies and their achievements. 

He gave away norther Syria to Russia, Assad , and Turkey. This allowed the Turks to come in and slaughter the men, women, and children who had fought and defeated the Caliphate. Those people were our friends and allies.

He pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. Iran is now close to having a bomb.

He made buddy buddy with Kim Jong Un. North Korea just fired a new long range missile.

He threatened the very existence of NATO, weakening it. This allowed Putin to think he could get away with invading Ukraine and the west and NATO would do nothing.

Since Biden has been President, NATO is more unified that ever before. Two neutral countries have now joined as well as many from the Warsaw Pact (For those saying, “Well, Russia owns them so what’s the big deal?” You have to ask, “If that is true why did those countries join a pact against said owners?”)

So five years ago our President was siding with people set on destroying our way of life and giving away the store. Now that has stopped and we are stronger against the threats to us and our way of life. How’s that for a brief summary? (What about Hunter’s laptop? You say? I ask, “When will you ever learn?” Hey there’s a song lyric in there!)

Now onto the Mar-a-Lago documents case. Jack Smith filed a reply brief to the Trump lawyers. His was ten pages compared to their twelve. Fortunately, he reminded those lawyers of the law and The Constitution because they seemed to have forgotten a few key points. Lord knows what Judge Cannon knows so it is probably helpful for her too.

The defense can ask for a delay, but it is the judge’s job by law to set a trial date. It is not the prosecuting team that demands a quick and speedy trial but the Constitution and the public (“We the People”) are entitled to such a trial. Something the Trumpian folks seemed not to know.

As to the voluminous documents and the “We haven’t seen anything yet” argument – Yeah, well the Smith team has bent over backwards to give them evidence way before they had to. Not only that, they gave them a roadmap of key documents and reasons. Oh, and I love this – they turned over all the grand jury testimony. I wonder how that went over when Trump had that read to him (I assume he had it read to him because he can’t read, or at least not much beyond a few bullet points) because the sycophants around him (“Oh you won the election, sir. No doubt. Election machines switched votes for sure. And what about Hunter’s laptop?”) probably sang a much different tune when faced with jail time if they lied. (It probably went more like: “Well, we thought the machines switched votes, but we couldn’t find any evidence of that.” and “Well, we thought that big black box had fraudulent votes from China, but there was no bamboo in the paper.” and “He lost. Everyone knew that.”)

Oh and as to the 800,000 pages of stuff? Yeah. well a lot of it is header and footer email things and there are only 4,500 pages of real info. Not big in a judicial proceeding.

Here is the part I like best;

“The Defendants are, of course, free to make whatever arguments they like for dismissal of the indictment, and the Government will respond promptly,”… “But they should not be permitted to gesture at a baseless legal argument, call it ‘novel’ and then claim the court will require an indefinite continuance in order to resolve it.”

Meanwhile, Jared has testified to the Special Counsel. What many believe Jack Smith wanted was to hear that Trump was considering seizing voting machines and declaring Marshall Law. This would be evidence that Trump knew he had lost. Why is that important? It turns out that if you truly believe something that is BS then you aren’t guilty of acting criminally if you act based on it. (Similar, to telling someone something that isn’t true but you believed it to be true. “Trust me. The Earth is flat.”)

And there’s apparently a woman who heard Trump say, “I can’t believe I lost to that f*ing guy.” (Ya Gotta Believe! Sorry, where was I?) and then he proceeded to delude himself that the election was stolen. (You know what I’d like to see happen? I’d like Ivanka say to him, “Dad, You’re a loser.”)

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Okay, before we get going let me tell you about “Ain’t Too Proud,” a musical revival that is the story of The Temptations. We saw it Tuesday night and it is terrific. Not only was the music great but so was their story and the way it was told. I have never seen an audience so happy and smiling. We were all talking to one another after the show. There is one original Temptation left and he is responsible for the show. BTW There have been 27 Temptations over the years and the group is still together.

Okay, now on to miscellaneous stuff. The Trump team of lawyers have filed a motion in the Mar-a-Lago documents case asking that the trial be delayed forever or a long long time – I forget which. It’s a twelve page filing and one commentator recommended reading it because 1) it is well written, and 2) it lays out all the reasons for delaying, I’m no lawyer but I am going to go through the reasons and my rebuttal to those reasons, Then we’ll move on to “Hunter Biden’s Laptop” or the New McCarthyism of the Freedom Caucus and their embarrassing displays of arrogance and lying.

But first – The Trump Team reason for delay #1 – There’s a lot of paper to read.

Rebuttal #1 – Your client doesn’t read. Next.

