Well If A CEO Says It

You know, someone who matters, not someone like me.

“This is the Trump recession.”

Those were the words of a U.S.-based chief executive officer in response to a flash survey CNBC circulated among members of its CEO Council in the days after President Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement Wednesday.

Cascade

I suspect no one knows the risks in the financial markets. One can guess the direct real effects of tariffs, maybe even correctly, but none of these guesses take into the account the possibility of very large funds of money - and the people they owe - getting zapped because they have huge leveraged bets.

Morning

wheeeee

Sure Why Not

These guys seem kinda weird.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum likes chocolate-chip cookies—preferably freshly baked and still warm.

This peculiar fact became the talk of the Department of Interior in recent weeks after his chief of staff, JoDee Hanson, made an unusual request of the political appointees in his office: Learn to regularly bake cookies for Burgum and his guests, using the industrial ovens at the department headquarters.

In War You're Shat Upon

The small headline seems to contradict the big headline

[image or embed]

— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 7:36 PM

All Quiet From The EU

We are still waiting for their retaliation.

Uncertainty

Aside from the explicit cost, right now you have a bunch of firms trying to figure out if they will have an unexpected multimillion dollar bill if the ship hits port at the wrong moment.

The inevitable clusterfuck at customs means that perishable and time sensitive shipments are fucked.

Above my pay grade to extrapolate from anecdote, but there are lots of stories of shipments just stopping for now.

Morning

Sunday funday.

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Afternoon

enjoy

Leverage

 A 15% market drop is upsetting to normal humans, but catastrophic to people making outsized bets on small swings with borrowed money.

Hedge funds have been hit with the biggest margin calls since Covid shut down huge parts of the global economy in 2020, after Donald Trump’s tariffs triggered a rout in global financial markets.

Wall Street banks have asked their hedge fund clients to stump up more money as security for their loans because the value of their holdings had tumbled, according to three people familiar with the matter. Several big banks have issued the largest margin calls to their clients since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.

Stay Away

 You can't travel somewhere there is a nontrivial chance you're going to be thrown in detention for weeks because the TSA guy with a quota has decided your "conference visit" isn't covered by a normal tourist visa, or whatever.

Driving the news: The number of foreigners passing through customs at the 10 busiest U.S. airports fell by over 20% year over year toward late March, based on a seven-day rolling average.

MAGAnomics

To the extent that it's coherent, they seem to believe:

If people get money (wages, whatever) they just eat it directly. They don't pass it on to someone else, who then passes it on to someone else, etc...

Related: there are no gains from trade, individually or between countries.

If the government spends money, it's just fake somehow. All economic activity related to the government is an illusion, except SpaceX and Tesla subsidies.

It takes a few weeks, couple months tops, to set up a "factory."

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Atrios Loves Tariffs

I think many of you interpreted this to mean that I was somewhat tariff-positive.  My view is more that we have had a tariff policy, as we have had an industrial policy, but since we largely pretended we have neither of those things, it was difficult ever to talk about them.

Our policies are therefore largely a combination of accident and lobbyist rent seeking, though there was a bit more explicit acknowledgment during the Biden years.

The tariff schedule didn't read "zero" across the board before Trump showed up.  Biden's tariffs received surprisingly little pushback from anyone.  I'm not arguing they were good or bad, more that despite decades of Tom Friedman Ruling Our World, they were weirdly off the discussion menu.  

We pretended we had achieved Free Trade like some sort of End Of History thing.

You don't have to be a protectionist to think that we should maintain some onshore productive capacity of for certain things.  I don't even think this is especially controversial, but talking about what and how to achieve that has been hidden behind a lot globollocks.

Cunning Plans

Sometimes I think the rich tech bros have some sort of brilliant evil plan, but then they all say the stupidest shit on twitter and I question the "brilliant" part.

It doesn't need to be brilliant to be damaging, of course, but if it isn't brilliant there's at least some chance they're slamming their own dicks in the car door, too.

Mad King

I have no idea what Trump is open to at this point, but obviously you can't negotiate with someone who changes their mind every 15 minutes.

After multiple White House aides insisted that the new tariffs were not a negotiation, Trump said he would be open to negotiating with other countries about the duties.

Trump said he would be open to tariff talks with other counties if they offer something phenomenal, Reuters reported him saying on Air Force One.

Top trade aide Peter Navarro told CNBC less than an hour earlier that the sweeping tariffs are “not a negotiation.”

You can imagine someone in there has some  specific bribes they wish to demand from some countries, but they obviously aren't organized/smart enough to have thought this through for most of the world. 

Lunch

Someone tell Trump about the platinum coin.

Buy American

The full details are a bit of my pay grade, but there isn't a "100% American" car. It doesn't exist.

If this is to be believed (seems like it!), the most "American" car is the Kia EV6.

Loomered

Amazing scenes.

The Trump administration has fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, according to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and two former officials familiar with the matter.

The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration. Wendy Noble, Haugh’s deputy at NSA, was also removed, according to the former officials and lawmakers.

Another Exciting Day At The Dog Track

 About to start!

Yoon Removed

I suppose I've been more interested in this than I normally would've been because I spent some time in Seoul (first time there) not so long ago.

South Korea’s highest court has removed embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol from office, ending months of uncertainty and legal wrangling after he briefly declared martial law in December and plunged the nation into political turmoil.

Not that spending a bit of time somewhere makes me a expert on the place, but it does make things more real. 

Morning

Once a day.

Concerning

😂 

European Union regulators are preparing major penalties against Elon Musk’s social media platform X for breaking a landmark law to combat illicit content and disinformation, said four people with knowledge of the plans, a move that is likely to ratchet up tensions with the United States by targeting one of President Trump’s closest advisers.

The penalties are set to include a fine and demands for product changes, said the people, who declined to be identified discussing an ongoing investigation. These are expected to be announced this summer and will be the first issued under a new E.U. law intended to force social media companies to police their services, they said.

