“No one should assume that the Fed can really protect the economy and the financial system and our reputation globally from the damage that [a U.S. default] might inflict,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said today. “We shouldn’t even be talking about a world in which the U.S. doesn’t pay its bills. It just shouldn’t be a thing,” he added.
"Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said today. 'We shouldn’t even be talking about a world in which the U.S. doesn’t pay its bills. It just shouldn’t be a thing,' he added."
Among the best of things I've said in the past few decades about the gop leadership is that they've become the party of "kick sh_t down the road," setting up others to do the hard work of problem solving, while lying in ambush in the weeds lobbing grenades at the doers; same style as 'punji stick' Gingrich, the ambush artist extraordinaire.
Republicans act like they are not fully adult. None of them seem to have the imagination of the impact of their actions. That means that at least mentally they lack the prerequisite experiences for governing. The party should be ousted like Germany ousted the Nazi party. I hope my parallel is clear. Although the Nazis wanted to at least give the illusion of taking care of the population, but that is not even in the playbook of the Republican party. So, they have to brainwash poor people into voting for them by making them believe that someone telling they they are better for being White is more important than shelter, eating, having health care, and other parts of a good infrastructure. The wealthy want to hold onto their tax escapes and exploitation of people for profits. We need to save our country from the super wealthy, who need to be saved from themselves. Spoiled, super rich people running our country into the ground is not good for anyone. That is what a third world country is like. I think we can find plenty of despots in the Third World to compare them to.
Thank you you for this quote, Heather!I have just been discussing this very issue with someone here, based on yesterday’s letter! I hope it will not create confusion if I quote this in yesterday’s threads.
“....while Republicans are blaming Democrats for creating inflation by pumping too much money into the economy through social welfare programs, The Wall Street Journal yesterday embraced the argument that a key factor in inflation has been price gouging by corporations. A piece by Paul Hannon noted that businesses are boosting their profit margins, confident that consumers will blame supply chain issues and higher energy prices rather than the companies padding their profits.
Oil giant Shell just announced almost $9.6 billion in profits in the first three months of 2023.”
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) made it clear to Jonathan Swan and Carl Hulse of The New York Times that all the Republicans care about is winning back the majority. “I really don't care what the tactics are,“ he said.
Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? (apparently none)
I read comments here every day in spite of the resulting brain activity when I should be sleeping. When that happens, my mind can be best described as a corral of horses being released into open land, running, jumping, whirling and kicking for the joy of freedom.
This time my first reaction is to the FED's interest rate policy, which I coinsider to be mismanaging a previous mismanagement decision; that is, expensive money following free money for so long. It reminds me of trying to balance a hot-cold stream of water with two faucets. It may work with water, but are there only two choices with the FED? I do not know how the FED operates, how many are making the decisions, all I know is that Powell's name is on everything.
My other reaction today is to a comment on electing competent officials. Briefly, a professor of Abnormal Psych and I lunched occasionally, and once he said he never voted, because he couldn't trust the candidates' campaign promises to be carried out. He indicated that his aversion was a derivatave of his father's attitude, being the same. It occurred to me that the words and concepts the candidate used meant one thing, but my friend heard another thing/meaning. I jokingly called it "framing misalignment" and diagrammed a wall with a tall figure on one side speaking through a talll hole in the wall, and a short figure on the other listening through a hole much lower down. I still think of communication that way.
BUT, add in the emotions that words convey, and I might "hear" a very different message than you might. I then check a box on a ballot for a different reason than the next person who checks the same box. How can we possibly separate decisions fueled by emotion from those powered by a more rational process? I do not know how, but I can discern the difference in campaign promises.
My other simultaneous brain romp followed a questioning by Rep Katie Porter of a CEO (I think) on Medical insurance, https://fb.watch/kj6LrbjQu7/, how could a voter not side with Ms Porter? But many won't for "reasons" emotional. The main "reason" I hear is "I qualify but you don't, " a reasoning-free way of saying "I don't want to be in the same boat with you." Are we free and equal or not? An auto repair garage has a sign posted that reads "Good,Fast, or Cheap. Pick Two." How about "Liberté, egalité, fraternité" which the US founders adopted? My take- pick two, we can't functionally have all three.
