He will no longer be able to (easily) destroy the economy with his daft tariffs and the Supremes are helping the GOP with the affordability crisis. We knew they would, right?
President Donald Trump paid a price for going it alone on tariffs — with the Supreme Court on Friday delivering a rare rebuke by ruling he lacked the power to declare an economic emergency and launch sweeping new taxes on imports.
Trump had made tariffs the bedrock of his economic pitch to voters going into the midterm elections, even describing tariffs as his “favorite word in the dictionary.” He promised that factories would relocate from overseas and bring jobs with them, and he warned that losing the tariffs could plunge the U.S. into a deep recession.
But Friday’s ruling will most likely prolong political and economic chaos over international trade through the election year.
Trump called the decision “a disgrace” after he was handed a note informing him of the Supreme Court decision during a private meeting with several governors, according to two people with knowledge of the president’s reaction who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Another person, who was briefed on the conversation, disclosed that Trump said he has “to do something about these courts.”
Lol. He practically birthed this entire Court.
They knew this was probably coming and they’re prepared to use some other authorities so he’s not going to give up easily. He loves his tariffs. They are his One Big Economic Idea and he doesn’t really know what else to use as a threat, his only method of negotiation. (Well, there IS the military…. looks like Iran will be the new paradigm for that technique.)
Stay tuned. This should get interesting.
Update: He’s very upset and whining like a little bitch:
Trump: “I didn't want to do anything that would affect the decision of the court…I want to be a good boy." pic.twitter.com/7HpKkKrE0P
Trump: "I am allowed to cut off any and all trade…I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country, I'm even allowed to impose a foreign country destroying embargo…I can do anything I want to do to them…I'm allowed to destroy the country, but I can't charge a little fee." pic.twitter.com/LZQLJQueuI
He said “The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.” That would include two of the ones he appointed, Gorsuch and Barrett.
They did him a favor.His tariff scheme is an epic failure. If he’s just take the L, he’d be a lot better off. But he won’t. He’s determined to add on a bunch of new tariffs under different authorities and throw the economy into further chaos.
This is the problem with someone who can’t ever admit he was wrong.
Update II:
You cannot make this shit up:
Q: "What did you mean a moment ago when you said the Supreme Court was swayed by foreign influence?"
Trump: "I think that foreign interests are represented by people that I believe have undue influence, they have a lot of influence over the Supreme Court." pic.twitter.com/YDlcIXD2mN
Like Henry Hill’s fondness for gangsters, Donald Trump always wanted to be a dictator. He’s as desperate to be one as he is for a Nobel Peace Prize. The problem is that Trump wants to join a club that wouldn’t have someone like him for a member. So instead he’s gathered other lowlifes and formed his own club:
The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times.
The women said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, had touched them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue. One of the incidents, during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras, the people said. The video showed Dr. DeRemer giving one of the women an extended embrace, and was reviewed as part of a criminal investigation, one of the people said.
Okay, so he’s just the husband of a Trump employee. How much of that reflects the character of Secretary Chavez-DeRemer?
Well:
The inspector general’s office is investigating a formal complaint that Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate — a member of her security detail — and abusing her office by taking staff to strip clubs, drinking alcohol on the job and taking personal trips at taxpayer expense. Her lawyer has denied the allegations.
Innocent until proven a member of Trump’s cabinet, I say.
During her tenure as labor secretary, thousands of department employees have been pushed out of the federal service. Her department has also broadcast social media messages that echoed those used by white nationalists.
King Charles insisted “the law must take its course” after police on Thursday arrested his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The former prince and trade envoy is under investigation for leaking confidential information to Jeffrey Epstein. Police are also reportedly investigating information revealed in released documents that Epstein sent a second woman to England for sex with Mountbatten-Windsor (BBC News):
“I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.
“What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.
“In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.
“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”
On this side of the pond, our divine-right “king” declares himself exonerated four times in 30 seconds in connection with anything to do with the Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislane Maxwell’s sex trafficking. If only we heard a rooster crow every time Donald Trump repeated his declaration of innocence.
Stephen Collinson of CNN laments the collapse of accountability for Epstein perps on this side of the Atlantic:
The first arrest of a British royal in nearly 400 years posed this question: If legal authorities in Britain and elsewhere in Europe can act independently and breach the protected circle around Epstein’s former network, why is there not a similar faith in the justice system in the US?
“Great Britain is holding its powerful and privileged to account. The United States of America should do the same,” Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
In the United Kingdom, the machinery of public investigation appears to be functioning as intended. It’s harder to make that claim with confidence in the US given the politicization of a justice system that has prosecuted President Donald Trump’s opponents and a president who pardoned hundreds of people convicted of crimes linked to the January 6, 2021, riot.
