Forgiveness Sunday

On the eve of the Great Fast, I ask forgiveness for anything I may have done or said, especially on this blog, that may have been a source of injury or offense. The last year has been a trying one on many different levels. The last several months have been especially so. Strong opinions have been expressed, which have at times sparked vigorous discussions. I think this is a good time to step back and disengage from the affairs of the world, at least briefly. Absent something extremely urgent there will be no blogging this week on any topic unrelated to the Fast. 

Ooops

Citigroup mistakenly credited a customer’s account with $81 trillion last year when it meant to send just $280.

The payment, which took place last April, was missed by two employees but caught 90 minutes after it was posted, the Financial Times first reported Friday. It was reversed several hours later and reported to the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a “near miss.”

Read the rest here.

A Day of American Infamy

In August 1941, about four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill aboard warships in Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay and agreed to the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration by the world’s leading democratic powers on “common principles” for a postwar world.

Among its key points: “no aggrandizement, territorial or other”; “sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them”; “freedom from fear and want”; freedom of the seas; “access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.”

The charter, and the alliance that came of it, is a high point of American statesmanship. On Friday in the Oval Office, the world witnessed the opposite. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s embattled democratic leader, came to Washington prepared to sign away anything he could offer President Trump except his nation’s freedom, security and common sense. For that, he was rewarded with a lecture on manners from the most mendacious vulgarian and ungracious host ever to inhabit the White House.

If Roosevelt had told Churchill to sue for peace on any terms with Adolf Hitler and to fork over Britain’s coal reserves to the United States in exchange for no American security guarantees, it might have approximated what Trump did to Zelensky. Whatever one might say about how Zelensky played his cards poorly — either by failing to behave with the degree of all-fours sycophancy that Trump demands or to maintain his composure in the face of JD Vance’s disingenuous provocations — this was a day of American infamy. 

[Emphasis mine A/O]

Where do we go from here?

If there’s one silver lining to this fiasco, it’s that Zelensky did not sign the agreement on Ukrainian minerals that was forced on him this month by Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary who’s the Tom Hagen character in this protection-racket administration. The United States is entitled to some kind of reward for helping Ukraine defend itself — and Ukraine’s destruction of much of Russia’s military might should top the list, followed by the innovation Ukraine demonstrated in pioneering revolutionary forms of low-cost drone warfare, which the Pentagon will be keen to emulate.

Read the rest here.

(Link fixed.)

Quote of the day...

My fellow Americans, we are in completely uncharted waters, led by a president, who — well, I cannot believe he is a Russian agent, but he sure plays one on TV.​ -Thomas Friedman

Source

First kill all the lawyers

After President Trump lost the 2020 election, his allies thought about what to do differently if he returned to power. One lesson from his first term, they decided, was that government lawyers, even very conservative Republican political appointees, had frequently raised legal objections to ideas he or his White House advisers put forward.

If they got another shot, they said in campaign-era interviews, they would install much more permissive gatekeepers. Now, a month into a term that has been defined by Mr. Trump’s radical challenges to the basic structure of government, his administration is moving aggressively to curb a critical internal check: independent legal thinking.

His appointees have swiftly cleared the Justice Department’s top ranks of career lawyers, even as Mr. Trump stocked leading posts with his own defense attorneys. His aides sidelined the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, bypassing its traditional role of vetting draft executive orders and giving it no acting chief. Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi added to the purge by firing the top lawyer at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This subjugation of lawyers has now extended to the Pentagon. Late last Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the top judge advocates general for the military. As three-star uniformed lawyers, they give independent and nonpolitical advice about the international laws of war and domestic legal constraints Congress has imposed on the armed forces.

Read the rest here.

In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold

She asked too many questions that the president didn’t like. She reported too much about criticism of his administration. And so, before long, Yelena Tregubova was pushed out of the Kremlin press pool that covered President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

In the scheme of things, it was a small moment, all but forgotten nearly 25 years later. But it was also a telling one. Mr. Putin did not care for challenges. The rest of the press pool got the message and eventually became what the Kremlin wanted it to be: a collection of compliant reporters who knew to toe the line or else they would pay a price.

The decision by President Trump’s team to handpick which news organizations can participate in the White House press pool that questions him in the Oval Office or travels with him on Air Force One is a step in a direction that no modern American president of either party has ever taken. The White House said it was a privilege, not a right, to have such access, and that it wanted to open space for “new media” outlets, including those that just so happen to support Mr. Trump.

But after the White House’s decision to bar the venerable Associated Press as punishment for its coverage, the message is clear: Any journalist can be expelled from the pool at any time for any reason. There are worse penalties, as Ms. Tregubova would later discover, but in Moscow, at least, her eviction was an early step down a very slippery slope.

The United States is not Russia by any means, and any comparisons risk going too far. Russia barely had any history with democracy then, while American institutions have endured for nearly 250 years. But for those of us who reported there a quarter century ago, Mr. Trump’s Washington is bringing back memories of Mr. Putin’s Moscow in the early days.

The news media is being pressured. Lawmakers have been tamed. Career officials deemed disloyal are being fired. Prosecutors named by a president who promised “retribution” are targeting perceived adversaries and dropping cases against allies or others who do his bidding. Billionaire tycoons who once considered themselves masters of the universe are prostrating themselves before him.

Judges who temporarily block administration decisions that they believe may be illegal are being threatened with impeachment. The uniformed military, which resisted being used as a political instrument in Mr. Trump’s first term, has now been purged of its highest-ranking officers and lawyers. And a president who calls himself “the king,” ostensibly in jest, is teasing that he may try to stay in power beyond the limits of the Constitution.

Some versions of this are not new, of course. Other presidents have taken actions that looked heavy-handed or put pressure on opponents. No president in my experience at the White House, which goes back to 1996, particularly liked news coverage of him, and certainly there have been times when journalists were penalized for their reporting.

After an article on whether Vice President Dick Cheney might be dropped from the re-election ticket in 2004, The New York Times found it no longer had a seat on Air Force Two. President Barack Obama’s team tried to exclude Fox News from a briefing offered to other networks, only to back down when the rest of the press corps stood up for Fox.

But those relatively contained disputes were nothing like what is happening now. The White House takeover of the pool — a rotating group of about 13 correspondents, photographers and technicians given close access to the president so they can report back to their colleagues — upends the way the president has been covered for generations.

The alarm has been felt by media outlets across the spectrum. Just as the other networks backed Fox against the Obama administration, Fox has backed The Associated Press against the Trump White House and its senior White House correspondent criticized the pool takeover. The precedent being set now, certainly, could be used by a future Democratic administration against media that it disfavored.