European authorities have been weighing how large a fine to issue X as they consider the risks of further antagonizing Mr. Trump amid wider trans-Atlantic disputes over trade, tariffs and the war in Ukraine. The fine could surpass $1 billion, one person said, as regulators seek to make an example of X to deter other companies from violating the law, called the Digital Services Act.

Happy Hour

Impeachment verdict in S. Korea in a few hours (9 Eastern I think).

Is That Good

 

Pundit Prediction

Let's see how this one, from me, will hold up:

I'm not defending Trump's tariffs - they're dumb - but I think liberals are going too much in on the idea that they will destroy the economy, be instantly unpopular, and tank Trump's approval. There's a lot of econobollocks ALL SENSIBLE PEOPLE KNOW TARIFFS ARE BAD and a lot of ignoring of the Biden administration record's on tariffs. Maybe Joe should've removed some when he had the chance.

There's some revenge fantasy here along the lines of, "you were mad about inflation and now you're going to get inflation," but it isn't going to be that simple or obvious.

More generally, the lessons everyone has "learned" (because it serves their purposes, because they are bad at their jobs and they have boat payments to make) is that there's nothing you can do to convince people who are mad about inflation, so they are hoping Inflation II proves their point.

Always trying to refight the last battle to prove themselves fucking right.

I will add that my intended point was that the impact of tariffs wouldn’t be so awful and self-evident that Dems could just sit back and not do politics.  I was  (wrongly) assuming they wouldn’t be so yuuuuuge (though of course that is still in flux, like everything). 

GO DOWN, LINE, GO DOWN

I am not rooting for economic disaster, but the line can go back up as fast as it went down. Other things can't fix themselves so easily. A stock market crash could force a course correction before the real long term damage (more) is done.

Sure Why Not III

Gotta keep planting the magic beans.

The Trump administration unveiled plans Thursday to use Energy Department land and resources to build data centers for artificial intelligence.

Lunch

eat

Sure Why Not II

I guess Loomer's in charge.

Several members of President Trump's embattled National Security Council have been fired, a U.S. official and a second source familiar told Axios on Thursday.

Why it matters: The firings come a day after conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office and pressed Trump to fire specific NSC staffers. Axios has not confirmed whether the firings were directly linked to that incident, but the source familiar said they were "being labeled as an anti-neocon move."

Even Doug Feith Doug Feith's son!

Sure Why Not

One problem with the MAGA Expanded Universe is they keep bringing back bit characters from the movies we forgot about.

Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and promoter of conspiracy theories, met on Wednesday with President Trump in the Oval Office, where she pressed for him to fire National Security Council staff members whom she deemed disloyal to him, according to seven people with knowledge of the events.

Vulgar Mercantalism

The stated goal of the White House is to have zero trade balance with all trading partners.

Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners

And this is the dumb formula they've used to calculate their tariffs, which doesn't take into account services, just goods, for reasons.

Here’s what the White House and its crack team of trade investigators seems to have done: Take the US’s goods trade deficit with any particular country, and divide it by the total amount of goods imported from that country. Cut that percentage in half, and there’s the US’s “reciprocal” tariff rate.

(via)

A few takeaways, but one is that no news outlet should call these "reciprocal tariffs."  The scare quote version above is ok.

Morning

 Feel pretty liberated.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Better For My Blood Pressure At Least

I don't think it will improve anything except my mood, but I will be glad for Elon to be (if!) less of a main character in The Politics Show.

(I have no idea how true reports of Musk leaving are)

Tax Hike Announcement Time

Supposedly, anyway.

Amazing Scenes

Some Joseph Heller level shit here.

Behind the scenes: During a closed event at the Atlantic Council, Leiter, a conservative settler and a Netanyahu loyalist who arrived in D.C. soon after President Trump took office, accused the Biden administration of imposing an unofficial arms embargo on Israel during the war and focusing primarily on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the four sources said.

...

"I want to make sure the ambassador knows all the details about what the Biden administration did for Israel since October 7," McGurk told Leiter, according to the sources who were in the room.

McGurk then detailed many steps Biden took like traveling Israel, sending aircraft carriers to the Middle East to deter Hezbollah and Iran, giving $13 billion in military assistance, using emergency procedures to ensure the deliver of weapons, helping defeat two Iranian missile attacks and blocking anti-Israeli measures in the UN.

I, Too, Read A Lot Of SciFi When I Was 13

And some since - nothing wrong with it! - but this isn't even bong hit dorm room stuff, it's bong hit 8th grade.

White Lace And Feathers

Judge Ho is saying, almost explicitly, I am not going to let the DOJ continue to blackmail you.

A federal judge on Wednesday formally dismissed the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, granting the controversial request from the Justice Department that generated a public outcry and spurred the largest mass resignation of senior federal prosecutors in decades.

The order from U.S. Judge Dale Ho brings an end to the case against Adams, who had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud and other charges following his indictment last year.

Ho said he was dismissing the case with prejudice, meaning the government could not bring the charges again later — contrary to the Justice Department's request to dismiss the case without prejudice.

Lunch

eat

Is That Good

It will get worse.

Tesla sales plunged 13% in the first three months of this year, as the company reported the largest drop in deliveries in its history by far, as backlash against CEO Elon Musk, and growing competition from other automakers’ electric vehicles, took a large bite out of demand for its EVs.

OPSEC

We can debate how much all the Spy v. Spy stuff actually matters, but even a skeptic like me thinks this is probably not especially bright.

Members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.

If not necessarily for the Spy stuff, for the "ransomware that brings down the whole computer" stuff. 

Into the K-Hole

Elon, this is Elon (the voice in your head), I am begging you to get involved in every election in the country. You are the best at it!

But Wisconsin voters rejected Musk, and Schimel, on Tuesday, handing Crawford a wide victory that likely locks down a liberal majority on the court through 2028.

Ah, well, nevertheless.

“I’m honestly shocked. I thought we had it in the bag,” said Pam Van Handel, Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s Outagamie County. “I thought [Musk] was gonna be an asset for this race. People love Trump, but maybe they don’t love everybody he supports. Maybe I have blinders on.”

Morning

Wacky Wednesday

Tuesday Night

Rock on

It'll Go Lower

Any time that "days since European was detained" counter hits zero, that number will start to plunge further.

