Endarkenment

So the supposedly Jesus-loving, flag-waving crowd feels a convicted felon, convicted rapist, bankrupt, tax cheat, philandering, con man is the best leader for our country and the example they'd like to set for the children. What a disgrace!

Republicans, don't preach another second about law-and-order, God, morality, right-and-wrong, or any of your other meaningless talking points. The Republicans are the party of stupid. They are the party of ignorance. They are the party of immaturity. They are the party of hypocrisy. They are the party of petulance. They are the party of greed. They are the party of misogyny. They are the party of racism. They are the party of homophobia. They are the party of transphobia. They are the party of cognitive dissonance. Republicans are non-thinking, spineless, windbags. 

But now let's talk about the apathetic American voter. In 2020, 66% of eligible voters went to the polls. Pathetic in it's own right. But, in 2024, what was deemed the most consequential election ever, even fewer voters turned out. Twenty million less people (as of this writing) voted for president in 2024 than in 2020. Embarrassing! 

I can't end this without mentioning the fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris entered office and ushered us out of the pandemic without pulling us down into a recession. In case you forget, Donald Trump had lost jobs, lowered the American standard of living, ignored the pandemic and told people to drink bleach. [Plus this, this, and this.] And, not only did the U.S. not enter a recession under Biden/Harris, our economy is leading the world - the stock market it up, GDP is up, wages are up, jobs are up, and inflation is down. As The Economist noted, The U.S. Economy is the Envy of The World. This is what the geniuses on the right have voted against and the apathetic slouches on the left decided not to vote for. Sad.

For Further Reading:
U.S. economic growth remains impressive. It’s the envy of the world, except at home
The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust
The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status
The robust U.S. economy is leaving ‘other rich countries in the dust’
The envy of the world

Just A Few Reasons Trump Is The Worst

Getting Down To Business

The Writing On The Wall

Republicans have seen the writing on the wall. Decades of indicators have shown the majority of voters align with Democrats' policies. This is why Republicans have gerrymandered, suppressed votes, pushed voter identification, closed polls, and just generally tried to make it harder to vote or exclude people from voting. It's the only way Republicans have been able to win elections. The Republicans don't really have any ideas for public policy. And, they really don't care. Power is their ultimate goal. The power to control the purse strings of the government. Hence, they are continually trying to make it so that only those voting Republican can vote.

Republicans threaten a government shutdown unless Congress makes it harder to vote

  

Cheap Labor and Loose Regulations

Really Frickin' Petty (RFP)

New Land blasts city development office shortly before downtown site award

It’s a shame when things don’t go your way. But for those who are supposed to be the bastions of free market competitiveness, there seems to be a lot of dependency on the public sector. And when contracts aren’t awarded, some of these private entities lash out, point fingers, and cry the blues. 

This criticism is laughable considering development companies are the ones who continually beat the market drum all the while insisting cities and states fork over millions to help fund their projects. And then if they don’t get their way, and a pile of cash, something is wrong with the process. 

The Business Journal article notes:

New Land's criticisms of the city's development department extend beyond the Marcus Center parking structure project: Gokhman says the department has "chronic problems" and "deep dysfunction" that are "stifling development"

This coming from a company that has been awarded similar projects in the past. The company was also involved in foreclosure proceedings in the not-so-distant past. What's that old saying about glass houses? Funny how private developers believe they should be able to dictate what a city’s development department does.  

Regarding another often-used development handout, the article details, “Tax incremental financing is a tool local governments can use to pay for new developments that are expected to grow the tax base by using future property taxes those developments generate to help repay the city's investment in those projects.” What they leave out is that this financing was intended to serve blighted areas, not locations where development is already thriving. 

The Journal article quotes another developer:

"When you do put out an RFP, you have to be ready, willing and able to make the commitment to help make it successful," said Bob Monnat of Milwaukee development firm Mandel Group Inc. "None of these larger RFP sites have anywhere of a chance of creating the kind of outcome that everyone would like to see unless there's some major participation on the part of the city to help get it over the hump."

