The numbers from the administration that told us the ballroom would cost $200 million, then $350 million, then $400 million, then $1 billion? And be funded by Trump himself, then his donors, then with taxpayer dollars?
I KNOW! Every time a glowing number is released from the government, I remember when he put a flunky in charge of the department. Of course, the humorous thing is numbers like this make it harder for the Fed to lower the interest rate. HA HA
Where is the ad campaign? The whole effort associated with tying the slush fund to the immigration bill involved forcing Rs to pick a side. Forcing people to pick a side means nothing if nobody knows which side they chose.
Messaging should be primed. NOW!!! Time purchased during the NBA Finals (which will be watched by at least a few Texans!) Come on, Ds; this ought to be routine stuff!!!
Agreed. Wouldn't it be great if Tom Steyer used some of his vast fortunate to run ads about Trump's massive corruption, rather than spending $200 million to come in third among a pool of D-list candidates in the governor's race? While election law isn't my practice area, I imagine there's some way he could start a PAC/activist group with his name attached to it (i.e. Steyer for Democracy) and blast out a ton of ads about Trump's corruption, and he'll have greater name recognition for his next campaign boondoggle (or at the very least, he won't *just* be known as the guy trying to buy his way into office.)
Yea, another billionaire on an election ego trip. Sick of this stuff. Steyer obviously has money to burn. Either use it for charity (how about dental care for homeless people in California as just one example) or use it to help Democrats in 2026 and 2028.
I read about the positive May job growth numbers immediately after reading Paul Rosenzweig's article (here on The Bulwark) about why the Europeans don't trust us, and I felt that sense of doubt about America that most Europeans now know very well.
Trust is one of the greatest losses so far in the United States. Admittedly, I always took our employment reports with a grain of salt - revisions were a given - but now I feel like I am probably being lied to by a government run by a bald-faced, slack-skinned liar.
My old reserve about the stats now has turned to deep suspicion, and the sad thing is that I don't even know if it's justified.
Also, as a side note, my wife works in the hospitality industry and hiring is NOT what they are doing in the American Southwest. In fact, they are cutting positions and looking for workarounds as the travel industry shrinks.
Just about every young person I know is having trouble finding a first-time job, or finding a job to move to from their current job. This includes people with new Bachelor's, Master's and even a PhD. The one exception to that is new graduate nurses. Otherwise, I hear tales of being ghosted by employers.
Of course your suspicion is justified, for too many reasons to enumerate. It may turn out to be wrong (not likely, the odds are at least 1,000:1) but the suspicion has been well "earned" by the administration.
A friend of mine just went to Vegas. He said the shops were empty. As a personal observation, I recently went to In-and-Out Burger. It is usually hard to find an empty table at lunch, there were many tables and the drive through wasn’t crowded. Just an observation.
Interestingly, Ernest, my wife works as an HR professional in a Vegas hotel. Her observations regard that market in particular, and she says it is shrinking.
Will: "And if Republicans in Congress won’t stop the corruption, voters will have to step in."
You mean the same voters that gave Trump a popular vote victory two years ago? The same voters that gave the GOP control of the Senate two years ago? When someone can provide me evidence that the voters are making a good effort to be more serious and sober people, I'll listen. In the meantime, I don't trust any of them.
Spot on. And even if enough voters have awakened sufficiently to accept that they made a regrettable choice, will they get to the polls in November and choose differently? If they do try, will their votes be allowed?
The good news is I am long past the "Charlie Brown expecting Lucy to hold the football while he kicks it" phase. I absolutely expect the very worst from Republicans and they do not disappoint. My disgust level is way above a "10" today, but my Inner Logician is saying, "Uh, huh. I told you so". I listen to my inner Logician these days.
Immunity for the Trump family. Meanwhile in Albania there is rebellion against Jared and Ivanka in a so called Flamingo Revolution. Clearly the couple is worried about finding a safe haven for when daddy is out of power. If Immunity holds plan B will no longer be necessary. On the other hand I can’t help feeling the pitchforks are being put in place globally.
>> "... The worry last year was that Trump was turning an enlarged, heavily armed ICE into his own personal paramilitary. After witnessing ICE’s cruelty and lawlessness since then, we should be even more concerned now..."
It's pretty unambiguous that is what Trump has in mind for them, since he has tried to "deploy" them to solve whatever problems he perceives, like when he sent them to airports during the shutdown to "help" TSA.
