Surprising nobody, not only is Trump ignoring the Supreme Court order to stop levying tariffs using his current justification, he's levying a new 10% global tariff on all countries just because.
Trump said that his order would be made under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and the duties would be over and above tariffs that are currently in place.
If they really believe the strikes are intended to do regine change, there's little reason Iran won't just go all out, closing Hormuz and blowing up Gulf oil facilities. That's a major war. The US can intend for it to be a limited strike kind of thing, but that doesn't mean it'll stay that way.
I think everybody knows what's about to happen, and there's this eerie buzz in the air. A lot of noise about Israel opening shelters, preparing hospitals, etc in preparation for a major war. Like half the American air force has been mustered in the Middle East. Iran is moving around a lot of equipment tonight, and rolling out hardened communication equipment and such. It's not a good feeling. I hope what I think is going to happen won't, but if it does (and during Ramadan!) all my best wishes to everybody in Iran.
They're related because they both stop Saudi oil flows, but the latter is a lot more costly and permanent. On the escalation ladder then yes, the latter is more of an extreme threat.
They could very well be "dumping Trump" because he's not deporting enough people and hasn't implemented the right wing culture war shit that they wanted. The only safeguard against Trump pulling a coup in 2028 is mass organizing, not voter disapproval. Hitler pulled a coup and did a total takeover with only around 30% support; no reason Trump, with the vast apparatus of the US state available to him, cannot do the same. Hell, you can argue he already has.
I mean sure, but what, if anything, does this "approval rating" affect? What happens if he gets even lower approval ratings? Nothing. Trump can just continue to do the same shit.
In his private life he is a highly disorderly, cynical human being and a bad manager. He lives the life of a gypsy, of an intellectual Bohemian; washing, combing and changing his linen are things he does rarely, he likes to get drunk. He is often idle for days on end, but when he has work to do, he will work day and night with tireless endurance. For him there is no such thing as a fixed time for sleeping and waking. He will often stay up the whole night and then lie down on the sofa, fully dressed, around midday and sleep till evening, untroubled by the fact that the whole world comes and goes through his room.
Marx lives in one of the worst, and therefore one of the cheapest, quarters of London. He occupies two rooms. One of then looks out on the street: that is the salon. The bedroom is at the back. There is not one clean and solid piece of furniture to be found in the whole apartment: everything is broken, tattered and torn; there is a thick coat of dust everywhere; everywhere, too, the greatest disorder.
In the middle of the salon stands a large old-fashioned table covered with oil cloth. On it lie his manuscripts, books and newspapers, then the children’s toys, his wife’s mending and patching, together with several cups with chipped rims, dirty spoons, knives, forks, lamps, an ink-pot, glasses, dutch clay pipes, tobacco ash; in one word everything is topsy turvy, and all on the same table. A rag-and-bone man would step back ashamed from such a remarkable collection.
When you enter Marx’s room, smoke and tobacco fumes make your eyes water so badly, that you think for a moment that you are groping about in a cave. Gradually your eyes become accustomed to the fog and you can make out a few objects. Everything is dirty and covered with dust. It is positively dangerous to sit down. One chair has only three legs. On another chair, which happens to be whole, the children are playing at cooking. This one is offered to the visitor but the children’s cooking has not been wiped away: if you sit down you risk a pair of trousers. None of this embarrasses Marx or his wife.
This is from a Prussian spy's report on Marx. Sounds like a gremlin to me.
Well the F-22s are finally moving. If the Ford moving across the Atlantic is just a distraction, then we could even see a strike starting this weekend. Would be a little nuts to do that during the start of Ramadan (which begins either tomorrow or Thursday), but they're not called the Great Satan for nothing!
The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships deployed to the Caribbean will be sent to the Middle East and are not expected to return to their home ports until late April or early May. The ship’s crew was informed of the decision on Thursday, according to four U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the decision.
So looks like they're not rushing the Bush out of port and are instead turning the eye of Sauron from Venezuela and Cuba. I assume Rubio is pissed about this, because the Caribbean will be without a carrier strike group with which to raid Venezuelan oil and won't be able to prevent Russian oil from reaching Cuba. The empire has to make decisions about where to spend its resources; perhaps they feel they've gotten all they can get fron Venezuela for now? Or it's overconfidence?
Regardless, to rush the Ford over there rather than the Bush shows they must be serious about Iran, and all plans pointed to a) they need more firepower to make any real dent in Iran's war machine and b) they couldn't wait for the Bush to be ready and need to strike sooner. The question being for b, why? What are the Iranians cooking up? Related to the Netanyahu meeting yesterday around "intelligence sharing"? Maybe, but what intelligence could the Israelis share that the Americans don't already have?
I'm just spitballing here, we don't really know anything, but it's an interesting turn of events unfolding. At the very least, this is probably the most telegraphed move yet that a strike is coming. One carrier group is something, but two? Whilst all the rest are home at port? Basically going all in. Would be a real uh interesting time for some Event in the South China Sea to kick off...
Humans 12,000 years ago, or even 200,000 years ago, had the same brains as us. The same level of intelligence, need to express themselves, play games, have relationships, etc. It would be absurd if early humans weren't making art and cool clothes and shit.
Pakistan has always had more sovereignty than people here give them credit for. They have nukes, they've been able to thread the needle with US/China relations, and they will absolutely pursue their own interests as the world becomes more multipolar.
Yeah, unequal treaty is a great way to frame it. Just classic Great Power politics. "The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must" hours. Been the same since Thucydides wrote that 2500 years ago. Not every tributary relationship is colonial.
Surprising nobody, not only is Trump ignoring the Supreme Court order to stop levying tariffs using his current justification, he's levying a new 10% global tariff on all countries just because.
Per https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-orders-temporary-10-global-tariff-replace-duties-struck-down-by-us-supreme-2026-02-20/