Talk about entitlement. Developers seem to believe the City should alleviate all risk from the project, while the private developers get to walk away with all the profits. What a partnership!

Aren’t some of these concepts what the free market is supposed to be all about? Isn’t this part of the conservative mythology we’ve heard over the last many decades about the private sector, job creators, the wise surveyors of the market? So why do they even need the inefficient, mismanaged, inconsistent, misleading, and dysfunctional public sector?

A big problem for New Land’s Gokhman seems to be that the City Development Department took longer than expected. I’m sure that developers never take longer than expected. They’re always on time and everything they propose is seen through to completion. [Sigh. Eye roll.]

Seems odd to have such an issue with not being awarded this site, but then to also state:

New Land supports Johnson’s vision of growing Milwaukee and believes the city's current zoning code and DCD's urban planning team are "one of the best in the country," Gokhman said. 

But then Mr. Gokhman continued:

He cites the downtown Fourth and Wisconsin site near the Baird Center and the former Army Reserve site in the city's Bay View neighborhood — which both remain undeveloped after years of discussion — as key examples of failure.

"No one at DCD loses their job if development doesn’t occur," Gokhman said. "There’s no accountability." 

So, unless every city site is maximally developed, by the city, someone has failed? Seems there is a lot of contradictory ideas and sour grapes going on here. Let’s not forget - failure happens. Everything doesn’t work out as planned in life. [As an example, see the above discussion of Mr. Gokhman’s company's foreclosure activities.] 

City development is booming. Newer offices, hotels, apartments, retail, etc. have steadily been built over the last few decades. Milwaukee has seen downtown development unlike anything since WWII. But the City should throw more money at private developers because a few sites have yet to be developed? Or should the City allow itself to be bullied by developers attempting to rake them over the coals in the media? I don't think either of these would be policy or process improvements. 

These developers' public whining is just a big bushel of bitter, sour grapes.

Wait...Who Made A Bad Choice For Their Nominee?

Unhinged Paranoia

Me Thinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much

It's been a great strategy for the Republican party - accuse Democrats of being guilty of all the Republicans' wrongdoings. 

They repeat the lie about rampant voter fraud...and in the majority of the few cases of fraud, the perpetrator is a Republican.

During this latest campaign, and most recently at the Republican National Convention, one prominent Republican talking-point point is that Biden (or the Biden administration) is corrupt.

I thought it might be helpful to remind all of the crimes committed by Trump and his associates. 

The Cases Against Trump: A Guide

Donald Trump's criminal cases, in one place

Trump criminal charges guidebook: Here are all the felony counts against the former president

A guide to Donald Trump's four criminal cases

Keeping Track of the Trump Criminal Cases

Trump Investigations: Tracking The Cases

Here’s a list of Trump’s ex-associates who have faced charges

What Trump allies have faced criminal charges?

Charted: Trump world allies sentenced to prison

Bannon Joins List of Trump’s Allies With Convictions

11 Trump associates have now been charged with crimes.

A Guide to Trump Allies Who've Pleaded Guilty or Been Convicted of Crimes

Trump allies Meadows, Giuliani among 18 indicted in Arizona election scheme

There is a swamp in Washington...brought to America by the Donald Trump administration. The fact that the Republican party has chosen this felon (and his cabal of miscreants) as their leader and candidate for the presidency is hypocritical, irresponsible, and embarrassing. The (supposed) party of law and order, Christian values, right and wrong, etc., supporting a philandering, tax cheating, felon for president is as stupid as it is shameless.

Donald Trump and his sycophants are not fit for office. No responsible, reasonable, clear-thinking American should vote for any of these Republican clowns. They are selfish, spineless, greedy, opportunists only concerned with their own well-being. None of them have any inkling of duty or commitment to public policy and what is best for America. 

