Friday Open Thread

What's on your mind?

Comments

[not guilty]

Judge Trina Thompson in the Northern District of California has issued a blistering opinion granting the Plaintiffs’ motion to postpone effective date of the Trump administration’s bid to cancel deportation protections and work permits for more than 63,000 Nicaraguan, Honduran and Nepali immigrants, saying the decision by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared rooted in racism. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26037858/tpsthompson073125pdf.pdf

The order postponed a Sept. 8 deadline Noem had imposed for those 63,000 immigrants to leave the country or lose Temporary Protected Status.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Her motivation can be based in her belief that they were Martians.
This is unmitigated bullbleep -- another judge we need to impeach.

[Kazinski]

That's a great example NG of things that aren't going to move the needle in the court of public opinion, even though a plurality think the administration has been too aggressive on immigration enforcement:

"On the current approach to deportation, however, views are divided. Half, 49%, feel ICE has been too aggressive in its efforts to deport illegal immigrants while a quarter (24%) say it has not been aggressive enough. Nearly 3 in 10 say deportation efforts are about right (27%)."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-support-deportation-depends-who-being-targeted

[Mr. Bumble]

The mostly unreported on effect of Trump's deportation push is the shut-off of the faucet of people trying to enter the country illegally.
She this story about the notorious Darien Gap:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/07/darien-gap-closed.php

[Commenter_XY]

The other unreported effect is self deportations.

[Frank Drackman]

But how will we survive without Rosie Odonnell!?!?!?!?! (have you noticed she and Danny Divito look more and more alike?)

[Mr. Bumble]

Hey NG was the TPS "racist" when granted?

[not guilty]

Mr. Bumble, have you read the opinion that I linked to? If so, what part(s) of it do you disagree with, and why?

[Mr. Bumble]

No, I have not (too early to be reading a legal opinion)* but my question goes to your comment that the judge declared decision to remove TPS from these groups was "racist".
So I ask again; Was granting TPS "racist" as regards these groups?
*(See the typos in the above comments. Need more coffee.)

[David Nieporent]

No, of course not. I don't even understand your question. If American slavery was racist, does that mean that abolition was, too?

[Martinned]

Of course. The 13th Amendment disproportionately favoured black people, so obviously it was racist.

[Frank Drackman]

Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and say something like this... and totally redeem yourself!

[Dr. Ed 2]

There are different races of Black people -- remember Rwanda?

[Frank Drackman]

Rwanda who looked so fine?
Rwanda who helped me get her out of my heart??

[Kazinski]

Well the biggest flaw is the Supreme court already stayed an injunction on these same exact paroles on May 30th:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-trump-revoke-legal-status-500000-immigrants-rcna207271

The statute clearly gives the Administration authority to revoke the parole for any reason whatsover.

[Martinned]

I know of only one authority which might justify the suggested method of construction. "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be the master, that's all." After all this long discussion the question is whether the words "If a man has" can mean "If a man thinks he has". I have an opinion that they cannot and the case should be decided accordingly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liversidge_v_Anderson

[Kazinski]

Oh, and here is the statute that allows the Secretary of DHS to grant parole with sufficient reason or revoke it for any reason at all:

"(5)(A) The Secretary of Homeland Security may, except as provided in subparagraph (B) or in section 1184(f) of this title, in his discretion parole into the United States temporarily under such conditions as he may prescribe only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit any alien applying for admission to the United States, but such parole of such alien shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien and when the purposes of such parole shall, in the opinion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, have been served the alien shall forthwith return or be returned to the custody from which he was paroled and thereafter his case shall continue to be dealt with in the same manner as that of any other applicant for admission to the United States."

Here is A else's thread about the stay from may:

https://reason.com/volokh/2025/05/19/supreme-court-allows-dhs-to-suspend-temporary-protected-status-for-venezuelans/?comments=true#comment-11053477

[Sarcastr0]

The Court looks to address this language starting on p. 15. They issue is this particular authority is individualized, and requires an individualized determination. Which the Administration is not doing.

I'm personally not sure if I agree with the analysis (I'd need to see other similar language and how it's been treated in decisions on the merits), but you need to do more work than just citing the language.

And citing the shadow docket as precedential also doesn't work since that's not on the merits and doesn't provide an explanation of the contours of any decision besides.
The district court is not obviously going against current doctrine.

[Kazinski]

Well if I need more than the plain words of the statute then how about the Supreme Court lifting the stay in the exact same facts 2 months previously?

[Sarcastr0]

We don't know if it's the exact same because the shadow docket isn't on the merits and provides no language to be a useful precedential guide.
To ask otherwise is to ask courts to predict what the Supreme Court will end up ruling, which is fundamentally not how legal doctrine works for practical reasons I expect you can understand.

Live by the shadow docket, die by it.

The court's own plain language argument is at least something that needs to be addressed, even if you don't wanna.

As I said, I'm not sure which way it cuts when it is addressed but breezily saying 'oh hey shadow docket case and bolding some language and it's super clear' is not going to be sufficient.

[Sarcastr0]

I also missed the later analysis about racial animus.

Which also overrides the text of the statute.
Just like in the employment context where you can fires someone for any reason so long as it's not based on a suspect class, so too here.

Which DMN has explained a lot.

[TextFirst]

A prior decision just like this was so frivolous it was disposed of on the shadow docket. It's absurd that SCOTUS even has to explain that the statute means what it says, but I guess this judge is so stupid that it's necessary. Fine, but then they should also be forced to attend remedial CLE's on statutory construction.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

It is funny watching the liberal activists here cosplaying as lawyers scream the inferior court judge has more merit than the "shadow docket" despite this ruling also not being on the merits but a prejudicial ruling.

Hilarious you guys think you're good lawyers.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The part about racism. Unless there was a equal number of blue-eyed blondes who had also been given TPS and that group had been treated differently, it is impossible to claim racist intent.

[Poxigah146]

Even if either were, the federal government is not prohibited from being "racist" in its application of immigration law.

[Martinned]

It's not? Since when?

[Poxigah146]

The federal government owes equal protection of the laws to people lawfully inside the U.S. It doesn't owe equal protection of the laws for all of humanity, no matter where in the world. That means whom is entitled to immigration benefits is at the discretion of the U.S.

[Martinned]

And yet, if the Federal government does something that is "inexplicable by anything but animus", they get dinged.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/585/17-965/#:~:text=It%20cannot%20be%20said%20that%20it%20is%20impossible%20to%20%E2%80%9Cdiscern%20a%20relationship%20to%20legitimate%20state%20interests%E2%80%9D%20or%20that%20the%20policy%20is%20%E2%80%9Cinexplicable%20by%20anything%20but%20animus.%E2%80%9D

[Poxigah146]

Uhh, Trump won that case, and in Cleburne, the court applied rational basis review.

[Martinned]

He did, because the GOP judges bent over backwards to give it to him. But your claim was that Trump could do whatever he liked, and that's not true.

If you're going to move your goalposts, at least have the courtesy of adding a #MovedGoalposts hastag...

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

More of the hilarity of activists posing as lawyers here. Lol.

[David Nieporent]

The federal government owes equal protection of the laws to people lawfully inside the U.S. It doesn't owe equal protection of the laws for all of humanity, no matter where in the world.

Um, even if your first claim is true, these people are lawfully inside the U.S.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Not once TPS was revoked. Keep up buddy.

Can any of you activists point out to me if Venezuela is still suffering from the hurricane that occurred 25 years ago?

It is hilarious watching you couch claims under merits yet dont realize the declaration ending TPS actually went through the merits based on growth since the events that TPS was granted.

But you activist cosplayers dont care about merits. You care about narratives.

Hell. You idiots dont even know what the word temporary means.

[Josh R]

El Salvadorians are covered by TPS because of that earthquake. Venezuelans are because of Maduro. Many countries have had TPS ended including Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait and Rwanda.

[David Nieporent]

Can any of you activists point out to me if Venezuela is still suffering from the hurricane that occurred 25 years ago?

If there is any non-retarded MAGA person here, can you explain to JesseAZ that Venezuelans were given TPS status 4 years ago, not 25 years ago, and not because of any hurricane?

[Commenter_XY]

The 9th Circuit will overturn it, and if they do not; SCOTUS will. It is a legal speed bump.

[Martinned]

Indeed. Both other branches of government are committed to not doing their duties as independent branches of government.

[Michael P]

The legislative branch delegated the mechanics of this process to the executive branch. The judicial branch, with isolated nutty exceptions, recognizes that.

[Frank Drackman]

Too bad she didn't postpone the roughly 100,000 Abortions that will take place from today until September 8th

[LexAquilia]

90,000 of them are blacks or browns, why would we want to do that??

[Frank Drackman]

because one of them might save your life one day, oh wait a minute, you're right!

[Armchair]

Biden judge, blathering on for political reasons.

[tylertusta]

This reminds me of that judge who ruled that border enforcement at the southern border was racist against "Latinx" people.

[David Nieporent]

No judge ruled that. There was a judge who ruled that (non-border) enforcement based on race was racist.

[tylertusta]

... the Court finds that Section 1326 [illegal reentry under the INA] does indeed disparately impact Mexican and Latinx individuals. The Court further finds, as other district courts have, that discriminatory intent motivated the criminal unlawful reentry statute in 1929 [and thus the INA which relied upon it].

https://webshare.law.ucla.edu/CILP/Nevada_order_granting-Carrillo-Lopez.pdf

If your contention is that she didn't literally say "border enforcement is racist" then you're correct. However, the effect of her decision is that border enforcement against Mexican and "Latinx" individuals under the INA is racist against Mexican and "Latinx" individuals due to her finding of racist motives in passing the INA, full Jackson stop.

Thankfully the 9th Circuit panel who got this on appeal got it right and shut down the idiocy from Judge Du.

[David Nieporent]

I didn't realize you were talking about a four year old decision that had been overturned as opposed to the more recent one that MAGA was up in arms about, but, yes, I would say that this is different than (though obviously related to) border enforcement.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Because you're an activist and not a lawyer.

[Mr. Bumble]

No, he's Notimportant but thinks he is.

[tylertusta]

If it's not illegal to reenter the US at the border, how can once enforce the law at the border?

[David Nieporent]

Do you understand the difference between turning away people at the border and prosecuting them after they're in the country?

[Armchair]

Ah, the Neiporent backwalk...

Neirporent: "No judge ruled that."
tylertusta: Here's the judge
Neirporent: Oh, THAT judge...(backwalk, backwalk, back-defend).

[tylertusta]

-

[Riva]

Has this country ever experienced such gross abuses of federal judicial power? Perhaps by democrat judges in the Civil War era.

[LexAquilia]

It's so easy for Democrats to come to those conclusions because one of their axioms is Republicans only act with improper animus.

It's a pretty neat judicial philosophy as it let's Democrat judges strike just about anything a Republican does.

[Poxigah146]

Someone said a long time ago that Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.

[David Nieporent]

It was Charles Krauthammer. And it's no longer accurate; each side now seems to think the other is both of those things.

[windycityattorney]

So one of the often heard criticisms of so called 'liberal judges' is they decide on a conclusion (based on feelings or emotions or some such) and make up the legal reasoning to get them to the pre-determined conclusion.

In this immigration context; Trump ordered mass deportations. He hired people who promised to carry out his wishes. So we have a pre-determined conclusion (everybody must go) and his smooth-brained dept heads have to figure out a legal way to do it.

The question for the MAGA legal luminaries here... WHATS THE FUCKING DIFFERENCE? Its okay because you agree with the result? Its okay because Trump said he was going to do it when he was on the campaign trail? Are either of these things a legal argument? Does team MAGA not have to get the law right if they are doing something the MAGA base agrees with??? I realize a coherent legal theory to support this is difficult to articulate but for fks sake. Ad hominem attacks on the judges with zero legal critique isn't a theory of anything. Its caveman grunts... me right u wrong. Hurr durrr

[LexAquilia]

The T in TPS is "Temporary". Their status was granted over 20 years ago.
It's not goal-seeking to enforce our laws and regulations. it's also not goal-seeking to want to undo decades of lack of regard for those laws and regulations and undo the harms or burdens that lack was caused.

[Don Nico]

"WHATS THE FUCKING DIFFERENCE?"
The difference is simple one is a policy decision made within the full purview and scope of action of the executive.
The other is a substitution of a "quasi-policy" position based on judicial usurpation of its role.
A lawyer should not have to ask a question such an obvious and simple answer.

[Bob from Ohio]

"(based on feelings or emotions or some such) "

How did people ever come up with this opinion. Its a mystery!

Oh wait, it was opinions like this:

"The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek. Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and
purify their blood. The Court disagrees."

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Hey not a lawyer. What is the legal definition of temporary. What was incorrect on the declaration removing TPS? It listed the improved conditions since the hurricane 25 years ago as one example.

[Bob from Ohio]

blistering!

That will show Noem!

[TextFirst]

A baby born during Hurricane Mitch can now be a practicing attorney themselves, as it's been 27 years. If the countries these people came from genuinely cannot clean up after a storm in that amount of time, then clearly they should give up on independence and try to become somebody's colony.

Of course, nobody REALLY thinks that it takes 27 years to find some towels and sandbags, it's just that democrats don't accept democracy as legitimate and will thwart GOP governance in any way possible. This needs to be rocket docketed to SCOTUS and for these people to be immediately expelled. The actual plaintiffs to this suit-- information available to the government, I think, even if they're not publicly named-- should be at the top of that list just on general principle.

A corollary to all this is that the amount of TPS the USA should grant is 0. It's easy to get an arbitrarily large number of parasites in, it's nearly impossible to get them out. The best way to not have a vermin problem is no never have vermin in the first place.

[notec10280]

here are two more examples of niggers chimping out. these filthy, savage beasts share some physical similarities with humans, but they're not. they, with the help of their demonic jew enablers, wreak havoc around the globe.

https://nypost.com/2025/07/30/us-news/nyc-brute-admits-he-kicked-friends-dog-to-death-torched-its-body-but-hes-still-released-from-jail-da/

https://nypost.com/2025/07/31/us-news/texas-dad-murdered-7-year-old-adopted-son-over-donut-sticks/

[Kazinski]

I think after the first 6 months of Trump2 things should settle down for a while. Not that Trump is going to back off on his agenda, or the Democrats are going to stop opposing it, but its clear that it has been successful enough that he will maintain GOP support in Congress, and despite all the caterwauling about the impact of tariffs Wall Street is having a very successful ratings season, and the US global trading partners are meekly falling in line ensuring that there won't be a big impact to US exporters.

To be sure Trump is currently underwater in the opinion polls, but no place he hasn't been before and there is still a year until the midterms will heat up.

What really is going to create a big change between now and then? If the economy starts to slow a little then the fed will lower interest rates, so there is kills downside there. If the Fed keeps interest rates they way they are then it will be because employment and growth continue to do well.

There are mild signs that tariffs may keep inflation from dropping further towards the feds target, but little sign its accelerating, and there have been some notable signs of some prices coming down.*

So what should we be looking for to change the status quo in the next 6 months: Trump continuing his downsizing agenda in most of government, except INS, and the Democrats impotently claiming a fascist takeover led by Trump and an attractive blond woman wearing jeans.

I bought 2 dozen eggs at Costco today for 3.89, that's 1.90 a dozen.

[Martinned]

So I take it that you don't care if there's a fascist takeover in the US as long as the eggs are cheap?

[Frank Drackman]

No, if New Yawkers want to erect a Moose-lum Fascist, more power to them, like Mencken said.

[Kazinski]

That kind of illustrates where the resistance as just gone off the rails, now everyone is associating a Fascist takeover as hot blondes wearing their jeans unbuttoned.

No wonder they are losing the youth vote. I'm not sure where the eggs come in.

[Martinned]

Oh, that Sydney Sweeney situation is dumb all around. The less said about it the better.

(Which of course makes me wonder why Fox News is talking about it more than they talk about Jeffrey Epstein.)

