Before getting into Trump’s weird speech from last night, I want to note that Democrats pulled off a couple more election upsets yesterday. Miami elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in nearly 30 years. And Georgia Democrats picked up a state House seat yesterday. “That’s 25 pickups for Democrats nationwide this year—and zero for Republicans” it says here.
So naturally I’m also reading that Democrats may have a primary problem (some pesky progressives might try to run!) and that Democrats are seen as “too liberal” and “out of touch.” I acknowledge that there are Democratic politicians who are out of touch. But what does “too liberal” even mean? That Dems aren’t racist enough? That they should back off supporting the Bill of Rights? What?
People who are afraid of the word liberal tend to not know what it means. Maybe they need to be taught. And while fingers are wagging at the Dems to not get too out of hand, the entire Republican Party has turned into a hyper-dystopian episode of The Outer Limits. So tired of this …
On to the weird speech. I didn’t watch the thing but saw bits and pieces. Here’s a sampler, if you can stand to watch it:
If it weren’t for his tariffs, we’d have no steel? Sure. Anyway, the box he’s in is that he can’t admit he is failing. So he simultaneously tells his supporters they’ve got the best economy they ever had and if they don’t like it they can just cut back on spending. Don’t buy your daughters so many dolls, for pity’s sake. Or pencils. You don’t need that many pencils.
Weird on steroids. I don’t know if he honestly doesn’t understand the cost of living has gone up since he took office, or if he does know and cannot admit it. Either is plausible.
Last night Donald Trump gave an important speech on the economy in Pennsylvania — supposedly in a working-class area, although the actual venue was a luxury casino resort. The event was initially touted as the start of an “affordability tour,” the first of a series of speeches intended to reverse Trump’s cratering approval on his handling of inflation and the economy. A number of news analyses suggested that he would use the occasion to blame Democrats for the economy’s troubles.
That was never going to happen. Trump did, of course, take many swipes at Joe Biden, as well as attacking immigrants, women and windmills. But to blame Democrats for the economy’s problems he would have to admit that the Trump economy has problems. And the speech was important because it revealed that he won’t make any such admission, and will continue to gaslight the public.
Trump spoke for 97 minutes last night, but according to news stories most of the speech was an anti-immigrant tirade — he is itching to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar — with a defense of the boat strikes on the side. Because he can’t talk about the economy. Really, he can’t. See also 10 Stupid Moments From Trump’s Pennsylvania Rally and Trump’s return to MAGA rallies is a flop.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress still haven’t settled on what they’re going to do to replace the ACA subsidies. The most effective thing they could do is just continue the subsidies, of course, but they won’t do that. Senate Republicans appear to have settled on a plan to let the ACA subsidies drop to pre-Covid levels. Instead, according to Reuters,
Their bill would authorize up to $1,500 for health savings accounts for individuals earning less than 700% of the federal poverty level. It also would bar the funds from being used for abortion or “gender transition services,” according to a summary released by the two senators. They said the measure also would lower insurance premiums by 11% in 2027 and reduce federal Medicaid funding to states that provide healthcare coverage to “illegal immigrants.”
I read elsewhere that this only goes to people who aren’t getting insurance through employee benefits; Reuters doesn’t make that clear. As I understand it, people under age 50 get $1,000. And yes, that’s that’s an annual payment, although if you don’t spend it all you can roll it over to next year. To receive the money one would then need to be enrolled in a high-deductible “bronze” plan and pay the premiums.
So if you don’t get sick or hit by a bus and can pay the bronze plan premiums, you should be okay. Otherwise …
House Republicans haven’t yet decided what they will do.
Update: This is twisted. See US Wants Five Years of Some Tourists’ Social Media to Enter the Country at Mother Jones.
Update Update: The U.S. has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker of the coast of Venezuela for reasons that are not clear to me. If anyone else understands this, feel free to explain it.
File this under Updatee Update Update
Exclusive: US threatens new ICC sanctions unless court pledges not to prosecute Trump | Reuters
Oh, jeebus.
