Jan. 25, 2024 - Bidenomics for the win
… BREAKING: 2023 GDP … STILL BROKEN: Capitalism … Airlines filed hundreds of Boeing safety reports … Witness disputes Israeli account of American fatality … BIG change coming for Ring cameras …
Sorry I’m a little late today, I was on SiriusXM this morning discussing my new reporting — subscribers can check it out on demand (details below1).
Oh and you can also catch me Monday on The Nicole Sandler Show!
Bidenomics Won the Year
New data out this morning show that the economic strategy of Pres. Joe Biden led to a strong expansion of the U.S. economy in 2023. Federal data show that the gross domestic product (GDP), the value of all the crap we made here, rose by 3.1%.
Fourth quarter GDP was weaker than earlier in the year, coming in a still-stronger-than-expected 3.3%, which might say less about the strength of the economy and more about the weakness of the expectation-havers.
This morning’s numbers are roughly in line with past GDPs for years heading into a presidential election — meaning, no, the economy is no more a disaster than it was in most election years. The new GDP numbers are, however, a return to pre-pandemic levels, signaling a healthy return to the normalcy of not masking and shrugging our shoulders at 1,000 or so people still dying every week.
The strong numbers follow the passage of massive economic packages pushed by Biden and (barely) passed through Congress. That, however, appears to be more correlation than causation.
In fact, the GDP strength is due primarily to Biden’s ingenious plan to have consumers buy more shit. “[S]pending by everyday Americans is expected to have accounted for 80 percent of the economy’s growth in the fourth quarter,” the Washington Post reports. An increase in government spending — not by Uncle Sam but by Cousins Blue State and Big City — also contributed to the economic surge.
Me, I credit American nihilism — with zero evidence, mind you. Namely, I suspect everyone’s pretty much given up on the future. We know we can’t afford college and emergency health care and vacations and retirement… so a solid number of us have put significant money into the FuckIt investment plan — collectively calculating that when shit gets too bad we’re all going to have to figure out solutions that benefit everyone, so what’s the point of scrimping and saving now? Again: Total conjecture.
Oh, and of course, lest I forget, the money flow is also juiced by inflation. Consumers are paying more not just because they’re buying more, but because Wall Street is fleecing them more. Never forget.
Airlines Filed 1,868 Boeing 737 Max Safety Reports
Remember how that cabin door on that Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max-9 pulled a D.B. Cooper over Portland, OR, a few weeks ago?
Turns out, Alaska and other airlines filed 1,868 safety reports about the 737 Max line between December 2020 and September 2023, according to a new report from The Lever, which has been all over this story like regulators not all over Boeing.
As The Lever’s Freddy Brewster notes, Alaska Airlines filed most of those reports. And not because they’re complainers like me. While they filed more than 1,230 reports about their 53 Boeing Maxes (Maxi?), they only filed 25 reports about their ten Airbus A321 Neos (Neoi?) in the same period.
What were those Max reports about? Tell us, The Lever:
“They include fuel leaks on potentially hundreds of planes caused by misapplied sealant, malfunctioning stabilizing motors, debris found in fuel tanks, engine stalls during takeoff, and malfunctioning anti-ice systems, among other issues.
“Though many of the incidents detailed in the safety reports would not necessarily cause a plane to crash, the totality of the incidents point to serious issues with Boeing’s production process, said Ed Pierson, a former senior Boeing employee and founder of the Foundation for Aviation Safety.”
While the right wing has been blaming Boeing’s issues on Black people — presumably the same vastly powerful Black people who crashed the global economy in 2008 — Boeing is actually run by a rich white guy. And another white guy is getting blamed, too, for all of this.
That’d be Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose last job was running South Bend, IN.
“Not only is the FAA not doing their jobs, Sec. Pete Buttigieg’s office is horribly not doing its job,” said Ed Pierson, the Foundation for Aviation Safety guy. “The FAA is required by law and by policy to investigate these incidents, to identify root causes and develop corrective actions. And what we’re seeing is these systems failing repeatedly.”
I’ve been accused of piling on Buttigieg before…so I guess there’s no reason not to mention that Buttigieg’s showpiece transportation initiative in South Bend was blamed for the death of an 11-year-old Black boy who Buttigieg said “darted” into traffic. (It’s fair to wonder whether I’m racializing this by identifying him as Black, but traffic and pedestrian casualties are racialized; when you screw up traffic planning, impoverished and non-white communities pay a disproportionate price.)
It does occur to me whether Pres. Joe Biden handed Buttigieg a poisoned chalice with DOT, but the thing to do with poisoned chalices is not to drink from them, especially if you’re thirsty.
Ring Shuts a Door on Police
Amazon’s Ring surveillance app yesterday unveiled a big, albeit largely symbolic change coming this week.
In a blog post, the app announced that it’s “sunsetting” the Request for Assistance (RFA) element of the app that supports Ring and the community of people dedicated to voluntarily shepherding in an age of total surveillance. What RFA did was let cops make public requests for video from Ring users.
