#trump tanked the economy

[tomorrowusa]

Just so nobody can say this is out of context, here's a vid of the entire interview.

The Obama administration successfully contained the Ebola outbreak in the United States. The death toll for Ebola in the US was under a dozen. So before leaving office, the Obama National Security Council created a 69-page handbook on how to deal with a pandemic. Trump and his flunkies ignored it with disastrous results.

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook

The US death toll from COVID-19 is in seven digits. Other industrialized countries with advanced technological infrastructure such as Canada, Taiwan, Germany, and New Zealand had lower fatality rates per capita.

Trump largely ignored the virus until well into March when it had a chance to spread across the US.

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life The president was aware of the danger from the coronavirus – but a lack of leadership has created an emergency of epic proportions

The Trump administration, at best, was in denial; at worst, it sabotaged the pandemic response.

Trump White House made 'deliberate efforts' to undermine Covid response, report says

Trump zombies who claim the economy was marvelous under Trump conveniently forget about everything that happened after February of 2020. Trump's early bungling of the pandemic plunged the economy into recession. The COVID supply chain problems and the economic stimulus required to prevent a depression led to the spurt in inflation which is finally receding.

People who are nostalgic about taking hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, drinking bleach, and sticking UV lights up their butts must be excited about the opportunity to vote for Trump again.

#donald trump #botched pandemic response #covid-19 #coronavirus #public health #anniversary of trump's awful covid-19 response #gross incompetence of the trump administration #the trump recession #trump tanked the economy #trump is a loser #vote blue no matter who #election 2020 #election 2024

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Trump and his sycophants have destroyed the Republican Party. They are no longer conservatives either fiscally or on foreign policy. They are a party of chaos beholden to the right-wing culture warrior oligarchs. They are the derogatory agents of those oligarchs and the corporations owned by them. They make decisions based on the whim of a deranged madman.

They have gone from being closet racists/bigots to being full blown Nazis that call for the extermination of their culture war scapegoats they call “vermin” (marginalized people/political rivals). They take this term directly from Hitler who they openly embrace in speech and writing. They no longer care about tax cuts for all but just for the 1% and corporations. They want endless wars to profit from and to distract and rally their deplorable base. They no longer want small, limited government but opt for a massive government that intrudes into its citizens private lives and tramples their freedoms.

The party of law and order is now a party of criminals, sex offenders, grifters, traitors, and murderous street thugs. They are proud of this and fund raise and merchandise from their lawlessness. They have bought control of what is now an illegitimate SCOTUS which never allows them to be held accountable.

They use the KKK, Neo-Nazi groups, armed right-wing militias, Neo-Confederates, and white supremacists to persecute their opponents and victims in the streets and inside the Capitol itself. They tell us to “get over it” when mindless gun violence decimates our families in every public venue from churches, to schools, to 4th of July celebrations, movie theaters, shopping malls, and even a Super Bowl parade.

The police, courts, and legislatures are infested with their white nationalist/supremacists and Christo-fascists. They openly take money from Russia and others to influence our foreign policy and economic policy. Money from Russia is funneled into the NRA and Congress to allow a massive proliferation of gun violence on our streets that destabilizes our society.

They claim to be the party of the military but they degrade and insult our troops and cast our veterans into the streets. They abandon our allies and our treaty obligations at the behest of foreign dictators that bribe them.

They bust our unions and pass laws to weaken or prevent organized labor. They are forcing society to become wage slaves with no security, insurance, or pensions. They force our workers into the “gig economy” where everyone works incredible hours 7 days a week at multiple jobs and still are left unable to afford rent or mortgages. Nearly the entire population is one or two paychecks away from being homeless.

Decades of trickle down economics has seen our tax dollars poured into the accounts of billionaires, millionaires, and corporations with not a penny trickling down to the working class. The middle class has been practically wiped out by cruel Republican legislation written by political think tanks established and funded by oligarchs. The only thing these pseudo-conservatives conserve is their own wealth.