[Frank Drackman]

It was PMS-NBC that started it, and yes, when Liberals do Stupid (redacted) Fox News will report it (that's mostly what they are, "Liberals doing Stupid (redacted)"
Reminds me of the Kerfuffle (is that how you say it? "Kerfuffle"?) a few years back when a University of Wisconsin Professor used the word "Niggardly" in class. Unfortunately, the E-lite student body thought that "Niggardly" referred to um, well, you know, (Redacted) when of course any Ed-jew-ma-cated person knows it refers to (Find an Ed-jew-ma-cated person to tell you)

Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

Thankfully the Mad Men add agency American Eagle chose realized the Sydney Sweeney's good genes would work better than a tucked Dylan Mulvaney or Lizzo's rolls of fat.

[Krayt]

[TwelveInchPianist]

American Eagle's response:

Her jeans, Her story.

We'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way.

[Sarcastr0]

The resistance needs to answer for every Internet opinion out there?

We have plenty of anti-Trump people here. Riva dangled that ad in front of us last open thread, and was roundly rejected as bait.

As Martinned noticed, the much bigger movement was the *right* picked it up as a story of what the left is totally doing. Including the freaking White House, who are basically releasing Breitbart-level stuff alongside Trump's rambling incoherent angry rants.

[Bwaaah]

"The resistance needs to answer for every Internet opinion out there?"

Well, that tells us three things: 1) You see yourself as "the resistance", 2) You see yourself as "speaking for the resistance," and 3) You feel a need to answer for every Internet opinion out there, including stupid ones like this.

[Sarcastr0]

I'm not going to call the entire right to answer for your being offended at 'dear colleagues' either, so don't worry.

And no, I don't see myself as the resistance. Not sure what that means, even.

You do have a habit of making up stories explaining what people you disagree with believe, based on vibes.

[Commenter_XY]

El Vibrador speaks, once again.

[Sarcastr0]

Where are the vibes in the post you replied to? Or are you just shitposting?

[Don Nico]

"You do have a habit ... based on vibes."
Again the man just lies to try to make his point.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

He has been consistent in his idiocy for over a decade at least.

[Mr. Bumble]

Thus, Il Douche.

[Magister]

Typical Bwaaah stupidity. One can't conclude that Sarcastr0 is the resistance just because he observes that anti-Trump people are less interested in the jeans brouhaha than Trump cultists. Nor does one have to speak for the resistance to observe that they don't seem to care. And plenty of stupid opinions in this thread alone that Sarcastr0 has not after many hours answered for.

[Kazinski]

"Roundly rejected as bait".

Well that settles it then.

Its probably just Rightwing political outlets still talking about it, like Variety, which is has an article today:

"JD Vance Urges Democrats Angry Over Sydney Sweeney Jeans Ads to Keep It Up: ‘Continue to Tell Everybody’ Who Thinks She Is Attractive That They’re ‘a Nazi’"

“My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance said jokingly on Friday’s episode of the conservative “Ruthless” podcast. “That appears to be their actual strategy.”

Vance, mining the political vein of the latest culture-war clash, continued, “I mean, it actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though, which is that you have, like, a normal all-American beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad, right? They’re trying to sell, you know, sell jeans to kids in America and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing. And it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?”

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/jd-vance-sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-jeans-ads-democrats-nazi-1236476449/

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, quote Vance about how mad Dems are. But he's quoted in variety which makes it liberal!

You're kind of a moron sometimes.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

He isnt the dumbfuck in denial about the left calling AE nazis for daring to have a white model lol.

[Kazinski]

I didn't say Variety was liberal, its a show business trade paper, and the fact they would report on it, obviously because of the Sydney Sweeney hook makes it clear its not just ginned up by the right wing as bait.

But if you want a liberal outfit, here is the AP:
https://apnews.com/article/american-eagle-sydney-sweeney-jeans-dunkin-e4d0cfade207d3b1e1b4e93531bfc082

[TwelveInchPianist]

"and was roundly rejected as bait."

Sounds like somebody learned from his response to the pillow guy selling pillows for $14.88.

[Sarcastr0]

Ah, what a deflection!

But here is the walk down memory lane, since you were kinda lazy about it:
https://reason.com/volokh/2024/09/30/monday-open-thread-73/?comments=true#comment-10742028

"...do your stats right, and reduce it to right-wing luminaries. Use the proper set and things look a lot less like coincidence."

I remain fine with that comment.

[TwelveInchPianist]

It's just as dumb (and innumerate) as it was when you posted it, El Vibradoro.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

How dare someone point out how ridiculous and terrible the 29% of people who support democrats like yourself are.

God damn your arguments are dumb.

[jb]

Stoo trying to make fetch happen. No one cares about Sydney Sweeney except for people trying to distract from the fact that Trump won't release the Epstein files.

[Martinned]

No one cares about Sydney Sweeney

Let's not go crazy. I am very pleased that she exists. I just don't care about that commercial.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

The files you didn't care about until 3 months ago? The ones they asked to be released by the judge who has disallowed their release?

[David Nieporent]

No. They could release everything in their possession at any time; they don't need to ask a judge. What they asked the judge to do, which they knew wouldn't be granted because it would be illegal, was to release grand jury materials.

[Riva]

Make up your little mind. I thought he was a”king” Now we’re back to fascist? A fascist king? I thought I advised you to never go full moron?

[Bob from Ohio]

"fascist takeover in the US "

Your derangement is amusing.

[Commenter_XY]

Hilarious, actually.

[Mr. Bumble]

What to make of Trump's approval polling.
Rasmussen has Trump at 49+/51-. The RCP average has Trump
at 44.8+/51.9-. Both of these are better then the approval for Republicans in general, which is better than the polling for Democrats.
Go figure what any of this means.

[Kazinski]

There isn't going to be an election for 15 months so I am not sure it matters, and its hard to take them.seriously when they range from -16 to +2 in just the last week.

RCP Average 7/16 - 7/30 46.3 51.4 Spread -5.1
Rasmussen 7/24 - 7/30 49 50 Spread -1
Ipsos 7/26 - 7/28 40 56 Spread -16
M. Consult 7/25 - 7/27 47 50 Spread -3
YouGov7/25 - 7/28 44 53 Spread -9
Trafalgar/InsiderAdv7/22 - 7/23 50 48 Spread +2
Quantus 7/21 - 7/23 47 50 -3

[Josh R]

As with the pre-election polls, best to look at the average.

But wait, you say! Rasmussen and Trafalgar did the best in 2024, so don't go with the average which also missed 2016 and 2020. On the other hand, Rasmussen and Trafalgar were the worst pollsters in 2018 and 2022. Perhaps Trump's name on the ballot is what impacts who votes and the difference in the pollsters is their models of who will vote from their samples.

All that being said, Bumble makes a good point about how the Democratic party fairs in the polls. The generic Congressional vote is even. It was +7 Dem in 2018. You would think it would favor the Dems given Trump's low approval rating.

[hobie]

Uh...tariffs=higher costs for goods=inflation

Also, for some reason Dave's Supermarket here has Eggland's Best (America's premium egg brand) on special for $2.99/dz. Which is an excellent price. So I loaded up. But I'm dubious though. All the lesser brands were at least two dollars more. So what makes these Egglands so cheap?

[Mr. Bumble]

Loss leader?

[Frank Drackman]

They're like your mom, Brown and easily cracked.

[Kazinski]

Here is core PCE since March, it has barely budged since the tariffs were introduced in April, it's going to take more than 1/10% to move the needle.

June 2025 +2.8%
May 2025 +2.8%
April 2025 +2.6%
March 2025 +2.7%

In fact its been in the same narrow range going back at least a year:

https://www.bea.gov/system/files/pi0625chartc.PNG

[Sarcastr0]

Interesting you've switched to PCE from the usual measure of inflation, CPI.

And you continue to basically ignore Powell's analysis of inflationary pressure.

[hobie]

As was pointed out Wednesday, Kazinski has a habit of selectively curating his economics

[Malika the Maiz]

The last CPI was high so of course he’s not discussing that.

[hobie]

he could have mentioned it but blamed Obama

[Kazinski]

I discussed it when it came.out 2 weeks ago, which seemed the perfect time.

[Kazinski]

In fact I will post what I said 2 weeks ago, so you'll stop complaining, and also because I have a prediction about July CPI:

"Now I will get into Y/Y inflation numbers, but first lets be honest, there is only 2 reasons most people here care, either to blame Trump or to praise him. First lets start with the full CPI Y/year numbers "The year-over-year inflation rate surged to 2.7% in June from 2.4% in May"

But that of course include 7 Biden months, so will analyze the last 12 months of inflation data using the dreaded Biden Months vs Trump Months technique, this is of course mainly to insulate Biden from Trump’s failures. All the data is from Chart 1, of the BLS press release linked above.

Jul-24__0.1
Aug-24__0.2
Sep-24__0.2
Oct-24__0.2
Nov-24_0.3
Dec-24__0.4
Jan-25__0.5

This annualizes out to 3.28% annual inflation.

So now let’s look at Trump’s tariffizing hyper-inflation:

Feb-25__ 0.2
Mar-25__ -0.1
Apr-25__ 0.2
May-25__ 0.1
Jun-25__ 0.3

This annualizes out to 1.68% inflation.

But I’m the y/y number will be worse next month, in fact I almost guarante it, as July ‘24 which was also a very good number it will also be replaced by a .2 or .3 (unlikely to be any more with gas prices dropping), However that will also drop off of Biden's 6 month agregate too, and make it worse, in fact i should probably end this comparison next month because as you see looking at the last 3-4 months of Biden's term in isolation, is just unfair."

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

No it wasn't high. Where do you morons get this shit?

[Kazinski]

PCE came out Thursday morning less than 24 hours ago, and its the Feds preferred measurement.

Don't worry, I'll go back to CPI when its released in about 2 weeks, I want to stay interesting and don't want to get stale.

Yes Hobie, I selectively pick the freshest numbers. The numbers I pointed Wednesday were the GDP numbers released 8:30 am Wednesday morning, And now the PCE numbers I just quoted are less than 24 hours after they were released Thursday Morning at 8:30.

[Sarcastr0]

'I used this metric as the salient one because it was released the most recently' is about where your level of actual analysis is.

Citing that it's the Fed's favored measure while contradicting the Fed Chair's most recent statement shows you're engaging in analysis at all, really.
Just some cheerleading with numbers.

[Bwaaah]

Real vibey, man. Vibey. From the shizistance.

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, Kaz is doing vibsenomics; nicely noted.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

When the fed admitted they hadn't seen impact from tariffs? God damn you're dumb. They held steady based on good GDP and future predictions (thesame ones that have been wrong for months now).

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

It is interesting you know as little regarding economics as you do the law.

Where is the signal in even CPI data? And did you look at PPI? What about the import statistics? All showing no cost growth dumdum.

The biggest "gain" in CPI for the last report was energy, not import costs lol.

[Commenter_XY]

I expect to see somewhat higher inflation simply b/c of higher growth; Q2 GDP was 3% growth (above baseline).

As deportations increase (they need to increase a lot), I expect the U-6 number to come down for American citizens.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

The labor report, while low, shows job losses from immigrants. Job rate of citizens increased again. Also still have the fallout from job cuts in government.

[Poxigah146]

That's because rates are way too low. The Fed Funds rate should be at least 8%.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

The neutral fed rate is 3%...

And government shouldn't even be setting rates. They do a shit job of it.

[bernard11]

In fact its been in the same narrow range going back at least a year:

So Biden brought it down, and you give Trump all the credit. I'm surprised to see Trumpists praising their god for doing about as well as Biden.

What happened to, “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.”

[Kazinski]

Well as Sarcastro helpfully pointed out the Fed thinks that narrow range is still too high, which is why they won't lower interest rates.

Which points out why it was so irresponsible for Biden to ignore the warnings and cause inflation to spike, because its so difficult to get totally under control.

[Sarcastr0]

Sure, it's pretty transparently toolish to blame Biden for all the bad inflation things and credit Trump for all the good things.

But the real pro move would be to blame Obama.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Youre literally doing the opposite in this thread. It is called projection. With obvious proof you dont understand the metrics being used.

[Poxigah146]

Uhh, no. Tariffs = higher input costs for manufacturers = lower profit margins.

[Malika the Maiz]

It’s a tax on foreign goods bought by Americans.

[Poxigah146]

No, it's a tax on foreign goods bought by Americans, paid for by Wall Street shylocks.

[Malika the Maiz]

How do Wall Street “shylocks” pay for things Americans bought? Maybe you don’t know what the words bought and paid for mean?

[Poxigah146]

If it comes out of corporate profits, it's paid for by the shylocks, not Americans.

[Malika the Maiz]

Then why did you say Americans bought it? Did the “shylocks” give them the money to buy it?

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Temu and shein, as an example have US warehouses. They pay the import tax. Tell me how American companies are paying this tax.

[Martinned]

Ooh! I know this one! Antisemite!

[bernard11]

What do you think happens when corporate profits go down? Do corporations hire more workers, expand production, build new plants?

ISTM there are layoffs and expansion plans are put on hold.

And lose the "Shylock" business. It's nasty and stupid. Businesses need investors. Investors want returns. That's the way things work.

[Malika the Maiz]

He wants people to know he’s antisemitic, vice signaling is huge with MAGAns. Notice you don’t see all the MAGAns who, for example, call Martinned or hobie anti-Semitic when they criticize Israel call out the several explicitly antisemitic MAGAns that post here. They never really mean it, it’s a cynical tool in their eyes.

[Poxigah146]

They have less money for dividends and corporate buybacks. That's what happens. Corporate profits haven't benefited society through investment and production in a long time

And no, I don't care if Stephen Schwarzman has less money to buy yachts.

[Malika the Maiz]

You know 62% of Americans own stocks, if you got out of your mom’s bad and worked maybe you could too!

[Mr. Bumble]

Got a cite for that?

[Ridgeway]

https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx

Given the prevalence of 401ks, why is this number surprising?

[Martinned]

Corporate profits have trended up for decades, and I wouldn't worry about Trump bringing them down. Whoever is willing to kowtow before the throne gets to keep their profits, and CEOs who aren't willing to do that will get replaced.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

It is amazing how little your average liberal here knows about economics.

What is the cost growth on imports? Do you think only US businesses have importers?

What is seen in the data is US corporations renogotiating pricing. There is almost zero costs seen in import cost data. Which means exporters elsewhere have lowered their prices to waive the additive tariffs.

Why is the average liberal here so uncurious about actually investigating their first impressions.

We saw the same shit in 2017 when the Atl Fed estimated only 4% of tariffs were costed to consumers of US businesses.

You retards made the same claims then. And even with data you refuse to educate yourself.

[David Nieporent]

LOL. Literally the entire point of tariffs is to raise consumer prices.

[bernard11]

Salmonella?

[Dr. Ed 2]

More likely new production coming on line.
Remember why prices went up in the first place...

[Commenter_XY]

With every passing day, there is less time to enact the agenda before 1/27. There are just over 200 legislative days between now and then. That sounds like a lot, but it isn't.

I hope Senator Thune keeps the Senate in session for August. Maybe draft legislation that codifies the tariffs.

[jb]

There's going to be less than 200 legislative days if Johnson has to keep shutting down the House to stop Massie from trying to release the Epstein files.

[Commenter_XY]

I agree. The House should stay in session and deal with the country's business.

[Martinned2]

Why would they need to do that if you elected Trump to do that on his own?

[Martinned]

Yet another bit of the Constitution that the Trumpists are violating:

The Congress shall have Power (...) To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

https://balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/some-casual-unconstitutionality.html

Section 20011 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) declares “there are appropriated to the Secretary of Defense for fiscal year 2025, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to remain available until September 30, 2029, $1,000,000,000 for the deployment of military personnel in support of border operations, operations and maintenance activities in support of border operations, counter-narcotics and counter-transnational criminal organization mission support, the operation of national defense areas and construction in national defense areas, and the temporary detention of migrants on Department of Defense installations…”.

[Kazinski]

Sounds like a political question where nobody has standing anyway.

But if we are going to talk about about blatantly unconstitutional things, what about Talwani's order to the administration to fund Planned Parenthood without an appropriation from Congress.

Can a district court judge order the administration to violate the constitution?

[Martinned]

Your theory is that whether "until September 30, 2029" is longer than two years is a political question???