Read the rest here. 

Crypto is near bear market territory

Crypto is flirting with, or potentially has crossed into bear market territory. A bear market is usually defined as a market index or asset class dropping by 20% from its nominal high trading value. Usually this is based on the price at the close of trading days. However most crypto currencies trade 24/7 so that complicates things a bit. That said, the by far largest crypto currency is Bitcoin  which reached a nominal high just north of $103k per unit in the aftermath of Donald Trump's re-election. During intraday trading today it fell to ~$82.2k which would meet the technical definition for a bear market. As of this comment, it is currently trading at just over $83k.  

Economists are sounding the alarm

Donald Trump’s assault on the US federal government and the world’s interlinked manufacturing system have together reached an economic tipping point.

“It seems almost unavoidable that we are headed for a deep, deep recession,” said Jesse Rothstein, Berkeley professor and former chief economist at the US labour department.

Once the pace of job losses crosses a critical line, the multiplier effects can snowball suddenly.

Prof Rothstein said monthly non-farm payrolls – the barometer of US economic health watched closely by markets – could turn viciously negative by late spring, contracting at rates surpassed only during the worst months of Covid and the Lehman crisis in 2008.

“I think we’re going to see historically large drops. Losses of 400,000 a month are not implausible because people are getting nervous out there.

“It is not just the federal employees being fired: it’s all the other people worried they could be next, so they are cutting back too,” he told The Telegraph.

Torsten Slok, of Apollo Global, said layoffs could approach 1m after factoring in the likely chain reaction through contractors. “We are starting to worry about the downside risks to the economy and markets,” he said.

Mr Slok said it is a mystery as to why credit spreads and equities are still so well-behaved when the US Economic Policy Uncertainty Index was now higher than at any time during the great recession.

Read the rest here.

Hello Utah...

"This is RFK Jr, the Secretary of Health calling. I wanted to talk to you about something important..."

RIP: Clint Hill

An American hero. He spent much of his life consumed by guilt (unfairly) for not being a split second faster.

Trump has switched sides

The US formally voted against a UN resolution labeling Russia as an aggressor state and demanding their withdrawal from Ukraine. All while demanding roughly half of Ukraine's GDP and natural resources in exchange for what one administration official described as "implied security guarantees." Trump's track record does not suggest much respect for the word "implied."  

Never in my life did I think I would live to see a US president, of either political party, reduce himself and this country to being the shoe-shine boy for a KGB dictator bent on restoring the Soviet Empire by force and terror. Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave.

Attention NATO; the United States of America has left the building. 

Boston in 1903

Sunday of the Last Judgement (Meatfare)

Pope Francis' Condition Worsens

ROME — Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.

The 88-year-old Francis, who has been hospitalized for a week with a complex lung infection, also received blood transfusions after tests showed a condition associated with anemia, the Vatican said in a late update.

“The Holy Father continues to be alert and spent the day in an armchair although in more pain than yesterday. At the moment the prognosis is reserved,” the statement said.

Earlier, doctors said that Francis was battling a pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection that doctors say remains touch-and-go and will keep him hospitalized for at least another week.

The Vatican carried on with its Holy Year celebrations without the pope on Saturday.

In a brief earlier update on Saturday, Francis slept well overnight.

But doctors have warned that the main threat facing Francis would be the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. As of Friday, there was no evidence of any sepsis, and Francis was responding to the various drugs he is taking, the pope’s medical team said in their first in-depth update on the pope’s condition.

“He is not out of danger,” said his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone. “So like all fragile patients I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced.”

Francis, who has chronic lung disease, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened.

Doctors first diagnosed the complex viral, bacterial and fungal respiratory tract infection and then the onset of pneumonia in both lungs. They prescribed “absolute rest” and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, along with supplemental oxygen when he needs it.

Read the rest here

Crime & Punishment

Pope Francis, sensing he is close to death, moves to protect his legacy (Updates as they come in)

...Even if Francis survives his latest illness, observers see this as a likely turning point as Francis shifts focus from making headway on reform to locking it in. “He may not die now but of course he eventually will,” said one Vatican official. “We all die — and he’s an 88-year-old man with lung problems.”

Read the rest here.

Update: The Vatican reports that the Pope has double pneumonia. This is in addition to his previously diagnosed polymicrobial infection. Given his age and history of health problems, I think this must now be regarded as a serious medical situation. 

Update II: Via Rorate a report that RAI (Italy's public broadcasting giant) has placed it's Vatican broadcast service under alert for a potential major news announcement. 

Update III: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has visited the Pope and says he is alert and in good spirits.

Update IV: The Vatican reported on Wednesday evening a "slight improvement" in the Pope's condition.

Moving Fast, Breaking Things, and the Oath of Office

In a remark that might seem to sum up Congress’s current approach to its oversight role, Sen. Thom Tillis (R‑NC) acknowledged the other day that the Trump administration’s opening moves to cut spending and do away with agencies without congressional approval were in some cases not lawful, but said, “Nobody should bellyache about that.” In particular, he said, “That runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense. But it’s not uncommon for presidents to flex a little bit on where they can spend and where they can stop spending.” (I briefly summarized the ongoing lawbreaking spree in this space on Monday, and further likely illegalities have come to light since then.)

One group of thinkers who were given to bellyache when officials acted in unconstitutional ways were the framers of the Constitution, who had in recent memory the “long train of abuses and usurpations” committed in the name of the British crown. To guard against a repeat, they provided in Article II, Section 1, that the president take the following oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” In Article VI, along with declaring that the Constitution “shall be the supreme law of the land,” they provided that Sen. Tillis, along with all his legislative colleagues, “be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution.” 

A lot of good that seems to have done. 

Read the rest here.

Trump Wants Ukraine as a US Colony

Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.

The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.

The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025. It states that the US and Ukraine should form a joint investment fund to ensure that “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.

The agreement covers the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”, leaving it unclear what else might be encompassed. “This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles,” it states.

The US will take 50pc of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, and 50pc of the financial value of “all new licences issued to third parties” for the future monetisation of resources. There will be “a lien on such revenues” in favour of the US. “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children’,” said one source close to the negotiations.

It states that “for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals”. Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy. The fund “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects. And so forth, in this vein. It seems to have been written by private lawyers, not the US departments of state or commerce.

Read the rest here.

I think we now what Trump's "peace plan" is. It is the partitioning of Ukraine between Russia and the US. Reminds me of the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939.

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

In a rare coincidence Pascha (Easter) falls on the same day this year, April 20th, for both Orthodox and Western Christians. It will not happen again until 2034. Today also marks the beginning of "meatfare" week.

