It did not take a Rasputin to see where Trump was headed on the tariff mess. Likely 100s of market analysts were saying this to themselves, and many out loud. Nevertheless, 10 days ago I posted this here:
Here’s what’s coming, and soon. Trump is going to announce there is much significant progress in getting other nations to agree to more favorable treatment of the U.S. in our trade markets. Therefore he’s going to extend the delay in the imposition of the worst of the tariffs. And for those tariffs already in place he’s going to selectively reduce some, and eliminate others. All as gestures of good will and good faith bargaining, to allow more time to hammer out issues.
Everyone in the White House sees what’s coming. Trump will reluctantly step back from the ledge.
Though he is also referred to by several nicknames, including (but not limited to): Pepperoni, Mr. Man, Zoomie Boi, Schmoo, Stop That Right Now, Get Off The Table, Ow-Ow-Ow and No Biting!)
From what I understand, Trump isn’t cancelling the existing new Airforce One contracts. He just thinks (incorrectly) he can take a gilded 747 from Qatar and turn it into Trump Force One in a matter of months. From the article, basically a paint job and communications upgrade is likely the best they could do in that time.
I’m all for letting Trump jet set around in a flying golden target. Save the real Airforce Ones for non-insane President.
“These do not seems like the kinds of tradeoffs anyone would – or necessarily could as a practical matter – make to get a plane in service quickly, let alone to preserve continuity of government in an attack or other crisis.”
“We’re talking years, not months,” an anonymous Defense Department official told the NYT.
“This whole episode has all the trademarks of another Trump boondoggle.”
Trump is probably too stupid and deluded to realize his impatience with Boeing’s AF1 delivery can’t be fixed by taking this Qatar plane. But, even if his short term goal of a shiny “new” jet isn’t achieved, he still has the damned thing to essentially call his own post-Presidency. That’s a win in its own right.
Nah, just 21 dolls for Christmas instead of 30 with a 30% increase per doll the parents can’t afford. Not sure about the pencils. Or maybe zero dolls if they were on Temu and the seller is out of business.
“It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government,” Illston wrote. “But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his coequal branch and partner, the Congress.”
Guess she missed the part where the Slithering Supremes made DJT a “unitary executive,” accountable to no one but, I gather, his own conscience, which, of course, he does not possess. From now on, according to the SS, with regard to presidential actions all anybody can accurately say, apparently, is “whatever.”
The health of our democratic system depends on the military being politically neutral. - Graham Parsons, a tenured professor of philosophy at West Point who is resigning at the end of this semester in protest of the Trump-led attack on the U.S. Military Academy.
Why do so many good people fall on their own goddamn swords? This is the fastest way to ensure your office is filled with a corrupt toad before the next class begins.
No one on the right ever resigns in protests - because its weak. And accomplishes nothing.
They carry on like assholes in their protected roles, furthering their political agendas, and make us spend the effort to all but physically carry them kicking and screaming from office.
OT
The only really original thing here is the groupings of online behavior patterns. I’ve left numerous forums because I was tired the behavior of commenters. Maybe that’s an intrinsic part of why the left to right pipeline exists. Their behavior is identical to the extreme right in many respects, and they encounter less pushback from the right when that extremist behavior joins together.
It’s not that there are strongly held beliefs, it’s that there are deeply ingrained patterns of behavior.
