One week after Supremes rule against Trump, he withdraws National Guard from Chicago, LA, and Portland

 Trump gives up on National Guard deployments in Chicago, LA, Portland 

... The pullback comes a week after the Supreme Court delivered a stark blow to Trump’s push for military troops to patrol U.S. city streets, rejecting his bid to send National Guard members to the Chicago area to protect federal officials enacting his immigration agenda.

In an apparent 6-3 decision, the court explained that federal law generally bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement, and the law Trump used to call up the National Guard likely only applies when the president is unable to execute laws with the regular forces of the military. ... 

 

I missed the December 23 Supreme Court decision story because my cat died the very hour it broke.

 

I guess I'll always remember her now as the Posse Comitatus Cat. 

 

Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to send National Guard to Chicago

 ... Citing the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement unless explicitly authorized by the Constitution or Congress, the court found Trump lacked the authority to deploy troops to Illinois in this case.

“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the unsigned order states. ...

Lunatic progressive Democrat, but I repeat myself, complains about Harris' massive failure to get 6.8 million Biden voters from 2020 after people like him forced Biden out

Norman Solomon here: 

... Voter disenchantment: Losing 6.8 million voters who supported Joe Biden in 2020 proved pivotal in the close 2024 election. Harris’s inability to mobilize those pro-Biden voters was a massive failure.

Biden’s betrayal: Biden’s stubborn decision to seek re-election, and his refusal to step aside until very late in the process, robbed Democratic voters of open primaries and undermined Democrats’ chances. ...

 

Progressives did the betraying here, not Joe Biden.

No one in his right mind would expect Biden voters to turn out for somebody else, especially someone else put in at the last second of a campaign which was announced more than a year earlier. Biden did have primaries and won 14 million votes of confidence. And as I've said before, Harris was decisively but narrowly defeated.

Progressives should think about how many of those 6.8 million voters might have still showed up for Joe Biden in 2024 had they not thrown him out, even if he ultimately lost.

Some of those 6.8 million votes might have been the difference between a Republican U.S. House with a five seat majority and a Democrat one, and if the latter, the difference between passing Trump's Big Ugly Bill under reconciliation by just four votes, or it never seeing the light of day in the first place.

Democrats lost five seats in the U.S. House to Republicans in 2024 by 1.62 points or less, the difference between stopping President Trump in his tracks and the madness he is unleashing now, all because progressive elites like Solomon and his ilk betrayed Joe Biden and forced him out:

PA-8:  1.62%

PA-10:  1.26%

PA-7:  1.01%

CO-8:  0.73%

IA-1:  0.19%.

  

In 2018 The Wall Street Journal was still defending China's admission into the WTO, today it pretends it wasn't part of that bipartisan folly

 Then: "The U.S. properly worked for China's inclusion".

Now: "An era of folly began in the new century. Leaders of both political parties supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization".

I can't wait for the Wall Street Journal to admit that America's decline actually began under Reagan forty years ago, not twenty-five, because at this rate I'll be dead before they do.

 

Ohio political strategist is essentially correct that Democrats need to rediscover the New Deal, but seems blissfully unaware that the implication would be a drastic tax cut for 98% of the American people

 

Democrats Need the New Deal, Not Socialism

Brendan Frasier, The Hill

 

The word "tax" comes up only one time:

 

 ... When I asked her why she called herself a democratic socialist, she listed ideas like raising taxes on the wealthy, expanding childcare, paid family leave and strengthening labor protections. I told her that these are not socialist positions. These are social capitalist policies. ...

 

In 1936, 98% of earners made less than $4,000 a year. The tax on that was effectively 3%, or $120. 

 

The average income was far less, about $1,000 a year. The tax on that was effectively 0% because of the $1,000 personal exemption.

 

Revenues were raised by soaking the rich, leaving the rest of us alone.

 

Democrats should by all means revive the New Deal. They'd win in a landslide. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be leftists, not Democrats.

 

Dhey no speaka da language. 

 

 

Speaking of polls, that Ukraine's Zelensky is +12 net favorable with Americans while Trump is -14 tells me there is still hope for our country

 

New so-called conservative Tax Foundation analysis says Trump/GOP tax and spending bill heralded on the Fourth of July benefits the richest taxpayers over the poorest taxpayers by 4,435%

 

 The One Big Beautiful Bill Cuts Taxes Across the US, New Analysis Finds

... At the county level, the largest average tax cuts are found in mountain resort towns. For example, we estimate Teton County in Wyoming will see an average tax cut of $37,373 per taxpayer in 2026, the highest in the US. Pitkin County, CO ($21,363), and Summit County, UT ($14,537), rank number two and three for the largest average tax cuts, likely representing the residences of business owners and higher-earning taxpayers. The smallest average tax cuts are found in rural counties, such as Loup County, NE, with an average tax cut of $824 in 2026. ...

Yes, the average tax cut of the richest taxpayers is 45.35 times the size of the average tax cut for the poorest.

Yeah, run on that GOP, run.

