Uniparty Trump hides behind the skirts of the 2001 anti-terror legislation to murder so-called terrorists near Venezuela after cutting and running from the Houthis in the Red Sea

<insert tough guy image here>

MEXICO CITY — U.S. forces could have stopped the boat that officials say was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the United States on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, but President Donald Trump chose instead to destroy it, killing 11 people on board, to send a deterrent message to traffickers. ...

The action was a dramatic escalation for the U.S. in its fight against drug traffickers. Lawmakers and legal analysts questioned the legality of launching a lethal strike against civilians in international waters outside of an armed conflict.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that the strike was “conducted against the operations of a designated terrorist organization and was taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations,” an apparent reference to the 2001 authorization for the use of military force enacted by Congress after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that year. It authorizes the use of force against the perpetrators of the al-Qaeda attacks and to prevent “future acts of international terrorism.” Various lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully for years to repeal the measure, including Vice President JD Vance, who as a senator in 2023 co-sponsored the End Endless Wars Act. ...

The U.S. Coast Guard sometimes shoots out the engines of go-fast boats during maritime interdictions, the former agent said, but killing the crew is new for the United States. ...

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, said the strike violated international law. The U.S. is not in armed conflict with Venezuela or its criminal elements, she noted, which means it violated the suspects’ right to life. ...

Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the attack “murder.”

“We have been capturing civilians transporting drugs for decades without killing them,” Petro said. “Those who transport drugs are not the big drug lords, but very poor young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific. ...

 More. 

Irwin Stelzer: Trump has substituted state capitalism for market capitalism

 

 Trump sees off the free-market capitalism that enriched America

... In short, the extent of presidential control of the economy has not been seen since the end of the Second World War. Trump has added to his influence over macroeconomic policy by levying tariffs, another name for taxes. He is in the process of gaining control of monetary policy by packing the Fed board and firing an existing board member for alleged mortgage fraud, no trial necessary.

Fed independence, done and dusted, control of the macroeconomy complete, he is turning his attention to the independent players that make up the microeconomic economy. With sycophants in seats once occupied by powerful advisers and the opposition Democrats in disarray, effective resistance to Trump’s power push is negligible. ...

Now, as president, he is favouring visitors with baseball caps emblazoned “Trump in 2028”.

Real Clear Politics rewrites headlines to make Trump look better

 

 

 

Appeals Court Rules Against Some Tariffs But Leaves Them in Place takes you to  Most Trump tariffs are not legal, US appeals court rules lol.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/most-trump-tariffs-are-not-legal-us-appeals-court-rules/ar-AA1LvGU7

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/most-trump-tariffs-are-not-legal-us-appeals-court-rules-2025-08-30/ 

 

 

 

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit isn't buying Trump's emergency argument for his tariffs because he's taxing everything from nearly every country

 

 Most Trump tariffs ruled illegal by appeals court, dealing major blow to trade policy

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that most of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs are illegal, striking a massive blow to the core of his aggressive trade policy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in a 7-4 ruling that the law Trump invoked when he granted his most expansive tariffs — including his “reciprocal” tariffs — does not actually grant him the power to impose those levies.

“The core Congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution,” the court said. “Tariffs are a core Congressional power.”

The appellate court paused its ruling from taking effect until Oct. 14, in order to give the Trump administration time to ask the Supreme Court to reverse the decision. ... 

In Friday’s ruling, the court found that the challenged tariffs exceeded Trump’s authority under IEEPA.

“Both the Trafficking Tariffs and the Reciprocal Tariffs are unbounded in scope, amount, and duration,” the majority ruled. 

“These tariffs apply to nearly all articles imported into the United States (and, in the case of the Reciprocal Tariffs, apply to almost all countries), impose high rates which are ever-changing and exceed those set out in the [U.S. tariff system], and are not limited in duration.” ...

 

Trump's federal government spending cuts are non-existent: We're on track to blow $7.3 trillion as expected

 The Elon Musk-DOGE spending cut affair was pure theatre.

When I said we spend $20 billion a day I wasn't kidding.

OK, it's only $19.869794 billion a day.

Meanwhile revenues are expected to fall short by $4.842671 billion PER DAY in 2025. 

 

Can you spot the GDP?

 

The real GDP report is out and it looks better than a month ago: +3.3% seasonally-adjusted annual rate for the second estimate for 2Q2025, instead of +3.0% in the first estimate.

But the big picture changes only microscopically. 

From the second quarter of 2017, the year when Trump's tax reform became law on December 22nd, until now real GDP has grown at a compound annual rate of 2.466%, instead of 2.456% last month. For the seventy years before that, the compound annual rate of growth was 3.182%.

Trump's so-called pro-growth tax reform falls short of the previous seventy years this month by 22.5% vs. by 22.8% last month.

Now made permanent as of the Fourth of July, or so they say, the Trump tax reform is likely to continue to, shall we say, weigh on things.

