by Rod Williams, Sept. 7, 2024- Was Churchill the chief villain or World War II? Was he a war-mongering psychopath? Tucker Carlson's guest on Carlson's podcast, historian Darryl Cooper, alleges that he was. And what about the holocaust? Well, Germany did not plan well and ended up with all of these prisoners and killing them was more humane than letting them starve to death.
Now, it is not Carlson Tucker saying this, but he gives the guy a platform to say it and Carlson nods along and agrees and praises the guy. Tucker Carlson is promoting a revisionist view of history that makes Hitler and Germany the victims of WWII. To watch the complete video featuring Darryl Cooper click the image on the right.
The Republican Party has a problem that goes beyond Donald Trump. Tucker Carlson is many a Republican's favorite pundit. He was a featured speaker at the recent Republican convention. This is shameful. In my view, Tucker Carlson should be Persona non grata among Republicans or any gathering of decent people.
Certainly, Tucker Carlson and Darryl Cooper should and do have the right to posit any vision of history they want. I watched the full episode and found much of it informative and thought provoking. I do not think Carlson's views should be banned from media platforms, but these views should not be embraced by Republicans. Tucker Carlson is deplorable and should be treated as such.
You may recall that a few months ago, Carlson went to Russia and conducted a softball interview of Vladimer Putin, where Putin was allowed to justify his invasion of Ukraine. That is the same episode in which Carlson gushed with admiration because Russian grocery stores have fresh bread and modern shopping carts. Tucker Carlson has let it be known that he is taking the side of Russia in the Ukrainian conflict.
That the Republican Party is inclusive of people like Carlson and various conspiracy theorist and nutjobs and bigots is a problem. Certainly, we can engage in whataboutism. The Democratic Party has shown itself to be tolerant of Marxism and various extremist and nutjobs. The Dems have their own deplorables and the Party embraces them and includes them, but that is not a justification for Republicans to do likewise.
By Jon Styf, The Center Square, Sep 4, 2024 - The Tennessee Star published the full 90-page journal of the person who shot and killed three children and three school staff at Nashville’s Covenant School in March 2023.
The shooter, a female who identified as a male, was shot and killed by responding police officers.
Tennessee Star Editor Michael Patrick Leahy was part of a public records lawsuit seeking to release the journals. He was called into court regarding the publication of stories regarding the journals by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l'Ashea Myles but was not held in contempt for those stories.
Myles later ruled that Metro Nashville Police could not release those records. But Leahy, whose publication received the journal from a confidential source, published the full journal this week.
The journal and a spiral notebook were found in the shooter’s vehicle the day of the shooting. “We have had a First Amendment right to publish these unredacted documents from the moment we legally obtained them,” Leahy said in a statement. Leahy and the Tennessee Star appealed Myles’ ruling on July 31.
Leahy explained that the Tennessee Star waited to publish the complete journal until now because the publication was first waiting for Myles 'ruling and funding for potential legal defense if Myles were to resurrect claims against him.
He also wrote that there is a copyright claim on the writings and has hired legal representation in case those claims are brought against the Tennessee Star.
“We consider the ownership claim to be dubious at best and the copyright claim to be without merit,” Leahy wrote. “We also believe that the fair use doctrine would prohibit the successful litigation of any copyright infringement claim that might be brought against us for publishing this journal.”
By Jon Styf, The Center Square, Sep 5, 2024 - Molson Coors was the latest this week to change its corporate policies after receiving communication from Tennessee’s Robby Starbuck.
Molson Coors told employees it would end participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, end training for diversity, equity and inclusion, end donations to division events, end supplier diversity goals, end employee resources groups aimed at specific groups and end executive and employee compensation goals tied to DEI.
“Our campaigns are so effective that we’re getting multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies without me even posting just from the fear they have of being the next company that we expose,” Starbuck wrote.
The Molson Coors changes came after Lowe’s and Ford announced similar recent changes in response to Starbuck.
Jack Daniel’s, Indian Motorcycle, Polaris, Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Tractor Supply also made corporate statements on how the companies would shift policies to limit or eliminate DEI priorities in response to Starbuck.