French hotel group Accor SA warned that forward bookings from Europe to the US this summer are down 25%, as travelers that feel put off by President Donald Trump’s border clampdown divert to other locations.

No European tourist bookings are not the most important thing, but they're obvious visible consequences of unjust and ultimately impractical policies.

Happy Hour

Get happy 

Miserable Failure

I'll outsource the explanation to Dday.

Really wild situation in the House. Johnson lost a vote attacking expectant and new mothers in his workplace, and is so whiny about it he shut down the whole chamber for a week.

[image or embed]

— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 7:48 PM

 

Oh No

Bet it's more.

Tesla has about $200 million worth of Cybertrucks in inventory in the US, as the truck is extremely difficult to sell.

Don't Be Chickenshits

The pain points aren't exactly a mystery.

Now, with Washington threatening to punish the EU further, not only for its existing tariffs but also for what it sees as nontariff barriers such as its tech regulations, Brussels is preparing to up the ante.

“We will approach these negotiations from a position of strength,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech to the European Parliament on Tuesday, the eve of Trump’s big tariff announcement.

“Europe holds a lot of cards. From trade to technology, to the size of our market. But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm countermeasures. All instruments are on the table.”

Seems Bad

Even during Trump I, you'd probably get about 10 pundits writing pieces about how this was bad, and now you won't.

The lawyer working for Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who now leads the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has a history of violence and racist remarks, 10 people who knew him allege.

No one pundit matters much, of course, but the collective Discourse does have an impact on things.

3) Profit

I actually haven't seen anyone try to get at the heart of just why Trump is obsessed with tariffs. I'm not looking for someone to impose some rational structure onto it. It would be more like "he saw it in some movie."

Stay Away

Unsurprising and it's going to get worse.

Driving the news: Advance bookings for Canada-U.S. flights in April-September are down over 70% compared to this time last year, per aviation data firm OAG.

Being turned away at the border or airport is a mildy amusing story in the later telling. Being locked up is not!

Morning

Taco Tuesday

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

America's Worst Democratic Senator

Chuck Schumer.

Self-Driving Trucks

People on the internet reminded me that in 2016 it was conventional wisdom that self-driving trucks were certainly coming very soon and that anyone would be insane to train as a trucker. This was in the midst of a serious driver shortage!

Even I was less skeptical than I should have been - some long haul trucking is an easier problem than urban taxis - but 9 years later... you can still get a job as a trucker.

Old Friends

Well, uh, not really.

China, Japan and South Korea reached a consensus that the three countries will jointly respond to US tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.

Shaking My Head

What is this world coming to when the opposing politicians can be prosecuted and convicted. Not sporting!

France's Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for office for five years after being found guilty of misappropriating European funds to finance her far-right National Rally (RN) party.

These things should always be resolved at the ballot box.

Of Course

Our beautiful farmers.

Ahead of President Trump’s plan to impose sweeping tariffs across the globe this week, his administration is weighing a new round of emergency aid to farmers, who are likely to be caught in the middle if America’s trading partners retaliate.

Cunning Plans

One possibility I haven't seen raised elsewhere is that Trump intends to announce massive tariffs lasting years, the Republicans will "book" this revenue when they do their budget bill, cut taxes on rich people accordingly, and then just erase (some of) the tariffs.

Some budget shenanigans are above my pay grade, so I don't know if this makes any sense.

Morning

New week, new excitement.

Sunday Night

Rock on.

It's Tariff Week... Again

I can't be bothered to follow the meanderings of the brain worm. Supposedly Tuesday is the big day!

Afternoon

The fundamental weakness of Western civilizaton is empathy for conservatives.

Issue Polls

Is this what Trump is doing, though, CBS? Is that his actual deportation program?

"People approve of Trump's program to arrest people guilty of crimes" kind of thing.

And, hey, wow, there it is in the poll itself:

Which does get this in the writeup:

As for some potential implications, as a general principle it's not acceptable to most if some legal U.S. residents were to be mistakenly detained by immigration authorities. But half of Republicans say it would be acceptable.

*IF*

Small Pleasures

It is the weekend, so we do have to have a little laugh about Elise Stefanik getting dumped from her UN ambassador position. She thought she had graduated to VIP and now she is a person Trump is embarrassed to talk to.

At a White House event honoring Women’s History Month on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump took six minutes out of his speech to personally recognize many of the Republican women gathered in the audience. But one person in attendance whom he did not mention was Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who was, at the time, Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Morning

Sunday funday

Sure Why Not

Every macho guy needs a babysitter.

The wife of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, attended two meetings with foreign defense officials during which sensitive information was discussed, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.

Lunch

Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).

Concerning

For no particular reason, I've been reading people on reddit describe their experiences with long term ketamine use 😂.

Masterful Gambit, Sir

Pretend one company you mostly own is worth a gazillion dollars and have it buy the company that might personally bankrupt you.

Elon Musk on Friday evening announced he has sold his social media company, X, to xAI, his artificial intelligence company. xAI will pay $45 billion for X, slightly more than Musk paid for it in 2022, but the new deal includes $12 billion of debt.

Keep the scheme going a bit longer! Hope none of the xAI investors are annoyed!

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Happy Hour

Finally the weekend.

Seems Bad

I suppose the main question is whether this just a smokescreen for destroying the whole thing or if they are this stupid.

Boss Baby

[Conor watches documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima]: This is nuclear cancel culture.

Conor has been full time on the "college students are taking away our freeze peach" beat for years.

How Do Things Work

This wasn't especially important, relatively speaking, but it was an example of how the people running things do not have any idea how things work.

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ended duty-free entry for cheap Chinese goods entering the U.S., his administration put the order on hold after more than a million packages piled up at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

It was the result of a rushed, confusing policy change that proved unworkable on short notice. Government officials are now scrambling to implement the order in a way that won't cripple America's hyper-efficient import system.

As the article says, 1.4 billion packages come in through the "de minimis" rule which negates tariffs for small value packages. Maybe there is a way to stop that from being exploited by large sellers, but you can't suddenly get rid of it and expect the system to handle it. This is something that you shouldn't have to explain. Also it is what Elon Musk is doing to everything.