The better point would have been that nobody who might have standing to sue over this would. But that doesn't make it any less tragic.

[hobie]

'Can a district court judge order the administration to violate the constitution?'

Trump and Congress have been violating the Constitution like crazy. So why can't the judicial get in on the act?

[Sarcastr0]

You're complaining about a ruling about the constitutionality of said appropriation bill.

I think it's wrong, but it's not unconstitutional unless you beg the question.

[Riva]

It’s a question of a child in an elementary school classroom. Congress routinely authorizes multi year defense appropriations. The constitutional language literally applies only to the appropriation of funding for a standing “army.” But yes, if it arose in more obstructionist lawfare, it would ultimately be dismissed either on standing grounds or as a political question.

[Krayt]

So it applies to sitting in a base, not sending them out on a mission?

[Riva]

So much for providing for the national defense. Multi year funding is commonplace and necessary and the statutory mechanisms are designed to comply with constitutional requirements, notwithstanding the opinions of an idiot blog post. But by all means, please waste money, time and effort challenging this.

[Sarcastr0]

Congress routinely authorizes multi year defense appropriations

For specific construction and procurement purposes. Not for personnel purposes.

The constitutional language literally applies only to the appropriation of funding for a standing “army.”
So guess what operations and management funding is, as compared to construction and supply.

[Brett Bellmore]

"For specific construction and procurement purposes. Not for personnel purposes."

It says what it says. But what has suddenly got you caring what the Constitution actually says? Bit late to pretend you care.

[Sarcastr0]

I've always cared about the Constitution, just not BrettLaw.

[Bwaaah]

By the volume of your writing, it looks like you care a whole lot more about BrettLaw.

[Riva]

You run with that little communist girl that never smiled. Have Somin file some more meritless litigation, i could use a good laugh.

[Sarcastr0]

Oh hey once again you didn't engage with the argument, just negated.

[Riva]

Oh hey, how should one respond to such an asinine argument? You f’ing morons all of sudden think you’ve found an issue because you’re ignorant of the statutory mechanisms routinely employed by Congress to provide for necessary multi year defense funding? Like i said above please waste your time on this.

[David Nieporent]

Whether there's standing may be an issue, but this in no way, shape, or form sounds like a political question. "How much should we spend on the military?" is a political question. There's no justiciable standard to apply. "Is this for longer than two years?" is not.

[Riva]

Pretty bold to opine on constitutional matters for someone who wouldn’t recognize a separation of powers argument if it were holding up a sign saying “separation of powers argument” in a building named “separation of power” located on “separation of powers” avenue.

[David Nieporent]

Bot continues to be programmed to just spout out random insults completely unrelated to the discussion.

[Armchair]

Is this like when you confidently asserted "No Judge ruled that"? Then when shown the judge, you backwalked so hard that Michael Jackson did a double take?

[Riva]

Maybe Neal Katyal can argue that for you in yet another meritless lawsuit?

[David Nieporent]

I guess it's possible that the bot is actually Paul Clement, but I suspect that Neal Katyal's professional record is a bit better than Riva's.

[Riva]

I think we know your record on constitutional issues crazy Dave. And your, shall we say, disturbing notions on political succession earn you the title of crazy. Finally, of course, your penchant for repugnant vile insults makes you a world class asshole. Did I miss anything?

[Brett Bellmore]

I told him, "Welcome to the party, pal!"

People on the right have been complaining that the constitution was being violated for nearly a century now, at least since Wickard. Treating the interstate commerce clause like it was a general regulatory power. Quorum clause violations. The war on drugs not getting an amendment like Prohibition needed. Ruling that an express penalty was really a "tax" to preserve the ACA. It goes on and on.

NOW you care that it's being violated? NOW?

Yeah, welcome to the party, pal. Too bad it's winding up and we're all going home soon. Might have turned out differently if more people had cared sooner.

[Martinned]

Your theory is that liberals forced you to vote for a fascist?

[bernard11]

Brett,

Please stop with Wickard. You don't understand it.

And stop with this penalty/tax business also. You are elevating form over substance.

[Brett Bellmore]

Rejecting sophistry doesn't mean you don't understand it. Actually, it means you do.

[Martinned]

Only a few weeks after the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Semenya v. Switzerland, today there is another important judgment that puts the Court of Arbitration for Sports on a shorter leash. The European Court of Justice (i.e. the EU court) in Royal Football Club Seraing, has held that:

it is essential that recourse to arbitration does not undermine the rights and freedoms that the fundamental rules of EU law guarantee athletes, clubs and, more broadly, any other person practising a professional sport or pursuing an economic activity linked to that sport. On those grounds, the Court of Justice rules today that the national courts or tribunals must be empowered to carry out, at the request of individuals or of the court’s or tribunal’s own motion, an in-depth judicial review as to whether arbitral awards made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (the CAS) are consistent with EU public policy.

(Quoting the press release.)

[Martinned]

The full judgment is now available, but only in French. (Not only the working language of the court but also, in this case, the language of the case.) I hadn't noticed that it is actually a Grand Chamber judgment. That makes it an even more important precedent.

https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=303003&pageIndex=0&doclang=FR&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=9078197

At first glance it doesn't cite art. 165 TFEU, which deals with EU competences and duties in the area of sports. That is interesting, because of course any litigation about CAS always threatens to have implications for the law of arbitration more generally.

[John F. Carr]

In America the public policy exception is extremely narrow.

In the context of sports, see

NFL Management Council v. NFL Players Association (case 15-2801, 2nd. Cir. 2016) https://ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/74c48f38-8e91-445d-a625-d6fc6ba1c10f/1/doc/15-2801_complete_opn.pdf

The NFL suspended a player. The player demanded arbitration. The NFL Commissioner, as arbitrator, upheld his league's decision. A judge ruled the proceeding lacked fundamental fairness. The Second Circuit reinstated the suspension. Review of labor arbitration awards is especially deferential. This is the "Deflategate" case.

[Malika the Maiz]

John, did you see the MA defense lawyers work stoppage over pay led to case dismissals? Any insight into that?

[John F. Carr]

Not much news. The system is putting off less serious crimes until the public defenders are back to work. The legislature is only offering a small pay increase. Resolution may take a while.

[BrotherMovesOn]

"Delaney said he and other leaders of the work stoppage have been inundated with calls, texts and emails from bar advocates who don't like what he called 'the back room deal'.
'They're more solidified now than ever before in not taking any new cases ...'"

[Martinned]

In Europe I don't see how you could get away with the boss of the league being the arbiter in a dispute between the league and someone else. That's the whole point of CAS. It's an independent tribunal. But the problem is that it isn't a proper court, meaning that it cannot ask prejudicial questions to the ECJ, doesn't have a system of appeals, etc. And the appointments system for CAS arbiters has also been held in the past to favour the sports federations. See paragraph 152-157 of Mutu and Pechstein v. Switzerland (2018).

[Both Sides]

John is 100% correct.

[Martinned]

The Dutch press has been reporting that US tariff crazy has started to have a noticeable effect on the prices of "cheap Chinese goods" stores (think Dollar store type places) in the Netherlands. I couldn't find an English language source, but this is the academic economists version from the European Central Bank: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2025/html/ecb.blog20250730~833a22650e.en.html

With trade tensions between China and the United States reaching new heights, Chinese exports may be redirected to the euro area. In a severe scenario, this additional supply and the accompanying lower import prices could bring down euro area inflation by as much as 0.15 percentage points.

(Of course 0.15%-points might not seem like much, but much of that will fall on low-income households.)

[Frank Drackman]

More Fentanol for all my Eurotrash Friends!!!! Watch your step though, that first hit's a Dooz-ie!
Seriously, what have things come to when you can get better Marriage-a-Juan-a in Peoria Illinois than in Amsterdam?

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Iowa has better farmland and a more developed ag industry.

[Armchair]

You realize your headline says it with "lower" prices in the EU, right? Reducing inflation?

Look at that. Trump is HELPING low income Europeans! You should applaud him!

[Martinned]

Yes, lower prices. This is a good thing. Tariffs are bad.

[Armchair]

Then perhaps you should work on your own government, getting it to drop all tariffs and other trade barriers.

[Martinned]

I plan to, in the elections in October. We had a set of international treaties that did that, but the Americans decided to set them on fire. So now it will take decades to get back to the position we were in pre-Trump.

https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm

[Armchair]

Here you go. Fight against these

https://www.registrationchina.com/articles/eu-imposed-new-tariffs-on-china/

[skeptical scientist]

Yes, Trump's great "America first" policies are hurting Americans but helping Europeans.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Well, if US tariffs approach those of Europe (including the VAT assessments), it would make sense that it would become profitable to also sell to sell junk to Europe.

[skeptical scientist]

With a baseline of 2% inflation, a reduction of .15 percentage points is the same as 7.5% less inflation, which is significant.

[Commenter_XY]

Feel free to thank us later for lowering your inflation, eurotrash.

[hobie]

Classy

[Martinned]

Americans going crazy in the voting booth doesn't just have (unintended) consequences in the US...

[Frank Drackman]

The New Yahk erection was just the Primary, they haven't erected the Fascist Ham-Ass member yet.

[hobie]

Canadians are 'mean and nasty'. If Trump reads books (which is debatable. His presidential library may just end up being the world's largest collection of fast food menus...and one plane named Quid 1), then someone needs to get him a copy of "How to Win Friends and Influence People"

[Frank Drackman]

The most popular 2 POTUS's (more accurately, Ex-POTUS) of the Last century were Herbert Heever and Jimmuh Cartuh, what was the Prime Rate when Jimmuh left Orifice in January 1981?
Because like the late great Perry Mason, I never ask questions I don't already know the answer's for, it was 20.5%, which was actually down from it's peak of 21.5% in December 1980.
"45/47" and Jimmuh are the only POTUS's who sent US Forces into Iran, who got the better outcome?
I know, Beyonce and Stevie Wonder won't go to "45/47"'s funeral, that won't happen until at least 2046, sometime into his 8th term.
"Winning Friends" is overrated, like the guy from Mitch & Murray,
"45/47" gets the other guys to sign on the line which is dotted, he's got what it takes to sell Real Estate, Gentlemen, unlike Sleepy Joe, who couldn't sell Crack to Hunter

Frank

[hobie]

Hunter!

[Frank Drackman]

Don't laugh, he'd win the DemoKKKrat Primary right now, with him and Zoran Ramadan-a-ding-dong on the ticket you might carry Manhattan.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Canadians are 'mean and nasty'."
...and their PM looks like Mr. Smithers.

[Martinned]

You may not want to start talking about the looks of different countries' heads of state and government...

[Swede425]

LOL!
You're right! You guys might start making fun of Trump if that happens!

[Bwaaah]

Watch out! Martinned's finger is loaded, and he just might use it!

"Do what he say...Do what he say..."

[Martinned]

I try not to make fun of Trump too often, because I know he is extremely vain and sensitive, and his stans are vain and sensitive on his behalf. So making fun of Trump tends to make Trumpists angry, and even less likely to be reasonable about anything than they already are normally.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Quebecois are (to English speakers) -- and PdQ borders New York State....

[Stephen Lathrop]

Congress ought to direct placement of the Trump presidential library adjacent to the Barnum and Baily Circus Museum in Florida.

[CountmontyC]

Did you know that since Trump got elected to non-consecutive terms he can build two presidential libraries if he wants?

[Martinned]

He can build as many presidential libraries as his business friends are willing to pay for. How about one for every month he was in office?

[Bwaaah]

Barack Obama took park land from Chicagoans to put up a 220 foot self-serving monument paid for by his rich "friends." There appears to be little accounting for [bad] taste.

[Malika the Maiz]

Rich friends? What a piker, the way you do this is use the authority of your office to threaten people into giving you the money for your Presidential libraries.

Also, remember when Bwaaah pretended to be a disappointed liberal? Fun times!

[Bwaaah]

Did you miss the implication of me having put "friends" in quotes?

And I'm still a disappointed liberal. Your lovely voice, in alleged advocacy of "liberalism," elucidates the [nasty] spirit of contemporary liberalism.

Imagine a Queenie Presidency. That would put the most shit-talking President in the past, replaced by the most shit-talking President. For "LIBERALISM!"

[Malika the Maiz]

lol, he’s been ankle-biting Sarc all morning and now he’s clutching pearls about being nasty! It’s hard to be such a disappointed liberal! One thing an actual disappointed liberal would feel compelled to do is rush to defend President Trump’s presidential libraries by whatabouting with Obama’s library.

One phoney baloney.

And your “” are meaningless to this discussion, you weren’t talking about people sued and threatened by Obama while he was President giving money.

[Malika the Maiz]

“Into” giving money

[CountmontyC]

Actually prwsudents are generally limited to one official presidential library but because President Trump's two rerms are non-consecutive he qualifies for two official presidential libraries.
By the way you never answered my question a while back if any of your ancestors were NSB during WW2.

[Malika the Maiz]

Were any of yours Confederates or loyalists?

[CountmontyC]

My family came over in the 1880's ( after the Civil War ended). Furthermore a second cousin won the CMOH during the Vietnam War and later was the director of the Arkansas VA (Nick Bacon). My father was Airborne and jumped out of planes during Vietnam and unlike a cerain Democrat senator actually served in Vietnam. My younger brother served during both wars in Iraq as well.
Are you done white knighting for Martinned now?

[Malika the Maiz]

No current US Senators served in Vietnam, did they?

How come you didn’t serve like your brother, cousin and dad?

[CountmontyC]

One current Democratic senator, Richard Blunenthal, CLAIMED to have served in Vietnam but was later to have been found out he was lying and was stateside during his time in the military.
While I did not serve in the military I volunteered for organizations that sent stuff( books, food, socks or whatever they wanted or needed) to military personnel overseas.
Now what was your military service and are you done white knighting for Martinned?

[Commenter_XY]

Canadians are free riders, whose deliberate indifference to fentanyl labs on their territory that export fentanyl to the US that kills thousands of Americans every year, has just realized there is a price to be paid.

Memo to Canada: Pay up, and get rid of the fentanyl labs. Your free riding days are over. And it can become much, much worse for you; remember that.

[Martinned]

Are you saying that Americans are unable to kick their nasty drug habit, because they're such pathetic schmucks?

[Malika the Maiz]

“deliberate indifference to fentanyl labs on their territory that export fentanyl to the US that kills thousands of Americans every year”

Citation?

[Poxigah146]

Correct. We've been paying for their defense and drug costs for decades now. No mas.

[Martinned2]

You spelled "overpaying CEOs of US drug companies and other healthcare companies" wrong.

[Martinned]

An underreported economics story (I think) is that the dollar is down for the year. Against a trade-weighted basket of goods its down more than 6%. That's equivalent to another 6% tariff on US imports (and a 6% subsidy on US exports).

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DTWEXBGS

[Frank Drackman]

Man, your unrelenting boring posts should be classified as a Crime against Humanity, where's this "Court of Human Rights" when you need them?
Could you do me a favor? Go draw a cartoon of Moe-hammed in the Moose-lum ghetto in Brussels.

Frank

[Swede425]

LOL!
He's an idiot, but he's not THAT dumb!
It's funny how self-preservation and reality go hand-in-hand.
Nothing cuts through lib bullshit faster.

[hobie]

Ronald Reagan, 1988 re tariffs: “Today, protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism...a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America’s military strength, and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies — countries that would use violence against us or our allies.”

Ah, the before times. Anyone remember 'allies'?

[Frank Drackman]

Ronaldus Magnus was so against Tariffs he used them to save Harley Davidson
(The 1983 motorcycle tariff, or Memorandum on Heavyweight Motorcycle Imports, was a presidential memorandum ordering a 45% tariff on heavyweight motorcycles imported to the United States, signed by President Ronald Reagan on April 1, 1983, on the US International Trade Commission's (USITC) recommendation to approve Harley-Davidson's petition for import relief.[1] The tariff expired in 1988)
It only applied to Motorcycles with Displacements of 750cc (i.e. models competing with HD's bikes)
What happened? HD raised their prices almost same amount as the tariff, Japs downsized all their 750's to 700's, and you don't see any Rice Rockets or big Jap Cruisers anymore. (Sarc)
OK, it did get me to wait until 1989 before I got my own Rice Rocket, a GSXR 750 ("GSXR 700" just sounds lame) Talk about a waste of machinery

Frank

[Malika the Maiz]

Needs a tariff on capitalizations.

