You know this is part of their longtime war on the NWS, because it has the gall to offer for free what folks like AccuWeather would like to charge people for, right? AccuWeather’s CEO and founder has been working towards this since at least 20 years ago.
so how is Trump threatening tariffs to trim the trade deficit working out?
Census:
The advance international trade deficit in goods increased to $153.3 billion in January from $122.0 billion in December as imports increased more than exports.
January 2025: +25.6° % Change
December 2024: +17.3° % Change
The felon-in-chief, never willing to brook any resistance, any contradiction, invited the President of a country at war to the White House, intent on telling that President that he has no choice but to prostrate himself before his enemy. The felon-in-chief met resistance; he threw a tantrum.
And Vance? “You haven’t sucked up to us enough.” Yeah, the sucking up is really critical to U.S. interests. Not democracy. Not the system of international law we sponsored. Ugh.
The mineral deal was advertised as the focus of this disastrous meeting, but that was apparently just a set-up, a way to catch Zelensky off guard. Maybe it did, but Zelensky handled it as well as could be done, refusing to betray his people.
Our (former?) European allies may be Ukraine’s only hope now. They seem to have come to that realization already. Maybe Trump still wants something out of this mess, and will reconsider.
These meetings are supposed to be scripted – every detail worked out in advance, not some Keystone cops blunderfest. Not some embarrassing shakedown gone wrong.
Most people have heard the last 5 minutes of Trump and Vance angrily berating Zelinskyy but they may not of heard what came just before that. Here’s Trump talking about Putin:
“They broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him, they didn’t respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia—Russia, Russia, Russia, you ever hear of that deal? That was a phony—that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And he had to go through that. And he did go through it and we didn’t end up in a war. He went through it, he was accused of all that stuff—he had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting. And then they said, ‘Oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia.’ The 51 agents, the whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff.”
It’s Trump confusing himself with Putin and his own grievances and defending Putin’s “suffering” and rambling about Hunter Biden’s bathroom. This is live TV in front of the whole world, all of the press and another country’s leader. This is the rambling of a seriously mentally degraded old man. Trump’s father died of Alzheimers. These unexpected and inappropriate angry outbursts are a common symptom.
It’s interesting that you don’t hear much about Ivanka and Jared anymore. I remember watching Ivanka and Jared being deposed in one of those investigations of her father. You could tell by her body language and the tone of her voice that she knew something wasn’t right with her dad’s mental state, whom I sure she loved but also felt rather embarrassed by his craziness. In her deposition she was almost apologizing for her dad’s mental state.
On another note, you have to wonder when some of the betting sites are going to put up something on the odds of a “Seven Days in May” kind of scenario if Trump keeps getting crazier and gets even cozier with Putin.
Considering the amount of money given to Ukraine from the US has dwindled greatly the last 18 months. 40% of Ukrainian arms are self produced. The European percentage will be up to 40% in 2025. That leaves 20% of filler. I think they can get it. Putin needs dead.
Biden set Ukraine up to be able to handle a hard break with US suppliers. A lot of technology and know how is in Ukraine already. This is not to say there will not be negative consequences – but Ukraine will not “fall”.
A new narrative is being peddled in Russia stating that: “Russia has won in the sense that it was not defeated,” “the [Russian] population supports the government,” and “no one expected Russia to be so stable” after years of war”. That is basically setting the population up for a peace deal. However, if US cuts support for Ukraine, Putin may go back to his old deluded ideas of total victory.
Today there is a European defense summit in London that includes leaders of all the major European countries including Zelensky. Look for that to point the way through this critical moment.
A FAB3000 glide bomb appears to have landed short (north) of its intended target. This would suggest that Ukraine is having success in defense against those bombs. Glide bombs have been the main serious threat to Ukrainian forces because they are so hard to detect and shoot down. The damage from these massive (500 – 3000Kg) bombs is also much bigger than from (80 – 200Kg) Shahed Drones and most missiles.
Ukranian drone superiority in Toretsk has turned this newly Russian occupied town into a “grey zone” where Russia now has to call in reinforcements just to hold on to it.