Starbuck was a 2022 Republican write-in candidate in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District after being removed from the ballot by the Tennessee Republican Party.
by Rod Williams, Sept. 5, 2024- I have not seen it yet, as I have been engaged in other activity rather than reading news today, but I bet it is out there. I would bet that the Trumpinistas are going to frame the indictment of two employees of RT as itself an assault on democracy. They are going to allege that this is part of the weaponization of the Justice Department to intimidate and silence conservatives.
Yesterday two employees of RT, formerly Russia Today, where indited in a $10 million plan to create and distribute pro-Russian content to U.S. audiences on conservative media. The conservative media organization involved is Tenet Media which creates content or is associated with several fringe conservative bloggers and influencers. The two RT employees are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted they could serve prison terms of up to 30 years.
I can understand why Russia would use conservative media to spread their message. Large parts of what passes for conservative today is pro-Russian. Trump has had nice things to say about Putin and has said he would end the Ukraine War on day one. The only way Trump could end the way is by forcing Ukraine to capitulate. It is in Russia's interest that Trump win this election.
While the commentators involved are people I have never heard of before this, they have large followings on media like Tic Tock and YouTube, and their viewers tend to be young men. Unfortunately, this alternative media is where a lot of people, especially young people get their news. Young men is a demographic that has been receptive to the most radical or right-wing messaging and most ready to believe weird conspiracies. This is a demographic in which Trump leads. With a very close election, small slices of the electorate matter a lot.
Many Trump supporters are going to see the inditement of the two RT employees as an attempt to tie Trump to Russian spies and as a smear. They are also going to allege that it is an attack on the First Amendment and a free press. It is not.
None of the political commentators involved have been charged with a crime. No one is prohibited from praising Putin. However, if you accept Russian money to do Russia's bidding you must register as foreign agent.
by Andrew Couts and Tim Marchman, Wired, Sep 4, 2024 - A Tennessee-based media network that produces shows for high-profile right-wing influencers such as Benny Johnson and Tim Pool was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT, according to a federal indictment against two RT employees that the US Department of Justice unsealed on Wednesday. The DOJ claims the US company—which WIRED, along with other news outlets, was able to identify as Tenet Media but goes unnamed in the indictment—posted hundreds of videos on social media that pushed Kremlin-approved talking points.
... Tenet Media’s network includes online creators known for their right-wing politics, including Johnson, Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern. ... In addition to the followings of the network’s individual creators, which collectively number in the millions, Tenet Media itself boasts more than 315,000 followers on YouTube and thousands more across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok. ... Tenet allegedly received some $9.7 million from RT, according to the DOJ. Of that, $8.7 million went to the production companies of three unnamed commentators, the indictment claims. ... Tenet Media allegedly included instructing the company to post pro-Russian viewpoints, such as pushing a conspiracy theory that Ukraine and the US were responsible for a March terrorist attack at a music venue in Moscow. (read it all)
By Dan McLaughlin. National Review, September 2, 2024 -The New York Times is at it again. Book critic Jennifer Szalai published a long essay with the inflammatory title and subhead of “The Constitution Is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous? One of the biggest threats to America’s politics might be the country’s founding document.” It’s the usual collection of gripes about the functioning of the Electoral College and the Senate, of the sort that feature regularly in Democratic and media tantrums when they don’t get their way; willful misunderstandings of the motivations and methods of originalism; and arguments that the Constitution is hopelessly tainted by slavery — arguments that rest on a fair amount of mythologizing about how we got the Electoral College. (read it all)
by Rod Williams, Sept. 2, 2024- My social life has taken a nosedive since I came out as a never-Trumper.
I used to go to almost every Republican or conservative event taking place in Nashville. Now, I often feel like a whore in church when going to such events. I now am much more selective.
However, I am going to go to this one. After all, it has free food. I expect every childish insult Trump hurls will be met with laughs and cheers, but I want to actually see the reaction of the room myself. If I get there and just can't take it, I can always leave.
