October 29, 5:07 PM
Regarding Trump and his entourage's talk of a third term,
there are three options that could push through this decision.
1. Get the Supreme Court to rule that a US president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. And if there were a break, then two more terms would be possible.
2. Get the 2020 election officially recognized as fraudulent and, based on the fact that Trump's victory was stolen (which is precisely what happened), gain a chance to run for another term.
3. Provoke a war or use one of the ongoing wars to escalate the situation, citing extraordinary circumstances to repeat the history of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, who was elected four times, the last two times during World War II (he served 12 years in power until he died in office).
Aside from the obvious resistance from Democrats and the dissent within the Republican Party, the main obstacle to implementing such plans is Trump's age. By a hypothetical third term, he would be well over 80. And certain signs of personality dysfunction are already visible. By that time, even compared to Biden, he could be a real vegetable.
I'm betting that in 2028, the Republicans will bet on Vance or Rubio, with the party elite rooting for Rubio and the core Trumpists for Vance. That's assuming they haven't screwed up their positions by then.
P.S. But it will certainly be interesting to see if Trump and company actually go for it. That would be a real shakeup of the foundations. Worse than the destroyed wing of the White House, which has been burning the Democrats for a week now.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/10157288.html
Google Translator
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Trump, Russian Oil & Tomahawk Missiles
October 28, 2025
M.K. Bhadrakumar considers the possible complications for the U.S. president now that he has assumed the war-monger avatar and is escalating the pressure on Russia.
President Donald Trump on Oct. 25 at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (White House /Daniel Torok)
By M.K. Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
U.S. President Donald Trump has seemingly shifted gear in the U.S. strategy to stop Russia on its tracks from creating new facts on the ground in Ukraine.
Russian forces have the upper hand all along the 1250-kilometer Ukrainian frontline stretching Kiev’s defences and resources, which no amount of Western military help can hope to reverse in a foreseeable future. Trump is compelling Russia to seek a military victory in Ukraine.
Trump so far put on the air of a statesman in great anguish over the humanitarian aspects of the conflict. Moscow tolerated the theatrical show to pamper Trump’s egoistic personality — that is, until Russian President Vladimir Putin shattered the myth to expose that Trump actually holds the record as the American president who sanctioned Russia the most number of times, exceeding even his predecessor Joe Biden’s tally.
Trump, in the new avatar as warmonger has unveiled a strategy of climbing the escalation ladder in the war until Putin capitulates. To that end, he has expanded the sanctions regime to include Russia’s oil industry, and is toying with the idea of supplying Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles that can hit deep inside Russian territory.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Oct. 22 press release announcing the new sanctions against Russia reads as if it is custom-made for targeting India. India and China account for some 80 percent of Russia’s oil exports, but the latter is the No. 1 buyer with 60 percent of the imports transported through pipelines, whereas India depends on carriers arranged by the Russian side (“shadow fleet”) which are also now under Western sanctions.
The press release claims that:
“The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behaviour.”
It is a statement of fact because this is not really about oil, but about geopolitics.
Whether Trump will actually press ahead with the oil sanctions remains unclear, since keeping Russian oil out of the world market risks high oil prices which could boomerang on the U.S. economy and be damaging politically for Trump.
Putin: ‘Unfriendly’ Act
Putin addressing the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, on Oct. 2. (Kremlin)
Putin’s initial reaction was that the oil sanctions are an “unfriendly” act which “will have certain consequences, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being.” Putin said that Russia’s energy sector feels confident. He added,
“This is, of course, an attempt to put pressure on Russia. But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure.”
Meanwhile, Western hypocrisy broke through the ceiling, as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the war, is at Trump’s doorstep pleading for a sanctions waiver.
Apparently, Germany has been quietly buying Russian oil even while portraying Russia in hostile terms, lest its GDP fell by another 3 percent!
Germany “temporarily” took control of three subsidiaries of the Russian oil company Rosneft (which the U.S. has sanctioned) to secure its energy supply. Interestingly, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the charioteer of the so-called coalition of the willing raring to deploy troops in Ukraine to fight Russian forces, is traveling in the same boat as Merz seeking Trump’s waiver.
Such shady behaviour with racial overtones by the Western countries holds lessons for India.
A Moscow filling station of Rosneft, which is now under U.S. sanctions. (A.Savin /Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
Clearly, the effectiveness of the new sanctions against the Russian oil giants will depend on just how zealous the U.S. is in enforcing them through secondary sanctions on entities that deal in Russian oil. If past experience is anything to go by, Washington won’t be able to sustain a full-court press — if for no other reason than that markets will force its hand once oil prices shoot up.
