Trumps Presidency 2025

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, chasfh said:

Mainstream media is as trustworthy as news as it's ever been. It's simply that the landscape has shifted underneath it.

Even if I grant that as true, and I’d have to think about 🤔, it still doesn’t enjoy the kind of validation across the body politic needed to persuade both sides to accept the same reported facts. 

[chasfh]

5 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Even if I grant that as true, and I’d have to think about 🤔, it still doesn’t enjoy the kind of validation across the body politic needed to persuade both sides to accept the same reported facts. 

If you think no one in the mainstream media has any journalism ethics anymore—either because the RWM tells you repeatedly this is so, or because the NYTimes allows the occasional conservative op-ed, or because you sense the scales have fallen from your eyes—then might as well just give up already.

Although I will grant you that CBS is basically gone as it’s being gutted from within after money and pressure from without.

[CMRivdogs]

Sounds like something out of a Mel Brooks movie 

 

[Tigerbomb13]

2 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Sounds like something out of a Mel Brooks movie 

 

Pure incompetence 

[Dan Gilmore]

FBI DEI hires: Dumb, Egotistical, Incompetent 

[smr-nj]

It’s funny. I needed a chuckle.

[chasfh]

5 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Sounds like something out of a Mel Brooks movie 

 

50/50 they knew it was gonna happen and did it on purpose 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

You got that right!

 

[chasfh]

6 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

You got that right!

 

Total catnip for the red hats.

[Dan Gilmore]

And the logical other shoe dropping…if you like him, you aren’t smart. But yeah, that won’t sink in to them.

[Motown Bombers]

Thread

 

[smr-nj]

But I’m sure ICE hires only the best people! The smartest!  they’re not in it for the bonus money! They’re Patriots doing their patriotic duty joining ICE, and they’re always educated! They know all about things!

Come on.

Just like their fearless leader, the orange menace….. Stupidity is preferred. Ignorance is preferred. Cruelty is the point.
Who can be surprised by any of this? Absolutely no one.

[LaceyLou]

7 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Sounds like something out of a Mel Brooks movie 

 

This is heartbreaking. It's also infuriating in that the shelter has to ask for donations from the public for basic supplies. Shouldn't whoever caused them to be exposed to the meth be providing these things??

I suspect there will be no consequences for anybody except the victims. 

[CMRivdogs]

2 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

You got that right!

 

 And he's not crazy about smart people.

 

[CMRivdogs]

Big macho guys playing soldier. Nothing but snowflakes 

 

[oblong]

5 hours ago, Dan Gilmore said:

And the logical other shoe dropping…if you like him, you aren’t smart. But yeah, that won’t sink in to them.

“I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down.’” - Bob Newhart 

[pfife]

Thanks archief and Lolic 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/food/coffee-prices

[chasfh]

6 hours ago, smr-nj said:

But I’m sure ICE hires only the best people! The smartest!  they’re not in it for the bonus money! They’re Patriots doing their patriotic duty joining ICE, and they’re always educated! They know all about things!

Come on.

Just like their fearless leader, the orange menace….. Stupidity is preferred. Ignorance is preferred. Cruelty is the point.
Who can be surprised by any of this? Absolutely no one.

They may be stupid and ignorant about a lot of things, but when it comes to exercising cruelty, those ICErs are as smart and knowledgeable and resourceful about how to do so as required by the job.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, pfife said:

Thanks archief and Lolic 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/food/coffee-prices

Just in case they refuse to click through:

 

Coffee drinkers are in for a jolt long before their first sip.

Retail coffee prices in the United States in August jumped nearly 21% compared to the same month last year — the largest annual jump since October 1997, according to the latest Consumer Price Index, released Thursday. On a monthly basis, coffee prices rose 4%, the most in 14 years.

Coffee drinkers have President Donald Trump’s tariffs to blame, in part. The United States is largest importer of coffee in the world and it relies on foreign countries for the beans, given there are very few places it can grow domestically. Nearly all – 99% – of coffee consumed in the United States is imported, according to the National Coffee Association.

One of the most heavily-tariffed countries is Brazil, which is the United States’ top source for coffee, according to US Department of Agriculture data. Brazilian imports face 50% tariffs, among the highest that the US levies on any country’s goods, because of Trump’s anger over the trial and recent conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, predicts coffee prices “will easily exceed the record as the full effects of the 50% tariffs levied on Brazil last month work their way onto store shelves.”

Other coffee bean-growing countries are also being slammed with tariffs. Colombia, the second-biggest exporter based on net weight, has a 10% tariff, and Vietnam, the third-biggest, has a 20% tariff.

[Screwball]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

“I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down.’” - Bob Newhart 

Reminds me of a funny story. The dive bar I go to in has a bunch of dedicated music people, many are musicians and played in bands. They are primarily classic rock to some hair band stuff. Hardly any country. From time to time people drift in and play some country stuff (we are in the sticks) but they don't mind. But there is one guy...He is in love with one of the bartenders so he comes at least once a week. He's around 75ish, she's about 60. Never gonna happen. Giggle.

