Chet Collins

Security Alert - Update to Travel Advisory for Russia - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia

Do not travel to Russia due to ongoing tension along the border with Ukraine, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens, the embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19 and related entry restrictions, terrorism, harassment by Russian government security officials, and the arbitrary enforcement of local law.

(Emphasis in the original.)

This was issued January 23, 2022. Brittney Griner was arrested February 17th.

I don’t think we should trade arms dealers and murders to save Americans who can’t do the slightest amount of due diligence before traveling to a foreign adversary in order to make some extra cash.

The Biden Stagflation Arrives - WSJ Opinion

Mr. Biden inherited a growing economy primed to roar back from the pandemic, and in barely a year and a half he has dragged America back to the 1970s. The best word for what we have now is stagflation, the ugly combination of slow growth and rapidly rising prices. This is what the policy mix of trillions in federal spending, heavy regulation, the threat of higher taxes, and easy money has wrought. Time to do the opposite.

There will be entire books and college courses dedicated to the study of how an economy primed for success was so quickly wrecked.

The Lonely Office Is Bad for America - WSJ Opinion

People starting out need offices to learn a profession, to make friends, meet colleagues, find romantic partners and mates. The #MeToo movement did a lot to damage mentoring—senior employees no longer wanted to take the chance—but the end of office life would pretty much do away with it.

Ending office life severs one more mooring to reality. People become more insulated in their own echo chamber and isolated from a diversity of thought and ideas.

The unhealthiest aspect of the pandemic was how it drove us apart. We became afraid of each other, trapped in our social bubbles. That isolation led to the spike in irrational behavior and decline in mental health.

We don’t need to have hour long commutes to spend our days with horrible bosses, but we’re social beings. We are meant to be together. We need to see, think, and feel like our work matters, that we’re part of a group of people making the lives of others better.

The Senate GOP Got Played - WSJ Opinion

Republicans helped Democrats pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill last year full of green pork. They boasted about victories for permitting reform, while keeping out a tax increase and $80 billion that Democrats wanted for the Internal Revenue Service. Some victories. The Schumer-Manchin bill includes the $80 billion for the IRS and some $327 billion in new taxes. Mr. Manchin has also received the promise of a vote for a bill on permitting reform, which shows how weak the reforms were in the infrastructure bill.

This might be the most perfect sticker in my collection. I smile every time that I see it.

U.S. Presses Offer to Free Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan From Russian Detention - WSJ

The U.S. offered to release Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in order to secure the freedom of Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Hey everyone, if the US has some folks that you want sprung, just take a few hostages! They fold every time.

Also of note, the hashish oil that Griner was busted with is a Schedule I narcotic. So she’d be criminally liable if she was caught with it in a US airport, too.

Biden: ‘I Don’t Know If We’re In A Recession, I’m Not A Biologist’ - Babylon Bee

America’s GDP has fallen over the last two quarters, stoking fears of a possible recession due to the fact that America is now in a recession.

U.S. GDP Rose Slightly in Second Quarter, Economists Estimate - WSJ

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal estimated the Commerce Department will report Thursday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the nation, rose at a 0.3% annual rate in the April-through-June period.

Posted two hours before the real number came out, the experts prove their intellectual chops yet again!

Gross Domestic Product, Second Quarter 2022 (Advance Estimate) - U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022 (table 1), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 1.6 percent.

Oops.

Hey, how about $739B in new taxes to fix this right up?!

Joe Manchin Reaches Deal With Chuck Schumer on Energy, Healthcare, Tax Package - WSJ

The IRS money, about $80 billion over a decade, would roughly double the size of the agency and be aimed at tougher enforcement, particularly on high-income households and corporations.

Most Americans have always complained that the IRS is too small. What we really need is an IRS twice in size!