GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and husband racked up arrests in home district

 https://nypost.com/2021/01/16/gop-rep-lauren-boebert-and-husband-have-racked-up-arrests/

Rep. Lauren Boebert, the gun-toting freshman Republican Colorado congresswoman who ran on a law-and-order platform, has had several dust-ups with police, starting as a teenager.

The 34-year-old lawmaker, who beat her district’s very conservative Rep. Scott Tipton in a primary upset last June, has a rap sheet unusually long for a member of Congress.

And her track record of thumbing her nose at the law continued this week after she tussled with Capitol Police officers over her refusal to walk through newly installed House metal detectors.

Lauren Boebert Says Venezuelans Eat Dogs Because They Have No Guns

 https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-venezuela-guns-assault-rifles-eating-dogs-banned-newsmax-1729932

While speaking to Newsmax's Sebastian Gorka on Monday, Boebert, a far-right Republican, reflected on her confrontation with 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke.

Before Boebert had taken office, she confronted O'Rourke during an event in Aurora, Colorado in September 2019 after he announced his commitment to taking citizens' AR-15s.

Speaking about the importance of guns in America, Boebert told Gorka Americans would begin eating dogs, like in Venezuela, if guns are taken away from citizens.

Lauren Boebert: Venezuela dog eating 'started because they do not have firearms'

 https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-dog-eating/

“In Venezuela, they eat the dogs and it started because they do not have firearms to protect themselves, to defend themselves against a tyrannical government,” she added.

As 'Woke' Businesses Face Right-Wing Wrath, Culture War Capitalists Cash In

 https://www.newsweek.com/2022/08/12/woke-businesses-face-right-wing-wrath-culture-war-capitalists-cash-1730249.html

The issue has taken center stage recently as a number of high-profile companies—including Disney, J.P. Morgan, Levi Strauss and Microsoft—announced plans to cover travel expenses for employees seeking an abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade. That followed other headline-making cases of businesses speaking out on social issues, such as Disney taking a stance on legislation in Florida restricting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and dozens of companies from Silicon Valley to Wall Street pledging to fight racial injustice after George Floyd's death in 2020.

Presidents and the US Economy: An Econometric Exploration

 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20140913

The US economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance. For many measures, including real GDP growth (our focus), the performance gap is large and significant. This paper asks why. The answer is not found in technical time series matters nor in systematically more expansionary monetary or fiscal policy under Democrats. Rather, it appears that the Democratic edge stems mainly from more benign oil shocks, superior total factor productivity (TFP) performance, a more favorable international environment, and perhaps more optimistic consumer expectations about the near-term future. (JEL D72, E23, E32, E65, N12, N42)

Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/opinion/sunday/democrats-economy.html

A president has only limited control over the economy. And yet there has been a stark pattern in the United States for nearly a century. The economy has grown significantly faster under Democratic presidents than Republican ones.

It’s true about almost any major indicator: gross domestic product, employment, incomes, productivity, even stock prices. It’s true if you examine only the precise period when a president is in office, or instead assume that a president’s policies affect the economy only after a lag and don’t start his economic clock until months after he takes office. The gap “holds almost regardless of how you define success,” two economics professors at Princeton, Alan Blinder and Mark Watson, write. They describe it as “startlingly large.”

The Republican War on Economics

 https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/the-republican-war-on-economics.html

On Meet the Press Sunday, Chuck Todd asked Susan Collins how she could support a huge tax cut after having complained about excessive debt. “Economic growth produces more revenue and that will help to offset this tax cut and actually lower the debt,” she calmly replied. An incredulous Todd asked Collins how she could defend such a claim when every study has concluded the opposite. She cited Glenn Hubbard, Larry Lindsey, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

Jennifer Rubin got ahold of two of the three, Hubbard and Holtz-Eakin. Both economists denied having ever claimed the Republican tax cuts would produce enough growth to recoup the lost revenue.

