Understanding the US - Again

[uddu]

Illegal CDL Scandal: The Truth Behind Florida’s U-Turn Truck Crash

[drnayar]

Who is Buying Russia's Crude Oil in 2025?

1. China → 47%
2. India → 38%
3. European Union → 6%

Who is Buying Russia's LNG?

1. European Union → 50%
2. China → 21%
3. Japan → 19%

Who is Buying Russia's Pipeline Gas?

1. European Union → 37%
2. China → 29%
3. Turkey → 27%

Source: CREA

[uddu]

Who is buying Russian Uranium and Fertilizers?
USA

[Rudradev]

Watch from 4:15



The AI bubble... which has so far been responsible for a highly disproportionate amount of apparent growth in the US economy (data centers, etc)... already shows signs of bursting.

This is coming much sooner in AI's lifetime than, say, the bursting of the 1990s dot com bubble came after the consumer internet explosion.

Resident Chump & his cronies are heavily invested in AI, and he has used the construction of data centers as a major election promise in the redneck 5hitholes that vote for him. This is going to be good.

[drnayar]

Predictable enemy [ China ] better than an unpredictable friend [ USA ]

[Vayutuvan]

... a major election promise in the redneck 5hitholes that vote for him. This is going to be good.

Unfortunately (but correctly so) Chimp got a win in a NY appeals court on the Letisha James case where he was asked to pay 350 million with interest which now totals to $500 million plus. It is against the 8th amendment off the constipation.

[Ambar]

Watch from 4:15

Resident Chump & his cronies are heavily invested in AI, and he has used the construction of data centers as a major election promise in the redneck 5hitholes that vote for him. This is going to be good.

Majority of the data centers are in NoVA, a reliable purple state with a very affluent and blue northern part, second is California. All that the red states are getting are high electricity bill!

[Rudradev]

Watch from 4:15

Resident Chump & his cronies are heavily invested in AI, and he has used the construction of data centers as a major election promise in the redneck 5hitholes that vote for him. This is going to be good.

Majority of the data centers are in NoVA, a reliable purple state with a very affluent and blue northern part, second is California. All that the red states are getting are high electricity bill!

The ones right now are. He and his proxies have been promising that many more will be opening in Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi and whatnot. Those will likely never open as the bubble bursts— and even some of the currently open ones may well close.

[Vayutuvan]

... Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi and whatnot. Those will likely never open as the bubble bursts— and even some of the currently open ones may well close.

Why this hate for those poor people in the midwest? Serious question. One reason I like Ro Khanna is that he and a GOPer congresscritter want to bring jobs to Kansas City, rural Kentucky, etc. Why should the bicoastal elite eat caviar and drink champagne, hain jee?!!!

[uddu]

Trump Admin Reviews 55 Million Visas; 6,000 Student Visas Revoked | N18G | CNBC TV18

In a sweeping immigration review, the Trump administration is re-examining 55 million visas for deportable offences. Officials confirm that more than 6,000 student visas have already been revoked as part of the nationwide crackdown.

[Tanaji]

Unfortunately (but correctly so) Chimp got a win in a NY appeals court on the Letisha James case where he was asked to pay 350 million with interest which now totals to $500 million plus. It is against the 8th amendment off the constipation.

I don’t understand these “against constitution rulings”. Just a year ago Alex Jones the conspiracy theorist got hit with over a $1Billion judgement - yes with a B - and it was confirmed in all the appeals. How is that not against constitution?

[A_Gupta]

The court found the fine to be excessive, I guess.

"[We] find that Supreme Court correctly found defendants liable. We agree with Supreme Court [which in NY is the lower trial court] that the Attorney General acted well within her lawful power in bringing this action, and that she vindicated a public interest in doing so."

….. "the record at trial overwhelmingly supports Supreme Court’s finding of liability for violations of the Penal Law."


…. "While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution."

https://nycourts.gov/courts/AD1/calenda ... 20ano..pdf

[A_Gupta]

John Bolton, who has been appearing on Indian shows, criticizing Trump’s tariffs on India, has his residence raided by the FBI, likely for some other reason though.