A few other issues jumping around in the pasture-
Bank bailouts, cui bono? Fragilizing or not?
Debt ceiling impasse, was the 14th not clear enough?
Abortion- whose body is it anyway?
A local farmer aged 84- "The government is under God's control."
Me- that isn't what the Constitution reads, look it up, you carry a copy in your truck. (fact).
Farmer- well then it's WRONG!
This guy is a John Wayne standin, neck vessels throbbing, fists clenching, get the picture?
The parents of all the Republican congressmen should be investigated for the way they brought up their irresponsible children and their methods included in testing for attributes candidates need to have for competent governing. It's obvious the Republicans have absolutely no intension of leading anything but following corporate pirates instead.
For those of you who are interested here is the list of S&P 5000 companies whose stock prices are up more than 50% since the start of the bear market at the beginning of January 2022, their industries and the % gain in the stock price since then. (Sorry for the lack of formatting).
Occidental Petroleum Corp. Exploration & Production 106.71
First Solar Inc. Renewable Energy Equipment 99.531
Hess Corp. Integrated Oil & Gas 87.087
Exxon Mobil Corp. Integrated Oil & Gas 85.308
Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. Food Products 83.616
Marathon Petroleum Corp. Integrated Oil & Gas 80.199
"alleging that Walker solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars from a billionaire industrialist who believed he was donating to Walker’s Senate campaign, only to have Walker take the money personally."
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. Every time I think the Republicans can't get any worse they do. Their motto, "win at all costs and screw the Country" is now so obvious that only a hermit, living on a deserted island in the middle of an ocean with no means of communication other than a note in a bottle could believe it. Yet the "mainstream lying media" reports every corrupt word issued. I never liked or trusted Mitch, but he is much more Un-American than I thought.
There are no sane or moderate Republicans left who are still in office. All I have to say is get everyone you know turning 18 to register to vote on their birthday and tell them their vote can make a big difference!!! All the major oil companies, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Kroger, Autozone, Hostess, Cargolux, Kraft-Heinz, Tyson Foods, General Mills, etc. are all showing record profits! Cal-Maine Foods, the company that controls 20% of the eggs in the US, saw its profits surge 718% last quarter!!! Conagra Foods had a 60% increase in profits Feb. 2923 vs. 12 months ending in 2022. If all this is not price-gouging, I don’t know what is!
I have a question for clarification. If the default lasts less than a week and 500,000 lose employment, and a longer default leads to 8.5 million losing employment, what does "longer" mean? Longer than less than one week? Or longer like a month or so? Is the 8th day literally an 8 million job difference? Seems unlikely, but it's really vague here. Thanks again Heather for more terrifying news summarizing and explaining. LOL. Seems the only way for the extreme Right to extinguish Biden's economic success is to literally crash the economy. They don't care if the global economy suffers because it will make it easier for authoritarian regimes everywhere to flourish, after the dust settles. As I said. Terrifying.
Comments are sounding discouraged today. Just a reminder there’s nothing like a pro democracy action to help you feel better 😁
From Chop Wood, Carry Water:
“Y’all, the Democrats are running phonebanks into PA House District 163 almost every day in the leadup to the May 16th special election. The outcome of this race will determine which party controls the Pennsylvania House, so these calls are extra-important. Can you sign up for a shift? As I said above, it feels so good to help Democrats win!”
"Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said today. 'We shouldn’t even be talking about a world in which the U.S. doesn’t pay its bills. It just shouldn’t be a thing,' he added."
Repeat, repeat, repeat...
Among the best of things I've said in the past few decades about the gop leadership is that they've become the party of "kick sh_t down the road," setting up others to do the hard work of problem solving, while lying in ambush in the weeds lobbing grenades at the doers; same style as 'punji stick' Gingrich, the ambush artist extraordinaire.