This is late stage capitalism run amok. The economy has been drained and now the oligarchs and corporations are plundering the government. They have taken advantage of decades of right-wing propaganda proliferated by Fox News, conservatives talk radio, and internet podcasts that have brain washed the rural areas into blaming the Democrats that are trying help them while convincing them to vote for the Republicans who have impoverished them. The French Revolution in reverse.

They see the Orange Dictator as their last best chance to completely take over the government and create a kleptocracy that pulls the strings behind an autocracy that pretends to be a republic.

The chaos of the Republican puppets is to distract everyone from the takeover by the oligarchs, corporations, and deep pocketed foreign adversaries.

#vote Biden Harris 2024 #vote blue always #vote democratic down the ballot #republican assholes #traitor trump #crooked donald #Republican corruption #Republican chaos

[soberscientistlife]

Every American needs to refuse to vote for Trump.

We cannot let him tank our economy again

[sourcreammachine]

✨My Favourite Moments of 2024!✨

uk prime minister keir starmer resigns in disgrace after accidentally referring to a trans woman by her correct pronouns

elon musk attempts to prove the safety of the tesla truck by letting mitch mcconnell drive. both men die within seconds of entering the vehicle

in response to worldwide famine, the World Food Programme appoints taylor swift as its director-for-life

the IDF continues carpetbombing occupied gaza after the ghosts of hamas are spotted. all gazans are required to evacuate into a shallow grave

the conclave repeatedly fails to elect a new pope, causing a schism. one conclave elects some italian bishop you’ve never heard of while the other conclave elects agent Q

the IMF buys pakistan

donald trump wins the republican primary carrying 60 states, 14 countries, and 8 circles of hell. during his victory broadcast from prison he suffers what it clinically described as a MegaStroke, removing his ability to move and speak. he declares one of his busty nurses to be his running mate and leads biden by 30 points

following the death of musk twitter is divided by gavelkind amongst multiple rival warlords

joe biden finally finishes his 13th genocide, winning a bet he made with obama

after it retreats from ukraine and georgia, putin personally murders every single member of the russian army. he is reelected in a landslide

his holiness the ayatollah ali khamenei dies peacefully of old age surrounded by his loving family and a grieving nation. days later he is found in a disused oil pipeline hiding from protesters while off his tits on heroin, and is dragged through the streets and beaten to death

the largest war in human history erupts in africa, costing dozens of millions of lives. it is a slow news day at the UN

president millei attaches argentina to the dollar. the us economy immediately crashes and undergoes apocalyptic hyperinflation, the dollar becoming the first currency to have a negative value. the only surviving american industry is joe biden ‘i did that’ stickers

the PLA begins its amphibious invasion of taiwan. the war claims the lives of one million PLA soldiers, ending within 20 minutes when the generals learn that tanks can’t swim

donald trump wins the us presidential election carrying all 100 states. during his victory broadcast from the intensive care unit, he suffers what is clinically described as a Heart Apocalypse, rupturing every single artery in his body and leaving him as pile of blood and gore. the supreme court rules that despite being, quote, “the most dead person ever recorded”, he is still eligible to be president. he and vp-elect Busty Nurse will be inaugurated on 20 january

due to a weird loophole, elon musk’s trans daughter inherits his entire estate. she immediately uses all her wealth to found a mutually-owned food distribution network, ending world hunger

the switch 2 still doesn’t have fucking analogue triggers

#196

[tammyoshanter]

