Campaign Disclosure Follies

FEC campaign donation disclosure rules seem to require the public release of all donors, even as small as $1, who contribute through a conduit like ActBlue.

I expect quick action to change this, despite the doxxing by the Castro brothers of Trump donors.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have to check whether my donations to Marianne Williamson and Amy Klobuchar went through. I also can't remember if I gave in to my desire to list my occupation as "Astronaut".

Comments

[peter]

I'm an astronaut too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPnaaHR9pLc
My name Jose Jimenez.

[Pinandpuller]

So tell me, what do tariffs on China have to do with oil and gas company stocks tanking?

[Pinandpuller]

I heard that Epstein purchased women’s underwear while being held in custody. He certainly didn’t seem intent on rehabilitation.

[Pinandpuller]

NM, that was in Palm Beach jail. But the point about rehabilitation stands. That was 10 years ago.

[Pinandpuller]

Profiles in Proclivities:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ralph-whittington-erotica-collector-extraordinaire-dies-at-74/2019/08/17/267c63b6-c051-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html

[henry]

Small Dem donors, were they all from the same cemetery?

[jim nj]

So tell me, what do tariffs on China have to do with oil and gas company stocks tanking?

Posted by: Pinandpuller | August 19, 2019 at 05:26 AM
--------

Haven't been paying attention to the petro markets lately. Iran and Venezuela mostly off-line.

Which would reduce supply and up the price. Must be reduced demand. Probably China.

There was a great article posted earlier about copper and cobalt mines closing in Africa due to decreased demand from China.

The price on those two commodities had collapsed recently.

It suggests the that the Chinese economy has suffered more than the official numbers suggest.

[Melinda]

Cobalt and copper as “State Endorsed” commodities? Now think about that ZMan article and debt and apply the high torque of hubris.

Commodity financial engineering is not limited to Chinese interests.

[henry]

Seems a bunch of “Silk Road” loans go belly up along with the commodities.

[Melinda]

Any skim off the top on those “loans” for local signatories?

Naaahhh.

[henry]

Skim? Xi wonders where his “giant TBill Weapon” went.

[Buckeye]

Question is whether he lashes out at us or HK?

[jim nj]

Speculative thinking here, but why would China need less copper? If their building boom had collapsed. No more speculative buildings being built.

If I'm right that would mean an overhang of unsold real estate clogging the market. Thus a building pause.

The PBOC is doing a great deal to make money available, but I don't think the banks are doing a good job of allocating the capital.

They are too used to used to making loans to state-owned enterprises. I don't think they understand the more entrepreneurial markets.

MY suspicion is that real estate developers and smaller growth companies are being starved of capital.

That the banks are sitting on increased liquidity and don't know what to do with it.

I don't think China can finance its way through this turmoil.

[jim nj]

Thank you, Melinda, China will finance these mines until they don't need their output anymore.

What do you think of my argument that Chinese banks don't know how to allocate capital?

[Robin, eff 'em all]

I've been reading the history book recommended around the conservative Blogosphere, The Land of Hope, keeping ahead of the Tween, who is mightily annoyed to have it assigned to her over the last couple of weeks of summer.

In the meantime, the boycott movement was becoming more effective, tapping into the patriotic passions of thousands of ordinary Americans who were willing to express their alarm at the British threats to American liberty. It was the common people - farmers and working men - who volunteered to serve in militias, such as the Minutemen of Massachusetts, for the same reasons. This was no longer the behavior of loyal subjects but increasingly that of liberty loving citizens yearning to remain free and restore their customary practices and legal rights.

A profound shift of sensibility was taking place. As John Adams asserted, reflecting many years later on the events he had lived through, "The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and the hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations."....It was a revolution of the mind and heart they had begun.

Someone here called our times the Great Awakening, which harks back to the religious and spiritual revival that swept through the British colonies in the 1730's, paralleled by the Enlightenment, which also found fertile grounds in the colonies. Reading about Thomas Paine and his Common Sense pamphlet, I can't help but be reminded of President Trump and his talent for "political agitation and stirring rhetoric."

There is no question in my mind that we are not going back. I don't know what the future looks like, but the desperate pleas of gun control by the left signals desperation to me more than a victory lap. That Obama didn't take advantage of his party's absolute control in his first two years and impose draconian laws impeding the 2nd Amendment seems to indicate that they are not as far along in their remaking of this country as they would have wished, even at that time.

