Inhofe said it is not right to tackle the spiraling inflation by raising “taxes on small business and middle-class Americans,” as well as spending money on the “Green New Deal” agenda.

“This proposal could put more than 100,000 American jobs at risk and inflict a severely disproportionate economic impact on natural gas producing states, like Oklahoma,” Inhofe said.

[The Justice Department] must immediately explain the reason for its raid and it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives, or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation and legitimacy of January 6 investigations.

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Aug. 7 that states, not the federal government, should decide whether same-sex marriage should be legally recognized.

The despicable nature of the leftist political response to illegal immigration cannot be understated.  They were perfectly fine with a full on invasion of the southern border as long as they didn't have to deal with it directly and as long as they thought they could use illegals as a voting block.  But ever since the Governor of Texas started busing thousands of them to progressive strongholds like Washington DC and New York, suddenly the leftists are not so hospitable.

Democrats laughed at the prospect of Texas relocating illegals at the beginning of this year.  Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki even snidely thanked Governor Greg Abbott for paying the bus fair of migrants into DC.  She is rather silent on the issue now.   

As of 2021, 36 states have some form of voter ID requirement, which makes it much more difficult for Democrats to exploit illegal immigrants as vote fodder in local and national elections.  Some...

Kerik, who was police commissioner during the 9/11 attacks, made the comments in a response to a tweet from former acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Richard Grenell, who blasted the raid as “outrageous” and akin to the actions of “third world dictators.”

Cash-strapped Cuba was forced to take its largest thermoelectric power plant offline due to a multi-day blaze at a fuel depot in the northern part of the country. 

Bloomberg reported the Ministry of Energy and Mines said the 200 MW Antonio Guiteras thermo plant was disconnected from the grid because of a water shortage. A local media outlet said the fire at the nearby Matanzas industrial storage complex had used up the water delivery to the power plant as firefighters battled the blaze, affecting four of the facility's eight storage tanks. 

Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol continues its effort to prove allegations of insurrection against former President Donald Trump and his supporters, Capitol Police and House Democrats continue to block all efforts to force the release of all surveillance video footage and emails, which could possibly exonerate those being accused of wrongdoing. Now, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) is citing a United States Code that could legally force the release of that evidence.

Crude prices were marginally lower today after early gains were erased on indications that Russian crude shipments via the southern leg of a major pipeline to Europe may resume in a few days after being suspended.

As with most fact-checking controversies, the story that first emerged was both simple and Orwellian: Anyone who dared admit that the United States had entered a recession had their posts immediately flagged as false by shadowy “fact-checkers” working in concert with the White House to silence dissent. In reality, posts that received the label revolved not around whether or not the U.S. was in a recession, but on the specific claim that the White House “will redefine what a recession is so they don’t have to admit they caused a recession.”

In other words, rather than silencing dissenting views on whether the U.S. has entered a recession, Facebook’s label applied specifically to the narrow claim that the White House was attempting to redefine what a recession is. A post stating that the U.S. met the common definition of a recession would not be flagged – only those posts accusing the administration of changing the definition.

That said, given that social platforms...

Higher than expected labor costs and the corresponding tumble in productivity prompted  combination of recession fears and inflation anxiety with the market pricing in more tightening in the short-term and then more easing after the recession hits...

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will soon be operational in various countries and it’s important to note that they’re a form of money with intrinsic programmability. Rules can and will be set as to how these central bank liabilities can be spent. Over time, CBDCs are the elimination of cash and thus, private exchange. They are also the most “slippery slope” ever witnessed.

In the wrong hands, the ability to program money is horrifying and will be used to serve authoritarian ends to varying degrees. Picture China — a leading country in CBDCs — applying its dystopian social credit system directly to the digital yuan: allowing spending only on government-sanctioned goods and services, offering interest rates that hinder those unfavorable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and providing money with expiry dates, forcing expenditure instead of savings.

Simply put, that is not money; it’s a central bank lever for economic influence and social...

