yunyun333
1d ago
How did the EU 'lose' over Greenland? Trump backed down, no tariffs, no annexation, nothing. SCOTUS struck down his tariffs and the only thing he can do is emergency section 122 tariffs capped at 15% that expire in July.
The Trump cabinet shakeup continues
After Pam Bondi’s ouster today, which followed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing last month, Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials were anxiously eyeing their phones, wondering whether they’d be next. One top official didn’t have to wait long: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the chief of staff of the Army, General Randy George. Several people familiar with the White House’s plans told us there are active discussions about others leaving the administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters, said that the timing was uncertain and that President Trump had not yet made up his mind. But what was once an unofficial motto of the second Trump term—“no scalps”—no longer applies.
Trump had been reluctant to get rid of any of his top lieutenants, viewing firings as a concession to the Democrats and the media. Even in the past few months, there had been an edict that no Cabinet officials would be removed prior to the midterms, though a series of dismissals were planned for after Election Day. But the president’s declining support since he launched the Iran war has changed the political calculus. The odds of confirming replacements, advisers know, are only growing longer. One person close to the White House told us that Trump was buoyed by the reaction to his decision to oust Noem, and that made him more likely to move ahead with Bondi. (Still, an administration official cautioned that after pushing out Noem, optics were a concern; officials worried that getting rid of Bondi would be viewed as jettisoning only the most “attractive” women, while keeping the men).
Some Trump allies (and many of his critics) believe that he had asked Bondi for the nearly impossible—to win convictions for seemingly unwinnable cases. But other members of the Cabinet and administration have expressed frustration that Bondi’s apparent lack of involvement in the details of managing the Justice Department resulted in basic mistakes. “They are sending in idiots” to defend the Trump administration in court without sufficient experience, one official from another agency told us. The president’s demand for absolute loyalty among the department’s rank and file resulted in a profound loss of institutional expertise and a sharply reduced talent pool. Multiple prominent Republican attorneys told us that they considered joining the second Trump DOJ. But the requirement to take what they viewed as an oath of loyalty to the president—not the Constitution—was a step too far.
Officials in other departments said they regarded the Justice Department’s errors as harmful to the administration’s credibility with judges, blowing up what should have been easy wins for the president. “This has been festering across the administration for a while,” said a second person close to the administration. “It’s the Epstein stuff, partly. It’s also the critiques of the indictments, like Comey. It’s a general sense of WTF—she’s not logging a lot of wins, not clocking a lot of good media.”
In Trump I, many of the early firings were because of insufficient loyalty. Trump adapted and overcame by ensuring personal loyalty at the apparent cost of competence. A junior law student could have told you his vengeance lawsuits would be laughed out of court. And it seems like the Iran SMO will snatch a few more scalps that would have delayed until after the midterms - poor Kash, he just wanted to party with the hockey chads. It's already claimed the Army Chief of Staff's, although it's not clear what exactly was wrong with Randy George's performance (the Army isn't even particularly involved in this op), or that of the Transformation and Training Command leader and the head of the Chaplain Corps.
Bondi is vulnerable as Republican frustrations grow over DOJ Epstein handling
Like a radio built to pick only one channel — tuned to Mr. Trump’s demands — Ms. Bondi has gained and maintained her position through her attentiveness, loyalty and obedience. That makes her uniquely vulnerable to shifts in Mr. Trump’s opinion. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has privately sent mixed signals. He has discussed firing Ms. Bondi, according to four people familiar with the conversations, and replacing her with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He has complained about her shortcomings as a communicator and vented about what he sees as the department’s lack of aggressiveness in going after his foes, according to people who have spoken to him recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. But he has also praised her loyalty in public, and he speaks with her several times a week, sometimes to seek advice or temperature-test ideas, a person close to Ms. Bondi said. And on Wednesday, she accompanied the president to the Supreme Court to watch arguments in the birthright citizenship case.
The greatest danger Ms. Bondi now faces, in the view of current and former officials, is the possibility that she has become expendable to Mr. Trump, who was able to quell Republican criticism of his hard-line immigration policy by removing Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary. Some of the protection Ms. Bondi enjoyed from G.O.P. lawmakers in the wake of Mr. Trump’s unifying victory in 2024 appears to be eroding ahead of the midterm elections, with congressional Republicans increasingly willing to call out the attorney general over what they see as her mishandling of the investigative files.
