chetak wrote: ↑09 Jan 2026 22:40
Interesting if true
In a rare bipartisan clash with the White House, the U.S. Senate voted 52-47 to block President Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela without Congress’s explicit approval.
The decision came days after a shocking nighttime raid seized Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife, stirring fears of unchecked executive power.
Democrats, joined by five Republicans, cast a historic rebuke, asserting the Constitution’s checks on war powers.
The vote sent a thunderous message: even a president’s military ambitions face limits in a vigilant republic.
Breaking news from the United States, where an anticipated verdict on tariffs linked to Donald Trump has been delayed by the US Supreme Court. According to a correspondent, while a ruling was expected, the court chose not to issue one today. The new dates for the pronouncement are not yet official, but there is speculation about future decision days. The correspondent states, 'The next we are hearing is, could be the 26th of January or the 20th of February when the Supreme Court could issue a ruling on this important matter.' The report highlights that the outcome is considered very important for Donald Trump, who is said to be watching the case closely to determine a future course of action, which might include approaching the US Congress.
This only means the court is trying to backtrack from it's initial "advertised/speculated" position and is finding ways to rule this in favor of trump...At least, that's how I'm seeing it.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 00:19
by Vayutuvan
If the court perceives that Trump Tarriffs are working to the advantage of the US, they might be trying to delay. They are SCOTUS after all. I am sure all three co-equal branches of the US govt. believe in "the US exceptionalism."
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 05:54
by RCase
drnayar wrote: ↑09 Jan 2026 14:41looks like the US wants to control the supplies of Highly enriched Uranium as well !! @amberji
Control the energy supplies to entire world and you control the world
Wasn't the US itself importing Uranium from Russia?
drnayar wrote: ↑09 Jan 2026 14:41looks like the US wants to control the supplies of Highly enriched Uranium as well !! @amberji
Control the energy supplies to entire world and you control the world
Wasn't the US itself importing Uranium from Russia?
Yes — it has been true that the United States imported uranium (especially enriched uranium used for nuclear fuel) from Russia, and this has been a significant part of U.S. nuclear fuel supply
(A law "banning" Russian uranium imports took effect in Aug 2024, with exemptions allowed through January 1, 2028 if no alternative supply exists)
Before Aug 2024) ,-Russia supplied a substantial share — about 20–25 % of enriched uranium services for U.S. reactors,
(Before it used to something like 700 tons/year -- they lowered it after the 'ban' but still get about half or that amount (300 tons (about still few million dollars. )
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 15:37
by SRajesh
US ready to sell Venezuealan Oil to India https://www.deccanherald.com/world/us-r ... ia-3857626
Is this true or a hit job given that the news in DH who are anti-Modi.
Also the report mentions specifically Reliance.
Hmm has MA been hobnobbing with OM and his team even before the Venezuealan escapade!!
MA is turning steadily into a Oligarch who's primary focus is Money and not the state
And his competitors in India Adani/Tata etc are being targetting one way or the other by Unkil and their minions in onwards or the other
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 15:45
by uddu
White Imperialists from Europe resurrected in Murika https://x.com/i/status/2009819010456834085
@TheNavroopSingh
Tucker Carlson says that the “republic is over”, and that the US has entered the “imperial phase.”
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 15:52
by uddu
If it is Doland, the Americans have to worry. https://x.com/i/status/2009663999848104012
@eeldenden
PM Meloni: Should we close American military bases? Or cut trade relations? Should we storm McDonalds? I don't know what we should do
The country is going to put a resolution on ending its membership in the alliance to a vote, announced Vice President of the National Assembly Gautier.
According to her, the issue of France's participation in NATO has become particularly acute against the backdrop of US actions
Now You Understand the crux of Tariff Wars and targeting of Russia, China, India, Brazil, Iran in BRICS+ ! Its all about settlement of trade in Non Dollar terms !
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 16:00
by uddu
As founding president of “Indians for Danish Greenland” I suggest to keep them alcoholics rather than drug addicts under Murika. https://x.com/i/status/2009805084876779891
Iyervval Greenland is racked by a crisis of rampant alcoholism & violent crime. As founding president of “Indians for an American Greenland” I call on
@realDonaldTrump
to invoke the Responsibility To Protect (R2P) principle of international humanitarian law & annexe Greenland immediately.
As leaders of Greenland’s political parties, we once again wish to underline our firm position that the United States’ disregard for our country must come to an end.
We do not wish to be Americans. We do not wish to be Danes. We wish to be Greenlanders.
