Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
February 2, 2025
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-022

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

Brian McDonald @27khv – 11:31 UTC · Feb 2, 2025

A lot of glee on X over Marco Rubio admitting the US is no longer the unipolar hegemon Of course, accepting the reality of a multipolar world—where powers like China and Russia act in their own interests—could lead to a more peaceful global order.

But here’s the catch: a humbled US that recognizes its limits might actually become more effective. Without the costly burden of maintaining global dominance on every front, it could shift focus to sharper, more calculated moves, like strategic trade wars and targeted alliances.

A Washington that stops pretending to rule the world and starts playing smart could be a tougher competitor for Beijing and Moscow than the one we’ve seen desperately clinging to a crumbling 'rules-based order.' The era of unipolarity might be over, but the game is far from done.


Other issues:

Eastern Europe:

Palestine:

China:

DeepSeek:

Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) thread …

Comments

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 2 2025 21:18 utc | 94 How very illiterate of you. If you understood grammar you would realize being no one would be a step up from “fool or a liar or both,” which is the part applying to you. Also, very illiterate is not grasping the distinction between people and citizens, as per the Bill of Rights. The comment @93 is merely dishonest when it evades malenkov‘s point about how rights are assigned to the people.
As to the illiteracy of misinterpreting the Amendment that already does tell us who is a citizen, the Fourteenth in its birthright citizenship clause, where undocumented immigrants are somehow under some other nation’s jurisdiction even though no one can name which nation that is. Children of foreign diplomats, foreign soldiers on some sort of duty, tourists inconsiderately giving birth, you can say which other country has jurisdiction. Undocumented immigrants are under the jurisdiction of the US government, federal and local. That’s why there are never diplomatic exchanges claiming diplomatic immunity, extradition applications or denials, declarations of persona non grata to the jurisdictional government, so on and so on and so on. It is not truly illiterate if it’s a deliberate distortion. Also, clueless is merely aping superiors here.  

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 2 2025 23:10 utc | 101

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 2 2025 18:35 utc | 58
Debatable.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-cancel-student-visas-all-hamas-sympathizers-white-house-2025-01-29/
“The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities,” said Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “Deporting non-citizens on the basis of their political speech would be unconstitutional.”
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-order-deport-pro-palestinian-protesters-explained-2023375
Elora Mukherjee, a law professor and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Newsweek that the text of the First Amendment “refers to ‘the right of the people peaceably to assemble,’ and draws no distinctions based on a person’s status as an immigrant. Those engaged in peaceful assembly, protest, or expression should not have their student visas revoked as a way to punish ideas disfavored by the federal government.”
Jeff Wozniak, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who represents many student protesters…
… added: “These students that are on F-1 visas have First Amendment free speech rights. You don’t get an F-1 visa based on your political views. It is for you to go to college and get an education.”

Posted by: Mary | Feb 2 2025 23:21 utc | 102

Tariffs may be just a way of transferring wealth from the poorest to the richest, by shifting the take to tariffs and lowering tax rates.

Posted by: andy | Feb 2 2025 23:28 utc | 103

ZH has a posting up with the title
“Legitimately FAKE NEWS”: White House Debunks Dem Freakout Over DOGE Access To “Secure Spaces” As Musk Drops Redpills Over USAID Biolabs
quote

@elonmusk
Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 2 2025 23:30 utc | 104

In response to text from last open thread

We US Americans fancy ourselves rugged individualists. We habitually plan to fail by religiously failing to plan.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 3 2025 0:12 utc | 289

Nicely stated, thanks!
To be accurate, the planning is done but not by or for the public, which is the core of the problem.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2025 0:31 utc | 105

@ c1ue | Feb 2 2025 19:33 utc | 75
it doesn’t say where in the usa the stuff goes to… see the link i share below..
Canadian fertilizer exports to U.S.A.
The United States is Canada’s largest fertilizer market, accounting for well over half of all total fertilizer exports each year.
International use of Canadian fertilizer
@ E | Feb 2 2025 19:57 utc | 79
i believe most canucks are not interested in being the 51st state… at one time canada had a more independent viewpoint, but many canucks also clamor for being more like the usa – not me – i am the exact opposite.. i don’t think the world revolves around the usa – far more the opposite in fact..
@ dh-mtl | Feb 2 2025 20:00 utc | 80
i agree with a lot of what you say.. how about canada grow a set of balls and learn how to operate freely as opposed to slavishly adhering to all the craziness out of washington, in particular its foreign policy goals?? now, maybe this is going to change under trump – and i would welcome it, but there is still a lot of insanity in the usa – it’s fealty to israel is one of a number of examples.. canada is just as slavish and stupid in this regard..
@ John Gilberts | Feb 2 2025 20:19 utc | 87
lots of stupidity from trudeau.. i am not surprised..
@ sean the leprechaun | Feb 2 2025 21:59 utc | 97
any oath to the british royalty bullshit needs to be done away with.. i am waiting for the older generation to die off, so canada can awake from that bit of miasma..

Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 0:59 utc | 106

Will this end with the british commonwealth finish merging with the wayward weast indies company (aka 5 eyes as a country)?
Will this end with the us finishing off absorbing mexico, this time with no government to pay a purchase, or leave cancun as a rump mexico?
Don’t miss the next episodes…

Posted by: Newbie | Feb 3 2025 1:04 utc | 107

Exile was asking the other day. Why is everything so quiet regarding the pantomime of the debt ceiling nonsense they play out every time.
I think this answers some of it.
Everything about the Trump as administration “IMPOUNDMENT” putsch you were too afraid to ask.
https://www.crisesnotes.com/everything-about-the-trump-administrations-impoundment-putsch-you-were-too-afraid-to-ask/

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 1:17 utc | 108

MAGA can take many forms, one of the more likely of which imo is an industrialising monopoly capitalism furthering the divide between the wealthy few and the rest, the primary purpose being exceptionalism/supremacy in its own realm over its subjects. Build stuff at home without unduly depending on non-vassal source inputs, especially wrt warfare hardware and software. Tariff away the competition to ensure dominance. Exploit the workers; and bank the monopoly profits and rents.
If ordinary people can’t pay their bills due to MAGA tariff inflation and high interest rates, their property will be devoured by the vultures at bargain basement prices if there is no ruling authority to protect them, just like the recent iterations we have seen of the wealthy preying on the weak, obliterating small businesses and homeowners, concentrating wealth at the top evermore as they pocket the windfall and rents.
The neocons lost their wars for lack of strategic thought but the neolib davos elites may still get their wish of “you’ll own nothing.”
Pragmatic oligarch wheeler dealers care about ordinary people by acknowledging we are now back in a multipolar world? I’d like to live through that experience but think it unlikely..
~~
“Tech CEOs admit they want AI monopoly: US plans to block China’s competition & ‘steal’ engineers”
Ben Norton @ GeoPolitical Economy Report
19:03 US oligarchy
20:20 Capitalism vs competition
23:19 Capitalism creates monopolies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jniPAD2uoo

Posted by: suzan | Feb 3 2025 1:38 utc | 109

say what you will about elon musk, i give him high 5’s for this…
“Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has accused the US Agency for International Development (USAID) of financing bioweapon research, including projects that allegedly led to the emergence of Covid-19, branding the agency a “criminal organization.”

Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 1:39 utc | 110

@ james | Feb 3 2025 1:39 utc | 110 adding to my out of this tidbit in comment 104
This is the kind of outing I am pleased to read about as you are. The social system we live under needs to die of its internal contradictions and this is a move in the correct direction, IMO.
I think that Trump’s tariffs will lock up international commerce and precipitate a global economic crash….and then the interesting stuff starts.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2025 2:17 utc | 111

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 1:17 utc | 108
Interesting article, however the author is missing several critical points. As he says, a lot has changed in 50 years….
While he states that the 1974 law (coincidentally passed by a Democratic controlled house and senate, if recall correctly) was partially in response to the disastrous Nixon wage and price freeze.
To them Nixon was a BAD man (similar to TDS) and anything they could do to clip his wings was fair game.
Now to the current days. Yes, the US is hitting the debt ceiling. So stopping some spending (impoundment) is certainly a method for dealing with that. A summery judgement by a liberal judge really means nothing.
The Dems judge shopped that one.
The dilemma is such, the Admin can’t break a law (supposedly). However, there are 2 contradicting laws. Which has precedent? Which has the least common sense?
The third option is borrowing default, placing ALL current and future spending in doubt. No one wants that option.
But here’s the catch….
There IS NO FY2025 BUDGET!!
The US is operating under a continuing resolution (CR). Under a CR, many items are not fully funded. Secure programs are only allowed 80% of previous years rate. New programs are not funded. Personnel levels stay the same, new employees can only replace retired ones.
There are many other intricacies that departments and agencies have to follow in a CR.
Also, a CR is not a line item budget. AS you may know, there are really 11 budgets (as I recall), not a singular one. Hence DoD may be fully funded, but not National Parks. Again, you need to see line items for which department/agency gets there funds from.
This CR is unique, in that the main 3 budgets (DoD, Treasury, DOJ) usually get final budgets while the others linger. This year none have been approved, meaning ALL spending is up in the air when the CR ends in March.
So why was the CR moved from Dec to March? Both sides (Reps and Dems) hedged their bets. They both thought that the status quo would hold. They didn’t anticipate the volume or depth of the Trump EO flood.
In the mean time, the Presidents budget for FY2026 is due toward the end of Feb. Typically, any future changes would appear there, and Congress would have months to dissect and change and add stuff back in. I can lay a good bet that the submittal this Feb will have all the current Trump actions and more.
This will make the reset of the FY2025 budget in March a complicated matter, and probably a slaughter on dark spending.
With the “keys to the kingdom” – aka Treasury traceability in the open, Senators and Representative will have a hard time justifying things like USAID to the public.
In fact, the 1974 law on impoundment could be revoked, or drastically changed. If it isn’t then, then the problem will resurface by next Dec again.
Waiting for a court to make some sort of decision, while all this is not a viable path for the Dems. They know it, but that is all they have right now. It only takes a proposed bill to change the 1974 law to halt all court actions. Making a ruling on a law that is in the process of changing simply won’t (or shouldn’t) be considered.

Posted by: BroncoBilly | Feb 3 2025 3:05 utc | 112

Starting a rumour on a blue Monday?
How about planet Earth Security Council has decided all United Nations jobs are now to be non-profit, and all salaries will be dropped to 10% IMMEDIATELY, and 100% have to pay for the privilege soon.
Unless: peace, free money for all, basic income, yada yada…

Posted by: ADarkHeart | Feb 3 2025 3:20 utc | 113

Making it believable though, will take some serious effort.

Posted by: ADarkHeart | Feb 3 2025 3:22 utc | 114

John Gilberts | Feb 2 2025 14:15 utc 1
Yes, its about restoring USA mfg. The 25% tariff essentially makes the CDN effectively 0.85 USD, about where it was 10 years ago, when Canada sold plenty to the US. So Trump needs a story to justify the short-med term pain while domestic mfg tries to respond. But can a country that mostly abandoned tech skills just summon those from abroad while simultaneously shutting the gates on immigration?

Posted by: ThirdChimp | Feb 3 2025 3:36 utc | 115

Posted by: dh-mtl | Feb 2 2025 20:00 utc | 80
Canada reacts: Agree on the rough outline you’ve made, its a recipe for failure to escalate the confrontation; on the pipelines, I think rail might have more capability in the short to med term than the GL shipping option. There are already many rail shipments to US so the rolling stock exists to some extent.

Posted by: ThirdChimp | Feb 3 2025 3:45 utc | 116

Thank you,b, for the James Freeman interview with Georgescu. Best wishes to him for a postive result in his wish that democracy be restored in Romania! Very good interview.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 3 2025 3:50 utc | 117

The US markets are trending negative and Reuters has this fuel to add to the fire
Trump says Americans could feel ‘pain’ in trade war with Mexico, Canada, China
I question how well Americans will take the pain.
Trump seems serious about marching the world directly into economic meltdown thinking the US will come out on top in the end…..I think he is delusional.
The shit show continues until it doesn’t

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2025 4:14 utc | 118

F**kwit’s hands already full of blood only a few days into his term:
Drop Site
@DropSiteNews
REPORT: President Trump’s tweet referring to the airstrikes that the U.S. conducted in Somalia today took place in the Al-Miskad mountains located in the northeast Bari province of Somalia. This area is adminstered by the semi-autonomous Puntland state. In the aftermath of the attack, local authorities issued a statement saying that they thanked their international allies for support in striking ISIS remnants in the region, thanking specifically, “the United States and United Arab Emirates for taking part in airstrikes against the terrorist group Daesh (ISIS) in the Al-Miskad mountains.”
There are believed to be six locations targeted for strikes in the Al-Miskad mountains. The extent of casualties are as-yet unknown as the area is difficult to access for local authorities or outside observers. The mountains have become an ISIS stronghold over the past several years, as the group wages an ongoing insurgency in the country. The mountains and surrounding settlements have also become the focus of a campaign of airstrikes carried out for the purpose of targeting ISIS.
Local sources claim that a number of civilians in the nearby settlement of Sixna near Qandala town were killed in another strike on the evening of Monday January 27th. In the run up to the strike, a number of individuals in the settlement were said to have been mistaken for ISIS militants and targeted, with four reported dead and six more wounded. The mayor of the town of Qandala, where the settlement of Sixna, which falls under his jurisdiction confirmed that civilians were among the victims in a public statement, while urging residents to stay away from areas where ISIS may be present. Initial reporting suggests that the dead and wounded all hail from the same family, known locally as the “Reer Yusuf Mahammud Salah” family.
Details shared by @Mohamed_Gabobe
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1885817876348612687

Posted by: Menz | Feb 3 2025 4:30 utc | 119

ZH has aa posting up providing more depth about the tariff details
The Secret Tariff Code Is Buried In ‘Section 2, Item (h)’ Of The Executive Order
quote

[…] (h) For avoidance of doubt, duty-free de minimis treatment under 19 U.S.C. 1321 shall not be available for the articles described in subsection (a) and subsection (b) of this section.

The secret is in that subsection “(h)” when it talks about de minimis treatment.
Essentially, what President Trump is doing is levying a much more massive import tax, and possible confiscation impact on the core source of fentanyl (and other illegal) substances.

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s new trade levies against China, Canada and Mexico include a broadside against e-commerce, with apparent plans to extinguish a long-held tariff exemption for packages worth less than $800.


It was reported last year that the U.S. was on track to receive a billion packages through the de minimis loophole that aren’t taxed and don’t have customs slips saying what they are. Making matters worse, illegal items are slipping through the cracks, including, knockoffs, unsafe items and even chemicals used to make fentanyl. The worst abuser that exploits this de minimis loophole is, by far, China.
President Trump can require a customs and duty declaration stating what is in every package and subsequently collect tariffs and duties.

