Donald Trump IS the law now. The Roberts Court has declared him king, and he now has all the powers that the Constitution says are rightly those of Congress. Trump can make laws by simple declaration. He can remake the entire federal budget, spending money where he wants and denying funding to things he doesn't like. He can fire anyone. He can create whole new government departments out of thin air, and eliminate entire departments that have been established by acts of Congress.
Does Trump need anyone's approval to funnel $20 billion to hedge funders?
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide NoKings rally is Saturday, October 18. Be there or be square!
We need 3.5% of the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let's all get out there with a Howard Beale spirit and yell "We're as mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!".
and, alas, no number is magic. The mainstream media, cowards that they are, will probably misreport or underestimate or just ignore the size of the crowds, as they have done with the previous demonstrations - much less their meaning. Trump and his P2025 enablers will ignore any number. And Republican members of Congress who have the power to change things will continue to wimp out, in fear of the heavily-armed MAGA base or out of true belief...
So get out and protest, but don't expect magic results.
Lamestream media has certainly downplayed the magnitude of the rallies, but they did cover them, and they also get covered elsewhere, including and especially all over social media. There are plenty of videos on Tik-Tok and YouTube.
While we shouldn't expect magic results from just one action, it's just part of many actions taking place that together will collectively form a juggernaut. Contacting senators and reps, hundreds of lawsuits against the misadministration by state attorneys general and others, numerous federal judges ruling against the rogue DOJ, prosecutors refusing to bring false charges against Trumpkopf's "enemies", etc.
We just have to keep picking at the threads, this regime will unravel.
“And Republican members of Congress who have the power to change things will continue to wimp out, in fear of the heavily-armed MAGA base or out of true belief...”
Or just power. During the height of the DOGE mayhem a Portland news station ran an interview with the only Oregon Republican congressman. He was asked about the negative feedback he received at his town halls, which he brushed off. The reporter asked again, with a slightly different approach. At that point he admitted his constituents wouldn’t be happy about the cuts, but his party had been out of power in Oregon for almost twenty years so he was enjoying the power of being in the majority in Congress, no matter what the results. Of course that is not what representative government is supposed to do. It also reflects the unwillingness of Republicans to make themselves more attractive to voters after Iraq, Afghanistan and the Great Recession of 2007-09. Instead they implemented a plan to overthrow the democratic republic.
Yes, 3.5%... but I think that has to be sustained, and be accompanied by (illegal in the US) general strike to e effective. Don't get me wrong, I'll be there. I think it is important. But getting 3.5% at one protest doesn't magically cause the regime to topple.
No, certainly not. We have to keep at it, as well as additional actions. As for a general strike's legality, even if the regime invoked the Taft-Hartley act, lawyers can have solid arguments that it wouldn't apply here. Besides, they can't arrest the whole country. So I say, strike away!
There is no magic number even 5% or more of the USA population non-violently protesting this administration can guarantee we will start to win back a democratic representative system. Yes, we need to protest, but it will require much more sacrifice than just carrying signs in the streets.
When I said "magic number", I wasn't speaking in any literal sense. This is the number that historically has brought down autocratic regimes. There are no guarantees about anything.
So, yes, it will require much more sacrifice than just carrying signs in the streets. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. We should. You even said so yourself: "Yes, we need to protest...."
Ralph Nader is why the US is where it is today. If he hadn't run against Gore, GW Bush would have lost Florida and the catastrophe of the Bush admin would have been avoided. Trump would be known only as a crooked NYT real estate nepo baby. Nader should be embarrassed to even show his face in public.
No, to make an impact, everyone needs to change witholding on their taxes and shut off the money spigot. Those ICE people are going to have to rape and pillage all of us to get paid. They can head to the oval office first, as that's where the low hanging loot is. I can't believe that anyone could be so ignorant to think that there will be masses of exploited undocumented workers at the Super Bowl, which is only attended by the 1% and their lackeys beneath them in the upper 10%. Maybe they think they're in the ranks of sub-contracted workers that will be rounded up for deportation to put the screws to the circus with cake (and champagne?) for the disrespecting elites.
The fact that 60% of the population isn't in the streets is a scathing indictment of civics education in the US. What's particularly infuriating is the absence of the so called "conservatives ." The GOP and their ilk spent the last 40 years post Reagan wailing about the dangers of big government and taxes. The Lost Cause confederates have spent over a hundred years blathering about the sanctity of states rights. Now, with Trump rampaging through the economy, disregarding congress, imposing arbitrary tariffs, and stomping on states, this pack of deplorables hasn't uttered a peep. The GOP has revealed itself, right out in front of God and everyone, as nothing but a collection of the worst hypocrites, charlatans and rubes ever assembled. The party of Lincoln degenerated into the party of PT Barnum.
And what impact do you expect to have? I fear you are already too late and expect ICE style Gestapo type harrassment yourself and all organisers of such rallies but don't bend, don't turn, drive on. There may be many bends on the road but til.... Hasta la Victoria Siempre. Our day will come.
As one piece of a much larger puzzle, it will help move the needle. We will not bow, we will not bend, we will continue to rise and resist. It's never too late, but of course the sooner the better.
It took years to stop the Viet Nam war, enact civil rights, etc., but it did happen. They can't arrest or kill us all, and if they do, I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.
A MAGAnut troll. I don't do business with trolls. Fortunately for me, Substack has a convenient "trollBeGone" function. One click of the link and hasta la vista troll.
Will that be the case when Trump is not the POTUS and a Democrat is in the WH?
Let's say someone like Bernie or AOC get into the WH, will such largesse in terms of enlarged executive authority given by the Roberts Court be valid in that scenario too?
"Will that be the case when Trump is not the POTUS and a Democrat is in the WH?"
You know the answer to that.
Biden wasn't allowed to forgive student loans because that was presidential overreach, but Trump has been allowed to create whole new departments out of thin air and had a special doctrine of total executive immunity created just for himself.
The ultimate problem is the Supreme Court, even more than Trump.
Another example is the issue of nationwide court injunctions. Federal judges in Texas were always issuing nationwide injunctions to stop Biden executive orders. Biden's DOJ asked the Supremes to limit said injunctions, but they refused. Then Donald gets in the WH and magically the Supremes decides to severely limit nationwide injunctions.
You are correct -- the Supreme Court is a tremendous problem, and I don't think that most people or most Democrats realize that. How do you restrain a Supreme Court that just makes it up as they go along -- make up judicial doctrines, make up facts, and so forth? Even if we had a Democrat in the WH and Democratic Congress, the Supreme Court could still just rule much of what they do unconstitutional.
You are right, Aubrey. But it angers me to no bounds to think that in this country helping everyday regular folks is considered executive overreach, but terrorizing innocent humans is called executive mandate. Roberts Court know what it is doing and they don't care.
