Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

What The Chairman said in the 2020 Presidential Debate...

Democratic challenger Joe Biden accused President Trump of trafficking in Russian disinformation in the final debate on Thursday, and asked Americans to weigh each candidate’s character in deciding how to vote.

Trump brought up allegations involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter, referring to the “laptop from hell” cited in a New York Post story about the younger Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.

“What he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant,” Biden said. “What he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”

Trump shot back: “You mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax?”

The issue came up when Biden asked voters to compare each candidate’s integrity.

heh

Hard to keep track of all the biden lies.

[Mike]

From a CBS interview in 2021"

Smith: Okay. You don’t know yes or no if the laptop was yours?

Biden: I don’t have any idea. I’ve no idea whether or not.

Smith: So it could have been yours?

Biden: Of course, certainly. There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. There could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me.

Smith: And you didn’t drop off a laptop to be repaired in Delaware?

Biden: No. No.

Smith: No.

Biden: Not that I remember at all, at all. So, we’ll see.

Then TODAY Hunter Biden urges various AGs and the DOJ to pursue investigations against Rudy Giuliani, Tucker Carlson and others because they [checks notes] "disseminated his personal data" from the laptop that he left at the Delaware repair shop.

Some of you may recall that 50 former national intelligence officials including 5 former heads of the CIA claimed that the laptop was a Russian disinformation op. They released a letter stating as much in.... oh... hold on let me find my calendar... October of 2020! Just a few weeks before a presidential election in which Hunter's dad was running. Man, lucky for Joe all those really smart guys were completely WRONG and the timing of the letter had to be purely coincidental.

Now I know some of you are probably thinking, "But Mike, how can Hunter pursue defamation claims against people for reporting on the contents of said laptop when 1.) our top people say it wasn't even his to begin with and 2.) Hunter and Joe Biden both claimed the same on national TV numerous times?" Sadly, I don't have an answer as more information is needed to fully piece this mystery together.

[THE_WIZARD_]

...you just can't make this shit up...

[iam416]

As I've said numerous times before, I really don't give much of a fuck about Hunter Biden or his laptop -- I mean, he's likely a certified grifter, but whatever. HOWEVER, that particular story is so fucking revealing of the nature of certain institutions that it actually serves a much broader purpose. It's sort of a "cover up is worse than the story" twist on things where the real story is WHO was doing the covering up for a certified grifter.

[Hannibal]

[Hannibal]

Hunter Biden's laptop shows that Joe was profiting from his son's corrupt dealings -- I'm not sure that the cover-up is actually worse than the crime there.

That is, unless, you think that the "big guy" refers to somebody else besides Joe.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Crazy jobs report. 517k jobs created, more than double expectations. Unemployment at 3.4%. Avg weekly hours worked went UP. Participation rate went up and is now the highest since March 2020.

Everybody on CNBC now casting a lot of doubt on the Fed's decision-making and saying they could be wrong to assume the tight labor market is driving inflation.

[Mike]

I guess like the origin of the universe, we'll never know what contributed so mightily to inflation.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[iam416]

The tight job market caused inflation? I mean, if you're motivated to look past the ginormous fucking pachyderm sitting on your sofa, I guess that could have been the reason.

[iam416]

And perhaps the "paying people not to work" money is finally sort of drying up. Good news!

[iam416]

In New Jersey, and black female councilwoman was shot and killed. She was a R, though, so need to worry about white nationalists -- our number one domestic threat -- on this one.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The tight job market caused inflation? I mean, if you're motivated to look past the ginormous fucking pachyderm sitting on your sofa, I guess that could have been the reason.

The stimulus + other things got inflation started but the Fed's assumption has been that the tight labor market is continuing to push it along. That could be a WRONG assumption. That the Fed may be getting it wrong was a case being pushed by Rick Santelli and Joe Kernen, both Republicans. Inflation is still too high but it's down to almost half its peak and that's despite the jobs market not really slowing down at all yet.

Big Tech is the only industry doing well-publicized big layoffs and that's possibly because they overhired during 2020 and 2021 when their stocks were doing insanely well.

Anyways, unemployment is the lowest since January 1969 but we need to rise about another 0.8 points to get back to pre-pandemic participation levels.

[iam416]

The stimulus + other things got inflation started but the Fed's assumption has been that the tight labor market is continuing to push it along. That could be a WRONG assumption. That the Fed may be getting it wrong was a case being pushed by Rick Santelli and Joe Kernen, both Republicans. Inflation is still too high but it's down to almost half its peak and that's despite the jobs market not really slowing down at all yet.

Big Tech is the only industry doing well-publicized big layoffs and that's possibly because they overhired during 2020 and 2021 when their stocks were doing insanely well.

Anyways, unemployment is the lowest since January 1969 but we need to rise about another 0.8 points to get back to pre-pandemic participation levels.

Well, I guess I can't speak to the basis of the Fed's actions. One would assume that if they were wrong about the tight labor market being the CONTINUED CAUSE of inflation then their actions in raising interest rates were waaaaaay wrong. Personally, I would have thought that sucking money out of the economy -- at least some of the trillions that was dumped into it -- is probably a good idea and is probably helping to dampen inflation. And I think The Chairman and the Fed got it right -- even if they spent too many months whistling past the graveyard. But, if massive amounts of excess money wasn't the continued cause -- just the tight labor market -- then I'm way wrong, too.

Inflation should be dropping. I mean the year-over numbers are now comparing prices to last year's really high prices. The aggregate two-year would be a disaster. It needs to drop by way more than half of what it was last year. It needs to be in the 1-2% range to start to undo some of the damage (IMO).

[froot loops]

A big mistake the Biden Administration made was stating the transitory effects were going to be for a few months. They have been much longer than anyone expected.

We'll see how right the Fed got it as hikes take a while to work on the economy. The worry is these regular hikes haven't hit the economy yet.