Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
Stocks are flattish this morning after the ADP jobs report came in light. Bonds and MBS are down small.
The private sector added 77,000 jobs in February, according to the ADP Employment Report. The consensus was for 162,000 jobs, so this is a sizeable miss. “Policy uncertainty and a slowdown in consumer spending might have led to layoffs or a slowdown in hiring last month,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Our data, combined with other recent indicators, suggests a hiring hesitancy among employers as they assess the economic climate ahead.”
Pay increased 4.7% for job stayers. ADP looks at private payrolls, not total, so it would correspond to the 143,000 expectation for Friday’s jobs report. Friday’s jobs report could miss substantially on the back of DOGE and government workers / contractors being let go.
Mortgage applications rose 20% last week as purchases rose 9% and refis increased 37%. The 30 year fixed rate mortgage declined from 6.88% to 6.73%.
“Mortgage rates declined last week on souring consumer sentiment regarding the economy and increasing uncertainty over the impact of new tariffs levied on imported goods into the U.S.,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a release. “Those factors resulted in the largest weekly decline in the 30-year fixed rate since November 2024. This is a period where we typically see purchase activity ramp up and purchase applications were up over the week and co
Filed under: Economy |
All Things in Moderation 
This made me laugh.
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The vibe at DC parties these days.
“Barbarians at the Gate
Partying hard in Trump’s DC.
Damir Marusic
Mar 04, 2025″
https://wisdomofcrowds.live/p/barbarians-at-the-gate
You might want to road trip.
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How you know a vibe shift has happened.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/politics/gavin-newsom-transgender-sports-democrats.html
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I’ll believe the vibe shift has happened when the Boy Scouts kicks out girls.
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Imagine thinking this is a profound act.
This is a demonstration of stupidity and they should be fired for that.
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Thanks for volunteering guys.
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Love the AI graphic:
https://benryan.substack.com/p/trump-claimed-the-nih-spent-8-million
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Yes, and the current base of the Democratic party is fine with this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/opinion/tariffs-democrats-mexico.html
The writer should have been the one to give the Democratic response to Trump’s speech and make exactly the points he did in the Op-Ed.
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I grew up in the Rust Belt, and Buy American bumper stickers were everywhere.
In fact, if your Toyota broke down on the highway, you would struggle to get a tow truck.
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Lol!
This article is amazing.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/doge-federal-office-bedrooms-00216863
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“ “This administration is firing career workers, federal employees, eviscerating civil service protections for government employees, but is also so desperate for work that it is allowing other government employees to, or directing other government employees, to sleep at work,” he said. “That doesn’t make sense.””
We may never crack this mystery!
“ Jeff Nesbit, whose career as a political and career federal staffer spanned both Republican and Democratic administrations, said the situation is dumbfounding.””
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I’ll believe all of this is more than theater when the DC real estate market starts getting hit.
Until then, I am skeptical.
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It’s obvious who wants a career in DC and who does not.
https://archive.is/PEzex
I am much more sympathetic to Musk, slash and burn approach than any scalpel bullshit. I am flabbergasted that these appointee’s think they’re being convincing with the “scalpel” argument. We all know what that means.
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John Tester thinking that “disenfranchised Republicans” will help save the Democrats is fascinating, and implies magical thinking.
https://twitter.com/EricAbbenante/status/1898217898973577596
Considering the turnout and the fact that Trump won, says to me, there are not enough to help Democrats. Further, those “disenfranchised Republicans” have voted Democrat for the last 3 cycles, they’ve been Democrats since 2016. This voting cohort, that could vote for Democrats but, …. Doesn’t? It doesn’t exist.
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This is the smart play, leaning into it and have fun. Like Trump and the mug shot.
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Shocking!
And I’m sure there is no precedent for this.
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I don’t think there’s a precedent for revoking security clearances because you represent clients that the administration opposes.
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Well, there’s the Biden (and Obama) precedent of charging the lawyers of the former POTUS with crimes, so security clearances seem like a gift.
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Also the disbarment proceedings.
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I am wondering if this info was always publicly available, and if so, does the DOGE site make it easier to research. If not, this is a fantastic addition to radical transparency.
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The horror, spending the same amount as last year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/09/dc-budget-congress-house-republicans-continuing-resolution/
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Obviously they need to close schools, libraries and police as there is nowhere else to, er not increase?
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Good piece:
https://kyla.substack.com/p/gen-z-and-the-end-of-predictable
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Kevin Drum died on Friday.
https://jabberwocking.com/health-update-100/
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https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/using-chatgpt-in-a-small-business/
Could be useful to you or not. My granddaughters are negative on it as a HS tool. Say it “makes up stuff”.
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Thanks Mark. I’ve seen too many disaster stories on ChatGPT, etc.
And your daughters are right on “makes up stuff”. There was a case where some attorneys used it to write a brief and it cited fictitious cases.
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That was Michael Cohen!
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Their commitment to fight to the last Ukrainian citizen and the last American dollar is inspiring.
https://twitter.com/WallStreetMav/status/1897403950619615486
it’s second only to their own commitment.
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https://reason.com/2025/03/10/is-it-constitutional-to-deport-immigrants-for-political-speech/
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This made me laugh,
Constitutionality aside, Strossen opposes Trump’s policy “on [the] pragmatic basis [that] you don’t change an attitude by criminalizing its expression.”
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jnc:
Andy McCarthy argues that this framing is incorrect, and that he is not being kicked out for “political speech”.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-mccarthy-does-constitution-really-protect-columbia-agitator-mahmound-khalil-from-deportation
He goes into the nitty gritty of the actual law here:
https://archive.ph/NeGTV
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“That’s not political speech. It’s extortion.”
