Trade tariff manipulation is a stock-trading racket for them

Tariffs were enacted April 2, then suspended April 9.

 

One month ago:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Yesterday:

 

This morning.

Just as 9.7 million of 43 million student loan borrowers become past due again, cars they can't afford to buy anyway soar in price due to tariffs, a one-two punch alienating the youth vote from Trump

 Over 9 million student loan borrowers past due after bills restarted, Fed estimates

... A new student loan delinquency can cause a borrower’s credit score to drop more than 150 points, the Fed warns.

Trump’s auto tariffs will likely push car prices up thousands of dollars

... The tariffs will kick in at midnight on April 3, and Trump has said they will be “permanent.” ...

#RecessionIndicator: Young Americans are losing confidence in the economy — and it shows online

... A spokesperson for Klarna acknowledged to NBC News that people needing to pay for meals on credit is “a bad indicator for society.” ...

This is just BS from Speaker Mike Johnson about LNG exports and Joe Biden's memory

 Whatever may be said about Joe Biden's memory, he didn't have a memory lapse in this instance as alleged by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. It's troubling that Mike Johnson would misrepresent this in this way. 

Joe Biden doesn't have a monopoly on "fake shit".

Sir, why did you [President Biden] pause LNG exports to Europe? Like, I don't understand. Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? You understand -- we just talked about Ukraine -- you’re fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine because they’ve got to get their gas from him."

He looks at me, stunned, and says, "I didn’t, I didn’t do that."

I said, "Mr. President, yes, you did. It was an executive order, like, three weeks ago."

He says, "No, I didn’t do that." He’s arguing with me.

-- The Moment Speaker Mike Johnson Knew Biden Wasn't "In Charge" Anymore 

LNG exports to Europe were not paused. And demand in Europe dropped in 2024. Biden signed a temporary pause for pending approvals of LNG exports, not for existing approvals of LNG exports. This and Mike's other comments in the story indicate that he is not exactly reliable on the subject. But he could have easily just looked it up.

Jan 26, 2024:

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports

Sep 4, 2024:

US LNG export dominance tested as Europe's demand wilts

Meanwhile, Mike Johnson didn't tell anybody about this until now? Seems like a dereliction of duty for the man in line right behind the VP to become president in the event of incapacity or death.

And, oh yeah, US LNG export tanker loads hit a seven-month high in January 2025 at 71, through yesterday:

 

 

 

Oh gee, what a surprise, Kamala Harris has a radical black anti-American, anti-semitic pastor named Amos Brown, just like Barack Obama had Jeremiah Wright

The guy's so bad Senator Diane Feinstein walked out on him, as did Governor Gray Davis, both Democrats:

At a memorial service for victims of the 9/11 terror attacks held just six days after al Qaeda murdered nearly 3,000 Americans, Brown used the occasion to point the finger at the United States in remarks that, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "set a lot of people’s teeth on edge" and "left politicians stunned."

"America, is there anything you did to set up this climate?" Brown asked the audience. "Ohhhh—America, what did you do?"

"America, what did you do two weeks ago when I stood at the world conference on racism, when you wouldn't show up?" Brown continued, referring to his participation in the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, which the United States and Israel boycotted citing concerns about anti-Semitism.

Brown’s diatribe jarred a mostly liberal audience, the Chronicle reported, noting that the late California senator Dianne Feinstein (D.) and former California governor Gray Davis (D.) left during his remarks. ...

Brown’s radical politics have also veered into anti-Semitism. He served as a delegate to the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, and best known for equating Zionism with racism. The United States and Israel walked out of the conference over that resolution, expressing dismay that a conference ostensibly devoted to combating hatred had devolved into a hate fest. ...

He serves on the California Reparations Task Force and has called for cash payments to the descendants of slaves from "billionaires in San Francisco," according to the New York Times.  The pastor held a "Solidarity for Reparations" event at his church in 2022 and told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2021 that "America is a racist country." ...

He has visited Harris at the White House at least twice and told Religion News Service this week Harris remains a "dues-paying member" of his church. "For two decades now, at least, I have turned to you," Harris said of Brown in her remarks to the National Baptist Convention 2022.

The story is here.

Holy cow, Biden's teleprompter told him Jackie Walorski was dead at the Sep 2022 event where he called out to her weeks after she had died

 

THEY MUST HAVE PUT THAT IN THE TELEPROMPTER FOR A REASON PEOPLE.

Gee, what could it be?

