Brandon (or his handlers controlling him) keeps beating the drums of war with Russia.

They really do intend to start a hot war with Russia to distract the American people from the fact that he's a failed, phony President.

everyone's favorite secretary of transportation is back from maternity leave after 'having his child', so our favorite fudge-packing moron has a plan to eliminate all traffic deaths...

keep all the cars and trucks off the roads...

what a buffoon, and I hate to say that as its an insult to legitimate buffoons everywhere

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin launches bipartisan bill to stop taxpayer funds being used on 'crack' pipes and two Republican Reps. introduce the 'HUNTER' Act to ban federal spending on needles and drug paraphernalia

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...ing-crack-pipes.html

Sen. Joe Manchin teamed up with Republicans to introduce a bill that would ban the distribution of drug paraphernalia, and two Republicans appalled by a viral report alleging that the Biden administration was going to fund handing out crack pipes to drug addicts have introduced the 'HUNTER Act' which would do the same.

Though Health and Human Services (HHS) has denied that crack pipes were ever to be included in the 'safe smoking kits' they will fund, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Dan Bishop of North Carolina told Fox News that the Biden administration got caught 'red-handed.'

HHS is now considering applications from community groups to dole out $30 million as part of its Harm Reduction Grant. The grant will fund programs that offer materials for addicts to utilize when using to mitigate the spread of disease.

The Republicans' bill, the Halting the Use of Narcotics Through Effective Recovery Act this week, dubbed the HUNTER Act, is named after President Biden's son Hunter who has struggled with drug addiction.

'I like the HUNTER Act,' Boebert said, 'because it was a better acronym than Stop Paying to Subsidize Biden's Son's Drug Addiction act. That didn't really flow. I think tax dollars have been on the hook for Hunter's addictions long enough.'

Bishop said the bill would take aim at the federal funding of safe injection sites, needle trade-ins, and safe smoking kits. He said such programs try to 'remove all stigma' from drug use, when 'actually stigma is not a bad thing.'

West Virginia Democrat Manchin joined in, introducing a bill with Sen. Marco Rubio to ban federal funding from being used to purchase illicit paraphernalia, such as pipes or needles. The bill is known as the PIPES Act, or Preventing Illicit Paraphernalia for Exchange Systems Act.

Rubio on Thursday introduced the CRACK Act, a separate but similar bill, along with 16 Republican co-sponsors, even after the Biden administration's denial that it would fund pipes.

'I am glad the Biden administration acknowledges sending crack pipes to our nation's addicts is a bad idea,' Rubio said in a statement. 'It is pure insanity to think the federal government would fund crack pipe distribution. This legislation will make certain the program can never pay for crack pipes, and given the Biden administration's position I look forward to their vigorous support.'

More at link

https://www.foxnews.com/politi...day-trucker-protests

Jen Psaki said Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had deployed 500 employees and is "surging additional staff" in coordination with California police forces to prevent disruptions at the Super Bowl in response to an international trucking protest.

DHS warned U.S. law enforcement and public safety officials this week that a trucker convoy protesting vaccine mandates could begin Feb. 13, the same day as Super Bowl LVI, and could create significant traffic jams and supply disruptions.

Psaki said DHS forces are working with California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Department, state and local authorities, as well as "extensive air and maritime security resources" to counter these protests.

Maritime? Do semi trucks float?

They're supposed to be convoying to DC. They might screw up traffic (if that's physically possible in LA). Other than that, WITF would anyone expect them to be a threat to the Super Bowl?

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
They're supposed to be convoying to DC. They might screw up traffic (if that's physically possible in LA). Other than that, WITF would anyone expect them to be a threat to the Super Bowl?

These protests rely on public support. Screwing up the super bowl would be counter-productive.

This is likely just more fear-mongering from the politicians who are TERRIFIED of these protests, and who are trying to demonize the protestors. They are probably trying to scare people into believing they will disrupt the super bowl, and are using the 'crisis' as an example to spread more fear and exert more federal law enforcement presence in our lives. . .

https://twitter.com/JMichaelWa...HHwWgMCrkbaR2LUpAAAA

As tensions spiked with Russia yesterday, Defense Secretary Austin went to the White House.