The problem remains the lingering after effects of the Great Recession, the Great Financial Crisis, the Housing Bubble, whatever you want to call it.

The Trump tax reform of 2017 didn't do anything to address that meaningfully, just as Obama never addressed it meaningfully, nor Biden.

The rupture with the past occasioned by 2008 is the elephant in the living room, and the Uniparty just pretends it isn't there. 

From 2Q2008 to 2Q2025, the compound annual rate of real GDP growth has been 1.995% vs. 1.990% last month, vs. 3.421% for the sixty-one years prior to that, starting in 2Q1947.

America is still 41.68% behind that this month vs. 41.8% behind that last month.

It's . . . depressing.

Under Joe Biden we had a proposal to tamper with the Supreme Court, under Donald Trump we have an actual attempt to tamper with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee

Trump's firing of Lisa Cook is the actual power grab we only feared from Joe Biden. 

 

How Trump could give the Fed a MAGA makeover:

 ... Fed watchers say a Trump-appointed majority on the Fed Board could then exert greater influence over future decisions on interest rates by using a little-known process.

While it’s typically a routine event that gets little attention, every five years the Fed Board must approve the new terms of regional Fed presidents, who vote on a rotational basis on interest rates.

That event is coming up soon, with the terms of all 12 regional Fed presidents scheduled to expire – simultaneously – at the end of February.

That means, in theory, a Trump-nominated Fed Board could reject regional presidents, for whatever reason they wish, or no reason at all.

“The President could push his majority to reject reserve bank presidents unless they agree to back lower rates and are comfortable with more White House influence over monetary policy,” Jaret Seiberg, financial services policy analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group, wrote in a note to clients this week. “That would give Trump a more cooperative FOMC,” he wrote, referring to the Fed’s rate-setting committee.

While the Fed chair gets all the attention, decisions on interest rates are voted on by all 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee. The committee consists of the seven members of the Fed Board, as well as five regional Fed presidents: the New York Fed president and four rotating regional presidents. ...

Speaking of The Worker, what's old and stupid is new again at The Department of Labor

 

A fatal notion of things, half false & half stupid, began to pervade educated & semi-educated minds: "the worker" becomes the real person, the real nation, the meaning & aim of history, politics, public care ... he is made the saint, the idol, of the age.

 

The fact that all men work, and moreover that others - the inventor, the engineer, and organizer - do more, and more important, work is forgotten.

 

No one any longer dares to bring forward the class or quality of his achievement as a gauge of its value. Only work measured in hours now counts as labour. And the "worker," with all this, is the poor unfortunate one, disinherited, starving, exploited. The words "care" and "distress" are applied to him alone.

 

No one has a thought left for the countryman's less fertile strips of land, his bad harvests, his losses by hail and frost, his anxiety over the sale of his produce; or for the wretched existence of poor craftsmen in strongly industrialized areas, the tragedies of small tradesmen, fishermen on the high seas, inventors, doctors, who have to struggle amid alarms and dangers for each bite of daily bread and go down in their thousands unheeded.

 

"The worker" alone receives sympathy. He alone is supported, cared for, insured. What is more, he is made the saint, the idol, of the age. The world revolves round him. He is the focus of the economic system and the nurseling of politics.

 

Everybody's existence hinges on him; the majority of the nation are there to serve him. The dull lump of a peasant, the lazy official, the swindling tradesman, are legitimate targets for mirth, not to mention judges, officers, and heads of businesses, who are the popular objects of ill-natured jest; but no one would dare to pour the same scorn on "the working man."

 

All the rest are idlers, egoists; he is the one exception. The whole middle class swings the censer before this phantom. No matter what one's own achievements in life may be, one must fall on one's knees before him. His being stands above all criticism.

 

 

-- Oswald Spengler

 

 

 

Trumpists have zero self-awareness about who's crazy

 What Made the Democratic Party Go Crazy?

 Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness

 

 

Trump Fires Fed Governor Lisa Cook Over Fraud Allegations

Greg Wehner, FOX Biz

Trump signs order aiming for one-year jail terms for flag burning

Bart Jansen, USA Today

 

Trump repeatedly pointed a finger at Bolton in the days before raids

Natalie Allison

and 

Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post

 

Donald Trump is such an asshole

No "innocent until proven guilty" for this guy.

It's a blatant power grab which will give him two appointees to Fed governor on top of one to Fed chair when Powell finishes his term in the spring. If he finishes his term in the spring. 

What a tragedy for this country and its prestige as issuer of the world's reserve currency.

 

Trump says he’s removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook, cites mortgage fraud allegations

 

 

 

Trump is so bad that Gen Z is falling in love with the guy who didn't keep us safe on 911, invented the religion of peace, gave us Michael Brown, and abandoned free market principles to save the free market system

 

Gen Z Falling in Love -- With George Bush... 

 

... "Many comments on videos tagged as #Bushcore use past moments to contrast the current administration," Mohammed said. "Users are saying, 'These were like Bush's lowest moments. Somehow they tower over Trump's best,' or 'I would've NEVER thought 20 years ago … I wish he could be president again … I miss him,' representing how unhappy Gen Zers are with contemporary politics."