And the funny thing is SCOTUS endowed itself with an authority to interpret any Constitution provision or stature it wants. Constitution doesn't stipulate that. What we are seeing is Judicial overreach, and we need to draw a line. Democratic Administration has to otherwise there wouldn't be a coheren, and permanent set of codes,which are always followed.
Beserk capitalism is responsible. But I also think that the Constitution is not very elaborate on the power and mandates of the SCOTUS, which leaves a lot of "unclaimed constitutional territory" to be usurped which the SCOTUS did.
The Constitution of the US is silent and shallow on some matters and that gives the SCOTUS an opportunity to be the ultimate arbiter, even in cases where Court's interference is not warranted by convention.
My advice to the next Democrat to become president:
As your first official act, issue arrest warrants for Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Gorsuch. Ship 'em to GITMO and classify them as "unlawful combatants."
Let Roberts and his friends stew there, perhaps reconsidering the decisions they themselves wrote that enable such a thing.
That would feel good, but let's not follow Trump's precedents, but follow the law instead. The appropriate remedy is impeachment for violating their oath to uphold the Constitution.
While I agree with the sentiment, trying to fight lawlessness by one very well entrenched party strictly within the law simply can't work, especially when the lawless party has captured the entire legislative AND enforcement mechanism. Taking the moral and legal high ground is a self-defeating trap.
I would agree, but we're talking about when a Democrat is president and the lawless party no longer controls the entire legislative and enforcement mechanism. (I'm assuming that at least one house of Congress is controlled by Democrats.)
Nope. The solution is to add one new young liberal Justice per month for 2 years. A 27 to 6 court would change this country into a paradise using the current SCOTUS's tactics.
Not new. We've been actively building this dystopian world for almost fifty years now with steps like the Glass-Stiegel repeal, Citizens' United, Too Big to Fail Bailouts, and on and on.
Republicans want to seize perpetual power and have no intention of ever relinquishing it. The 6 SCOTUS members who favor Trump decide these matters on the shadow docket because they have no intention of explaining their rationales for their decisions favoring Trump so his opponents can’t use them in their favor.
I guarantee you that SCOTUS rules on the power of the executive only apply to Repubs. Just like it's okay for Trump to offer student loan forgiveness to ICE recruits but it was incredibly unconstitutional for BIden to try to offer any such forgiveness. Just like state's rights means a state can negate a woman's right to choose but (making a prediction here) doesn't allow a state to ban conversion therapy. IOKIYAR. IACIYAD. If we ever have another Dem president, it will make your head spin how quickly his power is reduced to the bare minimum.
Democrats absolutely need to be more aggressive and where’s our 20207 plan??Really need one if we’re going to save the planet, the country and the humanity or all the species.
If that is truly the case, defund congress. Why spend all that money to keep people around that have no power to enact or refuse to use the "power of the purse".
And if course, MAGA Mike Johnson and his tiny majority are collecting their paychecks and perks uninterrupted by the shutdown, while they take yet another vacation on our dime. Just to keep Grijalva unseated and shield the plutocrat pedophiles. His excuse that the House is not in session is about as credible as McConnell's stonewalling of the Garland nomination. Same playbook, slight tactical variation.
Chaos deliberately unleashed at every turn, just because the orange tyrant used to party with underage girls and the rest of his billionaire bros. Gotta be some serious, serious stuff in those files, because it looks like they wouldn't hesitate to launch a nuke or two if necessary to sustain the distractions.
Team of Traitors, making America ghoulish and evil.
In other words he has become an absolute dictator-do most Americans care -hell no
Do our democratic lawmakers care -sure doesn’t seem so -one can count on one hand the democratic lawmakers that are actually trying to do something.-most are unwilling to speak up and take any action at all against the orange monster
The Robert’s court is bought and payed for and is now, minus the three women liberals, the most corrupt supreme court in history. I refuse to afford it even the capital letters and I can barely call it a “supreme” court. They are traitors to this country and to its Constitution, ignoring it and our laws. So glad the court rushes all these appeals, calling for powers denied by the Constitution, but Trump’s trials? Delay, delay, delay, then, mission accomplished- we now have a king-in-waiting, and our democracy is teetering on the abyss, soon to be followed by our economy.
See: Grand Theft Crypto by Jim Stewartson on Mind-War.com The psychological war on democracy. Jim foretold everything that has been happening since Chump’s first election win. Using the Federal Reserve to back up Crypto with gold will take the gold within five years when the crypto fails. That’s why they are pushing to deregulate crypto and get access to Fort Knox to see if there really is gold there. Americans pensions and savings are being hoodwinked right before their eyes by billionaires like Justin Sun whom Trump pardoned and asked for advice on deregulation of crypto. See: American for Financial Reform, Senators are Caving to Crypto Lobbyists.
If the US Government is about to drop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold bars into the metals market over the next 5 years they why is the price of gold at record highs?
Yes the redistribution of wealth AWAY from average Americans paying the Tarrifs on goods imported and INTO the pockets of a corrupt government. The US is as bad as any illegitimate government anywhere in the world. Disgusting. The GOP has broken its oath to the American people.
For Trump, it does not matter whether his actions as POTUS are legal or not - SCOTUS has immunized him from any consequences of potentially illegal acts. The most what can happen is that his actions will be stopped in courts, but it will be at no cost to him.
So Trump has no incentive whatsoever to follow the law. He can do anything - if his action is not stopped, he wins, if it is stopped, he is where he was initially, no losses.
Trump would be stupid to follow the law, in this systemic setup.
he can pardon them. This is why I think the power to pardon is a kingly relic that should be eliminated.
AI: "George Mason and Edmund Randolph, argued against the pardon power during the Constitutional Convention. Their primary fears were that a president could abuse the power to cover up their own crimes or those of their co-conspirators, which could ultimately lead to a monarchy." But Alex Hamilton won the argument for pardon power, arguing the President could be impeached if he abused that power. Sounds good unless you have a majority House that has also been corrupted, as we now do. The money guys always seem to want a strong executive, no? Patrick Henry hated pardon power.
And impeachment sounds good in theory. Until a divided nation ensures that there will never be the two-thirds Senate vote to convict and remove. Like so many other ideas that the framers settled on two centuries ago, never imagining that one of two dominant political parties would become absolutely corrupted and owned by wannabe aristocrats. Senate apportionment. Electoral College. Now-insurmountable threshold for amendment.
The Constitution was never a holy writ, just the best that they could agree on at the time. It's now a source of pernicious mischief and blatant corruption, irreparably broken by unfettered wealth and unrestrained criminals running all three branches of government. An imperial executive. A feckless and impotent legislative. An enabling judicial..
The further down the chain, the harder it will be to prosecute. What a single specific lower-level gov employee does, is often a result of a SUM of multiple inputs from up the chain. Is it right to prosecute some person because what he/she did was in 10% based on a criminal order, and in 90% based on other, quite legal, inputs?