I am seeing posts bullying and even telling others to kill themselves because they plan to vote for Biden, despite Biden's blatant endorsement of Isreal. I've even seen people saying things like "even as a non-American, I know you guys have a Socialist party. Vote for that" as if that's an option. Personally, and I am certain several of my other fellow Americans feel this way as well, I would LOVE to cast my vote to the Socialist party. But living in America, that's just not possible. We do not have the luxury of voting for the people we want to. We live under a government that has spent decades dividing the nation so that the two-party system is seen as the only viable form of democracy to the American people, while simultaneously meddling in world affairs and overthrowing small socialist nations with capitalist coups and then forcing their economies to tank just to show the American people just how bad the big bad S is. And we have slurped it up. As someone who has had leftist ideals for more than a decade, I have only within the past few years felt I could use that label because even I was afraid of the capitalist's boogeyman. A majority of the people I know wouldn't dare consider socialism or even leftism a good, citizen-friendly political system. And so, they are going to vote on the two running for office, which is looking to be Biden and Trump right now. Yes, Biden is a racist pedophile with very a questionable ability to cognitively navigate a presidency, and who also supports a full-on genocide. I would not want to vote for Biden in a million years. He's a shit guy, and has been for his whole career and likely before that too. Trump, however, is significantly more alarming. Trump is the person Netanyahu is drooling over to win the election, and let me tell you why. If you haven't, please do your research on Project 2025. If Trump or another Republican wins the primary, the Republican's plan includes a very alarming, and blatantly fascist playbook. The most notable pages include placing the entire executive branch under direct presidential control (eliminating the independence of the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and other agencies), further militarizing the police, cracking down on immigration (some are predicting our own genocide, beginning with our management of the US/Mexico border), placing a nationwide ban on abortion and undesirable media, targeting LGBTIQIA and other marginalized communities, and ultimately destroying the wall between church and state to create a Christian nationalist government. They are not being subtle about it; you can read the manifesto here. America, a leading world power with an obese military and other friends in low places, is set to become very fascist if the Republicans win. This could ultimately change the course of world politics as many other countries within the West are increasingly leaning fascist. Americans are not going to suddenly discover the third party and vote for it. They will be participating in the two party system. We have no choice to do so as well, or it may be decades before we get it turned back around. By then it will certainly be far too late for Palestine and all the other lives that will be lost along the way. Don't even get me started on climate change. The stakes are immense. Americans, It is your right to choose not to vote, or to vote for a third party during this primary. But this will be a slap to the face of POC, immigrants, LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, the working class, and several other targeted groups, of which there will be many. Bullying people for trying to prevent this is not going to put you on the side of history you want it to. When I vote for Biden, I will absolutely be thinking about how much I detest his stance on Isreal and the rest of his presidency and personality to boot. But I will be hoping against all hope this action is able to curb the right before they place us all in chains, if they'll have us alive at all.

#i rant #apologies guys but CAN WE PLEASE #I'm not trying to have my life or the lives of others cut shorter than they already have been #this is truly life or death #politics #american politics #us politics #biden #trump #fascism #project 2025 #isreal #palestine #free palestine #free gaza #genocide #please suggest other tags if this is found to be lacking

[zvaigzdelasas]

“I don’t worry much about it,” Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence directorate, told CNN in an exclusive interview in Kyiv.

Trump “is an experienced person. He has fallen many times and gotten back up again. And this is a very serious trait,” Budanov said of the former president[...]

“We are expecting a positive decision anyway,” Budanov said of the US debate over aid, “To say that [Trump] and the Republican Party are lovers of the Russian Federation is complete nonsense.”

“I’m confident that the United States will remain a staunch ally” no matter who wins, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview Wednesday during his dayslong visit to Washington.

The NATO chief is in town to make his pitch that supporting Ukraine and rearming NATO — issues that are inexorably intertwined — helps the U.S. in the Pacific and creates American jobs.

“I worked with former President Trump for the four years he was president,” Stoltenberg told POLITICO[...]

The NATO chief also pointed to the traditional bipartisan support for NATO in Congress, something he said he witnessed on Tuesday while meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Stoltenberg also noted that Trump’s criticism of NATO wasn’t really aimed at the alliance, but at individual countries that have failed to live up to the 2014 pledge to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense by 2024. “It’s important to listen,” he said, because the criticism from Trump “is not a criticism of NATO not investing enough in NATO.”

The comments came immediately after the NATO leader made a pitch to conservatives in Washington that supporting Ukraine and re-arming Europe is good for America.

“NATO is a good deal for the United States,” Stoltenberg said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank closely aligned with Trump.[...]

The NATO leader didn’t just come to rebut critics, however. He also arrived with a story to tell.

“NATO creates a market for defense sales,” he said, noting that member states have purchased $120 billion worth of weapons from U.S. defense companies over the past two years, including 600 F-35 fighters by 2030.

