investmentwatchblog--2020-08-12--How to Find Some REAL Normalcy in a World Gone Mad

The pandemic and the government ’ s response to it has changed the lives of many people .
The “ new normal ” is a rather dystopian and uncomfortable existence .
Going places and watching people skitter around with their faces covered , following arrows on the floor , no longer making eye contact with their fellow shoppers , is a surreal experience .
In at least one state , visiting with friends or family is forbidden and could leave you without running water or electricity if your get-together is deemed a “ party.
” Mental health issues are skyrocketing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away while their family keeps them isolated to keep them safer .
For many , these changes have been emotionally difficult .
I know they have been for me and I ’ m about the furthest thing from a social butterfly you could ever meet .
So if you are craving some normalcy in this currently abnormal world , read on for a few things that may help you feel like yourself again .
Go outside and enjoy the solitude .
Spending time outdoors is about the only time the world seems normal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s lease ran out , I rented a place near an isolated beach .
The beach is private and there ’ s no place to park , so particularly if I go early in the morning , there ’ s nobody there .
Every day , I go to the beach and play with one of my dogs .
I throw the ball , watch as she fruitlessly chases seagulls , and I sit on a rock and contemplate the waves of the day .
It ’ s meditative , it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like home to me .
I ’ m not breaking any rules , there ’ s nobody to insist I put on a mask , and I ’ m not feeling tense .
It ’ s been a glorious break from how things were .
Wherever you live , found an outdoor space and visit it at different times during the day to discover the time when you ’ re most likely to have it all to yourself .
Then , make an unbreakable date with yourself to get there regularly .
Not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a little bit of exercise , but you ’ re also getting some Vitamin D from the sunlight , and that ’ s important for your health and well-being .
Go to a patio and meet for dinner .
One option if you want to dip your toe into the water of sociability again is to meet at a restaurant with a patio .
Join your friends or your family and head to a restaurant for drinks and maybe even dinner .
This is one place where you can feel semi-normal and get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make your life better .
In many places , you ’ ll have to wear a mask until you get to your table , but once you ’ re there eating , you can dine and enjoy your drinks .
I did this recently with friends and it was the highlight of my week .
It was the second time I ’ ve been to a restaurant since February and I thoroughly enjoyed it .
Invite over a few friends or family members and have a barbecue or a bring-your-own picnic in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t make the event so large that angry neighbors call the police on you .
You can enjoy outdoor games like horseshoes or whiffle ball and have a few hours during which the whole pandemic feels far away .
This is especially good for families with children .
They can run around the yard with cousins or friends and get to act like kids again .
Turn off the news and social media .
I went almost a month with only limited news and social media .
To be perfectly honest , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burned out from the COVID coverage , the mask debate , the riots , the racial disharmony , and the politics .
I was tired of the constant arguing .
I was tired of every third post on social media being deemed “ racist ” or “ insensitive.
” I was fed up with people who could not get along – who , in fact , took pleasure in the tense situation in which Americans have found themselves .
Now that I ’ m back reading the news so that I can write @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m limiting these things that cause me stress .
This scenario we find ourselves in is far from normal , so it ’ s impossible to watch the news and be on social media and feel a sense of normalcy .
I ’ d rather just skip it as much as possible , while still keeping a general understanding of what ’ s going on in the world .
RELATED : What to Do When You ’ re Overwhelmed by All the Terrible Events Going On In the World Go camping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ ll be honest .
I ’ m generally more of a hotel with room service gal if I am going on a vacation but right now , camping is the way to holiday .
Load up the kids , pack the tent and the sleeping bags and get ready to make some campfire meals while enjoying the great outdoors .
This is an appropriately socially distanced past time that won ’ t earn you scorn from the Woke Folk on your social media accounts .
If camping is more of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you want , consider a day hike someplace nearby .
Getting off our phones and out in nature with the people we love is a great way to reconnect and do something a little bit different , without running around in masks following the arrows on the floor at stores like you ’ re taking part in a giant board game .
The best way to travel right now is in your own vehicle with your own cooties .
Take a road trip someplace more remote and be sure to stop and take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those of us who enjoy travel are feeling pretty stir crazy about now , and a road trip is one way to break the monotony .
Depending on how long you ’ ll be gone , you can bring a cooler with food from home , or you can order curbside from restaurants and enjoy it picnic style .
If you ’ re going to be gone overnight , you can camp ( see above ) or if you feel comfortable with it , stay in a hotel .
I recently had to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I visited all had pandemic procedures in place that limited contact with both the staff and other patrons .
You won ’ t be ordering room service but there ’ s always Doordash or Uber Eats if you want food delivered to your door .
( And that ’ s likely the least risky way to dine out right now . )
If you have a family tradition of a nice Sunday dinner every week or joining around the table at night and saying grace , this is a little piece of normalcy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Keep up with Friday night pizza and games .
Go for a bike ride together on Saturday afternoons .
Watch a sporting event together .
A lot of folks have let things like this slip as they switch between the red pajamas and the blue pajamas , wondering fuzzily what day of the week it is .
But maintaining routines and traditions is important .
Those small routines make memories .
One day your kids may do the same thing with their kids .
Keeping up with family traditions is good for everyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reconnect with the people you love the most .
How are you maintaining normalcy ?
During a time when it feels like everything is “ against the rules , ” it can be a real challenge to live somewhat normally .
If your situation has changed dramatically over the past 6 months , how are you maintaining a sense of normalcy for your family ?
Are you finding these times to be emotionally trying ?
Alternatively , if your routine has changed very little , can you share the things that are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it in the comments below .

by Daisy Luther
The pandemic and the government’s response to it has changed the lives of many people. The “new normal” is a rather dystopian and uncomfortable existence. Going places and watching people skitter around with their faces covered, following arrows on the floor, no longer making eye contact with their fellow shoppers, is a surreal experience. In at least one state, visiting with friends or family is forbidden and could leave you without running water or electricity if your get-together is deemed a “party.”
Mental health issues are skyrocketing. Many elderly people are just fading away while their family keeps them isolated to keep them safer. For many, these changes have been emotionally difficult.
I know they have been for me and I’m about the furthest thing from a social butterfly you could ever meet. So if you are craving some normalcy in this currently abnormal world, read on for a few things that may help you feel like yourself again.
Go outside and enjoy the solitude.
Spending time outdoors is about the only time the world seems normal to me. Once my daughter’s lease ran out, I rented a place near an isolated beach. The beach is private and there’s no place to park, so particularly if I go early in the morning, there’s nobody there. Every day, I go to the beach and play with one of my dogs. I throw the ball, watch as she fruitlessly chases seagulls, and I sit on a rock and contemplate the waves of the day.
It’s meditative, it’s calming, and the ocean always feels like home to me. I’m not breaking any rules, there’s nobody to insist I put on a mask, and I’m not feeling tense. It’s been a glorious break from how things were.
Wherever you live, found an outdoor space and visit it at different times during the day to discover the time when you’re most likely to have it all to yourself. Then, make an unbreakable date with yourself to get there regularly. Not only are you getting fresh air and a little bit of exercise, but you’re also getting some Vitamin D from the sunlight, and that’s important for your health and well-being.
Go to a patio and meet for dinner.
One option if you want to dip your toe into the water of sociability again is to meet at a restaurant with a patio. Join your friends or your family and head to a restaurant for drinks and maybe even dinner. This is one place where you can feel semi-normal and get back in touch with the people who make your life better.
In many places, you’ll have to wear a mask until you get to your table, but once you’re there eating, you can dine and enjoy your drinks. I did this recently with friends and it was the highlight of my week. It was the second time I’ve been to a restaurant since February and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Have a small outdoor get-together.
Invite over a few friends or family members and have a barbecue or a bring-your-own picnic in the back yard. Obviously, don’t make the event so large that angry neighbors call the police on you. You can enjoy outdoor games like horseshoes or whiffle ball and have a few hours during which the whole pandemic feels far away.
This is especially good for families with children. They can run around the yard with cousins or friends and get to act like kids again.
Turn off the news and social media.
I went almost a month with only limited news and social media. To be perfectly honest, I was sick of it. I was burned out from the COVID coverage, the mask debate, the riots, the racial disharmony, and the politics. I was tired of the constant arguing. I was tired of every third post on social media being deemed “racist” or “insensitive.” I was fed up with people who could not get along – who, in fact, took pleasure in the tense situation in which Americans have found themselves.
It was glorious.
Now that I’m back reading the news so that I can write articles again, I’ve decided I’m limiting these things that cause me stress. This scenario we find ourselves in is far from normal, so it’s impossible to watch the news and be on social media and feel a sense of normalcy.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!
I’d rather just skip it as much as possible, while still keeping a general understanding of what’s going on in the world.
RELATED: What to Do When You’re Overwhelmed by All the Terrible Events Going On In the World
Go camping (or at least hiking).
I’ll be honest. I’m generally more of a hotel with room service gal if I am going on a vacation but right now, camping is the way to holiday.
Load up the kids, pack the tent and the sleeping bags and get ready to make some campfire meals while enjoying the great outdoors. This is an appropriately socially distanced past time that won’t earn you scorn from the Woke Folk on your social media accounts.
If camping is more of a time commitment to the great outdoors than you want, consider a day hike someplace nearby. Getting off our phones and out in nature with the people we love is a great way to reconnect and do something a little bit different, without running around in masks following the arrows on the floor at stores like you’re taking part in a giant board game.
Take a road trip.
The best way to travel right now is in your own vehicle with your own cooties. Take a road trip someplace more remote and be sure to stop and take plenty of photos along the way. Those of us who enjoy travel are feeling pretty stir crazy about now, and a road trip is one way to break the monotony.
Depending on how long you’ll be gone, you can bring a cooler with food from home, or you can order curbside from restaurants and enjoy it picnic style. If you’re going to be gone overnight, you can camp (see above) or if you feel comfortable with it, stay in a hotel. I recently had to do some significant traveling and the hotels I visited all had pandemic procedures in place that limited contact with both the staff and other patrons. You won’t be ordering room service but there’s always Doordash or Uber Eats if you want food delivered to your door. (And that’s likely the least risky way to dine out right now.)
RELATED: Roadtripping, Prepper Style
Revisit family routines.
If you have a family tradition of a nice Sunday dinner every week or joining around the table at night and saying grace, this is a little piece of normalcy that you can maintain fairly easily. Keep up with Friday night pizza and games. Go for a bike ride together on Saturday afternoons. Watch a sporting event together.
A lot of folks have let things like this slip as they switch between the red pajamas and the blue pajamas, wondering fuzzily what day of the week it is. But maintaining routines and traditions is important.
Those small routines make memories. One day your kids may do the same thing with their kids. Keeping up with family traditions is good for everyone in the group. Use this time to reconnect with the people you love the most.
RELATED:
How are you maintaining normalcy?
During a time when it feels like everything is “against the rules,” it can be a real challenge to live somewhat normally. If your situation has changed dramatically over the past 6 months, how are you maintaining a sense of normalcy for your family? Are you finding these times to be emotionally trying? Alternatively, if your routine has changed very little, can you share the things that are consistent?
Let’s talk about it in the comments below.