Disordered people who write like third graders love them some Trump (though I hear he lost the QAnon shaman recently).

Edit: it’s true!

Jacob Angeli Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shaman,” has launched a scathing verbal attack on President Trump, as the commander-in-chief continues to deal with the fallout of his administration’s decision not to release the Epstein files.
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/qanon-shaman-trump-epstein-jan-6-b2795134.html#

Oh well, they still got Frank Fakeman and Dr Ediot…

[Swede425]

This can't be true.
We've been reliably told that cultists are always in lockstep with Orange Leader and that they'll support Trump NO MATTER WHAT!!!

[Malika the Maiz]

People leave cults, it’s the behavior of those that stay that defines them.

[Swede425]

A Harris Bro is born!

[Malika the Maiz]

Interestingly, it is often an underage sex abuse scandal and cover up that gets some cultists to question the Leader…

[Frank Drackman]

Done lost my job, how I sposed to get money to pay dis' Rent? I'll have it for you tomorrow, the next day, I don't know.

[Poxigah146]

Yes, and if he had seen how the Wall Street banksters would hollow out our manufacturing base and lead much of America as a desolate wasteland so New Yawk and Silicon Valley could benefit, he'd be singing a different tune.

[Martinned]

It's cute that you seem to think that either Reagan or Trump cares one flying fuck about the American working classes.

[Frank Drackman]

well Reagan's been dead for 21 years so if he's doing any "Caring" its of the "Family Circus Grandpa looking smilingly down from Heaven" variety

[David Nieporent]

Again, our manufacturing base was never hollowed out.

[Mr. Bumble]

I guess it depends on your definition of hollowed out.

[Brett Bellmore]

I think he must require the factories to all have big hollow spaces inside them, maybe sinkholes in the parking lots, too.

[Stephen Lathrop]

New White House Ballroom slated to begin construction in September, says White House.

Perspective: If the proposed 90,000 square foot monstrosity gets built, the result will look like a big box store with a peculiar little vestigial building attached at one end. Ninety-thousand square feet is about half-again the area of an American football field with both end zones. Artist's renderings presented by the White House put the proposed ball room in a diminished-perspective background, while foregrounding the present White House, to make that harder to notice.

It is similarly more than all the area of the existing White House on all its floors put together. Presumably, the project will get stalled half-way to completion. The world's exhausted supply of gold leaf will need time to catch up.

[hobie]

I've got an idea. The Kennedy Center is only 5 blocks away. So he could drop the idea of naming the permanent pornography exhibit there after Melania, rename lake Erie as the Gulf of Melania, and construct a gigantic underground gerbil tube from the White House to the Kennedy Center ballroom.

That's the easy part. Now what to rename the ballroom?!

[Malika the Maiz]

Gulf of Melania, that’s gold.

[Frank Drackman]

I'll bet JFK's head would explode if he knew what todays DemoKKKrats were doing in his name.
Oh wait, it already did in Dealey Plaza. (C'mon Man! it's been 61 years, time for some "Exploding JFK Head" jokes)

Frank "Well other than that Sir, how did you enjoy Dallas?"

[Bwaaah]

It was bound to be a bad hair day. Shouldn't have put the top down.

[grb]

Stephen Lathrop : "...proposed 90,000 square foot monstrosity..."

Two Points & a Question:

1. As a standalone design, it's merely mediocre. It this was an addition to some strip hotel, you might stretch the point and say it's fetching. I suspect the Troll-in-Chief recognizes he can pimp-out the Oval Office with all the bling in the world, but the next adult to occupy the building will just clean-up his mess. Trump probably wants some more permanent denigration & destruction. The renderings are surprisingly primitive for such a high profile project. Even if you don't have people in-house to do the work, you can always hire someone outside.

2. But the main point is this : The existing White House isn't that imposing a building for the symbolic weight it carries. It works because the central porticoed structure is flanked by two very low connecting wings and the flanking buildings to either end still respect the central building by their lesser height. From what I can see, Trump's proposed bling-wing would be the highest structure on site. The low-connecting wing to the east would be doubled-in height. The iconic image of the White House known worldwide would become second-rate to its own blah annex structure. Trump's desecration of every American institution would then have its crowning achievement : A embarrassing mistake for the ages.

3. Question for the lawyers : The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 would require extensive review and formal approval for anything remotely close to this. What's the chance of it being enforced here? Perhaps this can be another special carve-out by the Roberts' court where he deigns to reign-in Trump's lawlessness, as with the Fed or thru his own spot on the Kennedy Center board.

[Mr. Bumble]

Offer your expertise and design it properly.

[grb]

Why not offer your opinion? Surely your Cult membership doesn't require fealty to this bit of cultural vandalism. Or maybe like so many MAGA, you hold the more petty & mindless destruction, the more entertainment for you as a loyal consumer, watching on TV with a beer popped-open as you sit in your boxers.

[Mr. Bumble]

Cultural vandalism is the destruction of parkland and the creation of a Borg ship in Chicago that is the Obola Presidential Library or whatever he is calling it.
The reason for creating a ballroom seems sound (large events required the erection of a tent to accommodate the numbers attending) but I would agree that 90,000 square feet does sound excessive. I have not seen the renderings so don't know what the overall appearance will be.
Don't consider myself as a member of a cult. Don't agree with everything and the way Trump does things but am much happier that thing are being done.
Finally, seldom watch TV and never with a beer "popped" open and never in boxers.

[Brett Bellmore]

The renderings.

I gather it's taking the place of the current East wing, which was constructed in '92.

[grb]

Brett Bellmore : "I gather it's taking the place of the current East wing, which was constructed in '92"

The East Wing as it exists today was substantially finished in 1942, with the addition of a second story. Of course it's been renovated inside any number of times. As I note above, it is meant to read as a background building to the central White House structure, separated from it by a very low connecting wing and of a lesser height. This proposed monstrosity looks to be taller than the main White House itself, which is grossly wrong to anyone with any respect for this most-important of American buildings.

You know, I always have a sour reaction when some movie gleefully blows-up the White House or Capitol. Now we get to see the same kind of brat-child destruction happening in real life. I'll be the first in line to LMAO when Trump produces his own presidential library - and will surely do so with better grounds than Bumble's MAGA tell above. But can't we agree to limit Trump's White House vandalism to coating the Oval Office walls with smeared-on gold-colored excretment?

[Stephen Lathrop]

Bellmore, the East Wing was not constructed in '92. The East wing was constructed before you and I were born.

But why do you even bring that up? Do you think if the East Wing were built more recently, it would confer some kind of legitimacy on a present-day, law-defiant act of cultural vandalism?

There is a sick grandiosity in Trump's ambition, which has so far gone unmentioned in the innumerate news reports I have seen on this subject. Where in the world has any estate, no matter how palatial, featured a ball room notably larger than the aggregate area of all the rest of the estate put together? You at least are not innumerate. You ought to be able to take notice of that.

[grb]

Mr. Bumble : "Cultural vandalism is .... (etc)"

Two Things :

1. "Obola Presidential Library"! You MAGA-types can't help but let it show, can you? Please explain how you think Mr. Obama's library is cultural vandalism. There's the faintest sliver of a case to be made for that, but it doesn't really hold up. Besides, it's a rational case based on reasonable concerns, so not where your head's at re the "Obola Presidential Library". We all know where that is.

2. If you haven't seen the rendering, that's easily resolved. Have at it: https://www.dezeen.com/2025/07/31/white-house-state-ballroom-mccrery-architects-east-wing-white-house/

[Brett Bellmore]

The Obama library is, frankly, ugly, but what exactly is it vandalizing? The local skyline?

[grb]

To be honest, I never thought it was one of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien's better designs. They're the architect couple whose firm designed it and usually do top-notch work. The tower structure is just a bit on the chunky-side and form remains a bit arbitrary. The last construction photos were also troubling because they've changed the stone cladding from what previously seemed to the a warm ochre limestone to a cooler granite, but I have a wait&see attitude on that.

But it isn't ugly by any stretch of the imagination and will show-off well in its park setting. It's the latter factor that was the major argument against it. The park was by Frederick Law Olmsted and many people thought nothing should be built inside it. But that was the the hardcore purist perspective, since Obama's project actually helps the park. It was previously cut in half and blocked from the waterfront by a six-lane throughway, which is being rerouted. Not only is there free access to the lake now, but the project actually adds trees overall.

The purists said the six-lane road followed the same path as an Olmsted carriage road and thus followed the original design - but that argument didn't cut much ice with people. Besides, these were the same purists who drove a zillion-dollar George Lucas museum out of Chicago to LA so as to preserve the sanctity of a massive asphalt parking lot. They didn't have much standing with the average Chicagoan after that debacle.

https://www.archdaily.com/927332/new-renderings-released-for-obama-presidential-center-in-chicago

[Mr. Bumble]

Stop making excuses. It is a windowless tower, ugly as sin, behind schedule, already cracking and subject or a $40 million law suit.

[Mr. Bumble]

"...but what exactly is it vandalizing?"
To begin with Jackson Park. Do search for Obama Library controversy and settle down for a while to read the hits.

[grb]

I covered the Jackson Park controversy in the comment immediately above yours. As I point out, it was not persuasive as a "controversy", the truth being almost perversely opposite its claims.

[hobie]

These ghouls will be trashing his tombstone come the day

[Mr. Bumble]

You covered nothing and your opinion certainly isn't shared by the people in the surrounding neighborhood.
To hobie:
No one will bother traveling to Kenya to piss on his grave.

[grb]

Mr. Bumble : ".... shared by the people in the surrounding neighborhood."

You're so full of shit! I don't doubt you can dig up some stray person or tiny group, but the vast majority of people in the neighborhood welcomed the Obama Center. It was put there precisely as an investment in a very needy neighborhood, provides major new education, recreation, and sports facilities/services they've never seen before, and is making major upgrades to a run-down seedy park that will no longer be cut into two long narrow slivers by a busy highway.

Nope; the major opposition to the Center came from groups like Friends of the Parks (FOTP), a major upscale group already notorious for driving the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art into Los Angeles' arms.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what's the point, Bumble? You're perfectly happy with your clown god remaking the White House with a gaudy monstrosity, but whine about the "Obola Presidential Library" with silly pointless crap like this! The Cult is rotting away yer brain......

[Stephen Lathrop]

grb, note the dishonest rendering which leads your linked presentation, showing a putative interior view of the ball room. It portrays circular tables, in ranks and files. It is possible to count the center-pieces with near accuracy.

There seem to be about 8 tables in each file, stretching to the end of the room. Allow a generous 20 feet for each set of a table and its chairs, and you account for only 160 feet of a room touted to be notably larger than a football field, which is 360 feet long with both end zones included. In the rendering, the breadth seems to amount to 5 tables wide. An American football field is 160 feet wide, so the width shown may be closer to accurate, but still notably too small. Overall, that rendering probably does not depict much more than one-quarter of the announced square footage.

That belies any notion that it will be a space conducive for use as ball room, unless the ball game in question is actually indoor football, played full-scale. To encompass 90,000 square feet, the room must be dimensioned more like a major railway station concourse, and will be similarly festive.

On its face, this is looking like just another Trump shakedown for donors, proportioned to be large enough to maximize graft—both while it is being built, and for as long as it operates. There ought to be extensive trackway apparatus overhead, by which to suspend attendees upside down until their donations fall out of their pockets.

[hobie]

I look at this situation kinda like Back to the Future 2. Where Hillary McFly never became president and travels to the actual future where society has gone to shit and Biff Trump has erected this gaudy casino. I think Trump should take another stab at casino work, place a small one, and a nine-hole golf course and a circus tent all on the White House grounds. You know, really cheapen up the place as only Trump can

[Don Nico]

It does seem pretty damned ugly and out of place.
Shit-can the idea.

[grb]

If Trump follows the law, consider it shit-canned already, since there's no way this gross lunacy could ever pass the legally required design review and approval.

But Trump's a lifelong criminal. The law isn't much protection in his case.

[Malika the Maiz]

A death row prisoner in Tennessee can be executed despite having an implanted heart device that his lawyers say is likely to prolong his suffering, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a first-of-its-kind legal battle.

A lower court had ruled that Byron Black could not be executed while his cardiac implantable electronic device — which acts as a pacemaker and a defibrillator — was on, because it could deliver painful shocks to his heart to try to revive him during a lethal injection. The Thursday ruling overturns that decision and allows Black’s scheduled execution Tuesday to proceed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/07/31/execution-heart-implant-pacemaker-tennessee/

[Commenter_XY]

Byron Black was convicted of the triple murder of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters, Latoya and Lakeisha, in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 28, 1988.

I don't have sympathy for this murderer. Besides, where he is going will be much worse than anything done here.

[Malika the Maiz]

No sympathy from me either, just thought it was an interesting fact pattern

[Sarcastr0]

Cruelty is not justice.

Ignoring cruelty because you want something to be justice makes you a servant of injustice, even if in just a little way.

It is not sympathy to a murder to see that fundamental truth.

[Commenter_XY]

More vibes, El Vibrador? Pathetic.

[Malika the Maiz]

Not sure talking about justice and cruelty is vibes.

[Bwaaah]

At that level of detail, it's nothing but.

[Malika the Maiz]

Really? At what level must the claim Ignoring cruelty because you want something to be justice makes you a servant of injustice need to be discussed to no longer be nothing but vibes? Especially in reference to this very specific fact pattern. Let us know.

[Mr. Bumble]

Is it justice when the sentence is delayed for 10, 20, 30 or more years?

[Malika the Maiz]

Irrelevant to this discussion Bubmble, which is about what level Sarc’s claim would need to be argued to not be only vibes as claimed.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Cruelty is not justice."

Neither is another bogus last minute appeal for murders that took place in 1988, 37 years!

Two pre-10 children who never got chance to grow up and get heart disease.

[Martinned]

-- Now let us try for a moment to realize, as far as we can, the nature of that abode of the damned which the justice of an offended God has called into existence for the eternal punishment of sinners. Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke. The straitness of this prison house is expressly designed by God to punish those who refused to be bound by His laws. In earthly prisons the poor captive has at least some liberty of movement, were it only within the four walls of his cell or in the gloomy yard of his prison. Not so in hell. There, by reason of the great number of the damned, the prisoners are heaped together in their awful prison, the walls of which are said to be four thousand miles thick: and the damned are so utterly bound and helpless that, as a blessed saint, saint Anselm, writes in his book on similitudes, they are not even able to remove from the eye a worm that gnaws it.

-- They lie in exterior darkness. For, remember, the fire of hell gives forth no light. As, at the command of God, the fire of the Babylonian furnace lost its heat but not its light, so, at the command of God, the fire of hell, while retaining the intensity of its heat, burns eternally in darkness. It is a never ending storm of darkness, dark flames and dark smoke of burning brimstone, amid which the bodies are heaped one upon another without even a glimpse of air. Of all the plagues with which the land of the Pharaohs were smitten one plague alone, that of darkness, was called horrible. What name, then, shall we give to the darkness of hell which is to last not for three days alone but for all eternity?

-- The horror of this strait and dark prison is increased by its awful stench. All the filth of the world, all the offal and scum of the world, we are told, shall run there as to a vast reeking sewer when the terrible conflagration of the last day has purged the world. The brimstone, too, which burns there in such prodigious quantity fills all hell with its intolerable stench; and the bodies of the damned themselves exhale such a pestilential odour that, as saint Bonaventure says, one of them alone would suffice to infect the whole world. The very air of this world, that pure element, becomes foul and unbreathable when it has been long enclosed. Consider then what must be the foulness of the air of hell. Imagine some foul and putrid corpse that has lain rotting and decomposing in the grave, a jelly-like mass of liquid corruption. Imagine such a corpse a prey to flames, devoured by the fire of burning brimstone and giving off dense choking fumes of nauseous loathsome decomposition. And then imagine this sickening stench, multiplied a millionfold and a millionfold again from the millions upon millions of fetid carcasses massed together in the reeking darkness, a huge and rotting human fungus. Imagine all this, and you will have some idea of the horror of the stench of hell.