I’m in shock! The WSJ is criticizing profiteering?!?
Only good news of the day
Republicans act like they are not fully adult. None of them seem to have the imagination of the impact of their actions. That means that at least mentally they lack the prerequisite experiences for governing. The party should be ousted like Germany ousted the Nazi party. I hope my parallel is clear. Although the Nazis wanted to at least give the illusion of taking care of the population, but that is not even in the playbook of the Republican party. So, they have to brainwash poor people into voting for them by making them believe that someone telling they they are better for being White is more important than shelter, eating, having health care, and other parts of a good infrastructure. The wealthy want to hold onto their tax escapes and exploitation of people for profits. We need to save our country from the super wealthy, who need to be saved from themselves. Spoiled, super rich people running our country into the ground is not good for anyone. That is what a third world country is like. I think we can find plenty of despots in the Third World to compare them to.
Thank you you for this quote, Heather!I have just been discussing this very issue with someone here, based on yesterday’s letter! I hope it will not create confusion if I quote this in yesterday’s threads.
“....while Republicans are blaming Democrats for creating inflation by pumping too much money into the economy through social welfare programs, The Wall Street Journal yesterday embraced the argument that a key factor in inflation has been price gouging by corporations. A piece by Paul Hannon noted that businesses are boosting their profit margins, confident that consumers will blame supply chain issues and higher energy prices rather than the companies padding their profits.
Oil giant Shell just announced almost $9.6 billion in profits in the first three months of 2023.”
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) made it clear to Jonathan Swan and Carl Hulse of The New York Times that all the Republicans care about is winning back the majority. “I really don't care what the tactics are,“ he said.
Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? (apparently none)
I read comments here every day in spite of the resulting brain activity when I should be sleeping. When that happens, my mind can be best described as a corral of horses being released into open land, running, jumping, whirling and kicking for the joy of freedom.
This time my first reaction is to the FED's interest rate policy, which I coinsider to be mismanaging a previous mismanagement decision; that is, expensive money following free money for so long. It reminds me of trying to balance a hot-cold stream of water with two faucets. It may work with water, but are there only two choices with the FED? I do not know how the FED operates, how many are making the decisions, all I know is that Powell's name is on everything.
My other reaction today is to a comment on electing competent officials. Briefly, a professor of Abnormal Psych and I lunched occasionally, and once he said he never voted, because he couldn't trust the candidates' campaign promises to be carried out. He indicated that his aversion was a derivatave of his father's attitude, being the same. It occurred to me that the words and concepts the candidate used meant one thing, but my friend heard another thing/meaning. I jokingly called it "framing misalignment" and diagrammed a wall with a tall figure on one side speaking through a talll hole in the wall, and a short figure on the other listening through a hole much lower down. I still think of communication that way.
BUT, add in the emotions that words convey, and I might "hear" a very different message than you might. I then check a box on a ballot for a different reason than the next person who checks the same box. How can we possibly separate decisions fueled by emotion from those powered by a more rational process? I do not know how, but I can discern the difference in campaign promises.
My other simultaneous brain romp followed a questioning by Rep Katie Porter of a CEO (I think) on Medical insurance, https://fb.watch/kj6LrbjQu7/, how could a voter not side with Ms Porter? But many won't for "reasons" emotional. The main "reason" I hear is "I qualify but you don't, " a reasoning-free way of saying "I don't want to be in the same boat with you." Are we free and equal or not? An auto repair garage has a sign posted that reads "Good,Fast, or Cheap. Pick Two." How about "Liberté, egalité, fraternité" which the US founders adopted? My take- pick two, we can't functionally have all three.
A few other issues jumping around in the pasture-
Bank bailouts, cui bono? Fragilizing or not?
Debt ceiling impasse, was the 14th not clear enough?
Abortion- whose body is it anyway?
A local farmer aged 84- "The government is under God's control."
Me- that isn't what the Constitution reads, look it up, you carry a copy in your truck. (fact).
Farmer- well then it's WRONG!
This guy is a John Wayne standin, neck vessels throbbing, fists clenching, get the picture?
