One more: the freight industry is starting to freak out about the level of blank shippings (cancelled visits to ports) happening in California: 80 in April so far compared to 50 in May 2020. This will inevitably cascade through the freight pipeline from local shipping (drayage) to intermodal supply chains to the trucks on the big interstate corridors.
I’m not saying that you should stock up on non-perishables, particularly those from China, but I’m also not saying you shouldn’t consider it.
The White House twitter/x account is real. But the banner headline they marked up with red ink never appeared as illustrated.
The print edition of the New York Times, complete with marked price, does not mark a headline as BREAKING NEWS. Also, there would not be such a big white space at the end of the second line of the headline.
Changing what you are illustrating for purposes of fair use criticism should be a copyright violation. I know, this is so minor compared with the real horrors.
If the poor man ever makes it back to the US, does the law allow him to sue Trump personally? For any number of reasons, eg pain and suffering, lost income, defamation etc?
And Volvo is laying off workers at its US truck factories.
The greatest greatness evar continues. More factory jobs fer sure fer sure.
If Volvo ever hires back even 10% of those laid off, rest assured there will be great crowing about those great new factory jobs just created.
Just leaving this here:
Remarks by Director Kratsios at the Endless Frontiers Retreat
Michael Kratsios is Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. His remarks included the following:
Suddenly the corrupted timeline we’re in starts to make more sense.
Taken poetically, all that is fully true. The tyranny of distance on this rockball pretty well ended when the steam engine was invented and has been pretty thoroughly destroyed when you can travel between any two points on Earth in pretty nice luxury in less than 24 hours. Our tech does indeed cause both natural plants and our GDP to grow more rapidly than was imaginable just a century ago, much less two. Ditto for productivity.
Taken literally, the guy’s been reading too much science fiction. As in Tom Swift and his Distance Annihilator Ray.
[quote=“PhillyGuy, post:1400, topic:1009774, full:true”]
LSLGuy’s last post reminded me of this:
Has Trump cancelled Christmas? China’s decorations makers report no US orders
And:
[url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/12/economy/toy-prices-us-china-tariffs/index.html]
These tariffs are going to hit young families especially hard. Cheap imported good make clothes, shoes and toys for kids that are constantly outgrowing them affordable - and when the impact of this arrives, it’s going to be tough.
I expect to see a lot more stories like this in a month or so, the full impact won’t be felt until then because goods that were already in transit when the tariffs are enacted are exempted, so the impact of the Chinese tariffs hasn’t hit yet.
I have very little sympathy for toymaker Isaac Larien, though. The CNN story doesn’t mention it but he was featured in a NY Post story and he’s a big old Trump supporter that was doing the whole “I love the smell of your farts, sir but you’re destroying my life, can you please make a small adjustment so this doesn’t hurt ME” schtick.
NY post Link - I hate linking to them but they did a whole issue that was a desperate attempt to cajole Trump into dropping tariffs while kissing his ass, and some of it was sort of amusing,
From The Bulwark - Substack.
[Long article]
Maybe the Republicans will finally be able to mortally wound Obamacare. They’ve been promising to do it for a long time.
And, on the other end of the ACA: in 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act expanded the availability of tax subsidies for individuals and families to buy “Individual” (i.e., Obamacare) coverage. The net was that more people qualified for subsidies (which are based on income level), and the amount of the subsidies went up; many people who make too much to be on Medicaid, but don’t make a whole lot of money in the absolute, are able to buy health insurance for a fairly small out-of-pocket monthly premium.
Thanks in part to the expanded subsidies, enrollment in ACA plans has grown substantially over the past couple of years: in this year’s Open Enrollment, over 24 million people bought coverage (an increase of 14% over last year).
The expanded ARPA subsidies (which were originally only for 2021 and 2022) were extended by the Biden administration, but are currently set to expire at the end of 2025. If that is allowed to happen (and I am pretty certain that it will), there’ll be millions of Americans who will wind up going without health insurance in 2026, because they can no longer afford it.
Yup. I’ve been convinced ever since this maladministration got started that Trump is a Russian asset and is deliberately destroying this country in service to his Russian paymasters.
When countries come to trump to negotiate tariffs, how big are the subsequent donations to the trump library?
I use the term “administration criminal regime”. Works good. YMMV.
There is no relief for Trump or MAGA. Trump’s Easter message shows that he never has a moment of relief. It’s the courts, the democrats, endless opponents. Foreign countries ripping him off.
Same for MAGA. They cannot live through a single day without continually thinking “someone is ripping me of.” Someone on Medicaid, kids in headstart, maybe that blind man with the cane. “I’m paying for that talking traffic light for him!”