In extreme, everybody doing ANY gov work could be charged, because Trump's illegal orders, after percolating through multiple layers, taint with criminality all gov employee actions. But such prosecution would be nonsensical.
"Where to draw the line" is hard. Even in clear-cut obvious cases (Nuremberg Trials) prosecutions did not go far along the chain. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of evident Nazi criminals got away.
Well, at least in the American sector, those in charge quickly realized that the only people who could do the low-level work (like being mayor) were also former Nazis. It was not possible or desirable to actually prevent former Nazis from serving in the new government.
That seems right. He can do whatever he wants, and if a lower court tries to stop it, the SC will overturn the stay, and Argentina will have already defaulted by the time the SC finally gets around to declaring it as having been an illegal act for which there are zero consequences (except to the Treasury).
Trump believes that he’s entitled to use any and all resources as he wishes. This means that he counts (and uses) the U.S. treasury as his own personal coffer.
Well, his niece Mary Trump has correctly stated Donald regards the U.S. Treasury as his own personal piggy bank. Ever since he started out on his con artist career, Donald always has someone else pick up the tab for his own lavish lifestyle. His various leaders throughout the years found themselves saddled with the costs of paying for Donald’s luxuries, and before he acquired his new aircraft from Qatar, Donald had his creditors pay for his now grounded jet airplane. Trump had the chutzpah to complain about President Obama playing golf, but it turns out that Donald Trump played golf more in his first year in office than President Obama did during his entire eight years in office. He jetted off frequently on Air Force One to Mar a Lago for golf. He also housed Secret Service personnel and billed the government at the full rate when he housed them at Mar a Lago. He pocketed the money for his own benefit. Trump has claimed he donates his presidential salary to charity, but it doesn’t mean a lot when he claims to do this. Trump’s fraudulent charity in New York caused him to be permanently banned from running a charity in New York, and his three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, were required to take a course,on the obligations of charitable trustee. Trump has always been his own favorite charity, and I’m sure he’s made a lot of money on the side. He is making even more money on the side in his second term.
During his terms in office, Trump has always used Air Force One to travel to Mar-a-Lago and to Bedminster at taxpayer expense. He spend $10 million in taxpayer funds to travel to Scotland to open a new section at his Turnberry golf course. I realize Trump is President and requires Secret Service protection, but he should have been required to put his businesses in a trust to prevent conflicts of interest. Trump does not know the meanings of ethics or of conflicts of interest. He came to his second term not only to wrongfully use the powers to retaliate against people for problems he caused himself. He also fully intends to gain personal financial profit from being president and to aid corruption as long as he can get a cut of whatever deal might be cut. The nice thing about the Scottish visit, however, is the Scots treated Trump with all the mockery and derision he deserves. Trump’s mother, Mary Anne, was a native of the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland and Scots Gaelic was the first language she spoke. Trump comes across to the Scots as the perfect example of the egotistical boorish and braggart American businessman, so it’s not a surprise they dislike him.
The Exchange Stabilization Fund doesn't depend on Congressional appropriations. Not even Krugman (no friend of Bessent's) is suggesting that Treasury is doing something illegal or doesn't have money for Argentina.
Gold Reserve Act of 1934: The ESF was capitalized with $2 billion from the profits the U.S. realized by increasing the price of gold, from $20.67 to $35 per troy ounce.
ESF is self-financing from its own investments. So, this will be a hit to government assets to bail out friends of the family.
Henry Cohen began this thread by asking whether the bailout is legal if Congress hasn't appropriated the money. You agree that the bailout is legal, right? That's the only point I was making.
Congress would need to assert its authority, but as it is controlled by power hungry Republicans, it will not happen. We need to make their complicity central in our arguments. Trump could not do any of this on his own.
In the present circumstances the second question is best rewritten as a simple declarative sentence.
The hands of Republicans and if need be, the betting line is Congress will concoct legislation to cover DJT. That aside, for over 50 years Congress has committed serious errors in ceding its Constitutional authorities to the Executive. A host of poorly crafted and conflicting legislation opens the door to a willing President to unilaterally use these dubious authorities to declare emergencies with little or no checks and balances normally in place within the design of our constitutional republic.
The Roberts' court is on its own mission to institutionalize the 'Unitary Executive'. Their zeal for the Unitary Executive has not been tested when a Democrat occupies the White House. At best the betting line on their agnosticism to occupant is 50-50.
Is DJT giving Argentina (or as Dr Krugman outlined hedge funds) $20 billion legal? At present, Congress and the Supreme Court have no compelling need to answer the question. And at best will not until the roughly half of the United States electorate gets the opportunity to provide Congress with the motivation to answer the question and a ton of other questions raused by positions taken by the DJT administration.
It's a good thing we have an entire new government department (DOGE) on the look-out for waste, fraud, and abuse! I'm sure Big Balls will be in the Oval Office this very day to tell Trump that he can't offer a corrupt bailout to Bessent's friends.
Hey we can get even more cynical! Bessent surely knows how to use offshore accounts to slip money around unseen. How do we know he hasn't some of his own skin in the game? What could be safer than investing in a country that you know you can bail out?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the mainstream media was ethical enough, and The Democratic Party was competent enough, to explain to the American people that Trump and the GOP are driven more by corruption and greed than any actual ideals.
Self-aggrandizement is one of their ideals. Maybe the prime directive.
Mainstream media is ignored by the younger generations. News comes from their social media feed. I have never understood why anyone would accept a “feed” rather than seek out trustworthy sources for themselves.
A lot of people haven’t figured out that politics and understanding the news affect their lives and finances.
Excessive cynicism is how we got here. When the majority of the country have no idea how an executive administration works and seem to believe that every administration is the same as the other and they all are crook, then the above outcome is very natural.
The false equivalence between, say, the Trump administration and the Obama administration is the scourge. Most of the people believe that if every administration is corrupt, then there is no point fighting this particular administration. The cocktail of political disillusionment, cynicism, and ignorance is in the making for several decades now. That's what the autocratic regimes of the world wanted for the US and corrupt information systems have been the key element in their fight against the Democratic regimes.
W0nder how much of this "bailout" ends up in Trumps pockets? See, he can;'t make money off of dying children so they matter not. He is a demented man who is interested in only one thing, his own pocket lining. Million will die to save what? 4-5 billion? Who cares eh orange maniac! But sending $$ to his dictator buddies is just fine and dandy. And this is who we elected in our name? A demented hate filled evil man and his evil henchmen like Stephen Miller. It is a sickening place we live i now, America. I've never felt shame being an American until we elected this madman not once, but twice. It tells the world who we REALLY are.
Agree, but I believe he was born corrupt without a soul or any redeeming characteristics. When you are born as a narcissistic soul less person, you can't feel anything towards others. You are right, he has no morals, if you were my age (maybe you are...)you'd have known that about him since I did, the mid 70's and he's only gotten worse over time.
