U.S. Presidents and the Federal Deficit
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WSJ: Trump’s Exceptional Tariff Weekend
His Customs office announced tariff-rate exceptions on electronics on Friday that he renounced on Sunday.
Bulwark: Rake-Stepping Through the Trade War
The president’s plan is apparently just to improvise new tariffs until . . . what?
Conversation: In trade war with the US, China holds a lot more cards than Trump may think − in fact, it might have a winning hand
Robert Reich: Chaos
The American oligarchy is petrified by Trump’s economic chaos but careful not to criticize him directly
Dean Blundell: The US Dollar Plummets While the Canadian Dollar Soars: What’s Driving the Shift?
USD/CAD Nears 1.3850 as Economic Fears and Trade/Bond Tensions Grip the US
NY Times: China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies
Beijing has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries.
Fast Company: This tiny screw is powering the humanoid robot revolution
Planetary roller screws are emerging as a critical—and costly—component in next-gen robots. China is racing ahead in controlling their supply.
Apple Insider: Trump confirms he reduced tariffs to help Tim Cook
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Jennifer Rubin: Active Empathy is life-changing
As you are reading this, I am spending the day with family and friends in observation of Passover (Pesach). However, before heading out of town I wanted to share a few thoughts about the holiday.
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However, as the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the UK reminded us, the holiday emphasizes—more than anything else—empathy
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Guardian: Dismay as cross-border library caught in US-Canada feud: ‘We just want to stay open’
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House sits half in Canada, half in Vermont. Now, the US is planning to cut off main entrance access to Canadians
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Currently, to enter the library, Canadians must trek over mats placed atop a muddy lawn, following a set of arrows that lead the building’s former emergency exit. But the library’s management envisioned an accessible entrance along with sidewalks and a larger parking lot.
(Guardian more…)Dean Blundell: Canada Announces Earth Shaking Plan To Rebuild It’s Military Further Severing Ties With Trump’s America
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Christina Pagel: “A republic, if you can keep it” – but can the US keep it? How Trump is dismantling democracy
Mapping out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information
Dean Blundell: The Chilling Threat to American Freedom: Trump’s Regime Targets “Thought Crimes” with Deportation and Detention
(Dean Blundell more…)Jess Piper: Send it Back to the States
I gathered signatures to put abortion on the ballot in 2024.
Missourians needed 180,000 signatures to put abortion rights on the ballot — we gathered 380,000 signatures. In November of 2024, Missouri was the first state to overturn a complete abortion ban. We voted to protect bodily autonomy with a Constitutional right to an abortion.
We did it, but now Missouri Republicans are trying to overturn our will by putting the abortion question back on the ballot.
Americans were told that the Supreme Court overturned Roe to send the question of bodily autonomy “back to the states.”
It was a lie.
(Jess Piper more…)
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Bulwark: Bukele, Abrego Garcia, and Red Lines
An emergency Sunday Triad, because I’m concerned that people don’t appreciate how important this week will be for American democracy and our constitutional order.
Buckle up.
(Bulwark more…)Sun: Trump Set To Meet With ‘World’s Coolest Dictator’ as More Migrants Are Flown to El Salvador’s Super-Max Prison
Bulwark: Trump Just Defied the Supreme Court. What Is John Roberts Going to Do About It?
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Trump reiterated that he had no power to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. Bukele said he had no intention of returning Garcia.And then Trump did something extraordinary: He claimed that the Supreme Court had ruled 9–0 in his favor on the case and that the Court’s decision meant only that the U.S. government would have to provide a plane if Bukele chose to return Abrego Garcia.
…NY Times: U.S. Renews Opposition to Bringing Back Maryland Man Wrongly Deported to El Salvador
The Justice Department’s latest legal filing asserted that courts cannot direct President Trump’s foreign policy by forcing the return of a man unlawfully sent to a Salvadoran prison.
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 13, 2025
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Let’s be very clear about exactly what’s happening here: President Donald J. Trump is claiming the power to ignore the due process of the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, declare someone is a criminal, kidnap them, send them to prison in a third country, and then claim that there is no way to get that person back.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)TNR: Trump’s Wildly Unconstitutional Plot to Banish U.S. Citizens to Gulags
His plan to send American citizens to foreign prisons is the latest in a long series of affronts to the American constitutional order.
Timothy Snyder: Trump: “Home-growns are next”
In his meeting with President Nayib Bukele today in the White House, President Donald Trump told his Salvadoran counterpart that “home-growns are next” and that El Salvador would “need to be build about five more places” to hold American citizens.
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CBS News: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: The 2025 60 Minutes Interview transcript
Comic Sands: Trump Demands FCC Revoke CBS’s Broadcasting License In Unhinged Rant About ’60 Minutes’
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Daily: Harvard Stands Up And Rejects Trump’s Extortion
Under the pretense of fighting antisemitism, the Trump administration threatened to pull billions of dollars in research funding from Harvard. The Ivy League school didn’t blink.
(Daily more…)NY Times: Harvard Says It Will Not Comply With Trump Administration’s Demands
Harvard called the demands unlawful.
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Law Dork: Luigi Mangione’s lawyers: Bondi’s actions should prevent DOJ from seeking death penalty
The AG’s own words are being used against her. Also: More law firms capitulate to Trump’s authoritarian shakedowns.
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Fast Company: Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey want to kill IP law. That would be a huge mistake
As the two tech moguls call for the abolition of intellectual property law, experts warn that such a move could gut innovation and dismantle decades of legal protections.
(Fast Company more…)
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NY Times: Poof! There Goes America’s Competitive Advantage in a Warming World
(NY Times more…)Popular Information: Trump administration cancels program to protect Alabamans from raw sewage
(Popular Information more…)
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Steven Beschloss: Taking It to the People
Bernie Sanders grasps this perilous moment and the need for collective power
(Steven Beschloss more…)
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Noah Berlatsky: The devious purpose behind MAGA’s incessant lying
Creating a fog of confusion is a feature, not a bug.
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These lies are effective because they leverage anti-government sentiment and prejudice. They also work because opposition politicians struggle to recognize and call out fascist bad faith.If Democrats are going to defend Social Security, the social safety net, and even cancer research, though, we need to get accustomed to saying unequivocally that lies are lies, and comfortable recognizing them as a deliberate effort to confuse and demoralize people.
(Noah Berlatsky more…)TNR: Bernie and AOC Are Starting a New Political Movement Before Our Eyes
Forget the era of “Bernie Bros.” Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew a record crowd in Los Angeles with a new message aimed squarely at Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
(TNR more…)
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Verge: Simulated Musk, Zuckerberg voices are speaking from hacked crosswalk buttons
Apparent AI-cloned voices of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been lampooning the tech CEOs in California crosswalks.
Atlanta Black Star News: ‘Absolutely Nothing You Can Do to Stop It’: Musk, Zuckerberg Mocked on Silicon Valley Streets After Hackers Infiltrate Crosswalks As ‘Tesla Regret Syndrome’ Hotline Goes Live
Borowitz: Man Who Invested in Trump Shocked to be Losing Fortune