-- But this stench is not, horrible though it is, the greatest physical torment to which the damned are subjected. The torment of fire is the greatest torment to which the tyrant has ever subjected his fellow creatures. Place your finger for a moment in the flame of a candle and you will feel the pain of fire. But our earthly fire was created by God for the benefit of man, to maintain in him the spark of life and to help him in the useful arts, whereas the fire of hell is of another quality and was created by God to torture and punish the unrepentant sinner. Our earthly fire also consumes more or less rapidly according as the object which it attacks is more or less combustible, so that human ingenuity has even succeeded in inventing chemical preparations to check or frustrate its action. But the sulphurous brimstone which burns in hell is a substance which is specially designed to burn for ever and for ever with unspeakable fury. Moreover, our earthly fire destroys at the same time as it burns, so that the more intense it is the shorter is its duration; but the fire of hell has this property, that it preserves that which it burns, and, though it rages with incredible intensity, it rages for ever.

-- Our earthly fire again, no matter how fierce or widespread it may be, is always of a limited extent; but the lake of fire in hell is boundless, shoreless and bottomless. It is on record that the devil himself, when asked the question by a certain soldier, was obliged to confess that if a whole mountain were thrown into the burning ocean of hell it would be burned up In an instant like a piece of wax. And this terrible fire will not afflict the bodies of the damned only from without, but each lost soul will be a hell unto itself, the boundless fire raging in its very vitals. O, how terrible is the lot of those wretched beings! The blood seethes and boils in the veins, the brains are boiling in the skull, the heart in the breast glowing and bursting, the bowels a red-hot mass of burning pulp, the tender eyes flaming like molten balls.

-- And yet what I have said as to the strength and quality and boundlessness of this fire is as nothing when compared to its intensity, an intensity which it has as being the instrument chosen by divine design for the punishment of soul and body alike. It is a fire which proceeds directly from the ire of God, working not of its own activity but as an instrument of Divine vengeance. As the waters of baptism cleanse the soul with the body, so do the fires of punishment torture the spirit with the flesh. Every sense of the flesh is tortured and every faculty of the soul therewith: the eyes with impenetrable utter darkness, the nose with noisome odours, the ears with yells and howls and execrations, the taste with foul matter, leprous corruption, nameless suffocating filth, the touch with redhot goads and spikes, with cruel tongues of flame. And through the several torments of the senses the immortal soul is tortured eternally in its very essence amid the leagues upon leagues of glowing fires kindled in the abyss by the offended majesty of the Omnipotent God and fanned into everlasting and ever-increasing fury by the breath of the anger of the God-head.

-- Consider finally that the torment of this infernal prison is increased by the company of the damned themselves. Evil company on earth is so noxious that the plants, as if by instinct, withdraw from the company of whatsoever is deadly or hurtful to them. In hell all laws are overturned - there is no thought of family or country, of ties, of relationships. The damned howl and scream at one another, their torture and rage intensified by the presence of beings tortured and raging like themselves. All sense of humanity is forgotten. The yells of the suffering sinners fill the remotest corners of the vast abyss. The mouths of the damned are full of blasphemies against God and of hatred for their fellow sufferers and of curses against those souls which were their accomplices in sin. In olden times it was the custom to punish the parricide, the man who had raised his murderous hand against his father, by casting him into the depths of the sea in a sack in which were placed a cock, a monkey, and a serpent. The intention of those law-givers who framed such a law, which seems cruel in our times, was to punish the criminal by the company of hurtful and hateful beasts. But what is the fury of those dumb beasts compared with the fury of execration which bursts from the parched lips and aching throats of the damned in hell when they behold in their companions in misery those who aided and abetted them in sin, those whose words sowed the first seeds of evil thinking and evil living in their minds, those whose immodest suggestions led them on to sin, those whose eyes tempted and allured them from the path of virtue. They turn upon those accomplices and upbraid them and curse them. But they are helpless and hopeless: it is too late now for repentance.

https://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/portrait_artist_young_man/3/

As far as I can tell, this means that even God doesn't believe in the death penalty, but gives sinners prison sentences instead.

[Krayt]

A Christian should be against the death penalty, as it permanently forecloses any future chance at redemption.

[Martinned]

There are a lot of things Christians should be against that they are, somehow, overwhelmingly in favour of. And almost invariably they have wonderful theological explanations for why they are right too. It's almost as if every American invents their own personal god who, coincidentally, always agrees with them.

[Ridgeway]

On the other hand, as Dr J said:

"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

Getting right w God can be a big priority for those on Death Row. In fact, I recently read that 1/2 of the Nazis in the first round of hangings at Nuremberg (the biggest of the big fish) tried doing so. Whether they succeeded is an open question.

[Bob from Ohio]

Wall of text, very impressive.

Work of fiction. Joyce knew a lot about the devil, but little about God.

[Martinned2]

He also knew a lot about priests trying to bully poor impressionable kids into submission by talking about hell.

[Bob from Ohio]

He only knew a lot about writing convoluted incomprehensible prose. Figures you like him.

[BrotherMovesOn]

Are these the correct coordinates?

50.45° North latitude 30.52° East longitude
and
31.5167° North 34.45° East ?

Seems man doesn't need supernatural help.
Joyeux Noel!

[Sarcastr0]

where he is going will be much worse than anything done here.

I thought you were Jewish?

[Bob from Ohio]

"I thought you were Jewish?"

Jewish belief in an afterlife is complicated. Gehinnom is a place where sinners are punished, though mainstream belief is its temporary, not eternal.

[hobie]

"Besides, where he is going will be much worse than anything done here."

Which reminds me. The Jews believe they are going to Jew heaven. But Revelations states that when Jeebus whacks them, they are going to Christian hell. So which is it?

[Bwaaah]

"Which reminds me. The Jews believe they are going to Jew heaven."

Maybe only some Jews believe that? And maybe the way you write it, no Jews believe that?

[Dr. Ed 2]

March 28, 1988 -- 37 years.

Pacemakers only last about 10 years, which means that the pacemaker was either installed or replaced after he was on death row. Ummmm.....

[Riva]

Do you know how long ago he was sentenced to death? That would be 1988. Did they mean by old age?

[Frank Drackman]

Because I'm a Gas Passer, I have to know these things, but you can turn off an AICD with a simple Magnet, or you could just have the Cardiologist Office do it (They call it "Interrogating" the Pacemaker/Defibrillator, no, they don't read it it's Miranda Rights first)
It's done pretty often when Joe (remember that "I am Joe's (Insert Organ here) series?) gets tired of 40 Joules right in the Myocardium every day.

Frank "I am Joes Balls, Mrs. Joe keeps them in her Purse"

[Dr. Ed 2]

I believe it can be turned off with a strong magnet on his chest.

But this is a legitimate issue -- offer him a firing squad.

[Malika the Maiz]

The family of Virginia Giuffre, who was among Jeffrey Epstein's most well-known sex trafficking accusers, said that it was shocking to hear President Donald Trump say the disgraced financier "stole" Giuffre from him and urged that Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, remain in prison.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5488736/virginia-giuffre-family-trump-epstein

[hobie]

Who is this Epstein fellow? And why are you talking about him?

[Malika the Maiz]

"Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal, please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this”

Current Deputy Director of the FBI

[hobie]

Do you think they will start labeling it the Epstein Witch Hunt or the Epstein Hoax. That's the usual dog whistle that gets the rubes in line.

You know when Tom has Jerry trapped in a cup or box and then looks in and nothing is there. And Tom just blinks stupidly for a couple of seconds, then shrugs as if to say, 'I guess I imagined all that.' Meanwhile, Jerry is slipping Tom's tail into the waffle iron. That's how I envision MAGA, but without the waffle iron part.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Isn't that the guy from Welcome Back Kotter?

[Frank Drackman]

I think it was just "Epstein" my favorite Puerto Rican Jew

[Dr. Ed 2]

He DID steal her -- good teenage help is hard to find and if you've got good workers, you don't want to lose them.

[Commenter_XY]

What is the likelihood of each of the following happening to John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, and Barack Obama by 1/2029.

FBI raid on their home ala Mar-a-Lago
A mug shot
A trial
A conviction
Jail time

Brennan 50%, 70%, 50%, 40%, 30%
Clapper 50%, 60%, 30%, 10%, 10%
Comey 50%, 70%, 50%, 30%, 20%
Obama 20%, 50%, 10%, 0%, 0%

FTR: They all belong in prison. Along with Hillary.

[Malika the Maiz]

Absent complete fascism, nil, because the charges are trumped up silliness meant to distract from Trump’s increasingly suspicious answers about l’affair Epstein.

[Martinned]

That's a big if...

[Commenter_XY]

Queenie...I want everything released viv a vis Epstein, recordings included. Let the chips fall where they may. Take it up with the 11th Circuit, who refused to release Grand Jury transcripts.

In the meantime, want to take a swing at the question?

[Swede425]

Probably nothing for Brennan.
He's so old it'll be a short time before he becomes a Good Commie.

[Malika the Maiz]

I already did.

Absent complete fascism, nil, because the charges are trumped up silliness

[John F. Carr]

It is plausible that some of them still have classified documents. Probable cause of finding classified documents is good enough for a raid. Finding them is good enough for an indictment. I don't see any real chance of conviction on unauthorized possession charges.

[hobie]

Well, if, like Trump, you show the evidence of crimes to a grand jury and they return a true bill, then I'd say the chances for each would be 100%

[jb]

What's your theory of a crime for any of these people to be locked up? Even taking the House Republican report and all of Gabbard's other recently released documents at face value*, what actual illegal behavior do you think they show?

* Which is dumb because they're unsubstantiated and directly contradicted by the unanimous Senate report on the same topic, but we can make believe that Nunes somehow did a better investigation and found damning information that totally evaded Rubio et al for the sake of argument here.

[grb]

jb : " .... they're unsubstantiated and directly contradicted by the unanimous Senate report on the same topic...."

Yes; big-picture-wise, the bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee five-volume report buries all the general MAGA whining under a mountain of evidence. But that's not the most ludicrous thing about this latest huckster trash. See, the only thing "New" about the Gabbard lies is a supposed contradiction between what Obama was told privately by U.S. Intelligence and his subsequent claims.

But the slightest glance shows no contradict exists. He was told the Russians hadn't attacked election infrastructure by cybercrimes; he said the Russian's tried to affect the election by cybercrimes. Both statements were & are true. Neither statement conflicts with the other. Gabbard tries to hide this by selective editing of the infrastructure finding, but that can't withstand any scrutiny.

So why doesn't Commenter_XY know this? Answer: He's just another worthless troll. He doesn't carry if everything he writes is a crude lie.

[Josh R]

Epsilon across the board.

So far there have been three alleged "revelations" that amount to a steaming pile of bullshit nothing:

1) Obama's team intentionally lied that the election as hacked. That's a lie. They acknowledged no voting systems were hacked but Clinton's servers were (which is true).

2) Obama's team intentionally covered up that Putin decided not reveal that Clinton was a mental mess taking drugs and therefore Putin did not take sides in 2016. The conclusion is political spin that Durham (the fair arbiter) rejected.

3) The Clinton campaign pushed the collusion narrative knowing it was dubious. That could be true, but is totally irrelevant (I'm shocked the Clinton campaign played political hardball).

[David Nieporent]

Zero. You need actual crimes to have been committed for those things to happen.

[Michael P]

Whatever happened to "TACO Trump"?

I guess it's like the man said: It's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. Triply so for leftists.

[Malika the Maiz]

“Whatever happened to "TACO Trump"?”

It’s alive and well, thank you.

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/31/nx-s1-5482859/trump-tariff-rates-executive-order

While the administration has for weeks said Aug. 1 would be the new date to implement tariffs, most countries won't see these rates take effect for at least a week, according to the executive order posted Thursday evening. Trump has repeatedly shifted trade deadlines and is continuing negotiations with various countries.

[Martinned]

That's what so pathetic about the current US system of government. Anyone trying to figure out what the government is going to do is left with no alternative but to engage in pop psychology of Trump. Just like in other dictatorships, all that matters is the psychology of the leader at that moment in time. Reasoning along the lines of "China won't do a trade deal with Japan because there are two many internet users in Japan posting Winnie the Pooh memes and Xi doesn't like that."

When Trump negotiated with Von der Leyen, she came to Scotland with a careful understanding of what the European Member States would be willing to concede, and what their priorities were. That understanding was the basis of her stances in the negotiations. Trump just did whatever popped into his head at that particular moment.

It's pathetic, that's what it is.

[Commenter_XY]

Eurotrash, just remember. If it wasn't for this pathetic system of gov't, you'd be speaking German.

You people are ingrates.

[Martinned]

The US only got involved in World War II when it itself got attacked. If the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl Harbour you lot would have elected Charles Lindbergh president and I'd now be speaking German. Like Churchill said, you can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they've tried all the other options. You certainly seem to be putting that theory to the test now.

So yeah, the US gets rich by stealing indigenous people's land and African Americans' labour, i.e. despite its shitty system of government, not because of it.

[Frank Drackman]

I love finally getting to use this stupid debating tool

"Hey "Martinned",
"IF" is "Doing a lot of work" in your (stupid) Argument"
and it's OK, you can use the correct term, "American Indian" instead of indiogyneous, and like Mr. McGuire said to Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate" I'll just give you one word
"Belgian Congo"
OK, that was 2 words, Sue me (maybe in an International Court?)
When did the Congolese get their independence from the Belgians?? (of course if you let some Cheese-Eating Belgians boss you around, you sort of deserve it)

Frank

[Commenter_XY]

You are ingrates. Twice, we liberated you.

You'll gladly speak Russian, I am sure.

[LawTalkingGuy]

“We” lol.

[Malika the Maiz]

XY manned the air, he rammed the ramparts!

[Commenter_XY]

We, as in America, nitwit.

In WWI, we lost ~100K+ to defend Europe.
In WWII, we lost ~200K+ to defend Europe.
I know you know all of this, you're a student of history.

So yeah, eurotrash is a damned ingrate.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Yeah, I also know that you’re demanding someone be grateful to you for something you didn’t have any part unless you happen to be 95. “We” didn’t do anything. Other people who have long since passed on did. So I’m not going to call people overseas “ingrates” for not liking our current government simply because this country did something good in the past.

[Martinned]

"Twice"? Before World War II, the last time the US and the Netherlands were involved in the same war was when the Dutch backed the US in your war of independence.

[jb]

XY is confused as to why the fighting on the Western Front was in Belgium and France, apparently.

[ThePublius]

The Netherlands government was neutral during the U.S. war of independence, it was Dutch merchants who helped the U.S.

[ThePublius]

"The US only got involved in World War II when it itself got attacked."

That's bullshit. We supported England via lend-lease, had volunteer corps in China and elsewhere, all before Dec. 7, 1941.

"Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US maintained an official policy of isolationism, avoiding direct involvement in World War II. However, the US did provide significant material support to the Allied forces, particularly Britain, through the Lend-Lease program, and engaged in limited naval patrols in the Atlantic. Public opinion was deeply divided on whether to intervene, with isolationist sentiment strong, but the attack on Pearl Harbor dramatically shifted public opinion and led to a declaration of war."

"Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group of American volunteer pilots known as the Flying Tigers, fought for China against Japan. This group, officially the American Volunteer Group (AVG), was recruited to help China defend against Japanese aggression during the Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937. Led by Claire Chennault, the AVG saw action in China and Burma, becoming famous for their combat successes despite being outnumbered."

[Martinned2]

Fat lot of good that did the Dutch who were outnumbered 10:1 by the Germans in May 1940.

[ThePublius]

So, what are you saying? The U.S. should have jumped in and been the world's policeman in, say, the 1930's? And you blame Germany's conquest of Holland on the U.S.? Get lost.

[ThePublius]

And, you can't admit you were wrong, can you?

[jb]

Aren't you the same person trying to distinguish between Netherlands's official neutrality in the US Revolutionary War and the merchant support for the US?

