Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: “The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved ... [Donald] Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, a breakthrough that provides a legal U.N. mandate for the administration’s vision of how to move past the cease-fire and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip after two years of war. The Council’s vote was also a major diplomatic victory for the Trump administration. For the past two years, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas has raged, the United States had been isolated at the United Nations over its staunch support for Israel. The U.S. resolution calls for an International Stabilization Force to enter, demilitarize and govern Gaza. The proposal, which has attached Mr. Trump’s 20 point cease-fire plan, also envisions a 'Board of Peace' to oversee the peace plan, though it does not clarify the composition of the board. The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor and zero vetoes. Russia and China, either of which could have vetoed the resolution, abstained, apparently swayed by the support for it from a number of Arab and Muslim nations.”
Emergency! Management Needed for Federal Emergency Management Agency. Scott Dance & Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “David Richardson has resigned as acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, injecting even greater uncertainty into the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul the federal role in disaster response. Karen Evans, a senior political appointee at FEMA who earlier this year led an overhaul of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, will take over as acting FEMA administrator Dec. 1, according to the Homeland Security Department, which oversees both agencies. Ms. Evans, like Mr. Richardson, lacks experience in emergency management, which is a legal requirement to lead FEMA.Ms. Evans has played a central role in the Trump administration’s efforts to cut costs at FEMA....”
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal magistrate judge said on Monday that the criminal case against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, could be in trouble because of a series of apparent errors committed in front of the grand jury by Lindsey Halligan, the inexperienced prosecutor picked by ... [Donald] Trump to oversee the matter. The remarkable rebuke of Ms. Halligan came in a 24-page ruling in which the magistrate judge, William E. Fitzpatrick, ordered her to give Mr. Comey’s lawyers all of the grand jury materials she used to obtain the indictment and raised the question of whether “government misconduct” in the case might require dismissing the charges altogether. In his ruling, Judge Fitzpatrick said that when Ms. Halligan appeared — by herself — in front of the grand jury in September to seek an indictment accusing Mr. Comey of lying to and obstructing Congress in 2020 testimony, she made at least two 'fundamental and highly prejudicial' misstatements of the law. He also pointed out that the grand jury materials he ordered her to turn over to him for his review this month appeared to be incomplete and 'likely do not reflect the full proceedings.'” ~~~
~~~ Politico's report, by Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein, is here.
In anticipation of a House vote on releasing the Epstein files, survives of Epstein's abuses speak out in this PSA. Thanks to RAS for the lead: ~~~
Alexandra Hutzler of ABC News: "... Donald Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it comes to his desk. 'I'm all for it,' he said as he took reporter questions during an event in the Oval Office, contending the controversy is deflecting from his administration successes." MB: As Akhilleus pointed out Monday morning, this makes no sense: all Trump needs to do is order Pam Blondie to release the files. Today. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ CBS News (Nov. 14): "Fans of the Buddy Holly crosswalk in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, with a painted depiction of the rock and roll legend's iconic glasses, will soon have to say goodbye to it. That'll be a day that will possibly make them cry. Lubbock City Council members said this week they have no choice but to remove it, to comply with a directive from the Trump administration and Republicans to rid the public roadways of any political messages or artwork. Over the summer, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced stricter enforcement of a 2013 rule of the Federal Highway Administration that said any art in crosswalks – apart from certain patterns in earth tones – degraded pedestrian safety." The New York Times story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump Is Trying to Make the Americas the Trumposphere. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: Donald “Trump opened the year with pledges to seize the Panama Canal, take control of Greenland and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. He is ending it by bombing boats from South America, stationing the world’s largest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean and exploring military options against Venezuela’s autocratic leader. In a sharp shift of decades of U.S. foreign policy, the Western Hemisphere has become the United States’ central theater abroad. In addition to military threats and action, the White House this year has carried out punishing tariffs, severe sanctions, pressure campaigns and economic bailouts across the Americas. Mr. Trump has said he is seeking to stop drugs and migrants from entering the United States. But, in other moments, top administration officials have been explicit that their overarching goal is to assert American dominance over its half of the planet.”