Trump’s Department of Justice has resisted every effort to bring those connected to the Epstein scandal to justice. Epstein’s victims raised their hands during AG Pam Bondi’s House Judiciary Committee hearing last week to affirm that, yes, they’d taken their allegations to the DOJ (under multiple administrations) and, no, they’d heard nothing back. Meanwhile. simply being associated with Epstein has cost some high-fliers their jobs both overseas and in the U.S.
Collinson defines the problem:
The DOJ may be justified in insisting that there is insufficient evidence of wrongdoing to charge anyone with crimes over their ties to Epstein.
This does not, however, address the core issues in the scandal. Even if prosecutions aren’t possible, what about an accounting for scores of women allegedly abused by Epstein? If there was a sex trafficking ring operating in the United States, shouldn’t the government be investigating it, if only to ensure it never happens again? And isn’t the country owed answers about the circle of rich and influential people who continued to associate with Epstein even after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The Trump administration doesn’t think so. Bondi’s unwilling. What’s more, she’s just declared her DOJ a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Crime Syndicate.
Collinson concludes:
And the idea that the US justice system, like its British counterpart, could operate independently of the head of state — even if it causes him great embarrassment — is no longer credible.
As if to confirm this stark new American reality, the DOJ on Thursday unfurled a massive banner between two iconic columns on its Washington headquarters.
Bigly Brother is not watching out for you, only for himself. If you want to see the law take its course, take your criminal complaints somewhere that the rule of law still applies.
“It’s astonishing how much accountability seems to be possible once you cross the Atlantic,” writes Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown. “Meanwhile, neither the U.S. Justice Department or the Treasury Department seems to have made an effort to ‘follow the money’ involving some of Epstein’s friends and associates.”
We’ve forgotten what accountability for public officials looks like in the United States, or even that it’s possible. But here it is in front of us, with a former prince stripped of his royal titles and arrested by the police just like anyone else. The cult of Trump may have temporarily derailed the rule of law in the U.S., at least for its leader, but it can still be restored; indeed, the public is clamoring for that when it comes to the Epstein Files. It’s time to stop protecting rich and powerful men who rape children and others who made that possible, whoever they are. Later this month, Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify on Capitol Hill. There is no possible justification for treating Donald Trump any differently.
Unfortunately, you can’t hear the music but you can see he knows how to cut a rug. (And he writes well too!)
Lol. Apparently, some Hullabaloo readers have come up to him in recent days to give him a pat on the back. He texted me today:
“I tell people this is an attention economy. Get some or go home. For the first time in my life yesterday, in another location, I had a white-haired woman in a new, red Cadillac shout out the window, “Get a job!” Cracked me up. What century is she living in?”
He’s a local hero. We should all aspire to do as much.
I wrote about the destruction of the post-Watergate reforms, particularly the abandonment of any pretense of an arms length relationship with the White House, in this piece for Salon last week. I never imagined they would illustrate it so vividly.
Six weeks ago, Ethan was like most 7-year-olds — spending the weekend riding his new bike or playing Minecraft on his iPad on a rainy day.
“He just learned how to ride, he got the hang of it right away,” Ethan’s dad, Luis, said proudly. “He wanted to go outside because he wanted to jump on his bike…it was an amazing thing for him.”
Ethan’s parents decided not to immunize him against measles as they did with his three brothers. Three out of four of them contracted measles. Still, despite Ethan’s ordeal, his mom stands by their decision. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we’re gonna glorify his name regardless.
“And we wouldn’t change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn’t have given my son the vaccine.”
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has leaned heavily on treatment with vitamin A, as well as “good results” from the use of the steroid budesonide, the antibiotic clarithromycin and cod liver oil.
That’s what you’re supposed to do when your kid gets encephalitis. There’s no need for all these fancy schmancy vaccines and treatments. Sure, he might die but that’s God’s will.
It’s all based on these brain-rotted anti-vaxxers who have convinced stupid people that they are dangerous even though virtually all kids in the U.S. since the 1960s have had them. They’re just incapable of thinking rationally:
“Our biggest reason why we didn’t do it is just with all the unnecessary stuff they add into it,” Kristina added, referring to her beliefs about the vaccine.
“With my own eyes, I have seen the damage it does to kids who are perfectly normal, and then once they get it, they’re not the same anymore,” she claimed.
NO she hasn’t. She’s either lying or delusional. And if you read the whole story of this sick child’s experience — and the permanent damage it’s caused — it’s a scathing indictment of her judgement. She would still not give the vaccine after seeing her child paralyzed? What kind of a parent is she?
I feel sorry for ALL the poor kids who have parents like this and they number in the millions. And now we have the U.S. Government backing them up with snake oil and misinformation. It’s a travesty.