[A_Gupta]

https://www.ukrinform.net/amp/rubric-at ... rests.html

On August 21, at around 04:40, Russian forces carried out a missile strike on a plant in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia region, causing a fire. Prosecutors reported that the attack involved two Kalibr cruise missiles, and it took approximately 14 hours to contain the blaze.
…

Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, has called the Russian attack on the Mukachevo plant today an act of humiliation.

Speaking on Facebook, he recalled that overnight, Russian missiles attacked one of the largest American investments in Ukraine – Flex – an active member of the American Chamber of Commerce, Ukrinform reports.

"Russia continues to destroy and humiliate U.S. businesses in Ukraine, targeting companies that invest and trade on the U.S. stock markets," Hunder said.

He stressed that Russia is not seeking peace; it is attacking American interests and values.

"We are calling on President Donald Trump to stand with American business in Ukraine. Stand with the values that built America. Show Putin that the United States protects its own," Hunder said.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/21/g-s1-841 ... an-factory

The company that was hit, Flex, produces civilian electronic components and products with more than 100 offices and factories worldwide. The company was founded in the U.S., is listed on NASDAQ, and has headquarters in both Austin, Texas, and Singapore.

Lastly, per AI, this is the first time Mukachevo has been attacked in the current Ukraine-Russia war.

[Tanaji]

Trump is deploying troops into Chicago … while wearing a red hat saying “Trump was right about everything”. This is hilarious!

I truly hope he gets a third term and all that it entails…

[drnayar]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KYuIyMxR ... ture=share
1933, the government got themselves into trouble and they owed a lot of gold. And so what' they do? Article 6102, they declared a bank holiday. All the banks shut down for a week. No one could get their money out of the bank. When the banks open back up, gold's illegal, you're not allowed to own it, and you can't get your gold out of the bank. Don't worry, though. We're going to give you your $20 per ounce. Here you go. These debt instruments, we're going to give them to you, but they're not redeemable for gold anymore. And by the way, it's not $20 per ounce anymore. Now it's $35 per ounce. So you just lost 60% of your wealth instantly. Oh my gosh. So we know that we can't trust them because they fail over and over and over. Then now gold is $35 per ounce. So that continued on to the 30s, the '4s, the '50s. By we get to the 50s and the 60s, all these nations around the world are like, "Wait a minute. What is going on? You're printing way too many dollars. We don't want these paper certificates. We want the gold." So they start collecting their gold from the US. France sends their warships over to the US to collect the gold. And President Richard Nixon in 1971 said, "Nope, we default on our obligations. We will not pay out the gold. the gold window is closed and the dollar is no longer pegged to gold. Now, this was a really big deal because in 1944 under what's called the Brettonwoods agreement, the entire world agreed collectively that the dollar would be pegged to gold and all the currencies would be pegged to the dollar. But the US lied the whole time they printed too many dollars. And when that severed, not just dollar get disconnected from gold, all currencies did. So, we're 52 years or now 53 years into this fiat money experiment that the world has never seen before.

[Mort Walker]

Data coming out of the Treasury shows that from 21 Jan 2025 to 21 Aug 2025, the total US debt went from $36.2T to $37.2T. This admin is just as bad as the previous one on fiscal responsibility. The Fed is lowering rates due to $5T of 10YR Notes, financed below 2% from 2015-2019, coming due in the next few years & can't afford to refinance at 4.2%. US debt servicing is now over $90B/month.

[A_Gupta]

Economics-wise, America is following the worst of Milton Friedman and the worst of John Keynes.

[uddu]

John Bolton, who has been appearing on Indian shows, criticizing Trump’s tariffs on India, has his residence raided by the FBI, likely for some other reason though.

John Bolton, ahead of FBI raid, said Trump not 'competent to be president' in 2020 interview

Trump not 'competent to be president', got him.

[Kati]

[So much so about Bharat fueling the Ukraine-Russia war]

U.S. Oilfield Services Major Expands in Russia

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News ... ussia.html

[A_Gupta]

Among Anurag Awasthi’s first statement is his disappointment that the Indian diaspora has not spoken up about what Trump is doing with India.
https://www.youtube.com/live/0apv8Beh9o ... uE9RABfLff

[uddu]

BREAKING: Trump deploys National Guard to 19 states amid crime crackdown

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson reports the latest on the Trump administration's crackdown on crime nationwide from the White House. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, and former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky also weigh in on the effort to reduce violence across the country and the FBI raid on John Bolton's home and office.

