Last Call For Retribution Execution, Con't

Donald Trump has been regularly targeting the handful of House Republicans who voted to impeach him (as well as Mitt Romney, the lone GOP Senator to do so) and today he collected his most valuable head to date of that group: Michigan's Fred Upton, who has been in the House since I was in middle school, is retiring.

Longtime Michigan Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Upton is announcing Tuesday that he will retire from the House at the end of his term after nearly 36 years in office, ending speculation about his political future that had swirled for months.

The St. Joseph lawmaker made the announcement Tuesday morning on the House floor, bringing to a close months of indecision by Upton, who, at 68, is Michigan's most senior lawmaker in Congress — a moderate conservative first elected to the U.S. House in 1986.

"Even the best stories has a last chapter: This is it for me," Upton said.

In an email sent to supporters and friends Tuesday, Upton cited "very positive" poll numbers and sounded upbeat about his upcoming primary against U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga of Holland, but said he'd decided "it is time to pass the torch."

His retirement would be a substantial blow to Michigan's clout in the House of Representatives at a time when Republicans are poised to take back the majority in the fall midterm elections.

The St. Joseph Republican formerly chaired the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee and has served on House GOP leadership's powerful steering committee that determines committee assignments for lawmakers.

Jason Watts, an Upton ally and west Michigan-based political consultant, said Upton’s decision Tuesday represented him ending his distinguished career on his own terms.

Upton became a top target of former President Donald Trump last year after he and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Despite death threats, Upton has stuck by that vote, defending it in the face of primary challenges and censures from county party leaders in his current district in southwest Michigan.

Then the state redistricting commission redid Michigan's political maps after the 2020 Census, and Upton was drawn into the new 4th District with Huizenga, who last month got Trump's "complete and total" endorsement in the primary contest.

 

Upton was crucified in public, his district destroyed, and facing a primary challenge he was rigged to lose.  The Republicans who opposed Trump are being picked off, and Upton was the biggest target of them all. The entire Michigan GOP turned against their elder statesman because Donald Trump commanded his political execution.

The Republican party exists to serve Donald Trump, and Trump exists to serve his white supremacist masters.

Tech Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself, Con't

Tesla kajillionaire Elon Musk is now Twitter's largest shareholder, and to keep him from using his billions in pocket change to buy the company out completely, the company is putting Musk on its board of directors. 

Twitter is appointing Tesla CEO Elon Musk to its board of directors, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk will serve as a class II director until 2024. This is a type of position that can be used as an anti-takeover measure.

In a pair of tweets, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed Musk’s new role on the board. He called Musk “both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service” and said he would “bring great value to our Board.” Musk responded via Twitter saying he looks forward “to making significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”

The Company will appoint Mr. Musk to the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) to serve as a Class II director with a term expiring at the Company’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders,” the filing says. “For so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions.”

On Monday, Musk announced via an SEC filing that he’d purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, despite his complaints about free speech on the platform. Musk’s acquisition makes him the largest individual shareholder in the company. Shortly after making that disclosure, Musk polled followers about creating an “edit” button. Agrawal replied by tweeting “the consequences of this poll will be important,” and he warned users to “vote carefully.”

Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, expressed that he’s “happy” that Musk is joining the Twitter board, citing that “he cares deeply about our world and Twitter’s role in it.” Dorsey stepped down as CEO in November 2021 but will still remain on the board until sometime in May.

As noted by CNBC, Musk’s investment could set off more issues with the SEC. The SEC requires anyone with more than a 5 percent stake in the company to disclose their purchase within 10 days. Musk first acquired the shares on March 14th, 2022, and didn’t reveal that information until April 4th, 2022 — 21 days after the fact. According to CNBC, the SEC’s fines for this kind of violation typically aren’t exorbitant (for the world’s richest man at least), and tend to waver around the $100,000 mark.

 

Needless to say, Elon Musk now effectively owns Twitter without actually having to buy it, and you can bet that his friend Donald Trump will be back online very soon. Next time a major Republican politician -- or Musk himself -- goes into a racist, bigoted, and/or antisemitic tirade, don't even expect the consequences of a soft ban.

 

Musk has tens of billions to play with, and now has de facto control of a major weapon as a result. If you think Twitter's bad now, give it a few months.

 

Making Ends Meet

Three-quarters of Americans in CNBC's latest poll believe they will have to rethink financial choices due to rising prices.

Surging inflation has Americans reconsidering how they spend their money.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, jumped 7.9% in February from 12 months prior. Prices are going up on everything from the food you put on the table to the gas that powers your car.

That’s weighing heavily on people’s minds, with 48% thinking about rising prices all the time, according to a CNBC + Acorns Invest in You survey, conducted by Momentive. The online poll was conducted March 23-24 among a national sample of 3,953 adults.

Three-quarters are worried that higher prices will force them to rethink their financial choices in the coming months, the survey found.

Inflation is costing the average U.S. household an additional $296 per month, according to a Moody’s Analytics analysis. Experts expect it to get worse before it gets better.

Still, there hasn’t been a significant impact on consumer spending, although retail sales grew at a slower pace than expected in February.

The biggest area people have cut back on is dining out, with 53% saying they’ve done so, according to the survey. They are also driving less and canceling monthly subscriptions, among other things.

 

Americans are already acting like we're in a recession. The problem with that is slowed spending could very well bring that about, and even more Americans -- 81% -- now expect a recession this year.

After two years of the coronavirus pandemic, a recession and a rapid recovery, Americans are worried that the economy may swiftly decline once again.

Some 81% of adults said they think the U.S. economy is likely to experience a recession in 2022, according to the CNBC + Acorns Invest in You survey, conducted by Momentive. The online survey of nearly 4,000 adults was conducted from March 23 to 24.

Certain groups are anticipating a potential economic downturn more than others, the survey found. That includes Republicans, who are more likely to think there will be a recession than Democrats, as well as those who see themselves as financially worse off this year than they were last year. 

 

Economists are scratching their heads, as the Biden Boom continues, but Americans, even Democrats, see economic disaster ahead.

I'm no economist, but considering the plurality of Americans believe we've lost millions of jobs under Biden instead of gained and the majority of Americans consider Biden's first year as a complete and total failure, if enough voters believe that this is a recession, they'll vote like it, too.