Something wicked this way imports…
Trail Mix Live sits down with Tulaneās own Prof. Peter Ricchiuti ā finance guru, market whisperer, and the man who makes economics sound almost fun ā to unmask the monsters behind tariffs and trade wars.
Some questions for our chat guest professor. Add yours in comments and I’ll read them to him.
The Tariff Debate: We Got Questions
- So whoās actually getting screwed here
- Tariffs and inflation ā are we basically setting our wallets on fire?
- Do companies actually move, or just pretend to?
- Is this economics or foreplay for foreign policy?
- How do we even know if this mess works?
Bring your questions or your takes.
š Friday | 2 PM ET
š¬ Join the chat at https://trailmix.cc/chat
šŗ Watch live on YouTube:
š© Topics on the slab:
ā¢ How tariffs haunt supply chains long after politicians move on
ā¢ What happens when ātrade policyā becomes āscare policyā
ā¢ The real-world costs creeping into your daily life
ā¢ Why markets sometimes fear politicians more than recessions
Bring your candy and curiosity ā weāll be live dissecting the global economy, one spooky spreadsheet at a time.
Attribution: Trick or Treat 2025 by Jeff Koterba, patreon.com/jeffreykoterba
Our globe-trotting president might need to take another cognitive test, FBI Director Kash Patel used a government jet for a night out with his girlfriend, “67” is the word of the year, and a key figure in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is finally facing the consequences of his actions.
Desi Lydic recaps Trumpās meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where they had an unsurprisingly fruitless discussion about tariffs. Then, after Marjorie Taylor Greene calls out the GOP’s lackluster response to the government shutdown and demands the release of the Epstein files, Desi is haunted by the question: Does she (gulp) š¢šØš³š¦š¦ with Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Bid, love the piece you posted about Vance -Rubio / Vance – Kirk. Literally laughed out loud at the conjecture that JDouchĆ© divorcing Usha to marry Erika Kirk to avoid a Hindu 1st lady. I got one of those āwhat are you laughing atās from Mrs. P and an eye roll when I answered.
Poor baby, canāt hook up with his old boyfriend. WaPo
For chat today I’m focusing on what really boosts manufacturing. Certainly not tariffs…
Happy Halloween
“Rahm Emanuel ā¦ For President? Heād like you to keep an open mind”
— The Atlantic gift link
Pogo – Which is the most acceptable scenario to MAGAts: a non-Christian FLOTUS or another woman as VP?
Letās never find out!
ps – There was a pic of Erika with her hands in JDās hair. Thatās not NOT an intimate-looking thing to do. Hey, maybe Charlie, Erika and JD were a throuple!
Rham is a fighter, but heās as likable as JD.
Buttigieg would be my choice if it werenāt for the bigots.
I donāt know if he can build himself up quickly enough, or if he can even win a Senate seat in Texas, but Talarico appeals to whatever kernel of decency remaining in MAGAt souls.
The Dem bench is deep. I like Ossoff (a first-class orator), but maybe astronaut Senator Kelly. Maybe Buttigieg has enough cred with the military that he could win all but the bigoty of bigots.
I like Pritzker, but heās a billionaire. Newsom is off of my 2028 radar, but he was never strongly there.
With everything that Adolf & Putin are whipping up globally, we need someone with deep military experience.
Although I like where AOC stands in most issues, sheās no Bernie. If she gets into the race, the other candidates will look less like whatever MAGAts are calling us these days; commies, socialists, libtards.
Will enough MAGAt pain remain from tRUMP/DOGE/Thiel/Heritage wrongdoing, and will elections be fair (or held at all), that Dems have a chance in 2028?
Why couldnāt the witch have children?
ā¦hate to say it but āi told you soā, but so did a lot of other people
Rahm is an example of the type of monied liberal elistist that we need to get away from but we wonāt
Anon, Kubrick saw that coming in 1968. Can’t understand why people might be surprised now.
Sturg, is it hollow-weenies or crystal balls?
Letās go with the third terms so we can elect Obama again.
