Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Mistaken Deportation of Massachusetts college student – My A**

Deliberate abuse of the legal system without checking for legitimacy. If you as a citizen were to disobey or disregard a Federal Judge. More likely than not, you would find yourself in a jail (state or federal) somewhere. This is what happens when a rogue element takes over society. Nothing of reason or law remains […]

Let them eat cake

The privileged elitists on Trump’s cabinet can’t help themselves. They broadcast how, like Trump himself, they’re out of touch. “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made waves this week with claims that the Trump administration’s revamped food pyramid leaves plenty of room for Americans to maintain a healthy diet for as little as $3 a meal. “In […]

Trump’s ‘Great Healthcare Plan’ Leaves Open Questions for People with Pre-existing Conditions

Trump’s most recent healthcare plans as reported on by the former Kaiser Family Foundation known today as KFF. It appears and as reported. Trump is taking from various sources for his plan. Hopefully, a united Congress improves upon what Trump is proposing and what Republicans had in mind earlier. Many US citizens could end up […]

Trump hyperventilates about tariffs

Two “deadlines” have come and gone for the SCOTUS to rule on the constitutionality of Trump’s tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump is throwing brush-back pitches. He bleated on social media: “”If the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!” So the tariffs aren’t to enforce fair trade practices, […]

Jobless claims continue to be very positive, near multi-decade lows

 – by New Deal democrat First, usually the week following the employment report is very quiet, and I put up “scenes from the report” with some important graphs. With all the releases catching up on old data this week, I haven’t done that; but because jobless claims are the only significant data this morning, I intend […]

Conversation on Population Growth

Celia: I will offer up another perspective. In 2006, Joel Garreau wrote a piece in the Smithsonian called “300 million and Counting.” This article is still readily available. The point of the article was the U.S. population which was an approximate 300 million. It was on the verge of creating only enough citizens to maintain […]

SCOTUS on Immigrants and Legal Status

Coming by way of Sarah Burris at AlterNet, etc. It was not that long ago when Kavanaugh penned an opinion giving more leeway to immigration agents. His claim for doing so was “they rarely take American citizens into custody. If such were to occur by mistake a citizen is taken, they are released very quickly.” […]

The Death of a Civilian

I get the feeling the investigation is going to go on forever and the public may never have a complete story about the shooting. For sure she was not shot from the front. More likely than not, it came from the side and close to behind Renee. Trump Officials Lie After Killing of Protester Renee […]

December consumer inflation: a return to pre-shutdown trends and still affected by the shutdown shelter kludge

 – by New Deal democrat We finally got our first “regular” CPI report since September this morning. Caution is still warranted, however, because the October-November kludge is still present in the base from which December’s monthly change was calculated. But the bottom line is that the series’ all reverted to their pre-shutdown trend, with the […]