Think of the new employment opportunities for US Customs inspectors……/s

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2025 4:30 utc | 120

American Democracy and Constitutional Rights in “Real Time”:
tyson brody
@tysonbrody
so the private information of every american is now in the hands of six guys not old enough to rent a car
https://x.com/tysonbrody/status/1886203067307057288

Posted by: Menz | Feb 3 2025 4:35 utc | 121

Posted by: dh-mtl | Feb 2 2025 17:46 utc | 36
Thank you, dh-mtl. I didn’t think the arguments about fentanyl were very enlightening,but …. A crash course in economics solutions is really needed by the US right now. And, without understanding this completely, I am remembering the parts of Trump’s inaugural address where he was saying how bad the previous administration’s economics policies have been. He’s serious about addressing this plight. Much of the protest against him sounds a lot like an addict’s vehemency against his/her previous supplier. So maybe it’s not so far away from that analogy after all.
Calm down, people. It’s for your own good.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 3 2025 4:58 utc | 122

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 2 2025 17:49 utc | 37
Yes indeed,c1ue; well said.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 3 2025 5:04 utc | 123

I question how well Americans will take the pain.
Trump seems serious about marching the world directly into economic meltdown thinking the US will come out on top in the end…..I think he is delusional.
The shit show continues until it doesn’t
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2025 4:14 utc | 118
################
Americans have been putting off the day of reckoning since August 15, 1971, when Nixon abruptly ended Bretton Woods.
Delaying things has only made them worse. Like someone who ignored a cancer diagnosis, it hasn’t gotten better or gone away. It has metastasized and spread throughout the body.
If Trump can find a way to gently ease America through this, it would be nothing short of a miracle.
Like Jesus (AS) healing lepers and the blind.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 5:23 utc | 124

Which “Verkrampte” advisor to Trumpt has influenced this decision, we don’t need the Guardian to name him:
US President Donald Trump has asserted South Africa is “confiscating” land and “treating certain classes of people very badly” as he announced he was cutting off all future funding to the country pending an investigation.
The land issue in South Africa has long been divisive, with efforts to redress the inequality of white-rule drawing criticism from conservatives including Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, who was born in South Africa and is a powerful Trump adviser.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/03/donald-trump-cutting-funding-south-africa-land-confiscations-cyril-ramaphosa

Posted by: Menz | Feb 3 2025 5:42 utc | 125

A crash course in economics solutions is really needed by the US right now.
Posted by: juliania | Feb 3 2025 4:58 utc | 122

Trump has embarked upon a bold experiment to see how many trillion dollar whoopsies the dollar can withstand before it loses 30% of is value.
Its thrilling.
Bon Appétit! Its crow.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 5:46 utc | 126

Posted by: Menz | Feb 3 2025 5:42 utc | 125
##############
Trump is lashing out at SA because they brought an apartheid case against Israel. Nelson Mandela was a big supporter of the Palestinian cause much to the chagrin of many loyal Americans like some of the ones we have at the bar who see nothing wrong with genocide and ethnic cleansing if the Israelis are doing it.
The truth is that SA is poor and in BRICS. Trump has no leverage over them.
He’s trying to squeeze Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians by withholding foreign aid.
Egypt was flirting with joining BRICS. This could push them over the edge.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 5:47 utc | 127

by withholding foreign aid.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 5:47 utc | 127

I find it more plausible that Trump is withholding aid because the Treasury can’t write the checks.
Just as I think Musk has been installed as the government’s paymaster because he is not shy of overdrafts.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 5:57 utc | 128

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 5:57 utc | 128
#############
In a previous life, I did business with people like Trump. They aren’t above holding payments to extract something extra. The money is good, but it can come with new strings attached at any moment. This is the colonial business model.
Trump is using US foreign aid as a carrot and a stick, the same way he is trying to use tariffs to get what he wants. Trump doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. Remember, he is the Prince of Peace.
All extortion will be done quietly, like Rubio’s visit to Panama, which caused them to break all of their deals with China and withdraw from the Belt and Road Initiative.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 6:02 utc | 129

Copper is screaming

Metals Tumble as Trump Tariffs Raise Inflation, Growth Fears
. China vows ‘corresponding countermeasures’ to 10% levy
. Dollar surges, making commodities more expensive for many

Copper, aluminum and iron ore led metals lower after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, threatening a trade war that could sap global economic growth.
The red metal, an industrial bellwether, fell as much as 1.5% on the London Metal Exchange, and aluminum was down by a similar amount. Steelmaking staple iron ore dropped by as much as 3.5% in Singapore, while Chinese markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-03/iron-ore-drops-as-trump-tariffs-raise-global-growth-fears?

There is no happy ending in copper’s demand destruction.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 6:05 utc | 130

Trump is using US foreign aid as a carrot and a stick
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 6:02 utc | 129

Nobody can use what they don’t have except in fairy tales.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 6:07 utc | 131

Egypt was flirting with joining BRICS. This could push them over the edge.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 5:47 utc | 127
Sure hope so.
https://t.me/presstv/128035

Posted by: Mary | Feb 3 2025 6:26 utc | 132

Intentionally or not, Trump is creating the conditions for a multi-polar world.
He and Vance will be leaving the Democrats a big mess (from their neoliberal perspective).
There will be no USAID, no globalist trade partnerships, and a strong BRICS, as well as a resurgent Russia and China.
Many of the Dems’ most toxic operatives in the bureaucracy will have aged out.
The Axis needs to survive the Brazilian BRICS Presidency (they are no Russia or China when it comes to driving BRICS forward, very disorganized).

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 6:41 utc | 133

Apropos of nothing

Moscow Property Rivals London as Rich Russians Bring Cash Home
High-end real estate in the city is seeing a surge in demand as Russians invest back home and turn away from overseas deals because of sanctions.

Three years into the war with Ukraine, Russia’s wealthiest are increasingly bringing their money home, fueling an unlikely rebound in high-end Moscow real estate.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-02-03/russia-s-wealthiest-are-pushing-up-moscow-house-prices-as-inflation-surges

An unlikely rebound? Imagine that.
Credit is trust and trust is fickle.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 7:08 utc | 134

From Russia Today:

Today’s Germans don’t deserve blame for Nazis – Putin
It would be incorrect to compare modern Germany to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, the Russian president said. “Modern German society has nothing to do with it.”
“We must remember this, we must not forget this, but to shift the blame onto today’s generation of Germans for what happened in the 1930s and 1940s, it seems unfair to me,” he said

Posted by: Passerby | Feb 3 2025 7:52 utc | 135

The New York Times headlines an article about Europe’s energy crisis without anywhere mentioning the cause

Three Years After Ukraine Invasion, Europe Still Deals With Energy Crisis
To wean itself off Russian natural gas, Europe has found new sources of energy, including imports from the United States. But high costs are straining the economy.

At a newly built dock along Germany’s Elbe River, tankers from the United States unload liquefied natural gas to fuel factories and homes. In central Spain, a forest of wind turbines planted atop mountains helps power the energy grid. In French government buildings, thermostats have been lowered in winter to save electricity.
In the three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ignited an energy crisis across Europe, the continent has transformed how it generates and stores power. Russian natural gas, long Europe’s energy lifeline, has been replaced with other sources, notably liquefied natural gas from the United States. Wind and solar power generation has leaped around 50 percent since 2021. New nuclear power plants are being planned across the continent.
But Europe’s energy security remains fragile …
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/business/ukraine-russia-energy-europe.html

Literally an article written from the point of view that Nord Stream never existed.
Fantasy.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 8:14 utc | 136

Canadians should boycott anything USA, including vacations, flights, booze, etc.

Posted by: Menz | Feb 3 2025 8:42 utc | 137

When will you get it, that it not about the USA and it’s citizen?

