Today's Belle

• Stickiness
• Elasticity
• Shrinkflation
• Short attention span

The prices we're paying are tied directly to the combination of tariffs, plus the exporting country's inflation rate.

You want a new rug for the kitchen? A year ago it was $100. In April 2025, Trump hit the country where it's made with a 50% tariff. And that tariff smacked that country's economy badly enough that its inflation rate popped up into the low double digits - say 12%.

Your new 100-dollar kitchen rug will now cost you about $170.

EVERYTHING TRUMP TOUCHES

TURNS TO SHIT

Today's Belle

Well said. But don't forget who we're dealing with. This is the SmarmSpace Gang. They will not behave honorably. Any loophole - real or imagined - will likely be pursued and exploited.

18 U.S. Code § 592 - Troops at polls

Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.

This section shall not prevent any officer or member of the armed forces of the United States from exercising the right of suffrage in any election district to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to the laws of the State in which he offers to vote.

              = Loophole

Today's Belle

From the comments: "Dude - you broke up with us, remember? You don't get to complain when we start to see other people."

Today's Belle

Conference Board Consumer Confidence numbers are pretty bad - again.

All 5 categories are down - the lowest they've been since 2014.

Overall confidence has been under 80 for a full year, with only 15.6% of the people expecting the economy to improve in the next 6 months.

Latest Press Release
Updated: Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Confidence collapsed to lowest point since 2014, surpassing pandemic depths

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® fell by 9.7 points in January to 84.5 (1985=100), from an upwardly revised 94.2 in December. A 5.1-point upward revision to December’s reading of the Index resulted in a slight increase last month, reversing the initially reported decline. However, January’s preliminary results showed confidence resumed declining after a one-month uptick.

The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—dropped by 9.9 points to 113.7 in January. The Expectations Index—based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—fell by 9.5 points to 65.1, well below the threshold of 80 that usually signals a recession ahead. The cutoff for preliminary results was January 16, 2026.

- more -

GOLDEN AGE MY ASS

Today's Belle

Trump isn't who they think he is

Trump is who they don't think he is

Today's Belle

Last time, I think we just wanted a return to normal. Now I feel like we're beginning to grasp for something that bears any vague resemblance to reality.

Today's Belle

Everything Trump touches turns to shit.

Across the board, Trump is considered a failure.

The only "exception" is White Guys Without College - the poorly educated. But even then, half of them say he's fucking it all up.

Today's Belle

Careful who you fuck with, Pam. Bill Clinton had us all arguing over the definition of the word "is" - for weeks.

Second, if you and that idiot Jamie Comer want to go forward, you'll have to put an awful lot of that Epstein shit on the table.

Third, maybe Clinton could agree to honor his subpoena when Jim Jordan honors his.

It's A Problem, Mr President

"So throw some money at it."

People tend to see money as the universal problem-solver.

It isn't.

You can pay people to grapple with the problem for you. Money is something you can use to buy tools and hire a mechanic, but money itself don't fix nothin'.

Weirdly - or maybe so weirdly - when you throw as much money at the problem as you think you need, then you get to pretend you solved the problem.

You didn't.

Maybe the people who got paid to do the work solved it for you, but you sure as fuck didn't.

And as likely as not - especially when we're talking Geopolitics - you end up making the problem worse.

Trump is transactioning this joint right over the fuckin' cliff - as he has always done with everything he's ever tried.

BTW, Trump - the great business brain - the all-powerful deal maker - Mr Cost-Containment - has already added more than $2,230,000,000,000 to the national debt.

$2.23 Trillion

Try writing that on a check

Two-trillion, two hundred-twenty-three billion & no/100ths

Today's Belle

Nothing Trump has to say about "blue cities" is true.

Today's Belle

If Trump has made America great and powerful and respected, then Putin wouldn't be putting nukes in Belarus.

Today's Belle

Those cities were never in danger, except in the manipulative brain of Donald Trump, and the totally propaganda-addled brains of the MAGA rubes who love to fantasize about the greatness of their cult hero.

Today's Belle

The holiday season is supposed to bring out the charitability in us - when the better angels of our nature tug at our hearts - that kinda stuff.

So what does Trump do? He tells the world the US is canceling its membership in the Good Neighbor Club.

The economies of Saudi Arabia and UAE are about 3% the size of ours, but their contribution to the UN's humanitarian effort is about 75% of ours.

Trump is telling the world that we're going to cede our role as a world leader to countries led by the kind of guy who suckers a journalist into a death trap, murders him, and then cuts him into small pieces to hide the crime.

Donald Trump is a surrender monkey.

Today's Belle

Today's Belle

Throwing your weight around doesn't make you look strong - it makes you look unstable. And that makes the people around you look for better, more reliable friends.

Today's Belle

The Republican Healthcare Plan:

1. Don't get sick
2. If you get sick, die quickly

Schumer seems incapable of understanding that the old way of doing business in Congress is a near-futile exercise these days. He keeps trying to finesse things, and while that's a good way to go under "normal" circumstances, we haven't been under normal circumstances for quite a while now. We have to be able to play a little straight up smashball, because these MAGA fanatics are more interested in being scalp-takers than they are in being calm and deliberate statesmen.

Today's Belle

• Revenue dollars are up
• Unit volumes are down
• 12,000 people laid off in the last 5 weeks in Shipping, Warehousing, and Manufacturing

We're buying less, it's costing us more, and fewer people are working.

Pretty sure this is what the Analysts and Business Insiders call

"Heading in the wrong fucking direction"

Today's Belle

DC is selling us out, as Republicans hold all the levers of power.

Shouldn't that tell us pretty much exactly what their real mission is?

Republicans have always

hated our traditions of

democratic self-government.

Their project is

to tear it all down

and replace it with

a corporate plutocracy.

Today's Belle

"Here's $100 of the $2,400 that my tariffs will cost you over the next year. Now say 'thank you, Mr President', and be on your way. Loser."

Today's Belle

In the 70s, there was a guy who gigged around Denver, named (I think) Michael Williams. I remember seeing him once, but I can't for the life of me remember anything he did except this one line:

With my big hat on my small head

And a cow-flop on my boots

Well I'm proud to be

From Dumbass Texas

The gerrymandering total fuckery that the Texas legislature pulled in their effort to manufacture 5 more seats in the US House may be gonna blow up in their smug, stupid little faces.