Framing

I've said this in various ways, but until journalists start making it clear that the FBI and DOJ will never go after someone unless Trump wants them to, most people in this country will have no idea what is going on.

If the crime authorities don't get involved, there's no crime, right, that's how it works?

That's A Twist

Normal brain: customers pay the tariff costs, passed on by importers

old Trump brain: foreign countries pay the tariffs 

new Trump brain: importers pay the tariff costs, sell at losses:

behind paywall, everything is these days.

They probably will "comply" by not changing the MSRP, but that doesn't constrain dealers.

Morning

Oh what a beautiful...

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Every Week

Trump says tariffs are coming, Ford implies he's going to cut off the power, Lutnick steps in to try to prevent it.

Main Character Syndrome

There's the obvious point that people are not likely to be thrilled to meet the bullies who are threatening them with invasion, but even aside from that, why would anyone in Greenland be interested in meeting the wife of the Vice President of the United States? (translated by google):

Over the past week, deployed Americans have been present in Nuuk, knocking on doors and ringing doorbells.

- They've gotten no, no, no, no, no, every single time they (the Americans, ed.) have asked if they wouldn't mind having the vice president's wife visit.

Like if someone knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to sit down for a chat with Bo Tengberg, the husband of Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, I'm not sure I'd be interested! I'd wonder why they thought I would be!

Lunch

eat

Circling Back To This

How are we doing here?

“I think it’s important for people to understand the context, that we’re coming out of four years of Biden and things haven’t been great,” one White House print reporter told CJR. “There’ve been fewer eyeballs on the press briefings and less attention than under Trump, so people just don’t understand some of the very frustrating things that we’ve dealt with and that we hope are going to be rolled back.”

Among those frustrations: the Biden press office largely kept reporters at a remove from the president, who—as Cameron Joseph noted here last year—had agreed to far fewer formal interviews than any president before him. Instead, White House reporters say, the Biden team preferred to offer background quotes from in-house experts whose job it was to speak to the press; when the president did meet with a large number of outlets, like during his pre-election rounds of interviews on Black radio stations, it was through highly orchestrated conversations, sometimes including preapproved lists of questions. Inside the briefing room, reporters who didn’t hold coveted front-row seats felt they got much less opportunity to ask questions.

“For a lot of people, what was the point in even going?” said a veteran White House reporter.

Trump, on the other hand, adores the attention of the media, even as he frequently maligns the reporters themselves. During his first term, he regularly chatted with White House reporters during strolls to Marine One, and held a number of high-profile, if occasionally ill-conceived, televised sit-downs, with everyone from Axios’s Jonathan Swan to Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy. (On his first night back, Trump spent forty-five minutes casually answering media questions in the Oval Office, while he signed executive orders.)

“Despite his sometimes strident and sometimes even violent rhetoric about the press, he loves talking to us,” the print reporter said. “And his team—they like talking to us, and they know that they’re going to have a huge audience.”

Truth Teller

Jesse Watters says what every journalist knows but doesn't make explicit.

I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOUUUUUUUUU

There is no one model of the true "swing/irregular" voter, but my firm belief is that they are, generally, absolutely nothing like "Joe and Eileen Bailey," the fictional Long Island residents who Chuck Schumer devotes his life to trying to please yet always fails to.

Joe and Eileen Bailey are the people [some] Democrats think will be charmed by Liz Cheney, but won't be. They voted for a Democrat for president precisely once - Obama 2008 - and never will again.

If you have to pick between someone who fits the mold of "NPR centrism" and someone who is more likely to elicit a response of "I don't always agree with him/her, but I like that s/he has principles, knows where s/he stands, and that s/he's on the side of people like me," I am sure it is mostly the latter.

As James Carville argued, when he was pushing Clinton against Obama, "[Hillary is] the candidate you want on your side in a knife fight." 

You can argue this is tone and style more than substance, that voters really do love moderate policies, and that your "knife fighter" shouldn't be promising full communism. Fine. Now is the perfect opportunity for those centrist ass kickers! Come on out!  There has never been a more perfect time for a full-throated defense of the status quo!

Morning

Late start

Also, Too

Only the best people.

Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.

Above my pay grade, but I am guessing this was all made possible by the dismantling of normal background checks, on-boarding, and training of high level people.

Public Venmo

I have no idea why that is a thing and certainly not why so many public figure leave it on.

A Venmo account under the name “Michael Waltz,” carrying a profile photo of the national security adviser and connected to accounts bearing the names of people closely associated with him, was left open to the public until Wednesday afternoon. A WIRED analysis shows that the account revealed the names of hundreds of Waltz’s personal and professional associates, including journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others—information a foreign intelligence service or other actors could exploit for any number of ends, experts say.

...TAP printed the full list.

Nobody Could Have Predicted

Me:

One issue with supplements is people tend to think that if one is good, then two might be better, and Vitamin A is actually a bit dangerous, especially if you started hyperdosing kids.

Now:

One of those supplements is cod liver oil containing vitamin A, which Mr. Kennedy has promoted as a near miraculous cure for measles. Physicians at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, Texas, say they’ve now treated a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they had signs of liver damage.

Some of them had received unsafe doses of cod liver oil and other vitamin A supplements for several weeks in an attempt to prevent a measles infection, said Dr. Summer Davies, who cares for acutely ill children at the hospital.

“I had a patient that was only sick a couple of days, four or five days, but had been taking it for like three weeks,” Dr. Davies said.

Concerning

I missed the moment when China became the Big Bad, but whatever one thinks about that issue we should be consistent with this stuff!

Elon Musk’s aerospace giant SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs, according to previously unreported court records.

And whatever one thinks about China or defense contractors, that their financing and activities get a bit of scrutiny probably isn't too controversial!

One part of the Tesla - not SpaceX - story is that China offered him a lifeboat when he needed it and it isn't clear what the price of that was!

