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Trump administration 2024-2028

Sets America up to annex Venezuela and secure alternate supplies of heavy sour crude, if Canada doesn’t play nice.

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Not ridiculizing when they are in or out. Just those that used that lame saying as some sort virtue attributed to the man.

Is it a new war? And old war? Is it even a war? Whatever…
It should be easy to distinguish between a limited punishment meted against the Iranians or a response to ongoing attacks on shipping, and the destruction/destabilization of entire countries.
 
The rationale for US lumber self-sufficiency, some of their figures sound questionable, which could threaten Canadian lumber exports to the US ...

WHY Is America The Biggest Lumber Importer In The World?​

I’ve made no secret of the absurdity (and the hypocrisy, in my opinion) of opposing fossil fuel production in this country, while supporting the policies that require us to import fossil fuels from other places. In fact, I’ve described those policies the height of duplicity, and I still stand by that, mostly. I say mostly, because I’ve just learned that we do the exact same thing with lumber. Our reliance on wood is extraordinary, and we’re blessed to live in a country with over 800 million acres of forest. That’s literally a third of America, covered in trees. Unfortunately, we act as if forest land and timber reserves are in short supply. In fact, we import more wood products than any other nation. What the hell is wrong with us? Why are we letting our forests burn and rot at record levels? Why aren’t we instead, harvesting the timber we so desperately need, and exporting the surplus? Why are we not “wood independent"? Mike Albrecht has some answers, and I think you’ll find those answers illuminating. He’s the president of the American Loggers Council, and he knows what he’s talking about. Enjoy!

 
This could be a flashpoint for the administration’s willingness to abide by judicial orders.
It could; anything in front of the courts could. Maybe start counting score on the number of judicial orders a Trump administration has abided by or not abided by, including his first. We can compare the two counts to gauge how law-abiding the administration is.
 
It should be easy to distinguish between a limited punishment meted against the Iranians or a response to ongoing attacks on shipping, and the destruction/destabilization of entire countries.
Yes it should. Apparently though it isn’t. Again, it’s a dumb slogan.

And wow, this never would have happened under Biden is as stupid as this never would have happened under Trump.
 
Yes it should. Apparently though it isn’t. Again, it’s a dumb slogan.
Considering the costs of the Iraq war alone, "dumb" sounds like a consolation prize for neo-cons. The slogan had weight because of the contrast in willingness to treat almost everything as an excuse for military intervention. I once read an article by someone who took one of the neo-cons to task for how often "US intervention" was the solution to any particular foreign problem. The length of the list was appalling. It's the difference between attacks that might kill a couple hundred soldiers, and whacking one general.
 
Considering the costs of the Iraq war alone, "dumb" sounds like a consolation prize for neo-cons. The slogan had weight because of the contrast in willingness to treat almost everything as an excuse for military intervention. I once read an article by someone who took one of the neo-cons to task for how often "US intervention" was the solution to any particular foreign problem. The length of the list was appalling. It's the difference between attacks that might kill a couple hundred soldiers, and whacking one general.
Except the Trump side blamed Biden for Oct 7th, Putin Invading Ukraine, rain on Saturdays. What new war did he start exactly? Right.

It’s a dumb slogan.
 
It could; anything in front of the courts could. Maybe start counting score on the number of judicial orders a Trump administration has abided by or not abided by, including his first. We can compare the two counts to gauge how law-abiding the administration is.
The measure of an administration respecting the law and the division of powers isn’t measuring out orders abided by versus court orders defied. Any of the latter would be a huge concern.
 
Except the Trump side blamed Biden for Oct 7th, Putin Invading Ukraine, rain on Saturdays. What new war did he start exactly? Right.

It’s a dumb slogan.
It started during Trump's first administration. You can try and massage it to make it about what happened afterward, but mostly the point was about contrasting the relatively low belligerency with a few particular things: the war in Iraq, the destabilization of Libya, the tendency of the few neocons floating in and out of the administration (eg. John Bolton) to call for more aggressive responses. If you're looking for political slogans to be consistent and coherent, you're likely to always be dissatisfied.

Trump didn't ruin a country. Maybe he will, but he hasn't yet.
 
Trump continues to recklessly discard implements of American soft power. Today, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other similar pro-democracy media funded by the U.S. for many decades were gutted.


Th population of the planet is awash in American cultural offerings, whether or not they want to be.

I'd say their 'soft power' is already just fine ;)
 
Trump continues to recklessly discard implements of American soft power. Today, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other similar pro-democracy media funded by the U.S. for many decades were gutted.


And one can't even see Putin's lips move when the announcement was made.

From February.
WASHINGTON — The Russian government on Tuesday labeled VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as an “undesirable organization” in a move that underscores the Kremlin’s harsh repression of media.

The new designation opens RFE/RL staffers, donors and sources to criminal charges, the Prague-based outlet reported.

The outlet was added to a registry of “undesirable organizations” maintained by Russia’s Ministry of Justice, becoming the 142nd organization to be labeled that way.

RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said the designation “is just the latest example of how the Russian government views truthful reporting as an existential threat.”

“Millions of Russians have relied on us for decades — including record-breaking audiences over the past few days since the death of Aleksei Navalny — and this attempt to stifle us will only make RFE/RL work harder to bring free and independent journalism to the Russian people,” Capus said in a statement.
. . .

