President Biden announces new administrative actions to fight gun crime. (Because Republicans won’t even remotely consider voting for any bill that addresses this issue.)
On the menu: Ghost Guns and the announcement of a new nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (aka the ATF) I guess Explosives don’t rate an initial.
Totally open thread.
WaterGirl
Not even Baud? Sad.
Benw
If we legalize it, it could be the Bureau of Weed, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (WATF).
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
Please don’t feel neglected, WaterGirl. It’s likely everyone’s watching the President.
Could someone explain the NRA formula to me again – how many guns will it take to keep ‘Murica safe? 400 million? 500 Million? It’s all too much for a drunken starets to understand.
Old School
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
The answer is always “More than we have now.”
mrmoshpotato
@Benw: Gotta flip the booze and the smokes. WTAF
JaySinWa
If the ATF added an E then people will try and pronounce it and not spell it.
ETA: I expect they would use MJ rather than Weed in the new acronym.
Maybe rearrange the letters. FEMAT, EATMF, MEFAT, FMEAT?
Prior to MJ regulation FATE, FEAT, TEFA, ATFE, ATEF?
Roger Moore
@Old School:
Funny how the lobby for gun manufacturers thinks the solution is always more guns.
WaterGirl
@Benw: Where’s the E?
S. Cerevisiae
@mrmoshpotato: that’s the perfect acronym!
WaterGirl
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): I think it’s probably along the lines of what they recommend for kitty litter boxes.
You should always have ONE MORE litter box than you have kitties.
So, extrapolating from that, I’m thinking that they are thinking 3-5 per human on the planet. Including fetuses, because they seem to believe that they are people.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: What does the A stand for?
NotMax
@WaterGirl
“Corporations are people too.”
//
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
“Actual,” I believe.
Benw
@WaterGirl: Let’s replace Explosives with a bang: WTAF!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Oh, of course, I should have known that.
WaterGirl
@Benw: That is an excellent idea.
Frankensteinbeck
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
Whatever combination of guns and laws will allow conservatives to hurt or kill anyone they don’t like and makes the Other cower and genuflect to the greatness of conservatives and give conservatives their way in everything big and small. At that point, America and Americans will be safe. This has not yet happened, so more guns and more legal freedom to display them, threaten with them, and use them without consequences are still necessary.
Martin
They measure success not in guns but in Rubles.
cain
@Frankensteinbeck: They won’t stop till they hit the ultimate holy grail – the fetus gets a gun. Now finally a real mechanism to stop abortion. /s
Martin
I wish I had any optimism that any of this would help.
JaySinWa
@JaySinWa: Of course the 2A purists will try and get the F out of there, and the E as well. They will go to the MAT.
Mo MacArbie
@Steeplejack: I always took it as “Almighty”.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT: Do you guys think there’s a chance of a recession in late 2023/early 2024 like some economists are predicting?
Frankensteinbeck
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Anything can happen. Even the very best economists are terrible at this kind of prediction. Krugman is as good an economist as he is bad a pundit, and he was wildly off with his ‘double dip recession’ prediction, which he really hammered on at the time.
Dangerman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): When the housing bubble bursts, it won’t be pretty. Some of these housing numbers are truly grotesque and indicative of a madness I don’t understand.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dangerman:
In the case of housing, I feel like the bubble bursting would improve the economy on the ground. The difficulty of affording a place to live is a big impediment to at least half of America.
geg6
@Dangerman:
Agreed. Homes in my neighborhood are going for ridiculous prices and they are half the square footage and acreage that we have. I figure our house is probably worth about 250-300K, but based on current housing prices, it would probably go on the market at around 400-500K. And I live in a fairly low housing cost area.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Frankensteinbeck:
I mostly worry about what the implications on Dems’ electoral fortunes re: the economy. Plus my investment porforlio also too.
Figures I’d buy in at near the ATH and the markets are taking a gigantic shit now. And there’s really no end in sight given the Fed raising interest rates and doing QT, plus the War in Ukraine. I know, I know “stay the course, buy and hold, long-term investing in indexes will pay off. But it still hurts atm
The Moar You Know
@cain: who gets prosecuted in the instance of fetal suicide?
Trick question: it’s always the mother’s fault
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck: Whatever happens, it’s bad and it’s Biden’s fault and only tax cuts for the rich can fix it.
The Moar You Know
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): one can never time such things – if you could, you’d be rich – but I suspect it may well be sooner than that.
