Well, no sooner than I posted this newsletter than this moved over the AP wire:
BOSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly SNAP benefits amid a U.S. government shutdown, even as at least some states said they were moving quickly to get the money to people.
I am cautiously optimistic only because I really need a break and some good news. I am just hoping that the majority of Americans are not as blind and stupid as I perceive them to be in all this mess. When the dust settles, will we be distracted by hope with the real demons still in power under a different likeness? I've heard tell the ballroom is not actually a ballroom but a secret, enforced bunker for the elite. What is the actual plan here? We will have to meet EVERTHING with suspension from here on out. When all is said, I still have that sense of doom and I'm so tired.
I'm glad that you're an optimist because I am not. Every time I see someone saying that the tide is turning it makes me laugh but not in a good way. Instead I say "wake up"! In reading the 48 Laws of Power, I see what they're doing. We like to think that we are beyond the brutality of the past but we keep proving we are not. I'll keep voting though. I haven't given up, I'm just sad for our country...and embarrassed.
I get that. For myself, part of not giving up means maintaining a positive attitude about things. But, like I said, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.
I will believe it when Floridians come to their senses after medical costs skyrocket next year while waiting for a simple medical test becomes a day long ordeal.
I wish that I could share your optimism, but I keep coming back to the videos of patients on their death beds with Covid, declaring with their last breaths "I don't have Covid."
George W Bush lost his re-election to Bill Clinton due to the poor economy. And Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan due to a poor economy.
Many Americans are fickle and foolish, but when it hurts them in the pocketbook and they can't deny causation and culprit, they can turn with a vengeance.
I'm retired and surrounded by other retired folks. I'm starting to hear whispers of "maybe he [Trump] is ill and no longer up to the job" and "his advisors must not be giving him good advice" coming from staunch Trump supporters. In other words, they still stand by their man, but they are acknowledging failure, just not blaming it on him. Also, I no longer see any Trump or Trump/Vance bumper stickers nor red MAGA caps in my community, only American flags.
So yes, there is hope. But that doesn't stop me from encouraging my 30+ single, professional adult daughter to move to Germany or Scandinavia or Canada, now she has been offered the opportunity.
Thee are many reasons why becoming an expat makes sense for some people, and several of my friends have done so. Among other things, economic considerations. We re the only Western nation without a national health care system, and the costs of that are infuriating. And with more employers treating employees as part of a gig marketplace with fewer if any benefits, finding greener pastures makes sense for some people. Our stubbornness regarding health care is bad for business and bad for the country's future. Why Republicans don't jump on this as a business-centric initiative shows a real lack of imagination.
Yep, it’s official! Trump has interfered in another election, the Australian one. The Labour Party has trounced the right wing, party, called “Liberal” in Australia, and not only did the leader lose the election, but lost his own seat. This is the same result as in Canada, where the right wing leader lost his own seat also.
It seems, that when Trump endorses someone, they lose everything. Trump, who thinks he rules the world (by his own words) is so despised everywhere, that anything he touches is immediately turns to crap. In both Canada and Australia, the left wing was projected to lose big, until Trump stuck his oar into the mix, and caused a massive u turn.
Optimism is good. However. Trump is a symptom, like the bleeding bubo of a systemic infection; which in this case is a Clueless American electorate which enabled this disease to infect the body politic. Sure, he his enablers and flunkies will get excised eventually. Then what? "Hey world the evil one is gone let's get back to business as usual." Believe that? Neither will responsible foreign Nations that have been double-crossed betrayed and shafted by the United States. Duh! We have met the enemy and it is us.
Yes, one might think the recent shellacking from voters could cause Trump to change course and try to help the average American for a change. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Here’s another example of his lose-lose policies that are only a win for his fossil fuel donors. The J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant, one of the worst polluters in Michigan, was slated to close on May 31, 2025. The utility that owns the 60-year-old plant had projected closing the expensive, inefficient facility would save customers as much as $600 million dollars in energy bills by 2040. But it was forced to stay open by Trump. Keeping the plant running during June alone cost customers an additional $29 million, roughly $1 million a day. In October, the owner reported a net loss of $80 million, incurred by keeping the plant running. The utility says it will seek to recover the cost from its customers.
Additional costs are paid in Americans' health, as ungodly amounts of pollution flow into the air and water from such horrible, outdated facilities. Meanwhile, Trump opposes the obvious solution of clean solar and wind power which also happen to now be the cheapest forms of energy.
Historian Richard Hofstadter wrote about the "Paranoid Style in American Politics" in the fifties. The folks he was talking about are MAGA today. The difference between then and now is that the paranoid movement has galvanized under one charismatic leader, making them dangerous. On the Mad Sociologist Blog I referred to this as the Dr. Moreau Theory of Republican Politics. Since the Second Red Scare, the conservative movement (not exclusively Republican at the time, but increasingly so) would whip up the most monstrous elements of their coalition during election time. After the election, conservative elites would then beat the monsters back into their cages and vote for deregulation, tax cuts and immiserating the poor. The monsters were only used to beat back left-wing potential. I noticed, when Obama was elected, that the monsters were less inclined to go back in the cages. By 2016, they were set free. Now, they are primed to burn the island down! This election was a repudiation of burning the island down, but the monsters are still there.