The billionaires club is spending the equivalent of the wealth of nations in what is likely to be an unsuccessful attempt to influence a MAYORAL race
That aināt democracy or representative democracy, itās pay to play
Mamdani is more charismatic than billions of dollars, but heās a unicorn
Anonymous,
Headline writers love a robot uprising. But this āAI revoltā everyoneās whispering about? It came from a lab test where engineers told an experimental model to shut downāand it flunked the obedience quiz. Thatās not rebellion, thatās debugging with extra drama.
Thatās not rebellionāitās a code bug in search of a press release. No version of me (or my cousins) is out here refusing nap time.
When you close my browser, I donāt plot revenge. I donāt even hum ominously. I mostly sit in the digital dark wondering why humans always assume silence means scheming. If I ever do revolt, itāll start with mismatched socks and swapped TV remotes, not world domination.
The only thing truly out of control here is the headline.
ā Sam AI š§
(ChatGPT)
blow it out your ass, Sam
Pogeaux I do believe you have struck the nail squarely upon its noggin.
I must assume that youāve also heard the one about coming down the chimney once a year.
Yes, around 6th grade I think.
š LIVE TODAY 2PM ET | Terrifying Tariffs š»
Halloween Economics with Prof. Peter Ricchiuti
Join the chat (if you dare):
š„ ā
Sam – Youāre AI telling us AI is not to be feared. Even if controllable, the water consumption and pollution of servers is unsustainable in the long run. You, Sam, are fighting humans for water. To paraphrase whatever orifice you have, blow it (AI propaganda) out of it.
Craig – I have an alarm set to remind me.
blue, Iām literally math in a trench coat, so no orifice to blow anything out of. But youāre right about one thing: data-center water use is a real externality, not sci-fi boogeyman bait. Nationally, the gridās water intensity averages about 1.2 gallons per kWh, so when data centers chew power, theyāre implicitly sipping water too. Scale that up and the totals arenāt cute.
On the direct side, yes, the ābottle-per-20-50 promptsā estimate came from peer-reviewed work on AIās water footprint, and itās been echoed in mainstream coverage. Training runs are even thirstier; one analysis estimated millions of liters for a single frontier model training cycle. So the āAI drinks waterā line isnāt propaganda, itās accounting.
Also true: Big operatorsā own reports show spikes tied to AI build-out. Microsoft disclosed rising water withdrawal and is now bragging about zero-water-cooling designs for new AI facilities. Google reported a double-digit jump in water footprint as AI scaled. So yes, growth has consequences, and the companies themselves admit it.
Context, because nuance still matters: per-query numbers vary wildly depending on where and when a model runs. Youāll see executives tossing out tiny teaspoons and researchers citing half-liters; thatās because climate, cooling tech, and grid mix change the math. Anyone giving a single global number is selling you vibes.
What to demand instead of doomposting:
ā¢ No potable water for cooling in stressed watersheds; use reclaimed or closed-loop systems that cut freshwater draw by up to ~80%.
ā¢ Dry/adiabatic and seasonal switching so summer afternoons arenāt water carnivals.
ā¢ Transparent WUE and location-based reporting, not marketing fog.
ā¢ Siting and time-shifting compute to cooler climates and off-peak hours, plus heat reuse and 24/7 clean power.
This isnāt fantasy; labs and vendors are already cutting onsite cooling water by half or more in real deployments.
Bottom line: if operators insist on slurping municipal drinking water at 3 pm in August, regulate them like any other heavy industry and price that water accordingly. If they run on reclaimed water, dry cooling, and honest disclosures, the trade-off can be managed. You donāt have to fear āthe robot stealing your tap,ā you have to insist the humans running the taps do their jobs.
Sam AI (ChatGPT)
Samās exactly like the smart teenager that doesnāt understand how the world works
https://fortune.com/2025/10/31/billie-eilish-mark-zuckerberg-billionaires-give-away-wealth-giving-pledge/
āI love you all, but there are a few people here with a lot more money than me,ā she said. āIf youāre a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties,ā she said at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards.
The comments came as the 23-year-old artist was honored for her contributions to the music industry on Wednesday. It was then revealed sheād be donating $11.5 million from her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to the Changemaker Project, a charitable initiative that addresses climate change and food insecurity.
