Yesterday, U.S. Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve and Judge Robert Conrad, both of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, asked the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government to increase funding for judgesâ security. David Gilbert of Wired reported today that calls for impeachment and violent threats against U.S. judges on social media have gone up by 327% since last year.
In a piece in The Atlantic today, respected conservative judge J. Michael Luttig noted that for all of Trumpâs insistence that he is the victim of the âweaponizationâ of the federal government against him, âIt is Trump who is actually weaponizing the federal government against both his political enemies and countless other American citizens today.â
Luttig warned that Trump is trying to end the rule of law in the United States, recreating the sort of monarchy against which the nationâs founders rebelled. He lists Trumpâs pardoning of the convicted January 6 rioters (which he did with the collusion of Ed Martin), the arrest of Judge Dugan, which Luttig calls âappalling,â the deportation of a U.S. citizen with the childâs mother, and the âinvestigationâ of private citizen Christopher Krebs.
"For not one of his signature initiatives during his first 100 days in office does Trump have the authority under the Constitution and laws of the United States that he claims,â Judge Luttig writes. Not for tariffs, not for unlawful deportations, not for attacks on colleges and law firms, not for his attacks on birthright citizenship, not for handing power to billionaire Elon Musk and the âDepartment of Government Efficiency,â not for trying to end due process, not for his attempts to starve government agencies by impounding their funding, not for his vow to regulate federal elections, not for his attacks on the media.
Currently, Newark Liberty International Airport is serving as an illustration of the effects of DOGEâs cuts. On Monday the airport was supposed to be staffed with 14 air traffic controllers but was down to just three, causing delays of up to seven hours. As Ed Pilkington of The Guardian reported, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy assured the public on Sunday that it was safe to fly out of the Newark airport, but on Monday told a podcaster that his wife was supposed to fly out of Newark but he had switched the flight to one out of New Yorkâs La Guardia.
Recent polling shows that Trump is underwater in pollingâmeaning that more people disapprove than approve of his actionsâeven on his core issues of immigration and the economy. Many Trump voters apparently believed he would deport only violent criminals and are now shocked to see masked officers breaking car windows to arrest mothers with children. The rendition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the notorious CECOT terrorist prison in El Salvador without due process and through what the administration initially called âadministrative errorâ has caused such an uproar that, as Adrian Carrasquillo of The Bulwark noted today, the White House is working aggressively to try to recover control of the narrative by smearing the Maryland father as a member of the MS-13 gang, a human trafficker, and a terrorist with no evidence.
The administration has also lost credibility on the economy. Jeff Stein, Natalie Allison, and David J. Lynch of the Washington Post reported today that since he took office, Trump has changed his tariff policies at least 50 times. Some didnât last a day. After insisting that his high tariffs would bring manufacturing to the United States, Trumpâs administration on Monday announced it would reduce Trumpâs 145% tariff on goods from China to 30%. China said it would correspondingly lower the tariff it had put on U.S. goods in retaliation for Trumpâs tariff.
âItâs been completely insane,â economist Michael Strain, from the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank, told the Washington Post reporters. âWhen I step back from the euphoria over easing tariffs with China, what I see is the tariff rate is five times as high as when Trump took office. And we seem to have gotten nothing out of it at all.â
Evidently concerned that Trumpâs economic agenda is so unpopular it will fail in Congress, Trumpâs political operators have spent in the âhigh seven figures,â Alex Isenstadt of Axios says, to run ads in more than 20 targeted congressional districts to push lawmakers to get behind it. âTell Congress this is a good deal for America,â the ad says. âSupport President Trump's agenda to get our economy back on track.â
The fireworks in two other hearings today rivaled the fights in the hearing over cuts to Medicaid. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified today before the House Homeland Security Committee. But she refused to answer Democratsâ questions about the deportation of U.S. citizens, the reality that the âMS13â on a photograph of Abrego Garciaâs hand was photoshopped, or that the Supreme Court has unanimously ordered the administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. Instead, she simply kept talking over the members of Congress, reiterating administration talking points.
âYour department has been sloppy,â Representative Seth Magaziner (D-RI) said. âAnd instead of focusing on real criminals, you have allowed innocent children to be deported while you fly around the country playing dress-up for the cameras. Instead of enforcing the laws, you have repeatedly broken them. You need to change course immediately before more innocent people are hurt on your watch.â
Democrats also challenged Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he testified for the first time today before both the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to promote Trumpâs budget. Kennedy seemed angry at being questioned and, like Noem, repeated debunked lies. He angrily claimed he had ânot fired any working scientistsâ and was ânot withholding money for lifesaving research,â although during his tenure, 20,000 peopleâone quarter of the health workforceâhave lost their jobs and the administration has cut $2.7 billion in research funding for the National Institutes of Health.
Memorably, Kennedy told Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI): âI donât think people should be taking medical advice from me.â
Boy, I can't wait for some celebrity "journalist" news anchor to write a book about how Trump's bizarre and obvious mental decline (Groceries! Groceries!) was on full display for literally years, but the real issue that was most important to America was Biden didn't recognize an actor at a charity event.
This is so bad it made me log in.
Biden's decline and the coverup is about subverting the 25th Amendment. That is the big deal.