Quote of the day...

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” 

 -Widely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte and just posted by President Donald Trump on his social media account.

‘Canada First’ Conservatives primed for Trump fight

OTTAWA — Canada’s Conservative leader used a rally in Ottawa on Saturday to deliver a message to Donald Trump. “Let me be clear: We will never be the 51st state,” said Pierre Poilievre, warning that he is prepared to defend Canadians against the president at all costs.

“We will bear any burden and pay any price to protect the sovereignty and independence of our country,” he said.

The populist leader had been long favored to win Canada’s next federal election, which could come as soon as spring. But the race has been complicated by the arrival of Trump and by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to step down as soon as his Liberal Party chooses a new leader next month.

Poilievre, who has appealed to Canadians by tackling complex issues with pithy slogans, used a Flag Day rally to reset his campaign in response to tariff threats that have scrambled the political landscape.

Trump has pledged to slap Canada with 25 percent tariffs in response to a growing list of grievances. It started with complaints about what Canadian leaders say are small amounts of fentanyl and illegal migration entering the U.S. from Canada, but has since expanded to include banking, and the trade deficit.

“We are slow to anger and quick to forgive. But never confuse our kindness for weakness,” Poilievre said about Canada. “We are mild-mannered and made of steel.”

Poilievre had focused his “change” campaign on overturning Trudeau’s carbon policy. However since the start of Trump’s trade war a new ballot box question has emerged: Which Canadian leader will best defend their interests against the U.S.?

At his “Canada First” rally, Poilievre tackled the question head-on, laying out his vision for the country should he become prime minister, while leaning heavily on Canadian symbols and its history. He promised to “end cancel culture,” restore national monuments and make it a criminal offense to deface them, to expand Canada’s military and to update the citizenship oath with more patriotic language.

“Sometimes it does take a threat to remind us what we have, what we could lose and what we could become,” Poilievre said, pointing to an upsurge in patriotism.

The Conservative leader said Trump has two options: Work with Canada, or lose it as a friend.

As he defined the choices, Poilievre spoke directly to Americans, saying their “energy-hungry future” can not exist without Canada or its oil, gas and critical minerals. He argued that America’s defense is dependent on Canada’s North.

“Carry out the unprovoked attack on our economy and your consumers will pay more and your workers will make less,” Poilievre said. “Gas prices will skyrocket. You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbor, forced to match tariff with tariff and to seek friends elsewhere. Both our economies will weaken, leaving less money for defense and security and our enemies will grow stronger.”

Read the rest here.

When you manage to p*** off Canada, you know you have accomplished something. And oh my but they are not happy. Canadians are boycotting American goods, cancelling vacations to the US and booing our national anthem at sporting events. Since the Second World War the Unites States has managed to accumulate a staggering amount of good will globally. I'm not sure what their objective is, but the current administration with it's bullying behavior and rhetoric seems intent on pouring gasoline all over that and tossing a match. 

More Admirals than Ships?

Pope Francis Hospitalized

Pope Francis, who was admitted to a hospital in Rome for bronchitis, is in “fair” condition with a “respiratory tract infection,” the Vatican said Friday in what is the latest in a string of ailments that have raised concerns about the 88-year-old pontiff’s health.

Earlier on Friday, the Vatican said Pope Francis was admitted to Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome. He was there “for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue in a hospital setting treatment for bronchitis that is still ongoing,” the Vatican said. They later confirmed he was in the facility, and that he had canceled his meetings for the next three days.

Francis has made a number of visits to the hospital in recent years, and received abdominal surgery in 2023. He has been struggling with bronchitis in recent weeks and has asked aides to read speeches and addresses.

Read the rest here.

The Principled Resignation

Take notes please. This is how it's done.

What we have here is a Justice Department using its prosecutorial powers and discretion as an instrument of political extortion. The DOJ should be sanctioned. The Attorney General, and all those involved in this affront to the rule of law, should be disbarred for official misconduct and corruption. As much as I think Mayor Adams was very probably guilty as sin, the judge should dismiss all charges against him with prejudice to prevent any further abuse of power by the DOJ in that direction. Whether or not these orders originated in the White House is unclear. Unfortunately, with this Congress no investigation is likely to be undertaken. 

Trump Names His Price

American support for Ukraine has a price tag: $500B worth of mineral riches, said U.S. President Donald Trump. In the second part of an interview with Fox News that aired late Monday, the Republican said the U.S. should get a slice of Ukraine’s vast natural resources as compensation for the hundreds of billions it has spent on helping Kyiv resist Russia's full-scale invasion. “I told them [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent like $500B worth of rare earth. And they've essentially agreed to do that so at least we don’t feel stupid,” Trump said.

Read the rest here.

I love my country, though there are a few aspects of America's distant past that do not exactly fill me with pride. I expect that is broadly true everywhere. And of course, we all have the routine differences in political matters. But until quite recently, and conceding the exception of legalized abortion on demand, I have never felt outright shame for my country for anything it has done in my lifetime. This is a new, and altogether unwelcome sensation. 

Breaking: Trump to Order DOJ to Cease Enforcement of Federal Bribery Law

President Donald Trump is set Monday to sign an executive order directing the Department of Justice to pause enforcing a nearly half-century-old law that prohibits American companies and foreign firms from bribing officials of foreign governments to obtain or retain business.

The Authoritarian Checklist

What are the Core Attributes of Authoritarianism?

• Rejecting established democratic rules and norms.
• Denying the legitimacy of opponents.
• Tolerating or encouraging political violence.
• Curtailing the civil liberties of opponents.
• Breaking down social cohesion to divide and rule a society.

What are the Top 11 Elements of the Authoritarian Playbook?

• Divide and rule: Foment mistrust and fear in the population.
• Spread lies and conspiracy theories: Undermine the public’s belief in truth.
• Destroy checks and balances: Use legal or pseudo-legal rationales to gut institutions, weaken opposition, and/or declare national emergencies to seize unconstitutional powers.
• Demonize opponents: Undermine the public’s trust in those actors and institutions that hold the state accountable. Intimidate or suppress news/media outlets that fail to demonstrate sufficient loyalty to the regime.
• Undermine civil and political rights for the unaligned: Actively suppress free speech, the right to assembly and protest and the rights of minority groups.
• Blame minorities, immigrants, and “outsiders” for a country’s problems: Exploit national humiliation while promising to restore national glory.
• Reward loyalists and punish defectors: Make in-group members fearful to voice dissension.
• Encourage or condone violence to advance political goals: Dehumanize opposition and/or out-groups to justify violence against them.
• Organize mass rallies to keep supporters mobilized against made-up threats: Use fearmongering and hate speech to consolidate in-group identity and solidarity.
• Make people feel like they are powerless to change things: Solutions will only come from the top. 
• Place fanatical loyalists in charge of the armed forces, law enforcement and all other aspects of state security. Their loyalty is to the regime/leader, not the rule of law or the constitution.

