20250311

James Carville 'It’s the Economy Stupid'

  • Heather Cox Richardson – Letters from an American – March 10, 2025

    According to MarketWatch, this is the worst start to a presidential term since 2009, when the country was in the subprime mortgage crisis. Trump did not inherit an economy mired in crisis, of course; he inherited what was, at the time, the strongest economy in the world. That booming economy is no more: Goldman is now predicting higher inflation and slower growth than it had previously forecast, while its forecast for Europe is now stronger than it had been.

    Trump has always been a dodgy salesman more than anything, telling supporters what they want to hear. He insisted that the strong economy under former president Joe Biden was, in fact, a disaster that only he could fix. In October, Trump told attendees at a rally: “We will begin a new era of soaring incomes. Skyrocketing wealth. Millions and millions of new jobs and a booming middle class. We are going to boom like we’ve never boomed before.”

    That sales pitch got Trump away from the criminal cases against him and back into the White House. Now, though, he needs to make the sales pitch fit into a reality that it doesn’t match.

    According to MarketWatch, this is the worst start to a presidential term since 2009, when the country was in the subprime mortgage crisis. Trump did not inherit an economy mired in crisis, of course; he inherited what was, at the time, the strongest economy in the world. That booming economy is no more: Goldman is now predicting higher inflation and slower growth than it had previously forecast, while its forecast for Europe is now stronger than it had been.

    Trump has always been a dodgy salesman more than anything, telling supporters what they want to hear. He insisted that the strong economy under former president Joe Biden was, in fact, a disaster that only he could fix. In October, Trump told attendees at a rally: “We will begin a new era of soaring incomes. Skyrocketing wealth. Millions and millions of new jobs and a booming middle class. We are going to boom like we’ve never boomed before.”

    That sales pitch got Trump away from the criminal cases against him and back into the White House. Now, though, he needs to make the sales pitch fit into a reality that it doesn’t match.

    Trump Goes on Insane Truth Social Posting Spree as Stock Market Freefalls
    The president posted over 100 times in the span of six hours.
    While investors watched in horror as the stock market plunged on Monday as a result of President Donald Trump’s sprawling trade wars, he was busy reposting praise for his administration on Truth Social.

    The president posted over a hundred times between noon and 6 p.m. on Monday while the Nasdaq fell 4 percent, marking its worst day since 2022. The S&P 500 dropped almost 3 percent.

    Is the US heading for recession

    This sudden collapse in optimism should set off alarm bells. American consumption is a huge driver of US economic growth and if you damage that then you hurt the US economy. That is exactly what US tariffs might do.

    Consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 per cent of US GDP, so a sustained dip in confidence could quickly translate into weaker demand, slower growth, and possibly even a recession.
    U.S. Consumer Confidence

    Maybe the Sleepy President Wasn’t So Bad!
    When Trump said he would lower costs, we didn’t realize he meant the cost of stocks.

    Bill Bramhall March 11 2025 - It's Transitory

    Bring Back Sleepy Joe
    I’m not sure how much longer America can take this.

    2024 Aug 5 - DJT - Truth

    The Trumpcession
    The U.S. economy can absorb a hit or even a few. But can it withstand a barrage of destabilizing factors?

  • Reducing the IRS Could Cost Taxpayers Billions & Why Swearing is Good for You

    Men of the woods and lumberjacks,
    They judged me by their appropriate tool.
    Except as a fellow handled an ax
    They had no way of knowing a fool.

    from Robert Frost’s poem “Two Tramps in Mud Time”

    lumberjacks sawing beams

    We have handed over the country to billionaires based solely on their ability to make money without ever questioning how they made that money (ethical business practices?) or what the correlation between making cars, selling oil, or leasing your name to buildings is to defending democracy, respecting other points of view, understanding a complex judicial system, etc. Many of the qualities that make a person successful in business are the opposite of what is needed in government. This is how we end up with an arsonist administration whose strategy is to set a dozen dumpster fires to distract us. While we’re busy putting each fire out, they sneakily expand their power—and wealth.

