Daily Tech News 26 January 2022

Top Story

• The new mobile chips from AMD have started showing up in benchmarks.
  
  The Ryzen 6900HX is reportedly 11% faster on single-threaded tests and 28% faster multi-threaded than the 5900HX. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Which is interesting because it's basically the same Zen 3 core, just built using TSMC's 6nm process, which is really just a tweaked version of 7nm. The performance gains seem to be efficiency gains - the older chip was limited by the heat and power constraints of a laptop, and the newer chip less so.
  
  If this benchmark bears out, it puts Zen 3+ laptop chips on par with current Zen 3 desktop chips, at less than half the power consumption.
  
  
  
• Intel's Core i9 12900HK is even faster. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  But it takes the opposite approach. If you read past the shiny benchmark scores and get to the battery life test, when comparing the same Alienware laptop with 11th and 12th generation Intel CPUs, the battery life has dropped from 4h31m to 2h58m.
  
  A huge 17" laptop is going to spend most of its time parked on a desk anyway so that might not matter to you, though you should expect 12th gen laptops to run hotter and louder as well as faster.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (52) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (1/25/22)

***

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

“But that didn’t change the fact that he suffered from it and died. I was sick of Covid when my dear friend robby brown died of it. He did not not die of it because I was sick of it. That is so irresponsible. Maybe you’re trying to say — I don’t know what you’re trying to say. I can’t make excuses for you. Everybody heard what they heard to her and bill. Just because you’re tired of it. A lot of people are tired of sitting at home. A lot of people are tired of going to work every day and having to deal with sick people because people won’t get vaccinated. Maybe you guys did. I think barry said she did. Bill did. But just because you did doesn’t mean everybody else did it. That is why the thing continues to go on because everybody else is not doing it because of irresponsible talk like that. Bill, I know you are a comedian. I give comedians a lot of leeway. But this was not funny. Not real anymore?” CNN Don Lemon

Quote II

“I was in shock and panicking because I never wanted these two parts of my life to collide,” Melissa Williams

I really don't see how they couldn't.

Quote III

“The only elections that matter are in August and November,” Jeremy Adler, a spokesperson for the Cheney campaign

Quote IV

“It is indeed a war. And I have to say, they have won some battles, Jasmine, but we have to keep our eye on the war. And everybody needs to pick up a weapon and get involved because this is for the safety and lasting of the country,” MSNBC's Tiffany Cross

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:58 PM | Comments (953) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Rainbow Unicorn Cafe

Lover doggies.

Little lamb strays too far and is called back by its mama.

Don't mention the Germans.

Dog playing Jenga. He pants a lot, which I think means he's stressed. Which he should be: He's not very good at Jenga.

Dog pitching his new script, The Fast and the Fido-ous.

Cat has the googely-eyes.

I'm not doing nothin', I'm just moving this ball very slowly with this paw, not taking it anywhere, just moving it over here to this other paw... The Long Con.

Puppy playing with his reflection.

Hugs please, now!

Inman: Someone pranks this guy, but then he serves up some non-prank vengeance. (BTW, this may be staged, but eh, let's not analyze it to death.)

Two guys chin up for a fight. One has a strategy of repeatedly punching and kicking the other guy in the face. The other guy has a strategy of taking every punch and kick and showing how much it doesn't hurt him. We'll just have to see which strategy pays off.

Brandy and Andy Tifa out for an elegant night on the town.

Posted by: Ace at 07:18 PM | Comments (617) | Trackbacks (Suck)

"Let's Go Brandon" Ad Is Just So Brandon

Before getting to that: Biden hits another new low, this time in the Harvard/Harris poll.

A new low for this poll, I mean.

Biden’s approval rating fell to 39 percent in the poll, which was released exclusively to The Hill. Of that, 18 percent of registered voters said they strongly approve of the job he's doing, while 21 percent say they somewhat approve. Meanwhile, 53 percent said they somewhat or strongly disapprove of his job performance.

Why not say what percent strongly disapprove? Does the Hill not want to upset its leftwing audience?

Oh nevermind, got it right here:

40% strongly disapprove of Brandon.

NBC News also finds Biden and the Democrats unpopular -- which they spin as "Both Parties Are Unpopular."

Well, yes, but the Republicans are always unpopular, especially in Democrat-oversample polls.

The news here is that they're... more popular than Democrats now.

Or, in NBC's telling: "Both Parties Are Unpopular."

Not only does our new NBC News poll show both political parties to be unpopular -- with the Democratic Party (33 percent favorable, 48 percent unfavorable) and the Republican Party (34 percent favorable, 44 percent unfavorable) both underwater.

But you have to go back to 2015 when one of the two parties -- the Democrats -- actually had a net-positive rating in our poll.

That's a backdoor way to say "Our polls used to show Democrats with a net approval, but now they're at net disapproval."

But the takeaway? "Both Parties Are Unpopular."

72% of the public thinks America is headed in the wrong direction. This is only the second time their poll has shown 70% of higher on this question, which they call a "grim" tiding for Biden and the Democrats.

NBC finds him at 43% approval, 54% disapproval.

Which is just another way of saying, "Both Parties Are Unpopular."

On to the new ad:

Another home run.

This isn't by Brandon's people. But it has that same smell of Depends Adult Undergarment Energy failure.

MeidasTouch prides itself on being about as anti-Trump and anti-GOP as one can get, or, as they put it, "pro-democracy." Their reach is pretty far, considering that they boast over 723,000 followers on Twitter. They've also taken to supporting President Joe Biden and the Democrats. For instance, they've tweeted in favor of Democrats maintaining control of Congress following the 2022 midterms, and jumped on the bandwagon of warning that Americans could be living under "a far right authoritarian government" otherwise. Their posts are sensational and full of hysteria, but now that they've gotten into the pro-Biden territory, they're noteworthy in other ways, which is to say how bad they are.

This is real. They're trying to "take Brandon back."

Posted by: Ace at 06:11 PM | Comments (446) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Authoritarian-But-Incompetent White House Withdraws OSHA Vaccine Mandate After Supreme Court Drubbing

Joey Waffles.

The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers is officially being scrapped Wednesday, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers is officially being scrapped Wednesday, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The federal workplace safety agency's mandate has been forcing businesses with at least 100 employees to require vaccinations or weekly testing for their workers.

While OSHA said it had made the decision to remove the mandate, the agency was not withdrawing the vaccine-or-test option as a "proposed rule."

"OSHA strongly encourages vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace," a statement from the agency said.

