Oops, I did it again

 Read: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/30/trump-administration-deports-fourth-immigrant-court-order-violation-00378173

A court halted his deportation. The Trump administration deported him 28 minutes later.  Officials blamed “administrative errors.” It’s the fourth known case of an improper deportation by the Trump administration.

Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, had been in immigration detention since 2022 while deportation proceedings against him were pending. But on May 7, shortly after a federal appeals court ordered the government to keep him in the United States, immigration authorities deported him back to his native country.

On the morning of May 7, a three-judge panel of the court ordered the government to keep Melgar-Salmeron in the United States while he pursued claims about fear of torture in his home country.  Despite the court’s order, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at a staging facility in Louisiana loaded Melgar-Salmeron onto a plane and deported him to El Salvador. The flight departed at 10:20 a.m. — 28 minutes after the court’s order. Melgar-Salmeron is now in a Salvadoran prison, Borowski says.

(Channeling my inner Stephen Miller) Oops, my bad, nothing we can do it about now, El Salvador is a sovereign country.  Bye, bye, bye.

The 18 Day Diet

 The 18-day diet was invented in Hollywood in 1929 for actress Ethel Barrymore.  It provides about 500 calories per day.  Here is the menu for the first 3 days (source):

Day One Breakfast: ½ grapefruit, melba toast, coffee

Lunch: ½ grapefruit, 1 egg, 6 slices of cucumber, 1 slice of melba toast, tea or coffee

Dinner: 2 eggs, 1 tomato, ½ head lettuce, ½ grapefruit, coffee

Day Two Breakfast: ½ grapefruit, melba toast, coffee

Lunch: 1 egg, lettuce, 1 slice melba toast, tea

Dinner: Broiled steak (plain), ½ lettuce, 1 tomato, ½ grapefruit, tea or coffee

Day Three Breakfast: ½ grapefruit, melba toast, coffee

Lunch: ½ grapefruit, 1 egg, lettuce, 8 slices cucumber, tea or coffee

Dinner: 1 lamb chop, 1 egg, 3 radishes, 2 olives, ½ grapefruit, lettuce, tea or coffee

I think it would be hard to follow exactly, but you could modify it slightly.  Melba toast is just prepackaged dry toast.  Bimbo sells something similar called "Pan Tostado" aimed at the Spanish-speaking market, which is probably the closest.

The Egg and Wine Diet

 The Egg and Wine Diet was promoted by Helen Gurley Brown (the editor of Cosmopolitan) in 1962 and is so infamous that it has its own Wikipedia page.  You eat only eggs and steak and drink a bottle of wine per day for three days and lose 5 pounds. I think there is some logic to it which I will explain.  First, realize that it is a short term diet lasting only three days so it is a fad diet, but won't cause any permanent harm.  I would add grapefruit to it.  The basic theory (unstated in the articles) is that it will mess with your gut and stomach (and brain) a little  so you won't be hungry.  And if you aren't hungry, you won't eat and you will lose weight.  I think it would work.  

To be updated later.

See also: https://www.healthline.com/health/grapefruit-diet

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/bizarre-vogue-diet-from-1970s-recommends-eating-eggs-and-wine

https://www.stronghealth.com/drinking-mans-diet/

https://web.archive.org/web/20180816104416/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/08/the-crazy-wine-and-eggs-diet-from-the-1970s-you-have-to-see-to-believe.html

https://www.vice.com/en/article/i-lived-on-eggs-and-wine-for-three-days-to-make-myself-beautiful/

See also: https://aftermath2022.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-drinking-mans-diet.html

Doug Wilson

I have never heard of Doug Wilson before, but apparently he is a really scary dude pushing something called "Dominion Theology", following in the footsteps of the late R.J. Rushdoony.  I found his blog at Blog & Mablog (https://dougwils.com/), which looks pretty boring to me but I just glanced at it.  On the Wikipedia page for Dominion Theology, Doug Wilson isn't even mentioned. I think the folks at Alternet are just having fun inventing conspiracy theories.

 ==============================

Here is another article about Doug Wilson: 

https://julieroys.com/with-new-campus-pastor-doug-wilsons-christian-valhalla-grows-in-idaho/

It doesn’t hurt that [Doug] Wilson’s influence extends far beyond Moscow [Idaho]. He has been featured on conservative talk shows, including Tucker Carlson’s. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a church in Wilson’s denomination and has praised Wilson’s writings. In July, Wilson will open a new congregation in Washington, D.C., aimed at ”strategic opportunities with numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump administration.”