TACO Man. Ashley Ahn of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Sunday urged House Republicans to back a measure that would compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, a sudden reversal after his campaign to tamp down G.O.P. dissent and halt the vote. Mr. Trump said on social media that House Republicans should vote to release files related to the sex offender 'because we have nothing to hide,' a dramatic shift in his stance as he faced the possibility that dozens of G.O.P. lawmakers could support the measure in a floor vote expected this week. 'It’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat “Shutdown,’” he wrote. The president’s turnabout followed his intensive pressure campaign over the Epstein files that often appeared to overshadow efforts on other matters, including the recent government shutdown. In a last-ditch effort in recent days, Mr. Trump reached out personally to try to sway Republican lawmakers backing the measure, summoning one to a meeting in the White House Situation Room with his attorney general and F.B.I. director to discuss the demand to release the files.” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: For a couple of weeks, all indications have been that the House bill would pass with a great deal of Republican support. So Trump is now pretending that he's all for the bill, and therefore is a "winner." At the same time, there are a number of obstacles to release of the files: maybe Trump knows the Senate won't take up the bill. He also doesn't have to sign it. If these things fail, he can order Pam Bondi to say most of the files can't be released because aspects of the Epstein case are "under investigation." And of course, there's no guarantee that even if DOJ purported to release all the files, that in fact, all those files would be released and with pertinent information left unredacted. Oh, and as Akhilleus writes in today's Comments, Trump could just order Pam Blondie to release all the files now. (Okay, just kidding. Not gonna happen.)
Paul Waldman has a theory about why the Epstein scandal keeps dogging Trump as so many others have not: "How can Trump be the great crusader against the perverted elite when he looks like he’s covering up the scandal of the worst pervert of them all? There’s no good answer for them, and none of Trump’s spin is persuasive.Trump may have convinced them not to care about his constant lying, his history of business scams, his shameless self-dealing, or his abuse of grown women. But this is something they can’t stomach...."
Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump defended Tucker Carlson on Sunday for his sympathetic interview with the white nationalist and avowedly racist antisemite Nick Fuentes, breaking a conspicuous weekslong silence on an episode that had ignited bitter infighting among conservatives.... On Sunday, Mr. Trump, speaking of Mr. Carlson as he traveled back to the White House after spending the weekend golfing at Mar-a-Lago, said, “You can’t tell him who to interview.” The president then insisted that he 'didn’t know much about' Mr. Fuentes, whom he previously dined with at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, an episode that also caused a furor. If Mr. Carlson wanted to interview Mr. Fuentes, then “get the word out,” Mr. Trump said. 'People have to decide. Ultimately people have to decide.' Mr. Trump’s defense of Mr. Carlson did not address Mr. Carlson’s expressions of sympathy for some of Mr. Fuentes’s positions.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to the AJC, "Nick Fuentes ... is a white supremacist, Holocaust denier who hates Jews." So yes, yes, people "have to decide" if those are good ideas. Some will decide yes and some could decide no. There are good people on both sides. No need for judgmental opinions from the POTUS*. It is useful to read Donald Trump's liberal view of fascism followed by the 1940 essay by E.B. White from which Chris Geidner (linked below) quotes extensively.
David Yaffe-Bellany, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has started his own cryptocurrency business and vowed to make the United States the world’s 'crypto capital.' Crypto companies have declared themselves safe and secure. And a procession of major industries, from Wall Street banks to online retailers, have experimented with digital coins. But even as the crypto industry gains mainstream acceptance, at least $28 billion tied to illicit activity has flowed into crypto exchanges over the last two years, according to an examination by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The New York Times and 36 other news organizations around the world. The money came from hackers, thieves and extortionists.... Over and over, the analysis showed, these groups have moved money onto the world’s largest exchanges....
