The challenges ahead (Biden's America)

[N.E. Brigand]

The Republican Party wants everyone to know that the Biden administration is much better at stopping undocumented immigrants than the Trump administration was:

[N.E. Brigand]

Bloomberg reports today that pharmaceutical company "Eli Lilly & Co. is capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month, following a public plea from President Joe Biden for lower prices of the diabetes treatment for all Americans."

[Sunsilver]

Well, that's good, but it's still a drop in the bucket. As a Canadian, I was shocked to see Rose say today that she and her husband pay $24,000 a year out of pocket for health care!

That's more than some low income Americans make in a YEAR!!

http://thehalloffire.net/forum/viewtopi ... 06#p413406

[N.E. Brigand]

Bloomberg reports today that pharmaceutical company "Eli Lilly & Co. is capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month, following a public plea from President Joe Biden for lower prices of the diabetes treatment for all Americans."

Now all three major providers of insulin in the U.S. -- Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi -- have agreed to cap the cost at $35 per month.

[N.E. Brigand]

Actual quote from a new CNN article: "The unflinching resilience of the US labor market is one of the greatest sources of tension in the today's economy."

To be fair, CNN here is simply echoing the perception of the Federal Reserve: inflation remains high because too many people have jobs.

The article was originally titled "The US economy is unwell." After some pushback, it was retitled "Is the US economy ‘unwell?’ We’re about to find out."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I saw the "US economy is unwell" headline and just shook my head.

[Frelga]

Sure, labor what's causing the inflation. Price gouging by near-monopolies is harmless and coincidental. /s

20230330_015543.jpg (243 KiB) Viewed 1689 times

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Have you seen some indication that such an agreement is in the works?

[N.E. Brigand]

The U.S. added 236,000 jobs in March. That is the fewest jobs added since December 2020 and thus the smallest gain since Joe Biden took office.

On the other hand, it's more than were added in 33 of the 48 months of Donald Trump's presidency.

And U.S. unemployment fell last month, going from 3.6% to 3.5% -- which as I've noted before ties the lowest rate of my lifetime, with the exception of January 2023, when for the first time since the late 1960s it was 3.4%.

Also the unemployment rate for Black Americans in March is the lowest ever at 5%. The previous low was 5.3% in August 2019.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Biden's success in mitigating the damage done to the judicial branch by Trump has run into a not-so-unexpected snag.

[N.E. Brigand]

Inflation is now half what it was during its peak in 2022:



However, the Federal Reserve is anticipating a recession this year (which the Fed arguably will have caused). Hopefully a short one.

[N.E. Brigand]

Noting this story here because of how it was being portrayed in the mainstream media and elaborated on in social media as a commentary on urban crime. Nine days ago, Bob Lee, the 43-year-old founder of Cash App, was stabbed to death on the street in San Francisco. Here's a New York Times tweet about the murder:



Today police arrested Nima Momeni for Lee's murder. Momeni, of the nearby city of Emeryville, was himself a (much less successful) tech entrepreneur who apparently knew Lee.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Washington Post: "Whistleblower claims administration is mishandling probe of Biden’s son". A lawyer representing an IRS agent sent a letter to Congress asking for his client to be allowed to testify about this matter. That said, the agent seems to have previously brought his concerns to two different inspectors general, who apparently didn't make very much of his claims. I'm all for exposing the truth, whatever it may be. As I've said before, if Hunter Biden broke the law, he should pay just like anyone else. Maybe he could share a jail cell with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner. One thing that bothers me, and not just in this case, is that the lawyer won't say who's paying him.

[N.E. Brigand]

Noting this story here because of how it was being portrayed in the mainstream media and elaborated on in social media as a commentary on urban crime. Nine days ago, Bob Lee, the 43-year-old founder of Cash App, was stabbed to death on the street in San Francisco. Here's a New York Times tweet about the murder:

"The CashApp creator Bob Lee’s killing has stirred outrage among tech leaders and comes at a precarious time for the industry — and for the city it calls home. “I hate what San Francisco has become,” the founder of the industry blog TechCrunch said."

Today police arrested Nima Momeni for Lee's murder. Momeni, of the nearby city of Emeryville, was himself a (much less successful) tech entrepreneur who apparently knew Lee.

New reporting on this story: "Slain tech executive Bob Lee visited a suspected drug dealer's apartment with the sister of his alleged killer just hours before his violent death, The Standard has learned from a source with knowledge of the case."

Crime, boy, I don't know.

[Dave_LF]

I really resent MAGA for making me root for Disney and Bud Light. If they pick a fight with Comcast next, I'll just be done.

[Frelga]

Context.

Disney Files First Amendment Lawsuit Against Ron DeSantis Over Florida Theme Park Takeover

[RoseMorninStar]

You're hitting them out of the ballpark with the cultural references today Frelga.

[Frelga]

Someone on Twitter commented that one potential, if highly unlikely, consequence of this lawsuit is that DeSantis will bring down Citizens United, which protects corporate free speech.

[N.E. Brigand]

A previously unreleased text reveals that in May, in support of his plan to buy Twitter, Elon Musk sought and received $100 million from Sam Bankman-Fried, the now infamous CEO of the crypto-currency exchange FTX, a firm which recently filed for bankruptcy as Bankman-Fried's net worth, once estimated to be $26 billion, plummeted 94% on November 8 -- "the largest one-day drop in the [Bloomberg Billionaires] index's history" -- and has him now being assessed as having "no material wealth."

That's from the the Elon Musk / Twitter thread, but on the subject of Bankman-Fried, FTX, and cryptocurrency, here's a reporting about how in March, eight House members -- four Republicans* and four Democrats* -- questioned the Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to make inquiries into cryptocurrency management in a letter to the SEC that "intimated that the SEC's requests violated federal law." That was known in March. What's known now is that one of the firm's the SEC was looking into was FTX, which, as noted above, has collapsed, wiping out billions of dollars. The letter's lead author was Rep. Tom Emmer, who also tweeted at the time that the SEC's questions were "overburdensome ... and stifling innovation." In January, Emmer will hold the number three position in the House. I mentioned before that Bankman-Fried was a major donor to Democrats -- one of the Democrats who signed that letter, Rep. Jake Auchincloss is now complaining that the SEC didn't do enough to prevent the recent meltdown -- but Bankman-Fried's firm, FTX, donated $2.75 million to the Republican Congressional campaign fund that Emmer led.

*Republicans: Tom Emmer (Minnesota), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Byron Donalds (Florida), Ted Budd (North Carolina)
*Democrats: Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey), Jake Auchincloss (Massachusetts), Ritchie Torres (New York), and Darren Soto (Florida)

Last night on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program, Terry Duffy, the CEO of CME Group, a financial derivatives exchange that's worth nearly $200 billion, claimed that he saw through Sam Bankman-Fried from the start. But in the course of his commentary, Duffy appeared to admit that he'd bribed a financial regulator to obtain information on Bankman-Fried. If that's just a slip of the tongue, it's a very odd one!

Can you fill in the blanks below without peeking at this East Bay Times headline and subhed?

"___ _____________ dined with ________ ___ ______ and _____ _______ to get _____ money: report
In the desperate weeks before ___'s collapse, _____________ asked his friend _______ __________ to take him to the ______ _____ to hit up some of the region's __________ rulers for funding."

Here's one hint: since July 2017, the friend's last name has also been used a unit of time.