Let's keep government functioning in the interest of the citizens, not the monied elite. Let's keep investing in American infrastructure and jobs, Social Security and Medicare, public schools, clean air and water, to name a few. To go back to the ways of Trump and Project 2025 would be to abandon the American dream and relegate America to a dictator and plutocrats. 

Keep America sane. This November, vote Democrat.

For Further Reading:

30 Things Joe Biden Did as President You Might Have Missed

Disorder In The Court

It’s Impossible to Overstate the Damage Done by the Supreme Court in This Term

The Supreme Court Took A Sledgehammer To American Democracy

A Vote For Trump Is A Vote For Project 2025

Project 2025: A wish list for a Trump presidency, explained

Project 2025: The myths and the facts

1) Concentrating power in the presidency: Trump’s allies believe that his first term failed because he couldn’t get enough “loyal” appointees in place and because the “deep state” bureaucracy sabotaged him. So a main recurring theme of Project 2025 is how to bend the executive branch to a conservative president’s will.

2) Longtime conservative priorities: The vast majority of Project 2025’s policy plan is focused on longstanding conservative priorities — with some tweaking and elisions for the Trump era. Though some are indeed quite extreme, they’re not all that new or specifically tied to Trump.

There are far too many to list here, but just as a flavor:

Education: Eliminate the Department of Education, give every parent a voucher-like option they could use to send their child to private school, zero out federal funding to low-income schools over the next decade, greatly cut “wasteful” school meal programs, and end Biden’s student loan forgiveness programs

Energy and environment: Deprioritize fighting climate change, repeal Biden’s clean energy subsidies, further unleash oil and natural gas production, roll back various environmental regulations

Health care: Majorly cut and overhaul Medicaid, roll back the recent law banning surprise medical billing

Immigration: Deny loan access to students at “schools that provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens,” ban non-citizens from living in federally assisted housing (even if they live with a citizen), reinstate and expand the horseback-mounted Border Patrol

On a few issues — trade, antitrust, the Export-Import Bank — the plan states that the conservative movement is divided, and lays out the thinking of two different sides on each issue. On the question of Social Security and Medicare, which Heritage has long supported overhauling but Trump does not, the document is basically silent.

3) A hardline religious-right agenda: There are also parts of Project 2025 that, while not exactly surprising for conservatives, are quite extreme in ways that are politically problematic for Trump. The plan calls for:

Revoking FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, which is used in about half of US abortions (“Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world,” the document states)

Using an old law known as the Comstock Act to prosecute people who send abortion pills through the mail

Ending the mandate for insurance to cover the “week-after” contraceptive pill Ella (which the document argues is a “potential abortifacient”)

Crack down on “abortion tourism” in liberal states by requiring states to report where women seeking abortions live and cutting federal funds if they refuse

Ending subsidies for stem cell or fetal cell research

In a fiery introduction by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, Project 2025 also calls for banning porn:

Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.

Roberts also adds that pornography is “manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children,” suggesting that he may define “pornography” much more broadly than is typical — that he may view any attempt to explain or teach about trans people as worthy of outlawing and imprisonment.

This is reflective of a broader push from religious and cultural conservatives. (The demand for porn prohibition does not show up in the document again after Roberts’s introduction, making it unclear how it would be implemented.)

What Trump doesn't want you to know about Project 2025

Project 2025

This Is A Trump Problem

Recent comments from Keith Olbermann:

This is the America Trump wanted. This is the America Trump got. He was shot at by a gun-obsessed MAGA kid, with Trump signs in the front yard of his home, in a MAGA world in which stochastic terror threats are Trump's only campaign, only belief, only religion.

Republicans! Stop shooting at Trump!

This wasn't an MSNBC viewer and it wasn't a Democrat and it wasn't the fault of the corporate media and Biden's oratory didn't impact him and this didn't happen because I keep saying Trump is a Hitler. TrumpIS a Hitler. The Republicans trained the weapon on Trump and they fired.