That was a problem for privacy advocates, who are now an endangered species. Electronic Frontier Foundation policy analyst Matthew Guariglia said, “Now, Ring hopefully will altogether be out of the business of platforming casual and warrantless police requests for footage to its users.”
Which, of course, doesn’t mean cops can’t request footage non-casually, with top hats and monocles and warrants and everything. And Ring has come under fire for sharing user videos with police without user consent.
Ring touts its changes as part of an overall software update to “make it easier to continue to share the moments that matter.” Ring gives examples of fun shared videos that “can bring us together to laugh, empathize or unite,” like “a bear relaxing in a pool or a neighbor helping out with some shoveling” (go ahead, you can click, we don’t judge). But that’s Ring doing a ton of shoveling of its own.
In reality, as most of you probably know first-hand, Ring has destroyed more fabric than all 20 seasons of Project Runway.
That’s because the overwhelming majority, or at least plurality, of shared “moments that matter” are Black kids who got too close to a white person’s front door, prompting a million posts on Next Door or Facebook that start with “BE ALERT…!” And it’s shit like that — that preys on our shittily evolved instincts about safety and humans — that actually threatens our capacity to trust strangers and ergo our social fabric.
And honestly, all it’ll take is one suburban-nightmare crime story involving police not being able to get a home video quicker than an Amazon delivery. And then Amazon will fold quicker than an Amazon Prime™ delivery.
TFN EXCLUSIVE — Bill Would Move Prayer Breakfast to the Capitol Rotunda
With your support (you are supporting us, right?) yesterday TFN broke its first (but not last!) story. And, yes, it was about the National Prayer Breakfast (I swear I’ve got other shit in the pipeline, but the breakfast is next week, so here we are, pancaking stories).
As I wrote here (and as you should have gotten in your email if you subscribe!) two members of Congress have introduced a bill to hold the National Prayer Breakfast — a privately run event — in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol… the symbolic heart of American governance, where we lay in state the powerful people who helped kill our ideals.
The members are Reps. Tracey Mann (R-KS) and Frank Mrvan (D-IN). Both have previous ties to the breakfast, and to The Family, the secretive Christian group that wants you to think Congress runs the breakfast.
Mann especially goes waaaay back, as I detail in the article. The point here is that my reporting led a lot of Democrats to shy away from the breakfast. That’s bad for The Family, because The Family needs Democrats to maintain the bipartisan veneer that sustains the semi-official veneer that The Family uses to bring in fat cats it’s interested in. (Have you read my exposé of how they created modern-day Mike Lindell? You should!)
So, to reel Democrats back in, they made a big show last year of splitting the breakfast off. (Except, obvi… not.) But now The Family’s guests weren’t allowed at The Big Show… even though they still pretended they were.
So if The Family is a tiny bit removed from the event itself, how can they make up for that? By making the event seem even more official — making the connections they do still have to it more impressive/effective – by moving it to the heart of Congress, the rotunda, instead of the hoi polloi visitor center. We’ll see if it works!
So stay tuned, I’ve got more revelations to report out – so please consider becoming a supporter!
Long-Planned Killing to Take Place Today
A 58-year-old man is going to be killed today. Backed by the threat of overwhelming force, a gang of men is going to strap down Kenneth Eugene Smith and suffocate him until he dies. And calling 911 won’t stop it.
Like most gang killings, it’ll be done in the name of justice. Unlike some gang killings, the gang behind this one is the state government of Alabama. With yesterday’s seal of approval from the right-wing Supreme Court.
Why’d the high court get involved? Because Alabama’s trying something new today!
The state is so pro-life they couldn’t even figure out how to kill a man they were already keeping in a cage, failing to kill Smith last time they tried, in 2022, when they were unable to inject Smith with deadly poison safely (ha!) because they couldn’t get an IV line in right. It’s almost like the Alabama medical profession is going right down the tubes.
So today Alabama — The Home of Innovatiocution! — is trying something new. They’re disrupting death tech and the flow of oxygen!
They’re going to strap a respirator mask on Smith’s face which — joke’s on him! — won’t allow him to respirate. Instead he’ll be breathing nitrogen, which — joke’s on him! — you can’t actually breathe. It’s the first time a state has used nitrogen non-breathing to try to kill someone, and the only thing I don’t understand is why they’re pumping in nitrogen. I mean, why not just pump in… nothing?
Hell, why not just have the executioner put his (don’t @ me, it’s gotta be a dude) hand over Smith’s mouth while the assistant executioner pinches Smith’s nostrils closed? Cheap, effective, mordantly humorous. I know, I know, not innovative enough…
Witness Says Israeli Shooting of American Was Unprovoked
Friday’s fatal shooting by Israeli police of a 17-year-old Louisiana native in the unoccupied West Bank was unprovoked, a witness tells the AP.
