The Fed Won't Save Us From the Inflation Iceberg

Plus: Was Gerald Ford right to pardon Richard Nixon?

1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x

:15 :15

Download

The Fed Won't Save Us From the Inflation Iceberg

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and special guest Eric Boehm consider the persistent inflation problem alongside government spending and the effect of indicting former President Donald Trump on the GOP election race.

0:33: Persistent inflation and perpetual spending

30:39: Trump's indictment and its effect on the GOP race

40:12: Weekly Listener Question

43:56: Joe Biden and the war on ticket "junk fees"

46:17: This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Trump's New York Indictment Was Just the Beginning of His Legal Woes," by Eric Boehm

"Inflation Ticks Higher in April as Rents Keep Rising," by Eric Boehm

"The Debt Ceiling Deal Does Not Go Nearly Far Enough," by Veronique de Rugy

"Amid Inflation Relief, Rental Prices Continue Soaring," by Eric Boehm

"Should Trump Go to Prison?" by Zach Weissmueller and Nick Gillespie

"What 'Freedom' Means to Ron DeSantis," by Eric Boehm

"Ticketmaster's Taylor Swift Glitch Doesn't Require a Congressional Hearing," by Liz Wolfe

"The Flash Makes the Case Against the Multiverse," by Peter Suderman

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

• It's so easy to get caught up in what everyone else needs from you and never take a moment to think about what you need from yourself. But when we spend all of our time giving, it can leave us feeling stretched thin and burned out. Therapy can give you the tools to find more balance in your life, so you can keep supporting others, without leaving yourself behind. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Find more balance, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.
• The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview podcast and always provides a great evening of camaraderie and conversation about cutting-edge topics and ideas. On June 26, Nick Gillespie talks with Tara Isabella Burton, author of the phenomenal new book Self-Made: Creating Our Identities From Da Vinci to the Kardashians. As in her previous Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, Burton zeroes in on the amazing freedom we have to define our reality and all the complications, problems, and possibilities that come along with such freedom. They'll talk about her findings in Self-Made, whether Kim or Kris is the ultimate Kardashian, the insights she picked up while getting a Ph.D. in theology from Oxford, and how traditional and modern cultures mix uneasily. Tickets are $10 and include beer, wine, soda, food, and plenty of time to talk about politics, culture, and ideas in one of the coolest settings in midtown Manhattan. For details, go here.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• For Colored Nerds: “Watermelon and Red Birds”
• Code Switch: “A Taste of Freedom”

Eric Boehm

• The Ocean At The End Of The Lane at the Noël Coward Theatre

Peter Suderman

• The Flash

Nick Gillespie

• A Heretic's Manifesto: Essays on the Unsayable

---

Comments

[I, Woodchipper]

ummm, it's the Fed that CAUSES the inflation.

This is like pointing out that a bullet wont save you from bleeding out.

[Karri Shepard]

Online, Google paid $45 per hour. Nine months have passed since my close relative last had a job, but in the previous month she earned $10500 by working 8 hours a day from home. Now is the time for everyone to try this job by using this website…
Click the link—↠ https://Www.Worksprofit.com

[Cassiewest]

I am making a good salary from home $6580-$7065/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now it’s my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone,
🙂 AND GOOD LUCK.:)

Here is I started.……......>> http://WWW.RICHEPAY.COM

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Yeah, I had a little eyebrow-raising moment when I read that headline.

[SRG]

ummm, it’s the Fed that CAUSES the inflation.

Not usually.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Really, the agency that's responsible for expanding the money supply doesn't "usually" cause inflation?

[SRG]

Nope. An expanding money supply does not necessarily cause inflation, nor is the Fed the only institution that can expand the money supply. Through the natural workings of the economy the money supply can increase with the Fed taking no action whatsoever.

Here you go: https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/files/the-fed-explained.pdf

[JesseAz]

The Federal Reserve is targeting 2% inflation rate hikes as the economy nears full employment and the central bank copes with a surge of inflation.0 While its inflation target is roughly 2%, the Fed also takes the CPI into account to decide if prices are “stable.” In April 2022, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced a major policy shift to “average inflation targeting,” which means the central bank will be more inclined to allow inflation to run higher than the standard 2% target before hiking interest rates.1

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-prepares-stiffen-inflation-response-post-transitory-world-2021-12-15/

And from your own link page 20 talks about a goal of price stability. Did you even read your own link shrike?

