– by J.P. McJefferson J.P. McJefferson Thoughts Americans are frustrated—and increasingly, they are unified in that frustration. Congress’s approval ratings have been mostly underwater since 1974, averaging 28% approval and 65% disapproval. That’s 52 years, five decades of massive disapproval! They look at Congress and see dysfunction. They look at the executive branch and see […]
Additional nontechnical information on tariffs in the United States EconoFact: Tariff Payback Tariff Payback This week, the Trump administration began accepting requests for refunds of more than $166 billion in tariff payments following the Supreme Court’s February ruling: “the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.” Who Benefits: But while the refunds […]
Hegseth’s Department of Defense budget increases by $440.9 billion in planned expenditures. More likely than not, more deficit spending on something which will be obsolete in the near future as technology will outrun that version of Defense technology. We shall see, The reasoning for this budget? “For many years, defense spending has prioritized maintenance of […]
Unusual for one SCOTUS judge to criticize another judge openly. Justice Sonia is correct though as Justice Kavanaugh did not take everything into account as to the temporary stops. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday criticized another member of the high court for failing to understand the consequences of an order issued last […]
About two weeks old but still a good read. Trump defunding public TV. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.” “Big Bird’s Obituary: Greatly Exaggerated” Civil Discourse Joyce Vance April 13 With apologies, tonight’s column runs a little longer than […]
& Protecting It Under alternative forms of government such as autocracy, oligarchy, theocracy, etc., and various variants thereof, a small minority runs the country, the nation. In a democracy, the government belongs to the people. Democracies are inclusive. The people choose and depose the leaders. It is thus that everyone has a voice in decision-making. […]
Trump’s Never-ending War and Trump’s Never-ending Tariffs are pushing up Never-ending price increases “Why Consumers are F*cked” Robert Reich Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s admission yesterday that it “could be next year” before gas prices return to below $3-a-gallon is causing trauma in Republican circles because “next year” is after the November 3 midterm elections. Initially Trump said he could […]
– by New Deal democrat Let’s take our weekly look at jobless claims, recently perhaps the most positive datapoint in the entire economy. And it continued to be so this week. New jobless claims rose 6,000 to 214,000, while the four week moving average rose 750 to 210,750. With the typical one week lag, continuing claims […]
Update on what Trump is doing for the remaining Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. 1500 and counting pardoned by Trump. Even though they were guilty of storming the Capitol. The remainders were offered clemency. “Justice According to Trump” Civil Discourse Joyce Vance The Justice Department has moved to drop the last remaining January 6 insurrection […]
Not an unusual topic depicted on Angry Bear. I have been writing on this topic for a number of years. But different approach by Dean Baker which I have not seen in a while. “We pay twice as much for our drugs and medical equipment as people in other wealthy countries. We also pay twice […]