Nope, Millie's going to take his cut, money laundering isn't a free service. The question is the money cycled through real estate, Trump's traditional scam, or Trump coin?
Yes, of course Millei has to get his fee. As for the direction of capital flow, I'd say most likely both, and maybe a few of the dozens of shell companies Trumpkopf owns on top of that.
Don't forget that there is a multiplier effect in play since the big investment draws in money from many other sources including small investors who will, in the end, likely lose everything. So it is far more than $20B. And you want cynical? There's probably a nobel prize waiting for the young economist who can quantify the multiplier effect of such shell-game grifts. FYI, I suspect the math would be very similar for the crypto currency grift.
If Trump continues in Office, we will become the next Argentina. Demand for US bonds has fallen as the price of gold has spiked. I remember my English Cousin joking with me about how the British Bookies were taking bets on how many months it would take Trump to bankrupt the United States. These were the hottest bets in British Bookie World right after Trump's election.
I think the cognitive dissonance Republicans have towards Scott Bessent, who spent four decades working for and with George Soros, their anti-Christ, is hilarious.
Bessent has turned out to be another raging piece of shit, refusing to rise to the simple demands of a job in which he's explicitly not supposed to be out for himself. In an offhand moment during an interview before Congress he owned the class war, saying something about how Democrats hadn't done what they could have, presumably raising taxes on the rich, when they had the chance so it was on them.
But that means, in yet another instance, Republicans have asserted a set of rules in which it will be as much open season on them as they've made it on us if we ever have the opportunity to fight back effectively, which is up in the air. They clearly intend to stay in power indefinitely or leave the country a smoking ruin to escape accountability for their rampant criminality.
Bessent is right that this is on Democrats. Dems have opted to participate in the grift rather than fight it. If a sociopath tells a sane person that they intend to commit very specific heinous acts, it is the sane person's responsibility to do something to stop it. Dems have time and again chosen to either meet the sociopath half-way in the name of fair play, or, worse, simply fund-raise and preserve their own power positions by pointing at the sociopathic behavior and saying "shame" rather than actually doing anything about it. Sane democrats and republicans (insofar as there used to be such things) chose complicity. Perhaps they convinced themselves that it would never get this bad, but that was always wishful thinking.
Thanks for the link. Quite the tune he whistled past the graveyard, just a few months ago. So how come they now need $20 billion from us? Savage austerity reduced inflation to a mere 33 percent annually, and that's something to brag about? I found the numbers on rental housing availability really bizarre. End rent controls, and available rentals double? What happened to the former tenants, and how can this sudden glut possibly drive market rents lower? 🤔
I'm sure glad we have an actual expert economist sharing his wisdom with us daily here, because there's sure a lot of hacks out there.
Trump truly is the "anti-Midas": everything he touches turns to sh!t (including those around him).
Don't forget your local No Kings II protest on Saturday, Oct. 18. We need to be out in force against this malignancy. We are not a people who let children starve while billionaires pad their bottom lines.
No, but we can say "Fascist Capitalism". Actually, we can say Nationalism, but also Socialism, since Trump is shoving his nose into all areas of the economy. We call that "National Socialism".
Bessemer has a similar look and feel to the boy scout , Mike Johnson. As a former scout I can tell you neither are earning any merit badges for their behavior and would probably get bounced out their troop for their current behaviors. Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent they ain’t!!
And to be even more cynical than Paul.... it would not surprise me at all if we were to discover that Bessent or Trump (or both) got a meme coin kick-back from their grateful buddies. What gangsters.
Trump is setting up the United States to be the war chest of the fascist internationale.
The success of world communism all through the Cold War owed an enormous deal to the simple fact of how much of it was propped up by Soviet money and power, which became instantly clear circa 1990 when the Soviet Union fell and/or withdrew its protection. The economies of countries like Cuba and North Korea took an immediate nosedive. Regimes in Eastern Europe were thrown out by their own people. Far-left terrorists like the Red Brigades and Red Army Faction who'd always publicly trumpeted their independence from Moscow basically collapsed like a patient whose life support had been unplugged. And so forth.
Since the U.S. is still, for now, the wealthiest country in the world, Trump and his buddies all over the world are planning to use its economy for the exact same thing.
Is giving away the $20 billion legal? Doesn't Congress have to appropriate the money? Or has Congress provided the president with a slush fund?
Donald Trump IS the law now. The Roberts Court has declared him king, and he now has all the powers that the Constitution says are rightly those of Congress. Trump can make laws by simple declaration. He can remake the entire federal budget, spending money where he wants and denying funding to things he doesn't like. He can fire anyone. He can create whole new government departments out of thin air, and eliminate entire departments that have been established by acts of Congress.
Does Trump need anyone's approval to funnel $20 billion to hedge funders?
That has to change.
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide NoKings rally is Saturday, October 18. Be there or be square!
We need 3.5% of the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let's all get out there with a Howard Beale spirit and yell "We're as mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!".
https://www.nokings.org/
to make an impact, we really need about 5% participation
Historically, 3.5% has been the magic number. Of course, the more the merrier. If we could get 5%, that would be awesome.
and, alas, no number is magic. The mainstream media, cowards that they are, will probably misreport or underestimate or just ignore the size of the crowds, as they have done with the previous demonstrations - much less their meaning. Trump and his P2025 enablers will ignore any number. And Republican members of Congress who have the power to change things will continue to wimp out, in fear of the heavily-armed MAGA base or out of true belief...
So get out and protest, but don't expect magic results.
Lamestream media has certainly downplayed the magnitude of the rallies, but they did cover them, and they also get covered elsewhere, including and especially all over social media. There are plenty of videos on Tik-Tok and YouTube.
While we shouldn't expect magic results from just one action, it's just part of many actions taking place that together will collectively form a juggernaut. Contacting senators and reps, hundreds of lawsuits against the misadministration by state attorneys general and others, numerous federal judges ruling against the rogue DOJ, prosecutors refusing to bring false charges against Trumpkopf's "enemies", etc.
We just have to keep picking at the threads, this regime will unravel.
“And Republican members of Congress who have the power to change things will continue to wimp out, in fear of the heavily-armed MAGA base or out of true belief...”
Or just power. During the height of the DOGE mayhem a Portland news station ran an interview with the only Oregon Republican congressman. He was asked about the negative feedback he received at his town halls, which he brushed off. The reporter asked again, with a slightly different approach. At that point he admitted his constituents wouldn’t be happy about the cuts, but his party had been out of power in Oregon for almost twenty years so he was enjoying the power of being in the majority in Congress, no matter what the results. Of course that is not what representative government is supposed to do. It also reflects the unwillingness of Republicans to make themselves more attractive to voters after Iraq, Afghanistan and the Great Recession of 2007-09. Instead they implemented a plan to overthrow the democratic republic.
No matter how many attend, Don will claim he had more at his July parade. And that the protesters are paid by Soros and are terrorists.
