Sunday, August 31, 2025
Appeals Court Rules Most Trump Tariffs Are Illegal
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. D.C. has ruled that most Trump tariffs are illegal. Economist Paul Krugman explains:
An appeals court, backing up the Court of International Trade, has just ruled the majority of Trump’s tariffs illegal. We kind of knew this was coming, but the reality still comes as a shock.
It’s important to be clear what just happened. The court didn’t say that tariffs per se are illegal. It said that the procedure Trump used to impose tariffs — declaring an economic emergency, then setting tariff rates without so much as consulting Congress, let alone passing legislation — is illegal. If Trump wants to pass a tariff bill, the same way he passed his One Big Beautiful Bill, OK. (I mean, terrible policy, but legal.)
But just saying “I am the Tariff Man, and here are my tariffs” isn’t OK.
True, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act gives the president substantial room to set tariffs during an, um, economic emergency. But Trump himself keeps saying that the economy is in wonderful shape, booming without inflation, and any claims to the contrary are fake news. So how can things both be terrific and an emergency calling for drastic action?
I have no idea what happens next. The Supreme Court is utterly craven, and may well rule that Trump gets to do whatever he wants. But maybe even they will balk.
One crucial thing to understand is that Trump is facing a completely self-inflicted disaster here. He probably could have gotten Republicans in Congress to vote for insane trade policy. But he was impatient, and wanted to start ruling as a dictator right away.
I see that Scott Bessent is saying that ruling that Trump’s illegal tariffs are, in fact, illegal will embarrass the United States. I’m not a lawyer, but last I heard you weren’t allowed to act illegally if obeying the law would be embarrassing. Anyway, let’s be clear: It won’t embarrass America. It will embarrass Trump and Bessent. If anything, it might reassure the rest of the world that some vestige of rule of law yet remains in this nation.
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Voters Oppose About Everything Trump Is Doing
The charts above reflects the results of the Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between August 21st and 25th of a nationwide sample of 1,220 registered voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.
41% Of Parents Worry About Their Child's Safety At School
The chart above is from the Gallup Poll -- done between August 1st and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,094 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
The Rational Way To Fix Social Security Funding
Sadly, Social Security has a funding problem. In about 10 years, the Social Security Trust Fund will not have enough money to fully pay the benefit earned by retired workers. It will only be able to pay about 80% of what workers now receive.
This must be fixed. Retirees deserve their full benefit checks - especially the millions who rely exclusively on their Social Security check to live.
Republicans would have you believe the retirement age must be raised or benefits cut to fix the funding problem. That is unacceptable. Those doing physical labor for a living cannot wait extra years to retire. And those receiving minimal checks cannot afford to have their benefits cut.
There is another solution - one that does not require cutting benefits or raising the retirement age.
Consider the following.
A worker making $176,100 a year or less pays 6.2% of their income into the Social Security Trust Fund.
Someone making $500,000 a year pays only 2.18% of their income.
Someone making $1,000,000 a year pays only 1.09% of their income.
And someone making $1,000,000,000 a year pays only 0.00001% of their income.
Does that seem fair? Of course not!
Raising the cap on taxable income paid into the Social Security Trust Fund to $250,000 would fully fund Social Security for decades. And eliminating the cap completely would fully fund Social Security in perpetuity.
Raising the cap on income is the rational and common sense way to fix Social Security funding. It would not hurt anyone receiving current benefits or punish laborers who need to retire at the current age - and it would not hurt anyone making less than $176,100 a year. It would just mean the wealthy would pay a little more (although still probably a smaller percentage that the working class and most of the middle class pay).
But this can't happen as long as Republicans control our government. They are the party of the rich, and would rather protect the rich while punishing workers. Remember that when you next go to vote!
Friday, August 29, 2025
Americans Are Pessimistic About A Fair Peace Deal Being Done In Russia-Ukraine War
The charts above are from the Gallup Poll -- done between August 1st and 15th of a nationwide sample of 2,132 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
About 229,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed about 229,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on August 23rd. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending August 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 229,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 235,000 to 234,000. The 4-week moving average was 228,500, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 226,250 to 226,000.