[g.sarkar]

John Bolton, who has been appearing on Indian shows, criticizing Trump’s tariffs on India, has his residence raided by the FBI, likely for some other reason though.

Karma. Never liked the guy.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-searching ... =124874729
Gautam

[Vayutuvan]

Among Anurag Awasthi’s first statement is his disappointment that the Indian diaspora has not spoken up about what Trump is doing with India.
https://www.youtube.com/live/0apv8Beh9o ... uE9RABfLff

Did he mention the seven Indian origin democrat congresspeople as well? I am sure the plebeians among Indian diaspora are speaking out everywhere including on X, here at BRF, ...

It is understandable and correct also for H1Bs/L1s/even PR holders/Students to not speak out.

That leaves Indian origin politicians of note. Only Nikki Haley had spoken out AFAI.

[chanakyaa]

[So much so about Bharat fueling the Ukraine-Russia war]

U.S. Oilfield Services Major Expands in Russia

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News ... ussia.html

Weatherford International plc., which is an Irish company, but based in the US, and never left Russian oil market. This is a publicly listed company in the US. According to public sources, the Company earned on average $300 million of revenue per year from operations in Russia for the several years.

For fun there is a website which keeps track of which company are staying/leaving, with responses for the companies. Companies are still operating in Russia. All izz well
https://leave-russia.org/

[A_Gupta]

JVL at The Bulwark:

We do not know what the allegations against Bolton are. We do know that five years ago the Trump administration attempted to prevent him from publishing his book. It failed.

It then attempted to seize the proceeds of his book. It failed.

It then opened a criminal investigation against him. It, again, failed.

Is it possible that the FBI now has new information that credibly suggests criminal acts by Bolton? Anything is possible, I suppose.

But it strains credulity to believe that the FBI has information that would suggest the need for exigency in conducting a search of Bolton’s home. Meaning: If this were a normal criminal investigation concerning years-old classified documents, the government would have had a conversation with Bolton’s lawyer and arranged for a routine, consensual search. Because Bolton is not a drug dealer or an embezzler.

Instead, the FBI enlisted the local police and stormed Bolton’s house at dawn.

To send a message. Not to Bolton. But to the rest of us.

If you are not nice to President Trump, he will bring the full force of the state down upon your life.

[pravula]

JVL at The Bulwark:

We do not know what the allegations against Bolton are. We do know that five years ago the Trump administration attempted to prevent him from publishing his book. It failed.

It then attempted to seize the proceeds of his book. It failed.

It then opened a criminal investigation against him. It, again, failed.

Is it possible that the FBI now has new information that credibly suggests criminal acts by Bolton? Anything is possible, I suppose.

But it strains credulity to believe that the FBI has information that would suggest the need for exigency in conducting a search of Bolton’s home. Meaning: If this were a normal criminal investigation concerning years-old classified documents, the government would have had a conversation with Bolton’s lawyer and arranged for a routine, consensual search. Because Bolton is not a drug dealer or an embezzler.

Instead, the FBI enlisted the local police and stormed Bolton’s house at dawn.

To send a message. Not to Bolton. But to the rest of us.

If you are not nice to President Trump, he will bring the full force of the state down upon your life.

To be fair, he was sued by Justice Dept to stop him from publishing his book. Biden admin dropped it. BUT, the judge said “Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability,” Lamberth wrote

[A_Gupta]

So just what was the classified information in Bolton's book now that it has been available for five years? The best I find is "we cannot tell you what is classified, because that is classified".

No sympathy for Bolton though.
AI couldn't tell me what was classified in what Bolton wrote. It did give me this, though.

To secure a criminal conviction, prosecutors would have needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bolton willfully and knowingly disclosed properly classified national defense information. This presented several challenges:

Bolton's Defense: Bolton's primary defense was that he had followed the standard, mandatory prepublication review process with the National Security Council (NSC). He spent months working with a career NSC official, Ellen Knight, to revise the manuscript. Bolton and his lawyers maintained that Knight had concluded her review and that he had addressed all national security concerns she raised. This would have made it extremely difficult for the government to prove he acted with criminal intent.