Remember, it’s never “if”, but simply “when”. Such is the nature of capitalism.
geg6
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You’ll be fine in the long run as you are still so young. I’m looking at retirement in a couple of years. I refuse to watch the markets at this point. It’s all too volatile and the best thing I can figure to do is just sit tight and hope for the best.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
Isn’t it the nature of all economies? I’ve never heard of a guaranteed permanent growth economy.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Old saw: economists have predicted nine of the last five recessions.
Sure Lurkalot
I don’t watch Morning Joe but apparently, the midterm issues for Democrats are:
Our democracy is being torn down brick by brick and this doofus has a 4 hour show on the teevee every weekday.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot: Ridiculous. The only midterm issue that voters care about is the Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal™.
Baud
Deleted
Geminid
President Biden’s ghost gun initiative led the network radio news this afternoon. It was paired with news of a big federal gun bust in Philadelphia that swept up 14 dealers and involved 400 weapons, mostly hand guns.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@geg6:
Yeah, I know. I have a lot of time on my side. I probably should just stop watching the markets
Political instability worries me along with lower expected future returns in the area of 4%
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
Granted. Still would be nice if it could hold to that 10 year average. We just went through a recession two years ago
raven
Guess who?
Ben Cisco
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Your blood pressure will be much better. Besides, if historical trends hold, you’ll have at least 5 such collapses to look forward (?) to.
Sincerely,
Staring 60 in the face whistling nervously
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
Ha! However, inflation is running incredibly hot at the moment and there’s worries that the Fed either won’t act aggressively enough to squelch inflation before it causes a downturn or the Fed itself will cause a recession
Ben Cisco
@raven: An abusive, brain-damaged, not-all-that-smart-to-begin-with useful idiot huckabuckin’ for the GQP?
raven
@Sure Lurkalot: You don’t watch it but “apparently” huh? great
raven
@Ben Cisco: ding
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
OT: Elon Musk will no longer be joining Twitter’s Board of Directors.
Don’t we all!
Gravenstone
@raven: Given the mention of Georgia, Walker?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Time to buy some NFTs! //
raven
@Gravenstone: there it is
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@raven:
Dude sounds like Trump
WaterGirl
There are way bigger fish to fry than worrying what the market will do in 2023 or 2024.
trollhattan
Criming corporation finds that crime may not pay, but pay gets rid of crimes.
The Levenson properties were destroyed by the Dixie Fire.
trollhattan
@raven:
“Area Man employs Applebee’s salad bar as speechwriter.”
Kelly
Kyiv Independent reports a gas attack in Mariupol
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1513603720646467589
RepubAnon
@Benw: And if we name it Firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives, it will be FATE.
Ohio Mom
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The best all-purpose financial advice is always, Live within (or even below, if possible) your means.
Kay
@trollhattan:
I just think they have to explain at some point why everyone can’t buy their way out of a criminal conviction.
Shouldn’t everyone be able to just compensate the victim and walk away as an option?
piratedan
@Ohio Mom: the other old saw is to find 5 to 10 products that you use regularly because they’ve proven to be well made and functional and invest in those companies.
Kay
@trollhattan:
Burglary. 10,000 dollars to the victim plus return the loot. Is that on the table? Why not?
Spanky
@WaterGirl:
Which makes me suddenly wonder where werebear has been
Eta – Her Faceplant page has been regularly tended into today. Should have looked first!
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: SacBee is one of the better papers in CA but I guarantee you that PG&E is not spending billions to improve anything.
lollipopguild
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: The rumor I heard is that he wants to buy Twitter so his BFF trump can get his megaphone back.
Martin
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, the state should have taken PG&E over after the Camp Fire and turned it into a public utility.
Baud
@Kay:
Probably because most burglars don’t have that kind of money. I bet most victims would take that deal.
Martin
@lollipopguild: I doubt that, but being on the board would limit how many shares of Twitter he can own, so declining being on the board allows him to control more of the company. I have no idea what he thinks he’s doing, but there aren’t a lot of conservatives buying Teslas.
Baud
@Martin:
Why?
Sure Lurkalot
@raven:
Screenshot of today’s Morning Joe
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
But, they said so!
That a double-bankruptcy corporation would pull a slight-of-hand is just unthinkable.
trollhattan
@Kay: @Kay:
When Romney lectured us that “Corporations are people, my friend” I wish it were true in the real world, and that CEOs and managing boards weren’t so firewalled against criminal charges for that company’s misdoings. “I had no idea” means nonmanagement.
trollhattan
@Sure Lurkalot:
Nice summary.
