Robert, if you did not exist, someone would have to invent you. Always a bright light through the fog of the day's news, and a calm voice among the turbulence. Thank you, again! Now, as for me, I am going to repeat what I have said before: It's time to leave (or ignore) the Chicken Little Caucus and the Nothing-Can-Be-Done Club. There is much work to be done, and concentrating on worry and fear will only distract us. Let's remember that truth always catches up with and passes the lie, because it is--after all--true. Our job is to keep speaking the truth (even when it hurts) loudly enough for the truth to pass the lie before Election Day next year. Oh, and also giving money to help the good folks.
One nit: Trump is an idiot whether or not (not just if) he testifies in the criminal trial in Judge Chutkan's courtroom. He is an idiot if he testifies in any of the cases against him. Indeed, he is simply an idiot.
You are correct that the former guy's lawyers will not get away with their behavior in federal court, but I don't think it's really a difference of formal vs. less formal in the two venues. First, since the fraud case is a non-jury, civil trial (as opposed to a criminal trial before a jury) Justice Engoron is not as concerned with perception and the pace of the case as he would be if it were before a jury. Speaking objections are not allowed when there is a jury; there would be sidebars, out of the jury's presence. Justice Engoron is the trier of fact and he can sift through the evidence in ways that laypersons on a jury may not be able to do. He is also cognizant of trying to eliminate issues for appeal. In some ways, he is almost treating the former guy as a pro se (self-represented) litigant by allowing some of the rambling answers. Also, without getting too into the weeds or into his head, often when a judge has an idea where a case is headed, the judge tends to be more lenient with the side that is not likely to prevail, again, thinking ahead to the appeal. And it's already clear where this is going . . . .
Please stop with the Biden is too old to run again nonsense! Rick Wilson's Substack pleads the case for Biden with one of the best messages I have read. Long, yes, but well worth your time to read. https://therickwilson.substack.com/p/joe-biden-for-president
The MSM covers the news the same way FleeceBlock's algorithm operates: anger, outrage and upset among readers attract eyeballs and clicks. Plus most of the unemployables haven't got the brains to find their ass with both hands on a clear day with a two hour advance notice.
If memory serves, it was some six weeks ago when political analyst Simon Rosenberg stated, here I’m paraphrasing, that, as important as it is for Democrats to flip the VA State House and hold the Senate, the larger issue is the necessity that Republican losses serve to repudiate Governor Glenn Youngkin (Mike Johnson's doppelgänger, in my view), whom Republican elites are eyeing as VP pick to add legitimacy (indeed, purported) to the Trump ticket. I explicitly recall Rosenberg stating he was confident about 24, save this one concern, and can affirm unequivocally that no one has done more than Rosenberg to galvanize her or his followers over the past couple of months to deliver for Virginia.
Though all we can do now, aside from helping to cure ballots, as warranted, is wait for returns, I thought it worth spreading the word that Rosenberg, to the best of my memory, stated that the 23 Virginia state election would be among the most important in 23 and 24. If Democrats do well, we move on. But, if not, we must be vigilant as to Glenn Youngkin’s subsequent plans.
There is no escaping the truth that a lot of Democrats, including young ones, want a younger person to run for President in 2024, and it's not Kamala Harris. I wish Biden would announce that he is done and step aside. Putting the polls aside, the stakes are too high and we are at grave risk to ignore Biden's age as a huge risk factor. Biden needs to do what he has always done: put America ahead of himself. He's been a great President, but we have to recognize that the time has come to pass the baton. We need new energy in our party. Maybe Gavin Newsom, whom I personally don't like (and I'm a liberal Californian), but he's smart and charismatic. Or some other younger and smart and articulate Democrat. Just not an old man. We have to confront that truth, and quickly.
You write, in part, “To be clear, Congress should take action to reduce deficits and the national debt.”
Why oh why oh why oh … do you write such mythology?
The US national debt & deficit are not economic problems. They are only “asserted to be problems” by people & economists who do not understand Modern Money.
I’d expect you of all people to get that.
The US has a sovereign currency, we have a monopoly on creation of dollars. Therefore we can not “run out” of $$$ any more than baseball can run out of runs or football out of touchdowns.
The debt & deficit are purely financial accounting artifacts. If the deficit was $5T, National debt 100T and unemployment was 25% would you say “gack no more government spending until budget is balanced, we must cut spending?”
Of course not. The actual condition of the citizenry is vastly more important than the accounting results of fiscal decisions.
