Update: This seems to be a big deal.
JERUSALEM, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and came just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
I understand this is basically the same plan President Biden was working toward in May. And I’m sure Donald Trump is already taking credit for it.
If I had to guess, I’d say Pete Hegseth will get the job as DoD head after all. It looks like there aren’t enough Senate Republicans with the guts to block him. We’re bleeped.
I am not watching the confirmation hearings, because it’s pointless. The fix is in. All the Democrats can do is lay down markers for the future — this candidate is a pile of bleep — so they can slam Republicans with their bad judgment in the 2026 midterms. At least maybe — maybe — they’ll nix Tulsi Gabbard. But I bet all the rest of the flying monkeys will be confirmed.
From Jennifer Rubin’s new Contrarian substack column:
Watching Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth demonstrate his appalling lack of credentials, knowledge, and character for the job for which he was nominated I am compelled to ask: Is the Trump administration running a DEI program for incompetent, unqualified, and/or ethically compromised Whites?
Heh.
Here’s a story from yesterday that really should have gotten more attention: Reuters reports that Trump says he will create new agency to collect revenue from foreign sources.
Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will create a new government agency called the External Revenue Service “to collect tariffs, duties, and all revenue” from foreign sources as he readies new import tariffs ahead of his inauguration next week.
Trump said in a social media post he would create the department on Jan. 20, the day he takes office as president for a second term, adding that Americans have been taxed for too long by the Internal Revenue Service.
This reinforces what I’ve long believed, that Trump really doesn’t understand what tariffs are. His campaign talk about collecting money from China wasn’t just talk for the rubes. He thinks that’s how tariffs work. Of course, the U.S. has long had a very efficient method of collecting tariffs and duties, which has been handled in our ports by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency since 1789.
Trump is such a moron. We are so bleeped.
Could be bleeped in the bleeper or just plain Musked. I would guess our three largest trading partners can figure out a deal and may even get China on board. If all of them decided to agree on a common reserve currency that is not the U.S. dollar or even entertain that option a lot of backtracking would occur fast. Don't take my word on it, that is high level economic guru speculation that is way out of my league. The emperor of chaos thinks he is the highest authority on everything so both he and we will learn a lot from the school of hard knocks if he starts a trade war. I think we can be confident he is incompetent there too. He did bankrupt a casino. That is hard to do. It is like bankrupting a doughnut shop next to a large police station.
That might be an easy thing to do, if the cops insist on free doughnuts all day!
If a cease-fire results in the exchange of hostages and an end of bloodshed, I will be pleased. If Gaza is allowed to rebuild, I will celebrate. If the political mechanisms are built to prevent aggression for either side, I will be ecstatic. If a permanent two-state solution paves the way to permanent stability in the region, well, I'm too old for orgasmic, but that's the closest word for my emotional reaction. The process may happen in stages – if we have begun the first stage, I'm pleased.
Re Bernie's comment about "backtracking"… no. Trump is not smart enough about international relations to appreciate the consequences if/when our trading partners and allies find other markets. And yes, Bernie, China is a big one.
Jimmie Carter was dealt a bad hand. The revolution in Iran wasn't his doing. The OPEC oil embargo happened to land on his watch. The hostage crisis was a national embarrassment that dragged out for years. With the advantage of hindsight, we all might have done something different but I'm not confident we'd have gotten a different outcome.
Trump is laying the groundwork for exactly what Bernie described – an alliance of allies working against Trump's heavy-handed international policies. They have every reason to know what to expect – if they haven't conferred among each other, they are fools. Trump can crush any ONE former friend. If they work together, they can screw the US economy big-time. And Russia and China will subsidize it.
Trump wants the IRS to go away. It makes perfect sense to him, with good reason. As soon as Trump won the election, major companies, some former critics, fell all over themselves to bring millions to Trump. The slush fund Trump has put together for the Inauguration breaks all records. Over 200 million in private donations, compared to 62 million for Joe Biden, 106 for Trump in 2017. In 2017, much of the money slipped into Trump's pocket and there never was a full accounting. If Trump has not structured the fundraising and spending for his personal benefit, I will eat my hat.
But I digress. Trump thinks that because the powerful are bringing him money in million dollar donations which Trump knows that they know is for his personal enrichment, the rest of the world should similarly pay the US if they want Trump's favor. Ultimately, Trump thinks the US should extract payment from every lesser country. The first time around, world leaders were wondering if Trump was as much of a rube as he appeared. Now they know he is. Last time around, his worst impulses were kept in check by those in Trump's circle who were not as stupid. (A low bar, to be sure.) The confirmation hearings show that nothing will hold back the flinging of feces by the Trump administration.