Ms. Bondi had no one else to blame for the major mistake she committed after being sworn in early last year. In February 2025, she appeared on Fox News to hype “breaking news” on the Epstein case, while also claiming that she had key documents, including Mr. Epstein’s client list, sitting on her desk. Soon after, she showed up at a gathering of far-right influencers at the White House, where she handed out half-filled white binders labeled “Epstein Files: Phase 1” that contained virtually no new information, prompting accusations of a cover-up. Her team suggested there might not be a Phase 2. Several of Ms. Bondi’s friends now describe that episode as a catastrophic miscalculation from which she might never recover.
Last July, she issued a joint statement with the F.B.I. concluding that there was no basis for new charges, no “client list,” no evidence that Mr. Epstein had blackmailed “prominent individuals,” and that releasing sealed investigative files from Mr. Epstein’s trial would only endanger the victims. The backlash among far-right influencers was instant and threatened to sap the president’s support with his base. Ms. Bondi reversed course and reopened the inquiry. Around that time, Ms. Bondi told Mr. Jordan and other members of the Judiciary Committee that “all that’s left in there is child pornography, and nobody wants to see that,” according to Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.
The two top F.B.I. officials, Kash Patel, the bureau’s director, and his deputy, Dan Bongino, had been pushing for a much broader release of the Epstein material after finding little in the files that added to what was already widely known about the president’s interactions with Mr. Epstein. Behind the scenes, Ms. Bondi began butting heads with Mr. Bongino, who repeatedly urged her to release as many documents as possible to stave off a political disaster. Ms. Bondi was considerably more cautious, citing her previous experience as a local prosecutor in Tampa handling trafficking cases, saying that releasing a trove of unredacted documents could reveal details about Mr. Epstein’s victims, including children. Her conflict with Mr. Bongino escalated into an angry confrontation at the White House last July, when an irate Ms. Bondi accused Mr. Bongino of leaking unflattering information about her to the news media.
But the main source of stress on Ms. Bondi appears to be Mr. Trump himself. He has relentlessly pressured Ms. Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, to go after targets of his choosing even after the failure of cases brought against the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, which were brought over the objections of U.S. attorneys appointed by Mr. Trump. At a reception for U.S. attorneys last December, Mr. Trump berated the top federal prosecutor in Maryland, Kelly O. Hayes, for not indicting Senator Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and an outspoken critic, for mortgage fraud, as Ms. Bondi and stunned officials looked on, according to a person who attended the event. Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche have gotten the president’s message. They have stepped up efforts to investigate several other Trump targets, including the Democratic fund-raising group ActBlue and John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director. They have also pushed prosecutors to investigate a former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, whom the president has accused of lying about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two officials briefed on the effort.
So, republicans are mad that the epstein files are being slow-walked, and Trump is mad that she isn't successfully destroying his enemies with lawsuits. The interesting detail is that Patel and Bongino were pushing for more releases, presumably believing that it wouldn't incriminate Trump. In the end, they managed to piss off everyone and accidentally release personal photos of victims.
There hasn't been as much turnover in Trump's 'A' department as in his first administration (although still more than the last six presidents), because Trump took a more active role in selecting loyalists. We'll see how that continues over the next year with the Iran war and more unfriendly SCOTUS rulings.
Edit: And she's gone
yunyun333
2d ago
They want to leave, but not if it makes them poorer, which it obviously will. So the status quo will continue. And they certainly don't want to join the US.
A 2025 poll showed that a majority 84% of Greenlanders would support independence from Denmark, with 9% opposing. 61% opposed independence if it meant a lower standard of living, with 39% in favour. When asked in a binary choice between the USA and Denmark, 85% preferred to be part of Denmark with only 6% preferring the USA.
yunyun333
2d ago
There are only 1-3 non-autocracies in the middle east, depending on how you categorize Turkey and Lebanon, so that's not the problem.
yunyun333
3d ago
From a Bayesian perspective, there is strong evidence that Trump really likes Jews and is not a great long term thinker. Hegseth's record does not inspire confidence either.