[SRG]

I'm not shrike, you worthless lying cunt.

And I don't have to read it as I'm not some ignorant white supremacist POS like you and R-Mac - I've spent enough time in the past in that field.

But clearly neither you nor your catamite R Mac even understand enough about finance to know what you've got wrong. Stick to engineering - I'm sure the KKK can use your skills to build airships.

[damikesc]

You do not read links you provide?

Seriously?

[One-Punch_Man]

That's the way to convince people you are right - name calling and berating them. When you can't discuss points, go with the Dem playbook right?

You say you spent time in the this field, yet your thin skin shows you aren't too bright. Don't don't even read the link you post.

Sure 3 trillion dumped in the economy didn't cause inflation. A government adding money like say Zimbabwe or Venezuela..didn't cause any inflation.

Hey, lets mint the 5 trillion dollar coin. 6 of those and we can be out of debt.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

No, the CIA doesn't do anything bad. Proof: http://www.cia.gov

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The Fed also buys or sells securities from banks to increase or decrease the amount of money these banks have in reserves. When the Fed increases the money supply faster than the economy is growing, inflation occurs.

[SRG]

Not if the velocity of money is contracting

[TJJ2000]

Or maybe all your monopoly money games is just that.

And its just as simple as if the sum of human labor/creation doesn't create enough resources to back 'said' money it's going to inflate because it's 'fake' (not backed by anything of value).

Ya know; like exactly what the feds do all the time anymore. Exactly like almost every Socialist and Communist society has done to try and 'fake' resources only to end up in hyper-inflation and economical ruin.

[BigT]

Let’s see, guys at an auction are bidding. Then they each are given $1,000. Think the bids will increase?

That’s inflation, more dollars available for the same products.

[JesseAz]

Double post

[JesseAz]

The Fed literally has a target of 2% inflation. Mostly set through lending rates. Damn shrike, please learn how government works. Yes they can have an effect by inserting cheap money into the system.

[SRG]

You clearly don't understand. If only the Fed can cause inflation, they can surely correct current inflation right away, down to 2%. Just hoover up all that excess money.

You have no fucking idea how this works, Dunning-Kruger boi. Your own ignorance isn't evidence.

[TJJ2000]

They could………………………………….
BUT………. They don’t……………….
Actually they do just the opposite over and over and over again.
As every non-ignorant person already knows.

REF; Gold. You don’t see gold loosing value now do you? I remember an excellent example by Ron Paul that on the gold standard gasoline hasn’t gone up at all over the last century. Only the Fake-Fed money has robbed all your *earned* value over the century.

[damikesc]

The Fed could do it.

It would, however, likely crater an exceptionally weak economy.

Raising interest rates to 1970's levels would do away with inflation. Along with any economic growth at all.

[StevenF]

BECAUSE the Fed is the PRIMARY cause of inflation, they CAN'T reduce it. EVERY action they take is DESIGNED to cause inflation or recession, and usually causes both.

[StevenF]

Not usually, ALWAYS. In fact, the ONLY party other than the Fed capable of causing inflation is the government as a whole.

[papoh90175]

I essentially make about $6,000-$8,000 every month on the web. It’s sufficientto serenely supplant my old employments pay, particularly considering I justwork around 10-13 hours every week from home. I was stunned how simple it wasafter I attempted it duplicate underneath web…

.

.

For Details►—————————➤ Reason777.Com

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I recall my history teacher telling us that pardoning Nixon sent a message to every prisoner that they were living in a double standard of justice.

But bear in mind it pardoned *everything* Nixon did in office, including stuff which for all they knew hadn’t been discovered yet.

"I, Gerald R. Ford...do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-4311-granting-pardon-richard-nixon

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Yea, endless lefty witch hunts and show trials are much better for our democracy

[SRG]

Politicians not committing crimes are much better for our democracy. Complaining that "our guy" is being witch-hunted when he has committed crimes is not better for democracy.

To riff off Golda Meir's line, some Republicans have never forgiven the Democrats for Watergate.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Watergate? You mean when the government illegally spied on a presidential campaign?

Go fuck yourself.

[TJJ2000]

Gotta get the narratives straight.

When Republicans look into presidential campaigns it's spying.
But when Democrats do it it's investigating insurrection.
/s

[damikesc]

You're aware that everything Nixon was accused of LBJ specifically did. It was known.