I don't know what that means. Just going by what words usually mean, I guess they're taking the rule out of the category of operative effect and leaving it as "proposed," but not yet implemented. I think they hope that companies will continue to impose their rule on the strength of their "strong encouragement," even if the rule itself is no longer in effect.

Meanwhile...

The podcast Morning Rising made an interesting point about corporations and their basic stance against general freedom: Companies don't like taking the heat for either imposing a mandate, or not imposing a mandate. So behind the scenes they tell the government to impose a mandate. Or, less often: forbid mandates.

Either way, they demand that the government act, so that they can point to the government as the bad guy.

This may be good for business, and this sort of cowardly blame-shifting may be how corporate stooges routinely advance themselves, but this is anti-freedom. The government cannot intrude into the lives of citizens or of corporations even if the corporations themselves ask the government to, and the GOP -- always eager to do their deep-pocketed corporate pals a solid -- cannot do Big Business a favor if it means reducing liberty and imposing burdens and mandates on individual citizens.

If you remember, there was a lot of chatter that "companies want Obamacare" in 2008 -- yeah, I bet that's true, in the sense that companies did not want to argue with employees about health care benefits, they actively wanted the government to impose a one-size-fits-all solution, this is it, no more no less, no arguing no negotiating, so once again they can point to the government as The Bad Guy if employees didn't like their health insurance.

This is no reason to accede to their anti-democrat demands. I don't give a shit if every boss in the country wants to give up liberty to avoid some arguments with his employees.

We do not suspend the Constitution so that bosses and corporate CEOs will have fewer headaches at work.

And this is just one data-point suggesting why it's time for conservatives to split from their opportunistic, anti-freedom, conformist, pro-government-control, and very left-leaning corporate/mega-business "partners."

So we got Obamacare and vaccine mandates because our Very Good Corporate Friends and our Very Loyal GOP Representatives got together and agreed to sell us out, without bothering to let us know they'd struck this bargain.

Our interests are not aligned. Period.

They haven't acted as partners -- they've used us and betrayed us again and again and again.

It's time for a bit of payback on that score.

Oh, and meanwhile: Joey Waffle Cone's having a big day!

Philip Melanchthon Wegmann
@PhilipWegmann

President Biden exited Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Washington, DC at 2:25pm.

He emerged with two scoops of what appeared to be chocolate ice cream, though the pool could not confirm the exact flavor.

Bulletins to follow as warranted.

Posted by: Ace at 04:59 PM | Comments (530) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Virginia AG Jason Miyares Fires Two Virginia University Lawyers, One of Them Currently Serving as... Head Investigator of the January 6 Committee

Updates:

68 This guy's awesome.

Heard him a week or two ago on Glenn Beck's radio show; he's also eliminating and banning any state contracts that involve Blackrock as well as any financial institutions that employ those ESG (Environmental, Social, Governmental) initiatives -- the Marxist West's version of Chinese Social Credit scoring and control ... but mostly control.
Posted by: ShainS -- A faculty lounge, if you can keep it.

Christopher F. Rufo
@realchrisrufo

BREAKING: Glenn Youngkin has opened an anonymous tip line for parents to report schools for teaching critical race theory in violation of his executive order. Email: helpeducation@governor.virginia.gov.

This guy's clearing house.

Now this isn't as bold as it seems. Apparently the in-house counsel at the state's universities is appointed by the AG, and as the previous ones were appointed by leftwing blackface enthusiast Mark Herring, of course Miyares can, and should, replace them with counsel he prefers.

I do like getting rid of this very political operator Tim Heaphy first.

Virginia's new Republican attorney general has fired lawyers for two large public universities, his office said, marking more significant changes by Jason Miyares while ascending to his new job.

Tim Heaphy, counsel for the University of Virginia, and George Mason University counsel Brian Walther have been let go, Miyares spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita told The Washington Post. School counsel within Virginia's public colleges and universities are appointed by the attorney general.

Heaphy, who with UVA also confirmed his removal, worked at the school for about three years. He was on leave from the job to work as the top investigator for the U.S. House of Representatives panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, the newspaper said.

This is the Washington Times, but they're picking up an article from the AP. Still, they should have edited the AP's stupid Media Faction insistence on calling the January 6th incident the "insurrection."

The media is all rotten.

LaCivita said Heaphy's firing had nothing to do with that investigative role. Rather, she said in a statement, Heaphy was a "controversial" hire and Miyares' Democratic predecessor, Mark Herring, had "excluded many qualified internal candidates when he brought in this particular university counsel."

"Our decision was made after reviewing the legal decisions made over the last couple of years," LaCivita said. "The Attorney General wants the university counsel to return to giving legal advice based on law, and not the philosophy of a university. We plan to look internally first for the next lead counsel."

I don't know what "the philosophy of the university" means. I imagine it has something to do with CRT, free expression, or affirmative action admissions -- some issues where the law suggest the university must not do something, but where the "philosophy of the university" says that they want to anyway, and Heaphy has been just telling them "Then go with your heart!"

LaCivita didn't say if Miyares would continue firing all of the Democrat lawyers. One hopes.

By the way, Heaphy had previously conducted an "indepedent investigation" of the "Unite the Right" rally, apparently for the City of Charlottesville.

Heaphy made this announcement when he signed on to be Adam Schiff's shyster:

"Like all Americans, I watched the events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol with surprise and disappointment," he said in a statement. "My role as Chief Investigative Counsel to the Select Committee gives me an opportunity to help find out what led to those events and what we need to do to ensure they do not recur. I thank Attorney General Mark Herring and President Jim Ryan for giving me the opportunity to take a leave of absence from my current role as University Counsel to assume this responsibility. I am fortunate that I can take on this temporary assignment with the assurance of a return to a job and a place that I love."

Herring granted the leave of absence but Miyares didn't. So... bye.

Speaking of that lawless January 6 investigation, Glenn Greenwald writes:

In its ongoing attempt to investigate and gather information about private U.S. citizens, the Congressional 1/6 Committee is claiming virtually absolute powers that not even the FBI or other law enforcement agencies enjoy. Indeed, lawyers for the committee have been explicitly arguing that nothing proscribes or limits their authority to obtain data regarding whichever citizens they target and, even more radically, that the checks imposed on the FBI (such as the requirement to obtain judicial authorization for secret subpoenas) do not apply to the committee.

