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 April 21, 2025  Posted by at 9:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Edward Hopper The “Martha McKeen” of Wellfleet 1944

 

What It Means To Be White In America (Von Hoffmeister)
Pope Francis Meets JD Vance On Easter, Appeals For Release Of Hostages (JTN)
Trump Hopeful For Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal In Coming Days (RT)
Russia Will Attack In A ‘Couple Of Years’ – Estonian FM (RT)
The Era of Lawless Leftist Judges is Likely Ending Soon (Margolis)
EU Selectively Condemns Political Persecution – Turkish Foreign Minister (RT)
Experts and Western Media Weigh In On Russia-Initiated Easter Truce (RT)
Trump Faces Self-Imposed Deadline To Make Scores Of Trade Deals (JTN)
It’s World War III… and the Democrats Are Siding With China (Pinsker)
SCOTUS Orders Trump to Stop Deporting Illegal Alien Gang Members (CTH)
Alito: SCOTUS Block Of Venezuelan Gang Deportations “Legally Questionable” (ET)
Ukrainian Envoy Asks For 30% Of Germany’s Military Equipment (RT)
Hegseth Shares Data on Yemen Strikes in Yet Another Chat (Sp.)
Van Hollen Tries to Rewrite Script of His El Salvador Stunt (Margolis)
Tom Homan Destroys Van Hollen for Prioritizing MS-13 Member (Margolis)
MSNBC Suggests Trump Plans to Deport African-Americans (Bartee)
Democrats Issue Warning To Biden – The Hill (RT)
US Liberals Changing Their Minds About Free Trade (RT)

 

 

 

 

Sachs
https://twitter.com/upholdreality/status/1913733871155257356

Movie

Chamath


https://twitter.com/theallinpod/status/1913991732863356970

 

 

 

 

An overdue conversation?!

What It Means To Be White In America (Von Hoffmeister)

To be white in America is to inherit a name shaped by migration, faith, and forgotten histories. It is a lineage carried across oceans, passed through lullabies, and rooted in both cathedrals and cornfields. This identity lingers in quiet rural churches, where the voices of ancestors seem to echo in the trees. For many, “white” becomes a stand-in when older names fade — when “American” feels like a hollow label on a billboard. It is not about shame or dominance. It is about memory, continuity, and being quietly aware of where you come from.

Multiculturalism, as it manifests now, behaves like a solvent. It dissolves the distinct, merges the sacred into sameness, smiles as it rubs out the texture of rooted lives. Within this flood, those who carry European memory find themselves drifting, searching for a foothold. The word “White” is that foothold. It holds meaning through resistance, through memory, through the fierce dignity of cultural continuity. Identity, in this sense, becomes a form of love — love for origins, love for inherited stories, love for those yet to come.

Supremacism speaks in the language of domination. Identity speaks in the language of presence. The White American who awakens to his name does not seek a throne. He seeks a hearth. He seeks a way to stay whole in a world that rewards fragmentation. This is a path of loyalty to one’s kind, never hostility towards others. In the garden of peoples, each flower flourishes with its own fragrance. Ethnopluralism offers an architecture of difference, a choreography of coexistence, where each cultural rhythm retains its beat without drowning the others.

The term “White” in the American lexicon carries a unique frequency. It vibrates with Jefferson’s quill and Bach’s organ, with frontier hymns and Viennese waltzes, with cavalry horns and Celtic chants. To call oneself White in this context is to protect this frequency from dissonance disguised as “inclusion.” It is to declare, without aggression, that the old songs deserve to be sung again. Memory deserves air. Tradition deserves breath. Identity deserves more than footnotes in someone else’s anthology.

European nationalists who peer across the Atlantic may see a racial label where a cultural signal flares. In America, this signal reaches through the noise, calling for cohesion in the absence of nationhood. The immigrant once became American through absorption into a defined mythos. That mythos no longer exists. “White” now fills the vacuum with a new mode of belonging — fused from ancestral fragments, reconstructed into a postmodern tribe bound by shared affinities rather than state-sponsored creeds. This tribe seeks kinship, not conquest.

The word itself — “White” — is undergoing alchemy. Once used carelessly, once wielded cruelly, now reclaimed with care. It becomes a sanctuary word, a quiet defiance against vanishing. It shields neither empire nor empire-building. It cradles only memory. Those who say the word do so with reverence, tracing maps invisible to those who only see skin. Within this word lives the village, the chapel bell, the grandmother’s eyes. To be White, then, is to feel time coiling through your veins, to hold the sacred burden of continuity with both hands.

Identity here acts as a compass, never a cage. It points to something essential, never reductive. Within its frame, new expressions rise — art, ritual, story, space. The future emerges from the past, remixed through intention rather than accident. Each person who reclaims identity becomes a steward. Each community that honors its inheritance becomes a lighthouse. In the haze of cultural disintegration, the glow of remembrance shines stronger than shame. Authentic diversity, when anchored in respect, requires difference. And difference requires selfhood.

To be pro-White is to be pro-identity. To affirm one’s people is to affirm all peoples. The line between celebration and supremacism is one of spirit, not volume. This spirit seeks harmony, not hierarchy. A world without distinct identities offers only the cold hum of managed sameness. A world of living cultures brims with meaning. So let this be said clearly: the affirmation of White identity, grounded in respect, carried with humility, lit by ancestral fire, serves not as a threat — but as a promise. A promise to remain, to remember, to reimagine.

Read more …

Last thing he did. The Pope died this morning.

Pope Francis Meets JD Vance On Easter, Appeals For Release Of Hostages (JTN)

An ailing Pope Francis, still recovering from a lung infection, met Sunday with Vice President J.D. Vance at the Vatican and made an Easter appeal for the release of hostages in the Hamas-Israel war. “I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace!” Francis said in a prepared Easter message. Hospitalized for more than a month with pneumonia, the 88-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff made several surprise appearances on Easter, including waving to adoring crowds from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

While he did not preside over the traditional Easter mass, he did deliver the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the “City [of Rome] and to the World,” a special declaration of reconciliation that only a pope may deliver. Perhaps his highest profile moment came when he met privately with Vance, a 2019 convert to Catholicism who has tangled with the pope over U.S. enforcement of immigration laws. “The meeting, which lasted a few minutes, provided an opportunity to exchange Easter greetings,” the Vatican said in a statement.

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Here’s hoping.

Trump Hopeful For Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal In Coming Days (RT)

US President Donald Trump has expressed hope that Russia and Ukraine could reach a peace agreement within days, suggesting that both nations could instead turn their attention to trade with the United States. The statement follows remarks from Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hinted that Washington may abandon its mediation efforts unless tangible progress is made. “HOPEFULLY RUSSIA [and] UKRAINE WILL MAKE A DEAL THIS WEEK,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Sunday. “BOTH WILL THEN START TO DO BIG BUSINESS WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WHICH IS THRIVING, AND MAKE A FORTUNE!” The 30-hour Easter truce declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin expired at midnight on Monday. The Kremlin confirmed there were no plans for an extension, and both sides have accused each other of breaching the agreement.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported around 1,300 violations of the holiday ceasefire, including artillery strikes and drone attacks. Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly emphasized his desire to broker an end to the conflict “as soon as possible.” His team has engaged in shuttle diplomacy, including a 30-day moratorium on strikes targeting energy infrastructure last month. However, both Moscow and Kiev later accused each other of violating that deal. According to the New York Post, the United States aims to “make a determination for a full and comprehensive ceasefire” within the coming days. The Friday report cited a senior US official who said the goal was to evaluate where Moscow and Kiev stand on a potential agreement through direct discussions.

Rubio warned that Washington could drop the peace initiative if talks break down. “We need to figure out here, now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable,” he told reporters on Friday. “If it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on.” He described the current proposal as a “broad framework” but declined to provide further details. Trump endorsed Rubio’s remarks, stating that Washington wants to see the conflict resolved and that there is “a good chance of solving the problem.” sMoscow has emphasized that any peace deal must address the “root causes” of the conflict, including NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s aspirations to join the US-led alliance.

Putin has also demanded that Kiev recognize Russia’s new borders – something Ukrainian leaders have so far rejected. Last month, Putin stated that in order for a viable ceasefire to be achieved, the Western nations must cease arms shipments to Ukraine, and Kiev must withdraw troops from Russian territories. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Russian UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia called a full ceasefire “simply unrealistic at this stage,” accusing the West of using negotiations as a cover to rearm Ukrainian forces.

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What Trump’s peace efforts are up against.

Russia Will Attack In A ‘Couple Of Years’ – Estonian FM (RT)

NATO still has several years to prepare for a Russian invasion, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has said. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly dismissed claims that Moscow has any aggressive plans towards NATO as “nonsense” that is meant to scare the European population and justify increases in military spending. In his interview with France 24 on Friday, Tsahkna suggested that “we have a couple of years to prepare for the full-scale [Russian] invasion capabilities to be ready” on the bloc’s borders. NATO has this time window because Russia’s military is currently preoccupied with the Ukraine conflict, he said. Like its fellow Baltic States, Estonia has been one of the most vocal backers of Ukraine during the conflict with Russia, calling for the supply of more weapons to Kiev and increased sanctions pressure on Moscow.

Tallinn has provided military assistance worth nearly €500 million, or more than 1.4% of its GDP, to the government of Vladimir Zelensky since February 2022. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are also reportedly among the six countries that support the push by the UK and France to deploy a Western “reassurance force” to Ukraine once the fighting stops there. “I was defense minister of Estonia in 2016 and 2017, and I saw the other side of our borders, NATO and European Union borders, 120,000 troops ready to go within 48 hours from the Russian side,” he said. However, currently it “is pretty empty [on] the other side of our borders from the Russian side because Russia is in Ukraine,” the foreign minister explained. “But what we see is that Russia is investing heavily to the [military] infrastructure, even [on] a larger scale than they had before,” he said.

