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trump: worse than covid.....

Washington under President Donald Trump has created more “uncertainty” than the Covid-19 pandemic, Luis de Guindos, the vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has claimed.

The official made the remarks in an interview with The Sunday Times during which he bemoaned Trump’s use of tariffs, as well as plans to reform corporate taxes and deregulate the financial system. The actions of the new US administration have been causing short-term volatility in markets while making inflation expectations and interest rates hard to predict, he said.

“We need to consider the uncertainty of the current environment, which is even higher than it was during the pandemic,” the ECB vice president said.

“What we’re seeing is that the new US administration isn’t very open to continuing with multilateralism, which is about cooperation across jurisdictions and finding common solutions for common problems. This is a very important change, and a big source of uncertainty,” he added.

Concerns over what Trump might do next have also damaged consumer confidence, de Guindos believes, noting that the long-awaited increase in business investment and household consumption has not arrived. He blamed the decline in Eurozone growth projections on the actions of the new US administration.

“Real wages have increased, inflation is declining, interest rates are coming down and financing conditions are better. But still, the reality is that consumption is not picking up,”he said.

“This is because consumers don’t always react to developments in their short-term real disposable income. They also consider what might happen with the economy over the medium term, which is clouded in uncertainty. The possibility of a trade war or wider geopolitical conflict has an impact on consumer confidence,” the official added, describing trade wars as a “lose-lose situation for everybody.”

Trump’s 25% tariff hike on steel and aluminum supplies from the EU took effect last week after previous exemptions and exclusions expired. Brussels has already vowed to retaliate, promising what it called “swift and proportionate” countermeasures.

The European Commission has condemned Trump’s disruptive and “unjustified” tariffs, pledging to impose counter-tariffs on €26 billion (over $28 billion) worth of US goods starting in April. “Tariffs are taxes, they are bad,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when announcing the retaliatory measures.

https://www.rt.com/news/614316-trump-covid-uncertainty-ecb/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

the original....

BACK IN 2016....

 

FORWARD TO 2025....:

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has reached out to producers in several EU nations to secure additional egg imports amid skyrocketing domestic prices, Reuters reported Friday, citing the Danish egg association.

The request comes despite recent trade tensions between Washington and Brussels over import tariffs imposed by the US administration on various EU goods.

A USDA representative in Europe reportedly sent formal inquiries in late February to several egg-producing countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

US wholesale egg prices recently hit an all-time high of $8.41 per dozen, marking a surge of over 200% from the previous year, according to Bloomberg. The price hike is attributed to an accelerating outbreak of bird flu among laying hens, significantly reducing egg supplies.

“We’re still waiting for more guidance from Washington on next steps, but do you have an estimate of the number of eggs that could be supplied to the US (assuming they meet all import requirements),” a follow-up letter to the Danish egg association reviewed by Reuters said, indicating that the White House was trying to estimate feasible import quantities.

A spokesperson for the association told Reuters that they would look into the situation, but emphasized that there was no surplus of eggs in Europe. 

“There is a shortage of eggs everywhere on a global scale, because consumption is increasing, and many are affected by bird flu,” he specified, adding that egg exports to the US could be challenging due to hygiene regulations and other factors.

Danish industry representative Jorgen Nyberg Larsen confirmed in an interview with AgriWatch that Washington had inquired about how much could potentially be supplied, adding that “they have also contacted my colleagues in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland.”

Last week, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the US Justice Department had launched a preliminary investigation into the surge in egg prices across the country. The probe reportedly focuses on whether local suppliers such as Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms had colluded to hike prices or limit supply.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff hike on steel and aluminum imports from the EU took effect, following the expiration of previous exemptions and duty-free quotas. The European Commission responded by announcing counter-tariffs on €26 billion (over $28 billion) worth of US goods, set to begin in April.

https://www.rt.com/business/614267-us-eu-egg-trump-tariffs/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

against parents....

