Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.

[Jimmy Higgins]

Mexico is saying tariffs were "paused" for one month. Trump is an idiot. I imagine he'll indicate he won glorious concessions that likely amount to nothing, but Mexico (and Canada?) will pretend is some sort of agreement.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that the United States has agreed to pause for one month the implementation of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from her country.

Sheinbaum also said in a tweet, that after speaking with Trump, Mexico “will immediately reinforce” its northern border with the U.S. with 10,000 National Guard soldiers “to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl.”

Trump's war against Fentanyl. 10,000 troops should stop the entire drug trade now, I'd imagine.

 

[ideologyhunter]

How ironic -- I considered getting into the druggie lifestyle on Jan. 20.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

in National Forest, National Parks and BLM.

BLM = Bureau of Land Management. Right?
Upon first reading I thought "What? Black Lives Mater?"

Don't worry, you're not alone. Some years back, local hiking discussion. A local rock arrangement was scattered to bits and there was some discussion about it. We had somebody wondering how in the world we could possibly be blaming Black Lives Matter for it. (Technically it wasn't supposed to be there as it's a wilderness area, but it was from long ago and BLM usually is tolerant of such things so long as there aren't problems.) (And the consensus was the destruction was natural due to heavy runoff.)

 

[Loren Pechtel]

They are banning anything they can get away with, that disagrees with christian dogma. Including anything that hints at sex or gender. Calling that porn.

This gets repeated a lot but there never seems to be any examples provided by the people who say it which is why I said “porn” which was said with tongue in cheek. But most likely it is the removal of the books that promote gender fluid nonsense aimed at kids or the white privilege/critical race (conspiracy) theory claptrap.

But let’s face it, it’s the progressive’s that are the ones who kick up a fuss about books they don’t like, insisting there are trigger warnings on the classics and caterwauling about how mathematics is white privilege etc.

It's not just gender fluid, it's anything but a strict cis-het same race relationship. Florida it's things that portray slavery as bad.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Trump has a remarkable gift for being able to fuck things up and make things worse.

The goal here is to punish California for being "woke". That's it.

I doubt it's about punishment. It's about proving he knows better than they do. The water was nowhere near the fire, send the water towards it. The fact that this is useless and destructive is ignored.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Reality check time:

1) Why wouldn't it be legal? He pardoned acts that fell into certain categories. Nothing about that requires that there actually is something in that category. (Suppose I put up a sign: "Entry forbidden to those taller than 9'.")

2) They were pardons for past acts, not future acts.

3) It doesn't tell people that they are guilty. Have you noticed that I have for some time said he should preemptively pardon the targets of the witch hunts? Which is what he did, but not widely enough. Does that mean I think they're guilty of anything? No. Witch hunts are never about the guilty. The only pardon that went to someone that I think is guilty is his son--and I agree with it, anyway. The Republicans were blocking the proper course of justice. (And I would say that even if I didn't feel the crime he was charged with shouldn't exist. Drugs should be treated like alcohol--don't mix with guns. Not that you can't do both but at different times.)

1) Some lawyers are now making the claim. Its never happened before so not tested in court yet.
2) In practice, what is the difference? If you can not charge a person with a federal crime today for yesterday, then that criminal knows he is free to commit the crime today.
3) Witch hunts are exactly what a well functioning judicial system should handle with ease. For example, there will be no incentive for a witch hunt when justice is routinely served having judicial orders for the losing side compensation for loss of time and legal fees. That is how our justice system is supposed to work! Nobody goes on a witch hunt if they know it will not pay. How our system is NOT supposed to work is for shady family members to buddy up with powerful political people mafia style for protection and pardons. As we just saw with Biden.

1) So what if some lawyers are making the claim. We have seen an awful lot of professionals seriously disrespect their profession since MAGA came on the scene.

2) Biden can't pardon anyone in the future, there's no protection. Now, the pardons of the 1/6ers is another matter--The Felon is in power and that's a clear message that breaking the law to aid him will be protected.

