Understanding the US - Again

[A_Gupta]

From Talkingpointsmemo, John Light writes:

Republican Party Fights With Itself Over Selling Out To AI Billionaires

Someone in Trump’s coalition desperately wants to ban states from regulating AI, legal practicalities of such a policy be damned.

Other loud voices in Trump’s coalition see the effort as the tech-mogul power grab that it is.

For months now, these two factions have been engaged in a tug of war.

The latest chapter unfolded this month, when news began circulating that an executive order was being drafted that would crush state-level attempts at AI regulation. Among other things, it “would direct the Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating artificial intelligence,” according to the Washington Post, which published one early report on the draft. An autopsy of the rumors by the Verge cast the draft as the work of — and a massive power grab by — the South African-born venture capitalist David Sacks, Trump’s special advisor for AI and crypto. Around the same time, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Punchbowl that lawmakers were considering sticking a preemption of state AI laws in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Trump’s populist constituency freaked out (as did many Democrats). During a podcast discussion, MAGA legal bombthrower Mike Davis and Steve Bannon unloaded on the efforts, denouncing the “tech bros” behind them. “I’m a capitalist,” Bannon said at one point. “This is not capitalism. This is corporatism and crony capitalism.”

The rift emerged in almost exactly the same way when, in June, congressional Republicans inserted a similar preemption provision into Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, then, virtually unanimously, disowned it, with Republicans joining Democrats to strip it out.

The draft executive order is now, reportedly, on hold. But the tension between Trump’s power-hungry, Curtis Yarvin-pilled tech backers and his right-wing, nationalist, intermittently populist base remains an important and sometimes amusing fault line in a movement that, at least for now, is increasingly fractured.

[A_Gupta]

How the US treats Singapore, with which it has a trade surplus as well as a Free Trade Agreement since 2004:
The US helped with the S’pore ‘miracle’. Now, it’s calling in the favour, says Trump’s new envoy Anjani Sinha
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/us-helped-por ... 00327.html

The US goods trade surplus with Singapore was US$1.9 billion, while the services trade surplus was US$25.1 billion in 2024, as per the US Trade Representative’s office.

The higher US tariffs are dampening global economic prospects, including Singapore’s gross domestic product growth, which is expected to ease into a range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent in 2026 after expanding at around 4 per cent in 2025 and 4.4 per cent in 2024.

The United States is calling in a favour from friends like Singapore as President Donald Trump tries to rebalance the American economy and restore “fairness” to the international trading system.

Mr Trump’s ambassador to Singapore, Dr Anjani Kumar Sinha, offered that explanation when asked how the US President’s 10 per cent baseline tariff on the Republic – in spite of a free trade agreement since 2004 – aligns with the broader goals of the US-Singapore relationship.

“Over many decades, American taxpayers and service members have underwritten regional security, playing an important role in making Singapore’s economic miracle possible,” Dr Sinha said in an e-mail interview with The Straits Times.
...
“Now, we are asking our friends to help us rebalance the economy. That’s the framework, and I am confident the US-Singapore business and economic relationship will continue to grow,” he said.
...
“President Trump’s trade agenda is focused on restoring balance and fairness to the international trading system and protecting US national security,” Dr Sinha said.

[Vayutuvan]

(I am posting a large version of the image to make the details visible)

[Vayutuvan]

Adam Smith said:

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent

[Jay]

judges allowed this too...lol

[Vayutuvan]

He got acquitted in the court of public opinion in 2024. Also, the public representatives are calling judges to account. The same needs to be done with the out-of-control activist judiciary of India.

[Tanaji]

How the US treats Singapore, with which it has a trade surplus as well as a Free Trade Agreement since 2004:
The US helped with the S’pore ‘miracle’. Now, it’s calling in the favour, says Trump’s new envoy Anjani Sinha
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/us-helped-por ... 00327.html

Any agreement , trade or otherwise signed with Trump administration isn't worth the paper it is signed on. There is no guarantee that orange man wont wake up one day and realise a perceived slight that results in either abrogation or additional tariffs.

[A_Gupta]

Catherine Rampell writes:

DONALD TRUMP WANTS another Rush Hour movie, so another Rush Hour movie he shall get.

No matter that Jackie Chan is now 71 years old. No matter that the buddy-cop franchise leaned on racial stereotypes that might not play as well with even the woke-backlash audiences of today. Forget that the franchise’s director, Brett Ratner, has been virtually unemployable ever since half a dozen women (including several celebrities) accused him of sexual misconduct.

None of this is material. Even if it ends up being a box-office flop, Rush Hour 4 would still be a bargain—because producing this movie is a cheap way to extract something much, much more valuable from the president.

Paramount Skydance will reportedly distribute the film. Not coincidentally, Paramount Skydance is desperate to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s a merger that would normally face ginormous antitrust obstacles, given that the companies collectively control a third of the North American box office. But the administration has shown an inclination to dispense with regulatory hurdles when it comes to its friends. And ponying up the cash for a potential box-office dud will, if nothing else, further ingratiate Paramount to Trump.

After all, let’s say Rush Hour 4 costs a couple hundred million bucks. That’s pocket change compared to a ~$75 billion merger.

Of course, to potentially sweeten the pot, Trump will get a little payday in all of this too. Remember that until-recently-unemployable director, Ratner? He just directed Melania Trump’s soft-focus documentary, for which Amazon MGM paid the Trumps a cool $40 million.

