Monday, July 31, 2023
Most Say Trump Is A Criminal - But GOP Still Loves Him
The charts above are from the NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist Poll done between July 24th and 27th of a nationwide sample of 1,285 adults, with a 3.6 point margin of error. There were 455 Republicans with a margin of error of 6.1 points.
The New Florida Republican Dictionary (A Satire)
Aah: (exclamation) Normal thing to say when you enter the water at the beach, which is over 100 degrees.
Abolitionists: (noun) Some people in the 19th century who were inexplicably upset about a wonderful free surprise job training program. Today they want to end prisons for equally unclear reasons.
Abortion: (noun) Something that male state legislators (the foremost experts on this subject) believe no one ever wants under any circumstances, probably; decision that people beg the state to make for them and about which doctors beg for as little involvement as possible.
American history: (noun) A branch of learning that concerns a ceaseless parade of triumphs and contains nothing to feel bad about.
Barbie: (noun) Feminist demon enemy of the state.
Biden, Joe: (figure) Illegitimate president.
Black history: (entry not found)
Blacksmith: (noun) A great job and one that enslaved people might have had. Example sentence from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R): “They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”
Book ban: (noun) Effective way of making sure people never have certain sorts of ideas.
Censorship: (noun) When other people get mad about something you’ve said. Not to be confused with when you remove books from libraries or the state tells colleges what can and can’t be said in classrooms (both fine).
Child: (noun) Useful laborer with tiny hands; alternatively, someone whose reading cannot be censored enough.
Christian nationalism: (noun) Certainly constitutional; probably what the Founding Fathers would have preferred!
Classified: (adjective) The government’s way of saying a paper is especially interesting and you ought to have it in your house.
Climate change: (noun) Conspiracy by scientists to change all the thermometers, fill the air with smoke and then blame us.
Cocaine: (noun) A substance discovered in the White House; the only fit subject for news cycles.
Constitution: (noun) A document that can be interpreted only by Trump-appointed and/or Federalist Society judges. If the Constitution appears to prohibit something that you want to do, take the judge on a boat and try again.
Coral: (noun) Superfluous refuge for fish, others who have failed to adapt to life on land.
DeSantis, Ron: (figure) Governor who represents the ideal human being. Pronunciation varies.
Disney: (noun) A corporation, but not the good kind.
DOJ: (noun) Schrodinger’s legal entity that is both good and evil simultaneously, used for investigating legitimate country-shaking crimes (Hunter Biden possessing a firearm) and conducting illegal raids (Donald Trump kindly opening his home to some classified documents).
Election: (noun) Binding if Republicans win; otherwise, needs help from election officials who will figure out where the fraud was that prevented the election from reflecting the will of the people (that Republicans win).
Elector: (noun) Someone Mike Pence should or should not have accepted, depending.
Emancipation Proclamation: (noun) Classic example of government overreach.
Firearm: (noun) Wonderful, beautiful object that every person ought to have six of, except Hunter Biden.
Florida: God’s paradise on Earth; sometimes Ohio; see “The Courage to Be Free”! All parts of the country at once. Real estate here will only get more valuable.
FOX: News.
Free speech: (noun) When you shut up and I talk.
Gun violence: (noun) Simple, unalterable fact of life, like death but unlike taxes.
Immigration: (noun) When someone leaves their country of origin to seek a better life elsewhere; huge insult to the receiving country, to be prevented at all costs.
Independence Day: See Jan. 6.
Jan. 6: (noun) A day when some beautiful, beloved people took a nice, uneventful tour of the U.S. Capitol.
King Jr., Martin Luther: (figure) A man who, as far as we can discern, uttered only one famous quotation ever and it was about how actually anytime you tried to suggest that people were being treated differently based on skin color you were the real racist. Sample sentence: “Dr. King would be enraged at the existence of Black History Month.”
Liberty: (noun) My freedom to choose what you can read (see Moms for Liberty).