investmentwatchblog--2020-08-12--How COVID-19 Completely Disrupted Car Markets

The coronavirus pandemic has already destroyed oil demand growth .
It has dented oil demand .
It has sent oil and gas companies under .
It has stymied exploration and production the world over , and triggered countless job losses , writedowns , and more .
And it ’ s not over yet .
The pandemic is also set to upend the U.S. car market , in ways few saw coming .
We ’ ve heard a lot about what the work-from-home trend has done to oil demand—it has cut into gasoline demand as fewer workers commute .
And we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ furloughed workers that don ’ t have anywhere to be just now .
Some are fretting about the possible permanency of this new trend .
One such study claims that working from home and online shopping will become the new way of doing things—forever—shaving as many as 270 billion driving miles off the total every year , and 14 million cars off the road .
Others are looking at other possible ramifications of the work from home trend—one that could have an indirect—yet profound—effect on oil demand .
About a decade ago , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between passenger cars and light trucks—the latter of which includes both pickups and SUVs .
One would think that since then , with all the climate consciousness lurking about , that mix would have changed to a more emissions-friendly ratio .
It has not .
To the contrary , light truck and SUV sales in the United States have grown as a percentage of total vehicle sales .
This trend is now being exacerbated by the pandemic .
From about 50 % in the early part of 2010 , light truck and SUV @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 78 % by May of this year , according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis carried by Bloomberg Green .
And that 78 % may not be truly representative of what consumers are really after , because there have been reports of inventory hiccups for trucks and SUVs .
As Detroit News reported last month , one dealership in Texas reported that 90 % of its sales are typically made up of trucks , but inventory has been a problem as plants shut down for months in the early days @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well mean that the true demand for SUVs and trucks are higher than the figures show .
What this also means is that even after the pandemic , there will be way more SUV and trucks on the road to guzzle that gasoline than there will be smaller , more efficient vehicles .
And with the boom in online shopping and working from home , fewer people will need a personal automobile at all—but commercial trucks—bigger ones—will be in big demand .
Not only are Americans favoring trucks and SUVs when it comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are hanging onto old vehicles for longer , according to new data from IHS Markit .
The average age of cars and trucks are now at the highest level in 20 years , at 11.9 years , with IHS predicting that post-pandemic , that could rise to more than 12 years old .
Part of this is because people are putting fewer miles on their vehicles as they work from home , which means pushing back the replacement date .
This trend is expected to continue as banks extend loans to 80 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic .
For oil demand , the outlook from this new trend is not clear .
On the one hand , people are still working from home and therefore consuming less gasoline .
On the other hand , what cars are left on the road are older , larger , less fuel-efficient ones that consume gasoline at a quicker rate .
Either way , the consumer has spoken : trucks and SUVs are in , and smaller , more efficient passenger cars are out .
Hey—the heart wants what the heart wants .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the EV markets , will respond accordingly to the appetite for trucks , even as a new anti-truck campaign tries desperately to get off the ground in its effort to make SUVs—Evs or no—out to be the newest social pariah , much like the high-fat diet , cigarettes , and crude oil , citing the jump in SUV and light truck sales as being responsible for an uptick in pedestrian deaths .
This has not assuaged auto manufacturers from focusing on trucks in the EV segment .
Regardless of exactly how it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and gasoline demand , the pandemic will forever change the two linked markets .

By Julianne Geiger
The coronavirus pandemic has already destroyed oil demand growth. It has dented oil demand. It has sent oil and gas companies under. It has stymied exploration and production the world over, and triggered countless job losses, writedowns, and more.
And it’s not over yet. The pandemic is also set to upend the U.S. car market, in ways few saw coming.
We’ve heard a lot about what the work-from-home trend has done to oil demand—it has cut into gasoline demand as fewer workers commute. And we’re not even talking about the furloughed workers that don’t have anywhere to be just now.
Some are fretting about the possible permanency of this new trend. One such study claims that working from home and online shopping will become the new way of doing things—forever—shaving as many as 270 billion driving miles off the total every year, and 14 million cars off the road.
Others are looking at other possible ramifications of the work from home trend—one that could have an indirect—yet profound—effect on oil demand.
Goodbye Economy, Hello SUV
About a decade ago, the vehicle sales mix was a tie between passenger cars and light trucks—the latter of which includes both pickups and SUVs. One would think that since then, with all the climate consciousness lurking about, that mix would have changed to a more emissions-friendly ratio.
It has not.
To the contrary, light truck and SUV sales in the United States have grown as a percentage of total vehicle sales. This trend is now being exacerbated by the pandemic.
From about 50% in the early part of 2010, light truck and SUV sales in the United States grew to 78% by May of this year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis carried by Bloomberg Green.
And that 78% may not be truly representative of what consumers are really after, because there have been reports of inventory hiccups for trucks and SUVs.
As Detroit News reported last month, one dealership in Texas reported that 90% of its sales are typically made up of trucks, but inventory has been a problem as plants shut down for months in the early days of the virus.
This could very well mean that the true demand for SUVs and trucks are higher than the figures show.
We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!
What this also means is that even after the pandemic, there will be way more SUV and trucks on the road to guzzle that gasoline than there will be smaller, more efficient vehicles.
And with the boom in online shopping and working from home, fewer people will need a personal automobile at all—but commercial trucks—bigger ones—will be in big demand.
But there’s more.
Not only are Americans favoring trucks and SUVs when it comes time to buy new ones, they are hanging onto old vehicles for longer, according to new data from IHS Markit.
The average age of cars and trucks are now at the highest level in 20 years, at 11.9 years, with IHS predicting that post-pandemic, that could rise to more than 12 years old.
Part of this is because people are putting fewer miles on their vehicles as they work from home, which means pushing back the replacement date.
This trend is expected to continue as banks extend loans to 80 and even 90-month loans for vehicles during the pandemic.
For oil demand, the outlook from this new trend is not clear. On the one hand, people are still working from home and therefore consuming less gasoline. On the other hand, what cars are left on the road are older, larger, less fuel-efficient ones that consume gasoline at a quicker rate.
Either way, the consumer has spoken: trucks and SUVs are in, and smaller, more efficient passenger cars are out. Hey—the heart wants what the heart wants.
Automakers, as they dip their toes into the EV markets, will respond accordingly to the appetite for trucks, even as a new anti-truck campaign tries desperately to get off the ground in its effort to make SUVs—Evs or no—out to be the newest social pariah, much like the high-fat diet, cigarettes, and crude oil, citing the jump in SUV and light truck sales as being responsible for an uptick in pedestrian deaths.
This has not assuaged auto manufacturers from focusing on trucks in the EV segment.
Regardless of exactly how it all shakes out with the automotive market and gasoline demand, the pandemic will forever change the two linked markets.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com


