Celebrate the wins
Admit it -- you never heard of the U.S. Court of International Trade, did you?
Yeah, me neither. But we have one and they're my new favorite part of the government. Yesterday the three judges -- appointed by Reagan, Obama and Trump, we always have to say now -- ruled that Trump's tariffs violate the Constitution, specifically Article I, Section 7 ("All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives") and Section 8 ("The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes"). Trump has been strangely silent, and all Ghoul Miller could manage was to rant about another "judicial coup." He's a little distracted -- his wife Katie is leaving the White House to work for Elon Musk, also leaving. Musk is unhappy about the Big Billionaire Bastards Bill because it increases the deficit, or so he says.
Trump has a history of flouting courts and this one will probably be overturned by SCOTUS but all victories, however brief, need to be celebrated. It's disappointing that he hasn't called the judges "scum" yet, but there's a lot going on. For instance:
At a town hall in Seward, Nebraska, Rep. Mike Flood was explaining why social programs need to be cut when the audience started chanting, "Tax the rich!" Nebraska, home of Warren Buffett.
In neighboring Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson also failed to read the room. She spoke approvingly of the tax bill and DOGE and Middle America booed. A man asked about Trump's memecoin and the Qatari bribe jet: "Could you help me understand why you are silent about this corruption?" She said something about "transparency" and how the plane was "ethically" acquired, but I don't think he was mollified.
Trump was the last to find out about his nickname, and from a female reporter. Let's watch:
Reporter: "Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the TACO Trade. They're saying Trump always chickens out on tariff threats...what's your response to that?"
Trump: "I kick out?"
Reporter: "Chicken out."
Trump: "Bla bla yadda yadda don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. To me that's the nastiest question."
The meme makers have been busy. This was my favorite.
Maybe he doesn't hear well. Here's another Oval Office exchange:
Reporter: "When could the administration resume interviews for foreign student visas?"
Trump: "On what?"
Reporter: "Foreign student visas."
Trump: "For the French?"
Reporter: "All the foreign students."
Trump: "What are you referring -- foreign visas for what?"
If it were a vaudeville sketch they would get the hook at this point.
Speaking of the hearing impaired, the National Association of the Deaf is suing the administration to resume providing ASL interpreters at televised press briefings. It's hard to tell if their removal was caused by DOGE or by Trump's distaste for people with any sort of disability.
And speaking of student visas, Marco Rubio said yesterday that some of the 270,000 Chinese students in the US would have their visas revoked if they have "connections to the Chinese Communist Party" or are studying in "critical fields," whatever that means. A Johns Hopkins student who has spent a third of his life here compared it to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of the 19th century, showing a better grasp of American history than most Americans.
Ray Dalio is a billionaire you may not be familiar with. The founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates has written a book, How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle, which addresses the national debt but also Trump's attacks on democratic norms; Dalio compares him to Mussolini and Hitler. "Unlike for a CEO there is no board for the US president. Are there effective regulators in place? If so, it is not clear to me who they are." Certainly not Little Mike and the Republican eunuchs in Congress. Dalio's book comes out June 3. It's going to be fun to see Trump call him a RADICAL LEFT LUNATIC.
Trump has never seen The Blues Brothers or he would recognize this as a joke about his supposed divine mandate.
You know who's on a real mission from God? Pope Leo XIV. I mean, if you're Catholic that's his job. The Archdiocese of Chicago, which he used to run, is celebrating his election with a mass at Rate Field, f/k/a Comiskey Park. The pope will offer, on video, a message to the youth of the world. And when do you think it's happening? June 14, the very day His Greediness will mark his birthday with a completely-batshit-break-with-tradition military parade in Washington. Coincidence? I'm sure it was the first available Saturday when the White Sox are on the road. If you're really on a mission you welcome the sunshine, you don't stalk through an empty city like a baggy-pants Sam Spade in the wake of the Making Streets Look Like It Rained Company.
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