At this point, I believe the Trump Administration meets most, but not quite all of the above criteria.

Trump, Vance Question Authority of the Courts

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Trump administration officials are openly questioning the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on executive power as the new president’s sweeping agenda faces growing pushback from the courts.

Over the past 24 hours, officials ranging from billionaire Elon Musk to Vice President JD Vance have not only criticized a federal judge’s decision early Saturday that blocks Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records, but have also attacked the legitimacy of judicial oversight, a fundamental pillar of American democracy, which is based on the separation of powers.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning.

That post came hours after Musk said overnight that the judge who ruled against him should be impeached.

“A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!” said Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with rooting out waste across the federal government.

Read the rest here.

The constitutional crisis is accelerating, almost by the minute.

We Are in a Constitutional Crisis

In his first term, President Trump seemed to relish ripping through the norms and standards of self-restraint that his predecessors had respected. Three weeks into his second term, hand-wringing about norms seems quaint.

Other presidents have occasionally ignored or claimed a right to bypass particular statutes. But Mr. Trump has opened the throttle on defying legal limits.

“We are well past euphemism about ‘pushing the limits,’ ‘stretching the envelope’ and the like,” said Peter M. Shane, who is a legal scholar in residence at New York University and the author of a casebook on separation-of-powers law. The array of legal constraints Mr. Trump has violated, Mr. Shane added, amounts to “programmatic sabotage and rampant lawlessness.”

Mr. Trump has effectively nullified laws, such as by ordering the Justice Department to refrain from enforcing a ban on the wildly popular app TikTok and by blocking migrants from invoking a statute allowing them to request asylum. He moved to effectively shutter a federal agency Congress created and tried to freeze congressionally approved spending, including most foreign aid. He summarily fired prosecutors, inspectors general and board members of independent agencies in defiance of legal rules against arbitrary removal.

More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed so far challenging moves by the Trump administration, though many overlap: At least nine, for example, concern his bid to change the constitutional understanding that babies born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents are citizens.

Courts have temporarily blocked that edict, along with his blanket freeze on disbursing $3 trillion in domestic grants from money Congress appropriated. And a federal judge has temporarily blocked the transfer of a transgender federal inmate to a male prison, pausing a move in line with one of Mr. Trump’s executive orders.

But those obstacles so far have been rare in Mr. Trump’s blitzkrieg, which has raised the question of whether, in his return to office, he and his advisers feel constrained by the rule of law.

This week, Mr. Trump moved to effectively dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and fold its functions into the State Department, making Secretary of State Marco Rubio its acting director. He had already crippled U.S.A.I.D. by imposing a “temporary” freeze on disbursing foreign aid that Congress appropriated, which as time passes is increasingly at odds with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

Since the first Congress, it has been the legislative branch — not the president — that decides how to structure the executive branch, creating departments and agencies, giving them functions and providing them with funds to carry out those missions. And Congress has enacted laws that say U.S.A.I.D. is to exist as an “independent establishment,” not as part of any executive department.

No matter. On Monday, Mr. Trump was asked whether he needed an act of Congress to do away with the agency. He dismissed that suggestion and insulted the officials who work there.

“I don’t think so, not when it comes to fraud,” Mr. Trump said. “If there’s fraud — these people are lunatics — and if — if it comes to fraud, you wouldn’t have an act of Congress. And I’m not sure that you would anyway.”

Rumors abound that Mr. Trump is weighing executive actions to at least partly dismantle the Education Department, another component of the government that Congress has mandated exist by law.

Mr. Trump and his appointees have also been firing people in naked defiance of statutes Congress enacted to protect against the arbitrary removal of certain officials, like civil servants or board members at independent agencies.

For example, Mr. Trump shut down three agencies by ousting Democratic members before their terms had ended. That effectively hobbled the agencies, the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, because they were left with too few officials to have a quorum to act.

Congress created those agencies to be independent of the White House, and all three have been understood to have forms of protections limiting the president’s ability to remove their leaders without a good cause, like misconduct, although only the labor board statute says that. Regardless, Mr. Trump flouted the limit.

Read the rest here.

Bret Stephens: Is This the End of Pax Americana?

Back in the 1990s, it was fashionable to complain about what Hubert Vedrine, then the French foreign minister, called American hyperpuissance, or “hyperpower.” The left-leaning diplomat believed the “question at the center of the world’s current powers” was the United States’ “domination of attitudes, concepts, language and modes of life.” What was needed, he argued, was a “balanced multipolarism,” which might counteract American “unilateralism,” “unipolarism” and “uniformity.”

With President Trump, Vedrine has finally gotten his wish, though probably not in the way he would have imagined, much less liked.

It isn’t exactly easy to make sense of the Trump administration’s foreign policy after its first bombastic weeks in office. Does it have a governing concept, beyond a taste for drama and the assertion, based on scant evidence, that this or that neighbor or ally has treated us “very unfairly”?

In an intriguing guest essay in The Times this week, Rutgers University historian Jennifer Mittelstadt made the case that Trump was a “sovereigntist,” a tradition she dated to 1919 and the Republican rejection, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, of U.S. membership in the League of Nations. Sovereigntists, she noted, also looked askance at U.S. membership in NATO, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and especially the Carter administration’s decision to relinquish the Panama Canal.

That seems about right. Sovereigntism means a country doing what it wants to do within only the limits of what it can do. It means the end of self-restraint within a framework of mutual restraint. It means an indifference to the behavior of other states, however cruel or dangerous, so long as it doesn’t impinge on us. It means a reversion to the notorious claim, uttered (according to Thucydides) by the Athenians before their sacking of the neutral city of Melos, that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

Read the rest here.

Own Goal

The proprietor of the Gedling Inn recently offered a free pint (beer) for every goal scored by local favorite Nottingham Forest soccer club during the game with Brighton. Soccer (the Brits call it football) is not typically a high scoring game. Alas, this turned into a very generous act when the match turned into an unusual 7-0 blow out for the Reds. Apparently, a very good time was had by all. The total cost to the establishment was estimated at near ₤1,500. But the owner, a Mrs. Webster, was a good sport declaring how thrilled she was that the team was doing well. 