 

"A recent YouGov/Economist poll shows that President Trump continues to have a significantly low approval rating among young voters—61 percent disapprove. They use Bush's persona as relief, reminiscent of times when there was supposedly more empathy and community in politics," she added. ...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

One would think that Gen Z would be more, I don't know, REBELLIOUS or UNGOVERNABLE if it's really true that they have experienced the following awful realities.

 

One of life's great mysteries. 

 

... a typical Zoomer on the apps is getting rejected by, and rejecting, more prospective partners in a week than a typical married boomer has in their entire life.

... Ella, a 20-year-old from Allentown, Pennsylvania, applied to 12 colleges and got rejected from 10. "I had so much hubris and unfounded confidence," she says. "I just thought, well, I'll only want to go to college if I can get into a 'prestigious school.' They ask, 'Why us?' obviously, and I couldn't tell them why besides it's Harvard." In a Substack post she published before her high school graduation, she described how at odds her tenfold rejection was with her belief in simply working hard to succeed. "I thought that I was going to be someone," she wrote.

... many Zoomers apply to more jobs in a day than many lucky Boomers have in their lives. ...

More.

 

Trump took credit for solving six total conflicts last week, then seven total this week, and now ten total as of Friday, but can't get anywhere with Ukraine lol

 

Frustrated Trump signals 'pause' in peace effort...

Trump to step back from efforts to reach a Ukraine peace deal . . . for two weeks lol

 

... President Donald Trump is signaling that he would step back for now from efforts to reach a Ukraine peace deal, expressing frustration over rising casualties and the failure of the two sides to come closer to a peace agreement.

“I’m not happy about anything about that war. Nothing. Not happy at all,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

He added that he would make an important decision about the future of the conflict in “two weeks,” a phrase that he often uses not to specify a precise time frame, but to indicate that he wants to put off a decision for a while. After that time, he said, “We’ll know which way I’m going, because I’m going to go one way or the other.”...

More. 

Donald Saul Alinsky has picked his target and polarized it

 

Trump says he’ll fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook ‘if she doesn’t resign’

 

 

Trump's good buddy Putin just bombed an American factory in Ukraine, injuring 15

 

Tulane University's Walter Isaacson calls out Trump's state capitalism for Nvidia, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices

 

Trump’s Nvidia and Intel meddling is a ‘scattershot method of crony capitalism’: Walter Isaacson

... “That state capitalism often evolves into crony capitalism, where you have favored companies and industries that pay tribute to the leader, and that is a recipe for not only disaster, but just sort of a corrupt sense of messiness,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” ... Earlier this month, both Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay 15% of their China revenues to the U.S. government for export licenses to sell certain chips there. ...                                                                

 

Trump adds $1 trillion to the national debt in record time and S&P Global underscores its own irrelevance by maintaining the U.S. AA+ credit rating

 Trump tariff revenue expected to offset tax bill impact, S&P says in U.S. credit rating hold

... "We could lower the rating over the next two to three years if already high deficits increase ..." lol.

 These people are afraid of Trump.

They don't want to be singled out for Trump's daily Two Minutes Hate.

They don't want to be the next Jerome Powell, or Lisa Cook, or Volodymyr Zelensky.

Meanwhile year to date the Trump deficit is running $112 billion ahead of Biden's last deficit. DOGE so-called spending cuts and Trump Tariffs have done nothing to reduce it.

 

 

 

Trump just added $1 trillion to the national debt in record time, 32 business days after the big ugly bill became law

 

The Trump administration's Howard Lutnick doubles down on the state capitalism of the CHIPS Act of Joe Biden

 

Lutnick says Intel has to give government equity in return for CHIPS Act funds

 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that Intel must give the U.S. government an equity stake in the company in return for CHIPS Act funds.

“We should get an equity stake for our money,” Lutnick said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “So we’ll deliver the money, which was already committed under the Biden administration. We’ll get equity in return for it.” ... 

Lutnick said any potential arrangement wouldn’t provide the government with voting or governance rights in Intel.

“It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity for the Trump administration, for the American people,” Lutnick said. “Non-voting.”

Intel declined to comment.

Lutnick also suggested that President Donald Trump could seek out similar deals with other CHIPS recipients. ...

“The Biden administration literally was giving Intel for free, and giving TSMC money for free, and all these companies just giving them money for free,” Lutnick said. “Donald Trump turns that into saying, ‘Hey, we want equity for the money. If we’re going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action.’ ” ...

Um, I don't think getting an equity stake was anywhere in the bill.

Just another example of Trump executive branch overreach, but will the supine GOP Congress care? 

Two weeks Trump was already at it again on Friday before meeting with Putin on Saturday

... Trump said on Friday he did not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs on countries such as China for buying Russian oil - which is subject to a range of Western sanctions - but might have to "in two or three weeks." ...

 

More.