James Macdonald

I could be proven wrong within days or even hours, but I think this is a decision Trump is constitutionally unable to make.

On one hand, he would demonstrate power, which he confuses with strength.

On the other, he would face potentially disastrous consequences of which he is terrified.

The key chart right now:

Usually US economic pain is cushioned by falling bond yields and a strengthening dollar, which mean lower interest rates and more spending power for consumers.

This time we’re seeing the opposite, meaning the pain will be amplified.

All right I got fed up and had to write this.

And I’m sure after reading it carefully, Trump will stop saying this

www.propublica.org/article/hist...

In just two months, DOGE has —lost— the government an estimated half a trillion dollars. I propose that Musk pay it back personally.

Talked to a business friend deeply involved in CEO world, knows Trump and Scott Bessent. Calls Trump “a drunk driver taking the economy off the cliff into a needless recession,’ says Bessent told him he agrees. Predicts “he’ll be the shortest tenured Sec of Treasury in history.”

America’s main negotiator with Russia appears to be completely captured by Russian propaganda. Witkoff: “there have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated … they want to be under Russian rule.” www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202... www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

The Russians must be dumbstruck they their opponents have managed to find perhaps the most gullible man on the planet. Putin “told me a story, Tucker, about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed.” www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

"We wanted to see Hayes electrical substation which is famous not just in Europe, but in the whole world"

British arms industry blocked from €150bn EU defence fund The money must be spent on weapons from EU-based defence companies, ruling out suppliers in the UK, Turkey and the US

Because of Brexit, the U.K. is blocked from the €150bn EU defence fund.

Leaving the Single Market will go down in history as the greatest act of British self harm this century.

www.thetimes.com/article/baae...

Don't speak too soon.

Peace for our time? A warning from history, courtesy of The Times, on how NOT to deal with tyrants who want to annex the country next door.

I'm a great fan of @pkellner.bsky.social and his substack, which I recommend to you all. His piece today is interesting, reproducing the Times editorial following Chamberlain's trip to Munich. kellnerp.substack.com/p/peace-for-... 1/5

The discourse JD Vance uses towards Germany, Ukraine and Europe is a deliberate ideological othering that is a step towards declaring Europeans as the supposed civilisational enemies of the United States

SitRep - 13/03/25 - Russia doesn't like a ceasefire on these terms.

An overview of the daily events in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Putin said that a ceasefire would only be accepted if Ukraine stops mobilization, training, and re-armament.

REPOST=appreciated

1/X

A rare map of the Technate of America drawn by the Technocracy, Inc., 1940 (or the Technocracy movement), which Elon Musk's Canadian maternal grandfather was a member of until he was arrested when the organisation was proscribed in 1943.

Another problem is that subscriptions limit the audience. 30-50,000 subscribers may make a writer very rich, but it is a tiny silo compared to the reach of podcasters or Twitter/X accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers.

Inside Russia’s shadow war in the Baltics A series of suspected sabotage incidents has exposed the vulnerability of Europe’s undersea infrastructure

Inside Russia's shadow war in the Baltic Sea - a series of suspected sabotage incidents has exposed the vulnerability of Europe’s undersea infrastructure
ig.ft.com/baltic-sea/

After Elon Musk has been insinuating to turn off Starlink in Ukraine, Poland‘s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski is reminding Musk that Poland is paying for it, and he is making clear that if Musk follows through that Poland will abandon Starlink altogether for being an unreliable service.

Some of us have been saying this since 2020 and even before: Dems should make corruption *the* central issue in US politics and public life and go on the offensive against GOP/MAGA/Trump transparent and hypocritical corruption and grifting. Most voters hate corruption.

Some thoughts on the European response to the chaos now emanating from the White House - on Ukraine and more broadly, based on chats with senior European policymakers directly or indirectly involved in formulating the bloc's response 1/

Trump Is Offering Putin Another Munich Hitler didn’t want a peace deal, and neither does Putin.

"Let’s start with security guarantees. Putin has never agreed to them for Ukraine—in any form"

Read Bob Kagan on the Trump capitulation to Russia
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Tadaa.

lol, from UK satirical magazine Private Eye

This what makes Vance so pernicious. He would have Europe fall into the hands of nationalist, anti-EU parties that are more likely to start fighting each other than cooperate to defend Europe.

I imagine in your darkest dreams a rearmed Germany falling into the hands of the AfD, which thinks the country should no longer feel guilty for WWII, facing a rearmed Poland under the PIS arguing for reparations.

I am delighted that the UK is becoming closer to the EU and that the Brexit fever is somewhat abating. However, my biggest fear of all is that the lesson of Trump is that in the long run there is nothing you can truly rely on.

NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated.

The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west).

My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...

If Trump can secure a source of revenue (tariffs) that doesn't need Congressional approval, & can spend the proceeds without Congressional permission, he'll have done what Charles I failed to do in the C17th.

Trump wants to govern as an elective monarch. The GOP in Congress must decide if it cares.

@privateeyenews.bsky.social on top form as usual this issue.

Tesla not allowed 🤭🤗