Our Middle East Allies Are Growing Frustrated With Trump

 

U.S. Public Opposes Giving Electric Gloves To Immigration Agents

The chart abbe reflects the results of the YouGov Poll -- done on August 14th of a nationwide sample of 6,727 adults. 

Doctor Of Snake Oil

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in The Seattle Times.
 

Trump Has Lost His Grasp On Reality And Is Dangerously Delusional

This post is from Robert Reich:

Trump claimed this past week that his job approval ratings are “fabulous” — they’re “above 60%.”

He also asserted that the United States is enjoying “the greatest economy we’ve ever had.” 

And that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz. “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

 

Trump’s braggadocio doesn’t just mask his failures. His statements wildly contradict the calamities he’s created for America and the world. 

To be sure, since he first entered American politics, we’ve been shocked and outraged by his lack of morality, scruple, or shame. It’s been difficult to conceive of such a person because we’ve always been taught to distinguish right from wrong and to do the right thing. Yet Trump has no conception of right and wrong. He isn’t unethical. He’s non-ethical. He isn’t immoral. He’s amoral.

But his latest fabrications are so contrary to the realities of his monumental failures — his losing war with Iran, the near-collapsing U.S. economy, and his underwater approval ratings — that they’re not merely non-ethical or amoral. How can they be explained?

 

One possibility is his conman brain still firmly believes the public will go along with whatever he says and thinks he can manufacture success even when he’s going down the toilet.

 

But this can’t explain the extreme dissonance; he reads the same polls everyone else reads, and he knows the public isn’t buying.

 

Another possibility is that the sycophants surrounding him are telling him he’s wildly successful and don’t want to inform him of the depths of his failures for fear of his reaction.

 

Yet he constantly watches television, and even the networks he favors — such as Fox News — have lately been broadcasting his cataclysmic failures.

 

So what’s really going on? How can his assessments be so utterly unhinged from the enormity of his defeats?

The only possible explanation is that he’s finally lost his grasp on reality. He’s dangerously delusional. Trump is losing his mind. 

It’s hard for most of us to take in the full import of this. Even those of us who detest him find it difficult to accept the seriousness of his dementia because we think of him as loathsome rather than oblivious.

 

We’ve spent so many years seething that no one has held him accountable for all the awful things he’s done that we’re disoriented by the possibility he’s now unaware. We don’t want to let him off the moral hook by reason of insanity. Yet what moral compass do we use to judge a president who is wildly and dangerously delusional?

 

This has become the wrong question. The problem is no longer Trump’s lack of ethics or his amorality. The current challenge is how to survive under a madman. 

If he is no longer responsible for what he says or does, we should move beyond shock and outrage to outright fear. He could blow the world up. We must call on our elected representatives to remove him from office via the 25th Amendment as soon as possible, by reason of insanity. 

Trump And Hegseth Have Painted Themselves Into A Corner

Political Cartoon is by Matt Wuerker at Politico.com.
 

Trump Is Living In His Own Fairy Tale World

 

U.S. Consumers Still Don't See This As A Good Economy

 

Most Voters Have A Very Unfavorable View Of The Super-Rich

 

The charts above are from the Data For Progress Poll -- done between August 1st and 3rd of a nationwide sample of 1,187 likely voters, with a 3 point margin of error.

The MAGA GOP Wants Proof

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley at Cagle.com.
 

Trump/GOP "Big Beautiful Bill" Moves The U.S. Closer To "Medicare For All"

Republicans have never liked the federal government helping Americans get health insurance. They opposed both Medicare and Medicaid during the Johnson administration. They also opposed the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) during the Obama administration.

The reason they opposed all these programs is that they don't consider health care to be a right. They consider it a product to be sold to those who can afford it. 

And they are adamantly opposed to a public option for health insurance - like a Medicare For All program. They claim that would be socialized medicine (even though conservatives in other developed democracies support their government help to get health insurance in their own countries). 

So it was not a surprise that to give the rich more tax cuts in their "Big Beautiful Bill", the Republicans cut off the help to purchase health insurance under Obamacare. This made it impossible for millions of Americans to afford to buy private insurance - and added millions of Americans to the number that don't have any kind of health insurance.

In that same bill, they also cut the number of Americans who could qualify for Medicaid (although they made sure it wouldn't start until after the Midterm elections). When this provision kicks in early next year, it will add millions more Americans to the ranks of the insured.

There was already about 10% of the U.S. population that was not covered by Obamacare, private insurance (which they could not afford), medicare, or Medicaid. The Republican cuts to Obamacare and Medicaid adds millions more. That's a significant portion of the population that has no health insurance (and therefore lacks access to proper and timely medical care).

The Republicans celebrated the cuts to health insurance, but they may soon regret that. I believe those cuts could have the unintended consequence of doing more people to accepting the idea of Medicare For All. Certainly, the millions of Americans that don't have any health insurance would love to have a public option for insurance they could afford.

And private companies have already said that insurance prices will rise again next year, which could force more people out of the insurance market.

Most working Americans are covered in health insurance provided by their employer. But that is getting more expensive also. Some employers are now expecting employees to bear some of the cost and others are giving their employees policies with very high deductibles (which the employee must pay). Other employers are dropping the insurance altogether, and just providing a stipend for the employee to buy private insurance. 

It won't be long before employers realize that paying a tax for government health cares much cheaper than trying to provide private insurance.

That all means the time is now ripe for a Medicare For All program - or at least a viable public option for those who cannot afford private insurance. And the Republican BBB cuts are helping to push the country toward that (even though that is not what they intended).

Communists?

Political Cartoon is by Mike Stanfill at Ragingpencils.com.
 

Trump Is Deporting Family Members Of U.S. Military And Veterans

 

Trump's Affordability Lie Won't Work - People Have Receipts

 

A Worthy Replacement For Leavitt

Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.substack.com.