As we have previously reported and as civil liberties groups have warned, there are serious constitutional doubts about the existence of the committee itself. Under the Constitution and McCarthy-era Supreme Court cases interpreting it, the power to investigate crimes lies with the executive branch, supervised by the judiciary, and not with Congress. Congress does have the power to conduct investigations, but that power is limited to two narrow categories: 1) when doing so is designed to assist in its law-making duties (e.g., directing executives of oil companies to testify when considering new environmental laws) and 2) in order to exert oversight over the executive branch.

What Congress is barred from doing, as two McCarthy-era Supreme Court cases ruled, is exactly what the 1/6 committee is now doing: conducting a separate, parallel criminal investigation in order to uncover political crimes committed by private citizens. Such powers are dangerous precisely because Congress's investigative powers are not subject to the same safeguards as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. And just as was true of the 1950s House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that prompted those Supreme Court rulings, the 1/6 committee is not confining its invasive investigative activities to executive branch officials or even citizens who engaged in violence or other illegality on January 6, but instead is investigating anyone and everyone who exercised their Constitutional rights to express views about and organize protests over their belief that the 2020 presidential election contained fraud. Indeed, the committee's initial targets appear to be taken from the list of those who applied for protest permits in Washington: a perfectly legal, indeed constitutionally protected, act.

This abuse of power is not merely abstract. The Congressional 1/6 Committee has been secretly obtaining private information about American citizens en masse: telephone records, email logs, internet and browsing history, and banking transactions. And it has done so without any limitations or safeguards: no judicial oversight, no need for warrants, no legal limitations of any kind.

Although I agree with the spirit of Greenwald's rhetoric here, I have to say that he's mostly writing about what he wishes the law were than what it actually is.

Congress' power to investigate is nowhere named in the Constitution, but it is thought (or claimed) to exist because it would be needed to carry out two functions that are noted, its power to create laws, and its powers to provide oversight to the executive branch of government. As he says, then, its power to investigate -- assuming it exists in the first place -- must be confined to those two objects. It has no general right to investigate. It is not a Legislative Grand Jury.

But, that said, as a practical matter, Congress can frame any abusive investigation by claiming that maybe their probe will turn up information that may assist it in writing a new law. Courts have been very deferential to Congress in these matters. See this link for a general digest.

Courts have been particularly deferential to Congress' implied power to investigate in cases of... claims of sedition.

Although Sinclair and McGrain involved inquiries into the activities and dealings of private persons, these activities and dealings were in connection with property belonging to the United States Government, so that it could hardly be said that the inquiries concerned the merely personal or private affairs of any individual. But, where the business, and the conduct of individuals are subject to congressional regulation, there exists the power of inquiry, and in practice the areas of any individual's life immune from inquiry are probably fairly limited. "In the decade following World War II, there appeared a new kind of congressional inquiry unknown in prior periods of American history. Principally this was the result of the various investigations into the threat of subversion of the United States Government, but other subjects of congressional interest also contributed to the changed scene. This new phase of legislative inquiry involved a broad-scale intrusion into the lives and affairs of private citizens." Because Congress clearly has the power to legislate to protect the nation and its citizens from subversion, espionage, and sedition, it also has the power to inquire into the existence of the dangers of domestic or foreign-based subversive activities in many areas of American life, including education, labor and industry, and political activity.

...

It is difficult in fact to conceive of areas into which congressional inquiry might not be carried, which is not the same, of course, as saying that the exercise of the power is unlimited.

One limitation on the power of inquiry that the cases have discussed concerns the contention that congressional investigations often have no legislative purpose but rather are aimed at achieving results through "exposure" of disapproved persons and activities: "We have no doubt," wrote Chief Justice Warren, "that there is no congressional power to expose for the sake of exposure."

That's kind of saying "We assume there's an outer edge to the universe. Somewhere. Maybe."

Although some Justices, always in dissent, have attempted to assert limitations in practice based upon this concept, the majority of Justices have adhered to the traditional precept that courts will not inquire into legislators' motives but will look only to the question of power. "So long as Congress acts in pursuance of its constitutional power, the Judiciary lacks authority to intervene on the basis of the motives which spurred the exercise of that power."

Ah, I agree with him that we're using McCarthy-era commie-hunting precedents -- which I bet no leftwinger would claim are still valid in any other context -- to uphold the validity of this kangaroo court, and that sure seems like it should be out-of-bounds, but I don't think it would be found to be such.

I also have observed the behavior of judges ruling on the political prisoners of January 6, and they seem, to a man -- including the Republican appointees -- to be acting as the Praetors of the Deep State, ruthlessly meting out cruel and unusual punishments to any possible challengers to the order that signs their checks.

They all seem to be showing signs of serious, personal conflict of interest, where the conflict of interest is "I'm afraid that someone is going to disrupt my phony-baloney job, and I'm eager to destroy these people to make sure no one else ever even thinks about protesting near me again."

Exit Question: Muh, muh, muh...

MUH NORMZZZZ....!

Posted by: Ace at 03:39 PM | Comments (336) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New York Court Rules Govenor Hochul's Mask Mandate Unconstitutional;
Hochul Ignores Ruling and Continues Enforcing Unconstitutional Mandate

Then-Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul posing with children.
She and her educrats are unmasked; the children are masked.

Since Karol Markowitz kept pointing out that "the sextuganarian Kathy Hochul forces kids to wear masks nine hours per day while literally never wearing a mask herself," I've been playing the Kathy Hochul Challenge, trying to find her in a mask.

I've lost every time.

But the kids...! Those filthy diseased kids...!

Yesterday, a New York State Supreme Court judge -- and note, New York names its lowest tier of general-competency courts "Supreme Courts," confusingly --
ruled that the imperious dimwit Kathy Hochul was acting unconstitutionally in mandating that all children must be masked on her own Inherent Powers as a Karen.

A New York state Supreme Court judge on Monday struck down Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul's mask mandate for schools and public locations.

"There can be no question that every person in this State wishes, wants and prays that this era of COVID ends soon and they will surely do their part to see that is accomplished," Judge Thomas Rademaker said in the ruling. "However, enacting any laws to this end is entrusted solely to the State Legislature. While the intentions of Commissioner Bassett and Governor Hochul appear to be well aimed squarely at doing what they believe is right to protect the citizens of New York State, they must take their case to the State Legislature."

Hochul's mask mandate was "violative of the State Administrative Procedure Act as promulgated and enacted and therefore null, void, and unenforceable as a matter of law," the judge wrote, adding that it was also "violative of the Public Health Law as promulgated and enacted and therefore null, void, and unenforceable as a matter of law."