[Bob from Ohio]

"US gets rich by stealing indigenous people's land and African Americans' labour [sic]"

How did Holland make its money? It had colonies all over the world and certainly stole a lot of East Indian labor.

That's what is so bad about you. You are so jealous of America you don't see the beam in your own eye.

[Martinned2]

Holland was already one of the richest places in the world before its colonial adventures, and continues to be one of the richest places in the world today. But yes, some of my compatriots' ancestors made a lot of money selling slaves to Americans.

[Bob from Ohio]

Whatever gets you thru the day. Rationalization is what separates man from animals.

[ThePublius]

Most of the slaves the Dutch transported did not land in America. You're having trouble with history today.

[jb]

This is lame. If it weren't for the French we'd have King Charles on our money, but I don't see anyone calling for Americans to kiss Macron's ass as a result.

[LawTalkingGuy]

And if it wasn’t for Emperor Hadrian we’d all be speaking Pict so you better thank a Roman today!

[bernard11]

And if it weren't for Charles Martel Europe would be Muslim, and speak Arabic, and who knows where that would have led.

[Commenter_XY]

I suppose the Battle of Vienna 1683 was another big turning point.

[jb]

Good point. Why are we all so ungrateful to the Poles?

[Mr. Bumble]

Let's not forget Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid) who drove the Muslims out of Spain.

[Frank Drackman]

Too bad they let them back in

[bernard11]

And thereby unleashed the worst abuses of the Inquisition.

It would have been much better had the Muslims defeated El Cid, Charlton Heston notwithstanding.

[Sarcastr0]

TACO is financial markets cope that somehow expanded. I do not understand the enthusiasm for assuming a madman's behavior will be predictable.

[hobie]

You just need to pay attention to Trump Clan and cronies' stock activity. Did they go short day before yesterday? If they remain short you know they plan to stick with the tariffs. If on any given day you see them all switch course, you'll know that in the next few hours or days, Trump will go TACO.

[Josh R]

It does look like TACO Trump is no more.

Perhaps there was some strategy (by the staff, not Trump) in going colossal at first, watching the markets react, and settling on merely bug. Either way, Trump owns the economy going forward and we shall see if Econ 101 is right.

[Malika the Maiz]

How would putting tariffs on one of our largest trading partners for recognizing a Palestinian state be in our national interest?

[Martinned]

Trump wants for everyone to do as he says all the time, but he doesn't want to use any sort of carrot to do that. So he's left with the stick. Let's see how that works out for him.

[hobie]

I saw a map yesterday that showed that apart from the US, Germany, Italy and Finland, every other country on Earth recognizes the Palestinian state. When you make enemies of your allies, why should you expect them to keep supporting the charade

[Frank Drackman]

Really?? "Every other Country"????
Pretty sure Israel doesn't.
Seriously, I've been nice and not bringing up how you claimed to be a Veteran, in fact you're sort of entertaining to watch, in the way that watching an Epileptic shit his pants is entertaining, and you can try the George Constanza defense, but the Internets never forgets.

Frank

[Martinned]

That's not quite right. About 140 countries recognise Palestine.

An interesting legal story here is that this week some eminent UK lawyers published an open letter arguing that it would be illegal for the UK to recognise Palestine. That certainly got a lot of people (like me) puzzled, and most real experts angry (at how stupid that argument was). Here is the story:

https://www.ejiltalk.org/no-recognizing-palestine-would-not-be-contrary-to-international-law/

[Frank Drackman]

Think about it

[Bob from Ohio]

"How would putting tariffs on one of our largest trading partners for recognizing a Palestinian state be in our national interest?"

Rewarding terrorism by "recognizing" a pretend state after the October 7 pogrom leads to more terrorism.

[Commenter_XY]

Deportation Disappointment....

POTUS Trump's stated 2025 goal, which Noem and Homan endorsed: 1MM
Actual: 1/1 - 6/30 = ~110K deportations
On pace for ~300K deportations

I have said from the start that Homan talks a good game. But he is delivery challenged. Homan's grade is D- to date. (If it stays 300K, it is an F).

Need way more deportations.

[Martinned]

Need way more deportations.

Feel free to move to Argentina and set the right example.

[Frank Drackman]

Martinned not seeing the irony of using the "Go back to Africa" argument

[Malika the Maiz]

It’s not a suggestion XY is from there it’s about Argentina’s current politics.

Crazy and stupid, perfect MAGA.

[Frank Drackman]

OK, if it's an acceptable argument
Queenie,
"Feel free to move to Africa and set the right example"
Umm, might want to check AAA first, some of the Moose-lum nations might not be um, "friendly" to "men" like you.

Frank

[Malika the Maiz]

Doubling down on stupid in third grade form.

Perfect MAGA!

[Martinned]

It seemed like the sort of place where they don't mind a MAGA refugee.

Speaking of American refugees: Overall Dutch asylum seeker numbers are way down for the year so far, mostly because peace broke out in Syria. (At least it did until Netanyahu decided that a forever war was the best way to stay out of prison.) The one origin country where asylum numbers are way up is the US.

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/07/28/van-kentucky-naar-ter-apel-deze-amerikaanse-trans-personen-zijn-gevlucht-voor-het-beleid-van-trump-a4901546?t=1754051926

[Mr. Bumble]

In case you missed it:

Mr. Bumble 3 days ago
Monday Open Thread

...and in the Netherlands:
Key findings

Increasing numbers of non-citizens are being placed in detention.
People applying for asylum at the border are systematically placed in "border detention."
The country’s Caribbean territories—Aruba and Curaçao—have ramped up their removal efforts in recent years as thousands of Venezuelans have sought refuge on the islands.
No vulnerable persons are automatically exempt from detention, and individual vulnerability assessments are not conducted.
Observers have noted that re-detention is frequent, and that non-citizens are often detained cumulatively for periods exceeding the maximum 18-month detention period.
"Territorial detention" is regulated by the same legislation that applies to penitentiary detention. This, however, is set to change with the introduction of the new Return and Detention Act.
The provision of security at detention centres is outsourced to private companies.
https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/europe/netherlands#country-report
Several years old but top of the search.

[Martinned2]

What's your point? In the Netherlands it is generally not permitted to detain people simply because they entered the country to seek asylum. But on small islands in the Carribean it makes sense that you'd sometimes approach that question differently. And EU law, including the Schengen laws on immigration, don't apply in the Dutch West Indies (though the ECHR does).

[Mr. Bumble]

People applying for asylum at the border are systematically placed in "border detention."

[jb]

It's almost like if you focus on hiring people based only on their loyalty and not their competence, and then go about doing things in a way that generates as much opposition as possible, that you're not going to be that successful at your goals.

[Commenter_XY]

No, I call it like I see it. Homan talks a good game, but doesn't deliver the goods. If he cannot deliver, then find someone who can.

[Josh R]

If he delivers, Trump's approval ratings will suffer. The people want to see the border controlled. They want to see violent criminals deported. They do not want to see otherwise law-abiding day workers, maids, cooks, waiters, farm workers, friends, classmates and neighbors deported.

The grand bargain is, and always has been, build the wall and take other measures to firmly crackdown on illegal immigration going forward and provide amnesty for most already here.

[Commenter_XY]

Josh R, it could also be the case that Homan is just off to a slow start, and only recently got the resources to ramp up deportations. He has been on the job 5 of 48 months, I'll reserve final judgment on his performance somewhere around the end of Q2 2026. But if it is a run rate of 300K deportations per year at that point in time, I'd fire him. And find someone a hell of a lot more aggressive.

You are quite mistaken in your baseline assumption that the 'American people' only want violent criminal illegal aliens deported. Maybe white upper middle class limo libs and AWFLs feel that way, but not the rest of the country. Newsflash: We want them all out. Now. Come in through the front door, next time.

For the foreseeable future, there is no grand bargain. The wall will be built. Illegal aliens, no matter who they are (DACA excepted - POTUS Obama made that deal, we must honor it to DACA recipients only, not their families), will be detected, detained and deported back to their country of origin. They will leave this country. What bargain? Josh R, the election is over, and the country made their choice. There will be no amnesty. There will be Alligator Alcatraz in lieu of amnesty.

You and your team get your chance in 2028. Until then, you should realize that the discussion phase is over with the passage of OBBB. It is now all about getting it done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Feel free to caterwaul aimlessly.

I know that there are no Trump judges, or Obama judges or Biden judges...just federal judges who do their best to administer justice (as they see it). And I believe that to be true. With this said, the overwhelming majority of cases brought against current gov't policies come from just 11 of 91 federal districts. It is a remarkable coincidence I would like Chief Justice Roberts to address, if he deigns to.

[Josh R]

Trump has already expressed his opinion that farm workers and the hospitality industry are different. Your xenophobia is out of touch with America which voted to stop the mess at the border (and reduce prices).

As is often the case, the party in power overreaches at the risk of being punished in 2026 by the electorate (Trump's approval is only treading water on immigration as is. It will take a hit if Holman does what you want him to do).

[jb]

Yes, this is my point. Trump's appointees are generally not competent and unlikely to be good at anything other than sucking up to Trump.

Which is great from my perspective since I disagree with most of Trump's policies! On the other hand, it was obvious that Trump was going to (still) be bad at being President before he was elected. Not sure why anyone who agreed with him from a policy perspective thought he was a good choice to actually make any of it happen.

[Commenter_XY]

Let's see where Homan is by Q2 2026 (fire him if no improvement). He could just be a slow starter and a good finisher. It is only 5 months on the job.

[ReaderY]

John B Calhoun conducted a series of experiments in rats and mice from the 1950s into the 1970s in which he created a “mouse utopia” with abundent food and water, ideal conditions, and no predators, dropped in a few rodents of the same species to start an initial colony, and then watched to see what happened. The colony grew exponentially for several generations. But then it reached a peak. Dysfunctional behavior increased, with increasing agression and violence. Some mice kept to themselves, avoided contact with others, and sleeping during the day and venturing out for food and water only at night. They increasingly lacked the social skills to be able to mate or to interact with each other in anything but violent or aggressive ways. When they did mate, female mice were increasingly unable to carry their pregnancies to term. Homosexual behaavior increased markedly. When sex happened, it became increasingly dissociated from reproduction.

The colonies often peaked well below the planned maximum capacity of the facility. And they went extinct. Eventually, the female mice stopped having offspring entirely, and then the surviving mice all eventually died out.

Has the internet accelerated the onset of “human utopia?” Are we getting the utopia we asked for, with all its consequences?

One of the interesting things about the mouse utopia experiments is that it challenges some of the basic assumptions of libertarianism. Behavior that libertarians say “doesn’t hurt others” contributed to extinction just as much as behavior that libertarians think does.

[Sarcastr0]

In my personal opinion citing the mouse utopia study is the same level as 'Idiocracy was a documentary!'

We are not mice. That particular set of studies was created with an agenda, published with explicit anthropomorphic analysis, and I am not a fan.

I do think the effect of Internet on community is interesting and with studying both foundationally via psychology and broadly via sociology/anthropology.

I leave the libertarianism issues to those folks. And I mean the real libertarians not the weird natalists on here who call themselves libertarian but sound more like incels.

[ReaderY]

I don’t think you can dismiss empirical results that disagree with your deeply-held beliefs so casually. Mice are not humans. But how can you be as certain as you claim that the analogy has so little relevance to humans that relying on it for policy is completely irrational?

I understand it’s as au currant today as it was in Galleleo’s time to respond to scientific findings discordant with existing orthodoxies of both the right and left by firing the scientists who found them, although the firing process has become less painful and generates fewer ashes than it did in Gallelo’s time.

Human behavior that we see around us does seem to have a certain resemblance to the mice experiments. And there does seem to be at least some evidence that this behavior has been accelerated by the rise of social media.

[Sarcastr0]

I do think it's a legit result about mice.

I don't think you can assume an analogy to humans. That's not orthodoxy talking, that's noting anthropomorphism is a standard error in such studies, especially back in the long ago 1900s.

Similarly, some behavior related to social media looks similar, but I can't jump from that to 'this behavior has been accelerated...' we don't know that it's this behavior without more work. Behavior is complex!

I have some very smart friends who disagree with me on this, I will note; that's why I took pains to say it's my opinion.

[ReaderY]

You’re missing my point. I’m saying you can’t assume it doesn’t apply. For rational basis purposes, it’s more than good enough evidence. The idea it might apply is an entirely rational idea. It’s within the realm of legitimate argument.

[Sarcastr0]

For scientific discover, the default assumption is that something is not supported.

But I do agree that for common discussion that's a much mushier standard.
I try to be on the skeptical side (but I do slip up!). Still, reasonable minds can differ.

[Brett Bellmore]

Even in science, a positive finding in mice is generally taken to be sufficiently suggestive to justify at least looking for the same thing in humans. When you see the same thing in multiple mammalian species, (Spoiler: This hasn't just been seen in mice.) the suggestion gets rather pointed.

So, how WOULD you go about looking for the same phenomenon in humans? Ethically, of course.

You might go looking for correlations, controlling for as many variables as you could.

[hobie]

Animals mass kill themselves all the time often for no apparent reason: they jump off cliffs; beach themselves; collapse their colonies etc. Homosexuality has been documented in most complex species, even in the best of times. To say that homosexuality arises from societal decay is just your preacher or MAGA influencer talking trying to squeeze more fear-based money out of you

[Brett Bellmore]

"Societal decay" is just what we call in humans the same things that happen in other species, only looked at from the inside.

[hobie]

What they needed was an authoritarian mouse to whip all the white mice into reproducing before all the mice in the southern region of the habitat turned full homo

[LawTalkingGuy]

The Ohio Attorney General announced a new SG to replace the old one who is now in charge of OLC.

https://x.com/ohioag/status/1950944247491744019?s=46&t=swfuX8A13L7H9PAYSakPtA

Look at the comments. Absolutely deranged. On Pre-Elon Twitter that post would have had 12 likes and a few other lawyers saying: congrats. Now it’s swarmed by these whiny racist dipshits calling themselves “heritage Americans” engaging in anti-Indian hate. Some of these are big accounts too. And as we’ve seen, being a Twitter troll is actually a way into mainstream Republican politics, including at high levels. At the very least not an impediment.

And so this is a theme that we will have to keep returning to: what happens when the logistically difficult process of deportations doesn’t make this large contingent of radicalized losers any happier because they still have to see non-whites in day-to-day life? And that there will still be citizens of immigrant/minority backgrounds who achieve success in this country? What do they see as the next step? What are they willing to do to rid themselves of a population they view as undesirable?

[David Nieporent]

And just a reminder to Brett that people who rant about immigration hate all immigrants, not just illegal ones. (She isn't even an immigrant — but to these people, she is.)

[LawTalkingGuy]

Just a reminder when Josh Blackman scoffs at “pizzas” being delivered to federal judges, this is what he’s talking about:

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/wireStory/federal-judges-detail-rise-threats-pizza-doxings-trump-124258002

[SRG2]

And the cultists approve

[hobie]

Pizza seems to play a large part in MAGA mythology. Look at the bright side, at least we won't have more years of MAGA pederast conspiracies. That shit done been shut-the-fuck down

[JoeFromtheBronx]

"In 2020, a disgruntled litigant posing as a deliveryman opened fire at the New Jersey home of District Judge Esther Salas, killing her 20-year-old son Daniel Anderl. Five years later, as President Donald Trump steps up his criticism of federal judges who have blocked some of his agenda, dozens of judges have had unsolicited pizzas delivered to their homes, often in Daniel Anderl’s name.

District Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. of Rhode Island, who stalled Trump’s initial round of across-the-board spending cuts, is among those who received pizzas in Anderl's name. His courtroom also has been flooded by threatening calls, including one profanity-laced one that called for his assassination."

Trump's constant attack on the legitimacy of judges, including when he was a private litigant, aids and abets this sort of thing. The Attorney General of the United States and others join in.

Conservative justices don't help by their thinly argued, at best, constant overturning of lower court opinions, promoting the message that lower court judges are unprincipled and out of
control. Roberts did defend judicial independence in his end-of-the-year report.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/year-end/2024year-endreport.pdf

Concern about attacks on courts, including things that would give the FBI cause, has been an issue for quite some time.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-judges-threats/

[John F. Carr]

Fifty years ago the judge who ordered busing in Boston had guards around his house in the suburbs.

