Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

bash whattime.txt

The United States just lost its last perfect credit rating

Most notably, Russia seeks a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and potentially beyond.47 But gains in Ukraine notwithstanding, Russia has struggled to turn that vision into reality and lacks the economic or military power to aim far beyond its periphery for the foreseeable future. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is approximately 10 times smaller than that of our allies in Europe and Canada,48 and although Moscow has generated significant combat power in Ukraine, as long as this economic imbalance persists, Russia will be unable to generate and sustain the military power required to seize control of large portions of Europe as the Soviets did or otherwise impose its will on Europe in the face of determined resistance.

[…]

However, NATO has weakened considerably in recent decades as a result of allied free-riding. This is evident in the collapse of NATO allies’ defense spending after the Cold War.

[…]

The United States must therefore work closely with its allies to strengthen NATO so that the Alliance can do what is required to defend Europe even as U.S. forces focus first on defending the U.S. homeland and denying China’s imperial ambitions.

Finally, NATO has spoken in recent years about doing more in the Indo-Pacific64 —but this is folly. NATO’s priority is and must remain Europe’s defense. Moreover, even if NATO allies wish to help the United States in the Indo-Pacific, the best way for them to do so (with very rare exceptions) is not by directing their own attention and resources to that theater at Europe’s expense, but by taking primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense while the United States focuses its own forces on the China threat. The United States should urge NATO allies to act accordingly.

[…]

This does not mean that the United States should abandon other theaters or allies, however. Instead, the United States must find ways to defend U.S. interests in those theaters without jeopardizing the ability of U.S. forces to defend the U.S. homeland and deny China’s imperial ambitions, which are higher priorities. To that end, Washington should empower allies and partners to lead efforts to defend against Russia, Iran, and North Korea with critical but more limited U.S. support. This will allow us to avoid cascading escalation by ensuring that allies and partners can deter opportunistic aggression even if key U.S. forces are drawn away from their respective regions, for instance, to deter or defeat Chinese aggression. And it will leave U.S. alliances and partnerships far stronger than they have been at any time in the post–Cold War era.

In late January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan immigrant working in a delivery job in Detroit, picked up an order at a McDonald’s. He was heading to the address when he erroneously turned onto the Ambassador Bridge, which leads to Canada. It is a common mistake even for those who live in the Michigan border city. But for Mr. Prada, 32, it proved fateful.

The U.S. authorities took Mr. Prada into custody when he attempted to re-enter the country; he was put in detention and ordered deported. On March 15, he told a friend in Chicago that he was among a number of detainees housed in Texas who expected to be repatriated to Venezuela.

[…]

Mr. Levey said that he, too, had repeatedly tried to obtain information from ICE. Eventually, he said, an officer told him that Mr. Prada had been deported but refused to share further details, he said.

Ms. Vega, told that Mr. Prada appeared to be in El Salvador, expressed frustration at the government’s claim that he had been involved in a criminal gang.

“How can they leave us in the dark for so long and then accuse him of something without proof?” she said. “God knows he doesn’t belong to any gang.”

Ignore the Supreme Court. Arrest anyone who tries to enforce this. Dissolve the Supreme Court entirely if they push.

You can deport foreigners or you don’t have a country anymore. There are no good choices now.

Trump calls judges "liberal" or "Obama-appointed" whenever he does not like the rulings.

[Checking Wikipedia:] Hitler had at least nine months of maneuvering with and around other party leaders and politicians in 1932.

Oh, sorry, I remember now that Trump had a prior four-year stint.

An important detail in the breakdown of the rule of law, the professor emphasizes, is Trump's attack on the law firms that assisted his political opponents. "That's of enormous importance, because the courts can't act against the government until someone files a case. And to do that successfully, in the American system, you need those big law firms. If those no longer dare take cases from people whose rights are being violated, there are no limits to what the government can do."

Lindberg's conclusion: the U.S. is changing before our eyes from a democracy to an "electoral autocracy. “In this, multi-party elections are still held, and on paper there is media freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of association, but in practice all of that has been undermined to the point where you can no longer speak of democracy.”

It's the familiar process from Orbán's Hungary, Erdogan's Turkey, and Modi's India. But the big difference is that in the U.S. it happens much faster. Lindberg: “What they did in 10 years, Trump does in three months.”

For starters, there’s little obvious connection between the U.S. trade balance and economic output (gross domestic product). As shown in the chart below from a recent Cato essay on the trade balance, the relationship between higher trade surpluses (or smaller deficits) and higher GDP growth is practically nonexistent. Economist Don Boudreaux and former Sen. Phil Gramm dug through additional periods in a recent Wall Street Journal column and concluded that “etween 1890 and 2024, it is impossible to find a statistically significant correlation between America’s trade balance and its economic growth.”

Napoli is depicted as gritty.

Holds eggs as in holds cards?

Turkey is the fifth-largest egg exporter in the world behind the Netherlands, United States, Poland and Germany.

Aw, it wasn't so bad!