E;ric Blade corrects me: The "State Supreme Courts" include both the trial courts and the middle-level court of review, which are called the Supreme Court (Appellate Division). What you would think of as "the Supreme Court" of the state -- the court of final appeal -- they call the New York Court of Appeals.

Today, her Imperious Karenness announces that she is ignoring the judge's ruling and will continue relying on her own Article Karen powers to enforce her Karen Will.

Or, at least: That's what High Commandant Karen ordered her Department of Education to tell schools.

The New York State Education Department has informed parents that they are not allowed to send their children to school unmasked even though the New York State Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the mask mandate is illegal.

The department rationalized that they can ignore the ruling because they plan to appeal.

Spencerport Superintendent Kristin Swann said to parents in an email obtained by The Daily Wire that the department "continues to mandate that all individuals in school settings must wear masks."

"The State Education Department (SED) continues to mandate that all individuals in school settings must wear masks under the current regulations until legal appeals are exhausted," Swann said in the email.

Elise Stefanik

@EliseStefanik

My office is answering calls from constituents - specifically parents who are informing us that their kids are being kept from entering schools unless they are wearing masks. THIS IS ILLEGAL. THERE IS NO STAY ON THIS COURT RULING.

What she means is: Sometimes when judges issue a ruling which is particularly contentious, they will issue a stay on it, which holds the ruling from taking effect until all appeals are worked out. They have issued their ruling, but recognize it may be overruled, and put a stay on it until higher courts can rule.

The judge did not do that here -- this ruling is live, and this Exalted Biclops Karen is just instructing her bureaucracy to ignore the law.

I think we should make "free-facing" a thing.

Like, "Hey, are your kids free-facing it today?"

"Yeah, they're all free-faced, and loving it!"

Posted by: Ace at 02:29 PM | Comments (547) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Media Got Its NPC Programming Update: Biden Wasn't Snapping At Doocy, He Was Merely "Deadpanning"

It's amazing how fast the NPCs update once that notification goes out.

From Abigail Malone:

Biden did deadpan about inflation being an asset -- but that wasn't the newsworthy part of the story.

The newsworthy part of the story was him snapping at Peter Doocy and insulting him, which CNN and the rest of the Play-Acting Drama Queen Media routinely used to claim put media workers' lives in physical danger when Trump did it.

Now, they don't even acknowledge it happened.

"Snapping" makes it sound like he's an old man with senility outburst problems.

"Deadpanning" make it sound like he's a cool operator.

Let's go with that one!

It's not just the overt leftwing media, either -- it's the cover leftwing media, as represented by all the NeverTrump liberals who refuse to quit the "conservative" media and go get honest jobs at the Daily Beast or Buzzfeed or whatever leftwing outlet will have them.

Ed Morrissey, as I noted in the sidebar, felt that Biden's deadpanning proved that he was "more coherent than usual," partly mis-citing John Hindracker, who is at the root of this stupidity.

If anything, this might have made Joe Biden look more coherent than usual, John Hinderaker posits. The sarcasm and name-calling reflect that Biden really is worried about inflation and its effect on Democratic electoral prospects, a point that some missed in the exchange:

First of all, contrary to what many are saying, this is not a "hot mic" situation. Biden was perfectly aware that he was sitting at a microphone, ostensibly in order to answer questions, and that anything he said would be heard by everyone. He did it on purpose.

To me, what is notable about Biden's answer is not that he said to Doocy, "You're a stupid son of a bitch." That is just Biden's usual senile hatefulness. Rather, it is the fact that for a change, Biden was able to recognize reality, saying sarcastically, "It's a great asset. More inflation." That represents an unusual moment of lucidity. Even Joe Biden understands that rising prices are damaging to the Democrats.

So Hindraker concedes the insult is Biden's "usual senile hatefulness."

And then says that's not the story.

The real story is that Joey Sprinkles actually managed to recognize that inflation is bad.

Wow, yeah John, you're right -- that's the big story here. Not man bites dog, but Man Recognizes Dog Is Dog.

As for the part about the "deadpanning" making him seem coherent: Both of these guys need to wake the hell up. Senility is not an Always On thing. As they say of people with dementia: "He has his moments" or "he comes and goes." Their minds are not always gone. They do have moments of lucidity here and there.

But they also have a lot of moments of confusion, and "senile hatefulness," and these get more and more frequent as the condition progresses, which it always does. Because no one ever "got better" from dementia. It's a progressive condition with treatments but no actual cure.

So no, this doesn't really establish that Biden is "coherent."

And is that where we are now? That's where the NeverTrump elements of the pseudoright are at?

We're awarding Biden Cognitive Fitness Points for recognizing that inflation is a political danger to him? That shows he's "more coherent"? We're praising him for that?

I choose not to praise him for that, and I choose, in fact, to not even say that that part of "the story" is the story at all.

The story is the angry snapping at a reporter, which the media claimed was a Hate Crime from 2015 to just 24 hours ago, and which Biden himself said he would never, ever do.

In fact, Biden vowed that he would "fire on the spot" anyone he saw treating anyone else "with disrespect" or "talking down to someone:"

Posted by: Ace at 01:22 PM | Comments (505) | Trackbacks (Suck)

You Need a Way to Better Yourself: Dan Crenshaw Made the Fifth Best Rate of Return Off Stock Trades In Congress, Narrowly Beating... Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi has come under fire for her excellent powers of market forecasting. Why, it's almost as if she knows market-moving information before the market does!

But just ahead of her -- everyone's favorite fork-tongued neocon, Dan Crenshaw.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Houston) did pretty well for himself in 2021, financially speaking. According to a new report from Unusual Whales, Crenshaw's trading netted the fifth-highest rate of return among members of Congress, narrowly edging out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A total of 35 members of Congress got returns greater than the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY), essentially meaning they beat the market.

Note this measures rate of return, percentage gained over what was invested. It is not total money earned. I'm sure Nancy Pelosi, with all her ill-gotten millions (that we know about...) absolutely trounces Crenshaw in terms of gross dollars won at the market.

Crenshaw has gotten in hot water over stock trading before. In March of 2020, he made half a dozen buys while the country went into lockdown and Congress debated and wrote the largest economic stimulus package in history. This included purchasing stock in Boeing, a company that successfully lobbied for billions of dollars from the CARES Act. Crenshaw was on the House committees for Budget and Homeland Security at the time. More significantly, Crenshaw failed to disclose these trades for months, which is a violation of the STOCK Act.