“Among the recipients of this 'dirty money' was Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, which participated in a $2 billion business deal with Mr. Trump’s crypto firm in May. The money also flowed into at least eight other prominent exchanges.... Binance pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty to the U.S. government after processing transactions for terrorist groups like Hamas and Al Qaeda.... Last month, Mr. Trump granted a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder, who had served a four-month term in prison after the company’s plea agreement.” ~~~
~~~ Scott Pelley & Maria Gavrilovic of CBS News: "Last month..., [Donald] Trump granted a pardon to a billionaire felon, after the felon's company enriched a Trump family business. The pardon went to Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese-born businessman, who was accused by the Justice Department of causing, quote, "...significant harm to U.S. national security…" The president says he does not know Zhao. Our reporting shows that Zhao's company supported a Trump family firm at critical moments leading up to the president's pardon." ~~~
~~~ Sean James of Mediaite: “'The influence that money played in securing this pardon is unprecedented,' ... [said Elizabeth Oyer, the Biden-appointed U.S. Pardon Attorney whom Trump fired]. 'The self-dealing aspect of the pardon, in terms of the benefit that it conferred on President Trump and his family and people in his inner circle, is also unprecedented.' Zhao, [Scott] Pelley said his sources told him, “donated software” to World Liberty Financial — a crypto company closely tied to two of the president’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. — to help the Trump family launch a cryptocurrency. 'The next month, Changpeng Zhao applied for a presidential pardon,' Pelley added.” ~~~
~~~ You can watch YouTube video of the "60 Minutes" segment here.
De Nile Is a River in Egypt, Washington, D.C. Steve Peoples of the AP: “Almost two weeks after Republicans lost badly in elections
in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many GOP leaders
insist there is no problem with the party’s policies, its message or ... Donald Trump’s leadership. Trump says Democrats and the media are misleading voters who are concerned about high costs and the economy. Republican officials aiming to avoid another defeat in next fall’s midterms are encouraging candidates to embrace the president fully and talk more about his accomplishments. Those
are the major takeaways from a series of private conversations,
briefings and official talking points involving major Republican
decision-makers across Washington, including inside the White House,
after their party’s losses Nov. 4. Their assessment highlights the
extent to which the fate of the Republican Party is tied to Trump, a
term-limited president who insists the economy under his watch has never been stronger.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Timothy Snyder on Substack: The "end of the United States is possible, in part, because our president and vice-president ... are inside a grift bubble, they push for authoritarianism in their own interest, without reckoning with the possibility that their actions can wreck the country. For them, America is a limitless passive resource.... Trump and Vance imagine, because it has worked thus far, that they can grift endlessly. They do not understand that their grift depends upon what I will unashamedly call the honest labor and decent convictions of millions of Americans." Snyder goes on to argue that the "grift bubble" is ultimately self-defeating. MB: Perhaps the wryest -- and most memorable -- observation in the essay is this: "... imagine ... that you are the vice-president. Your grift is that you claim to understand poor people, whose problems, you say, are the fault of gays, immigrants, and billionaires; and then you rise to power thanks to the money and support of a gay immigrant billionaire." (Also linked yesterday.)
David French of the New York Times describes Pope Leo as the Anti-Trump. His argument has a few strengths & some weaknesses, but what struck me is this statistic he cites: “... according to exit polls, if you removed white evangelical votes from the 2024 presidential election, Trump would have lost in a 58-to-40 percent landslide, which would have been more than enough to turn the Electoral College in Kamala Harris’s favor.” This appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Emily Bazelon & Racher Poser of the New York Times Magazine: Donald “Trump’s second term has brought a period of turmoil and controversy unlike any in the history of the Justice Department. Trump and his appointees have blasted through the walls designed to protect the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency from political influence; they have directed the course of criminal investigations, openly flouted ethics rules and caused a breakdown of institutional culture. To date, more than 200 career attorneys have been fired, and thousands more have resigned. (The Justice Department says many of them have been replaced.)... We interviewed more than 60 attorneys who recently resigned or were fired from the Justice Department.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I hope the scorn with which Trump and his administration address the media is never repeated in another administration. For the umpteenth time this morning, I heard Trump tell a reporter, "You're a terrible reporter." And here is the DOJ spokesperson's partial reply to Bazelon & Poser's request for response to their article: “This story is a useless collection of recycled, debunked hearsay from disgruntled former employees.” and this from Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman: “These are nothing more than pathetic complaints lodged by anti-Trump government workers.”