According to Tsahkna, Moscow has “a plan to relocate the troops, maybe even [on] the largest scale in the future to the other side of all borders. But we are not talking about [the] Estonian border, we are talking about NATO.” He suggested that “if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would like to test NATO in our region, I think that the cost for him will be very high” due to the permanent deployment of the bloc’s troops in the Baltic States, increased defense spending by member states in recent years and the inclusion of Finland and Sweden into NATO 2023 and 2024, respectively. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has met with the Russian leader at the Kremlin three times, told American journalist Tucker Carlson in March that Moscow is “100% not” interested in invading NATO countries.

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“The fact that the justices have called for arguments in May suggests the urgency and significance of the issue. “It never hears cases in May..”

The Era of Lawless Leftist Judges is Likely Ending Soon (Margolis)

The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to weigh in on one of the most significant legal power plays in recent memory: whether individual federal trial judges can continue issuing nationwide injunctions that derail national policy. The high court’s move could mark a turning point in the Trump administration’s effort to rein in what it sees as activist judges stifling the will of the elected government. John Yoo, a law professor at UC Berkeley and former Justice Department official, broke down the issue during an appearance on Fox News, where he explained the gravity of the situation and why the Supreme Court is now stepping in. “This is about who controls all those… and there’s about 675 federal trial judges spread out all over the country,” Yoo said.

“And some of them have been bringing the federal government, bringing President Trump’s agenda to a screeching halt, even though they don’t have anybody, say, who works for the government or any of the illegal aliens or any of the spending in their own courtrooms.” In recent years, liberal activists have filed lawsuits in strategically chosen jurisdictions where they know they’ll find a sympathetic judge. The result? Leftist district judges, with no direct connection to the underlying policy or parties involved, have been able to issue injunctions blocking Trump administration directives nationwide—from immigration enforcement to federal spending priorities. “What’s going on here, I think it’s important to understand, is that the Supreme Court is already signaling that they’re very sympathetic to the Trump administration,” Yoo said. “The Supreme Court scheduled oral argument for May 15th.”

That date raised eyebrows among legal observers, as the Court typically stops hearing arguments by April and shifts to issuing decisions in pending cases. The fact that the justices have called for arguments in May suggests the urgency and significance of the issue. “It never hears cases in May,” Yoo explained. “Usually, they’d be done their business and they’d be sending out opinions by now. They’ve called basically a special session in order to hear President Trump’s claims that there should not be unlimited nationwide injunctions, but that they should be under the control of the Supreme Court.” The specific case revolves around Trump’s executive order targeting birthright citizenship, but Yoo emphasized that the justices may not even reach that policy question. The real issue is the unchecked legal activism that’s allowed district court judges to assume authority over foreign policy, immigration, and federal hiring and spending.

https://twittercom/RichSementa/status/1913695871088161159

“Whether you agree or disagree with President Trump’s order on birthright citizenship,” Yoo said, “they may not even get to the question, because the key thing here is for the Supreme Court to put an end to the 675 trial judges who all think they can run foreign policy, spending and hiring throughout the federal government. ”If the court sides with the Trump administration, it could dramatically reshape how federal power is contested in the courtroom and restore constitutional limits on unelected judges meddling in national affairs.”

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Being lectured by Turkey on democracy.

EU Selectively Condemns Political Persecution – Turkish Foreign Minister (RT)

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has accused the EU of applying double standards by remaining silent over Moldova’s arrest of Yevgenia Gutsul, the elected governor of the country’s autonomous Gagauzia region, who was arrested on charges related to her 2023 election campaign. Fidan noted that while the bloc has been vocal about the detention of Ekrem Imamoglu, the former mayor of Istanbul and potential rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, they have not condemned similar actions in other countries.

“In France, a woman party leader was imprisoned for corruption. Did you criticize it? No. In Romania, a candidate who won the election was tried before the second round and was politically banned. In Moldova, you imprisoned an elected regional head. Did you condemn it? No,” Fidan stated, as reported by Hurriyet on Sunday. Last month, Gagauzia Governor Yevgenia Gutsul was arrested amid an investigation into alleged irregularities during her 2023 election campaign. She condemned the Moldovan government’s actions, asserting that it seeks to undermine the autonomous region’s freedoms in retaliation for its support of opposition figures, including herself.

Gutsul’s arrest has sparked protests in Gagauzia, with supporters claiming political persecution. Moldovan authorities assert that the legal proceedings are part of efforts to uphold the rule of law and combat corruption. The French example Fidan referred to appears to concern Marine Le Pen, a former leader of the right-wing National Rally party (RN) and a three-time presidential candidate. A Paris court sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison for embezzlement last month, with two years suspended, and the other two to be served under a form of house arrest. She also received a five-year ban on holding political office, which effectively disqualifies her from the 2027 presidential race.

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The westerners all seem to think it’s all about the west. Like Russia has no life and no culture of its own.

Experts and Western Media Weigh In On Russia-Initiated Easter Truce (RT)

Multiple pundits and commentators, Western, Russian and those from further afield, have offered their takes on the Easter truce in the Ukraine conflict, which was unilaterally declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. While many Western experts have been quick to express skepticism over the Kremlin’s true motives, others have described the temporary ceasefire as a pivotal step toward a potential broader peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev.

Western experts heap scorn on Putin’s Easter truce Ivor Bennett of Sky News suggested in his piece that the truce “feels like a diplomatic dance,” in which President Putin seemingly makes a concession, though one falling distinctly short of US President Donald Trump’s expectations. “Putin is giving Trump just enough to keep him on side” and secure the continuation of the apparent thaw in relations with the US, while “trying to cast himself as the peacemaker in the eyes of the US president – as the one who gives solutions, not problems,” Bennett wrote. CNN’s International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh opined that the “sudden rush of this seems designed entirely to placate White House demands for some sign that Russia is willing to stop fighting,” adding that “it will likely feed Trump’s at-times pro-Moscow framing of the conflict.” Walsh concluded by predicting that the Easter truce “is likely to do more damage to the role of diplomacy in the coming months than it does to support it.”

Western pundits see ploy to lure Trump in Putin’s Easter truce Col. Richard Kemp (ret.) of the British Army and Rafael Bardaji, former national security advisor to the Spanish government, stated in an article for The Telegraph that Putin “needs time to rebuild the Russian economy” and does not want to draw President Trump’s ire by rejecting his peace proposals outright. German military expert Carlo Masala told Bild that “a cold-blooded calculation,” lies behind Putin’s Easter truce, with Moscow’s message being primarily intended for the occupant of the US White House. He further suggested that by throwing “Trump another crumb,” Moscow is trying to isolate Vladimir Zelensky and prompt Washington to abandon Kiev, while continuing to mend relations with Russia.

Others think Moscow is serious about peace Speaking to RIA Novosti, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl struck a more positive tone, saying that the “Easter truce is not something that will have decisive importance militarily, but diplomacy and human life often need gestures before it is possible to move on to real measures.” She opined that Putin chose an “opportune” moment to make such a signal, and expressed hope that the temporary ceasefire could pave the way to a comprehensive peace. Argentinian international relations analyst Christian Lamesa told Izvestia that the Kremlin’s initiative “will be received well by Washington, as a genuine and true expression of Vladimir Putin’s will toward creating a lasting peace.”

Russian expert says Easter truce was prepared well in advance In a comment to RIA Novosti, Iranian political scientist and international security expert Professor Ruhollah Modabber hailed the Russian president’s move on two counts: first, the Ester Truce demonstrates that Moscow respects and takes Christian ideals very seriously; second, Putin’s initiative proves that Russia truly wants to achieve peace in the Ukraine conflict. Russian military expert and RT contributor, Col. Mikhail Khodarenok (ret.), told Gazeta.Ru that the “Easter truce was possibly agreed on in advance… with the most direct involvement of the White House.” He claimed that the Russian military had begun making preparations well before it was officially announced. According to Khodarenok, Putin’s initiative is a “goodwill gesture,” illustrating Moscow’s readiness to put an end to the hostilities.

In announcing the truce, which is set to expire at midnight on April 21, Putin said that it would help reveal whether Ukraine is sincerely willing to engage in negotiations to end the conflict. Responding to the temporary ceasefire on social media, Zelensky made a counteroffer, suggesting that the current lull in fighting be extended further. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that its forces had been targeted by Ukrainian troops with artillery and mortar fire, as well as kamikaze drones more than 1,300 times since the truce took effect.

Read more …

Busy days ahead.

Trump Faces Self-Imposed Deadline To Make Scores Of Trade Deals (JTN)

The White House likes to say that it moves at “Trump speed,” but even the dealmaker in chief could face challenges meeting a self-imposed deadline to work out trade deals with at least 75 nations during a 90-day pause on higher tariffs. Trump plans to sign off on each deal personally. He’s also personally talking to top leaders in other countries. On Tuesday, the White House reported the president’s team was reviewing 15 trade proposals. On Wednesday, Trump reported “big progress” on talks with Japan. The president met with Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday at the White House. The same day, Trump described a call with Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum as “very productive.”

On Friday, Trump talked with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the leader of a nation that maintains a special relationship with the U.S. and a more even trade balance with the U.S. than other countries. Starmer underscored his “commitment to free and open trade and the importance of protecting the national interest” during the call, a Downing Street spokesperson said. In March, Trump announced a 25% tariff on foreign vehicles and auto parts. That also affects the UK. British car makers sell luxury vehicles to the U.S. In 2024, the UK shipped more than 1 million British vehicles worth about $9.79 billion to the U.S. Jaguar Land Rover halted shipments to the U.S. for a month as it studies ways to mitigate the costs of the tariffs.