Lunch

eat

Why They Shouldn't Have Listened To Carville For Their Own Sakes

(Though as I've said, Carville was just selling the plan they'd already decided on).

If the supposed leaders weren't going to lead, other people were. They might be disgusting lefty legislators or it might be nasty protesters or someone else. That was obvious. If the "moderates" want to lead, they can they can lead!

But it is worrying some moderate Democrats who fear Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez could tug the party to the left at a time when it is rudderless and turn off swing voters in the process.

Matt Bennett, a vice president at the center-left group Third Way, said he is glad that the rallies are “giving people an outlet for that anger” against Trump. But he argued that “crowd size is the worst metric in American politics” and “it is important that they not repeat the mistakes that the far left has made that helped get us into this mess in the first place.”

The best metric in American politics: contributions to the Third Way.

"Trump is bad, we should stop him" was the easiest position to take and they fucked up!

Better

I know the way Democrats tend to think is that if they call for someone to resign/be fired, and the person doesn't, then the failure makes them look bad for reasons that can't be explained.

Obviously he should resign (fired, whatever) - he's shit and dangerous even by the current standards - but calling for him to resign isn't just about winning that battle. It's about showing you believe what you're saying - not just that it's "concerning" in the Susan Collins sense - and it's about keeping the story alive.

Normal people mostly don't hear about anything that's a one day story. If you don't give journalists something new every day they'll lose interest, in part because there are lots of things going on!

No one thinks Trump gives a shit what Jeffries thinks, but reporters need a hook!

Something

Calling Independents and Democrats! In two days, we get to show Elon Musk and Josh Parsons that billionaires can’t control Lancaster! Special election happens March 25! https://t.co/bwMd22ljNV

— Mayor James Andrew Malone (@MaloneForSenate) March 23, 2025

Narrative shift:

In a stunning outcome, Democrat James Andrew Malone defeated Republican Josh Parsons to win the 36th Senatorial District seat in Harrisburg.

President Donald Trump rolled to a +15 victory in the district back in November, but northern Lancaster County voters made a statement heard ’round the Keystone State on Tuesday.

The guy ran as anti-Musk, not anti-Trump, showing that is a way to reach Trumpers (no that shouldn't make sense, but...). 

Happy Hour

It is time.

Are We There Yet, James

Carville a month ago:

"I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days is in the midst of a massive collapse, in particularly a collapse in public opinion," Carville said.

Carville pointed to the drop in approval ratings Trump has seen in the four weeks since he returned to office.

"This is the lowest approval, not even close, that any president has ever had at a comparable time," he said. "That's a provable fact."

Carville said he does not believe Republicans will be able to lift the debt limit or pass a reconciliation package, and that GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson will be forced to reach across the aisle for help from Democrats. "That is going to be the equivalent of stacking arms. It's over," he said.

Trump's not popular, but he isn't unpopular either. The debt limit and reconciliation haven't happened, but Republicans seem to love the "We can just zero out spending we don't like" plan so I supect they will!

Carville's similar NYT piece gave himself a massive out:

At this rate, the Trump honeymoon will be over, best case, by Memorial Day but more likely in the next 30 days

30 days, 90ish days, whatever. What Carville was selling was the leadership (both of them!)-going-on-book-tours plan of doing nothing and letting America react all by itself with no prompting from Dem politicians.

I don't know how they expect people to find out what is happening unless they tell them loudly and repeatedly.

James, himself, realized that he has no idea how people get their information! FUCKING ASK PEOPLE WHO DO and they will tell that unless you make noisy news, and repeat it, no one will hear about it, and mainstream news sources are deferential to 1) power 2) Republicans.

(reader t reminded me)

Sounds Bad

They're trying to break it, but I'n entirely sure what their plan is for when it is broken.

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.

Lunch

Taco Tuesday

Rules Are For Soyboys

I suspect most of this Spy vs. Spy stuff is between pointless and destructive, but we do generally take it seriously!

Those Excuses

Will include things like this, but that fucking paper is what it is.

You can't spend billions on campaign ads and also take the position that the people should figure things out all by themselves the rest of the time.

Also, other outlets are taking it more seriously.  You can come up with your own reasons for why the NYT is like this.

One Day Stories

We're about to get a good illustration of how Republicans keep BENGHAZI rolling for YEARS and Democrats just... can't.

There's the "national security" angle and also a good opportunity to explain that the DOJ and FBI won't investigate Republican crimes anymore.

I know all the excuses but they don't even try.

Happy to be wrong! 

Morning

Anothet beautiful one.

Happy Hour

get happy

Easy One

Dems can't swing at every pitch (as they keeps saying), but they can swing at this one!

Sure Why Not

Firing and arrests in any other administration...

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

By Jeffrey Goldberg

Lunch

eat

We Don't Really Need You Anymore

I don't think people understand that, whatever people think of the US generally, it just isn't the Main Character nearly as much as it used to be.  It just isn't as important. A belligerent US still has a lot of levers to pull, but maybe China doesn't really need to sell us their shit

Walmart thought it could use its immense power as America’s biggest retailer to make Chinese suppliers eat the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But Walmart got a response it’s not accustomed to hearing: No.

Some Good News

I admit I've never quite understood the quest to get rid of Sullivan, though I guess "beware of the consequences" doesn't really apply to people who never face any.

JUST IN: Supreme Court has turned down a request to take up Trump ally Steve Wynn's bid to upend the landmark NYT v. Sullivan press freedom precedent.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM

These Are Your Voters

It's quite clear the Dem all got together, after the election, and decided they need to be as quiet about Trump's immigration actions as possible.  But I don't think they get that these are you voters!  Not people with green cards, who don't vote, but their spouses and their kids.  

The internet tells there are 13 million green card holders.  Those families add up!  I'm not saying it's fine to abuse people who only have normal visas - or anybody! - but people who imagined they were permanently settled now can't safely travel outside of the country without fear of being ripped from lives they thought were firmly established.

I know many people think, "oh they should just know to vote against the bad orange man party, no matter what secret signals the Dems are trying to send to Joe and Eileen Bailey," but why would they if Dems are up there barely distancing themselves from this stuff?