Yes, 3.5%... but I think that has to be sustained, and be accompanied by (illegal in the US) general strike to e effective. Don't get me wrong, I'll be there. I think it is important. But getting 3.5% at one protest doesn't magically cause the regime to topple.
No, certainly not. We have to keep at it, as well as additional actions. As for a general strike's legality, even if the regime invoked the Taft-Hartley act, lawyers can have solid arguments that it wouldn't apply here. Besides, they can't arrest the whole country. So I say, strike away!
https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard
There is no magic number even 5% or more of the USA population non-violently protesting this administration can guarantee we will start to win back a democratic representative system. Yes, we need to protest, but it will require much more sacrifice than just carrying signs in the streets.
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr/publications/questions-answers-and-some-cautionary-updates-regarding-35-rule
When I said "magic number", I wasn't speaking in any literal sense. This is the number that historically has brought down autocratic regimes. There are no guarantees about anything.
So, yes, it will require much more sacrifice than just carrying signs in the streets. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. We should. You even said so yourself: "Yes, we need to protest...."
So we're on the same page.
Ralph Nader says 5% makes it happen
Ralph Nader is why the US is where it is today. If he hadn't run against Gore, GW Bush would have lost Florida and the catastrophe of the Bush admin would have been avoided. Trump would be known only as a crooked NYT real estate nepo baby. Nader should be embarrassed to even show his face in public.
There's pretty good evidence that it only takes 3.5%:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule
No, to make an impact, everyone needs to change witholding on their taxes and shut off the money spigot. Those ICE people are going to have to rape and pillage all of us to get paid. They can head to the oval office first, as that's where the low hanging loot is. I can't believe that anyone could be so ignorant to think that there will be masses of exploited undocumented workers at the Super Bowl, which is only attended by the 1% and their lackeys beneath them in the upper 10%. Maybe they think they're in the ranks of sub-contracted workers that will be rounded up for deportation to put the screws to the circus with cake (and champagne?) for the disrespecting elites.
The fact that 60% of the population isn't in the streets is a scathing indictment of civics education in the US. What's particularly infuriating is the absence of the so called "conservatives ." The GOP and their ilk spent the last 40 years post Reagan wailing about the dangers of big government and taxes. The Lost Cause confederates have spent over a hundred years blathering about the sanctity of states rights. Now, with Trump rampaging through the economy, disregarding congress, imposing arbitrary tariffs, and stomping on states, this pack of deplorables hasn't uttered a peep. The GOP has revealed itself, right out in front of God and everyone, as nothing but a collection of the worst hypocrites, charlatans and rubes ever assembled. The party of Lincoln degenerated into the party of PT Barnum.
Absolutely.
And what impact do you expect to have? I fear you are already too late and expect ICE style Gestapo type harrassment yourself and all organisers of such rallies but don't bend, don't turn, drive on. There may be many bends on the road but til.... Hasta la Victoria Siempre. Our day will come.
As one piece of a much larger puzzle, it will help move the needle. We will not bow, we will not bend, we will continue to rise and resist. It's never too late, but of course the sooner the better.
It took years to stop the Viet Nam war, enact civil rights, etc., but it did happen. They can't arrest or kill us all, and if they do, I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.
That would be a starting point, but by no means an end.
Another MAGAt/useful idiot, drunk on the Trump kool-aid and totally oblivious to academia and the rest of the world.
Your level of denial and victimhood tells me you spend way too much time listening to the military-grade right wing propaganda machine.
Anyone who consumes that drivel and doesn't know it is too biased to be taken seriously is in a cult.
A MAGAnut troll. I don't do business with trolls. Fortunately for me, Substack has a convenient "trollBeGone" function. One click of the link and hasta la vista troll.
Will that be the case when Trump is not the POTUS and a Democrat is in the WH?
Let's say someone like Bernie or AOC get into the WH, will such largesse in terms of enlarged executive authority given by the Roberts Court be valid in that scenario too?
"Will that be the case when Trump is not the POTUS and a Democrat is in the WH?"
You know the answer to that.
Biden wasn't allowed to forgive student loans because that was presidential overreach, but Trump has been allowed to create whole new departments out of thin air and had a special doctrine of total executive immunity created just for himself.
The ultimate problem is the Supreme Court, even more than Trump.
Another example is the issue of nationwide court injunctions. Federal judges in Texas were always issuing nationwide injunctions to stop Biden executive orders. Biden's DOJ asked the Supremes to limit said injunctions, but they refused. Then Donald gets in the WH and magically the Supremes decides to severely limit nationwide injunctions.
You are correct -- the Supreme Court is a tremendous problem, and I don't think that most people or most Democrats realize that. How do you restrain a Supreme Court that just makes it up as they go along -- make up judicial doctrines, make up facts, and so forth? Even if we had a Democrat in the WH and Democratic Congress, the Supreme Court could still just rule much of what they do unconstitutional.
SCOTUS is literally begging to be ignored in the future. Who would possibly respect and adhere to the nonsense they have been producing?
stack the court. Or many of us will die. Why? Because the levels of GHG will cause that.
You are right, Aubrey. But it angers me to no bounds to think that in this country helping everyday regular folks is considered executive overreach, but terrorizing innocent humans is called executive mandate. Roberts Court know what it is doing and they don't care.
And the funny thing is SCOTUS endowed itself with an authority to interpret any Constitution provision or stature it wants. Constitution doesn't stipulate that. What we are seeing is Judicial overreach, and we need to draw a line. Democratic Administration has to otherwise there wouldn't be a coheren, and permanent set of codes,which are always followed.
well, the ultimate problem is a beserk capitalism that gave us the SCOTUS, but yeah.
Beserk capitalism is responsible. But I also think that the Constitution is not very elaborate on the power and mandates of the SCOTUS, which leaves a lot of "unclaimed constitutional territory" to be usurped which the SCOTUS did.
The Constitution of the US is silent and shallow on some matters and that gives the SCOTUS an opportunity to be the ultimate arbiter, even in cases where Court's interference is not warranted by convention.
My advice to the next Democrat to become president:
As your first official act, issue arrest warrants for Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Gorsuch. Ship 'em to GITMO and classify them as "unlawful combatants."
Let Roberts and his friends stew there, perhaps reconsidering the decisions they themselves wrote that enable such a thing.
That would feel good, but let's not follow Trump's precedents, but follow the law instead. The appropriate remedy is impeachment for violating their oath to uphold the Constitution.
While I agree with the sentiment, trying to fight lawlessness by one very well entrenched party strictly within the law simply can't work, especially when the lawless party has captured the entire legislative AND enforcement mechanism. Taking the moral and legal high ground is a self-defeating trap.
I would agree, but we're talking about when a Democrat is president and the lawless party no longer controls the entire legislative and enforcement mechanism. (I'm assuming that at least one house of Congress is controlled by Democrats.)