investmentwatchblog--2020-08-12--US in Longterm Economic Decline

US in Longterm Economic Decline

Measured by the common man ( or common girl ) , we ’ re on the road to ruin .
The US has been in decline for decades , but you can ’ t see that by looking at stocks .
You can ’ t tell it from those who lie about the economy to make their living , but look at longterm real numbers , and you see an empire in decline that just got its wobbly legs kicked out by COVID-19 .
Listen to the kinds of false narratives being spun to claim the economy is largely recovering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ belief in a V-shaped recovery narrative or whatever you want to call it , but the nonsense is still flourishing , though not the economy .
I ’ m going to start telling of our longterm decline by illustrating the falsehood via a stock advisor who wrote an article today to complain that the IHS Markit survey can not possibly be correct in stating that the services sector of the economy is not improving but has merely stabilized ; i.e.
, the survey says the business economy is neither falling any further nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argues that the survey is clearly false because it tells him what he doesn ’ t want to be told .
I ’ ll demonstrate that by tearing apart his own fake argument : On that much , we can agree , but … I went to our local mall yesterday for the first time since the economy was shut down .
Now two full months after reopening , more than 50 % of the shops remained closed .
Of those , 80 % were stripped bare .
That calculates out to no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of all the businesses in the mall are EVER coming back .
Almost all of those are service businesses , since even retailers are classified as services because most of them do not produce the products they sell .
( There are a few exceptions at the mall of companies that retail only their own products . )
What I saw closed was a bank , a coffee shop , a couple of food-court counters , hair stylists , and a couple of massage places as well as some boutique retailers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ what they are really offering you is the preparation of something you could prepare for yourself , even though they are producing food items from resources they buy .
So , pay attention to what your eyes tell you .
The real economy on the ground — Main Street — matches perfectly with what the IHS Markit Survey is showing for service businesses .
Yet this guy , who apparently has a stock market he wants to keep propping with a false narrative claims , Pay attention to what the jobs numbers tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the jobs that were lost have come back after two months .
And that is by the Bureau of Lying Statistics false-positive standard .
( See “ Labor Dept .
Trumps its Own Numbers.
” ) A deeper look at the numbers reveals that as many people are newly losing jobs ( or re-losing the same jobs they lost a couple of months ago ) as are going off of unemployment .
What does that mean ?
Those jobs that did not come back after two months of reopening , are not coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shop closings ; so does the IHS Markit survey , so it DOES add up .
Businesses aren ’ t remaining closed at the mall because they ’ re just waiting for things to get a little better before they reopen .
Many are clearing out their shelves and taking down their signs .
They ’ re not coming back , and neither are their jobs .
If these businesses COULD reopen and re-employ people , they would .
They died .
Give up the fantasy that they will reopen .
Yet , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stocks continue to believe what they preach because they want to : It doesn ’ t seem even slightly odd if you take a walk around your local mall and look at how much has closed for good .
Now , it may not be the same way everywhere .
Some people may live where their malls are doing fine .
Ours is not , but I ’ m sure some are OK. No , they ’ re not .
They ’ re showing gains that match up perfectly with what my eyes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Less than half of the mall has reopened for business .
Job gains have stabilized , as in flatlined .
Businesses that have reopened , are probably running at major losses because the mall I walked through only had , at most , 1 person per 100 feet space in front of me .
A room normally filled with people at tables had two people at one table .
The huge rebound quit as soon as it began , and the numbers of new hires are now just matching with the numbers of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you look at real numbers and not just the BLS hype about its numbers .
( As I wrote about in the article just referenced . )
More than half of the restaurants that have closed have not reopened .
Most report on Yelp they are closed permanently .
Those are services businesses that will never be rehiring their laid-off employees .
So , real statistics add up with what my eyes tell me from a walkaround at the mall and what service businesses on Yelp are reporting .
The jobs are not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t know how to add .
He may have gotten a Nobel Prize in economics , but his head can ’ t wrap around arithmetic .
Thus , he ’ s been wrong about everything he ’ s said about the real economy , and he never saw any of the major downturns of the past twenty years coming .
Not exactly a man who lives in economic reality .
His head is a sack of sugar .
US on the road to ruin There , too , is an example of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fast as it has ever done in the last twenty years , that ’ s not very fast .
That is barely keeping its head above recession .
For the last ten years , it has barely averaged more than 2 % growth .
That barely keeps up with inflation .
Add population growth , and we were losing ground the whole time .
Add in the fact that GDP is cooked to look better than reality ( see Shadowstats ) , and you know that GDP growth was horrid for the last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s why no income gains trickled down to the average man .
It doesn ’ t matter whether we were under a Republican congress or a Democrat one .
Doesn ’ t matter whether we were under a Republican president or a Democrat one : As you can see , real GDP growth ( i.e.
, adjusting for inflation ) has been on a steady downtrend for decades .
I would postulate that is partly because our whole economic model is based on debt expansion , and the service of debt is eating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot more reasons I ’ ll list below — things that must be corrected in order to see longterm gain of wealth across the economy and not just in the pockets of the 1 % .
First , we live in a world where real petro energy is increasingly more expensive to extract .
Second , we live in a world where businesses spend a lot more time focusing on how to pump their stock prices up for short-term gains than how to build their business up for longterm profits .
Clearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already on a crash course toward permanent recession .
( Anything below the blue line is in recession .
We were just about to get to where our average was below recession before COVID hit . )
Worse still , if you adjust for population growth due largely to rampant immigration , then on a per-capita basis our longterm decline in GDP growth looks far worse : That means your share of GDP has been getting smaller and smaller .
At the same time , your share of the national debt has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if we should expect to see that “ the economy is growing about as fast as it has ever done , ” then we should expect to see economic growth is MISERABLE !
Absolutely , freakin ’ miserable !
If the last graph were the hospital chart of one individual , we would assume he is now seconds away from death .
However , the truth is that economic growth now is much worse than what it has ever done because while quarterly GDP growth will likely show the economy rebounded when third-quarter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is for year-over-year change , and the amount the economy rebounded in the third quarter due to reopening will be FAR , FAR less than the amount by which it fell over the first two quarters .
So , expect the graph above , which is year-over-year change , to finally go through the floor by the end of this year .
Oh , and those graphs are the ridiculously and overtly over-positive picture .
They are put out by the Fed based on its NEW ways of measuring GDP .
Look at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse the numbers would be if the Fed had not more than once since the 70 ’ s massively changed the way it calculates GDP in order to try to give it more boost .
I used the Fed graphs just to show how bad it really is , using the most optimistic numbers available !
The obvious facts , if your eyes are open , are that businesses at street level look like this : ( It ’ s what I saw when I looked around .
I suspect you will , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) And that looks exactly like IHS Markit indicated .
So , a lot of people still need to get their heads out of the sand regarding the real state of the economy .
Their understanding or our present situation is no better than their understanding of our longterm decline .
It ’ s all economic denial .
In terms of how the economy does , the difference between Republicans and Democrats is the difference between Frick and Frack .
There is no period in the above charts that stands out as one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any indication the Fed has ever done any good at all for the economy with its maisterplans .
You can see the results have clearly declined throughout every kind of government we ’ ve had — all-Democrat , all-Republican , and mixed .
We did see a boost in real GDP per capita under George H.W .
Bush , but not under Reagan and not under H ’ s son .
So , I ’ m not sure what that short boost was about , but it quickly went away , and has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ term ended in recession with real GDP per capita back in decline .
Those are the facts , and that is , as I say , a very rosy picture created by deliberated positive distortions in Fed stats that have been added in over the years .
Some will say this longterm secular decline in the US is all due to oil .
Some will say it is all due to being off the gold standard .
Some will say it is all due to immigration .
Some will say it is all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manipulation .
Some will say it is all due to Democrats .
Some will say it is all due to Republicans .
Some will say it is all due to the national debt .
I would suspect it is all due to all of that !
Everything we are doing serves the greedy 1 % and not the common man ( the per capita man or woman ) .
The above graphs show that the average person under any kind of administration has been on a long-term road toward being … well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Others could think of a harsher term that says the same . )
If you think either party is going to save you , you ’ re in denial of fifty years of recorded economic history !
Oh , but have you noticed all the bankers and corporate CEOs are making more money than ever ?
The amount of money being made per individual person in the country is lower year after year , decade after decade , but the amount being made per CEO ?
Just about OFF THE CHARTS !
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has a little something to do with how CEOs can manipulate their stock values since much of their compensation comes directly from stock sales and since their salary is usually also based on how their stocks are doing .
CEOs have accomplished a lot of that in recent years through converting massive amounts of company cash and credit into stock buybacks .
Do you think that , if CEO ’ s and shareholders are milking their companies dry of all they produce that might also account a little for why real GDP growth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Think about it : If you keep milking ever cent a company makes for short-term greed , you ’ re going to take businesses and the US economy into decline .
the amount taken out for outlandish profits via stock buybacks greatly exceeds the growth in real profits .
So , add that to all the reasons people will turn to above for explaining the secular decline of the US economy .
And I still say it is all of the above .
In other words , there is no easy road @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that ’ s why politicians on either side are never going to deliver you out of this economic morass and why the nation will never vote in such a way as sto get out of it .
No one wants to struggle with hard answers that require massive changes on many fronts .
The nation would rather just all fight with each other over whose party is right when neither party is even close to right .
No one wants difficult answers .
Unless you can wake an entire nation up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen on every front , it ’ s not going to get better .
And neither Democrats nor Republicans have any interest in doing that .
Jumping ’ Joe isn ’ t going to save you .
Neither is Trumpeting Trump .
Those are easy-answer pipe dreams , and the Dumocrat-Retardican divide is just there to keep us fighting with each other so we don ’ t fight with the banksters and CEOs who have the whole system rigged in their favor .
The above graphs prove neither party has ever taken people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking for real answers and stop looking to parties or champions , this longterm down trend is not going to change .
The nation is running down a long economic decline — as are most nations in the world — and the parties have us each fighting with each other over whose champion will save the day !