  • Ex-Facebook employee alleges sexual harassment and human rights failures in new memoir
    The book by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former New Zealand diplomat, addresses Facebook’s impact on democracy during a crucial period in the company’s history.
    Joel Kaplan, Mark Zuckerberg, Sarah Wynn-Williams

  • Why Trumpers are turning on Amy Coney Barrett
    MAGA cultists won’t tolerate anything short of total fealty.
    Coney Barrett at Trump’s speech to Congress last week.
    Let’s just get this out of the way: you do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

    Barrett, after all, was installed on the Supreme Court for the sole purpose of helping overturn Roe v. Wade — a smug little move that ensured a female justice joined the men in eradicating bodily autonomy for women. Lately, however, she’s broken with the MAGA majority on some things that are making her once-fervent backers furious.

  • The MAGA plan to cripple DC
    Washington, DC

    DC is already a beautiful city and is getting safer — violent crime dropped 35% last year and is down another 27% so far this year. But any city would undoubtedly welcome federal funds to enhance beautification and public safety efforts.

    Instead of rebuilding DC, however, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are rapidly advancing a plan that would cripple the city. Tucked into a budget bill that would fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year is a provision that would devastate public schools, decimate police and fire departments, and deteriorate city services.

  • Measles Is One Of The Most Contagious Diseases On Earth
    With the Trump administration suppressing public health information, here’s what you need to know.
    Texas measles vaccination rates by county

    Kennedy Will Convene a New Health Commission in Private
    President Trump ordered the creation of the Make America Healthy Again Commission last month, taking the name from the movement led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary.

  • 15 Lessons Scientists Learned About Us When the World Stood Still
    The pandemic gave researchers a rare opportunity to study human behavior. Their work offers lessons about loneliness, remote work, high heels and more.

    1. Flu season doesn’t have to be so bad.
    2. Home-field advantage got less mysterious.
    3. Teenagers need to sleep in, but schools won’t let them.
      high heels are dangerous

    4. High heels aren’t just uncomfortable — they’re dangerous.
    5. Patients don’t always need to see a doctor in person, if at all.
    6. Women are better patients than men.
    7. Not even being stuck at home makes men do more housework.
    8. Alcohol restrictions can save lives.
    9. Office workers don’t need to be chained to their desks.
    10. Computers are no replacement for classrooms.
    11. There’s a simple way to bring children out of poverty.
    12. Premature births might be prevented by taking care of moms.
    13. Dolphins talk more when people aren’t around.
    14. Trees and plants make people happier.
    15. There’s no substitute for human contact.

  • Three For Women In The Trump Era
    How We Show Up for Women When the World Looks Away
    woman on the street
    So many people ask me what they can do, how to push back, how to make a dent in the weight of this Trump administration, this era, this slow-moving catastrophe we keep waking up inside of. I tell them the same thing every time: Decide.

    Decide to do something. Anything. Because there is no single road to resistance—there are many. Some march, some write, some knock on doors, some feed the people left hungry by policies made in boardrooms far from their tables.

  • Words and Phrases We Could Do Without
    “Justice” has nothing to do with it. That department needs a new name.

    The motto on the Department of Justice seal, “Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur,” translates to “Who prosecutes on behalf of Lady Justice.”

    But…wait.

    The acting D.C. U.S. attorney Ed Martin recently insisted he and lawyers in his office are “Trump’s lawyers.” (At least he’s honest?)

    In the Musk-Trump regime, the Justice Department is not acting as the people’s lawyers or acting in the interests of the legal system writ large. On the contrary, Trump’s systematic attack on the apolitical norms and ethical guides that govern all prosecutors has been nothing short of jaw-dropping.
    justice overturned
    The basic obligations of prosecutors are spelled out under the American Bar Association standards, which reads, in part: “The primary duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice within the bounds of the law, not merely to convict.” Moreover, notwithstanding Martin’s assertion, “The prosecutor serves the public interest and should act with integrity and balanced judgment to increase public safety both by pursuing appropriate criminal charges of appropriate severity, and by exercising discretion to not pursue criminal charges in appropriate circumstances.”

  • Trump’s Crackdown on “Antisemitism” is Making Jews Less Safe
    The Trump administration’s cynical use of antisemitism to justify a crackdown will endanger many Jews.
    release Mahmoud Khalil
    The Trump administration says it’s fighting antisemitism. It’s really fighting Columbia University.