“From Arizona to Virginia, Florida to Washington state, American jobs depend on American sales to defense markets in Europe and Canada,” he said.

That line of thinking is similar to the message being touted by the White House: supporting Ukraine is good for the American economy. U.S. manufacturers build weapons that are sent to European capitals, which are looking to restock after donating their machinery to Ukraine.[...]

“We must organize ourselves for enduring competition with China,” Stoltenberg said, adding that since Trump began pushing shifting U.S. priorities toward the Indo-Pacific in 2017, “NATO has gone a long way in helping European allies fully appreciate the challenge posed by China.”

31 Jan 24

Trump Calls on Europe To Shoulder ‘Equal’ Ukraine Burden - RealClearPolitics

Former President Trump does not sound like a man ready to abandon Ukraine as some fear. This week, he instead called on Europe to match dollar-for-dollar the amount of aid the U.S. has sent to counter Russian aggression. “I say pay, and they’ll pay too,” he said. “You have to equal it.”[...]

“Ukraine is an interesting case,” Trump said Tuesday at a Las Vegas rally. “People always want to know my feeling.”

“Number one, we’re in for $200 billion plus, and the European nations are in for $20 billion, and it’s more important for them,” he continued. “And don’t you think they should equalize?”[...]

When it comes to how the land war in Eastern Europe affects American politics, it isn’t a clear-cut case of dove vs hawk, however. While Trump regularly warns of the possibility of “World War III” and promises to negotiate a peace deal, he has left the door open to continued support for Ukraine.[...]

After calling on European allies to “retroactively” pay back the U.S. for support already rendered, Trump said that Ukraine ought to be told “that there will be little more money coming from us, UNLESS RUSSIA CONTINUES TO PROSECUTE THE WAR.”[...]

“I feel strongly if elected president, Trump would not abandon Ukraine,” said James Carafano, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation[...]

“The first step he would take would be to sit down with European allies and have a heart-to-heart talk,” added Carafano, who advised Trump’s presidential transition, “saying we all have to be realistic, step up to the plate, and do the sensible, responsible things we need to do, to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, help them retain their freedom and look after our interests, and everyone needs to step to the plate and take this seriously. If you do, the U.S. will.”

A former senior White House official familiar with Trump’s thinking told RCP that he expected Trump to immediately make good, if elected, on his promise to reach out to Putin and Zelensky. If Russia rejects a peace deal, the official said he anticipates that Trump “would give Zelensky everything needed to complete the operation, which this administration has not done.”

2 Feb 24

[robertreich]

How to Stop Republicans From Tanking the Economy Over the Debt Ceiling

Republicans are threatening to destroy the economy if President Biden doesn’t give into their demands. But the Fourteenth Amendment gives him the power to stop them.

Republicans are taking advantage of the “debt ceiling” to try to force deep, painful cuts to programs Americans rely on. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, America might have to default on its bills, destroying the credit of the United States and wiping out millions of jobs.

Remember, raising the debt ceiling isn’t about taking on new debt. It’s about whether America will pay its current debts.

This is a key reason why raising the debt ceiling should not be negotiable.

Ironically, Republicans had no problem raising it three times under Trump, even as they enacted major tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that caused the nation’s debt to soar.

But now, Kevin McCarthy and his band of MAGA radicals say they’ll only raise it in exchange for drastic cuts to health care, education, veterans’ benefits, and more.

My advice to President Biden: Ignore them. Mr. President, your oath to uphold the Constitution takes precedence. And as the supreme law of the land, the Constitution has greater weight than the law on the debt ceiling.

Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment states that, “The validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.”

A debt ceiling that prevents the government from honoring its existing financial commitments clearly violates the Constitution.

So, if Republicans threaten the full faith and credit of the United States, you are constitutionally obligated to ignore the debt ceiling, and must continue to pay the nation’s bills.

Should they wish, let the radical Republicans take you to court.

Even the conservatives on the Supreme Court will likely support you. No “originalist” interpretation of the Constitution could read that document differently,

The Constitution makes it clear that Congress’s power to borrow money does not include the power to default on such borrowings.