The United States Still Averages More Than One Mass Shooting For Every Day
Another mass shootings is making headlines in the United States. The latest one is in Minnesota, where a lone gunman killed two children (ages 8 and 10) and wounded 14 more children and 3 adults. The victims were in a church having a mass before school started.
It has become obvious that there is no place safe from gun violence in the United States. Mass shootings have occurred in schools, churches, stores, work places, night clubs and bars, concerts, on streets, etc. And there is no state which is safe from them. They can (and do) occur anywhere at any time.
The right will claim (as they usually do) that the shooter had mental problems. That may be true. But all developed nations have citizens with mental problems, and none of them have the amount of mass shootings (and general gun violence that the United States has. Why? Because they have sensible gun laws and restrictions. They don't allow dangerous people to easily buy and possess guns.
Not all mass shootings make headlines in the national media as this latest shooting did. Note in the chart above that, while mass shootings are down slightly this year, the United States still has an average of more than one mass shooting for every day. That is inexcusable!
We know that some sensible gun laws could drastically reduce the number of mass shootings and gun deaths in this country. One example is having a strict background check law. No person should be able to buy a gun (of any kind) or receive one as a gift without first passing a background check. That check should deny a gun to anyone with a criminal record (including domestic abuse), anyone on a terrorist watch list, or anyone with a mental illness that has been deemed to be dangerous.
This would not deny any law-abiding citizen the right to purchase and own a firearm, and it is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans (including gun owners). Sadly, Republican officials won't agree to it. They think guns should have more rights than innocent children and adults. I don't understand why, but they want to protect the right of dangerous people to legally buy any kind of gun they want.
This won't change as long as Republicans have enough clout in government to prevent sensible (and constitutional) gun laws. If you think enough innocent people have been massacred on the alter of gun worship, then think before you vote. Don't vote for any politician (of any party) that doesn't support sensible gun laws.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Voters Still Disapprove Of The Job Trump Is Doing
The charts above reflect the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between August 22nd and 25th of a nationwide sample of 1,377 registered voters, with a 3.1 point margin of error.
Voters Prefer Democrats On Education Issues
Trump Has Turned The United States Into A Fascist Country
The following is part of a post by Garrett Graff at Doomsday Scenario:
The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism. In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen here. The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed.
I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different.
Today, August 25, 2025, is that morning. Something is materially different in our country this week than last.
Everything else from here on out is just a matter of degree and wondering how bad it will get and how far it will go? Do we end up “merely” like Hungary or do we go all the way toward an “American Reich”? So far, after years of studying World War II, I fear that America’s trajectory feels more like Berlin circa 1933 than it does Budapest circa 2015. . . .
American fascism looks like the president using armed military units from governors loyal to his regime to seize cities run by opposition political figures and it looks like the president using federal law enforcement to target regime opponents.
American fascism looks like the would-be self-proclaimed king deploying the military on US soil not only not in response to requests by local or state officials but over — and almost specifically to spite — their vociferous objections. . . .
Civilians who try lawfully to exercise their right to document the abuses of the regime are themselves arrested and charged with felonies through trumped-up charges teeming with official lies. The fact that this military takeover and federal occupation is being done to the city’s residents — and not on their behalf — is evident in how deserted DC has become as residents refuse to enter public spaces where they might have to interact with agents of the state.
America has become a country where armed officers of the state shout “Papers please!” on the street at men and women heading home from work, a vision we associate with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or the KGB in Soviet Russia, and where masked men wrestle to the ground and abduct people without due process into unmarked vehicles, disappearing them into an opaque system where their family members beg for information.
It looks like a president, who is supposed to be the figurehead of the party of small government, is extorting US companies for the regular act of doing business — earning his good will in recent weeks has required seizing parts of major US companies or imposing bizarre taxes on others in exchange for his personal support.
