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TexasTowelie

TexasTowelie's Journal
TexasTowelie's Journal
June 1, 2025

Speaker Mike Johnson denies Trump bill threatens Medicaid coverage: Full interview - NBC News



In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) addresses concerns that President Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” which passed in the House and heads to the Senate, could lead to 4.8 million people losing Medicaid coverage and impact rural hospitals.

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Mike keeps on lying.
June 1, 2025

Russia's Economic Crisis: The $395 Billion Debt Putin Can't Hide - Jason Jay Smart



This is not the sign of a strong nation. It’s a warning of collapse.

In this deep-dive, Jason Jay Smart exposes the truth the Kremlin doesn’t want the world to see:
• How Russian citizens are drowning in unsustainable loans
• Why Russian banks are facing a $25B liquidity crisis
• How Putin’s obsession with war has triggered economic self-destruction
• And what history tells us happens next when regimes ignore economic reality
• From 1917 to 1991, collapsing economies have ended empires. Is Russia next?
June 1, 2025

US Warns: China War Is Imminent; China Trade War; Li In Southeast Asia - China Update



00:00 Introduction
00:21 US-China Trade War Updates
05:05 Premier Li Visits Southeast Asia
08:40 US Warns of Imminent Chinese Threat
June 1, 2025

Warnock says 'Trump's big, ugly bill' threatens millions of Americans' healthcare: Full interview - NBC News



In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) reacts to the Republican agenda bill, which heads to the Senate after passing the House.
June 1, 2025

Pathetic Ted Cruz Begs Americans To Be Nicer To Elon Musk - Farron Balanced



A very sad and emasculated Ted Cruz appeared on Sean Hannity's program on Fox News this week to almost tearfully beg Americans to please stop being so "nasty" to Elon Musk because he's really a super talented guy. Cruz has no problem being the most pathetic member of Congress who clearly has no spine to speak of, but his defense of Musk and the praise that he and Hannity heaped upon him defies reality. Farron Cousins explains what happened.
June 1, 2025

Trump makes colossal mistake, screws his own voters - Brian Tyler Cohen



No Lie episode 268: Trump misses a golden opportunity to cut bait on the least popular policy of his entire presidency.

Transcript:

today we're going to talk about Trump
missing a golden opportunity to cut bait
on the least popular policy of his
entire presidency and I've got two
interviews this week i speak with Texas
State Representative James Talarico
about the Republican power grab in Texas
and how to stop the GOP from co-opting
Christianity and I'm joined by
Congressman Daniel Goldman to discuss
his confrontation with ICE agents i'm
Brian Tyler Cohen and you're watching No
Lie
trump's latest court loss was the
biggest win he's gotten during his
presidency let me explain we all know
that his tariffs have been an abject
disaster they've sent cost surging and
there's no relief on the horizon our
credits been downgraded our stock market
entered correction territory trump has
spent the last two months insisting that
every country in the world is knocking
down our door to get to the negotiating
table and yet all we have to show for it
is one single deal with the UK a country
we have a trade surplus with in the
meantime traffic at our ports has slowed
down to a crawl with LA County port for
example seeing a 40 to 50% drop which
means that supply goes down demand goes
up and prices rise and prices rising is
disqualifying enough on its own but
remember Trump was elected specifically
under the pretense that he would lower
costs so it's not just that everything
is more expensive because of him but
it's more expensive in spite of the fact
that the one thing he promised was to
bring down costs and yet instead he sent
them surging and Americans aren't blind
to that reality the guy is 22 points
underwater on trade according to the
latest Yuggov poll a normal human being
would see this disaster unfolding they
would see costs rising would see his
allies turning against him would see his
poll numbers cratering and cut bait but
Trump doesn't work that way because his
priority isn't good policy it is his ego
he has planted his flag as the tariffs
guy and so he's got to see it through
because he views any reset as a
capitulation and capitulation means
weakness and he's a big strong tough guy
so capitulation is a non-starter meaning
we all have to suffer the consequences
of Donald Trump's insecurity enter the
Court of International Trade that court
rules that the emergency law that was
invoked by Trump to impose these tariffs
doesn't actually give him that
unilateral authority instead the court
ruled that the power resides with
Congress and so the tariffs were blocked
you could not get a bigger gift if
you're Donald Trump if it was flown in
from Qatar finally he has the pretext he
needs to be able to cut bait on the
absolute cluster that is his tariff
policy he's got the perfect scapegoat
too the evil communist Marxist activist
judges blame them and move on it's the
perfect way to never have to bail on
your own policy while still deriving all
the benefits of bailing on your own
policy but that would all be too logical
because instead Trump appeals the
decision and a federal appeals court
stays the lower court's ruling which
means it leaves the tariffs in place to
explain here this isn't a win for Trump
it's not the appeals court ruling on the
merits of the tariffs it's simply the
appeals court allowing them to stay in
place while they litigate this issue
pretty standard procedural stuff and in
fact many of the rulings that Trump
would ultimately lose during his
presidency were initially stayed by
those same courts and the appeals panel
that Trump drew with seven Democrats and
four Republicans meaning it's likely
that Trump will also lose when their
final ruling is handed down but we know
by now that even though he's being
gifted a political victory second to
none he won't take it he will appeal
this thing all the way up to the Supreme
Court and then probably think up five
different ways to make this happen even
if Scotas rules against him because he
is incapable of cutting bait on bad
policy so long as that policy comes from
him again if he wasn't so blinded by his
delicate ego he would see when he's
being given a win his grand tariffs have
been nothing short of a disaster for his
administration and for America they've
literally forced Trump to come out and
say that little girls are going to get
fewer dolls like I I I don't know when
you're telling kids that they have to
endure austerity measures doesn't
exactly feel like you're winning but he
couldn't do it he couldn't take the win
because even as his economic policy is
cratering our economy he is too focused
on protecting his fragile ego and so
instead we've all got to sit idly by and
watch everything crash and burn i mean
we've got the only economy in the
industrialized world that is contracting
you'd think that changing course away
from economic disaster would be a given
would be a good thing but he can't do it
which means we will descend deeper and
deeper into economic chaos we're one
quarter away from officially entering
into a recession and with these tariffs
remaining in effect that's all but
guaranteed at this point this is the
consequence of having somebody in office
who has the opportunity to act in the
best interest of 350 million people and
instead defers only to protecting
himself and his thin skin trump is being
taught a lesson in real time about
political gravity unfortunately he isn't
willing to learn it.
June 1, 2025

