jerrymahoney

Embellishment to the post in World news: While the White House has not officially confirmed the details of Bessent's remarks, press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a cautiously optimistic tone during a briefing later in the day. “The president and the administration are setting the stage for an incredible deal with China,” Leavitt said. “So we feel everyone involved wants to see an incredible trade deal happen, and the ball is incredibly moving in the right direction.” She declined to elaborate directly on Bessent’s comments but confirmed that the administration believes it is “doing incredibly well in respect to an incredibly potential trade deal with China.”

Maybe the thief just wanted to get her SIGNAl account on the phone so he can listen to the next chat.

“Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren – she was using the ($3000) withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts,” a DHS spokesperson said. Law enforcement experts have raised concerns about whether the incident, which involved a thief getting so close to a Cabinet official and then absconding with her belongings, may have been a lapse in security. “This is a security breach that actually has high consequences, and it needs immediate and further review by the Secret Service and DHS, and other law enforcement partners,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/21/politics/homeland-security-kristi-noem-purse-stolen/index.html

My Thai wife likes to speak English. Sometimes, when I say something that she says she doesn't understand, I explain it to her in Thai.

At least in the Travel & Leisure article linked above, the European travel advisories are primarily concerned their citizens who travel with neither M or F as gender in their passport: "The shift comes after President Donald Trump issued a January 2025 executive order that says a person is either male or female and rejects the idea that a person can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. The order comes with the banning of the “X” marker to denote gender on U.S. passport and visa applications."

The White House April 2, 2025 President Trump is invoking his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to address the national emergency posed by the large and persistent trade deficit that is driven by the absence of reciprocity in our trade relationships and other harmful policies like currency manipulation and exorbitant value-added taxes (VAT) perpetuated by other countries. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-declares-national-emergency-to-increase-our-competitive-edge-protect-our-sovereignty-and-strengthen-our-national-and-economic-security/ ___________________ Trump invoked the IEEPA -- if he already had the authority, why bother.

From the linked Politico article: (Second), the relevant provision of the IEEPA contains a bunch of words, but none of those words is “tariffs” or “taxes.”

The Politico article mentions the California/Newsom case, but the stronger case may be in Pensacola, FL with ultra-conservative legal interests involved. BTW as per 'blanket assertions' as mentioned about, the Pensacola, FL does not involve blankets but stationery and day planners, etc. from China.

here's the whole thing (Happy Easter):

The Supreme Court (or at least 5 of them) are not interested to again read: OOPSIE!

What the Signal incident maybe more importantly shows is that a lot of intelligence info is being shared with persons even in the government who have no reason to have access to that info on a need-to-know basis.

So which photo was in the stolen passport?

From the conservative National Review: Hegseth Blames ‘Disgruntled Former Employees’ for New Signal Chat Controversy President Trump reiterated his support for Hegseth Monday afternoon, echoing the administration’s messaging in favor of the scandal-plagued Pentagon chief. “He’s doing a great job — ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” Trump told reporters from the South Lawn after the Easter Egg Roll. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hegseth-blames-disgruntled-former-employees-for-new-signal-chat-controversy/ __________________ One of the reasons the Houthi raid was successful is that they had on the ground human or technical/camera intelligence right down to the head Houthi guy visiting his girlfriend. Exposing that on the leak may mean that such intelligence likely from Israel may not be available for the next time.

It was important for Sec. Hegseth's wife to be on the call else how else would she know when to expect him for dinner?

The other (or another) line of attack is that the raids were incredibly successful so why is the left-leaning press making such an incredible deal of it. Incredible. And now Three Pentagon officials fired on Friday after being placed on administrative leave amid an ongoing investigation into information leaks at the Defense Department say they are “incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended.” Incredibly imaginary ... or maybe imaginarily incredible.

Speaking at a press briefing, (Karoline) Leavitt emphasized that the ongoing military operations have inflicted severe damage on Iran’s proxy network and disrupted its ability to project power in the region. “These Houthi strikes have been incredibly successful,” Leavitt stated. “The last time I was at this podium, there were more than 100 successful strikes. There have now been over 200 successful strikes against the Houthis. Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks." Incredibly disruptive.

The only difference from 12 months ago is maybe the average roughly 100 posts you make every day since FRB 6.

The Pensacola, FL, tariff lawsuit is being handled by a conservative legal firm backed by the arch-conservative Kochs and Leonard Leo, who handled the Supreme Court nomination and approval for all 3 Trump SCOTUS appointments.

If it turns out that the Supreme Court majority is fed up with Trump not only for his use of the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to justify deportations but also the use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify tariffs when the IEEPA says nothing about tariffs, this could turn into a whole different ball game.

And further to that message: Mr. Trump said, going on to wish a happy Easter to the "WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue." Which is Mr. Trump's Easter gift knowing that at least one and possibly all 3 of his Supreme Court justice appointments voted against him in the latest SCOTUS emergency ruling.

NY Times interview with incoming Chief of Staff Ms. Susie Wiles 09 JAN 2025 via https://archive.ph/lDmIO Ms. Wiles insists she is not concerned about Mr. Trump’s most provocative cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth, his choice to run the Defense Department. Mr. Hegseth, a military veteran who has been accused by a woman of sexual assault, which he has denied, has no experience leading an agency of nearly three million people. “That’s what staff is for,” Ms. Wiles said briskly. “It’s our obligation to give him people that understand the business of national defense.” To Ms. Wiles, Mr. Hegseth is one of Mr. Trump’s desired “disrupters” of the status quo, just like his choice of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Mr. Kennedy as the secretary of health and human services. The president-elect, she said, “would rather have a disrupter at the top and buttress the disrupter with people who know the business or the agency. That’s the idea. And so if you think of it that way, it explains all of them.”

Ocean Glass -- except there is no ocean in Thailand

Now that Justice Alito has published his dissent with Thomas concurring, he claims that the emergency order was premature and unnecessary. But it also seems that at least 5 of the remaining 7 justices felt there was too much possibility that the Trump administration was going to pull another OOPSIE as in: US deports hundreds of immigrants despite judge’s order: ‘Oopsie … too late' Published: Mar. 16, 2025, 6:07 p.m.

NYPost said so it iS true: Published April 17, 2025, 8:01 a.m. ET The broadside comes as the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump has privately discussed firing Powell for months and talked about it with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, including the possibility of selecting Warsh as Powell’s replacement. Warsh advised against trying to fire Powell, arguing that he should let the Fed chair complete his term without interference, the Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. https://nypost.com/2025/04/17/business/trump-blasts-federal-reserve-chair-jerome-powell-says-his-termination-cannot-come-fast-enough/