This is not the place to get into the somewhat gnarly details of how the US Treasury works. But in a nutshell, at the Federal level, tax dollars collected are NOT in actuality a constraint on federal spending … as long as there are real physical resources that can be put to work … increasing government spending is a good thing. Such spending generates more demand which puts more people to work.
So please Mr Hubbell, stop with the deficit/debt worry thing.
The deliberate, meticulously planned massacre of Oct 7 had one purpose only: lure or entice the Israelis to respond strongly – and the stronger the better. Hamas was not only anticipating a harsh reaction, they were welcoming it, indeed betting on it.
The massacre, the worst pogrom imaginable of October 7 has shaken if not shattered the perception that Israel can guarantee the security of its citizens against all threats from abroad. It is 9/11 on steroids. This has repercussions for Israelis as well as the Jewish community worldwide. Israel has to respond and finish Hamas once and for all. This will lead to an incredible number of civilian casualties on the Palestinian side which in turn will lead to international protests, an isolation of Israel and rising anti-Semitism worldwide.
So far the devilish script of Hamas plays out exactly as planned – in fact it probably exceeds the expectations of Hamas. So we have a Democratic Congresswoman who sides unequivocally with the goal of a terrorist organization (From the River to the See means the annihilation of Israel) and announces that she would like to throw the 2024 election and bring back Trump because President Biden does not play along. Wow! Hamas, the Ajatollahs in Iran,Putin and Trump are high-fiving each other.
We need to message 📣 better about the GOP’s push to privatize Medicare. Many older voters don’t believe it will affect them while younger voters are tuned out on the issue.The GOP would love to inject 💉Medicare Reach(initiated by Trump admin ) with steroids.Unfortunately the Biden Admin is not helping, simply renaming the unpopular Medicare Direct Contracting to Medicare Reach.Not even a 🩹band-aid.
I’ve contacted my GOP/ Freedom Caucus Rep many times. Never received a call back except when I contacted about the dangers of Medicare Reach. They do not want this out there about TRADITIONAL MEDICARE !! 📣📣
⬇️
The majority of American seniors choose Traditional Mediacre, which does not allow third-party entities like insurance companies to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. The REACH program betrays the promise of Traditional Medicare by placing middlemen between seniors and the care they need … and allowing those middlemen to walk away with enormous profits.
-Seniors are enrolled in REACH entities without their full understanding or consent
-The only way for seniors to leave a REACH entity is to find a new primary care doctor
-REACH entities have a financial incentive to restrict seniors’ care and reward investors
Journalism is a tough, tough competitive business. If you are a newspaper, you want to "own" a story, especially if it's a story that could have legs.Your journalists yearn to be the "experts" in the story. Hence we have Nate Cohn and the NYTs poll.
Shame on them. With a highly biased and poorly built participant group the NYTs has made a mockery of their own news standard; "All the news that's fit to print"
I know this is bordering on heretical in this space BUT even taking on board the meaninglessness of polls at this stage, I do feel rattled. I have been enormously surprised and impressed by Biden’s first term; he has been an outstanding president but why oh why run again??? There are so many eligible and capable Dems in the wings. In the face of national disaster we should be fielding someone who looks young and vital. I can’t believe that at his age Biden is stupidly clinging to office. Where are the voices urging him to go while NOW with his legacy in tact.
The circus is in town in New York acting like a civil case against the Trump organization which has already been found guilty of fraud. Trump’s testimony confirmed for me that Trump is floundering and his strategy (the only one he has) is to attack the judicial system and people and make himself seem like the victim. He made a lot of noise and he got a lot of media coverage but did he win the minds of the voters? He looked and seemed pathetic but we can’t take his act for granite. The New York trial was a dress rehearsal for future trials and the federal and state prosecutors must decide when they will finally say “ enough is enough” and take the appropriate actions and sanctions. You and I could never get away with what Trump did yesterday in court. The American voters are waiting patiently to have the hammer fall on Donald Trump and remind him he is not above the law or allowed to denigrate the justice system. Enough is enough.
I don't understand how repubs think cutting Social Security and Medicare is a winning issue, but I also don't understand why Dems have never come out strongly (or at all?) for the very simple solution to Social Security solvency -- eliminate the cap! I deeply resent having to pay FICA tax on every dollar I earn while people who earn much more than I do don't. It's incredibly unfair and just plain dumb to ignore this simple solution to the ongoing problem of Social Security solvency.