Nope. The solution is to add one new young liberal Justice per month for 2 years. A 27 to 6 court would change this country into a paradise using the current SCOTUS's tactics.
nothing will happen to these thugs in our new dystopian world
Not new. We've been actively building this dystopian world for almost fifty years now with steps like the Glass-Stiegel repeal, Citizens' United, Too Big to Fail Bailouts, and on and on.
Spot on, David.
Republicans want to seize perpetual power and have no intention of ever relinquishing it. The 6 SCOTUS members who favor Trump decide these matters on the shadow docket because they have no intention of explaining their rationales for their decisions favoring Trump so his opponents can’t use them in their favor.
Hmmm. I hadn't heard we are having free or fair elections. Dem in the WH?
I guarantee you that SCOTUS rules on the power of the executive only apply to Repubs. Just like it's okay for Trump to offer student loan forgiveness to ICE recruits but it was incredibly unconstitutional for BIden to try to offer any such forgiveness. Just like state's rights means a state can negate a woman's right to choose but (making a prediction here) doesn't allow a state to ban conversion therapy. IOKIYAR. IACIYAD. If we ever have another Dem president, it will make your head spin how quickly his power is reduced to the bare minimum.
ICE recruits went to college?
Evil people can go to college too.
True, but usually they work in the White House.
Of course not.
How do you foresee it happening that Rump is no longer President and a Dem is in the White House? And when?
Democrats absolutely need to be more aggressive and where’s our 20207 plan??Really need one if we’re going to save the planet, the country and the humanity or all the species.
If that is truly the case, defund congress. Why spend all that money to keep people around that have no power to enact or refuse to use the "power of the purse".
And if course, MAGA Mike Johnson and his tiny majority are collecting their paychecks and perks uninterrupted by the shutdown, while they take yet another vacation on our dime. Just to keep Grijalva unseated and shield the plutocrat pedophiles. His excuse that the House is not in session is about as credible as McConnell's stonewalling of the Garland nomination. Same playbook, slight tactical variation.
Chaos deliberately unleashed at every turn, just because the orange tyrant used to party with underage girls and the rest of his billionaire bros. Gotta be some serious, serious stuff in those files, because it looks like they wouldn't hesitate to launch a nuke or two if necessary to sustain the distractions.
Team of Traitors, making America ghoulish and evil.
Mike and company are not worried about the price of their healthcare increasing.
They’re not worried about anything but keeping Epstein’s photos of dear leader with 12 year old girls.
Johnson is a disgrace.
How?
Trump has been given free reign by SCOTUS. Send them all home and convert the Capitol to Trump Rotunda Capitol condominiums.
In other words he has become an absolute dictator-do most Americans care -hell no
Do our democratic lawmakers care -sure doesn’t seem so -one can count on one hand the democratic lawmakers that are actually trying to do something.-most are unwilling to speak up and take any action at all against the orange monster
The Robert’s court is bought and payed for and is now, minus the three women liberals, the most corrupt supreme court in history. I refuse to afford it even the capital letters and I can barely call it a “supreme” court. They are traitors to this country and to its Constitution, ignoring it and our laws. So glad the court rushes all these appeals, calling for powers denied by the Constitution, but Trump’s trials? Delay, delay, delay, then, mission accomplished- we now have a king-in-waiting, and our democracy is teetering on the abyss, soon to be followed by our economy.
Bessent's okay is needed.
What are the rules regarding Treasury general fund? Does the fund get replenish through the Budget appropriation?
There used to be rules. No more under this misadministration.
See: Grand Theft Crypto by Jim Stewartson on Mind-War.com The psychological war on democracy. Jim foretold everything that has been happening since Chump’s first election win. Using the Federal Reserve to back up Crypto with gold will take the gold within five years when the crypto fails. That’s why they are pushing to deregulate crypto and get access to Fort Knox to see if there really is gold there. Americans pensions and savings are being hoodwinked right before their eyes by billionaires like Justin Sun whom Trump pardoned and asked for advice on deregulation of crypto. See: American for Financial Reform, Senators are Caving to Crypto Lobbyists.
I am reading the suggested post right now.
If the US Government is about to drop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold bars into the metals market over the next 5 years they why is the price of gold at record highs?
It doesn't add up.
Out of our livelihoods into Trump’s slush fund.
Yes the redistribution of wealth AWAY from average Americans paying the Tarrifs on goods imported and INTO the pockets of a corrupt government. The US is as bad as any illegitimate government anywhere in the world. Disgusting. The GOP has broken its oath to the American people.
Don't worry. Regardless of what Donald does, the Supremes will say that it is legal.
All of your money is now Trump's money.
Hope you don't need it
For Trump, it does not matter whether his actions as POTUS are legal or not - SCOTUS has immunized him from any consequences of potentially illegal acts. The most what can happen is that his actions will be stopped in courts, but it will be at no cost to him.
So Trump has no incentive whatsoever to follow the law. He can do anything - if his action is not stopped, he wins, if it is stopped, he is where he was initially, no losses.
Trump would be stupid to follow the law, in this systemic setup.
his henchmen and minions are not immune from prosecution when the prosecutors change, but Trump does not care what happens to them.
he can pardon them. This is why I think the power to pardon is a kingly relic that should be eliminated.
AI: "George Mason and Edmund Randolph, argued against the pardon power during the Constitutional Convention. Their primary fears were that a president could abuse the power to cover up their own crimes or those of their co-conspirators, which could ultimately lead to a monarchy." But Alex Hamilton won the argument for pardon power, arguing the President could be impeached if he abused that power. Sounds good unless you have a majority House that has also been corrupted, as we now do. The money guys always seem to want a strong executive, no? Patrick Henry hated pardon power.
I hope state Attorneys General are collecting evidence now to bring charges against his corrupt minions
And impeachment sounds good in theory. Until a divided nation ensures that there will never be the two-thirds Senate vote to convict and remove. Like so many other ideas that the framers settled on two centuries ago, never imagining that one of two dominant political parties would become absolutely corrupted and owned by wannabe aristocrats. Senate apportionment. Electoral College. Now-insurmountable threshold for amendment.
The Constitution was never a holy writ, just the best that they could agree on at the time. It's now a source of pernicious mischief and blatant corruption, irreparably broken by unfettered wealth and unrestrained criminals running all three branches of government. An imperial executive. A feckless and impotent legislative. An enabling judicial..
Quite the pickle we're in.
The further down the chain, the harder it will be to prosecute. What a single specific lower-level gov employee does, is often a result of a SUM of multiple inputs from up the chain. Is it right to prosecute some person because what he/she did was in 10% based on a criminal order, and in 90% based on other, quite legal, inputs?
In extreme, everybody doing ANY gov work could be charged, because Trump's illegal orders, after percolating through multiple layers, taint with criminality all gov employee actions. But such prosecution would be nonsensical.