by David Haggith
Measured by the common man (or common girl), we’re on the road to ruin. The US has been in decline for decades, but you can’t see that by looking at stocks. You can’t tell it from those who lie about the economy to make their living, but look at longterm real numbers, and you see an empire in decline that just got its wobbly legs kicked out by COVID-19.
The clamor of false profits
Listen to the kinds of false narratives being spun to claim the economy is largely recovering. Call it the relentless and unrealistic belief in a V-shaped recovery narrative or whatever you want to call it, but the nonsense is still flourishing, though not the economy.
I’m going to start telling of our longterm decline by illustrating the falsehood via a stock advisor who wrote an article today to complain that the IHS Markit survey cannot possibly be correct in stating that the services sector of the economy is not improving but has merely stabilized; i.e., the survey says the business economy is neither falling any further nor is it recovering.
This investment advisor argues that the survey is clearly false because it tells him what he doesn’t want to be told. I’ll demonstrate that by tearing apart his own fake argument:
Services are some 80% of the US economy and so we can take their growth or contraction as a pretty good proxy for the economy as a whole…. Seeking Alpha
On that much, we can agree, but …
The seasonally adjusted final IHS Markit US Services PMI Business Activity Index registered 50.0 at the start of the third quarter, up from 47.9 in June and improving on the ‘flash’ estimate of 49.6, to signal a stabilization in service sector business activity. Really?
(A rating of “50” mean now growth, no decline.)
YEAH, REALLY!
Do a walkabout!
I went to our local mall yesterday for the first time since the economy was shut down. Now two full months after reopening, more than 50% of the shops remained closed. Of those, 80% were stripped bare. That calculates out to no hope that, at least, 40% of all the businesses in the mall are EVER coming back.
Almost all of those are service businesses, since even retailers are classified as services because most of them do not produce the products they sell. (There are a few exceptions at the mall of companies that retail only their own products.) What I saw closed was a bank, a coffee shop, a couple of food-court counters, hair stylists, and a couple of massage places as well as some boutique retailers. Even restaurants are classified as services because what they are really offering you is the preparation of something you could prepare for yourself, even though they are producing food items from resources they buy.
So, pay attention to what your eyes tell you. The real economy on the ground — Main Street — matches perfectly with what the IHS Markit Survey is showing for service businesses.
Yet this guy, who apparently has a stock market he wants to keep propping with a false narrative claims,
Service providers recorded the first increase in employment since February in July, as pressure on capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions on business processes causing delays to the handling of order books. Although only marginal, the expansion in payroll numbers signalled a turnaround from the marked contractions seen in April and May.
Pay attention to what the jobs numbers tell you! Only about 25% of the jobs that were lost have come back after two months. And that is by the Bureau of Lying Statistics false-positive standard. (See “Labor Dept. Trumps its Own Numbers.”) A deeper look at the numbers reveals that as many people are newly losing jobs (or re-losing the same jobs they lost a couple of months ago) as are going off of unemployment.
What does that mean? Those jobs that did not come back after two months of reopening, are not coming back! The job numbers match the shop closings; so does the IHS Markit survey, so it DOES add up.
Businesses aren’t remaining closed at the mall because they’re just waiting for things to get a little better before they reopen. Many are clearing out their shelves and taking down their signs. They’re not coming back, and neither are their jobs. If these businesses COULD reopen and re-employ people, they would. They died. Give up the fantasy that they will reopen.
Yet, the false narrative persists and people buying stocks continue to believe what they preach because they want to:
Firstly, as we know substantial parts of the service economy have only recently opened up again. And the PMIs should be about output, business etc from the immediately preceding period. So, the June numbers should show what has changed since May and so on. they are *not* supposed to be about changes from normal. The idea that as the economy opens up in July that the service sector is only flatlining from June seems most, most, odd.
It doesn’t seem even slightly odd if you take a walk around your local mall and look at how much has closed for good. Now, it may not be the same way everywhere. Some people may live where their malls are doing fine. Ours is not, but I’m sure some are OK.
The full and proper employment numbers … are showing substantial gains in employment. So substantial that they can’t be happening in manufacturing alone as the sector’s not really big enough to absorb that many people.
No, they’re not. They’re showing gains that match up perfectly with what my eyes tell me about my nearest city. Less than half of the mall has reopened for business. Job gains have stabilized, as in flatlined. Businesses that have reopened, are probably running at major losses because the mall I walked through only had, at most, 1 person per 100 feet space in front of me. A room normally filled with people at tables had two people at one table.
The huge rebound quit as soon as it began, and the numbers of new hires are now just matching with the numbers of new layoffs. That’s if you look at real numbers and not just the BLS hype about its numbers. (As I wrote about in the article just referenced.)
More than half of the restaurants that have closed have not reopened. Most report on Yelp they are closed permanently. Those are services businesses that will never be rehiring their laid-off employees. So, real statistics add up with what my eyes tell me from a walkaround at the mall and what service businesses on Yelp are reporting.
Wake up!
The jobs are not coming back.
Or, as Paul Krugman has put it, economies have to add up.
Paul Krugman simply doesn’t know how to add. He may have gotten a Nobel Prize in economics, but his head can’t wrap around arithmetic. Thus, he’s been wrong about everything he’s said about the real economy, and he never saw any of the major downturns of the past twenty years coming. Not exactly a man who lives in economic reality. His head is a sack of sugar.
We do end up having to decide, on our own really, how the economy is doing given these problems with detailed numbers. My opinion is that the economy is growing about as fast as it ever has done.
US on the road to ruin
There, too, is an example of complete blindness.
If you mean as fast as it has ever done in the last twenty years, that’s not very fast. That is barely keeping its head above recession. For the last ten years, it has barely averaged more than 2% growth. That barely keeps up with inflation. Add population growth, and we were losing ground the whole time. Add in the fact that GDP is cooked to look better than reality (see Shadowstats), and you know that GDP growth was horrid for the last twenty to thirty years.
That’s why no income gains trickled down to the average man. It doesn’t matter whether we were under a Republican congress or a Democrat one. Doesn’t matter whether we were under a Republican president or a Democrat one:
As you can see, real GDP growth (i.e., adjusting for inflation) has been on a steady downtrend for decades. I would postulate that is partly because our whole economic model is based on debt expansion, and the service of debt is eating all our surplus energy. There are a lot more reasons I’ll list below — things that must be corrected in order to see longterm gain of wealth across the economy and not just in the pockets of the 1%.
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First, we live in a world where real petro energy is increasingly more expensive to extract.
Second, we live in a world where businesses spend a lot more time focusing on how to pump their stock prices up for short-term gains than how to build their business up for longterm profits.
Clearly, the chart above shows we were already on a crash course toward permanent recession. (Anything below the blue line is in recession. We were just about to get to where our average was below recession before COVID hit.)
Worse still, if you adjust for population growth due largely to rampant immigration, then on a per-capita basis our longterm decline in GDP growth looks far worse:
That means your share of GDP has been getting smaller and smaller. At the same time, your share of the national debt has been getting larger and larger.
So, if we should expect to see that “the economy is growing about as fast as it has ever done,” then we should expect to see economic growth is MISERABLE! Absolutely, freakin’ miserable! If the last graph were the hospital chart of one individual, we would assume he is now seconds away from death.
However, the truth is that economic growth now is much worse than what it has ever done because while quarterly GDP growth will likely show the economy rebounded when third-quarter results come in, the above graph is for year-over-year change, and the amount the economy rebounded in the third quarter due to reopening will be FAR, FAR less than the amount by which it fell over the first two quarters. So, expect the graph above, which is year-over-year change, to finally go through the floor by the end of this year.
When the U.S. economic shutdown began in March, we were told to expect a “V- shaped” recovery. The consumer and the economy were originally expected to be fully recovered by the end of 2020 at the latest. Now the grim realities are starting to show. McKinsey Global Institute and Oxford Economics recently released a study on the economy after the pandemic. Their models showed that under two scenarios, it could take five years or longer for all U.S. business sectors to recover. Among the small businesses that were studied, recovery is expected to take longer than five years for some and many fear that they will never reopen. MarketWatch
Oh, and those graphs are the ridiculously and overtly over-positive picture. They are put out by the Fed based on its NEW ways of measuring GDP. Look at the Shadowstats reference to see who much worse the numbers would be if the Fed had not more than once since the 70’s massively changed the way it calculates GDP in order to try to give it more boost. I used the Fed graphs just to show how bad it really is, using the most optimistic numbers available!
The obvious facts, if your eyes are open, are that businesses at street level look like this: (It’s what I saw when I looked around. I suspect you will, too, depending on your location.)
Big companies are going bankrupt at a record pace, but that’s only part of the carnage. By some accounts, small businesses are disappearing by the thousands amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and the drag on the economy from these failures could be huge…. Closures “are going to be well above normal because we’re in a disastrous economic situation,” Dunkelberg said. Yelp Inc., the online reviewer, has data showing more than 80,000 permanently shuttered from March 1 to July 25. About 60,000 were local businesses, or firms with fewer than five locations…. While the businesses are small individually, the collective impact of their failures could be substantial. Firms with fewer than 500 employees account for about 44% of U.S. economic activity, according to a U.S. Small Business Administration report, and they employ almost half of all American workers…. About 58% of small business owners say they’re worried about permanently closing, according to a July U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey. The Washington Post
And that looks exactly like IHS Markit indicated. So, a lot of people still need to get their heads out of the sand regarding the real state of the economy. Their understanding or our present situation is no better than their understanding of our longterm decline. It’s all economic denial.
Fed failed. Republicrats failed.
In terms of how the economy does, the difference between Republicans and Democrats is the difference between Frick and Frack. There is no period in the above charts that stands out as one government doing better than another or as any indication the Fed has ever done any good at all for the economy with its maisterplans.
You can see the results have clearly declined throughout every kind of government we’ve had — all-Democrat, all-Republican, and mixed. We did see a boost in real GDP per capita under George H.W. Bush, but not under Reagan and not under H’s son. So, I’m not sure what that short boost was about, but it quickly went away, and has never returned. Even H’s term ended in recession with real GDP per capita back in decline.
Those are the facts, and that is, as I say, a very rosy picture created by deliberated positive distortions in Fed stats that have been added in over the years.
Some will say this longterm secular decline in the US is all due to oil. Some will say it is all due to being off the gold standard. Some will say it is all due to immigration. Some will say it is all due to the Fed’s economic manipulation. Some will say it is all due to Democrats. Some will say it is all due to Republicans. Some will say it is all due to the national debt.
I would suspect it is all due to all of that! Everything we are doing serves the greedy 1% and not the common man (the per capita man or woman). The above graphs show that the average person under any kind of administration has been on a long-term road toward being … well, screwed to put it frankly! (Others could think of a harsher term that says the same.)
If you think either party is going to save you, you’re in denial of fifty years of recorded economic history!
Wake up!
Longterm decline due to short-term greed
In this historic cartoon by Udo J. Keppler (1872-1956) Wall Street tycoon J.P. Morgan blows bubbles labeled as “inflated values” to desperate investors. The cartoon was ironically titled “Wall Street bubbles – Always the same.” Sure enough. Because of our greed, we learn nothing.
Oh, but have you noticed all the bankers and corporate CEOs are making more money than ever? The amount of money being made per individual person in the country is lower year after year, decade after decade, but the amount being made per CEO? Just about OFF THE CHARTS!
And why is that?
Obviously, it has a little something to do with how CEOs can manipulate their stock values since much of their compensation comes directly from stock sales and since their salary is usually also based on how their stocks are doing.
CEOs have accomplished a lot of that in recent years through converting massive amounts of company cash and credit into stock buybacks. Do you think that, if CEO’s and shareholders are milking their companies dry of all they produce that might also account a little for why real GDP growth by any measure is in longterm decline?
Think about it: If you keep milking ever cent a company makes for short-term greed, you’re going to take businesses and the US economy into decline. the amount taken out for outlandish profits via stock buybacks greatly exceeds the growth in real profits. So, add that to all the reasons people will turn to above for explaining the secular decline of the US economy.
And I still say it is all of the above. In other words, there is no easy road out of our longterm national decline, and that’s why politicians on either side are never going to deliver you out of this economic morass and why the nation will never vote in such a way as sto get out of it. No one wants to struggle with hard answers that require massive changes on many fronts.
The nation would rather just all fight with each other over whose party is right when neither party is even close to right. No one wants difficult answers. Unless you can wake an entire nation up to the widespread economic changes that need to happen on every front, it’s not going to get better. And neither Democrats nor Republicans have any interest in doing that. Jumping’ Joe isn’t going to save you. Neither is Trumpeting Trump.
Those are easy-answer pipe dreams, and the Dumocrat-Retardican divide is just there to keep us fighting with each other so we don’t fight with the banksters and CEOs who have the whole system rigged in their favor.
The above graphs prove neither party has ever taken people to their dreams. Until you start looking for real answers and stop looking to parties or champions, this longterm down trend is not going to change. The nation is running down a long economic decline — as are most nations in the world — and the parties have us each fighting with each other over whose champion will save the day!
Dream on!
Dream all you want, but you’re on the road to ruin. Try another route for once.


