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Saturday’s Forum
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28 responses to “Saturday’s Forum”
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Trump Rejects Iran Ceasefire, Expects Renewed Bombing After Midterms
Just posted this to point out the headline title. Think about what it says. The Iran War, despite the damage to the world economy, despite the death and destruction, despite being unwarranted, is viewed by Trump and this administrative as a political problem, not a military one.
Put another way, if bombing is needed militarily, it is performed on a timetable dictated by military necessity. This administration, in its vast immorality, views the war as political problem to be waged on a political schedule.
And they expect Americans to put their lives on the line for this?
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I also am reminded of the great quote from The Great Gatsby:
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made”
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it’s all oil.
Would that it were.
At least outside of Trump’s addle-pated fantasies.
Trump’s idiocy is leaving Iran with an effective lock on the oil routes.
For the time being; it’s likely to change, because Iran is not the only actor with agency other than the US.Venezuela is virtually useless in the short to medium term.
Greenland hydrocarbons are little more than a joke.
Trump has royally screwed a whole kennel of pooches.The only upside for the US is that now, unlike the late 20th century, the US is a net hydrocarbon exporter.
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Well, boo hoo?
Three organizations representing thousands of ranchers in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas issued a joint statement Friday warning operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are disrupting the agricultural community and will make beef prices spike again. Their statement is the beef’s industry latest salvo against policies and actions by the Trump administration.
The Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Kansas Livestock Association, and Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association said they are closely monitoring ICE’s activity and the impacts it’s creating. They described hearing reports of delays in shipping thousands of cattle to processors and workforce disruptions in important links of the supply chains such as dairies, feedyards, transportation hubs as well as feed and grain companies.
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I expect the ranchers support the Republicans because they think they will keep the social structure in place, meaning cheap and plentiful workers who are on tentative ground, so that if they start making demands the ranchers can sic immigration on them. After all, that’s been the name of the game for my whole life. But now they are starting to realize that Trump, Miller, Bovino, and the Billionaire Boys Club are frothing at the mouth blood-purity racists, who want to cleanse the country of inferiors. But they have to keep supporting them or, well, trans and woke.
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Under the new system I can only reply to one post, but this is also a reply to golem8eight and Scott.
I find myself struggling to understand the internal workings of the Republicans. The Tea Party struck me as a tool and a sign of resource extraction guys taking over from an older GOP coalition of .. what? Finance and manufacturing? And now the tech guys seem to be ascendent. They all, of course, coalesce around their primary issue, their own and their corporations taxes. And they all seem to be good with Right populism, which is mostly a con.
MarkedMan, you’re right that agribusiness wants immigrants, especially illegals who can be pretty freely oppressed. And unions used to oppose immigration as it does depress wages. Also, unions, Democrats, and specific manufacturers used to like tariffs, or at least selective tariffs that might actually protect jobs. Paraphrasing Fred Thompson’s Admiral in Red October – a Republican (or “centrist” Dem) doesn’t take a dump without a lobbyist. Who the hell is lobbying to expel all immigrants and for high tariffs? Immigration is a populist sop to MAGA racism, but tariffs? What’s behind this? Has agribusiness lost all suck? Is it my adage that conservatives come to believe their own culture war bullspit? Is it just Trump chaos?
Scott and golem8eight, oil companies and defense contractors used to push ties with KSA et al. But now we’re way less dependent and the oil companies are sitting pretty with $4+ gas and $6+ diesel. Is anyone still lobbying to defend the Middle East? Is this why KSA et al are so eager to bribe the Trump family?
I have little insight into the inner workings of the GOPs. I rely on the MSM and they don’t like to look behind some green curtains, although they seem to love Dems in disarray stories like Dem/DSA. I see some stuff on the New Right (and boy is JD Vance a loon), but little on existing and historic mainstream GOPs. Who are the factions in the Party, who’s on top? Anybody know a good source? Media, Substack, books? Dr. T?
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They don’t need to favor apartheid; it comes as a by-product of purity. Additionally, outside Korea, high-tech manufacturing uses little oppressable foreign labor. Contract tech people move freely in the market (much like foreign teachers do in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, and Daejeon*)
* Other places in Korea are the pathways to get to Seoul, etc. for some but not even many.
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I am a total failure as a grandparent. All my grandkids think Domino’s pizza is the best pizza in the world. I guess that pales in comparison to the legacy of MAGA ascendancy but I have some hopes that will fade.
Also, for those who follow libertarian arguments about the wonders of privatizing transportation and how deregulation works so well, Brightline, the rail service in Florida they lauded so heavily, was just reported as filing for bankruptcy by the Economist.
Steve
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Don’t be so hard on yourself. First, which anything is “best” is a matter of taste. Second, which national chain makes better pizza than Domino’s? (And no, I don’t consider the bougie/chichi offerings from CPK to be “real” pizza–”matter of taste,” again. As always YMMV.)
ETA: Things could be worse. They might think Little Caesars is best. 🙁
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Of the pizza chains I’ve tried, Dominos is perhaps the least worse.
It’s the one I consume more often, as I don’t eat out much, and we order it sometimes when we’re working late, they deliver until 10 pm.
And at least they have some variety, like deep dish and thin crusts. The latter even is crispy sometimes.
You may consider taking your grandkids to a good pizzeria, though, and let them try the good stuff. Just not one of the trendy places with weird sauces and toppings. And don’t expect a kid under 25 to appreciate a Margherita.
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Poking around the internet this morning, Domino’s seems to place second pretty consistently in articles rating the national chains. First place in those ratings is all over the place. Having people with a variety of preferences all saying, “If I can’t get X, I’ll settle for Domino’s” is a pretty good place to be. Probably why they have the highest revenue of the national brands.
My granddaughters eat Papa Murphy’s take-and-bake without complaints. I get my pizza there for two reasons. (1) is that during the Covid recession, they bit the bullet and raised prices but continued to be generous with toppings; everyone else (it seemed to me) opted to hold the price but got skimpy on toppings. (2) is that the staff is just so much more cheerful to deal with than any of the places with ovens.
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Did the Xi visit change anything? I know that Trump did the old guy thing by showing off some old photos, “Now this one has a real funny story behind it.” And Xi smiled and didn’t show too much impatience. However, were there any concrete changes? Trade, tariffs, military postures on Iran, Taiwan, Ukraine were not changed to my knowledge. Xi’s wife showed better fashion sense than Melania, but Melania clearly doesn’t care
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Little of any significance.
At least there is some sort of dialogue.
Though i suspect Xi probably understands it better than does Trump.From the European pov we are left dealing with a world in which one superpower is strategically incompetent, grievance ridden, and inclined to a rather odd political hostility.
The other, actively adversarial, behind the diplomatic niceties, yet also utterly incapable of being willing or able to act as a constructive or stabilising force.
Both are now zero-sum actors.Other than that, the world is a happy fun place.
🙁
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