Roundup
(1) Here’s the spending bill that was passed in the House.
(2) Trump wants NATO countries to pay more:
Now he’s prompting the rest of NATO to bump their defense spending to five percent of GDP.
Probably won’t happen, though.
(3) Democrats try to troll Trump by referring to “President Musk” during the CR negotiations.
Trolls only work if they hit home, and this is pretty absurd IMHO, for two reasons. The first is that Trump is obviously in charge – and has taken charge of so many things very very quickly, even though he’s not president yet – and has put Musk in charge of cutting government waste. The second is that the same people attempting this trolling of Trump were remarkably silent and incurious about who was really in charge when President Biden was snoozing at the wheel.
(4) A closer look at Biden’s most outrageous pardons:
Will Trump open the doors to the WH for everyone to walk in?
Comparing Trump to Jackson…another interesting comparison comes from Tom Haigh, a historian focused on the computer industry, who compares Trump with Tom Watson Sr of IBM. (this is from 2018)
I think it’s an interesting piece, though I don’t agree with many aspects of Haigh’s opinion of Trump and may write a post in response.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3163909
Seems Trump is in an early negotiating stage…on lots of stuff right now, IMHO.
FT article I read on it said he’s looking for over three percent of GDP, which is what the US has been paying for the past few years. Throw out “five percent” to wake them up, then am guessing that he negotiates that down to 3-3.5%.
Telling some hard truths…
“DNC Finance Chair: ‘Leaving’ Dems ‘Like Leaving a Cult’”—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/dnc-finance-chair/2024/12/21/id/1192532/
(…But not something we don’t already know—though Tulsi Gabbard and Joe Manchin were apparently not available for comment…)
The second is that the same people attempting this trolling of Trump were remarkably silent and incurious about who was really in charge when President Biden was snoozing at the wheel.
I believe at this point in time, we have to acknowledge that one of the most used and possibly beloved propaganda tactics of the left is for them to accuse the other side of the very things that they themselves are most guilty of.
The Eastern European and Baltic countries are making or exceeding their 2% NATO commitments. Germany, France, and the Mediterranean countries except for Greece are not (and Greece is more worried about another NATO member – Turkey- than anyone else). Add to this the fact that Britain is backsliding on defense under the Labor government and Trump has his work cut out for him.
Trump has been beating this drum for decades. A couple years ago I saw an interview of Trump by Larry King from the 1980s. He goes on a typical Trumpian rant: “EVERYONE IS LAUGHING AT US! THE GERMANS, THE FRENCH, THE SAUDIS! WE’RE PAYING BILLIONS FOR THEIR DEFENSE AND THEY’RE ALL LAUGHING AT US! WE SHOULD BE SENDING THEM A BILL!”
I thought it was classic Trump – exaggerating, ranting, overblown (that’s why the all caps lol). But at the same time as is also typical of him there was more than a grain of truth to it. It actually made me rethink some of my views on national security/foreign policy.
At the end of WWII Europe was rubble and the US had over half the world’s GDP. It only made sense for us to take on the burden of “defending the free world”. But even by the 1960s Western Europe was back on its feet economically while we were getting bogged down in Vietnam. We should have started trying to get them to shoulder more of the burden at that time and remember this interview was 20 years after *that*. Now it’s forty more years later and we still have to try.
Trump is not an isolationist, he just want our allies to do their fair share. I believe that is part of the reason for his sympathy towards Israel who notably was not called out in the above rant despite getting generous financial aid from the US. The meme of “women of the IDF” may have a certain cheesecake aspect but it also shows how serious Israel is about its own defense.
Beg yer pardon…
Damage Control…“Biden”-style:
“ Biden Frees Men Who Scammed $5 Billion With Over 1 Million Victims”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/12/22/biden-frees-men-who-scammed-5-billion-with-over-1-million-victims/
https://x.com/ElbridgeColby/status/1870953555064230162
From the NYT:
Iran’s Energy Crisis Hits ‘Dire’ Point as Industries Are Forced to Shut Down
https://archive.is/IhaQP
Just wait til you-know-who starts applying maximum pressure. And Russia too broke to help.