[markm23]

I never heard of LBJ housing a team of burglars in the White House, nor paying their expenses with bags of $100 bills. But I'm sure LBJ did worse things, without handling them through idiots that couldn't do a simple break-in without getting caught!

[markm23]

Nixon was finished as a political force anyhow. Ending that whole mess was more important than vengeance on one man.

If I’d been in Ford’s position, I’d have done just two things differently.
(1) Make the pardon contingent on Nixon staying entirely out of politics for the rest of his life. For a man like him, that’s worse than going to prison!
(2) Require Nixon to list in writing all the _specific_ crimes he needed a pardon for. Anything left out wouldn’t be pardoned.

[mad.casual]

The Fed Won't Save Us From the Inflation Iceberg

I wish I could misinterpret this iceberg analogy but it's already pretty much, "Cpt. Edward Smith won't save the Titanic from an iceberg."

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Inflation was caused by accelerated demand that exceeded shutdown induced low supply. Happened in every advanced economy in the world.

Supply/Demand. Econ 101, Peanuts. Learn it.

Oil was $20/bbl during COVID, then spiked to $130 during reopening, now $70 even with the Saudi cut of over one million bpd.

All this inflation freakout is for pussies.

[Idaho Bob]

Do you actually believe the shit you write?

Because this (and most of your posts) sound like scripted DNC propaganda. There are no exceptions.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

So Supply/Demand is made up DNC propaganda?

I knew conservatives sucked at economics but that one strains credulity.

I recall a semiconductor shortage driving vehicle prices much higher.

https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/research/supply-chain-chip-shortage

My company couldn't find tires for our rigs. Record job creation is pushing up rent on 30 year old apartments. Demand is off the chain.

I don't know what depressed little world you live in. West Virginia? Some skunk-hole in Kentucky?

[SRG]

I knew conservatives sucked at economics but that one strains credulity.

In my experience, there is no-one more ignorantly confident about economics than the average American right-winger. That is not to say that being a right-winger means one is ignorant - far from it.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD]

Shreek, stop samefagging. It isn’t working.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Shriek is a Nazi faggot.
What do you expect?

[JesseAz]

Lol. Yout own posts above show you dont understand economics shrike.

[SRG]

Still not shrike, but you're still an obese cunt. I understand economics well enough to have taught it on Wall Street. All you've done is post links on the Daily Stormer website.

[Don't look at me!]

Talk about ignorantly confident,….

[SRG]

I do. To my surprise I see that you're smart enough not to offer an actual comment on economics. Apparently you are aware of your own ignorance and so don't feel inclined to join in with the others.

[One-Punch_Man]

Aww yes, the left that thing they are entitled to everything, that the government will provide for everything (Welfare, social security, student loans). AOC fans, Bernie bros, Kruger, Warren, and all there followers are so experts! But it's those Right wingers that don't know anything. It's those right wingers that don't understand budgets and debt.

Oooo enlighten all of us with your knowledge.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

“We are experiencing this sudden surge in inflation for two main reasons,” says Craig Kirsner, President of Stuart Estate Planning Wealth Advisors in Coconut Creek, Florida. “First, for the past year and a half due to Covid hardly anyone was spending money. Now that the economy is back open, people are spending and traveling and, as such, there is a bottleneck with very high demand. Our system isn’t set up for this high demand level, so that causes inflation in the short term. Second, with interest rates lowered to almost zero since March of 2020, these low interest rates have spurred demand in housing which is experiencing a large backlog as well as adding to inflation worries.”

or

“It’s largely due to a perfect storm of supply chain disruption from Covid, government spending to fill the economic void and a synchronized global recovery driven by vaccine rollout and economies re-opening,” says John P. Micklitsch, Chief Investment Officer at Ancora in Cleveland. “The pandemic is probably just the event that exposed over a decade of underinvestment in the global commodity supply chain and the vulnerability of ‘just-in-time’ inventories to this sort of supply shock.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriscarosa/2021/08/23/covid-or-policy-whats-causing-this-inflation-surge/?sh=8d166944c0fa

Forbes - not the DNC

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Come now. You know that Forbes falls outside of the acceptable bubble of economics reporting. The acceptable bubble extends between Mises.org and Zerohedge. And that's it.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

They regurgitate the same bromides over and over again.