And shame on Biden and the other Democrats and the eternally gullible media for falling for the promises of a Trump pivot. He said we need to unite the way the extraterrestrials put "To Serve Man" on their Twilight Zone cookbook. The moment the Democrats took the bait, he explained what his demands were: as part of "unity" he expects all criminal charges to be dropped against him immediately. He probably secretly hopes the Democrats will also nominate him.

Same fraud. Different con.

ALSO: Anybody see those photos of him as he screamed "Fight!" like a giant rabid rodent? When he let his true soul out? They were chanting that as the GOP convention yesterday. There is no joining of hands here. As always, when the Republicans mean unity, they mean everybody has to agree...to do what they say. Nice timing on delaying the Documents case, "Judge" Cannon, until the morning the GOP Convention opened, and dismissing it.

Bluntly, Biden should take presidential immunity and use it. What would Trump do in the mirror image of the assassination attempt? Less than four months before the election and the guy ahead in the polls gets shot at. And the Secret Service clearly screwed security into the ground. And we don’t know WHY a kid registered with the same party as the candidate would try to kill the candidate. And we don’t know WHY a local police officer confronted the shooter moments before the shots only to back away. And we don’t know why, most insanely of all, the kid had a cameo in a Black Rock commercial for retirement plans. And we DO know it is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism. And you know, you KNOW, a Trump in charge would look at this and say ‘good enough excuse for me! I am declaring a national emergency and invoking the insurrection act.”

Do it, Joe.

AND: please, stop with the "violence has never had a role in America." Our politics is a river of blood. 20 of the 45 presidents have either been shot and killed in office, shot and wounded in office, shot and wounded while seeking to regain office, or the subject of shooting plots averted at the last minute or last hour. If we stopped lying to ourselves about how peaceful we are, maybe we could begin to fix our bloody story.

B-Block (27:52) SPECIAL COMMENT II: The conventional wisdom of the electoral effect of the assassination attempt against Trump is - as always - wrong. The attempted murder of a Republican gun nut by a Republican gun nut using a weapon Democrats tried to ban is no longer even the lead Republican story. It may have no impact on the election at all. Candidate victims in the past have always lost.

C-Block (41:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: So many fascists said so many stupid things before the truth came out about who the shooter was, that the list today is literally EIGHTEEN PEOPLE LONG, climaxing with Chuck Todd, Lester Holt, Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, Mike Lee, Mike Collins, and J.D. Vance - who once compared Trump to Hitler (those Biden ads are gonna be lit)

Republican Hypocrisy

In Court vs. Out of Court; Reality vs. Fantasy - The Confused, Disingenuous, Crazy MAGA Universe

We Are Not In A Recession

 I don't think people know what the definition of a recession is.

Definition of recession: two consecutive quarters of decline in a country's real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) - the value of all goods and services a country produces.

The last decline in GDP occurred from 2019 to 2020 - during Donald Trump's term. 

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP

GDP has been steadily been increasing since.

https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product

Fraud & The Real Estate Wrecking Crew

Pete Educating Ignorant Republicans Again And Again

How Low Can Republicans Go? Always Lower.

Ah, our annual State of the Union, where Republicans can remind all of America how vile, nasty, petty, childish, and uncivil they are. They are not an adult party. They are not a serious party. Nothing but greedy, imbecilic, attention-whores.

5 Takeaways From the State of the Union

Rep. Derrick Van Orden shouts 'lies!' at Joe Biden during State of the Union

As House Republicans heckle, Biden serves it back

Biden's State of the Union hecklers face internal GOP groans

Fiery Joe Biden Unleashes Forceful Rebuke Of Trump, GOP In State Of The Union Address

Donald Trump: American Dumpster Fire

Elon Musk Is A Douchebag

Elon Musk is lashing out at MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos' ex, for donating billions to charities for women and minorities

Republicans Are Not Fit For Public Office

Forget Hunter. Investigate Ivanka, Jared, and Don Jr.!