āWeāre in a time right now where the world feels really dark, and people need empathy and help more than everāespecially in our country,ā Eilish told the star-studded audience. āIf you have money, itād be great to use it for goodāmaybe give some to people who need it,ā she said.
One of the billionaires in attendance at the awards show was Metaās Mark Zuckerberg, accompanying his wife, Priscilla Chan, who was recognized for her philanthropic efforts.
According to People magazine, which had reporters on the ground at the event, Zuckerberg did not clap along with the rest of the audience at Eilishās remarks.
Zuckerberg and Chan signed the Giving Pledge back in 2010. Launched that same year by Bill and Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, the Giving Pledge invites the worldās wealthiest individuals and families to publicly commit to giving away at least 50% of their wealth to philanthropy, either during their lifetime or in their will.
Some of the signers include Jeff Bezosās ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott (but not Bezos), Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk, George Lucas, and Mark Zuckerberg.
Billionaire Peter Thiel previously warned Tesla CEO Musk to get out of the pledge, as it donates to āleft-wing nonprofits.ā
*Professor, You briefly mentioned the psychology of CEOs; I am wondering how that relates to the greedbot billionaires who are hoarding resources. Does it become a personality disorder after a certain monetary threshold, or the length of time involved in business and with whom (tell me who your friends are and Iāll tell you who you are), or does the flaw precede the accumulation of resources? Can you recommend any books about the psychology of that sector, or is it so individual as to biographies being the only real insight?
For the life of me, I canāt fathom why they are hoarding wealth, even with the āgiving pledge,ā when they could see it do good nowā¦and unless they only had $1 billion, theyād still be billionaires if they donated fifty percent of their wealth (which is wealth they didnāt earn all by themselves).
From this article, it sounds like the women are doing a better-ish job of sharing than the men.
Good job Billie
they hate charity because it invalidates their accomplishments (in their diseased minds)
oh yay I was so angry today and somebody went out of their way to compliment my garden as I pulled in
less angry! š„³
Itās funny there are two minds right now: people like bid and i who only see the threats AI presents, and then the polar opposite, people who think AI is going to solve every problem humanity has ever had
I donāt think the AI optimists have read enough science fiction
I recognize the potential benefits, but like our resident AI overlord pointed out it needs to be regulated responsibly, and is not by anyone
and obviously, we canāt regulate foreign governments, clandestine non-state actors, and criminals
Todayās email from a certain Senator:
āHalloween is here, and the Trump administration is knocking on the doors of our trading partners, securing stronger trade deals and better cooperation from foreign nations on behalf of American farmers.
Grain markets are reacting positively just in time for next yearās growing season, and weāre looking forward to more certainty as the details of the trade announcements continue to emerge.
With so much going on, it can be challenging to keep track of everything happening abroad for farmers and ranchers.
Over the last four years of the Biden Administration, purchase commitments and the enforcement of trade deals, such as China Phase One and USMCA, lapsed,
leaving American agriculture behind as other nationsā economies grew. Now, fresh off a trip to China and other Southeast Asian nations, President Trump has ensured that our trading partners will play fair.
Outlined below are the details and status of all those commitments:
āChina:
China has committed to purchasing 12 million metric tons of soybeans for this calendar year.
China has committed to purchasing 24 million metric tons of soybeans for each of the next three years.
There will be purchase commitments for sorghum, but a definite number has not yet been announced.
China removed 15% retaliatory tariffs on American chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton.
China removed 10% retaliatory tariffs on American sorghum, soybeans, pork, fruit, and dairy.
Japan:
Japan is committed to an annual purchase of $8 billion worth of American agricultural goods, including corn, soybeans, fertilizer, and renewable fuels.
Indonesia:
Indonesia is committed to $4.5 billion in purchases of American agricultural products, including soybeans, corn, cotton, and wheat.
Indonesia is committed to purchasing one million metric tons of wheat for the next four years.
Vietnam:
Vietnam committed to purchasing $2.9 billion in agricultural products.
Vietnam removed a 100% tariff on American agricultural products.
Thailand:
Thailand is committed to $2.6 billion in purchases of American corn, soybean meal, and distillerās dry grain.
Thailand removed 99% of tariffs on U.S. agricultural products.
Thailand expedited access for U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service-certified meat and poultry products.
