Roundup
A roundup is practically required today, there’s so much news. And this just scratches the surface.
(1) The transcript of Devon Archer’s testimony can be found here. It’s quite long, of course; I have only read bits and pieces so far. Here’s some discussion of it:
He continued saying that having the “Biden brand” attached to the company made people “intimidated to mess with them” from a legal standpoint. He also testified that the “Biden brand” referred mostly to Joe Biden because he “brought the most value to the brand.”
The Archer testimony does not, however, appear to support the idea that Burisma wanted Shokin fired.
(2) DeSantis will be debating Gavin Newsom. Should be interesting. They both seem positively fetal in age compared to the usual politicians these days. It also solidifies the idea that Newsom may be the replacement for Joe, if the Democrats find it in their interests. I hope they debate sitting down, though, or that DeSantis stands on a box. Newsome is 6’3″ and DeSantis is supposedly 5″11″.
(3) It will probably surprise no one here that the White House pressured Facebook to adjust its algorithm in order to make it less likely that people would be directed to content by “polarizing” conservatives.
(4) In the Trump J6 indictment. Professor Jacobson asks, “Where is the crime?”
(5) This one’s worth watching again:
(6) The US credit rating downgrade.
They’ll be indicting Trump for it soon.
From the debt downgrade link: “”I’m not sure if this is really a serious remark, to downgrade the debt,” he said. “Everyone knows that if you buy a US Treasury bill, you can be assured you will be paid back.”
Yun said that while there are, at times, US government shutdowns or political games played, there is seldom real panic about US debt.”
Well, that statement will always be true — until it isn’t. This seems to me to be the biggest news item in this round-up and I’m surprised I haven’t read more about it today.
The CNN headlines on the Fitch debt downgrade:
“Fitch’s downgrade is unlikely to hurt Treasuries’ status as a safe asset. Here’s why”
“Janet Yellen lambasts Fitch’s downgrade of US debt”
“JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calls US credit downgrade “ridiculous””
“What’s the point of credit rating firms?”
“The US government securities market is “too big to fail””
“Bank of America abandons US recession forecast”
“Surprise! Treasury yields aren’t doing much of anything after downgrade”
“ADP: The US private sector added 324,000 jobs last month”
And, lastly: “How economists are reacting to the downgrade”:
“This is completely absurd,” tweeted economist Jason Furman.
“I am very puzzled by many aspects of this announcement, as well as by the timing … Overall, this announcement is much more likely to be dismissed than have a lasting disruptive impact on the US economy and markets,” wrote Mohamed El-Erian.
Calling the decision “off base,” Mark Zandi wrote: “Ask global investors whose bonds they would rather own if push comes to shove in the global economy – it’s those of the U.S. Treasury.”
“It doesn’t make sense even on their own stated criteria,” wrote Paul Krugman. “There’s surely a story behind this — but whatever it is, it’s a story about Fitch, not about U.S. solvency.”
Former US Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, tweeted that “The United States faces serious long-run fiscal challenges. But the decision of a credit rating agency today, as the economy looks stronger than expected, to downgrade the United States is bizarre and inept.”
I guess we can all go to sleep tonight knowing all is well with the U.S. economy.
The credit downgrade is one of the few things that has a chance of reining some of this stuff in. A lot of connected people stand to lose a lot of money, and they may demand changes. What ends up happening is far from guaranteed to do much good for conservatives or middle-class people generally, unfortunately.
oh mark zandi is the chip dillard of economists, if you raise borrowing costs to the point where the debt swallows up the entire budget,
a smaller circumstance, occasioned by the interest rate spike of 99-01, let to the argentine debt default, which lead to the kirschner reign,
ot the son of the last radical (liberal) party candidate was shakiras manager,
maybe they didn’t ask the right question
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1686799149109256192
Barely a minute into it and had to stop that video. It is infuriating, in the context of the recent Trump indictment, of course.
(4) In the Trump J6 indictment. Professor Jacobson asks, “Where is the crime?”