Guess that’s why they need all those nuclear generators…buried deep inside mountains, no less!!
(Yep. The NYT doing what it does best: STAND BY YER MAN!)
And so…
“For civilian use only!”
Wash.
Rinse.
Repeat…. (We have it on best authority that if you repeat it enough times it becomes true….)
One of President-elect Trump’s themes concerning the out of control, illegal invasion of our country is that “they’re not sending us their best,” and that some countries are deliberately emptying out their jails and mental institutions, and pointing these unwanted, troublesome people in our direction.
The Mexican government has reportedly published a how to pamphlet, one containing tips on how illegal immigrants can more easily cross the border and, thereafter, how to avoid detection and capture.**
That booklet is reportedly not only available for immigrants on the Mexican side of the border, but reports say that it is also being handed out by Mexican Consulates here in this country.
According to other reports, the Mexican government has also distributed 70,000 maps to help illegals more easily make their way to the U.S. border .***
Today’s horrendous crime by a Guatemalan immigrant–setting a women on fire—and staying around to watch her die–this on the New York city subway, is just the latest in a whole long line of high profile murderous attacks against American citizens by various illegal “immigrants.”*
Given all of the general cover given to illegals by our MSM, and various NGOs, Church groups, cities, police departments, prosecutors, and judicial systems sympathetic to their cause, one wonders just how much greater than the few high profile violent crimes which have been reported, the true number of all such violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants actually is.
*See https://nypost.com/2024/12/22/us-news/horror-video-shows-suspect-watching-woman-burn-to-death-in-f-train-car-after-he-allegedly-set-her-on-fire/
** See https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/weekinreview/a-guide-for-the-illegal-migrant.html
*** See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4645782.stm
P.S. Then, of course, there are all of the other crimes these illegals are committing, including hijacking citizen’s Social Security numbers, identity theft, draining people’s bank accounts, and using these hijacked Social Security numbers in all sorts of scams, and other economic crimes, etc., etc.
Supporters of these illegals always talk about how these supposedly “hard working” illegals are adding to our economy, but how about the costs of the crimes committed by illegals, the increased work and costs for police, courts, and incarceration costs as well.
…how about the costs of the crimes committed by illegals, the increased work and costs for police, courts, and incarceration costs as well…
Not to mention taxpayers’ $ (which should be for citizens) going directly to illegals!
Trump’s mass deportation plan plunged into crisis by ultra-conservative Republican rebels
Hate the process of the spending bill, but watching the H.R.10545 bill get passed with Musk’s & Ramaswamy’s involvement did make it somewhat interesting this time.
Ramaswamy said he read the first writing of the bill – some 1600+ pages (??). The bill had just came out, so he has to read about a 1,000 times faster than me…maybe 10,000 times. Actually, I wouldn’t make it past 6 pages of that stuff.
I saw the 118 page—or a 118 page bill last night – This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Relief Act, 2025’’. Might have been the first Congressional bill I ever saw. Didn’t even try to read that one either…
Musk threw in his 2-cents and all hell seemed to break loose…fun to watch on afterthought. 🙂
Republicans: 170 Yea, 34 Nay, 0 Present, 15 Not Voting. ?!? “Not Voting” ?!? One was lost for 6 months – she was found ‘living at retirement community that specializes in memory care.‘
You can’t make this sh*t up!?!
Anyway, I’ll give credit to the GOP, and its supporters, for producing a 118 page bill. Is that a first for one of these last minute spending bills?
NOTE: does site seem slow?
It turns out that the perp who burned the woman alive on the New York city subway yesterday was an illegal from Guatemala who had already been deported once.*
* See https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/12/23/confirmed-an-illegal-immigrant-set-woman-on-fire-in-nyc-subway-n4935373
Schumer had frozen the appropriations bills including the ones with the cancer funding in the Senate,