Culture-War Cabal

Best Metal Albums 2023

…and Oceans – As in Gardens, So in Tombs
3Teeth – EndEx
Acid King – Beyond Vision
Angra – Cycles of Pain
Anubis Gate – Interference
Ashbringer – We Came Here to Grieve
Asinhell – Impii Hora
Atreyu – The Beautiful Dark of Life
August Burns Red – Death Below
Babymetal – The Other One
Bell Witch – Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
Blackbraid – Blackbraid II
Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Nahab
Bongzilla – Dab City
Brujeria – Esto Es Brujeria
Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific
Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite
Chelsea Grin – Suffer in Heaven & Suffer In Hell
Cirith Ungol – Dark Parade
Cryptopsy – As Gomorrah Burns
Dethklok – Dethalbum IV & Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar
DevilDriver – Dealing with Demons Vol. II
Dopelord – Songs for Satan
Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg for Death
Dying Wish – Symptoms of Survival
Full of Hell & Nothing – When No Birds Sang
Full of Hell & Primitive Man – Suffocating Hallucination
Godflesh – Purge
Gorod – The Orb
Green Lung – This Heathen Lan
Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Immortal – War Against All
Jesus Piece – …So Unknown
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Metallica – 72 Seasons
Ne Obliviscaris – Exul
Obituary – Dying of Everything
Omega Infinity – The Anticurrent
Ov Sulfur – The Burden ov Faith
Panzerchrist – Last of a Kind
Periphery – Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre
Primordial – How It Ends
Profanatica – Crux Simplex
Queens of the Stone Age – In Times New Roman…
Sanguisugabogg – Homicidal Ecstasy
Satan's Fall – Destination Destruction
Signs of the Swarm – Amongst the Low & Empty
Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden
Smoulder – Violent Creed of Vengeance
Soen – Memorial
Sortilège – Apocalypso
Spirit Adrift – Ghost at the Gallows
Stoned Jesus – Father Light
Suffocation – Hymns from the Apocrypha
Suicide Silence – Remember… You Must Die
Sunrot – The Unfailing Rope
Svalbard – The Weight of the MaskSylosis – A Sign of Things to Come
Taake – Et Hav Av Avstand
Tesseract – War of Being
The Ocean – Holocene
Thy Art Is Murder – Godlike
Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit
Uada – Crepuscule Natura
Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
Veil of Maya – Mother
Vile Ritual – Caverns of Occultic Hatred
VoidCeremony – Threads of Unknowing
Voivod – Morgöth Tales
Vomitory – All Heads Are Gonna Roll
Warmen – Here for None
Wayfarer – American Gothic
Witch Ripper – The Flight After the Fall
Within Temptation – Bleed Out
Wormhole – Almost Human
Wytch Hazel – IV

Constitutional Convenience

Yes. You are better off under Biden than Trump.

American Psycho

Donald Trump's docket: All the legal cases and investigations Trump faces including federal charges over classified documents

The lawsuits and prosecutions involving Donald Trump are piling up.

The ex-president — who has officially launched his 2024 presidential bid — now is indicted in two separate prosecutions, the first former White House occupant to ever be charged. In New York, he stands charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. And in Florida, the Justice Department brought 37 counts against him for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, making him the first president to face federal criminal charges.

Beyond that, Trump remains the subject of at least three major investigations relating to the election, the insurrection, and his finances.

A state prosecutor in Georgia is weighing if Trump broke laws in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. The Justice Department is also looking into the 2020 election.

Indictments of Donald Trump

United States of America v. Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta

The People of the State of New York -against- Donald J. Trump

Larry Summers: Corporate Greed Apologist

Rule of Law?

The Neverending Grift

How dare workers expect more than $7.25 per hour! Don't count on a decent retirement or health care plan from your employer either. Fix poisonous lead pipes? Gonna have to wait. Repair potholes and crumbling bridges? Not this decade. Strengthen Social Security and Medicare? Not a chance! Maybe we should phase them out. 