Yet.
For the Democrats, it is no longer a question of convicting someone of committing a crime, but of creating a crime out of whatever you can get a jury to convict them for.
From the Trump pleads guilty thread:
Commenters at LI noted a couple of interesting things, which I will treat severally:
I take that to be a reference to this story:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernard-kerik-donald-trump-records-may-not-have-been-reviewed-by-special-counsel/
LI commenter:
Is this true? It’s been so long ago, I’ve forgotten the complete timeline.
I do remember that the vaunted intelligence community that could later identify all of the capitol gawkers so they can be sent to the gulag was totally clueless about the pipe bomb perps.
The Secret Service gave better excuses for their inability to identify the cocaine pusher at the White House.
LI commenter sfharding points to “George Parry’s excellent article in The American Spectator” which hits Neo’s video at #5 as well as #4.
https://spectator.org/trumps-third-indictment-is-ludicrous/
That last maxim seems to be trending lately.
Hey, maybe there should be some indictments for this:
“Top Health Officials Wage War Against NyQuil Chicken”—
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/08/04/nyquil-chicken.aspx
Key grafs:
‘ By early to mid-April 2020, critical care doctors had already figured out that the antiparasitic drug ivermectin was working against the novel coronavirus, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration chose to warn people away from the drug instead;
‘ Internal FDA emails obtained by Motherboard through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal agency officials were thrilled with the success of its derogatory “horse paste” tweet that went viral at the end of August 2021;
‘ The FDA’s tweet linked to a consumer update page about “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19,” which falsely insinuated that ivermectin was “not approved or authorized” by the FDA;
‘ While the FDA had not approved ivermectin specifically for COVID-19, the drug has, in fact, been approved for human use since 1987, and has an excellent safety profile. Moreover, doctors can legally prescribe ANY approved drug for off-label use, as was the case with ivermectin….’
[All Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
Something like, “NIH, FDA, CDC AGAINST the American People”.
Conspiracy, anyone?
OMG! Please, please tell me that the Democrats are not so stupid as to put Newsome in the WH!!! I know the 2024 election is already rigged–but, I have to hope they will be smarter than this–a little smarter than their Kamala move.
IMHO I believe they will push Tester from MT to the top of the list. Read about him here at his website: https://www.tester.senate.gov He pushes all the right buttons: Military, agriculture, Mexican citizenship, queers, conservation, and importantly he is up for re-election this year. He is big in stature (like Trump) and has one wife and a ranch. In other words, he is Mr Clean in their book and so I prepare your readers to expect this guy on the scene soon. Currently he is pushing back against Biden’s Department of Education plan to eliminate school funding for archery and rifle classes. That will carry a lot of weight in some parts of this country. Type in John Tester to your search engine and get the full picture.
Quick Thoughts
1) ” I hope they debate sitting down, though, or that DeSantis stands on a box. Newsome is 6’3? and DeSantis is supposedly 5?11?.”
• When I watched the DeSantis/ Crist debate, I noticed that they appeared to be the same height when they shook hands. Crist is 5′ 9″/ 69″. Pretty sure DeSantis is not 5′ 11″.
• 69″ is the average height for a man in the USA; however, some claim it is a disadvantage for political candidates.
• In the past there have been questions about whether or not DeSantis was trying to boost his height. Nothing as laughable as some of Gerhard Schroder’ stunts (5′ 8″).
• I’d encourage him to not do anything that attempts to hide or minimize who he is. Yes, that might be easy for me to say – not short – but some of the most commanding leaders I have known were men of shorter that average stature.
2) Seems like DeSantis and his wife are going to give the “fleece vest look” a try.
• That was – and still is – a trademark look for Gov. Youngkin.
• Would be very surprised if the average voter knew that – not everyone follows politics that closely – but not surprised if some of your readers know that.
• Youngkin strikes me as an interesting alternative to DeSantis; however, do not think DeSantis has to worry about him announcing his candidacy – and then showing up wearing his fleece vest.