A Contested Review Process: The Trump White House intervened at the last minute, with political appointees overruling the career official's assessment. This created a messy factual record. A trial would have focused on the legitimacy of the government's own internal review process, a battle the DOJ likely found unattractive and difficult to win.

2. The Risk of "Graymail"

This is often the most significant obstacle in prosecuting cases involving classified information. "Graymail" is a legal tactic where the defense threatens to reveal classified information in open court to properly defend their client.

In Bolton's case, to prove that the information he published was indeed classified and harmful, the government would have had to discuss the sensitive material in detail during a trial. This would have resulted in the very outcome the prosecution was meant to prevent: the public disclosure and confirmation of state secrets. Dropping the case was a way to avoid causing further potential damage to national security.

3. The Appearance of Political Motivation

The investigation and lawsuit were initiated by the Trump administration against a high-profile critic. The effort was widely seen as an attempt to suppress embarrassing and politically damaging revelations rather than a pure national security matter.

By dropping the case, the Biden administration, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, signaled a return to traditional DOJ norms and a move away from using the department to pursue the political adversaries of a previous administration. Continuing the prosecution would have risked validating claims that the DOJ was being used as a political weapon.

In summary, the Biden DOJ likely concluded that the case against Bolton was legally weak, procedurally flawed, and carried significant risks of both further exposing national secrets and perpetuating the politicization of the Justice Department. The combination of these factors made dropping the investigation the most prudent course of action.

[pravula]

Thats the same logic the judge used in rejecting the restraining order. Its out there and therefore makes no difference if it was classified to his order, but the Justice Dept can pursue him for it criminally.

From: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 27.0_5.pdf

The government has failed to establish that an
injunction will prevent irreparable harm. Its motion is accordingly DENIED

[A_Gupta]

An interesting essay:
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/i-res ... pt-to-stop
“ I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%.
Once they win elections, it's already too late.”

[A_Gupta]

I’ll just add that Bolton and his lawyers were not allowed to be present when the government briefed the judge on the harm caused by the book; and Bolton followed the rules till Trump changed them in the last minute.

[saip]

An interesting essay:
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/i-res ... pt-to-stop
“ I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%.
Once they win elections, it's already too late.”

But what good is the right to "bare arms" if not for starting a revolution?

[uddu]

‘NARCO STATE’: Mexican senator warns cartels have 'infested' the nation

Gringos are going against Mexican president to up the pressure on her. She must be careful. The president who went against drug mafia is being accused of one.

[Amber G.]

Donald Trump on his son Barron: “He can look at a computer... I turn off his laptop, I said, ‘Oh good,’ and I go back about five minutes later, he’s got his laptop, I say, ‘How do you do that?’.. He’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology

[Vayutuvan]

But what good is the right to "bare arms" if not for starting a revolution?

Democrats will take away the right to "bear arms". Then Mamdani will take away the right to "bare arms".

[A_Gupta]

“Donald Trump threatened to investigate Chris Christie after the former New Jersey governor criticized him on ABC’s This Week earlier on Sunday.”

—
Added: Trump wants the Department of Defense to go back to its old name of Department of War (1947).

[A_Gupta]

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/ ... rfk-trump/

As Measles Exploded, Officials in Texas Looked to CDC Scientists. Under Trump, No One Answered.

[A_Gupta]

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I PAID ZERO FOR INTEL, IT IS WORTH APPROXIMATELY 11 BILLION DOLLARS. All goes to the USA. Why are “stupid” people unhappy with that? I will make deals like that for our Country all day long. I will also help those companies that make such lucrative deals with the United States States. I love seeing their stock price go up, making the USA RICHER, AND RICHER. More jobs for America!!! Who would not want to make deals like that?

[Jay]

Democrats will take away the right to "bear arms". Then Mamdani will take away the right to "bare arms".

Wow, it's uttered with so much confidence, I almost forgot it made zero sense.

[Rudradev]

Bernie Sanders has voiced his approval for Trump's initiative to have the US Govt take over 10% of Intel.

I wonder what the conservative Heritage Foundation thinks of that. Has their vaunted Project 2025 gone off the rails and veered towards... socialism?