A major win for parents and school choice today in a 6-3 decision from the Supreme Court [pdf Ruling Here].  The high court ruled that Maine violated the Constitution by refusing to make public funds available for students to attend faith-based schools.  The ruling is broad and makes it clear when any state and/or local government choose to subsidize private schools or provide vouchers for school choice, they must allow families pay for religious schools.

Teachers’ unions, left-wing indoctrination institutions and the media are not happy with the Supreme Court decision.  The ruling now makes it possible for state or local school vouchers to be used for private, faith-based schools.  Those schools also have religious exemptions on the types of material and educators they allow in their education programs.

In the bigger picture the court has again affirmed ‘freedom of religion‘ not ‘freedom from religion‘.  Parents who wish their children to receive a moral and virtuous education should not be blocked by state and local politicians who promote sexualization of children, immoral conduct and alternative lifestyles for kids.  SCOTUS BLOG has background details including the dissent:

SCOTUS BLOG: – […] The dispute before the court in Carson v. Makin began as a challenge to the system that Maine uses to provide a free public education to school-aged children. In some of the state’s rural and sparsely populated areas, school districts opt not to run their own secondary schools. Instead, they choose one of two options: sending students to other public or private schools that the district designates, or paying tuition at the public or private school that each student selects. But in the latter case, state law allows government funds to be used only at schools that are nonsectarian – that is, schools that do not provide religious instruction.

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Sometimes things just fall on the side of the righteous.   The premise of the silly Manhattan case against Donald Trump was that he inflated the value of his real estate holdings in the city.  The DA was trying to make some kind of fraud case over it, but it always seemed ridiculous.

Consider the scenario, they are ultimately debating and trying to legally criminalize the subjective value of a physical asset.  Imagine the timing of such a case right now when the value of property is so high.

You tell a grand jury that Trump inflated the value, and then someone just asks what it’s worth, and the answer is, “well, right now, it’s worth a lot more than he claimed then,” and the silliness of the case gets worse.   I digress…

Splodey heads are happening today, because the two prosecutors in the case have quit, and the Manhattan district attorney says he doubts there’s any case here… and the salty tears of the far-left are crying, “curse you villain!”

(New York) – The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The stunning development comes not long after the high-stakes inquiry appeared to be gaining momentum and throws its future into serious doubt.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing an interesting legislative approach to curb the White House illegal immigration process.  In essence, what the Florida legislature will be enacting are laws that restrict any private company from doing business in Florida if they are participating in the federal programs to distribute illegal aliens.

If a federal contractor facilitates the transport, housing or subsidy of an illegal alien into Florida the state will block that contractor from any state level business relationship.  “The legislation proposed today will make clear that the State of Florida will not provide any discretionary benefits to illegal aliens and will also prohibit state and local agencies from doing business with any private entities that facilitate the resettlement of illegal aliens in the state of Florida from the southern border. “

The outline is available [HERE], and the Florida Governor appeared on Fox News to discuss the legislation. WATCH:

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…. Meanwhile, in New York state they are back to forcing everyone to wear a mask or face a $1,000 fine.  The contrast in applied federalism is getting even more remarkable.

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Neel Kashkari is head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. If you know the financial lingo, you can see the dire forecast behind the opaque language.  In plain-speak, Kashari is saying when it comes to prices and inflation, “we’re screwed“…

In this interview with CBS talking head Margaret Brennan, Kashkari admits inflation is still going up, and it will get worse. Keep in mind, the lingo of the inflation conversation is discussing “percentages of change.” Kashkari claims the percentages of change will start to slow in a few years, but the prices will never return to their former level.

The percentage of inflationary change (this year vs last year) will continue going up, as prices continue to skyrocket over almost every sector. CTH points out this issue, because as the Fed continues printing current money, the value of future money drops and the price of goods continues to climb. The fast-turn goods rise in price quickest (now recorded at 6.2%), and the inflation on slow-turn durable goods lags but hits even harder.

Current real inflation inside the ‘total’ economy, the cumulative snowball that is coming down the mountain, is over 20% and still growing. This situation puts the forecast prices of 2022 goods at an alarming level. WATCH:

The fed has no tools to slow the rate of current inflation, as interest rates are disconnected {Revisit The New Dimension in Modern Economics} from the cost of goods produced. The only thing the Fed can do is to stop purchasing debt (Quantitative Easing), stop purchasing our own bonds, at a slower rate.

