By all outward appearances the acquisition of the Twitter social media platform by billionaire Elon Musk looks like it is going through.

According to bank filings and financial transfer documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal {link}, the process to finalize the purchase is taking place.  Meanwhile Mr. Musk used the platform to notify Twitter advertiser of his intent in the purchase {link}:

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During a White House announcement today, Joe Biden pledged to have all agencies in the federal bureaucracy begin to target private industry for charging service fees, or what the administration calls “junk fees.”   The junk fees relate to everything from bank overdraft charges, to hidden cleaning fees on car rentals, to hotel resort fees and even fees on airlines for seats with more legroom.

According to the White House, the junk service fees disproportionately impact marginalized communities, minorities and low-income households.  The airline fees are particularly racist because the airline prices for more comfortable seats have a “disparate impact” (legal term for federal intervention) on protected categories of people.

Poor people cannot afford bigger seats.  Poor people are disproportionately minority. Ergo a higher percentage of minority people cannot afford the comfortable seats.  That makes charging more for comfortable seats an illegal practice according to the legal theory of ‘disparate impact.’  WATCH:

[Transcript] – […]  Some airlines, if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money.  But you don’t know it until you purchase your ticket.

Look, folks, these are junk fees.  They’re unfair, and they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially low-income folks and people of color.  They benefit big corporations, not consumers, not working families.  And that changes now.

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The primary reason Katie Hobbs is refusing to debate has to be connected to her complete lack of qualifications and her transparent lack of articulate intelligence.  Having watched a few interviews with Hobbs, it’s obvious more visibility would only hurt her.

Conversely, the more voters see Mrs. Kari Lake the more they like her.  Mrs Lake is a very impressive and articulate candidate on policy and substance. Additionally, she believes her message and speaks directly to the concerns of Arizona voters.

A recent poll released today by Fox10 shows Mrs. Lake pulling ahead:

ARIZONA – […] With less than 2 weeks to go before the November election, Republican Kari Lake leads Democrat Katie Hobbs by 11 percentage points. Only about 2% of voters are undecided. Pollster Matt Towery believes that Hobbs’ reluctance to debate Lake may be a reason why the gap has widened in recent weeks. According to InsiderAdvantage, Lake is polling higher among older adults and Hispanics. (more)

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A lot of people didn’t like Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary, I did.  Secretary Mnuchin was an inside player, a billionaire himself, who worked for the outside team.  He already had a full bank account and carried ‘f**k-off’ money.   That, combined with Wilbur Ross having the same ability, was exactly what we needed to execute the America-First MAGAnomic resurgence.

The U.S. middle-class saw and felt the benefits.  Economic security is national security, at a nationwide and even individual level.  Mnuchin, Ross and Lighthizer constructed that economic outcome guided by the larger strategy of President Donald J Trump.

RIYADH, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Former U.S. treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Wednesday he believed the United States was in a recession and said this would continue.

Speaking at Riyadh’s flagship investment conference FII, he said: “I think we’ll probably see a peak of 4.5% 10-year rates.”

“I think you are going to see inflation in the U.S. begin to come under control, it will probably be a two-year period,” he added.

He said the U.S. and China must learn to co-exist. He added that the Middle East’s economic issues need to be dealt with regionally. (link)

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The extreme vitriol against the recent OPEC+ decision to cut oil output, specifically the extreme Biden anger toward Saudi Arabia, now takes on additional context as the New York Times writes about a secretly negotiated deal between the Kingdom and White House officials that was never executed.

As the Times reveals, over the summer the White House thought their team had negotiated a deal with Saudi Arabia for increased oil production that would have lowered oil and gasoline costs in the U.S, strategically timed before the midterm election.

With that agreement in mind, Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia a few months ago. However, as the western alliance began putting more pressure on Russia and increased the activity within Ukraine, the Saudi’s aligned with OPEC+ to support Russia via lowered oil outputs.  The White House felt double-crossed, hence the fury.

(New York Times) –  WASHINGTON — As President Biden was planning a politically risky trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, his top aides thought they had struck a secret deal to boost oil production through the end of the year — an arrangement that could have helped justify breaking a campaign pledge to shun the kingdom and its crown prince.  It didn’t work out that way.

