It wasn't that long ago that DOGE was going to save us $2 Trillion. Now Elon Musk is talking about just $150 Billion, all of which will be used to increase the bloated Pentagon budget.
Here's Richard Wolff, describing the predicted effect of Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies upon the American economy. The whole thing is three hours but it's broken up into sections and don't worry, you won't have to watch for long past my bookmark to get the point:
I suspect the economic chaos created by the tariffs was called off by Trump's billionaire buddies. The Trumpeteers claim it is 5D chess, but I'm sticking with chaos, mayhem, and blunder. The outcome is an economic war with China which the US is bound to lose. An economic war supposedly declared because of China's counter tariffs, but I might point out the EU and Canada both planned counter-tariffs and have escaped Trump's wrath so far. Meanwhile the US continues its inane bombing of Yemen (to no avail) as the Houthis continue striking US ships. Bibi came to the White House this week to encourage a war with Iran. There's debate about whether Trump will acquiesce. The demands being made to Iran are unacceptable. So here we are on the brink of economic and military disaster. Let's dive deeper below the fold....
Definition
Short selling is a trading strategy in which a trader aims to profit from a decline in a security's price by borrowing shares and selling them, hoping the stock price will then fall, enabling them to purchase the shares back for less money.
In the simple form shorting the stock market is tantamount to betting against it.
I'm going to try to be as unbiased as possible in this opinion piece.
Trump is wasting lots of bombs hitting Yemen again and again...killing mainly civilians, many women and children. Israel is still bombing Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon...that is on our dime too. The European chihuahuas want to build more bombs and weapons so they can get in on the action... thinking that will save their economies. Those who object are being silenced one way or another. France eliminated Le Pen this week much like Romania eliminated their anti-war leading candidate. UK citizens are being arrested for retweeting memes that are unapproved by TPTB. Here in the US we deport those critical of the Gaza genocide without due process. Will they eventually target citizens critical of the Zionists? In some ways they already have. The tariff wars have begun, and how that evolves has yet to be seen. These stories and more below the fold...
The main problem with Trump is not that he's "corrupt"-- I already laid out in a previous diary why the whole economy runs on "corruption" -- but rather that his attempts to control the world economy through tariffs will instead crash the US economy.
In plain view is the insanity of western (so called) democracies. Romania leads the way. First they cancel elections cause "far right' Georgescu was called to win. Now they charge, arrest, and eliminate him from running...The most popular candidate. Then consider the side lining of the first and second most popular elected parties in Austria, Germany, France, and others. Then there's Canada, now appointing a UK central banker as PM while playing against the Trump rhetoric as an election looms. Here in the US we call for free speech as pro-Palestinian speech is suppressed. The EU is a joke to my mind with an appointed board controlling elected national leaders. My question is: what democracy are you talking about?
Well, we were robbed of an hour of sleep last night as we sprung forward in an inane practice most people want to end. Personally, I prefer standard time (I'm a morning person), but I would settle for DST if it was made permanent. It was another busy news cycle this week. Trump makes a State of the Union address. Europe holds war councils in an effort to keep killing Ukrainians...going so far as saying they will trade the welfare of the citizens for warfare. The European elite have lost their ever loving minds. The Islamic State In Suits in Syria is slaughtering non believers. The US is evidently meeting with Hamas perhaps in an effort to make an end run around Nitwityahoo. I have no idea about about the tariffs on, tariffs off scheme. I hear some say how bad tariffs will be and others claiming they are great. There's some of both opinions below the fold along with many other stories.
It's hard to not see the irony of Trump hurting the well-being his own voting base much worse than Democratic voters. It's almost as if he simply doesn't care about poor people.
When the Trump administration announced last week that it was imposing tariffs on solar cell panels mostly coming from South Korea and China, it appears that the progressive blogosphere was almost unanimous in condemning the action as an attack on solar energy.
