Tariffs On, Tariffs Off4.9.25Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Common Sense, your source for news and analysis on the circus that is American politics and entertainment. Trump pulls back from tariffs with 90-day pause on all countries except China… CNN reports “President Donald Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs that went into effect at midnight, with the exception of China, a stunning reversal from a president who had insisted historically high tariffs were here to stay. But enormous tariffs will remain on China, the world’s second-largest economy. In fact, Trump said they will be increased to 125% from 104% after China announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the United States earlier Wednesday. All other countries that were subjected to reciprocal tariff rates Wednesday will see rates go back down to the universal 10% rate, he said.” The big recovery being celebrated in media headlines is a red herring: The markets are still very much down during Trump’s presidency and not even back up to pre-”Liberation Day” levels.
Federal judges rule quickly against Trump administration in deportation cases against detained Venezuelan men. “CBS News reports “Federal judges in both New York and Texas have blocked the deportations of Venezuelan men likely to be deported under the Trump administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, again stopping the White House's attempts to remove alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang after the Supreme Court cleared the way for their deportations this week. In one case filed in Manhattan, attorneys for two Venezuelan men who are currently being detained in Orange County, New York, successfully argued to block their clients' deportations and movement outside of the state and the United States. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, appointed to the federal bench by President Clinton, granted the temporary relief.” The Supreme Court tried really hard to do Trump’s bidding, but the lower courts to which they reassigned jurisdiction got the cases filed and injunctions ordered faster than the Trump Administration could deport the men.
Resisting Trump pressure, GOP House budget holdouts remain holdouts… Politico writes, “House Republican leaders canceled a vote on the Senate’s budget resolution Wednesday night, as Speaker Mike Johnson came to terms with what had been clear for many hours: Too many Republicans would vote in opposition and the measure was bound to fail. The outcome is a brutal blow for House GOP leaders and President Donald Trump, who have spent days trying to wrangle the votes for the fiscal blueprint. Adoption of identical budget resolutions in both the House and Senate is an essential step to allowing committees to start drafting and passing a party-line package of tax cuts, military spending, energy policy and border security investments.” VERY embarrassing for Trump – the fact that Republicans in Congress are going against the president says something about how they feel about his popularity. Whistleblower: Meta (Facebook) collaborated with Chinese Communist Party… CBS News reports, “Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams told senators in testimony Wednesday on Capitol Hill that the social media company worked ‘hand in glove’ with the Chinese government to censor its platforms, according to her written remarks obtained by CBS News. Wynn-Williams began working at Meta, then known as Facebook, as the director of Global Public Policy in 2011. In her almost seven years at Meta, Wynn-Williams says she witnessed the company provide ‘custom built censorship tools’ for the Chinese Communist Party, allow user data, including that of American users, to be accessed by the CCP, and remove the account of a Chinese dissident.” So first Russia, then China? Mark Zuckerberg sure looks far and wide for co-conspirators!
Today’s Furry Friend Meet 19 cats – each with a very important job! Today’s Buzz Stabler and Benson reunite on Law & Order: Organized Crime… Longtime Law & Order fans will find a lot to like about the trailer that just dropped for the fifth season of the Organized Crime series,” The Hollywood Reporter writes, “particularly the appearance of the one and only Mariska Hargitay… Olivia Benson shows up in the hospital room of her former partner Elliott Stabler, who's played by Christopher Meloni. ‘Elliott,’ she calls out to him, but he remains unresponsive. Watch the trailer below: Thanks for reading. Check back in tomorrow evening for the next edition of Common Sense. |