Greenland is a country governed in accordance with the Self-Government Act and international law. The Government of Greenland and the Inatsisartut are elected by the people of Greenland, and through this mandate they cooperate with the United States and other Western countries—a cooperation that will continue in the future.
The future of Greenland must be decided by the Greenlandic people. Work concerning Greenland’s future is conducted in dialogue with the population and prepared on the basis of international law and the Self-Government Act. No other country has the right to interfere in this process. We will decide our country’s future ourselves—without pressure to make hasty decisions, without delays imposed from outside, and without external interference.
In recent years, we have strengthened our international responsibility and engagement. This has been carried out through official diplomatic channels and in accordance with international principles based on mutual respect, and this approach will continue.
We once again call for dialogue to be conducted on the basis of diplomacy and international principles. This is the appropriate path forward for allies and friends.
We therefore agree on the following:
That intensified and close dialogue with our allies and cooperation partners must be ensured.
That a meeting of the Inatsisartut be brought forward in order to secure a responsible, orderly, and united political debate.
That, in these extraordinary and serious circumstances, the rights and interests of the Greenlandic people are safeguarded.
That we will continue working to develop opportunities that ensure security and well-being for our people throughout the entire country.
We stand together in our right to our country, now and for all time.
Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.
Jens Frederik Nielsen, Demokraatit
Pele Broberg, Naleraq
Múte B. Egede, Inuit Ataqatigiit
Aleqa Hammond, Siumut
Aqqalu C. Jeremiassen, Atassut
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 16:02
by uddu
Governor Of California PANICS After Millions Of Truckers Are FORCED To LEAVE California! California’s trucking industry is collapsing after the final enforcement of Assembly Bill 5, forcing an estimated seventy thousand independent truckers to either become employees or leave the state entirely. Major carriers immediately pulled back, warning drivers that operating in California now carries extreme legal and financial risk, including audits, retroactive penalties, and six-figure fines. Dispatch calls dried up overnight, ports slowed, fuel distribution fractured, and entire rural regions were left without reliable freight or fuel access. What was framed as a worker-protection law instead wiped out small trucking businesses that had operated independently for decades, triggering a mass exodus that crippled supply chains tied to agriculture, retail, and imports.
As trucks vanished, the consequences spread fast. Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach backed up as container traffic stalled, fuel shortages worsened due to refinery closures and gas station shutdowns, and prices surged across logistics networks. Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration scrambled behind the scenes, drafting emergency responses as GDP slowed, unemployment rose in logistics hubs, and corporations rerouted supply chains out of state. Temporary task forces and late exemption proposals failed to reverse the damage. California’s trucking crisis became a case study in how regulatory overreach can unravel a modern economy—empty highways, paralyzed ports, and a supply chain breakdown that now affects the entire country.
California trucking crisis, Assembly Bill 5 truckers, AB5 independent contractors, California trucker exodus, port congestion Los Angeles Long Beach, California supply chain disruption, truckers leaving California, California fuel shortages, logistics industry collapse, owner-operator trucking California, California transportation policy impact, West Coast shipping delays
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 16:18
by uddu
Mostly the Assembling sector must have collapsed. https://x.com/CAPAction/status/2009657916911919569
@CAPAction
BREAKING: Manufacturing jobs have plummeted under Trump's tariffs—this is not putting America first.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 16:21
by uddu
CNBC forced to admit roaring success of Trump’s tariffs, after US trade deficit is halved CNBC has celebrated a major economic win for the United States economy.
Latest data from the commerce department released on January 8 showed Trump’s tariffs have played a pivotal role in cutting the US trade deficit from a peak of $136 billion in March 2025 to just under $30 billion in October 2025.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 16:26
by uddu
Is the American Public spending less? https://www.bea.gov/news/glance
The U.S. goods and services trade deficit decreased in October 2025 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit decreased from $48.1 billion in September (revised) to $29.4 billion in October, as exports increased and imports decreased. The goods deficit decreased $19.2 billion in October to $59.1 billion. The services surplus decreased $0.4 billion in October to $29.8 billion.
The US economy added just 50,000 jobs in December, according to the latest monthly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.4% from a revised 4.5%.
• The latest data means 2025 saw the weakest annual job growth since 2003, with just 584,000 jobs added last year.
• While the Federal Reserve cut rates three times last year in order to support a flailing labor market, December’s improved unemployment rate makes an interest rate cut unlikely at the central bank’s rate-setting meeting later this month.