Thanks for linking to the national news, but I also really appreciate close to home. Reporting on the corruption of Key West city government is a full time job with lots of humor to leaven the loaf. So, keep up the good work.
The Rhode Island judge who ordered the Trump administration to release the funds for SNAP benefits needs to take a civics lesson. It is not the executive branch that controls these funds. It is the House of Representatives that controls the purse strings for the government including all distributions of emergency as well as routine food stamp benefits.
Since the house is not in session during the shutdown, these funds are being held up. Even if the entire emergency contingency fund were to be used only 11.7% of beneficiaries would receive their money, and only 50% for the month of November payment levels would be reached. After that, there is no emergency fund. Despite what this judge might think, no president, Republican, or Democrat can simply wave their hand and materialize funds without Congressional approval and appropriation.
To date, there have been no less than 15 Senate votes to reopen the government and pass a clean continuing resolution. For every single one of these votes, the Democrat senators have voted in lockstep to deny opening the government.
Not really. You conveniently pass over that Trump routinely ignores Constitutional restrictions--tariffs, War Powers, Possee comitatus, etc. And you know perfectly well those Senate votes were performative. Republicans also voted a like number of times to disapprove the Democrats' alternative plan to fully fund the Affordable Health Care Act subsidies. They could have done that anytime they wanted.
Those subsidies were enacted during covid to make sure that people who were underinsured would have the ability to have their health care covered. They were passed overwhelmingly by a democratic Congress. There were also sunsets built in to those extensions and enhancements. They were built in and were set to expire at the end of this year. The extended subsidies were never part of the original Obamacare provision.
As for the Senate votes, they were no way performative. Making the assumption that we know all too well that they were, supposes that you take the moral high ground, when the proof is that 15 plus times, Democrats voted against opening the government.
Finally, as to the question of whether or not the president can enforce tariffs. That is now before The supreme court. I would not be surprised if they struck it down, however there is some question about the use of tariffs during emergency powers that needs to be parsed out. This is far beyond my ability to predict whether or not the president's power to tariff will stand.
Well, no sooner than I posted this newsletter than this moved over the AP wire:
BOSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly SNAP benefits amid a U.S. government shutdown, even as at least some states said they were moving quickly to get the money to people.
I am cautiously optimistic only because I really need a break and some good news. I am just hoping that the majority of Americans are not as blind and stupid as I perceive them to be in all this mess. When the dust settles, will we be distracted by hope with the real demons still in power under a different likeness? I've heard tell the ballroom is not actually a ballroom but a secret, enforced bunker for the elite. What is the actual plan here? We will have to meet EVERTHING with suspension from here on out. When all is said, I still have that sense of doom and I'm so tired.
I get that, and I think wearing us out is part of the strategy.
Don't believe everything you hear or read on the internet / facebook. Go out and touch some grass, turn off the phone and the computer.
I'm glad that you're an optimist because I am not. Every time I see someone saying that the tide is turning it makes me laugh but not in a good way. Instead I say "wake up"! In reading the 48 Laws of Power, I see what they're doing. We like to think that we are beyond the brutality of the past but we keep proving we are not. I'll keep voting though. I haven't given up, I'm just sad for our country...and embarrassed.
I get that. For myself, part of not giving up means maintaining a positive attitude about things. But, like I said, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.
I will believe it when Floridians come to their senses after medical costs skyrocket next year while waiting for a simple medical test becomes a day long ordeal.
I wish that I could share your optimism, but I keep coming back to the videos of patients on their death beds with Covid, declaring with their last breaths "I don't have Covid."
Yeah. I started to include a bit about chugging Clorox, but decided not to.
George W Bush lost his re-election to Bill Clinton due to the poor economy. And Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan due to a poor economy.
Many Americans are fickle and foolish, but when it hurts them in the pocketbook and they can't deny causation and culprit, they can turn with a vengeance.
I'm retired and surrounded by other retired folks. I'm starting to hear whispers of "maybe he [Trump] is ill and no longer up to the job" and "his advisors must not be giving him good advice" coming from staunch Trump supporters. In other words, they still stand by their man, but they are acknowledging failure, just not blaming it on him. Also, I no longer see any Trump or Trump/Vance bumper stickers nor red MAGA caps in my community, only American flags.
So yes, there is hope. But that doesn't stop me from encouraging my 30+ single, professional adult daughter to move to Germany or Scandinavia or Canada, now she has been offered the opportunity.
Thee are many reasons why becoming an expat makes sense for some people, and several of my friends have done so. Among other things, economic considerations. We re the only Western nation without a national health care system, and the costs of that are infuriating. And with more employers treating employees as part of a gig marketplace with fewer if any benefits, finding greener pastures makes sense for some people. Our stubbornness regarding health care is bad for business and bad for the country's future. Why Republicans don't jump on this as a business-centric initiative shows a real lack of imagination.