    “This phenomenon is very real,” Ilan Goldenberg, former national director of Jewish outreach of the Harris-Walz campaign, told me. American Jews are concerned. Some campuses do have real problems, and there are some students who cross the line into antisemitism. “But this is just not going to solve that problem.”

    For one thing, it immediately takes resources from Jewish students, who are also at these universities. There is no way to bring a university to its knees without taking all of its students, including the Jewish ones, along with you. “People are going to suffer as a result of this,” said Goldenberg. “Including students. You can’t browbeat your way out of this problem.”

    Anti-Semitism Is Just a Pretext
    It’s the Trump administration, not Columbia, that has done nothing to confront anti-Semitism in its own ranks.

  • Judge Delivers Massive Blow to DOGE Quest to Keep Everything Secret
    A federal judge has just ordered the release of DOGE records.

  • Elon Musk Finally Admits Social Security Is on the Chopping Block
    The DOGE chief has revealed his true goals in a Fox News interview.

  • Oligarchy: Trump Says People Are ‘Illegally’ Boycotting Tesla
    The expert on “collusion” with hostile powers showed his face this morning on his misnamed social media to warn you all that people are “illegally and collusively boycotting” Telsa.
    Tesla year to date stock price

  • Austin police say InfoWars reporter Jamie White possibly killed by car burglars
  • Washington Post Columnist Resigns After Paper Spiked Criticism of Jeff Bezos
    Ruth Marcus, a longtime columnist at The Post, said its publisher refused to run her critique of the new focus for the paper’s opinion section.

  • Musk calls Sen. Kelly a ‘traitor’ over trip to Ukraine, Kelly hits back
    This isn’t the first feud between Musk and the Democratic senator.

  • The Krasnov Cover-Up: How Snopes Fell for Kremlin Spin
  • Trump cuts target world-leading greenhouse gas observatory in Hawaii
    Mauna Loa

    The observatory, established in 1956 on the northern flank of the Mauna Loa volcano, is recognized as the birthplace of global carbon dioxide monitoring and maintains the world’s longest record of measurements of atmospheric CO2.

  • Two Transgender Girls, Six Federal Agencies. How Trump Is Trying to Pressure Maine Into Obedience.
  • Republicans Get Elon Relief. Dems Are Outta Luck.
  • Elon Musk and DOGE to Audit Congress by Direct Order of the President
  • A Tough Row to Hoe
    Funding rural races and spaces…

    Because if only funding flippable races was a winning model, Missouri would be blue. We would be a Democratic bastion. Instead, only funding close races has destroyed the balance of power in Missouri. Following that model, Missouri hasn’t had a Democrat elected statewide since 2018.

    We aren’t asking for sympathy. We are asking for solidarity and resources.

  • The Office That Investigates Disparities in Veterans’ Care Is Being “Liquidated”
    The closure effectively hobbles the VA’s efforts to investigate and eliminate long-standing racial inequities that the department itself has acknowledged. “The consequences will be dire, wide-reaching and deadly,” an advocate for Black veterans said.

  • What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: ‘Transgender Mice’ Research
    Or did President Trump actually mean “transgenic,” which is definitely not the same thing.

  • Trump’s Call to Scrap ‘Horrible’ Chip Program Spreads Panic
    The president’s attack on the key tenet of the Biden administration’s industrial policy has set off concerns that he may claw back its funding.
    Intel construction site in Chandler AZ

    Republican lawmakers had sought and received reassurances over the past few months that the Trump administration would support the program Congress created. But halfway through Mr. Trump’s remarks, he called the law a “horrible, horrible thing.”

  • E.P.A. Plans to Close All Environmental Justice Offices
    An internal memo directs the closure of offices designed to ease the heavy pollution faced by poor and minority communities.
    The decision comes after the E.P.A.’s administrator, Lee Zeldin (center), canceled hundreds of grants this week, many of them designated for environmental justice
    Mr. Zeldin’s move effectively ends three decades of work at the E.P.A. to try to ease the pollution that burdens poor and minority communities, which are frequently located near highways, power plants, industrial plants and other polluting facilities. Studies have shown that people who live in those communities have higher rates of asthma, heart disease and other health problems, compared with the national average.