Those of us watching Hong Kong are watching a Revolution in real time. It could not have happened if the people of HK were not confident of the support - both current and over the next few years - of the US officials.

[Robin, eff 'em all]

That reminds me, I've been meaning to purchase a shotgun. Not exactly rolling in extra cash right now, so need an inexpensive recommendation or two before I go visit the local gun shop.

[Melinda]

They allocated capital perfectly for their political patrons.

[Buckeye]

Robin

If the shotgun is for protection, a simple pump gun will get the job done.

Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 series pump shotguns are inexpensive and both are reliable.

[jim nj]

ROBIN,

Colonial militias were composed of 18-60 year olds. Lame and addled were excluded. Everyone else was supplied with shot and powder. You were required to own your own gun.

The government required that you be armed.

Modern people don't understand the concept of the original militia. You were required to be armed. It wasn't optional.

[rse]

Steph-

to answer your question from last night I know that area somewhat from staying two summers ago at the Loew's in Hollywood with my parents and daughters in what would turn out to be my dad's last trip. I put us in that area because of the easy access to the metro line at Hollywood and highland. I wanted us to stay off the highways once we got back from san diego.

Know some great restaurants and would recommend getting up to griffith park observatory one night while she is in the area.

[MissMarple3]

Speaking of housing starts, look what Wilbur Ross posted on Twitter on Friday:

Housing permits rose 8.4%, the fastest rate in over two years. Single-family housing starts rose 1.3% and completions rose 7.2%. Good news for the housing market! https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst
===================
This seems to be the opposite of what's going on in China.

[Another Bob]

“Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 series pump shotguns are inexpensive and both are reliable.”

Also come in many variants - long barrels, short barrels, chokes, materials, etc.

[henry]

Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 series pump shotguns

think about guage as well. A 20 weighs less than a 12. Both put shot on target.

[clarice]

Why does everyone believe Giuffre's version? Something to remember when you think the Clinton's had JE killed?https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14743/jeffrey-epstein-alan-dershowitz-justice?fbclid=IwAR3Itvd4EbDbJBalY-3ogEKl31v7hrhxn-wzuFQsLmDfmrdkyGIaPcnhfvU

[henry]

This obsession that scientists-with-a-message have about silencing peers with other viewpoints (rather than constructing and communicating a winning argument themselves) is vile and utterly counter to what real science is about. Not surprisingly, they positively fawn over media stars like Al Gore and Greta Thunberg who have no science background but willingly repeat the accepted message of climate-change-doom.

https://www.thegwpf.com/post-modern-witchhunt-nature-publishes-blacklist-of-critical-scientists-writers/

[Another Bob]

Good point Henry.

20ga with #4 buck will be every bit as effective as the typical 12ga and 00 buck. Noticeably softer kick too. (To encourage practice, you want something not unpleasant to shoot.)

[MissMarple3]

Maria Bartiromo‏Verified account @MariaBartiromo · 7m7 minutes ago

Breaking news- Confirmed. ⁦@CommerceGov⁩ Secy wilbur ROSS just confirmed the US is extending #Huawei deadline while also adding 46 subsidiaries to the "entity list" ⁦@MorningsMaria⁩ ⁦@FoxBusiness⁩ "nov19th new deadline for us CO's to stop selling to huawei.

[Another Bob]

Can’t say I totally understand the administration strategy re. Huawei.

[MissMarple3]

Another Bob,

I don't either. However, I don't even understand what Huawei makes.

I just posted Maria's tweet because I thought it would be important to some people here.

[Captain Hate]

Why does everyone believe Giuffre's version? Something to remember when you think the Clinton's had JE killed?

There have been so many sketchy stories around Epstein that separating the wheat from the chaff was important. And keeping him alive was the only way that would happen. And Barr's Department fucked that up.

[Another Bob]

Among other things Huawei makes cellphones and cell system equipment that most think has spyware built in to permit the Chinese to, among other things, tap phones.

[henry]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
7m

Anthony Scaramucci is a highly unstable “nut job” who was with other candidates in the primary who got shellaced, and then unfortunately wheedled his way into my campaign. I barely knew him until his 11 days of gross incompetence-made a fool of himself, bad on TV. Abused staff,..

