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Trump’s World Liberty Financial token ends 2025 down over 40%
The Biggest Threat to the 2026 Economy Is Still Donald Trump
$144M in Trades Linked to Suspicious Accounts on Binance Following Plea Agreement: FT
Coronavirus and Public Health:
Politics:
Too Early, Too Alone: France Prepares for Russia as US Withdraws
Like many other European nations, France sees Russia has a growing threat to the continent. So it is preparing to defend itself against what the country’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Fabien Mandon, called a ‘violent test’ from Russia in the next three to four years that it would need to counter without much, if any, help from Washington. To do that, France is boosting military spending, increasing weapons production and doubling the reserve forces.
As of next year, France will also reintroduce voluntary military service for young adults, primarily 18- and 19-year-olds. The goal is to enroll 3,000 new recruits next summer, 10,000 in 2030 and 50,000 in 2035.
Trump faces narrowing options on Venezuela action
As Trump continues the boat strikes — now numbering 28, with at least 104 killed — and with the declaration of a “blockade” of all sanctioned vessels transporting Venezuelan oil, he has all but abandoned the public pretense that his goal is simply stopping migrants and drugs, rather than Maduro’s removal.
Trump Halts Five Wind Farms Off the East Coast
The Trump administration on Monday said it would pause leases for five wind farms under construction off the East Coast, a major escalation of President Trump’s crusade against offshore wind power.
———— The Epstein Coverup ————
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———— Autocracy R Us ————
ICE Barbie’s Top Goon Blames Staff After Flunking Lie-Detector Test
Gap Undermines Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Plan
A historical review shows lawmakers without certain familial records went unchallenged as citizens when the 14th Amendment was adopted. The finding appeared to undercut the president’s claims on birthright citizenship…
The court will hear arguments in the spring to decide whether that is right. There are many tools for assessing the original meaning of a constitutional provision, including the congressional and public debates that surrounded its adoption.
But one important tool has been overlooked in determining the meaning of this amendment: the actions that were taken — and not taken — to challenge the qualifications of members of Congress, who must be citizens, around the time the amendment was ratified.
A new study to be published next month in The Georgetown Law Journal Online fills that gap. It examined the backgrounds of the 584 members who served in Congress from 1865 to 1871 and found good reason to think that more than a dozen of them might not have been citizens under Mr. Trump’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment. But no one thought to file a challenge to their qualifications
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
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———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————
———— Mors Imperii ————
Trump Takes ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level
In his first year back in office, Mr. Trump has unabashedly adopted the trappings of royalty just as he has asserted virtually unbridled power to transform American government and society to his liking. In both pageantry and policy, Mr. Trump has established a new, more audacious version of the imperial presidency that goes far beyond even the one associated with Richard M. Nixon, for whom the term was popularized half a century ago.
He no longer holds back, or is held back, as in the first term. Trump 2.0 is Trump 1.0 unleashed. The gold trim in the Oval Office, the demolition of the East Wing to be replaced by a massive ballroom, the plastering of his name and face on government buildings and now even the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the designation of his own birthday as a free-admission holiday at national parks — it all speaks to a personal aggrandizement and accumulation of power with meager resistance from Congress or the Supreme Court.
Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief
Though I tend to think it’s usually a waste of space to devote a column to President Trump’s personality — what more is there to say about the character of this petty, hollow, squalid, overstuffed man? — sometimes the point bears stressing: We are led by the most loathsome human being ever to occupy the White House.
The Pitiful Childishness of Donald Trump
The president’s appetite for plastering his name on every available surface appears insatiable.
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Fabulous story about Beatrice Shilling.