The Angry Bear

Professor Heather Cox Richardson, A history professor interested in the contrast between image and reality in American politics. I believe in American democracy, despite its frequent failures. “Letters from An American“ On Friday, as President Joe Biden signed “An Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” he echoed the language of his predecessors. “[C]ompetition keeps the economy moving and keeps it growing,” he said. “Fair...

US crude supplies falling at a record pace, down 17.4% YoY; gasoline output at a 22 month high; record gasoline demand The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA, RJS, Marketwatch 666 US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending July 2nd showed that even after a sizeble decrease in our oil exports and a modest decrease in our refinery throughput, we still needed to withdraw oil from our stored...

The Removal of Robert E. Lee’s Statue from Charlottesville Early this morning the statue of Robert E. Lee was finally removed from a park in the city of Charlottesville.  This issue had brought the awful racist riot on August 17, 2017, which led to Heather Heyer being killed by a racist in a car. A statue of Stonewall Jackson, long located on the city courthouse site, was also removed, as well as later in the day without warning a statue of Lewis...

Commenter and Agriculture Economist Michael SmithThe Tale of Two Freezes:This one has been a long time coming and with the special session happening in Texas with our legislature a few things have become very apparent. Texas gets criticized heavily in the media all over the United States, and arguably, worldwide. We are a cast as a brazen form of maverick insurrectionists some of it reality, some not. But the truth is a little more egregious. Let’s...

During the first Trump impeachment, and the second, House Republicans strongly opposed subpoenaing any witness who might tell the world some of the more egregious things that Trump had done and said as President. During the Senate trials, Mitch McConnell used his position to ensure that no witnesses were called, no incriminating evidence was presented, lest the truth rear its ugly head. Who would have ever thought it would come to this in ‘Our Nation...

This was always the plan? The plan did not include forcing people out of traditional Medicare and into Medicare Advantage. No mistake on the date on this Copied and Pasted Angry Bear post from almost two years ago. Nancy Alt, Andrew Sprung, and Angry Bear were sounding the alarm in 2019 about trump’s move to privatize Medicare using Medicare Advantage plans and by placing traditional Medicare users into these commercial insurance plans....

Scenes from last week’s June employment report With no significant economic data today, let’s take a look at some of the more salient numbers from the June employment report released one week ago. Starting with the headline employment numbers, both the Establishment Survey and the Household Survey, while diverging in any given month, are in close agreement about the extent of the comeback from the worst of the pandemic, down -4.4% and -4.5%...

Most of the statues were of Confederate War heroes, most were erected in the 1920s. All were meant to commemorate one of the biggest of the Big Lies; the one about a noble Lost Cause. The one invented after the fact, the one that begat ‘The Birth of a Nation’. The one meant to deny the fact. To deny, first you must lie. Denial is but a lie to oneself. One lie necessitates another. First thing you know, you have a narrative. And it must follow, as...

Senator McBroom’s Report – Picking Up from Where I Left Off Republican UP State Senator Ed McBroom: “‘the bills should not be seen as challenging the validity of the November election, but as ways to tighten ‘safeguards’ from ‘real vulnerabilities.'” So, the Republicans can pass legislation to resolve those “real vulnerabilities” McBroom worries about. Republicans have controlled the State Senate since the early 1980s from what I am told by...

Trend in new jobless claims flattens: the virus remains in control in the unvaccinated States New jobless claims are the most important weekly economic datapoint with regard to the effects of vaccination progress. Four weeks ago I wrote, “I think we are going to see two tracks going forward from here, as near-normalcy does return to the more vaccinated parts of the country, while attempts to return to normalcy fail in the laggard regions.”...