If you decide to go, look for me. I will be the one not wearing a red baseball cap.
by Richard Upchurch, Aug. 31, 2024- Trump and Trumpism seem something very remarkable in the large picture of American politics. We have seen the fanatical zeal he is able to elicit, and does elicit, to a widely varying extent among about half of our fellow citizens--- a wild devotion that produced the mass action of Jan. 6, '21. It is not his policy proposals or judicial appointments, carefully propounded to entice traditionalists and conservatives, that have to concern those of us who want to keep our constitution, but rather it is the absolute and unquestionable political power he has achieved in so short a time, and the total transformation of the Republican Party, such that his thumb down can end immediately what had been a long and productive career. A power that has transformed senators formerly of at least middling integrity into fawning sycophants lest they be primaried out of their offices by an electorate who seem totally carried away by the personal charisma of this man. In world history this is no novel phenomenon.
We saw something like it in Europe a century ago. We saw what the power of the Strong Man and the neediness of the masses for the kind of leadership he seemed to offer could produce. We may want to think such things could not happen here. But I'm afraid such things could. And even a small chance such things might happen here is far too big a chance to take.
seems a master of using the modern media---media of new and extraordinary power and pervasiveness--- to persuade, and of tailoring his message so that for many, including people like me who hold to some traditionalist or conservative views, he seems to be making us an offer we can't refuse.
What is dangerous, it seems to me, is his apparent intent to challenge any institution or authority that lies in his personal way, and even more dangerous, the willingness, even the fervent desire, of such a high percentage of the electorate to follow him, even when challenge means defiance of the law. To challenge the validity of the electoral system, framed so carefully and with such profound wisdom and accurate foresight as it was by the founders, and to challenge the validity of the judiciary including many judges he had himself appointed, and to challenge the constitutional transfer of power, as Trump clearly did by allowing his followers to disrupt traditional congressional ceremony of the transfer of power, and to be followed or at least approved by so many of the pubic---these certainly express a kind of strength, but not strength in supporting the Constitution.
If our Constitution, our congress and our judiciary were indeed corrupt and in need of being changed, we might need to be revolutionaries, as our Declaration lays out so vividly that we should be if such were the case. But I do not see any evidence whatsoever to support Trump's rebellion against our electoral, judicial and legislative systems. I don't see any evidence, not even the least bit, that his rebellious gestures and rhetoric are an any way justifiable. It now seems fairly clear to me that Trump is indeed a leader of strength and charisma, alright, but that he uses his strength and charisma not to support the Constitution but rather to support his own personal appetite for power. Scariest of all is the great numbers of citizen voters who seem to want to follow him, and give him what he wants.
Richard Upchurch is a scholar and a philosopher who lives in Nashville. The above essay is from a Facebook post. To see the full thread of this discussion including comments justifying Trumpism from some Trump supporters and replies from Richard and other Trump critics, follow this link.
by Rod Williams, Aug. 25, 2024- If you care about local government or are interested in topics like planning and zoning, crime and public safety, transit and traffic, affordable housing, public safety, local taxation, urban sprawl, parks and public art and amenities, or other topics relating to "urbanism" you may be interested in attending this monthly get together.
I have been attending these meetings for about five months. I am really impressed by the depth of knowledge of those participating. Some of the participants have professional experience or education in the fields being discussed and others are self-educated experts. A wide variety of informed opinion is on display at these gatherings.
If this sounds like something that may interest you, please join us. The Copper Branch is the cafe in the Main Library building. Discounted parking is available at the library public parking garage.
by Rod Williams, Aug. 29, 2024- Donald Trump is getting worse and he is no longer trying to hide what he is or what he plans to do. He is no longer speaking in code or making ambiguous statement open to interpretation. Early on and for a long time, a lot of Trump's more offensive utterances could be excused as just his schtick.
When I would express concern about some of Trump's more bombastic or offensive utterances, my Trump supporting friends would simply dismiss it with a comment such as, "Oh, he was just being funny." Or, "Surely you know he was just exaggerating; don't take him so seriously."
When Q-Anon took part in the January 6th attack on the Capitol or otherwise showed their support for Trump, my Trump supporting friends would dismiss any Trump connection and say that Q-Anon was weird but would assert that Trump had nothing to do with Q-Anon.
When Trump said he would be your retribution and would launch investigations of his opponents, this did not concern a lot of Trump supporters because they saw the Trump prosecutions as politically motivated and thought Trump getting even was justified.
