I’m becoming more and more convinced that our economy (the USA’s specifically, but the rest of the world by extension) is not all that far away from descent into something that will make the word recession seem quaint. And not just because of the macro environment of the Iran war (petroleum, fertilizer, sulphuric acid, helium, et cetera), rampant inflation, corruption, and deficit spending. Also, because of anecdotal hints from my own little micro environment. My credit rating has been steadily rising and is now well within what credit reporting companies consider to be Excellent. I get offers of new credit cards almost daily. Just yesterday, one of the cards that I currently have offered to increase my credit limit. Excellent? Have they met me? I can only guess that the financial industry is in the process of having a psychotic break at least on the scale of the 2007–2009 Great Recession.
Charles Schwab Begins Offering Bitcoin, Ethereum Trading to US Users
https://twitter.com/Zalmoxes11/status/2054677512517546285
- Zalmoxes11
Scientists develop a dual action strategy to destabilize the COVID virus
RFK Jr. Spokesman Resigns in Protest
The chief spokesman for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resigned on Wednesday in protest over the administration’s push to allow major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes that appeal to children.
His departure came one day after the head of the Food and Drug Administration quit for the same reason.
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/2054262313788768765
- Acyn
https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/2054301373320077801
- covie_93
Pentagon considering renaming Iran war ‘Sledgehammer’ if ceasefire collapses
The discussions about possibly replacing “Operation Epic Fury” with “Operation Sledgehammer” underscore how seriously the administration is considering resuming the war started on Feb. 28, and could allow Trump to argue that it restarts the 60-day clock that requires congressional authorization for war.
Oh, he could argue that all he wants. But nobody with a three-digit IQ would fall for it.
https://twitter.com/WeaponScientist/status/2054278842274009137
- WeaponScientist
The Iran war is ripping across the US economy at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars in lost output, as soaring fuel prices, rising borrowing costs and supply chain snags erode Americans’ prosperity.
While early estimates by the Trump administration have put the direct price tag to US taxpayers at $29 billion, economists foresee a far larger toll once the full military bill and higher financing costs are considered.
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/2054319735622508879
- michaeldweiss
https://twitter.com/matt____rice/status/2054312160054964395
- matt____rice
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/2054653994790981646
- Acyn
Gov. Kemp signs law making many metro Atlanta races nonpartisan
The measure’s Republican supporters crafted it to make it harder for Democrats to retain power in the state’s most populous region, though they framed it as a path to depoliticize local government offices.
Still, they did little to distance the overhaul from their disdain of Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who led the unsuccessful election-interference case against President Donald Trump and his allies. Several co-sponsors referred to her during debate over the measure.
‘Irresponsible’: backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan
Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amount of water in drought-stricken area
Alberta judge tosses out petition for province to separate from Canada
https://twitter.com/Kurt_Steiner/status/2054239892264349989
- Kurt_Steiner
https://twitter.com/redheadranting/status/2054380519563870545
- redheadranting
https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/2054326664297939254
- theliamnissan
‘Failed experiment in human suffering’: Alligator Alcatraz immigration jail to close
An Overwhelming Rebuke of Trump’s ICE Policies
Ten thousand losses. That’s the Trump administration’s track record in court as federal judges grapple with the way ICE agents have swept through major U.S. cities and detained thousands of people in support of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda.
More than 10,000 times, judges have said those detentions, typically carried out with no opportunity for detainees to plead their case, were illegal. That’s roughly 90 percent of all cases — a staggering rejection of a core piece of Trump’s immigration agenda.
Trump to Withhold Medicaid Payments to California
https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/2054383158246662330
- DarrigoMelanie
https://twitter.com/adgirlMM/status/2054603686555619767
- adgirlMM
https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/2054634089332850714
- RBReich
https://twitter.com/NaturalHierarch/status/2054203781860958556
- NaturalHierarch
https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/2054468671242670094
- front_ukrainian
https://twitter.com/NotHoodlum/status/2054204154747175044
- NotHoodlum
China Views Trump’s America as an Empire in Decline
China increasingly casts itself not as a fading civilization trying to catch up to the West but as a superpower poised to surpass it. Chinese nationalists and state-linked commentators say they have Mr. Trump to thank. America under his rule, they say, validates Mr. Xi’s worldview centered on ‘the rise of the East and decline of the West.’
For decades, many Chinese viewed the United States with a mix of admiration, envy and resentment. America represented wealth, technological sophistication and institutional confidence. Even critics of Washington who reviled the American system often assumed that it worked.
Mr. Trump’s ascent and his volatile second term shattered that image.
A Failing, Flailing President Supplicates Xi
China has many significant problems of its own. It faces a demographic crisis: Its working age population has been shrinking for more than a decade. Its economy is deeply unbalanced, relying on unsustainable trade surpluses and unproductive investment to make up for inadequate consumer spending. Its economic growth is slowing. It suffers from high youth unemployment. Discontent is rising, held in check by autocratic, police-state measures.
But despite China’s domestic troubles, in geopolitical terms China is on the ascendant. Trump’s visit to Beijing is a field trip by a failing, flailing would-be autocrat pleading with a real strongman, who leads a much more serious country, to bail him out of the mess he’s made.
https://twitter.com/cordeliers/status/2054259484566888708
- cordeliers
https://twitter.com/mike_slugs/status/2053945606905778632
- mike_slugs
https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/2054509501890380257
- simongerman600
https://twitter.com/modernhistory/status/2054159027370709267
- modernhistory
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