Since Trump was re-inaugurated, every week when I do grocery shopping I take a photo of the basic store-brand large eggs, showing the price, and post it on Facebook. They’ve gone from $6.49 a dozen on January 21 to $7.99 today. So much winning! Today’s announcement that inflation was up by 3 percent drew a standard response from Trump — “BIDEN INFLATION UP!” He’s also calling for lowering interest rates, which the Fed is very unlikely to do anytime soon given the inflation numbers. Sooner or later try I predict Trump will try to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and replace him with someone who will drop interest rates at Trump’s bidding. There must be somebody reporting on Fox News who would do.
So Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed as director of national intelligence. Mitch McConnell was the only Republican who didn’t vote for her. I think the nation is going to be incredibly lucky if we get through the next four years without another major terrorist attack, or worse. We’ve got incompetent nutjobs in charge of security and intelligence. We’ve got a so-called POTUS with a gift for pissing off most of the planet.
More tomorrow. Please as ever feel free to vent in the comments.
Someone needs to start keeping a list of all Americans trump ends up murdering.
I'm already wondering if Habius Corpus will be tested.
"See You In The Gulag" should have been a joke.
IMO, there are two large groups if US citizens in for a rude awakening. I'm talking about low-info voters who cast their ballot on instinct. And I'm talking about non-voting US citizens. They are in for a wake-up call like they never dreamed of. Like children, they think things like meals, clothing and shelter just happen. Government, if they think of it at all, is a hindrance to all those things.
Despite the contempt that Limbaugh and Fox fostered like poison in a petri dish, government manages to get things done. It's not always pretty but food manufacturers recall tainted products. Polluters are held to account which discourages other potential offenders. A robust intelligence network intercepts threats before they inflict mass casualties. Historically, the federal government kept the trains running, even under Republican administrations.
That will end. I think Musk will be allowed to savage the federal government. The latest Imperial Edict makes Musk the High Executioner and he can only hire one person for every four that are dispatched. They don't have that many people and most will be incompetent. So stuff is gonna fall apart. As Maha indicated, the intelligence agencies will be a prime target. Trump wants no one to document what he's doing on the international front. Previously friendly countries will quit providing the US with anything more sensitive than the weather report. Domestic terrorist groups will have a free ride. (If you were an informant deep in the Proud Boys, you packed your bags last week because you will be outed.
But to return to my theme, we are all gonna be seriously hurt. The price of eggs is a good barometer but we're gonna get sick from bad food and killed in defective Teslas. Nobody will be holding corporations to account. White trash who depend on government assistance will crowd every highway off-ramp with cardboard signs that say, "Jesus Loves You – give me money." Planes are gonna crash if Musk privatizes the FAA. The racists were convinced Trump would only cut off people with dark skin. Musk is out to eliminate the safety net and Trump will intervene very little. (I don't think the GOP can survive cutting Social Security to people who have retired – they will try to restructure it for anyone under 55 to a Wall Street hustle with their retirement.) Medicaid will be almost nothing. States will get no warning when all the staff with FEMA are gone. Yeah, I live in Florida. Being prepared for a hurricane takes on a whole new meaning. When there is no help for weeks, there will be hunger riots. This isn't something that will take a decade to hit. It will be a full-fledged catastrophe from coast to coast in two years.
These people who saw no difference between Harris and Trump are gonna find out what the difference is. Services they expected like manna from heaven will end. State governments will not be able to fill the void, especially with no warning. Much as they try to blame Democrats, they have the House, the Senate, and the WH. If elections survive the Republicans will not. Pain is a great motivator – the ignorant and disinterested are going to take a great interest in elections. This kind of situation brought FDR to power.
Trump will be hardest on those who trust him.
I'm trying to not feel too doomed, but it's difficult. Nonetheless, I am certain that the cabal that is trying to capture our government wants us all to feel helpless; that is the demoralization tactic. So I plan to stay away from throwing up my hands and giving up. I take notice of every small bit of resistance to the fascists we can see.
I'll share my worst fear coming out of listening to stuff today. Inflation ticked up. And the Musque wrecking ball continues to swing. The R's, over the decades (centuries?) have convinced the average low info citizen that everything the government does is a waste of money. As Doug pointed out, they have no clue how much they rely on the things the government does to keep us somewhat safe from the ruling class. But here's the upshot of the combination of inflation ticking up and the Musque wrecking ball: Drumph will try to bully the fed into reducing the Fed rate because he loves cheaper borrowing (he never does anything unless he can do it with other peoples' money). If the Fed can't hold the line, then rate reductions will further goose the inflationary trend. That's number one. If Musque is allowed by the courts to fire as many federal workers as the plan calls for, then that's gonna tweak unemployment up. Maybe a small amount in the grand scheme at first. But AI is going to cause additional layoffs. That's number two. And what happens when those two things happen concurrently? Stagflation. The worst possible condition for any economy; really bad news and nearly impossible to reverse. The third part of stagflation is very low growth (gdp growth).
So I googled this: "Can excessive financialization increase the risk of stagflation" – – the answer came back yes.
Someone needs to figure out how to get Wall Street to steer this administration away from that disaster, without triggering Drumph's oppositional disorder.
I don't think Wall Street can save us from Trump – the Techbois have (and will continue to) outbid them.
Wall Street destroyed the Real Economy of the USA (making & selling Things & Stuff) by forcing companies to focus on short term (Quarterly) profits. The Techbois regularly gain and lose $Bs in a day, and they have no ethical or social constraints.
Just days before Trump was inaugurated, he started a new scam: the Trump MemeCoin (a virtual "coin" with Trump's face on it, made of bits, not even cheap metal). Within days, he had sold something like $60B of these [non-]things, which increased his net worth by a factor of ten or more.
I suspect that Musk bought the biggest chunk. It's the perfect way to bribe Trump. I had expected that Trump – who *really* doesn't like sharing the limelight – would throw Musk under the bus by now. But if he does, Musk could crash the "value" of that MemeCoin by selling his chunk for $1. Musk would lose a lot of money, but he doesn't care (it's all Monopoly money to those guys); but Trump won't risk losing money on that scale, because he really thinks it matters.
Wall Street is accustomed to renting politicians for a few $M per year; they just can't compete with the Techbois who have upped the ante to $10B.
I'm not able to vent now without an excess of profanity. It's usually easier to find an artist who expresses things better:
Talking Heads Burning Down The House Lyrics
I like what doug brought up the other day: change your Federal withholding to zero. Then, also expect that next year, if the rich people dont have to pay taxes, then you don't (if Orangeman does not have to follow laws, do we?). No taxation without representation. Why should we subsidize the malevolent?
I should say "won't have to pay" instead of "don't". The Orange People want every reason/excuse to punish the "others" so de-funding the South is key. I will stop drinking Coke.
Thank you. To clarify, if the objective is to REDUCE the withholding, you INCREASE the number of claimed dependents. Which is not a violation of the law. It makes the computer calculate the anticipated taxes differently. If I remember, companies withhold from each paycheck and send the total amount on all employees to IRS quarterly. SO if a lot of employees are legally not having taxes withheld, it changes the cash flow through the year to the US Treasury. So Musk has less money to spend.