Labor’s share of US GDP drops to record low in data back to 1947 https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/labo ... 66335.html
The portion of US economic output that goes to workers in the form of wages and salaries plunged to the lowest level on record in the third quarter of last year, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
The measure known as the labor share fell to 53.8% in the period, down from 54.6% in the previous quarter and an average of 55.6% in the 2020s so far, according to the BLS report on labor productivity and costs published Thursday.
US Trade Gap Shrinks to Smallest Since 2009 on Imports Drop https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ports-drop
Imports decreased 3.2%, reflecting declines in inbound shipments of medication and nonmonetary gold. Imports of pharmaceutical preparations dropped to the lowest since July 2022. The value of all US goods and services exports rose 2.6% in October. The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation.
Companies frontloaded imports of drugs in September, likely in anticipation of President Donald Trump announcing what would be a 100% tariff on pharmaceutical imports to start Oct. 1, which ended up being delayed. Many companies were able to avoid the duty by striking deals with the administration in exchange for promises to lower drug prices.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 16:36
by uddu
“Whether They Like It or Not”: Trump Issues Stark Greenland Warning to Russia, China | AC1B U.S. President Donald Trump says America must “own Greenland” to stop Russia and China from taking control, warning of warships and submarines near the Arctic island. His remarks at the White House have sparked alarm across NATO and Europe, raising fears of a major geopolitical showdown with Denmark. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 17:21
by uddu
Trump promises oil executives 'total safety' if they invest in Venezuela “You have total safety,” Trump tells U.S. oil executives as he tries to convince them to rush back into Venezuela. Trump is seeking to assure them that they need not be skeptical of investing in a country with a history of state asset seizures.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 17:41
by Tanaji
What are the chances of an insurgency in Venezuela? Nothing major just enough to raise the cost of exporting crude…
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 20:22
by A_Gupta
uddu wrote: ↑10 Jan 2026 16:21
Latest data from the commerce department released on January 8 showed Trump’s tariffs have played a pivotal role in cutting the US trade deficit from a peak of $136 billion in March 2025 to just under $30 billion in October 2025.[/i]
The overall balance of payments (goods and services) deficit is down to $29.350 billion in October 2025 per the Federal Reserve. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOPGSTB
and was $136 billion in March 2025.
Overall balance of trade (US runs a surplus in services and a deficit in goods): millions of dollars
U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Trade Balance: Goods and Services, Balance of Payments Basis [BOPGSTB], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOPGSTB, January 10, 2026.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 10 Jan 2026 20:31
by drnayar
uddu wrote: ↑10 Jan 2026 16:00
As founding president of “Indians for Danish Greenland” I suggest to keep them alcoholics rather than drug addicts under Murika. https://x.com/i/status/2009805084876779891
Iyervval Greenland is racked by a crisis of rampant alcoholism & violent crime. As founding president of “Indians for an American Greenland” I call on
@realDonaldTrump
to invoke the Responsibility To Protect (R2P) principle of international humanitarian law & annexe Greenland immediately.
As leaders of Greenland’s political parties, we once again wish to underline our firm position that the United States’ disregard for our country must come to an end.
We do not wish to be Americans. We do not wish to be Danes. We wish to be Greenlanders.
Greenland is a country governed in accordance with the Self-Government Act and international law. The Government of Greenland and the Inatsisartut are elected by the people of Greenland, and through this mandate they cooperate with the United States and other Western countries—a cooperation that will continue in the future.
That, in these extraordinary and serious circumstances, the rights and interests of the Greenlandic people are safeguarded.
That we will continue working to develop opportunities that ensure security and well-being for our people throughout the entire country.
We stand together in our right to our country, now and for all time.
Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.
Jens Frederik Nielsen, Demokraatit
Pele Broberg, Naleraq
Múte B. Egede, Inuit Ataqatigiit
Aleqa Hammond, Siumut
Aqqalu C. Jeremiassen, Atassut
Calling themselves independent from Denmark makes it easy for America to take it by force., no NATO, no Article 5. Are they dumb ?
This is a sly way of Americans to modify their opinion and force their hand !
Key details: Exports rose 2.6% in October. While the U.S. shipped more industrial supplies overseas, a big increase in gold exports also played a large role.
Investors brought lots of gold in from outside the U.S. earlier in the year on worries the precious metal might get slapped with tariffs. But when Trump administration backed off, those worries evaporated, prompting dealers to send the gold back to their prior storage sites in other countries such as Switzerland.
Imports, meanwhile, fell by 3.2% in October to the lowest level in nearly two years. The biggest decline by far was in pharmaceutical drugs.
U.S. companies had boosted imports earlier in 2025 to avoid tariffs, then pulled back after they took effect.
