Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News

Drudge Retort

Menu

Subscriptions

Drudge Retort RSS feed RSS Feed

Links

Recent Comments

Recent comments from all news stories on this site. Users must follow the site's moderation policy. Personal attacks, profanity, abusive conduct and expressions of prejudice are not allowed. If you want to retrieve a comment of yours that was recently deleted, visit your user page and click the Moderation link.

@#9 ... Since ICE doesn't recognize any law except their own, PLUS they don't have any sense of honor, nor do they have anything resembling a moral compass, how are these "Restrictions" going to be enforced? ...

A good question.

Perhaps, that is why Pres Trump is using ICE against Americans?

To wit ...

Axios Explains: Inside ICE's superpowers (June 2025)
www.axios.com

... The images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans -- and led to a simple question: Is all of this legal?

It is -- at least for now.

Why it matters: Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created after the 9/11 attacks, its agents have operated with vastly more enforcement power, less transparency and fewer guardrails than local police.

- - - ICE's rules were designed largely to give the agency broad leeway in helping the FBI identify and arrest domestic terror suspects.

- - - Now the Trump administration is using that power to go after unauthorized immigrants -- potentially millions of them " with a frequency and aggressiveness that has sent ripples through communities nationwide.

Zoom in: Under Trump, critics say, ICE has become the closest thing the U.S. has to a secret police force.

- - - ICE agents aren't required to wear body cameras, can cover their faces, don't have to provide badge numbers or identify themselves, can arrive in unmarked cars and don't need a warrant from a judge to detain someone.

- - - Like those with other federal enforcement agencies, they can ignore rules that govern local police departments, particularly those local agencies with histories of abuse or that operate under court-imposed restrictions on racial profiling.

- - - In some cases, ICE agents can even arrest U.S. citizens " but they aren't supposed to place them in immigration detention units. Even so, a few U.S. citizens have been detained in recent ICE raids because of agents' mistakes or negligence. ...




... Whether he did the same for gloomy voters haunted by high prices is more doubtful. ...

imo, that is the issue here.

Are Pres Trump and his billionaire-populated Cabinet even aware of what Americans are facing?

What is a 'K-shaped' economy, and what's causing the divide? (November 2025)
finance.yahoo.com

... The "K-shaped" economy, widely touted in the financial press, is the latest expression of wealth inequality. The U.S. economy is experiencing a growing gap between the highest earners and the richest corporations, who are spending and expanding their wealth, and the lowest-income households and mom-and-pop companies, who struggle to pay their bills day to day. ...

He cited the Fed's ongoing concerns regarding inflation, employment, rising defaults in subprime credit, layoffs, and a "bifurcated economy."

"If you listen to the earnings calls or the reports of big, public, consumer-facing companies, many, many of them are saying that there's a bifurcated economy there and that consumers at the lower end are struggling and buying less and shifting to lower cost products, but that at the top, people are spending at the higher income and wealth," Powell said.

That, in a nutshell, is the K-shaped economy. ...




@#4 ... While he was awake, Dummkopf Trumpf addressed reporters at the White House, sounding like Al Capone threatening Eliot Ness:

"Colombia is producing a lot of drugs," Dummkopf Trumpf warned. "So he better wise up or he'll be next. He'll be next soon. I hope he's listening, he's going to be next." ...

Related ...

He'll be next': Donald Trump threatens Colombian President Gustavo Petro
www.aljazeera.com

... United States President Donald Trump has renewed his threats against his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, warning that the South American leader could be the next target for his anti-drug campaign.

On Wednesday, at a White House roundtable with business leaders, one reporter asked Trump if he had spoken to Petro. That touched off a fiery response from the Republican leader.

"I haven't really thought too much about him. He's been fairly hostile to the United States," Trump began, before going on the offensive.

"He's going to have himself some big problems if he doesn't wise up," Trump continued.

"Colombia is producing a lot of drugs. They have cocaine factories. They make cocaine, as you know, and they sell it right into the United States. So he better wise up, or he'll be next. He'll be next. I hope he's listening. He's going to be next because we don't like people when they kill people." ...



So, my first question then becomes ...

Why did Pres Trump pardon fmr Honduran Pres Hernandez for his conviction on bringing over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States?

It is a simple question, but I've not yet seen any manner of rationale for that action.



Seizure of oil tanker marks new level of tensions between US and Venezuela
www.theguardian.com

... US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign against the South American country's dictator, Nicols Maduro.

Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, posted footage of the seizure on X. The grainy, unclassified 45-second video shows US forces landing on the tanker from a helicopter.