3) The problem is that we have already seen that our system doesn't handle them with ease. And it certainly won't going forward. And you're missing an important point here--it's not about prosecution of wrongdoing, but persecution of his opponents. It does pay in deterring anyone else. Same as the gazillion election fraud lawsuits that died at the first court hearing because the lawyers were under oath and had to admit they had nothing at all.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

our founders specifically setup 3 separate branches, the justice department being completely separate from the executive and legislative branches

Which is why the FACT that Trump holds sway over the Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress as well as the SCOTUS and much of the Federal judiciary is beyond alarming.
The fascist guy wants to be The Dictator plain and simple, as you’ve been informed for years.

I actually respect and hear where you are coming from here Elixir. But as Ben Franklin predicted and especially since citizens united, our country has long lost to oligarchy being the Republic it once was. Since the country is already lost what do most of us do at this point?

Our empire is at about the same point that Julius Cesar became dictator for Rome. Yes, Cesar was a dictator but he also restored sanity and order again to that government. And Rome went on many hundred years after that. Maybe someone after Trump will be able take our country back to the Constitution and a functioning Republic again.

But one thing I am sure about is that Trump did not cause this country to lose its republic in the first place. The uni-party helped us do that.

You have a fantasy about what the nation used to be. I do agree the nation is now lost--because you voted for The Felon and he's proceeding to dismantle what makes America great. The Felon is not about sanity and order, he's about personal gain.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Maybe referring to this: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Welcome

I can't tell the bias of the people running that site. Who uses that site?

And so what? That's a list of things in books that people might object to, it is in no way preventing you from reading them. (And don't be mislead by the number of books--the first several I clicked were nulls--no triggers here.)

Look at the movie rating system--a very generalized (and rather flawed) attempt to give people an indication of what's in a movie. A higher rating doesn't ban a movie (although NC-17 basically precludes theaters.) Or look at the Internet Movie Data Base--specifically, the parental guide section. A much more detailed approach to listing things which might be an issue. Does that section keep anyone from watching the stuff? No.

 

[starwater]

I am coining a new term for 47 - The whiplash effect.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-tariffs-presidency-news-02-03-25/index.html

 

[GenesisNemesis]

our founders specifically setup 3 separate branches, the justice department being completely separate from the executive and legislative branches

Which is why the FACT that Trump holds sway over the Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress as well as the SCOTUS and much of the Federal judiciary is beyond alarming.
The fascist guy wants to be The Dictator plain and simple, as you’ve been informed for years.

I actually respect and hear where you are coming from here Elixir. But as Ben Franklin predicted and especially since citizens united, our country has long lost to oligarchy being the Republic it once was. Since the country is already lost what do most of us do at this point?

Our empire is at about the same point that Julius Cesar became dictator for Rome. Yes, Cesar was a dictator but he also restored sanity and order again to that government. And Rome went on many hundred years after that. Maybe someone after Trump will be able take our country back to the Constitution and a functioning Republic again.

But one thing I am sure about is that Trump did not cause this country to lose its republic in the first place. The uni-party helped us do that.

You have a fantasy about what the nation used to be. I do agree the nation is now lost--because you voted for The Felon and he's proceeding to dismantle what makes America great. The Felon is not about sanity and order, he's about personal gain.

I love how he has to go back to a FALLEN EMPIRE to give an example of "restored order" when it can just as well be used to show dictatorships are shit, because the Roman empire is now completely fucking gone. The Roman empire doesn't exist anymore, guess why? Mussolini also "restored order". Want to know what happened to him? Want to know what happened to Napoleon's empire? I can go on and on. Naivety to a delusional degree.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

But let’s face it, it’s the progressive’s that are the ones who kick up a fuss about books they don’t like, insisting there are trigger warnings on the classics and caterwauling about how mathematics is white privilege etc.

Trigger warnings don't prevent anyone from having access to a book.

I never said it did but it’s just one of the tools used to marginalize and sideline material that progressives don’t like or approve of.

No. It's a what's-in-it label.

