“Key GOP senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina— have indicated they’ll withhold their needed votes to confirm Blanche until they get written assurances that the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund won’t be resurrected, along with certain commitments about tax investigations.
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Blanche has already said the controversial fund is “dead” and the Justice Department told courts the program was abandoned, but officials have previously declined to put the commitment in writing. The fund, originally established by a settlement agreement between the Internal Revenue Service and Trump’s personal lawyers, would have offered taxpayer money to those who claimed they were victims of weaponization by the federal government — including those involved with the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.
Cornyn has been adamant that he also wants Blanche to clarify an addendum to that agreement that offers the president and members of his family tax immunity. The senator wants Blanche to explicitly acknowledge that it only applies to past tax investigations against the president and those listed in the lawsuit that was settled.
The demands have left Blanche in a difficult place since putting limits on the tax addendum could anger the president.”
Secretary of Defense Hegseth has been firing top military people based on whether he thinks their politics align with his. And, he is firing well respected people with great experience.
The first day of the war the US slaughtered Iranian girls in a girls school. This was hopefully a legitimate mistake, but, the US has the obligation to acknowledge what happened and explain it to the public. Instead, Hegseth and Trump refuse to talk about it.
Hegseth may have done his job well when he was in the military, but he did not have the experience to be Secretary of Defense. He also doesn’t have the personality to be Secretary of Defense. He had problems with alcohol, with his own finances, and regularly publicly spoke like a biased reactionary partisan hack who buys into many falsehoods and exaggerations often told by Trump and his supporters.
Trump often doesn’t care about actually convicting someone he says is a criminal. He often doesn’t care about passing specific laws. He often doesn’t care if what he is saying is true. He wants something that creates the illusion of truth so he can refer to it, argue its true, and dupes will fall for it. Whether the SAVE bill becomes law or not, Trump can refer to him getting screwed and blame Congressmen and illegals for bad elections. The truth of Obama’s birth certificate didn’t matter, as long as it got a lot of coverage and Trump got it in people’s minds. Trump wanted Zelenskyy to say he was investigating Biden so Trump could point to that and accuse Biden of shit.
The Iranian regime has a very high pain threshold, much higher than the US. They are willing to take a lot of destruction without giving in. Assassinating Ali Khamenei was a huge mistake. He was evil in a lot of ways, but he did care about his people and appeared to actually be against nuclear weapons. The new leaders care less about the people and are willing to let Iranians suffer tremendously.
The US didn’t seem to have a plan for the Strait of Hormuz. There were plans on the shelf, but no real reworked plan with preparation.
Opening the Strait of Hormuz by force would require ground troops, but Trump is against that.
Trump indicated verbally multiple times that he has a low pain threshold with regards to the economy. Why would Iran give in when Trump has indicated that he can’t take the pain?
The US didn’t fix its munitions shortage before choosing to attack.
The reporting indicates that Trump was for this war and most of the rest of his administration was against it.
Hospitals are seeing more uninsured patients showing up, and more people are putting off surgeries due to lack of insurance. This is likely caused by Trump policies limiting ACA credits and making it harder to qualify for help.
To offset losses due to treating uninsured people for free, hospitals will raise prices.
Trump thinks a trade deficit means the US lost. This is false. Americans agreeing to buy goods from another country is a win for both sides.
Trade enlarges the pie, creating more total goods than we’d have without it. Consumers count too, and they benefit by buying foreign products, so do companies using foreign inputs to create goods and services in America.
The US needs to maintain its ability to produce military necessities, but the administration’s approach is to treat deficits generally as a lost. They broadly attack bilateral deficits without a sensible strategy–this hurts most people.
Lower prices aren’t necessarily “cheap”. They mean more. You can buy more; American businesses can produce more.
A lot of manufacturing jobs aren’t even good jobs anymore.
Within the conservative group in Iran’s leadership, there is a divide between neverending war until Israel is destroyed, as well as no talks with the US, and a side that believes in the theocracy but are more pragmatic and willing to make peace.