Little Push Back
Sen. Mark Kelly is a decorated combat pilot, astronaut, and U.S. Senator. His wife is a former member of congress and a gun violence victim. Sen. Kelly is also standing up for Ukraine.
Yesterday, Donald Trump’s DOGE dog said Sen. Kelly is a traitor.
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Here is from today’s Chron E-Board take:
When Donald Trump first broadcast his intent to slap 25% tariffs on the United States’ top two trading partners, few were surprised. Even fewer believed him. They didn’t want to.
That includes my uncle, Ricardo Ahumada (Nano, to me). A licensed customs broker based in Laredo, Nano’s family-owned company transports nearly $5 billion of goods across the U.S.-Mexico border each year. They had already ridden the disastrous wave of Trump’s first-term tariffs back in 2018. Like many, Nano figured this so-called business-savvy president now knew better. Surely he’d learned that starting a trade war with his closest allies would only betray both the deep-pocketed business elites and cash-strapped voters who put their faith in him.
Of course, Nano told me this week, he should have known better. It wasn’t until last month, when Trump’s dizzying tariff threats sent him and his business-partner brother Roberto scrambling to ease clients’ anxieties, that it hit him: “Híjole, viene fuerte esto,” Nano thought. Good God, this is really coming – and with force.
And this:
For my uncle, Trump’s decisions mark a historic shift. “I’ve been in this industry since 1997, and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. “We’ve turned back the clock more than 100 years and returned to protectionism.”
Is that truly the conservative way? Nano considers himself more aligned with Republicans on most things, but he’s deeply disappointed that relatively few Republican leaders are pushing back on Trump’s tariffs. He feels they’re abandoning their values to defend unbridled power.
Here is the entire E-Board take: Trump’s tariff trade war with Mexico and Canada will cost us all.
There is little pushing back on Trump and his DOGE dog. The dog can call an American hero a traitor and Trump can ruin border businesses and there is hardly any push back by MAGA elected officials.
Except for this from Newsweek”
Republican Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska publicly backed Kelly and criticized (Elon) Musk.
“It’s not decent, it’s not right,” Bacon told CNN‘s Manu Raju. “I don’t agree with Senator Kelly on some things, but we don’t call each other a traitor, and I think it reflects bad on the White House.”
The featured photo needs no explaining.
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I just saw this tweet from AP:
Southwest Airlines breaks with another tradition and plans to charge a fee to check bags
Oh, well.
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The Astros manager said today that Cam Smith would see some playing time in right field. Good.