Coming up with word problems that reference other things than 1950s white suburban lifestyles doesn't prevent anyone from learning mathematics.

I wonder why US kids are falling behind other countries these days.

Because we are too obsessed with equality. Historically having faster and slower tracks in school was often used for discrimination, but the reality is that when you lump students of widely varying abilities you get a worse result than if you put them with others of similar ability. And we threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Banning books and ending all public access or oversight to the functions of the department of education?

I’m still none the wiser as to what books are actually being banned.

Google is your friend:

PEN America Index of School Book Bans – 2023-2024 - PEN America

PEN America's 2022-2023 Index of Banned Books found 3,362 instances of books banned, affecting 1,557 unique titles. This searchable banned book list includes each documented ban.

pen.org

Those are an attack on the rights and freedoms of all citizens. I don't need anyone to tell me what I'm allowed or not allowed to know, or read, or watch, least of all whichever dumb prick has conned his way into the White House in any given year. Fuck this Nazi bullshit, go live in Russia or Hungary if you love this kind of authoritarian crap so much.

As far as I can tell, access to books has not been infringed upon so what on earth are you talking about?

What are you, a hermit living in a cave in Alejandro Selkirk Island? (I'll save you the Google: the remotest inhabited place on Earth.)

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In other library news, apparently some supervisor had created a policy of getting rid of any books that hadn’t been checked out in the last couple years. So one librarian created a fake account and card to check out and check back in books in danger of being removed

Branch library supervisor fired

SORRENTO — East Lake County Library’s branch supervisor has been terminated as a result of an Inspector General investigative review finding that an employee of the library created a false public rec…

www.dailycommercial.com

And it doesn't sound like the library was wrong here. Library space isn't infinite, if nobody wants a book it probably shouldn't be in the library.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

SoS Rubio seizes control of USAID.

Rubio said he is serving as acting administrator of USAID, but said he has “delegated the authority” to someone else with whom he is in touch. The acting USAID administrator had previously been Jason Gray – CNN has asked the State Department if this is the person Rubio referenced.

“It’s supposed to respond to policy directives of the State Department, and it refuses to do so,” he claimed.

Asked about the arguments that USAID’s vital work is vital to national security and promoting US interests, Rubio said, “there are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do.

So it appears the game plan is ask organization for a lot of information, regardless whether the info is available to whom is asking. When they don't, say they are irresponsive and try to take over.

USAID must be a big prize as it has a budget of $50 billion (which is authorized by Congress). So in abandoning humanitarian aid, Musk can help cut spending by $50 billion, assuming aid is cut off for good. So that'd be 4% to $2 trillion in cuts.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Opinion | CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals

Banned terms must be scrubbed from CDC-authored manuscripts

www.medpagetoday.com

CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals​

— Banned terms must be scrubbed from CDC-authored manuscripts​

In the order, CDC researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: "Gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,"

"I've got colleagues pulling papers over Table 1 concerns," an official told me. (Table 1 refers to basic demographic information about the study populations included in research papers, rather than actual results.) Indeed, many studies include demographic information about sexual orientation. For example, a study describing mpox outcomes would likely include basic statistics in tables summarizing the percentage of patients who were vaccinated and were lesbian, gay, transgender, or otherwise. This information can be highly impactful during an outbreak, as it helps clinicians develop policies on who to vaccinate (given limited doses, as is the case with mpox), and even to whom scarce and limited supplies of tests and treatments should be offered to maximize benefits.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Starting to get to NASA too, despite not having a new administrator:

All NASA Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups Paused

Kathleen Vander Kaaden at NASA Science Mission Directorate sent this memo out today

nasawatch.com

All NASA Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups Paused​

Kathleen Vander Kaaden at NASA Science Mission Directorate sent this memo out today: “As NASA continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions, we are requesting that you please pause all meetings and activities of Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups. This includes ExMAG, LEAG, MAPSIT, MEPAG, MExAG, OPAG, OWWG, SBAG, VEXAG, the cross-AG EDIA Working Group, and any other groups or activities that have been developed by the AGs. Please make your communities aware of this request. If you are no longer the chair of one of these AGs or AG-associated groups, please let me know so I can ensure the appropriate folks receive this information.”