The leftwing Daily Beast reports further:

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) did not buy or sell any stocks in his first 13 months as a congressman. That changed in March 2020, when he made half a dozen buys as the largest economic relief package in history was written and debated.

Five of those purchases came in the three days between March 25 and 27, as the Senate and House voted on the CARES Act and former President Trump signed it into law. Crenshaw, who supported the bill, did not initially disclose the transactions, in violation of the STOCK Act, a law that requires members of Congress to tell the public when they engage in securities trades. Months later he amended his records to reflect the purchases.

The trades, which are listed only in a range of values, add up to a maximum of $120,000, and do not compare in size or volume to the kinds of headline-grabbing transactions executed ahead of the pandemic by Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. They only appeared in December, when Crenshaw amended his annual report, originally submitted in August.

"You're referencing financial disclosures that use a range to report stock purchases, and you're choosing the upper end of the range to come up with that $120,000 figure," Justin Discigil, Crenshaw’s communications director, told the Daily Beast in an email. "The real number is around $30,000 at most," Discigil said, and "in no way were his purchases unethical or related to official business."

The timing, however, along with Crenshaw's own trading history and connections to the industry, raises questions about why he made the purchases and failed, twice, to disclose them.

Congressmen should not be allowed to invest in individual stocks. I'd go one step further and say that there should be periods of financial stress, or when major spending bills are being discussed, where some outside arbiter declares a moratorium on all market activity by congressmen and their money managers. So, say, during a the negotiations on a spending bill, a moratorium of say ninety days would be declared where congressmen's positions would be frozen.

Now, this is not that huge of a story. Crenshaw claims he didn't invest all that much, and further, one can say: Sometimes an investor just picks stocks wisely. And sometimes he just gets lucky.

Well, maybe.

But it gives you an insight into Crenshaw's very pro-elite, Protect The Swamp mindset to hear him answering questions about this.

He is willing to grudgingly allow that "it would be fine" if Congressmen should be allowed to invest in individual stocks, though he'd be "neutral" on it.

But then goes on to say these amazing things:

1) He complains that Congressmen aren't paid enough, complaining that the public won't allow them to give themselves a pay raise and there is no "housing stipend" so they have to pay rents in two different locations.

And he says that if you don't give them these things, only "millionaires and billionaires" will run for Congress.

Okay, fair enough, but... wait, you're saying you're forced to play the market because of this? And you're not sold on banning investing in individual stocks, for which you might have special insider knowledge, based on this?

And then he says, continuing his explanation for why we might be against banning investing in individual stocks:

2) "You (a Congressman) have no way to better yourself."

So... either raise a Congressmens' salaries, or continue allowing them to invest in individual stocks in which they might have special insider knowledge so that they can "better themselves"?

Is there another plausible way to read that other than, "Without increased salaries and other benefits, we need to resort to the work-around of giving ourselves our own raises by playing the market with some insider knowledge?"

If he didn't have insider knowledge, there'd be no reason to not just put money into indexes and broad-based money markets. Individual stocks are where you'd want to invest if you had special information or "little hunches" or "intuitions."

And he's saying we've got to let Congressmen keep playing their "hunches and intuitions," or give them raises. One or the other.

I just don't see how someone can read this except in the way I suggest. Crenshaw himself draws the lines between the dots himself.

Posted by: Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (525) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Pathetic. The only thing that the illegitimate administration currently occupying the White House is even remotely competent at doing is destroying things.

Trump's economy.
American energy independence.
Border security.
American Standing on the world stage.
And many, many more!

One would think that after the debacle in Afghanistan, where we left Americans, allies, and more than $80 billion of military equipment, that the Biden junta would try something different. Like being just a little bit better than catastrophically, pathetically bad at...everything!

What sort of contingency planning did they do...I mean besides working tirelessly to sculpt the media response and improve the administration's image? Clearly none.

Biden Has No Plans For Using Military To Evacuate U.S. Citizens Out Of Ukraine If Russia Invades

"If Americans are still in Ukraine, and things start happening with Russia, are they pretty much on their own?" a reporter asked.

"Well, we are conveying very clearly now that now's the time to leave and that there are a means to do that," Psaki said. "Of course, there's commercial airlines, you can depart over land. There's obviously the embassy there to provide assistance. And this is very similar to what we did in Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and many other countries over the course of the last several decades. But there is not an intention or a plan for any military evacuation."

"We?"

Who is "we?"

And interestingly the psquawking pschlock merchant didn't mention the greatest foreign policy failure in generations.... has she and the Biden junta forgotten Afghanistan? Are they confident of their marvelous communications skills and are betting...hoping...that they can play some silly sleight-of-hand game with the American people?

The answer is yes. They have such contempt for America and Americans that they are incapable of operating in any way other than craven political triangulation, damage control, and most of all the traditional Biden mindset of "What's in it for me?" But they suck at it. Just like they suck at everything else.

We have elected (Hah!) the most shockingly incompetent administration possibly in history. Look at their track record. The policy changes they made were primarily executive orders; they were almost perfectly incapable of legislative changes. Hell...they couldn't even buy off Manchin and Synema and get their big, economy-killing infrastructure bill passed. How difficult is it to bribe a politician? Yet they couldn't even manage that because of their arrogance and inability to identify potential stumbling blocks; something that any competent executive understands is vital to success.

I guess we are lucky that the flaccid-thinking apparatchiks who are pulling the drooling, nasty imbecile's strings aren't better at basic political machinations, but I imagine the Americans who may be caught in a war zone in Ukraine, or were (and possibly are) stuck in Afghanistan would much prefer some simple competence, even if it came with mean tweets.

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (417) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Old Beggar
Fyodor Bronnikov

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (483) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report - 1/25/22

Good morning, kids. Tuesday and while everyone is yammeing on about Biden calling FNC's Peter Doocy a "son of a bitch," the stooge president's dementia-driven foot-in-mouth disease might actually blunder us into some sort of armed confrontation with Putin over in Ukraine. Unless of course, this is intentional or at least a happy accident on the part of Joey Soft-Serve's handlers in the Klain Kalorama Komintern. The market is crashing towards prolonged recession territory (or worse), stagflation has been unleashed and supply chain mayhem is causing store shelves to be emptied now of even staples like baby formula. And that's just the economy.

