Alan Zweibel

Basically, the Immigration service is ignoring a law passed by Congress. Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens Green-card applicants’ temporary visas often lapse while their “adjustment-of-status” proceeds over several months or longer. An immigration statute passed by Congress in 1986 allows a spouse who entered the country lawfully to be eligible for a green card through marriage even if the person’s visa has expired. “Congress was unambiguous — these people are eligible for green cards,” said Doug Rand, who was a senior official at Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/us/trump-green-card-interview-arrests.html

I don't blame the Venezuelan opposition for trying to recruit Trump. I do blame them for lying to support Trump's lies.

But not high destabilizing inflation. And you think all those Americans you profess to care about so much would have been better off for a severe recession? But if you believe that current inflation levels are too high, then you should be supporting government efforts to induce a recession. But instead, Trump has been pushing the Fed to lower interest rates which is not exactly the way to go about inducing that.

Actually, Larry Summers got it badly wrong. He said that without raising interest rates and creating a recession, as Paul Volcker did to combat hyperinflation, very high inflation would continue to plague the US economy. This was pretty much the line of right wingers too. Progressive economists said no, that this high inflation was self-limiting and due to high demand for goods and supply shocks. Now they did get wrong how high it would go, but they basically got everything else right. Inflation subsided sharply. There was no need to sharply raise interest rates and induce a recession.

-A U.S. judge on Wednesday said he was resuming his long-stalled court proceeding to determine whether Trump administration officials willfully violated a court order by deporting hundreds of men to El Salvador in March. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he would demand sworn testimony from administration officials to determine whether they defied his March court order to turn around aircraft that were removing the men from U.S. territory. "It seems that a factual inquiry is in order, and the best way to proceed would appear to be bringing in witnesses and having them testify under oath," Boasberg said during the hour-long status conference. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-11-19/us-judge-revives-contempt-proceeding-against-trump-officials Noem gave final approval to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador despite judge’s orders Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the final decision to deport Venezuelan gang suspects to El Salvador in March despite a judge’s order instructing the government to recall the airplanes, the Justice Department revealed in court. Government lawyers insisted Ms. Noem acted within the law and wasn’t intentionally trying to violate the recall order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. The revelation came in a court filing Tuesday to Judge Boasberg, who says his order was violated. He is pursuing a criminal contempt investigation and he demanded to know the government officials who were involved so he could see where the breakdown occurred. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/25/kristi-noem-gave-approval-deport-venezuelans-despite-judge-orders/

As I pointed out, economists can disagree. And I even provided you with a link to those economists. And if you accept the evaluation of Kritz, does that mean you accept that it wasn't a bad thing to have provided that extra stimulus?

First off, i note you didn't quote this part of what he said: "Kritzman said that using government stimulus money to help the economy rebound during the pandemic made sense, given the unprecedented circumstances. “People really didn’t know if we were going to have a 1930s-type depression, so the government erred on the side of more stimulus than less stimulus,” he said. “I don’t judge that to be a bad thing to have done, but it did cause this big spike in inflation,” Kritzman said. “What was surprising is not just that [the driver] was federal spending but that it was so overwhelmingly federal spending.” So not the disaster you made it out to be. And after all, this is just one team of economists, isn't it? These economists have come to a different conclusion. This sharp rise in inflation reflected severe imbalances between supply and demand stemming from the large and persistent shocks unleashed by the pandemic and the policy response. The initial phase of the pandemic was centered around public health risks that prompted production shutdowns, disruptions in global supply chains, and a contraction in labor supply... Consumer preferences, however, had shifted dramatically away from high-contact services toward goods. Although total consumer spending had recovered, services consumption was approximately 5 percent below its pre-pandemic trend, while goods consumption was approximately 10 percent above its trend. https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/wp2025-16.pdf And what you don't note, is that despite predictions of hyperinflation that would need to be tackled by massive unemployment, that never happened. The predicted huge recession never came to pass. Employment numbers grew to record levels. There was no disaster.

First off, the world might be better off without the world's bout of massive inflation. But as economists have repeatedly pointed out, most of this inflation was due to disruptions in supply. Demand outran supply both in manufacturing and in shipping thanks to COVID. And the reason demand Iran supply so much was that demand for services dramatically declined because of COVID.

He knew where the bodies were buried. Why wouldn't she follow his lead if it got out to where she wanted to go? Not the same as being ordered.

The cock and bullstory says that the Ukrainian Constitution forbids election in times of war. That's the truth. But not surprising that you would disrespect their constitution.