Th population of the planet is awash in American cultural offerings, whether or not they want to be.

I'd say their 'soft power' is already just fine ;)

While the circumstances (and technology) that made VOA/RFE (and to a limited extent, the BBC Overseas Service and RCI) essential weapons in the democracy/freedom battle of the last century have changed somewhat, the "cultural offerings" found on their broadcasts were not a primary purpose. The entertainment to be found there was the bait to attract listeners to its program of 'uncensored(?)' news and, yes, Yankee propaganda.
 
FAFO time for the universities...

Turmoil rocks Columbia University as Trump administration demands changes — or else​



The Trump administration delivered an ultimatum to leaders of Columbia University on Thursday, threatening to end a portion of its federal funding unless the school implements strong controls over an international studies department and makes significant changes to student discipline standards and other university policies.

In a letter obtained by NPR dated March 13, federal officials from the U.S. Education Department, Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration demanded Columbia place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under "academic receivership for a minimum of five years," requiring them to create a full plan to do so by March 20. The letter didn't explain why this department was targeted for an academic receivership, an unusual move in which the control of a program is placed in the hands of university administration.


 
The rationale for US lumber self-sufficiency, some of their figures sound questionable, which could threaten Canadian lumber exports to the US ...

WHY Is America The Biggest Lumber Importer In The World?​

I’ve made no secret of the absurdity (and the hypocrisy, in my opinion) of opposing fossil fuel production in this country, while supporting the policies that require us to import fossil fuels from other places. In fact, I’ve described those policies the height of duplicity, and I still stand by that, mostly. I say mostly, because I’ve just learned that we do the exact same thing with lumber. Our reliance on wood is extraordinary, and we’re blessed to live in a country with over 800 million acres of forest. That’s literally a third of America, covered in trees. Unfortunately, we act as if forest land and timber reserves are in short supply. In fact, we import more wood products than any other nation. What the hell is wrong with us? Why are we letting our forests burn and rot at record levels? Why aren’t we instead, harvesting the timber we so desperately need, and exporting the surplus? Why are we not “wood independent"? Mike Albrecht has some answers, and I think you’ll find those answers illuminating. He’s the president of the American Loggers Council, and he knows what he’s talking about. Enjoy!



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/12/keir-starmer-put-britain-back-in-drivers-seat/

For too long, there’s been a knee-jerk response in politics. A tendency to avoid difficult questions by sweeping them under a carpet of regulation. To outsource and delay decision-making and avoid accountability. For any challenge faced, for too long the answer has been more arms-length bodies, quangos and regulators which end up blocking the Government as we’re trying to build.

Nowhere is this clearer than in planning. We have a mandate to build 1.5 million homes in this parliament. We’re introducing legislation this week to make it faster to build, reform the planning system and cut regulations that clog up the system.

Because we have to loosen the chokehold on building in this country. Take the project in Ebbsfleet to build more than 15,000 new homes. Homes we desperately need in a housing crisis. A ready-made railway station and a 17-minute commute into central London. The previous government bought 125 hectares of former industrial land and quarries – the definition of “grey-belt” – to build around the station. The plan was blocked by Natural England. Why? The discovery of a colony of “distinguished jumping spiders”. The dream of home ownership for thousands of families, held back by arachnids. It’s nonsense. And we’ll stop it.

Apparently "Natural England" stopped the development because an industrial site was bulldozed and a bunch of spiders moved into the rubble before the houses could be built.

....

These are the types of issues that get people like Trump elected and Musk being cheered.
 
The checks & balances don’t work anymore.

This is gonna be one of the edge cases. The planes were in the air when the court ruled, and the direction from the judge was verbal but not included in the written ruling. I’m not sure how practicable it would have been for the judge’s order to have been received and communicated in time for a reversal of flights in the air.

From the article: “Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that Boasberg’s verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated the “spirit” of it.”

What’s in black and white matters, and there are always practicalities when it comes to immediately implementing a newly issued order. Were we to see new planes being loaded and sent, that would be a much bigger concern.

There’s a separate massive issue with the U.S. contracting out detention to third party countries running atrociously punitive systems like El Salvador’s CECOT prison. I expect we’ll see legal action on that too.

Make no mistake, I have massive concerns about this overall, but I’m not personally confident that the fact set presented constituted outright defiance of a valid court order.
 
The United States federal courts are the system of courts organized under the United States Constitution and federal law. The federal courts decide disputes involving the Constitution and laws passed by Congress.

Altogether, there are nearly 1,770 judgeships authorized across the 209 courts in the federal court system. About half of the judges sitting on federal courts are appointed by the president of the United States for life terms. The remaining judges are selected by judges sitting on circuit or district courts for terms of defined lengths.

Seems like a lot of opinions there. And anyone of them can shut down the Executive until the Supreme Court rules?
 

Seems like a lot of opinions there. And anyone of them can shut down the Executive until the Supreme Court rules?

There are the federal circuit courts of appeal between the districts and SCOTUS. Yes, a district court can rule in such a way as to prohibit the entirety of a particular exercise of executive power… Generally though rulings are quite a bit more narrow than that. Also, the various orders we’re seeing are all of a temporary and preliminary nature, generally to prevent irreparable harms from occurring g before the court has had the time to et briefed and hold hearings on the substantive merits of a matter.
 
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