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

And now we are moving closer to Brown-Shirts:

The top federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, told Elon Musk on Monday to report any threats against staff from the Department of Government Efficiency so that federal prosecutors can investigate, according to a letter posted on X.

The letter addressed to Musk, posted online by interim US attorney for DC Ed Martin, said that the US attorney’s office was aware that “some of the staff at DOGE has been targeted publicly” for their work. Martin did not elaborate in the letter about what the “targeting” included.

“At this time, I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers,” the letter reads. “Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws.”

The letter continues: “Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people. We will not act like the previous administration who looked the other way as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city. We will protect DOGE and other workers no matter what.”

Trump has gone a long way with alleged... they are saying... people are saying... bald faced lies. Now we have US Attorneys making baseless accusations, publicly, unsolicited. This is nothing short of a fear campaign to make those in the Executive Branch scared and subservient, to not ask questions.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

These guys are busy. Trump wants to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.... and buy TikTok... which would effectively give Trump a real Social Media platform under the name of the Government.

The president and top administration officials told reporters during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office that he is ordering the Treasury and Commerce departments to set up the fund within a year. Sovereign wealth funds serve as national investment vehicles that can buy stakes in various financial assets and have been formed by dozens of countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and Norway.

In his remarks, Trump raised the prospect that the fund could take over TikTok in some form, without elaborating.

“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund,” he said of the video sharing platform.

Of course, the Executive Branch has no actual money, unless he is trading off gold. The US doesn't have enough money, but we have enough to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund? He doesn't seem to understand what a Sovereign Wealth Fund is. He thinks it means NATIONALIZING something.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

These guys are busy. Trump wants to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.... and buy TikTok... which would effectively give Trump a real Social Media platform under the name of the Government.

The president and top administration officials told reporters during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office that he is ordering the Treasury and Commerce departments to set up the fund within a year. Sovereign wealth funds serve as national investment vehicles that can buy stakes in various financial assets and have been formed by dozens of countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and Norway.

In his remarks, Trump raised the prospect that the fund could take over TikTok in some form, without elaborating.

“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund,” he said of the video sharing platform.

Of course, the Executive Branch has no actual money, unless he is trading off gold. The US doesn't have enough money, but we have enough to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund? He doesn't seem to understand what a Sovereign Wealth Fund is. He thinks it means NATIONALIZING something.

"Various financial assets" so, crypto?

 

[robnisch]

These guys are busy. Trump wants to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.... and buy TikTok... which would effectively give Trump a real Social Media platform under the name of the Government.

The president and top administration officials told reporters during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office that he is ordering the Treasury and Commerce departments to set up the fund within a year. Sovereign wealth funds serve as national investment vehicles that can buy stakes in various financial assets and have been formed by dozens of countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and Norway.

In his remarks, Trump raised the prospect that the fund could take over TikTok in some form, without elaborating.

“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund,” he said of the video sharing platform.

Of course, the Executive Branch has no actual money, unless he is trading off gold. The US doesn't have enough money, but we have enough to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund? He doesn't seem to understand what a Sovereign Wealth Fund is. He thinks it means NATIONALIZING something.

From what I have read SWFs only make sense if there is a surplus. Or, like Norway and Alaska a defined revenue source like oil and gas taxes.
Norway has $1.7 trillion. Alaska has over $80 billion.
Texas has the oldest.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

President Donald Trump said his call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went “very good” when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in the East Room of the White House.

Trump was quick to answer “watch” when asked if he was still going to enact tariffs on Canada tonight.

link

He treats this stuff like Sweeps Week. But looks like Trudeau broke the word first.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday U.S. President Donald Trump will hold off on levying tariffs on Canada for at least 30 days after Canada made a series of commitments to improve security along the border.

So meaningless concessions to end (or pause) this nonsense. But of course, it is a pause so Trump can pull it out at a moment's notice.