Winning friends, one bar fight at a time.
Why would having more justices make them less efficient? Efficiency seems unrelated to the total number, IMO.
Also, not sure why expansion destroys the institution. Hasnāt the number changed throughout history?
Iām not advocating any specific solution, but thereās clearly a fucking problem with the ethics and seriousness of some of them.
You wouldnāt have all the justices rule on everything. Like other federal appeals courts, you have a random panel drawn for individual cases and only have a full āen bancā review when required and allowed by the court. This would actually speed up the process as you would likely have fewer than 9 justices on any one case while adding bodies speeds the workload.
Shives doing Shives things.
Totally agree with every part of this.
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Completely disagree.
The market is trying to recover today, convincing itself that Trump is open to negotiation on tariffs. Weāll see how long that lasts.
Regardless, this isnāt good news for Trump. It just reaffirms (again) that the selloff was down entirely to his tariff nonsense in the first place, and that is going to be a stink that even he will struggle to cover up, and that Congressional Republicans will struggle to wash off before next November.
Also, offering to negotiate away the tariffs completely destroys any leverage he may have with the tariffs. The argument is: tariffs make foreign goods more expensive so that industry will build factories here because they can now make stuff cheaper (than the tariffed imports but still more expensive than before). Thatās the theory (that has never worked in the recorded history of time).
But if Trump is willing to negotiate on tariffs, why the fuck would anyone spend a second even thinking about investing in manufacturing infrastructure here, when the beneficial market environment for such can be rug-pulled by Dear Leader at any time based on a compliment or, more likely, a compliment written on the outside of a brown paper bag full of cash?
So by saying everything is negotiable, which it is and always was, then there is no threat of the US building manufacturing capacity and poof goes any leverage in such negotiations. Itās an infinite loop of stupid.
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Making British teeth great again!
Iām sure you already know in your bones that the justification for Trumpās tariffs is complete batshittery, and youāre not wrong. Hereās a nerdtastic and granular (i.e. OWAesque) disassembly of the numbers.
The market started to creep back up today, and to celebrate, Trump announced today an additional 50% tariff on China, bringing the total to 104%. It plunged again. So much winning.
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The market was having what one trader described as āa good day at the hospiceā and then Trump opened his stupid bird mouth and weeeeeeeeee!
The WH press secretary stated today that they are working on ways to deport US citizens to El Salvador.
This is not a joke.
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What is in it for El Salvador?
Iām guessing someone there is getting a payout.
Someone here has probably opened a for-profit prison there, whose profits are shared with the grifter-in-charge there.
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The US government is paying the El Salvador government $6 million per year to imprison these people.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-pay-el-salvador-jail-300-alleged-gang-members-ap-reports-2025-03-15/
Some more explanation:
The US will pay El Salvador $6mn to imprison approximately 300 individuals for one year, with renewal options, according to reports by the Associated Press. For El Salvador, facing a public debt of $31bn (82% of its GDP), this represents a vital revenue stream that President Nayib Bukele said would be making the prison system āself-sustainable.ā
Further details of the agreement reveal that housing each prisoner will cost around $20,000 per year. Additionally, a US State Department document indicates that $15mn may be allocated to El Salvador to detain additional gang members, expanding the scope of this transnational incarceration deal.
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Am I allowed to post an xkcd link here?
I wonder if this falls under the tariffs. El Salvador is exporting prison services.
Iām sure itās exempted somewhere. Like renting golf courses to the Saudis.
China has a few weapons to choose from here. They also started preparing for this after he did this in his first term.