Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

Well, look, don't worry. Chairman Joe says the way to beat inflation is to pump $5T into the economy. So, it's just a matter of time before everyone is making way more and paying way less. Chairman Joe has spoken.

Yes and CJ also gave great advice to all those restaurant owners short on help..
just pay them more! Problem solved!

The man is a genius!

[iam416]

Did you mention housing prices in your post, DSL? Again, I’m more or less “concerned” it’s not transient. I still tend to think it is transient. However, the notion that dumping $5T into economy will reduce inflation is fucking laughable. And if, say, DJT was shoveling that bullshit then you’d be all over it. If your posting from 2016 to 2020 is any indication.

[Dr. Strangelove]

It won't reduce inflation. I just don't know how much more it will increase it for the same reasons I said before

1) Unlike the $5T in covid relief, this $5T won't take the form of direct payments to consumers and businesses. Spending trillions on road projects or expanding Medicare or whatever else WILL impact inflation but it should be more gradual way than mailing out cash. That said I have no way of knowing what the reconciliation bill will look like and there COULD be stuff shoved in there that will add to inflation more than I'm acknowledging.

2) The govt spending $5T spread out over 10 years shouldn't impact the system as much as spending $5T in nine months did.

EDIT: Correction, the covid bills were spread out over more like 15 months than 9. I keep forgetting the first one came really fast after shutdowns started.

[Hannibal]

The inflation numbers are even more alarming if you only look at the past six months, which excludes the lockdown periods. 8.8%, with lots of hidden inflation taking the form of millions of jobs going unfilled because employers do not want to raise wages and pass along the price increases to the consumers. On vacation here this month with the family, tons of stuff is shut down a couple of days per week and operating at reduced hours because of lack of staff. About a month ago my wife and I waited about a half hour for a table at a restaurant and when we sat down to eat, the place was almost empty, but they just didn't have people to serve a full house. Speaking of houses, housing prices are skyrocketing by more than double digits, according to this article (14.6%)..

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/an-inflation-storm-is-coming-for-the-u-s-housing-market-11623419869

[Dr. Strangelove]

What a debacle

[Dr. Strangelove]

Herschel Walker still hasn't officially decided if he's running for Senate or not against Warnock. Trump is pushing him hard much to the cringe of McConnell and most of the Georgia Republican Party. Herschel has a long history of mental illness and an ugly oppo dump came out today about him, about him threatening to kill his ex-wife, and just general unpleasantness. Trump likely knows jack shit about him other than he's famous, he's an athlete, and he played for Trump's USFL team in the mid-80's. So obviously the perfect Senator.

What Erickson is alluding to here is that this oppo was obviously dumped by other Republicans, not Dems, who would love to see him as the nominee next fall.

[Jeff Buchanan]

In this morning's COVID news, the 11th Circuit USCOA has denied the CDC's appeal of a ruling by Judge Steven Merryday (Middle District Court of FL) in favor of FL's request for a preliminary injunction of the CDC's draconian restrictions to the cruise industry imposed during the pandemic and under the authority of the PHE.

This is an immensely complicated case. The original law suit (FL v. Bacerra et. al.) was filed in Judge Merryday's court in April. It has yet to be litigated but will be on August 12th. Merryday ruled in favor of FL's request for a preliminary injunction pending litigation. He then stayed his ruling and gave the CDC a chance to rewrite their Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) to comport with the authority that had been granted in the law. Merryday opined in his ruling that the CDC had exceeded it's authority granted in applicable law. Instead the CDC appealed. The 11th Circuit initially granted the appeal then 6d later vacated it.

The case, even though it involves primarily the cruise industry, is immensely relevant to the dangers of the expanding administrative state the US has become. What's at issue in the FL law suit is the CDC's (an executive branch agency) usurpation of the law making authority of the legislative branch. Two Federal Courts have now ruled that the CDC exceeded it's lawful authority when it shut down the cruise industry last year then issued burdensome return to cruise operations rules in the CSO.

What these rulings amount to is a bitch slap to HHS and the CDC reinforcing an important concept of governance in the US ........ executive branch agencies cannot create quasi laws that infringe on constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Obviously this has wide ranging implications for all sorts of mandates that were issued under the authority of these declared PHE's. Like I said, this is a big deal.