I recall Jeff Jarvis from the blog infancy days; haven’t seen anything from him for at least a decade.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Apparently, he’s on some crusade to make Twitter operate based on free-speech principles, saying Twitter is a public square. Not sure if it’s also related to his spat with the SEC and it’s consent degree on him and his Tweets needing to be approved by Tesla
Sure Lurkalot
@Baud: From TechCrunch:
Martin
@Baud: Rules of the board. Board members cannot own more than 15% of the company.
Lots of companies have poison pills like that to limit hostile takeovers of the company, of any one person getting so much stake in the company that they can put themselves on the board and then dictate the direction of the company. So as soon as you get 15%, you lose your ability to do that from the boardroom. Part of the charter of the company. Not unusual to have things like this, particularly in tech companies.
Ben Cisco
@Sure Lurkalot: What a load of crap!
But that’s Mourning Joe, so on brand.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Heard on the Beeb that not only does Musk have enough moolah to buy a majority share, he has enough to buy Twitter entirely.
Dude can carry a grudge.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): This suggests some cognitive issue with Musk then. Twitter cannot change the SEC rules. All they can do is make it more possible for Musk to commit security violations, which should be noted Twitter doesn’t have content rules about.
My guess is that Musk gets frustrated that he can’t buy his way into doing what he wants and gives up on this.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Agree with just stop trying to time the markets. That is for financial geniuses. Just invest conservatively on a regular basis and let it ride. If you are in sensible stuff at your age the market wiill come back many times.
If you are watching it too closely then you aren’t investing, you are gambling.
This inflation now is uncomfortable for the young and the poor, but it isn’t actually nuts. The 1970s: my husband felt blessed to qualify for a 9% mortgage. I had a couple of cerificates of deposit that paid 19%. That’s inflation.
I do think there is some price gouging going on because we don’t have antitrust enforcement. Handful of companies strangle the smaller competition and also strangle their own supply chains by squeezing too hard. Look at meat these days.
Martin
@trollhattan: Sorta. He’d have to sell out of Tesla to do it which would start to tank Tesla’s stock. He’d need about $20B to get controlling stake in Twitter, provided the price didn’t climb due to the new demand.
Gonna go out on a limb and suggest that investors will bail on the stock once Musk gets too much of it. Congress will be all over him as well. I’ll delete my account if Trump is reinstated. I’m far from the only one that will.
Ben Cisco
@Martin: He’s not as smart as he thinks he is.
Beginning to wonder if he’s smart at all.
Baud
@Martin:
Thanks.
Roger Moore
@piratedan:
I think the best advice these days is to accept you can’t out think the market, so you should just invest in an index fund or ETF. Put money in regularly- maybe set up a monthly buying plan- and let it go on autopilot. Check once in a while to see how things are going, but mostly just let it go.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I thought his Tesla stock was worth something like $300 billion, which would let him buy a controlling stake in Twitter while still maintaining control of Tesla. The bigger issue, as I understand it, is that he’s already on the verge of trouble with the SEC because of the way he bought his Twitter stock.
Anyone who owns >5% of a company has to report every stock transaction to the SEC. I don’t know the exact rules, but people who just own that many shares have a grace period to report their transactions. Anyone who is buying shares in hopes of being on the board, though, has to report either immediately or within a much shorter grace period. Musk reported his purchase within the grace period if he’s going to be an ordinary shareholder, but not if he is going to be a board member. So if he did accept a spot on the board, he’d potentially be in trouble with the SEC for not reporting fast enough.
This sounds like some super inside baseball stuff, but it’s actually really important. Twitter stock jumped on news Musk was planning on joining the board. Because he bought the stock over a period of days, he was able to buy a lot of shares after he was supposed to announce his intentions. Since share prices jumped on the announcement, delaying saved him hundreds of millions of dollars. The SEC is right to care about that kind of thing.
Roger Moore
@Ben Cisco:
Musk obviously has some kind of smarts. The success of Tesla and SpaceX (and his previous ventures before them) seems bigger than you’d expect just based on good luck. And both Tesla and SpaceX seem to have succeeded by finding uneploited niche markets that let them grow and establish themselves without getting crushed. That seems like it reflects some real smarts, even if they’re narrower than the genius Musk is usually credited for.
The big thing, IMO, is that Musk is one of those people who thinks his success is all down to him being a super genius. Not to take anything away from him, but he had a lot of help and good luck along the way. More importantly, that kind of success doesn’t mean he necessarily knows anything about anything else.
J R in WV
The agency was ATF (alcohol, tobacco, firearms) for decades, so the addition of explosives and (someday) weed won’t ever displace the original ATF acronym for the agency.
Besides, who believes the red necks can remember more than three letters?
Joe Biden makes a good presentation for his goals, as usual.