Graduate sues uni after essay is failed because it didn’t blame Israel

 https://www.thejc.com/news/news/graduate-sues-uni-after-essay-is-failed-because-it-didn't-blame-israel-11XsFCMbfm3AGDA5SivwHO

Danielle Greyman claims her essay about crimes committed by Hamas against Palestinians was failed because it did not pin blame on the Jewish state.

After a review, an external examiner recommended that her assignment mark be improved, giving it a passing grade instead of a fail.

Ms Greyman, who had never before failed an essay at university, was forced last year to resit the module, which she subsequently passed.

However, because she had to wait almost a year for the result of her appeal, the student was unable to take up a place on a Master’s course at Glasgow University.

Her lawyers have now issued a legal claim against Leeds University for negligence, discrimination and victimisation.

Are Economic Forecasters Worth Listening To?

 https://hbr.org/1984/09/are-economic-forecasters-worth-listening-to

We argue that economic forecasts deserve to be taken seriously, not necessarily because they promise to be accurate but because they are so much more useful than having no forecasts at all. We do not say that managers should listen to all forecasts or to all forecasters; that is the sure road to total confusion. Rather, we say that forecasts properly used and understood will lead to better business decisions than forecasts ignored or naively used.

Psychotherapist convicted of sexually abusing patients sentenced to 39 months

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/psychotherapist-convicted-of-sexually-abusing-patients-sentenced-to-39-months/

Jerusalem-based psychotherapist Yuval Carmi was sentenced Tuesday to three years and three months behind bars by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court after pleading guilty to charges of sexual assault against two of his patients.

He was ordered to pay NIS 100,000 ($30,000) in compensation to Kim Ariel Arad, the first plaintiff to come forward, and NIS 30,000 to a second victim whose name has not been made public.

“I’m full of regret for what I did,” Carmi, 67, said after his sentencing, according to a Channel 12 report. “I’m sorry I caused harm and hope such cases don’t happen again,” he added.

Fox News is incoherently mad about Manchin striking a deal

 https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-incoherently-mad-about-manchin-striking-deal

Fox News hates this bill. The network’s propagandists and their GOP guests were clearly reeling from the surprise announcement that Manchin had reached an agreement after repeatedly putting negotiations on ice. But even on short notice, they came up with a slew of reasons — at times contradictory — to oppose the nascent legislation.

Top economists say Democrats' health care and climate package will put 'downward pressure on inflation'

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/02/politics/economists-democrats-package-downward-pressure-inflation/index.html

Congressional Democrats' climate and health care package is getting a boost from a group of top economists, who wrote in a new letter that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act will lower prices for American consumers amid high inflation.

"This historic legislation makes crucial investments in energy, health care, and in shoring up the nation's tax system. These investments will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth," 126 economists said in a letter sent to congressional leadership Tuesday, which was first obtained by CNN.

Here's how the Senate reconciliation bill would actually affect inflation

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/01/politics/inflation-reduction-act-senate-reconciliation-bill/index.html

The package counters inflation in three ways, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told CNN's John Berman. It reduces budget deficits, and therefore, the level of demand in the economy. Also, it cuts prices on prescription drugs, while increasing supply by stimulating energy production and subsidizing the transition to renewable energy.

"Less demand, more supply and direct, better bargaining for lower prices -- those are the things that are involved in reducing inflation," said Summers, who last year had warned that rising inflation was not transitory. "This bill is fighting inflation, and it's got a whole set of collateral benefits, as well. It's fair to call it the Inflation Reduction Act."

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said a key driver of inflation is high energy costs, which the bill seeks to address through environmental investments.

"There is a simmering debate on the causes of inflation, but whatever side one takes in that debate, this bill is a step forward," said Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Biden's 'Victory Lap' in al-Zawahiri Killing

 https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-rips-bidens-victory-lap-al-zawahiri-killing-1729845

Greene quickly took to Twitter to lash out at Biden for attempting to "act tough on TV" by speaking on the death, arguing that "most Americans" were either unaware of the leader or had "forgotten" about Al-Qaeda and al-Zawahiri, despite the group being behind 9/11—the largest-ever terrorist attack in U.S. history. She suggested that Biden should have instead focused on issues including the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a so-called "proxy war with Russia" and high inflation rates.