If Republicans are going to play this game, Mr. President, you need to play hard ball.

#youtube #Debt ceiling #economy #Republican Party #politics #video #videos

[female-malice]

Vietnam Relied on Environmentalists to Secure Billions. Then It Jailed Them.

The government is preparing to present its energy transition plan at the U.N. climate talks as it intensifies a crackdown on environmental advocates.

(Solar panels at the Sao Mai power plant in An Giang Province, Vietnam, last year. The country has been awarded $15.5 billion in grants and loans in exchange for a commitment to renewable energy)

By Sui-Lee Wee Nov. 28, 2023, 5:01 a.m. ET

When Vietnam was awarded a multibillion-dollar deal by a group of nine wealthy nations last year to work on reducing its use of coal, it agreed to regularly consult with nongovernmental organizations.

Instead, the government has arrested several prominent environmentalists from those organizations who shaped policies that helped secure the funding, prompting concerns over sending money to countries that have violated human rights.

As the country prepares to announce how it will spend the money at the United Nations climate talks that begin on Thursday, activists are saying that Vietnamese officials need to be held accountable for what they are calling a harsh crackdown against those who speak out about the country’s environmental woes.

Ngo Thi To Nhien, the director of an energy think tank, was the sixth environmental campaigner to be detained in the past two years.

She had met with officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in March to discuss a plan for the climate deal, the Just Energy Transition Partnership, an effort among the United States, Japan and other developed countries to persuade developing economies to abandon coal. The nine nations had announced in December that Vietnam would receive $15.5 billion in grants and loans in exchange for a commitment to renewable energy.

Ms. Nhien, 48, never got the chance to see Vietnam present the plan. She was arrested in September and remains in a detention center on a charge of “appropriating documents of agencies and organizations.”

The other five who were detained were charged with tax evasion, which rights groups say are trumped-up accusations in response to their advocacy. Four were tried in closed hearings that lasted less than a day each, and given jail time, punishments more severe than the norm. While two activists have since been released, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said in September that the “prosecutions and the arbitrary application of restrictive legislation are having a chilling effect” on environmentalists in Vietnam.

Activists and academics say that Vietnam appears to be emboldened by its growing importance to the West and has taken the opportunity to clamp down, knowing there will be few repercussions. The country has presented itself as an increasingly important geopolitical player, and one of the few Southeast Asian nations that has publicly pushed back against China. President Biden visited Vietnam in September, elevating ties to a new strategic relationship that he said would “be a force for prosperity and security in one of the most consequential regions in the world.”

(President Biden and Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at a welcome ceremony in Hanoi in September)

“We’re dealing with a juggernaut,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “They have run the table on the international community, and they’re continuing to do so.”

He pointed to Vietnam’s invitation to the Group of 7 summit this year, its inclusion on the Human Rights Council and now the funding from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, despite the country’s troubling human rights record.

Since 2016, when Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, was re-elected, the space for civil society has shrunk immensely. The country has the second-highest number of political prisoners in Southeast Asia, with more than 160 people currently detained for exercising their basic rights, according to Human Rights Watch.

The authorities in Vietnam have long persecuted people who are viewed as overt threats to one-party rule. But Mr. Trong’s administration has gone much further, targeting people who were previously given some room to operate.

Vietnam rejects any suggestions that the prosecutions are politically motivated. Pham Thu Hang, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese foreign ministry, said last month that the environmentalists’ cases were “investigated, prosecuted and tried in accordance with the provisions of Vietnam law.”

(An electric vehicle charging station in a Hanoi parking garage. Nine wealthy nations announced in December that Vietnam would be the recipient of funding to facilitate its energy transition)

All six ran organizations that were outspoken about the country's environmental problems. That advocacy ultimately put them on a collision course with the Communist Party.

Their detentions are a signal that the government wants the energy transition to be carried out on its own terms and not on the advice of groups they have long deemed suspicious, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a research organization in Singapore.