The White House reported that more than 75 nations reached out to Trump and his trade team after Trump implemented a wave of what he called reciprocal tariffs on April 2 – Trump’s self-proclaimed “Liberation Day” for U.S. trade. On April 9, Trump announced a 90-day pause on those higher tariffs while keeping a baseline 10% tariff and a 145% tariff on imports from China. Trump has made some exemptions to that tariff on imports from China by excluding smartphones, computers and other electronics. A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The importer pays the tax and can either absorb the loss or pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Trump has promised that tariffs will help increase federal revenue, restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, and shift the tax burden away from U.S. families. Some nations, including China, have responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. Others have signaled they are eager to make a deal with the Trump administration. Trump has not yet announced any trade deals. Trump paused the higher tariffs for 90 days, giving his administration limited time to make deals with 75 nations the White House reported reached out seeking trade negotiations. Trump said after the 90-day pause, the higher reciprocal tariffs could come back into play, something most nations and business groups want to avoid.

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“You’ve got 82% of Republicans with an unfavorable opinion of China — and 77% of Americans overall.”

It’s World War III… and the Democrats Are Siding With China (Pinsker)

“Liberation Day” was on April 2. Hasn’t even been three weeks yet. As far as Trade Wars go, this one is still in diapers. So today, on Easter Sunday, let’s (carefully) vacate our bunkers and survey the dreadful damage: Hmm… Disruption has been minimal. You can still buy all the iPhones you want. Sure, the ambiguity over tariffs sucks for globally-sourced products, but most Americans understand Trump’s thought process. It’s threefold:
• China is a communist dictatorship that’s ruthlessly dishonest, absolutely untrustworthy, and has become our #1 global rival. Seems kind of stupid to perpetually send our money to our #1 global rival.
• One of the lessons of the COVID pandemic was the importance of nationalizing critical supply chains, so we’re no longer dependent on foreign rivals for medicine, food, and technology.
• Cheap (crappy) mass-produced Chinese goods are great, but American jobs are even better. And with millions of young people stuck in stagnant, low-paying jobs — unable to ever afford a house of their own — we needed to flip our priorities.

Which is why Trump is playing brinksmanship and renegotiating trade deals. You can agree or disagree with his methodology, but the problems he’s attempting to fix are painfully authentic. Ignore them at your own peril. (Kamala Harris ignored ‘em, and it cost her the election.) Yet the Democrats are already waiving the white flag, bowing before the country that is, quite literally, a red flag. Again: it’s only been 18 days! Mark Twain popularized the expression in 1907, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” And, to be fair, poll numbers are statistics. So for consistency’s sake, we’ll use the exact same numerical thresholds as our pals in the mainstream media. Two days ago, we noted a new media theme about Trump’s “tanking” numbers on immigration. And there were a lot of stories:

• The Independent: Trump’s approval rating on immigration has tanked in recent weeks as more controversial deportations are revealed
• Newsweek: Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Over Immigration Is Tumbling
• Slate: Trump polling: Perhaps sending people to Salvadoran gulags is not exactly what voters had in mind.
• The Independent (Part II): Amid the Kilmar Abrego Garcia controversy, Trump is losing ground on immigration
• Splinter: Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Not Popular
• The American Prospect: The Anti-Immigration Majority Is a Mirage
• MSN: Trump’s economic and immigration policies face growing dissent

Well, garsh! That all sounds crappy. So we dug deeper and reviewed the poll that the media described as “tanking,” “tumbling,” “losing,” and a “mirage”: “Tanked,” eh? Well, let’s look under the hood, shall we: Last week 57% of Americans supported Trump’s immigration policies. This week it “tanked” to 54%. Three points! The poll’s margin of error is 3.5, by the way. You don’t need to be a math major to recognize a big, fat, juicy Nothing Burger when you see one. According to the standard set by the mainstream media, a three-point drop — in an opinion poll with a 3.5 margin of error! — constitutes “tanking,” “tumbling,” “losing,” and a “mirage.” Fine. Recently, the Pew Research Center released a new poll on Americans perceptions of China. And what did they discover?

For the first time in five years, the share of Americans with an unfavorable opinion of China has fallen from the year before – albeit slightly, from 81% in 2024 to 77% in 2025. Well, that’s a four-point drop. (Even bigger than Trump’s “tanking” three-point drop.) Hmm. Let’s dig a little deeper: Views of China tend to vary by party. While majorities of adults in both parties have an unfavorable opinion of China, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are significantly more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to hold this view (82% vs. 72%). So the real story is a 10-point divide between the parties on China. Keep an eye on this gap, because the Democrats’ knee-jerk impulse to oppose everything Trump supports — and support everything Trump opposes — will push them closer to China. They’ll sympathize with the Chi-Coms. They’ll editorialize on behalf of China. They’ll include Xi within the Great Liberal Wall of Resistance.

And they’ll likely pluck away a few libertarian-leaning, Ayn Rand-loving conservatives, too. One of the unexpected results of the poll was a 16-point drop amongst Republicans who had a “very unfavorable” view of China. Still, this issue is a yuuuuge net winner for the GOP. You’ve got 82% of Republicans with an unfavorable opinion of China — and 77% of Americans overall. Even after 18 days of hyperbolic, venomous headlines, more than seven out of 10 DEMOCRATS rightly recognize China as a bad actor! But that 10-point gap is a doozy. So far in this Trade War, there’s been a curious absence of nationalism. That’s a PR mistake. Beginning on Monday, it would be wise for Team MAGA to reframe the issue from fairness to patriotism — because the fairness argument has already been successfully seeded. We’re at 77%! There’s already a consensus. What’s missing is a patriotic call to arms, where the country understands that we’re sacrificing together so we can win together. We need a national buy-in on the mission. That’s what’s missing. And it’s not too late.

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‘sundance’ on that midnight order.

“Any illegal alien who happens to also be a gang member, or illegal alien who would ‘smartly’ now claim to be a gang member, is ultimately the beneficiary of a Supreme Court order..”

SCOTUS Orders Trump to Stop Deporting Illegal Alien Gang Members (CTH)

At 1:00am on Saturday, the Supreme Court of the USA issued an injunction blocking President Trump from deporting illegal aliens identified under the Alien Enemies Act. It was/is a bizarre order considering the lower court had not even ruled on the matter; worse yet, the Supreme Court created an imaginary “class” of aliens. Any illegal alien who happens to also be a gang member, or illegal alien who would ‘smartly’ now claim to be a gang member, is ultimately the beneficiary of a Supreme Court order blocking their removal or deportation. That’s how judicially insane this injunction is.

As outlined in the original injunction order, Justice Alito issued a blistering dissent, calling out seven of the justices who affirmed the order. An incredulous Alito concludes with the following paragraph:

The Trump administration has already filed a response, hitting on several of the key legal contradictions that are outlined by Alito in his dissent. The bottom line appears to be the ACLU ran to the Supreme Court less than an hour after filing a responsive motion with the court of jurisdiction, solely on the false premise that some illegal alien member within the removal order process of deportation, might be removed. The Supreme Court bought the argument, created an entire class of deportees under the auspices of gang membership, and blocked President Trump from deporting anyone who might be a gang member, while the illegal aliens argue about their non-gang status.

Madness; all of it.

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“.. literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule..”

“..with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order..”

“The justices acted even though “it is not clear the Court had jurisdiction..” or authority to hear the case, he wrote.”

Alito: SCOTUS Block Of Venezuelan Gang Deportations “Legally Questionable” (ET)

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito filed a strongly worded dissent from the court’s order issued early April 19 that temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua. The dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, was posted on the court’s website early on April 20. “In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” Alito wrote. “I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.”

“Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law. The Executive must proceed under the terms of our order in Trump v. J.G.G., and this Court should follow established procedures,” Alito wrote. The justices acted even though “it is not clear the Court had jurisdiction,” or authority to hear the case, he wrote. “The papers before us, while alleging that the applicants were in imminent danger of removal, provided little concrete support for that allegation,” Alito wrote. In Trump v. J.G.G., the Supreme Court on April 7 granted the president’s request to pause a federal district judge’s orders preventing his administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected members of Tren de Aragua but determined that detainees must be given an opportunity to challenge their removal.

The unsigned one-page administrative stay issued early April 19 to which Alito referred directed the federal government “not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court.” An administrative stay gives the justices more time to consider the emergency request to block the deportations. That order did not provide an explanation of why the court acted. The order was issued after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed an emergency request on behalf of two Venezuelan nationals late on April 18, asking the Supreme Court to immediately block their deportation. The emergency application in A.A.R.P. and W.M.M. v. Trump challenges President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants who are alleged or confirmed criminal gang members. A.A.R.P. and W.M.M. are the initials of two of the detained men.

The ACLU also sought a temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, as well as a stay of removal order from the Fifth Circuit, according to the application. On March 14, Trump signed Proclamation 10903, in which he officially declared that Tren de Aragua, a designated foreign terrorist organization, “is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.” The group is using mass illegal immigration to the United States to harm U.S. citizens, undermine public safety, and support the goal of the Venezuelan socialist regime with which it is associated to destabilize “democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” the proclamation said. The president invoked the Alien Enemies Act to authorize the “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal” of members of the group who are Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older and who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States.

