IT’S DIFFERENT NOW BECAUSE REASONS: Pelosi in 2008: Two Quarters of Negative Growth Is ‘Technical Definition of Recession.’
Archive for 2022
July 29, 2022
JIM TREACHER: Dems Suddenly Oppose Illegal Immigration. “Washington mayor requests troops to aid with migrant arrivals from Texas and Arizona…So much for ‘Give me your tired, your poor,’ etc. But look on the bright side, DC residents:”
ADVANTAGE: ED! The Economist: The silver linings of a recession. Lower inflation and greener energy are worth the price of a short downturn.
Yet in the same way that a downturn should purge the American economy of its inflation problem, so Europe could emerge from recession having overcome its complacency about the supply of energy. Policymakers have belatedly realised that a carefully managed shift to clean energy also eases their dependence on autocratic regimes.
Around the world, investment in renewable energy is surging and governments that were previously sceptical about nuclear power—an essential part of a low-carbon energy grid—are reconsidering their opposition to it. Even Japan, which suffered the Fukushima disaster in 2011, is hoping to restart more nuclear reactors. If the world emerges from the coming downturn with inflation under control and on the path to greener, more secure energy supplies, the pain will not have been for nothing.
As I predicted in February, “the left will then justify the ensuing recession by praising its benefits to the environment, as John Kerry and Claire McCaskill did during the early Obama years, and multiple lefties did last year during the Covid shutdown.”
YES, THOSE POLICIES ARE AN INVITATION TO MASS MURDER: It’s Time for America’s Malls to Drop Their ‘Gun-Free’ Zone Policies.
THAT’S A RELIEF: Scientists at CERN are not opening a ‘portal to hell.’
ROGER SIMON: Who Is to Blame If Nashville Doesn’t Get the 2024 Republican Convention It so Richly Deserves?
The two finalists in the competition for the 2024 Presidential Convention are Nashville, Tennessee, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
As of July 15, 2022, Milwaukee is very much in the lead. . . . I have reason to believe that Nashville’s behavior may well not have been “forthright and professional,” but this’s still a huge mistake.
One of the major reasons for national political conventions is publicity for the party and its candidate by making people want to attend in person or to watch on television. Indeed, this is likely the most important reason.
No city in the United States is more prepared for this than Nashville, other than Las Vegas. Indeed, downtown Nashville has been nicknamed NashVegas for a reason. People from all over the world want to come here for the music and excitement.
And, boy, do they! Hotels are springing up faster than weeds in most people’s backyards, but these weeds are high-rises with swanky cocktail lounges on the roof and a couple of restaurants off the lobbies featuring James Beard prize chefs. Also, most of the attractions, like my favorites the Johnny Cash Museum and the Country Music Hall of Fame, are within walking distance, as are the natural convention venues the Bridgestone Arena and the Music City Center. The place is just fun. I felt that way when I moved here four years ago and still do.
As for Milwaukee, from what I understand, visitors, and perhaps the press, will have to stay an unappealing hour from the venue, making it extraordinarily inconvenient for most anyone but the VIPs. I have no comment on Milwaukee’s actual fun quotient, since I have never been there.
Now I’m not writing this as a Nashville booster or because I have a personal desire for the convention to be here. I don’t. It’s an annoyance. In my capacity as a journalist, I have been there and done that at several conventions and can attest to the hellacious traffic, impossible parking, and long lines for just about everything.
I’m writing this as a citizen who would like to see a Donald Trump—on his revenge tour—or a Gov. Ron DeSantis or whoever is nominated to get the maximum national publicity to win. In that regard, Nashville versus Milwaukee is a no-brainer. And, please, Milwaukeeans, I mean no offense.
So the question remains—assuming I’m correct, and of course, since this is my column, I do—why was such a mistake made? . . .
As another person most definitely “in a position to know” told me emphatically, it is Nashville and Tennessee officials, high and low, who are really to blame for their city losing out on some $200 million in immediate revenue, not to mention whatever accrued—possibly an incomprehensible amount—from being the epicenter of the entire globe for a full week. Only the Olympic Games are watched more worldwide by television audiences than the American Presidential Conventions. And 2024, because so much of our futures are at stake, promises to be even bigger.
Putatively, whether Nashville could have the convention was to be decided by the 40-member Metro Council, a collection of part-time politicos the majority of whom have views to the left of Trotsky. Having a Republican anywhere near them gives them hives, and the thought of admitting their convention to the city, even if it brings in hundreds of millions, is anathema.
Get woke, go broke.
ROLE REVERSAL: Some Americans Are Moving to Mexico; Mexicans Are Angry. “One of the new stories sweeping the interwebs is the tale of Californians fleeing the land of plenty and moving to Mexico because California has become too expensive. They are buying cheaper homes down south and working electronically. The homes are cheaper, the taxes are much lower, and their U.S. dollar goes much farther down there, according to Hot Air. But some Mexicans are not very happy about their new American neighbors moving into their Mexican neighborhoods. One reason is that these American transplants are driving up the values of their property and pricing Mexicans out of their homes.”
ADVICE FROM STACY LENNOX THAT WILL NOT BE HEEDED: Why Wealthy Coastal Elites Should Mind Their Own Business.
YOU CAN ONLY BE AVANT-GARDE FOR SO LONG BEFORE YOU BECOME GARDE: Kenan Thompson: ‘It might not be a bad idea’ for Saturday Night Live to end.
“There could be a lot of validity to that rumor, because 50 is a good number to stop at.” Thompson went on. “That’s an incredible package. [Lorne Michaels] will be, probably, close to 80 years old at that point, and you know, he’s the one who’s had his touch on the whole thing.”
The “Kenan and Ken” star continued: “So, if somebody tries to come into his shoes, you know it’s a good opportunity for NBC to save money as well, you know what I’m saying?”
“[NBC] might slash the budget and then at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show. So that’s unfair to watch it just really go down kind of in flames for real because of those restrictions…. so capping it a 50 might not be a bad idea,” he said.
Flashback to 2015: Report: Hillary Clinton ‘Negotiated Limits’ With NBC News to Avoid ‘Vicious Humor’ On ‘SNL.’
Contrast SNL producer-creator Lorne Michael’s kid glove treatment of Hillary with how Gerald Ford’s press secretary Ron Nessen was demolished when he stupidly volunteered to host the show in its first season. Michaels’ then-wife (and a writer on the show) admitted afterwards, the goal of the show’s writers was “The President’s watching. Let’s make him cringe and squirm” — and he certainly did.
A big difference though: despite many of them being Democrats, NBC’s elite old guard upper management were genuinely shocked by the tone of Michael’s then-new show; for that same reason, Johnny Carson would have little to do with them, despite sharing virtually all of their politics.
These days, Lorne Michaels, as the producer of both SNL and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is NBC’s upper management, and the tone he instilled via SNL is the tone of NBC-MSNBC-Comcast.
But then, as original Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts liked to quip, “you can only be avant-garde for so long, before you become garde.” Or palace guard, in the case of Michaels, who last year was accused by one of his writers of giving Mr. Obama veto power over SNL jokes. Wouldn’t want the president cringing and squirming or anything.
WELL, THAT’S COOL AND ALL BUT HOW ABOUT ADDING SOME SHARKS WITH FRICKIN’ LASER BEAMS ON THEIR HEADS? NASA adds 2 helicopters to mission to bring Mars samples back to Earth.
SORE LOSER! Rep. Linda Sanchez flips the bird to GOP bench during Congressional Baseball Game:
Pelosi lives in her own bubble. Rep. Steve Scalise doesn’t have that privilege. He was nearly killed about five years ago when a Bernie bro progressive madman began shooting Republicans as they practiced for the game. Fortunately, thanks to the quick response to some fellow Republicans saving him from bleeding out on the field, he survived. He came back to play in the game the next year and each year since.
Since Rep. Sanchez proved to be a sore loser during a friendly game of baseball that raises money for charity, imagine what her reaction is going to be in November as she watches election results come in. She should be ashamed of herself. She’s a progressive, though, and we know they ruin everything.
You stay classy, Linda:
IT’S NOT THE SHARKS THAT BOTHER ME, IT’S THE FRICKIN’ LASER BEAMS ON THEIR HEADS: Shark sightings in the Midwest could become more common, experts say. Kind of overselling the climate-change angle here. “Feldhelm said there were two known sightings in the Mississippi River over the past century: one in Alton, Ill., in 1937 and another in Missouri in 1995.”
This could happen twice as much in the coming century! But the headline is pretty much all hype: “Heithaus said that even though the sharks’ behaviors may change, the risk of someone seeing one so far from the ocean is very small.”
FRUITS OF BIDEN’S HUMILIATING CAPITULATION: “The Taliban’s brutality toward women in Afghanistan is a ‘suffocating crackdown’ that goes beyond the widely condemned bans on work and school to include sex slavery, forced marriages, violence, torture, and disappearances, according to Amnesty International, which published a new report on the subject Wednesday.”
Well, Amnesty, you hated Trump and wanted Biden, so you have to take a share of ownership here too.
SO CHINA IS NOW THREATENING TO ASSASSINATE NANCY PELOSI:
On the one hand, the jokes write themselves. On the other, publicly threatening the Speaker of the House is a major escalation. I really doubt this would have happened under a Trump Administration, but the Chinese know that Biden is weak and compromised and are taking advantage. And that’s not actually funny.
UKRAINE WAR: The (Not Quite) God’s-Eye View, Five Months In. “It seems like years since the start of the Ukraine War, when the Russians spent the first few weeks stepping on their own… toes… and it seemed like anything could happen.”
BIDEN’S LATEST ABSURD SPIN ON GAS PRICES (DEBUNKED): “Biden doesn’t get to have it both ways. If the president had no culpability for higher gas prices, he can’t take credit for lower gas prices. And vice versa: If he does deserve credit for these lower prices, then he deserves blame for the higher prices. Consistency, people. Is it really too much to ask for?”
WEIRD, WHAT COULD ACCOUNT FOR THIS? Deaths from heart failure rise among young Americans.
WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE OF THE MODE OF TRANSMISSION: Study finds important differences in monkeypox symptoms between current and previous outbreaks.
Some of the common symptoms they describe, including rectal pain and penile swelling (edema), differ from those described in previous outbreaks.
As such, the researchers recommend that clinicians consider monkeypox infection in patients presenting with these symptoms. And they say those with confirmed monkeypox infection who have extensive penile lesions or severe rectal pain “should be considered for ongoing review or inpatient management.” . . .
A total of 71 patients reported rectal pain, 33 sore throat, and 31 penile edema, while 27 had oral lesions, 22 had a solitary lesion, and 9 had swollen tonsils.
The authors note that solitary lesions and swollen tonsils were not previously known to be typical features of monkeypox infection, and could be mistaken for other conditions.
Just over a third (36%) of participants also had HIV infection and 32% of those screened for sexually transmitted infections had a sexually transmitted infection.
Overall, 20 (10%) of participants were admitted to hospital for the management of symptoms, most commonly rectal pain and penile swelling. However, no deaths were reported and no patients required intensive hospital care.
Question: Since smallpox vaccination provides a significant measure of immunity to monkeypox, is this disease spreading now because most of the population has no longer been vaccinated for smallpox?
Flashback: CDC, You Had One Job.
“THEY GO LOW, WE GO HIGH.” Sore loser! Rep. Linda Sanchez flips the bird to GOP bench during Congressional Baseball Game.
TRUE, BUT ALL THE RIGHT PALMS WILL GET GREASED: Ill-Advised Semiconductor Subsidies Pass. “Semiconductor subsidies have all the hallmarks of a classic Washington boondoggle: The wrong action at the wrong time for the wrong problem.”
MINISTRY OF TRUTH UPDATES CHOCOLATE RATION FIGURES: Wikipedia joins in the gaslighting! Online encyclopedia suspends edits to its ‘recession’ page after woke users changed definition to align with Biden’s claim that the US isn’t in one.
Wikipedia has suspended the edit feature on its ‘Recession’ page after users flocked to amend it to concur with President Biden’s claim that the US isn’t suffering a downturn.
The page was altered at least 47 times over a roughly 24-hour period, with an administrator locking unregistered users out until August in an effort to curb what the encyclopedia website characterizes as ‘vandalism,’ and ‘malicious’ edits.
The edit-freeze comes as numerous members of the Biden administration have tried to argue the country is not in a recession by casting doubt on the word’s definition, which commonly agreed upon to be two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
One member made repeated edits to the Wikipedia page to insist there was ‘no global consensus’ on the definition of recession, in what appears to be a bizarre attempt to push White House messaging.
Winston Smith and company have been working overtime:
Of course, it’s possible some of the revisions were attempts to re-insert the correct definition: 
UPDATE: The Pelosi-approved definition:
(Updated and bumped.)
STACY MCCAIN: Magical Thinking as Economic Policy. “Joe Biden evidently believes that recession can be avoided by pretending there is no recession, and that inflationary spending proposals can be enacted by dubbing them ‘The Inflation Reduction Act.’ Of course, it is somewhat sarcastic to speak of what Biden ‘believes,’ let alone what he ‘thinks,’ given that his mental condition has deteriorated to such a dysfunctional state that his cognitive processes cannot really be described as ‘belief’ or ‘thought,’ in the literal definition of those words.”