Source

Because no one should have to face capitalism alone

Trump Launches Trade War with China, Mexico & Canada (JP Morgan Chase Stockpiles Gold)

President Donald Trump has signed tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and China, the White House said Saturday, raising the risk of a trade war with America’s closest trading partners and threatening to drive up prices on everything from cars to avocados.

It is unclear when the tariffs will take effect.

Canadian energy products would have a lower tariff rate of 10%.

Trump said he was imposing the tariffs because he claimed the countries were allowing fentanyl to come into the U.S. More than 107,000 people died from drug overdose in 2023, with nearly 70% of those deaths from opioids, including fentanyl. Trump also said the tariffs were in response to a trade deficit between the U.S. and the three countries because the U.S. imports more from them than it exports.

Economists across the political spectrum expect tariffs to increase what consumers pay for a range of goods, including vehicles, electronics, produce and lumber. Tariffs are paid by companies importing goods into the U.S., similar to a tax.

Read the rest here

Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase is airlifting $4 billion in gold bullion to its New York vaults.

Richard Williamson Has Died

The schismatic former SSPX Catholic bishop (and antisemite/Holocaust denier) was 84. 

Kyrie eleison. 

Even Progressives are Starting to Worry About the Debt

The 119th Congress began, as it so often has in recent years, with calls from Republican politicians for wrestling down the national debt, which is near a record level relative to the size of the economy.

But this time, the G.O.P. had company: Progressive economists and budget wonks, who have often dismissed finger-wagging about debt levels as a pretext for slashing spending on programs for the poor, are starting to ring alarm bells as well.

What’s changed? In large part, long-term interest rates look unlikely to recede as quickly as had been hoped, forcing the federal government to make larger interest payments. And the Trump administration has promised to extend and expand its 2017 tax cuts, which will cost trillions if not matched by spending reductions.

“I find it easier to stay calm about this threat when I think the interest rate is low and steady, and I think in the past year or so that steadiness has been dented,” said Jared Bernstein, who led the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden administration. “If one party refuses to raise revenues, and the Democrats go along more than is fiscally healthy, that’s also a big part of the problem.”

To be clear, conservative warnings on the debt have generally been met with little action over the past two decades. A paper by two political scientists and an economist recently concluded that after at least trying to constrain borrowing in the 1980s and 1990s, Republicans have “given up the pretense” of meaningful deficit reduction. Democrats and Republicans alike tend to express more concerns about fiscal responsibility when their party is out of power.

Read the rest here.

Bret Stephens- D.E.I. Will Not Be Missed

In December 2015 the Obama administration decided to allow women to serve in all combat roles. “There will be no exceptions,” Ashton Carter, then the secretary of defense, announced. Women would be accepted as “Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry,” among other demanding roles previously open only to men.

As for physical standards, those would not change: “There must be no quotas or perception thereof,” Carter said.

In some ways, the policy has produced inspiring results. More than 140 women have completed the Army’s elite Ranger School, and a few have passed the Marines’ Infantry Officer Course (though none, as yet, have become SEALs). Women serve with distinction in other combat roles, including as fighter pilots and tank commanders.

In other ways, however, the policy has realized the worst fears of its early critics. Though it has elevated women who meet the same physical standards as their male counterparts, it has also led to an erosion of standards. From the initial laudable goal — equality of opportunity for all, regardless of gender — the military has been sliding toward something else: equality in outcomes. That is what today is usually meant by the word “equity,” at least in the context of diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I.

Take the Army’s efforts to create gender-neutral fitness requirements, known as the Army Combat Fitness Test. The test, developed over a decade, was designed to be rigorous, requiring soldiers of either sex to meet physical standards appropriate to the roles they might perform — with the toughest requirements for jobs like artillery soldiers, which require a lot of muscle.

But that caused a problem: Women were failing the test at noticeably higher rates, according to a RAND study. Among active-duty enlisted soldiers, the fitness test had a pass rate of 92 percent among men but only 52 percent among women. (Female officers did better, with a pass rate of 72 percent.) Democratic senators, including New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, were also putting pressure on the Army to delay implementation of the test, arguing, as The Washington Post reported in 2020, that it “could undermine the goal of creating a diverse force.”

The Biden administration yielded to this complaint.

Read the rest here.

Joe Biden Inducted into Freemasonry

Via Rorate comes this report that the 46th President of the United States (nominally a Catholic) has been inducted into Freemasonry. It is worth noting that this was done by a Prince Hall Lodge, a historically African-American branch of the Craft founded at a time when blacks were generally barred from mainstream Masonry (AF&AM) here in the United States.

Scandalous

Anglican prelate Ian Ernest & Metropolitan Polycarp of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, together with a sitting Pope Francis, administer a "joint" blessing at the ecumenical vespers in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside The Walls (1 of 4 main Basilicas in Rome). 

Anyone conscious of the historic divisions that erected the schism between the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans, will understand the extreme significance of this. 

Does it breed indifferentism? Of course, it does. How could it not? You have 3 men who are presented as Apostolically capable of issuing a blessing upon the congregation, despite the fact that each leads a community of Christians that would mutually understand each other to be in either heresy, schism, or both. 

Read the rest here. 

HT Blog reader John L.

I have my differences with the Old Calendarists (self styled "True Orthodox). But they are not wrong when they point out the degree to which many of the local churches have swallowed the ecumenical Kool-Aid. This should be both shocking and scandalous. Sadly, my guess is that it will get a collective yawn from most of the Orthodox world. 

New Martyrs of Russia

Memory Eternal!

Anastasios Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania has reposed at 95.

The Easy Part May be Over

There are (at least for now) limits to even Donald Trump's ability to govern by decree. In the not too distant future he is going to be facing the threat of default on the national debt while simultaneously pressing to extend his first term tax cuts. Here he may be facing two very powerful obstacles. The first is the greatly diminished, but not yet extinct, fiscal conservative wing of the GOP. There are still several dozen Republicans in Congress who have never once voted to increase the Federal debt limit. They are going to be a hard sell and with their razor thin majorities in both houses of Congress, Republicans may have to do some deal cutting with Democrats to get even a temporary spending bill and short term hike in the debt limit through. 