The application said the ACLU’s clients are challenging the Trump administration’s use of the federal statute to deport them. The clients “are in imminent and ongoing jeopardy of being removed from the United States without notice or an opportunity to be heard, in direct contravention of this Court’s order in Trump v. J.G.G.” “Many individuals have already been loaded on to buses, presumably headed to the airport,” and are at risk of being sent to a prison in El Salvador, according to the April 18 application. On March 15, the Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act to deport at least 137 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they are now incarcerated “possibly for the rest of their lives” at the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center, which is “one of the most notorious prisons in the world,” the application said. The application alleged that many of those deported since March 15 were not members of Tren de Aragua.

“Such false accusations are particularly devastating given the present Applicants’ strong claims for relief under our immigration laws,” the application said. The application came one day after U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas denied the ACLU clients’ request for a temporary restraining order halting removal efforts.Hendrix rejected the ACLU’s claim that its clients were “at imminent risk of summary removal” because the government denied the allegation. Late on April 19, Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to deny the application. “At a minimum, if the Court keeps its administrative stay in place, the government respectfully requests that the Court clarify that it is administratively staying removals only under the [Alien Enemies Act], and that its order does not preclude removal pursuant to any other immigration authorities,” Sauer wrote.

Read more …

Why not all of it?

Ukrainian Envoy Asks For 30% Of Germany’s Military Equipment (RT)

Germany should donate 30% of its available armored vehicles and military aircraft to Kiev, according to Andrey Melnik, Ukraine’s envoy to the UN. His appeal comes as the EU nations seek ways to boost support amid uncertainty over whether US President Donald Trump will continue to back Ukraine. Melnik, who served as ambassador to Berlin from 2015 to 2022, addressed his plea in an open letter to Chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz, published in Welt am Sonntag on Saturday. “It is in your hands, as peacemakers, to stop this damn war by the end of 2025,” he wrote. The diplomat outlined a series of steps he believes Merz must take to “cut the Gordian knot and force [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to make peace.”

According to Melnik, Germany should donate 30% of its Bundeswehr stock of armored vehicles and aircraft to Kiev, including around 45 Eurofighter Typhoon and 30 Tornado fighter jets, 100 Leopard 2 main battle tanks, and 115 Puma and 130 Marder infantry fighting vehicles. He also called on Berlin to defy “the expected resistance” from the Social Democrats (SPD) and send 150 Taurus cruise missiles. The SPD has opposed the missile deliveries, citing concerns about further escalation with Russia. The Social Democrats and Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are currently engaged in coalition talks.

Melnik urged Germany to commit 0.5% of its GDP, or €21.5 billion ($24.5 billion) annually, toward military aid to Ukraine through 2029. “These funds should be invested in the production of state-of-the-art weapons in both Germany and Ukraine,” he wrote. He also called for the 0.5% benchmark to be adopted across the EU as a “huge warning signal” to Russia. Merz recently expressed an openness to delivering Taurus missiles, prompting criticism from SPD leader Matthias Miersch and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev warned that such shipments would “bring no changes to the battlefield” but would further implicate Germany in the conflict.

Read more …

Ugly.

Hegseth Shares Data on Yemen Strikes in Yet Another Chat (Sp.)

In March, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent data on upcoming strikes on Yemen in a closed group chat on the Signal messenger, the participants were not only people from his professional circle, but also his wife, as well as his brother and lawyer, the New York Times reported, citing sources. According to the publication, the Pentagon chief sent the flight schedule of the F/A-18 Hornets that attacked Shia military-political movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) in Yemen from his personal phone to a chat called “Defense | Team Huddle” — he published the same information in another chat with officials of the US administration.

The publication notes that Hegseth’s wife Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not an employee of the US Department of Defense. However, she was previously criticized for accompanying her husband to secret meetings with foreign leaders. At the same time, Hegseth’s brother and lawyer work at the Pentagon, but, as the newspaper said, it is unclear why they needed information about the upcoming strikes on Yemen. The newspaper notes that Hegseth was the group chat’s creator. In addition to his wife, it included about a dozen people from his personal and professional circle. Earlier, the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Defense launched an investigation into the use of the Signal messenger by the US Secretary of Defense after the scandal surrounding the leak of discussions between officials of the US administration about strikes in Yemen.

On March 24, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, said that on March 11, he had received a request in the Signal messenger and had got into a chat where the US authorities were discussing strikes against the Houthis ruling in northern Yemen. According to Goldberg, accounts under the names of Hegseth, US Vice President J.D. Vance, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other officials were in the chat, what many of them subsequently confirmed, insisting that they did not exchange classified information in the messenger. Goldberg presented screenshots of the correspondence, in which the Pentagon chief, several hours before the start of the operation, reports on the types of aircraft and targets, which, according to the journalist, could threaten servicemen if leaked. Goldberg accused officials of serious violation of security rules. It was also noted that the chat was set to automatically delete messages, which violated the requirements for storing official information.

Read more …

“Americans’ constitutional rights are nowhere near as endangered by enforcing immigration law as they are by the lawlessness that open borders and weak leadership encourage.”

Van Hollen Tries to Rewrite Script of His El Salvador Stunt (Margolis)

Last week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) scrambled to contain the fallout from his tone-deaf El Salvador stunt that quickly turned into a political fiasco. The Maryland Democrat, who initially grandstanded about his efforts to “rescue” a deported MS-13 gang member, is now in full damage control mode—desperately trying to rewrite the narrative of a trip that backfired spectacularly. Van Hollen even hit the Sunday talk shows to contain the fallout. Curiously insisting to Jonathan Karl of ABC News’s “This Week” that he’s not defending Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but that he’s defending “the rule of law.” Host Jonathan Karl pressed Van Hollen on “some pretty serious allegations of abuse” made by Abrego Garcia’s wife in court—allegations that President Trump has recently brought to national attention.

“Obviously, everybody in this country, even those undocumented immigrants, have rights. But are you concerned about standing so forcefully with somebody that has, you know, at least a questionable record?” Karl asked. Van Hollen insisted his advocacy wasn’t about the man himself, but about legal principle. “I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” he claimed. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported.” Abrego Garcia’s case is anything but an example of a rushed or unjust deportation. In fact, the timeline of events makes clear that Garcia received extensive due process over the course of several years. His encounters with law enforcement began well before his deportation, including multiple arrests tied to suspected gang activity.

His immigration status was reviewed in formal proceedings before multiple judges. Notably, two separate immigration judges independently determined that Garcia was a member of the violent MS-13 gang—a finding that was never overturned or disputed in subsequent legal filings. Garcia was represented by legal counsel throughout, and he took full advantage of the appeals process. Several of his appeals were reviewed by higher courts and ultimately rejected. Adding to the legal weight against him, Garcia’s wife sought a protective order through a U.S. court. The judge in that case found that Garcia had committed acts of domestic abuse, further strengthening the government’s case for removal.

Taken together, these facts dismantle the narrative that Garcia was denied fair treatment. His deportation came only after a lengthy legal process, multiple court rulings, and ample opportunity to challenge the government’s case—proving that due process was not only afforded, but exhausted. Van Hollen’s defense of his misguided field trip to El Salvador boils down to hollow talking points about constitutional rights. He dramatically claims, “If we take [those rights] away from him, we jeopardize them for everybody.” Really, Senator? Because last I checked, Americans’ constitutional rights are nowhere near as endangered by enforcing immigration law as they are by the lawlessness that open borders and weak leadership encourage.

Meanwhile, Democrats such as Van Hollen keep sending a clear message to criminals and illegal immigrants worldwide: America’s laws are optional, especially if you can find a soft-hearted (or soft-headed) liberal to champion your cause. How many innocent Americans have to suffer due to gang violence fueled by people such as Abrego Garcia before someone such as Van Hollen admits this open-borders sympathy act only hurts the country? And let’s talk about priorities. While Van Hollen grandstands about “due process” in a Salvadoran prison, how about the rights of American families devastated by MS-13’s reign of terror? How about standing up for law-abiding citizens who expect safety in their communities? Instead, Van Hollen wants us to sympathize with a gang member who had no business in this country in the first place.

Read more …

“He didn’t care when border patrol agents were being overrun, when families were being destroyed, when fentanyl was pouring into this country. But now he wants to talk about due process for someone with MS-13 ties?”

Tom Homan Destroys Van Hollen for Prioritizing MS-13 Member (Margolis)

During a hard-hitting segment on ABC’s “This Week,” border czar Tom Homan tore into Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) for prioritizing a suspected MS-13 gang member over the countless American victims of illegal immigration. Homan’s comments came in response to Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador, where the senator met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 member, wife-beater, and human trafficker recently deported by the Trump administration. “What bothers me more than that is a U.S. senator traveled to El Salvador on taxpayer dime to meet with a MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, terrorist,” Homan said. “And in the meantime, the day before he traveled, an illegal alien was arrested for murder, released to the streets rather than honoring an ICE detainer in his very own state.”

Homan didn’t stop there. He slammed Van Hollen for turning a blind eye to the border crisis throughout Joe Biden’s presidency. “What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years under Joe Biden,” he said, “when you had a 600% increase in sex trafficking in women and children. You have a record number of known suspected terrorists crossing that border. You had a quarter million Americans die from fentanyl overdoses because of the open border.” He continued, “You got over 4,000 illegal aliens [who] died making that journey, which is an historic record. What shocks me is he’s remained silent on the travesty that happened on our southern border.” Homan emphasized the staggering human cost of lax immigration enforcement, something Van Hollen appears uninterested in addressing.

“Many people died. Thousands of people died,” he said. “I’ve met with hundreds of angel moms and dads who buried their children that were murdered by an illegal alien—how many angel moms and dads has he met in, in the state of, uh, state of Maryland? That’s what concerns me.” According to Homan, this isn’t just about one deportation—it’s about a complete failure to acknowledge the real-world impact of Democratic immigration policies. “He’s more concerned about getting a photo op with a gang member,” Homan said, “than he is about the thousands of Americans who have been killed, raped, or trafficked because the border was left wide open for four years.”