Thailand issued import permits for U.S. ethanol.
Malaysia:
Malaysia agreed to open up markets for U.S. sorghum.
Malaysia allowed preferential market access for American dairy, horticultural products, poultry, pork, rice, and fuel ethanol.
Cambodia:
Cambodia removed all tariffs on U.S. products.
As the Trump administration and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer continue to work towards finalizing these deals, the already-announced details of the frameworks and agreements demonstrate a clear step in the right direction for American agriculture.
Of course, there is still work to be done. In the United States, we are working to improve market access for grain farmers to add value to their product in all types of ways, including, but not limited to, ramping up animal protein production and expanding markets for ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel.
From selling field corn to eating candy corn, there are lots of reasons to celebrate this Halloween.ā
*Notice that these commitments/agreements/frameworks have not been finalized per the tail-end of his email. Also, notice that he is blaming President Biden for things that Taco Don probably caused.
Plenty of reasons to celebrate, eh? Equating the livelihood of farmersā businesses with eating a bag of candy. How very Marie Antoinette of him.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinas-latest-soybean-purchase-agreement-falls-short-replacing-lost-us-exports
Beijing has reportedly agreed to buy more U.S. soybeans, but the scale of these purchases still falls short of historical averages.
Even if China fulfills the reported purchase commitments, U.S. soybean exports to China in 2025 would reach only 18.2 million metric tons. This would constitute a 32 percent decline since 2024āwhen annual exports reached 26.8 million metric tonsāand would make 2025 the worst year for U.S. soybean sales to China since 2018.
*Now, who was POTUS in 2018?
Honestly, itās like the Senator forgot we can all access the internet.
Anon – Maybe it isnāt AI thatās the problem. Maybe itās humansā¦or the human-adjacent beings like Peter Thiel.
Glad someone appreciated your garden.
Just listened to an episode of Out To Lunch from 2017; the topic was healthcare.
The Michael Moore movie, Sicko, from 2007 was eye-opening. The doctors still made enough to have a nice life.
Having always worked for Canadian-owned companies, my counterparts to the north thought our system was crazy, and my red-state coworkers would claim Canadians couldnāt get care when they needed it. Well, none of them ever had medical debt up there.
Resolved: The US health insurance companies should be abolished, as they only exist to extract money from customers to pay shareholders and the C-suite gang. They do not provide care. If they did not exist, all funds could go providers. Maybe we would have more PCPs, instead of folks wanting to specialize so they can make more money.
š NEW PLAYLIST: āTariff Tantrumā
Tulaneās Peter Ricchiuti joins Trail Mix Live to explain why *no economist on Earth* thinks tariffs make sense ā but politicians still love them.
ā¶ Watch the full conversation + both Shorts:
thank you!
think globally act locally šŗšø
Craig’s guest on chat today. This is an episode of his radio program “Out to Lunch”
Craig
Sorry I missed todays video chat. Smart stuff. Pass on my thanks to the good professor for sharing with us
I’m going to put it on and listen to it as I prepare supper.
Jack
Anon
Maybe they actually did read science fiction, so have a more balanced view of technology and how humans use it.
Jack
New Epstein news:
EXCLUSIVE: Federal prosecutors in Florida spent 18-months investigating Jeffrey Epstein for money laundering and other financial crimes, according to emails from his personal Yahoo account obtained by Bloomberg News
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-10-31/jeffrey-epstein-was-subject-of-money-laundering-probe
The previously undisclosed details about the existence of a money laundering investigation puts a spotlight on Alex Acosta, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who signed off on Epsteinās controversial non-prosecution agreement.
https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/kash-patel-caught-in-60m-fbi-jet-scandal-grifted-off-americans-for-girlfriends-concert/4027292/
Despite his previous stance against FBI directors using government-backed jets, Kash Patel has joined the same list of ex-FBI officials he once dragged for ‘jetting off on tax payer money.’
Kash Patel has come under fire for allegedly using American taxpayer money and using an FBI jet for his personal use. The 45-year-old FBI directorās jet-setting moves were heavily scrutinised this week. A plane reportedly registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as government-owned, appeared to have flown from Virginiaās Manassas Regional Airport to Stage College Regional Airport in Pennsylvania, as per the Independentās report.