"Too Liberal" means hostile to the concept that money rules. The way it works is that any major program (OK – scratch 'major.' ) has to reward some corporation or aristocrat to a dollar amount greater than the benefit to the workingc-class beneficiary. That's why big pharma was the big winner in Medicare Part Drugs. It's why medical insurance is the way you HAVE to go with Obamacare. The Public Option was rejected because for-profit insurance could not compete.
Taxing people at a rate consistent with income was how FDR paid for programs that prevented mass starvation in the US. And may have staved off food riots that would have destroyed the country. The top rate for top earners topped 90%. Nobody's talking about taxing that high, but taxes for Bezos should not be at a rate lower than I pay.
"By measuring total income, wealth growth, actual taxes paid, and income from 2014 to 2018, ProPublica found that Bezos’ so-called "true tax rate" was 0.98%. " Yahoo Finance
If you cut through the BS, there's a reason the Democrat brand is toxic with voters. The DNC wants to say it's because there's too much focus on protecting fringe groups like trans people and Dreamers. This is a lie – it's the media and Republicans who own that spotlight and keep badgering candidates running on a true populist platform about issues that are barely a sliver, not a plank. But Republicans and Establishment Democrats are aligned in keeping the corporate gravy train on the track as long as it stops to unload cash in Washington DC.
Trump is making the mistake Joe Biden did by not fully owning the issue of inflation. The pivot to techno-babble on economics to 'prove' that inflation wasn't really hurting earners angered the consumer who damn-well knew the pain was real. Trump is going there, but with flat denial, with mocking 'affordability' and the ludicrous claim that everything is better since he took over. I can only hope Trump keeps up the rallies to brag about the state of the economy, and I hope the media covers Trump's actual claims. He'll be the best friend the Democrats could hope for in 2026.
Justice Department moves to drop charges in international soccer corruption case
This could not have anything to do with a Soccer Peace Prize, could it?
"Liberal" comes from the Latin word "liber," which translates as "free." Or to put it another way, a "liberal" is an advocate of "liberty," i.e. freedom. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to take it up with Noah Webster.
The U.S. has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker of the coast of Venezuela for reasons that are not clear to me.
The only report I could find in a quick search about the nationality of the oil tanker was from RT which reports’ “Media outlets identified the ship as The Skipper, which was sailing under the flag of Guyana, according to the tracking website MarineTraffic. According to ABC News, the tanker, which has the capacity to carry up to 2 million barrels of oil, was bound for Cuba".
There are likely two major reasons (much simplified) why the US seized the tanker.
Firstly, much of the US governing class is terrified that alternative governing models other than neo-liberal capitalism might take hold in the Western Hemisphere. Hence the determined continuing efforts since 1959 to destroy the Government of Cuba, the US-backed Allende coup in Chile, the funding and support of the Contras in El Salvador, and let’s not forget Lula da Silva in Brazil among many others. If these states survive and even prosper they are a dreadful set of examples that show that the US system of government is not the only choice. This means revolution!
Secondly, Venezuela has a lot of oil. Before Hugo Chávez was elected US firms controlled much or all of the oil industry to the extent that Gulf oil refineries in the USA were configured to process Venezuelan oil.
So the seizure of the oil tanker is one more attempt to apply pressure on Venezuela to get regime change that would put a government more favourable to the USA in Caracas. The US gets cheap oil.
So the USA wants to keep wiping out anything that is even slightly “socialist” and thus threatening to the US elite and to get back to plundering Venezuelan resources.
I suppose you could add a third one. The US navy is spending a huge amount of money and pulling navel resources from other areas to sit off the coast of Venezuela. Trump and cohorts may think a bit of theatre will help calm down those US citizens who want to what the $#$@% those men and resources are doing.
All of the above may be true. Or maybe Trump, Miller, and Hegseth just get off on watching the boats blow up. Anything is possible.
You are rigt. .
I'll keep my points but definitely add yours. I suspect they get huge boosts of adrenaline as the boats disintegrate.
It was stupid of me to miss the personal gratification of the exercise of power to destroy.