The Internet makes minor harassment easier. A successful attack still takes effort.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Yes, a successful attack like:

"In 2020, a disgruntled litigant posing as a deliveryman opened fire at the New Jersey home of District Judge Esther Salas, killing her 20-year-old son Daniel Anderl."

The person also reportedly had his sights on Justice Sotomayor.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/19/politics/sotomayor-salas-supreme-court-security

The "mild" harassment includes getting a judge's "home phone number and called repeatedly with graphic vows to murder him."

Justice Barrett talked about wearing a bulletproof vest. In another case:

Marshals deemed dozens of the messages serious death threats and assigned Watson a 24-hour security detail for nearly a month, he said. His family traveled for over a week in an armed three-car convoy for daily routines, including grocery shopping and picking up his sons from school.

Security for state judges has also been tightened.

[LawTalkingGuy]

“Disgruntled litigant” is also kind of a deceptive framing since he was a Trump-supporting anti-feminist “Men’s Rights” lawyer who was against the VAWA and complained about commies.

[Commenter_XY]

John F Carr...Nobody said the job of Federal Judge comes without risk. You took the oath. Nobody coerced you. You're talking about Judge Garrity, correct? I remember the riots.

You know, I was always taught: You don't ever f*ck with a judge. Don't ever diss them. Ever, ever, ever. And that is especially true of federal judges.

One outcome of that tragic case (Danial Anderl) I am not quite sure I agree with entirely; NJ Daniel's law. The law requires the addresses of federal judges (and other judicial officers) to be redacted simply b/c they are federal judges (or judicial officers). My philosophical reservation is, why can't all NJ citizens have the same protection and anonymity, are our lives somehow worth less and need less protection? I don't think so.

Despite my philosophical reservations, I know I don't ever want to see another Esther Salas and Mark Anderl. I remember their faces, and the anguish.

[bernard11]

My philosophical reservation is, why can't all NJ citizens have the same protection and anonymity, are our lives somehow worth less and need less protection?

When Trump and his supporters start talking about you as a traitorous threat to the country, I think you should be entitled to the same level of protection.

[SRG2]

The regime fired a prosecutor and now drops chargesw against the crook he was prosecuting.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/doj-dismisses-case-fat-brands-andy-widerhorn-fired-proseuctor-rcna221940

The Justice Department dropped a case against restaurant group Fat Brands and its chairman, Andy Wiederhorn, on Tuesday, months after the White House took the unusual step of directly firing a career federal prosecutor who was handling the case.

Q: Why does the regime commute, pardon, or drop cases against, swindlers and crooks?
A: Professional courtesy

[LawTalkingGuy]

Trump does have a genuine affinity for crooks, scammers, and corrupt officials. It’s almost charming in a perverse way.

[jb]

I hear Trump wants to pardon Diddy now. It's a pretty remarkable group that he seems to have a soft spot for: corrupt politicians, sex traffickers, and fraudsters.

[hobie]

Diddy grabbed too many pussies to stay locked up

[David Nieporent]

corrupt politicians, sex traffickers, and fraudsters

Say, I haven't seen Noscitur a sociis around lately.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Five to ten years seems like a long time for giving a hooker a ride.

[jb]

Related: also saw that that the Pedo Prez invited a guy who slept with a 16 year-old when he was 51 to the White House. Even better, Trump told us all what a great guy he was and apparently is going to have him help out with high school physical education.

[ReaderY]

I don’t think Trump is in the business of offering courtesy, professional or otherwise. He is not known to give away valuable assets gratuitously. This is a business where you have to pay to play.

Notice that he tends to pardon people who have enough money to be players.

[ReaderY]

Look at things this way. Most American regualtory agencies exist at least in part to help the industry they regulate. The Department of Agriculture helps farmers. The FAA helps the aircraft industry. The DOE is supposed to help education. And so on.

The Justice Department is one of a few agencies that are distinct outliers in this regard. Crime is one of America’s most important and fastest-growing industries. Yet rather than do its job and help foster this critical pillar of the American economy that creates many of thousands of jobs, the Justice Department, uniquely among regulatory agencies, has actively sought to stymie the industry whose growth and development it is responsible for.

So it’s very understandable that the Trump administration would reach out to the folks this rogue department regulates and see how he can help bring it back into line so that its regulations help the regulated grow rather than hindering them.

He’s doing similar things with other rogue agencies. Just look at what he’s been doing with the EPA and polluters, the FDA and quacks, and the Department of Defence and intelligence establishment and America’s adversaries.

This is no different.

[Malika the Maiz]

Aiding and abetting bribery:

Republicans reject Democrats’ amendment to block Trump from taking Qatari jet after presidency

https://thehill.com/business/budget/5431133-republicans-reject-democrats-amendment-aimed-at-blocking-trump-from-taking-qatari-jet-post-presidency/

[hobie]

Foreign countries always give gifts to other historically adversarial countries' militaries. Weapons, intelligence...luxury jumbo jets. So when the Qatari and US militaries do a joint training exercise, each can fly their luxury jumbo jet fleets in formation.

[jb]

Someone pointed out how Trump's genius tariff policy encouraged moving car manufacturing offshore earlier in the week, here's an example of a small business that was forced to move their production from the US to China because a bunch of the parts they need suddenly got more expensive:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/business/economy/trump-tariffs-manufacturers.html?unlocked_article_code=1.a08.kB3b.h8HDnffSiZsY&smid=url-share

Since Trump is obsessed with balance of trade, it's interesting to note that this company used to buy cheap components from China and turn them into more expensive finished goods that then got exported to other countries like Canada. But now they'll just direct ship from China to Canada so while the China tariff has slightly reduced our trade deficit with China, it's made the deficit with Canada worse.

There's stories from some other companies facing similar problems , as well as the owner of a pipe company that says the tariffs are good for business (but who also acknowledges that they probably aren't right for other industries).

Meanwhile, Trump has cut back on actual investments in US production in critical industries like chip manufacturing so overall investments in factories is down since he became President. It's like with the immigration discussion above: even if you agree with Trump's policy views, maybe next time don't elect a moron who isn't capable of actually governing?

[Bob from Ohio]

"forced"

They made a choice, choosing ChiComs over Americans.

[Life of Brian]

here's an example of a small business that was forced to move their production from the US to China because a bunch of the parts they need suddenly got more expensive

If there's really that significant of a problem, I'm puzzled why the august journalists at the Gray Lady couldn't come up with any more significant/compelling examples than MISCO, a ~$15M company that was already paraded in front of the microphone over this exact same issue back in 2019.

And setting that aside and pretending that MISCO is generalizable, the NYT article seems very cagily written about exactly when MISCO's manufacturing operations moved to China. Given that the owner was darkly predicting back in 2019 that he would have to offshore his business and that Biden didn't touch the elevated tariffs that sparked those dark predictions (and factoring in the lead time it takes in the real world to actually offshore a manufacturing line of any complexity), I suspect he already had moved prior to this round of tariffs.

And if he hadn't already moved, then we would need to evaluate his current ominous promises against what would then be a 6-year track record of crying wolf.

[jb]

I generally think data is more useful than anecdotes, and agree that the media tends to focus on the latter, although probably because that's what people respond to more. The anecdotes are helpful in understanding the context and incentives, though.

We'll see what happens with actual investment and balance of trade data. The data in the article seems to show less investment in factories not more, although that's probably mostly the result of Trump trying to unwind the CHIPS Act and incentives for green energy manufacturing* as opposed to his tariff policies. We'll have to wait a bit to see what the tariffs actually do, but it's beyond stupid to tariff parts more than finished goods so it's hard to see how the incentives are going to lead to more domestic manufacturing as they stand.

* It also says something about how smart Trump's policies are that he wants to encourage 60s style manufacturing, and not for new industries that are growing and strategically imporant.

[Jazzizhep]

Holy sh!t!!! I was driving and listening to a D/FW sports station. They just played a completely AI created song about their experiences, mostly comical, while in Oxnard, CA covering the Cowboys training camp.

It was hilarious!!! It is mostly inside jokes: just listening without knowing context will it make seem like nonsense.

The surprising thing, that freaked me out, was AI completely nailed the country genre. It wasn’t ground breaking, but it wasn’t terrible. It’s a song you probably wouldn’t put in a favorites list, but it would be at home on a non-pop (new) country list.

The station is 105.3 The Fan (KRLD).

[Jmaie]

Velvet Sundown, two albums and more than half a million followers on Spotify...

[ReaderY]

Emil Bove’s confirmation as a Court of Appeals judge for the 3rd Circuit represents the first time that Trump has appointed a Court of Appeals judge who served as his personal lawyer and got his bearings entirely outside the standard Federalist Society conservative legal track.

He therefore represents a sort of test case for whether Trump will be able to get judges confirmed whose primary loyalty is to him personally rather than the traditional conservative legal establishment. and whom he can rely on to use their offices to advance his agenda and deliver favorable rulings.

He has clearly learned a lesson from past Supreme Court appointees, who have bitterly disappointed him and were, from his point of view, not loyal to him at all. He may completely ditch the Federalist Society as a path to judicial office, and being active in it may become as much of an albatross as activism within the ABA. He may seek personally loyal lawyers as judges. He probably realizes people like John Eastman and Rudolf Giuliani are considered tainted and unconfirmable, so he has to rely on people who don’t have as much of a visible track record. But he might yet gain enough power in the Senate that he can get anyone he wants confirmed.

[Martinned2]

If only there was some kind of independent body that had to sign off on those appointments...

[hobie]

I see that the past few days the MAGAverse has been fixated on a mob of black thugs beating on people in Cincinnati. AM radio has been saying some in the mob had previously been given sweetheart sentences for beating people. They say we need to back the police in these situations. They say penalties for violent crime such as beating people must be increased and that the book be thrown at these assaultive mobsters.

Lordy I swear. You can't make shit like this up.

[Frank Drackman]

Blacks assaulting/murdering/raping Whites, what's "News" about that? Let me know when they stop doing it so much, THAT would be "News"

[hobie]

Let's see how many heads this sails over, Frankie.

[ThePublius]

What are you talking about? It did, indeed, happen, and the Police Chief soft-peddled it; like those white people shouldn't have been there. A Cincinnati City Council member said 'They begged for that beat down.'

WTF is wrong with these people? This is a good example for the white version of "the talk:" stay away from large gatherings of blacks.

[Frank Drackman]

"Large Gatherings of Blacks"???
OJ was able to cause a fair bit of carnage by himself (I know, it was the One Armed Man)

[ThePublius]

"They say we need to back the police in these situations. They say penalties for violent crime such as beating people must be increased and that the book be thrown at these assaultive mobsters."

Who's "they?" It certainly wan't the police chief.

[hobie]

AM Radio (Glenn Beck, Trey and Buck), Fox

[ThePublius]

And that's wrong with that? You think that we shouldn't back the police in these situations? You think penalties for violent crime such as beating people shouldn't be increased, and that the book should not thrown at these assaultive mobsters?

[hobie]

See my answer to Frankie above

[Frank Drackman]

That Blacks raping/murdering/robbing other races is their natural state.

[SRG2]

You must have hated the Trump pardons of the J6 thugs.

[ThePublius]

Show me the videos of J6 "thugs" stomping on people's heads, and sucker punching innocent, unsuspecting women.

[Sarcastr0]

Is it OK if the innocents are men?

I do like the implication that the police are never innocent.

[SRG2]

Ah, so unless the J6 thugs do exactly the same thing as this lot, you defend them. Beating up a cops with a flagpole, for example, is just high spirits, right?

[ThePublius]

No! I don't excuse beating up cops. Those who do so should be vigorously prosecuted. But walking through the Capitol when the cops held the doors for you, taking some pics and selfies - those people should never have been prosecuted and punished. Big difference.

[Sarcastr0]

But walking through the Capitol when the cops held the doors for you, taking some pics and selfies

This is not what happened to the people who were prosecuted. And then pardoned.

MAGA just lives in a world of their own mythology.

[Bob from Ohio]

"You must have hated the Trump pardons of the J6 thugs."

Oh look. Whataboutism!

[Kazinski]

Mainly because it had great video, but if you want a Black perspective on it with blow by blow video commentary, then here you go:

https://youtu.be/dqvdvECeokU?si=c3QM3WYoX6w_ZzMQ

[TwelveInchPianist]

I hadn't heard the term sub-Saharan logic before.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

The Braves/Reds game last night was something.

The Reds (cusp of playoff race) kept on blowing chances. The game is tied 3-3 in the eighth. Then, the Braves (injuries have helped lead them to be in a deep hole*) score eight runs.

Oh well.

Wait. The Reds then score eight. So the score is now 11-11.

The Braves win in the 10th on a sacrifice fly during the dubious excuse for extra-inning baseball we have now, after the Reds couldn't respond. So, the Braves win 12-11.

Baseball is about shaking it off. The two teams have an early game today. The game does show various things, including the importance of not only tying, but winning the game.

===

* Many Mets fans are pleased.

[Frank Drackman]

It was actually fairly "Historical" in that both teams scored 16 runs in one inning, with the record being 18, and set back in the 1880's when the pitchers were only 50 feet away and the batters could request a high or low pitch, as it ended up it was the 3rd most runs scored by 2 teams in a single inning.

[Martinned2]

More sad news from the Middle East: https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cjelp738zd7o

The BBC World Service has pieced together the stories of Layan al-Majdalawi, two, and Mira Tanboura, six, both killed in Gaza in separate incidents in November 2023, in areas where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was operating.

In response to our findings, the IDF said the details of Layan and Mira's cases had been recorded and "will be examined by the competent authorities". It added: "Intentional harm to civilians, especially children, is strictly prohibited."

Layan and Mira are just two of more than 160 cases of children shot in the war in Gaza, for whom we have gathered accounts.

We found that in 95 of these cases, the child had been shot in the head or chest. In 59 of those, we obtained testimony from eyewitnesses, either directly or via human rights organisations and medics. The witnesses alleged that 57 of these children were shot by the IDF, and two were shot by Palestinians - one in celebratory gunfire and the other in a gang conflict.

For the remaining 36 out of the 95 cases, we have no account of what happened. Israel bans foreign reporters from entering Gaza independently, and the destruction and displacement make gathering details difficult.

[Frank Drackman]

Interesting, did something happen in October 2023 that led to their eventual deaths?

[ThePublius]

Exactly. If you don't want your children to be collateral casualties in a war, don't start a war.

[David Nieporent]

Did the parents of those children start the war?

[Commenter_XY]

The parents no doubt support hamas, and support the extermination of all Jews; fate has delivered a cruel response.

[David Nieporent]

"No doubt!"

[Commenter_XY]

Not really, David. There is strong support for hamas in gaza; it is a whole of society effort. That is the truth.

[Josh R]

The whole Gaza society wants to exterminate all the Jews. Your "facts" are really fucked up.

But assuming you are right, you must support killing them all until they surrender.

[CindyF]

"The Reveal: The Public is Finally Learning How Democrats Pulled Off The Greatest Political Trick in History"

https://jonathanturley.org/2025/08/01/the-reveal-the-public-is-finally-learning-how-democrats-pulled-off-the-greatest-political-trick-in-history/

I wouldn't call it a "trick". It appears to be more of a criminal conspiracy.

[hobie]

re Sydney Sweeney

Megyn Kelly, June 30 [dissing Sweeney for showing off boobs to get into liberal parties]: “Sydney Sweeney’s the new toast of the town out there because she’s got these enormous breasts that everybody’s obsessed with”

Megyn Kelly, July 30 [after jeans commercial airs]: "Finally we have an actual woman with amazing breasts and an obviously kick ass body"

[ThePublius]

And what's the point you're trying to make?

[Mr. Bumble]

That Sydney Sweeney has great boobs? (and she does)

[SRG2]

True. though they're not unusually large - no more than 0.3 partons at best, I think

[Frank Drackman]

"More than a mouthful is a waste!"
and did you ever notice the Cretins who used to say that probably only ever had a "mouthful" experience with a warm sticky substance that rhymes with "whizz"?

