Friday, February 28, 2025
Americans (Including Republicans) Say NO To A Trump Holiday
About 242,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed about 242,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on February 22nd. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending February 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 242,000, an increase of 22,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 219,000 to 220,000. The 4-week moving average was 224,000, an increase of 8,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 215,250 to 215,500.
House GOP Is Ready To Take Healthcare From The Poor To Give More To The Rich
We have been expecting it, but the House has now taken the first steps to an insane budget. They approved (on a party line vote) a proposal to give tax cuts to the rich - and they would partially pay for that by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid.
It just shows they are not listening to the people who elected them.
Poll after poll has shown that huge majorities of Americans (including a small majority of Republicans) don't think the rich need a tax cut. They actually think the rich are not taxed enough! But while the public won't like more tax cuts for the rich, it is the cuts to Medicaid that will cause the most blowback.
Republican officials (and too many in their base) seem to think that Medicaid only goes to nonwhites in the large cities - and since those cities tend to vote blue, they won't be hurt. But they are going to find out that is simply not true.
Medicaid is badly needed by ALL of the poor - including whites and those living in rural areas. And losing Medicaid would not only hurt the rural poor - it would hurt everyone living in rural areas. That's because rural hospitals need it to stay in business.
Many rural hospitals have closed, and many more are in danger of closing. They are barely covering their costs. Losing the money they get from Medicaid patients would push them over the line, and they would have to close. It would mean rural patients would have to go to the nearest city if they needed hospital care, and that could be hundreds of miles from some rural areas.
This wouldn't just hurt the rural poor. It would hurt everyone living in a rural area - even those with private insurance or plenty of resources.
Rural voters voted for Republicans because they thought it would make their lives better. Congressional Republicans are now showing them they were wrong. Cutting Medicaid to give tax cuts to the rich is just putting a knife in the back of Rural people
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Voters Oppose More Tax Cuts For The Rich And Corporations
The chart above is from a Hart Research Poll -- done between February 12th and 16th of a nationwide sample of 1,011 U.S. voters.
Most Oppose Trump's Plan For U.S. Expansion (Especially By Force)
The GOP Has Abandoned Its Long-Held Principles For Trump
I miss the Republican Party. It no longer exists. It has been replaced by a cult that does not believe in compromise - only achieving and retaining power.
I remember when the Republican Party had bedrock values. Regardless of the leader or the election, they believed in three basic things - spreading and defending democracy around the world, supporting law and order in this country, and a free enterprise system (both internally and globally).
While I disagreed with the GOP on many things (helping the poor and disadvantaged, assuring all citizens could get medical care, Social Security, labor unions, raising the minimum wage, etc.), I understood their bedrock values. While we might disagree on how to achieve them, it's hard to argue with a strong business community, the rule of law, and the preservation of democracy.
Sadly, the Republican Party has abandoned all three of those principles. They no longer beige in free trade, but are now a tariff party. They no longer defend the rule of law, but have allowed the DOJ to become a vehicle for retribution. They no longer want to defend other democracies, but have turned against Ukraine and our friends in Europe.
Why have they abandoned these principles that served them well of decades? Fear! They are afraid of their own party's leader - Donald Trump. Instead of standing up for their principles, they have bowed to Trump so they can keep their cushy government jobs.
That is sad. Whether on the right or the left, politicians should stand up for their beliefs - even when it could cost them their jobs. Voters deserve no less.
I hope the Republican Party comes to its senses after Trump. A loyal opposition is needed.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Voters Don't Like The Amount Of Influence Musk Has On Trump
The Essence Of Tyranny
The following is a small part of a post by Robert Reich:
What is occurring now in the United States has very little to do with making the government more “efficient,” or rooting out “incompetence," or “depoliticizing” parts of government that should be nonpartisan.
Nor is it motivated chiefly by Trump’s desire get rid of “D.E.I.” and “woke,” or “weaponize” law enforcement, or establish white Christian nationalism, or wreak vengeance on his enemies.
The real story is this.
In every part of the government that involves the use of force — the military, the investigation and prosecution of crimes, the authority to arrest, the capacity to hold individuals in jail — Trump is putting into power people who are more loyal to him than they are to the United States.