Despite being a progressive himself, even Neel Kashkari is telling congress to stop spending money.

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The bad news is this is an NBC poll conducted by Mark Murray and Hart Research and Associates.  They are notorious for manipulative media polling [Use Site Search Function for More].  The good news is this is an NBC/Mark Murray poll, meaning if this is the best Murray and Hart Research can come up with, the reality of the situation is exponentially worse.  [Polling pdf Here]

The data within the poll, which is skewed to try and assist the left, shows the nation overall has abandoned Joe Biden and the Democrat Party in a big way.

71 percent of Americans now say they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, up 8 points since August. That includes 93 percent of Republicans, 70 of independents and even 48 percent of Democrats.  Beyond his catastrophic approval numbers, 50% of Americans polled say Joe Biden is incompetent / 37% view him as competent.

Chuck Todd sounds the alarm.  WATCH:

Additionally, not highlighted by any media review, the polling shows a collapse for the COVID fear and vaccination narrative.   The majority of the country now says they do not support mandatory vaccinations. [Page 17].   50% oppose mandates / 47% support mandates.

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At 1:00am on August 25th, Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats came to an agreement on a massive spending proposal. The Senate previously passed a $1.5 trillion “infrastructure” bill, and a group of 9 House moderates -led by Josh Gottheimer- wanted to see it pass. However, the far-left progressive caucus wanted their $3.5 trillion social spending package which includes Green New Deal spending passed as part of the total budget agenda. {Go Deep}  For the past two months, the House Democrats have been working with Senate Democrats on the scale of the social spending package.

The ultra far-left communists and Democrat socialists have been negotiating on the social spending part.  They agreed to settle for 1.75 trillion in fundamental change and there’s approximately 10 House republicans that will also support it, but the AOC wing wants more.   The previously passed $1.5 trillion sits on Nancy Pelosi’s desk until it can be paired with the $1.75+ trillion social spending component.

The House Rules Committee is putting the legislative language together for the latest 1,600 page social spending part [you can see here], but the issue of constructing a bill that will pass the Senate is still problematic.  Pelosi was hoping for a vote today, and Joe Biden begged Democrats earlier to get it passed because his polling numbers continue to collapse.   The communists (AOC/Bernie Sanders caucus) and socialists (ordinary Democrats) are at loggerheads.

WASHINGTON – […] Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team were ultimately unable to win over dozens of dug-in liberals in time for a Thursday evening vote. House liberals said they want to review the legislative text of $1.75 trillion social spending legislation the White House outlined Thursday and get a commitment of support from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) — something the two have not outright given.

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Taxing “unrealized capital gains” sounds like a catchy and obscure way to make wealthy people pay more in taxes, but it doesn’t work.  A government that moves in this direction ignores the reality that people are not static.  The process also involves “taxing wealth” which then becomes an arbitrary definition.

Unrealized capital gains are not income, they are simply increases in value.

If your home was worth $200,000 last year and $300,000 this year, you have an unrealized capital gain of $100k.   A 15% tax bill on that value increase means the homeowner would have to pay $15,000 to the IRS.

Joe Biden is proposing to pay for his multi-trillion expansion in debt through this type of tax upon billionaires.   Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted this was part of their thinking to help pay for the Biden budget last Sunday.  WATCH:

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Proposing a tax on money that does not exist is the peak of government.   Sure the proposal applies only to billionaires who have massive gains in their stock portfolios, but billionaires are not esoteric titles.  Billionaires are people who can, if needed, move their physical location and avoid any U.S. tax on their wealth.

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For those who have been following politics for a while, you might have remembered something about $600 and IRS reporting from a decade ago when Obamacare was passed.

Within the 2010 Obamacare mess, “It was added that payments for goods more than $600 in a 12 month period needed to be reported as well as services. Obamacare further provided that, beginning in 2012, payments to non-tax-exempt corporations—which had previously been exempt from the reporting requirement—would be subject to information reporting.” (link)

The 2010 tax law was actually enacted, briefly, and was scheduled to take effect in the 2012 tax year.

I well remember at the time everyone was like WTF, I’ve got to fill out a 1099 any time I give $600 to a service provider or business?

Yes, the embedded law inside the Obamacare law meant that anyone who paid any person or business $600 or more for a good or service was supposed to fill out a 1099 tax filing reporting the transaction to the IRS.