It is why Hayek said that conservatives were dull-witted and unimaginative.

This one calls for the old "printing money causes inflation" balm.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Inflation is caused by the government printing too much money.

A few years back you posted kiddy porn to this site, and your initial handle was banned. The link below details all the evidence surrounding that ban. A decent person would honor that ban and stay away from Reason. Instead you keep showing up, acting as if all people should just be ok with a kiddy-porn-posting asshole hanging around. Since I cannot get you to stay away, the only thing I can do is post this boilerplate.
https://reason.com/2022/08/06/biden-comforts-the-comfortable/?comments=true#comment-9635836

[SRG]

Inflation can be caused by the government printing too much money.

FTFY

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

No, IS. That's what "too much" means.

Some people mistake price rises for inflation. They are no; they are a symptom.

[SRG]

No, IS. That’s what “too much” means.

You can get inflation by the velocity of money increasing without any printing of money. Duh and double-duh.

Some people mistake price rises for inflation. They are no; they are a symptom.

So according to you it should be possible to have inflation with no price rises; or perhaps inflation is defined - by you - as an increase in the money supply.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

You have a very bad black and white understanding of ordinary language.

Go back and read again, and pay attention to what CAN cause what, what DOES cause what, what IS a symptom, etc etc etc. I'm not wasting any more time explaining to such a dolt.

[One-Punch_Man]

Your likely SRG can read at all.

No, he's not shrike. He's just one of his fan boys. You can tell because he has to use 'boi'

[TJJ2000]

And WHO shut down supply and stuffed money on demand?????

[mad.casual]

46:17: This week's cultural recommendations

"Fuck you, cut spending." same as last week's cultural recommendations, right? RIGHT?!?

[Dillinger]

yo I’m barely an economist and what the fucking fuck with the headline lol?

[Terran]

I believe it's called modern monetary theory. The evolution of Keynes, wherein it's proponents argue in sophistic circles around the information represented by prices, and distorted by government intervention, that inflation is "totally" in the control of the government. They claim it can come from anywhere, but that the "total" control is held by federal monetary policy. It's a totalitarian viewpoint, as it's logic is circular and therefore encompasses every aspect of human life. You can see the proponents upthread try their best to explain why the cause isn't the government, no matter how many historical correlations happen.

Here's a rough analogy.
Guns can cause murders.
If government had more "total" control of guns then murder would go down.
Government takes ownership of the means of production of guns.
Violence goes up.
"Well not all violence is gun violence!"(This is where their argument is at now)

[Dillinger]

>>Was Gerald Ford right to pardon Richard Nixon?

meh. dude got railroaded.

[rev-arthur-l-kuckland]

Only 3 president have gone against the Intel deep state
Jfk
Nixon
Trump

[Michael Ejercito]

How do you deduce that the dude got railroaded?

[TJJ2000]

I'm still curious of the motive behind entering the DNC headquarters. The theory of 'stealing' votes is almost as stupid as the Clinton's theory that a few Facebook advertisements that hardly anyone even saw from a few Russian citizens was stealing massive votes. Apparently; according to the left everyone is just mindless sheep and advertisements make "the vote".

Maybe; just maybe - The Nixon government was investigating voter fraud of the DNC. But of course the media-narrative was so aggressive (just like Trump and J6) that a whole new fairy-tale counter-narrative got painted before any logical explanation could see the light of day.

[markm23]

The most plausible hypothesis I’ve seen was that he feared the DNC had something _serious_ on him (even worse than the constructive bribery that he deflected with the Checkers speech in the 1950’s) and was planning to reveal it in an October surprise. That is, he couldn’t believe that the Democrats were really as self-destructive as they seemed with the McGovern and Eagleton nominations, so he tasked his “plumbers” with finding out what the heck they were really up to. It's pretty difficult to imagine anything that would have lost him re-election in 1972, but he was living behind a wall of Secret Service agents and not feeling how badly the Dems were losing ordinary people.