In an accompanying statement, Bondi said the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Coast Guard, with support from the Department of Defense, had "executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran".

Venezuela's government made no immediate comment on the seizure " but speaking at a rally in Caracas, Maduro urged citizens to act like "warriors" and be ready "to smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary". ...


Yeah, an escalation.

But why?


@#15 ... Wait, so the sudden crisis over Venezuela wasn't really about drugs at all. It was about oil. ...

That's my supposition at this point.

There does seems to be little justification for Pres Trump's action regarding drugs from Venezuela.

So then, I looked around and discovered the huge oil wealth of Venezuela.

Oil reserves in Venezuela
en.wikipedia.org

... The proven oil reserves in Venezuela are recognized as the largest in the world, totaling 300 billion barrels (4.81010 m3) as of 1 January 2014.[1] The 2019 edition of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy reports the total proved reserves of 303.3 billion barrels for Venezuela (slightly more than Saudi Arabia's 297.7 billion barrels).[2] ...


And ...

(no paywall on this one)

Trafigura Warns of "Super Glut" as Oil Supply Surges
oilprice.com

... Echoing what has become a now daily refrain by commodity bears everywhere, Saad Rahim, chief economist of commodity-trading giant, Trafigura, said that the oil market faces a "super glut" next year as a burst of new supply collides with weakness in the global economy. According to Rahim, new drilling projects and slowing demand growth would weigh further on already depressed crude prices next year.

"Whether it's a glut, or a super glut, it's hard to get away from that," Rahim said in remarks alongside the company's annual results.

Brent crude has fallen 16% this year, on track for its worst year since 2020. Prices are expected to be further damped by major projects coming online next year, including in Brazil and Guyana.

The glut thesis is hardly new, and has been popularized by banks such as Citi and Goldman for the past year. As Goldman analyst Daan Struyven wrote in his latest oil tracker note, "global visible oil stocks have built by nearly 2mb/d over the past 30 days." The banks expects them to grow significantly more in the coming years. ...


Curious aspect ...

A Billion-Barrel Oil Glut Is Forming at Sea
www.wsj.com

... The oil market is grappling with whether sanctioned Russian and Iranian cargoes should still be counted as supply. This may explain why oil prices have been slow to react to a huge glut that is building on the ocean.

There are 1.4 billion barrels of oil "on the water." That is 24% higher than the average for this time of year between 2016 and 2024, according to oil-analytics firm Vortexa. The data measures shipments that are on their way to be unloaded at a port, or cargoes that haven't yet found a buyer. ...


www.youtube.com

short

i don' know why


Jim Carroll Band - City Drops into the Night (1980)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
It's when Billy's whores are workin'
They're workin' with the skeleton crew
It's when the sky over Jersey
That sky starts to drain from view
It's when my woman pawns her voice so
So she can make her old excuses sound new

But I just want one clue

'Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there's one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?

I think it's gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It's when the door to the River
That door is like 26 miles
It's when ambitious little girls start
They start to dream about a change in style
It's when the slick boys got their fingers
They got their fingers in the telephone dial

But I think I'll just wait a while
'Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there's one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?

I think it's gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It's when the sneak thieves are checkin'
They're checkin the alleys for unlocked doors
And Billy's sister's gettin' frantic 'cause
'Cause Billy's sister's little brother can't score
It's when the woman from the dream is
Oh my God! That's the woman on the floor

Each promise was just one promise more

'Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there's one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?

I think it's gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night
It's when Teddy's ghost is on the roof
Beatin' his drum
And Teddy's best friend is two blocks East
And he's makin' Teddy's ex-girlfriend come
You know, they mistook Teddy's blind trust
Just to prove that Teddy was dumb
But listen, you know, I think they are both just scum

'Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there's one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?

I think it's gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night

It's when the body at the bottom
That body is my own reflection
But it ain't hip to sink that low
Unless you're gonna make a resurrection
They're always gonna come to your door
They're gonna say, "It's just a routine inspection"
But what you get when you open your door
What you get is just another injection
And there's always gonna be one more
With just a little bit less until the next one

They wait in shadows and steal the light from your eyes
To them vision's just some costly infection
But listen, you should come with me
I'm the fire, I'm the fire's reflection
I'm just a constant warning to take the other direction

Mister, I am your connection

'Cause when the city drops into the night
Before the darkness there's one moment of light
When everything seems clear
The other side, it seems so near
What seemed wrong?

I think it's gonna be just about right
Before the city drops, the city drops
Into the night
...

Drudge Retort

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy