BRUSSELS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The European Parliament has decided to suspend its work on the European Union's trade deal with the United States in protest at U.S. President Donald Trump's demands to acquire Greenland and threats of tariffs on European allies who oppose his plan.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
President Deals
Have they figured out that he doesn't honor them? That a real "trade deal" has to go through Congress, according to the constitution? Sure nothing is binding, really, in the era of Trump, but "a trade deal with Trump" isn't even pretend binding.
Hippie Cars
I've been somewhat of an EV skeptic. I don't mean I was against them, just that I thought that adoption timelines were a bit optimistic and that the emphasis on replacing gas cars with electric ones distracted from the more important goal of reducing auto dependency.
We need to create built environment such that it isn't difficult to be without one car per driving age household member. We need to create more places where many more people can satisfy most of their non-commute daily needs without a car, at a minimum. It isn't actually difficult.
Still I didn't doubt that EVs were inevitable. Whether or not the Biden push for them was overall a good use of resources is one question, but certainly reversing course, nullifying promises, and actively fighting them is ridiculous.
We need to create built environment such that it isn't difficult to be without one car per driving age household member. We need to create more places where many more people can satisfy most of their non-commute daily needs without a car, at a minimum. It isn't actually difficult.
Still I didn't doubt that EVs were inevitable. Whether or not the Biden push for them was overall a good use of resources is one question, but certainly reversing course, nullifying promises, and actively fighting them is ridiculous.
This is the kiss of death for American car sales in Canada. You can get a Chinese Xiaomi sedan with 300-plus miles of range, more than 600 horsepower, and extremely fancy luxury trimmings for the equivalent of about $42,000 in China; or you can get a Chinese BYD Seagull with 190 miles of range for about $11,000. I would bet that the next step for Chinese automakers is to build a factory in Toronto or somewhere nearby so Canada can get a slice of the jobs and production.For various reasons, the rest of the world will soon be buying cheap BYD EVs and... Americans won't.
More broadly, the American EV transition has clearly hit the skids, thanks to Trump. Sales plummeted by about 46 percent when the tax credit for purchase expired at the end of September. Ford took a $19.5 billion bath on a planned battery factory investment, canceled its F-150 EV, and is now reportedly in talks with—wait for it—BYD to pick up batteries for its hybrid cars sold abroad. GM is doing better, but its EV sales are still down sharply, as are Tesla’s.
Contrary to the triumphalism of various EV critics, all this horrendous waste does not mean that the global EV transition is now in question. As I have previously detailed, in 2025 a quarter of global car sales were EVs, led by Southeast Asia, where the EV share of new car sales in several nations has soared past the 40 percent mark, with many more nations just behind. China, the largest car market in the world, went from almost zero to more than half in just five years. America’s failure to gain a serious toehold in EV production—particularly very cheap models—is a major reason why the Big Three’s share of the global auto market has fallen from nearly 30 percent in 2000 to about 12 percent today, while China’s share has risen from 2 percent to 42 percent.
Thousand Words
One thing that bothered me during Trump I - weirdly, in some ways more than even now! - was how so many people around him obviously had no sense of the importance of "running the government/country." Even if you're evil, planning to do nothing but evil, it's still a big responsibility!
I'm sure this face captures her regular inner thoughts pretty well, and yet she doesn't care! She goes out there every day and supports it!
I'm sure this face captures her regular inner thoughts pretty well, and yet she doesn't care! She goes out there every day and supports it!
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Happy Hour
Your moment of Zen.
If you're not watching the PBS footage, you're missing out on seeing Karoline Leavitt looking really, really anxious about Trump's rambling... cc: @atrupar.com
— Will Harris (@willharrisinva.bsky.social) January 20, 2026 at 7:35 PM
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Abolish ICE
Maybe Chuck Schumer shouldn't say it (no idea), but political strategies which involve yelling at people who aren't on the payroll, telling them what they can or can't say, are not actually political strategies.Mamdani: "I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 20, 2026 at 4:56 PM
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Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville has advised members of his party against using the phrase “Abolish ICE” as protests opposing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue in Minneapolis and across the nation.As we know, the "Defund The Police" era was 2020, when Dems won the House, the Senate, and the presidency, then prominent Dems and pundits agreed the slogan doomed them. Somehow we have been pretending this makes sense for over 5 years now.
Carville, in remarks on his “Politics War Room” podcast with Al Hunt, chimed in after his co-host raised an issue with Democrats using the word “abolishing” rather than calling to reform the agency or to start “making ICE work.”
“‘Defund the Police’ are the three stupidest words in the history of the English language,” said Carville, comparing the anti-ICE phrase to a slogan that grew in popularity amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.“The left is universally wrong about everything.”
