“There is a good case to be made that the best way to defeat Donald Trump and J.D. Vance is to simply let Vance keep talking. The Republican vice presidential nominee has a way of expressing himself that could charitably be defined as ‘cringeworthy.’ Consider the recently resurfaced 2021 interview Vance did with Tucker Carlson, in which the man who is now Trump’s running mate expressed his view that the problem facing America is elected leaders who have not given birth — including the woman who is now the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party: Vice President Kamala Harris. ‘We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,’ Vance argued.” (07/25/24)
“Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Tuesdday blasted JD Vance for being a ‘grifter’, because Vance claimed he was some sort of a hillbilly who grew up in rural Appalachia when, in fact, he grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati. Governor Walz, on the other hand, grew up in a town of 400 people with ’24 kids in my graduating class’ where ’12 were cousins.’ In Vance’s autobiography Hillbilly Elegy he trash-talks his poor relatives, essentially accusing them of not being successful in life because of moral defects like laziness and addiction; he doubled down on these memes in his Republican National Convention speech, pointing out his own mother’s drug use. In fact, they’re victims of Republican policies that make the rich richer and keep poor people poor; his mother’s addiction is a symptom, not a cause.” (07/25/24)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Every four years, the American people get giddy and excited over their presidential election. There is a reason for that. In the run-up to the election, the presidential candidates cater to them, are nice to them, and offer them lots of benefits in the hope of garnering their votes. But everyone knows that come November 6 — the day after the election — the situation will return to normal, with an abusive ruler in charge and the serfs deferentially and obediently serving him or her for the next four years.” (07/25/24)
“Some Republicans are starting to seriously regret Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. It’s been only one week since Vance was nominated at the Republican National Convention, and already his own party members are expressing severe doubts about Trump’s pick. The former president’s allies have acknowledged that nominating Vance was the product of Trump’s absolute certainty that he would be able to defeat Joe Biden in November. While Vance wouldn’t do much for swing voters or independents, he would likely shore up support among Trump’s base. But ever since Biden passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s new presumptive nominee, Republicans have begun to sour on Vance.” (07/25/24)
“Members of the new right wing of the Republican Party have proclaimed themselves the champions of the working class. I am sure they mean it, despite many of them being among the elite of the elite. And because so many are lawyers — including those like vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance who come from an elite Ivy League school — we can forgive them for failing to understand that their economic policies would hurt, not help, the working class. … In Washington, D.C., apparently, nothing says ‘power to the people’ quite like funneling taxpayer money to large corporations. But let’s not forget the piece de resistance: tariffs. How better to help ordinary Americans than by raising their cost of living?” (07/15/24)
“In 1968, I ran as a Democrat in my first primary election, as I sought to become a New York state Assemblyman. I fought four more tough primary races against fellow Democrats David Dinkins and Robert Wagner Jr. as we vied to become Manhattan borough president, and yet another in 1985 against Ken Lipper to become City Council president. In every primary I had to work my butt off to prove myself to my party and my constituents. Those races made me a better public servant and a better man. That’s what the democratic process is for — and what the Democratic Party is all about …. If they actually wanted to live up to their name, Democratic leaders would insist on an open convention where delegates could freely select a presidential nominee in Joe Biden’s place.” (07/24/24)
“Most economic commentators consider a softening in economic statistics such as gross domestic product (GDP) as indicative of a likely economic recession ahead. According to most experts this weakening, as a rule arises because of a decline in the overall demand for goods and services. On this way of thinking, the key driver of the economy is the increase in demand that gives rise to the increase in the supply of goods and services i.e. demand creates supply. … Is it however, valid that recessions are about the weakening in the overall demand as depicted by the weakening in the GDP?” (07/25/24)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“The Secret Service badly messed up in the job of protecting ex-president and candidate Trump …. Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle conceded that her agency had failed, offered only partial and unconvincing explanations, eventually resigned under pressure. She is being at least temporarily replaced by Ronald Rowe, the agency’s deputy director. At first glance it makes sense. Someone messed up and the head of the organization, as the person with most control over what the agency does, is the most likely candidate. The organization still exists and will need someone to run it, the deputy director is the most qualified person, at least in the short run, since he already knows the people and policies of the organization. The problem is that, if Cheatle, as the most powerful person in the organization is the most likely person responsible, Rowe, presumably the second most powerful, is the second most likely.” (07/25/24)
“Politics doesn’t just make strange bedfellows; it can also make self-dealing ones. A new study of the economic impact of the $787 billion 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is trying to tell us about the need to close the gap between intentions and outcomes by moving decision-making and accountability closer to the communities the federal government is trying to assist. In their recent paper, Joonkyu Choi, Veronika Penciakova, and Felipe Saffie found that politics significantly hindered ARRA’s effectiveness. Their study reveals that firms that contributed to winning political candidates were more likely to receive ARRA grants and these firms subsequently created fewer jobs.” (07/25/24)
“At the end of the last century, hoping to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sought to draw in the American military. He reportedly wanted to ‘bring the Americans into a fight on Muslim soil,’ provoking savage asymmetric conflicts that would send home a stream of ‘wooden boxes and coffins’ and weaken American resolve. ‘This is when you will leave,’ he predicted. After the 9/11 attacks, Washington took the bait, launching interventions across the Greater Middle East and Africa. What followed was a slew of sputtering counterterrorism failures and stalemates in places ranging from Niger and Burkina Faso to Somalia and Yemen, a dismal loss, after 20 years, in Afghanistan, and a costly fiasco in Iraq. And just as bin Laden predicted, those conflicts led to discontent in the United States.” (07/25/24)