investmentwatchblog--2020-08-12--Indictments Likely by Sep. 4th Against Former Obama Administration Officials

Here is why federal criminal indictments of former Obama Administration officials are likely before September 4th : As I have previously documented , the case is overwhelming that extremely serious crimes were , in fact , committed and covered-up , and the only real question now is how high up in the Administration they went — possibly up to Barack Obama and Joe Biden , but that ’ s the big question .
The George W. Bush Administration established the precedent that there is a “ 60-day rule ” that any indictment of a person who is associated with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within the following 60 days is to be avoided .
It ’ s not a law , but it is — and ever since Bush ’ s Presidency has been — the custom ; and the current U.S. Attorney General , Bill Barr , has reiterated it .
Consequently , if there will be any indictments , then Barr would need to be an idiot to bring them after that time .
Any reader here who wants to know , in a general sense , what the crimes were , can find that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considerable speculation , in Republican circles , regarding how high up those crimes went .
( See this and this . )
For over a year now , there has also been considerable propaganda from participants in the cover-ups — mainly Democrats — aimed at preparing the public for such indictments ( if they happen ) by prejudicing the public to believe that ( even if the 60-day rule will be adhered to ) the public should view the indictments only as being political retribution for Democrats having impeached and tried to remove @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a recent example of that Democratic Party propaganda . )
Here will be the currently existing public record of the relevant facts regarding how high up this operation actually went : On 15 February 2018 , Andrew C. McCarthy headlined at the Republican Party ’ s National Review magazine , “ What Did Comey Tell President Trump about the Steele Dossier ?
” and he wrote about what had happened on 5 and 6 January 2017 , right before Trump became President : January 5 was the day President Obama was presented with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be rushed to completion by multiple intelligence agencies before his administration ended , “ Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections.
” [ This report , from the Director of National Intelligence , James Clapper , was to serve as the basis for impeaching Trump and removing Trump from the Presidency , thus making the more reliably neoconservative V.P.
, Mike Pence , the U.S. President , which many billionaires wanted .
All of America ’ s 700 or so billionaires are neoconservatives , in both Parties , no exceptions — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-neoconservative national candidate .
Pence is regarded as more-reliably neoconservative than Trump is . ]
The briefing that day was conducted by four intelligence-community leaders : James Comey , Michael Rogers , John Brennan , and James Clapper , directors respectively of the FBI , NSA , CIA and the Office of the National Intelligence Director .
Just as significant : January 5 was the day before these same intelligence-community leaders would brief President-elect Trump on the same report .
[ McCarthy had earlier said that `` January 5 was the day President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , so he contradicts himself there .
January 5 actually was the day of , and not `` the day before.
” ] Also on hand at the January 5 White House briefing were Vice President Joe Biden and acting Attorney General Sally Yates .
According to Rice , immediately after the briefing , President Obama had his two top law-enforcement officials , Yates and Comey , linger for “ a brief follow-on conversation ” with the administration ’ s political leadership : Obama , Biden , and Rice .
At the top @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rice , were the core team , and Obama was himself the leader ; but Obama — as is usual in such instances — left nothing in writing to implicate himself : unrecorded private conversations would have been all .
And Trump ’ s team will need to plea-bargain with subordinates in order to have any chance to nail any of those three : the mastermind ( Obama ) , and his two top aides in the scheme .
As the Republican Paul Sperry , an investigative journalist for Real Clear Politics , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the headline “ Justice Dept .
Watchdog Has Evidence Comey Probed Trump , on the Sly ” , “ Following a report on alleged Russian election interference , Comey cleared the conference room to privately brief Trump on the Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier itself — without disclosing its source .
He referred to the political document simply as ‘ the derogatory files ’ .
… Comey also withheld the facts that the dossier was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign .
… The omissions led Trump to believe the contents of the dossier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Trump , who pretends to be intelligent , skeptical , analytical , and knowledgeable , is anything but those ; so , he foolishly trusted Obama ’ s team , and didn ’ t ask the probing questions he should have asked of Comey . )
Columnist Kimberly Strassel headlined in the Republican Party ’ s Wall Street Journal on 25 July 2019 , “ What Mueller Was Trying to Hide ” , and excerpts from it were published by the White House , including : “ The most notable aspect of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ omitted : the origins of this mess .
… Nine times during Wednesday ’ s hearing , Robert Mueller answered that something was not in his ‘ purview ’ to investigate .
And each time , it was ‘ in response to questions about the origin story of the FBI counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign , ’ The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes .
‘ Americans need to know how and why a U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agency came to spy on a presidential campaign.
’ ” On 2 May 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ C. McCarthy headlined “ The FBI Set Flynn Up to Preserve the Trump–Russia Probe ” , and he wrote : To investigate the president , it was a practical necessity to sideline his chosen national-security adviser .
Michael Flynn was not the objective .
He was the obstacle .
Once you grasp that fundamental fact , it becomes easier to understand the latest disclosures the Justice Department made in the Flynn case on Thursday .
They are the most important revelations to date about the FBI ’ s Trump–Russia investigation , code-named Crossfire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conjunction with all we have learned in the last week , answer the all-important why question : Why was Flynn set up ?
… The FBI set a perjury trap for Flynn , hoping to lure him into misstatements that the bureau could portray as lies .
In the frenzied political climate of the time , that would have been enough to get him removed from his new position as national security adviser ( NSA ) , perhaps even to prosecute him .
On that score , the new disclosures , startling as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what was already obvious .
But why did they do it ?
That has been the baffling question .
… The objective of the Obama administration and its FBI hierarchy was to continue the Trump–Russia investigation , even after President Trump took office , and even though President Trump was the quarry .
The investigation … would allow the FBI to keep digging until it finally came up with a crime or impeachable offense that they were then confident they would find .
Remember , even then , the bureau was telling the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was suspected of collaborating in Russia ’ s election interference .
FBI brass had also pushed for the intelligence community to include the Steele dossier — the bogus compendium of Trump–Russia collusion allegations — in its report assessing Russia ’ s meddling in the campaign .
But how could the FBI sustain an investigation targeting the president when the president would have the power to shut the investigation down ?
The only way the bureau could pull that off would be to conceal from the president the fullness of the Russia investigation — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the target .
That is why Flynn had to go .
… On 24 June 2020 , Britain ’ s Daily Mail bannered “ Unsealed documents suggest Joe Biden ‘ personally raised the idea ’ of investigating Michael Flynn over his ties to Russia ” and reported that not only did the available written evidence indicate that Biden had been the first person to propose this to FBI Director Comey on 4 January 2017 , but that Biden actually proposed that the ( archaic and unused ) Logan Act be used as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which was the basis that the FBI did subsequently cite ( this being the first-ever usage of that 1799 law ) ; so , both the idea of getting rid of Flynn , and the legal means to do it , were supplied by Biden , and Comey followed through to get rid of Flynn .