Posted by: padre | Feb 3 2025 10:03 utc | 138

The cartoon The Road to Riyad show put on by Tucker Carlson (Bing Crosby) the all American super spy mockingbird and his Murdoch stable mate the fake plummy accented English ‘slap worthy face’ version Piers Morgan (Bob Hope).
The only thing missing is the Dorothy Lamour love interest that TopCat would always get at the end but hey this is Saudi Arabia and the boys are happy bum chums and leave out the Women in Burkha love interest, in a genuine unelected , real dictatorial state … as if no one will notice as they start of with what is a dictatorship and ignore the elephant in the backdrop!!
I posted on the fake comedic bluster yesterday at another thread here
Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 1 2025 14:45 utc | 121
I’ll it in full following this comment with the background of Piss Morons rise to where he is now and Fucker Arshole, following the same Media Moguls ziofascists path- no they would not have the platform they currently have if the Sauron Murrrdorrk wasn’t pulling the strings and secretly and openly supporting both his Nazgûl.
To be absolutely clear. If ANYONE is fooled by this Narrative Reformulation that is aimed to endear Topcun to DJT offering up the Old Enemy English Moron as the Villain to appease and get access to 47ths inner court – then you are thick as shit and deserve the highest reprobation.
(That’s Christian for you fake god botherers btw.)
TLDR;
It’s a show to enhance both the tweeedle dumbs reputation and profiles, whilst installing TC into the alpha male position above the buffonish PissMoron.
Note there is no mention of their Master Murdoch nor of Maxwell the ziofascist oligarchs that took owner the media that both these dangerous clowns were created in and still occupy. Especially as Moron was very pally with Ghislaine which TC ignores as an open goal!
You’ll be seeing the pair a lot more as they develop their series of ‘Road to….’ Shows. I guess they’ll be joined by whoever is given the Girl to Get role – CandanceOwen?

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 3 2025 10:37 utc | 139

My repost from yesterday referred to in the above post.

Let’s unpack this kiddies Punch and Judy puppets show,
it’s a pantomime some call it kabuki.
It’s FAKE jousting.
It is reinforcing an Alpha Male / Beta male narrative.
Both are Mockingbirds, TopCat since his childhood Joe 90 dad.
PissMoron since he rose through the Murdoch redtop stable at the Bum ‘newspaper’ under the Ozzy ziofascist thugs, phone hackers and burglars.
This is both first time Piss is bearing the whipping boy status.
He did it when he was sent into be the Minder at Maxwells Mirror newspaper (which had been the stalwart Labour Party supporters paper of choice since ww2 and was invaded by Hock the Mossad thug and his family to destroy it from the inside.
Moron replaced and was himself minded by the Mossad pisshead thug enforcer of the Blairite takeover – Alistair Campbell.
Piss Moron did his bit to sheepdog the left and anti war protestors that took to the street in their millions autonomously – getting in on the act with hundreds of thousands of placards which seemed to arrive from nowhere on the day of the protest through London. He ran flak for Campbells sexed up dodgy dossier on Saddam’s non existent WMD and Doctor Kelly’s death who knew and had spilled the beans on the lack of such weapons because of his work on the ground …he ran a fake story about miltary trucks that covered the tracks of britis forces atrocities against civilians in Iraq…
Then he finished the destruction of the Mirrors reputation with his sordid ‘City Sleeker’ insider trading scandal; having made sure the Hock-sters family were safe including his besttie Ghislaine…
Then he was give some time off to play the fool
‘As a result of the girls’ team winning, Danny Baker, Piers Morgan, and the boys’ team leader Alastair Campbell were put forward to potentially be fired by Sir Alan Sugar. In a heated exchange, Alastair Campbell and Piers Morgan blamed each other for their failure at the task. Sir Alan Sugar decided that Piers Morgan was more at fault due to his “winding people up” with his “demeanor” and consequently ‘fired’ him.’
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Relief_Does_The_Apprentice
– until being relaunched as Murdoch’s web based broadcaster following the success of other such Indy types who had been barred from msm such as Russell Brand.
Like all things the Oz ziofascist robber barons and his ilk have always done – they stole that idea!
And btw hounded Brand away from his burgeoning 6 million regulars! As they still do with fake rape charges going back 20 years ago when he was a bit of a skanky lad!
They tried to control his charisma by film role and an equally skanky pop starlet, from the teenage slut assembly line … that became his ‘wife’ but obviously failed to control or recruit him for ‘Team America’ …
TopCat has gone from becoming a household name and face via Murdoch’s Fox to the grand height he now inhabits – equally walking into a ‘channel’ on twatter! This became inevitable once DJT failed to be bowed out and the whole generations long plan to take Russia via a provocation in Ukraine looked like it would fail.
The two tweedle dee dumbs have skirted the crowds from the ‘right’ from covid to SMO and the Gaza Holocaust …
As the shit show comes to a rickety wheels falling off demise – another fake kerfuffle is produced and Piss Moron gets to play the idiot loser again with TC as he did with AC on that spoof U.K. Apprentice, under Alan Sugar (the ziofascist who went ont become Lord Sugar.)
Tucker of course aims to curry favour and remain close to the US Apprentice [caesar with thumbs up or down] now potus again as the well laid plans of the CIA mice and men (not forgetting the women!) occupying positions of the fake left/right media have to suddenly deal with The crazed Donald looking to settle some scores.
Hence Piss the Moron sin eating whipping boy scapegoat for all the narrative failures of the Collective Waste allowing the Top ‘Dog’ Carlson some unearned kudos.
You know Tucker didn’t mention Piers’s close friendship with Ghislaine or their common sugar daddy Sauron Muurrrddorch, in that whole episode! The chutzpah.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 1 2025 14:45 utc | 121

Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 3 2025 10:50 utc | 140

Re: DE-Dollarization brings Peace
Some back of the envelope figur’g…….In FY26 interest payments on federal debt will consume between 28% to 39% of Federal Income.
Anyone want to estimate interest payments as % of Federal Revenue for FY27 ?

Posted by: Exile | Feb 3 2025 11:02 utc | 141

Anyone want to estimate interest payments as % of Federal Revenue for FY27 ?
Posted by: Exile | Feb 3 2025 11:02 utc | 141

The contracts will be re-written to extend the terms of payment. Problem solved, unless you were counting on getting paid.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 11:14 utc | 142

Most people now understand that Trump is a narcissist. But they don’t understand what that means or how it actually affects his actions. They say he’s “transactional” or “unpredictable” without really knowing what is going on or what he will do or why. His supporters (not the swamp-dwelling types) keep saying he is opposed to war. But they haven’t yet figured out its not because of any humanitarian instinct or empathy. Its because he believes it “costs too much” and drains profits. In fact, he will use military power at the drop of a hat to advance HIS mad worldview.
So here’s the scoop on the real Trump.
His fully advanced Cluster B Personality Disorder has reached a stage where he really does believe he is effectively omnipotent. That he has been “chosen” to rebuild America to some fanciful Nirvana on Earth, destined to rule over all, is where its at. If you can’t grasp the extent of his illness and each of its indicia, you won’t be able to predict his actions. Some of the indicia of the disorder will be more affective than others. The superiority “God delusion” is probably the most advanced from having “overcome all his enemies ” and emerging “victorious over them.” Being saved from death by an “unseen hand” (he’s actually said “God saved him”) has undoubtedly advanced his delusion of a “mission.” being placed upon him. In his madness, like the Prophets, he has been “tested by God in Sinai” and has emerged to carry out “God’s mission for him.” You can disagree with my assessment – just don’t bet the farm.
So what is the “mission.”
As the first major part of it, I think it roughly goes like this:
The natural place for the “Exceptional Country” is at the head of all others. It has slipped from that exalted position in recent times because the “lesser” countries have been preying on it economically and stealing its “Greatness.” In order to reverse that trump is going to attempt to dismantle the manufacturing capacity of the others by making it too expensive to sell to the US. Those companies will be enticed to re-locate to the US to manufacture. A vision of massive numbers of factories and jobs no doubt dances about in his head. This process must lead to the US becoming the center of industrial manufacturing again, like it was following the Second War. He will leave the commodity producers alone because they can’t be moved, but what he will do is try to bully everyone to drop their prices to feed American consumers and manufacturing expansion. He will try to eventually get control of commodities by American Hedge funds, venture capital outfits and corporations “buying up” their production ownership.
He’s already started. You might be perplexed at why he would hit their closest trading allies, Canada and Mexico with large tariffs. Or threaten Saudi Arabia to drop oil prices. Doesn’t seem to actually make sense until you see the big picture. The EU is on the menu – it started under Biden with the Nordstream and German industry. Trump has “seen the light” Everyone is at risk.
You can think of it by using the old Slave Trade as an analogy. Grab the productive capacity of others and ship it to the US.
That’s the “mission.” War only interferes with it, so he’ll try to get them out of existing entanglements.
But don’t hold your breath if the plan doesn’t work. And CHINA IS OUT THERE !!