It looks like a country where our largest and most powerful corporate titans line up to pay tribute personally — delivering literal gold to the president in full view of cameras — and where foreign governments bribe him with largesse as gross as a 747 plane for his personal use after he leaves office, and where media companies have to censor their own staffs in order to be allowed to operate.
It looks like a country where inconvenient figures are kidnapped and disappearedoverseas to torture gulags with no due process or dumped in countries where they have no possible connection. Kilmar Albrego Garcia has been punished for months with the full weight of the US government simply because he embarrassed the Trump administration. It looks like a country where the government, devoid of irony, is reopening concentration camps on the site of some of the country’s darkest hours of history where it previously hosted concentration camps.
It looks like a government where agency by department, people who try to uphold the rule of law are being purged — sometimes for nothing more than personal friendships or because they voiced an inconvenient fact, and where even the loyalists deemed insufficiently loyal are cashiered. Billy Long, the stunningly unqualified former cattle auctioneer placed in charge of the IRS, evidently was removed after he tried to uphold the most basic legal requirementsfor sharing taxpayer data.
It looks like a country where Trump assumes he can control and dictate our history, what books we read, our arts, and even our sports heroes. He assumes there is no line between his taste and our nation. . . .
One could say that Trump has blown through the nation’s constitutional and political guardrails, but a more accurate assessment is that both Congress and the Supreme Court — who have, as I wrote earlier this spring, effectively rolled over and played dead when it comes to their constitutional duty to exert checks and balances — removed those guardrails helpfully in advance. . . .
Where America goes from here is a story yet to be written. It will surely get worse — Trump’s push now is clearly focused on locking in an illegitimate claim to power. Whether we can come back from this moment is a story yet unknown. But it’s clear today America is different and, even if we fight our way back, it will never be the same again.
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Public Trusts Jerome Powell More Than Donald Trump On The Economy
The chart above reflects the results of the YouGov Poll -- done on August 22nd of a nationwide sample of 3,374 adults.
The Six Parts Of Trump's Coalition
The Washington Post identified six parts of Donald Trump coalition. The question is whether that coalition can continue to be unified after Trump is gone. It is doubtful, since they disagree on many things.
The Israeli Government Is Turning Their Nation Into A Pariah Nation
A couple of days ago, Israel attacked a Gaza hospital full of starving children with a drone bombing. A second drone attack on that same hospital a short time later, killing rescue workers and at least four journalists, showed the attack was not a tragic mistake - it was intentional.
This follows other violations of international law by the Israeli government. For nearly three months, it refused to allow any food or medical supplies into Gaza as it continued to attack the citizens there. Then, even after inadequate food supplies were allowed to enter, Israeli soldiers fired on and killed Gaza's trying to access that food numerous times.
None of this was necessary for the defense of Israel. Israel has long ago destroyed Hamas as a fighting force. The continuing attacks on Gaza citizens now seems to have two purposes - to allow Netanyahu to stay in power and to permanently take over Gaza.
The Netanyahu government seems to think it can do whatever it wants and still retain the support of the world. They are wrong. The genocidal war crimes they are committing is turning the world against them and making their country a pariah among nations. And it is even causing them to lose support among their most reliable supporters - the people of the United States.
A recent poll showed that when asked if they supported Israel or the Palestinians, the American public was virtually equal in support for Israel and Palestine and those who said they supported both. This shows a remarkable loss of support for Israel. Traditionally, the U.S. public has overwhelmingly supported Israel over the Palestinians.
Israel is a tiny nation, and it needs the support of the world - especially the United States. It is not likely to lose the support of Donald Trump, since Netanyahu has shown the ability to play Trump as effectively as Putin has. But Trump won't be in power forever, and without the support of the American public, Israel could be in trouble when he is gone.
Israel has the right to exist, but so do the Palestinians. The world wants a two-state solution and peace in the Middle East. The Netanyahu government has squandered much of the world's good will by their actions in Gaza. It must stop the war crimes or it will soon stand alone.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
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