OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
Thursday’s Forum
42
Comments
Categories
Tags
42 responses to “Thursday’s Forum”
-
The US is turning into Russia before our eyes:
Trump suggests EU allowing Canada as associate member could be a ‘hostile act’
Vassal states, after all, or not free to associate with anyone but their natural masters.
Meanwhile, Susan Collins weighs in:
Collins says she believes Canada deepening its ties with Europe could make it harder for the Carney government to reach a deal with the Trump administration to end the escalating trade war.
Conveniently forgetting that there already was a deal before Trump unilaterally broke it (and that was after Trump unilaterally ripped up the deal before that).
And that is leaving aside Venezuela and Greenland. (And, of course, the kleptocracy and corruption.)
I genuinely hate these assholes.
-
It’s the incompetence on top of the corruption and dishonesty that makes Trump and his ilk so odious and harmful. If enablers like Collins would take a moment to think about it, they would see that the root of the problem is Trump’s massive ignorance of basically everything: doesn’t know economics, doesn’t know trade, doesn’t know foreign policy, doesn’t know how rules/boundaries/limitations enable stability. What makes Trump a problem instead of a sick joke is the Republican party’s refusal to rein him in, and the willingness of the sycophants that he has placed in positions of power to agree that loyalty to a mentally ill narcissist is more important than serving the American people.
-
In the meantime, Canada continues distancing itself away from its former friend and ally.
Canada applies to join UK-led military coalition
Canada, seeking to diversify its defense ties away from the United States, has formally applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force military coalition, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said on Wednesday.
The force, a grouping of 10 North Atlantic NATO member states, is a rapid response military partnership.
The JEF comprises Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
-
As with the Canada/EU association agreement discussions, Trump is driving allies to seek insurance against US unreliability, not to say insanity.
My concern now is that Trump will use the forthcoming Congressional sanctions authority, nominally directed against Russia, to not counter Russia at all, but twist it into authority for executive economic warfare on any and all allies who dare to cross him.
I have small confidence in either Congress or the Court reining him in.Trump’s petulance about failures re Iran etc and desire for diversionary chum for the MAGA base could easily lead to a catastrophic collapse in the Western alliance.
Such as it is anymore.
-
-
-
NYT has a column titled This Is Why So Many Voters Hate Both Parties. It doesn’t actually explain why. I mention it because it recommends proportional representation so we can get to multiple parties, as per Dr. Taylor. It offers no plan for doing so, Short of doing so, it recommends some vague big tent kumbaya. And being NYT it’s thoroughly bothsides.
As to the title, most people say they hate both parties because they think it sounds more sophisticated than an honest, “I’m too lazy to think it through.” Also, glancing back at the column, NYT may be in the process of changing the title.
-
-
I hate both parties, but I hate the Republicans a lot more.
I also hate the American media landscape, and the American people’s very limited access to information, and the American bigotries that let them get so easily manipulated into supporting awful things.
Like love, hate is not a finite resource.
-
-
So just to add to the “Conservatism, Libertarianism, Small Government Promoter, is all just a bunch of sh*t phonies pretend to be” pile, the House passed a Republican driven law requiring AM radio in all new cars. Why should this be something regulated? It’s clearly something the marketplace could completely settle. Well, because Nazi adjacent right wing radio talk show hosts are predominantly on AM radio, so the “small government Republicans” are using the power of the state to ensure access to their racist propaganda.
-
Huh. Seem to recall that Republicans once used to scream about something they called the government “picking winners and losers.” Of course, that’s when a Democratic administration made a small loan to a solar company, not when Republicans forced the entire auto industry to subsidize the dying AM radio business. Or forced states to keep open obsolete coal plants. Or shoveled defense money at any entity Eric and Don Jr. got their hands on…
-
There’s actually a reasonable reason to support AM radio in cars: Severe weather and evacuations.
Rural areas, high traffic areas, and areas that get frequent severe weather (e.g., hurricanes) have emergency information set up to broadcast via AM. This is because of how far AM travels–especially with cloud cover and at night.
