Trump Threatens to Demolish Kennedy Center if Name Is Removed

hoto Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Reuters

Donald Trump has raised the extraordinary prospect of demolishing the Kennedy Center if he isn’t allowed to shut down the storied venue for renovations – including putting his name back on the building.

As the president moves to remake the performing arts center in his own image, Justice Department attorneys warned in a court filing that the current facility was “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.”

What’s more, the administration’s lawyers argued, blocking Trump’s plan to close the center for two years while he rebuilds it could cause donors to flee and contributions to dry up.

“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site,” wrote Justice Department attorney Brantley T. Mayer.

And Trump-US is out to destroy the country…… (Continue to full article)

Cartels Find Ways to Turn Unsuspecting Americans Into Drug Mules

Swipe left, another swipe left, swipe right, match, and it’s a date. It could be happily ever after, or it could mean becoming an unwitting international smuggler and accomplice to the cartels.

One of the latest tactics drug and human smuggling organizations are using to further their illicit cross-border activities involves taking advantage of lonely hearts, luring people searching for love south of the border, and turning them into so-called “blind mules.”

“They’re using a dating app to recruit somebody into Tijuana,” Chief Patrol Agent Justin De La Torre of the San Diego Sector said. “That person meets up with someone—and doesn’t know it—but they’ve got a magnet load of drugs underneath their car or a person put in the trunk of their car, and then that person drives into the U.S.”

But the cartels have not been dissuaded, Aki, Marin, and De La Torre stressed. The criminal organizations continually adapt, using new and old strategies to maintain their human and drug smuggling operations.

“Cartels are basically a business,” Aki said. “I’ve been in service for roughly 30 years. I’ve seen narcotics come through trunks, through roof panels, through quarter panels to rear panels to tires to spare tires—everything. We continue to see that, but we also see new, innovative ways…” (Continue to full article)

Canada Announces Dollar-for-Dollar Retaliatory Tariffs Against US

Canada has announced it is countering Washington’s (Trump’s) tariffs by imposing dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on hundreds of American goods amounting to CA$27.6 billion (US$19.9 billion).

The new tariffs announced by Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne during an Aug. 25 press conference will come into force on Sept. 8, increasing costs for imported American items ranging from seafood to furniture.

“[New U.S.] tariffs will have real consequences for Canadian workers, businesses, and communities across our nation. Canada must respond, and today we are in a proportionate, targeted, and strategic way,” Champagne said.

American steel and aluminum products, which were formerly subject to a retaliatory tariff of 25 percent, will now rise to 50 percent as well. Canadian steel and aluminum are currently subject to 50 percent sectoral tariffs by the United States.

Ottawa has published an extensive list of items that will be affected by counter-tariffs. Champagne said the “vast majority” of the products affected by the retaliatory tariffs could be substituted with a Canadian product.

Canada had announced its intention to introduce counter-tariffs on Aug. 22. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Aug. 24 that his country will be imposing new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, and auto parts beginning in 2027. Canadian autos are currently subject to 25 percent U.S. tariffs… (Continue to full article)

Wiped Out: Us Faces Surging Toilet Paper Prices Amid Trade War With Canada

Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.

After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September.

Paper products are among the hardest-hit sectors, with Canada threatening to put tariffs of between 25% and 50% on “toilet paper or face tissue stock” from 8 September in retaliation for a 50% hike from Washington DC.

What a Shitty deal… (Continue to full article)

122 Companies Are Draining the West Dry – A Study Just Named Them

US Geological Survey

Nine trillion gallons. Gone from the American West’s April snowpack over the last decade. That’s roughly the entire maximum capacity of Lake Mead — drained, not by drought alone, but according to a new peer-reviewed study, by the emissions of 122 specific, named companies.

BP. Chevron. ExxonMobil. Shell. The Carbon Majors database has been tracking these producers since 1950. Now researchers have connected their emissions to something you can measure in your kitchen faucet.

Quantifying who caused the damage and proving it in court are two very different problems.

The Union of Concerned Scientists describes the study’s core finding as a “widening seasonal gap between supply and demand” — which sounds technical until you remember that Arizona, California, and Nevada are currently under a federal operating plan requiring combined cuts of roughly 400 billion gallons of Colorado River water per year. Nevada has already filed a federal lawsuit challenging that plan. States are fighting over a shrinking pie while researchers argue a finite list of companies helped shrink it.

Attribution in a climate model and causation in a courtroom are not the same thing. Standing, evidentiary standards, jurisdiction — if litigation follows, it will be brutal and slow… (Continue to full article)

Trump Decides to Launch WAR WITH THE WORLD to Defeat Iran and Destroy the Dollar

Before we get into Trump’s suicide mission to end the Iran war by destroying the US dollar, we should lead off with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s confession about how stupid he is because we have to grasp the ignorance level of those in charge to really believe they are embarking on their dumbest war plan to date.

The Jerry Lewis Klutz Award for Mental Gymnastics has to go this week to this statement by Secretary Bessent:

On Thursday, hours after announcing that Washington would keep its naval blockade and hit Iran with the too toughest sanctions in history, the Treasury Secretary watched crude climb and told CNBC, “I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this.” He called it a spike he doesn’t understand, and waved it off as noise. Buried in the bafflement is a remarkable assumption: that slapping draconian sanctions on a major oil producer should make oil cheaper.

It actually includes a lot more asinine assumptions than the overall thought that Bessent’s new financial war against Iran will make oil cheaper. For example… (Continue to full article)

But then you see… It Ain’t just the Trumpettes!

When I was 10 years old, the United States was one trillion dollars in debt. Now we are nearly 40 trillion dollars in debt. So what did we get for spending 39 trillion dollars that we did not have? What we got was a gigantic mountain of debt that threatens to bring down our entire system. But the Congress critters in D.C. will never stop wasting our money. In fact, if the Democrats do really well in the upcoming midterm elections it is probably inevitable that our tax dollars will be going out the door faster than ever before.

I have been ranting about our national debt for nearly two decades. Continue reading →