Random News and Notes 24 October
It is day 24 of the Schumer Shutdown. So far, there has been little impact on this editor’s life, the VA and all the ancillary stuff is still open. That is not the case for everyone however. Yesterday, a bill came to the Senate floor that would have seen all essential federal employees – the ones that are still on the job during the shutdown – get paid. The Dems voted it down.
Remember, the reason they are doing this is to provide free healthcare to illegals. The House passed the clean CR back on the 16th of September. The Dems want to add a bunch of their spending priorities to it.
The Dems are having fits over the changes to the East Wing of the White House. Well, it’s gone and the construction on the new ballroom starts soon.
Histrionics aside, the East Wing was a bunch of really inefficient office space built during WWII to disguise a bomb shelter and give FDR a swimming pool. Prior to the War it was a portico to greet guests. It is not some historic building despite the claims otherwise. Additionally, the whole $300m project is being privately funded.
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This isn’t the first major change at the White House. Indeed, Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing in 1902 and his cousin, Franklin remodeled it during his term. President Truman had the residence gutted to the exterior walls during his term.
More importantly, there is a need for event space at the White House. For major events, tents are rented and erected on one of the White House lawns. The Ballroom will provide indoor space for those events.
The World Series starts tonight at 2000 EDT at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Starters for tonight’s game are Blake Snell for the Dodgers and Trey Yesavage for Toronto.
Yesavage is an interesting story. He made his pro debut in April at single A Dunedin. Now in October he is the game 1 starter for Toronto. During the regular season, he started 3 games for the Jays, with a 3.21 ERA and 16 K’s. He is 2-1 in the playoffs with a 4.20 ERA and 22 strikeouts. Can he stand the heat of the Dodgers bats? We’ll see tonight.
There was an incident at Coast Guard Station Alameda, near San Fransicko. There had been protests outside the facility all day. They were butthurt that the station was being used as a staging area for ICE and other federal law enforcement. About 2200 local, a U-Haul box truck backed towards Coast Guard security and refused orders to stop. Security then opened fire. Watch:
DHS issued a statement about the incident:
ALAMEDA, Calif. — At approximately 10:00 p.m. (PDT) on Thursday, Coast Guard security personnel standing watch on Coast Guard Island observed a vehicle driving erratically and attempting to weaponize the vehicle to ram into Coast Guard Base Alameda.
USCG personnel issued multiple verbal commands to stop the vehicle, the driver failed to comply and proceeded to put the vehicle in reverse — suddenly accelerating backwards at a high rate of speed directly toward them. When the vehicle’s actions posed a direct threat to the safety of Coast Guard and security personnel, law enforcement officers discharged several rounds of defensive live fire.
No Coast Guard personnel were injured during the incident. Two civilians were injured and are expected to survive. The truck driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held for mental health evaluation. A bystander was struck by a fragment, treated at a local hospital, and released. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the lead agency for this investigation, and we are coordinating with our law enforcement partners.
I really hope some federal agents pay the injured man a visit in the hospital and leave with him in cuffs. There has to be an end to this shite.
Somewhat unexpectedly, CPI numbers were released this morning. Headline numbers beat analyist expectations and look to be moving in the right direction. Month over month and year over year numbers came in lower than projections.
. . . –S&P 500 hits another record high
–PMIs: U.S. business activity accelerated: 2nd-fastest pace this year
• Mfg PMI 52.2 (vs Exp 52.0)
• Services PMI 55.2 (vs Exp 53.5)
This editor is not anyone’s idea of an economist, but he has people for that. They are almost uniformly saying that these numbers all but guarantee an interest rate cut when the Fed meets next. They seem to be split on how big that cut is going to be, but the average seems to point to about a half basis point cut.