During, for example, hurricane evacuations, people will be getting running, up-to-the minute news on storm path and severity, evacuation routes, and other information important to evacuation. And they’ll be getting that on their car radio. Cell towers get overloaded in emergencies, and internet connections don’t work–so you can’t rely on cell phones to get that information out to the people who need to hear it.
Many areas also use AM radio for traffic information–including congestion, construction, delays, closures, etc. You may have seen the signs along side major highways: “Tune to AM 1234 for current traffic information”.
Until there’s a system that can get current information to hundreds of thousands of people–in their cars–during an emergency evacuation, AM radios are important.
-
While I will concede your point–it’s really pretty good–the conservative argument has pretty consistently been the government doesn’t need to mandate this because people who want the protection can supply it in the aftermarket. Therefore, government shouldn’t take action.
That being said, I’m amused that the mommy staters are making the daddy state argument. And, once again, the thing that makes a “stupid-a$$” is that I disagree with it. A potent argument all around and for both sides, apparently.
-
the conservative argument has pretty consistently been the government doesn’t need to mandate this because people who want the protection can supply it in the aftermarket. Therefore, government shouldn’t take action
Yes for purely commercial situations.
But this is a situation where there are tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars invested in important government infrastructure that directly affects (and helps) US residents.
You do realize that you’re arguing against your own self interests, right?
How many of the policies you want would survive without government support?
How many of the things you want to happen will require a law?
You can’t have it both ways.
N.B. I am SO fed up with people I’m supposed to support insisting that their version of blind hatred and autocracy is so much better.
-
the conservative argument has pretty consistently been the government doesn’t need to mandate this because people who want the protection can supply it in the aftermarket. Therefore, government shouldn’t take action
Yes for purely commercial situations.
But this is a situation where there are tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars invested in important government infrastructure that directly affects (and helps) US residents.
You do realize that you’re arguing against your own self interests, right?
How many of the policies you want would survive without government support?
How many of the things you want to happen will require a law?
You can’t have it both ways.
N.B. I am SO fed up with people I’m supposed to support insisting that their version of blind hatred and autocracy is so much better.
-
-
Requiring a method of getting emergency alert services in a moving vehicle is a legitimate legislative aim, but that’s not what this is about. Because I get such emergency alerts on my iPhone, iPad and Mac. Virtually all new cars have the ability to be connected to the cellular network and requiring the cellular companies to offer those transmissions without a plan would also be a legitimate target of legislation. Such coverage and reach would be far, far superior to AM radio, especially since so few people have it on in their cars. You don’t need the radio on for a car to interrupt with a cellular broadcast emergency call
But they aren’t requiring emergency alert notifications, they are requiring AM radio. Because that’s the source of their propaganda.
-
-
-
A quick add-on detail to Steven’s post on The Destroyer courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson
While most people appear to have refused to confront Trump to his face—Maine governor Janet Mills’s “We’ll see you in court” was so rare it made headlines—Beatty took him on. She recounted: “It was the most unprofessional thing that I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of it.” But after he called her “an obstructionist” and “dumb” and said he thought she was “incompetent,” she retorted: “I know you’re incompetent.” Beatty appealed to the chair to stop Trump’s unprofessional behavior, but when he continued to berate her, claiming it would be her fault if someone were killed at the center, she responded: “You’re already killing people, we’re at war.” And when he talked about what a great developer he was, she “reminded him that he had more bankruptcies than anybody in the room.”
“I mean, it really went there,” Beatty told Sanders-Townsend. “I was not going to let him bully me, intimidate me. And the facts stand for themselves.”
Indeed, these days, facts across the board are challenging Trump’s image of himself.
It is about time people (including the professional press) stop being polite to this goon. I have stopped caring about how unseemly and unprofessional it can be perceived.
-
McConnell almost voted with Democrats in a committee hearing yesterday, before he got corrected by someone else. He’s not fit to serve.
And, I am not sure what to make of this–distraction? Actual plan?–but I wouldn’t be surprised either way. My guess is that it’s a distraction, there’d be no reason for the font to be that substantial, or for Trump to be reviewing a massive placard. OTOH, I can absolutely envision him leveling the Kennedy Center simply because he didn’t get his way.