Moms for Liberty: (noun) Censors, but the good kind.
Nature: (noun) Something it is okay to boil, probably. Like soup.
Orca: (noun) Enemy of the state, vessels.
Orwellian: (adjective) When people are mad about a book written by Josh Hawley or another Republican, not when people try to erase slavery from history.
Pregnant (adjective): The state of being a vessel containing a Future Citizen; do not say “pregnant person”; no one who is a real person can get pregnant.
Queer: (entry not found)
Refugee: (noun) Someone who should have stayed put and waited for help to come.
Slavery: (noun) We didn’t invent it, or it wasn’t that bad, or it was a free job training program.
Supreme Court: (noun) Wonderful group of mostly men without whom no journey by private plane or yacht is complete.
Trans: (entry not found)
United States: (noun) Perfect place, no notes.
Unfree: (adjective) The best way for thought and people to be.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Biden Currently Enjoys A Lead Over Trump
Belief In Religious (Spiritual) Entities Is Dropping
These charts are from a Gallup Poll -- done between May 1st and 24th of a nationwide sample of 1,011 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
With The Economy Booming, It's Time To Solve Problems
From the editorial board of The Washington Post:
For the first time in a while, the nation — and its policymakers — can step out of crisis mode. This is an ideal moment for President Biden and Congress not just to take a victory lap but also to start tackling the United States’ long-running challenges.
The surprises keep coming for the U.S. economy — and nearly all have been worth cheering lately. Growth was better than expected this spring. Inflation is cooling off faster than anticipated. Unemployment remains near half-century lows. Optimism is picking up. Consumer spending remains solid. Wages are now rising faster than inflation. UPS workers are not going to strike after the company gave them a large raise. The stock market is near all-time highs. Wall Street banks no longer predictan imminent recession. Business investment is picking up. Even housingappears to be turning around. The nation might be able to achieve what many experts deemed impossible: bringing down inflation without triggering mass layoffs and a downturn.
Mr. Biden is eager to take credit for this Goldilocks economy. The latest data show government investments in infrastructure and manufacturingare helping, but they are modest so far in a $25 trillion economy. The Federal Reserve’s aggressive battle against inflation has played a bigger role. But the largest factor of all appears to be an economy returning to normal after three years of turmoil. Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell used the words “normal” or “normalization” nine times in his news conference Wednesday to characterize everything from supply chains to the job market.
Americans are starting to notice the improvement. Sentiment has jumped in recent weeks. People are finally putting the pandemic behind them and allowing themselves to embrace fun and optimism again. This is the summer of Taylor Swift, friendship bracelets, European vacations and “Barbie” movie laughs. It’s a comeback era.
It’s especially pronounced how much the United States bounced back vs. the rest of the world. China’s economy is sluggish, Germany’s is barely out of a recession, and Britain still has inflation near 8 percent. In the United States, the comeback has been so strong that growth is nearly back to its pre-pandemic trend. It’s a similar story for middle-class wages, which are close to the pre-pandemic trend even after adjusting for the recent inflation shock.
That doesn’t mean the country lacks problems. Lower-income households still feel higher costs, a reminder that the inflation battle isn’t over. Owning a home remains out of reach for many, and credit card debt is at a record high. Beyond economics, the ongoing GOP assaults on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and basic facts about slavery are another reminder of how far from normal some aspects of life remain.
Even so, the country’s late good fortune offers its leaders an opportunity to take a breath and address some long-term national problems. At the top of the list are the $32 trillion national debt and immigration. Addressing these would set up the United States for stronger growth in coming decades. It would also prove to the world that American leaders are still capable of fixing tough problems.
Social Security won’t be able to pay full benefits as early as 2034. Simple changes now — mainly increasing taxes on the wealthy and slowing their benefit growth — would save the program for all, especially the lower- and middle-class Americans who really need it. We spelled out other ways to stabilize debt over the next decade — a mix of careful spending trims and tax modifications — in a recent series. Failure to act would mean the U.S. government would spend a growing amount on interest costs, reducing the government’s and the private sector’s ability to make investments in the future.