Morning

 in America.

Afternoon

Enjoy

Was That Smart

I regularly think about how Dem senators and other outriders would boast about Biden's deportation record and then get mad that people weren't clapping. 

People who are mad about immigration want performative cruelty, not a spreadsheet.  And the rest of us aren't going to clap.

Appropriate Level Of Concern

More like this.

“If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic,” Pritzker said.

The speech stood in stark contrast to many of Pritzker’s fellow Democratic governors — who, at the same time, were on their way to Washington for face-to-face meetings with the newly sworn-in president. Pritzker skipped the gathering of the National Governors Association.

Morning

Sunday funday

Late Night

Rock on.

Saturday Vagueblogging

Sometimes I am astonished at how corrupt people are.

The Previous Post Was Not Really About My College Love Life

Just in case you didn't get it!

Choose Your Fighters

In the film Broadcast News, the character played by Albert Brooks says:

Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If "needy" were a turn-on?

In college, I shared this quote with a woman who was way out of my league, though she liked me enough to occasionally tolerate my presence, and she said, basically, no it wouldn't be a great world and it isn't a turn-on.

And she was right!

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Night

Rock on.

Sure Why Not

 1/6 of the population gets a monthly check, much of which gets passed on to banks/landlords/nursing homes.

Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek said Friday that he is consulting with agency lawyers and the Justice Department as he threatens to shut down the agency in response to a court ruling blocking Elon Musk’s team from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.

Rip The Bandaid

I don't know if this is it - a stock market crash would be better - but something horrendous that can be reversed might be better than the slow march to hell.

Stopping Social Security payments might be a bit too catastrophic.

Afternoon

Busy with some stuff.

Some Of Our Faves

Fear of being sued makes me always talk about this carefully, but Epstein's pedo island was visited by many important people!

Talking Their Book

Years ago, during peak Blog, I had a chat/lunch with a reporter.  Decent guy, but he was obsessed with the then in vogue concerns about bloggers having undisclosed conflicts of interests (the blogger ethics panel era).

I asked him if his paper's opinion page adequately informed readers about the financial interests of all their contributors.  He stuttered something about the editors knowing but he realized I got him.

Obviously transparency is good, but at that time journalists were trying to impose standards on random people on the internet that they didn’t apply to themselves.  

I don’t know if it is worse now or if I am more aware of it, but so many people in The Discourse are talking their book.  The money sloshes around, and not to lefties!

Morning

again

Happy Hour

One hour.

Shocked Face

The savvy are the easiest marks.

Gotta Get Down On

Might disappear for the afternoon! Or not! We will see.

Ladies

 Google "Bradley Bartell" before you swipe right.

A man who voted for President Donald Trump says he does not regret his decision, even after federal immigration authorities arrested his wife as the couple returned home from their honeymoon.

Bradley Bartell's wife, Camila Muñoz, is a Peruvian citizen who overstayed her initial visa but was working toward obtaining permanent residency in the United States.

My Queen

Elon's daughter Vivian.

It's Happening Again

 NYT 1976

Morning

Go

Happy Hour

Get happy

I Am Uncomfortable When We Is Not About Me

I recently had a conversation with a smart German friend  - historian - who put into words more clearly than I could something I had thought before.  She had taught in the US and had to explain to her colleagues that the basic American world history survey  - Greek/Roman history -> Magna Carta -> Renaissance -> some other bits of English history -> French Revolution ->  American revolution -> somehow made America the protagonist.

All of (one strand of) human history led to America.

No no it's true. After the Magna Carta, everything has been great, much law, total rule. No notes.

[image or embed]

— David M. Perry (@lollardfish.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 2:13 AM

Travel Ban

It will take a bit of time but people will stop coming.

United States: French researcher expelled for expressing "a personal opinion on the policies pursued by the Trump administration"

The French research minister expressed his "concern" on Wednesday following the decision by the American authorities. The CNRS researcher was reportedly subjected to random checks upon arrival, before his computer and phone were searched.

Chicken Eugenics

Sure why not.

Kennedy’s Alarming Prescription for Bird Flu on Poultry Farms

The health secretary has suggested allowing the virus to spread, so as to identify birds that may be immune. Such an experiment would be disastrous, scientists say.

How can an objective editor put "alarming" in the headline?

Lunch

Eat

Stay Away

Anyone without a US passport should 

Politics

I would humbly suggest that if you are a needy attention whore senator, then going out there and giving an inspiring speech to the rabble would be a fun thing for you.

Gym Buddies

Does Schumer tell this story because he is the mark or because we are?

2009:

"People are more frank when they’re wearing their gym clothes,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), for years a House gym regular who finally, 10 years after being elected to the Senate, made the switch to the facility in his own chamber.

 Now:

And I talk to them. One of the places is in the gym. When you’re on that bike in your shorts, panting away next to a Republican, a lot of the inhibitions come off.

Morning

Almost every day.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

get happy

Pedocons

Never surprising.

Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn was arrested Monday in Bloomington for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Bloomington police said Eichorn was arrested near the 8300 block of Normandale Avenue at around 6 p.m. Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, was booked into the Bloomington city jail and remains in custody.

Philly's Finest Contribution

It didn't get a lot of coverage, but concerns about possible Legionnaire's disease were a big deal as things started reopening from Covid. I remember one mall suddenly evacuating and being very cagey about why they did it, but it wasn't too hard to infer it was LD concerns.

All the employees told the AP that they brought their own drinking water Monday. That’s due to a monthslong issue involving Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, which was detected at several FDA buildings. The General Service Administration, which oversees federal buildings, has been working on the issue since last summer.

Carville

I am sure he does give advice, but it is important to understand that when Carville writes for the NYT and goes on MSNBC, he isn't advising so much as he is trying to sell the strategy that has already been agreed to.

Lunch

eat

Sure Why Not

Sadly, the DOGE kids accidentally deleted them all (probably).

President Trump said on Monday his administration would release approximately 80,000 pages related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Trump did not provide additional details on what the trove of files would include, but he has long promised to release the unredacted documents.