-
@Jen – Threatening to knock down the Kennedy Center picks up where the $5-thousand checks left off in terms of distracting the media from talking about inflation, Iran, sinking poll numbers and (more) illegal tariffs. We have a president whose cries for help are being ignored. Instead of both-sidesing why people hate political parties, the media should be interviewing clinical psychologists and other mental health professionals about the first obviously mentally ill POTUS.
-
-
In regards to the Kennedy Center, the argument from El Taco’s toadies is pretty much In hoc signo vinces*.
I think it constitutes blasphemy.
“In this sign thou shalt conquer”
-
-
Oil withdrawals from the SPR have slowed to a relative trickle. After four months averaging more than 6 million barrels withdrawn per week, the last five weekly withdrawals were: 5.3, 3.7, 3.1, 1.2, and 0.4 million barrels.
With the flow of oil around the Arabian peninsula now being interrupted right, left, and center, this would be a good time to have a well-stocked strategic reserve.
-
I happened across this Substack this morning. It says we’ve pulled the Reserve down to a point we’re risking permanent damage to the underground structure. Also says there’s no increase in production from domestic oil fields, that are operating below capacity. Or from Venezuela, whose tar-like crude we don’t have refining capacity for anyway. But the oil companies are reporting record profits and like it like this.
-
Interesting stuff; thanks.
The was speculation that extra Venezuelan heavy/sour into some underused h/s refinery capacity would enable diversion of US production to refill the SPR.
But it appears that Venezuelan output is even slower to get increased that had been expected, and the supposed surplus capacity had either been converted, or has got h/s supplies from elsewhere.Also, the Trump administration took its usual course of fail to plan, just punt and pray.
Also I suspect another factor may be in play: much of the capital in search of juicy returns is pouring into datacentres, and leaving others starved of construction capacity and capital except at very high prices.
Therefore it makes sense for hydrocarbons investors to pocket the boom money, and not pay over the odds to increase their production.
.
-
-
-
-
-
Threat and bribe, and it’s also the current modus operandi.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/29/fema-democratic-disaster-requests-trump-01013938
-
-
The abide it to keep their seats. Every R who has crossed Trump so far has been primaried out of office. Every one that criticizes him now has already abandoned the hope of re-election and didn’t bother to run for the 26 elections.
The decision by the parties to abandon the nominations to populism has produced a predictable result for a nation wherein only about half the people even bother to vote and only a tiny energized and largely fanatic portion bother to to “vote” in party primary polls. We have the populist government the founders feared and loathed and did everything they could to discourage.
Trump’s iron grip on the party is very hard, but with hard comes brittle. For bullies the fall, if it comes, is usually very steep and deep.
-
So, TLDR: They are garbage people. They are Vichy Republicans.
-
-
-
-
-
RFK Jr. says that they’re “also going to be looking at chemtrails and emissions.”
Chemtrails. I feel like we’re one meeting away from an announcement of flat earth study or something similar.
-
Chemtrails?
I’m starting to feel a bit of sympathy for Elron:
(nah, not really)
“I don’t want to live on this planet any more!” -
-
-
I would really like, at this point, to thank OtB and all who sail in her for reminding me regularly that Trump and MAGA are not all Americans.
The problem for the US going forward is that most people in most countries tend to treat other countries as a “black box” in their actions.
They are, quite reasonably, given attention demands, concerned mainly with outputs, not internal processes.Therefore, even assuming JD Vance is not elected in 2028 (“oh hear me , Lord!”), the US is liable to have an ongoing credibility problem for some time.
Even for the more sophisticated, as Barrot said: “We cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of voters in Wisconsin every four years.”
The US from 1945 to 2025 (and yes, including Trump 1) was, if occasionally daft or self-centric, at least reasonably reliable and predicable.
The rest of the world now has to calculate with the evidenced situation of the US going delulu, a large section of the American public being fine with it, and Congress being about as effective as paper hat in a hurricane.It’s really rather depressing.