In other words : it was Biden ’ s staff that had researched to find a legal way to do this .
“ That became an admitted pretext to investigate General Flynn.
” Biden was a principal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ founder of the FBI ’ s operation “ Crossfire Hurricane.
” There is a war-to-the-death among crocodiles at the top , the political executors for ( actually employees of ) America ’ s aristocracy — both the Democratic Party ’ s billionaires and the Republican Party ’ s billionaires — in order to determine which of these two groups of billionaires will control the U.S. Government .
For example , when two kings fight to conquer each other , it ’ s their subordinates who head the actual killing and dying , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they die or else become crippled trying to destroy the other king ’ s troops and population .
Right now , it ’ s between the Trump forces versus the Obama forces , but the same aristocracy controls them both .
These crocodiles have billionaires backing them , and therefore are protected at beck-and-call by vast teams of lawyers , propagandists , and other paid agents , to protect them .
They ’ re well-protected .
Whereas the Republican Party is trying to pretend that the U.S. Government ’ s domestic secret police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ etc . )
, were the leaders here , and that the CIA ( Brennan , etc . )
— the U.S. aristocracy ’ s international subversion force , which traditionally handles coups — was only cooperating , they were actually working hand-in-hand , and UK ’ s MI6 was deeply involved along with America ’ s CIA .
This work for the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex ( specifically serving the top sellers to the Pentagon ) explains , for example , why the FBI Director , James Comey ’ s , main lifetime @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but Lockheed Martin Corporation — which receives over 8 % of all dollars paid to all contractors of the U.S. Government , and on top of that additional billions annually from U.S.-allied Governments such as the Saud family , and he also received heavily from Lockheed ’ s second-biggest stockholder , Bridgewater Associates .
James Clapper is now an employee of the Center for a New American Security , which is funded by Northrup Grumman and other funders of the American Military-Industrial Complex , all of them neoconservative ( i.e.
, pro-imperialism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the Smith-Richardson Foundation , the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation , Open Society Foundation , Rockefeller Brothers Fund , James Murdoch , and Raytheon .
CNAS was co-founded by Michèle Flournoy , who would likely have become a President Hillary Clinton ’ s Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense .
Flournoy is now an employee of Harvard ’ s rabidly pro-invasion Belfer Center .
All of these people represent the same thing : America ’ s billionaires — no one else .
John Brennan in retirement “ serves as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Security at Fordham Law School , a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin , a Senior Advisor at Kissinger Associates Inc , and a consultant to a variety of [ unn [ unnamed ] vate sector companies.
” On 25 October 2019 , Lee Fang at The Intercept headlined “ JOE BIDEN ’ S SUPER PAC IS BEING ORGANIZED BY CORPORATE LOBBYISTS FOR HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY , WEAPONS MAKERS , FINANCE ” , and he reported that among the billionaires who were planning a PAC to support Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that same day , I headlined “ Biden Backer — Former Lockheed Leader — Convinces Biden to Sell-Out ” , and I reported that the “ Former Lockheed leader ” who was leading this effort was Schwartz , himself , formerly a Chairman of Lockheed Martin , the company that sells more to the U.S. Government than does any other — it ’ s by far the largest federal contractor .
In other words : if Biden does become the U.S. President , then he will be heavily in debt to the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose profits are totally dependent upon selling to the U.S. Government and to its allied governments such as Saudi Arabia , UAE , and Israel .
Biden received donations from 66 U.S. billionaires — more than any other candidate in the Democratic Presidential primaries .
On 16 April 2019 , the New York Times had headlined “ ‘ Stop Sanders ’ Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum ” , and reported that , “ The discussion about Mr. Sanders has to date been largely confined to private settings because — like establishment Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elevating him or alienating his supporters .
The matter of What To Do About Bernie and the larger imperative of party unity has , for example , hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington organized by the longtime party financier Bernard Schwartz.
” For unstated reasons , Republican billionaires have thus far targeted only Comey , not Clapper or Brennan — only the FBI .
If Barr will likewise protect Clapper and Brennan , his “ investigation ” will fail .
The billionaires want to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they pretend that only kooks think that conspiracies exist , but there is no credible way that an individual atop an organization can run a crime except by secretly instructing his subordinates , who secretly instruct their subordinates , and on down .
And most conspiracies are not at all criminal , but are instead private corporations ’ private business plans ; so , there ’ s nothing unusual about conspiracies .
Keeping the public thinking that conspiracies either don ’ t exist , or exist amongst unorganized masses of people instead of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or else that they all are illegal , are just ways of deceiving the public in order to keep the public under control by keeping them ignorant and confused — it ’ s part of the worst type of conspiracy that exists , which is conspiracies against the public .
Unfortunately , conspiracies like that exist always .
There inevitably are pressures upon all investigators for each side , deterring them from publicly disclosing , or helping to disclose , anything that would endanger any of the actual principals , who are billionaires @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( which the FBI called “ Crossfire Hurricane ” but was actually initiated in the CIA by no later than August 2016 , if not by the DNI Clapper , if not by the President himself — and certainly Obama was aware of it by no later than August 2016 ) will go down before any of his financial sponsors will .
So , the question now is : how high is this investigation actually reaching ?
The retired Republican CIA intelligence-analyst Larry C. Johnson headlined on 6 May 2019 , “ Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Well ” , and alleged that : The CIA , with the knowledge of the Director of National Intelligence [ Jam [ James Clapper ] , worked with British counterparts [ in [ in MI6 ] m > starting in the summer of 2015 to collect intelligence on Republican and at least one Democrat candidate .
[ CIA [ CIA Director ] m > John Brennan was probably hoping that his proactive steps to help the Hillary Clinton campaign would ensure him taking over as DNI in the new Clinton Administration .
Regardless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ British intelligence community to start gathering intelligence on most major Republican candidates and on Bernie Sanders .
Johnson ( who writes badly ) failed to identify his source on that “ summer of 2015 , ” much less the precise date and incident .
He routinely quotes sources without citing them .
However , if what Johnson said there is true , then certainly whether Brennan was authorized to do that must be determined .
Was it Obama ?
Barr ’ s team would have to be incompetent not to be taking a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as to whether or not he had the President ’ s authorization to be spying domestically against Republican candidates and against Bernie Sanders .
Furthermore , the CIA ’ s usage of MI6 to carry out the CIA ’ s spying against American citizens that the CIA is targeting in the U.S. , should be outlawed , because it ’ s yet further proof that America is a police-state .
( MI6 does the same : uses the CIA to spy against UK citizens in UK .
Both countries are police-states .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ author , most recently , of They ’ re Not Even Close : The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records , 1910-2010 , and of CHRIST ’ S VENTRILOQUISTS : The Event that Created Christianity .