Why Would They Do That

The greatest minds of punditry are having a hard time figuring it out.

After a recent change by the Trump administration, the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.

Love Me

Schumer is that kind of politician who thrives on respect and adoration of people.  This is not how he thought he would spend the final era of his career, but he made his bed.

Morning

Another glorious day.

Monday Night

 It's alright.

Another Good Day

 

Cruelty

I have never considered myself to be all that nice/generous of a person, but I do not understand the gleeful cruelty of these people, or their inability to ever to imagine - selfishly! - "maybe that could be me."

Break Everything

Can't collect any beautiful tariffs if you can't import anything.

“It’s causing problems left and right,” says one current USDA worker, who like other federal employees in this story asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “It’s basically a skeleton crew working now,” says another current USDA staffer, who noted that both they and most of their colleagues held advanced degrees and had many years of training to protect US food and agriculture supply chains from invasive pests. “It’s not something that is easily replaced by artificial intelligence.”

“These aren’t your average people,” says Mike Lahar, the regulatory affairs manager at US customs broker behemoth Deringer. “These were highly trained individuals—inspectors, entomologists, taxonomists.”

Lahar and other supply chain experts warn that the losses could cause food to go rotten while waiting in ports and could lead to even higher grocery prices, in addition to increasing the chances of potentially devastating invasive species getting into the country. These dangers are especially acute at a moment when US grocery supply chains are already reeling from other business disruptions such as bird flu and President Trump’s new tariffs.

Lunch

 eat

Brave Sir Schumer

He has canceled - er, postponed - all his book tour events.

What To Do

One difficulty I have is trying to figure out how not to be part of the problem, how not to be what I criticize.

Every insane Trump tweet kicks off a whole news cycle, and while you can't ignore them, precisely, it is maddening that we get  "Trump declares Charlie Brown had hoes/[paragraph 18] Some experts say he did not have hoes" every time.

I Suppose It Depends On The Meaning Of The Word "Violate"

I didn’t break the law, I just declared that the law has no power over me.

The Trump administration denied on Sunday that it had violated a court order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador over the weekend, saying that the president had broad powers to quickly expel them under an 18th-century law meant for wartime.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also asserted in a statement that the federal courts “have no jurisdiction” over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs or his power to expel foreign enemies.

Morning

Another week begins.

Extra Thread

Phone posting is always a bad idea.

Send Up The Tapper Signal

Isn't his job Official Troop Respector.

There are other ways to write this up, WaPo, that don't make it sound as if all these people and their honors were just "DEI."

Afternoon

Doing a bit of weekending.  Complaining about my "job" is mostly ridiculous - I do know this - but the inability to tune out is a bit stressful!

I Guess We Are Still Doing This

Rich guy claims nonsense, we type it up.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said his Starship rocket will head to Mars by the end of next year, as the company investigates several recent explosions in flight tests.

Morning

go

Saturday Evening

Life is a cabaret, old chums.

Seems Bad

I know some of the reaction to this is "but he's a White European!!!" but it does drive home that the goons have been unleashed.

Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair.

She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression.

“He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” said Senior.

He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but he also had influenza.

"Mistakes" at the entry points happen -- or possibly there were genuine issues - but the normal response should be to turn people back, not detain them and torture them.

Norms Violations

I guess Schumer is willing to violate some!

Among the material devastation to everyday people, Senate Dems have now blown a hole in their ability to work with the House. We had an agreed upon plan, House took immense risk, then Senate turned around midway and destroyed it w/ a fear-based, inexplicable abdication. They own what happens next.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc.bsky.social) March 14, 2025 at 11:18 PM

I am sure it is not the only reason, but we all are motivated by multiple things, and "Chuck Schumer shouldn't have to cancel his book tour" certainly was part of this.

Wallet Inspector Returning

 

Either Schumer is stupid or he is corrupt and wants you to believe he's stupid.

Morning

I hope some more people are receptive to my occasional "maybe the Dem leadership needs to be yelled at more" posts.

Friday Night

Rock on

Happy Hour

get happy

What's It All About Then

oh got it www.tarapalmeri.com/p/fear-and-l...

[image or embed]

— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) March 14, 2025 at 1:39 PM

I've Made An Appointment With The Wallet Inspector To Get My Wallet Back

Amazing shit.

Schumer told reporters that he would still look for options to find a D.C. fix, while a key Republican was also exploring options outside of the spending bill.

“First, Republicans made this mistake. It’s in their bill. So they’re responsible for it. But, a number of them have said that they realize it was a mistake, and I think we can fix it, and I’d work with them to fix it,” Schumer said. Asked how exactly, he said options ranged from an amendment to a standalone bill — though it’s not clear those options would be likely to succeed. “We’d have to figure out the best way,” he said.

Journamalism

 Dell writes for Wired and dares reveal the secret ways of political journalism:

I know at a base level political journalism in this country is compromised when senate aides i’ve never communicated with email me “off the record, blah blah.” that’s not how this works, but it tells me they’re used to treating hill reporters like trained dolphins. and that shit doesn’t fly with me.

— Dell Cameron (@dell.bsky.social) March 14, 2025 at 4:12 AM

Off the record should be a negotiated thing - and, in fact, reporters will assure you that it is - but in political journalism it's the default.

Lunch

eat

Can Grok Deal With This

Amazing paragraph.

More than 100 million people in the U.S. will be in the path of an intense March storm starting Friday as the sprawling multi-day system threatens fires, blizzards, tornadoes, and flooding as it tracks eastward across the Great Plains.

Friday Cat Blogging

Gizmo and Wiley are no longer with us, but here's a little tribute to Kevin Drum.

Dems In Disarray

If primaries against useless incumbents like Schumer start in earnest, get ready for a lot of Professional Democrats, of  a certain type, to argue this is insane unprecedented extremism and that we should all be focused on fighting the Republicans.

Several members — including moderates — have begun voicing support for a primary challenge to Schumer, floating Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) as possible candidates, three House Democrats said.

One lawmaker even vowed at the House Democratic retreat to "write a check tonight" supporting Ocasio-Cortez, said the senior House Democrat.

