Trump's Second Term

[Blue Mountain]

Trump threatens France with tariffs on wine if it continues a digital tax on American tech companies.

June 15: Donald Trump warned that the U.S. will “have no choice” but to apply 100% tariffs on French wine unless Paris eliminates its digital tax on American tech giants.

Macron maintains France will not bend to Trump over digital tax

President Emmanuel Macron said France would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump and scrap its digital tax on U.S. tech giants, hours before the two meet at a summit on Monday.

www.reuters.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

Trump administration directs agencies to draft new rules (read: "allow") for off-read vehicles on public land.

June 15: Trump rescinded the Nixon-Carter executive orders and directed agency leaders to draft new rules to open lands to off-road vehicles.

Critics say Trump’s opening of public lands to off-road vehicles is ‘reckless and nonsensical’

Move is part of broad effort to open public lands to industry and other uses, threatening wildlife and ecosystems

www.theguardian.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

Trump turns USA's 250th independence celebration into a Trump rally.

June 15: Trump said that the July 4th celebration at the National Mall in Washington DC marking the nation's 250th anniversary will double as a Trump rally. This blurs the line between official commemoration and political event.

Trump says July 4 National Mall celebration will double as a 'Trump rally'

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that a July 4 celebration on the National Mall marking the nation's 250th anniversary would double as one of ‌his signature rallies, blurring the line between official commemoration and political event.

www.reuters.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

White House debated removing the right of habeas corpus, enshrined in the US constitution, from undocumented immigrants.

June 15: Habeas corpus is the centuries-old right to force the government to justify, before a judge, why it has locked a person up. Habeas corpus is enshrined in Article I of the Constitution. Secret memos show that the White House debated last year, to a greater degree than previously known, whether to limit habeas corpus rights for undocumented immigrants.

Frustrated by Courts, Trump Weighed Suspending a Constitutional Right [New York Times]

 

[Blue Mountain]

Kennedy Center's hand-picked board votes to establish a new endowment named after Trump.

June 15: The Kennedy Center is establishing a new endowment to honor President Donald Trump, whose name was stripped from the building to comply with an order from a judge who ruled it was added illegally. The center's board of trustees — handpicked by Trump after he purged its membership last year — unanimously voted to create the fund. Scaffolding and tarps remain in place to cover the area where Trump’s name was removed.

Kennedy Center creates Trump fund after being forced to remove president’s name

Rep. Joyce Beatty accused the center’s Trump-appointed trustees of being ‘more focused on elevating the President than advancing the arts’

www.the-independent.com

 

[jimbob]

Is it worse?
I think ripping off the bandaid and giving up some ego for stability is a worthwhile trade, especially if you consider the cost of keeping the charade going that Israel can or should be the Mini USA in the Middle East, "protecting" everyone from the Commie Sufi Threat.

Israel will be much safer once it looks at itself honestly in the mirror for once, realizes its limitations and actual long-term goals, and give up the idea of a Greater Reich of Israel.

Yes it is.

Because Trump went into the war to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon. He left it with that situation no better than when he reneged in Obama's deal, but has made concessions to Iran in other areas that Obama never had.

Because he handed Iran massive leverage over not just the Strait of Hormuz but the whole Persian Gulf.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Kennedy Center's hand-picked board votes to establish a new endowment named after Trump.

Kennedy Center creates Trump fund after being forced to remove president’s name

Rep. Joyce Beatty accused the center’s Trump-appointed trustees of being ‘more focused on elevating the President than advancing the arts’

www.the-independent.com

Yet another griftomatic.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Kratom is a plant with known euphoric and opioid-like effects. US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and RFK Jr are working to re-write US policy on the drug. Mullin has an interest in a company that could benefit.

June 15: With support from Markwayne Mullin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the kratom industry is pursuing a potentially lucrative policy. Mr. Mullin owns equity in a company that could benefit. Kratom has been linked to liver toxicity, seizures and thousands of deaths.

How an Addictive Gas Station Drug Found Allies in Trump’s Cabinet [New York Times]

 

[Blue Mountain]

Remember when politicians put their investments and companies into blind trusts?

June 15: President Trump's investment accounts traded between $212 million and $695 million in stocks and other securities over the first three months of the year — an unprecedented sum for a sitting president. Some of the trades in the latest disclosure preceded policy moves by the administration or public statements about the companies by the president himself.