Carville argued that Americans want to have some form of “immigration and customs control” before noting that he finds recent actions by ICE to be “horrible.”
I dont think everyone was lying about this. I think somehow they convinced themselves of it. But they won! And then, in 2022, they did extremely well for a midterm election! They kept the Senate and came pretty close to holding the House!
Mommy He Shot Me Back
Repeating my assertion that if we invade Greenland, our great newspapers will adopt the view that defending their territory is Not Fair.
Greenland’s prime minister said the Arctic island’s population and its authorities need to start preparing for a possible military invasion, even as it remains an unlikely scenario, as President Donald Trump continues to threaten taking over the territory.Probably "acts of terrorism" even.
“It’s not likely there will be a military conflict, but it can’t be ruled out,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference in capital Nuuk on Tuesday.
Which Way, Yurp
It is tough to finally leave your abusive partner and call the divorce lawyer, but...
Is That News?
In Trump's first term, it was a bit silly that news outlets reported every post as BREAKING NEWS, WORD OF GOD stuff. Now they barely report when he posts 200 insane things at 2am.
There is no contradiction in complaining about both of these things! Every Trump post is not breaking news that should be treated with urgency. That gramps regularly posts 200 crazy things at 2am is newsworthy! Not the substance of the posts, precisely, but that he does it!
Confidence
I don't know if the message Trump posted from Macron is real, but if I were Macron I'd be calling the DGSE or whatever my favorite spy agency was and say, "Ok, what you got? Post it on Mechahitler, the everything app."
If the relevant spy agency didn't have anything, I'd fire everyone
If the relevant spy agency didn't have anything, I'd fire everyone
Monday, January 19, 2026
America's Worst Newish Fake Democratic Think Tank
Searchlight.
The author of a controversial memo telling Democrats to abandon the slogan “Abolish ICE” and instead focus on reform and retraining is a former Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection official who for the last seven months has worked for WestExec Advisors, a secretive Washington, D.C., shadow lobbyist that counts as clients major government contractors in the defense and surveillance industry.I'm not saying that these people speak for The Democrats, but these views get heard by members of Congress much more than views like mine do.
In an interview with the Prospect, Blas Nuñez-Neto would not say who his clients are at WestExec Advisors, where he is a senior adviser, only that he has consulted in recent years on immigration, customs, and trade. He said casting his memo as serving the interests of those clients would be “a little disingenuous,” while again declining to say who those clients are.
Nuñez-Neto recommended that protesters understand that ICE agents are people, too.How'd that all work out:
“I think it would help both sides to appreciate the fact that that’s a human being across from you who may or may not want to do the things they’ve been ordered to do. In my long history being in and out of the Department [of Homeland Security], it is very often what makes the news are the terrible things that happen but what doesn’t get reported are the … stories about agents bringing toys into the border patrol station,” he said.
The lead architect of President Joe Biden’s border strategy is not Vice President Kamala Harris, despite persistent Republican claims to the contrary. That role belongs to a bookish, little-known policy adviser named Blas Nuñez-Neto.Worked out well for his career. Many others? Not so much.
...
A data-driven technocrat, Nuñez-Neto has engineered Biden’s pivot toward tougher border enforcement and sweeping restrictions on asylum — moves that have helped slash illegal crossings by nearly 80 percent since December.
Freedum
Which of Schumer's Five Buckets Of Affordability do we put this one in?
Whatever one thinks of The Bulwark, I would like to point out that Schumer talks to them and not left wing outlets.
Thousands of people have been arrested during ICE operations in Minneapolis over the past two weeks. Multiple attorneys allege that for some of those detained, including at least one U.S. citizen, the Department of Homeland Security is denying their constitutional right to see an attorney.I initially typed "Fuck Buckets" accidentally because I was angry.
Four attorneys told ABC News they have been denied access to their clients at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where they are being held, which they say would violate 5th and 6th Amendment rights to due process and the right to consult with counsel.
Whatever one thinks of The Bulwark, I would like to point out that Schumer talks to them and not left wing outlets.
Sure Why Not
Occasionally I see people talking about how few Good Republicans it would require to save us. The point of this should not be to make a plea to them. It should be to understand that there are no Good Republicans.
I am not an elected Democrat or a Brand Ambassador for the party. I get to say that.
Maybe it's Chuck Schumer's job to beg Susan Collins constantly to do the right thing, while pretending not to understand that she never will when it matters, but it isn't mine.
And people who demand pats on the head and a seats at the head table if they ever do the right thing are not Good Republicans either.
Maybe it's Chuck Schumer's job to beg Susan Collins constantly to do the right thing, while pretending not to understand that she never will when it matters, but it isn't mine.
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