Robert, if you did not exist, someone would have to invent you. Always a bright light through the fog of the day's news, and a calm voice among the turbulence. Thank you, again! Now, as for me, I am going to repeat what I have said before: It's time to leave (or ignore) the Chicken Little Caucus and the Nothing-Can-Be-Done Club. There is much work to be done, and concentrating on worry and fear will only distract us. Let's remember that truth always catches up with and passes the lie, because it is--after all--true. Our job is to keep speaking the truth (even when it hurts) loudly enough for the truth to pass the lie before Election Day next year. Oh, and also giving money to help the good folks.
One nit: Trump is an idiot whether or not (not just if) he testifies in the criminal trial in Judge Chutkan's courtroom. He is an idiot if he testifies in any of the cases against him. Indeed, he is simply an idiot.
You are correct that the former guy's lawyers will not get away with their behavior in federal court, but I don't think it's really a difference of formal vs. less formal in the two venues. First, since the fraud case is a non-jury, civil trial (as opposed to a criminal trial before a jury) Justice Engoron is not as concerned with perception and the pace of the case as he would be if it were before a jury. Speaking objections are not allowed when there is a jury; there would be sidebars, out of the jury's presence. Justice Engoron is the trier of fact and he can sift through the evidence in ways that laypersons on a jury may not be able to do. He is also cognizant of trying to eliminate issues for appeal. In some ways, he is almost treating the former guy as a pro se (self-represented) litigant by allowing some of the rambling answers. Also, without getting too into the weeds or into his head, often when a judge has an idea where a case is headed, the judge tends to be more lenient with the side that is not likely to prevail, again, thinking ahead to the appeal. And it's already clear where this is going . . . .
Please stop with the Biden is too old to run again nonsense! Rick Wilson's Substack pleads the case for Biden with one of the best messages I have read. Long, yes, but well worth your time to read. https://therickwilson.substack.com/p/joe-biden-for-president
Democrats believe that governing is serious business, not governtainment. That should become quite evident over the next several months.
The MSM covers the news the same way FleeceBlock's algorithm operates: anger, outrage and upset among readers attract eyeballs and clicks. Plus most of the unemployables haven't got the brains to find their ass with both hands on a clear day with a two hour advance notice.
If memory serves, it was some six weeks ago when political analyst Simon Rosenberg stated, here I’m paraphrasing, that, as important as it is for Democrats to flip the VA State House and hold the Senate, the larger issue is the necessity that Republican losses serve to repudiate Governor Glenn Youngkin (Mike Johnson's doppelgänger, in my view), whom Republican elites are eyeing as VP pick to add legitimacy (indeed, purported) to the Trump ticket. I explicitly recall Rosenberg stating he was confident about 24, save this one concern, and can affirm unequivocally that no one has done more than Rosenberg to galvanize her or his followers over the past couple of months to deliver for Virginia.
Though all we can do now, aside from helping to cure ballots, as warranted, is wait for returns, I thought it worth spreading the word that Rosenberg, to the best of my memory, stated that the 23 Virginia state election would be among the most important in 23 and 24. If Democrats do well, we move on. But, if not, we must be vigilant as to Glenn Youngkin’s subsequent plans.
There is no escaping the truth that a lot of Democrats, including young ones, want a younger person to run for President in 2024, and it's not Kamala Harris. I wish Biden would announce that he is done and step aside. Putting the polls aside, the stakes are too high and we are at grave risk to ignore Biden's age as a huge risk factor. Biden needs to do what he has always done: put America ahead of himself. He's been a great President, but we have to recognize that the time has come to pass the baton. We need new energy in our party. Maybe Gavin Newsom, whom I personally don't like (and I'm a liberal Californian), but he's smart and charismatic. Or some other younger and smart and articulate Democrat. Just not an old man. We have to confront that truth, and quickly.
You write, in part, “To be clear, Congress should take action to reduce deficits and the national debt.”
Why oh why oh why oh … do you write such mythology?
The US national debt & deficit are not economic problems. They are only “asserted to be problems” by people & economists who do not understand Modern Money.
I’d expect you of all people to get that.
The US has a sovereign currency, we have a monopoly on creation of dollars. Therefore we can not “run out” of $$$ any more than baseball can run out of runs or football out of touchdowns.
The debt & deficit are purely financial accounting artifacts. If the deficit was $5T, National debt 100T and unemployment was 25% would you say “gack no more government spending until budget is balanced, we must cut spending?”
Of course not. The actual condition of the citizenry is vastly more important than the accounting results of fiscal decisions.
This is not the place to get into the somewhat gnarly details of how the US Treasury works. But in a nutshell, at the Federal level, tax dollars collected are NOT in actuality a constraint on federal spending … as long as there are real physical resources that can be put to work … increasing government spending is a good thing. Such spending generates more demand which puts more people to work.