Posted by: WilsonK | Feb 3 2025 13:26 utc | 143

the alternative to blaming others is to take responsibility!!
– james

excellent.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 3 2025 13:34 utc | 144

@sean the leprechaun | Feb 2 2025 17:15 utc | 27

LoveDonbass@12…..you have sexuality issues……Dr Eleven…..paging Dr Eleven…..
Cheers M
…..deep seated ones, going by what you write…..

Dr. persiflo here – you mean deep seated like this? https://streamable.com/el7iai [1min]

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 3 2025 13:43 utc | 145

Posted by: BroncoBilly | Feb 3 2025 3:05 utc | 112
Excellent reply Billy and Why we are all here to learn from one another.
The problem for Trump is the constitution but when has that ever stopped them. Of course Trump with his gold standard, fixed income exchange rate lens.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 13:44 utc | 146

Posted by: BroncoBilly | Feb 3 2025 3:05 utc | 112
During his first term. Trump broke every US government spending record in US history. The very first to run $ trillion deficits. IE $trillion non government sector surpluses.
We probably know what his budgets will look like. Same as his first term. Art laffer trickle down produced from the gold standard fixed exchange rate lens they all look through.
As we can see here using the model they are going to use.The Penn Wharton Budget Model,
Here:
https://stephaniekelton.substack.com/p/flipping-the-script

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 13:54 utc | 147

Trump broke every US government spending record in US history. The very first to run $ trillion deficits. That was a year before covid hit and he ramped it up even further.
Meanwhile in Germany ….
Who do operate under a kind of gold standard , fixed exchange rate lens in the Eurozone. As they gave up their sovereignty. Ability to create their own monry. Where taxes and borrowing actually do fund their government.
Germany’s sectoral decline and its obsession with fiscal austerity the schwarze null.
Here:
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=62339
Perhaps they’ll try the ‘crumbs from the table’ model the Irish are using.
Invite in a load of foreign operations, who own monopolies due to the overly rigid and extensive Intellectual Property laws across the world, into Ireland, where they extract rents from the rest of the fixed currency area. Then skim a very small percentage off the top in corporate and social taxation.
The result is an accounting surplus which gets the leaders of Ireland plaudits from know nothings, but most importantly their tummies tickled in Brussels.
The Dublin elite are over the moon, and everybody else can go whistle.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 14:01 utc | 148

@Posted by: WilsonK | Feb 3 2025 13:26 utc | 143
Well put, and you can add of course Musk to the completely off his head narcissist “I am better than everyone else” list. Gabbard also believes in US primacy, she just wants to run the Empire more efficiently and effectively. Being Hindutva she hates Muslims as much as the next Zionist. Then of course Little Marco.
The Chinese and the Russians understand the above, and they understand the sheer scale of incompetence (including little Marco) taking over the US state. The narcissists may bully the vassals and throw their weight around in the Americas, but for the rest of the world they represent a highly unpredictable, agreement incapable, and declining power. Compared to that, China and Russia look like rational, reliable, friends in a storm. Trump and his cohorts are like Christmas and New Year combined for the solidarity of EurAsia and the leadership of China and Russia. All the while strip mining the very national strength that the US oligarchy relies on, and kneecapping their vassals – this is end of Empire stuff.
When a declining mafia boss starts lashing out at his made men its the start of the end, as more and more of those made men start making alternative arrangements. That’s the choice now for the US vassals.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 14:27 utc | 149

“Americans always do right …. after they’ve exhausted every other possibility”.
Who am I quoting?
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Feb 2 2025 17:55 utc | 38

My Dad, who used to attribute it to Churchill.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 3 2025 14:27 utc | 150

Billy,
As you know , well I hope you know, there is no such thing as ” unfunded ” spending commitments. Within a modern money
paradigm.
It is called the ” pay fors ” the “pay for” game at the CBO. What Every American Needs to Know About the Congressional “Pay-For” Game
Here:
Part 1
https://stephaniekelton.substack.com/p/what-every-american-needs-to-know
Part 2
https://stephaniekelton.substack.com/p/what-every-american-needs-to-know-a35?utm_source=publication-search
It is as bad as the debt ceiling pantomime they play out to get ideological concessions from each other. They impose self imposed constraints on their modern fiat free floating currency using a gold standard, fixed exchange rate lens.
Then fight over it to get ideological concessions. By calling it unfunded spending. Another Orwellian term they use to describe modern money.
China sits backs and laughs at them all while china just keystroke the money into existence and get things done. Move their skills and real resources where they are needed. Via educational hubs that skill them up to what is needed.
The US lie and fight ideologically over money. China just gets the job done.
They all know it is a lie and have no ” pay fors” when it comes to wars or giving massive tax cuts to The rich. ” pay fors” or how are you going to pay for it ?
Only appears like magic when us plebs are set to benefit from it.

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 14:30 utc | 151

@fleischwurst | Feb 2 2025 18:12 utc | 47 with a probably AI-generated report on the technological noosphere – interesting. However, it all sits firmly in the naturalist paradigm of metaphysics (aka materialism). I expect this to change, to incorporate what Carl Jung calls the collective subconscious; a decidedly non-material notion. By the way, both of the terms noosphere and notion are descedents of Greek nous, famously used by Aristotle and Plotin, and identified as the first principle [ousia] by Aristotle in picking up a question which arises in Plato’s dialogue Sophistes.
I suggest to read Erwin Sonderegger on that, everyone. Download here https://philpapers.org/rec/SONAM-3

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 3 2025 14:53 utc | 152

“Well put, and you can add of course Musk to the completely off his head narcissist “”
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 14:27 utc | 149
So you are a supporter of USAID and it’s involvement in the CIA, financing covid epidemic, funding colour revolutions and George Soros?
Your head is in a pathetic place; not only do you have TDS real, real bad, you now have been infected with Elon Derangement Syndrome.

Posted by: canuck | Feb 3 2025 15:29 utc | 153

Aleph Null. Gary Webb didn’t accuse the CIA or running drugs, but running the drug runners. Allowing some to operate freely, while enforcing against others. His reporting is often misrepresented to say they were the dealers, or supplier to dealers; he never made that allegation. (Not that it isn’t true, G Webb just never reported such)

Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 3 2025 15:32 utc | 154

Years ago on this page I said Peter Daszak and Eco Health Alliance were at or near the heart of the COVID saga. Now we read that USAID shoveled 53 million to Eco Health. Of course this is on top of what Fauci was shoveling to Eco Health. No one paid any attention to those posts of mine. Whatever.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 15:33 utc | 155

@ oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 15:33 utc | 154
who runs usaid, ideologically speaking?? is it some branch of the cia, or ?

Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 15:38 utc | 156

‘Trump Tariffs Roil Global Markets’ – Bloomberg

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 3 2025 15:41 utc | 157

Posted by: canuck | Feb 3 2025 15:29 utc | 153
##########
I prefer to think of MDS (Musk Derangement Syndrome) as jealousy and insecurity.
People who have not sired many children, have not meaningfully contributed to development for the species.
Small people who resent their choices and performances.
One cannot become a Trump or a Musk without ego.
TDS is different. Trump is the President and will get all of the criticism that a President does going back to Lincoln.
I’ll reiterate this cultural difference, one will never find a Chinese (inside of China) speaking this way about Xi or any of the great Chinese industrialists.
Western “civilization” is toxic and in the pantheon of historic civilizations, will be short-lived.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 15:41 utc | 158

The utter lack of nuance on both sides of the political spectrum of the US is both quite astonishing and deeply concerning. The oligarchy is laughing to itself as the sheep worship the Demorats, or act like little pathetic Teslabros and Trump worshippers. They are just two hands of the same oligarchy, with that oligarchy having decided that a different strategy is required for changed times – with a much more obvious “pay to play” oligarch-state relationship. The problem for them is that they have simply moved from one group of incompetents to another.
It feels very much like the Brazilian oligarchy (with the help of their US bosses) move from neoliberalism+crumbs under Lula to full on exploitation under Bolsonaro. Then the “re-education” of Lula to return and oversee a deeper level of exploitation.
At the same time it may very well be that US oil and gas production has at best hit a plateau, after the massive growth that gave the US a breathing space from foreign oil dependency.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 15:49 utc | 159

Tom Pfotszer, progressive income taxes are the best way to bring back domestic production. This also lets the firms decide how best to reinvest. Tariffs are too top down, progressive income taxes are bottom up, firms decide where best to reinvest those domestic profits. Low taxes is the argument you want to be the cheapest whore on the street. I’d rather have the nicest whorehouse.

Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 3 2025 15:50 utc | 160

@malenkov #99
The key issue you are missing is that it will be US citizens that ultimately decide the legal rights of illegal foreigners, as well as legal foreigners, in the US.
The US judiciary and state/local/Democrat federal government apparatchiks at various levels will do their thing, but my view is that the fever is high enough now that none of this Deep State/lawfare bullshit is going to stop the tide for long.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 15:51 utc | 161

progressive income taxes are the best way
Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 3 2025 15:50 utc | 159

Wealth taxes are better. Income taxes are a mechanism to keep the proles from accumulating wealth.
If you want growth then tax capital once it has been accumulated, not while it is accumulating.
Taxing accumulating capital, what income taxes do, is literally taxing growth.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 15:54 utc | 162

@steven t johnson #101
You are a moron and historically illiterate.
“people” when the US Bill of Rights was written, did not include women, children, slaves, American Indians and all manner of others.
The changes made were not via interpretation – a Democrat strategy that you uncreatively parrot. The changes were made via Constitutional Amendments.
So if you want the definition of “people” in the Constitution to include foreigners – legal and illegal – then pass a Constitutional fucking Amendment.
The nascent lawfare of the 1960s ain’t gonna cut it this time around, yo.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 15:55 utc | 163

@Mary #102
See above.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 15:56 utc | 164

Trump Declares Economic War on Just About Everyone That Matters. Is a Smash-Up a Feature not a Bug?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/02/trump-declares-economic-war-on-just-about-everyone-that-matters-is-a-smash-up-a-feature-and-not-a-bug.html
“The Trump tariffs are such an obvious lose-lose that they’ve achieved the seemingly impossible task of reversing the terminal slide in prime minister Trudeau’s reputation, as well as solidifying Canadian opposition to other forms of US economic imperialism.
The program is so deranged, particularly in combination with the other intended Trump economic shock of radically cutting or otherwise disrupting Federal funding of all sorts of activities that one has to wonder if Trump is trying to create a US version of the neoliberal shock Russia suffered in the 1990s which allowed mere mortals to become obscenely rich by hoovering up distressed assets…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 3 2025 16:07 utc | 165

I posted this on Ukraine open but maybe better to post here;
“But Trump has better ideas about what is good, what is bad, including in gender policy, in some other issues, they kind of don’t like it,” the Russian president asserted.
So Biden Bud Lighted the brand …
Also, hat tip to Nobody Special:
*** Near the top of the page is information about USAID funding the Maidan coup with $5 billion US dollars. Near the bottom are links to four stories about Russia / Ukraine. ***
Posted by: Nobody Special | Feb 3 2025 14:32 utc | 174
The veil in western media is being pulled back. Certainly there has been an unvirtuous loop of NGOs funding Democrat party activity. Now, how will MAGA cap the laundering of funds from programs like USAID from springing up again? After all, they will only serve to oppose MAGA priorities – it is post modernist doctrine that they will do just that. Maybe an end to the Ukraine conflict with security features that RF has been seeking that circumscribes the use of NGO’s or other means to destabilize (election meddling dare I say) other legitimate governments. My SWAG.

Posted by: frithguild | Feb 3 2025 16:13 utc | 166

@james #106
It doesn’t go to North Dakota. I know this because I have talked with both farmers and fertilizer supply companies there.
Which means it almost certainly does not go to at least part of the MidWest – since North Dakota is literally between Canada and the MidWest.
I also note that the majority of Canada’s exports are potash – not nitrogen.
There are 6 primary fertilizers: NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) plus sulphur, zinc and boron. Potash is the K part.
So looking further:
US farms consumed a bit under 8 million short tons = roughly 7.1 million metric tons of potash – so Canada is a major potash supplier to the US.
However, potash is the least $ volume of the top 3 at $4.3B. Nitrogen is #1 at $8.1B, Phophorus is #2 at $6.8B.
Potash is the 2nd by volume: nitrogen usage is around 11 million short tons, Phosphorus is about 7.3 million short tons.
All data from the USDA 2020 report.
But you know who are the 2nd and 3rd largest potash exporters? Belarus and Russia.
Potash is a pretty small percentage of Canada’s overall exports though. 4 million barrels of oil a day alone, for example, is 20x more than the potash exports.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 16:14 utc | 167

Debsisdead, your reference to Agony Aunts made me think of Uncle Roger. If you don’t know who Uncle Roger is, find his cooking reviews, he’s hilarious.

Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 3 2025 16:19 utc | 168

@John Gilberts #164
Which just goes to show how neoliberal, Naked Capitalism ultimately is.
I repeat: What Trump is looking to do is very clear.
1) Raise tariff barriers to promote domestic reshoring of production
2) Cut taxes on the middle and working class to offset the price increases induced by tariffs
3) Cut Federal spending on bullshit foreign wars, on nonsense DEI and climate change and what not, on foreign aid/corruption by any other name, to keep deficits under control
The goal is a post WW2 style economic movement: high inflation but even higher wage increases from better jobs and higher wages = positive real wage growth.
This is 100% diametrically opposite to the economic policies of the past multiple decades where we saw low inflation but zero to negative real wage growth for most Americans.
I don’t know if this will work or not.
But Trump believes he has a mandate and he is working hard with this mandate to make YUUUUUGE changes.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 16:21 utc | 169

Juan Guaido
Trump’s State of the Union guest who received a round of applause from the elites.
One of my favorite memes is when a country is short a leader and the meme plugs Juan in to “serve”.
The President who never was.
Maybe Juan could handle Ukraine negotiations for Z.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 16:23 utc | 170

@ c1ue | Feb 3 2025 16:14 utc | 167
thanks for the additional details… certain things can’t be ”made in america”.. maybe this is one example.. friendly exchange between usa and canada has always been a standard attitude for a very long time… trump is like a bull in a china shop..

Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 16:26 utc | 171

Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 16:26 utc | 170
#############
Canada is not sovereign. Trump will never take a competitor that is not sovereign seriously.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 16:36 utc | 172

James @ 155
Mostly CIA. There is a limit to what we could ever know. To some extent USAID is a standalone slush fund.
And when we say CIA, who is that exactly? A lot of it is Walkers and Bushes, much is Skull & Bones, it is a closed corporation, a private club, and we don’t have access.
By shutting down USAID Trump has declared war on CIA. Now we find out how they are able to defend themselves. Or if they even care any longer. IMO the CIA has long functioned at a level way above USG, they may not have any further use for USG.

Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 16:37 utc | 173

My take on the Trump goings on, the Mafia Boss is starting to turn on his own made men while exploiting his own family even more. No good outcome for the Mafia Boss will come of it.
The US Mafia Boss Lashes Out At His Made Men

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 16:38 utc | 174

teven t johnson,
can you write in a foreign language ? The individual you are berating over a grammar error is not a native speaker of English.

Posted by: exile | Feb 3 2025 16:41 utc | 175

Yanks are proud of their rugged individualism.
The ptb expect nothing less.
Colorado City mayor Tim Loyd, during the 2022 Big Freeze

I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout.” !
Sink or swim it’s your choice,”
“The city and country… or any other service, owes you nothing.”
Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic]
This mess is sadly a product of a socialist government

I suppose its a win-win ?

Posted by: denk | Feb 3 2025 16:42 utc | 176

oldhippie,
my college roommate spent about 20 years in USAID. (Old school WASP)
Here is what her wrote me a couple of days ago:
“…..(USAID) ….more like just a lot of ineffective programs with bloated budgets. Remember that I used to monitor these budget spreadsheets from NGOs. People making a VERY good living out there in the international development industry. Blood on my hands for sure….:”
He also confirmed that the only-12%-of-the-funds-reach-the-intended-recipients figure being bandied about by Elon is about right. “not an exaggeration’ is his exact words

Posted by: exile | Feb 3 2025 16:47 utc | 177

From a previous thread
brainless [Im using a nickname to protect his ID]

China broke an agreement with Russia

What agreement ?

Sorry, its a gentleman agreement

What kind of gentleman agreement gawd damn it !

Posted by: denk | Feb 3 2025 16:48 utc | 178

@james #170

trump is like a bull in a china shop

Only fools think that.
Note that Trudeau’s counter-tariffs only further Trump’s reshoring agenda, as would any other vassal counteractions.
Ultimately, it boils down to: does Canada need the US more than the US needs Canada?
We will find out.
For my part, I believe the answer is unequivocably yes – absolutely in the short term. Potentially less so in the long term, but who would they replace the US with? China? lol
The result will be a Canada fully broken to the US/Trump agenda, as opposed to Canada being part of the globalist peer pressure movement.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 16:49 utc | 179

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 15:55 utc | 162 Wait, isn’t it a notorious anti-patriotic woke trope to complain about how the Declaration didn’t mean to include women, etc.?
Notwithstanding, women and African American freedmen who possessed enough property for the franchise most certainly did count as the people.
The crowds in the street assembling and petitioning, counted as the people too. Paxton Boys, the original Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, the sacking of Hutchinson’s house, the establishment of a unicameral Pennsylvania government, back in England the famous Wilkes and Liberty movement…The people who wrote the Constitution knew the difference between the people and the citizens. You pointing out that women, slaves and Indians were not citizens is not an honest rebuttal to the claim. You really are a tribute to your mother’s virtue and your father’s intelligence.
Indians were as the Fourteenth Amendment refers under other jurisdiction and the US most certainly did conduct official diplomatic relations with them. In the

Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 16:49 utc | 180

@ oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 16:37 utc | 172
thanks… that is what i thought… i wish him luck in any attempt at dismantling the cia… i recall fondly pat lang – an ex cia guy who larry johnson really respected, how the cia needs to be shut down… trump is on the right track in that regard..
@ c1ue | Feb 3 2025 16:49 utc | 178
well, it wouldn’t be the first time my idealism is perceived as foolishness, lol..
i think trudeaus response is really stupid, so i agree with much of your viewpoint in fact… i’d like to see canada more independent in fact – which i think is the same as what trump is vying for with the usa… i wish him luck!

Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 16:55 utc | 181

@148 SoA
I shouldn’t bother to reply but
“Who do operate under a kind of gold standard, fixed exchange rate lens in the Eurozone…”
is absolute nonsense.
The euro is full on fiat and the jurisdiction of its use is besides the point. In fact the fiat nature of the euro is used to undermine the sovereignty of the subscribed nations.
All europe has seen since its introduction is endless forms of corruption.

Posted by: Ornot | Feb 3 2025 17:00 utc | 182

Too cents, you evidently don’t file an itemized return. Income taxes don’t tax investment, they tax unproductive taking of profits for private gain for managers. Income taxes only cap exec, financier, and well connected consultant incomes. It drives those dollars either back into production, or middle incomes, both are more stimulative and productive than the paper pushers taking all the gains, which IS a tax too

Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 3 2025 17:05 utc | 183

Maga = repackaged, glorified, unabashed , good ole 19C white imperialism.

From the horse mouth..

Trump

A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — (applause) — and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. (Applause.)
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation — one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.
And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars,
President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent ….

….White Man Burden.
fify

Posted by: denk | Feb 3 2025 17:17 utc | 184

Billb | Feb 2 2025 18:04 utc | 44
*** https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/01/02/why-canada-should-join-the-eu
A possibility that appears to be actively being discussed right now in Canadian media. Perhaps not the most desirable outcome, but also perhaps better than the realistically available alternatives. ***
Become captives of the dictatorship figure-headed by VdL.
Who happens to be a fanatical puppet of Yankland anyway.
Why bother?

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 3 2025 17:21 utc | 185

Income taxes don’t tax investment
Posted by: Scottindallas | Feb 3 2025 17:05 utc | 183

Without getting too deep into the Labor Theory of Value, income taxes tax Labor production. In the USA rents earned on installed capital are practically not taxed. Income taxes are, by design, a barrier to entry for workers to become rentiers.
Where I live we have Vermögensteuer in addition to Einkommensteuer. Although the Vermögensteuer is very low it is easy to construct a blind trust.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 17:26 utc | 186

fleischwurst | Feb 2 2025 18:12 utc | 47 ….
That reads like the sort of ‘marketing’ the WEF would pimp out to soft sell their intended totalitarian global-state, a panopticon complete with so-called “transhumans”.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 3 2025 17:31 utc | 187

Posted by: frithguild | Feb 3 2025 16:13 utc | 166
Soros Biden Medal of Freedom-People Magazine
Alex Soros receives Medal of Freedom for Dad. Did he get that for meddling with freedom?
Incidentally, the young woman in the photo in #15 of the list in the link is Rebecca Lobach. She was the pilot of the helicopter that crashed into the plane the other day in DC. She accompanied Ralph Lauren when he received his award at the ceremony.

