The Sleeping Giant Is Waking Up!

 The following post is by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. I think he is right.

We have been subject to the sociopath for a year and a half — 18 months of the most loathsome, least competent, and most corrupt person ever to be president of the United States.

We’ve watched him take a meat-axe to every major institution of our democracy, draw the nation into a never-ending war, establish a murderous domestic police state, reject renewable energy in favor of the dirtiest possible fossil fuels, make billions off his presidency, and cause most Americans to become poorer and less economically secure.

But here’s the good news. The sleeping giant of America is finally awakening. 

Trump’s poll numbers are plummeting. They’re now at record lows. Even many Republicans have had enough. Progressives are winning election after election around the country.

 

The sleeping giant has always remained asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, some acts so disrespectful of the common good, some brutalities so noisy, that the giant has no choice but to awaken — blinking both eyes and then roaring, “What the hell is going on here?”

The first time I saw him awaken was during the witch hunts of Senator Joe McCarthy. He awoke again when the Ku Klux Klan tried to stop the Civil Rights Movement. Again when the Vietnam War was taking the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese. And again when Richard Nixon threatened our system of government.

Each time the sleeping giant of America has awakened, the good sense of the American people has stopped whatever it is that awakened him. Again and again, we put the nation back on track toward democracy and social justice.

Trump isn’t gone yet, of course. He has another two and a half years. But he’s on his way out. He’ll soon be a cringeworthy irrelevance, a fat lame duck, excrement on the sidewalk of history. 

In a few years, Trump’s gilded monuments will be razed, his name removed from every building and pediment, his pathetic attempts to glorify himself turned into bad jokes, his legacy object lessons in why big money must be banned from politics and dastardly dickheads like Elon Musk kept away from the levers of government power.

 

Trump will still cause a great deal of damage over the remainder of his term, the way a wild pig who’s been gored wreaks mayhem before it expires. 

So this is no time to let down our guard or become overly confident about the coming midterm elections. 

Quite the contrary. One hundred days from today must be a historic repudiation of Trump and his entire disgusting regime.

 

The blue wave must be a tsunami — inundating everything Trump may attempt to do to hold on to the House and Senate, overwhelming whatever lies he may tell about the election, and enveloping him in a rejection that’s so unmistakeable, a rebuke so unequivocal, a reproach so unambiguous as to cause the great giant of America to get up and dance.

Trump Wants To Fatten His Bank Account By Selling Insider Trading Info

Trump has come up with a new scheme (probably illegal) to make himself richer. Robert Reich explains:

Starting August 1, Trump Media and Technology Group will launch a new data feed aimed at high-frequency trading firms whose profits are made by making trades a fraction of a second faster than everyone else. 

It will provide “licensed, real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.” In other words, the feed will let you know what Trump has said before anyone else knows, meaning it’s well worth the tab that Truth Social will charge to see Trump’s posts before the rest of the public sees them — up to $100,000 per month.

That’s a pittance relative to what could be made, because Trump’s words on Truth Social — about his war in Iran, about his latest tariffs, about the Fed — have caused the stock market to soar or drop. So, if you’re a trader on Wall Street, you’ll make millions if you know what he’s posting a fraction of a second before everyone else knows. Perhaps more to the point, if you’re behind on that news, “you’ll get crushed,” as one hedge-fund executive told the Financial Times. 

No wonder Trump Media’s interim CEO Kevin McGurn is gloating that the feed will “become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.” Trump Media has been unprofitable until now. 

Trump, of course, is the company’s largest shareholder.

 

The scheme is Trump’s most brazen way to illegally profit off his presidency and enrich his Wall Street insider friends. 

I say illegally because the Constitution lists “bribery” as a reason to remove a president from office, and the federal ban on bribing public officials also expressly applies to a president. (Whether these provisions can be enforced against a president who’s been given blanket immunity from “official acts” by the Supreme Court is another matter.)

The good news, though, is Americans are catching on to insider trading, and they hate it — so much so that House Republican leaders are now teeing up a vote this week on a bill that would create new guardrails for lawmakers trading stocks.

 

The “Stop Insider Trading Act” would bar members of Congress and their families from purchasing new shares of stock and require them to file a notice of their plans to sell shares at least seven days ahead of time. 

Most Democrats say the measure doesn’t go far enough because it allows members to keep shares of stock they already own, in contrast with a competing bipartisan proposal that bars members from trading individual shares of stock altogether. And one provision Republicans have snuck into the measure —and that must be removed if they want any Democratic votes — deters mail-in voting. 

