The Angry Bear

As we have discussed before, words matter. Matt Yglesias: As a person with a platform, the best thing I can say is that you should get vaccinated and boosted, you should get your kids vaccinated, and you should encourage others in your lives to do the same. Kevin Drum: If Donald Trump and the rest of the conservative establishment had gone into full battle mode over COVID vaccinations, urging everyone to get their shots immediately, the...

The defense against COVID-19 called for an all-out united effort. In times past, America would have risen to the challenge. Much of the failure to respond is attributable to the deep political divide that grips the country. A divide that was fostered and nurtured by the Republican Party for political purposes. (Yes, Judy, it is the Republican Party that is responsible) The coincidence of Trump’s election and the appearance of the virus was an...

Production, layoffs, housing hit the positive trifecta in November, New Deal democrat We got a blizzard of November and December data this morning across all three – coincident, short leading, and long leading – timeframes: industrial production, jobless claims, and housing permits and starts. All three were positive. Let’s start with the King of Coincident Indicators, industrial production, which rose 0.5% in November. Manufacturing production...

[embedded content] Cruz Hits Biden Inflation Crisis on Squawk Box: Democrats’ Solution is to Pour Gasoline on the Fire – YouTubeAt 7:20 minutes, you get to hear Cancun Ted talk about the crisis supposedly created by Democrats. “In a time of Crisis, character is revealed. On the Democratic side, we have seen Democratic politicians are authoritarian. They will control your life. They will order you to obey and they will destroy you if you don’t....

I am mainly linking to this fairly important article by Dan Diamond in The Washington Post. Diamond quotes many people arguing that the US really should do more to get everyone in the world who is willing to take the vaccine vaccinated. I am going to move on quickly to how this could be done, because I think it is obvious that it should be done. I think I will try to get a few silly things out of the way. What about other rich countries ? Is it...

Threw a wrench in it . . . , Homeless On The High Desert, Ten Bears December 13, 2021 in g’da said  If this is new to you, you haven’t been paying attention ~ Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent an email saying the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ in the lead up to the US Capitol insurrection, according to a new contempt report released by the January 6 committee Sunday night. Anyone that was...

Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) responds to Senator Ron Johnson’s telling people to gargle with mouthwash to kill Covid. Mr. Johnson: “Standard gargle, mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus (according to an audio recording of his remarks). If you get it, you may reduce viral replication. Why not try all these things?” Why not? It builds false hope of a simple cure when there is none and a hope for preventing Covid which gargling does not...

Oil rebounds on Omicron optimism; SPR at another 18 1/2 year low as sales to Asian refiners begin, Focus of Fracking, RJS Not really much news this week; gasoline & distillate inventories continue to rebound from the lows, no big moves on prices or much else; the headline is almost contrived . . . the “sales to Asian refiners” came from an oil blogger who said we sold SPR oil to China and India. That information hasn’t been released...

Disposable time as a common-pool resource IX — Disposable time as a model for environmental governance Not only could disposable time be regarded as a common-pool resource similar to other common-pool resources, but it could stand as the single most far-reaching and democratically vital model of a common-pool resource. Donald Stabile alluded to something in this vein when he noted that, “Human labor is also the primary constituent of the society...

A Looming Anniversary  Sighhhh… The possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is now front-page news, with little sign that Putin is going to move his massive military buildup by the border back anytime soon, even if he does not invade.  After the phone call this past week between him and Biden, supposedly lower-level negotiations have started, but it is unlikely Putin is going to be given anything dramatic that he has been demanding, such...