As an aside Merryday was appointed by GWBush, Of the three 11th Circuit Judges involved in the CDC's appeal one was appointed by Obama, one was appointed by GWB and one by DJT. Thus, three notably conservative Judges were involved in the CDC's appeal that they received the bitch slapping. A rare win for conservatism and the rule of law.

[Jeff Buchanan]

In other news the commies are throttling a previously vibrant and democratic Hong Kong. Is Taiwan next? :

Hong Kong.PNG

[AlabamAlum]

If I risk my neck for you, will I get a chance to kill Englishmen?

[lineygoblue]

No. Only the Irish.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Apologize for the random thought but I've been re-watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War that came out 4 years ago

I'm near the end and LBJ just died and I realized that at that point, while Nixon was still President, every single President before him was dead. That's got to be a weird feeling

[Hannibal]

It's a pretty good documentary, but definitely the "boomer" perspective of the war and it leaves out a ton of military details.

[lineygoblue]

I think Jeff has touched on this subject before regarding the reporting of Covid numbers. I seem to be reading daily in the news where Covid cases have "increased by 50% over the past week". Any increase (IMO) is too much, but still, do these people think we are really that stupid? For instance, two weeks ago, our county reported 23 active cases (out of 68K population) with no one in the hospital with Covid. Apparently, 10 more cases have been added, for a "50% increase" in cases. That's at most, 33 people in a county of 68K. So, of course, local fear monkeys are starting to ramp up the cries for 'mandatory masking' ... 'before its out of control'.

There isn't this much concern when the seasonal flu hits. Half of the county could have the seasonal flu, and it would barely cause a ripple. Covid? Its time for masks.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yep, it's happening in most states although the numbers and rates of acceleration are rising. I wrote in a 3 part post about why and that concern is overblown. My advice in the current circumstance has been to be aware of viral prevalence in your county (Broward Co. FL's, where I live, is 17%) and do your own risk assessment about where you go and what you do as well as caring for your health and those that might be around you at any given time.

Of course. that's been my approach and the one I've recommended for about a year.

I remain staunchly opposed to most mandates based on PHEs. These should be ending now anyway, and some states are doing that, because it allows executive agencies within government to issue these things without any accountability to voters or adequate oversight by Congress.

A shake up in that regard is coming. I've talked about FL v. Bacerra and Walenski. That law suit has made it through to the 11th Circuit COA. On Friday, the 11th reversed its earlier decision 6d ago to approve the CDC's request to stay a preliminary injunction of the CDC's onerous Conditional Sail Order (CS0). This thing is like a giant mask mandate except 100X worse. The lower court (the Middle District Court of FL) had preliminarily enjoined the CSO making it unenforceable on the cruise lines. The Judge in the case wrote an eloquent 124 page ruling that slammed HHS and the CDC for unlawful government overreach exceeding the powers granted to it by Congress.

Some think SCOTUS might hear CDC's appeal. Others don't think they will, letting the 11th Circuit reversal and the preliminary injunction, pending litigation scheduled for early August, to stand. But fundamentally, it is a shot across the bow of executive agencies like the CDC warning them to knock this shit off. It's going to have far reaching precedential impact going forward on the powers of government agencies to do some of the crazy shit they've been doing during the SARS2 pandemic.

[Hannibal]

I think Jeff has touched on this subject before regarding the reporting of Covid numbers. I seem to be reading daily in the news where Covid cases have "increased by 50% over the past week". Any increase (IMO) is too much, but still, do these people think we are really that stupid? For instance, two weeks ago, our county reported 23 active cases (out of 68K population) with no one in the hospital with Covid. Apparently, 10 more cases have been added, for a "50% increase" in cases. That's at most, 33 people in a county of 68K. So, of course, local fear monkeys are starting to ramp up the cries for 'mandatory masking' ... 'before its out of control'.

There isn't this much concern when the seasonal flu hits. Half of the county could have the seasonal flu, and it would barely cause a ripple. Covid? Its time for masks.

Yes, and with good reason, because some people really are that stupid. There are examples in this forum. It's hard to overstate the degree to which critical thought has been engineered out of our society. .