 

Biden Justice Department Sought ‘Federal Hook’ To Go After Parents As ‘Domestic Terrorists’: Documents

BY: BRECCAN F. THIES

 

The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden actively sought a “federal hook” to justify sending federal law enforcement after parents it labeled “domestic terrorists” because they were concerned about their children’s education.

Documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) show that prior to the infamous Oct. 4, 2021, “domestic terrorist” memo from former Attorney General Merrick Garland, staff were looking for any possible way to go after parents concerned with coronavirus mandates, critical race theory, and “transgender” policies. 

 

“We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” Kevin Chambers, then an associate deputy attorney general, wrote in an Oct. 1 email, trying to manufacture a way to respond to a teed-up letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA).

Career staff at the time were even concerned, saying there was no authority or legal basis for going after parents speaking out at school board meetings, particularly since they were protected by the First Amendment.

AFL said the new tranche of documents allows the organization to “complete the timeline” of how the NSBA and Biden DOJ and White House were colluding in order to go after parents. The legal group’s president, Gene Hamilton, said the emails show a “conspiracy that was ultimately aimed at depriving parents of two fundamental rights — the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing of their children.”

“They did so with political intentions, most immediately by attempting to influence the Virginia gubernatorial election, and to more broadly chill dissent across the United States,” he added.

 

The day after Chambers’ “federal hook” email, Oct. 2, Sparkle Sooknanan — who was then in the associate attorney general’s office and was later appointed by Biden as a judge on the federal district court for the District of Columbia — asked at 8:17 a.m. if anyone in the Civil Rights Division could assist in a response to the NSBA letter.

The Biden administration had already collaborated with the NSBA to produce the NSBA anti-parent letter, but Oct. 2 was a Saturday, and the timing implies that these Biden officials were looking to send their thugs after parents as soon as humanly possible.

By 7:05 p.m., the Civil Rights Division responded, saying there was not much to work from on the issue. The next day — the day before Garland issued the memo — a Civil Rights Division career attorney raised serious concerns about the effort directly to then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Robert Moossy.

“It seems that we are ramping up an awful lot of federal manpower for what is currently a non-federal conduct,” a career attorney said. “It appears to me that the vast, vast majority of the behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law. I only saw three stories that involved what sounded like a possible ‘true threat’ and one of those (the Norfolk story) did not appear to be related to masks, etc.”

 

“Almost all of the language being used is protected by the First Amendment, the main issue seems to be disruption and obstruction of school board meetings, which could be reached y local trespassing laws or disturbance of the peace laws, but nothing remotely federal,” the lawyer continued.

The lawyer actually suggested using “something like the FACE Act” (the federal law that allowed the Biden DOJ to go after peaceful pro-life Americans) in order to “criminaliz[e] physical obstruction of schools and school board meetings.”

While these concerns were raised at 1:32 p.m. on a Sunday, by 9:12 a.m. the next day, the DOJ had created a draft of Garland’s memo, and Myesha Braden of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General had distributed it internally.

By 9:16 a.m., Shaylyn Cochran of the Civil Rights Division distributed the draft memo to others, including Moossy. In a short time, the memo was published and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. attorneys, and other law enforcement across the United States, mobilizing federal forces to silence parents.

“The Garland Memo is one of the most scandalous attempts to deprive Americans of their rights in the history of our republic,” said Ian Prior, AFL senior advisor. “When the great awakening of parents occurred in 2021, the Biden Administration was desperate to put a stop to it before it could impact the Virginia gubernatorial election. Instead, anyone with half a brain could see the unfathomable scandal unfolding, the course of history in Virginia was altered, and parents refused to surrender their rights; rights which are now being so forcefully defended and jealously guarded by the Trump Administration and vindicated by the United States Supreme Court.”

 

 Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies. https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/18/biden-justice-department-sought-federal-hook-to-go-after-parents-as-domestic-terrorists-documents/  

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.