"Where to draw the line" is hard. Even in clear-cut obvious cases (Nuremberg Trials) prosecutions did not go far along the chain. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of evident Nazi criminals got away.
Well, at least in the American sector, those in charge quickly realized that the only people who could do the low-level work (like being mayor) were also former Nazis. It was not possible or desirable to actually prevent former Nazis from serving in the new government.
That seems right. He can do whatever he wants, and if a lower court tries to stop it, the SC will overturn the stay, and Argentina will have already defaulted by the time the SC finally gets around to declaring it as having been an illegal act for which there are zero consequences (except to the Treasury).
The Supreme Court will NEVER rule anything Donnie Cankles does.
I keep thinking, all that money the Government is going to lose in these multiple lawsuits is OUR money, not the Felon’s!
Don't worry. The Supreme Court has made it nearly impossible to sue the federal government or the criminal law enforcement officers who work for it. See https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-182-damages-as-a-missing-deterrent?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=7qr8y&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Even if this were not the case, we can't sue criminals whom we can't identify because they wear masks.
Trump believes that he’s entitled to use any and all resources as he wishes. This means that he counts (and uses) the U.S. treasury as his own personal coffer.
Well, his niece Mary Trump has correctly stated Donald regards the U.S. Treasury as his own personal piggy bank. Ever since he started out on his con artist career, Donald always has someone else pick up the tab for his own lavish lifestyle. His various leaders throughout the years found themselves saddled with the costs of paying for Donald’s luxuries, and before he acquired his new aircraft from Qatar, Donald had his creditors pay for his now grounded jet airplane. Trump had the chutzpah to complain about President Obama playing golf, but it turns out that Donald Trump played golf more in his first year in office than President Obama did during his entire eight years in office. He jetted off frequently on Air Force One to Mar a Lago for golf. He also housed Secret Service personnel and billed the government at the full rate when he housed them at Mar a Lago. He pocketed the money for his own benefit. Trump has claimed he donates his presidential salary to charity, but it doesn’t mean a lot when he claims to do this. Trump’s fraudulent charity in New York caused him to be permanently banned from running a charity in New York, and his three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, were required to take a course,on the obligations of charitable trustee. Trump has always been his own favorite charity, and I’m sure he’s made a lot of money on the side. He is making even more money on the side in his second term.
During his terms in office, Trump has always used Air Force One to travel to Mar-a-Lago and to Bedminster at taxpayer expense. He spend $10 million in taxpayer funds to travel to Scotland to open a new section at his Turnberry golf course. I realize Trump is President and requires Secret Service protection, but he should have been required to put his businesses in a trust to prevent conflicts of interest. Trump does not know the meanings of ethics or of conflicts of interest. He came to his second term not only to wrongfully use the powers to retaliate against people for problems he caused himself. He also fully intends to gain personal financial profit from being president and to aid corruption as long as he can get a cut of whatever deal might be cut. The nice thing about the Scottish visit, however, is the Scots treated Trump with all the mockery and derision he deserves. Trump’s mother, Mary Anne, was a native of the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland and Scots Gaelic was the first language she spoke. Trump comes across to the Scots as the perfect example of the egotistical boorish and braggart American businessman, so it’s not a surprise they dislike him.
We are clearly in a place where legality is irrelevant.
The Exchange Stabilization Fund doesn't depend on Congressional appropriations. Not even Krugman (no friend of Bessent's) is suggesting that Treasury is doing something illegal or doesn't have money for Argentina.
Gold Reserve Act of 1934: The ESF was capitalized with $2 billion from the profits the U.S. realized by increasing the price of gold, from $20.67 to $35 per troy ounce.
ESF is self-financing from its own investments. So, this will be a hit to government assets to bail out friends of the family.
Henry Cohen began this thread by asking whether the bailout is legal if Congress hasn't appropriated the money. You agree that the bailout is legal, right? That's the only point I was making.
Amazing that the correct answer to the legitimate question here only has two likes....
Congress would need to assert its authority, but as it is controlled by power hungry Republicans, it will not happen. We need to make their complicity central in our arguments. Trump could not do any of this on his own.
That is what I thought.
Good questions. Too bad DJT has dismantled any form of government oversight that would conceivably answer your questions.
In the present circumstances the second question is best rewritten as a simple declarative sentence.
The hands of Republicans and if need be, the betting line is Congress will concoct legislation to cover DJT. That aside, for over 50 years Congress has committed serious errors in ceding its Constitutional authorities to the Executive. A host of poorly crafted and conflicting legislation opens the door to a willing President to unilaterally use these dubious authorities to declare emergencies with little or no checks and balances normally in place within the design of our constitutional republic.
The Roberts' court is on its own mission to institutionalize the 'Unitary Executive'. Their zeal for the Unitary Executive has not been tested when a Democrat occupies the White House. At best the betting line on their agnosticism to occupant is 50-50.
Is DJT giving Argentina (or as Dr Krugman outlined hedge funds) $20 billion legal? At present, Congress and the Supreme Court have no compelling need to answer the question. And at best will not until the roughly half of the United States electorate gets the opportunity to provide Congress with the motivation to answer the question and a ton of other questions raused by positions taken by the DJT administration.
slush fund
When you're an investor--a savvy investor! A Master of the Universe!--you just know that THIS TIME is going to be different.
I swear, these guys are like infants who haven't figured out object permanency.
This time IS going to be different. DonnyJon is going to pay everybody off.
I mean, Trump probably looked at that and decided they were his kind of people.
Only the best people”
Republicans in Congress are MIA.
AWOL
Republican Congress is FUBAR
It's a good thing we have an entire new government department (DOGE) on the look-out for waste, fraud, and abuse! I'm sure Big Balls will be in the Oval Office this very day to tell Trump that he can't offer a corrupt bailout to Bessent's friends.
My goodness! How many times dove have to bail out the Argentine foolish investors and finance their Capial flight? These are capital carrier
pigeons!
In the words of Lily Tomlin, "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up."
Hey we can get even more cynical! Bessent surely knows how to use offshore accounts to slip money around unseen. How do we know he hasn't some of his own skin in the game? What could be safer than investing in a country that you know you can bail out?
I'm not sure who to attribute it to, "Sell out early, beat the rush." An appalling spectacle.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the mainstream media was ethical enough, and The Democratic Party was competent enough, to explain to the American people that Trump and the GOP are driven more by corruption and greed than any actual ideals.
Self-aggrandizement is one of their ideals. Maybe the prime directive.
Mainstream media is ignored by the younger generations. News comes from their social media feed. I have never understood why anyone would accept a “feed” rather than seek out trustworthy sources for themselves.
A lot of people haven’t figured out that politics and understanding the news affect their lives and finances.
Excessive cynicism is how we got here. When the majority of the country have no idea how an executive administration works and seem to believe that every administration is the same as the other and they all are crook, then the above outcome is very natural.