His mission: Chat about diversity.

“ Maritime? Do semi trucks float? ”

Remember all the Trump support flotillas? The leftist trash are probably thinking the same people will “disrupt” commerce and blame them for debacles such as those involving container vessels stacked up off the California coast.

Man, I'm starting to think we ought to give this inflation thing a shot. Whatta say, fellas? I keep seeing all these articles saying how great it is.

Oh, and we just need to bring on big time globalism to fix the problem of inflation. Obviously.

*************

Inflation is the business opportunity of a lifetime
Andy Serwer with Max Zahn
Sat, February 12, 2022

Inflation? Oh yeah, I’m old enough to remember.

As I’m sure you saw, inflation numbers came out red-hot on Thursday, with prices for the month of January rising at an annualized rate of 7.5%, the highest since February 1982. “This is a big shock to me,” says Jian Yang, professor of finance at University of Colorado. “When I hear that this inflation rate is the highest in 40 years, that really causes some concern about a challenge to the U.S. economy.”

So I think it’s worth going back four decades or so to see what caused inflation then, how it was tamed, its collateral effects — and to see how all that applies to today.

First, just a note on how unfamiliar this is. Let’s agree that you’re not aware of an economic phenomenon like inflation until you’re say, 10 years old. Therefore, no American under the age 50 has really experienced inflation. (The population of the U.S. is 329 million and the number of Americans over 50 is about 116 million, which means that 213 million Americans, or some two-thirds of us, have never lived with inflation.)

In fact, most of us are used to goods and services getting ever cheaper. This chart shows prices of a number of food items declining over the past 40 years even more than the overall rate of inflation, and even after recently ticking up.

Let’s now hop in the hot tub time machine and travel back to the last time we faced inflation. Students of economic history may recall reading about those WIN, or Whip Inflation Now, buttons the government sent out. Was that in 1982? No, the buttons came out years earlier, which speaks to a potentially alarming point. By February 1982 inflation was on the downswing. Economists were delighted with that month’s number of 7.6%, a four-year low, down from 11.4% a year earlier. Inflation actually peaked at 14.8% in March 1980. To wit: Nothing to say inflation won’t climb more.

Stay ahead of the market
Inflation had been a nagging problem for years back then, starting around 1974 when Gerald Ford was in office. It was in October of that year, with inflation running at 12.2%, that Ford declared inflation "public enemy number one" in a speech before Congress. (I always wondered what James Cagney thought about that public enemy business.)

Ford’s plan included a number of measures to bring inflation under control which included carpooling, turning down thermostats and growing vegetables. He also asked citizens to sign a pledge they would send to Washington to receive a WIN button. As a 14-year-old I remember vividly scrutinizing prices of items on supermarket shelves. I also remember those WIN pins, as they were objects of ridicule.

People wore them upside down which read "NIM," saying it stood for "No Immediate Miracles" or "Need Immediate Money." There were also earrings, World War II-like bric-a-brac and sweaters (which I mentioned last June).

Alan Greenspan, a White House adviser, then later wrote WIN was “unbelievably stupid." The Washington Post called the WIN campaign “one of the biggest government public relations blunders ever.”

Even worse for Ford, none of it worked. Inflation trended down toward the 1976 election, but Jimmy Carter still beat Ford in large part because of the poor economy. Once again inflation dipped but in 1979 it roared back over 10%. That, along with the Iran hostage crisis, doomed Carter in his reelection bid, and he lost to Ronald Reagan.

Besides being the undoing at least in part of two presidencies, what can we learn about inflation back then? How can we apply it to today?

First off let’s explore what caused inflation in the 1970s. In retrospect it’s pretty easy to see. Cause number one was Vietnam. Economist Tom Riddell did a nice job here of laying out how the Vietnam War — which was roughly from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s — led to higher prices. President Johnson wanted to wage the war and increase social programs but didn’t want to raise taxes, so spending and the federal deficit climbed, which heated up the economy which the Washington Post explains here.