Nixon probably didn’t intend his "plumbers" to go as far as actual crime, and kept so hands-off that he really didn’t know they were planning burglaries until he read about them in the morning newspaper. He then had plausible deniability, but since he wasn’t fully sociopathic like LBJ, he blew that trying to protect his guys…

[TJJ2000]

Interesting. 🙂

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

The Wizard of Oz is a story about the dangers of the gold standard
...
When viewed as an allegory, the main players in The Wizard of Oz correspond to these groups:
..
Dorothy: The average American
The Scarecrow: Farmers
The Tin Man: Industrial workers
The Cowardly Lion: William Jennings Bryan
The Munchkins: Droves of U.S. citizens
Toto: Prohibitionists, who largely supported the free silver movement
The Wicked Witch of the East: Factory owners in the East
This interpretation of the novel reveals some interesting hidden gems. The story follows a girl named Dorothy who’s lost her way and is far from home. What she’s really seeking is safety and security. At the encouragement of the munchkins, she follows the Yellow Brick Road (the gold standard) to Emerald City, which many believe represents Washington D.C.
..
Once there, she discovers that the great and powerful Oz is nothing more than a fraud. Interestingly, “oz” is the abbreviation used for an ounce of gold. In the end, it is Dorothy’s silver shoes (the film adaptation made them ruby) that save her.

We're Off to see the Wizard..
because of the wonderful things he does....

Fools believe in gold.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

If you weren’t an illiterate moron you’d know in the original story the road was silver.

Baum was an idiot about economics, which is why he supported free silver.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

You do know that William Jennings Bryan was against the gold standard per se. He was part of the "silverite" movement (hence the silver slippers in the original book" who wanted to move off the gold standard and add "silver" into the equation thus expanding the money supply with the idea that it would help the working class by essentially putting more money in their pockets.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Oh, and if you JUST discovered that The Wizard of Oz was an allegory for William Jennings Bryan's "march on Washington", welcome to Jr. High English class.

[DesigNate]

Shrike’s not very bright.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD]

Most of his subnormal cognitive bandwidth is expended acquiring and consuming CP, and consecrating his bond of obedience to Soros.

[Pear Satirical]

I did not know that. Thought it was just a kid's story.

[TJJ2000]

Wait till you hear the one about Global Warming causing an Ice Age… because of “The day after” movie… ???? The only thing leftards take serious about the usage of Gov-Guns is that they STEAL for them.

[aarinsanity]

So many billions went to corporations and stimulus checks get blamed for inflation! I think we should hold these corporations accountable for causing our current crisis.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

I’m sure SRG will be along to tut tut your cracker economic ignorance. He’s like that.

And so brave.

[Terran]

Everything is so terrible and unfair!

[TJJ2000]

Where do you think all that stimulus money went?

Fake money just deflates every working persons labor value (by inflating the median of value / i.e. your labor pay won't buy anything) and funnels that value into the asset owners. It's literally a ponzi scheme to make the rich richer and the poor poorer and 'projectively' (as the left loves to do) advertised as doing the opposite.

As-if the last century of this stunt for 'equality' and the ever growing inequality RESULT of it wasn't a dead give-away. It's about as stupid as umbrella's for your feet to keep your head dry.

[One-Punch_Man]

I think him and others think that the CEOs were just keeping warm with a bonfire of stimulus dollars.

[One-Punch_Man]

you didn't finish - those corporations are just sitting on piles of money like Scrooge McDuck. They are hoarding money or rising prices to gouge us. Not that wouldn't raise prices before all of this right?

No one blames stimulus checks. They blame the 3 trillion crony payout by Biden and friends. Corporations aren't to blame except by really really really unbright people (Cough average low info Democrat). They make a product, employ people, and continue the loop. I"m sure you hate corporations so much you didn't type this on Apple drinking a Starbucks

[TJJ2000]

+10000; Democrats have to "hate corporations" so they can STEAL from them and not feel like they're stealing from another person. After all; Democratic slavery was de-humanizing black people so they could enslave them.

After the civil war the Democrats don't run the same line of slavery but the mentality of it is all is still the same. [WE] identity-identification ability to enslave and steal from those 'icky' identities. Big Gov-Guns against those 'icky' people will save us from having to *earn* stuff and *entitle* [us].

[Fats of Fury]

When does Biden get his Nobel?

https://nypost.com/2023/06/19/blinken-ruffles-feathers-by-stating-us-does-not-support-taiwan-independence-after-meeting-chinas-xi/

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Every time the Biden regime clarifies it's Taiwan policy it becomes more convoluted.

[Don't look at me!]

Those asswipes are going to get us into a war.

[Nazi-Burning Witch]

Another one?