That is to say, thanks to lax enforcement of sanctions, Russian oil will continue to reach the world market. Buyers like India who cut down oil supplies from Russia will end up paying higher prices. By meekly complying with Trump’s diktat, they compromised their interests. The sense of humiliation is such that Delhi shies away from engaging with Trump.
As regards long-rage Tomahawk missiles (range: 3,000 kilometers) Putin was polite but frank in his reaction, saying,
“This is an attempt at escalation. But if such weapons are used to attack Russian territory, the response will be very serious, if not overwhelming. Let them think about it.”
The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, was blunt in conveying the Kremlin thinking:
“The U.S. is our enemy, and their talkative ‘peacemaker’ has now fully embarked on the path of war with Russia … this is now his conflict, not the senile Biden’s! … the decisions made are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully sided with the insane Europe.
But there is also a clear plus in this latest swing of the Trump pendulum: we can strike all the Bandera hideouts with a wide variety of weapons without regard to unnecessary negotiations. And achieve victory precisely where it is only possible: on the ground, not at a desk. Destroying enemies, not concluding meaningless ‘deals.’ ”
Apparently, the message went home. Trump, before emplaning for Malaysia on his three-nation Asian tour, made sure that his special envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff, met with his Russian interlocutor Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund, to talk things over.
Meanwhile, Trump has hinted in anticipation of his forthcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he may not after all carry out his threatened 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting on Nov. 1 in retaliation for China’s vastly expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals. China’s tough stance is paying off.
Similarly, the Kremlin’s blunt threat of retaliation against Tomahawk will be heeded seriously. Putin has many options — Oreshnik capable of Mach 10 speed, for instance, is a hypersonic missile that is also nuclear capable, against which the West has no defence. The weapon has entered into serial production and supplied to the armed forces.
Again, Russia’s new jet-powered glide bomb gives a significant boost in range and superior resistance to electronic countermeasures. It is capable of hitting Ukraine’s Western border. It is also moving to mass production and the West is defenceless against it.
[On Sunday Putin announced the successful development of an even more powerful weapon, the Burevestnik missile, which is nuclear-powered, allowing it stay aloft, and can be equipped with nuclear weapons. In a test last Tuesday, Putin said it flew for 15 hours and flown 8,700 miles and can evade missile defense systems.]
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/10/28/t ... -missiles/
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Hourly, Hate America Rallies Stampede Through heads of Cruel Reich Cultists
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence 29 Oct 2025
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to
and you have the exact measure of the injustice and
wrong which will be imposed on them.”
—Frederick Douglass
Hourly, Hate America Rallies stampede —
Through feverish imaginations of Trojan Horse
Traitors. Remote-controlled wreckers. Bagmen, bullies, and masked confederate
Felons pulling One Big Beautiful Bank Job from dog-eared Dictators’ Playbooks.
Hourly, Hate America Rallies stampede —
Through fascist fantasies of sadist, pedophile-protection cliques. Ghoulishly, they
Monkey-wrench gears of the capitalist state machine. They make governance —
Almost meeting minimum needs of The People STOP. Grind to a screeching halt!
Hourly, Hate America Rallies stampede —
Through swastika skulls of chainsaw-brandishing, cruel
Reich cultists. Their mob rule murders MEDICAID!
Slashes SNAP! And frantically saws away at Social Security!
Hourly, Hate America Rallies stampede —
Through Play Dough brains of puppy-killers; xenophobic ghouls; greasy-thumbed
Grifters splitting up families! While Fox-box belligerent blondes — Lil Eva Braun(s) —
Fire off poisoned-tipped talking points — At those who dare question The Reich …
Hourly, Hate America Rallies stampede —
Across muddled minds of mad Reich Ministers. As their barbaric Mengele
Medicine men furlough federal workers. As their wild-eyed white supremacists
Strip voters’ rights. Gerrymander furiously. Returning to Dark Ages of Jim Crow.
© 2025. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
https://blackagendareport.com/hourly-ha ... h-cultists
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Trump Team Takes Aim at State Laws Shielding Consumers’ Credit Scores From Medical Debt
Posted on October 30, 2025 by Yves Smith
Yves here. This punitive Trump stance on medical debt should seal any doubt that this Administration is, as a matter of policy, out to increase precarity. The fact that medical debt and bankruptcies are common in the US should be a source of national shame. The push to make sure they are included in credit scores is wantonly and unnecessarily punitive. Bankruptcy is painful as it is; no borrower would seek it out unless he had to. Keep in mind that many if not most employers pull credit reports as part of job screening, so reporting of medical debt and bankruptcies will do harm well beyond limiting access to borrowing.
By Noam N. Levey. Originally published at KFF Health News
The Trump administration took another step Tuesday to weaken protections for Americans with medical debt, issuing new guidance that threatens ongoing state efforts to keep that debt off consumers’ credit reports.
