Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell set a reporter from Fox Business straight on the basics of the U.S. economy and inflation Wednesday during a press conference.
During the press conference, reporter Edward Lawrence suggested that government spending was partially responsible for inflation, remarking:
“Inflation has been rather sticky, so do you need help from the fiscal side to get inflation down faster?”
Powell replied:
“We don’t give advice to the fiscal authorities, and we assume that we take fiscal policy as it comes to our front door, stick it in our model along with a million other things, and we have responsibility for price stability. And we will get inflation down to 2% in time.”
Lawrence tried again to link spending to inflation:
“But the spending that’s happened is working against what you are doing, right? So it’s prolonging inflation?”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made a fool of himself at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Wednesday when attempted to suggest that young men who take the COVID-19 vaccine are more likely to have myocarditis (which is an inflammation of the heart muscle).
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel was testifying before the committee and was asked by Paul:
“Is there a higher interest or a higher incidence of myocarditis among adolescent males 16 to 24 after taking your vaccine?”
Bancel:
“First, let me say we care deeply about safety and we are working closely with the CDC and the FDA.”
Paul: “Pretty much a yes or no,” Paul said. “Is there a higher incidence of myocarditis among boys 16 to 24 after they take your vaccine?”
“The data I’ve shown, actually, I’ve seen, sorry, from the CDC, actually shown that there’s less myocarditis for people who get the vaccine versus who get COVID infection,” Bancel noted.
A clearly shocked Paul asked, “You’re saying that for ages 16 to 24 among males who take the COVID vaccine, their risk of myocarditis is less than people who get the disease?”
Bancel confirmed what he had just said, “That is my understanding, Senator.”
Taken aback and looking as if Bancel had just slapped him, Paul exclaimed:
“That is not true. And I’d like to enter into the record six peer-reviewed papers from the Journal of Vaccine, the Annals of Medicine that say the complete opposite of what you say.”
Sen. @RandPaul & Moderna CEO exchange on COVID vaccine and myocarditis.
Paul: "I spoke with your president just last week and he readily acknowledged, in private, that yes there is an increased risk of myocarditis. The fact that you can't say it in public is quite disturbing." pic.twitter.com/z856U9BasV
Though we’ve been told for several days that Wednesday or Thursday would be the most likely times for failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump to be arrested, booked, photographed, and processed in Manhattan, it now looks like that has been delayed until next week at the soonest.
Business Insider reports that the grand jury investigating Trump’s hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels has been told to stay home today.
The Manhattan ‘hush-money’ grand jury has been told not to come in on Wednesday, a cancellation that comes on the brink of a possible historic indictment vote of former President Donald Trump, according to two law enforcement officers.
And while nothing beyond Wednesday is set in stone, it is unlikely that the grand jury will meet at all this week, said one of the law enforcement sources, who spoke to Insider on condition of anonymity.
Despite the apparent delay in the case, it doesn’t mean that creative people haven’t been busy on their computers cooking up all sorts of fun images of the Donald being apprehended.
Mediaite reports that pictures generated with artificial intelligence (AI) are making the rounds on social media, and people are loving them.
Tuesday has come and gone with no arrest, but the hopeful have been brought closer to fulfillment by sharing AI-generated photo-fakes of Trump that went viral, and even inspired an Associated Press Fact-Check. and a Snopes-ing.
The photos vary in quality and subject matter, and according to KnowYourMeme originated Saturday with a now-deleted thread by a user named @TheInfiniteDude that included a Trump mug shot:
Or how about this one of Donnie running from the authorities, though it’s unlikely he can run with those nasty bone spurs that kept him out of serving in Vietnam.
There’s also this one of Trump being grabbed by officers from the NYPD:
And this one, though it remains unclear why Dotard Don has on a utility belt. Was he trying to pull a Batman?
Trump being loaded into a police SUV:
There’s also Trump going full Tony Montana and trying to hold off the cops with semiautomatic rifle, though it’s doubtful he could fire the damn thing without assistance:
Until we get the real mug shots, we’ll just have to enjoy what we have.
You’ve probably never heard of Pete Santilli. He’s an extremist right-wing broadcaster who was accused of threatening to kill federal law enforcement officials in 2016.
And now Santilli may find himself in big legal trouble yet again as a result of remarks he made Monday about the pending indictment of failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump in Manhattan.
According to Right Wing Watch, Santilli told listeners that if indeed Trump is indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the U.S. military should arrest and execute former President Barack Obama, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
“Get the military, whatever few are left that are gonna side with the people,” Santilli insited. “That you military personnel and you people with guns and badges and law enforcement will succumb to the will of the people.”
“And ultimately, we demand, we absolutely demand that the criminals, the criminals in this country, if you want them held accountable, the criminals are Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Susan Rice. This entire criminal cabal that came about as a result of the murder of John F. Kennedy, the people that perpetrated the murder of John F. Kennedy, rise up to that.”
Santilli added, “Military, join us and put all of them up against a concrete wall… and do what we must do to save not just our country, the entire world.”
In the event that Donald Trump is arrested, radical right-wing broadcaster Pete Santilli calls on the military and law enforcement to round up Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Susan Rice, and other members of the "criminal cabal," line them up against a wall and execute them. pic.twitter.com/ODg3NADztL
Sounds like Pete Santilli needs a visit from the Secret Service. Former President Obama is still under their protection and a threat has just been made against him.
Now that his former boss is just days away from being indicted in Manhattan for paying illegal hush money to a woman in violation of New York election law, former Vice President Mike Pence is saying he hopes Donald Trump isn’t indicted by Manhattan by Attorney General Alvin Bragg next week.
At an Iowa even, according to Mediaite, Pence was asked his thoughts on the possible indictment of Trump. He responded:
“Here we go again. Another politically charged prosecution against the former president of the United States.”
Pence added, “The idea of indicting a president of the United States is deeply troubling to me as it is to tens of millions of Americans – and particularly happening in what appears to be a politically charged environment in New York where the attorney general and other elected officials literally campaigned on a pledge to prosecute the former president.”
So even though Trump said the Jan. 6 protesters who chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” were probably right, Pence is now defending the failed former president.
According to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, here’s what Trump said when he heard the chants to murder his VP:
Describing events at the White House on the afternoon of 6 January 2021, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said: “I remember Pat [Cipollone, the White House counsel] saying something to the effect of, ‘Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice-president to be fucking hung.’
“And Mark had responded something to the effect of, ‘You heard him, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.’
If you were wondering whether Trump is the head of a death cult instead of a political party, look no further than Pence’s comments today.