The point is that at the same time Trump is rolling out a new tool to give traders more immediate access to his market-moving posts on Truth Social — if they’ll pay him up to $100,000 a month for it — Congress is limiting how members can profit from inside information they obtain through elected office. 

The American public is so disgusted by corruption in Washington that even Republican lawmakers want something to show they’re not in the swamp. 

Trump doesn’t give a damn about the public’s mounting revulsion at corruption. He’s not up for reelection. He doesn’t care that his polls are in the cellar. All he wants to do is make even more money, exert more power, and get even with people who have gotten in his way. 

But the public wants his swamp drained. 

Democrats, take note. Three months from now, ask Americans two related questions: Do they think they’re better off than they were before Trump became president again? Do they approve of the most corrupt White House in American history?

 

The answer to both will be a resounding no. And the best way for Americans to act on their disgust will be to kick the Republican bums out.

Why Is Trump Increasing The Violence At Home And Abroad?

 

The following is by Robert Reich:

In response to public outrage following ICE’s recent murders in Houston and Maine, the Department of Homeland Security moved to pause vehicle stops. But the pause reportedly infuriated Trump, who ordered ICE to continue the stops. ICE’s arrests and aggression continue to escalate.

 

Trump’s war with Iran is also escalating, with the U.S. striking critical infrastructure sites including power stations and bridges, and Iran attacking a U.S. base in Jordan, killing two American troops (one is still missing).

 

I think the two killing fields are related, and the question I’ve been pondering is why Trump’s violence is growing both at home and abroad?

It can’t be because the violence is achieving Trump’s stated objectives. Illegal immigration was already down to a trickle before ICE’s recent violent resurgence. The escalating bombing of Iran is fortifying its militant leaders, causing even more Iranians to become anti-American, and widening the war.

 

Nor is Trump’s escalating violence popular with American voters. In fact, most Americans have turned against ICE and against Trump’s war in Iran. Strikingly,Trump has lost enthusiasm even among many fellow Republicans, a core source of his power for more than a decade. 

So why is Trump escalating the violence, at home and abroad?

At first I thought it was to justify Trump’s use of emergency powers in the midterm elections — giving him trumped-up reasons to deploy troops at voting places, curtail times and places of voting, and confiscate voting lists and machines.

 

That may still be a motive, although his address to the nation last Thursday night focused on fake reports of fraudulent voting rather than Iranian aggression or a fake resurgence of immigration. 

So, is there any other reason for Trump’s escalating violence at home and abroad?

As Americans and much of the rest of the world turn on Trump (and, by extension, Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and Stephen Miller), I can’t help but wonder whether they feel their manhood to be under assault. 

Remember, this is a president who staged a cage match on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday and incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

It’s also a secretary of defense who’s testing troops for their levels of testosterone. 

A vice president who excoriates “childless cat ladies” and other “people without children” for allegedly having no stake in the nation’s future.

 

And a White House deputy chief of staff who’s taunting Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico for having “less testosterone” than his opponent and emitting “soy milk” when his blood is drawn.

In the Trump manosphere, violence is seen as a sign of virility. When that virility is challenged, the automatic response is to escalate the violence.

 

Hence, the growing mayhem in Trump’s two killing fields.

Integrity Has No Place In The Trump Administration

 

The following post is by Robert Reich:

There’s been a lot of discussion this past week about the meaning of integrity.

 

You didn’t hear the word used directly; it was alluded to indirectly — in wondering whether Lindsey Graham was an immoral opportunist or clever pragmatist; in suspecting Todd Blanche of being more loyal to Trump than to the nation; in distrusting Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest pick to lead the CDC, when she said she’ll never compromise on the science; in doubting that Jay Clayton, his pick for director of national intelligence, will tell Trump anything he doesn’t want to hear.

The word integrity is rooted in the Latin word integer, meaning “whole” or “complete” — living by your principles, choosing honesty over opportunism, making ethical choices that may be inconvenient or unpopular, maintaining your moral compass.

Graham’s public record of denouncing Trump on the Senate floor after January 6, 2021, and then becoming Trump’s most loyal Senate apologist revealed someone who traded honesty for influence — a person with little or no integrity.

 

Blanche, in his hearing to be attorney general, said he wanted to bring trust back to the Justice Department but then accidentally referred to himself as Trump’s lawyer —before clarifying that he “was” — had been —Trump’s lawyer. Blanche’s momentary lapse revealed a deeper conflict, as evidenced by his unswerving loyalty to Trump. He lacks integrity.