Still, big monthly increases and decreases in the trade deficit in 2025 have done nothing to reverse a long-term of high and rising U.S. trade deficits.
In the first 10 months of 2025, the trade deficit totaled $782.8 billion, up 8% from $726.8 billion in the first 10 months of 2024.
Also note,
Price of gold when imported: Gold Price on 31 March 2025 ; Gold Price, 3089.58 per oz.
Price of gold when exported: Gold Price on 15 October 2025 ; Gold Price, 4160.57 per oz.
This round-tripping artificially reduced the US goods trade deficit.
CNBC also is now US sarkari media, it looks like.
---
We will know that the US has completely fallen to a one-man-ruled country when the market analysts also start parroting the Trump line.
---
Added (joke) EBITDA now stands for Earnings Before Interest and Trump's Daily Announcements
(EBITDA is a key performance indicator for a business
EBITDA breaks down into four simple pieces:
Earnings: profit a company generates before subtracting interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Interest: the cost of borrowing money, excluded to show performance independent of financing choices.
Taxes: government‑imposed charges on income, removed to focus on operating results.
Depreciation: the expense that reflects wear and tear on physical assets over time.
Amortization: the gradual expense of intangible assets like patents or trademarks.
)
uddu wrote: ↑10 Jan 2026 16:02Governor Of California PANICS After Millions Of Truckers Are FORCED To LEAVE California!
There is some turmoil in CA on the AB 5 bill which gives some negotiating power to the drivers(gig workers). But the bigger impact is the federal govt using every lever against the state for political reasons that the cause for much of this turmoil. CA has such a big impact on the nation that whatever effects CA, will end up effecting the country as a whole.
Looking the the prices of loads and load-flat bed availability trends for CA, they are creeping up but they are creeping up for the entire nation as well so in that sense it's a wash.
Imports fell $11 billion overall, with imports of nonmonetary gold declining $1.4 billion. The main contributors to declining imports were pharmaceuticals, which fell $14.3 billion alone. They have been incredibly volatile since firms stocked up in early 2025 and may have been impacted by October trade policy announcements. Other areas that showed small declines included auto parts, oil and natural gas and fruits and vegetables.
We saw fairly sizeable increases in imports outside of those categories, which tracks with some of the supply chain data that emerged ahead of the holidays. Passenger cars, cell phones, toys and appliances showed small increases. Imports of high-tech capital goods continued their upward march given tariff waivers for the industry and the build-out of data centers to feed AI demand; computer accessories increased by $3.7 billion, telecommunications equipment by $1.9 billion while computers added $1.1 billion. Imports of services increased $1.1 billion, mainly on an increase in travel-related services.
Exports increased $7.8 billion overall, but nonmonetary gold accounted for $6.8 billion of that increase. Exports were weak outside of gold and precious metals trade. Consumer goods exports declined $1 billion, mainly on pharmaceuticals and retail diamonds, capital goods declined $626 million on weaker aircraft and computers. Weaker soybean exports continued to lead soft agricultural exports. That was partially offset by a $702 million increase in exports of automotive parts and a $700 million increase in exports of services spread across travel, intellectual property and other business services.
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 11 Jan 2026 01:42
by A_Gupta
The Times of Israel reports:
Day after pro-Hamas protest, Mamdani says terror chants ‘have no place in our city’
Delayed statement from mayor condemns support for ‘terrorist organizations,’ vows to ensure safety at houses of worship and protests https://www.timesofisrael.com/day-after ... -our-city/
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday said support for terror groups has “no place in our city,” after a pro-Hamas protest in a Jewish neighborhood sparked outrage from other elected leaders.
Anti-Zionist activists chanted “We support Hamas,” “Death to the IDF,” “Intifada people’s war,” and other violent and discriminatory slogans during a Thursday night protest against an Israeli real estate event held at a synagogue in the Kew Gardens Hill neighborhood in Queens.
The protest also saw Jewish counter-protesters insult and taunt the anti-Zionist activists by shouting against the Palestinians, chanting in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and shouting “F*ck Mamdani.”.
....
Mamdani’s initial statement did not single out either side, or mention antisemitism or Hamas.
....
A follow-up comment posted to Mamdani’s social media was more explicit, saying, “Chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city.”
Re: Understanding the US - Again
Posted: 11 Jan 2026 01:45
by Tanaji
Perhaps Maamu realized that much as he loves Hamas, open support might get him arrested, hence the delayed condemnation…
Russian uranium imports took effect in Aug 2024, with exemptions allowed through January 1, 2028 if no alternative supply exists)
