OUR ELITES AREN’T WORTHY OF THE WORD: Hunter’s ‘Sugar Bro’ Evasive Testimony Gets Him Into a Different Kind of Trouble.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
January 24, 2024
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE: Army Reveals It Fired Female Commander in Troubled Brigade After Claims of Sexual Assaults on Male Soldiers.
Col. Meghann Sullivan served as commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade, at the base in Washington state. She was relieved of command Oct. 13, but this is the first time her firing has been reported.
Military.com first reported on her suspension and the subsequent investigation into her conduct in April. That reporting was part of the publication’s investigation into the 5th SFAB, which uncovered potentially systemic issues with counterproductive leadership and performance and morale struggles among its rank and file.
The investigation into the 5th SFAB included reviewing an unredacted command climate survey in addition to hundreds of internal Army emails, voice recordings, videos and text messages.
At least she wasn’t able to hide behind her sex and keep her command.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Always a Good Time When We Can Stop Paying Attention to New Hampshire. “Given her clinically insane response to her third-place finish in Iowa last week, I was surprised that Haley didn’t say that this ‘is now a one-woman race’ in her speech last night.”
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: China’s Stock-Market Rout Has Become a Political Problem.
The State Council, the country’s top government body, said Monday that authorities should take stronger and more effective measures to stabilize markets and boost confidence. It called for better regulations, more transparency and an attempt to improve the quality of listed companies.
The cabinet meeting, which analysts said was a direct response to the stock market selloff, was chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang—the country’s No. 2 leader. It led to speculation that China is planning a big stimulus package to boost the stock market, although market participants said the details are murky.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index rallied in response, closing the day up 2.6%—its best performance this year. In mainland China, the CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes also closed slightly higher.
The meeting came days after stock analysts noticed another sign of strong government support: a rash of buying by the so-called national team, a group of state-linked firms that Beijing sometimes pushes to buy shares and other assets. The national team is typically defined by analysts to include insurers, pension funds and China’s sovereign-wealth fund.
What’s the Mandarin for “quantitative easing?”
MEH. SHE BLEW HER CHANCE INSULTING MCCAIN VOTERS IN ARIZONA RIGHT BEFORE ELECTION DAY: Audio Suggests That ‘Powerful People’ Tried to Bribe Kari Lake to ‘Go Away.’
I liked Lake — a lot — but you don’t have to be a McCain fan to understand what a self-own that was, causing her to underperform every other statewide GOP candidate.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Global shipping rates skyrocket as Red Sea crisis deepens.
New data from Freightos Terminal released Friday shows that rates for shipping goods from Asia to Northern Europe surged 461% compared to mid-October, before the diversion of vessels in the region began. Rates on the route from Asia to the North American East Coast and to the North American West Coast have also skyrocketed, climbing a respective 130% and 97% since the end of October.
Carriers have also announced surcharges that range from $500 to as much as $2,700 per container.
About 15% of world shipping traffic, including 30% of global container trade, passes through the Suez Canal to and from the Red Sea. But to avoid being attacked or having their cargo stolen, many ships are instead sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, which is the long way around Africa. The Houthi attacks on commercial ships have not stopped even after the U.S. and the U.K. launched strikes against Houthi assets in Yemen.
Biden’s “little bit pregnant” non-commitment to either war or peace will just drag the situation out.
WELL, GOOD: New School Board Restores Native Warrior Logo.
January 23, 2024
BREAKING: Biden Wins New Hampshire Primary—Sort Of.
To be fair, “sort of” is how Biden wins in recent years.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE: Trump Wins New Hampshire Primary.
LIVE RESULTS: Will the New Hampshire Primary Bring Us Any Surprises?
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE: Nikki Haley’s Presidential Aspirations Are About to Crash and Burn in New Hampshire.
I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE (ONGOING) DAMAGE DONE: Public Education’s Alarming New 4th ‘R’: Reversal of Learning.
The alarming plunge in academic performance during the pandemic was met with a significant drop in grading and graduation standards to ease the pressure on students struggling with remote learning. The hope was that hundreds of billions of dollars of emergency federal aid would enable schools to reverse the learning loss and restore the standards.
Four years later, the money is almost gone and students haven’t made up that lost academic ground, equaling more that a year of learning for disadvantaged kids. Driven by fears of a spike in dropout rates, especially among blacks and Latinos, many states and school districts are apparently leaving in place the lower standards that allow students to get good grades and graduate even though they have learned much less, particularly in math.
It’s as if many of the nation’s 50 million public school students have fallen backwards to a time before rigorous standards and accountability mattered very much.