More than a dozen states, including Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland, New York, and most of New England, have enacted laws in recent years to keep medical debt from affecting consumers’ credit.
And more states — including several in conservative regions of the Midwest and Mountain West — have been considering similar protections, spurred by bipartisan concerns that medical debt on a credit report can make it harder for people to get a home, a car, or a job.
Nationwide, about 100 million people have some form of health care debt, with millions burdened by $10,000 or more in unpaid bills.
But in the new guidance, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asserts that federal law bars states from restricting medical debts from credit reports, arguing that only the federal government has this authority.
“Congress meant to occupy the field of consumer reporting and displace state laws,” the bureau concluded in an “interpretive rule” signed by Russell Vought, the White House budget director and acting head of the CFPB.
The guidance, which offers a new interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, reverses policies advanced under former President Joe Biden that sought to empower states to expand protections for people with medical debt.
The Trump administration’s latest move will not immediately roll back existing state protections.
But advocates for patients and consumers warn that the new guidance may stall progress elsewhere, just as millions of Americans are poised to lose federal aid that helps them buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The aid is tied up in the current budget showdown between congressional Republicans and Democrats.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a crueler regulatory interpretation,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, a vice president for the Community Service Society of New York. The nonprofit has pushed for medical debt protections in that state.
Lucy Culp, who oversees state lobbying efforts by Blood Cancer United, formerly known as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, warned that the Trump administration’s guidance could reverberate across the country. “This rule will have a chilling effect on states’ willingness to pass these critical patient protections,” she said.
The CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.
The new CFPB guidance might spur more litigation challenging state restrictions on medical debt credit reporting.
Trade groups representing credit reporting agencies and debt collectors went to court early this year challenging regulations issued by the Biden administration that would have removed medical debt from credit reports nationwide. They argued that the administration exceeded its authority in issuing the credit reporting restrictions.
The federal restrictions would have helped an estimated 15 million people. But the Trump administration chose not to defend the new regulations, and a federal judge in Texas appointed by Trump ruled that the regulations should be scrapped. They never went into effect.
The Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents credit bureaus, did not respond to a request for comment about the new CFPB rule, but the industry group has argued that regulating medical debt should be left to the federal government.
“Only national, uniform standards can achieve the dual goals of protecting consumers and maintaining accurate credit reports,” Zachary Taylor, the group’s government relations director, warned lawmakers in Maine this year before that state barred medical debts from credit reports there.
Broader health insurance protections could prevent more Americans from sinking into debt and depressing their credit scores.
But millions of Americans are expected to lose health coverage in the coming years as a result of the tax and spending bill signed by the president in July.
“Millions of Americans are avoiding medical care, putting off needed surgeries, skipping essential treatments,” said Allison Sesso, president and chief executive of Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys up and retires patients’ debts and advocates for broader patient protections.
“This isn’t just a health care issue,” Sesso added. “It’s an economic crisis that’s keeping families from building wealth and fully participating in the economy. When credit scores are dinged by medical bills, everyone loses.”
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/10 ... -debt.html
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Trump administration refuses to tap into contingency funds as nearly 42 million set to lose food assistance
The USDA says “the well has run dry” although progressives argue Trump administration has access to emergency funding
October 29, 2025 by Natalia Marques
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins stands beside US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Photo: US Department of Agriculture/Flickr)
Starting on November 1, nearly 42 million people could lose access to food aid in the United States. With the government shutdown ongoing for almost a month, the US government claims that funds are running out for several crucial social services including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The Trump administration has blamed Democratic Party lawmakers for funds running out, but has refused to tap into the contingency funds for SNAP benefits, which total roughly USD 5 billion.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry,” reads a message on the front page of the website of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
In a memo obtained by Politico on Friday, October 24, the USDA will not tap into contingency funds to keep SNAP benefits afloat. The memo claims that these billions in additional funds are not “legally available.”
Dottie Rosenbaum, senior fellow and director of Federal SNAP Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, writes that this claim by the USDA “stands in opposition to the law and prior practice, including by the Trump Administration itself.” Rosenbaum references prior Trump administration practice “including as recently as a few weeks ago in the Agriculture Department (USDA) Lapse of Funding Plan, which the agency has since removed from its website.”
“Under past shutdowns, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, SNAP benefits have always been provided using available funding sources to prevent a break in benefits,” Rosenbaum writes.
Opposition builds to Trump’s refusal to tap into contingency funds
Changes in SNAP benefits have been shown to be directly tied to the well-being of those living in poverty. In 2021, the USDA finally revised the Thrifty Food Plan, the benchmark for SNAP benefits, leading to a long-awaited 21% boost in assistance. The effects were felt deeply: research estimates that the bump kept nearly 3 million people out of poverty and reduced the number of children living in poverty by 1.3 million.