Add on top of it the continued insanity and frustration over the lockdowns and mandates for injections or useless face-diapering because of General Tso's Sickness - not the actual Chinese-made and Fauci-funded flu-like virus itself but the Leftist-made fear campaign - the decriminalization of crime, the erasure of our borders and with it whatever vestige of national identity we have left, the continued brainwashing of our children in the classroom (wherever class is actually in session) and the efforts to silence any and all voices of dissent or protest to all of the aforementioned, and Biden and the Democrats are heading for an electoral wipeout of historic proportions come this November. Of course, assuming that the elections won't be unduly influenced by noted election "fortifier" Dao-Min Yen.

If I didn't know any better, some sort of military conflict is just the ticket to distract the people from all of the aforementioned. That said, we're 10 months away from the election and given the stellar performance of Biden as well as the top brass at the Pentagon in Afghanistan, I would not bet on a positive outcome of going toe to toe with Putin and riding it all the way to victory at the polls. Chi-Com activity in and around Taiwan is also another tell of what might happen should we become preoccupied in the Ukraine.

There really is only one way for Biden and his handlers in the "K-K-K" to turn it all around. It's so damned easy it's ridiculous.

Anything and everything that leftist/Democrat dogma dictates, anything and everything you have ever believed about government, politics, society, ethics and morality, starting right now, do the exact opposite, and don't stop until everything that got us to this point that began around 1913 is ended, dismantled and abolished, and the American republic as founded in 1789 is fully restored.

So easy. Yet for them, of course, impossible. And by them, I include everyone from the lowest of the lowest flunky bureaucrat in the most obscure department in the least visible bureaucracy all the way to the top across the length and breadth of D.C. and every government office across the nation that prioritizes itself over the citizen and the Constitution. And then there's academia, which gave us both the leadership and the cadres that gave us the tyranny we suffer under today.

Rush Limbaugh, of blessed memory, always used to say that there will always be an America, except it just won't be an America that you recognize. How absolutely right he was. While the illusion of business as usual is still there, between the 2 weeks to flatten the curve now into its 100th week or so as well as what we all saw with our own eyes on election night in 2020, that illusion is rapidly evaporating. Come what may with elections and all the other things we tend to associate with regular order, it is now beyond question that regular order no longer exists. As a society, we exist not just in a post-constitutional America but with the growing rancor and even physical violence from those that overthrew the country, a post-America America.

But that said, their rancor is, in my eyes, desperation. It's mirrored in the doubling down of the junta on policies that are abject failures and disasters. More and more people who perhaps were Democrat voters or even considered themselves extremely liberal know instinctively that what's going on is horribly wrong. What the parents at the Loudon school board went through is illustrative. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but Loudon is not exactly a deep red part of the country.

Another case in point:

A New Jersey mom and self-described Biden voter slammed the president over his [Chinese] COVID-19 vaccination orders Sunday at the "Defeat the Mandates" rally in Washington, D.C.

"I voted for him," the woman told The Daily Signal when asked if she had a message for [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden.

"He actually said he wouldn't enforce it. So either he lied or there is a power on top of him. I don't know. I thought he was a good guy," she continued. "You can't mandate. Injuries are real. Stop. Listen. This is criminal. And I hope he listens. And I'm not far-right or far-left. I'm a mom. I voted for him . . ."

. . . "Medical freedom is linked to social and economic freedom. If we allow the circle of medical freedom to even be touched, let alone be broken, all the circles fracture. They all do, and it crumbles. The writing is on the wall, and the determination to preserve medical freedom is in your hands," McCullough said.

One demonstrator, who came to Washington for the event from Ohio, said that regulations mandating "vaccine passports" for people to enter bars and restaurants was alarming, according to News4.

"We're pretty concerned about what's going on," the anti-mandate protester said. "We came in from out of town and tried to get a burger last night and we got turned away because we didn't have a proof of vaccination card, and I think that things are going in a pretty scary direction for the community. That's the first time we had to deal with anything quite like it. All I know is that if I don't try to do something, I think later on in my life I'd probably be regretting not having stand up and do something."

Sure, one person or even a few people is anecdotal. But that's, as the saying goes, just the tip of the iceberg. The code-10 wack-a-doo Karens are out there for sure. But they've got to be just an outlier; they only look like a major force to be reckoned with because the media amplifies their voices while ignoring voices of opposition.

Pun totally intended but the masks are coming down, and decent people everywhere are not liking what they see. America has changed for good, but within this chaos - if we should all live through the incompetence, venality, vindictiveness and insanity of the anti-American globalist left and their enablers - there is the opportunity for a way back. An American renaissance, if you will. While the situation right now from where I sit is still very much in doubt, nevertheless the elements are all there for revival.

But at least no more mean tweets, right?

The End of America: 100 Days That Shook the World available here.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "The Left's support for civil liberties has always been contingent on its own relative strength or weakness."
  The Free Speech Facade
  
• "The last several years can be viewed as a testament to the remarkable strategic power the woke left wields. The speed at which absurd ideas have been thrust into the limelight by vested media and a wide array of well-financed academics and non-profits is both startling and impressive."
  Why Accepting Child Transgenderism Will Pave the Way for Accepting Pedophilia
  
• "The progressive 'march through the institutions' makes some assumptions that are unsupported by common experience."
  The Infrastructure of Progress

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:36 AM | Comments (456) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 25 January 2022

Top Story

• Just want to make it clear that the crew of The Incomparable network are definitely probably not communists and their D&D podcast Total Party Kill in particular is great fun.
  
  Unless they've switched to 5e in which case I will be duty bound to declare it anathema. Honestly it's been all downhill since they removed level names.
  
  
  
• Also, Tucows is still not dead.
  
  
  
• This way to the egress: Save 99% on your Amazon Cloudfront bill with this one simple trick! (Fleet)
  
  Don't use Cloudfront.
  
  In this case Fleet reduced their monthly bandwidth expenses from $2457 to $41 by delivering content from German hosting platform Hetzner rather than directly from AWS. Amazon - and Google and Microsoft and IBM - charge absurd rates for bandwidth.
  
  I posted an item not long ago about Amazon reducing their bandwidth charges except that I couldn't find the price reductions listed anywhere. Turns out the reason is that there was no reduction.
  