Cause number two were oil shocks, the first coming in 1973 when OPEC enacted an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The second was in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Obviously both pushed up oil prices, which raised costs all across the economy in what is known as cost-push inflation.

What finally tamed inflation were draconian measures by Fed Chair Paul Volcker, who raised rates — the prime rate hit 20% in June 1981 — and targeted money supply, as described by Former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, William Poole.

What’s causing inflation today? Number one, COVID-19 created all manner of supply shortages. Number two, trillion-dollar government spending programs particularly in the U.S., plus the Fed expanding its balance sheet. And number three the decline of globalism, which had optimized for the cheapest production of goods.

Where do we go from here? With any luck, COVID and its accompanying trade friction will go away. And government programs are running their course. But both COVID and government programs were massive events. As for nationalism, I don’t think that’s reversing anytime soon. Yes, technology will drive costs down, but I don’t see inflation disappearing overnight.

Finally, I want to touch on collateral effects, starting with decades ago. Among other developments back then, higher prices led to the creation and/or proliferation of generic brands (private label), dollar stores and even the rise of Walmart and other discounters, as consumers searched for low-priced goods to mitigate inflation. If inflation persists today I would anticipate Newton’s third law — for every action an equal and opposite reaction — coming into play. In other words some new business models will address and take advantage of it. For some, inflation won’t be a problem. It will be an opportunity.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news...etime-103827742.html

yeah, a "real opportunity" for people on fixed incomes

Like it or not all the manufacturing that moved to China, India, and other low cost countries kept consumer prices on many things low. Most durable goods are no higher in price in the recent past compared to 20 years ago. And many are cheaper - especially TV's and computers.

The government and the Fed didn't kill inflation, except indirectly by having low tariffs on imports and high corporate tax rates compared to other countries.

But the government HAS become addicted to low interest debt. Carrying 30T at 1% is 300B a year in interest. If the Fed raises rates like they did in the early 80's to get inflation under control, say to 5%, that 300B in interest climbs to 1.5T which is the majority of the federal budget.

And that means they WON'T raise rates, because it would bankrupt the government, kill our credit rating, and increase the cost of borrowing that much more.

And when things get out of control and monetary policy is useless, China can unpeg the RMB from the dollar and probably double the price of all Made In China imports. Exchange rate of 6.5:1 will fall to 3-4 to 1 on the open currency market.

Basically we will get kicked in the balls, and while doubled over in pain, China will hit us with an uppercut to the chin. China is playing the long game, and our politicians can't see past the next midterm, and really can't see past the primary for the next midterm.

I have no doubt that China has compromised many politicians and business leaders and has them on-camera partaking of complimentary services during visits to China. And no matter how old the service workers are, the Chinese government will produce "evidence" that they were underage at the time. They can easily falsify birth certificates and ID's.

Remember in The Godfather when they framed the Senator at the Vegas whorehouse? He woke up next to a dead hooker and couldn't remember what happened. The Corleone family set it up and then made it go away and owned the Senator after that.

The CCP is the Mafia - they have a vested interesting in business being successful and profitable, so they can skim their cut off the top.

And they keep party members in line with "corruption" charges now and then. Everyone is corrupt and collecting a lot more money then their government salaries. If someone gets out of line, they just charge them with taking bribes when what they spend far exceeds their salary. Xi's faction took out Bo Xilai, Xi's primary rival, this way. They made it public that he could not afford his son's private schooling on his salary. Then to ensure he was out of the picture, his wife was charged with murdering a Brit business partner. She "confessed" and claimed it was because the Brit threatened the life of their son. No one knows what really happened, but it's likely the charges were false along with the confession, but she was allowed to live, which may not have been the case if she didn't confess.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lefty Sig,

I have no doubt whatsoever that the Chinese have copious dirt on the various Biden clan members as well as numerous dirty politicians as leverage. Nothing positive is going to change in our relationship with the filthy commie trash until we get Trump (or another like like him) back in office and the senatorial support to keep him from being a lame duck.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://www.foxnews.com/politi...day-trucker-protests

Jen Psaki said Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had deployed 500 employees and is "surging additional staff" in coordination with California police forces to prevent disruptions at the Super Bowl in response to an international trucking protest.