The second obstacle is the bond market. Interest rates have been drifting up over the last few months, and the Federal Reserve is sending signals that it may not be in a hurry to cut rates. If bond investors start getting nervous about the US Government's ability to get its finances in order, they can make their displeasure known by demanding higher interest rates in order to lend the government money. Given the current level of debt, this could create serious problems fast. The US Government is currently borrowing more money just to pay the interest on the existing debt, than it  is spending on the entirety of the national defense budget annually. Back in the early1990s Bill Clinton's ambitious agenda got almost completely shut down by the so called "bond vigilantes," leading the famed Democratic political guru James Carville to opine that when he dies he wants to come back as the all powerful bond market. Clinton, with a lot of help from a frequently hostile Republican Congress (that actually was fiscally conservative) has gone down in history as the last president to balance the Federal budget. Privately he groused that he had been turned into an "Eisenhower Republican." But when he left office in 2001 we were running surpluses that were being used to pay down the principal on the debt, which in turn meant paying less interest and freeing up more money. Then came George Bush (43) and everything went to the hot stinky bad place. 

Meanwhile Trump is threatening to start trade wars with a not insignificant part of the rest of the world, including countries that we have historically had very close relations with. A tariff war would have immediate and serious consequences, almost certainly spiking inflation and damaging GDP. 

All of which brings to mind the old Chinese curse; "may you live in interesting times." 

Political Silly Season

Periodically one sees really idiotic proposals from political people. Most of the time they are some form of red meat, intended to appeal to the more extreme wing of their party or to provoke people from the other side of the political spectrum. Think of it as the political version of trolling. Here are two recent examples that are going nowhere at the speed of light. 

Mississippi lawmaker introduces 'Contraception Begins at Erection Act'

Montana bill would jail priests for 5 years if they refuse to violate seal of confession

Quote of the day...

Russia: 3 lawyers for Alexei Navalny are jailed

PETUSHKI, Russia (AP) — Three lawyers who once represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were convicted by a court Friday as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent that has reached levels unseen since Soviet times.

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were already in custody and were given sentences ranging from 3 1/2 to five years by a court in the town of Petushki, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Moscow. They were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with extremist groups, as Navalny’s networks were deemed by authorities.

The case was widely seen as a way to increase pressure on the opposition to discourage defense lawyers from taking political cases.

The U.S. State Department condemned the sentences against the lawyers “who were simply doing their jobs to ensure a political prisoner was afforded his right to legal representation, turning defense lawyers into political prisoners themselves,” said spokesman Matthew Miller.

He called it “yet another example of the persecution of defense lawyers by the Kremlin in its effort to undermine human rights, subvert the rule of law, and suppress dissent,” and urged the government to release all political prisoners immediately.

Read the rest here.

Memory Eternal

My step brother has reposed. In your charity please pray for the servant of God Doug and his family who are in shock and deep mourning. His passing was both sudden and unexpected. Thank you.

How Biden’s Inner Circle Protected a Faltering President

The people closest to President Biden were well aware that he had changed. He talked more slowly than he had just a few years before, needed to hoist himself out of his seat in the presidential limousine and walked with a halting gait.

“Your biggest issue is the perception of age,” Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime strategist, told him in mid-2022, according to three close aides who heard it. That bit of feedback, delivered repeatedly by Mr. Donilon, was the sort of blunt talk that did not often make its way to a man who had spent a half-century in politics prizing loyalty and deference.

Mr. Biden acknowledged the concerns, but the warnings only ignited his defiant, competitive streak. In April 2023, without convening his family or having long deliberations with aides, he announced he was running again.

Now, as President-elect Donald J. Trump heads back to the White House, demoralized Democrats debate what might have been had the president bowed out in time to let a younger generation run. Mr. Biden, 82, has at the same time made the extraordinary admission that he might not have made it through a second term. “Who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?” he said in an interview with USA Today on Jan. 5.

The president’s acknowledgment has put a new spotlight on his family and inner circle, all of whom dismissed concerns from voters and Mr. Biden’s own party that he was too old for the job. And yet they recognized his physical frailty to a greater degree than they have publicly acknowledged. Then they cooperated, according to interviews with more than two dozen aides, allies, lawmakers and donors, to manage his decline.

They rearranged meetings to make sure Mr. Biden was in a better mood — a strategy one person close to him described as how aides should handle any president. At times, they delayed sharing information with him, including negative polling data, as they debated the best way to frame it. They surrounded him with aides when he walked from the White House to the waiting presidential helicopter on the South Lawn so that news cameras could not capture his awkward bearing.

Read the rest here.

Trouble in the House

Less than two weeks after Mike Johnson narrowly secured the speakership after a brief revolt from the right, he’s now drawing ire from the opposite wing of the Republican Party. 

Johnson sent shockwaves around Capitol Hill when he decided to oust Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio — a staunch NATO supporter who has aggressively pushed for U.S. aid to Ukraine — as chair of the House Intelligence Committee and replace him with Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., a conservative who voted against the most recent Ukraine aid package.

It’s a move that appeased conservatives and allies of President-elect Donald Trump, but infuriated the GOP’s more moderate members. 

One lawmaker who, like Turner, is a member of the Main Street Caucus, said the unexpected swap at the intelligence panel has eroded trust within the Republican conference and could make it much harder to pass Trump’s agenda. With two House Republicans up for positions in the Trump administration, the party’s majority could soon shrink to 217-215 — giving Johnson just a one-seat cushion on party-line votes.

These Republicans said they were giving Johnson an earful after Turner’s removal became public.

“This hurts us in the reconciliation process,” said the lawmaker, referring to the expedited budget process Republicans plan to use to pass legislation related to Trump’s pledges on taxes, the border and energy costs. “Looks like backroom politics and backstabbing.”

A second GOP lawmaker, one who had a recent conversation with Turner, predicted the ousted chairman would make life difficult for Johnson in the coming year and could be in a position to halt Republicans’ entire agenda if he chooses to do so. Turner did not participate in House votes on Wednesday or Thursday.

“I think Turner will burn the House down,” the second lawmaker said. “He will be a no vote on everything. I mean, he just got totally f-----.”

Read the rest here.

The news here is not the Trumpist coup on the intel committee. The big news is that apparently there actually are a handful of normal Republicans left in Congress.

A note from the land of long ago

From here.

I'm not sure which is more disturbing, a man drinking a bottle of bed bug poison thinking it was rum, or a doctor prescribing a bath of New England rum as a cure for what ails you. 

Vatican Allows Gay Seminarians

VATICAN CITY, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Vatican has approved new guidelines from Italian bishops that allow gay men to enter seminaries as long as they abstain from sex, in an unexpected adjustment to how the global Catholic Church considers possible future priests.

Although the Vatican had not explicitly barred gay men from entering the priesthood in the past, an earlier 2016 instruction had said seminaries cannot admit men who have "deep-seated homosexual tendencies".

The new guidelines, posted without fanfare on the website of the Italian bishops' conference on Thursday, say seminary directors should consider a priestly candidate's sexual preferences, but only as one aspect of their personality.