3,600 stock trades in 3 months: Breaking down Trump's flurry of investment moves

President Trump's investment accounts traded between $212 million and $695 million in stocks and other securities in the first three months of the year — an unprecedented sum for a sitting president.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

Trump administration continues work on dismantling the Department of Education.

June 16: The Trump administration announced on Tuesday plans to move two major functions of the Education Department to other parts of the government in the most aggressive moves yet by the White House to dismantle an agency it has pledged to dissolve.

Trump Breaks Up Education Department, Prompting Worries Over Civil Rights [New York Times]

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Yes it is.

Because Trump went into the war to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon. He left it with that situation no better than when he reneged in Obama's deal, but has made concessions to Iran in other areas that Obama never had.

Because he handed Iran massive leverage over not just the Strait of Hormuz but the whole Persian Gulf.

Iran always had that leverage. Trump didn't hand it to them.
It just didn't use it until the US/Israel crossed a Red Line.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Federal prosecutors crack down on opposition to ICE enforcement tactics.

June 16: Fifteen people in Minnesota were charged with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers over their response to a controversial and deadly immigration enforcement crackdown in the state earlier this year. The prosecutors allege the defendants were part of two Minneapolis-based “antifa” groups that “violently oppose immigration law enforcement”. The indictment does not allege officers were injured, though it mentions kicking a federal vehicle and knocking notes from an agent’s hands. The charges are the latest attempt by federal prosecutors to crack down on opposition to immigration enforcement.

Fifteen people charged over alleged interference in Minnesota immigration crackdown

Prosecutors claim defendants were part of Minneapolis-based ‘antifa’ groups that ‘violently oppose’ law enforcement

www.theguardian.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

US security measures delay Uruguay's FIFA 2026 match with Saudi Arabia in Miami.

June 16: The Uruguay men’s team appeared to face another security hurdle when arriving in Miami for their opening match of the FIFA World Cup, having already had their flight from Mexico to the U.S. severely delayed by apparent paperwork issues. A video, which made its way onto social media on Monday, purported to show the team held outside their bus—as they were preparing to take on Saudi Arabia at Miami Stadium—while security officers and sniffer dogs carefully inspect their luggage.

Uruguay's World Cup team faces security hurdle In US

The team had already encountered significant delays when trying to travel to Miami from their training grounds in Mexico.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

The US Department of Justice intervenes in a lawsuit filed by NAACP over a gas turbines at a data centre built by xAI, one of Elon Musk's companies.

June 16: The Dept of Justice (DOJ) told a federal court to throw out a lawsuit against Elon Musk's AIx company. The lawsuit claims that the artificial intelligence datacentre is polluting residential neighborhoods in north Mississippi. The DOJ claimed that AIx's work is “critical to the economy and the Department of War” and the turbines are necessary to power the facility.

Trump’s DoJ intervenes to back Elon Musk in datacenter pollution lawsuit

Justice department urges judge to throw out suit brought by NAACP over xAI’s methane-gas turbines in Mississippi

www.theguardian.com

 

[Norman Alexander]

US security measures delay Uruguay's FIFA 2026 match with Saudi Arabia in Miami.

Uruguay's World Cup team faces security hurdle In US

The team had already encountered significant delays when trying to travel to Miami from their training grounds in Mexico.

www.newsweek.com

Welcome to the welcoming USA, friends!

 

[Norman Alexander]

The US Department of Justice intervenes in a lawsuit filed by NAACP over a gas turbines at a data centre built by xAI, one of Elon Musk's companies.

Trump’s DoJ intervenes to back Elon Musk in datacenter pollution lawsuit

Justice department urges judge to throw out suit brought by NAACP over xAI’s methane-gas turbines in Mississippi

www.theguardian.com

It's going to be the only source of any intelligence whatever in the current administration.

 

[Mojo]

Yep.

What he really wants is a bunch of Trumpist brownshirts at the polls checking every ballot before it goes in the box. Any for an opponent are deemed "rigged" and can be discarded. He is looking for a 1,600% vote in favour of himself...

FTFY

 

[Jack by the hedge]

I keep checking in hoping to see what the ingredients will be in a Reflecting Pool cocktail, and how they're going to make it change colour after it's served.

 

[Darat]

I suspect there will be two loyalty questions now, who won the 2020 election and what colour is the reflecting pool.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Trump is thinking about this all wrong.
Oil is mostly dead, compressed Algae. The administration should use the Pool as a farm, throw the green yuck in a hole and claim that they are safeguarding US oil reserves for the next million years.