=========================

Here is an article about Tucker Carlson interviewing Douglas Wilson in April 2024:

https://churchleaders.com/news/476229-douglas-wilson-tucker-carlson-christian-nationalism.html

Teasing the interview on social media, Carlson posted, “Pastor Doug Wilson is the Christian nationalist they warned you about.” Wilson is controversial due to his views on race, his church’s desire to make Moscow a “Christian town,” his expression of complementarianism, and how Christ Church has handled previous sexual abuse allegations. The 70-year-old pastor’s books include “Mere Christendom,” “Reforming Marriage,” and “Southern Slavery: As It Was.”

The full interview is here: https://tuckercarlson.com/the-tucker-carlson-encounter-doug-wilson  and you have to subscribe to TuckerCarlson.com for $6 per month to see it.

Reminiscing

Lyrics:

Friday night it was late 
I was walking you home 
we got down to the gate
And I was dreaming of the night
Would it turn out right?
How to tell you girl...
I wanna build my world around you...
Tell you that it's true
I wanna make you understand 
I'm talking about a lifetime plan...

That's the way it began 
we were hand in hand
Glenn Miller's band 
was better than before
We yelled and screamed for more
And the Porter tune ("Night and Day")
Made us dance across the room
It ended all too soon
On the way back home 
I promised you'd never be alone...

Hurry don't be late
I can hardly wait 
I said to myself when we're old
We'll go dancing in the dark
Walking through the park 
and reminiscing

Friday night it was late 
I was walking you home 
we got down to the gate
And I was dreaming of the night
Would it turn out right?
Now as the years roll on...
Each time we hear our favorite song
The memories come along
Older times we're missing 
spending the hours reminiscing...

Hurry don't be late
I can hardly wait 
I said to myself when we're old
We'll go dancing in the dark
Walking through the park 
and reminiscing

The US has never defaulted on its debt — except the four times it did

 For reference: https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/575722-the-us-has-never-defaulted-on-its-debt-except-the-four-times-it-did/

 “As much as I deplore this refusal to fulfill the solemn  promise of bonds of the United States,” wrote Justice Harlan Stone, a member of the majority, “the government, through exercise of its sovereign power…has rendered itself immune from liability,” demonstrating the classic risk of lending to a sovereign.

The Treasury could decide to create a new currency (or cryptocurrency) and then pay back its debts in the new currency.

That is what it did in the four times referred to in the article:

1. issue "greenbacks" in place of "demand notes" in 1862

2. issue paper currency in place of gold coins in 1933

3. issue federal reserve notes in place of silver certificates in 1968

4. break the US commitment to redeem dollars held by foreign governments for gold (under the Bretton Woods Agreement) and give them non-convertible federal reserve notes in 1971

Don't worry about the Big Beautiful Bill increasing the deficit

 Read: https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/05/20/carney-why-im-not-concerned-the-big-beautiful-bill-could-raise-the-debt/

I didn't watch the video but it would be worth watching.

Carney stated that the total amount of debt isn’t the issue, it’s the interest rate on it that creates pressure and causes long-term issues.  He added that even if tax cuts decrease revenue, they won’t cause interest rates to increase and that’s what we’ve seen over the past forty years where, even as the debt and deficit increased, interest rates didn’t until they were recently increased to deal with inflation.

I think he is correct.  This doesn't seem to make logical sense, but primary deficits don't matter, whether they are caused by tax cuts or by increasing spending.  What matters is the interest paid, which is correlated to interest rates.  And the Fed has proven that they have total control over interest rates, at least in the short run.  The Fed could cut rates if they want to, but they don't want to because their constituents, the uber-wealthy, like the free money, and also the Fed doesn't like the current president so they are trying to stick it to him.  They will cut rates only if forced to do so.  Which in turn incentivizes the president to say and do crazy stuff, even to intentionally cause a recession, to force the Fed to cooperate.  

Peace talk fiasco

 I find this hilarious.  The Ukrainians and Russians agreed to meet in Turkey but didn't specify which city.

While Zelenskiy waited in vain for Putin in Ankara, the Russian negotiating team sat in Istanbul with no one to talk to on the Ukrainian side. Some 200 reporters milled around near the Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus that the Russians had specified as the talks venue.  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-trump-skip-ukraines-peace-talks-that-russian-leader-proposed-2025-05-14/

Meanwhile, they exchange insults.  Zelensky called the Russian delegation "theatrical" and a "laughing stock", while the Russians called Zelensky a "pathetic man", a "clown" and a "loser".  Russia mocks Zelensky over Putin no-show: "Pathetic loser"   Not a good sign.