... if still up solidly on the month.

So having sparked a major short-squeeze storm - and generated substantial gains in a very short period of time - are retail investors now rushing to get the hell out of Dodge? It may come as a surprise to some, but according to Fidelity, retail investors are doubling down on shares of meme stocks including Bed Bath & Beyond and AMC Entertainment on Tuesday, even as the powerful meme stonk rally that showed shades of last year’s mania sputtered.

BBBY shares tumbled as much as 24%, on pace to snap a nine-session rally that fueled a 148% boom; AMC drops as much as 9.3%, on track to end a 65%%, six-day run of its own.

Bed Bath was the second most-bought asset on Fidelity’s platform, trailing only Tesla, with buy orders overpowering sells at a more than 2:1 ratio

AMC shares saw the fourth-most interest with buys outpacing sells at a 1.6:1 clip, with NVDA in 3rd position.

Other retail favorites seeing...

Update(1516ET): Earlier Tuesday a large explosion at Russia's Saki air base deep within Crimea immediately set off speculation that Ukraine's military could have just launched its boldest attack yet of the six-month long war. Russia's defense ministry quickly tried to down play the incident, which it said resulted in a handful of injuries. The suggestion from the Kremlin was that it was an accidental ignition of munitions being stored on base, but Ukrainian government sources are meanwhile busy leaking that it was the result of its long-range rockets targeting the base.

A number of Western pundits were suspicious over the quick Kremlin denial of a Ukrainian army attack, and alleged Russia desired to avoid escalation, and also sought to deny allowing Kiev forces a 'victory' by covering up the strike. But now The New York Times has said Ukraine is claiming the attack: 

After China's PLA military extended its drills encircling and threatening Taiwan, which are now reaching a full week in duration following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's provocative visit to the island, she blasted Chinese President Xi Jinping in a Tuesday MSNBC "Morning Joe" interview. 

Pelosi was asked about Xi's reaction to her being the highest American official to visit the self-ruled island in 25 years, to which she answered by saying xi is behaving like a "scared bully" given he's in a "fragile crisis" in the wake of her trip. 

By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and reporter

While the S&P 500’s rebound since mid-June has been impressive, it’s within the historical norm of a bear market rally.

Since the 1920s, the trough-to-peak rally in a bear market averaged about 18%, as noted by Nick Reece, strategist at Merk Investments. But the post-WWII average was only 13%, which is exactly where we are right now.

In the aftermath of the recent plunge in gas prices, which has pulled the national average price to just above $4.00, two months after hitting an all time high north of $5.00, traders have been curious to see how retail spending will be impacted by this welcome development. And while the official data will be published next Wednesday, today we got an early glimpse thanks to the latest BofA card spending data which measures aggregated BofA credit and debit card data, and which was up 5.3% year-over-year (yoy) on a per household (HH) basis in July.

“Our country is being shot. It’s being destroyed,” Trump told attendees, while touting his administration’s record on the economy and national security.

Trump spoke of “creating the most secure border in American history, record tax and regulation cuts, $1.87 gasoline, no inflation, low interest rates, record growth in real wages, record growth in our economy.”

On Tuesday President Joe Biden signed the NATO accession protocols for Sweden and Finland following a Senate vote last week which sent it to the Oval Office. 

Watch live (due to start at 1400ET):

Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan began with her “plane departing from Kuala Lumpur and heading southeast toward the Indonesian part of Borneo, then turning north to fly along the eastern part of the Philippines. A more direct — and shorter — route would have been to fly northeast in a direct route over the South China Sea to Taiwan.”

Pelosi’s avoidance of the South China Sea might have something to do with China’s claim to 90% of it and China’s control of islets in that sea that Beijing has converted into air, missile and naval bases.

After 19 hours in Taiwan, the speaker flew to South Korea, where her reception was described as “cool.” President Yoon Suk Yeol, though at home in Seoul when Pelosi arrived, did not meet with her, but instead held a 40-minute phone conversation.