Yep, it’s official! Trump has interfered in another election, the Australian one. The Labour Party has trounced the right wing, party, called “Liberal” in Australia, and not only did the leader lose the election, but lost his own seat. This is the same result as in Canada, where the right wing leader lost his own seat also.
It seems, that when Trump endorses someone, they lose everything. Trump, who thinks he rules the world (by his own words) is so despised everywhere, that anything he touches is immediately turns to crap. In both Canada and Australia, the left wing was projected to lose big, until Trump stuck his oar into the mix, and caused a massive u turn.
Optimism is good. However. Trump is a symptom, like the bleeding bubo of a systemic infection; which in this case is a Clueless American electorate which enabled this disease to infect the body politic. Sure, he his enablers and flunkies will get excised eventually. Then what? "Hey world the evil one is gone let's get back to business as usual." Believe that? Neither will responsible foreign Nations that have been double-crossed betrayed and shafted by the United States. Duh! We have met the enemy and it is us.
Yes, one might think the recent shellacking from voters could cause Trump to change course and try to help the average American for a change. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Here’s another example of his lose-lose policies that are only a win for his fossil fuel donors. The J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant, one of the worst polluters in Michigan, was slated to close on May 31, 2025. The utility that owns the 60-year-old plant had projected closing the expensive, inefficient facility would save customers as much as $600 million dollars in energy bills by 2040. But it was forced to stay open by Trump. Keeping the plant running during June alone cost customers an additional $29 million, roughly $1 million a day. In October, the owner reported a net loss of $80 million, incurred by keeping the plant running. The utility says it will seek to recover the cost from its customers.
Additional costs are paid in Americans' health, as ungodly amounts of pollution flow into the air and water from such horrible, outdated facilities. Meanwhile, Trump opposes the obvious solution of clean solar and wind power which also happen to now be the cheapest forms of energy.
Yep. I have felt the shift for a few weeks now .
We keep chugging along.
We Stand!
I am Antifa!
Historian Richard Hofstadter wrote about the "Paranoid Style in American Politics" in the fifties. The folks he was talking about are MAGA today. The difference between then and now is that the paranoid movement has galvanized under one charismatic leader, making them dangerous. On the Mad Sociologist Blog I referred to this as the Dr. Moreau Theory of Republican Politics. Since the Second Red Scare, the conservative movement (not exclusively Republican at the time, but increasingly so) would whip up the most monstrous elements of their coalition during election time. After the election, conservative elites would then beat the monsters back into their cages and vote for deregulation, tax cuts and immiserating the poor. The monsters were only used to beat back left-wing potential. I noticed, when Obama was elected, that the monsters were less inclined to go back in the cages. By 2016, they were set free. Now, they are primed to burn the island down! This election was a repudiation of burning the island down, but the monsters are still there.
Thanks for linking to the national news, but I also really appreciate close to home. Reporting on the corruption of Key West city government is a full time job with lots of humor to leaven the loaf. So, keep up the good work.
The Rhode Island judge who ordered the Trump administration to release the funds for SNAP benefits needs to take a civics lesson. It is not the executive branch that controls these funds. It is the House of Representatives that controls the purse strings for the government including all distributions of emergency as well as routine food stamp benefits.
Since the house is not in session during the shutdown, these funds are being held up. Even if the entire emergency contingency fund were to be used only 11.7% of beneficiaries would receive their money, and only 50% for the month of November payment levels would be reached. After that, there is no emergency fund. Despite what this judge might think, no president, Republican, or Democrat can simply wave their hand and materialize funds without Congressional approval and appropriation.
To date, there have been no less than 15 Senate votes to reopen the government and pass a clean continuing resolution. For every single one of these votes, the Democrat senators have voted in lockstep to deny opening the government.
That tells the tale.
Not really. You conveniently pass over that Trump routinely ignores Constitutional restrictions--tariffs, War Powers, Possee comitatus, etc. And you know perfectly well those Senate votes were performative. Republicans also voted a like number of times to disapprove the Democrats' alternative plan to fully fund the Affordable Health Care Act subsidies. They could have done that anytime they wanted.
Even though we disagree on all of this, I do like your books. Please keep them coming
Those subsidies were enacted during covid to make sure that people who were underinsured would have the ability to have their health care covered. They were passed overwhelmingly by a democratic Congress. There were also sunsets built in to those extensions and enhancements. They were built in and were set to expire at the end of this year. The extended subsidies were never part of the original Obamacare provision.
As for the Senate votes, they were no way performative. Making the assumption that we know all too well that they were, supposes that you take the moral high ground, when the proof is that 15 plus times, Democrats voted against opening the government.
Finally, as to the question of whether or not the president can enforce tariffs. That is now before The supreme court. I would not be surprised if they struck it down, however there is some question about the use of tariffs during emergency powers that needs to be parsed out. This is far beyond my ability to predict whether or not the president's power to tariff will stand.