  They increased the limit of the free tier, but all the paid tiers remained exactly the same. Instead of the first dose being free, now the first two doses are free.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (174) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread (1/24/22)

***

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

"We are all very disappointed. We just don't understand why she did it. It was like being hit in the head with a 2-by-4. ... It was a double-fisted gut punch. It was devastating. I still have trouble believing it."Michael Steve

Quote II

“The minute they hand you that vaccine passport, every right that you have is transformed into a privilege contingent upon your obedience to arbitrary government dictates. It will make you a slave!”Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Quote III

“I’ve really learned how to value myself and my work. “I don’t think it’d be hard for me to find another job.” Jacklyn Reyna, a member of the nonprofit MOVE Texas’s union

Quote IV

“As prosecutors, we have an obligation in every matter we pursue to continually examine the facts while being open to receiving and uncovering new information. Today’s dismissal is a result of that process and is in the interests of justice.” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins

Quote V

“This is ridiculous, I’m sorry I don’t know a better word to say. The community is tired. We are tired of seeing peoples’ lives snuffed out too soon in preventable situations. This is absolutely preventable—any of the gun violence that we’re seeing is preventable—and we cannot continue the same trajectory that we’ve had for the last two years.” Arnitta Holliman, the director of the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention

A funny thing. I didn't know a gun could walk into a house and go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang all by itself. She should just keep her mouth shut and let the investigation unfold. Something tells me there was at least 2 people involved in this murder spree and there were reasons, probably criminal in nature.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:55 PM | Comments (1128) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Puppy Smell Cafe

Andycanuck identifies this painting as by Andre Kohn, who does a lot of women-in-the-rain paintings.

Neat demonstration on how two special effects shots were done, by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. The third shot explained seems... obvious.

A snowball fight between perfectly matched duelists.

This dog is so in love with his vet that he doesn't even flinch when she sticks him with the catheter.

Capybaras at the spa.

All gyms in Australia are like this (pre-covid).

Kitten's paw is writing checks his body can't cash.

Almost too many puppy head tilts.

Sound on: A bunch of huskies have some notes.

Inman: Kyle attempts a stunt so stupid I can't figure out what his Victory Scenario would have been, but that doesn't matter, because he doesn't get past the first hurdle.

Not a dive so much as a complicated fall.

This fall isn't even complicated.

Posted by: Ace at 07:42 PM | Comments (471) | Trackbacks (Suck)

President Restore Our Norms, Respect the Press, and Heal The Nation's Whole Soul Calls Peter Doocy a "Stupid Son of a Bitch" for Daring to Ask Him About Inflation

He asked an angry, nasty senile old man about something the angry, nasty senile old man hadn't been given notes about and didn't want to talk about.

So the man who had vowed that he would fire, "on the spot," anyone who spoke an untoward word to a "colleague" called Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch" while beaming his Nitwit Grin proudly, showing off for his fellow leftwing idiots of the press corps.

In a major hot mic gaffe for President Biden on Monday, the leader of the free world got caught calling Fox News' Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch."

The comment from Biden came after the official White House video feed on YouTube had been cut, but not before C-SPAN's feed ended. Following Biden's opening remarks, White House handlers were trying to shoo members of the press corps out of the room when Doocy shouted his questions: "Will you take questions on inflation? Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?"

I don't think it was a gaffe; he said it right into the microphone and grinned proudly as he was saying it, like he was reliving his old confrontation with Corn-Pop the Made-Up Ethnic Interloper.

I think he was showing off. I think this is a case of redirecting "Stray Voltage" -- David Plouffle's idea that when you're doing badly, there's a lot of "stray voltage" negative energy buzzing around, and it is best for you if you can ground it into some other controversy which, while maybe controversial, is less negative for you than the existing storylines are.

In this case -- this endears Biden to his hyperpartisan leftwing supporters, by which I mean the media, who hate Fox News and want to see them degraded. And if you want to know how that squares with their "it's dangerous to encourage a climate of invective towards the press" -- shut up, Seditious Conspirator. That's different. Fox isn't really the press. It's spreads Dangerous Disinformation, unlike the leftwing press, which spreads Benevolent Disinformation.

Also, Biden really fancies himself a steely-eyed Clinton Eastwood style tough-guy, and I think this demented old bird thinks he really knocked one out of the park here. I think he's having a real Movie Star Cowboy fantasy here.

All because he asked a legitimate question that a senile old idiot didn't want to answer.

Spencer Brown adds this context:

The president's words Monday are a far cry from what Biden promised on day one of his presidency just more than one year ago. "I am not joking when I say this, if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect...talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot," Biden pledged. "On the spot. No ifs, ands, or buts," he emphasized. "Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity," Biden told the country before adding "that's been missing in a big way the last four years."

Video of that promise at the link.

Below, Joey Sprinkles' latest Senior Moment.

Posted by: Ace at 06:25 PM | Comments (462) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Virginia Mask Karen Resistance May End By Valentine's Day as Democrat Senator Tells Them: Fix a Date Certain to End Mandatory Masking, Or I'll Vote With the Republicans To Change the Law to Force You To

I noted earlier than the schools were basing their #Resistance on a prior Virginia law which ambiguously referenced the CDC guidelines. The schools resisting the governor's executive order claims the law incorporates the CDCs recommendations and therefore encodes them into law, and an executive order can't overcome a law.

Well, yeah, but the law they're referencing doesn't mandate masking. It just talks about schools using CDC guidelines as a guide. And as previously mentioned, schools already pick and choose from their guidelines. It's certainly true that a law trumps an executive order, but first, the thing you're saying is a law has to actually be a law and not just some crap you're saying.

Still, that's the legal pretext they're using to #Resist, and a court case will take time.

The Virginia House of Delegates flipped to the Republicans, but the Virginia senate does not come up for reelection until 2023, and it's currently held by Democrats, 21-19, so there's no way they could just change the law to just make it clear that masking is optional.

Or... could they?

One Democrat Senator has had enough of the masking and is telling the schools they have a short grace period to decide their own "off ramp" for masking, but after that, he's voting with the Republicans to end it.

Seven school districts, including Prince William but not Loudoun, filed a lawsuit against the state on Monday challenging the executive order.

"At issue is whether locally-elected school boards have the exclusive authority and responsibility conferred upon them by Article VIII, § 7 of the Constitution of Virginia over supervision of the public schools in their respective communities, or whether an executive order can unilaterally override that constitutional authority," Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

"With COVID-19 transmission rates high, our hospitals at crisis level, and the continued recommendation of health experts to retain universal mask-wearing for the time being, this is simply not the time to remove this critical component of layered health and safety mitigation strategies. School divisions need to continue to preserve their authority to protect and serve all our students," it continued.