Posted by: lex talionis | Feb 3 2025 17:34 utc | 188

Trump is Starting a Trade War. If He Wants To Absorb Canada, What Comes Next Will Be Worse
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-trade-war-vs-economic-war-1.7447927
“Prior to his inauguration, Trump threatened to use ‘economic force’ to compel Canada to become the 51st state in the` union. That would require a whole different level of coercion than what was witnessed Saturday – the kind usually reserved for America’s enemies, as opposed to allies.
He said if ‘you get rid of that artificially drawn line’, referring to the border, it would ‘also be much better for [US] security’.
It is the kind of shocking rhetoric that chills national security experts and historians to the bone, especially the ones steeped in the long-held American belief of that nation’s exceptionalism – a concept known as Manifest Destiny.
In his recent inauguration speech, Trump invoked Manifest Destiny to outline his vision for America’s expansionist aims – a future that included integrating Canada, acquiring Greenland and reclaiming the Panama Canal.
The concept – that the United States is exceptional and god wanted the boundary of its dominion expanded – has been around in some form or another since the Revolutionary War, said Kevin Brushett, a professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada.
I’d say Americans kind of see the annexation of Canada as almost a natural kind of thing and something that doesn’t need a war to occur,’ he said…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 3 2025 17:51 utc | 189

Posted by: Sun Of Alabama | Feb 3 2025 13:54 utc | 147
You can’t have it both ways.
You can’t say Congress has control of the purse, and mandates annual spending and the debt ceiling, AND then say Trump 1 had the largest budgets and deficits.
At some point all Presidents have to agree to a budget, since there is no line item veto, something every President in modern times has lamented about. The other option is to shut down the government, which no one wants to do. Most “shut downs” are for 48 hrs or less, and only include about 1/3 of the government.
I expect large structural changes in the USG being proposed in the next budget. Stay tuned, many long term Dem cuddly items will be tossed out.

Posted by: BroncoBilly | Feb 3 2025 17:57 utc | 190

Maga = unadulterated, unapologetic white exceptionalism

From the horse mouth…
GOP Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) told Fox Business Network

the U.S. has the right to “acquire” Greenland because, “We are, quite frankly, the dominant predator.”

Ogles was asked about his recently introduced bill giving Trump “Congressional authority” to acquire the Danish territory.

“For some, that might sound a little crazy, but actually the United States has been eyeing Greenland for over 100 years,” . “Strategically, when you look at it, it’s wealthy in resources. And when you see increased activity with Russia and China and the Arctic Circle and increased activity with the shipping lanes, it’s important for the United States to assert itself and say, ‘Look, this is our doorstep; this is our area of operation. And, we are, quite frankly, the dominant predator ‘ — cop, if you will. But it’s important that we fight back against China, and send them back to their own hemisphere.

Thats all folks !

Posted by: denk | Feb 3 2025 17:58 utc | 191

Posted by: denk | Feb 3 2025 17:58 utc | 191
When France and then the US eyed SE Asia with all it’s riches (read rubber and oil) what did China do?
Imported communism, started wars, and had millions killed, so they could keep their “sphere of influence”.
Nice guys, the Chi-comms.

Posted by: BroncoBilly | Feb 3 2025 18:02 utc | 192

Er, Reportedly, a Berkeley PHD, PAN JIAYI, successfully clone DS for a mere 30 bucks !
oops, just saw another nutjob posting
Thats all folks !

Posted by: denk | Feb 3 2025 18:07 utc | 193

@steven t johnson #130

Notwithstanding, women and African American freedmen who possessed enough property for the franchise most certainly did count as the people.

It depends on the state in question.
And yet again: note that the mere existence of race or sex etc was not a criteria for being a voter under the Bill of Rights, as it was practiced from its very inception. No state had universal suffrage.
Constitutional amendments were made to change this. This is the actual correct route for changes to the US Constitution – not lawfare, not sad attempts to shame, not dumbfuck professors protecting their profession and pocketbook.
And this specifically include what will forever (to me) be called “the Biden”: ignoring fiduciary responsibility of enforcement of federal laws, for the laws that are inconvenient or disliked.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:14 utc | 194

@james #181
I am in full agreement with you: Canada should be independent and sovereign.
But Canada is not right now. The nation is a globalist sock puppet, to be fair – one of many.
The price Canada is going to pay (I think) in the short term will be the price always paid by vassals when the boss calls in the markers: everything they cannot protect.

Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:17 utc | 195

And whatever his stated concerns about fentanyl, Trump may more profoundly view tariffs as a way to raise revenue for a federal government that is already running a deficit of $1.8 trillion US, and as a method to force companies to manufacture products within the US…”
Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 2 2025 14:15 utc | 1

I suspect his strategy is to cleave jobs in the auto sector away from Canada and Mexico as well as get US healthcare into Canada … maybe get Alberta’s oil and a source of water for california.
They did something similar with the original NAFTA agreement in 1991-95. What they did was kill the auto pact which allowed the free flow of auto parts, sub assemblies and automobiles between the USA and Canada duty free and a certain amount of manufacturing had to remain in Canada and replaced it with NAFTA.
Then they offered Canadian companies that were building parts for the auto industry tax holidays, waived development fees, put in municipal services to the lot line free of charge and “right to work” state levels of wages.
NAFTA KILLED the economic growth in Ontario for the bast part of the 1990’s. Between 1993 and 1995 the only work for construction millrights and crane operators in commercial construction was dismantling factories and loading them onto trucks bound for the USA and Mexico.
I suspect this will turn out to be a similar raid however the missus thinks this bluster is a diversion to keep us outraged over domestic issues instead of palestine.

Posted by: HB_Norica | Feb 3 2025 18:19 utc | 196

Posted by: frithguild | Feb 3 2025 16:13 utc | 166
Soros Biden Medal of Freedom-People Magazin.
#15: Rebecca Lobach and Ralph Lauren

any idea as to the how and why of the pairing?

Posted by: MAKK | Feb 3 2025 18:20 utc | 197

@Posted by: HB_Norica | Feb 3 2025 18:19 utc | 196
Indonesia did the right thing for a raw materials exporter, it has moved to ban the export of unprocessed nickel ore. This has driven an investment wave in Indonesian industrialization through the building of nickel processing plants. It is now looking at other exports that it may target for the same ban.
Canada has had a nasty habit of allowing foreigners to dig holes in the ground and export unprocessed raw materials while leaving all the environmental damage unfixed. The documentary the “Hole Story” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv_otmzVZn0 details this with respect to Quebec. And also allowing foreigners to capture so much of the profit, as with Alberta and its oil. The ownership of mineral rights by the provinces rather than the federal state only helps with divide and conquer. The Canadian oligarchy is utterly lazy and happy to sell out to the US, with the big banks about the only protected area. Trudeau only made this worse with his “suck up to the US” ten years of foreign policy, as did his dad when he stopped the Bank of Canada directly funding Canadian development spending.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 18:35 utc | 198

“people” when the US Bill of Rights was written, did not include women, children, slaves, American Indians and all manner of others.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 15:55 utc | 163
The 14th amendment is not part of the Bill of Rights, but ignoring that irrelevant part of your claim, women, children, slaves, American Indians were counted as people when the BOR was written. Slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person so you get 40% credit on that one and flunked on the rest of your civics knowledge.

Posted by: jinn | Feb 3 2025 18:45 utc | 199

@Posted by: jinn | Feb 3 2025 18:45 utc | 199
Slaves were not given the vote and therefore not treated as people. There were also significant ownership/income qualifications to be able to vote and to hold office even for white adult males. Women were not given the vote until the twentieth century. A person without basic rights, such as the right to vote, is not being treated as a person. The US did not become a full democracy, even in the performative sense, until the 1960s.
Many of the ownership/income limitations were not fully removed until the twentieth century. The right to unionize was only fully given in 1935. The US was an oligarchy from the Founders Coup onwards, the previous colonial entities had always been oligarchies. There were only a few years when some more freedom existed, quickly snuffed out by the Founders Coup.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 19:31 utc | 200