Thursday, September 17, 2026

Innovations In Economics

Forget the Peace Prize, the man deserves the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.




Trump: "If we lose $50 billion a year with a country, and we say 'we're not going to trade with you anymore,' we don't lose $50 billion a year. It's very simple. Right?"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 17, 2026 at 12:03 AM

I agree with you, Mr. Trump, just stop trade! It's very simple! 

To be fair, this isn't any nuttier than "expansionary austerity" and plenty of other nutty economics ideas which are accepted as unquestionable fact.

Snorts and Giggles Until Real Americans Take It Seriously

Not that long ago, skepticism about AI, opposition to data centers, and concerns about the Flock surveillance system were dismissed as absurd lefty (ONLINE LEFTY, even WORSE) issues, equivalent with being concerned about 5G cell towers.

The people hanging on out Elon's Nazi CSAM site were convinced these were BLUESKY issues, which is their code for "too stupid to even consider."

Now that they are heartland (real American) issues, suddenly they are real, though the centrist discourse factory is so corrupted with tech money that they are slow to catch up.

What do you think Abundance is/was? Just the "left" conduit for tech VC money/influence.

Speaking of 5G cell towers, never forget this Naomi Wolf banger.


Monuments To The Trump Presidency

I'm not going to say it will be good if, as seems likely, Trump turns the Kennedy Center into a giant crater, but it would be a fitting monument to the era.

I'm placing my bets on them trashing the place inside so that it will have to be demolished, leaving that task to someone else.

Future administrations could arrest everyone involved, of course.

Could.

People don't need to fear actual prison. They need to fear a Justice Department dedicated to making them suffer and draining their savings for attorney fees.

I don't think anyone fears that.

They should.

Also, the bulldozers should travel the inauguration parade route to the Supreme Court building in 2029.

Morning

Lower those rates, Mr. Warsh!

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Happy Hour

get happy

Oh No Stonks

There is no clever Fed action that can fix inflation caused by rising oil prices.

America's Worst Police Commissioner

Jessica Tisch.

Run Away

I, too, am going to go away for 2 months. Later, suckers.
The House is going home again—this time to avoid a vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s impeachment.

House GOP leadership announced Wednesday morning that they will end their current slate of votes early and head home until the midterms, a nearly two-month break.
One for the THERE'S NOTHING THE DEMS CAN DO crowd (Massie did this).

Cost-Push Inflation

I admit it will be funny in that "haha orange man" sense if the Fed raises interest rates, but I'm also pretty sure Trump is right (for the wrong reasons) that raising interest rates is a bad idea.

At least it would not be the ideal policy response if we didn't have stupid psychos running the country.

It will do little to reduce price increases and could cause a recession!

How Much Does Ground Beef Cost, Michael, $2?

I don't buy a lot of ground beef but I suspect this is not true.

Emmer says Republicans need to talk more about grocery prices that aren't expensive: "Eggs are at pre-pandemic prices. Ah, beef is at, ah, less than $2 a pound for ground beef ... I think we have a lot to run on."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 16, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Doesn't seem like you're getting below $6/lb anywhere...

Americans Reject Free Money

Pretty funny. 

The four-day poll showed 63% of Americans - including four in 10 Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats - disapproved of Trump's offer made in his ​convention speech that he would ensure all Americans get a $5,000 dividend if Republicans retain control of the ​U.S. Congress in November's midterm elections.

A lot of Republicans probably reject it because they imagine all the undeserving who will get it, too, but it's still funny. 

Morning

Wacky Wednesday.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Happy Hour

 Get happy

Just Putting This Here


No idea, but we will see!

Sure Why Not

PATEL: The previous regulation automatically disqualified any individual who participated in either side of it KENNEDY: Either side of beastiality? So you disqualified the animal? P: Well, we have great canines, but we're not going to disqualify them K: I'm trying to understand why you did this.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 15, 2026 at 3:18 PM

Is That A Lot

At least we've achieved so much.

A Pentagon watchdog has revealed that the United States lost dozens of aircraft, including at least 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones, and that hundreds of buildings and structures used by the US were damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks during the conflict.

There's always money in the banana stand for catastrophic wars. 

America's Worst Humans

Stripsearch Sammy.

The Supreme Cult

One benefit of Trump 2 (hopefully lasting) is we all have permission to point and laugh at anyone who treats the Supreme Court with the Totenbagger reverence that was was the norm for decades. 

Stripsearch Sammy

I was looking for something in my archives about Alito (which I haven't found yet) and came across this (there's so much linkrot on the internet - the Media Matters link at that link is broken).

I think it's impossible to compare The Media of today with The Media of yesteryear simply. Everything is just very different, including the fact that there are almost no newspapers anymore. But one thing people forget from that time is just how normal it was to have absolutely no Democrats or self-identified liberal/left-leaning commentators at all on cable news.

And a common Meet the Press "roundtable" list was: one host, two conservatives, and one "straight" journalist. Sometimes 3 conservatives! When they did let a liberal on it was, like, EJ Dionne. Nothing against EJ but he's hardly a full-throated advocate of woke communism.

An example I found from Meet the Press, December 2006:

Neoconservative and former Bush administration official Ken Adelman.

Neoconservative Eliot Cohen.

Former Bush administration official Richard Haass.

Tom Ricks, reporter, Washington Post.

I don't remember what else was going on at that moment, but one thing was THE DEMOCRATS HAD JUST WON CONTROL OF BOTH THE HOUSE AND SENATE. Fucking hell. 

Judging by the guest list, it was Serious Foreign Policy Day for whatever reason, and people to the left of Joe Lieberman do not get invited!

Morning

Clarence Thomas Tuesday!