The world now knows that Trump is weak and erratic

Alex Samuels of Daily Kos reported that the nasty guy’s administration has come up with a new way to convince undocumented workers to self-deport – tell Social Security they died, though they remain very much alive. This will make their Social Security number unusable. That means they lose employment, bank accounts, and basic services. Samuels calls this “hitting a new low.” Of course, the rollout has been sloppy. The first batch of 6,300 immigrants flagged eight minors and people whose “crimes” might be getting a federal student loan or using Medicaid. Of course, no evidence has been presented to link these people with actual crimes or terrorism. It also violates federal privacy laws. Alix Breeden of Kos reported that the nasty guy has changed his mind on some undocumented workers. He’ll let farm and hotel workers “stay in for a while.” Perhaps the nasty guy got an earful from farmers and hotel companies. About 40% of farm workers are undocumented immigrants. Undocumented farm workers are still afraid to come to work, knowing how aggressive ICE has become and how brutal prisons in Guantanamo and El Salvador are. The aggression is being shown through images of deportees in shackles and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem going to El Salvador and posing in front of prisoners. The nasty guy may have announce that ICE won’t raid farms. This may be better for undocumented workers, but it isn’t great. Undocumented workers are almost always exploited – working long hours in harsh conditions for little pay and little recourse. Tying their employment to a lower chance of deportation means they have a higher chance of being exploited. A boss can say do as I demand or I will fire you and call ICE. An article by McKenzie Funk for ProPublica posted on Kos discussed the impossible situation of flight attendants on deportation flights. Airline GlobalX started out as a charter carrier for VIP musicians and sports teams. That’s when most of the flight attendants were hired. But as the airline grew they accepted contracts from ICE to carry deportees in chains. The attendants were livid. The FAA says the attendants are in charge of the cabin. Passengers are to do what the attendants say. They enforce the rules to keep people safe. In addition to caring for passengers the attendants are responsible for evacuating the plane in an emergency. The FAA set a requirement that a plane must be evacuated in 90 seconds. But the onboard ICE officer and private security guards said, no we’re in charge. The FAA may require you to be on the flight but you’re not to do anything. Don’t feed, talk to, or make eye contact with the passengers. If an emergency happens (and it has) we’ll get the deportees off the plane. That annoyed the attendants because they enjoy caring for the passengers and here they cannot. They certainly want those in their care treated humanely. Yup, emergencies have happened. The guards were not able to evacuate deportees in shackles in the required 90 seconds. One incident took seven minutes. “Most of the flight attendants who spoke with ProPublica are now gone from GlobalX.” Walter Einenkel of Kos reported:

The Financial Times reports that, among the many federal firings perpetrated by Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency outfit, around 30 workers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were let go. A significant number of these workers were from the “office of vehicle automation safety” which assesses safety for self-driving cars. The NHTSA has eight active investigations into Tesla’s operations, particularly focusing on its self-driving software. These investigations stem from numerous high-profile crashes and more than 10,000 public complaints. Recently, the NHTSA began investigating over 2.5 million Teslas following multiple reports of crashes connected to a feature allowing owners to control cars remotely. Additionally, 363,000 Teslas were recalled in February due to unsafe behaviors in the “Full Self-Driving” software. ... Eliminating the people responsible for evaluating the safety of Tesla’s faulty self-driving software is just the latest example of the neon bright conflict of interest posed by Trump’s top donor.

That is happening as Tesla’s stock has been falling and the company has seen historically poor sales. And while many in the nasty guy administration have become Tesla cheerleaders, including the nasty guy. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Paul Krugman:

Anyone sounding the all-clear on tariffs, or Trump economic policy in general, should be kept away from sharp objects and banned from operating heavy machinery. We’re in a hardly better place than we were before Donald Trump announced a tariff pause (in a Truth Social post, of course.) In fact, we may be in a worse place. Let me make four points about Trump’s post-pause tariff regime. 1. Even the post-pause tariff rates represent a huge protectionist shock 2. Destructive uncertainty about future policy has increased 3. We’re still at risk of a major financial crisis 4. The world now knows that Trump is weak as well as erratic

Steve Chapman of The UnPopulist wrote:

Trump’s focus on restricting foreign goods isn’t merely economically suspect—it also advances his alarming authoritarian agenda. The greater his involvement in setting the terms of trade with other countries, the more weapons he has to reward pals, enrich his family, and punish those who don’t obediently fall into line. Waivers from his tariffs can be used to get what he wants from companies that import. Bloomberg reported the following finding from a recent study: “Public companies whose executives donated to Republican candidates had a higher chance of winning exclusions from President-elect Donald Trump’s first-term tariffs on China, while those that gave to Democrats saw their odds fall.” No wonder that hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin has said, “I am gravely concerned that the rise of tariffs puts us on a slippery slope towards crony capitalism.”

At the top of the comments Dennis Goris posted a cartoon of ICE agents arresting a guy, who shouts, “I identify as a Tesla!” In a second roundup Dworkin quoted JV Last of The Bulwark:

You know what can’t be bullied, deceived, or manipulated? The bond market. Yesterday we talked about how the bond market is a device that measures risk. If the financial order is safe, bond rates are low. When risk enters the system, bond rates increase. Well after a full day of Trump’s tariff “pause,” bonds reacted by pushing rates higher.

I’ve heard other sources explain this by saying when the institution offering the bonds is seen as more risky those buying the bonds demand a higher interest rate. Brian Beutler of Off Message:

Trump’s tariffs, his erratic conduct, and his faithless abuse of trading partners, frankly threaten to transform the U.S. into a wasting backwater; the only cure for this disease is removing Trump from office; but Democrats are scared to utter the word, let alone to lay out the logic in a way that clarifies the stakes of this crisis, and why sidelining or impeaching him is so essential.

Max Burns of Rolling Stone:

Trump’s popularity has plummeted in recent weeks as the cost of his incoherent policies starts to bite into Americans’ savings. That might tempt some Democrats to mistake Trump’s tanking popularity with a rise in their own support, but nothing could be further from the truth. Democrats can’t take Trump’s momentary unpopularity as an excuse to avoid being the party their voters want them to be. Democrats have struggled with a credibility crisis, of varying degrees, since it became clear that White House officials had misled the party and the American people about former President Joe Biden’s fitness for a second term. But that alone didn’t slap Democrats with political pariah status. Voters are so frustrated because Democratic leaders — especially Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — seem to lack the fighting spirit this moment demands.

The nasty guy put a pause on most of his tariffs about mid afternoon. That morning he put out a tweet saying “This is a great time to buy!!!” Several rich people and others connected to him took the hint. When the Dow rocketed up 3,000 points in response to the pause these people made a lot of money. This is known as insider trading. There are now calls for investigations, most of the calls from Democrats. That also brought out a lot of jokes and memes. And exlrrp posted a couple of them. In the comments of this post a meme shows President Bill Clinton saying, “Call me crazy... But I think insider trading should be investigated as thoroughly as blow-job!” And in the comments of the previous post a meme shows Martha Stewart, who spent time in jail for insider trading, saying, “For all the Republicans now insisting that insider trading is ‘not a big deal,’ I know a woman that would like to disembowel you and make a festive holiday centerpiece with your entrails.”