We also need to be worried about these warehouse detention facilities they are trying to spin up. At some point they had 11 warehouses they thought could hold up to almost 100,000 people at a time:
It isn't irrational or alarmist at this point to look at not only the parrellels between ICE and CBP and the SS and Gestapo, but also on how the build out of this warehouse immigration detention infrastructure for basically holding (without due process) hundreds of thousands of people has a lot of political symmetry to the start of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
The first nazi camps were also old industrial facilities, and they were initially used mostly to hold political prisoners from rival parties. We think of the system that came later when we think of the Nazi concentration camps - the extermination camps of the late 1930s. But they started in 1933 by taking any space big enough to put people in, and stashing tens of thousands of political prisoners in them extra-legally. And then spent the next decade filling that system out with psychotic and genocidal focus to "improve" the camp system until they got to Auschwitz.
And MAGA folks somehow that Trump is making us “respected” again on the world stage. How stupid does someone have to be to think you giving the finger to the world would not tank your respect.
After reading this missive from The Bulwark—which covers the gamut of news stories—I’m now too depressed to get out of bed where I’d settled back with coffee and cell phone. I think this piece says it all. We are so doomed. The good news involved labor stats which I no longer believe. I deplore the Republican electeds. They will follow Trump to the end. And the Democrats are incapable of mounting any opposition. So what’s to become of the rest of us? Hey people. Things are not good out here in America.
I *will* vote, of course (assuming I'm allowed to do so given that I took my husband's name when we married 53 years ago and have a different surname on my birth certificate), but I live in newly re-gerrymandered Missouri so it won't count. Or perhaps even be counted at all, for that matter.
The jobs numbers are not as terrible as expected, but more Americans are falling behind on their credit card debt, which is typically a leading indicator of a recession. Actually with everything that Trump has done, it's a wonder we aren't already in a recession. The economy can only take so much punishment.
Will wrote: "But as a matter of Trumpian morality, Blanche’s compromise—publicly dumping the slush fund while keeping the immunity order—was standard operating procedure. Trump did what he always does: He screwed other people and protected himself." This will be a fitting epitaph but sadly I'm not sure for whom: Trump or America.
Oh, and Trump will end up making a worse deal with Iran than Obama - and Cuba will end up paying the price for his incompetence.
What we are seeing is that the Republicans want to be the party of racism, greed, and corruption after Trump is gone. With the help of the corrupt, racist Supreme Court, they think they can win enough elections, or throw out the results if they lose, hold on to power, and continue to rape and pillage America, with or without the guy who only wants to build monuments to himself.
I’m livid why does ICE have any money at all and why do republicans think they should be allowed to commit crimes in my community without consequences! They’re funding a paramilitary
Who knew that non-citizen voting was such a negligibly small problem?
Well, actually, a lot of people knew this, including Bill Barr. OF COURSE the entire voter fraud issue is a fabricated issue.
If you have to tell lies to get people to pay attention to something that doesn't exist, like JD Vance admitted to doing with Haitian immigrants eating domestic house pets, what's the problem?
It's all about sewing doubt around ANY election, so that it's easier to challenge results. This is why we all need to get out and vote in November so that the number of "close" races is minimized and there is no doubt.
The other thing I'd say about the election being rigged in 2020: Trump has said over and over that the "Democrats" rigged the 2020 election. If it were rigged, obviously it was rigged by these nefarious "deep state" entities within the Democratic party that did not want Trump to win. And they were able to pull this off by preparing for and putting their plan in motion DURING the first Trump administration, hence right under his nose.
Then, these same "deep state" Democratic party entities had 4 years under a "crooked" Democratic president to further improve and enhance their ability to rig the 2024 election to guarantee Trump would lose. And they failed miserably. Hmmm....funny that. Maybe these nefarious "deep state" entities...don't exist?
Please tell me when we decided to believe the employment numbers, after Trump gutted BLS?
Thumbs 👍.
From a Felon Flunkie? No way, Jose.
This.
Not me.
I fully expect a series of downward revisions in the employment statistics in the next month or so.
BLS forgot to put the "-" in front of the numbers, to make Trump happy.
The numbers from the administration that told us the ballroom would cost $200 million, then $350 million, then $400 million, then $1 billion? And be funded by Trump himself, then his donors, then with taxpayer dollars?
Yeah. I'm sure they're credible.
I KNOW! Every time a glowing number is released from the government, I remember when he put a flunky in charge of the department. Of course, the humorous thing is numbers like this make it harder for the Fed to lower the interest rate. HA HA
Seriously! Surprised it’s an actual number and not “numbers no one has seen before”
ya dont get how Bulwark doesnt deliver these fantasy numbers with a warning
Where is the ad campaign? The whole effort associated with tying the slush fund to the immigration bill involved forcing Rs to pick a side. Forcing people to pick a side means nothing if nobody knows which side they chose.
Messaging should be primed. NOW!!! Time purchased during the NBA Finals (which will be watched by at least a few Texans!) Come on, Ds; this ought to be routine stuff!!!