More money for private, billionaires' sport stadiums? No problem. There's always hundreds of millions in public dollars for private playgrounds and speculation.

Milwaukee's Miller Park (now American Family Field) baseball stadium (for the Milwaukee Brewers) opened in 2001. Total cost to taxpayers was estimated over a billion dollars. Already, twenty years later, the Brewers need nearly $300 million more from taxpayers.

The same old myth is playing out in this greed and grift saga, wrapped in the contrived cloak of economic development and jobs. As the fairy tale goes, sports have a significant economic impact, spurring other developments, and creating jobs. And, as always, there's the threat of leaving. The Brewers may find a new host city if Milwaukee and Wisconsin don't fork over the cash.

Thought experiment: Can a business (sport team) claim to be infinitely successful and astoundingly economically impactful if, every twenty years or so, said entity must bribe and blackmail to be able to afford, supposedly, needed upgrades for their place of work (the sport arena)? 

Or, sadly, is that just how this blackmail song-and-dance shakes out, each and every time, in city after city? [Spoiler - yes, this is how it plays out in city after city, year after year.]

The boondoggles march on.

For Further Reading:
Site Selection Shenanigans

Stadium Swindle

Bonds & Bondage: Indentured to the Sports Stadium Cabal

Another American Revolution Needed

The United States has 13 of the world's top 20 billionaires. 

Let's stop pretending welfare, social programs, minimum wage, retirement plans, etc. are the true American budgetary issues. Living wages, health care, and pension plans are NOT the problem.

It's the fact that we've allowed a privileged few to avoid paying their fair share whilst amassing grotesque fortunes. 

It's time to start taxing these kings and queens and return the United States to a shared prosperity instead of the current plutocracy.

[source]

Best Metal Music of 2022

-(16)- - Into Dust

Abhorrent Expanse - Gateways To Resplendence
Acephalix - Theothanatology
Acid Witch - Rot Among Us
Aenimus - Sacrificial
Aethereus - Leiden
Allegaeon - Damnum
Alunah - Strange Machine
Amon Amarth - The Great Heathen Army
Amorphis - Halo
An Abstract Illusion - Woe
AngelMaker - Sanctum
Animals As Leaders - Parrhesia
The Antichrist Imperium - Volume III: Satan In His Original Glory
Antropofagus - Origin
Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain
Author & Punisher - Krüller
Autophagy - Bacteriophage
Autopsy - Morbidity Triumphant
Baest - Justitia
Bastard Noise / Merzbow - Retribution By All Other Creatures
Bastions - Acres Of Love
Begrime Exemious - Rotting In The Aftermath
Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram

Black Lava - Soul Furnace
Bleed From Within - Shrine
Bleeding Through - Rage
Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero
Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun
Carrion Vael - Abhorrent Obsessions
Castrator - Defiled In Oblivion
Catalyst - A Different Painting For A New World
Cave In - Heavy Pendulum
Clutch - Sunrise On Slaughter Beach
Come To Grief - When The World Dies
Corpsessed - Succumb To Rot
De Profundis - The Corruption Of Virtue

Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat
Decapitated - Cancer Culture
Devil Master - Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night
Devin Townsend - Lightwork

Doldrum - The Knocking. or the Story of the Sound that Preceded Their Disappearance

