Inflation rises in January

February 13th, 2025

Author

SGT
February 13, 2025

Salty Ginger Talk Newsletter

February 13th, 2025

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CURRENT EVENTS

Inflation rises in January

Our take: President Trump has been on a winning streak since last year. Things looked grim for him after he lost several court cases in 2024. Democrats had kicked Joe Biden to the curb and installed Kamala Harris ro run against him for the White House. Many thought there was little chance Trump could win the election.

He then survived an assassination attempt, dodged a second one, barnstormed the country with rallies and podcast appearances, resoundingly defeated Harris in the Presidential election, and put his plans in place to implement the agenda he ran on.

He and his team hit the ground running, immediately implementing the agenda he ran on. His actions have been praised by many, showing strength, energy and leadership that many felt had been sorely lacking the past 4 years.

The first piece of bad news appears to have just hit, with inflation ticking up in January. Prices on beef, bacon, and eggs all rose, with eggs seeing the highest rate of inflation due to a strain of avian flu tearing through the flocks of egg manufacturers, forcing the killing of millions of birds and drastically shrinking supply. When stripping out food and energy, which are more volatile to price changes, core inflation was at 3.3% about a point above the fed target.

Trump took office on January 20th. On the campaign trail, he assured voters he would bring inflation down “on day one”. It will be interesting to see how the public responds, as the economy and affordability were the biggest issues voters claimed to care about on exit polls.

COURTESY: CNN

LSU ordered to reinstatement law professor removed for political speech

Our take: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. That is the full text of the first amendment of the Constitution. The folks that run Louisiana State University may want to brush up on it.

LSU removed law professor Ken Levy last month for criticizing Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and President Donald Trump. He also used profanity when criticizing them. Levy, obviously a lawyer, went to court to defend his rights, and won a resounding judgement against the publicly funded university.

Levy trains lawyers for a living. Then fact he could be suspended for political speech in the course of his duties is wild. How many “regular” citizens are having their rights violated by jack booted figures of authority who think they have autonomy to silence those they disagree with.

Freedom of speech is almost absolute. Except for a few specific carve outs around direct calls for violence, US citizens are free to say what they want. Everyone should celebrate and support this ruling. This has nothing to do with which party you support. If we allow speech to be censored, it is a slippery slope to authoritarianism.

COURTESY: MSN

Trump starting negotiations with Ukraine, and Russia to end the war

Our take: When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, many voiced concerns he would move the US to war. Crazy, unhinged, should not have access to nuclear weapons were some of the phrases thrown around.

His first administration went the opposite of the warnings we heard. ISIS was quickly eliminated, China was quiet, North Korea was non-existent, and Russia was conciliatory. The world was peaceful and more stable than it had been in some time.

After Joe Biden took office, bad actors saw an opportunity, especially after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, where 13 US Service members were killed in a suicide bombing, and billions of dollars of military equipment were abandoned and left for the Taliban to control.

Vladimir Putin definitely saw an opportunity. He invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. The US essentially sent a strongly worded letter to Russia, and has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine while watching from afar. It has been over 3 years since our President (then Biden) has spoken with Putin.

With Trump now back in office, communications have been reestablished, and both Putin and Zelensky (the Ukrainian president) have signaled a willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict. While no timetable of substantive conversations have taken place, all parties have expressed a desire to move quickly.

It is crazy to us how many cannot see that having a strong leader that commands respect (and fear of retribution) is a good thing for the US on the international stage. When people think the toughest guy is willing to join the fight (or take the fight to you), they have a tendency to behave much better. We are hopeful that a deal can be brokered here and the death and misery of those on the ground can come to an end.

COURTESY: CNN

TIP OF THE DAY

Learn from your mistakes. You rarely grow from your successes, but you can learn a ton from your mistakes if you are willing to take a hard look at what went wrong, what you have control over, and how you can make changes based on what you learned.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If you ever injected truth into politics, you would have no politics”. - Will Rogers

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