Then charge him and convict him of extortion or other related crimes and use that as the basis to revoke his green card.
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They do not need to prove it at trial, the law gives the Executive branch, the State Department specifically, discretion on the deportation. Your issue is with the statue. I do not begrudge a nations ability to decide who can or cannot say if the are not a citizen. The statute invests that power with the Executive branch.
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My issue is with bad faith enforcement of the statute.
Giving the Secretary of State the ability to deport based on “foreign policy consequences” is meant for a situation like having the former Shah of Iran in the United States and his presence triggering a take over of the United States embassy in Iran.
A green card holding graduate student, not so much.
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I sincerely believe that Trump views that dude as a threat to the U.S. via his obvious support for Hamas.
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So you think the standard for denying/revoking a green card should be the same as the standard for convicting someone of a crime?
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There are a few other conditions for revoking it in the current statute involving residency and foreign citizenship that make sense.
But when it comes to crimes, yes you should actually have to be convicted of the crime before it can be used as a basis for revoking the green card. Mere accusation or an administrative determination isn’t sufficient.
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Understand. You say “should”, does the statute require it or are you saying it should. I don’t know. My understanding here is that the SOS gets to decide and it’s not subject to Judicial Review. I think you’ve been saying that they are tossing this dude due to his speech, if I’m not mistaken?
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jnc:
In US history, there have been lots of immigration bans on people espousing various ideologies such as anarchism and communism. I don’t see a problem with that, and I don’t see a problem with including advocacy on behalf of a group like Hamas as being included among those banned ideologies.
I am largely a free speech absolutist, but that doesn’t mean that anyone I invite into my house can say whatever they want while in my house. If what they say bothers me enough, I reserve the right to kick them out of my house. The same should be true with regard to the nation and immigrants. American citizens have both free speech rights and a right to be in the US, so as a consequence their speech needs to be tolerated, even if it is agitating on behalf of groups like Hamas. Foreigners have free speech rights, but no right to be in the US, and so while I certainly think they have a right to agitate on behalf of groups like Hamas, they do not have the right to do so inside the US. They can angitate anll they want from their own country. And if they do decide to do it here, I think we citizens have every right to kick them out of our house.
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Yes.
Useful timeline:
https://www.racket.news/p/timeline-the-arrest-of-mahmoud-khalil
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Here is a thread on the case that is interesting and reinforces the SoS discretion theory.
https://x.com/profmjcleveland/status/1900176825927532923?s=46&t=vSGsUlnc4rLxcUf7zfUiHg
Prolly end up at SCOTUS.
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This was a revealing interview:
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5326015/mahmoud-khalil-deportation-arrests-trump
I think they originally initiated this based on the idea that he was still here on a student visa and were unprepared for him having a green card.
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“Foreigners have free speech rights, but no right to be in the US”
LPR’s have a conditional right to be in the US. Undesirable speech isn’t one of the grounds for revocation of that right.
I don’t believe that the “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States” argument is being offered in good faith.
Apparently it was last used for this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/us/politics/trump-crackdown-dissent.html
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jnc:
LPR’s have a conditional right to be in the US.
I meant a natural/moral right, not a legal right. And this informs my opinion of any legal rights granted. I am perfectly fine with conditioning a foreigner’s legal right to come to and/or remain in the US on his not behaving in ways that I would have to tolerate from a US citizen.
If I am really honest, I think that it is more the active agitation and protest rather than the mere expression of support for Hamas that really irritates me. If this guy was writing op-eds for the NYT or the WaPo, or talking about it on a TV show, I probably wouldn’t care. But the fact that he is actively involved in organizing protests that interfere with the daily lives of others…taking over campus spaces, interrupting classes, essentially imposing his views on others who can’t simply turn the page or flip the channel or not buy the paper in order to ignore it…is what I find intolerable.
It is highly irritating when Americans do it, but this is their country too, so I guess I need to tolerate it. When an invited guest does it? Not so much.
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My impression is that he was fairly scrupulous about avoiding participating in the actual protests but mostly acted as a media spokesman & mediator precisely because he was concerned about the impact on his immigration status.
https://www.theverge.com/24141073/columbia-doxxing-truck-student-encampment-palestine-israel
This of course leads to questions about the culpability of Columbia University itself for allowing the situation to go on, if not actively encouraging it.
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Isn’t the proper jurisdiction the immigration courts? If so, why is a Fed court in NY involved? My understanding is that immigration court is appealable to the circuit court. So, as a LPR, dude has Due Process. Surely someone in that line of Due Process hates Trump. Dude will be home in a couple of weeks.
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jnc:
My impression is that he was fairly scrupulous about avoiding participating in the actual protests but mostly acted as a media spokesman & mediator…
If one genuinely wanted to “scrupulously” avoid participating in a protest, acting as a spokesman or a negotiator for protestors could be the dumbest way to go about it. The best way to avoid being involved in a protest is to, well, not be involved with the protests. Playing semantic games about what constitutes “involvement” hardly makes him sympathetic in my eyes.
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Sacrifices have to be made.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vy191rgn1o
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No. Don’t do it.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2025/03/12/with-that-announcement-schumer-is-prepared-to-shut-down-the-government-n2653706
Do they think that Trump or Republican’s care? Trump is in charge of the Executive branch, he literally can keep everybody working if he wants.
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Taibbi on the Columbia case:
https://www.racket.news/p/if-trump-blows-it-on-speech-the-world
https://www.racket.news/p/interview-fire-counsel-tyler-coward
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