The Show Notes: Shrinking Economy, Twitter Meltdown, & Joe's Woes
Welcome! More bad economic news out this morning as the economy shrank by 1.4% in Q1 2022.
MUST-READ: U.S. intelligence prevented the fall of Kyiv.
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Tweet of the day: Elon’s got jokes.
Twitter Meltdown
Leaked messages on a private messaging app are surfacing of Twitter employees having a meltdown over Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The leaks are a good reminder that 98.7% of donations from all Twitter employees went to Democratic candidates according to Vox. Here’s our favorite line from the New York Post:
“Physically cringy watching Elon talk about free speech,” a site reliability engineer who identifies as a nonbinary transgender and plural person wrote.
“We’re all going through the five stages of grief in cycles and everyone’s nerves are frazzled,” wrote a senior staff software engineer who called Musk an “a**hole,” and tried to console his colleagues. “We’re all spinning our wheels, and coming up with worst case scenarios (Trump returns! No more moderation!).
More Musk News:
Elon Musk requested that a federal judge scrap a 2018 settlement between Musk and the SEC. A federal judge denied the request which means Musk could remain barred from openly tweeting about Tesla. The same settlement required him to step down from the board of Tesla and pay a $20 million fine.
More Biden Problem
The stalled Biden agenda hit another roadblock as the White House remains unable to get Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to commit to negotiations on a climate deal. The Politico piece covering the story reads like a hit job on Manchin but conveniently omits Manchin’s skyrocketing approval rating over the past year. Clearly, Manchin is doing something right.
Economy Woes
The shrinking of the national economy by 1.4% in Q1 of 2022 is only the tip of the bad economic news. Last week I covered consumer prices jumping 8.5% from a year earlier. Yesterday, I covered Deutsche bank’s latest projection of a severe recession in 2023. Today, reports show that home sales have slipped for the 5th straight month.
Russian Cyber Attacks
A report from Microsoft has confirmed that Russia carried out hundreds of cyber attacks against Ukraine targeting critical pieces of infrastructure. The attacks were timed to coincide with missile strikes to minimize visibility. Russia is known for its cyber-attacks and is responsible for the majority of ransomware attacks around the world. The Wall Street Journal says that paying off the Russian ransomware attackers is more difficult now thanks to increased sanctions.
The rest of the news:
Marjorie Taylor Green openly cheated on husband. - Dailymail
Olivia Wilde served custody papers over her kids with Jason Sudeikis during CinemaCon. - Page Six
McCarthy-aligned super PAC plans $125M ad buy to win the House. - Politico
64% of workers would consider quitting if asked to return to the office full-time. - CNBC
Trump endorses Lombardo in Nevada's governor race. - Politico
America’s ‘angst-ridden’ consumer picks lowest price over brand loyalty, report finds. - Fox Business
Sage Steele suing ESPN over treatment following vaccine mandate comments. - NY Post
House GOP's Trump defenders eye long game with McCarthy and avoid fight for now. - CNN
It's Trump vs. Cruz in Ohio and Pa. Senate races. - Politico
Lake Mead falls to an unprecedented low, exposing one of the reservoir's original water intake valves. - CNN
Biden administration to advance ban on menthol cigarettes. - WSJ
‘Dollar Is King’ Mantra Rings Across Currencies as Yen Drops. - Yahoo
Ukraine brings first war crimes charges against Russia. - WSJ
Clip of the day:
Tweets that caught my eye:
Market snapshot:
"The West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead -- the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people -- has fallen to an unprecedented low." From the CNN article noted in the notes today.
Lake Mead is located in the desert SW. By current non-political definition, deserts don't have much rain...ever. 'Climate change-fueled megadrought' seems a bit over the top hyperbole, but evidently it gets readers attention. BTW, historical megadroughts of the area are quite a bit longer of duration than the current 'megadrought''. My guess is that it was probably another 'megadrought' or two that reduced numerous civilizations in the area into the multiple ruins found across the southwest US. Unfortunately, It's a huge problem for today where millions of people who have moved to the desert over the last 80 years think that there is ample water for everyone's every need and want. I don't think banning fossil fuels will fix weather patterns that have reduce Lake Mead from just about full in 1983 to its current level.
So much can be gleaned from that mentality ill Twiter engineer.
Catastrophe thinking... Elon buys Twitter = Donald Trump back as POTUS.
And, from that it can be inferred that Tweeter employees see their roll as gate keepers.
I think if Trump gets back on Twitter it will hurt him. Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.
As for Twitter employees they are clearly in the 1984 camp of censorship = free speech. The left media is saying it is ironic Elon uses free speech therefore has a bad track record of supporting free speech. That only makes sense if you think censorship = free speech. It certainly is not ironic.