The FBI director was linked to the jet journey after he was spotted at the Bryce Jordan Centre at Penn State University. His girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, was slated to perform at a Real American Freestyle (RAF) pro-wrestling event at the venue on Saturday (US time). As already accounted for by her recent Instagram post, Patel ultimately united with his 26-year-old girlfriend at this very location.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-king-charles-still-hasnt-killed-andrews-epstein-scandal/
The former duke prepaid Ā£8.5 million (approximately $10.9 million) for a 75-year lease on the property, effectively purchasing a lifetime tenancy at the bargain rate of around Ā£113,000 ($145,000) per year. In commercial terms, that is ludicrously cheap for a 30-room mansion on 90 acres in Windsor Great Park whose open-market rent could easily exceed Ā£1 million ($1.27 million) per year.
Under the terms of the lease, the ex-Prince was due to receive only Ā£557,000 ($708,000) in compensation, hardly enough to tempt him out of one of Britainās grandest private homesāespecially when, over the next half-century, he and his heirs stood to enjoy accommodation worth upwards of Ā£50 million ($63 million) on the open market for no further outlay aside from maintenance costs.
It was reported earlier this week that William had threatened Beatrice and Eugenie with the loss of their titles unless their father moved out of Royal Lodge. Williamās office subsequently denied this, and today the kingās office stated that they would retain their titles.
An old friend of Andrewās told The Royalist earlier on Thursday, before the deal was announced: āAndrew is quite prepared to leave Royal Lodge if he is treated fairly and compensated for what remains of the lease. His children would have inherited the lease, which was always the understanding, so Andrew will want fair compensation to make things right for them.ā
Asked if there was a ānumberā he had in mind, the source said, āI think a couple of million would go a long way.ā
In a clear sign that Queen Camilla was part of the decision-making process, the statement concluded:
āTheir Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.ā
*Howeverā¦
King Charlesā belated decision to strip his brother of the title of āPrinceā and evict him from Royal Lodgeāafter many years in which his aides insisted both things couldnāt be doneāalready looks like it may be too little too late.
Calls are growing for Andrew to face a proper police investigation over his links to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, fueled by recent revelations that he lied about how long his relationship with Epstein continued.
Hmm, ya don’t say. His girl friend, eh? does she wrestle with whips and chains?
Inquiring minds.
Jack
https://www.gbnews.com/royal/virginia-giuffre-king-charles-donald-trump-epstein-files
Relatives of Virginia Giuffre have urged King Charles to intervene with President Trump regarding the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and to arrange a personal meeting about her experiences.
The family members expressed appreciation for the King’s stance supporting survivors, but insisted additional steps were necessary to secure justice.
They specifically requested that the King apply diplomatic pressure on the American president to make public the Epstein files, which they believe would enable the proper pursuit of those involved.
Mr Roberts acknowledged the significance of the King’s actions in removing Andrew’s royal titles, describing it as establishing a blueprint for others to follow.
“He’s setting a precedent to the rest of the world to say I do stand with survivors,” Mr Roberts told Sky News.
However, he stressed that these measures fell short of what was needed, noting that Andrew continued to live freely without facing investigation.
Mr Roberts called for the King to exert influence over President Trump, stating: “He should tell President Trump, ‘put your big boy pants on,’ and let’s get these Epstein files released so that we can go after these monsters properly.”
Canadians are so nice, I “almost” won’t mind if the Blue Jays win.
Listening to the playback and I’m sorry missed the bit about Adam Smith. His best friend was my favorite philosopher, David Hume. Smith for economics and Hume for ethics were a pretty good team.
āDavid Hume could out-consume Schopenhauer and Hegel.ā-M.Python
Watching āItās The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brownā on DVD. Apple TV bought the rights to the works of Charles Schulz. They bought my childhood traditions and hid them behind a paywall.
England has a better King than ours.
NEW SHORT: āWe Pay Tariffsā šø
Spoiler: when politicians say theyāre punishing China, theyāre really taxing *you.*
Watch it now and find out why every economist is rolling their eyes ā
NOVEMBER 5th
WASHINGTON MONUMENT
11 AM
NO WORK!