by Eric Zuesse
Here is why federal criminal indictments of former Obama Administration officials are likely before September 4th:
As I have previously documented, the case is overwhelming that extremely serious crimes were, in fact, committed and covered-up, and the only real question now is how high up in the Administration they went — possibly up to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but that’s the big question.
(I need to state here, for the record, that I voted for Barack Obama both times, though recognized in 2012 that he was the lesser of two evils — I am not, and never have been, a Republican.)
The George W. Bush Administration established the precedent that there is a “60-day rule” that any indictment of a person who is associated with a U.S. Presidential election that is to occur within the following 60 days is to be avoided. It’s not a law, but it is — and ever since Bush’s Presidency has been — the custom; and the current U.S. Attorney General, Bill Barr, has reiterated it. Consequently, if there will be any indictments, then Barr would need to be an idiot to bring them after that time.
Any reader here who wants to know, in a general sense, what the crimes were, can find that at my previous presentation.
There is considerable speculation, in Republican circles, regarding how high up those crimes went. (See this and this.) For over a year now, there has also been considerable propaganda from participants in the cover-ups — mainly Democrats — aimed at preparing the public for such indictments (if they happen) by prejudicing the public to believe that (even if the 60-day rule will be adhered to) the public should view the indictments only as being political retribution for Democrats having impeached and tried to remove Trump. (See this, for a recent example of that Democratic Party propaganda.)
Here will be the currently existing public record of the relevant facts regarding how high up this operation actually went:
On 15 February 2018, Andrew C. McCarthy headlined at the Republican Party’s National Review magazine, “What Did Comey Tell President Trump about the Steele Dossier?” and he wrote about what had happened on 5 and 6 January 2017, right before Trump became President:
January 5 was the day President Obama was presented with the ballyhooed report he had ordered to be rushed to completion by multiple intelligence agencies before his administration ended, “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections.” [This report, from the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was to serve as the basis for impeaching Trump and removing Trump from the Presidency, thus making the more reliably neoconservative V.P., Mike Pence, the U.S. President, which many billionaires wanted. All of America’s 700 or so billionaires are neoconservatives, in both Parties, no exceptions — none has more than token-donated to any anti-neoconservative national candidate. Pence is regarded as more-reliably neoconservative than Trump is.] The briefing that day was conducted by four intelligence-community leaders: James Comey, Michael Rogers, John Brennan, and James Clapper, directors respectively of the FBI, NSA, CIA and the Office of the National Intelligence Director.
Just as significant: January 5 was the day before these same intelligence-community leaders would brief President-elect Trump on the same report. [McCarthy had earlier said that “January 5 was the day President Obama was presented with” this report, so he contradicts himself there. January 5 actually was the day of, and not “the day before.”]
Also on hand at the January 5 White House briefing were Vice President Joe Biden and acting Attorney General Sally Yates. According to Rice, immediately after the briefing, President Obama had his two top law-enforcement officials, Yates and Comey, linger for “a brief follow-on conversation” with the administration’s political leadership: Obama, Biden, and Rice.
At the top level, Obama, Biden, and Rice, were the core team, and Obama was himself the leader; but Obama — as is usual in such instances — left nothing in writing to implicate himself: unrecorded private conversations would have been all. And Trump’s team will need to plea-bargain with subordinates in order to have any chance to nail any of those three: the mastermind (Obama), and his two top aides in the scheme.
As the Republican Paul Sperry, an investigative journalist for Real Clear Politics, noted on 22 July 2019, under the headline “Justice Dept. Watchdog Has Evidence Comey Probed Trump, on the Sly”, “Following a report on alleged Russian election interference, Comey cleared the conference room to privately brief Trump on the Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier itself — without disclosing its source. He referred to the political document simply as ‘the derogatory files’. … Comey also withheld the facts that the dossier was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign. … The omissions led Trump to believe the contents of the dossier came from U.S. intelligence.” (NOTE: Trump, who pretends to be intelligent, skeptical, analytical, and knowledgeable, is anything but those; so, he foolishly trusted Obama’s team, and didn’t ask the probing questions he should have asked of Comey.)
Columnist Kimberly Strassel headlined in the Republican Party’s Wall Street Journal on 25 July 2019, “What Mueller Was Trying to Hide”, and excerpts from it were published by the White House, including: “The most notable aspect of the Mueller report was always what it omitted: the origins of this mess. … Nine times during Wednesday’s hearing, Robert Mueller answered that something was not in his ‘purview’ to investigate. And each time, it was ‘in response to questions about the origin story of the FBI counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign,’ The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes. ‘Americans need to know how and why a U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agency came to spy on a presidential campaign.’”
On 2 May 2020, National Review magazine’s Andrew C. McCarthy headlined “The FBI Set Flynn Up to Preserve the Trump–Russia Probe”, and he wrote:
To investigate the president, it was a practical necessity to sideline his chosen national-security adviser.
Michael Flynn was not the objective. He was the obstacle.
Once you grasp that fundamental fact, it becomes easier to understand the latest disclosures the Justice Department made in the Flynn case on Thursday. They are the most important revelations to date about the FBI’s Trump–Russia investigation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane.
The new disclosures, in conjunction with all we have learned in the last week, answer the all-important why question: Why was Flynn set up? …
The FBI set a perjury trap for Flynn, hoping to lure him into misstatements that the bureau could portray as lies. In the frenzied political climate of the time, that would have been enough to get him removed from his new position as national security adviser (NSA), perhaps even to prosecute him. On that score, the new disclosures, startling as they are to read, just elucidate what was already obvious.
But why did they do it? That has been the baffling question. …
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The objective of the Obama administration and its FBI hierarchy was to continue the Trump–Russia investigation, even after President Trump took office, and even though President Trump was the quarry. The investigation … would allow the FBI to keep digging until it finally came up with a crime or impeachable offense that they were then confident they would find. Remember, even then, the bureau was telling the FISA court that Trump’s campaign was suspected of collaborating in Russia’s election interference. FBI brass had also pushed for the intelligence community to include the Steele dossier — the bogus compendium of Trump–Russia collusion allegations — in its report assessing Russia’s meddling in the campaign.
But how could the FBI sustain an investigation targeting the president when the president would have the power to shut the investigation down?
The only way the bureau could pull that off would be to conceal from the president the fullness of the Russia investigation — in particular, the fact that Trump was the target.
That is why Flynn had to go. …
On 24 June 2020, Britain’s Daily Mail bannered “Unsealed documents suggest Joe Biden ‘personally raised the idea’ of investigating Michael Flynn over his ties to Russia” and reported that not only did the available written evidence indicate that Biden had been the first person to propose this to FBI Director Comey on 4 January 2017, but that Biden actually proposed that the (archaic and unused) Logan Act be used as the legal basis to do so — which was the basis that the FBI did subsequently cite (this being the first-ever usage of that 1799 law); so, both the idea of getting rid of Flynn, and the legal means to do it, were supplied by Biden, and Comey followed through to get rid of Flynn. In other words: it was Biden’s staff that had researched to find a legal way to do this. “That became an admitted pretext to investigate General Flynn.” Biden was a principal in this operation; he was a founder of the FBI’s operation “Crossfire Hurricane.”
There is a war-to-the-death among crocodiles at the top, the political executors for (actually employees of) America’s aristocracy — both the Democratic Party’s billionaires and the Republican Party’s billionaires — in order to determine which of these two groups of billionaires will control the U.S. Government. For example, when two kings fight to conquer each other, it’s their subordinates who head the actual killing and dying, and the pawns below them just fall: they die or else become crippled trying to destroy the other king’s troops and population. Right now, it’s between the Trump forces versus the Obama forces, but the same aristocracy controls them both.
These crocodiles have billionaires backing them, and therefore are protected at beck-and-call by vast teams of lawyers, propagandists, and other paid agents, to protect them. They’re well-protected.
Whereas the Republican Party is trying to pretend that the U.S. Government’s domestic secret police force, the FBI (Comey, etc.), were the leaders here, and that the CIA (Brennan, etc.) — the U.S. aristocracy’s international subversion force, which traditionally handles coups — was only cooperating, they were actually working hand-in-hand, and UK’s MI6 was deeply involved along with America’s CIA. This work for the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex (specifically serving the top sellers to the Pentagon) explains, for example, why the FBI Director, James Comey’s, main lifetime paymaster was not the U.S. federal Government, but Lockheed Martin Corporation — which receives over 8% of all dollars paid to all contractors of the U.S. Government, and on top of that additional billions annually from U.S.-allied Governments such as the Saud family, and he also received heavily from Lockheed’s second-biggest stockholder, Bridgewater Associates.
James Clapper is now an employee of the Center for a New American Security, which is funded by Northrup Grumman and other funders of the American Military-Industrial Complex, all of them neoconservative (i.e., pro-imperialism) foundations and war-related corporations, such as the Smith-Richardson Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, James Murdoch, and Raytheon. CNAS was co-founded by Michèle Flournoy, who would likely have become a President Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense. Flournoy is now an employee of Harvard’s rabidly pro-invasion Belfer Center. All of these people represent the same thing: America’s billionaires — no one else.
John Brennan in retirement “serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, a Senior Advisor at Kissinger Associates Inc, and a consultant to a variety of [unnamed] private sector companies.”
On 25 October 2019, Lee Fang at The Intercept headlined “JOE BIDEN’S SUPER PAC IS BEING ORGANIZED BY CORPORATE LOBBYISTS FOR HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY, WEAPONS MAKERS, FINANCE”, and he reported that among the billionaires who were planning a PAC to support Biden’s campaign was Bernard Schwartz. On that same day, I headlined “Biden Backer — Former Lockheed Leader — Convinces Biden to Sell-Out”, and I reported that the “Former Lockheed leader” who was leading this effort was Schwartz, himself, formerly a Chairman of Lockheed Martin, the company that sells more to the U.S. Government than does any other — it’s by far the largest federal contractor.
In other words: if Biden does become the U.S. President, then he will be heavily in debt to the world’s biggest weapons-maker, a corporation whose profits are totally dependent upon selling to the U.S. Government and to its allied governments such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Israel.
Biden received donations from 66 U.S. billionaires — more than any other candidate in the Democratic Presidential primaries. On 16 April 2019, the New York Times had headlined “‘Stop Sanders’ Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum”, and reported that, “The discussion about Mr. Sanders has to date been largely confined to private settings because — like establishment Republicans in 2016 — Democrats are uneasy about elevating him or alienating his supporters. The matter of What To Do About Bernie and the larger imperative of party unity has, for example, hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington organized by the longtime party financier Bernard Schwartz.”
For unstated reasons, Republican billionaires have thus far targeted only Comey, not Clapper or Brennan — only the FBI. If Barr will likewise protect Clapper and Brennan, his “investigation” will fail.
The billionaires want to have a monopoly on conspiracies, and therefore they pretend that only kooks think that conspiracies exist, but there is no credible way that an individual atop an organization can run a crime except by secretly instructing his subordinates, who secretly instruct their subordinates, and on down. And most conspiracies are not at all criminal, but are instead private corporations’ private business plans; so, there’s nothing unusual about conspiracies. Keeping the public thinking that conspiracies either don’t exist, or exist amongst unorganized masses of people instead of headed by a “mastermind,” or else that they all are illegal, are just ways of deceiving the public in order to keep the public under control by keeping them ignorant and confused — it’s part of the worst type of conspiracy that exists, which is conspiracies against the public. Unfortunately, conspiracies like that exist always.
There inevitably are pressures upon all investigators for each side, deterring them from publicly disclosing, or helping to disclose, anything that would endanger any of the actual principals, who are billionaires. The principals in this specific operation (which the FBI called “Crossfire Hurricane” but was actually initiated in the CIA by no later than August 2016, if not by the DNI Clapper, if not by the President himself — and certainly Obama was aware of it by no later than August 2016) will go down before any of his financial sponsors will. So, the question now is: how high is this investigation actually reaching?
The retired Republican CIA intelligence-analyst Larry C. Johnson headlined on 6 May 2019, “Obama Spied on Other Republicans and Democrats As Well”, and alleged that:
The CIA, with the knowledge of the Director of National Intelligence [James Clapper], worked with British counterparts [in MI6] starting in the summer of 2015 to collect intelligence on Republican and at least one Democrat candidate. [CIA Director] John Brennan was probably hoping that his proactive steps to help the Hillary Clinton campaign would ensure him taking over as DNI in the new Clinton Administration. Regardless of motives, the CIA enlisted the British intelligence community to start gathering intelligence on most major Republican candidates and on Bernie Sanders.
Johnson (who writes badly) failed to identify his source on that “summer of 2015,” much less the precise date and incident. He routinely quotes sources without citing them. However, if what Johnson said there is true, then certainly whether Brennan was authorized to do that must be determined. Was it Obama?
Barr’s team would have to be incompetent not to be taking a deposition, under oath, from Brennan, as to whether or not he had the President’s authorization to be spying domestically against Republican candidates and against Bernie Sanders. Furthermore, the CIA’s usage of MI6 to carry out the CIA’s spying against American citizens that the CIA is targeting in the U.S., should be outlawed, because it’s yet further proof that America is a police-state. (MI6 does the same: uses the CIA to spy against UK citizens in UK. Both countries are police-states.)
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.