He plays these awful sappy country songs - about 7 - over and over and over. We counted one day, 7 songs, 3 played two times, another 3. Their jukebox can be accessed via app on our phones. You can play a song from across town if you want. We decided that once we heard one song twice - it was game over. It cost extra, but you can fast pass it to the top. Between the two of us fast passing his stuff with our Santana, Molley Hatchet, Gun's & Roses to start (message sent - he's looking at the queue on is phone as are we) - and we follow with Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida long version and then Frampton Do you Feel Like We Do. That's over a half hour. 

Not a happy camper, left with songs in the queue. The next week as we understand it, he came early, punished those people and went out the door when me and the other guy came in. We think he's on to us. Giggle. I guess he's filthy rich, big time electrician and farmer. He can probably break us, but we won round one. The one bartender was pissed because he gives her 20 bucks.

Speaking of coffee. I had a picture of both, but I lost one. This one is from a little grocery store in NW Ohio in a town of maybe 7k people. I'm about 20 minutes away in another little burg of 18k and you can buy the exact same thing for $15.99 or $12.99 with a Kroger card. Unreal. WTF?

[oblong]

Do you feel like I do was a jukebox staple for me back in my dive bar years about 20 years ago.  Every Monday I'd walk up to a place and meet two buddies.  That's what having small kids at home do to you.  Started with Monday night football and free pizza at halftime then we just kept going for about 5 years.  

[romad1]

Listening to David Frum the other day and he said the Tariffs are a violation of the Article 1 of the Constitution because they give the Executive a funding mechanism separate from Congress.  I gather there will/could be a challenge to them on that grounds.  I guess if Congress took the controls over who is tariffed it might be ok.  

Congress has ceded so many of its prerogatives to this clown show

[Deleterious]

That CNN article is not well done.  The Tariffs are an issue for sure, but the major problem for coffee prices right now is drought.  

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/17/nx-s1-5228008/coffee-prices-brazil-drought-weather

Quote

That's because Brazil's coffee harvest is coming in short — by as much as a quarter, according to one of the top coffee traders.

Brazil is by far the biggest grower of the world's most popular coffee bean, called arabica. It goes into most ground or roasted coffee. Brazil's farmers this year faced one of the worst droughts on record.

"It eventually started to rain … but they had determined so much of the drought damage was irreversible," said long-time importer John Cossette with Royal Coffee in California. "And that's going to affect next year's crop pretty significantly."

These are the two most imported beans in the US.  Again, this is from December.

Quote

Vietnam is the top grower of the second-most popular bean, called robusta, which is often used in instant coffee. Growers in Vietnam also faced a severe drought followed by heavier-than-usual rains. Scientists say climate change is shifting weather patterns in these coffee-growing regions.

Over the past year, the cost of arabica has jumped around 70%, while robusta has doubled in price. Last week, arabica prices on the futures market surpassed the previous record from 1977 of $3.35 per pound. It's not all because the industry needs the beans; financial speculators, too, have been cashing in on the chaos.

Same thing with beef prices.  The tariffs are contributing to a problem that was there long before they were introduced.  Beef prices have been rising steadily since 2021.  Drought again is a big problem, with US herd size the smallest it has been in decades.

Low herd inventory ripples through U.S. beef market

Quote

The national cattle herd continues to hover at historically low numbers following bouts of drought across major beef-producing states, including back-to-back years of extreme drought across Texas. 

The national beef herd hit a 73-year low in January 2024 at 28.2 million head. Beef herd numbers have increased slightly to 28.7 million head, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture July cattle inventory report, but cow-calf prices continue to reach new heights. 

Cleere said feeding cattle to heavier weights has helped make up for lower cattle numbers, but beef production is down year-over-year overall. Cleere said the herd size coupled with strong consumer demand at the retail level has continued to fuel historically high prices for cow-calf producers.

 

[CMRivdogs]

56 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Listening to David Frum the other day and he said the Tariffs are a violation of the Article 1 of the Constitution because they give the Executive a funding mechanism separate from Congress.  I gather there will/could be a challenge to them on that grounds.  I guess if Congress took the controls over who is tariffed it might be ok.  

Congress has ceded so many of its prerogatives to this clown show

I did a bit of digging. Technically Frum is correct, however Congress basically ceded a lot of the tariff laws to the executive branch. Going back to Smoot Hawley in the 1930s, and other tariff acts in the '60s and 70s, Congress has given the President the power to impose and negotiate tariffs.

If you take the originalist's view Trump has overstepped his boundaries. The history of the courts says otherwise, they gave up that power a while ago.

Or at least that's what ChatGPT tells me

And since we have long agreed that this Congress has given up basically all designs at actual governing....and the Supreme Court has turned itself into a pretzel.....

[ewsieg]

There is a valid argument about the executive simply having the power as congress ceded it, and without a congress that will force authority back, it's Trumps best bet to be able to continue this.   

But, ceding power once, doesn't mean you cede all power.  For instance you can give permission to the police to search your car without a warrant, but if you feel they are overstepping the search, you can demand that they stop which would require them to get a search warrant to continue.  Smoot Hawley only lasted a couple of years before congress stepped in and make changes which negated it.  Ultimately I feel SCOTUS should side with a repeal of these, especially when there was no legitimate emergency which POTUS referenced to start them.

Guess we'll see.