....got fired. Wrote a very nice book about me just recently. Now the book is a lie? Said his wife was driving him crazy, “something big” was happening with her. Getting divorced. He was a mental wreck. We didn’t want him around. Now Fake News puts him on like he was my buddy!

[Robin, eff 'em all]

Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 series pump shotguns are inexpensive and both are reliable.

Posted by: Buckeye | August 19, 2019 at 07:21 AM

Thank you for this and additional comments from Henry and ABob.

JimNJ, it's hard to imagine that there were any households in colonial America that were not armed. That said, weren't the militias voluntary?

[henry]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
1m

Great cohesion inside the Republican Party, the best I have ever seen. Despite all of the Fake News, my Poll Numbers are great. New internal polls show them to be the strongest we’ve had so far! Think what they’d be if I got fair media coverage!

[Captain Hate]

weren't the militias voluntary?

Yes. Not everyone supported the Revolution, more like 35%. The "unity" that the unfree presstitutes babble about is fake history promoted by the state run indoctrination centers.

[MissMarple3]

Captain Hate,

Remember when Disney ran that series "Johnny Tremaine?"

[Captain Hate]

Barely because I recognize the name but that's it.

[MissMarple3]

Schlichter touches on the gun thing towards the end:

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/08/19/ignorant-liberals-need-to-go-visit-america-n2551857

[Tom R]

This 5 minute video will brighten up you day.

https://twitter.com/masnorioles/status/1162872518941822979?s=21

Feeling a little better now. The vertigo comes and goes now versus being nonstop for over a week.

[henry]

here's deregulation in action. /snark

Real Time Economics @WSJecon
4m

Companies are preparing to give U.S. regulators the most detailed information ever collected about how they compensate workers of all genders, races and ethnicities

[Jane]

Did anyone else see Charles Kessler on Levin last night?

He was amazing.

[Momto2]

rse - I sent you an email. Is there a JOM meet-up this week?

[Melinda]

“Both Companies”

Government sampler.

[Robin, eff 'em all]

Tom R, that was lovely! Thank you!

[Captain Hate]

The vertigo comes and goes now versus being nonstop for over a week.

Have you seen a doctor about it? My wife did and it was diagnosed almost immediately; the doc was able to induce it in the office and told her ways to make it stop. I'm not saying yours is the same but waiting for it to stop on its own is probably not the best way to deal with it.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--The PBOC is doing a great deal to make money available, but I don't think the banks are doing a good job of allocating the capital.--

A recession is something that needs to happen to wring the inefficiencies and misallocations out of a market.
Dumping free money onto a contracting economy either does no good or simply allows the misallocations to continue and grow.
And since a bank presumably would like to see its money returned, pouring it, free or not, into an economy in the early stages of wringing out excesses is a pretty good way to ensure very little of it is returned. Of course in a centrally managed economy the central bank often doesn't care if the money is returned. But they should because that attitude is the one that most distorts markets by destroying the price mechanism that markets need to function.
And in an economy as centrally managed and controlled as China's the misallocations are yuge so that ever letting markets actually have their way, and they always have their way in the end, voluntarily or otherwise, is often an extinction event.

[henry]

You first asshat.

https://madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/tony-evers-sets-carbon-free-goal-creates-new-office-promoting/article_afb2ab9f-c39c-5686-939f-c032b5c53766.html

[Narciso]

Scaramucci tried to get hna to buy skybridge it went pearshaped, perhaps since the owe the controlling bloc of deutsche bank, a dog with adifferent set of fleas, as gordon gekko would say.

[Narciso]

That was then:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1I125J

[Narciso]

And the walls fell:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-02-16/hna-cuts-deutsche-bank-stake-again-as-chinese-group-plans-exit

[Manuel Transmission]

Random thoughts on China housing.

When I saw the Ordos ghost city for the first time, I knew there was some batshit crazy process that had infected their psyches. Almost a cargo cult mimicking of our real estate development without any sense of the idea that you build for a customer base that’s anxious and ready to buy what you are making. There was no there there.

On several other occasions I would stare at a high rise being built and try to envision someone buying a flat on the 27th floor knowing that it was just a rough out sans plumbing and appliances and after a month the elevators would likely stop working. Where’s the payback in that?