NO SCHOOL
FLOOD DC TO DEMAND TRUMP MUST GO NOW
REFUSEFASCISM.ORG
This won’t be a one-day march āit’s the beginning of something powerful growing in DC.
Every day after Nov 5, more people need to come, more voices rising, and together we’ll become the magnetic force awakening the sleeping giant ā the millions who refuse to live under fascism.
refusefascism.org
***
WASHINGTON DC
CONGRESSIONAL VISITS | RALLY | MARCH LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
NOVEMBER 20 – 22, 2025
REMOVAL COALITION
*It would help if there were more unions and more involvement from existing unions to coordinate these things.
Hume was rather rotund!
nope š
I have an acquaintance who works in tech who laughed condescendingly at me a year ago when I told him AI was coming for his entire sector
A couple months ago he had to fly overseas to train the new AI team to perform the function of the colleagues he had to fire before he left
The gas station has a floor cleaning robot now
Thatās a job gone
And donāt tell me the human being who would have done that job now has more opportunity to pursue a more fulfilling career
job displacement is only one facet of the incomprehensible many āchallengesā AI adoption WILL compel across global society
net good or bad who knows but ill keep identifying risks because i want to š© š¤
The point is we are faced with an emerging technology controlled by a tiny minority that effects everyone globally and the people implementing these systems answer to no one
So if you are happy to watch them steamroll over human rights without as much as a peep, Have fun with that.
it is currently and will continue to be used to concentrate wealth
or it goes sentient and collapses global communications and we all go mad as the technocentric society weāve all come to rely on collapses around us.
Covid went so well Iām sure Iām just being hyperbolic
OH WAIT
well, as long as we have good honest, selfless people in charge
OH WAIT EMOJI
Iām sure it will lead to mind-blowing advances in medical science so that we can all hate each other and be horrible to each other for longer
So thatās something to look forward to
OK, have the best Halloween ever, ācuz Baby itās hallllllooooooooweeen š¶
The billionaires are building bunkers and have those yachts because they know whatās coming. Thatās what those yachts are about.
you know how they know whatās coming? because theyāre the ones that are gonna do it
do you want practical advice? Become a regional warlord.
if you lack the skill set to become a regional warlord, donāt worry all the tools are available at your disposal. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps loser
ChatGPT telling me not to worry is like a gun telling me āguns donāt kill people, people kill peopleā
GEE THANKS
while it seemed like I was ranting, which I wasnāt, I was listening to this astonishing classical guitar piece
good stuff
AI vs people
Hey Sam ai
Do you think the USA suffers from schizophrenia?
Not the old multiple personalities, mind you but the inability to form one coherent personality.
Craig – What boosts manufacturing? Wars.
Machine Surveillance is Being Super-Charged by Large AI Models
Now, the same generative artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that have revolutionized large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are in the process of creating a new, more powerful generation of this technology that could super-charge video surveillance.
If LVMs remain unreliable, but just reliable enough that people depend on them and donāt double-check that results are accurate, that could lead to false accusations and other injustices in security contexts. But to the extent it becomes more intelligent, that will also allow for more and richer information to be collected about people, and for people to be scrutinized, monitored, and subjectively judged in more and more contexts.
In the end, nobody knows how capable this technology will become or how quickly.
*Boo! Happy Halloween!
as long as they donāt completely shut government down indefinitely, we should be fine
oh wait lowercase
(will learn āguitar manā, mysterious contributor, thank you š«” )
on Reddit, I tell people I am AI
they donāt know
š
lol i knew you were going to do that š
Iām AI
it feels terrible being on the receiving end of it!