On the day Ms. Nhien was detained, Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, criticized foreign donors who had funded policy research, saying they had directed groups to publish reports with “one-sided, negative content, tarnishing the situation of the country and the people of Vietnam.”

Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse that is home to nearly 99.5 million people, is the ninth-largest coal consumer globally. In 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh vowed that the country would phase out coal consumption by 2040.

(A coal company in Quang Ninh Province, in northeast Vietnam. The country is the ninth-largest coal consumer globally)

The Just Energy Transition Partnership was first awarded to South Africa in 2021 as part of an effort by wealthy countries to address longstanding inequities in tackling climate change. Activists now see Vietnam as a litmus test for future agreements. Should other repressive governments be given billions of dollars? Should there be specific requirements for countries that receive funding but have poor human rights records?

Several countries behind the climate deal have expressed concern about the detentions in Vietnam, but rights groups say those nations need to predicate their financial support on the release of the environmentalists or a pledge from the government that there will not be additional arrests. So far, the countries have been unwilling to do so, said Ben Swanton, a director at The 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights issues in Vietnam.

(Dang Dinh Bach, 45, ran a law and policy research center before he was arrested in 2021.)

In one of the harshest penalties in Vietnam for someone convicted of tax evasion, Dang Dinh Bach, 45, was given a five-year sentence in January 2022. He ran a law and sustainable development policy research center that provided legal aid to communities.

Mr. Bach refused to plead guilty. Tran Phuong Thao, his wife, said that she was not allowed to attend his trial and that he has been assaulted in prison by police officers.

“People like my husband have made great efforts to support the government and give suggestions on energy transition policies,” Ms. Thao said.

The arrest of Ms. Nhien, the think tank director, was particularly unusual because she was not a government critic. She led the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, the first group in the country to specialize in energy transition.

A former civil servant, Ms. Nhien had worked as a consultant at the World Bank and the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership, a program managed by a U.N. infrastructure agency. She championed policymaking based on scientific evidence and was invited in May to speak to the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam. In June 2020, she organized a workshop on integrating renewable energy sources into the country’s grid, presenting information from the state electricity utility.

That was enough to make her a target. On Sept. 15, four days after Mr. Biden left Vietnam, she was detained. The Ministry of Public Security pointed to the workshop as evidence of her “appropriating internal documents.”

Two weeks later, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 51, one of Vietnam’s best-known environmentalists, to three years in prison for tax evasion.

(Hoang Thi Minh Hong, one of Vietnam’s best-known environmentalists, was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion)

Ms. Hong’s husband, Hoang Vinh Nam, called his wife’s trial a sham and said the tax department did not send anyone to testify against her. When her peers started being arrested two years ago, Ms. Hong called the tax bureau to ask whether she owed anything and was assured that she did not, he said.

In December, Ms. Hong decided to shut down her environmental nonprofit, citing government pressures. She was arrested in May.

#cc

[tomorrowusa]

« If we’re putting out something positive about Democrats, it’s both more interesting and more persuasive to voters if we remember to say, ‘and Republicans stand for the opposite’. It’s so obvious but it really requires intentionality and that ball is often dropped. Those are the two low-hanging fruit things that if we get some attention, let’s not waste our attention by misfiring. »

— Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), quoted at The Guardian.

It's not enough to tell voters that inflation has fallen and that unemployment is close to historical lows. We need to get the message out that Trump would derail the recovery.

Trump's horribly botched handling of the outbreak of COVID-19 not only cost hundreds of thousands of lives sent the economy into recession in 2020.

That Guardian article by David Smith points out..

The PCCC’s research shows that Democrats can drive a contrast over taxing the wealthy to boost social security. The statement “Billionaires and other wealthy Americans should have to pay social security taxes at the same rate as other Americans” has support from 79% of independent voters. Furthermore, the assertion that “Democrats support increasing taxes on billionaires and support increasing funding for programs like social security” gives the party an 11-percentage point lead. While adding a second sentence – “Republicans are pushing to cut taxes on billionaires and are pushing to cut funding for programs like social security” – doubles the advantage to 22 percentage points.