In Beijing and I’m sure many other places they would go into a neighborhood of ancient brick hovels occupied for a millennium by peasants and clear it out like the razed neighborhoods in Detroit. Where did those people move? I think there was such a complete disconnect with everyone that they just imagined that they would magically move into the high rises.

And finally, I think someone here posted a link maybe a couple years ago of a couple of guys who were going around making videos of some of these developments and showing stuff like faux brick veneers sloughing off the exteriors before they were even finished.

So cargo cult financing begats cargo cult communities? Looks like turtles all the way down.

[Neo]

Jack Whitaker, legendary CBS Sports announcer, has died at 95

[Narciso]

His annual confetences were very swampy with brennan and cameron in attendance.

[Neo]

Tom Steyer to leave campaign trail for jury duty

[Narciso]

Wonder if the chinese read the iron heel, in it the oligarchs build themselves new cities like arcadia

[Rocco]

Good morning, glad you're feeling better TomR. My wife gets bouts of vertigo and has to hold on to the walls when getting out of bed and walking around.

And I can't blame anyone for not buying the Epstein suicide.

I love my mossberg 500, but it does have a nasty kick. I've been taught that if you raise your trigger hand elbow up, it creates a little pocket in your shoulder which helps absorb the kick. And my shooting was awful until my instructor had me lean into the shot. Made all the difference in the world.

[Narciso]

Interestimg the houthis hit the shaybah oil fields in the south east corner of the kingdom thid weekend.

[henry]

Picture of wall at link

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
1m

Democrats want Open Borders and Crime! So dangerous for our Country. But we are building a big, beautiful, NEW Wall! I will protect America, the Dems don’t know where to start!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1163446760406171649

[Narciso]

Are you taking anything for the vertigo tom r?

https://freebeacon.com/politics/rep-haaland-d-antifa-are-peaceful-protesters-trying-to-safeguard-their-city/

[Narciso]

The mcmuffin candidate:

https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/16/dan-mccready-north-carolina-school/

[jimmyk]

“Tom Steyer to leave campaign trail for jury duty”

If a candidate leaves the campaign trail and no one notices, does it make a sound?

[Neo]

THREE YEARS OF MISERY INSIDE GOOGLE, THE HAPPIEST COMPANY IN TECH
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-three-years-misery-happiest-company-tech/

[Jim Eagle]

More good news: The Permian Basin oil shale production now up to 4m/bbl/day. Requires more offshore oil terminals to accommodate the VLCC (Very Large Crude Carriers) that can carry up to 2m/gal of crude.

We are replacing the ME and are now a net exporter of crude. Trouble is the timeline which is compounded by the Enviromental Reviews.

Another reason to move to Texas if you can weld, splice cable and/or work with iron.

https://tinyurl.com/yxujodhz

[Narciso]

Was fracking the key i thought only boone pickens had been able to do big finds in recent years

[Jim Eagle]

Boone is all hat no horse, Narciso.

These are top exploration and production companies in the basin plus the pipeline companies including one from the old firm.

[Narciso]

I atand corrected, w was dinged for his failures in the patch before he struck oil in bahrain.

[Captain Hate]

I thought Pickens became famous because he had a funny name that was easy to remember.

[MissMarple3]

Link goes to contrasting pictures. The difference is really shocking!

Gotta be tough being the same age, yet look so different. One is married to Melania, the other Hillary. Satan can suck the soul right out of ya. pic.twitter.com/P1EmCloax6

— Snake-Eyes (G2DAZ)♠️ (@RealG2daZ) August 19, 2019

[Old Lurker]

Or you can be younger than both but married to Moochelle.

There is a god.

[Narciso]

This is just my conjecture, but the chinese were told to deapise the robber barons and the chiang era mob, they decided to rebuild their societies along those lines.

[MissMarple3]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1163437469209169921.html

Leftism, the rise of contempt-signaling, and punishment politics.

[MissMarple3]

Old Lurker,

HA! I hadn't even thought about him! Trump has almost erased him from my memory!

[Narciso]

Now david boies is miss roberts current minder, of course the new yorker doesnt revisit the last lie they were told, theyd have to fire most everybody.

[rse]

MOmto 2-returned your email.

MATT--still coming to atl later in the week?