"When referring to homosexual tendencies in the formation process, it is also appropriate not to reduce the discernment to this aspect alone, but … to understand its meaning within the whole framework of the young person's personality," state the guidelines.

Read the rest here.

I've seen this movie before, and I know how it ends. 

Addendum: The above report is being denied.

The Biden Presidency: Four Illusions, Four Deceptions

Americans tend to have a soft spot for our former presidents. Even the bad ones.

By the time Richard Nixon died in 1994, his presidency was as likely to be lauded for the opening to China or the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency as it was to be damned for Watergate. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Nixon, furiously condemned at the time as a dirty political bargain, was later celebrated as an example of selfless statesmanship. Jimmy Carter’s reputational resurrection — not just for the way he conducted his post-presidency, but also for his acts in office — would have astounded the country that sent him packing in 1980 amid stagflation and a hostage crisis.

Will Joe Biden enjoy a similar place in our national memory? It’s possible, and his administration had its achievements: NATO enlargement, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, defending Ukraine and Israel, strengthening alliances in the Pacific.

But Biden’s presidency will also be remembered for four big illusions — and four big deceptions. They will not serve his legacy well.

The illusions: first, that the 2021 surge in migration was seasonal (“happens every single solitary year,” as Biden said that March); second, that the Taliban would not swiftly seize Afghanistan (“the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” as he said that July); third, that inflation was transitory (“Our experts believe, and the data shows, that most of the price increases we’ve seen are expected to be temporary,” also that July).

The fourth, and the biggest: that he was the best Democratic candidate to defeat Donald Trump: “I beat him once, and I will beat him again,” he often insisted, even after the debate debacle.

That last illusion was pure hubris. But there was an arrogance to the first three, since he was loudly alerted (including by, well, me) on each point that he was making a fundamental mistake. The White House spent months in 2021 refusing to use the term “crisis” for the border — it was, instead, a “challenge.” Pentagon leaders warned the president that the Afghan government would soon collapse if the United States withdrew. Biden shrugged. Larry Summers was outspoken about the inflationary risks of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package. Biden ignored that, too.

Read the rest here.

Trump reiterates intent to annex Greenland, Panama Canal and Canada

Well, it's not like we didn't know the man was barking mad.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested he would consider using military force to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and "economic force" to acquire Canada.

In Kosovo a Return to Christianity

The Catholic priest stood at the altar in the hilltop church for the mass baptism, dunking dozens of heads in water and tracing a cross with his finger on each forehead.

Then he rejoiced at Christianity’s recovery of souls in a land where the vast majority of people are Muslim — as the men, women and children standing before him had been.

The ceremony was one of many in recent months in Kosovo, a formerly Serbian territory inhabited largely by ethnic Albanians that declared itself an independent state in 2008. In a census last spring, 93 percent of the population professed itself Muslim and only 1.75 percent Roman Catholic.

A small number of ethnic Albanian Christian activists, all converts from Islam, are urging their ethnic kin to look to the church as an expression of their identity. They call it the “return movement,” a push to revive a pre-Islamic past they see as an anchor of Kosovo’s place in Europe and a barrier to religious extremism spilling over from the Middle East.

Until the Ottoman Empire conquered what is today Kosovo and other areas of the Balkans in the 14th century, bringing with it Islam, ethnic Albanians were primarily Catholics. Under Ottoman rule, which lasted until 1912, most of Kosovo’s people switched faiths.

By reversing that process, said Father Fran Kolaj, the priest who carried out the baptisms outside the village of Llapushnik, ethnic Albanians can recover their original identity.

Read the rest here.

A great car ad from the land of long ago

Great advert for a great car. No frills transportation at its best. Look up "four wheels and an engine" and this is what you will find. Amenities? Power... nothing (unless you count the headlights, turn signals and the AM radio). Not even power breaks or steering. You got a work out driving those things. You felt every bump in the road and heard all the noise. The engine gave you 50-60hp depending on the year and model. Yes, you could drive them on the highway. It just might take a minute to get up to normal speed. The heater sucked. AC? That's what the hand crank on the door was for.

But they ran, and they ran surprisingly well. They were generally more reliable than most other cars of that era. In a time when people often swapped cars every few years, these could easily last 100k miles if you took care of them. And when things did go wrong, they were some of the easiest vehicles to repair. The VW Beetle (or Analog as I like to call them) were one of the most mass produced vehicles in history. The German version of the Ford Model T, with roughly the same level of comfort and engineering. And they were also highly affordable. You could pick one up in the early 70s for ~$2,000.  In an era characterized by the famous gas guzzling land yachts from Detroit, these gave you an almost unheard of ~30mpg on the highway and low to mid 20s in town. 

Even today, there are plenty still around and running. Many can be had for under $20,000. All you need is a key, the ability to drive an old school manual (4 on the floor), and a basic level of mechanical skills with a good tool set and a few spare parts. Some people still use them as daily drivers.

Surgeon General: Alcohol use causes cancer

Alcoholic drinks should carry cancer risk warning labels, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in a report Friday.

The report cites a direct link between alcohol consumption and at least seven types of cancer, including of the breast, colorectal, liver and mouth. An estimated 16.4% of total breast cancer cases are linked to drinking alcohol.

There are about 100,000 alcohol-related cancer cases and about 20,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths in the U.S. each year, the report found. Alcohol is the third-leading cause of cancer in the U.S., after tobacco and obesity.

While research has shown a link between alcohol and cancer, “the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” Murthy said in a statement.

Read the rest here.

Russia and China Are Sabotaging Undersea Power and Communication Cables

Russia’s connection to the rupture of an undersea cable between Finland and Estonia is raising a new bevy of fears over the sabotage of critical power lines.

The new incidents come as tensions between the West and Russia and China have risen over the war in Ukraine, and as the world braces for a shift in U.S. leadership as President-elect Trump prepares to take office. 

The Estlink-2 power cable between Finland and Estonia was allegedly cut on Christmas by a Cook Island-flagged ship called Eagle S. Western officials claim the ship is part of a vast Russian shadow fleet working to circumvent western sanctions. 

The incident adds to a larger problem related to the security of undersea infrastructure, as China has also been accused of three incidents since 2023 that have disrupted power lines in European waters.

Dozens of cables are ruptured each year, usually accidentally, and it’s unclear if the latest events were intentional. Still, European leaders are sounding the alarm. 

“Recent Baltic Sea sabotage attempts are not isolated incidents; they form a deliberate pattern aimed at damaging our digital and energy infrastructure,” said European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas in an interview with German newspaper Welt.