Poland also refused to transfer two patriot batteries over, and France refused a request from Israel to use its airspace for weapons transfer. This is the logical conclusion of the boiling, seething contempt that the administration has for Europe (which is of course mutual).
yunyun333
8d ago
Israel has invaded south lebanon many times, why will they stay this time?
yunyun333
8d ago
The Oslo accords, at best, would have required a significant amount of good faith on both sides to be workable. Like what the fuck even is this? It was never a practical means to peace.
And why is the kibbutz crisis attributable to Reagan or Thatcher specifically rather than plain neoliberalism, which was applied in many other parts of the world at the same time and with much harsher results?
Other than that, "Israel doesn't have a right to exist" is pointless navel gazing, and what happened in Gaza is generally reckless disregard for human life rather than true genocide, although the net effect is still a lot of war crimes.
yunyun333
10d ago
It turns out that spending hundreds of millions for users to make useless slop videos was having a meaningfully negative financial impact. The bizarre thing is that Disney signed a $1b deal with OpenAI just a few months ago - who fucked up here? Of course, there are many more video AI tools out there, with fewer considerations for copyright law. But for now, Hollywood doesn't have much to worry about, at least on this front.
yunyun333
13d ago
If you're like me and you barely paid attention to the Mueller Report while it was happening and don't remember anything, the article is a decent summary. I was under the impression that Russia did stuff, Trump didn't actively participate but didn't put up a protest either, and some of his team got busted for lying to investigators (Trump's lawyers were worried about him also getting involved in perjury but successfully managed to get him to "not recall" everything).
Anyways I still don't see what the big deal was, other than lying to investigators. They didn't do any hacking themselves or ask anyone to do it. Knowing about it in advance, or using it as part of campaign strategy, isn't a crime either.
yunyun333
16d ago
"We have to attack them because if we attack them, they'll attack our allies" is strange logic.
Israel deliberately chose to allow Hamas to grow until it blew up in their face. Maybe they should do a better job managing the terror groups in their backyard next time (and hey, right now they are, so we're not needed).
yunyun333
18d ago
We could go back to the days of the three-person crew with a flight engineer, and ensure that 2 people are in the cockpit at all times.
Even with a second set of hands, a pilot can still irreversibly fuck up a plane during takeoff or landing, when the margin of error is smallest (see Air India 171).
yunyun333
19d ago
Eight defendants were convicted of rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and use and carry of an explosive — the explosive being fireworks. Daniel Sanchez Estrada was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record. He and Maricela Rueda were also convicted of conspiracy to conceal documents.
Description of the event from Wikipedia:
On July 4, eleven people[1][21] gathered near the Prairieland Detention Center at 10:37 pm,[22] several dressed in black "military-style"[23] or black bloc clothing with their faces covered.[1][21] A suspect was seen removing a wagon filled with fireworks from a vehicle and pushing it towards the detention center.[20] Law enforcement officials allege that the participants conducted a "diversion" to draw ICE officers out into the open; fireworks were set off, the group split up into several smaller groups, and a participant spray-painted vehicles and a guard structure with slogans including "Ice pig" and "traitor".[2] One small group remained near the facility entrance, apparently keeping watch.[21] The ICE officers called 911 to report the incident to local law enforcement.[23][22]
Only one person (Benjamin Song, a former Marine reservist) in the group fired shots, nonfatally hitting an officer. The defense argued that the other members of the group intended only to peacefully protest and not to bait out officers for Song. This, of course, brings us back to the classic, airplane-on-a-treadmill style "Does Antifa exist" debate.
The jury heard several perspectives about the night of the shooting and the events surrounding it: a recap of Morris’ interviews with law enforcement after her arrest and direct testimony from cooperating defendants Sharp, Sikes, Kent, Thomas and Baumann.
All told law enforcement and the government that they didn't expect violence the night of July 4 — just a noise demonstration with fireworks. Morris told investigators she suspected Song used others present at Prairieland as a distraction so he could pull off his "fantasy" and run away.
The cooperating defendants' answers varied on whether a "North Texas antifa cell" existed. Some testified the people in their circles never seriously referred to themselves as members of antifa. Others named specific defendants they considered "antifa." Defense attorneys later sparred with Kyle Shideler, the prosecution's controversial antifa expert, over his testimony that the defendants' actions aligned closely with prosecutors called a handbook on antifa beliefs authored by Mark Bray. The prosecution wrapped up its case during closing arguments by describing Song as a "ringleader" who worked with his politically-aligned inner circle to coordinate an ambush at Prairieland, escape and hide any physical or digital evidence.