$2 Trillion annual interest expense by 2034

 Read: https://www.crfb.org/blogs/adding-house-reconciliation-bill

As a result of these deficit increases, total yearly deficits would rise dramatically – from $1.8 trillion in 2024 to $2.9 trillion by 2034 under the bill and $3.3 trillion under a permanent version of the bill. As a share of GDP, yearly deficits would rise to 6.9 percent – or 7.8 percent if the bill were extended permanently. 

Interest costs alone would make up a large share of that borrowing. Interest costs would double from nearly $900 billion in 2024 to $1.8 trillion (4.2 percent of GDP) by 2034 under the reconciliation package as written, or to $1.9 trillion (4.4 percent of GDP) if temporary provisions are made permanent. Including dynamic effects – where higher debt boosts interest rates – interest costs would likely exceed $2 trillion per year.

Comment: This article is very confusing to read because it refers to both the House and Senate versions of the bill and then has both "As Written" and "If Made Permanent" numbers.  Still $2 trillion per year just in interest doesn't sound good, and we will be there in just 9 years from now.  For reference, in 2024, the net interest was $950 billion, so it will more than double in 10 years.

ISO 20022 for Dummies

 I just downloaded this for free - available from https://www.swift.com/swift-resource/184556/download .  ISO 20022 is the language that banks use on the SWIFT network.  The book doesn't actually go into the details, instead it is just an introduction.  ISO 20022 is - surprise - an XML format.  See also https://www.iso20022.org/ .

Anacyclosis

 The Greek historian Polybius was one of the first to document the cycle of civilisational birth and death via a process he termed “anacyclosis.”  Nor was this a purely academic exercise.  Born in 198BC, Polybius had witnessed first hand the triumph of a powerful Roman Republic over the city states of ancient Greece… Polybius himself taken to Rome as a hostage (although enjoying considerable freedom to observe the mechanics of the Roman system and even to accompany armies on their campaigns).  This allowed Polybius to claim that the Romans had discovered the secret sauce which prevented their decline and fall (although if he had lived a few decades longer he would have witnessed the corruption and conflict which caused the Romans to morph from a republic to an empire).

Polybius’s cycle comes in seven stages.  First, is a kind of distressed primitive anarchy in which nobody is in charge.  But sooner or later, in stage two, a warlord emerges to impose order, ushering in a monarchy.  Monarchy – particularly where it is heredity – gradually descends into stage three, tyranny, until such times as even the elites become fed up, and usher in stage four – aristocracy.  Aristocrats though, tend to become self-interested over time, leading to stage five – oligarchy.  Eventually, oligarchy is overthrown by a popular uprising which ushers in stage six – democracy.  But democracy is susceptible to corruption and grift, with representatives making false promises while imposing increased taxes at every opportunity.  Until ultimately – stage seven – the civilisation descends into chaos and a dark age ensues.

The Roman Republic appeared to have overcome this cycle by balancing the three positives – monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy in a way which prevented any one of the three negatives – tyranny, oligarchy, and anarchy – from breaking out.  And it is worth noting that both the British and the American empires in the modern era adopted similar checks and balances – Britain having an actual king (monarchy) a house of Lords (aristocracy) and a house of commons (democracy).  America a pseudo, presidential king (monarchy) a judiciary (aristocracy) and a congress (democracy).  But note also that over time both systems have been pushed remorselessly in the direction of democracy even as democracy has become ever more venal.  https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2025/05/03/the-world-ended-in-1999/

A portrait of JD Vance

 Read: https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trumps-trump-card-the-dangerous-ideology-of-u-s-vice-president-jd-vance-a-745736df-8c02-4ef0-b166-f51f31d48d82

This is interesting but I don't have time to read it.  Excerpt: "When FDR died shortly before the end of World War II, Vice President Harry Truman took over, who, in [Curtis] Yarvin’s narrative, wasn’t even close to having the ability to keep all the influence FDR had wielded inside the White House. This was the moment, according to Yarvin’s theory, that the power shift took place that continues to the present day – one in which a bureaucracy holds sway over Washington, no matter who happens to be sitting in the Oval Office. It was the moment that the "Deep State,” as Trump and Vance refer to it, was born."