Progressives and grassroots organizations have condemned Trump’s refusal to tap into contingency funds. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich denounced the president on X for not tapping into contingency funds, but instead finding a way to “bail out Argentina, conduct extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, and build a vanity ballroom.”
“Somehow, the Trump administration has hit a new low. They’re choosing to ignore their legal duty to distribute SNAP’s contingency funding, so they’ll let 42 million families go hungry ahead of Thanksgiving,” said Lily Roberts, managing director for Inclusive Growth at the Center for American Progress, in a statement. “They’re building a gilded ballroom and demolishing history while they take food away from hungry kids and let health insurance premium costs spike.”
Some on the left have criticized both major parties for this crisis. “The right wing’s calculation is simple and horrific: If they can cause widespread suffering by denying tens of millions of people food, then that will create enough pressure on Democrats that they will agree to pass a funding bill that doesn’t protect our healthcare,” reads a statement by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “The outcome of the fight around the government shutdown will impact the lives of virtually every working class person in this country. We can’t leave this in the hands of Democratic Party politicians – they’ve shown time and time again that their instinct is to surrender rather than take a stand.”
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/10/29/ ... ssistance/
Trump met with popular protests in South Korea over tariff war and coercive policies
Trump, who is visiting South Korea to attend the APEC summit, has been accused of threatening thousands of jobs and forcing the country to increase its defense expenditure and buy US weapons.
October 29, 2025 by Abdul Rahman
National rally condemning Trump for forced investment in the US and threatening security. Photo: IPRAAPEC
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Gyeongju and several other cities in South Korea to oppose US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country on Wednesday, October 29.
Protesters in Gyeongju tried to march to the Bomun Tourist Complex, the venue of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. They were stopped nearly five kilometers from the venue by security forces, The Korean Times reported.
Despite the security barricade, some of the protesters reached near the summit venue which caused a brief clash with security forces and led to minor injuries.
Protesters carried banners and posters denouncing US policies and shouted slogans such as “No King: Trump is not welcome!” and “No APEC!” They held meetings at the protest venue which were addressed by various activists from across the world.
Another protest was organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), South Korea’s largest umbrella trade union group, near Gyeongju railway station.
The central demonstrations were called by the International People’s Response Against APEC 2025. It is a coalition of over three dozen civic groups and political parties mostly belonging to the left.
Protesters condemned:
Trump’s bullying tactics towards South Korea, which compromises the country’s sovereignty and destabilizes the region
The loss of jobs due to higher tariffs imposed on the country’s exports to the US
South Korea’s increase in defense expenditure due to Trump’s coercive policies that force the country to buy more US-manufactured weapons to appease Trump and to keep the tariffs low.
Historian and director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Vijay Prashad, while addressing the protesters in Gyeongju, criticized the leaders of various countries across the world who have been acting like juveniles in front of Trump. Instead of standing against his unjust demands these leaders “are going to give up everything to Trump” without any opposition, he claimed.
However, the workers do not share their political leaders’ submissiveness and they will oppose Trump and his policies with all their power, Prashad asserted.
In a joint statement issued by the International People’s Response Against APEC 2025 in September it had called for a collective response to Trump’s policies, claiming that due to the inability of the world to collectively respond to Trump’s ruthless tariff war, countries are being forced to accept US dictates.
More protests will follow
The protests on Wednesday were in continuation of protests against Trump’s visit going on since Saturday. There were large mobilizations in Seoul earlier this week and more such protests are expected to be held in the coming days.
Trump will attend the APEC summit which is scheduled to be held on October 31 and November 1. On his arrival to South Korea on Wednesday, he held bilateral meetings with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
Despite the protests and demands for Korean sovereignty, President Lee, during his meeting with Trump declared that South Korea “will work to further increase” its “defense spending to help reduce the US defense burden.”
Ever since the Korean war in the 1950s, thousands of US soldiers have been stationed in South Korea. Though a very close ally, Trump imposed a 25% tariff against South Korean exports to the US earlier this year. Their bilateral trade deal, which is expected to resolve the tariff issue, is yet to be finalized.
It is reported that the US is pushing for South Korea to invest 350 billion US dollars in the country and buy more US weapons before the trade deal is finalized.
Trump is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on imports from China if it refuses to loosen its newly installed restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals earlier this month. The summit with Xi, if it happens, is expected to find a resolution to this new phase of the trade war against China.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/10/29/ ... -policies/
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They may not be BBFs anymore, nonetheless:
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court looks ready to STRIKE DOWN President Trump’s emergency tariff powers.