All these articles are light on evidence, so let's go to the DOJ press release.
Evidence at trial revealed that most of the Antifa Cell involved in the Prairieland attack looked to Benjamin Song as a leader. Song acquired firearms that he distributed to co-defendants and recruited members at gun ranges and combat sessions he conducted, as well as from various ideologically aligned groups. For example, defendants Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, and Savanna Batten were part of a group that created and distributed insurrectionary materials called “zines,” according to trial evidence.
Witnesses testified that an Alvarado police officer responded to the scene after correctional officers called 911. When the officer began issuing commands to defendant Nathan Baumann, Benjamin Song can be heard on police bodycam video yelling, “get to the rifles!” and then he opened fire on the officers, striking the Alvarado police officer in the neck as the unarmed correctional officers ducked and ran for cover. Police arrested most of the Antifa Cell shortly after the attack, many near the scene. Benjamin Song escaped and remained at large with the help of others until his capture on July 15, 2025.
Trial evidence demonstrated that collectively, the Antifa Cell acquired over 50 firearms in the Fort Worth/Dallas area prior to July 4. During trial, the government introduced numerous chats of the members, who used an encrypted messaging app to coordinate with each other that had auto-delete functions, permanently deleting some Antifa Cell members’ communications. They also used monikers in group chats to hide their identities, and some of the planning chats included only trusted participants. The chats introduced at trial revealed that members in this limited group conducted reconnaissance and discussed what to bring to the riot, including firearms, medical kits, and fireworks:
"rifles might make the situation more hot if this is the case either way" (Rueda)
"I think you'd be surprised. Cops are not trained or equipped for more than one rifle so it tends to make them back off" (Song)
From the texts released, it doesn't seem like there's firm evidence that they knew what Song was planning. Of course, many of the messages were deleted, so it's hardly exonerating.
yunyun333
20d ago
Dumb analogy: is the Arab Gulf basically the Avatar of the world? A bajillion dollars and zero cultural impact (at least in the West).
yunyun333
22d ago
You can make 239Pu from a LWR but it's horrendously inefficient and requires further processing. The bigger worry on that front was their heavy water reactor at Arak, but that was already shut down (and bombed for good measure). That's why all the talk is about their uranium.
yunyun333
22d ago
Would it surprise you that non technical people could make such a mistake (that a reactor does not actually do the enriching)?
yunyun333
23d ago
The average voter will care if gas prices are a dollar higher for longer than a couple weeks. Evangelicals are happy and river-to-the-sea lefties are sad, but Americans really don't care about foreign policy that much.
yunyun333
23d ago
Oil prices have risen, but not to crazy levels- oil futures still seem to be assessing that the flow will resume before too long
TACO is priced in.
For some reason, Trump's energy secretary lied about a tanker getting a naval escort yesterday. We hope that it was mere market-manipulation and corruption instead of underlying incompetence.
yunyun333
26d ago
Judging by the assessment of John McNaughton (assistant secdef for international security affairs) in March 1965, we achieved 20% of our aims.
- US aims:
70%—To avoid a humiliating US defeat (to our reputation as a guarantor).
20%—To keep SVN (and then adjacent) territory from Chinese hands.
10%—To permit the people of SVN to enjoy a better, freer way of life.
Also—To emerge from crisis without unacceptable taint from methods used.
Not—To “help a friend,” although it would be hard to stay if asked out.
yunyun333
26d ago
The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage, not treason. The last person executed for treason was during the Civil War.
yunyun333
28d ago
China, or any other country, cannot just snap their fingers and go to war. Spinning up the war machine takes time and is very visible. If there were any inkling that they were seriously moving towards a war footing, this pseudo regime change op would end.
The bigger relevance is that of volume. How many interceptors does the US have, and how many can it produce? Any Chinese invasion would be kicked off with missiles aimed at every US airfield in the region; can they be protected? What does the supply of radars look like? Etc.
If it was precisely sufficient, why assume it was "all they could do"?
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