John M.

Cue the Roberts Court saying that it’s not a bribe if Trump didn’t officially ask for a gold bar in return for dropping tariffs.

Large maple tree without leaves and lots of moss on the branches

Big leaf maple #Mosstodon

#Bright
#Trees #Sunrise

Sometimes the winds of life are not in your favor.

Republicans enact fiscal agenda (tax cuts for the rich) through reconciliation. They get their policy agenda (repeal civil rights and business regulation) through the S Court. The policies stopped by the filibuster include repo rights nationwide, repeal of all gerrymanders and DC/PR statehood.

Punishing tariffs. Out of control corruption. Political chaos in Washington.

No wonder companies are hesitant about hiring.

Sorry, kids - your parents were just really, really afraid of the Woke.
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

So How Is the Illegal War Going? The Trump administration keeps killing people in the Caribbean in the hopes of... what, exactly?

I wrote long today. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/so-how-is-...

If Trump is getting $230 million from a bogus claim, why can't the Senate Republicans wet their beak?

Cold morning sunrise in the northeast
#bluesky #sunrise #photo #photography #art #landscape #nature #sky #trees #moma #colors #apple #iphone #iphonephotography

Ready for the closeup.

Where are Mute Swans when you need them?

A Creeper that is not creepy.

The wings are a little scruffy but still functional.

I disagree; they will go even lower in the future.

A major North Carolina solar power firm in Asheville has been forced to close and lay off hundreds of employees due to the Trump administration's war on renewable energy.
www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...

Meanwhile, it's being reported this morning that Trump and Pete Hegseth are ramping up their bloodthirsty and incoherent threats to wage land war on Venezuela. Note how the fact that they're threatening to do this unilaterally has been relegated to an afterthought in much of the coverage.

Judge bars Trump from immediately cutting funding to the University of California | CNN Politics The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimina...

One reason why elite schools (Columbia, Brown, Cornell) caving to Trump’s illegal impoundment and extortion is so galling — a betrayal, really — is that they would have won had they fought. By giving up, they guaranteed every other school will have to fight harder.

Keep up the good work, we need honest reporting. Too many media outlets are compromised by their corporate ties.

Happy #ForestFriday🌲
#Photography
#Nature
#Hiking

Red doesn't have to be evil.

Head out into the world seeking opportunities like our brave little friend.

In addition, consider bananas and vanilla. Trump is trying to turn America into a banana republic with expensive bananas.

The Trump admin is an organized crime operation that has control of the US government.

Always be corrupt.

Having to say pedophilia is bad if that leads to higher taxes for the rich is a bridge too far for Megyn.

Troup Howard Mengqi Wang Dayin Zhang October 2024 Abstract Cracking Down, Pricing Up: Housing Supply in the Wake of Mass Deportation US housing markets have faced a secular shortage of housing supply in the past decade, contributing to a steady decline in housing affordability. Most supply-side explana- tions in the literature have tended to focus on the distortionary effect of local housing regulations. This paper provides novel evidence on the interplay between residential construction, labor supplied to the construction industry, and immigration policy. We exploit the staggered rollout of a national increase in immigration enforcement to iden- tify negative shocks to construction sector employment that are likely unrelated to local housing market conditions. Treated counties experience large and persistent reductions in construction workforce, residential homebuilding, and increases in home prices. Fur- ther, evidence suggests that undocumented labor is a complement to domestic labor: an indirect outcome of deporting undocumented construction workers is net job loss for US-born workers, especially in higher-skilled occupations. We find that any demand- side downward pressure on home prices linked to increased deportations is temporary and quickly dominated by the supply-side impact. JEL Codes: R31. J60

For the full paper

NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:

- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.

The New York Times **HAD EMAILS IN ITS POSSESSION** tying Donald Trump directly to Jeffrey Epstein's global elite pedophile cabal conspiracy –– in the middle of a 2016 election where a global elite pedophile cabal conspiracy was a HUGE topic –– and they didn't publish one word it for a decade.

Woods are good.

You caught a dipper between dips.