Kiki Intarasuwan of CBS News: "The U.S. military conducted a strike on another boat accused of carrying narcotics on board, killing three people, U.S. Southern Command announced Sunday. It was the 21st such strike reported in recent weeks. The attack on Saturday targeted a vessel operated by 'a Designated Terrorist Organization' in the Eastern Pacific in international waters, authorities said.... In a video posted to social media, SOUTHCOM said the vessel was carrying narcotics and transiting along a known drug-trafficking route. The latest strike comes amid a major U.S. military buildup in the region. On Sunday, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its carrier strike group arrived in the Caribbean Sea. Southern Command is the primary combatant unit for operations in the Caribbean and South America. The USS Ford is the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and the U.S. Navy's most advanced."
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “The Pentagon is withdrawing hundreds of National Guard soldiers from Chicago and Portland, Ore., just weeks after ... [Donald] Trump ordered them there over the strenuous objections of state and local leaders, according to two U.S. officials.Some 200 California National Guard troops who were sent to Portland and another 200 Texas National Guard members who were sent to Chicago will return to their home states beginning as early as Sunday.... The federalized Guard troops arrived in those cities in early October but never deployed into the streets to assist federal law enforcement personnel and protect federal buildings, as the Trump administration envisioned, because of legal challenges that continue to play out in the courts. With Thanksgiving and Christmas fast approaching and federal court orders putting a hold on the operational deployment of the Guard, top Pentagon officials decided last week to withdraw the out-of-state soldiers, at least for now....” MB: So a 100% waste of taxpayer money.
Eduardo Medina & Sonia Rao of the New York Times: “The Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigrants arrived in Charlotte this weekend, resulting in 81 arrests on Saturday. It continued on Sunday, with Border Patrol agents fanning out across the largest city in North Carolina. An immigrant rights group said the tally, reported by a senior Border Patrol official on social media, was the largest number of immigrant arrests in the state’s recent history. The presence of the agents, led by Gregory Bovino, who directed similar operations in Chicago and Los Angeles this year, has startled people in one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Much of that growth has been spurred by international migration, especially from Latin America. The city is also home to large corporations in the retail, banking and manufacturing sectors. The increase in immigration has drawn the attention of Trump administration officials, who have been targeting communities with large immigrant populations for enforcement efforts. The North Carolina operation, dubbed 'Charlotte’s Web' ... has already drawn criticism for its aggressive tactics, with local officials telling people to record their interactions with agents.” The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The "plan" seems to be to go in and disrupt cities & communities within those cities that are humming along as they usually do. It's inexcusable. Earlier Sunday, I linked a Guardian story about Willy Aceituno, a Charlotte man who is a U.S. citizen. Immigration agents stopped him twice, broke the window of his vehicle, pulled him from the vehicle and threw him to the ground. Here's video:
Chris Geidner, the Law Dork: “On Sunday morning, [Border Patrol official Greg Bovino] all but admitted [that the Charlotte operation] was nothing more than a weekend of Kavanaugh stops.... It is, of course, a horrifying reality to have to discuss how the people of a city must respond to the racist, nihilistic tyranny of the federal government.... As DHS announced on Saturday, this tyranny is being called 'Operation Charlotte’s Web.'... Even on its face, using the name of a beloved children’s book as the name of your anti-immigrant, mass-arrest operation is appalling. But, to use a book authored by E.B. White as your name is an offense to history. White was a leading voice for American democracy and freedom and against fascism and tyranny.” ~~~
~~~ Cindy Von Quednow & Chris Boyette of CNN: “In the popular children’s book 'Charlotte’s Web,' the title character, a spider, uses her web as an instrument of good to help secure the freedom of Wilbur, a pig on her farm. Federal immigration officials used the book’s title to name their latest crackdown, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Operation Charlotte’s Web. The author’s granddaughter drew a sharp contrast Sunday between the federal raids and the ideals E.B. White highlighted in the beloved book, in a statement Martha White shared with CNN. Her grandfather 'certainly didn’t believe in masked men, in unmarked cars, raiding people’s homes and workplaces without IDs or summons,' said White, who is also her grandfather’s literary executor, in the statement. 'He didn’t condone fearmongering.'”