Mr. Biden went through with the trip. But earlier this month, Saudi Arabia and Russia steered a group of oil-producing countries in voting to slash oil production by two million barrels per day, the opposite of the outcome the administration thought it had secured as the Democratic Party struggles to deal with inflation and high gas prices heading into the November elections.

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During an Arizona media gubernatorial Q&A with Republican candidate Kari Lake, the pundit asked Mrs. Lake about hypothetical backlash from the NFL toward her campaign promise to secure the border.

The continually impressive Kari Lake handled the question forthrightly. WATCH:

The full question and answer session is below.

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During a vaccine promotion today where Joe Biden received his COVID-19 vaccine booster, he mentioned that only 20 million Americans had decided to remain on the vaccine ronacoaster and get the booster shot.

Interestingly, there was a representative from Albertsons in attendance.  Kroger and Albertsons have a pending merger deal.  Curious timing.

[Transcript HERE]

White House – […] Good afternoon.  I’m here today with my COVID team, as well as leaders from some of America’s top pharmacies: Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons.  And we’re here with a simple message: Get vaccinated.  Update your vac- — your COVID vaccine.
 
It’s incredibly effective.  But the truth is, not enough people are getting it.  We’ve got to change that so we can all have a safe and healthy holiday season.  That’s why I’m getting my shot updated today. (more)

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As inflation bites the working-class hard, U.S. household savings rates continue dropping fast.  When combined with drops in home values the loss in home equity compounds the issue.  American families are getting poorer much more quickly under Joe Biden’s economic policies.

According to the Wall Street Journal home values dropped in August at their highest monthly rate of decrease since 2011 {link}.  In part this is driven by higher mortgage rates which are pricing home buyers out of the market.  However, the regional impact is worse on the west coast than east or southeast.

[…] The housing market has slowed abruptly this year due to a rapid increase in mortgage rates, which has raised borrowing costs for home buyers and pushed many prospective buyers out of the market. Existing-home sales fell for eight straight months through September. (link)

As noted in The Daily Mail review of a similar analysis: “It’s Northern California that leads the way, with San Jose experiencing a drop of 10.8 percent since September, followed by San Francisco at 8.5 percent, then it’s Seattle at 8.2 percent, Denver at 5.8 percent, San Diego 5.2 percent, Portland 5.1 percent, Las Vegas 4.8 percent and Phoenix at 4.4 percent.” (link)

What we are seeing is a confluence of events, generally brought about by the outcomes of larger Biden administration policy.  Massive increases in energy costs are the result of energy policy; those increases are fueling inflation from the supply side on food, fuel, electricity, home heating etc.  Simultaneously, Fed monetary policy is driving consumer demand down.  The recession debate continues amid the economic think-tanks while Main Street outcomes show we have been in a recessionary period all year.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the lying liar who lies, Charlie Crist, held their one and only debate last night.  Of all the gubernatorial debates so far, this one was probably the best.  Thankfully, DeSantis won the debate on substance because Crist just sucks. However, DeSantis flubbed the most predictable question that was asked.

Every Floridian should vote for DeSantis, because Crist is just an unbearable alternative. That said, the insufferable Charlie Crist asked Governor DeSantis to commit to a four-year term in office and promise the Florida voters he would not abandon his state to run for the GOP nomination in 2024; effectively making DeSantis only a six-month reelected governor because national campaigning will start in June 2023.

It is true, the question should have come from the moderator, because it’s a transparently obvious and predictable question.  However, regardless of who actually asked it, the non-response from Governor DeSantis was telling.  WATCH (just first minute):

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A few things about that non-response are remarkable.

First, even a middle school debate coach would have known that question was likely in the debate.  The fact that DeSantis did not have a well-rehearsed and prepared canned answer to the question is a reflection of stunningly poor debate prep.

Second, the evasive and non-truthful answer he did give, totally avoiding the question, shows the incredible weakness within a candidate that is a specific outcome of a lack of honesty.  That response is also reflective of why Donald Trump wins every debate.  Trump wields truth as an effective weapon.

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As expected, the poster boy for the World Economic Forum’s climate change agenda, Rishi Sunak, has been selected and installed by the British Conservative Party to be the U.K Prime Minister.

Earlier today, U.K. Brexit leader Nigel Farage gave his opinion.  WATCH:

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