Russia have quotas for each region to recruit a specific number of soldiers. Many regions have had a hard time meeting their numbers (which are already to low to replace loses at the current rate). But those metrics don’t say anything about quality of the new “soldiers”. A Russian milblogger complained that “Russian authorities are targeting vulnerable individuals, including those with alcoholism, developmental disabilities, and mental health disorders, through deception and coercion schemes to meet contract soldier recruitment quotas”.
A great article in NYT today goes over how all those expensive weapons produced by the US military industrial complex are of little use in today’s modern drone wars.
More than 2/3 of all deaths are caused by drones. Ukraine lost 60% of the US top of the line Abrams tanks we provided (and have pulled the remaining back from the front line). Their F16 jets have become anti-drone and anti-missile weapons that cannot safely operate close to the frontline. Ukraine is actually ahead of Western military when it comes to fighting modern era wars.
I would not underplay the fear of federal workers that they could lose their jobs. They are likely pulling back spending big time right now. Uncertainty is not just a player in the stock market it is also a big time player consumption. In addition, the upheaval in trade with tariffs threatening businesses that are involved in exports will put a lot of plans on hold until the dust settles. Those workers will also know that their jobs are at risk, and hold back on spending. Trump and his clown parade may have already precipitated a recession.
recently sold a house. was planning on upgrading my 2017 vehicle with some of the cash. but economic uncertainty is in play. I either buy now, before tariffs add thousands to the total, or stick with the car a couple more years. it’s an Acura, so even at 8 years its still a nice vehicle. that was not an option I considered a few months ago. so yeah, I think we have some economic headwinds growing stronger. I will pocket the extra $600 a month and put it in treasuries for over 4%.
Laying off meteorologists, because why not:
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/27/nx-s1-5298738/trump-administration-layoffs-hit-noaa-the-agency-that-forecasts-weather-and-hurricanes
Farmers, pilots, event planners, parents, logistics and transportation professionals of all kinds, all say “Thanks, guys!”
test
Antoni is over there claiming liberals have declared RECESSION (we have not) and this MAGA moron is still saying we had a 2022 recession.
You know this is part of their longtime war on the NWS, because it has the gall to offer for free what folks like AccuWeather would like to charge people for, right? AccuWeather’s CEO and founder has been working towards this since at least 20 years ago.
so how is Trump threatening tariffs to trim the trade deficit working out?
Census:
The advance international trade deficit in goods increased to $153.3 billion in January from $122.0 billion in December as imports increased more than exports.
January 2025: +25.6° % Change
December 2024: +17.3° % Change
December imports were a record high, btw…
Probably a lag effect. Recession will reduce the trade deficit.
The felon-in-chief, never willing to brook any resistance, any contradiction, invited the President of a country at war to the White House, intent on telling that President that he has no choice but to prostrate himself before his enemy. The felon-in-chief met resistance; he threw a tantrum.
And Vance? “You haven’t sucked up to us enough.” Yeah, the sucking up is really critical to U.S. interests. Not democracy. Not the system of international law we sponsored. Ugh.
The mineral deal was advertised as the focus of this disastrous meeting, but that was apparently just a set-up, a way to catch Zelensky off guard. Maybe it did, but Zelensky handled it as well as could be done, refusing to betray his people.
Our (former?) European allies may be Ukraine’s only hope now. They seem to have come to that realization already. Maybe Trump still wants something out of this mess, and will reconsider.
These meetings are supposed to be scripted – every detail worked out in advance, not some Keystone cops blunderfest. Not some embarrassing shakedown gone wrong.
Thanks for this comment.
Most people have heard the last 5 minutes of Trump and Vance angrily berating Zelinskyy but they may not of heard what came just before that. Here’s Trump talking about Putin:
“They broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him, they didn’t respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia—Russia, Russia, Russia, you ever hear of that deal? That was a phony—that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And he had to go through that. And he did go through it and we didn’t end up in a war. He went through it, he was accused of all that stuff—he had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting. And then they said, ‘Oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia.’ The 51 agents, the whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff.”
It’s Trump confusing himself with Putin and his own grievances and defending Putin’s “suffering” and rambling about Hunter Biden’s bathroom. This is live TV in front of the whole world, all of the press and another country’s leader. This is the rambling of a seriously mentally degraded old man. Trump’s father died of Alzheimers. These unexpected and inappropriate angry outbursts are a common symptom.