Sophia Tareen & Christine Fernando of the AP: “As an unprecedented immigration crackdown enters a third month, a growing number of Chicago residents are fighting back against what they deem a racist and aggressive overreach of the federal government. The Democratic stronghold’s response has tapped established activists and everyday residents from wealthy suburbs to working class neighborhoods. They say their efforts — community patrols, rapid responders, school escorts, vendor buyouts, honking horns and blowing whistles — are a uniquely Chicago response that other cities ... Donald Trump has targeted for federal intervention want to model.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “The number of international college students enrolling in their American schools for the first time decreased by 17 percent this fall, according to data published on Monday. The Trump administration has explicitly sought to curb the enrollment of college students from abroad, and its broader quest to remake the American higher education system has unnerved prospective pupils and led universities to limit graduate school admissions.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Japan. River Davis of the New York Times: “Japan’s economy contracted for the first time in more than a year during the July to September quarter, as tariffs imposed by the Trump administration began to weigh on the exports of one of the United States’ top trading partners. The quarterly decline of 1.8 percent marked the first year-on-year drop in growth in six quarters. Japanese exports fell 1.2 percent during the period, driven by a slump in automobile and parts shipments, a sector acutely affected by higher U.S. duties. In July, Japan reached a trade agreement with the United States, which, in exchange for a pledge to invest $550 billion in the U.S. economy, resulted in Japan facing a 15 percent blanket tariff on its exports — a rate lower than initially threatened, but still damaging.”
19 comments:
First things first here on Monday morning. Fatty sez “Go ahead! Release the Epstein Files! I dares ya!” This is like me telling my wife and son: “The two of you vote to tell me to open the refrigerator door and get some breakfast going!”
That would be stupid. I don’t need anyone to tell me that. I can do it anytime I want. And so can that fat con man. He can instruct Eva Braun Bondi to release those files at any time, if that’s what he really wanted. He could have done it six months ago. He’s stalling for time. There’s a con here somewhere. Either he knows Congressional traitors won’t do it, or he knows the files have been tampered with or the dog ate them or some other bullshit.
It’s more likely that now that he has ordered Eva Braun to start an investimagation thingie into Democrats mentioned in Epstein’s emails (and he mentions a crap ton of people; if you dig deep enough you might find a mention of Mother Teresa) and Oops! once that investimagation has started, everything is in limbo until it’s over. So no files, and look! It’s not Fatty’s fault. He’s playing be the rules. For the first time ever! See how that works?
There’s always a con.
Second thing. Fat Hitler on white supremacist and serial asshole Nick Fuentes, and TuKKKer KKKarlson, who wants, I guess, to find out if there really was a Holocaust or not, cuz who really knows?
Fatty sez “I can’t tell him who to interview.” Cue cartoon screeching brake sound. Say what? He can’t tell TuKKKums who to interview? Is he kidding? He LIVES to tell other people what to do. He tells them what to say, who to hire, what to teach, what to eat (or not, when he’s cutting off their food supply), what they can watch on TV, and who they better vote for, or else!
What a load of stinking dead fish.
Then: Nick Fuentes? “Who he? I dunno know nuthin’ about that guy.”
A few more tons of dead fish. This fat liar is glued to the TV where people have been talking about this prick for weeks.
Another con.
Akhilleus commented on the latest Ken Burns film last night so this short clip on Firing Line of Ken Burns talking about the documentary and t****'s executive order caught my attention The most patriotic film the Burn's team has ever made
ProPublica
"FBI Director Kash Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two other newly hired senior FBI staff members, exempting them from passing polygraph exams normally required to gain access to America’s most sensitive classified information, according to a former senior FBI official and several other government officials.