I visit Donald Trump every day on his Truth Social. He has always posted a lot of offensive stuff, such as name calling and outlandish claims of his critic's malfeasance. Now, he is reposting Q-Anon memes. Now is calling for jailing his critic.
"Nothing Can Stop What is Coming," is a Q-Anon phrase signaling that it is inevitable that the Deep State and its collaborators will soon be arrested and punished. Trump repost several variations of this message.
Trump is also reposting memes calling for military tribunals aimed at Barack Obama and the meme calls on viewers to repost if they agree.
Trump also post a meme calling for imprisonment of his opponents and a meme calling for the inditement of the January 6th committee members for sedition.
This should scare you. This cannot be excused. This is not funny. This is not normal. This is a call for an end to democracy.
By Jon Styf | The Center Square, Aug 27, 2024 - Tennessee’s Secretary of State and Legislative leaders pushed back against a Memphis referendum regarding firearms regulations.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett told media outlets he would not allow the measures to reach the Nov. 5 ballot and Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins reportedly sent a letter to Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Mark Luttrell saying the same.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Cameron Sexton threatened to withhold shared state sales tax from Memphis is the referendum were on the Nov. 5 ballot.
“Local govt’s who want to be progressive & evade state laws will lose shared sales tax funding,” Sexton wrote. “Subversive attempts to adopt sanctuary cities, allow boys in girl’s sports, limit 2A rights or other attempts will be met with stiff resistance. We hope they change course immediately.”
Memphis received $78 million in shared sales tax last budget year, State Affairs reported.
House Minority Leader Karen Camper said that Shelby County brought in $2 billion in state sales tax last year.
The ballot questions ask about preventing individuals from carrying a handgun without a permit, banning the sale or possession of “assault rifles” in most cases with some exceptions and the addition of extreme risk protection orders, often referred to as red flag laws.
The ballot initiatives conflict with state law, which allows for permitless carry, monitoring firearm sales and prevents red flag laws.
“These proposals represent the will of the people, and their intent is clear: to protect and enhance the safety of our communities,” Camper wrote to Sexton and Lieutenant Gov. Randy McNally. “Threatening to punish an entire county for exercising its democratic right is not only unprecedented but sets a dangerous precedent.”
State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, believes the state should allow citizens to have their voices heard on the referendum.
"A city holding a referendum so that the people can speak does not break state law," Parkinson said. "To have the threat of Memphis' portion of sales taxes withheld because they made a choice to 'hear' the thoughts of their citizens on a state policy that is harmful to their communities is counter productive to say the least. We can do better."
By Jon Styf, The Center Square, Aug. 28, 2024 - Tennessee conservative activist Robby Starbuck has continued to impact corporate policies on diversity, equity and inclusion and donations to pride events, most recently at companies such as Lowe’s, Jack Daniel’s, Indian Motorcycle and Polaris.
Starbuck previously made public policies at Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Tractor Supply that led to corporate statements on how the companies would shift policies to limit or eliminate DEI priorities.
This week, Lowe’s made a statement that it would stop participation in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index along with stopping donations to pride events and ending its employee resource groups, which separate employees with specific characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender to provide corporate resources.
On Wednesday, Starbuck said that Ford did the same, ending involvement in HRC's index, pride donations and vowing that ERC groups will be focused on business. Ford also said that it does not have supplier or dealership quotas.
“We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose,” Starbuck wrote. “We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America.”
Starbuck said that he was tipped off that Lowe’s was a company to look into after a pair of employees from Lowe’s DEI team visited his LinkedIn profile.
The Lowe’s changes were announced a week after Starbuck messaged its corporate leadership regarding the company’s corporate policies.
Starbuck was a 2022 Republican write-in candidate in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District after being removed from the ballot by the Tennessee Republican Party.
Jack Daniel’s parent company Brown-Forman recently announced changes in its company, just as Starbuck said he was about to write about the company’s policies but after he had gone through many employee LinkedIn pages, meaning they received notification he was looking at their pages.