Homan concluded with a damning indictment of Van Hollen’s priorities: “He didn’t care when border patrol agents were being overrun, when families were being destroyed, when fentanyl was pouring into this country. But now he wants to talk about due process for someone with MS-13 ties?” President Trump is back in the White House and his administration is wasting no time restoring law and order at the border. The days of open-border appeasement, of politicians bending over backwards for criminals while turning their backs on American families, are coming to an end. The public is fed up with leaders such as Van Hollen, who sympathize with gang members while ignoring the blood-stained consequences at home.

Read more …

Oh, of course. Next week: women.

MSNBC Suggests Trump Plans to Deport African-Americans (Bartee)

The latest racial-tinged conspiracy theory that the TDS-addled corporate state media is running with is that the Trump administration is developing plans to deport African-Americans, otherwise known as “people of color.” Let the brutal ogre and former Kamala Harris press ops goon who has rebranded herself as a journalist, Symone Sanders, explain:

“We’ve been talking about this all week, but Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she penned an op-ed in The Nation this week. And her op-ed talked about that we think democracies are — the way they die is dramatically, through these wars, and blood is shed, and it’s cinematic in a sense. But really, the realistic way in which democracies die, is it is dismantled brick by brick, piece by piece. And she says that what we are seeing now with the lawlessness from this administration are really the canaries in the coal mine gasping for air. I’m paraphrasing here. But to me, that is why Kilmar Abrego-Garcia’s specific case, the case of the gentleman who’s a make-up artist out of California who was also sent to that prison, that’s what the more — the 75% of the folks who have been sent, the men who have been sent there that don’t have criminal records — that is why this is so important. If they can do it to them, if they can snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it’s going to be the people of color, and vulnerable communities that are next in line.”

Diverse Congressman Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) goes on to concur with Sanders’ apocalyptic warning, adding that “that’s certainly part of why the African-American community is so behind” trying to bring the “Maryland father”/alleged MS-13 gang member back to the United States, clearly insinuating that the Trump administration is going to specifically target blacks in its next roundup. Absolutely at no point did Trump, obviously, declare his intention to begin deporting minorities on racial grounds. What he did say — and, for the record, I don’t agree with trying to deport American citizens convicted of crimes — is that he would look into deporting “homegrown” criminals here, the meaning of which is not entirely clear. “The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places,” he told El Salvador president Nayib Bukele last week in reference to the prisons that currently house deported illegal aliens.

Later, during the same meeting, Trump clarified that these are not established plans, but that he instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether doing so would be legal: “I’d like to go a step further, I mean, I say, I said it to Pam: “I don’t know what the laws are,” we always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters. I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you’d have to be looking at the laws on that.”

Read more …

Go away!

Democrats Issue Warning To Biden – The Hill (RT)

Democrats are expressing frustration over former US President Joe Biden’s re-emergence in the public spotlight, arguing that his presence is complicating efforts to regroup after the party’s defeat in the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, according to The Hill’s sources. Biden made his first public appearance in months on April 15, delivering a speech sharply criticizing recent White House policy decisions. Biden claimed that US President Donald Trump has inflicted a “breathtaking” amount of damage on federal programs through extensive cuts, and went on to demean the Republican’s supporters and argue that America has “never been this divided.”

Many in the party believe the octogenarian’s return is ill-timed and risks distracting from the Democratic Party’s attempts to rebuild. Former press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden Michael LaRosa argued that Biden’s speech was a “lovely gift for the White House, President Trump and conservative media,” especially in light of the new tariff policies, when the administration is under “heavy scrutiny.” “If they had advisers who had their hand on the pulse of the Democratic Party or national politics, they would have understood the intense level of anger or indifference to them that remains inside our party and isn’t going away anytime soon,” LaRosa added.

Strategists close to the Democratic leadership have expressed concern that it’s an inopportune time for Biden to appear, especially as polling indicates that Americans are increasingly blaming Trump for his handling of the economy.Biden’s recent remarks have also drawn criticism from conservatives, who alleged that the Democratic Party and the former president’s policies were among the main factors contributing to divisions in American society. According to polling cited by The Hill earlier this year, only 39% of Americans approved of Biden’s presidency from 2021 to 2025, while 57% rated his performance negatively. In some surveys, he was described as one of the least popular living US presidents.

Read more …

They support free trade because Trump does not.

“Negative partisanship is a helluva drug..”

US Liberals Changing Their Minds About Free Trade (RT)

Support for free trade among American liberals has more than doubled since Donald Trump won his second term as US president in November, a study has suggested. During the election campaign, Trump accused America’s trade partners of ripping off the country and vowed to impose harsh duties on them. On April 2, he made good on his threat, announcing new “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly 90 countries, saying that it would raise revenues and boost the number of jobs in the US. After global markets reacted by dropping sharply, the president put most of the tariffs on hold for 90 days, reducing them to a baseline rate of 10%. However, the pause does not apply to China, whose exports to the US are now subject to tariffs of up to 145% amid an ongoing tit-for-tat trade war.

A poll by Polarization Research Lab, first published by the Financial Times and actively shared by social media users on Friday, has suggested that “American attitudes towards free trade have rapidly polarized” over the past several months. In early 2024, there was some 20% support for unrestricted exports and imports among both liberals and conservatives, the study said. However, the divide on the issue between the groups, which appeared in the run up to the election, has increased dramatically since Trump’s victory, it said. According to the poll, more than 40% of leftists surveyed now say that they “strongly approve” of free trade. The Democrats, whom liberals tend to support, had earlier blasted Trump’s tariff policies as being “dangerous” and a “corrupt scheme to enrich administration officials and those loyal to them.”

Meanwhile, the number of conservatives who support free trade has decreased, albeit not as sharply, with some 13% of them still favoring it, the study suggested. Some of the commentators online said that the results of the poll suggested that the supporters of both Democrats and Republicans tend to simply back the stance of their party on various issues, without actually looking into them. “Negative partisanship is a helluva drug,” chief data reporter at the Financial Times John Burn-Murdoch wrote on X about the findings of the survey. The director of Polarization Research Lab, Sean Westwood, disagreed with the notion, arguing that “this is not an irrational flip by Liberals in response to Conservatives – Liberals are witnessing a stock market crash and an economic retraction. It could very well be reasoned.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Spike

 

 

Lymphocytes
https://twitter.com/FredsFarm247/status/1914100594366644534

 

 

Birds

 

 

Harbor

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle April 21 2025

Viewing 37 posts - 1 through 37 (of 37 total)
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  • #186506

    Edward Hopper The “Martha McKeen” of Wellfleet 1944   • What It Means To Be White In America (Von Hoffmeister) • Pope Francis Meets JD Vance On E
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 21 2025]

    #186508
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    ….and Pope promptly dies IAW with the 25% to 33% rule of ICUs.

    Or

    Less than 24 hours after Veep JD Hamel Vance Bowman Blanton visited The Vatican Pope Francis dies.
    Really?
    Not The Onion?
    What happened to The Babylon Bee?
    The Antichrist?

    Jesus! Holy Week too!

    How in The Hell did JD Hamel Vance Bowman BLANTON get an audience with The Pope Francis on Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday?

    #186509
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I wonder, Scott Prinsker, Jewish surname, right?

    Lunatic and some old crust in his underwear, he is and he has respectively.

    World War III…who wants that JD’s Indians? You bet. Israel? No doubt. Trump? Well, he’s got to strike out at The World because China had nothing to do with The Ear-nicking Assassination Attempt. That’s Narcissism’s Logic like 80 year olds in an ICU so they can emerge whole again to crumple to death before The Antichrist, oops, not Scott Gottlieb but JD Vance.
    Holy God!

      Cheap (crappy) mass-produced Chinese goods are great, but American jobs are even better.

    Apt comparison and what economic class of Ppl shifted those jobs and Industries to China in first place without anyone concern for American lives and jobs?
    Suck it up those Titans of Industry, Predatory Capitalists and Modern Day Robber Barrons told the ppl.

      China is a communist dictatorship that’s ruthlessly dishonest, absolutely untrustworthy, and has become our #1 global rival. 

    Nice, Scott!
    Projection of the Inner Object State onto the opponent, victim, target.
    Dialectical?!?!?
    Diabolical.

    #186510
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Thanks for the Hopper sailing art…reminds me of sailing on Long Island Sound as a kid with my father…

    #186513
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Dollar Crashes On Powell Removal Speculation, Gold Soars To All Time High And Bitcoin Suddenly Spikes

    Right. Notice, What is gold going up? Dollar going down. Dollar going down? Trade, exports, debt. Cheap dollar = U.S competitive. Normally that would be vs the Euro, etc, but there’s trouble with this usual deflections and devaluations. And not saying this is a plan – although that would make sense – but only that what is happening does cause this.

    “Japan Posts Record Population Drop, Shrinking For 14th Year, As Demographic Crisis Deepens

    Here’s a thought: Demographics is destiny. High in 1987, not exceeded. This would make sense for the U.S. as well. However, suppose you were Japan. Suppose this was a Plan. How would you run it? You WANT the population lower, to a safe level. Maybe you prioritize the countryside so much that rural houses are now going for pennies. You know that dropping population = dropping GDP. But no riots because you MANAGED it. Lower population, kids lying flat, but it was pretty okay, really, all in all. Prosperity in daily events remains. People who want each thing have those opportunities, WANT to be a 60-hour overworked corporate? It’s there. WANT to lie flat and read anime while stitching your new furry? It’s there. WANT to be a 80 year old retired guy in the park? It’s there. WANT to have Kendo meets and national Defense? It’s there.