Bongino’s role as the FBI’s second-highest-ranking official means he is responsible for day-to-day operations of the agency, including green-lighting surveillance missions, coordinating with intelligence agency partners and managing the bureau’s 56 field offices across the country."
Why bother to polygraph angry conspiracy theorists who are going to have access to sensitive information? What could go wrong.
Equity
"There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business"
by Megan Greenwell
VPN
"Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing
As of this writing, Wisconsin lawmakers are escalating their war on privacy by targeting VPNs in the name of “protecting children” in A.B. 105/S.B. 130.
Websites subject to this proposed law are left with this choice: either cease operation in Wisconsin, or block all VPN users, everywhere, just to avoid legal liability in the state. One state's terrible law is attempting to break VPN access for the entire internet, and the unintended consequences of this provision could far outweigh any theoretical benefit."
Free Money
"US drew $900mn from IMF account as Argentina debt payment loomed
Buenos Aires’s reserves rose by the same margin as Washington seeks to bolster Javier Milei’s government"
Epstein survivors PSA
Wendy,
As with most things Trumpy, the executive order referenced in that Firing Line clip is pure projection. When Fat Hitler proclaims that there is a widespread effort to rewrite the nation's history, he's absolutely right. And the person doing the rewriting is him and his anti-democratic, ahistoric elves. But there's a giant tell in that EO (pronouned EEE-Ew). At the end Fatty mentions something about "ideologies inconsistent with America law". Laws most certainly can have an ideological bent. Plenty of laws in our past, such as the Fugitive Slave Acts, stemmed directly from an ideology that not only countenanced, but advocated for the enslavement of human beings. Laws supported by the Fat Hitler Reich most definitely have an ideological basis and what he's saying here is that a view of American history that does not comport with HIS laws, is, or should be, disallowed.
Anytime the Orange Monster talks about truth, or sanity, you can be one hundred percent sure that it's anything but. Truth for him and the MAGAts is what they say it is. And sanity? We're talking here about Doctor Demento.
History is anything but clean and neat. Burns is correct when he points out that history is ragged and rough and can be nasty and dirty, that in addition to the moments of grandeur and great achievement, there are plenty more instances of inhumanity, criminality, stupidity, bigotry, and violence (just look at our current state). Any attempt to eradicate those pages from any history has no truck with truth, but is the bastard child of propaganda and ideological brainwashing.
The Trump print giveth and reality taketh away.
Fat Hitler's failed temper tantrum tariffs, which have imposted a huge dent on Americans' purchasing power have resulted in his sideways admission of that failure by promising (pinky swear!) to give Americans 2,000 smackers to make up for his stupidity. But hang on a minute. Here comes Scott Bessent to say that this particular handout requires congressional approval in the form of a new law.
Do tell! What was that again, Scotty? Congressional approval? Do you guys even know what that is? Did you have to bring in a pack of consultants to explain that concept? Because up until now, you guys haven't cared fuck all about "Congressional Approval". T'hose tariffs required "Congressional Approval". Didja get it? No? Starting a war is supposed to require "Congressional Approval". So far, anything that required "Congressional Approval" has been initiated forthwith without the teensiest hint of anything like approval from Congress.
Oh, but now that he thinks real money might be involved, as well as an admission of failure, ol' Scotty is slamming on the brakes.
You just know anytime these fucking guys say they have to do things "according to the law" or "the right way", there's some kind of con going on.
Akhilleus,
It's also a math question, and the vultures can do math when it suits them.
First off, the tariffs weren't supposed to cost consumers anything. That was an obvious lie that's becoming clear even to the MAGGAT brains.
Then the tariffs were going to make up for the BBB's lost tax revenue but they never could . Didn't add up.
Now that consumers are noticing what's been done to them, the Pretender floats the idea that he'll make them whole by passing back tariff profits to them like a reward for being stupid. That would effectively cancel the promised tariff "profit." Bessant knows that.