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/MysteryGrove/status/1670944125615579137?t=jlDEHs0_F-FGKODaGUjHrg&s=19

The execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving America’s nuclear secrets to the Soviets had it all: civil rights leaders weeping, the Pope asking for clemency, everyone on Planet Earth with a graduate degree insisting they were innocent. But of course, they were guilty.

Can seem a bit ghoulish to celebrate their deaths but more than 10k attended their funeral. Everyone knew they were guilty, they just put on this hysterical performance for decades and then when indisputable evidence came out (Soviet files stating they were spies) it all vanished

All you can do is make light of it because it’s just so ridiculous. Total inversion of morality mixed with kitsch and sanctimony. That homeless subway dancer moonwalking at Jordan Neely’s funeral on a civilizational scale.

[Michael Ejercito]

Do we know the extent of the damage that they did?

[Terran]

We all died in the cold war.

[markm23]

The Manhattan Project began in 1942 and demonstrated the first uranium bomb in July 1945, and the first plutonium bomb a month later. That’s 4-1/2 years, and the whole time the project manager wasn’t sure if the bomb _could_ work or if he was squandering vast amounts of money and strategic war materials on an untested scientific hypothesis.

The Soviets demonstrated their first bomb August 1949. That’s four years after we nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the Soviets started research years before then. So the Rosenberg-Greenglass spy ring handed them enough information to finish their first bomb, but on a slower schedule than us. My best guess is that the Soviets were inefficient enough that it would have taken them two or three years longer without the Rosenberg data. The spies saved them those years, and also saved them a lot of manpower, materials, and energy by telling them which of several approaches worked best, so they didn’t have to try them all like we did.

But the information that did the most to boost Soviet nuclear research didn't come from spying on us, but from what we revealed when we dropped those two bombs on Japan: fission bombs _worked_ and were so ridiculously powerful that every world power needed their own.

[Nardz]

Typical DeSantis campaigner:

https://twitter.com/Villgecrazylady/status/1670921202838151170?t=7gUmpQeiVLSy0RvfdBxgrw&s=19

So Trump has now pivoted to “I never had any classified documents to my knowledge…”

Clearly reality has set in and he’s starting to realize how deep the shit he’s in actually is. For all you hanger-ons it’s time to recognize that Trump knows he couldn’t just waive a hand and declassify these papers- hence the pivot to “they were planted by the FBI.”

How long before people finally wake up to what a disaster this man really is?

[Link]

[Don't look at me!]

One man can drive so many people crazy.

[mad.casual]

Trump knows he couldn’t just waive a hand and declassify these papers

Again, Trump aside, the argument is unfathomably fucking banana republic: the Deep State generates and holds information so secret that Nation’s top elected official, the Commander-in-Chief, cannot declassify it without approval. Turn it around: there’s unequivocal proof that Trump colluded with Russians to steal the election but, because the proof implicates the Obama WH or makes the FBI/CIA/ATF look incompetent, if not duplicitous, nobody, not a reserve airman, a desk pogue, a Senior Analyst, SOS, COS, JC, Congressman, or even President can handle the information without receiving permission.

Unless, of course, the information serves the Deep State’s need or is held by assets friendly to the Deep State’s aims. This is case from Clinton to W to Obama to Biden with the exception of Trump.

If you’re taking flak, you’re over the target. The fact DeSantis gets, comparatively, orders of magnitude less flak and mostly “fire for effect” flak tells me more than I need to know.

[Michael Ejercito]

As a reminder.

https://ethicsalarms.com/2023/06/13/its-the-wuhan-virus-and-attention-should-be-paid/#comment-843495

In the unanimous decision in Navy v Egan 484 U.S. 518 (1988), Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court and stated Trump had the authority to do exactly what he did and all Trump has to do is say he declassified them on his last day and he’s good to go!!!
“The President, after all, is the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” U.S.Const., Art. II, § 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant.” – Justice Blackmun

[mad.casual]

Right. Even if you hoist the flag and say “I’m the anarchiest of anarchists! Your pre-existing rules do not apply!” your argument is still essentially that the State, and arguably *only* the State, can generate and hold secrets that it is illegal for anyone not deemed of the State to hold. That knowledge and truth can flow only from the State, when allowed, and all other sources should be actively oppressed.

The aspect of State secrets that *might*, incidentally, concern libertarians, that State secrets may contain information not owned by the State or reasonably able to be disclosed by the State, has not even been asserted. In fact, the opposite. If we have to violate private property, persons and effects, to protect State secrets, so be it.