    Any contraction isn’t great. For whatever reasons. But comparatively, they just had a 40-year what would you call it, Great Reset, Environmental Contraction, etc. with no one noticing.

    Leaving the recent weaponization aside, the U.S. plan was different, importing the correct number such that we don’t contract and is our national history. I’m not sure which I would pick, and we had no debate, but clearly this is what was decided.

    ACLU Sues Trump Admin Over Revocation Of International Student Visas

    What was the Columbia guy they deported? He’s been an undergrad for 16 years? Yeah, uh, he was pretty well understood to be a paid agitator of secret services.

    “A Conspiracy Theory That Is Being Pushed By The Left Claims That Something Really Big Is Going To Happen Today

    Ah, figured this out. Hitler’s birthday. So therefore if they could generate an event on that day the media could make it into fascism and white supremacy again. Aaaaand nothing happened. By the law of “Nothing ever happens.”

    Also both Easter’s meet: East and West, and I think like astrology that means something.

    Americans Are Searching for “USA Products” Like Never Before

    That’s only good when Canadians do it. When Americans do it, it’s racist.

    “Germany Deploys Troops To Lithuania In First Permanent Foreign Deployment Since World War II

    Tripwire suicide brigade. And what were they, Ten Men? No tanks?

    “Biden Judge Blocks Trump’s Order Ending ‘X’ Gender Marker On Passports

    Let me guess: no law was ever passed. Biden put this in with an EO, but Trump cannot remove with an EO. …Just like the border. Allowing them in is fine, removing them by same means is not.

    Greatest Tweet: Super boring.

    “There will be a trade deal with China.”

    Well sure, someday.

    ““China wins a trade war with the U.S.” — Jeffrey Sachs”

    I don’t know what you mean by this. You mean when we’re done, the U.S. will have 1) collapsed, or 2) Signed an even WORSE deal than the present one with China? No, and no. You have the Feelz, and you Feelz like you wish Donald would lose. So you just say it happened! All done now!

    Movie: Guess what? Trump is just a normal guy who grew up, does things, and eats carrots. LIKE HITLER. Hitler ate literal carrots, don’t be Hitler.

    “Donald will never win”

    There is no Donald. He’s a collective, like all such leaders. The idea is to focus on one guy, like Hitler, like Churchill, which is why the always REDUCE all issues to “Saddam” and “Putler”. So dumb.

    Kickbacks: So we’re going to arrest Romney, Graham, and Crenshaw now, right?

    Empty containers: Might want to not go with clickbait on that, it’s muddying things. I feel dumber at the end than at the beginning.

    Remember the “Strikes” they said was already a trade halt bc they wouldn’t take our crappy bonds and needed a cover story? New story, a wider one. Trade halts because worldwide settlement currency is in dispute, but if they admit that, the US$ will collapse, everyone panic-sells, and everybody dies.

    Population Map:
    Doesn’t that seem like a most serious risk, not a strength though?

    “• What It Means To Be White In America (Von Hoffmeister)

    He’s adopting the thought and vocabulary of his enemy. There is no “White”. Not in the sense they mean. Using it keeps this illusion and disorder going.

    How do I know? A half white person is “Black” A ¾ white person is “black”. A 3 generation American is “White” while his grandparents in Mexico are “Not White”. If he moves in from Spain, he is “White”. If he spends a year in Costa Rica first, he is “Not white”. Musk is pure African, African born and raised, and White. Bosnian Muslims are “White”, speaking no English. Creoles and PNW Blue-hairs are both White, but speak different languages that are not mutually intelligible. But we’re all bored, fill in as many more thousand examples as you please.

    • Russia Will Attack In A ‘Couple Of Years’ – Estonian FM (RT)

    Says you. Okay great: what’s the plan? Because I could care less. May I suggest getting off their oil and gas and not pissing them off all the time?

    ““if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would like to test NATO in our region, I think that the cost for him will be very high”

    Ah, so your plan is to Piss him off daily, then make US fight it. Got it. Is this not what Vance/Ze were discussing recently? No, no one remembers? Not in the news?

    ““What’s going on here, I think it’s important to understand, is that the Supreme Court is already signaling that they’re very sympathetic to the Trump administration,” Yoo said.

    In what way? They keep ruling against him.

    What’s happening is, like Chevron (I mis stated that as Exxon) Rule, they are cleverly taking the most arcane, fine-print readings of the law. Such that the Left thinks they’re winning, as the stay order, and then finding some loophole everyone head-scratches at that actually rules for Trump and some…progress if you want to call it that. But a change in the status quo. I disagree with this method and we want to be just, logical, and correct. However, no one in D.C. is and they’ll burst into flames if you try it.

    “Russian expert says Easter truce was prepared well in advance

    No one can just be normal for a second? Putin would like to give the troops the day off, but he can’t. So he does this. Maybe the other side won’t attack for a few hours, and that would be nice, but probably not. But at least his own Generals don’t have to give deployment orders for a day or two if they can help it. Of COURSE that is a benefit to Russia’s own self and men. Signals they care, they are aware of tradition and holidays, still attempting peace. These are all the things one should do. No amazing master plan. No nefarious 5D oriental chess.

    “• Trump Faces Self-Imposed Deadline To Make Scores Of Trade Deals (JTN)

    Maybe so. We don’t know what’s in them. One thing: they would RE-Buy US Bonds as sort of a sideline, a “Say thanks” of goodwill, and we may need this. There are 50-year gold backed bonds being discussed, and Cullom among others is like “That’s not “backed’, I’ll promise you the planet Jupiter 50 years from now”, totally correct. Ah, but what if we shove Canada’s head under the Bay of Fundy and MAKE them buy them? How about now? You MIGHT get the gold in 50 years, but that’s not the point, is it? And it doesn’t have to be a nefarious cheat: we GOT here via nefarious cheat, but to go back to honesty we can 1) Have a worldwide collapse where everybody dies or 2) FORCE them to knock out the Fed/Fiat legs and FORCE them to re-establish the gold standard, section by section, the same way it was removed. Your choice, are you done being wet now and like breathing?

    “let’s (carefully) vacate our bunkers and survey the dreadful damage: Hmm… Disruption has been minimal.”

    Yes because none of the TALK actually happened. “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” The media hasn’t stopped reporting the Thing-That-Never-Happened yet though. They’re in an air tight fart bubble.

    “One of the lessons of the COVID pandemic was the importance of nationalizing critical supply chains, so we’re no longer dependent on foreign rivals for medicine, food, and technology.”

    Note not we, nor anyone, took a single action in this, in any way. Even Puerto Rico was down (our other pharma) and we didn’t bother to turn the electric back on. Still off, I think. That guy saying he’d open a factory for masks? Still no gov’t contract that was merely to LOCK IN the orders over time, such that he could buy the equipment and not go bankrupt. Filthy capitalist. Doesn’t he know he should produce them for free, then have all his employees out on the street when he collapses? That’s how good Socialists do it, uncaring of markets.

    Anyway, nada thing.

    “Last week 57% of Americans supported Trump’s immigration policies. This week it “tanked” to 54%.”

    This is my impression. Following blue hairs online, they are all-in for “Nobody voted for any of this!!!! Aiiiiiii!!!!!!”, immigration, DOGE, trade, etc. No, actually, everyone did. It may or may not be your plan, it may or may not work, but for a change – first since I can remember – a President SAID he would do a thing, got in, and tried to do it.

    “the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule..”

    Although they SHOULD do this (say USSC ruling on Texas vs 2020 election) they NEVER do. So this is the one time in 100 years they leap-frog the lower courts?

    “Germany should donate 30% of its available armored vehicles and military aircraft to Kiev,”

    For free, of course. Ze just popped up like a gopher in Hee-Haw and said he wanted every Patriot Missile Battery in the U.S. inventory. He would “Pay” for them, of course. Okay, cash is accepted, I guess? Yeah, Trump said no, because Ukraine won’t exist in July. Check’s in the mail.

    Anyway, great way to dispose of those Leopards that never worked, but worst military plan since Lindesfarne. I’ve said every day for 3 years, sending one tank at a time, and it’s getting pretty late to send enough to matter anywhere. It’s like D-Day, except that we send a couple fishing boats and a jeep on a catamaran, and ya know, just kinda see what happens when we land, and take it from there.

    Again, all of this was a TRIPWIRE force. It was always and only meant to cause Russian attacks, and Ukrainian deaths. And it was all meant ONLY to escalate to a nuclear exchange. Which would only be run by the U.S. on our side, as the Def Minister just demonstrated in real time British subs that shoot missiles only blow up themselves. And British ships that leave the harbor, only turn around to port.

    How are they going to get their EIGHT whole guns onto the continent?

    Hegseth: again, neither of these make any sense. Esp back to back. Then lo, some people were fired for leaking. Related? Too complex to tell, hard to think so.

    ““Obviously, everybody in this country, even those undocumented immigrants, have rights.”

    Do they though? What do you mean? A lot of these Rights seem to be “We claim jurisdiction over all citizens worldwide.” And saying a President can’t expel a foreign national because he merely wishes to. Whether he SHOULD or not is different – I’m not at all sure he should in any but the worst cases – but I fail to see why he CAN’T. They are not visitors, they are guests. We told them the party’s over and pushed them out the door, safely getting them HOME, to their country, where they live. Not in MY country, where they don’t live.

    • MSNBC Suggests Trump Plans to Deport African-Americans (Bartee)

    Where are my cattle cars? I was promised cattle cars. And margaritas with salt. No matter how many weeks in a row this never happens, it makes not a whit of difference at all. Ever. Totally immune.