He also knows that one way to look at the growing national debt might be to compare it to the rush of money to the top one percent and he likely fears that even some of the MAGGAT brains will notice those numbers are growing in tandem.
It is almost as if those numbers are somehow related.
Public Media
John Oliver discusses the vital role public media plays in the lives of many Americans
RAS,
Jesus....I just watched that Epstein survivors PSA. Man, that's hard to watch. And as hard as the visuals are, I almost fell over when one of the ladies said "There are over a thousand of us".
A thousand? That might be common knowledge to some but it was a surprise to me. I guess I never really thought of how many girls must have fallen into the sex trafficking trap, but it was going on for years and years. Pam Bondi knew all about it. She let it go on. Plenty of people knew about it. So it must have been a huge number of young girls, treated like disposable objects, party favors for the rich and famous.
And forget about the Orange Monster for the moment. We have had the spectacle of holier than thou, supposed god-fearing Bible thumping Mike Johnson, sticking it to these poor ladies again and again and again, making sure their pain continues in order to curry favor with someone who was on the inside of the Epstein world. These people are monsters. Monsters.
Full Time Job
"ICE Agent Arrested After Pointing Gun At Teen Boy
A 45-year-old Riverside County man, who reportedly works as an ICE agent, is accused of illegally detaining a minor at gunpoint while off duty last week. The Nov. 10 incident, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, played out at around 10:30 pm outside a home in the 32000 block of Daybrook Terrance in Temecula.
Lawyer Greg Kirakosian, who represents the boy and his family, told KTLA that the 17-year-old was driving home after dropping a friend off down the street when he saw the suspect, identified by investigators as Gerardo Rodriguez, pointing a gun at his vehicle, demanding he pull over.
The 45-year-old, who is known to residents on the street as an ICE agent and also reportedly told the boy he worked for ICE, then began interrogating the Mexican American teen[...]"
Fat Hitler from A to Z
RAS,
Re: the A to Z challenge you present.
Lexical levity lightens the load and lustily lacerates limpdick lackeys, losers, lackwits, and lecherous layabouts. Let us have at it!
(Later. Lacking time right now)
RC denizens may recall that I like to quote passages that illustrate the rhyming-ness of history, and that there really is no thought that ain't been thunk, and that one man plants where another has drained (Irish proverb).
Here is a paragraph I ran across today, from a speech by Frederick Douglass in December, 1866. You may recall that... "In February 2017, during a Black History Month event, Trump stated that Frederick Douglass is "an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more".
Douglass was speaking about the upcoming final session of the 39th Congress, which he expected to address Civil War reconstruction and civil rights, which included setting terms for rebel states' status, enfranchisement of freedmen and ex-rebels, and the terms for Southern leadership (individuals') citizen rights and restrictions. One of his points was that subjugation-in-fact had to be extirpated, not just slavery-in-name.
"... One of the invaluable contributions of the late Rebellion is the highly instructive disclosure it made of the true source of danger to republican government. Whatever may be tolerated in monarchical and despotic governments, no republic is safe that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens equal rights and equal means to maintain them.* What was theory before the war has been made fact by the war. ..."
That man could see. And speak. And write. Amazing, as DiJiT said.
*In context "the means" he was referring to is voting rights for ex-slaves.
Given the stupid ruling eliminating political "messages or artwork" from roads (and what exactly is political about Buddy Holly 66 years after his death, anyway?), its nice to see the churches stepping up - pun intended - to color the dull concrete. This church is across the street from the hotel that was the primary host location for Tribune Festival last weekend. The post on x is all I could find on it. Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, painted the stairs leading up to the church in Pride colors.
Poor "deeply ashamed" Larry Summers is calling up his media friends in damage control.
Wash Post
"Larry Summers stepping back from ‘public commitments’ over Epstein emails"
Politico
"Larry Summers steps back from public commitments, ‘deeply ashamed’ by Epstein revelations"
WSJ
"Larry Summers to Step Back From Public Commitments After Epstein Emails"
Three different publications with nearly identical headlines. That's our "independent media" for you.
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