He has purged (or is in the process of purging) at the highest levels of the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Inspectors General, and the FBI, anyone who is not personally loyal to him.
Trump is rapidly gaining a personal monopoly on the use of force. This is his most fundamental goal. This is the essence of tyranny.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Most Americans View Elon Musk Unfavorably
Can Trump's Lawless And Unconstitutional Actions Be Stopped?
Their purpose:
An agency inspector general (IG) acts as an independent watchdog within a government agency, primarily tasked with conducting audits, investigations, and inspections to identify and prevent fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement within the agency's operations.
So these are the people who police the agencies - the ones who make sure the agencies obey the law and carry out their function as Congress intended. The only reason for the mass firing on these individuals is to prevent them from doing their jobs.
Trump claims to be trying to get rid of waste and fraud. If that was true, it would make no sense to fire the people trying to root out that waste and fraud. The only thing that makes sense is that in his effort to seize more power, Trump doesn't want these Inspector Generals calling attention to laws he is breaking (or instructing agencies to break).
It is doubtful that Trump really had the authority to fire the Inspector Generals. It is just another example of his lawless actions since returning to office. But it does clear the way for other future lawless actions.
We probably should have expected that a convicted criminal, once getting into public office, would continue his criminal behavior - and get rid of any officials who could possibly stop him. Sadly, too many voters were not smart enough to see that.
Who can stop Trump's lawless rampage? It won't be Congress. Both houses are controlled by the Republican Party. Many are card-carrying members of Trump's cult, and the rest are too scared of being voted out of their cushy job in a party primary.
It won't be voters. Even though voters are starting to wake up and turn against what Trump is doing, we are a year and a half from the next election. Trump can do a lot of damage in a year and a half.
That leaves the Supreme Court. They have the power to stop Trump, but will they?
One would think that a true conservative majority on the Court would act to save the Constitution and its separation of powers. After all, they claim to be "originalists", who believe in the Constitution as written by the Founding Fathers.
But they are also the ones who gave Trump immunity in official actions. Will they follow their flawed immunity policy, or will they uphold the powers enumerated in the Constitution? I hope it will be the latter, but who can know right now.
They are our last and best hope to save our constitutional form of government. If they bow down to Trump, as Congress has, then our democracy is doomed.
Monday, February 24, 2025
Public Wants Equality For All (But Knows It Doesn't Exist Right Now)
The charts above are from a YouGov Poll -- done between February 5th and 8th of a nationwide sample of 1,131 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
U.S. Public Disagrees With Trump On Russia And Ukraine
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Most Are Generally Pessimistic About The Rest Of Trump's 2nd Term
Trump And Musk Are Making Government Services Much Harder To Access
The size of the civilian federal government workforce is about 2.4 million workers (and is the largest employer in the country). That sounds like a lot, but it is only about 0.007% of the U,S. population.
And that 0.007% of the population provide valuable services for this country. They enforce our laws, provide support to our military, protect our environment, oversee health services for millions, give critical help to the poverty stricken, help students access a college education, provide income for seniors, and many other tasks.
One of the most important tasks is to communicate with citizens trying to access government services.
They are already stretched thin in providing this service. Citizens needing help can wait many hours or days to actually talk to a government employee who can help them. Sadly, it is going to get much worse.
Donald Trump has authorized Elon Musk to take a chainsaw to the federal workforce. And he is slashing the number of employees in agency after agency - without taking into account whether those employees are needed or not. For instance, they cut the employees who oversaw our nuclear weapons and the employees trying to control the growing bird flu problem (and are now trying to find and rehire them).
The same heavy hand is being used to trim the workforce in other agencies - including those citizens need to access help from the government (income taxes, veterans affairs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.).
It will soon be near impossible for citizens to access a federal employee who can help them - and that will be true of citizens in both red and blue states.
Currently, right-wingers are celebrating the Trump/Musk actions. That will change when they (or their family and friends) need government help and can't get it.
Thousands of people are being cut from an already stretched thin workforce. Soon the government will be unable to service its citizens adequately - and the blame will rest solely with Donald Trump and his sycophants.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
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