Schwartz, in her confirmation hearing, undercut her pledge to be guided by science in saying she believed Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would “never” implement policies that aren’t scientifically sound. That’s enough to cast doubt on her integrity. 

Clayton, in his confirmation hearing, repeatedly refused to say Biden won the 2020 election, causing Senator Jon Ossoff to ask Clayton: “You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election? But you ask to lead America’s intelligence community? Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question? To have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question, why can you not give it?”

It is not possible to have integrity and be loyal to Trump. The two are in direct conflict. 

No one can be honest in a regime based on big lies. As the poet, philosopher, and statesman Václav Havel put it, “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.”

So a choice must be made — personal integrity or loyalty to Trump. 

In his book The Art of the Deal, Trump wrote that he preferred loyalty to integrity — as epitomized by his mentor, Roy Cohn.

 

History remembers Cohn for his ruthless bullying, profane braggadocio, opportunistic bigotry, lying, and more lying. Like Trump, Cohn was utterly without principle and prioritized personal power that could be leveraged for wealth, influence, and celebrity. In 1986, Cohn was disbarred by the New York State Bar for unethical conduct after attempting to defraud a dying client by forcing him to sign a will amendment leaving Cohn his fortune. 

Yet in his book Trump praised Cohn for his loyalty, contrasting him with “all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty …. What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite.”

It is not possible for Blanche or Schwartz or Clayton or anyone else in Trump’s orbit — nor was it possible for Lindsey Graham — to be loyal to Trump and simultaneously maintain their own integrity. It must be one or the other.

 

Yet integrity is more important than loyalty. As Trump demonstrates time and again, someone lacking integrity is inherently untrustworthy. Such a person cannot serve the people of the United States.

10 Things Democrats Can Pledge To Create An Affordable Economy

From Robert Reich: 

Democrats can show America that they can be better trusted than Republicans to bring prices down and real wages up by pledging 10 things.

Pledge To Make America Affordable Again

1. We’ll eliminate Trump’s across-the-board tariffs. They’re import taxes that are raising the prices of just about everything American consumers buy. We’ll eliminate them where their costs to consumers are far higher than any potential benefits in the form of new jobs.

2. We’ll get energy prices down by ending Trump’s war in Iran and shifting to renewable sources of energy. 

Trump’s war has increased gas prices by $1 a gallon over most of the country. It’s accomplished nothing but give Iran bargaining leverage to close the strait — which was open before the war. We’ll bring down energy prices by ending the war and then reduce energy prices by shifting to renewable sources that are cheaper than fossil fuels, such as solar, wind, and biomass. 

3. We’ll bust up monopolies. Another major source of high prices is monopolies — especially in high tech, healthcare, food, and finance. We’ll vigorously enforce antitrust (anti-monopoly) laws so that corporations don’t have the power to raise prices. We’ll bust up giant corporations. We’ll bar large firms from merging or acquiring other firms.

4. We’ll fight for stronger unions. Workers need more bargaining power to get higher wages. Part of the answer is stronger unions. Democrats will make it easier for them to start or join them.

5. We’ll raise the national minimum wage to $20 an hour. No one who works full-time should be in poverty. And we’ll raise it even higher for employees of big corporations that pay their top executives more than 200 times the typical worker.

6. We’ll make housing more affordable. We’ll stop private equity firms from buying up large tracts of housing and colluding on prices. We’ll get rid of zoning laws that keep housing prices high. And we’ll raise taxes on big corporations that drive up housing prices where they’re headquartered or have major facilities and use the funds for more affordable housing there.

7. We’ll cut healthcare costs by making Medicare available to everyone. Giving everyone the option of buying into Medicare would bring healthcare costs down because it’s cheaper and more efficient than private for-profit health insurance.

8. We’ll get working families help with childcare and eldercare. Both are essential for working families who must now pay out large portions of their incomes to provide care for family members.

9. We’ll give working families paid family leave. Twelve weeks of unpaid leave has proven useful but not adequate. Every other advanced country provides paid leave; the richest country in the world should too.

10. We’ll raise taxes on the wealthiest to pay for this. Since Reagan, the rich have paid far lower taxes while accumulating a near-record portion of total income and wealth. It’s only fair that they pay more so that the rest of America can afford what Americans need. We’ll raise the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent — what it was before Reagan. We’ll also impose a 0.5 percent tax on wealth in excess of $100 million. We’ll also eliminate the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes, require that the ultra-rich pay annual capital gains taxes on unrealized income, and eliminate the stepped-up basis at death.

These 10 steps are crucial for making America affordable again.