Carl Hudson

Looking east to the sun rising over the Sandia mountains in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Another fantastic New Mexico sunrise.

Today’s “wall-runner” sighting. Meep-meep!

Looking east towards the Sandia Mountains, which are reflecting the setting sun light. The Petroglyph National Monument is in the foreground. Between the Sandia Mountains and the Petroglyphs is the Rio Grande river valley and Albuquerque.

With all that is going on in the world, New Mexico sunsets soldier on. 🌞

Looking east towards the Sandia Mountains, which are reflecting the setting sun light. The Petroglyph National Monument is in the foreground. Between the Sandia Mountains and the Petroglyphs is the Rio Grande and Albuquerque.

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire.

It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

The economy is so good that I'm firing the BLS Commissioner for reporting numbers so grim I refuse to believe them, and also demanding the Fed cut rates typically seen during a recession.

Folks who won't be fooled by politicized official economic statistics:
- The Fed
- The bond market
- The stock market
- Foreign investors

Folks who will be flying blind in the absence of reliable econ data:
- All of the above
- Small biz
- Big biz
- Voters

YouTube video by Atlanta Fed Understanding the Fed: What It Is, What It Does, and Why It Matters

During these turbulent times, it's good to recall history.

This video outlines the history of central banking in the USA and describes conditions leading to the creation of the Fed. The video addresses how the Fed is organized, what it does and doesn’t do, and why it is needed.
youtu.be/YOUgq8yyJaM

For at least half a century, the National Weather Service has been an around-the-clock operation. But due to DOGE cuts, that is no longer possible in some parts of the country.

America is infinitely less safe. Tens of millions of lives are being endangered by Trump and DOGE.

GIFT:
wapo.st/4k1Ha8B

Why Can’t the New York Times Get Basic Numbers on Trade Right? Awful reporting on the Biden-Harris economy by the New York Times and other major media outlets played a big role in putting Donald Trump in the White House.

The New York Times badly misleads readers on trade, contrary to what they tell you, the deficit was not $1.2 trillion and it was not a record open.substack.com/pub/deanbake...

Good to know, from Braves media notes:

a friend sent me this one

I have signed the following letter with 103 of my colleagues from UCLA Law. It is modeled closely on the Harvard Law letter. Solidarity with all other faculty willing to speak out for the rule of law.

#Never51

The institutions of the American economy depend on the institutions of American democracy; rule of law, consistent regulation, stability, and all the rest.

That’s what’s being destroyed and that’s what risks the *entire economy.

Saying that out loud shouldn’t (and can’t) be a risk

An important statement from the American Bar Association. www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

New Mexico ?!?!?!? Amazing how folks don’t know New Mexico is a state - part of the USA. New Mexico puts “New Mexico USA” on its auto license plate plates.

*New tip—use “5calls.org” — you will find your reps and their numbers easily, plus provide sample scripts, short talking points

**If you want to share this, please copy and paste so it goes beyond our mutual friends.**

19/19

Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.
18/

From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward don't worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.
17/

F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks.

... 16/

E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because... " Don't leave any ambiguity.

... 15/

D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. They're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. Focus on 1-2 per day. Even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.

...14/

C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.
13/

B) 😎 Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.
12/

Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all — then you can — but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).
11/

If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok — ask for that person's name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone.
10/

So, when you call:

A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might.
9/

She said that Repub callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's single-issue-voters pay topic, it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Repub reps on the fence to vote with the Repubs. In the last 8 years, Repubs have called, and Dems haven't.
8/

...

Calls are what all the congress folk pay attention to. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics.
... 7/

YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.

The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash.

... 6/