Another Democrat told Axios the ideation has gone a step further: "There is definitely a primary recruitment effort happening right now ... not just Schumer, but for everyone who votes no."

I would like to pre-emptively remind everyone that Nancy Pelosi - who was then the Speaker of the House - endorsed Joe Kennedy III in his failed primary against Ed Markey.  "No one" found that worth noting. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday defended her endorsement of Rep. Joe Kennedy in his Democratic Senate primary, saying “people can support whoever they want.”

But, yes, we would agree, "we" should fight the Republicans. 

Morning

Take my wallet, please.

Happy Hour

Gey happy

Why Continue To Endorse This

 

Mad Tariff King

Tariffs could be a reasonable part of an industrial policy (something we pretend we don't have but do, deliberately or not), but Trump is just pushing the 'tariff' button because he likes to watch his little friends on the TV get excited about it when he does (or, perhaps, making lots of money on insider trading). It's his way of lashing out and entertaining himself.

Goods are inputs to production, not just for consumption, with some traveling across multiple borders at multiple production stages. No one can justify sticking a factory in the US with the mad king changing the rules every day. They won't be able to justify keeping them there.

Billionaires

Good billionaire Mark Cuban has a cunning plan to fight Elon Musk's evisceration of the government, which is to sell those services to the government himself!

He is effectively looking to back new companies that would sell back technology skills to the government that the U.S. Digital Service — and a small tech-focused department called 18F — offered before the offices were rocked by voluntary departures and mass terminations.

“I think it’s possible to out-Elon, Elon, because the people he will bring in don’t know what they don’t know,” the billionaire told POLITICO.

amazing shit.

Have You Met Your HHS Secretary

I wonder what the actual reasons are.

The White House has decided to withdraw the nomination of its pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Dave Weldon, a Republican former congressman, just hours before he was to appear at a Senate confirmation hearing, according to a White House official and an administration official.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the decision, did not offer an explanation. But it became clear to the White House that Dr. Weldon did not have the votes in the full Senate to be confirmed, and Dr. Weldon said in an interview that he learned of the decision last night.

Dr. Weldon, 71, was to appear before the Senate health committee on Thursday at 10 a.m., the first time an agency director would have been subject to the confirmation process. The decision to withdraw the nomination was first reported by Axios.

He doesn't have any views that Kennedy doesn't have, and nothing else has been suggested, but I bet there is something!

One Simple Trick

To disenfranchise many women.

The issue, Spencer said, was that her surname on her birth certificate is different from how she was registering to vote.

“When I divorced, I kept my last name for consistency with my family,” Spencer said. “The idea that women have to prove their name change is profoundly sexist and limiting.”

Kayfabe

I would recommend you at least try to refrain from monologueing your cunning plan to trick the "left flank" - in their view the only voters who want them to use their power to thwart the Republicans - if you want the plan to succeed.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) suggested Democrats may seek a vote on an amendment to the bill in exchange for their support to advance it later this week. That amendment, a 30-day funding bill, would give Democrats a chance to save face with their left flank and give Republicans “an escape” out of the impasse.

We hate our voters and think they're stupid, also the ones who call our offices are commies.

Maybe senators are much smarter than stupid people on the internet - it's possible! - but they still shouldn't treat us like we're stupid.

Morning

go

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Hopefully True!

Sen. Whitehouse says Schumer will be speaking on the floor shortly to say there aren’t enough votes for cloture

Sen. Hickenlooper also saying Dems may now want a 7-day CR, in lieu of the 30-day or 7-month

— Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) March 12, 2025

Just Being A Bit More Crass About It

There isn't any difference between what Trump is saying and the erasure by most media organizations of Jewishness based on actual support for Palestinians over the past 15 months. Protests run by Jewish organizations have been labeled as antisemitic, and the large presence Jews has frequently not been acknowledged.

Donald Trump: "Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I am concerned. He has become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He is not Jewish anymore. He is a Palestinian."

[image or embed]

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 5:14 PM

I mean, sure, it's not supposed to apply to CHUCK SCHUMER, but it shouldn't have applied to any of them.

Have a good look in the mirror, everybody.

Take A Selfie

One thing which weighed on me during Trump I was how many of the people around him obviously had no sense of the responsbility that they had embraced. I get the evil guys who are working to destroy everything - at least it's an ethos - but the ones who just treat it with less sense of responsibility than they would running the high school prom committee just mystify me.

As the Office of Personnel Management oversaw the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and pressed others to justify their positions, the agency’s chief spokesperson repeatedly used her office for a side hustle: aspiring Instagram fashion influencer.

In at least a dozen videos filmed in her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover modeled her outfit choices for the day, while directing followers from her Instagram account to a website that could earn her commissions on clothing sales.

Maybe the phones really have destroyed all their brains. The world is just an image in their phone, a reflection of themselves.

Lunch

eat

Actual Wars

On one hand I think Trump's Canada annexation plans are deadly serious (in his mind), on the other, I'm not sure how "we" manage to wage a war when Trump can't even keep the tariffs going more than 5 minutes.

Tariff Wars

The EU, unsurprisingly, is retaliating.

The UK is not, in part because they have decided it is best to continue pretending that their PM got some amazing deal out of Trump by offering him a tea party with the King, when he actually was laughed at and humiliated.

The US isn't the only place where (some) politicians, with a compliant press, get to pretend things are not what they are.

Choose Your Fighters

Will Demorats in the Senate support a "CR" that isn't, which nullifies Congress, and which includes the destruction of the DC local budget just for extra giggles? We will see!

It is somewhat remarkable that dozens of House Republicans who have vowed never to pass stopgap bills to fund the government in their political careers caved on this one. But that’s why I put “continuing resolution” in quotes. In reality, this is a hastily arranged partisan Republican budget that achieves much of their anti-government, anti-immigrant, pro-military agenda while paving the way for Trump to nullify whatever spending he deems unworthy. It doesn’t just tilt spending in a far-right direction, it actually abdicates congressional responsibility as the branch of government that makes federal spending decisions.

Yet several Senate Democrats are thinking about passing it anyway.