Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Probable Cause to Believe the Government was in Criminal Contempt of Court

Contemptible – by Joyce Vance Civil Discourse Today, James Boasberg, a federal judge in the District of Columbia, issued an order following a hearing he held in his courtroom almost two weeks ago. That case involved the two planeloads of people the Trump government spirited out of the country, Venezuelans who are allegedly members of […]

Health Insurance, Baseball Caps, and Pardons

Healthcare Insurance My United Healthcare Supplemental Healthcare Insurance Plan took a 21% increase in monthly cost. The customer service person admitted Arizona was seeing a larger of the increases in the United States. I will have to see if it makes sense to go 100% VA. Baseball Caps Don’t where your Chicago Bulls cap anywhere […]

March manufacturing production also shows evidence of tariff front-running

 – by New Deal democrat The former King of Coincident Indicators, industrial production, has faded ever since the “China shock” at the beginning of the Millennium. Downturns in production almost always coincided with the onset of recessions beforehand. Since then, there have been several big downturns, in 2015-16, 2019, and a smaller one in 2023-24, […]

RFK Jr and the fake vaccine-autism connection

The alleged connection between vaccines and autism maps to a since-retracted British publication that faked data purporting to show that vaccines containing the methylmercury-based preservative thimerosal were associated with autism in children. Thimerosal was discontinued in US childhood vaccines in 2001. Since then, the anti-vaxxers have noted that autism diagnoses have increased, which would seem […]

A plan for full privatization of the USPS appears to have lost steam

Long time acquaintance Steve Hutkins had this Washington Post article (taken from the archives) on his site from late March. It is an update at to where the privatization of the USPS status is today. To sum it up? It may be, the USPS is too big to swallow. Save The Post Office, Steve Hutkins […]

March retail sales were all about front-running T—-p’s tariffs

 – by New Deal democrat Normally real retail sales is one of the indicators I treat as most important, because it tells us so much about consumer behavior, which is not only 70% of the economy, but also has a lengthy track record for leading both employment and the coincident indicators for recession. Not this […]

The AOC and Sanders Crowds

It is time for a change by Democrats. For sure Kamala Harris handed Trump his . . . I was sitting in my chair laughing and he backed off. I am sure he knew why he could not go to a second debate with Kamala. And once again, voters would not accept a woman as […]

Would you buy a used car from Elon?

It’s illegal in every state to manipulate odometers to record mileage other than the actual mileage on the car. “ . . . Tesla’s warranties on vehicles are capped by mileage and are supposed to “cover repairs and replacements necessary to correct defects” in parts that it manufactures or supplies. “However, Tesla allegedly ”knowingly overstates […]

Trump, Just Letting You Know

“‘Trump Tariff’ Surcharges Appearing on Customer Bills,” Watch: Amid escalating U.S. China trade tensions, American companies are adding explicit “Trump tariff” surcharges to bills to offset the impact of tariffs. Trump Changes Mind on Illegal Immigrants: “One of the things I am doing, though, is I’m also making it easier on the farmers and the […]

About those law firm agreements

There’s a paywalled post over at TPM. Here are the nut grafs: “In other words, the notional agreements don’t appear to have any of the basic blocking and tackling features that constitute anything close to a contract. They don’t explicitly state who the parties to the agreement are. They don’t state the duration of the […]