investmentwatchblog--2020-08-12--Demand Crash Hit U.S. Refiners With Surging Biofuel Blending Costs

U.S. refiners are feeling the pinch not only from the lower fuel demand , but also from the surging costs for complying with the biofuel requirements as refining and blending activity is lower than usual .
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard ( RFS ) , oil refiners are required to blend growing amounts of renewable fuels into gasoline and diesel .
Refiners that don ’ t have the infrastructure to blend biofuels must purchase tradeable blending credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers , or RINs .
Because of the slump in demand , blending activity has been lower than what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the price of RINs has soared .
According to Reuters estimates , the price of corn-based ethanol fuel credits has jumped five-fold so far this year .
The rise in the price of credits , together with depressed refining margins amid the demand slump , has made life harder for U.S. refiners this year .
RIN credits had increased even before the pandemic after a U.S. appeals court said in January that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) must review its decision to grant waivers for biofuels to three small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grant those three refiners waivers were flawed , according to the appeals court .
David Lamp , chief executive officer and president of CVR Energy , owner of one of the three refineries , Wynnewood , said on the Q2 earnings call last week : “ We believe the tenth circuit got it all wrong when they ruled to vacate three small refinery exemptions earlier this year , and we intend to appeal this misguided tenth circuit RFS ruling to the United States Supreme Court.
” CVR Energy sees its RINs expense at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 105 million in 2020 , CFO Tracy Jackson said .
Last year , CVR Energy spent US $ 43 million on those credits , according to Reuters .
Valero Energy sees its RINs expense for this year at between US $ 400 million and US $ 500 million , up from US $ 318 million last year .

By Charles Kennedy
U.S. refiners are feeling the pinch not only from the lower fuel demand, but also from the surging costs for complying with the biofuel requirements as refining and blending activity is lower than usual.
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), oil refiners are required to blend growing amounts of renewable fuels into gasoline and diesel. Refiners that don’t have the infrastructure to blend biofuels must purchase tradeable blending credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs.
Because of the slump in demand, blending activity has been lower than what is typical so far this year, and the price of RINs has soared. According to Reuters estimates, the price of corn-based ethanol fuel credits has jumped five-fold so far this year.
The rise in the price of credits, together with depressed refining margins amid the demand slump, has made life harder for U.S. refiners this year.
RIN credits had increased even before the pandemic after a U.S. appeals court said in January that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must review its decision to grant waivers for biofuels to three small refineries. EPA’s grounds to grant those three refiners waivers were flawed, according to the appeals court.
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David Lamp, chief executive officer and president of CVR Energy, owner of one of the three refineries, Wynnewood, said on the Q2 earnings call last week:
“We believe the tenth circuit got it all wrong when they ruled to vacate three small refinery exemptions earlier this year, and we intend to appeal this misguided tenth circuit RFS ruling to the United States Supreme Court.”
CVR Energy sees its RINs expense at between US$95 million and US$105 million in 2020, CFO Tracy Jackson said. Last year, CVR Energy spent US$43 million on those credits, according to Reuters.
Valero Energy sees its RINs expense for this year at between US$400 million and US$500 million, up from US$318 million last year.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com


investmentwatchblog--2020-08-12--Tulsi Ended Kamala’s Campaign in 45 Seconds. Here’s a trip down memory lane….

The conspiracy is the Democrats want to lose .
They nominated a guy with dementia and the most unlikable woman on earth .
FLASHBACK : While Democrats get crazier , Tulsi Gabbard hits Kamala Harris criticism right on the nose .
As Gabbard pointed out , then California attorney general , Harris was responsible for putting “ over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.
” Harris ’ office also blocked DNA evidence that could have freed a man who may be innocent .
And what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California .
And she fought to keep ( the ) cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.
” ROGER KIMBALL : President Kamala , mistress of puppets ?
Not so fast .
Experts disagree about who is the nastiest and most disagreeable woman in politics .
Some say it is Elizabeth Warren , and there is a lot to be said for her candidacy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Amy Klobuchar .
I admit there is quite a lot to said for both of them as well .
But for my money , the single most repellent woman in politics today is Kamala Harris .
She is also , as this devastating video clip tweeted out today by President Trump reminds us , one of the most extreme leftists in what we used to be able to call , without irony , mainstream politics .
Frankly , I am surprised at Joe Biden ’ s minders .
What does Harris bring to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mixed-race female , which gives him brownie points with the BLM-antifa fanatics ( though her behavior as a prosecutor and attorney general of California will win her no plaudits in those quarters ) .
But Biden will take California in any event .
How will Harris play in the rest of the country ?
Not well , I predict .
I think it likely that Joe Biden is not allowed to tie his shoes without the OK from his handlers .
Kamala Harris said just this past April that she believed Joe @ @ @ @

Start at the 4:00 mark.
The conspiracy is the Democrats want to lose. They nominated a guy with dementia and the most unlikable woman on earth.
FLASHBACK: While Democrats get crazier, Tulsi Gabbard hits Kamala Harris criticism right on the nose.
Harris’ office also blocked DNA evidence that could have freed a man who may be innocent. And what’s more, as Gabbard said, “She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California. And she fought to keep (the) cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”
As Gabbard pointed out, then California attorney general, Harris was responsible for putting “over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
Related: Kamala Harris: Introducing a faked confession isn’t outrageous prosecutorial misconduct.
ROGER KIMBALL: President Kamala, mistress of puppets? Not so fast.
Experts disagree about who is the nastiest and most disagreeable woman in politics. Some say it is Elizabeth Warren, and there is a lot to be said for her candidacy. Some say it is Hillary Clinton or Amy Klobuchar. I admit there is quite a lot to said for both of them as well. But for my money, the single most repellent woman in politics today is Kamala Harris. She is also, as this devastating video clip tweeted out today by President Trump reminds us, one of the most extreme leftists in what we used to be able to call, without irony, mainstream politics.
Frankly, I am surprised at Joe Biden’s minders. What does Harris bring to the ticket? Yes, she is a mixed-race female, which gives him brownie points with the BLM-antifa fanatics (though her behavior as a prosecutor and attorney general of California will win her no plaudits in those quarters). But Biden will take California in any event. How will Harris play in the rest of the country? Not well, I predict.
I think it likely that Joe Biden is not allowed to tie his shoes without the OK from his handlers.