Just got this in a letter from our federal union:
*Congress is considering cutting $50 billion or more in federal employee benefits over the next ten years, including cuts to retirement and health benefits. *
…
[T]he Union [has] urged Congress to oppose the following proposals:
** Moving FEHB from a premium-share model to a voucher model – This proposal would undermine the viability of the entire FEHB program, forcing federal employees to pay a significantly higher percentage of premiums than their private-sector counterparts. This proposal would also break promises to retirees by making earned, retiree health benefits unaffordable, thereby, diminishing the overall compensation of federal employees.*
** Raising the FERS contribution rate to 4.4. percent – This amounts to an across-the-board pay cut and will drive experienced, hard-to-recruit federal workers to leave the civil service as their pay further falls below private sector pay for comparable positions.*
** Eliminating the FERS cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for current and future retirees – This proposal will eat away the value of FERS benefits as annuities without a COLA will not keep up with inflation. This will not only reduce the purchasing power of FERS retirees but will be a drain on the economy more broadly.*
** Eliminating the TSP G-Fund subsidy by switching to a short-term rate calculation – Currently, the G Fund interest rate is calculated based on the weighted average yield of all outstanding Treasury notes and bonds with 4 or more years to maturity. As a result, those who invest in the G Fund get long-term interest rate. Generally, long-term interest rates are higher than short-term rates. Changing to a short-term rate would not only hurt federal employees’ and retirees’ investments in U.S. treasury securities but discourage federal employees from investing in the G Fund. This proposal undermines the fiduciary duty of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board and the federal government and diminishes the value of a stable retirement investment option that supports the federal treasury.*
** Calculating the FERS retiree annuity benefit based on the high-5, instead of high-3 salary – This will harm federal workers who retire before they are eligible for Social Security, including those in federal jobs with a mandatory retirement age.*
** Eliminating the FERS supplemental retirement payments – This could cost FERS participants thousands of dollars per year and break a promise to federal workers and retirees, upending their retirement planning.*
IMO some of these are more significant than others. I’m nearing retirement, so the one that would affect me the most would be eliminating the COLA on FERS (Federal Employee Retirement System) pensions. As a general rule, I disfavor changes to folk who are already receiving - or are very near to receiving - a certain benefit. Seems a little shitty that someone in my position can be working for near 40 years with a certain expectation, only to have it reduced - for no clear good reason. Oh well - I won’t be reduced to living in a box down by the river - whatever they do. But they sure do seem bent on discouraging ANYONE from pursuing federal employment as a career.
No idea what stage this is in, or what kind of support it will get. Overall, it amounts to trying to give an across-the-board pay cut to all federal employees. If you think there are too many federal employees and they are grossly overpaid, I guess you could think this a good thing.
HHS Plans to Cut the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth
The federal government plans to eliminate services for LGBTQ youth who call 988, the national suicide and crisis hotline, according to a Health and Human Services budget draft leaked last week. The budget, first reported by the Washington Post, would go into effect in October if approved by Congress.
Gotta make sure that as many LGBTQ kids as possible die, after all.
These goddamn fucking bastards!
Trump administration promotes insider trading. (Is anyone really surprised?)
This story was buried inside my local paper today, but Krugman’s Substack called it out:
Bloomberg reports:
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a closed-door investor summit Tuesday that the tariff standoff with China cannot be sustained by both sides and that the world’s two largest economies will have to find ways to de-escalate.
That de-escalation will come in the very near future, Bessent said during an event hosted by J.P. Morgan Chase in Washington, which wasn’t open to the public or media. He characterized the current situation as essentially a trade embargo, according to people who attended the session.
Investors liked this report, but it was, if you think about it, deeply disturbing on two levels.
First — and why aren’t more people saying this? — what the hell was the Treasury secretary doing giving a closed-door briefing on a significant policy change that hadn’t yet been officially announced? Isn’t that a setup for large-scale insider trading? Indeed, attendees at that conference surely made market bets before Bessent’s remarks became public.
And since when are major policy announcements by government officials made off the record to closed private-sector meetings?
…
Put it this way: New York Times conflict of interest rules would have prohibited me, as an opinion writer, from talking to a closed-door session at J.P. Morgan. For the Treasury secretary to do so — especially when announcing a major policy change — is a huge ethical breach.
…
My bold.
Well, either trump will back this up while those at the secret meeting clean up in the markets, or Bessent way overstepped and will be out on the street this afternoon looking for work. Who knows?
I doubt Bessent will be looking for work, soon.
What good does it do to have guardrails set-up to keep our government honest when dishonesty seems to be abundant and to keep doing good when evil is so much more lucrative if, when they blow through those guardrails, the response from the public is “ho-hum”?
AFTER my investments took a hit, I did some rebalancing. Because of my particular position, I have to report each and every one of those sales/purchases on a transaction report. (BTW - no one has ever explained to me exactly how I COULD style my investments in a manner that would suggest impropriety…)
It is just an ongoing irritant that I have to jump through this meaningless hoop on a regular basis, when such clear financial misbehavior occurs with no repercussions at the levels of the people WHO ARE MOST ABLE TO MISUSE THE INFORMATION THEY HAVE ACCESS TO.
I’m sure DOGE will be right on it!