The Trump Team reason for delay #2 – He’s under investigation and indictment elsewhere.

Rebuttal #2 – So?

The Trump Team reason for delay #3 – He’s a busy man. He’s running for President.

Rebuttal #3 – So?

Okay, that wraps up their arguments.

It turns out that the besides the judge being very new to the bench, and having little experience in any cases let alone something like this, and the last time around bent over backwards to aid Trump and having both her rulings overturned, is also going to schedule the trial in a very Trump friendly area of Florida; but she is the one who will impose sentencing and she can give him no jail time.

The Justice Department has done the very unusual step of protesting (I forget the legal term) the sentencing of the head of the Oathkeepers, Stuart Rose. They say the 18 year sentence isn’t enough. I hope all our law and order Republican politicians get behind this.

Now on to Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, and Robert Kennedy, Jr. and their latest embarrassing hearing. The highlight was Matt Gaetz reading of a bunch of claims made in a document about something or other. I think it was about FBI Director Wray or some of the investigations being conducted and olde Matty boy had proof right there in this here document that proved Wray was biased against Trump! Powerful stuff.

Gaetz went on to badger Wray to conclude that something Gaetz had read was indeed proof of interferencene by the FBI, or some such thing.

Okay, I, and others, have a few questions:

1. How was the document that Gaetz read purported to be written in 2017 contain photos from 2022?

2. How was it that the What’s App messages displayed in the document were the wrong color and bubble format for the App at the time alleged?

3. How was it that Hunter Biden’s lawyer could prove that every item in the document read was untrue?

Additionally, does Mr. Gaetz not understand that if an FBI Director was to draw conclusions about an ongoing investigation as Mr. Gaetz wanted him to do that it would be interference, the very thing Gaetz wanted to prove?

Then there’s Hunter Biden laptop – a phrase so oft repeated by the Republicans you got to wonder. We’ve been here before. Last time it was Hillary’s emails. h, and Benghazi. In this case Hunter had a laptop that he brought in for repair and the person supposedly copied the contents and there was supposedly stuff that mentioned Joe. Wow. A son talks about his father? But it goes deeper than that. Some companies trying to clean up their image hired Hunter and paid him money. Obviously, those companies were hoping that Hunter would get close to the then Vice-President and later the President. (This by the way is an oft used tactic, maybe we should dredge up all the Republican family member who have received money from such things. Sorry, the list is too long to post here.)

There’s one little problem. There’s no evidence that any of that happened or that Joe Biden knew about it. And even if he did know his son was being hired – so what?

(Should I recite the things that are on the Republican side? Well yeah, why not. But first, let me ask, “What position did Hunter Biden have in the Obama or his father’s presidency? You know like Jared had under Donald? Or Ivanka had under dad? Did they forget about her getting deals with China to sell her crappy jewelry and clothing there? Answer – Hunter Biden had no role in either administration.)

Then there’s news that Clarence Thomas had an assistant who received payments from billionaires via Venmo. What’s that about? Clarence and the court are silent. Is it any wonder that the approval rating for the Supreme Court is at an all time low?

Then there’s climate change. In a new book out the author tells the story of a scientist who warned of what was going to happen back in the 70s or 80s. The politicians asked, “How soon?” Answer “40 years.” Reply, “Get back to us in 39.” Time is up.

The author also mentioned that long ago politicians and people used to get together to solve problems. We no longer do that.

I remember when you could go to school, get some grants and loans, work a minimum wage job and come out with a degree and be free of debt. Now? Now, I see postings of “If you can’t pay your loan you should not have taken it?” These posters seem to forget that the Republicans in Congress have destroyed the grant programs and come up with a usury student loan program to help them pay for the cuts they gave to the super rich. The people who post the “Can’t pay your loan” memes seem to forget that they benefitted from programs like The GI Bill and numerous programs that allowed colleges to keep tuition reasonable. But then again I have to wonder what are these institutions doing that are sitting on huge endowments?

In other not-startling-news Republican law makers who voted against programs that would fund programs and get money into their districts are more than happy to go home and boast about all the money that will be flowing into their districts while not mentioning they voted against those very bills.

Speaking of which, a new study says 73% of people in the U.S. want legalized abortion. Yet, Republican legislatures are passing abortion bills. Does this make sense?

Finally, Joe Biden has pulled off another staggering victory. He has got Sweden into NATO. This on the five year anniversary of Trump siding with Putin in Helsinki against our security folks. You know what? I still want to know what he and Putin discussed on their meeting, Hunter’s laptop be damned.

