If it's Thursday, this must be Caracas.
Only 1,444 days to go...
Helpful Listening…
A Slight Change of Plans - Make Your Inner Voice Work for You
Finding the humor…
Déjà vu of Covid briefings….
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” ~ Ronald Reagan
What I read every day…
Quote of the day:
“I did expect this assault on the system, and I did not expect the Republican Party to resist it…. We’re now in the realm of extralegality. It’s clear that we have an illegal illiberal leadership, who are seeking to undermine the very basis of American democracy.”
~Anne Applebaum
What I’m reading today…
The week Trump finally broke the Senate
Several key GOP Senate holdouts on the nominations of Trump’s diciest and most problematic Cabinet-level nominees.. finally caved this week, greasing the path to confirmation for two politicians who once would have seemed unimaginable for their posts. The moment represented the culmination of a long-running Trump project to bring the Senate to heel. It’s an endeavor that began roughly a decade ago when, as a longshot on the campaign trail in Iowa, Trump served notice that no one was off-limits — not even a Senate heavyweight like John McCain.
The Constitutional Crisis Is Here
The Founders, famously, failed to anticipate the rise of political parties. They assumed that each branch of government would jealously guard its own powers, and thus check the others. But political parties created a different incentive system, in which members of the legislative branch can see their role as essentially employees of the president.
As Trump’s Trade War Unfolds, American Companies Brace for Pain
Trump celebrates protective duties on imports as a way to force companies to abandon low-wage centers of manufacturing like China. Yet the consequences of tariffs could threaten jobs that are already here.
…are we seeing the unfolding of a paper napkin from the Mar-a-Lago bar with some half-baked ideas sketched out and then chaotic seat-of-pants wrangling between Trump and his aides and lobbyists over which industries will be hit and which will be spared?… Trump’s impulsive tariffs — which he seems to announce and put on hold at whim — are symptomatic of a deeper challenge to U.S. manufacturers: how U.S. companies keep pace with China in the industries of the future
Trump’s cash freeze is making clean energy projects collapse
The USDA funding was one piece of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in 2022 with bipartisan support. But because Trump signed an executive order on his first day that paused any spending through both the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for 90 days, some of the projects may never happen.
The Stock Market Is Barely Keeping Up With Trump’s 48-Hour Trade War
At this point, it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to discern that Trump is signing tariff orders not with the goal of implementing them, but to strong-arm other nations to do a deal.
Trump’s Shakeups Face Opposition
Less than three weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term, it seems that Musk’s revolutionary zeal has caught on. As the administration moves to kneecap federal agencies and purge personnel, White House officials have been reluctant to let procedure—or likely legal constraints—stand in their way. Meanwhile, a patchwork of federal employees, unions, and advocacy groups have begun to challenge the moves in court.
Donald Trump is ready to spend trillions in Gaza, while cutting off Medicare and Medicaid in the United States. Donald Trump said that he would “Make America Great Again, but that was a lie. America was already great. He has broken something that will be hard to repair and take a very long time to fix.
Trump Junior Sued for Hunting in Venice Lagoon
Donald Trump Jr.'s hunting trip in the Venice lagoon ends up in the prosecutor's office… The regional councilor of the Greens.. has filed a complaint with the forestry police, claiming that the son of the president of the United States had killed specimens of protected species. "There are criminal penalties for these killings."
In a survey conducted in 2015, found that, on average, Americans believed that foreign aid accounts for nearly one-third of the budget. Only 3% of those polled answered correctly that foreign aid constituted 1% or less of total federal spending.
North Carolina's housing market is even becoming too expensive for investors
High home prices and high interest rates are even discouraging institutional investors from buying houses.
That Giant Sucking Sound? It’s Climate Change Devouring Your Home’s Value.
One little-discussed result is that soaring home prices in the United States may have peaked in the places most at risk, leaving the nation on the precipice of a generational decline. That’s the finding of a new analysis by First Street, a research firm that studies climate threats to housing and provides some of the best climate adaptation data available, both freely and commercially. The analysis predicts an extraordinary reversal in housing fortunes for Americans — nearly $1.5 trillion in asset losses over the next 30 years.
Trump's wild Middle East vision, Trump's Gaza shock wave stuns Middle East and some in White House
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip. We'll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site."
"I envision the world people living there — the world's people. I think you'll make that into an international, unbelievable place."
Trump, channeling his inner developer, added: "We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don't want to be cute, I don't want to be a wise guy, but: the Riviera of the Middle East. ... This could be so magnificent. ... We'll make sure that it's done world-class — it'll be wonderful for the people."
Trump Officials Try to Walk Back Gaza Takeover Plan
Mr. Trump’s brazen proposal to move as many as two million Palestinians out of Gaza and seize and redevelop it a U.S. territory met with immediate opposition on Wednesday from key American partners and officials around the world, with many expressing support for a Palestinian state, and experts calling the idea a breach of international law. Less than 24 hours after Mr. Trump floated the plan, top administration officials sought to soften it. Nobody Wants Gaz-a-Lago
“I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza.” ~Senator Lindsey Graham
What I am watching…
“There is no precedent to giving that kind of information to a private citizen…”