Don't wait for ads or speeches to describe the gap in Social Security taxes to people who are unaware of it. If filthy rich billionaires paid their fair share we wouldn't be hearing talk about Social Security going bankrupt.

Over Thanksgiving, don't let your blowhard MAGA uncle spew crap about the economy.

The truth is that all US recessions except one since the Korean War began under Republican administrations. That includes the Great Recession started under George W. Bush (it was his second recession).

#the economy #republicans #recessions are a republican thing #raise social security taxes on billionaires #donald trump #trump tanked the economy in 2020 #covid-19 pandemic #adam green #progressive change campaign committee #election 2024

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Barry Blitt :: the New Yorker

* * * *

1. Strong economy belies Trump's predictions, leads to meltdown

During the 2020 campaign, Trump predicted the economy would crash under a Biden presidency. Instead, it has soared. Having lost the economy as an issue on which Trump can attack Biden, Trump has instead decided that the strong economy is because of him! See The Hill, Trump claims credit for record-high stock market under Biden.

In a sign of Trump's desperation, he wrote (in all caps),

THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET BECAUSE MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN, AND THAT WILL DRIVE THE MARKET UP.

In a brilliant move that illustrates growing confidence, the Biden campaign responded by “thanking” Trump for “lifting up” the strong performance of the economy under President Biden. See The Hill, Biden team thanks Trump for ‘lifting up’ strong economic news.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said,

“Thank you, Donald for lifting up today’s strong economic news, but on this planet, Joe Biden is the president, and is the one whose policies are helping achieve historic GDP growth, a stronger than ever stock market, and real job creation after Trump tanked our economy.”

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #strong economy #trolling TFG #Barry Blitt #The New Yorker

[republikkkanorcs]

[inqorporeal]

A bit of good news for your Wednesday morning:

The lawsuit was filed by Muslim and Christian plaintiffs against Bethel Local School District near Dayton, Ohio. The suit claimed the district consulted with attorneys who advised that, under state and federal civil rights laws, a transgender student that attends a school in the district must be permitted to use the restroom of her gender identity. The school acted based on this interpretation, and indeed, Title IX and the 14th Amendment have been interpreted by various courts to apply to transgender individuals. This includes a recent decision in neighboring Indiana.

Despite the school's adherence to this interpretation, the plaintiffs falsely argued that Title IX actually prohibits transgender students from using these restrooms. They also contended that permitting transgender students in restrooms of their gender identity and including LGBTQ+ educational materials infringes on their religious liberty to have "transgender free bathrooms," a phrase taken directly from the ruling. The judge disagreed and dismissed the lawsuit on both merits and standing.

As good as it is to see most such lawsuits get smacked down like the rubbish they are --

Across the United States, a multitude of similar lawsuits are progressing through the courts. Even though the vast majority are consistently rejected, it only requires one judge in an unfavorable circuit to drastically alter the landscape of transgender rights. Anti-trans plaintiffs remain determined to find that judge. For now, however, the transgender community can celebrate another courtroom victory in a year marked by several such triumphs. This provides a glimmer of hope for the future among a year filled with harsh anti-trans legislation.

-- It still blows my fucking mind that with things as bad as they are with corporate greed tanking the economy and actual fascism on the rise, we're wasting precious judicial time whining over who gets access to necessary facilities, and thus who gets to exist in public. This is not normal. IT'S NOT NORMAL. It's people trying to wield local laws like a weapon against one or two or three individuals at a time. Fucking outrageous. Have these people nothing better to do with their time?