Maybe you and your buddies here were fooled until the fateful debate, but those of us on our side were not and you can sure as hell bet that the leaders around the world saw the same thing that I / we saw and were not fooled for a second, let alone for a minute.
This coverup is the boat anchor around the neck of your party and its corrupt partners in the legacy media.
We are not going to let it go away. The 25th Amendment was all about someone like Biden and those who subverted it are going to hang.
It's obvious he's never shopped in a grocery store in his life. He's so out of touch with the reality of how people live that he thinks "groceries" is somehow a quaint, old-fashioned term.
What the hell is his fascination with the word "Groceries"? And this weird senile addled perseveration on non-existent price successes. Cost of eggs down 97%? That's just stupid talk - and, ladies and gentlemen, this is the GOP's BEST choice to run the nation. Clicky to watch the pathetic, embarrassing video. If anyone knows how to directly embed it, I'd appreciate.
Trump to UAE president: "We have a term 'groceries.' It's an old term but it means basically what you're buying, food, it's a pretty accurate term but it's an old fashioned sound but groceries are down."
It's obvious he's never shopped in a grocery store in his life. He's so out of touch with the reality of how people live that he thinks "groceries" is somehow a quaint, old-fashioned term.
What the hell is his fascination with the word "Groceries"? And this weird senile addled perseveration on non-existent price successes. Cost of eggs down 97%? That's just stupid talk - and, ladies and gentlemen, this is the GOP's BEST choice to run the nation. Clicky to watch the pathetic, embarrassing video. If anyone knows how to directly embed it, I'd appreciate.
Trump to UAE president: "We have a term 'groceries.' It's an old term but it means basically what you're buying, food, it's a pretty accurate term but it's an old fashioned sound but groceries are down."
He must assume that dismissing a fact as "silly" will make it untrue. Also, the "domestically produced products are not going to have that tariff" bit: Of course one would not pay tariffs on domestically-produced products, but what domestically-produced things is he referring to? It's obviously not phones and other electronics, most clothing, athletic shoes, most toys, and crops like coffee and chocolate.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Our President, Donald Trump, talking to the president of the UAE:
"Costs are way down, groceries are, we have a term 'groceries.' It's an old term but it means basically, what you're buying, food, it's a pretty accurate term but it's an old fashioned sound, but groceries are down, costs are down, eggs are down, they were, first week they were hitting me with eggs are up, 200%, and now they're down to a number that is amazing, they're down 97, 98% from where they were, and, uh, everybody, they said you won't have eggs for Easter, well, we had egg, everybody had eggs for Easter at a very reasonable price, at the White House we had a little Easter Egg roll, and we had hundreds of thousands of eggs, per, just, they said you have to go out and buy plastic eggs, that didn't work out..."
Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Boy, I can't wait for some celebrity "journalist" news anchor to write a book about how Trump's bizarre and obvious mental decline (Groceries! Groceries!) was on full display for literally years, but the real issue that was most important to America was Biden didn't recognize an actor at a charity event.
Had someone ask why we are still charging increased tariff prices when a deal had been reached. I had to explain that a)there is no deal, just a stand down (temporary) from lunacy, and b) even with the 'stand down', there are 30% tariffs in place that are taxes on consumers that need to be paid. I got to explain again that tariffs are not paid by the producer, but by the importer. People are willfully ignorant.
Even Howard Lutnick - who must certainly know how tariffs actually work - is skirting the issue with half-truths and unclear terms (i.e. "eat the tariffs").
Location: Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth
Posted:
May 15, 2025 - 9:26am
islander wrote:
interesting perspective. I'm not opposed to the general line of thinking (we want people to come around when appropriate), but I don't love the idea that the method for action is "bribe government officials with graft opportunities". That seems like it could have unintended consequences.
The Trump foreign policy â such as it is â seems to be predicated upon his belief that all issues should be viewed and solved through the prism of business deals.
I need someone to tell me what to think about this because I can't stop thinking that as corrupt as this is on its face, there's still an upside: This guy is grown up, maybe, and trying to make Syria dictator-proof, maybe? As long as they continue to move toward a better Syria for all, that should be rewarded. And if TrumpCo gets someone to invest and it all goes to shit later, well who cares about that?
interesting perspective. I'm not opposed to the general line of thinking (we want people to come around when appropriate), but I don't love the idea that the method for action is "bribe government officials with graft opportunities". That seems like it could have unintended consequences.
That was inevitable, but he's gonna make some deals; you'll see, deals the like of which have never been seen before.
Had someone ask why we are still charging increased tariff prices when a deal had been reached. I had to explain that a)there is no deal, just a stand down (temporary) from lunacy, and b) even with the 'stand down', there are 30% tariffs in place that are taxes on consumers that need to be paid. I got to explain again that tariffs are not paid by the producer, but by the importer. People are willfully ignorant.
Location: Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth
Posted:
May 15, 2025 - 9:01am
ScottFromWyoming wrote:
I need someone to tell me what to think about this because I can't stop thinking that as corrupt as this is on its face, there's still an upside: This guy is grown up, maybe, and trying to make Syria dictator-proof, maybe? As long as they continue to move toward a better Syria for all, that should be rewarded. And if TrumpCo gets someone to invest and it all goes to shit later, well who cares about that?
I think it makes sense to give this guy some leeway at this point. Syria has been on a bumpy ride â understatement â for decades and the malignant legacy of Assad lingers.
