IOW a day that ends in y?
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Congress knows they have to do something meaningful to reverse the damage from failing to continue the ACA subsidies. Trump has just signalled that whatever they pass must have a veto-proof majority. The House bill is sane and humane. The flimsy alternative is cruel.
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Early onset dementia of the sovereign usually sends opinion writers to their King Lear for some lofty quotes. I think a better Trump 2.0 analogy, surprisingly, is the regency and eventual abdication of Sweden’s Teen King Gustav IV Adolf (coronation 1800, coup and abdication 1809).
According to the “Russia, Russia, Russia” wiki:
In August 1796, his uncle the regent arranged for the young king to visit Saint Petersburg. The intention was to arrange a marriage between the young king and Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, a granddaughter of Catherine the Great. However, the whole arrangement foundered on Gustav Adolf’s unwavering refusal to allow his intended bride liberty of worship according to the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nobody seems to have suspected the possibility at the time that emotional problems might lie at the root of Gustav Adolf’s abnormal piety. On the contrary, when he came of age that year, thereby ending the regency, there were many who prematurely congratulated themselves on the fact that Sweden had now no disturbing genius, but an economical, God-fearing, commonplace monarch.
Trump, a guy who paid others to do his college work, was seen as malleable to the wealthiest in the US and elsewhere. Trump knows nothing about energy economics or tech. He was a creature of real estate and tv. The theme of Trumpy oligarchs was hydrocarbons in the first term. Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO, was even secretary of state. In the second term, it has been the tech oligarchs, who are generally too busy for cabinet posts, although Elon did put in a couple months doing the DOGE thing. Instead we have proxies, particularly Vance and Sacks. The rest is just mush to cover the looting. But now it gives pause seeing Rubio passing notes to Trump live on tv, Trump wandering off in Japan, his cluelessness in the NYT interview, and lack of follow-through after the Venezuela extraordinary rendition at the start of the year.
The Swedish example is important because the country only woke up after losing Finland and their entire eastern flank, a huge historical change. Although Gustav IV Adolf was consistently horrible at running Sweden, it was one political-military misstep that ended him. The coup was swift and brutal. Trump’s beliefs seem pretty simple. As long as he controls the narrative, he’s happy. But it also means that he can’t use his classic televidistic moves as well as earlier. Corporations are distancing from him, and the calls for impeachment now focus instead on his flunkies like Noem and Hegseth. (I’m still trying to figure out what Lori Chavez-DeRemer did so bad as to draw his wrath).
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Trump calls Warren after she rips his policies in speech
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Monday that President Trump called her after she criticized his policies on affordability in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
“This morning, I gave a speech noting how Donald Trump is driving up costs for families, sowing terror and chaos in our communities, and abusing his power to prosecute anyone who criticizes him,” Warren said in a statement.
Warren said Trump called her after and that she delivered the “same message on affordability to him directly.”
“I told him that Congress can pass legislation to cap credit card rates if he will actually fight for it. I also urged him to get House Republicans to pass the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate with unanimous support and would build more housing and lower costs,” she said.
A White House official confirmed on Monday that the call took place, describing it as “productive.”
“President Trump and Sen. Warren had a productive call about credit card interest rates and housing affordability for the American people,” the official said.
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Maybe. I’d shade most of the Democratic caucus that way. However, I suspect that more Republicans who crossed the aisle did it because there’s an election coming up in November.
For this reason, the Senate will be harder to influence. Only 1/3 of those folks get elected every 2 years.
You mean the kidnapping of Maduro and the murders of his security team?
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And hes going to love every minute of both activities.
Goverrnment-sponsored kidnapping usually comes with some color of justification. Here, the fig leaf was “drugs” or “drug cartel”. That ended and move on to an “oil” phase. With that excuse not making much sense, speculation has moved on to currency markets and the risk of further dollar devaluation. In any case, Trump has moved on to Iran.
Extraordinary rendition is the extrajudicial transfer of a person from one jurisdiction to another for detention and interrogation outside the normal legal system, often to countries where human rights safeguards do not apply. It is certainly a form of hostage-taking, Interestingly, extrajudicial rendition cases lock you into your original justification, so “drugs”.
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Mikey is never going to meet Jesus because St. Peter won’t let him pass the Gate. Mikey is going to go straight to Hell and turn into pure carbon.
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My cat Izzy does the same thing. She will go into mourning when we take the tree down.
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In this case, I prefer plain (even brutal) language to euphemisms like “extraordinary rendition”.
As you note, “drugs” or “drug cartel activity” were flimsy excuses. The truth is, Marco Rubio wants to be Viceroy of Cuba and he views Venezuela as a stepping stone. Trump (or more probably his other boyars) needed a distraction from reality. Kidnapping Maduro and his wife were a distraction, so they did it.
But reality has a way of rearing its ugly head, and Rubio isn’t even the Viceroy of Venezuela–Maduro has been replaced by Rodriguez and the same Chavistas are running things. There have been some minor tweaks on the margins of Venezuela’s petroleum industry, but that seems to be about it. And now, TSF’s attention has moved to Iran.
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No one seems to be making the point that’s a lot of specific, non-military collateral damage just to make an arrest.
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In addition to the now-likely US bombing of Iran, the Black Sea corridor, which is critical to Ukrainian grain and Russian hydrocarbons, has seen several tankers hit by drones over the past two days. It is not clear that the hit vessels are under sanctions, rather it seems to be a free-for-all. Iran has supplied Russia will almost $3 billion in drones and missiles, so there may be this urge to fire all of our guns and explode into space as the Putin-Khamenei relationship may be ending.
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In this case that would take no effort at all.
I have spent a life time saving enough for my wife and me to retire. My greatest fear is the Republicans and Trump are going blow up the economy with a stock market collapse as an AI bubble pops, create a weak real estate market in most red states and cause run away inflation with super cheap money fueling inflation I don’t want anybody fucking with the Federal Reserve for the rest of my and my wife’s lives. That is reason enough to never vote for another Republican.
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To coin a phrase, c’mon man. A “I might” from Trump means no more from Trump than “I won’t.” It’s just a noise he makes when he doesn’t know what the question is about. It just means “I have no idea what you’re talking about so I will hold open my options, as I always do, while I find out what it’s about and determine whether there’s way to wring narcissistic supply, graft or revenge out of whatever it is you’re talking about.” Assuming he remembers or some courtier manipulates him with it for his or her own ends.
Senate Republicans keep talking about a 2 year extension rather than 3. Why would they want the extension to expire before the 2028 election? This seems like political suicide to me.
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My guess is that most of them are wealthy enough to be oblivious to when premium changes hit - that is in December, although statements from insurance companies on new rates come in October or November which would be after the election.