Drudkh - All Belong To The Night
Electric Callboy - Tekkno
Full Of Hell - Aurora Leaking From An Open Wound
Gaerea - Mirage
Ghost - Impera
Goatwhore - Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven
Hällas - Isle Of Wisdom
Hath - All That Was Promised
HEALTH - Disco 4: Part II
Horndal - Be Evil
Imperial Triumphant - Spirit Of Ecstasy
Ingested - Ashes Lie Still
Inhuman Condition - Fearsick
Jungle Rot - A Call To Arms
Lamentations - Passion Of Depression
Liturgy - As The Blood Of God Bursts The Veins Of Time
Lorna Shore - Pain Remains
Mass Worship - Portal Tombs
Massacre - Mythos
Meshuggah - Immutable
Midnight - Let There Be Witchery
Misery Index - Complete Control
Molder - Engrossed In Decay
The Monolith Deathcult - V4 - Verbittering
Nebula - Transmissions From Mothership Earth
Nekrogoblikon - The Fundamental Slimes and Humours
Oceans Of Slumber - Starlight And Ash
Origin - Chaosmos
The Otolith - Folium Limina
Primitive Man - Insurmountable
Primus - Conspiranoid
Psycroptic - Divine Council
Rammstein - Zeit
Revocation - Netherheaven
Ripped To Shreds - 劇變 (Jubian)
Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory
Savage Master - Those Who Hunt At Night
Septicflesh - Modern Primitive
Slugcrust - Ecocide
SOEN - Atlantis
Spirit Adrift - 20 Centuries Gone
Stray From The Path - Euthanasia
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
Sylvaine - Nova
Tómarúm - Ash In Realms Of Stone Icons
Tombs - Ex Oblivion
Trial - Feed The Fire
Tzompantli - Tlazcaltiliztli

Undeath - It's Time ... To Rise From The Grave
Watain - The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain
Warforged - The Grove

Witchery - Nightside
Zeal & Ardor - Zeal & Ardor

Screenshots of Wisdom

 

Midweek Reading

Top economist Mohamed El-Erian says we’re not just headed for another recession, but a ‘profound economic and financial shift’

Gerrymandering Wins In 2022 Election

Republican Proposal Cuts Taxes On The Wealthy

Dan Bice Undermines Elections Commission

How Much Do U.S. Cities Spend On Policing?

The Blue Budget: What Cities Spend on Police

Police Funding Trends in Wisconsin

Laura Ingraham's Question About Violence Gets A Brutal 'Daily Show' Supercut

National Geographic names Milwaukee a top global travel destination for 2023

Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do

50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says

Scathing New Supercut Exposes Right-Wing Hypocrisy Over Biden's Fascism Warning

Will RNC Have $200 Million Impact on City?

Robert Reich debunks inflation myths

Republicans Say Economy Is In Recession After It Added Half A Million Jobs In July

Growth of US economy under Trump was worst since Hoover

How To Solve (Mostly) All Our Problems

 TAX THE RICH!!!

And, by "rich", I mean millionaires. Which, for the U.S., is about 9% of the entire population. This isn't a call for increased taxation on low-income, working families, or the middle-class. It's a call to tax those that have clawed, cheated, and stolen the wealth and productivity gains of the past few decades. No, not all millionaires have clawed, cheated, and stolen. But those who have clawed, cheated and stolen, and who have bought politicians to get legislation and tax laws in their favor, need to be taxed more.

Income has been steadily redistributed upward since the 1980s. Millionaires are reaping more and more of the gains of workers. This is not sustainable. It's time to reverse this. Tax the rich! 

Turn That Frown Upside Down

An overarching theme for Republicans, regarding the next election cycle, is this idea that things are an economic mess. Times are tough, everyone is struggling. 

Yet, in many metrics, a reasonable, non-partisan observer would most likely conclude that times are, generally, good. 

Unemployment

The current unemployment rate is under 4% (3.7% as of today for the U.S.; 3% for Wisconsin). And, despite an historically low unemployment rate, wages are rising.

Interest Rates

Historically speaking, interest rates are low. In the 1970s, rates were mid-7 percent. The 1980s saw rates rise to mid-9 percent. The 1990s started around 10 percent, and finished around 8 percent. From 2000 through the 2010s, rates fell from 8 percent to 3 percent. The 2020s have seen rates rise from high-3 percent to the current mid-5 percent.

Inflation Rate

The majority of noise in the inflation rate hangs on the energy sector. A better descriptor for this phenomenon is price-gouging. The energy sector doubled gasoline prices and laughed all the way to the bank as Republicans and their accomplices manufactured the price-gouging into a Joe Biden spending (inflation) problem. It's no coincidence that as the energy sector has gouged less (gas prices have come down), inflation has fallen.

