Archive for 2024
April 15, 2024
BURNING QUESTIONS: Why haven’t shotguns with box magazines caught on?
YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: Yet Another Bogus Trump Trial Begins Today, Helping Trump.
READER FAVORITE: Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation). #CommissionEarned
OUCH: Tesla lays off ‘more than 10%’ of its global workforce. “We don’t know which specific teams will be most or least affected by Tesla’s layoffs, but two well-known Tesla executives are now missing the ‘Tesla-affiliated’ badge on twitter – Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel.”
FOLLOW THE SCIENCE, THEY SAID. YOU CAN TRUST THE RESEARCH, THEY SAID. ‘Peaceful’ bonobos bite and push each other, actually.
LIVE UPDATES: Trump Manhattan Trial – Day 1.
NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: Rabbi Burg to Newsmax: Anti-Israel Protesters ‘Celebrate Terrorists.’
THE DANGERS OF URBAN CHICKENS: Parents with backyard poultry can transmit salmonella to infants.
YES, LET’S: Let’s Curb-Stomp the IRS.
MAYBE FOOD ISN’T ACTUALLY MEDICINE: “Food-As-Medicine” Trial Fails to Improve Health. Maybe it’s just, you know, food. Or maybe they’re using the wrong food as medicine (they’re following U.S. government dietary guidelins, after all, which suck.)
Either way, nobody’s paying attention to a big study that undermines the whole, uh, feedlot: “Despite a couple of stories on medical sites and an article on the study in JAMA just this week, the “null results” have had little noticeable effect so far on the Food-As-Medicine juggernaut. In February, the Department of Health and Human Services hosted its first ‘Food As Medicine’ summit, with three public-private partnerships already in place, while a dozen projects are underway at the new, partially industry-funded Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.”
Follow The Science! Er, unless it threatens you self esteem, or especially your funding.
MAYBE THEY’RE JUST MAKING A MOVIE VERSION OF KURT SCHLICHTER’S LATEST BOOK.
This reportedly happened yesterday in Carlsbad, California. A group of mostly military age males invaded our country illegally via boat and then dispersed throughout the city in cars.
Are any of them on the terror watch list? Do any of them have a criminal history?
We don’t… pic.twitter.com/MQHqpF27Gu
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 14, 2024
MICHAEL WALSH: The End Is Near (Again).
YET ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT FOR A MARITIME TRADING POWER: Navy’s new landing ship could cost billions more than planned. “The CBO believes an 18-ship fleet would cost between $6.2 billion and $7.8 billion in 2024 (inflation-adjusted) dollars, or $340 million to $430 million per ship. That’s a stark contrast to Navy figures, which, according to the CBO, has an 18-ship program at $2.6 billion total, or about $150 million per ship.”
WINNING OF HEARTS AND MINDS, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG: Anti-Israel protesters block highway outside Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Anti-Israel protesters are blocking an access road to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, forcing some travelers to get out of cars and walk to the terminals.
Cellphone videos circulating on Instagram showed activists sitting in the middle of Interstate 190 with their arms interlocked using long tubes to prevent cars from accessing the Windy City’s main airport on Monday morning.
Many protesters were seen sporting keffiyeh scarves and brandishing signs reading “Free Palestine” and “Stop Genocide.”
Organizers of the protest said their goal was to send a message to Boeing, because the corporation sells weapons to Israel to be used in its war with Hamas.
“On this Tax Day, when millions are paying taxes which fund the ongoing U.S and Israeli bombardment of Gaza, protestors seek to take dramatic action,” the group Chicago Dissenters wrote in an Instagram post. “O’Hare International Airport is one of the largest in the country, and there will be NO business as usual while Palestinians suffer at the hands of American funded bombing by Israel.”
Curiously, the local police appear to be supporting the protestors:
It looks like 20 protesters holding a banner. The drivers could clear them away in two minutes.
If you look, it's actually the police who are blocking the road. The police are protecting the protesters and they have made their SUVs into an impassable barricade. https://t.co/hJC4tyXph7
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 15, 2024
Well, it’s Chicago, a city whose last Republican mayor left office in 1931, and little has changed since in that regard: As Mayor Daley famously uttered in a classic Kinsley gaffe during the 1968 left-on-left protests at the Democrats’ 1968 convention, “Gentlemen, let’s get this thing straight, once and for all. The policeman is not here to create disorder. The policeman is here to preserve disorder.”
THE DEMOCRAT NATIONAL CONVENTION COULD GET INTERESTING: Anti-Israel Activists Rally in Support of Iran in Chicago.
YOU CAN SEE WHY THE DEMOCRATS WOULD BE AFRAID OF THAT: Dem Senator Warns Trump Might Appoint Judges That Will Follow The Constitution.
READER FAVORITE: 10-Minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors. #CommissionEarned
MAYBE THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T KNOW THAT IT HAS:
Kristen:"Has this now escalated into a wider war?"
Kirby: "I don't think there's any reason that it needs to."
Kristen: "But has it? We are in the midst of a wider war."
Kirby: "The president doesn't believe that it needs to." pic.twitter.com/QyBB3ILlo8
— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) April 14, 2024
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Iran Is a Violent Toddler in Need of a Spanking.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: America’s Bonds Are Getting Harder to Sell.
A series of weak auctions for U.S. Treasurys are stoking investors’ concerns that markets will struggle to absorb an incoming rush of government debt.
A selloff sparked by a hotter-than-expected inflation report intensified this past week after lackluster demand for a $39 billion sale of 10-year Treasurys. Investors also showed tepid interest in auctions for three-year and 30-year Treasurys.
Behind their caution lies a growing conviction that inflation isn’t fully tamed and that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates at multidecade highs for months, if not years, to come. The 10-year yield—the benchmark for borrowing rates on everything from mortgages to corporate loans—finished the week around 4.5%, near its highest levels since touching 5% in October.
At the same time, the government is poised to sell another $386 billion or so of bonds in May—an onslaught that Wall Street expects to continue no matter who wins November’s presidential election. While few fear a failed auction—an unlikely scenario that analysts said could potentially trigger prolonged turmoil—some worry that a glut of Treasurys will rattle other parts of the markets, raise the cost of government borrowing and hurt the economy.
“There’s been a big shift in the market narrative. The CPI [consumer-price index] report changed everybody’s view of where Fed policy is headed,” said James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Sierra Mutual Funds.
Washington is adding a trillion dollars to the existing debt about every 100 days, the interest on the existing debt is one trillion dollars a year (bigger than defense and growing), there’s no plan from either party even to trim the rate of spending growth, and we’re stuck with higher interest rates until inflation cools. But that last item looks increasingly unlikely until Washington does something about its spending habits.
Other than “I told you so,” I’m not sure what else to add.