Blue ribbon select committee (or Red ribbon in this case)
Perspective on historical pardons
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump pardoned a number of people charged with crimes related to the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.
This act was widely described as “unprecedented.” None of the individuals pardoned have yet received a taxpayer-funded professorship.
Lol
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Pardon recipients still risk civil / monetary cases, state criminal charges (rather than federal), and in the case of politicians, disgorgement or similar for corrupt acts even if not convicted criminally.
One can hope.
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Looks like DJT is solving our inflation/housing problems thru “demands” 
Jawboning only works if you’re Fed chair, and even that is becoming less powerful
Maybe he should give an EO to lower mortgage rates, or thru Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.
Economist cover story
Paywall limited me to the first paragraph, but even that was precious after what Biden had done (and tried to do). It even notes the power to pardon wasnt designed for members of an outgoing President’s own family, yet in the next sentence blame Trump for those conventions being over.
“Imperialist” Trump is otherwise known as “Not gonna let them undermine and sabatoge me this time” Trump. The story should be how he needs to essentially force government employees to execute and support his initiatives, which itself had been a long-standing convention and expectation that never needed to be stated in the past.
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And it still wont stop…
Gov agency caught using sneaky tactic to get around Trump’s DEI purge
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appeared to try and avoid Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive order by switching the job title of its Chief Diversity Officer.
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Colombia makes the mistake of being the first country to deny Trump’s return of their illegal criminal migrants. Turns out they need the US as a trade partner way more than we need them (except for cheap cocaine, sorry Hunter), and their initial bluster folded like a cheap suit.
On Sunday morning, American military aircraft transporting Colombian deportees were denied permission to land in Colombia, with Petro refusing to accept deported migrants. Defending the move, Petro said the U.S. “can’t treat Colombian migrants like criminals.” Trump responded by announcing a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Colombia, rising to 50 percent in a week. He also threatened financial sanctions, a travel ban, and visa revocations for all Colombian government officials plus “allies and supporters.”
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump warned on Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States.”
The threats were certainly noticed, with Petro announcing reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods. Still, in a sign that Trump’s tough negotiation style was working, on Sunday afternoon Petro offered his own presidential plane to “facilitate the dignified return of the compatriots who were going to arrive in the country today in the morning, coming from deportation flights.”
By the evening, the White House announced that “the Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
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I wonder whether Petro thought Brazil and Mexico were going to join him, only to quickly find out they weren’t.
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The issue here is that China is more than willing to step in and “help” out. They will fill the void and that should scare anyone that cares about America’s influence in South America. Yielding to the Chinese is not worth largely symbolic deportations that don’t mean diddly squat.
Peru is a great example of what this means. The Chinese build a port there and now they have access to the natural resources that the area is rich in, and wield influence with the government. Expect to see this in Colombia.
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and Panama
The German federal election will be on February 23, 2025. Will be interesting to see how the German voters weigh in on the Muslim invasion
German mainstream politicians and media have presented that the real ‘threat’ the country is facing is not brutal terror rampages and attacks like those recently seen in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg (both perpetrated by asylum-seeking migrants), but the fact that Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has been polling better than ever before and having serious national influence as Friedrich Merz - Merkel’s successor as leader of the country’s conservatives - seeks to push through tighter immigration controls.
Recap on how much presidential executive actions can cost, even without any congressional involvement. Biden cost $1T+
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I can barely keep up. Trump wins just today…
- Mexico tariffs lead to concessions, 10k of their troops to protect our border, work on reducing gun and drug smuggling
- Canadian tariffs lead to concessions, declaring drug cartels terrorists, various border security and anti-drug measures
- Venezuelan migrants to lose “temporary” immigration status granted by Biden
- USAID shut down and taken over by the state dept, many shady and/or woke spending programs revealed and canned (including funding Wuhan Covid research)
- DOGE with increasing access to spending records of various government departments, interestingly with big showdowns of “resistance” by their top bureaucrats who have been fired or put on leave
On the horizon,
- Ukraine deal possibly involving US access to their rare earth minerals
- Major reforms or shut down of dept of education
- US “sovereign wealth fund” for long term investment, possibly buying TikTok
- Tariff threats vs EU
He didn’t get much done in his first term, but boy is he making up for it this time.
More on the USAID specifically
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DEI in the secret service - more women, lower standards and morale.
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From what I can tell, Musk is a nobody as far as elected or appointed government officials go. Yet he has a few barely-out-of-college kids taking over the US federal money systems. Does this not bother you, even a little?
This is much more likely to go wrong than to go right.
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Checking on the details of spending is not “taking over”. Plus these are some really high power guys Elon has in DOGE.
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But it certainly looks like a takeover, since career people who’ve been there and in charge across multiple presidencies are leaving.
No doubt these kids are gifted, since they took on a monumental task. And they may even be qualified to perform audits. What they lack, however, is wisdom that comes with age and experience, and we have no idea what their motivations are (besides pleasing Musk, of course).
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The clear implication is that they are either bitter that they’re now being subjected to oversight and cant just do whatever their backroom clique wants, or they know they’re going to be exposed for all their waste spending and get fired anyways.
All those “wiz kids” are doing is finding and calling out potentially questionable spending, so the people in charge can make informed decisions.
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