    So this Hitler, with a Jewish family and a Slavic, immigrant wife, flanked by an African, a Hindu, and a Gay Treasury secretary, is going to round up the Jews, the Slavs, the immigrants, the non-Christians, and the gays. Again.

    https://www.theradicalist.com/p/is-woke-a-mental-disorder

    I guess for consideration. Actual science.

    Forgot to ask: Whaaaaa with Poilivere and Carney. Like I read as Poliever pimp-handing Carney as the secret origin of all Trudeau’s (Canada’s) problems. Like election-winner and Carney just mumbles, looking offstage for his handlers. What’s the take in Canada?

    #186514
    zerosum
    Participant

    Pope Francis has died aged 88.
    What’s next?
    ————

    “Our political system is in a state of collapse.”— Jeffrey Sachs
    What’s next?

    https://x.com/upholdreality/status/1913733871155257356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1913733871155257356%7Ctwgr%5Ed18bd0f405212580c0c3a28b3973072845a0e0c1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theautomaticearth.com%2F2025%2F04%2Fdebt-rattle-april-21-2025%2F

    So what? What’s next?
    ————–
    • Trump Faces Self-Imposed Deadline To Make Scores Of Trade Deals (JTN)

    “Trump has promised that tariffs will help increase federal revenue, restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, and shift the tax burden away from U.S. families.”

    A tariff is a tax on imported goods.
    The importer pays the tax and can either absorb the loss or pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
    A tariff is an income for the gov.
    ———–
    What’s next?
    • Ukrainian Envoy Asks For 30% Of Germany’s Military Equipment (RT)

    ———–

    Easter Truce Over – Fighting Resumed – Tough Week Ahead – Military Summary And Analysis For 2025.04.21

    ————-

    #186515
    tboc
    Participant

    western implementation of Sharia Law:
    We have stolen everything you or your progeny have or will ever possess and now we will cut off both of your hands for theft.

    as an aside, i was informed Saturday evening at dinner that Time Magazine is a valuable source of accurate information. Time is even more accurate than The Atlantic, it was stated.

    One sideways glance and one sentence later the diiner gathering ended.
    “not as good as i once was
    but as good once as i ever was”

    seems some folks can’t remember the Court ruling on Citizens United.
    An active conservative court? “Get outta Dodge blackie, we don’t like your kind around here”

    what was it Aaron Bushnell said? or Sophie Scholl?

    what a deal, Sachs understands the difference between production and consumption. A reality unfathomable to our premier capitalist.

    #186516
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I see a pattern emerging.
    I can’t unsee it.

    A. On July 13, 2024 Trump was shot in Butler Pennsylvania and July 15, 2024 JD Vance BLANTON was named Trump’s running mate.

    B. Easter weekend JD Vance Hamel had an audience with Francis, Pope and The Leader of The Catholics keeled over within (what was it like?) 24 to 48 hours later not so soon after bilateral pneumococcal? pneumonia put the Pope into an ICU, respiratory failure, multiple organ system failure. Which advisor to The Pope thought it safe for him to see JD?

    C. Col. Susan Meyers gets Fired within days after meeting The Veep Vance at the base she commands, Pituffik Space Base in Greenland. Well, Susan didn’t die yet but give it time. There’s still time.

    D. John Murtha died within a few days of penning me a personal letter. In that letter, Murtha promised to inquire, investigate and bring to justice those officers, sailors and Lockheed employees who corrupted the Navy’s medical board program (think disability) to benefit their own bank accounts and Lockheed’s/ QTC’s bottomline. Of course the Navy, had to butcher Murtha’s bowel during “routine cholecystectomy” procedure at NNMC Bethesda. Word is JD Vance was nowhere near Jack Murtha. Lockheed, QTC and the Navy still haven’t change their minds yet that there’s only one bad guy in the Disability Debacle.

    #186518
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Apparently, the Supreme Court does not think any of the immigration laws on the books are Due Process.

    Their ruling is an announcement that immigration laws are the OPPOSITE of due process.

    No, arriving on the NGO transportation/logistics network expressly for the purpose of using immigration as a disruptive weapon against the United States, THIS is due process.

    ..because clearly even the written immigration laws plus the written laws defining how the government works, what powers each branch has, what responsibilities they are to execute, are NOTHING compared to NGO’s funneling hordes into the country. NGO’s > Constitution – says Supreme Court.

    So why not change your flags in court from those gold tasseled US ones to the globohomo flag? You just pledged your allegiance. What internationalist NGO’s controlled by Ivy Leauge graduate, NYT reading Inter-Nationalist Socialist trust fund babies have wrought, let no one put asunder.

    #186519
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    It’s hard to believe the distinction, disparity and dichotomy.

      The fact that China is the US’s largest foreign creditor is uncomfortable for both parties
      Donald Trump did not expect this and on April 13, he granted exemptions from the high tariffs on smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices. In other words, he caved, or as the Americans like to say, “He blinked first.”

      If you ask someone what percentage of Chinese exports go to the US, they will quote 30%-40%, expressing that the Chinese are dependent on the American market. In truth, China sends just under 15% of their exports to the US. China has been around for 5,000 years – the US for just over 200 years. If no agreement is reached, the Chinese will reposition the 15% and the US will lose a huge basket of great products with a great price/performance ratio. Ultimately, you have to ask yourself: who has the greater capacity for suffering – the Chinese, who think in decades, or the Americans, who think in quarters?

    https://sonar21.com/everything-is-possible-unfortunately/

    #186520
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    No GMO corn in Europe is trade manipulation??

    Maybe the Europeans just don’t like the flavor of glyphosate..

    #186521
    jb-hb
    Participant

    We must compete with Europe by erecting similar anti GMO “barriers” here at home!

    Surely, the only way! Take THAT, Europe!

    (sigh whatever works..)

    #186522
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Jb-hb

    I like that train of thought!

    #186523
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Jeffrey Sachs may be correct.
    On the other hand, he sounds like someone with TDS who has decided that Trump is “Orange Man Bad.” In that state of mind, it is difficult to weigh exigent realities without bias creeping in.

    #186525
    Dr D Rich
    Participant
      “Free Palestine!”
    #186526
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I like due process. However, I feel taken advantage of when the Biden admin funnels money to NGOs, who ferry foreigners to our borders, (simultaneously handing out kickbacks to US politicians,) the aliens claim that they are fleeing danger, are admitted with asylum hearings years away, then granted free benefits (food, housing, medical care) plus work permits, and the US is obligated to keep them here for years until a hearing occurs, which the foreigner will likely fail to attend. This sounds like a system that is designed for children, not for adults. I do not think that it is unfair to give an adult foreigner a less “pretty” option: you can stay in this internment location where you will be obligated to contribute some hours of labor each week towards running the facility and towards the resources that you consume, you can be deported back to your home country, you can appeal to a US citizen to sponsor you and enter the country under the sponsorship of that citizen, or you can apply to a third country while waiting on your asylum claim. People who show up at our border do not, merely by the fact of their existence, have an automatic claim on the right to live and work freely in the US. I have no desire to encarcerate them, but, seriously, what were they thinking?

    #186527
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Ultimately, you have to ask yourself: who has the greater capacity for suffering – the Chinese, who think in decades, or the Americans, who think in quarters?

    Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, St Louis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Rochester, Gary, Toledo, Hartford, Scranton, Memphis, Buffalo, Dayton, Flint, Newark, Decatur, Camden…

    Could I go on and on? Yes.

    In an earlier age, could the list of cities have been imagined as a cheerful song in a musical, hey, we’ve got so many cities! Affection towards one’s particular hometown, etc? Or in the 80’s, a song affectionately listing off American cities that “rock,” the crowd cheering for their city when it comes around in concert?

    Does it also sound like the list going out over loudspeakers in The Day After, cities that got hit by nukes?

    I don’t give a damn about making China suffer. They ought to be able to make things for themselves and have a nice midcentury lifestyle, live in some of those nice ghost city luxury dwellings, drive around cars with giant fins maybe.

    #186528
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Prof. Dr. Arne Burkhardt, a German pathologist, presents an unsettling slide show revealing that in vaccinated males, the spike protein from the COVID vaccine has entirely replaced their sperm

    What an ingenious way of culling weakness from the gene pool without actually hurting anyone.

    #186529
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Ultimately, you have to ask yourself: who has the greater capacity for suffering – the Chinese, who think in decades, or the Americans, who think in quarters?

    Well, if you’re going to use big all-inclusive words like “ultimately” then you’ve got to include a third demographic, Christians, who think in eternities and know that suffering is the price of admission.

    #186530
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #186532
    jb-hb
    Participant

    If illegal aliens cannot be sent back to their homes, because NOTHING wrong is happening when they are moved across continents in multi hundred billion dollar programs and nothing wrong is happening when the “Joe Biden” admin flies and busses them to our hometowns…

    Then they should be gathered up and continually deposited on the doorsteps of the Supreme Court justices. A continual stream of busses depositing more wherever they go.

    Prioritized with alleged gang members first. Because those are the ones they want to retain the MOASTEST. They should get the most benefit from the most special ones they especially want to keep, right?

    HOW can they object? NOTHING bad is happening.

    How can criminal foreign elements be shoehorned into the hotel 100 ft away from my home (we refer to it now as The Stabmore) against the wishes of essentially everyone in the neighborhood, but NOT Supreme Court Justices?

    When they know better than anyone how nothing is happening and there’s nothing bad about it?

    Can’t leave the country doesn’t mean can’t be moved around the country. IF it becomes Wrong sir, Wrong to move them across the country, do all “Joe Biden’s” movings become illegal and reversible?

