Traitor Watch - The 45 & 47 Thread

[wonko the sane?]

Some tyrants do dissolve their legislatures, some don't as having a political body underneath them (mentally imagery provided free of charge.) can provide easy scapegoats and a veneer of legitimacy that the civilized world will tolerate.

Every dictator needs stooges, and eventually sacrificial lambs. But hey: they knew the odds when they agreed to the job.

I'm having a strange urge to install "just cause 3" again...

 

[Dekafox]

Meanwhile, China continues to build trade alliances to replace the US:

President XI Signing Deals to Strengthen Regional Trade

China’s President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam Monday, signing dozens of agreements to strengthen trade between the two countries. Most of the deals were not publicly disclosed, but they are known to focus on trade, artificial intelligence, strengthening supply chains, and greater railway cooperation.

President Xi will travel to Malaysia and Cambodia later this week to sign similar deals as China continues to expand its cooperation with regional partners in light of US tariffs and the ongoing trade war.

Related to the ongoing campaign among regional trading partners, China is issuing statements against US tariffs.

China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement to media that "China is a responsible major country. We stand up against hegemony, not only to safeguard our own rightful interests, but also to uphold the common interests of the international community. This trade war was started by the U.S. and imposed on China... If the U.S. really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiations, it should stop applying extreme pressure. Any dialogue should be established on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit."

Knightsbridge Research, Ltd. (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image President XI Signing Deals to Strengthen Regional Trade China’s President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam Monday, signing dozens of agreements to strengthen trade between the two countries. Most of the deals were not publicly disclosed, but they are known to focus on trade...

infosec.exchange

Tired: Nuyen
Wired: Nuyuan

And in regards to the rare earth minerals China is now witholding:

FT: Executive Order on Stockpiling of Critical Materials Coming

Per the Financial Times, the Trump Administration is readying an executive order to allow the mining and stockpiling of rare earth minerals from deep sea areas. The FT wrote the stockpile would "create large quantities ready and available on U.S. territory to be used in the future.”

The move is partially in response to China’s recent reduction of some rare earth exports due to the ongoing trade war with the US.

China’s Foreign Ministry pushed back on the move in a statement, writing “Exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in the international seabed area must be conducted in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and within the framework of the International Seabed Authority.”

Lastly, so far the US hasn't pissed off Iran:

Initial Discussions Between US and Iran

Delegations from the United States and Iran held talks Saturday in Oman, which were most indirect in nature. Oman’s Foreign Minister Said Badr Al Busaidi hosted the meetings at his home, and served as an intermediary.

Messages were taken from the US room to the Iranian, and the two delegations did speak briefly after the meetings concluded.

Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported the meetings were held “in a constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect.” It also reported “After more than two and a half hours of indirect negotiations, the heads of the Iranian and American delegations spoke for a few minutes in the presence of the Omani foreign minister as they left the talks.”

A statement from the White House largely agreed, saying the talks were “positive and constructive” and represented a “step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.”

US President Donald Trump told media on Air Force One “Nothing matters until you get it done. So, I don’t like talking about it. But it’s going OK. The Iran situation is going pretty good, I think.”

Additional discussions are already scheduled for 19 April. According to the AP, they will be held in Rome.

Both also via Knightsbridge, but referencing Financial times for the first, and AP for the second.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

When's Kim coming to the White House? He's been strangely absent in all this.

 

[Dekafox]

Full article, unpaywalled: https://archive.is/EGcj7

 

[Paladin]

JD Vance drops Ohio State's national championship trophy at White House celebration

Vice President JD Vance fumbled the college football National Championship Trophy as he tried to hoist it up during Monday's White House celebration

www.usatoday.com

Vance is just as fascist as Donald or Musk but also somehow an even bigger loser.

 

[KidTDragon]

Just imagine how great it would've been if the guy working the music changed it from "We Are The Champions" to the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme as soon as he saw the trophy break.

 

[Dekafox]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-15/ruble-surges-as-best-performing-global-currency-outpacing-gold

Un-paywalled: https://archive.is/h0I1g

 

[wonko the sane?]

Need to put a stop to that right ******* quick.

 

[Dekafox]

US office that counters foreign disinformation is being eliminated

Conservative critics have long accused the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub of helping to censor the American right.

www.technologyreview.com

Donald Trump's tariffs will make global trade shrink, says WTO

The Geneva-based institution says American tariffs will send international trade into reverse.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Ironbite4]

Yep it'll shrink the US right out of global trade.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I've got the fallen coming in from BBTS... eventually. Could it wait till after he ships?

 

[Dekafox]

Heidi Li Feldman (@[email protected])

Thread explaining Judge Boasberg’s finding “probable cause” that the Trump executive is in criminal contempt of court. Bottom line: he is giving the government an opportunity to “purge.” If they don’t he will identify specific individuals who are in contempt and refer the matter for prosecution...

mastodon.social

The court opinion: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.81.0_2.pdf

As this Opinion will detail, the Court ultimately determines that the Government’s
actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to
conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.

The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by
officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. To permit such officials to
freely “annul the judgments of the courts of the United States” would not just “destroy the rights
acquired under those judgments”; it would make “a solemn mockery” of “the constitution itself.”
United States v. Peters, 9 U.S. (5 Cranch) 115, 136 (1809) (Marshall, C.J.)

III. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will find probable cause that Defendants’ actions
constitute contempt. It will provide them an opportunity to purge such contempt. If they opt not
to do so, the Court will proceed to identify the contemnor(s) and refer the matter for prosecution.
A separate Order so stating will issue this day.

 

[Deathy G1]

Heidi Li Feldman (@[email protected])

Thread explaining Judge Boasberg’s finding “probable cause” that the Trump executive is in criminal contempt of court. Bottom line: he is giving the government an opportunity to “purge.” If they don’t he will identify specific individuals who are in contempt and refer the matter for prosecution...

mastodon.social

The court opinion: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.81.0_2.pdf

The question is: "Who will enforce this?"

 

[Ungnome]

Court has the authority to deputize agents to enforce their orders if the US Marshall Service refuses.

 

[Deathy G1]

Court has the authority to deputize agents to enforce their orders if the US Marshall Service refuses.

And if the security detail assigned to those being arrested refuses to allow access?

 

[wonko the sane?]

Deathy got the right of it: no one will voluntarily move to enforce the ruling. That's part of why it's a ******* crisis.

 

[Dekafox]

The military swears their oath primarily to the Constitution - that's likely where your enforcement agents would come from. Especially service members that have been in there a long time, as they would value that oath.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

That'll depend on how much of the senior staff he's fired and replaced.

 

[Dekafox]

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/chris-krebs-trump-cybersecurity-executive-action-31cb99cb

“Krebs said Wednesday he was resigning from his job at SentinelOne as chief intelligence and public policy officer so he could spend his time on a legal and public-relations battle against Trump without worrying about the firm’s business or contracts.”

El Salvador rejects Democrat's request to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is in El Salvador to call for the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

www.newsweek.com

https://www.reuters.com/legal/california-sues-trump-administration-block-tariffs-2025-04-16/

 

[Pale Rider]

FB friend:

People who continue to support Trump have the energy of a 16-year old girl insisting that if you only got to know her 35-year old boyfriend, you'd see he's actually a great guy and not a creep at all.

Are people ACTUALLY so stupid that they don't see the problem with "it's OK to ignore due process because the government said they're criminals, and criminals don't deserve due process", or are they just white-supremacists who are pretending to be that stupid so they can justify what is obviously a racially motivated policy?

The USA is literally in the "round up undesirables and put them in camps" phase, and the apologists are still pretending that the country has barely made its first baby steps toward fascism.