The false equivalence between, say, the Trump administration and the Obama administration is the scourge. Most of the people believe that if every administration is corrupt, then there is no point fighting this particular administration. The cocktail of political disillusionment, cynicism, and ignorance is in the making for several decades now. That's what the autocratic regimes of the world wanted for the US and corrupt information systems have been the key element in their fight against the Democratic regimes.
The real Cold War has been lost.
W0nder how much of this "bailout" ends up in Trumps pockets? See, he can;'t make money off of dying children so they matter not. He is a demented man who is interested in only one thing, his own pocket lining. Million will die to save what? 4-5 billion? Who cares eh orange maniac! But sending $$ to his dictator buddies is just fine and dandy. And this is who we elected in our name? A demented hate filled evil man and his evil henchmen like Stephen Miller. It is a sickening place we live i now, America. I've never felt shame being an American until we elected this madman not once, but twice. It tells the world who we REALLY are.
Agree, but I believe he was born corrupt without a soul or any redeeming characteristics. When you are born as a narcissistic soul less person, you can't feel anything towards others. You are right, he has no morals, if you were my age (maybe you are...)you'd have known that about him since I did, the mid 70's and he's only gotten worse over time.
Not to sound too cynical, but how much of the $20B ends up in Trump's pocket via Millei and Citrone?
All of it. That's not cynical, it's reality.
Nope, Millie's going to take his cut, money laundering isn't a free service. The question is the money cycled through real estate, Trump's traditional scam, or Trump coin?
Yes, of course Millei has to get his fee. As for the direction of capital flow, I'd say most likely both, and maybe a few of the dozens of shell companies Trumpkopf owns on top of that.
If Trump wanted the $20 billion, why would he need to funnel it through Argentina? He could just take it, because something something reasons Antifa.
Enrich a few of his pals along the way. Guarantees their loyalty. Also keeps Bessent from revealing what he and LUtnick know about Trump and Epstein.
Don't forget that there is a multiplier effect in play since the big investment draws in money from many other sources including small investors who will, in the end, likely lose everything. So it is far more than $20B. And you want cynical? There's probably a nobel prize waiting for the young economist who can quantify the multiplier effect of such shell-game grifts. FYI, I suspect the math would be very similar for the crypto currency grift.
Not to mention tariff money.
Good question. Where is that $17 trillion anyway????
If Trump continues in Office, we will become the next Argentina. Demand for US bonds has fallen as the price of gold has spiked. I remember my English Cousin joking with me about how the British Bookies were taking bets on how many months it would take Trump to bankrupt the United States. These were the hottest bets in British Bookie World right after Trump's election.
People will be not be amused if their pensions are impacted. Among much else.
I think the cognitive dissonance Republicans have towards Scott Bessent, who spent four decades working for and with George Soros, their anti-Christ, is hilarious.
Republicans seem to be immune to cognitive dissonance, also shame, embarrassment, guilt, and remorse.
The current GOP are engaged in a nonstop display of "performative a55holery" as one rep described it.
Bessent has turned out to be another raging piece of shit, refusing to rise to the simple demands of a job in which he's explicitly not supposed to be out for himself. In an offhand moment during an interview before Congress he owned the class war, saying something about how Democrats hadn't done what they could have, presumably raising taxes on the rich, when they had the chance so it was on them.
But that means, in yet another instance, Republicans have asserted a set of rules in which it will be as much open season on them as they've made it on us if we ever have the opportunity to fight back effectively, which is up in the air. They clearly intend to stay in power indefinitely or leave the country a smoking ruin to escape accountability for their rampant criminality.
Bessent is right that this is on Democrats. Dems have opted to participate in the grift rather than fight it. If a sociopath tells a sane person that they intend to commit very specific heinous acts, it is the sane person's responsibility to do something to stop it. Dems have time and again chosen to either meet the sociopath half-way in the name of fair play, or, worse, simply fund-raise and preserve their own power positions by pointing at the sociopathic behavior and saying "shame" rather than actually doing anything about it. Sane democrats and republicans (insofar as there used to be such things) chose complicity. Perhaps they convinced themselves that it would never get this bad, but that was always wishful thinking.
For my money Sanders (and all too many of his supporters) has a nasty authoritarian streak that is almost as bad as the orange menace and his crew.
Waiting for Noah Smith to admit his stupidity as he saw a great success story in Milei's Argentina.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/free-market-economics-is-working
Yeah I wanted to comment to say how badly the article aged. Unfortunately only paid subscribers can comment.
I need to unsubscribe from that abundance fraud. I haven't opened any of his articles for several weeks now and they're just taking up space.
Thanks for the link. Quite the tune he whistled past the graveyard, just a few months ago. So how come they now need $20 billion from us? Savage austerity reduced inflation to a mere 33 percent annually, and that's something to brag about? I found the numbers on rental housing availability really bizarre. End rent controls, and available rentals double? What happened to the former tenants, and how can this sudden glut possibly drive market rents lower? 🤔
I'm sure glad we have an actual expert economist sharing his wisdom with us daily here, because there's sure a lot of hacks out there.
Can you say "Crony Capitalism"?
Trump truly is the "anti-Midas": everything he touches turns to sh!t (including those around him).
Don't forget your local No Kings II protest on Saturday, Oct. 18. We need to be out in force against this malignancy. We are not a people who let children starve while billionaires pad their bottom lines.
No, but we can say "Fascist Capitalism". Actually, we can say Nationalism, but also Socialism, since Trump is shoving his nose into all areas of the economy. We call that "National Socialism".
yes, much more could be made of this than is. He is trashing basic principles of capitalism that so many do worship.
"Shitmidas" is the term.
We can thank Citizens United for the fire sale of our government.
Bessemer has a similar look and feel to the boy scout , Mike Johnson. As a former scout I can tell you neither are earning any merit badges for their behavior and would probably get bounced out their troop for their current behaviors. Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent they ain’t!!
And those are the behaviors we can see on the surface. Imagine what they must be hiding?
Be Prepared - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkrheaWuShU
But they score high for loyalty.
And to be even more cynical than Paul.... it would not surprise me at all if we were to discover that Bessent or Trump (or both) got a meme coin kick-back from their grateful buddies. What gangsters.
Trump is setting up the United States to be the war chest of the fascist internationale.
The success of world communism all through the Cold War owed an enormous deal to the simple fact of how much of it was propped up by Soviet money and power, which became instantly clear circa 1990 when the Soviet Union fell and/or withdrew its protection. The economies of countries like Cuba and North Korea took an immediate nosedive. Regimes in Eastern Europe were thrown out by their own people. Far-left terrorists like the Red Brigades and Red Army Faction who'd always publicly trumpeted their independence from Moscow basically collapsed like a patient whose life support had been unplugged. And so forth.
Since the U.S. is still, for now, the wealthiest country in the world, Trump and his buddies all over the world are planning to use its economy for the exact same thing.
The corruption never ends. Just put them all in Guantanamo. All of them.