This cinematic saga is a tidy little microcosm of Trumpism: The resurrection of a sex pest, otherwise banished from polite society. The palm-greasing for Trump. The nostalgia for extremely dated and borderline racist cultural references. The president showing more interest in being a kung-fu film producer than leader of the free world. And, perhaps most importantly,

the wholesale degradation of exactly what has made our economy great.

…
…

In a healthy economy, firms are focused on developing new products, appealing to customers, finessing their operations, or (if they’re in the entertainment business) producing films that they think audiences actually want to watch or have genuine artistic value.

Instead, these businesses are wasting their time on useless bullshit meant to appease the Grifter-in-Chief.

THE RUSH HOUR 4 EPISODE is hardly the only example of a bizarre, bespoke payoff to Trump. Here’s my running list of some of the funniest accolades and prizes Trump has been given of late:

This week, FIFA, the soccer governing body, will announce the winner of its “first annual” peace prize. We’re all waiting with bated breath to learn who gets it.1 But note it was created soon after Trump was denied the (real) Nobel Peace Prize—which FIFA president Gianni Infantino had said Trump “definitely deserves.”

In August, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Trump a fancy plaque made of glass and 24-karat gold.

Back in January, the Coca-Cola Company bestowed upon Trump the “first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle.”

South Korea gave Trump a gold crown shortly after the most recent “No Kings” protests. (I am not making this up.) It also awarded him with the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa” in recognition of his role as a “peacemaker” on the Korean peninsula. The ceremony luncheon was capped off with a brownie adorned with gold in Trump’s honor (titled the “Peacemaker’s Dessert”).

Around that same time, the Nixon Foundation gave Trump its Architect of Peace Award.

More recently a Swiss delegation arrived at the White House offering a Rolex desk clock, as well as a one-kilogram personalized gold bar worth approximately $130,000.

Elsewhere Trump has received Olympic medals, a luxury jet from Qatar, Egypt’s Nile Collar, the UAE’s Order of Zayed, an honorary silicon disk from Nvidia, and a McDonald’s fry-cook pin.

[drnayar]

Catherine Rampell writes:

DONALD TRUMP WANTS another Rush Hour movie, so another Rush Hour movie he shall get.

THE RUSH HOUR 4 EPISODE is hardly the only example of a bizarre, bespoke payoff to Trump. Here’s my running list of some of the funniest accolades and prizes Trump has been given of late:

In August, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Trump a fancy plaque made of glass and 24-karat gold.

Back in January, the Coca-Cola Company bestowed upon Trump the “first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle.”

South Korea gave Trump a gold crown shortly after the most recent “No Kings” protests. (I am not making this up.) It also awarded him with the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa” in recognition of his role as a “peacemaker” on the Korean peninsula. The ceremony luncheon was capped off with a brownie adorned with gold in Trump’s honor (titled the “Peacemaker’s Dessert”).

Around that same time, the Nixon Foundation gave Trump its Architect of Peace Award.

More recently a Swiss delegation arrived at the White House offering a Rolex desk clock, as well as a one-kilogram personalized gold bar worth approximately $130,000.

Elsewhere Trump has received Olympic medals, a luxury jet from Qatar, Egypt’s Nile Collar, the UAE’s Order of Zayed, an honorary silicon disk from Nvidia, and a McDonald’s fry-cook pin.

I think Bharat should award Trump the "Golden Pea cock" award [sic] ., that should settle the tariffs demand , why are we so "not being flexible" with awards

[chetak]

land of the free and the home of the bereaved

they should replace their useless bald eagle with a more appropriate symbol

The decapitated and skinned chicken

ILLEGAL ALIEN BEHEADS HIS BOSS IN FRONT OF WIFE & KID IN TEXAS: SOROS-FUNDED DA SAYS "NAH, NO DEATH PENALTY FOR THAT"

Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, a 37-year-old Cuban illegal with a rap sheet longer than your arm (carjacking, indecency with a child, fleeing cops, the works), got butt-hurt with his motel manager.

So he followed the guy, pulled out a machete, hacked his head off in the parking lot, then kicked it down the driveway like a soccer ball and tossed it in a dumpster.

All while the victim's wife and son watched in horror.

This savage had a final deportation order, but Biden's people cut him loose in January because Cuba wouldn't take him back.

Now he's caught for literal decapitation murder... and Dallas County DA John "Let-em-Go" Creuzot just quietly took the death penalty off the table.

Max sentence they'll seek? Life without parole.

Beheading a man in front of his family isn't enough for the needle anymore in soft-on-crime Dallas.

Trump already called this exact DA out by name for being soft.

Victim's family is begging for full justice. But Creuzot's office shrugs and says, "We might change our mind" by January 8th.

American citizens brutally murdered, illegals with mile-long records walking free until they escalate to medieval execution... and Soros-backed prosecutors making sure they never face real consequences.

Chandramouli Nagamallaiah deserved better. His family deserves justice. Dallas deserves a DA who isn't terrified of the words "death penalty."

Source: Dallas Express

[saip]

Now the OM's MRI 'report' is out put out by his faithful doctor. It shows no tail (so I am wrong - he is NOT a monkey). Also, nothing about bone spurs - they magically disappeared.