No Brain Necessary: Trumpers in Waukesha, Wisconsin

Little Economic Impact From Stadium Projects

Report Finds Little Economic Impact From Stadium Projects

For Further Reading:

The Legalized Bribery That Is Sport Subsidization

It's A Scandal! It's A Outrage!

The Math and Taxes of Stadium Boondoggles

Big League Confusion

Brewing Up An Inflated Impact

Big League Broke

Bonds & Bondage: Indentured To The Sports Entertainment Cabal

Other Reasons Why Ron Johnson Is A Terrible Person

Ron Johnson Wants Social Security, Medicare To Be Discretionary Spending

America Is Not A Christian Nation

Is America A Christian Nation?

No, It Is Not a Christian Nation, and It Never Has Been and Should Not Be One

Founding Fathers: We Are Not a Christian Nation

Repeat After Us: America Is Not a Christian Nation

Sunday Reading

How one institution keeps claiming math’s highest award

Wisconsin Supreme Court Backs GOP Scheme To Rob Dem Governor Of Appointment

Reiki: still stupid after all these years

Blame the Fed For Everything!

Inflation, Unemployment, Mortgage Rates: Here's What History Tells Us About the Economy

The Inefficient Market Hypothesis

How the Fed Bailed Out the Investor Class Without Spending a Cent

No evidence that violent video games are causing mass shootings, despite politicians’ claims

Video Games Aren’t Why Shootings Happen. Politicians Still Blame Them.

How will we know if we’re in a recession?

The Most Pathetic Men in America

The Supreme Court’s Gone Rogue — And This is a Judicial Coup

The Supreme Court's Partisan Divide Hasn't Been This Sharp In Generations

The Supreme Court has pushed America to the brink.

Screenshots of Wisdom

Insurrection Consequences

United States: Guns & Gun-Related Deaths

30 years of mass shootings by country: between 1983 to 2013, 119 mass shootings took place around the world—66% were in the U.S.

Mass shootings: US the worst in the world by far

There’s a new global ranking of gun deaths. Here’s where the U.S. stands

America's gun culture - in charts

On gun violence, the United States is an outlier

Spare Me The Bullshit!

Screenshots of Wisdom

Whiskey

Companies Keep Hiring

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 390,000 in May, above the 328,000 Dow Jones estimate.

The unemployment rate held at 3.6%, while a more encompassing jobless rate edged higher to 7.1%.

Average hourly earnings rose slightly less than expected but were still up 5.2% from a year ago.

Leisure and hospitality led gains, followed by professional and business services then warehousing and transportation. [source]

Fox News thinks all of this is bad. The delusion continues. Being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian continues. 

Corporate Profits and Inflation

For Further Reading:

Ignoring the role of profits makes inflation analyses a lot weaker

Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. How should policymakers respond?

The future of work depends on stopping Amazon’s union busting

Ron Johnson: International Embarrassment

Fred Guttenberg Corrects Ron Johnson's Idiocy

Holiday Reading

Monarch butterflies bounce back in Mexico wintering grounds

The Media Needs to Stop Pretending that Elon Musk is a Wise Sage rather than a Grifter

When I First Saw Elon Musk for Who He Really Is

No Atheist Has Done This Much Damage to the Christian Faith

'Big Short' investor Michael Burry compares the market slump to a plane crash — and hints tumbling stocks and home sales remind him of the housing bubble bursting

The massive gap between rich and poor Americans costs the US economy more than $300 billion every year, study says

The Southern Baptist Horror

How America Sold Out Little League Baseball

Bad Economics

No Right

Here's What GOP-Nominated Justices Said About Roe v. Wade During Their Senate Hearings
The Most Extreme Abortion Ban In The Country Was Just Signed Into Law In Oklahoma

Samuel Alito: the abrasive justice taking abortion rights back to the 17th century