Again, Trump, Biden, Obama, W aside. The FBI raids W or Obama’s home to retrieve secrets held during their Presidency… banana republic-level statism.

I certainly don't agree that everyone *must* vote for Trump (because representative democracy). But the idea that DeSantis is clearly the most viable option or that Trump is just some idiotic, has-been, worthless protest vote is to cast a measure of has-been, worthless protest shade on support for what is evidently the most brazen and craven exposure and employment of the State's power against an individual.

[Nardz]

"By today’s standards King George III was a very mild tyrant indeed. He taxed his American colonists at a rate of only pennies per annum. His actual impact on their personal lives was trivial. He had arbitrary power over them in law and in principle but in fact it was seldom exercised. If you compare his rule with that of today’s U.S. Government you have to wonder why we celebrate our independence.."
-Joseph Sobran

[Nazi-Burning Witch]

Sure... But look at us compared to the England of today.

[DesigNate]

Exactly.

[Zeb]

Or Canada or Australia. Perhaps better parallel examples.

[Terran]

The point is that the American experiment is losing its guiding principles I believe. It seems that is where he wants you to look, because imagine if they had the king of olds taxes. He didn't mention any of the other policies. Just a lower tax rate. So if we look at Britain do we now pat ourselves on the back and go "well at least we are free here!"? (Sorry about that punctuation at the end.)

[Nardz]

Something to keep in the back of your mind for next year

https://twitter.com/TheLastRefuge2/status/1670951580856721408?t=bkj9A13Z80PXvw07NK4KlQ&s=19

DeSantis was told and promised two things by the corporate handlers in control of US politics: #1 he would not be running against Donald Trump (they would take him out); and #2, his opponent would be Gavin Newsom.

Start there, and things like this make sense.

[Link]

[BigT]

Who are these corporate handlers? Without names and evidence this is absurd conspiracy.

[SRG]

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/statistics/inflation

Inflation can be defined as the overall general upward price movement of goods and services in an economy.

Or is this the Deep State/Hunter Biden laptop definition?

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Goddamn that’s brilliant. How do you do it?

[BigT]

Prices are the effect. Cause is more money per unit of product.

[taja]

I am making a real GOOD MONEY ($550 to $750 / hr) online from my laptop. Last month I GOT chek of nearly 85000$, this online work is simple and straightforward, don't have to go OFFICE, Its home online job. You become independent after joining this JOB. I really thanks to my FRIEND who refer me this SITE. I hope you also got what I...go to home media tech tab for more detail reinforce your heart...... 

SITE. ——>>> bitecoin.com

[Terran]

Man murders your friend.
You tell him he did a wrong thing.
Srg follows with this argument.
"The man says that murder is when humans kill animals, not other humans, so he never murdered anybody."
Well I guess we just take him at his word!

[One-Punch_Man]

Did you read the link this time or just the cliff notes?

[MelindaRo]

I make over 13k a month working part-time. I listened to different humans telling me how a good deal of cash they may make online,N255 so I was determined to locate out. Well, it turned into all actual and it absolutely modified my life. Everybody must try this job now by just using this site..... https://Www.Worksprofit.com

[CE]

The Fed "won't save us from the inflation iceberg"?

Who do you think froze that sucker in the first place?

[DesigNate]

I found this interesting:

https://www.clevelandfed.org/-/media/project/clevelandfedtenant/clevelandfedsite/publications/economic-commentary/1997/ec-19971015-on-the-origin-and-evolution-of-the-word-inflation-pdf.pdf

[SRG]

So you think that only the government printing money causes inflation?

Or could it be - stretching your mind well beyond its usual proportions - that events can have more than one cause?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Buttplug is retarded.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

So you think that's what he said?

[JesseAz]

Hey shrike created a strawman since he was losing the argument. I'm shocked.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Very interesting description of the evolution of the definition of the term inflation. SRG would do well to read it.

[SRG]

What was once a word that described a monetary cause
now describes a price outcome.

And that has been true for nigh on 50 years

[DanielCook]

I have made $18625 last month by w0rking 0nline from home in my part time only. Everybody can now get this j0b and start making dollars 0nline just by follow details here..
🙂 AND GOOD LUCK.:)
HERE====)> https://www.salarybiz.com