In WWII, the world had to defeat Hitler by force. Putting Trump on a leash will not require the human sacrifice of millions of soldiers and civilians. (I hope.) Economic warfare can bring the most powerful nation to its knees. Am I looking forward to an economic depression? No, but if it establishes in the minds of US voters that we have to play nice with the rest of the world to be allowed in the global game, it's well worth the pain.
I kind of hope he tries his stupid idea of an External Revenue Service, because I think the response by any targeted country will be to tell the US ERS to pound sand. The money would have to come from that foreign government's taxpayer funded treasury. Seems unlikely, even though selling into the US market is attractive. Charging a tariff on the supplier of something that a US company needs would tend to make the US market less attractive.
Wouldn't the ERS idea just provide a significant incentive for the targeted countries to band together against the US?
Et tu? Foreign governments don't pay anything to the U.S. to allow exporting companies to export from their country into ours, or any other country. Never have, and they aren't about to start now.
Maha – I'm not sure I understand your response, and as I re-read my post, I think I may have done a poor job of expressing my thoughts. So I'd like to explain a little more.
1) I understand how tariffs work. In fact, back during the presidential campaign, when TFG made that speech at the NY economic forum, I posted here that TFG and the super wealthy are lying that foreign countries pay our tariffs because it's part of a scam to shift the country from progressive income tax to massively regressive sales tax, without telling the rubes they're being fleeced. All in order to justify extending the TFG tax cuts for the wealthy: the wet dream of the plutocrats to get the working class to pay for the benefits the wealthy enjoy. I didn't put it in all those words, but that was the gist of it.
My post above was done quickly late at night when I was trying to get things done before sleep. Here were some of my motivating thoughts: a) There is only one measurement of things in the mind of TFG: does it bring him more money; b) TFG is a life-long scammer, and he's really good at some parts of that game; c) This idea has enormous appeal for TFG: the idea that he can easily convince low-info voters that he can get foreign countries to fund our government will help him get elected; d) TFG is performative – the only thing he has ever succeeded at is as an actor in a phony-baloney reality TV show, so maybe all he has to do once in office is pretend to collect tariffs from foreign countries; e) TFG is oppositional – so if someone explains to him that foreign countries don't pay our tariffs because the US doesn't not have jurisdiction to charge and collect a tax on a foreign country, he's going to go hell bent for leather to prove that he CAN do it; f) TFG doesn't understand governance – he believes that the only model of organization worth anything is the mafia model, so he'll just run a protection racket against other countries, alliances and norms be damned.
So I was trying to play out what would happen if he actually tries to do this stupid thing. And today, I see that your comment makes a distinction between foreign countries and foreign companies. I focused on foreign countries because TFG has said he's going to put tariffs on Mexico, China, and others; He never says he going to put tariffs on foreign companies. So maybe my bad for assuming that's what his External Revenue Service will try to do.
"If I had to guess, I’d say Pete Hegseth will get the job at DOD head after all"
Without a doubt. I knew once he survived the first week of scrutiny after the announcement that he was a lock. That seems to be the way this works the GQP will stay in line as long as Stump demands it. The one GQP'er on the confirmation committee that acted like she was going to maybe vote no: Jodi Ernst said "He pointed out the woke issues at the Pentagon and I think we’re at a point where now we can start moving forward. People know where he stands on these issues”. So that is all it takes if a nominee says woke or DEI or mentions Trans and Bathrooms they are a lock! As the country becomes less intelligent (which is happening at a rapid pace thanks to “social media”) the GQP has a distinct advantage in messaging. They just naturally appeal to the dumb fucks, they don't even have to really try anymore. They is them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6ZaeqfMkI
"The coldest air of the season will slink into Washington, DC, on Monday for Inauguration Day for President-elect Donald Trump. A high 15 degrees below normal in the upper 20s is expected. It’ll be the coldest Inauguration Day since former President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 when the temperature topped out at 30 degrees."
For those of you who said it will be a cold day in hell when Trump gets sworn in again… you were right!
I can't believe they would cancel the outdoor event for 23 degrees? That is not cold, I walk 3 miles every day, the other day it was 6 degrees here in northwest Indiana, I put on me long johns, coat, gloves and a winter cap and went for my walk. Twenty three degrees is not that cold, wear a coat and some gloves, 23 degrees here in January is a fucking heat wave. Maybe he is worried about that makeup he wears or all that fucking hairspray he uses freezing? Trump is a wimp!