It’s interesting that you don’t hear much about Ivanka and Jared anymore. I remember watching Ivanka and Jared being deposed in one of those investigations of her father. You could tell by her body language and the tone of her voice that she knew something wasn’t right with her dad’s mental state, whom I sure she loved but also felt rather embarrassed by his craziness. In her deposition she was almost apologizing for her dad’s mental state.
On another note, you have to wonder when some of the betting sites are going to put up something on the odds of a “Seven Days in May” kind of scenario if Trump keeps getting crazier and gets even cozier with Putin.
The mental health of that old man has to be questioned. He is confused and rambling beyond what is normal even for his age.
in the long run, it will be trump and vance who are to blame if Ukraine falls to putin and Russia. it was under their watch, and they let it happen.
Considering the amount of money given to Ukraine from the US has dwindled greatly the last 18 months. 40% of Ukrainian arms are self produced. The European percentage will be up to 40% in 2025. That leaves 20% of filler. I think they can get it. Putin needs dead.
Biden set Ukraine up to be able to handle a hard break with US suppliers. A lot of technology and know how is in Ukraine already. This is not to say there will not be negative consequences – but Ukraine will not “fall”.
The March 1 report from ISW points out a number of important things about the conflict: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-1-2025
A new narrative is being peddled in Russia stating that: “Russia has won in the sense that it was not defeated,” “the [Russian] population supports the government,” and “no one expected Russia to be so stable” after years of war”. That is basically setting the population up for a peace deal. However, if US cuts support for Ukraine, Putin may go back to his old deluded ideas of total victory.
Today there is a European defense summit in London that includes leaders of all the major European countries including Zelensky. Look for that to point the way through this critical moment.
A FAB3000 glide bomb appears to have landed short (north) of its intended target. This would suggest that Ukraine is having success in defense against those bombs. Glide bombs have been the main serious threat to Ukrainian forces because they are so hard to detect and shoot down. The damage from these massive (500 – 3000Kg) bombs is also much bigger than from (80 – 200Kg) Shahed Drones and most missiles.
Ukranian drone superiority in Toretsk has turned this newly Russian occupied town into a “grey zone” where Russia now has to call in reinforcements just to hold on to it.
Russia have quotas for each region to recruit a specific number of soldiers. Many regions have had a hard time meeting their numbers (which are already to low to replace loses at the current rate). But those metrics don’t say anything about quality of the new “soldiers”. A Russian milblogger complained that “Russian authorities are targeting vulnerable individuals, including those with alcoholism, developmental disabilities, and mental health disorders, through deception and coercion schemes to meet contract soldier recruitment quotas”.
A great article in NYT today goes over how all those expensive weapons produced by the US military industrial complex are of little use in today’s modern drone wars.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/03/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-drones-deaths.html
More than 2/3 of all deaths are caused by drones. Ukraine lost 60% of the US top of the line Abrams tanks we provided (and have pulled the remaining back from the front line). Their F16 jets have become anti-drone and anti-missile weapons that cannot safely operate close to the frontline. Ukraine is actually ahead of Western military when it comes to fighting modern era wars.
I would not underplay the fear of federal workers that they could lose their jobs. They are likely pulling back spending big time right now. Uncertainty is not just a player in the stock market it is also a big time player consumption. In addition, the upheaval in trade with tariffs threatening businesses that are involved in exports will put a lot of plans on hold until the dust settles. Those workers will also know that their jobs are at risk, and hold back on spending. Trump and his clown parade may have already precipitated a recession.
recently sold a house. was planning on upgrading my 2017 vehicle with some of the cash. but economic uncertainty is in play. I either buy now, before tariffs add thousands to the total, or stick with the car a couple more years. it’s an Acura, so even at 8 years its still a nice vehicle. that was not an option I considered a few months ago. so yeah, I think we have some economic headwinds growing stronger. I will pocket the extra $600 a month and put it in treasuries for over 4%.
Trump doesn’t know any better and does not care.
I think the last time I posted on this site was a few years ago and that post was “no recession”
So now it is 2025 and my post is “recession on the way”.