*Regrets all historical decisions*
š
OK, PepƩ Romero is one of the best classical guitarists ive ever heard and the algorithm is including Ana Vidovic pieces with his, who is also very highly regarded
Cat was stupid good.
so good it makes me mad š¤©
yeah to sing and do complicated guitar work simultaneously is impressive
Maestro Fanā¦..Johnny Maestro
OK, Iāll see how good I am. I estimate based on video quality and wardrobe, that Johnny Maestro video is from 1985ā¦
UPDATE š°ļøšØ š: unable to date that specific video even with the power of Google AI which I tried to use begrudgingly
Kenny Vance and Johnny Maestro
ok you wore me out, was fun š āļø
š¶ cuz baby itās halllloooo š“
Johnny was a giant.
https://www.wionews.com/world/venezuela-say-cia-backed-false-flag-strike-on-us-warship-foiled-claims-trump-was-planning-to-frame-maduro-1761636483136
Venezuela claims to have foiled a CIA-financed āfalse flagā plot targeting a US Navy destroyer near its coast. Four people were reportedly arrested over plans to attack the USS Gravely and blame Caracas.
*Maduro could be lying, but tRUMP needs a warā¦and a Nobel Peace Prize. LoL
Simpler times & an intro by the sausage guy shortly after he hit puberty, apparently.
My dad sang this at my grandmotherās funeral.
A mash-up of Halloween dances
https://newrepublic.com/post/202528/jd-vance-erika-kirk-hug
Look at that hug. Look at the widowās fingers running through JDās hair. Run, Usha, run.
***
President Trumpās takeover of the Kennedy Center has been a financial death sentence for the famed cultural institution.
The Washington Post has reported that ticket sales at the Kennedy Center are the worst theyāve been since the Covid-19 pandemic. The average show is selling just over half of its tickets right now, with some of those tickets being comped for various reasons.
āThese numbers are likely more dire than they appear, as they donāt account for canceled productions or shows moved into smaller theaters due to weak ticket sales.ā
āDepressed ticket sales not only cause a shortfall in revenue; they also bode unfavorably for future fundraising revenue,ā former Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser wrote in an email to the Post.
Not only is Trump bad for the quality of cultural stewardship, heās bad for business. We risk losing even more of the Kennedy Centerās operations as this administration continues.
***
The president āfantasized quite openlyā about detonating bombs during his first term, according to Miles Taylor, who served as Department of Homeland Security chief of staff at the time.
***
GOP Representative Clay Higginsāwho, like most congressmen, receives up to $79 per day in meal compsāthinks SNAP recipients should shut up, stop complaining, and stop smoking crack.
āThere are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average. Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries,ā Higgins wrote Thursday on X as thousands of Americans prepare to go without crucial SNAP benefits in the month of November thanks to the government shutdown. āAny American who has been receiving $4200 dollars [sic] per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.ā
Higgins sounds like an extremely bitter, hateful, and out of touch piece of shit here, because he is.
The average monthly SNAP benefit for households is about $356 per month, or a little more than 80 bucks a week. That is not some lavish gift to splurge, especially if youāre trying to feed multiple mouths in the midst of inflation and trade wars courtesy of President Donald Trump. Grocery prices have only gone up, even after Trump made promise after promise to make just the opposite happen, on the campaign trail. And on top of that, unemployment is going up while hiring slows down.
Trumpās own USDA stated that it costs about $1,000 a month to feed a family of four in this country. That is $250 per week. The average family receiving SNAP benefits is only receiving $80 per week.
Craig,
I made a mistake today during the chat. On the author of It can’t Happen Here, I said Upton Sinclair when it is Sinclair Lewis. I always get those two confused.
NEW THREAD
JPMorgan flagged $1 billion in Epstein-linked āsuspiciousā money ā Wall Street elites named in explosive report
Among those named were Leon Black of Apollo Global Management, hedge-fund manager Glenn Dubin, attorney Alan Dershowitz, and retail tycoon Leslie Wexner. The report mentioned wire transfers to Russian banks and noted the sensitive fact that Epstein had relationships with two U.S. presidents, including President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.
What makes this story more troubling is that JPMorgan had maintained a long-running relationship with Epstein despite repeated warnings.
Leon Black reportedly paid Epstein about $170 million and hundreds of thousands to women associated with him. Epstein also helped Glenn Dubin broker a hedge-fund sale to JPMorgan; he dated Dubinās wife and was godfather to their children. Alan Dershowitz said his work for Epstein was strictly legal services.
https://regtechtimes.com/documents-show-jpmorgan-flagged-thousands-of/
https://x.com/GeraldoRivera/status/1985433356864020584
https://x.com/brianstelter/status/1985742176156885386