Tensions Explode! Russians Call to Denazify The Baltics. - RFU News



Today, we will discuss the increased Russian provocations and calls for the denazification of the Baltic countries. Not wanting to be caught off guard and taking these threats seriously, these countries are already taking measures to improve their security.

Most recently, Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, warned that Poland and the Baltic countries would be the first to suffer in any conflict between NATO and Russia. He accused these nations of showing high aggressiveness and claimed they were underestimating the devastating consequences of provoking Moscow. This statement echoed a wave of similarly hostile rhetoric from Russian state officials and media figures over the past two years.

Russian officials, including former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, have repeatedly questioned the sovereignty of the Baltic countries. Medvedev declared that the Baltic states belong to Russia and accused NATO of harboring anti-Russian intentions. State television host Vladimir Solovyov has gone even further, stating that these countries don't need independence and that their sovereignty is a joke. Such statements are not isolated; they reflect a coordinated campaign to frame the Baltics as illegitimate states and NATO’s eastern flank as a battleground ripe for denazification, a chilling repeat of the Russian justification for its war on Ukraine.

The term denazification is particularly troubling, as it has historically been used by Russia as a pretext for aggression. Prior to its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow framed its war aims in identical terms, alleging that Kyiv needed to be cleansed of Nazis despite Ukraine being a functioning democracy with a Jewish president. Now, with similar language being used against Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the fear is that these statements may not be mere propaganda but early signs of a more expansive regional strategy.

From a military standpoint, the Baltic states represent a significant weakness for Russia, making them a tempting target. Kaliningrad, Russia’s exclave on the Baltic Sea, is completely isolated and surrounded by NATO territory, so prominent Russian media and political figures are constantly calling for the establishment of a direct land route to Kaliningrad. Most important is the narrow Suwalki Gap between Poland and Lithuania, as control over it would either sever or restore Russian land access to Kaliningrad, depending on who holds it.

At the same time, since Finland and Sweden joined NATO, the Baltic Sea has become almost entirely encircled by NATO members, severely limiting Russian maritime maneuverability. Russia’s Baltic Fleet, already small and aging, is no match for the combined naval power of NATO states in the region. On land, the Baltic countries host forward-deployed NATO battle groups and conduct regular military exercises to prepare for rapid mobilization. These factors make any quick land grab by Russia, a tactic used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, far less likely to succeed here. This only seems to enrage the Russian government further, fueling its hostile campaign.

Russia’s scare tactics extend beyond mere threats. The Kremlin actively invokes the presence of Russian-speaking populations in the Baltics, around 24% in Estonia and Latvia, as a rationale for intervention, much like it did in Ukraine. These demographics are a legacy of Soviet-era population transfers and remain a sensitive issue. Russian state media routinely portrays these ethnic Russians as oppressed and in need of protection, laying the narrative groundwork for a potential future military action.

The Baltics are not ignoring these signals. They have witnessed firsthand how Russia used similar rhetoric to justify its invasion of Ukraine. What was once dismissed as empty words has become a forerunner of real war. As such, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are bolstering their defenses, strengthening their ties with NATO, and preparing for the possibility of battle. The line between information warfare and justification for full-scale war is growing thinner, and with every new threat from Russia, the sense of urgency increases.

Overall, Russia’s repeated calls for the denazification of the Baltic states and its threats of direct retaliation are viewed with the utmost seriousness by their governments. The parallels with the lead-up to the war in Ukraine are stark, and after a series of provocations in the last months, the stakes are higher than ever. For Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, preparing for the worst is not paranoia, it’s a necessity and they are actively working to improve their security.
June 1, 2025

How Defense Tech Is Rewriting Global Power Dynamics - Good Times Bad Times (The 20s Report)



From tanks breaking through the front lines at Camber in 1917 through the Internet born of the cold war technological race to today's battlefields where drones and artificial intelligence draw a new map of warfare, human history is a history of military
innovations. Imagine Silicon Valley of the 1950s not as the cradle of social media, but as a forge for spy plane software and cruise missile chips. Think of Ukraine where mass production of 4 million drones annually creates a new reality in which individual battles can be decided with a single click.

Behind the facade of conflicts a struggle is unfolding today between defense industry giants and new players Palantir whose value increased by 300% in 2024 exceeds the combined capitalization of the rest of the American defense sector valued at $28 billion, Andurel defeats offers from Lockheed or Boeing in Pentagon tenders, while European housing worth 5 billion euros creates precision mass of combat drones. Is it these startup outsiders who are shaping the future of war? We stand on the threshold of a revolution: artificial intelligence enters the battlefield, unmanned vehicles replace soldiers, and technologies defined as dual use blur the line between peace and war. All this in a world where the geopolitical balance of power is once again becoming multipolar.

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 121,040

About TexasTowelie

Retired/disabled middle-aged white guy who believes in justice and equality for all. Math and computer analyst with additional 21st century jack-of-all-trades skills. I'm a stud, not a dud!
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