NOT THAT MUCH MORE FAKE OR DERIVATIVE THAN AUTOTUNE OR SAMPLING: And So It Begins: Warner Music Just Signed an AI-Generated Pop Star to a Record Deal.
Archive for 2023
September 14, 2023
IT’S WORKING: Bidenomics strikes again: Real household income suffers biggest drop since Great Recession. “Even Obama auto bailout czar Steve Rattner blames Bidenomics: ‘The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March. The bill — almost completely unfunded — sought to counter the effects of the Covid pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment. That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.'”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.
CHANGE: California quietly disavows medical misinformation law before courts can strike it down.
California’s COVID-19 medical misinformation law, which threatens the licenses of doctors who deviate from a fluctuating “scientific consensus” in conversations with patients, got a frosty reception in front of trial and appeals courts this year.
Signed into law by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom nearly a year ago, AB 2098 may not exist by the time judges get around to deciding its constitutionality.
A provision to repeal the law was apparently added to Senate Bill 815, which makes changes to the Medical Board of California, in late August or early September with the legislative session winding down. Nobody seems to know, or is willing to say, how it got there.
Heh.
Whoever did it, I’m sure it was at Gavin Newsom’s behest to avoid an embarrassing First Amendment court loss as he seeks the White House.
WHY ARE LEFTISTS AGAINST TRUTH? Rowdy protesters shut down conservative Princeton professor’s ‘truth-seeking’ speech.
Well, because truth is fatal to leftism, which is why they try to shut it down wherever they can.
MILT HARRIS: Boston Now Has Two Green Monsters. “One in left field at Fenway and one in the Mayor’s office.”
YAWN: ‘Ho, ho; hey, hey’: Students protest U Texas abolishing DEI initiatives. Recycling your grandparents’ chants in support of official race discrimination isn’t a good look, kids.
WE ALL KNOW THE ANSWER, THE BIG GUY WAS ALL-IN. But it’s telling that this is the best defense they can muster.
"Biden has never been good at saying no…. He should have stopped his son Hunter …"
That's the issue, isn't it? Was Biden unable to say "no" … or did he say "Yes"? https://t.co/f7mDJ1ipfE
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) September 13, 2023
“He’s not really a crook, he’s just the Ado Annie of presidents!”
ICE, ICE, BABY: Even Blue-State Voters Oppose a Ban On New Gas-Powered Cars, Poll Shows.
A strong majority of voters in blue New Jersey, including nearly 60 percent of independents and more than 40 percent of Democrats, oppose liberal governor Phil Murphy’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, a new poll shows.
The Public Opinion Strategies poll, conducted in August, found that 58 percent of New Jersey voters oppose Murphy’s proposed environmental rules, which would force vehicle manufacturers to make 100 percent of their passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs electric by 2035. That figure includes 58 percent of independents and 42 percent of Democrats. In total, 36 percent of the state’s voters say they “strongly” oppose Murphy’s proposal, compared with just 33 percent who support it.
Spoiler: They’ll get a ban on gas-powered cars, anyway, if they don’t stop electing Democrats.
ARE FACULTY REALLY ‘FLEEING THE SOUTH?’ Supposedly due in significant part to “generally conservative political climates in Florida, Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina.” I live in North Carolina. Colleges here aren’t notably conservative, and the governor is a Democrat. From experience at FIRE and in private practice, I can tell you that Texas colleges are frequently very liberal. So color me skeptical.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Get Ready for an Onslaught of Saint Romney Hot Takes From the Dems. “The junior senator from Utah has reached a point in his career where many Republicans loathe him. He still has some fans among the avowed Trump-haters, but most of us wish we could have our 2012 votes for him back. If a ‘Most Regrettable Presidential Vote Ever’ award existed, Romney would be its first recipient.”
MATT TAIBBI: On Missouri v. Biden and “The New Abnormal.”
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Country Superstar John Rich to Rolling Stone: Pound Sand. “When Rolling Stone glamorized the Boston bomber, they lost all credibility as a serious publication. I’d rather do an interview with the Cartoon Network.”
KEEP THIS MILLSTONE AROUND THE DEMOCRATS’ NECK: THEY’VE EARNED IT. Ouch! Joe Biden gets scorched in Quinnipiac poll.
Voters see Biden as too old and don’t see the same problems with Trump. There is absolutely zero chance that voters will change their minds on this question, at least regarding Joe Biden. Biden isn’t going to become more mentally alert or more physically vital, and voters are set in their opinions that Biden is not truly fit to be president.
This opinion is reflected in the answers to the second question, about who could better respond to a national crisis. There are a lot of people who say they won’t vote for Donald Trump who freely admit that he is better equipped to handle a national crisis.
This answer is driven, I would expect, partly by the perception of age and decrepitude that attaches to Biden, but also due to Biden’s objectively poor performance as president.
That, too, is not an opinion that is likely to change.
Read the whole thing.
JUST REMEMBER, DEMS ALWAYS FACE THE NEW RULES THEMSELVES AND NEVER LIKE IT: MTG nailed it: Majority call ‘harsh’ Jan. 6 sentences a Biden warning to foes.
They have been met with cheers from the media and White House allies, but the long prison sentences given to many of the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters are viewed as “too harsh” by large groups of voters.
And despite the Washington-based news coverage portraying the 2021 protest of President Joe Biden’s election as an insurrection, more of America’s voters than not believe it was a “mostly peaceful protest that got out of control.”