They had a real increase in wages. In other words, their wages increased faster than inflation. A lot faster.

And who picks up the pieces afterwards? The grounds Trump has touted for possibly taking military action against Venezuela is the role of its government in the drugs trade. What are the post Maduro plans for putting a stop to that? Pretextual much?

Only because blaze master seems to be supporting a possible military attack on Venezuela. So denigrating the UN, which is against such a war, because it invited the leader of Syria to speak, while supporting Trump's possible war even though Trump has gotten openly very friendly with the leader of Syria makes no sense. In fact, it made no sense for blaze master to be condemning the UN's lack of support because it invited the leader of Syria to speak makes no sense. I just pointed out one glaring reason why it makes no sense.

No,it wasn't devastating. In fact the lowest decile of workers saw the highest gains in real wages. The mistaken notion that actual wages declined is due to the fact that workers in the services industries disproportionately lost their jobs, thus raising the average wage. Some people think that even if a lot of workers lose their jobs, that's a good thing on balance since the wage average rises, I don't share that opinion. "Between 2019 and 2024, there has been a notable reversal of long-term trends in wage growth. Lowwage workers experienced historically fast real wage growth (adjusted for inflation) and the strongest wage growth compared with workers at all other parts in the wage distribution. The hourly wage for the lowest-paid workers at the bottom 10% grew a tremendous 15.3% over this period. The wage growth at the lower end of the wage distribution was exceptional, significantly faster than their average growth in the prior 40 years and faster than higher-wage workers over the same five-year period. Wage growth for low-wage workers also far exceeded the 2.1% wage loss that characterized the five years following the start of the last pre-COVID business cycle (2007–2012)" https://files.epi.org/uploads/299300.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

It appears that you are hallucinating the Epstein controls the Democratic party. And Plaskett was his puppet? What is wrong with using someone to provide inside knowledge to armor your questions?

But why? I never said I had a problem with the UN letting him speak. Or with Donald Trump meeting with him and praising him? But I guess that obvious point has gone over your head.

I think you should take this up with blaze master. He's the party who foolishly introduced the new leader of Syria into the discussion. He condemned the UN for letting him speak but apparently has no problem with Donald Trump meeting with him and praising him. Makes no sense in the context of the "Middle East strategic equation".

One of these days you will use reasoning to arrive at your assertions and share it with the rest of us rather than simply making unsupported assertions. I live in hope. But not much.

Is that the same al Qaeda guy who Donald Trump has met with and praised? Is that the same Donald Trump who is now threatening war against Venezuela?

Actually, the only legitimate inference that can be drawn from our exchange of comments is that you, like Liz Cheney and other neocons, approve of the Iraq war. A war that was based on lies. So, not surprising that you might approve of one against Venezuela as well.

I remember when the left was accused of defending Saddam because Bush. How does that look now?

What follows is I hope a reminder. But I suspect that you never knew it https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP

Venezuela’s Nobel Winner Pushes False Claims About Maduro, Critics Say As the Trump administration weighs using force to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, former diplomats and even some prominent critics of Mr. Maduro worry that his political opponents in Venezuela are promoting exaggerated claims and falsehoods to justify a U.S. intervention. Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October and is considered the opposition’s de facto leader, has recently amplified debunked claims that Mr. Maduro fixed elections in the United States, aligning herself closely with President Trump and his allies. “I have no doubt that Nicolás Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez and many others are the masterminds of a system that has rigged elections in many countries, including the U.S.,” Ms. Machado told Bloomberg News, referring to Venezuela’s president and the head of its National Assembly. https://archive.ph/Qj8Zi

But this isn't a critique of but...but...but per se... It's about putting other presidents in the same league as Trump when it comes to sheer awfulness.

The Justice Department is still signing criminal indictments with Lindsey Halligan’s name—almost a day after a judge ruled that she was unlawfully appointed as interim U.S. attorney. Federal prosecutors were initially instructed to sign court filings in the name of Halligan’s first assistant, after U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie concluded Monday that Halligan had no authority to preside over the Eastern District of Virginia since she was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate. But just an hour later, internal emails instructed the department to continue using Halligan’s name, labeling Currie’s decision “premature,” reported MS NOW’s Lisa Rubin. The move is a flagrant violation of Currie’s court order, which threw out Donald Trump’s cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/doj-already-ignoring-courts-trump-154616008.html It's like the DOJ is begging for their cases to be thrown out of court.