But the standoff may not need the courts to be resolved. On Monday, Chap Peterson, a moderate Democrat who joined with Republicans to force school re-opening last year, said in an email to the Fairfax County Parents Association that Fairfax's school board "must define an 'off ramp' for mandatory masking. That means plainly stated metrics as well as a final deadline (e.g. Valentine's Day). They should announce that immediately. The forced masking policy is going to end very soon, i.e. in a few weeks. Otherwise, the General Assembly will again step in. IT IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE LONG-TERM SOLUTION."

Republicans control the state house, while the Democrats control the state senate 21-19, meaning that any bill backed by Republicans and Peterson can be passed into law, with the Senate tie being broken by Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, a Republican.

It would be terrific if Winsome Sears' first major official action were to break the tie in the Senate to end Virginia's mask mandate.

By the way, Luke Rosiak's article is worth reading for the drama of the Virginia Mask Standoff, besides just his scoop on this Democrat's turn to the light.

Posted by: Ace at 05:24 PM | Comments (390) | Trackbacks (Suck)

"Catastrophic" Market Crash; Are We In a New Recession?

Note: The market actually rebounded from today's lows, but the general down trend of the past week, and general pessimism for the next year, isn't fixed by a bounce off a daily low.

Here's how it looked earlier for Joey Waffle Cone:

There is a "catastrophic stock market crash" unfolding.

And it might last a while.

As a week-long selloff that’s pushed major indexes down to the brink of bear-market territory intensifies, investment banks are warning clients the worst may be yet to come, with some experts warning that the S&P 500 could plunge as much as 11% more if corporate earnings continue to disappoint as the Federal Reserve begins raising interest rates.

Dragged down by a fifth straight day of steep losses in the tech sector, the S&P 500 fell nearly 4% to 4,236 Monday morning, pushing the index down more than 10% for the year, before an end-of-day surge that helped it tick up 0.4%.

A "disappointing" start to fourth-quarter earnings season could spell trouble for stocks this year, Goldman Sachs' David Kostin wrote in a Monday note, forecasting the S&P could plunge as much as 11% from Friday's close (to 3,914) if higher interest rates and the reduction in Fed stimulus push annual corporate profits down 4% from 2021.

Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson struck a similar tone, telling clients on Monday to "hunker down for a few more months," as slowed earnings growth joins monetary policy uncertainty as primary market concerns.

"It's too early to be bullish," Wilson said, warning the S&P could plunge another 10% while pointing out the "most speculative parts" of the market have been hit the hardest, with names like Peloton down 75% in six months.

As inflation falls once the Fed starts hiking rates, Wilson says he's "most bearish" on consumer goods, apparel and housing-related stocks that have benefited from rising prices.

Kostin says some sort of catalyst--such as a slowdown in inflation--will be necessary to curb the broad-market selloff, but Goldman economists don't expect prices will cool down until the second quarter; other potential catalysts include an "extremely strong" earnings season or a Fed policy pivot.

It wasn't just Biden's spending -- it was also all the quantitative easing during the covid lockdowns, which just added to all the quantitative easing under Obama's serial Recovery Summers.

But Brandon's drunken-sailor spending spree seems to have been the last straw. The economy defied basic economic physics and somehow did not show high inflation even through all of Obama's excessive spending and constant quantitative easing from his fed chairman, leading some very stupid people to conclude, impossibly, that inflation was no longer a threat. That we were in a "post-inflationary economy" or something.

It's so stupid I can't believe I just wrote that.

But Biden throwing another couple of trillion onto the National Money Barbecue ignited high inflation which is causing the fed to raise interest rates which in turn is puncturing the speculative bubble in the market and causing it to crash.

Which may ignite another recession. A "major recession," Andy Puzder writes.

On Bloomberg, an analyst says we're headed for a "bumpy road" but predicts there won't be a recession, but suddenly the R-word is on everyone's mind.

And if there is another recession -- then what will the government and fed do? Spend more trillions? Cut interest rates again?

They've already done too much of that.

Those bullets have done been shot off already.

So we're probably going to have to just mostly ride this one out without fiscal and monetary interventions. (Conservative monetary theorists probably welcome seeing this happen.)

As Obama once said: "Never underestimate Joe Biden's ability to fuck everything up."

Posted by: Ace at 04:35 PM | Comments (549) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Old Karens Go Wilding on a Young Black Man

...for not wearing a mask. They actually attempt to physically intimidate him, and hit him.

Video below.

Posted by: Ace at 03:25 PM | Comments (540) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Peter Schweitzer's New Exposee Red-Handed: The Biden Family Received $31 Million From Individuals With Direct Ties to Chinese Intelligence

Schweitzer's new book is about America's corrupt ruling class profiting from their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, and working hard to advance China's interest.

"The Big Guy" profited more than most.

The Biden family scored $31 million from five deals in China, all with individuals with direct ties to the Chinese spy apparatus, according to a bombshell new book.

Multiple financiers with direct ties to Chinese intelligence partnered with Hunter Biden during and after his father's time as Vice President -- including the former head of the Ministry of State Security and the head of foreign intelligence recruitment -- and some of those relationships remain intact, according to Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, by Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer.

Schweizer explains that Beijing saw a financial relationship with the Bidens as an opening for "elite capture," which allowed Hunter Biden to secure meetings and score major deals with people in the highest levels of Chinese financial institutions and the Chinese Communist Party -- and in return they would be able to leverage the Bidens' power for their interests.

Meanwhile, at the World Economic Forum's "Great Narrative Conference" -- I guess that's the real name! -- a speaker admits, "The good news is the elite across the world trust each other more and more... the bad news is that the majority of people trusted that elite less..."

Batya Ungar-Sargon
@bungarsargon

The elites don't even bother hiding their contempt for "the majority of people" anymore. It's exposed the emptiness of the stories they tell to push their own interests. The sides aren't Right and Left anymore. They're the side that has that contempt and the side nauseated by it.

This clip is saying the quiet part out loud: Elites like to masquerade like there are major policy debates dividing them. But political polarization is a pantomime that disguises the crucial things they share--enormous wealth, capture of over 50% of GDP, the desire for control.

Working people know this. They know that it's all kabuki theater at the top. It's why they just don't care who you voted for. Because the struggles that unite the bottom just outweigh whether you think abortion should be legal in the second trimester, or how you feel about Trump.

It's disgusting to see these people nattering on about threats to democracy when they believe they should have control over every aspect of the lives of working people and it's "bad news" that regular people are onto them and see them for the self-serving oligarchy that they are.

Posted by: Ace at 02:21 PM | Comments (454) | Trackbacks (Suck)