    I want to hear Supreme Court justices articulate what is wrong with it happening in THEIR neighborhood and not mine. Please do explain and be specific.

    If nothing is wrong with it, then they should be happy with this endless stream of humanity wherever they go until the end of time. With many millions here to gather up and deposit, there need NEVER be an end to it. And that’s a good thing.

    #186533
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Supreme Court Justice: “..but you’re cynically using the movement of human beings and our inherent idea of their personal rights and taking advantage of our norms of politeness and standards of civility to attack us.”

    Racists!

    #186534
    Dora
    Participant

    Jeffrey Sachs has a remarkable talent for seeming always to keep one finger in the wind. I’ve lost count the number of times he’s seemed to do a 180 degree turn from his prior statements. He has kept a long career going. Maybe that’s the secret to a long career in a political field. (Economics is a political field.)

    #186535
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I see another pattern

    (((Businessmen)))) are bad.
    ((((Businessmen)))) are the problem…..
    ……with everything they touch from Universities/Education to Healthcare to The Witkoff Syndrome infecting Geopolitics to DoD Disability programs

    How can Ron Unz not see the pattern?

    A. Ron writes:

      Harvard had gradually transformed itself from a great academic center of learning into an enormous hedge fund with some sort of small school or something attached off to one side.

    ….but those hedge fund managers and a few Harvard VIPs made out like bandits.

    B. Healthcare or more aptly named, NonHealthcare

      The report zeroes in on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a health care behemoth that now owns more than $2 billion in tax-exempt property in Allegheny County alone.

      The investigation by The Lever reveals how nonprofit hospital giants are dodging taxes, hoarding land and influencing elections — while giving back less to communities than they take in subsidies.

    C. Geopolitics at the grubby hands of Businessman Steve Witkoff

      President Putin does not want an alignment with Chinese President Xi Jinping, it’s not a natural fit for Russia to be strategically networking with China.  Put a simpler way, Putin really doesn’t like Chairman Xi because Russia values brutal honesty in relationships, not the Beijing cunningness, ulterior motives and manipulative self-interest.

    Envoy Steve Witkoff Gives Topline Review Following 5 Hour Meeting with Vladimir Putin

    D. Lest we forget The $2,000,000,000 Lockheed Corpse paid for Anthony Principi’s QTC that used the free as cheap labor illegally of active duty doctors moonlighting with hands up the skirt of a certain Navy Nurse. “You hurt the Good Dr. May”

    Businessmen….MBAs almost each and every one

    #186536
    Topcat
    Participant

    Wealth is a funny thing when viewed over generational time.

    Lot’s of blah, blah, blah opinions, very little actually consideration of the reality of human hubris.

    #186537
    Topcat
    Participant

    #186538
    Topcat
    Participant

    Speaking of Death and Demographics

    Don’t marry the Vaxed if you want a family.

    “an unsettling slide show revealing that in vaccinated males, the spike protein from the COVID vaccine has entirely replaced their sperm…”

    Nothing but blanks….

    Like Japan, too depressed to screw with reckless abandon…..

    So who really did kill the most offspring?

    Be honest….

    #186539
    Topcat
    Participant

    Humans are pitiful

    Europeans especially

    No adults in sight

    Bedtime story time

    #186540
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #186543
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #186544
    Michael Reid
    Participant
    #186545
    Topcat
    Participant

    China Is In Economic Dire Straits And They’re No Longer Able To Hide It

    “Official economic data from any government is always treated with suspicion by anyone with common sense…….

    Biden’s misrepresentation of the labor market, portraying millions of new jobs for illegal migrants and visa holders as if they were jobs benefiting American citizens. In the US and across the western world, lying about the economy is generally seen by politicians as a temporary solution to secure reelection.”

    … in China, lying about the economy is treated as a national security imperative. If there’s anything in the world that gives communists a feeling of existential dread, it’s the fear that their ideological enemies will discover proof that communism doesn’t work.”

    #186546
    Dr. D
    Participant

    What is this in the Sonar article? Don’t make me do a 10-hour research dive to debunk this rot. “China is 5,000 years.” And? So is Greece, Egypt, but also Mexico, Bali, India, Congo, heck, Scotland, Minnesota…what does that mean? They’re the same culture? Not even, go look. Same name? Nope also, the “Chin” people are only one of many, the name is not continuous. It. Is. PR. Words might as well not be spoken, “Signifying nothing.”

    I’m not exactly sure China is our largest holder. They used to be. Even if still listed, (I think they’re half the next size, which may be Japan) they’ve been offloading T’s as PROMISES. That is, give me cobalt today on a 10 year contract, and we’ll pay in Bonds 10 years from now. So in a sense, they are no longer China’s, they are already converted into railroads, mines. Sitting in a folder, waiting to be mailed. I still think it’s not much, in fact only this week Luongo said Europe had twice China’s.

    Using his DonaldTelepathy he knows everything Donald has ever thought or intends to think. Donald got in a plan, but there was only ONE path, not a single if-then logical branch anywhere on it! So there was only “All this” or “Oops!” Yuppers, a well-known negotiator for 50 years, who knew his secret weakness was that all you had to do was say no? Nobody ever tried that before! He’s totally flat-footed! Never occurred to him!

    Naturally, since he had to branch into Plan F, G, or H, this is what we call, “Totally losing” not playing forward well-known, much-traveled chess moves. –Or even that this was always the plan, bc China is IN on it. Because whoever had a negotiation that had more than two moves? That’s just RE-DONK-U-lous. No negotiator has ever thought that far before.

    THIS Is what’s passing for commentary. Or even normal thought. Everyone nods their heads and goes “Uh-huh, Uh-huh, I will call him, Ge-ORGE.”
    Toons

    Then it is Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllll known that China is dodging all rules, worldwide, by re-importing everywhere on the planet. THIS IS SPECIFICALLY SAID BY TRUMP. So then he immediately quotes “Acktshully! It’s only 15%.” Uh-huh.

    Okay, wise -ss, take it from MY side of the ledger, that I can check. APPARENTLY, Acktshully, everything I pick up, everywhere in America is made in China. It says so on the bottom. So calculate ALLLLL the goods sold in America, and see if that adds up to your 15%. No. It does not. There are people elsewhere, we don’t have to be half, but 30% is more like in the realm of this universe.

    Double spot check: if none of our goods are made by China, who are they made by, genius? Us? That’s the WHOLE POINT of the war! “Acktshully, you didn’t notice this but we at Hahhhh-vahhhd, have found America Already makes all our own goods, and Ehhhhverywhone is acktshully employed. OMB. So there. ”

    What the literal. Now you make me waste my time on this when I could be plunging a toilet or something clean and useful compared to these monkeys.

    #186547
    zerosum
    Participant

    Old news Published: Dec 2, 2024
    Lab Leak: The True Origins of Covid-19

    FINAL REPORT: COVID Select Concludes 2-Year Investigation, Issues 500+ Page Final Report on Lessons Learned and the Path Forward

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-true-origins-of-covid-19/

    House Oversight ReportDownloaD
    Content on this page sourced from the House Oversight Committee website, a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the U.S. House of Representatives.

    https://oversight.house.gov/release/final-report-covid-select-concludes-2-year-investigation-issues-500-page-final-report-on-lessons-learned-and-the-path-forward/

    Nobody has yet to be held accountable

    #186548
    zerosum
    Participant

    China is going down.
    USA is going down.
    We are in a pot of water on the stove.
    Are we dumb frogs with no escape?

    #186551
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    You’re right, D.
    You convinced me….in a very disorganized way.

    Where are all the T-bills?
    Who holds the Debt? You know the (((answer))))

    D and the common TAEer: “Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllll known that China is dodging all rules” but no one can know the greatest id on display in the entire Universe. Maybe I got id confused with ego.

    China bad

    Crushed that StrawMan didn’t you D:
    “Using his DonaldTelepathy he knows everything Donald has ever thought or intends to think.”
    Threw in a whole lot of Projection too.

    I think StrawMan can be very appealing, even more entertaining AND highly persuasive in court when employed against the knaves on the bench.

    “War” you said it D.

    This time it’s Bankers and Businessman’s War with emphasis on the latter and led by a bunch of ConMen wielding The Art of the Deal and enlivened by a bunch of sickos chasing a buck.

    When did this War start btw?
    September 2019 with Overnight Repo operations?
    Or December 2019 with double tap of COVID and Quantitative Easing redux?

    Europe and Japan and China hold a lot of T-bills
    Okay got it.
    Those numbers should be highly classified in a Banker’s n Businessman’s War and certainly more important than SecDef Hegseth’s email musings about Houthi annihilations.

    #186559
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Napoleon and awakening the sleeping Dragon.

    When did the war start? 1971 with Nixon.
    1989 with Bush.
    1992 with Clinton.

    My read is it’s been on this long. IF the U.S. is at the top and needs to be shorted, THEN they need a new ship to pirate and bid up. Don’t believe they don’t think that far ahead because hundreds of White Papers from Think Tanks say they do. So they were supposed to be conquering China from within by now, but it’s not working out and they’re screwed.

    Glad for that, but that’s not the point. When did the war start? They were on the Trade War in I dunno, when was Congress ordering China to re-value their currency? 2004? That was stunning, press had no sense of what that implied, of course. China then maneuvered using other leverage to “Twist” into/out of Fannie and Freddie — all illegally of course, but we were being ordered around by then at that time. Exact same thing as this Trade War/Not Trade war, except for the lying about it.

    There’s a war about it? Yes, every day since 1971. What makes today different? And if we lost the last 2-3 rounds, and have no ships, what makes today different? We’re going to land and occupy them? Or them, us?

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