So please Mr Hubbell, stop with the deficit/debt worry thing.
The deliberate, meticulously planned massacre of Oct 7 had one purpose only: lure or entice the Israelis to respond strongly – and the stronger the better. Hamas was not only anticipating a harsh reaction, they were welcoming it, indeed betting on it.
The massacre, the worst pogrom imaginable of October 7 has shaken if not shattered the perception that Israel can guarantee the security of its citizens against all threats from abroad. It is 9/11 on steroids. This has repercussions for Israelis as well as the Jewish community worldwide. Israel has to respond and finish Hamas once and for all. This will lead to an incredible number of civilian casualties on the Palestinian side which in turn will lead to international protests, an isolation of Israel and rising anti-Semitism worldwide.
So far the devilish script of Hamas plays out exactly as planned – in fact it probably exceeds the expectations of Hamas. So we have a Democratic Congresswoman who sides unequivocally with the goal of a terrorist organization (From the River to the See means the annihilation of Israel) and announces that she would like to throw the 2024 election and bring back Trump because President Biden does not play along. Wow! Hamas, the Ajatollahs in Iran,Putin and Trump are high-fiving each other.
https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1720520713226908144?s=20
We need to message 📣 better about the GOP’s push to privatize Medicare. Many older voters don’t believe it will affect them while younger voters are tuned out on the issue.The GOP would love to inject 💉Medicare Reach(initiated by Trump admin ) with steroids.Unfortunately the Biden Admin is not helping, simply renaming the unpopular Medicare Direct Contracting to Medicare Reach.Not even a 🩹band-aid.
I’ve contacted my GOP/ Freedom Caucus Rep many times. Never received a call back except when I contacted about the dangers of Medicare Reach. They do not want this out there about TRADITIONAL MEDICARE !! 📣📣
⬇️
The majority of American seniors choose Traditional Mediacre, which does not allow third-party entities like insurance companies to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. The REACH program betrays the promise of Traditional Medicare by placing middlemen between seniors and the care they need … and allowing those middlemen to walk away with enormous profits.
-Seniors are enrolled in REACH entities without their full understanding or consent
-The only way for seniors to leave a REACH entity is to find a new primary care doctor
-REACH entities have a financial incentive to restrict seniors’ care and reward investors
https://protectmedicare.net/threat-to-seniors/
Journalism is a tough, tough competitive business. If you are a newspaper, you want to "own" a story, especially if it's a story that could have legs.Your journalists yearn to be the "experts" in the story. Hence we have Nate Cohn and the NYTs poll.
Shame on them. With a highly biased and poorly built participant group the NYTs has made a mockery of their own news standard; "All the news that's fit to print"
I know this is bordering on heretical in this space BUT even taking on board the meaninglessness of polls at this stage, I do feel rattled. I have been enormously surprised and impressed by Biden’s first term; he has been an outstanding president but why oh why run again??? There are so many eligible and capable Dems in the wings. In the face of national disaster we should be fielding someone who looks young and vital. I can’t believe that at his age Biden is stupidly clinging to office. Where are the voices urging him to go while NOW with his legacy in tact.
The circus is in town in New York acting like a civil case against the Trump organization which has already been found guilty of fraud. Trump’s testimony confirmed for me that Trump is floundering and his strategy (the only one he has) is to attack the judicial system and people and make himself seem like the victim. He made a lot of noise and he got a lot of media coverage but did he win the minds of the voters? He looked and seemed pathetic but we can’t take his act for granite. The New York trial was a dress rehearsal for future trials and the federal and state prosecutors must decide when they will finally say “ enough is enough” and take the appropriate actions and sanctions. You and I could never get away with what Trump did yesterday in court. The American voters are waiting patiently to have the hammer fall on Donald Trump and remind him he is not above the law or allowed to denigrate the justice system. Enough is enough.
I don't understand how repubs think cutting Social Security and Medicare is a winning issue, but I also don't understand why Dems have never come out strongly (or at all?) for the very simple solution to Social Security solvency -- eliminate the cap! I deeply resent having to pay FICA tax on every dollar I earn while people who earn much more than I do don't. It's incredibly unfair and just plain dumb to ignore this simple solution to the ongoing problem of Social Security solvency.
This is not Israel’s war against Hamas. This is Hamas’ war against Israel who is trying to defend herself. Israel did not ask for this.
Hamas hides in hospitals and schools.
Bombs do not discriminate
The killing must stop
It is up to Hamas