Thursday, June 05, 2025

I Don't Support What They're Doing, HOWEVER...

Conceding your opponents are right, basically, just going about it the wrong way, is smart Alpha Energy messaging.

Lunch

eat

It's Trade Talk Day, Again...

Neverending.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that trade officials from the U.S. and China will be meeting soon at a to-be-determined location.

Trump said the upcoming talks were agreed upon during his lengthy phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The “very good” call between the two leaders lasted approximately 90 minutes and focused “almost entirely” on trade, Trump said on Truth Social.

It “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries,” Trump wrote.
Sure, Mr. Zero Sum.

We Got This

Longtime readers of this very fine blog should remember that my basic position, always, is "the Democrats kinda suck, but they're what we have to work with." Sometimes they suck quite a bit less! Sometimes a lot more!

If Chuck Schumer spending his time making a facebook grandpa video opposing any Iran deal doesn't convince you that we have a bit of a leadership problem, I suppose nothing will.

I Have More Alpha Energy Than The Average Blogger

Slotkin keeps boasting about her Alpha Energy. She is the Elon Musk of  Dem senators.



Morning

I hope you all replenished your Alpha Energy.

Wednesday, June 04, 2025

Happy Hour

To absent friends.

RIP Jeffraham Prestonian

Longtime community member JP passed away overnight. It's always quite upsetting when a regular passes.  In my mind he was here from the beginning of the blog. I'm sure that wasn't day one, precisely, but I don't remember the place without him.

Online communities are strange places, where you know lots of people both quite well and not at all.  I know many of you actually knew him well, not just in the "online" sense, and someone from the community submitted this for a remembrance, which seemed fitting to me:
Our dear friend, Jeff Preston, aka Jeffraham died in his sleep on the morning of June 4, 2025, just 17 days short of his 62nd birthday.

Jeffraham was the free spirited heart and soul of our blog. He took care of anyone who needed help, especially his beloved roomie, SIL. He never failed to make us laugh. He was passionate about guitars, scooters, music, and especially cats. He loved people; his time at Bananastan made this evident. He had a kind word and a smile for everyone.

He has been one of my very best friends for two decades now. Right now, there's a Jeffraham sized  hole in all of our hearts.

Safe journey, dear friend.

“Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.”
― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

I'll add one more thing. JP will live on forever in this blog, like a little ghost. I don't know why this happened, but at some point he got stuck in the machine.  

When you write/edit a post in blogger's CMS, you can hit the preview button to see how it will look on the site.  When I do this, the post appears with precisely one disqus comment. Every time.


We All Gotta Eat

There is a place in politics for talented mercenaries, but in DC too many of the people who get ahead are the ones who always have their eye on the next career move and who are much more concerned with the next, bigger paycheck.

Soulless grifters aren't going to save us.  Was Jean-Pierre good at her job?  Did she succeed at any aspect of her job - informing the press, informing the public, and, yes, making her boss look good?  

Welp

People get mad at The Left, but every iteration of above-it-all centrism is much more damaging to The Democrats, especially from someone like this.


Lunch

eat

The End Of The Biden Boom

The official (real or fake?) numbers come out Friday, but this is the standard estimate from a payroll company. It only include private sector jobs, so Friday (if real!) could be even worse!
Private sector job creation slowed to a near-standstill in May, hitting its lowest level in more than two years as signs emerged of a weakening labor market, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Payrolls increased just 37,000 for the month, below the downwardly revised 60,000 in April and the Dow Jones forecast for 110,000. It was the lowest monthly job total from the ADP count since March 2023.

Will Get Worse

There will be a bunch of economists loudly professing that all the data is sound because they know how professional those agencies are, and then they will get quieter and quieter.
Trump administration officials delayed and redacted a government forecast because it predicts an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.
That isn't because economists think Trumpers are good, it's because they think economists are good.

Buy or Sell

I don't even know anymore.


Morning

Time to start the party.

Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Coyote

"The Market" has fully decided that TACO is true even as Trump is continuing to increase tariffs and...

Needs More Cats

Didn't see it on the program.
Sales of subscriptions for the coming season of programming at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are down by about $1.6 million, or roughly 36 percent, compared with last year.

By this point in 2024, the center had generated $4,413,147 in revenue from selling subscriptions to its theater, dance, classical and other seasons of performances. This year, it has generated $2,656,524 as of June 1, plus $155,243 from a new mix-and-match package, according to internal data obtained by The Washington Post.
Certain types of things are going to have a liberal-leaning customer base. I'm sure Trump doesn't care about the finances, but MAGA isn't going to fill the seats of most things that hit a venue like that.

Is It Elon's Fault

Apparently!
At air traffic control towers at two dozen West Coast airports, officials are unable to easily pay to have the windows washed and shades cleaned, said a Federal Aviation Administration employee. A DOGE-ordered overhaul of the payments system means FAA staffers must write statements justifying all expenditures, the employee said — not just for window-washing, but also elevator maintenance and even pens and pencils, the employee said. Purchase orders that used to take 15 or 20 minutes to fill out now consume 1 or 2 hours for each tower.

“These are things that people don’t think about, but clean windows are crucial for controllers,” the employee said. Because he is so often busy with purchase justifications, he has fallen behind on landscaping, fire alarm safety and pest control, all of which are “staples in the air traffic towers,” he said.
Better solve this one, Mr. Duffy, because when the planes go down they're going to blame you anyway!