[Narciso]

He does look like william hickey doesnr he, or donovan when he drank from the wrong xup.

[Narciso]

The end of season of ash is much less triumphal than klingsor, then again volpi is writing with hindsight.

[Captain Hate]

Is it still worth reading?

[hrtshpdbox]

I thought Pickens became famous because he had a funny name that was easy to remember.

I liked when he rode that bomb.

Alright, that was Slim, not T. Boone - I knew that!

[Narciso]

It is a very ambitious project, a little like europa central but encompassing many more fields but i would say not.

[Captain Hate]

Some people really panned it badly on Goodreads. Yes, eyeroll, but sift through the emo responses and you can find some legit gripes.

[Narciso]

I wanted to like it, much like the tripe that comes highly recommended, you can sometimes do too much research and akimp on the characters.

[hrtshpdbox]

If a candidate leaves the campaign trail and no one notices, does it make a sound?

Nope; Tulsi Gabbard is, right now, doing one of the active duty stints her Reserve obligations call for, and I didn't hear nuffin.

[Captain Hate]

Jack Whitaker, legendary CBS Sports announcer, has died at 95

Banned by Augusta National in a very prickish decision. Not one of their finer moments. Hard to imagine Bobby Jones agreeing.

[Narciso]

Like a mexican mr. Potter:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jun/28/billionaire-airport-last-act-mexico-city-ruin-carlos-slim

[Captain Hate]

you can sometimes do too much research and akimp on the characters.

That was a specific complaint that caught my attention.

[Narciso]

Shes doing useful work teaining with the indonesiam military, steyer will just do more of what he usually does.

[Narciso]

Klingsor was more about the character bacom the physicisr was fictional but you got the fellimg he was a real person.

[Captain Hate]

Yes, he was a real personal accumulating data. Characters like that *can* be stick figures but he was nicely fleshed out.

[James D.]

MM @ 10:25

That's a FANTASTIC thread. This is so true:

"Destruction is the one thing Big Government does well."

[MissMarple3]

James D.,

Glad you liked it! I especially liked "contempt-signaling" as an outgrowth of "virtue-signaling."

I just came off a thread where a NYT reader was demonstrating how much contempt he had for Trump and his supporters, because, as you know, none of us read books(unlike the high-brow NYT readers). (Insert me rolling my eyes, here.)

I have gotten so used to this stuff that I just laugh and scroll on by. They really do need to get out more, as Kurt Schlichter suggested in his column today.

[Narciso]

Was that zaretsky the sartre admirer.

[Jane]

I mentioned the Levin show with Charles Kessler. He put into words so many issues that we have been stewing over. He explained the history since the start of the country of the left v right, and how it was always compatible, getting tougher in the 60's and completely incompatible now. The Constitution v the "living constitution" - how it got there and where it is going.

He talked about the use of "racism' by the left which obviously has nothing to do with race, but instead is anything they disagree with. and it changes instantly when they change their minds about anything. All stuff we know but can't put it into words as concisely.

It will be replayed next Sat at 7:00. I plan to take notes.

[Dave (in MA)]

Storm Greenland!
They can't stop all of us!
If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets.

[anonamom]

Somebody I live with contributed to Marianne too.
"Don't want to lose her this early."
Is she still in??

[henry]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
3m

Our Economy is very strong, despite the horrendous lack of vision by Jay Powell and the Fed, but the Democrats are trying to “will” the Economy to be bad for purposes of the 2020 Election. Very Selfish! Our dollar is so strong that it is sadly hurting other parts of the world...

.....The Fed Rate, over a fairly short period of time, should be reduced by at least 100 basis points, with perhaps some quantitative easing as well. If that happened, our Economy would be even better, and the World Economy would be greatly and quickly enhanced-good for everyone!

[Narciso]

Probably, but the market might run likr banshees, one has to account for the cost of increased debt, greenspan i think overdid it in 2004-06.

[Melinda]

Ig @ 9:06.

No.

There's another way. As it is, we're already well down its path.

[Melinda]

Jane-

Dr. Charles Kesler:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/mark-levin-charles-kessler-political-correctness-trump-deplorables

[Jane]

Thanks Mel,

Totally worth the read.

[Melinda]

might have to tape that one. Article doesn't seem to do it justice.