Trump could have done this months ago without spending billions of dollars mobilizing 15,000 troops and Navy and Air Force assets needed elsewhere to defend American interests in Taiwan and the Red Sea

 Exclusive: CIA carried out drone strike on port facility on Venezuelan coast

 

Georgia pollster Matt Towery is in complete denial about how bad 2026 is looking for Republicans because of Trump

 

  ... I mean, I had President Trump in my Inside Advantage poll at 50% approval. I think others have him at 50%, but a lot of these other pollsters have him at 36, 38, which is just ridiculous. ... That needs to be the number one motivating message from the Republicans, their hatred for Trump ...

More. 

Trump Strongly Disapprove, currently 44%, hasn't dipped below 40% at Trump-friendly Rasmussen Reports since mid-September. 

Trump Total Approve, at 44%, has been south of 50% since mid-October.

Trump Strongly Approve, at 29%, hasn't been north of 35% since mid-October. 

Trump Approval Index, at -15, has been double digit negative since early November.

Republicans need to run in 2026 AWAY from Trump, but unfortunately for them, they spent all of 2025 worshipping Trump, and when not worshipping Trump, keeping quiet about Trump.

Chickens. Comin' home. To roost.

Year-end profit-taking isn't stopping metals

 

Gay Hitler should just fire the incompetent loser who appointed him in the first place

 Trump revives threat to sue Powell for ‘gross incompetence’

Brigitte Bardot was a French patriot

 

I am against the Islamisation of France! Our ancestors, our grandfathers, our fathers have for centuries given their lives to push out successive invaders.

 

 

Throughout most of her life Brigitte Bardot was the very symbol of everything that was in vogue with the left, but in death they hate her for telling the truth

 She was a true born child of liberty.

 

Runner Up for Lie of the Year 2025 Award is US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: Tariffs are not taxes

 

The Lie of the Year 2025 Award goes to Donald Trump: Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed

 ‘A Complete Embarrassment’: Critics Skewer Trump For Declaring ‘Russia Wants To See Ukraine Succeed’

 Zelensky smirks as Trump says ‘Russia wants Ukraine to succeed’

 

 

Gold and silver retreat from new record high prices at $4,549.71 and $83.62

 ... Spot gold declined 1.4% at $4,470.56 per ounce, after hitting a record high ‌of $4,549.71 ‌on Friday. ...

Spot silver shed 4.8% at $75.32 per ounce, retreating from an all-time high of $83.62 hit earlier in the session. ...

Spot platinum fell 6% to $2,305.15 per ounce, after rising ⁠to an all-time high of $2,478.50 earlier in the day, while palladium plunged 13.2% to $1,669.11 per ounce. ... 

More. 

One silver observer found someone projecting silver going as high as $1,400 lol

$1,400 silver seems absolutely ludicrous to me, but maybe not $300 silver.

The Coinage Act of 1792 fixed the ratio of silver to gold at 15:1. Gold then was $19.39 and silver was $1.29.

The Coinage Act of 1873 effectively ended this bimetallism in the United States in favor of gold but was not widely understood to have done so until after the fact. By 1913 silver averaged about only sixty cents, for various reasons, and the silver to gold ratio went to about 34:1. 

Gold at $4,533 on Friday implies silver at $302 at the 15:1 ratio, but silver is actually only about $80. Divided by 34, however, the implied silver price is about $133. The ratio at about $80 is 57:1.

The main driver of the silver price in our time is industrial, but the ratio is instructive for contextualizing, as the kids say, its relative value.

 

 

 

Pirates doing piratety things shouldn't be surprised when others do unto us as we have done unto them, and they will

 

Trump: "We're Keeping" Oil Seized From Venezuelan Tankers, "We're Keeping The Ships Also"

Three in four Americans say groceries are so expensive they’ve been forced to cut down on entertainment, travel, clothing, and food and drink away from home

 

 Reported here.

So, what do those of us cut, who long ago completely cut out entertainment, travel, food and drink away from home, and mend the clothes we cannot replace?

Drink period, for starters:

THE alcohol industry has faced financial hardship in 2025, leading to several distilleries filing for bankruptcy as Americans are drinking at the lowest levels in history. ... An August poll conducted by Gallup found that 54% of adults say they consume alcohol, which was down from 58% in 2024 and 62% in 2023. Gallup said the 54% finding is “the lowest by one percentage point in Gallup’s nearly 90-year trend.” ... Gallup found that 53% of Americans said having one or two drinks a day is bad for one’s health, while 37% say it makes no difference and 6% say it’s good for one’s health. ...

More. 

 

 

Bankruptcies in 2025 surge to a level not seen since 2010

 

Corporate bankruptcies surged in 2025, rivaling levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, as import-dependent businesses absorbed the highest tariffs in decades.

At least 717 companies filed for bankruptcy through November, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That’s roughly 14 percent more than the same 11 months of 2024, and the highest tally since 2010. ...

More. 

Trump likes to trumpet the billion$ he's collecting in tariffs, but there is no single report which calculates the hundreds of billion$ these bankruptcies must cost the economy over time. 

Liberal democracy must solve the problems of Gen Z globally, which works a lot but stays poor, or it will perish

 Crushed by soaring rents and living costs and staring down a future where robots and AI threaten their jobs, Gen Z is unleashing a wave of protests that is rattling governments worldwide. ...

More.