DHS warned

Pss.

What or who is/are 500 DHS employees?

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://www.foxnews.com/politi...day-trucker-protests

Jen Psaki said Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had deployed 500 employees and is " surging surging additional staff" in coordination with California police forces to prevent disruptions at the Super Bowl in response to an international trucking protest.

DHS warned

Pss.

What or who is/are 500 DHS employees?

Is anyone else really, REALLY getting the shits of hearing the word "surge?" It's getting so, that every time I hear someone say it I imagine taking a baseball bat & launching their freaking head for a home run.

Biden Administration Urges Court Not to Allow Release of ‘Secret Report’ on Dominion Voting Machines

https://www.theepochtimes.com/...mRor26V7DR%2FX7fG5SV

Top officials at a U.S. federal cybersecurity agency are urging a judge not to authorize at this time the release of a report that analyzes Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Georgia, arguing doing so could assist hackers trying to “undermine election security.”

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was recently provided an unredacted copy of the report, which was prepared by J. Alex Halderman, director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society.

The report discusses “potential vulnerabilities in Dominion ImageCast X ballot marking devices,” or electronic voting devices, according to the government.

While CISA supports public disclosure of any vulnerabilities and associated mitigation measures with election equipment, allowing the release of the report at this point “increases the risk that malicious actors may be able to exploit any vulnerabilities and threaten election security,” government lawyers said in a Feb. 10 filing in the case.

The case was brought in 2017 by good-government groups and voters who say the lack of paper ballots undermines the voting process.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg, an Obama nominee overseeing the case, was urged by CISA to reject attempts to release a redacted version of Halderman’s report for now.

CISA officials want to review the information in the report and help Dominion resolve the vulnerabilities identified before the report is released. They said they weren’t able to provide a date by which they’ll be finished.

Totenberg must weigh the request against the wishes of Georgia Secretary State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and one of the defendants, who called in late January for the release to happen immediately.

John Poulos, Dominion’s CEO and president, said in a statement released by Raffensperger’s office that Halderman’s review lacked “a holistic approach,” adding that Dominion “supports all efforts to bring real facts and evidence forward to defend the integrity of our machines and the credibility of Georgia’s elections.”

Plaintiffs, including the Coalition for Good Governance, also support the release of the report, David Cross, one of their lawyers, confirmed to The Epoch Times.

The plaintiffs said in a filing before a copy was sent to CISA that the agency should get a copy and begin its evaluation process, but that the evaluation “should not unreasonably delay the public disclosure of the report, which must be promptly disclosed to Georgia state and county election officials, and filed on the public docket, so that public officials can secure the upcoming May primary elections.”

They asked Totenberg to order them to file a redacted version of the report on the docket, which would make it accessible to the public, no later than March 4.

“increases the risk that malicious actors may be able to exploit any vulnerabilities and threaten election security,” government lawyers said in a Feb. 10 filing in the case.”

I think they meant to say “this will expose exactly how we stole the election”. It would become just another situation where the “tin foil hat wearing right wing extremists” were right again.

Just by the by...

I thought that judge's name sounded familiar. Her sister is Nina Totenberg, one of the major NPR political reporters.

Not relevant to the story, but everyone should file that away under information about "the Swamp".

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
yeah, a "real opportunity" for people on fixed incomes

Most of whom have reliably voted for Democrats for decades, and whom the Dems can therefore safely disregard, or whom have reliably voted for Republicans for decades, and whom the Dems can therefore safely disregard.

Did anyone think white coal miners and Hispanics in border states were the only groups of historically Dem voters that the Dems figured were automatically going to vote the Dem ticket? The rate of inflation alone should tell you that the Dems don't give a damn about what people on fixed incomes think beyond throwing them the occasional bone through the Social Security system.

quote:

Halderman’s review lacked “a holistic approach,”

What does that even mean?