The victim’s death went largely unreported after the questionable decision by his parents to name him Tawfic Abdel Jabbar. To protect Tawfic’s identity and ensure more widespread media attention, TFN’s editorial policy is to refer to him by a pseudonym, Sally Christianwhitebigboobs.
The IDF says they opened fire on people “engaged in rock-throwing activities,” presumably including throwing rocks. But a 16-year-old witness, Mohammed Sala…I mean, Billy Bob Wholesomeface, told the AP they weren’t engaged in rock-throwing activities such as rock-throwing, and that police never even tried to arrest Christianwhitebigboobs.
Instead, Wholesomeface maintains they had been driving to go on a picnic and turned around because they forgot charcoal. That’s when shots struck the back of the truck. The AP said its examination of the truck and the bullet holes were consistent with Wholesomeface’s story.
To its credit, the Biden administration has told Israel it must do an investigation — because who better to do an investigation? — which is now ongoing. (In fairness, which I hate, the AP says U.S. embassy staff also examined the truck and interviewed relatives.)
Editorial disclosure: Some Palestinians have also done bad things. We report shit not to inspire hate for any group, but love for justice and compassion and humans. Harumph.
Y’Know What? I’m Not Done with Ring
Because how many people have stupidly bought guns after some Ring video scared the brains out of them? And how many of those guns were used to shoot someone — the owner’s teenager sneaking in late at night, or a neighbor’s kid who made the mistake of being Black while wearing a sweatshirt that had a hood on it AND PUTTING THE HOOD ON?
Answer one: I don’t know. Answer two: It ain’t zero!
Campaign Watch
UAW The United Auto Workers union yesterday endorsed Pres. Joe Biden for re-election. Biden himself was on hand for the announcement by UAW President Shawn Fein at the organization’s conference in Washington, DC.
The endorsement wasn’t a surprise, but it had taken longer in coming than some Democrats would’ve liked. For one thing, the UAW has called for a cease-fire in Gaza. Biden has not, and continues to push arms for Israel without applying the legal restrictions on their use.
And one sticking point for the UAW has been concerns about job protection in Democratic measures to transition to electric vehicles. Working in Biden’s favor was union concerns about transitioning to fascism.
As Fain said yesterday, “Donald Trump is a scab. Donald Trump is a billionaire, and that’s who he represents.” That said, the endorsement wasn’t entirely a not-Trump decision.
Biden famously last year became the first sitting president to walk a picket line — not easy when you’re sitting — taking sides with the UAW against the Big Three automakers. Optics aside, the Biden Labor Department not surprisingly has been a far more robust defender of organizing and collective-bargaining rights than the Trump Labor Department, which in a surprising development survived the Trump administration.
TCB
In yesterday’s TFN I referred to "Ukraine...and wherever else needs some war."
Here’s what one reader emailed me:
What a stupid fucking comment! Ukraine has been attacked and needs weapons to DEFEND ITSELF.
When you try to make moral equivalence between russian aggression and Ukrainian self-defence, you are adopting russian framing and doing the Kremlin's atrocious terrorist job for them.
Here’s the email I sent them:
Fair point. I appreciate you pointing it out.
I was counting on longtime readers to recall that I've explicitly rejected any moral equivalence between Ukraine/Russia or even Ukraine/Israel. I also agree that sometimes war is necessary -- especially in self-defense! -- so I was not intending to suggest that Ukraine should not have the weapons it needs.
But the bigger point is that in being glib about the military-industrial complex I wasn't clear about my positions on specific conflicts, so that's on me. I'm glad you called me out on it and took the time to get in touch. Thank you.
Please note that I fucking hate being reasonable. It’s so much fucking work.
REMINDER I have seen every single message of support and encouragement and, yes, your paid subscriptions and the notes you generous folks wrote to me. Holy shit does all of it matter. Thank you.
FUTURE Turns out lots of paid Substack subscriptions charge more than TFN does for a lot less than TFN gives you. So if you’re thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, or if only your conscience is thinking about it, heads up that I may boost my subscription rates to be at least on par with those that — and I can’t stress this enough — deliver far less.
PODCAST? Would a TFN podcast be worth a paid subscription? Lemme know, okay?
Either way, please share TFN, post your comments, and encourage your favorite newsfuckers to sign up.
Go get ‘em, kids…
SiriusXM subscribers should be able to find this morning’s episode of “Mornings with Zerlina” during which I spoke with Joe Sudbay about my reporting on next week’s National Prayer Breakfast. Joe was super cool and I want to express my gratitude to him and his team. Thanks, team!
Heh. You said you were pancaking the National Prayer Breakfast stories... heh-heh...
Yes, I AM a child at heart but seriously, you're doing phenom work here, Jonathan. Really appreciate you.
Nihilism is a big word, but does bring to mind something that I have felt for a long time; people are idiots and very bad at fixing the cause of what might break something before it breaks, ie global warming, world peace, etc. I’m convinced we are going to hell in a handbasket, probably not in my lifetime. It’s human nature, sadly. My take.