Okay, this is a bit confusing. The House Republicans have a stopgap spending measure proposal that includes a poison pill that makes it a non-starter in the Senate. They know it. They just don’t care, BUT…

The House Republicans are ALSO quite aware that if there’s a government shutdown right before the election because they want some stupid provision that has nothing to do with spending, they’ll lose the election. Quite the conundrum, yes? It’s almost like they should drop their poison pill and just pass the spending measure.

So, of course, they’re refusing to drop their poison pill and it will stay in for now. That is some savvy politics, cons. Real savvy…

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I guess we’re supposed to be fooled. I guess we’re supposed to be fools. Putin said he was supporting Harris for President. No, really. He said it out loud. It’s true, he had a bit of a wry smile on his evil face when he said it, but he said it.

I suspect that statement is intended to throw everyone off as to Putin’s election interference on behalf of Trump, not Harris. It’s yet another of those ‘actions speak louder than words’ things. If he says he supports Harris but works tirelessly to elect Trump, who does he really support?

Putin can’t control Harris the way he controls Trump. Putin doesn’t get the same access to American intelligence with Harris that he gets with Trump. Putin doesn’t dictate to a White House run by Harris the way he does to Trump. Putin can’t count on blind acceptance of his actions with Harris like he can with Trump. Why would Putin prefer Harris to Trump?

I’ll tell you this: you can call me a cynic, but I suspect Putin might be lying…

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US Steel wants to sell it’s holdings to Nippon Steel. One of the last American steel companies wants to disappear and become part of a Japanese steel company. This is a $14 Billion dollar merger. The Biden administration is concerned about the sale, fearing it creates a national security issue. What if we end up at war with Japan? Where do we get steel? The response? War with Japan? One of our closest allies? How is THAT going to happen?

I’m going to suggest that just because the route to such an event might be difficult to see doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I’m thinking about the time the US talked Ukraine into giving up all of it’s Soviet-era nukes, promising military support, assured that Russia would never invade Ukraine with the US backing Ukraine. Apparently, THAT was “difficult to see” as well.

But Japan IS a foreign country with their own concerns and goals. And remember, Trump named effing CANADA a foreign threat so he could slap a tariff on them. Might he antagonize Japan the same way, causing them to retaliate?

Oddly, perhaps, military security is one of MY primary complaints about off-shoring so many American jobs. One of the primary reasons we (the US) were in a position to respond in WWII is because we had so many factories that were able to be converted quickly into war production. Now most of those factories are gone – along with that ‘military readiness’ agility.

In an effort to scare people into supporting the sale, US Steel is saying if they sale doesn’t go through, they’ll have to close some mills. They might even move their headquarters out of Pittsburgh. But, but…if the sale DOES go through, the headquarters is definitely moving out of Pittsburgh, right? The Union is concerned Nippon Steel wants to close some types of steel mills anyway, so what, exactly, is the threat? If the sale doesn’t go through, we close some mills and move the headquarters, whereas if the sale DOES go through, we close some mills and move the headquarters? Oh, is THAT the differe- wait, what? Say, why can Nippon Steel invest in the mills and US Steel can’t? Could that be because the CEO of US Steel is currently making nearly $17 million/year in compensation?

Apparently US Steel ain’t what it used to be. It was founded in 1901 and became the first company to hit the Billion dollar valuation mark. Steel from US Steel built America. But there have been decades of mismanagement after, taking US Steel from the flagship steel company to one of the smaller players by comparison. Maybe the sale wouldn’t have much noticeable impact on the availability of steel in America. Perhaps it’s just the idea of US Steel being owned by a non-US company.

It will be interesting to see how the cons react to all of this. On the one hand, Trump is always screaming about bringing American jobs back, so sending some away seems like something the cons would dislike, BUT…

If the cons oppose the deal, they’re essentially agreeing with Joe Biden. Can’t have that. I suspect when someone asks Trump about it, he’ll give a response along the lines of, “Steel is steel, but have you SEEN how unfair life is to poor, wonderful me? EVERYTHING you love is about to suffer, burn, and DIE!, DIE!, DIE! and only I can save you because I’m so effing wonderful and the very best of the best and – Oh, Biden, I call him Sleepy Joe, isn’t that funny? I call him Sleepy Joe and I’m beating him by a mile. I’m winning in ways he never imagined. I’m just so wonderfully perfect, things are already getting better – in anticipation of my coming back. I don’t even see him on the campaign trail anymore, can you imagine that? He’s not even trying, I’m beating him so badly. Just like we beat Obama before because he can’t… he didn’t… but they’re laughing at you, the whole world is laughing at you. Joe Biden has made America a laughing stock and the entire UN did NOT laugh at me right in my face, they didn’t. That’s fake news. I like to say, ‘ake-Fay ews-Nay.’ (That’s a foreign language because I’m so smart. I had an uncle at MIT.) It’s SO unfair, SO unfair, what they’re doing, so I’m going to lock them all up. They’re using “lawfare” against me and that’s a terrible thing so I’m going to use lawfare against them because THAT will be perfectly okay. So unfair. I’ll save you. Only I can save you. Monsters and Boogie men and brown people, isn’t that scary? Aren’t you scared? I’ll throw everyone out and everyone else in jail. I’ll get them all. They’ll go to jail. They will. And then I…”
“Hey, will you shut that thing off, please?”
“He seems just a bit more unhinged every day, doesn’t he?”