AXIOS here:

Other instances of trying to explain away Biden's lapses have gotten renewed scrutiny as potential evidence that top aides were covering up Biden slipping mentally.

• In September 2022 at a speech on food insecurity, Biden tried to give a shout-out to Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who had worked on the issue — but who had been killed in a car accident weeks earlier.
• Biden had issued a statement of condolences. The White House flew flags at half-staff in honor of her death.
• "Representative — Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie? I think she wasn't going to be here," Biden said at the event.

Biden's prepared remarks included a note that Walorski had recently passed away and thanked her for her contributions, two people familiar with the speech told Axios.

• Biden didn't remember she had died, and either ignored the Teleprompter or had trouble reading it.
• White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre deflected tough questioning the next day by CNN's Phil Mattingly, CBS's Steven Portnoy and others.
• Jean-Pierre refused to acknowledge Biden made a mistake, and didn't commit to releasing the original version of the remarks.
• She said at the briefing: "I don't think it's all that unusual to have someone top of mind, especially as there's a big event."
• The White House didn't respond to questions about this incident.

The orchestrated lawfare against Donald Trump is designed to make you forget Biden's five tyrannical anti-democratic COVID-19 vaccination orders

Not to mention to make you forget all Biden's other failures, starting with the fall of Kabul in August 2021.

This is the same political strategy used by Hillary and the Democrats after Trump's election, with their phony baloney plastic banana Trump-Russia hoax to hamstring Trump's tenure in office.

 

The five mandates were discussed here in April 2022:

Federal contractor mandate September 9, 2021 on all employees with no opt-out for testing or masking

Federal employee mandate September 9, 2021 on all employees with no opt-out for testing or masking

OSHA mandate November 4, 2021 on all employers of 100 or more COUNTRYWIDE to be vaccinated or tested weekly

Medicare/Medicaid provider mandate November 4, 2021 on all provider employees with no opt-out for testing or masking

Head Start mandate November 30, 2021 requiring vaccination of 300,000 employees at child care facilities AND masking of the children.

And let's not forget the vaccination mandates shoved down the throats of the US military and National Guard in August and November 2021. More than 8,000 service members who refused the jabs were forced out.

This is the real Joe Biden.

Here's what Joe Biden thinks of Christians' holiest day of the year

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/29/a-proclamation-on-transgender-day-of-visibility-2024/

Nothing must interfere with Joe's transgender agenda, the first American president officially to push it.

 

ROFLMAO: Republican governors bussing illegal aliens to liberal states makes Joe Biden reverse his promise not to build another foot of wall

 

The Biden administration says it is using executive power to allow border wall construction in Texas

FILE - A border wall section stands on July 14, 2021, near La Grulla, Texas, in Starr County. On Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, the Biden administration announced that they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction, marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency. The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas. (Delcia Lopez/The Monitor via AP, File)

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration’s first use of sweeping executive power to pave the way for building more border barriers — a tactic used often during the Trump presidency.

The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing “high illegal entry.” According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in this region during the current fiscal year.

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.

The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act were some of the federal laws waived by DHS to make way for construction that will use funds from a congressional appropriation in 2019 for border wall construction. The waivers avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits challenging violation of environmental laws.

Related stories

Although no maps were provided in the announcement, a previous mapshared during the gathering of public comments shows the piecemeal construction will add up to an additional 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the existing border barrier system in the area. 

“The other concern that we have is that area is highly erosive. There’s a lot of arroyos,” said Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, the highest-elected official in the county, pointing out the creeks cutting through the ranchland and leading into the river.

Starr County is home to about 65,000 residents spread over about 1,200 square miles (3,108 square kilometers) that includes ranchland and part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. 

Environmental advocates say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and animal species like the ocelot, a spotted wild cat.

“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.

During the Trump administration, about 450 miles (724 kilometers) of barriers were built along the southwest border between 2017 and January 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott renewed those efforts as part of his ongoing immigration enforcement from the state level after the Biden administration initially halted them at the start of his presidency. 

The DHS decision on Wednesday contrasts the Biden administration’s posturing when a proclamation to end the construction on Jan. 20, 2021 stated, “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection had no immediate comment.

The announcement prompted political debate by the Democratic administration facing an increase of migrants entering through the southern border in recent months, including thousands who entered the U.S. through Eagle Pass at the end of September. 

“A border wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will not bolster border security in Starr County,” U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said in a statement. “I continue to stand against the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall.”

Political proponents of the border wall said the waivers should be used as a launching pad for a shift in policy. 