Read the whole thing.
EVERYBODY HAS A DREAM: A New Billy Joel Single Is Nice, but C’mon — Give Us an Album! “I hope the song is good. I know it won’t be enough.”
WOEING: United CEO casts doubt on 737 Max 10 order after Boeing’s recent problems. “United CEO Scott Kirby said the plane is already ‘best case’ about five years delayed and expressed frustration at Boeing for the most recent manufacturing problem in which a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight on Jan. 5, prompting the FAA to ground those planes.”
Unrelated, just weird: United CEO Scott Kirby is drag queen, pushes drag and DEI on staff.
NOW THAT’S A TELL: Watch Adam Schiff’s Face When He’s Called Out for His Lies During Debate.
DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Germany, Once a Powerhouse, Is at an Economic ‘Standstill.’
As the economy sputtered last year, the government was nearly paralyzed by bickering among members of the three parties that make up Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition. Then came a budget crisis in November, causing the government’s popularity to plunge in polls.
Many of those disputes were over how to fill a 17 billion-euro ($18.5 billion) gap in the budget after the country’s highest court in November threw out the previous spending plan. That decision was driven by the country’s so-called debt brake, a law enshrined in its Constitution to keep public deficits low.
But geopolitical crises and new industrial rivalries in China and the United States have weakened demand for German-made products abroad. Germany grew rich in recent decades by selling its goods to the world, racking up a trade surplus that strained ties with the United States under President Donald J. Trump.
The restrictions on borrowing are preventing the government from making badly needed investments in public infrastructure, from schools and public administration to railways and energy networks.
Germany has plenty of money for investments; they just choose to spend it on generous social welfare programs, instead.
Although I am a bit jealous of that “debt brake” that stops Berlin from trying to spend its way out of problems the way Washington does.
ONE HAS LONG BEEN A SAFE PLACE TO PARK MONEY WHILE THE OTHER IS NOT SO MUCH: Investors Fleeing China Are Going Big in Japan.
Japanese cosmetics and pop culture have long been hot items in China—Japanese stocks, less so.
The fact that this is beginning to change—Chinese individual investors are piling headlong into Japanese shares as their own market flags—is both a sign of the times and a big hint as to why Japanese stocks are suddenly doing so well in general.
Foreign investors who previously parked a lot of cash in China need somewhere else for their international allocations. A lot of Chinese domestic capital is eyeing the exits, too: And Japan is cheaper than the U.S. and, potentially, comes with less political and regulatory risk.
Potentially?
ANTONY BLINKEN IS ON HIS WAY TO MOSCOW TO FIND A COMPROMISE SOLUTION AS WE SPEAK: Putin Wants Alaska Back. Also, People In Hell Want Icewater. “One wonders what purpose these vainglorious, unenforceable pronouncements are meant to serve.”
ISN’T EVERYTHING? Email Is Racist. “This latest affront to decency is based on the accusations of Trump prosecutor Fani Willis, who, at the moment, is undoubtedly desperately casting about for anything to shift the focus from her alleged shenanigans.”
STILL NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME: Ford dealership details ‘struggle’ with EV truck as ‘concerns’ mount.
Maoli claimed the sales for the electric version of Ford’s iconic F-150 truck have been dismal at her New Jersey dealership. Her comments come just days after the U.S. automaker announced it would dial back production of the electric truck as demand wanes.
The company said it will reduce the number of shifts at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, where it builds the EV pickups, to one, beginning April 1.
The move will affect some 1,400 workers, including 700 who will move to the company’s Michigan Assembly Plant. Some employees will be placed in roles at the Rouge complex or other Ford facilities in southeast Michigan, and others can “take advantage of the Special Retirement Incentive Program agreed to in the 2023 Ford-UAW contract,” Ford said.
“I think that we all know, and we all talk about how… the infrastructure is not there yet for EVs,” Maoli added. “And I think that they’re trying to move a little bit too fast.”
Get ahead of the market — or try to create one out of thin air through taxes, incentives, and mandates — and the market will bite back.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: DeSantis Should Sue His Campaign Consultants for Malpractice. “It’s no secret that I am not a fan of the grifters in the political consultant class. Consultants don’t even have to be good at their jobs — the political landscape is littered with scores of them who have track records that should make them want to bury their heads in the sand.”
FALLOUT: United Airlines forecasts first-quarter loss due to Boeing 737 Max 9 grounding. “United has 79 of the aircraft in its fleet, more than any other carrier, followed by Alaska. United said Monday it expects the planes to remain grounded through Jan. 26, though its forecast assumes it won’t be able to fly the planes at all this month.”