The Fed -- JPow -- Trump Tariffs -- Liars And Hypocrites -- Wednesday -- February 19, 2025

 Link here.

In testimony over the past few weeks, when asked, Fed chair JPow consistently said that the Fed doesn't worry about "policy" when they (the Fed) considers and sets rates, and yet, here we are.

Either I'm misreading him or misheard or JPow is a liar, also. Like all the rest in Washington, DC. But I know he was asked about Trump's tariffs and he avoided answering the question.

Ukraine -- February 19, 2025

 

Ukraine. Mike Walatz, National Security Advisor, has it exactly right. Trump wants the war over. "Everyone" else, it seems, wants the war to continue. Again, Trump has a self-imposed 100-day deadline. I wouldn't bet against Trump on this one. Eminently qualified but wow, he has a tough story to sell the American public (most of whom have long gotten bored with this story). From wiki:

Michael George Glen Waltz, 51 years old, is an American politician, businessman, author, and former Army Special Forces officer who is the 29th and current U.S. National Security Advisor.

He previously served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 6th congressional district from 2019 to 2025.

He is a member of the Republican Party and is the first Army Special Forces soldier to be elected to the United States Congress. Waltz received four Bronze Stars while serving in the Special Forces during multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa.

He served in the Bush administration as a defense policy director in the Pentagon and as counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2018, Waltz won election to the House of Representatives, defeating former ambassador Nancy Soderberg and succeeded Ron DeSantis, who was elected the 46th governor of Florida that same year. He was re-elected in 2020, 2022, and 2024 with over 60% of the vote in each election.

Waltz served as chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness for the 118th United States Congress. 

"Ukraine start this." Folks are misreading Trump on this one.

Trump's Ukraine? Biden's Afghanistan?

Trump -- SDNY -- Mayor Adams -- February 18, 2025

I've never had so much fun watching Trump play chess.

A federal judge is not going to rubber stamp Trump's request to drop case against NYC mayor Adams.

I assume this is a federal case; if so, Trump can pardon NYC mayor Adams. Link here.

So, let the federal judge do what he wants. 

Trump holds the trump card. LOL.

Presidents Are Transformatinal -- February 16, 2025

A reader sent me this link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/recession-begins-dc-active-housing-listings-soar-jobless-claims-spike-doge-drains-swamp.

My reply: I’m waiting for Trump to announce the following moves:

• presidential operations will move to his Florida White House, 
• taking the entire West Wing with him and leaving Musk, Rubio, Hespeth, and Bondi in DC.
• vice president's office will remain in Washington, DC, to be close to the US Senate
  
• Dept of Government Efficiency to remain in DC 
• transition DOGE to new department, the Department of Technology: Stanford, CA
  
• intel operations will remain in the DC area
• Dept of Energy will be divided into three divisions
• nuclear: Los Alamos, NM (alternates: Chicago, Princeton)
  
• fossil fuel: Ft Worth, TX
• all else: Denver, CO
  
• Homeland Security office will be moved to El Paso, TX.
• Health and Human Services
• surveillance, research: Atlanta, Georgia
  
• benefits (social security, medicare): North Hero, Vermont
  
• Commerce: Seattle, Washington
  
• Dept of Interior to Utah.
• Defense, Justice, FBI, stay in DC area. 
• Treasury to NYC or Boston, including the Fed.  
• IRS will remain in current locations
  
• NASA is broken into two divisions
• theoretical: NASA East stays in Florida.
• commercial applications: NASA West (Musk/Texas)
• FEMA: Califonria -- FEMA until the agency becomes solely a go-between  the White House and the states' own FEMA operations
  
• Department of Education to Iowa, until it, too, becomes purely a go-between between the White House and states' own education operations
  
• Department of Veterans Affairs, to be co-located with existing military bases: 
• west coast, Camp Pendleton (US Marines)
  
• west coast, south, San Diego (Navy)
  
• east coast: North Carolina's Fort Bragg (Amry)
  
• south: San Antonio, TX (Army) -- Fort Sam Houston
• west, central: US Air Force -- Colorado Springs
• Department of Agriculture: Moline, Illinois
• Housing and Urban Development: Mar-A-Lago
• Labor: Detroit
• Dept of Transportation: Detroit
• Trade Representative
• west: China / San Francisco, CA
  
• south: Mexico / San Antonio, TX
• north: Canada / Detroit unless Canada becomes 51st stage
• east: EU / Bangor, Maine
  

What Goes Around, Comes Around -- Judges -- February 15, 2025

Link here.

February 13, 2025

 

With YouTube, evening news is now history, now passe.

The Blue: my hunch -- law-abiding citizens will have no patience with local law enforcement not willing to help ICE. Me: I've lost interest, but will occasionally report it for the archives.

Eric Adams: NYC mayor -- "he said, she said." No dog in this fight, but as a spectator, I'm cheering for Eric Adams. His crime: flying Turkish Air Lines -- the airlines upgraded his seating to First Class or some such thing.

Flooding and mudslides: southern California.

Ukraine: it's all over for Zelensky; it will be interesting to see what the EU will do. Oh-oh! Gut check for Germany. I've lost interest in this WWI-trench warfare and ready to move on. The only question: will the war be over within Trump's first 100 days?

Only question: what in the world was Biden doing for four years?

CFOs: earning their pay. Tariffs on-again, off-again, creating havoc. It's a spectator sport watching the C-suite praising Trump but fighting Trump's initiatives.

Market: whoo-hoo! 

That asteroid:

• 2.3% chance of crashing into earth at Christmas, 2032
• if it does hit, it will hit the ocean in the southern hemisphere
• it it does hit, it will. have no "impact" on humans, except perhaps tsunamis for those island nations looking for climate change money. 
• some islands could disappear
  
• it appears, NBC Nightly News has run out of Trump-is-a-boogeman-scare stories and now reporting asteroids, reminding folks that it was an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
• big question: will the stranded NASA astronauts be home by then?

Inflation: Reminder -- Trump Has Not Yet Been President for Thirty Days -- February 23, 2025

 

Quick! Pick out the outlying data point, link here:

The Fed was either clueless or trying to throw the election. Link here.

Oh, oh. Link here.