Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

Fair 'nuff

[Dr. Strangelove]

The substance of these leaks might not be a biggest deal but it's a really bad sign that someone working on the Herschel Walker campaign is leaking them to the press. The emails and texts the reporter claims to have seen suggest his top staff and advisors have close to zero respect for him, regard him as a liar that could melt down any time.

Herschel Walker Lied About His Secret Kids to His Own Campaign (thedailybeast.com)

[Mike]

What joke of a candidate. Thanks Georgia primary voters.

[iam416]

The Rs efforts to not win the Senate are truly astounding.

[lineygoblue]

2c758a58-3e59-4930-9ea2-622c54821e02-courts1.JPG?width=827&height=586&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp.jpg

The Detroit Police officer holding the certificate was shot and killed last night by a gunman who was shooting indiscriminately.

I wonder if his black life matters? It does to me, but then again, since i have white skin, I'm a racist, so my opinion doesn't matter.

I doubt he'll receive as much press as George Floyd. Nobody will build a neighborhood monument to him. In fact, lots of people probably considered him a "tom".

I feel bad for his family today. What a waste. He was a real hero.

[lineygoblue]

The Rs efforts to not win the Senate are truly astounding.

Watching the D's and R's these days is like watching two trains racing toward a cliff, and trying to get over the edge befor the other.

[lineygoblue]

The Detroit News article about Officer Courts. The quote from Mrs. Courts is heartbreaking.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/07/07/detroit-police-officer-loren-courts-fatal-shooting-dispatch-audio/7828520001/

[Mike]

Man, that's awful.

I'm seeing more stuff about Britney Griner

Speaking of her, I wonder if she would prefer some of that good ol' American structural racism right about now.

[Hannibal]

What joke of a candidate. Thanks Georgia primary voters.

Republicans are absolutely obsessed with identifying and promoting based blacks. It gives White Conservatives a feeling of validation and legitimacy and it is their strategy for demonstrating that they are not racist.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Talking about shootings made me think of this. Happened in downtown Akron on the night of July 4th. Not connected any protests or anything. Almost certainly unintentional but someone fired a 9mm on one side of a little lake and the bullet traveled over 1000 feet, through a front window, and killed a woman watching tv. The police found 9mm casings on the opposite side of the lake from the house.

Woman, 26, dies from bullet apparently shot across Summit Lake (beaconjournal.com)

[lineygoblue]

I wonder why the Jesse and Al show has not went to the Russian Embassy in NY to demand the release of Greiner? Shouldn't we be seeing some mass demonstrations by now? Where are the firebombs? No "night of rage"? What's going on here?

[Hannibal]

FFS didn't anyone see Midnight Express? You smuggle illegal drugs into or out of some other country and you could really be fucked.

[lineygoblue]

Greiner either wasn't advised of Russian laws regarding CBD, or she didn't pay attention.

Years ago, a church I attended sent a group of men overseas to help build a church building. The locals didn't have the skills to do it so some men in our church who were in the construction business went over there to help them finish their building. Our men were REQUIRED to attend a day-long meeting where they were told what they could bring, what they could NOT bring, what they should do, what they should SAY, .. it was a complete briefing on the do's and don'ts of the country they were going to. They were told that failure to go along with local laws and customs could get them tossed in jail, or worse. Our guys went there, helped finish their building, and came back without incident.

Seems like someone should have briefed Greiner on what Russian laws were about CBD. I think she'll be released soon. Its all a political football right now. Putin hasn't finished measuring his penis yet.

[Dr. Strangelove]

If Devin Nunes ends up being the fallguy for any misdeeds that may have happened here, that would be hilarious

Trump leaves social media company during a federal investigation (heraldtribune.com)

*********************

Donald Trump removed himself from the board of his Sarasota-based social media company, records show, just weeks before the company was issued federal subpoenas by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and a grand jury in Manhattan.

Trump, the chairman of Trump Media and Technology Group, was one of six board members removed on June 8, state business records show.

Among the board members removed were Kashyap Patel, Trump's former point man in the White House; Scott Glabe, a former assistant to Trump who was counsel for the media company; and Donald Trump, Jr.

The SEC served Trump Media and Technology Group with a subpoena on June 27, according to a regulatory filing.

*********************

Below is a decent little article about SPACs if you know nothing about them and would like to know more.

The SPAC Bubble Is About to Burst (hbr.org)

[Jeff Buchanan]

I hope you are being sarcastic. I have not advocated for any of that and resent the implication.

Ya think?

It was harsh but you've put forth points like this in the past, especially point #1, and we've been down this path before shooting holes in it. Geezer correctly argues, as I'm pretty sure he has in the past, when you post stuff like point #1, that high energy prices and 8.6% inflation are NOT the free market at work as you state. They are, in large part, due to the policies advanced by the American progressive left and acted upon by Congress and if some of the crazy shit makes it through the Senate, the US president.

It is absolutely ludicrous for the administration to be floating legislation to include BBB, loaded with concessions to the progressive left on energy that bloat the costs and de-incentivize investment in fossil fuels when the limits of alternatives to it (solar, wind, nuclear, batteries) are well understood and recognized. This extravagant spending is being authorized in an environment of a shrinking economy and sky-rocketing energy prices. Crazy inflationary. Dangerously recessionary.

It is absolutely ridiculous for the US to pursue unrealistic "net zero carbon" policies that impact multiple economic sectors in a world that has countries that either can't pursue those policies or knows that the pursuit of them absent viable alternatives ready for market at scale is a sure way to screw your economy. The effect of pursuing such policies is to drive supplies of fossil fuels through reduced production and decreased investment down, increase prices at the wholesale and retail level and create substantial upward pressure on inflation. This is Econ 101.

I'm an advocate of what I call hybrid capitalism - the free-wheeling kind is, in part, responsible for the concentration of wealth in both economic sectors - super-stars - and among the individuals that manage and work in these super star sectors. The question is how destructive is wealth concentration and the attendant income inequality that appears to be generating. What are the proper targets of regulation of American capitalism and once those are identified, how should American capitalism be regulated?

We're at a point with the US economy and America itself where we must adapt the American model of capitalism, with all it's current warts, or watch China pass us by. Despite those warts, it still is responsible for unprecedented growth in the American standard of living and for nations that have followed the model, global standards of living. Meanwhile, America is still a country of unprecedented freedom and lack of harmful regulation of our lives and the kinds of work we want to pursue. It's also arguably, for good or for bad, caused increasing and likely unhealthy concentration of wealth that at some point will become politically destabilizing.

Addressing necessary changes so as to adapt American capitalism to one capable of competing with other capitalist economic models, namely state capitalism of China, may be the most important undertaking of our time - more important than climate change, more important than curbing the expansionist militarism of Russia or China. Note I said compete, not become like. To do that involves restrictions on freedoms. There are many facets of American Capitalism that can't be beat - one in particular is the unrestrained benefits afforded to and will ultimately accrue to innovators and risk takers in dominant portions of the economy - services and technology. This is one of the reasons well educated foreigners want to come and work here with those kinds of opportunities unavailable elsewhere on earth. Those have have been present since the start and absolutely necessary to preserve.