Meanwhile, immigration has been a top issue for 20 years. As baby boomers retire, the United States needs more workers. There has been an encouraging uptick in people entering the labor force again, especially women of color, but more workers are needed. The United States is in a global war for talent. Mr. Biden’s plans to build more factories at home are already being delayed citing a shortage of skilled construction workers. Congress is overdue for a major upgrade to immigration policies. In the meantime, Mr. Biden is right to utilize every power he has to let in more legal immigrants through asylum and parole.
The country has seen a remarkable economic comeback. Now it’s time to aim higher.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Most Americans Support Striking Writers And Actors
The chart above is from a survey done by the Economist / YouGov Poll between July 22nd and 25th of a nationwide sample of 1,500 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.
Trump's Attempted Coverup Is Probably His Stupidest Crime
If the allegations in the latest indictment of Donald Trump hold up, the former president is a common criminal — and an uncommonly stupid one.
Everyone knows, as the Watergate scandal drove home: The coverup is always worse than the crime. Everyone, that is, but Trump.
According to the superseding indictment handed up late Thursday, even after Trump knew the FBI was onto his improper retention of classified information, and even after he knew they were seeking security camera footage from the Mar-a-Lago storage areas where the material was kept — in other words, when any reasonably adept criminal would have known to stop digging holes — Trump made matters infinitely worse.
The alleged conduct — yes, even after all these years of watching Trump flagrantly flout norms — is nothing short of jaw-dropping: Trump allegedly conspired with others to destroy evidence.
As set out in the indictment’s relentlessly damning timeline, Trump enlisted his personal aide, Waltine Nauta, and a Mar-a-Lago worker, Carlos De Oliveira, in a conspiracy to delete the subpoenaed footage.
Consider: According to the indictment, on June 22, 2022, the Justice Department emailed to a Trump lawyer a draft grand jury subpoena for security camera footage. The next day, the former president called De Oliveira — who has reportedly worked for Trump for almost two decades — “and they spoke for approximately 24 minutes.” Hard to imagine what that might have been about.
After that, the pace picked up. Nauta claiming a “family emergency,” changed plans to accompany Trump to Illinois and made a secret trip to Florida, where he met up with De Oliveira. On June 27, 2022, De Oliveira met with another Trump employee, and, after saying the conversation should “remain between the two of them,” asked how many days the server retained video footage — and advised him that “the boss” wanted the server deleted. . . .
Even before this new evidence, the allegations of obstruction lodged against Trump were already damning. “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump allegedly asked his lawyer — after the documents were subpoenaed. He tried to get the lawyer to deep-six any problematic documents. As the lawyer recalled, “He made a funny motion as though — well okay why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out.”
But this — the alleged conspiracy to destroy the security footage — is the epitome of obstruction, stunning in its brazenness. . . .
Those who insist on seeing Trump as the beleaguered victim of partisan prosecutors will not be moved by the fact of his 24-minute chat with a longtime retainer. The rest of us have long understood who he is. These new charges simply add to the pile.
But drip by drip, count by count, obstructive act by obstructive act, the seriousness of this situation comes into focus, the stakes of the next election become clearer. Trump in office was willing to do whatever it took to remain in power. Trump out of office was willing to do whatever it took to keep “my boxes.” One demonstration of narcissistic entitlement bolsters the other and deepens the urgency of holding this man to account, once and for all, and for all that he has done.
Friday, July 28, 2023
More Believe In The American Dream Now Than In 2022
The charts above are from a YouGov Poll -- done between June 15th and 13th of a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
About 221,00 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed that about 221,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on July 22. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending July 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 221,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 228,000. The 4-week moving average was 233,750, a decrease of 3,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 237,500.
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