It was a mostly peaceful protest in general, not just in light of the absurd “mostly peaceful” standard deployed in defense of the 2020 Democratic-constituent riots.
WELL: Analysis: Xi reprimanded by elders at Beidaihe over direction of nation: G20 absence hints at turmoil in Chinese domestic politics. “The central figure of the elders was Zeng Qinghong, a former vice president and one of the closest aides to the late former President Jiang.”
Intelligence and law enforcement, which is, I come from CIA and the charisma of CIA doesn’t work for me because I know it as a big bureaucracy, but the FBI, which is a law enforcement agency for Americans, the CIA doesn’t have any writ to investigate Americans except in very special circumstances. The personnel from FBI and Twitter just flitted back and forth, back and forth. And when you look at some of the people who were involved in, for example, de-platforming Trump, even though the Twitter executives themselves with their terms of service couldn’t find a reason for doing it, the strongest advocates were the former government people, the former FBI people.
Plus:
Honestly, I think it all goes back to 2016 and to Donald Trump and the elites who had managed this country, who thought of themselves as being not only wonderful in and of themselves, but beloved of the public suddenly realized that they were not, they were being held in contempt. And what’s the explanation? Well, it couldn’t be that they were contemptible. The explanation was these people are being lied to. And a whole host of organizations arose around the principle that disinformation is the poison that is destroying what they call our democracy. I love that term. It’s very possessive, right? Our democracy, it’s ours.
And so they fund these groups from the Atlantic Council to, they’re all kinds of names, and there are these people who pose as experts that tell you, oh, yes, yeah, my favorite one is Renee DiResta who says, disinformation is one of the existential threats of our time, so we have to do something about it. It would be irresponsible not to. So this is choir, this chorus, this Greek chorus of panic. We have to do something. We have to do something, and we are experts. We’re almost scientists in this field, so you have to listen to us. You don’t understand, the Russians are manipulating us. People who are against you taking the right medications for Covid are manipulating you, and we to save you from harm need to intervene.
And I have to say, the media, the press is right there. They are part of that chorus. Instead of doing what the media used to do, which is so point the finger at abuse of power, which is what Jim Jordan’s committee with his terrible name, weaponization of government, what they really mean is abuse of power by the government. The media is completely on the side of, no, the government needs to intervene. . . .
And they live in this bubble where it is very important for them politically to have that control. It’s all one-sided. It aimed at conservatives and Republicans, or somewhat less so at Maverick lefties and Democrats like Robert F. Kennedy. So they have come to the habit of basically believing that everything that’s good for them politically is good for our democracy, and they live in this bubble. And it never occurred to them if they said to the American public, we’re going to have this disinformation governors, it’s going to govern your information, that a lot of Americans are going to go, what are you talking about? And I think the response by the public and by the opposition, and many outlets, caught them by surprise. To them, it is just a self-evident good.
Our ruling class suffers from less-than-mediocre ability and inflated self esteem.
ONE PLAGIARIST RIPPING OFF ANOTHER: Biden Ripped Obama in 2010 Email.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Sperry Men’s Authentic Original 2-Eye Boat Shoe. #CommissionEarned
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: The Fed Is Losing Money And You’re Going To Foot The Bill.
According to the Federal Reserve’s quarterly report for Q2, the central bank reported a loss of $57.3 billion through the first half of the year. The Fed is on pace to lose over $100 billion in 2023.
Rising interest rates are a big problem for the Fed, as they are for other banks. The central bank earns interest income on the bonds it holds on its balance sheet. But the Fed also pays out interest to other financial institutions that park money there. The bonds it bought during multiple rounds of quantitative easing (QE) and still holds on its balance sheet were relatively low-yielding. But with rates much higher today, it is paying out interest at a much higher rate.
According to the Fed report, as of June 30, the central bank held roughly $5.5 trillion in US Treasuries with an average yield of 1.96%. It also held $2.6 trillion of mortgage-backed securities with an average yield of 2.20%. Meanwhile, the average interest rate the Fed paid on money it held, along with repo agreements and other operations averaged around 5%.
…
Under the Fed’s charter, the Fed remits its profits to the US Treasury. This helps pay down the massive federal budget deficits. When the Fed loses money, the Treasury loses its payday. That means even bigger budget deficits.
Exit quote: “The last time the Fed reported net operating losses was in 1915.”
SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED. BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE: US incomes fall for third straight year under Biden admin as more people ‘cut back’ and work multiple jobs: Census Bureau.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: U.S. Inflation Accelerated in August as Gasoline Prices Jumped.
Consumer prices rose in August at the fastest pace in more than a year due to a jump in energy costs, illustrating the potential obstacles to wringing inflation out of the economy without a sharper slowdown.
The consumer-price index, a closely watched inflation gauge, rose 0.6% in August from the prior month, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. More than half of the increase was due to higher gasoline prices.
So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items, rose by a relatively mild 0.3% last month after even lower readings in June and July. The August increase reflected higher costs for items such as airfares and vehicle insurance. . . .
Several factors could put upward pressure on prices in the coming months.
Saudi Arabia’s decision to extend cuts to its crude-oil output until the end of the year could keep gasoline prices elevated, according to the International Energy Agency. A potential strike by the United Auto Workers union could upend production at one or more auto manufacturers and push up prices on dealership lots. Recently reached labor contracts in the airline and healthcare industries will boost pay for some workers at a time when the Fed is seeking a slowdown in wage growth to help cool inflationary pressures.
Just remember, it can always get worse.