Agreed. Wouldn't it be great if Tom Steyer used some of his vast fortunate to run ads about Trump's massive corruption, rather than spending $200 million to come in third among a pool of D-list candidates in the governor's race? While election law isn't my practice area, I imagine there's some way he could start a PAC/activist group with his name attached to it (i.e. Steyer for Democracy) and blast out a ton of ads about Trump's corruption, and he'll have greater name recognition for his next campaign boondoggle (or at the very least, he won't *just* be known as the guy trying to buy his way into office.)
Yea, another billionaire on an election ego trip. Sick of this stuff. Steyer obviously has money to burn. Either use it for charity (how about dental care for homeless people in California as just one example) or use it to help Democrats in 2026 and 2028.
Screwworm detected in Texas? Is this a story about Ken Paxton?
...or RFK jr's brain?
Screwworm in DC, DJT.
I read about the positive May job growth numbers immediately after reading Paul Rosenzweig's article (here on The Bulwark) about why the Europeans don't trust us, and I felt that sense of doubt about America that most Europeans now know very well.
Trust is one of the greatest losses so far in the United States. Admittedly, I always took our employment reports with a grain of salt - revisions were a given - but now I feel like I am probably being lied to by a government run by a bald-faced, slack-skinned liar.
My old reserve about the stats now has turned to deep suspicion, and the sad thing is that I don't even know if it's justified.
Also, as a side note, my wife works in the hospitality industry and hiring is NOT what they are doing in the American Southwest. In fact, they are cutting positions and looking for workarounds as the travel industry shrinks.
Just about every young person I know is having trouble finding a first-time job, or finding a job to move to from their current job. This includes people with new Bachelor's, Master's and even a PhD. The one exception to that is new graduate nurses. Otherwise, I hear tales of being ghosted by employers.
Hearing same from relative in higher ed about his grads this spring. And these are in sciences
They may go abroad. That is part of the "brain drain".
Of course your suspicion is justified, for too many reasons to enumerate. It may turn out to be wrong (not likely, the odds are at least 1,000:1) but the suspicion has been well "earned" by the administration.
A friend of mine just went to Vegas. He said the shops were empty. As a personal observation, I recently went to In-and-Out Burger. It is usually hard to find an empty table at lunch, there were many tables and the drive through wasn’t crowded. Just an observation.
Interestingly, Ernest, my wife works as an HR professional in a Vegas hotel. Her observations regard that market in particular, and she says it is shrinking.
Will: "And if Republicans in Congress won’t stop the corruption, voters will have to step in."
You mean the same voters that gave Trump a popular vote victory two years ago? The same voters that gave the GOP control of the Senate two years ago? When someone can provide me evidence that the voters are making a good effort to be more serious and sober people, I'll listen. In the meantime, I don't trust any of them.
Spot on. And even if enough voters have awakened sufficiently to accept that they made a regrettable choice, will they get to the polls in November and choose differently? If they do try, will their votes be allowed?
Stupidity and bigotry seem to be “traditional America values”. How else can we explain Trump being elected twice? Insanity reigns!
The good news is I am long past the "Charlie Brown expecting Lucy to hold the football while he kicks it" phase. I absolutely expect the very worst from Republicans and they do not disappoint. My disgust level is way above a "10" today, but my Inner Logician is saying, "Uh, huh. I told you so". I listen to my inner Logician these days.
Immunity for the Trump family. Meanwhile in Albania there is rebellion against Jared and Ivanka in a so called Flamingo Revolution. Clearly the couple is worried about finding a safe haven for when daddy is out of power. If Immunity holds plan B will no longer be necessary. On the other hand I can’t help feeling the pitchforks are being put in place globally.
And sharpened!
What a feckless bunch of wussies! Profiles in cowardice should be the tag line for republicans running for office.
Some days I just want to stick my head in a soundproofed, darkened box.
But I have work to do and cats to feed, and miles to go before I throw shit at my TV for airing President Man's UFC extravaganza.
"Miles to go before I sleep".
>> "... The worry last year was that Trump was turning an enlarged, heavily armed ICE into his own personal paramilitary. After witnessing ICE’s cruelty and lawlessness since then, we should be even more concerned now..."
It's pretty unambiguous that is what Trump has in mind for them, since he has tried to "deploy" them to solve whatever problems he perceives, like when he sent them to airports during the shutdown to "help" TSA.