And the economy continues to improve. Inflation is down, jobs are up, and yet I hear the Republican in Congress bitching about it. Yet, they fail to mention any tangible item. Why is that? I’ll tell you why, if they did they’d get creamed with facts and reality.

And then there’s Joe Epps. Joe went to the Capital on January 6th. He was outside, never went in. When things started to turn violent he tried to calm folks down. He has been targeted by Tucker Carlson and Fox for being an FBI agent, which he is not. Fox never let up. Epps had to go into hiding with his wife due to the harassment. He even sold his place. Now he’s suing. Good.

Okay, I’m done.

No I’m not. The Marine Corps is without a leader for the first time in 100 years. Tommy Tuberville is holding up all military promotions and putting our military readiness at risk. It amazes me that he was smart enough to run a football program.

Have a nice day! (Smiley Face)

Sunday July, 9, 2023

The above title to flip the Beatles famous line.

There’s lots to talk about, but before I do let me just say the news headlines I got made me stop and say to myself, “This is news?”

The ultimate news article was a headline about Britney Spears. She’s been involved in an incident with a security guard, an NBA player and a slap. I’m not sure of the details, but I think it is alleged that the security guard slapped her. The security guard was part of the NBA player’s security detail. They’ve been milking this story for several days with tantalizing headlines. But Britney doesn’t blame the player, whose name sounds like a British 90s rock band – Wambarama, or something like that. Well, now the story has reached its apex – I think. Poor Britney lashed out – Do you hear me!? Yeah, she said she’s never been treated equally in this country and fuck you all. Yeah. Big news.

And then, in the last paragraph they mention that the police investigating the incident have reviewed video footage. It appears that Britney hit herself in the face. Yeah. See, there was some pushing and shoving and Britney’s hand hit Britney’s face. Strange but true.

This reminds me of Mad Magazine’s take off on the Daily News, which they called The Daily Dirt. There was a picture of a starlet showing a bruise on her thigh. She was pulling her dress way up so you could see it. The story said this happened when the apartment was being robbed. Wow. The last sentence mentioned that said starlet fell in the bathtub where she received her bruise and at the same time an apartment in the same complex was being robbed.

But this is news today. That an the endless headlines of people being slaughtered, mainly with guns but a few with knives. Turns out there are maniacs in the world and they are running around killing people. We’ve just given them better weapons. 

Is there any news of real interest? Hum. There are the same themes:

Will Trump go to jail?

Why isn’t Biden getting higher approval ratings?

What about the world economy and climate change?

Ukraine?

Inflation?

No. There’s nothing of note.

Carry on.

I can say that comparing the ads on British TV to American there is a difference.

We are asked to save the animals and they ask to save the women in Africa.

It’s the same pitch. And it’s the same pitch to save the elephants and the kids with deformed upper lips, and childhood cancer patients.

“Won’t you help? Your donation of 63 cents a day means X amount can be saved. Every day counts.”

And if you act in the next ten minutes we’ll send you a crappy tote bag, stupid t-shirt, or ugly blanket.

Future news headline:

 – Thelma Biggs of Gary Indiana did not respond to the donate plea within the ten minute window and got nothing! Said Biggs, “I didn’t want the stoopid tote bag. I’ve got a closet full of them. In fact, I waited eleven minutes just to make sure I didn’t get one. They can go fuck themselves.” (Okay, I made that up.)

Okay. Now on to politics. Here’s a prediction: Trump wins the Republican nomination and the presidency. His running mate is Ron DeSantis. Trump gets thrown in jail, but before he does he cuts Justice and the FBI to the bone. DeSantis runs the country into the ground with the help of the Republicans and the Supreme Court. The economy goes to hell and they blame Biden and Hunter. A new scourge sweeps through the nation and then the world as the kookie doctor that DeSantis put in charge of Florida’s health is now in charge of national health and he is advocating cures advocated by Robert Kennedy Junior.

Josh Hawley and Lauren Boebert are gunned down by MJT who brought her big ass gun she used in her campaign ads to the House floor to show off as there are now no magnetometers in place. The gun accidentally went off as she pointed it at Boebert calling her a little bitch. Hawley got shot in the ass as he was running away from the assault as Green swung the gun around and said, “Where are you going you little bitch?” Whoops. A two second clip released 75 bullets from the motion of swinging the gun. “It was an accident said Taylor-Green, but she’s still a little bitch. So’s he.”

Trump meanwhile issued a blanket pardon for everybody and the jail cells were emptied out. No discernible uptick in violence was noted. 

Trump was on his way to meet Putin to give away Ukraine and western Europe when he was thrown in jail for littering.