#transgender #transphobia #terfs get autoblocked

[reddragonblacklotus]

[alisaint]

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in Cuba in recent days, furious over the lack of food and electricity. With chants of "hunger" and "we want food," the demonstrations have centered in Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-biggest city, and surrounding towns in the southeastern area of the island. They are the biggest anti-government protests since 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets, triggering a massive crackdown by the state. Since then, the economic situation has deteriorated further, and analysts say the crisis is the worst in at least three decades. Claribel, 58, a resident of Santiago, says hardly a day goes by when there aren't at least five hours of power outages. Food is in such short supply that her 2-year-old great-nephew is being fed juice instead of milk. Public transportation has dried up because of a lack of fuel. "The situation here is horrible," Claribel says. "To live in Cuba is a tragedy." NPR is withholding her last name for her safety. Cuba's economy began tanking during the pandemic, when international tourism plummeted and inflation soared. During that same period, former President Donald Trump imposed a range of sanctions on Cuba after re-designating the country a "state sponsor of terrorism." But conditions in the country have rapidly spiraled in recent months, especially in poorer regions outside of the capital of Havana. Fuel prices have increased five-fold since the beginning of March. The cost of public transportation has also soared, to the extent there is any. The Cuban government suspended all sports tournaments because of a lack of transportation. Blackouts have become a constant. The communist government — which uses a rationing system to provide a certain amount of food per household — has even started limiting its allocations of bread to children and pregnant women. Some analysts say conditions are worse than the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a time known as the Special Period. "I was a kid but I recall that during the Special Period we got a ration of bread daily. Every Cuban. Not this time," says Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist at American University in Washington, D.C. He says Cuba's problems, from food shortages to power outages, are the result of the country's massive financial deficit and lack of money to pay for imports. Dilapidated power plants have shut down and there's not enough fuel to power those still working. "Around 95% of Cuba's electricity is produced by power plants that burn oil. Fuel oil, diesel, even crude oil. So if you don't have the fuel, you cannot operate the plants," Torres says. In other words, he says, there's "no fuel, no electricity."

For more than two decades, Cuba relied on oil-rich Venezuela — a political ally — for crude and fuel in exchange for sending doctors and school teachers to the South American country. But as Venezuela's oil production plummeted in recent years, so did its generosity toward Cuba. Russia is now believed to be sending a large oil tanker to help the island amid the shortage, according to news reports citing a researcher at University of Texas who closely tracks shipping to Cuba. Cuba's president said in a statement his government will address protesters' concerns, but also denounced "enemies of the revolution" for trying to destabilize the country and accused the U.S. of stoking the protests. A spokesperson for the Cuban government blamed the economic crisis on decades-old U.S. sanctions that have complicated the island's purchase of fuel and food. That's partially true, says Johanna Cilano Pelaez, a researcher with Amnesty International. "But it's irresponsible to blame U.S. sanctions alone for the state of the Cuban economy," she says. For now, the Cuban government's response to the protests has been relatively subdued compared to 2021, when hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and some sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. While authorities have detained some protesters in recent days, they have also given out extra rice, milk and sugar in an effort to appease the growing outcry. In Santiago de Cuba, Claribel says Cubans' anger and frustration are beginning to outweigh their fear of government retaliation. "The people aren't going to back down," Claribel says. "If there hadn't been protests, we would still be without rice and chicken." When she heads out to demonstrate, she plans to bring her grandchildren. "They can't touch the children," she says.

#cuba #pol #long post #the last statement made me go 🤨 bc they very much did touch the children last time as in the military literally used them #as human shields lol but. i understand what she means and the general sentiment.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

That collapse resulted in an impressive 19% reduction in the EU’s power sector emissions. What’s more, for the first time, wind power, which grew by 18%, surpassed gas, which only accounted for 17% of Europe’s electricity.

Wind and solar power are now taking center stage. Together, they hit a new high, generating 27% of the EU’s electricity in 2023. Solar covered 9% of the EU’s electricity needs. With hydroelectric power also bouncing back, renewables reached a record 44% share of the EU’s power mix(..)

The takeaway? The EU’s energy landscape is transforming fast, driven by the need for clean power and the urgency of the climate crisis. Coal and gas are on their way out, and renewables are stepping up.

P.S. Very good news: Europe is restoring energy independence and security! The dependence of the European economy on fossil fuel exporters is actually decreasing. The defeat of the Russians and Trump, Moscow's ally, is fairly certain to be expected in the long term...Because of European military security issues, it is important to decouple the economies of European countries from the political whims of dictatorial regimes overseas...

#Europe #renewable energy #solar power #demise of big oil #russian defeat #trump's defeat #energy independence