Karen Carpenter

Vietnam's 8% growth making a mockery of Trump's tariffs - Asia Times Teflon Vietnam. This banner normally refers to the nation’s thriving trade in polymerizing tetrafluoroethylene resins used in everything from autos

.@williampesek.bsky.social writes "As #China uses Trump chaos to win new friends and secure new markets, #Vietnam is offering a blueprint for navigating around the most mercantilist US leader in 125 years. Odds are... Vietnam is winning its second Trump trade war" asiatimes.com/2025/12/viet...

Trump’s Security Strategy Is Incoherent Babble But mixed in with the ranting are three valuable points.

Eliot A. Cohen in The Atlantic:
GIFT LINK
"[Trump's]2025 National Security Strategy has landed, with not so much a thud as a kind of greasy flutter. Most of the document consists of bombast, sycophancy, lies, inconsistencies, and grotesque self-contradictions. .."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Frank Gehry: 12 Essential, Stunning Projects

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/a...
🎁

Trump’s Security Strategy Focuses on Profit, Not Spreading Democracy

We can NOT wait for midterms
(gift article)
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/u...

The Conservative United States Supreme Court is a morally busted, bought-off group of proven liars who stand against America.

They are dangerous as hell.

Wow! The Supreme Court basically just said, if you want to do racial gerrymandering, have at it.

Let’s be clear, what Texas did was racial gerrymandering, plain and simple. SCOTUS just opened the floodgates.

ICE Arrest Data Shows Many Immigrants With No Criminal Record (Gift Article) In high-profile operations, more than half of those arrested had no criminal record, an analysis shows.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Former FDA Chiefs Criticize Agency’s Proposed Vaccine Hurdles They said new vaccine standards threaten to put Americans’ health at risk and upend the agency’s scientific integrity.

Nearly all living former Food and Drug Administration commissioners said new vaccine standards threaten to put Americans’ health at risk and upend the agency’s scientific integrity.
www.wsj.com/health/healt...

a night time view of a city with a few buildings lit up ALT: a night time view of a city with a few buildings lit up

The US is close to an institutional collapse across multiple public health agencies. Trump/RFK have purged anyone with expertise, many have fled and they’ve been replaced w functionaries who are either incompetent or malicious. I don’t think many understand how close to the edge we are right now.

Hamlet The emphasis was on violence in Bergman's only production of Hamlet, themed in red, white and black.

Bergman HAMLET sounds a bit like THE PRISONER! “Fortinbras’ leather-clad soldiers, armed w/ machine guns, burst in and mowed down everyone in their way to the accompaniment of thunderous Danish rock music. … a fascist military dictatorship, where morality is as notable in its absence …” #TheatreSky

Large, interior, curved wall with Tom Stoppard quote projected onto it: THOU SHALT BE A SONG SUNG UNTO POSTERITY SO LONG AS EARTH AND SUN ABIDE.

1st preview of Indian Ink at Hampstead Theatre. Last play produced with Sir Tom Stoppard's involvement. 1st Stoppard play to be staged after his death. Moving to see old Eleanor played by Felicity Kendal, who created the role of young Flora in the original 1995 production.

#Culture #TheatreSky

By putting the Biden economy in reverse, there will be fewer workers with disposable income to worry about how much less they can buy with their paychecks. It's genius reverse psychology.

Good luck convincing us energy bills aren’t exploding this winter. 😳

The GOP is pretending there’s no affordability crisis, and they hope you’ll pretend with them.

#TrumpAffordabilityCrisis 🤨

It’s time for Republicans to pick a side: either Trump’s or the American people.

@menendez.house.gov calls out Republican hypocrisy and their FAILURE to address families’ affordability crisis.

#TrumpsAffordabilityCrisis

Mike Johnson says the GOP healthcare plan will be announced in about two weeks.

Zelenskyy rejects Trump's deal to buy jets from USA and has signed a deal with France to acquire up to 100 Rafale fighter jets over 10 years, a significant agreement that also includes air defense systems, missiles, and joint drone production. The deal is intended to modernize Ukraine's Air Force.

Good morning Jaye and everyone. Great message!
Today, remember just being you impacts the world every day.
Stay positive but more importantly, focus on being the best version of you. Totally inspiring! 🌞

#ProudBlue #Pinks #ResistanceUnited Good morning, friends. Look at all you’ve achieved. Look at your hands and everything you’ve accomplished. You deserve far more recognition and credit than you give yourself. #Jaye’sMorningLight

Are people being kidnapped by masked goons in your area? They are around the county I live in.

One way to help is to volunteer to go to the store for people endangered by this regime. Take their laundry to the Laundromat and have it washed for them or spend some time washing it.

Keep them safe

When Bezos changed the Washington Post's editorial board standards to align with “personal liberties and free markets,” he meant his own liberty to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worse economic insecurity and fear.

👀

More than 2,500 Starbucks workers are on strike. They’re demanding dignity: fair pay, safe conditions, a contract that respects their labor.

It’s time their voices are heard at the same volume as CEOs earning millions.

NEW: The IG report on SignalGate is out. Hegseth sent classified information out on an unclassified Signal chat and put our troops in harms way. Hegseth says he retroactively "declassified" it so it doesn't count. You can read the findings here: media.defense.gov/2025/Dec/04/...

Rep. Jim Himes after being briefed by Adm. Bradley:

"What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who are killed by the United States."

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

New Yorker article very much worth reading: newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

the real story is the way the country's obscenely rich have hijacked new and old media to pour lemon juice in the country's unhealed race and gender wounds to divide the electorate and derail genuine progressive reform, justice-oriented taxation, and corporate oversight

now THAT's a story