This is probably a “top 5 most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done” moment right here.
It’s stunning. Sue the government that you’re in charge of, order them to settle, then plunder ~$2B worth of taxpayer money to pay himself and his corrupt idiot friends.
You will not find a better snapshot of Tucker Carlson's dishonesty and moral depravity than this. You can quote his own words back to him, and he will look you in the eye and say, "I never said that." It's part duplicity, part attempting to credibility face with MAGA, which is why Tucker is also back to claiming that Trump has no agency but is instead a victim of manipulation. In other words, "I did not lie to my audience; Trump has been led astray. You can always trust me." Whether Tucker runs for president or endorses JD Vance in 2028, he is a singularly malignant force in the public discussion, someone who has absolutely no compunction about lying to your face while telling you that lies are the worst thing imaginable.
I'm glad that the author of "Rent Control Is Fine, Actually" calls themself Unlearning Economics, bc it's good to just state things clearly, such as the open animosity that many left economic populists have for the field of economics and economists themselves.
Economists aren't gods, and economics isn't a divine truth, but economists are good--better than most--at something critical for making public policy: They're good at identifying tradeoffs. "Rents are too high, so freeze them" is compelling politics. But in the absence of other pro-supply policies, if you make it illegal to increase rents, landlords will stop upgrading units and convert them to condos, which reduces the supply of units for rent, reduces mobility, and drives up rents for everybody else.
The left econ populists have some clear, and clearly stated, policy ideas:
- Rents are too high, so freeze them.
- Electricity is expensive, so stop rate increases.
- Homes are too expensive, so ban institutional investors.
- Power prices are rising, so ban data center construction.
... All these policies feel like solutions because they're brisk, they name enemies, and they take on the most visible source of frustration. But they are much better as villain-naming exercises than they are as a complete public policy. On their own, each creates other problems: less housing built, less clean electricity built, abdicating energy policy by encouraging AI firms to build data centers abroad in unsavory countries with more emissions, etc.
I can't think of a single economic populist idea that wouldn't be helped with a little dose of economics, which is why it's troubling when I see the left participating in, and even celebrating, the great unlearning of economics.
"we're all trying to find the guy who did this" - one of the most cancerous disgusting valueless individuals currently participating in the american project
You disgusting vermin, your entire side was literally cheerleading the exact same attacks against Democrats for decades. It was your lot that was OBSESSED with Pizza Gate and the Epstein files, it was your lot who was obsessed with trying to tie Clinton to Epstein and Tara Reade to Biden (she lives in Russia now btw), and it was your side who excused Trump for saying 6 congressmen should be EXECUTED for treason.
Your side will never have moral high ground to stand on again.
No one is ready for the real solution to Gerrymandering:
A return to the Constitution's original standard of 1 Member of Congress for every 30,000 Americans, resulting in an 11,000-member House with city-council sized districts so small you can't Gerrymander them if you tried.
This causing a minor scandal among sections of the online left because a progressive Pro-Palestine Gen Z candidate wants to deter a war over Taiwan, and support Ukraine, shows a hollowness and moral bankruptcy that it will need to reckon with eventually.
A quite brilliant essay on AI, the law, and the future of the republic.
An upshot: If the US govt can go to any company, demand any contract language, and reserve the right to destroy your company if you have qualms, there is no such thing as private property rights in America.
I’m not sure there’s ever been a president more distant from the ideals of the Founders of the United States and the Framers of the Constitution—and more detached from the core American culture of liberty, individualism, and self-determination—than President Trump.
Republicans hate America. Democrats should’ve jumped on this talking point a long time ago. Republicans literally hate America and everything it stands for. That’s why they’re willing to embrace a fascist, that’s why they’re happy to watch this country turn into a dictatorship. Because when it comes down to it, Republicans hate everything this country stands for.
Trump meets with his largest memecoin holders. The NYT:
Several of the dinner guests, in interviews with The New York Times, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations...
Sangrok Oh, a Korean crypto executive, arrived at the dinner with a collection of red baseball caps emblazoned with the words “Make Crypto Great Again” that he planned to hand out at the event. He said he had flown all the way from Seoul to attend the dinner.
“It’s kind of a fund-raiser” for Mr. Trump, Mr. Oh said in an interview at his hotel in Virginia. “And he’ll always be good to his sponsors.”..
The dinner was designed to fuel more sales. The organizers framed it as a contest: The top 220 buyers would dine with Mr. Trump at his golf club, while the top 25 would attend a more intimate gathering with the president before dinner and go on a tour of the White House.
Just open bribery. We've found the Platonic ideal of corruption.
Everyone who even says the words "Hunter Biden" now is declaring themselves too stupid or dishonest to be part of the public discourse.
Here are the guests. A United Nations of grifters and crooks.