Read the rest here.

The Wall

HT: TDT

What's Wrong with Chicago?

The word bankruptcy has been hanging over Chicago like a storm cloud about to burst. Mayor Brandon Johnson is the latest leader to attempt to close Chicago’s gaping fiscal gap: He proposed a $300 million property tax increase to partly fill Chicago’s $982 million projected budget deficit, only to be unanimously rejected by the City Council. The City Council narrowly passed a budget on Dec. 16, with far less in tax increases than the mayor had initially demanded.

The Windy City’s woes are the product of decades of fiscal profligacy and a cautionary tale to policymakers in every region and at every level of government: Retirement benefits are like free junk food to politicians — everyone loves them, and the bills don’t arrive until later. They can be ruinous for a city’s long-term fiscal health.

At the heart of Chicago’s deficit are decades of increasingly generous retirement benefits offered by Chicago’s leaders to more than 30,000 public employees, a politically powerful constituency. Today, a city employee retiring after 35 years with a final salary of $75,000 would receive combined pension and retiree health benefits of about $77,000.

The City government has failed to fund those pension promises fully and the bill has come due. Retirement benefits and debt service together made up 43 percent of Chicago’s budget in 2022, the highest rate of any U.S. city. Chicago spends more on debt and pensions than it does on the police and infrastructure, according to an analysis from the Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian-leaning policy group. In other words, Chicago is paying for the past, not investing for the future.

Chicago’s pension actuary warned in a letter to the plan’s leadership last year that “the Fund is still at risk of potential insolvency if an economic recession or investment market downturn were to occur in the near term.” (He wrote it in boldface to get policymakers to take notice.)

Read the rest here.

Chicago is basically spending money like the Federal Government. This country is drowning in debt at every level of government and that is not sustainable. For most of the last quarter century the spending habits of our political leadership (from both parties) can be summed up as; "If you've got it, spend it. And if you don't have it, spend it anyways." A reckoning is coming, and it's a lot closer than it was ten or fifteen years ago.

Worth noting; the bond market is flashing warning signs. Despite two successive rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, interest rates on bonds, have been rising. Wall Street is getting nervous about all the red ink.

RIP Jimmy Carter

I have never been a fan of Mr. Carter as a president and generally rank him as below average, even setting aside my political prejudices. His one solid accomplishment was the Camp David Accords. Otherwise his administration came across as indecisive in response to runaway inflation and a spiraling energy crisis at home, while showing breathtaking weakness in the face of Soviet aggression in Afghanistan and Iran's seizure of our embassy and abduction of US diplomats. An outrage that any other president would have labeled an act of war. I will give a polite nod to some of his charitable work during his post-presidency, especially in support of Habitat for Humanity.

Prayers for his family and loved ones.

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

This is probably the best analysis of one of the most controversial events in American History that I have come across.

Christmas liturgy

Christ is born!

Wishing you and yours a blessed feast.

Trump's American Empire

Over the past two days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made clear that he has designs for American territorial expansion, declaring that the United States has both security concerns and commercial interests that can best be addressed by bringing the Panama Canal and Greenland under American control or outright ownership.

Mr. Trump’s tone has had none of the trolling jocularity that surrounded his repeated suggestions in recent weeks that Canada should become America’s “51st state,” including his social media references to the country’s beleaguered prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau.”

Instead, while naming a new ambassador to Denmark — which controls Greenland’s foreign and defense affairs — Mr. Trump made clear on Sunday that his first-term offer to buy the landmass could, in the coming term, become a deal the Danes cannot refuse.

He appears to covet Greenland both for its strategic location at a time when the melting of Arctic ice is opening new commercial and naval competition and for its reserves of rare earth minerals needed for advanced technology.

“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

On Saturday evening, he had accused Panama of price-gouging American ships traversing the canal, and suggested that unless that changed, he would abandon the Jimmy Carter-era treaty that returned all control of the canal zone to Panama.

“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” he wrote, just ahead of an increase in the charges scheduled for Jan. 1. “This complete ‘rip-off’ of our country will immediately stop.”

He went on to express worry that the canal could fall into the “wrong hands,” an apparent reference to China, the second-largest user of the canal. A Hong Kong-based firm controls two ports near the canal, but China has no control over the canal itself.

Not surprisingly, the government of Greenland immediately rejected Mr. Trump’s demands, as it did in 2019, when he first floated the idea. “Greenland is ours,” Prime Minister Mute B. Egede said in a statement. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

Read the rest here.

Report: Biden's decline started much earlier and staff hid it

The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report Thursday, based on interviews with nearly 50 people knowledgeable of the operations of the Biden White House. The story details the extent to which the president’s age has posed an issue throughout his presidency, including from the very start, and the lengths to which aides went to conceal it.

President Biden, now 82, was 78 years old when he took office, and the Journal reports that administration officials began to notice signs of his age “in just the first few months of his term,” as he would grow “tired if meetings went long and would make mistakes.”

Those who met with the president were reportedly told that “exchanges should be short and focused.” Meetings were strategically scheduled and, sometimes, if Biden “was having an off day,” they were simply canceled. A former aide recalled a national security official saying, regarding one rescheduled meeting, “He has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day so we’re going to address this tomorrow.”

The Journal reported that lawmakers, Cabinet members, and the public all seemed to have less face time with the president than in previous administrations and that senior advisers were “often put into roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy.” Namely, administration officials like Jake Sullivan, Steve Ricchetti, and Lael Brainard frequently functioned as intermediaries for the president.

Read the rest here. 

Report: Number of civilians killed in Gaza ‘inflated to vilify Israel’

The number of civilians killed in the Gaza conflict has been inflated to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent people, a report claims.

Researchers accuse the Gaza ministry of health of overstating casualty data by including natural deaths, failing to differentiate between civilian and combat casualties and over-reporting the numbers of women and children killed.

The study by the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank, claims the figures have been manipulated by the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza for propaganda purposes, with international media outlets happy to repeat them uncritically.

Read the rest here.

How many Orthodox in America?

Ummm... not likely.

The woke left and religion

We don’t tolerate prejudice at work. Why, pray, do we allow it in church?

HT: Dr. Tighe

All culture warriors are inherently authoritarians. Anyone who thinks they have a right to coercively dictate how other people should live their lives, what they can or cannot say or believe &c, is dangerous and should not be allowed anywhere near political power.

Argentina: One year of Javier Milei

Argentina’s Milei marks one year in office. Here’s how his shock measures are reshaping the economy

Argentina's Mr Market Javier Milei wants to make austerity great again

Javier Milei's Argentina in 6 Charts