After a year in which the Trump administration has pressed to limit the ways Americans can identify as transgender in public life, Republicans are pushing the issue at the state level with new zeal. With legislative sessions underway in most states, hundreds of bills restricting transgender rights are under consideration as social conservatives seek to capitalize on Trump administration tailwinds and a shift in public opinion to codify an understanding of sex and gender as binary and fixed.
In Kansas, lawmakers voted on Wednesday to invalidate the driver’s licenses of transgender residents who changed the gender markers on their licenses under a state policy that started allowing such changes almost two decades ago.
Idaho’s House of Representatives this week advanced a bill that would allow people to sue private businesses that allow transgender people to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. In Utah, legislators are weighing removing transgender people from groups protected by a state law barring discrimination in housing and employment.
The barrage of bills follows a six-year stretch in which 27 state legislatures controlled by Republicans focused restrictions mainly on health care and sports for transgender minors. This year’s proposals are more sweeping: They address trans adults as well as youths, seek to close loopholes in earlier laws and mandate harsher penalties for violations.
They just want to torture and punish transgender people because they don’t like them, period. It has nothing to do with kids or women’s rights or anything else. They just hate the very idea of transgender people and want to make it impossible for them to function in society or even make it criminal. So much for freedom.
This is one of the ugliest episodes we’ve seen in our society in many decades. It’s heartbreaking and enraging to see a very small and vulnerable minority be persecuted by a bunch of ignorant bigots just because they can.
If you haven’t watched this film on Netflix, I highly recommend it. It’s not particularly political, it’s just human.
DOOCY: On Prince Andrew, do you think American associates of Jeffrey Epstein will wind up in handcuffs too?
TRUMP: I'm the expert in a way because I've been totally exonerated. That's very nice. I can actually speak about it very nicely. I think it's a shame. I did nothing. pic.twitter.com/PiGVUfNbzV
Listen to the whole thing. It is INFURIATING. From the inane insistence that he’s been “completely exonerated” which he’s just made up in his head and is now repeating like he’s some kind of a moronic robot to the fact that he feels so terrible for poor Andrew, the man is a fucking monster.
Among the thousands and thousands of mentions of his name in the files, the fact that they clear redacted many more, tips and statements by people who say they knew Trump was involved in the sexcapades and the testimony by the Palm Beach Police chief that Trump had called him to tell him that Epstein was a pedophile and “everyone knew it” he is anything but exonerated.
Bolts reports on another Blue State push back to ICE. It discusses the 287(g) program:
… which deputizes local and state officers to act on ICE’s behalf, including by detaining people in jails past their scheduled release dates, then transferring those people to ICE custody. This program is a crucial force multiplier for ICE, largely because it expands ICE’s access to jails and prisons, where it can intercept people in greater numbers, and with greater ease, than in the field.
The good news is this:
Maryland, Maine, and New Mexico join six other blue states—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington—in adopting laws to ban local and state agencies from partnering with ICE’s 287(g) program. New Jersey has a ban in place through an executive directive, though the state’s outgoing governor vetoed a bill that would have codified it into law in January.
Four states under full Democratic control—Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia—still have local or state agencies that have joined the 287(g) program, though there is currently active legislation in at least three of those states to limit or end these contracts.
These partnerships have been in place for decades but it’s only under Miller that they’ve been truly weaponized.
Sadly, it takes a full trifecta to get a ban. Republicans everywhere are thrilled to see the deportation atrocities so they won’t cooperate. But it’s good to at least see the Democratic states doing the right thing.
The U.S. merchandise trade deficit hit a record $1.2 trillion last year, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate it by imposing the highest tariffs in eight decades on foreign-made products.
Thursday’s Commerce Department report represents the first full-year assessment of the president’s ambitious reordering of global trade. The persistence of the deficit in the face of steep new taxes on imports from China, the European Union and scores of other nations reflects the limits of Trump’s preferred policy tool, economists said.
The president has described the trade deficit in goods, which the U.S. has run every year since 1975, as a “national emergency” resulting from unfair trade practices on the part of foreign nations.
[…]
Exports of goods and services rose 6.2 percent to a record $3.4 trillion. Imports rose nearly 5 percent to a record $4.3 trillion.
The goods and services deficit for the month of December widened more than Wall Street analysts had expected, reaching $70.3 billion, up from $53 billion in November.
Everyone said that Trump had no understanding of trade and merely thought that he could “make money” for the country by imposing tariffs. He’s an idiot so it’s no shock that he didn’t understand how tariffs work. Now it turns out that even if you believed that the “trade deficit” was a massive emergency, his policy didn’t even succeed on its own terms.
Today, it seems that Trump just sees tariffs as a form of blackmail he can use against foreign countries to do his bidding. There’s really nothing more to it than that. And I suspect that’s losing its salience as time goes on as well. The entire tariff scheme is daft on every level.