“After years of denying that a border wall and other physical barriers are effective, the DHS announcement represents a sea change in the administration’s thinking: A secure wall is an effective tool for maintaining control of our borders,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement. “Having made that concession, the administration needs to immediately begin construction of wall across the border to prevent the illegal traffic from simply moving to other areas of the border.”

Smartest president ever says "forebearers" when he meant "forebears"

Once again, the smartest president ever hatchets the English language, but he'll continue to be portrayed as an intellectual giant in comparison to boobs like Sarah Palin. But "corpseman" lives, along with "intercontinental railroad" and other such gems. The press office transcript spells the word correctly, but of course Obama didn't pronounce it correctly.

As far as I can tell, only The Hill here accurately quoted Obama's mistake (which is on video here at about the 10:50 mark):

"We're going to have to make a decision about whether we are a people who tolerate the hypocrisy of a system where the workers who pick our fruit or make our beds never have the chance to get right with the law, or whether we're going to give them a chance, just like our forbearers had a chance, to take responsibility and give their kids a better future," he said.

Meanwhile The Hill leaves out the "e" and without a proper [sic] demonstrates it probably doesn't know it's a mistake.

White House wants it both ways: blames bad GDP on harsh winter, credits good GDP on increased utilities consumption

Doesn't utilities consumption go up because of bad winter weather, in which case bad winter weather is good for GDP, not bad?

From WhiteHouse.gov here:

1. Real gross domestic product (GDP) fell 1.0 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter of 2014, according to the second estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This drop follows an increase of 3.4 percent annual pace in the second half of 2013. Looking at the various components of GDP, consumer spending grew at a rapid pace, mainly reflecting sharp increases in health care and utilities consumption, while the other elements of consumer spending on net rose only slightly. Consumer spending on food services and accommodations fell for the first time in four years, one of several components that was likely affected by unusually severe winter weather. Exports and inventory investment, two particularly volatile components of GDP, also subtracted from growth. ...

3. The first quarter of 2014 was marked by unusually severe winter weather, including record cold temperatures and snowstorms, which explains part of the difference in GDP growth relative to previous quarters. The left chart shows the quarterly deviation in heating degree days from its average for the same quarter over the previous five years. By this measure, the first quarter of 2014 was the third most unusually cold quarter over the last sixty years, behind only the first quarter of 1978 and the fourth quarter of 1976. In addition, there were four storms in the first quarter that rated on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS). The right chart shows that no quarter going back to 1956 had more than three such storms.

Flashback 9/12/12: Obama Lumped-In "Acts Of Terror" In General With The "Brutal Acts" Of The Benghazi Attack

Mitt Romney famously overlooked the phrase "acts of terror" from President Obama's Rose Garden remarks the day after the Benghazi attack during the second presidential debate of 2012: "You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you're saying?"

It came up again here recently discussing a new documentary about Mitt Romney's campaign:

"How bad was it?" asked one Romney family member in the green room immediately after the debate, but before Romney himself had returned.

"It wasn't good," said another.

"Who briefed him on [Benghazi]?" one of the sons asked. "Someone got it wrong."

Of course, the video of the president's remarks in the Rose Garden shows that the "acts of terror" statement was simply the obligatory cya type of generalization he had to make in a situation like that. The whole tenor of the ensuing weeks' comments from the regime blaming Benghazi on an anti-Muhammad video was set at the outset of the president's Rose Garden remarks when he stated rather abruptly and intrusively without mentioning that video: "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others." The attempt to shape the event in that way looks increasingly like a diversion in light of the number of CIA on the ground in Benghazi revealed last summer and the military's ignorance of the annex just recently revealed in the Senate's report on the incident. Unfortunately for Mitt Romney, those things came out way too far after the election to do him any good. Something obviously still stinks in Benghazi.

“No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”

(at about 4:18, here)

Whitehouse.gov still lies tonight about keeping your health insurance

The Res Gestae Divi Obama: Chooser, Declarer, Charger, Believer, Promiser, Director, Memorializer, Giver of Thanks, Uniter, Interpreter of Events, Perserverer

Naw, we don't spike the football:

When I chose Leon Panetta as Director of the CIA, I said he was going to be a strong advocate for this agency and would strengthen your capabilities to meet the threats of our time.

And when I chose Jim Clapper as Director of National Intelligence, I charged him with making sure that our intelligence community works as one integrated team.

On my first visit, just months after taking office, I stood here and I said that this agency and our entire intelligence community is fundamental to America’s national security. I said that I believed that your best days were still to come and I pledged that you would have my full support to carry out your critical work. 