The political premise of the law was so obvious, stupid and cumbersome in 2011, after Obama’s 2010 mid term election “shellacking“, one of the first acts of a new republican congress was to repeal that ridiculous segment of the law.  As it was noted at the time:

[…] “Essentially, with President Obama, signing into law H.R. 4 [2011], the reporting rules now revert back to what they were before the 2010 legislation (Obamacare and Small Business Jobs Act) was passed.  We are now back to where we were before the government started monkeying around with things in the first place.” (read more)

So, for those of you paying attention; and for those of you who realize Joe Biden is just a false front for Obama’s third term; indeed the current 2021 effort by the Treasury Department to require banking notifications to the IRS for $600 transactions looks exactly like what Obama’s team previously tried in 2010.

♦ The difference this time is they are switching the reporting requirement from the individual taxpayer to the financial institution.  THE GOAL IS THE SAME.

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I do not expect White House Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki to understand how her bosses policies are driving massive price increases; nor do I expect Psaki to understand economics and inflationary impacts.  However, the scale of her false statements surrounding inflation are not just false, they are now dangerous.

Following the release of the consumer price index [SEE table 2], in her press briefing today, Jen Psaki outlined the White House perspective on inflation, and specifically the Fed claims surrounding “transitory inflation.”

In her statements today, Psaki referenced people comparing the prices of 2021 consumable goods to 2020 and 2019.  [Video prompted below] Within the statements, the scale of falsity is off the charts.  WATCH [Video at 19:00 to 22:42, prompted]

There is not one single thing about that three minute verbal exchange that is accurate.  Fast turn consumable goods, groceries etc., did not drop in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic.  Factually, all goods but especially consumable goods increased in price throughout the pandemic, because demand actually increased and the supply chains were unable to keep up.

Example.  A loaf of bread at $2.50 in 2019, climbed to $3.00 in 2020.  That price jumped again to $3.75 this year (2021) and will likely continue rising as monetary policy driven inflation continues devaluing our currency.

Even if, as Psaki claims, inflation slows down  (not likely) – “decelerating inflation” does not mean declining prices; it means a slower rate of price increase.   Stuff still costs more, it just costs more at a slower rate.  Consumable goods will cost more in 2022 than they do this year.  The 2022 loaf of bread likely to climb to $4.00; it will never return to the 2019 price of $2.50 because the dollar is worth less.

♦ Ask the White House: Why did Joe Biden increase food assistance benefits by 25% if inflation was transitory?

[The Consumer Price Index was released today.  The producer price index for Sept will be released tomorrow]

This massive inflation is a direct result of the multinational agenda of the Biden administration in combination with the spending spree.  Inflation is a feature not a flaw, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with COVID. The first group to admit what was obvious were banks, specifically Bank of America, because the monetary policy is the primary cause.

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Raw material foodstuff price contracts are expiring, and the new purchasing prices will be significantly higher than current.  As these contracts refresh, the new higher prices immediately enter the food supply chain.  CTH has been warning readers to stock up on non-perishable items as this next wave of food price increases is going to be much bigger than even the prior 8%/avg jumps; and there is absolutely no end in sight.

Also, as more large municipal regions (megalopolis metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles) begin enforcing a vaccine passport to eat in restaurants, the demand for meals at home will remain high.  Supermarkets again will fill the void in the diet of consumers who choose to remain at home instead of eating out.

The current demand on retail food products is likely visible to you in the form of bare shelves and minimal inventory.

Grocery retailers operate on paper thin gross profit margins and rely on fast turns of multiple penny profit items to add up to net profit income.  Technology has helped modern grocery supply chains to be very thin.

An inventory shortage arises when demand on the retail grocery industry spikes – which is what we have seen with COVID impacts as alternative food options were forcibly closed or pressured to reduced capacity.

Conagra is one of the large food conglomerates with control over products from field to fork.  Recently, Conagra executives announced they expect food prices to climb even higher due to all of the aforementioned impacts, along with large price increases in fuel and energy.

Wall Street Journal […] Conagra said Thursday it expects gross inflation—which doesn’t take into account hedging—to be about 11% for fiscal 2022, versus its earlier estimate of 9%. The company plans to continue adjusting prices and cutting costs, and said its prices likely will rise 4% or more during the current fiscal year.

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