Enough for today.
The parents of all the Republican congressmen should be investigated for the way they brought up their irresponsible children and their methods included in testing for attributes candidates need to have for competent governing. It's obvious the Republicans have absolutely no intension of leading anything but following corporate pirates instead.
For those of you who are interested here is the list of S&P 5000 companies whose stock prices are up more than 50% since the start of the bear market at the beginning of January 2022, their industries and the % gain in the stock price since then. (Sorry for the lack of formatting).
Occidental Petroleum Corp. Exploration & Production 106.71
First Solar Inc. Renewable Energy Equipment 99.531
Hess Corp. Integrated Oil & Gas 87.087
Exxon Mobil Corp. Integrated Oil & Gas 85.308
Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. Food Products 83.616
Marathon Petroleum Corp. Integrated Oil & Gas 80.199
Arch Capt. Grp. Ltd. Property-Casualty Insurance 73.919
Fair Isaac & Co., Inc. Software 72.923
Steel Dynamics, Inc. Steel 69.779
Cardinal Health, Inc. Medical Supplies 68.712
Merck & Co., Inc. Pharmaceuticals 62.245
Eli Lilly & Co. Pharmaceuticals 60.563
Las Vegas Sands Corp. Gambling 59.186
Schlumberger Ltd. Oil Equipment & Services 56.107
Valero Energy Corp Exploration & Production 55.734
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Biotechnology 55.006
Quanta Services, Inc. Heavy Construction 50.939
As I read some of these comments, some quite verbose, I’m wondering if our actions match our words?
Are we volunteering for the candidates we want to win? Are we walking the precincts? Are we manning the phone banks? Are we donating?
Adam Frisch lost to Boebert in Colorado by 546 votes. Should not have happened. He’s running again.
"alleging that Walker solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars from a billionaire industrialist who believed he was donating to Walker’s Senate campaign, only to have Walker take the money personally."
Republicans will be Republicans...
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. Every time I think the Republicans can't get any worse they do. Their motto, "win at all costs and screw the Country" is now so obvious that only a hermit, living on a deserted island in the middle of an ocean with no means of communication other than a note in a bottle could believe it. Yet the "mainstream lying media" reports every corrupt word issued. I never liked or trusted Mitch, but he is much more Un-American than I thought.
There are no sane or moderate Republicans left who are still in office. All I have to say is get everyone you know turning 18 to register to vote on their birthday and tell them their vote can make a big difference!!! All the major oil companies, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Kroger, Autozone, Hostess, Cargolux, Kraft-Heinz, Tyson Foods, General Mills, etc. are all showing record profits! Cal-Maine Foods, the company that controls 20% of the eggs in the US, saw its profits surge 718% last quarter!!! Conagra Foods had a 60% increase in profits Feb. 2923 vs. 12 months ending in 2022. If all this is not price-gouging, I don’t know what is!
I have a question for clarification. If the default lasts less than a week and 500,000 lose employment, and a longer default leads to 8.5 million losing employment, what does "longer" mean? Longer than less than one week? Or longer like a month or so? Is the 8th day literally an 8 million job difference? Seems unlikely, but it's really vague here. Thanks again Heather for more terrifying news summarizing and explaining. LOL. Seems the only way for the extreme Right to extinguish Biden's economic success is to literally crash the economy. They don't care if the global economy suffers because it will make it easier for authoritarian regimes everywhere to flourish, after the dust settles. As I said. Terrifying.
I’m thinking master maneuverer McConnell is letting McCarthy hoist himself on his own petard.
Comments are sounding discouraged today. Just a reminder there’s nothing like a pro democracy action to help you feel better 😁
From Chop Wood, Carry Water:
“Y’all, the Democrats are running phonebanks into PA House District 163 almost every day in the leadup to the May 16th special election. The outcome of this race will determine which party controls the Pennsylvania House, so these calls are extra-important. Can you sign up for a shift? As I said above, it feels so good to help Democrats win!”
https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-53-d41?r=2xpfg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email