Saturday, April 12, 2025
Friday, April 11, 2025
Xi Calls Me Crying, Begging For A Deal
Trump Take Mortgage
The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage surged 13 basis points Friday to 7.1%, according to Mortgage News Daily. That’s the highest rate since mid-February.
Everything Is Computer
Some thing are a bit complicated and don't work at the speed of the whims of the Mad King.
In a sign that the federal government’s technology is struggling to keep up with President Trump’s tariffs, Customs and Border Protection acknowledged on Friday that importers had not been able to submit a tariff on certain goods. The glitch appeared to be preventing importers from applying a lower tariff rate on goods that were in transit to the United States before some of Mr. Trump’s tariffs took effect. Customs and Border Protection said it was releasing the goods and allowing importers to submit their customs duties later.
Stay Away
I feel horrible for any noncitizen living in the US right now as their options are more constrained, but certainly no one else should plan on coming.
He says that over a series of short interviews amounting to about half an hour, the official told him his visa had been cancelled and that he was banned from entering the US for five years, including as a transit passenger. He was told he would be placed on a flight to Australia and was handed a document informing him that he was an “immigrant not in possession of a valid unexpired immigrant visa” as required by the Immigration and Nationality Act. He says he felt he had no choice but to sign the document, which Guardian Australia has seen.
He says the official then told him: “Trump is back in town; we’re doing things the way we should have always been doing them.”
What Does "Losing" Mean
It isn't a competition, really, it just means that it will hurt us more than it will hurt them, that we have a greater incentive to end it than they do. Or should.
...lol
BOOM:
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) April 11, 2025
*US TOLD CHINA TO REQUEST A XI-TRUMP CALL: CNN
Cheery
I would like to read a good piece (anyone know of one?) about how, generally, The Discourse flipped on China. For many years you were a crank, even quite racist, to suggest that there was anything problematic about the US facilitating China's rise - which it did, very deliberately, starting in the 90s - and then suddenly all the same people were running around screaming about the yellow peril. I completely missed what flipped this.
China just increased their tariffs to 125%.
China has once again raised its tariff on US goods to match Trump’s, for what it says is the final time. China’s tariff is now set at 125 percent, as it warns that the US is on track to become an economic “joke.”In a statement from China’s Ministry of Finance, which we’ve translated using Google, the country says that any further tariffs from the US side would “no longer make economic sense,” and that the US “will become a joke in the history of the world economy.” Trump initially set a tariff of 10 percent for China in February, which has risen four times, now set at 145 percent. Until now, China has retaliated in kind with its own matching tariff hikes.
Thursday, April 10, 2025
DOGEd
I wonder what the reaction will be if planes carrying some members of Congress really do get DOGEd.
Two American Airlines jet have had a minor collision on the runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport - just three months after a deadly crash near there.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the wingtip of one aircraft struck another on Thursday afternoon. At least two members of Congress were aboard one of the jets.
Perfect
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The nearly 2,700-mile Keystone oil pipeline was shut down Tuesday morning after it ruptured in North Dakota, halting the flow of millions of gallons of crude oil from Canada to refineries in the U.S. and potentially leading to higher gasoline prices.
South Bow, a liquid pipeline business that manages the pipeline, said it shut down the pipeline after control center leak detection systems detected a pressure drop in the system. The company estimated that 3,500 barrels of oil were released and said the spill was confined to an agricultural field in a rural area, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Fargo.
Can They Both Lose
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — OpenAI is suing Elon Musk for unfair competition and interfering with its business relationships with investors and customers, escalating a legal battle between the ChatGPT maker and the billionaire who helped bankroll the artificial intelligence startup a decade ago.