Frank

[Paladin_44]

Partons - now that's both clever and immediately obvious. Trying to come up with someone rating 0.5 or so - maybe Mansfield?

[Ska]

It seems to be that Sydney Sweeney has nice tits. Personally I'm never giving up on Scarlett Johansen, though hey, why complain about it?

About to cue up some Joe Walsh.

[TwelveInchPianist]

From what I've seen, Sydney Sweeney has some weird aspects to her personality, though.

I mean, who eats crackers in bed?

[Ska]

Barbara Mandrell?

[Krayt]

There are claims now, sure from Trump himself, that tarriffs are bringing in trillions. I reiterate my prediction.

I still don't think that will happen, but that's not the point. The point is if it does bring in such, and balance the budget, the Congress will quickly ramp up spending to get back into the red, just as was done with the Internet boom in the late 90s.

[hobie]

Lousy jobs numbers this morning. 2nd Trump recession on the way.

The Second Coming

...And what rough orange beast
Its hour come round at last
Slouches towards Bethlehem for what has rumored to be a great meal deal at the Chic Fil A there

[Krayt]

Well, an unbreaded chicken sandwich is a health upgrade from a breaded one, or a cheeseburger anyway.

[Kazinski]

Yep, Trump is so mad about the Jobs report he is ordering the firing of the BLS. Here are some highlights from the BLS. Press releaae:

"Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in July (+73,000) and has shown little change since April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. The unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, also changed little in July. Employment continued to trend up in health care and in social assistance. Federal government continued to lose jobs.'

That doesn't so bad to me, but the bond market is up because they think the fed will finally lower rates in September if the job creation number stays weak. Which it probably will because federal government spending is going down which is quarter of the economy:

"Federal government employment continued to decline in July (-12,000) and is down by 84,000 since reaching a peak in January. (Employees on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay are counted as employed in the establishment survey.)"

So there is going to be a big bump in September when all the Federal employees that took the buyout get separated.

Here's the report so you can tell me what I cherrypicked from it:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[Kazinski]

Here is another highlight:

"The employment level of foreign-born workers – which does not distinguish between illegal and legal immigrants – has dropped by about 1 million since President Trump returned to the White House in January, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The number of US-born workers jumped by about 2.5 million over the same period, according to the data."

https://nypost.com/2025/08/01/business/us-job-market-cools-as-pressure-grows-on-jerome-powell-to-cut-rates/

If you want to see the source the Post article links the St Louis Fed data for foreign born and native born in the article, I don't want to risk too many links here.

[Kazinski]

CBO put the number at 3 trillion so its not just Trump, 2.5t in increased tariff revenue, .5t in reduced interest on the debt:

"Before accounting for how the changes in tariffs would affect the size of the economy, CBO estimates that the increase in collections of tariffs would reduce primary deficits by $2.5 trillion. That estimate accounts for how flows of U.S. imports and exports would adjust in response to the tariffs imposed as of May 13, 2025.
By lowering federal borrowing, those tariff collections would reduce federal outlays for interest by $0.5 trillion. As a result, in the absence of any effects on the U.S. economy, the changes in tariffs would reduce total deficits by $3.0 trillion altogether."

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61389

[David Nieporent]

Yes, if you raise taxes, you can reduce the deficit. I believe liberals have been making that argument for years. And the GOP has generally resisted it.

The specific numbers are wrong both because — as your quote shows — they don't factor in how the tariffs would affect the economy and because the tariffs continue to fluctuate wildly based on the whims of the Mad King, and CBO is using old figures.

[David Nieporent]

I'm old enough to remember when MAGA were touting unemployment figures. I'm even old enough to remember that when unemployment figures were originally reported as good, but then revised downward, this was proof that the Deep State was trying to help Joe Biden's campaign.

[loki13]

Nothing exists except the endless present in which Trump is always, and has always been, right.

[LexAquilia]

You may have posted this before the announcement but President Trump (pbuh) fired that partisan Democrat hack that was running the bureau.

[LawTalkingGuy]

What makes you think this person you never heard of until today was a partisan hack?

[LexAquilia]

Data, empiricism, reasoning.

How do you draw conclusions? Just wing it based upon feelings?

[LawTalkingGuy]

Which data?

[David Nieporent]

The partisan Democratic hack that goosed the last two months' worth of numbers to make Trump briefly look better? Boy, they don't make partisan Democratic hacks like they used to.

[LexAquilia]

Has any Democrat in or out of government ever put their thumbs on the scale to undermine or harm Trump?

[loki13]

Saw this (maybe it's making the rounds?) and thought I'd repost it. It's from a speech by Haruki Murakami, and if you haven't read his novels already ... well, you're probably not the type of person that would, so nevermind.

“Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.”

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?

What is the meaning of this metaphor? In some cases, it is all too simple and clear. Bombers and tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are that high, solid wall. The eggs are the unarmed civilians who are crushed and burned and shot by them. This is one meaning of the metaphor.

This is not all, though. It carries a deeper meaning. Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: It is The System. The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others — coldly, efficiently, systematically.

***
It's not that it is necessarily right; but it is thought provoking. It made me reflect on what has happened that so many people think its their obligation, their duty, to not just root for the wall, but to cheer as each and every egg is broken.

[Brett Bellmore]

Wow, that's remarkably stupid.

I will root for the wall, or for the egg, in each case, according to which I regard as right in any given case.

[loki13]

That was res ipsa, Brett. Just because something is thought-provoking doesn't mean that it will engender that reaction for all people.

[Brett Bellmore]

The thought it provoked in me was, literally, "Wow, that's really stupid." That's a thought, and it was provoked, so I can't argue that it wasn't "thought provoking".

I could argue that being thought provoking, without something more, isn't terribly valuable.

[LexAquilia]

Well, to Lefties, Brett, if it didn't provoke the thoughts he wanted you to have, well, then it wasn't thought provoking. Lefties, are after all, always on the Right Side of History.

[loki13]

Of course! I look forward to the next discourse on .... The Brett Chronicles....

"Look, I don't get why people call Jaws a horror movie. It's a tragedy, because you're supposed to root for the shark."

That said, I find your response (while unsurprising) helpful and illuminating. Thank you.

[ThePublius]

Who are you quoting there?

[Sarcastr0]

"I'm ThePublius. I do not understand sarcasm when it's in those newfangled quotational marks. And for that, I blame all of you!"

[ThePublius]

Still makes no sense to me. It must be some pretty shitty sarcasm.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Hey, Loki finally gets something right. I wouldn't read novels by that guy.

[LexAquilia]

Rotten villainous eggs that stink up the rest of the good eggs need to be broken.

[Kazinski]

My taste in Japanese literature used to run to Yukio Mishima, that doesn't look like his style.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-1776-the-egg-lyrics

[ThePublius]

"The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said that it will begin to wind down operations after President Donald Trump signed a package of spending cuts that ended its federal funding."

Good riddance. But then, I thought that the narrative was that the federal subsidies were a very minor part of their funding. They are full of it.

[Sarcastr0]

PBS and NPR != CPB.

[ThePublius]

"The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) serves as a major funding source for public radio and television, including NPR and PBS. While CPB provides financial support, it does not produce or distribute programming itself. PBS and NPR, both member-based organizations, receive funding from CPB and other sources to support their programming and operations."

"Key Differences:
CPB is a funding entity, while PBS and NPR are programming and distribution entities.
PBS distributes television programs, while NPR distributes radio programs.
While CPB provides a significant portion of their funding, PBS and NPR also rely on other sources like member station fees, donations, and corporate underwriting."

[Sarcastr0]

Your AI has failed you.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5489808/cpb-shut-down-public-broadcasting-trump

"The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organization and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting," NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement.

She said NPR would respond by "stepping up to support locally owned, nonprofit public radio stations and local journalism across the country, working to maintain public media's promise of universal service, and upholding the highest standards for independent journalism and cultural programming in service of our nation." The network has pledged to take $8 million from its budget to help local stations in crisis.

[ThePublius]

I don't follow. What's untrue or inaccurate about what I posted?

BTW, Katherine Maher called the First Amendment a 'challenge' and 'reverence for the truth' a distraction. Fuck her.

[OpinionsVary]

"But then, I thought that the narrative was that the federal subsidies were a very minor part of their funding. They are full of it."

This is the inaccurate part. CPB has always been almost entirely publicly funded. There was never a narrative to the contrary.

What you're thinking about is the correct claim that PBS and NPR draw only a minority of their funding from government support. They do (or did) get some of their funding from the government (including via CPB) but it's only a minority of their funding. Notice how PBS and NPR have not closed or announced their closures on this news.

[Bob from Ohio]

"it will begin to wind down operations"

You can just do things.

Thanks President Trump!

[Kazinski]

Breaking news, one of the Fed governors has resigned allowing Trump.to appoint another voting member before the September meeting, if he and the Senate move fast enough.

Federal Reserve Governor Kugler steps down, giving Trump slot to fill
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER,
AP Economics Writer
Aug 1, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve governor Adriana Kugler announced that she will step down next Friday, opening up a spot on the central bank's powerful board that President Donald Trump will be able to fill."

https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/federal-reserve-governor-kugler-steps-down-20798398.php

[LawTalkingGuy]

Carlo M. Cipolla was an Italian economist who once wrote a somewhat tongue-in-cheek work about the “laws of human stupidity.” He posited that a stupid person is someone whose actions both 1) harm their own interests as they believe their interests to be 2) harm everyone else too. It’s an illuminating framing for many Trump actions. Like today he fired the BLS Commissioner because he didn’t like the jobs report. This hurts his own goal of managing the economy well because he’s trying to shield himself from receiving useful info even if it’s negative and it hurts everyone else because businesses and markets rely on accurate jobs data and now they may have some questions depending on who the replacement is. This is extremely stupid.

[loki13]

Oh, c'mon. Putting in people to provide made-up economic statistics that you want to be true has always been awesome! I mean, it worked for Argentina a decade ago, right?

Wait... okay. Anyway, it's not like anyone has ever depended on the United States' economic statistics. So there's that!

Oh ... okay. Well, maybe the silver lining is that the dollar won't be the reserve currency anymore, and ... oh. Oh, that's what would happen?

*shrug* Whaddya gonna do, amirite?

[LawTalkingGuy]

We just need to hope that the St Louis Fed figures out some ways to ensure the veracity of BLS numbers going forward and if they can’t, figure out an alternative to get the info even though they won’t have the same legal tools to collect data as BLS.

[Kazinski]

The problem is BLS themselves admitted today they had been reporting garbage numbers for months:

"The U.S. added 258,000 fewer jobs in May and June than the Labor Department first reported, according to federal data released Friday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued stunning revisions to its reports on May and June employment growth in an overall dismal July jobs report, drastically changing the picture of the U.S. economy."

So it looks like Trump was amply justified firing the responsible official.

If the correct numbers had been reported at the time Trump may have gotten that interest rate cut he wanted.

https://thehill.com/business/5431805-us-job-growth-revised-downward/

[Josh R]

You've joined the dumbfucks who think there is a deep state?

[ThePublius]

And you've joined the dumbfucks who think there isn't a deep state?

[LawTalkingGuy]

We have a professionalized civil service that stupid people hate because they don’t know how anything works.

[Kazinski]

Don't be obtuse.

The clear explanation is incompetence not malevolence.

They reported job growth at much higher levels than they actually were and its been an ongoing problem for years.

Reporting more jobs than there actually were helps Trump, at least for a few news cycles.

And its a long time problem, for instance January 2024 they revised the number down by a whopping -220,000 jobs, but in December 2024 they revised the number up 142,000 jobs.

Both of those were in the Biden administration, and now its continuing into the Trump2 administration, if its a conspiracy, then its a conspiracy of dunces.

https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesnaicsrev.htm#2024

[Josh R]

Trump didn't fire her for incompetence.

What could the BLS be doing that would result in fewer adjustments?

[Sarcastr0]

Lol the clear explanation.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Job numbers are often revised up or down as new data comes in. As the economy changes in response to Trump’s immigration and trade policy things will be in flux.

But let’s be real: Trump is only firing this person because the numbers make him look bad. If they relied on bad data but it made him look good, he would not give one single shit.

[Mr. Bumble]

You are probably right, but why keep foxes in the chicken coop.

[jb]

Haha. Remember when the BLS was revising numbers down in the Biden administration and the Republican posters here were all convinced that it was all a Democrat plot to make Biden look good?

Now the exact same thing is happening under Trump and it's just incompetence apparently. Or really just that the BLS isn't actually cooking the books for Trump.

[David Nieporent]

The problem is BLS themselves admitted today they had been reporting garbage numbers for months:

They did nothing of the kind. Are you just retardedly pretending that the revisions that happen every month to previous months' preliminary figures somehow indicate wrongdoing?

[JoeFromtheBronx]

“The president is just shooting the messenger, it’s not more complicated than that,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the right-leaning American Action Forum and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “The data that were released today conformed in every way to the standards of past employment reports.”

"The Left" gets bigger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/08/01/trump-fires-bls-chief/

[M L]

What does it look like for a government to prioritize the interests of its citizens, above foreign interests and big biz/special interests?

Well,

Trump Economy: All Net Job Growth Going to Native-Born Americans as Foreign-Born Employment Plummets
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/08/01/trump-economy-all-net-job-growth-going-to-native-born-americans-as-foreign-born-employment-plummets/

“Despite [a] disappointing headline, this jobs report was best [July] ever for employment among native-born Americans, up two million [year to year] and annual growth 2.2 million faster than among foreign-born workers; native-born American employment is now 1.8 million above pre-pandemic level,” Economist E.J. Antoni wrote on X.

“Employment among native-born Americans exploded over the last 12 months, up 2 million, while foreign-born workers [with] jobs fell 237k; all net job growth over the last year went to native-born Americans,” Antoni continued....

“Today’s jobs report is a consequence of the illegal alien labor purge: Foreign-born workers down 4 months in a row, down 1.5 million since April. Native-born workers up 383K in July,” the Zero Hedge blog wrote on X.

The Labor Department, headed by Lori Chavez-DeRemer, similarly celebrated the rise in native-born employment.

On the other hand, Biden saturated the labor market with foreign-born workers, which drastically increased the labor supply, freezing wages and ensuring that nearly all net job growth went to newly arrived migrants from the southern border.

While migrants gained more than 4.7 million jobs under Biden, employment growth for native-born Americans increased by just 645,000 jobs, research from the Center for Immigration Studies has discovered.

Put another way, Bidenomics created 7.3 migrant jobs for every job gained by an American.

[Josh R]

Would you rather have overall job growth of 1 million broken down by 1.5 million native born and -0.5 foreign born, or 2 million broken down 1.5 and 0.5? The former is shooting ourselves in the foot because of xenophobia.

There were over 16 million jobs added under Biden. Your numbers are crap.

[Commenter_XY]

What a fascinating interview of Justice Alito. I wish we could hear all nine Justices like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3240DEFb2c

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Important bit of SCOTUS news involving voting rights:

https://electionlawblog.org/?p=151301

[John F. Carr]

Does Justice Thomas get five votes for race-aware districting being unconstitutional even when called remedial?

[LawTalkingGuy]

Unfortunately Gorsuch and Barrett are just as bad at the history of Reconstruction as Thomas is.

[LawTalkingGuy]

The non-originalists are extremely committed to the colorblind constitution idea. Gorsuch appears to be just as bad at the history of Reconstruction as Thomas is. It’ll be 6-3. Unless Jackson can convince Barrett to (re)read Foner or something.

[LawTalkingGuy]

I’d actually prefer if the current Republican Congress just repealed the Voting Rights Act. The text, context, and history of the 15th Amendment show that Congress is supposed to be in the driver’s seat on this. As painful as that would be for them to do, it’s much better long term for our constitutional system. Letting the Court use bad logic and even worse history to run roughshod over legislation and one of the crowning achievements of Reconstruction is so much worse.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

SCOTUS seems to think they are in the "driver's seat" except when 14A, sec. 3 is involved. Congress then has a major role.

[Sarcastr0]

That's...terrible.

Kill the Voting Rights Act in the name of equality.

You best believe Roberts is on board with this project too.