We also need to be worried about these warehouse detention facilities they are trying to spin up. At some point they had 11 warehouses they thought could hold up to almost 100,000 people at a time:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/ice-eyes-selling-mega-warehouses-purchased-mass-detention-rcna347592
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-buys-warehouses-immigration-detention/
https://www.nilc.org/articles/ice-wants-to-stash-people-in-amazon-style-warehouses/
It isn't irrational or alarmist at this point to look at not only the parrellels between ICE and CBP and the SS and Gestapo, but also on how the build out of this warehouse immigration detention infrastructure for basically holding (without due process) hundreds of thousands of people has a lot of political symmetry to the start of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
The first nazi camps were also old industrial facilities, and they were initially used mostly to hold political prisoners from rival parties. We think of the system that came later when we think of the Nazi concentration camps - the extermination camps of the late 1930s. But they started in 1933 by taking any space big enough to put people in, and stashing tens of thousands of political prisoners in them extra-legally. And then spent the next decade filling that system out with psychotic and genocidal focus to "improve" the camp system until they got to Auschwitz.
If you look at the inability of those in ice detention to get in front of judges and to receive basic medical care or due process, the current DHS detention facilities already meet the definitions of concentration camps: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/concentration-camp-system-in-depth
And, don't forget, ICE will be here to welcome world travelers to the World Cup!
And MAGA folks somehow that Trump is making us “respected” again on the world stage. How stupid does someone have to be to think you giving the finger to the world would not tank your respect.
Well, you have to understand that, to them, fear = respect. Regardless of why we are feared.
They do understand that historically led to wars of power always and people die. And fewer people in society are successful.
In MAGA Land somehow being polite to someone (especially a foreign leader that you're visiting in their nation) is "weak."
After reading this missive from The Bulwark—which covers the gamut of news stories—I’m now too depressed to get out of bed where I’d settled back with coffee and cell phone. I think this piece says it all. We are so doomed. The good news involved labor stats which I no longer believe. I deplore the Republican electeds. They will follow Trump to the end. And the Democrats are incapable of mounting any opposition. So what’s to become of the rest of us? Hey people. Things are not good out here in America.
Sandra - rest up. Gather strength. Mount up and whatever ways we can cuz WE are the opposition ✊🏼
Same.
I *will* vote, of course (assuming I'm allowed to do so given that I took my husband's name when we married 53 years ago and have a different surname on my birth certificate), but I live in newly re-gerrymandered Missouri so it won't count. Or perhaps even be counted at all, for that matter.
Yeah. Not good out here in America.
Don't be depressed. As Obama said; vote!
The jobs numbers are not as terrible as expected, but more Americans are falling behind on their credit card debt, which is typically a leading indicator of a recession. Actually with everything that Trump has done, it's a wonder we aren't already in a recession. The economy can only take so much punishment.
I have no trust in those numbers…
Bryan - yet I’m not seeing articles about all the great offers this year’s college graduates are getting 🤷♂️
What are these jobs, with what benefits?
Perhaps McDonald's, Burger King and a free meal!
At least the meal is happy 😆
Will wrote: "But as a matter of Trumpian morality, Blanche’s compromise—publicly dumping the slush fund while keeping the immunity order—was standard operating procedure. Trump did what he always does: He screwed other people and protected himself." This will be a fitting epitaph but sadly I'm not sure for whom: Trump or America.
Oh, and Trump will end up making a worse deal with Iran than Obama - and Cuba will end up paying the price for his incompetence.
What we are seeing is that the Republicans want to be the party of racism, greed, and corruption after Trump is gone. With the help of the corrupt, racist Supreme Court, they think they can win enough elections, or throw out the results if they lose, hold on to power, and continue to rape and pillage America, with or without the guy who only wants to build monuments to himself.
I’m livid why does ICE have any money at all and why do republicans think they should be allowed to commit crimes in my community without consequences! They’re funding a paramilitary
Because they recently read "It Can't Happen Here" and think the Minutemen are a great idea. (Recommended read, BTW. Sinclair Lewis was prescient.)
Because we let them
Who knew that non-citizen voting was such a negligibly small problem?
Well, actually, a lot of people knew this, including Bill Barr. OF COURSE the entire voter fraud issue is a fabricated issue.
If you have to tell lies to get people to pay attention to something that doesn't exist, like JD Vance admitted to doing with Haitian immigrants eating domestic house pets, what's the problem?
It is a real tell that the administration is focused on past 2020 frauds not on making the next elections, safe.
It's all about sewing doubt around ANY election, so that it's easier to challenge results. This is why we all need to get out and vote in November so that the number of "close" races is minimized and there is no doubt.
The other thing I'd say about the election being rigged in 2020: Trump has said over and over that the "Democrats" rigged the 2020 election. If it were rigged, obviously it was rigged by these nefarious "deep state" entities within the Democratic party that did not want Trump to win. And they were able to pull this off by preparing for and putting their plan in motion DURING the first Trump administration, hence right under his nose.
Then, these same "deep state" Democratic party entities had 4 years under a "crooked" Democratic president to further improve and enhance their ability to rig the 2024 election to guarantee Trump would lose. And they failed miserably. Hmmm....funny that. Maybe these nefarious "deep state" entities...don't exist?