Soon after that visit, I called Leon into the Oval Office and I directed him to make the killing or capture of Osama bin Laden the top priority in our war to defeat al Qaeda.

My second visit, a year later, came under more somber circumstances. We gathered to pay tribute to seven American patriots who gave their lives in this fight at a remote post in Afghanistan. As has already been mentioned, their stars now grace this memorial wall. And through our grief and our tears, we resolved that their sacrifice would be our summons to carry on their work, to complete this mission, to win this war.

Today I’ve returned just to say thank you, on behalf of all Americans and people around the world, because you carried on. You stayed focused on your mission. You honored the memory of your fallen colleagues. And in helping to locate and take down Osama bin Laden, you made it possible for us to achieve the most significant victory yet in our war to defeat al Qaeda. 

I just met with some of the outstanding leaders and teams from across the community who worked so long and so hard to make that raid a success. And I’m pleased today that we’re joined by representatives from all of our intelligence agencies, and that folks are watching this live back at all of those agencies, because this truly was a team effort.

This is one of the few times when all these leaders and organizations have the occasion to appear together publicly. And so I thank all of you for coming -- because I think it’s so important for the American people to see all of you here today.

That’s why I came here.  I wanted every single one of you to know, whether you work at the CIA or across the community, at every step of our effort to take out bin Laden, the work you did and the quality of the intelligence that you provided made the critical difference -- to me, to our team on those helicopters, to our nation.   

After I directed that getting bin Laden be the priority, you hunkered down even more, building on years of painstaking work; pulling together, in some cases, the slenderest of intelligence streams, running those threads to ground until you found that courier and you tracked him to that compound.

In the months that followed, including all those meetings in the Situation Room, we did what sound intelligence demands:  We pushed for more collection.  We pushed for more evidence.  We questioned our assumptions.  You strengthened your analysis.  You didn’t bite your tongue and try to spin the ball, but you gave it to me straight each and every time.

And we did something really remarkable in Washington -- we kept it a secret.  (Laughter and applause.)  That’s how it should be. 

Of course, when the time came to actually make the decision, we didn’t know for sure that bin Laden was there.  The evidence was circumstantial and the risks, especially to the lives of our special operations forces, were huge.  And I knew that the consequences of failure could be enormous.  But I made the decision that I did because I had absolute confidence in the skill of our military personnel and I had confidence in you.  I put my bet on you.  And now the whole world knows that that faith in you was justified. 

That’s why I still believe in what I said my first visit here two years ago:  Your greatest days are still to come.  And if any of you doubt what this means, I wish I could have taken some of you on the trip I made to New York City, where we laid a wreath at Ground Zero, and I had a chance to meet firefighters who had lost an entire shift; police officers who had lost their comrades; a young woman, 14 years old, who had written to me because her last memory of her father was talking to him on the phone while her mother wept beside her, right before they watched the tower go down. 

And she and other members of families of 9/11 victims talked about what this meant.  It meant that their suffering had not been forgotten, and that the American community stands with them, that we stand with each other. 

White House Admits "bin Laden" was Unarmed

This was a lawless, assassination, mission, pure and simple, committed by a tyrant and the agents of a tyrant:

MR. CARNEY:  And I want to make clear that is, again, information that is fresh, and we will continue to gather and provide to you details as we get them and we’re able to release them.

      The resistance was throughout.  As I said, when the assaulter entered the room where Osama bin Laden was, he was rushed by one individual in the room, and the resistance was consistent from the moment they landed until the end of the operation.

      Yes.

      Q    Jay, just to follow up, how did Obama -- excuse me, Osama bin Laden resist if he didn’t -- if he didn’t have his hand on a gun, how was he resisting?

      MR. CARNEY:  Yes, the information I have to you -- first of all, I think resistance does not require a firearm.  But the information I gave you is what I can tell you about it.  I’m sure more details will be provided as they come available and we are able to release them.

      Q    Did he have any weapon?

      MR. CARNEY:  He was not armed, is what I understand to be true.

The White House Joins The Proofers

Here.

TWO PROCLAMATIONS TOO POOFY

Just in case you thought the second one was, er, well, anomalous (as in deviant):

Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by two parents, a single mother, two mothers, a step-mom, a grandmother, or a guardian.

 -- Barack Obama, Mother's Day Proclamation, May 7, 2010 (available here)

Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a step father, a grandfather, or caring guardian.

 -- Barack Obama, Father's Day Proclamation, June 18, 2010 (available here)