Jack Daniel’s also left the HRC Corporate Equality Index along with announcing that executive and employee bonuses and goals would be tied to business performance and not DEI and it would end specific training that Starbuck described as “woke.”
by John H. Cochrane, The Grumpy Economist, Aug. 20, 2024- ... What is price gouging and how could I possibly say that? The classic case of “price gouging” happens in a natural disaster or pandemic. A hurricane is coming, people run down to hardwares stores and clean out the 4’x8’ plywood to board up their windows. Stores raise their prices, people who have them sell at high prices to those that don’t. After the storm, gas trucks can’t get in for a few days. Gas stations raise prices to $10 per gallon. In the pandemic, people got worried about toilet paper and went out to buy, cleaning out shelves. Stores that raised prices were accused of “gouging.”
Price gouging is fundamentally different from monopoly pricing, collusion, or price-fixing. Price gouging happens in perfectly competitive markets. There suddenly isn’t enough to go around, either from a surge in demand or a contraction in supply. Prices rise sharply above what people are used to paying. Those that have inventories, bought when prices were lower, can turn around and make a temporary profit. ...
Price gouging is wonderful for all the reasons that letting supply equals demand is wonderful. ... Hoarding goes with price controls, anticipated empty shelves. Why did people buy tons of toilet paper in the pandemic? They were worried about not being able to get it in the future. ...
Laws limiting price gouging also reduce supply. ... “Windfall” profits belong in the pantheon of saints along with price-gouging. In competitive industries, that’s what encourages people to enter and offer new supply. ... companies are very reluctant to price-gouge. Costco let the shelves run out of toilet paper rather than raise prices. Other stores rationed: you can only have 4 rolls ... Uber surge pricing was an important lesson to me. I loved it. I could always get a car if I really needed one, and I could see how much extra I was paying and decide if I didn’t need it. I was grateful that Uber let me pay other people to postpone their trip for a while, and send a loud signal that more drivers are needed. (read it all)
Rod's Comment: This sounds familiar. Whenever I say one of Trump's proposals is just nuts, his defenders will say don't worry, he could never enact that anyway. Now Dems are using the same argument about Harris' nuttier ideas.
This card has an actual piece of the suit Trump wore during a debate
by Rod Williams, August 28, 2024 - First there was the God Bless the USA Bible, then there were the Trump sneakers; now, it is The Trump Digital Trading Cards. Please watch the above pitch. This is just bizarre. This is for real, not a parody. To view this ad on the official site, follow this link.
There are cards of Trump doing his little campaign dance that he does, there is one of him holding a Bitcoin globe, and one of him looking tough with bodybuilder biceps.
With every so many digital cards you purchase you get an actual physical card, and one of them has an actual piece of one of his suits that he wore in a debate attached to the card.
Who would want these? Maybe the same people who would buy a pet rock? No, this is weirder than paying money for a rock. No, I think this is more like someone who would pay thousands of dollars to attend a Taylor Swift concert to set in the nosebleed section of a football stadium. Or, maybe it more like the people who will send money to a faith-healer TV evangelist and get a prayer cloth in the mail.
Can you imagine Ronald Reagan doing this, or Jimmy Carter, or Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, or any former president or candidates? Trump has no dignity. I think a president should be serious and dignified. From the first time Trump appeared on the political scene, I had a hard time taking his seriously. I thought he was a reality TV star and a con man. I have referred to him as a carnival barker. I think he gives carnival barkers a bad name.
“I have worked with the Department of Law and Metro Council to introduce four pieces of legislation that boost public safety while simultaneously protecting First Amendment rights to peacefully gather and speak. Political tensions are high, and this legislation will help us discourage behavior that can spark violence. When political violence prevents government functions or creates public safety issues, we must have the tools in our toolkit to respond effectively.
The four pieces of legislation introduced include:
An ordinance to create buffer zones to maintain public safety around public buildings and parking lots
An adjustment to our mask-wearing ordinance
An ordinance prohibiting the placement of distracting signs over a highway
An ordinance prohibiting the distribution of handbills on private property before sunrise or after sunset”
by Rod Williams, August 27,2024- Nashville has been plagued by Nazis protest recently. I know the terms "Nazi," and "fascist," and "Communist" are loosely thrown around to the point that sometimes it means nothing more than "I disagree with you, and you are a bad person." I am not using the term "Nazi" as a pejorative for some people with unpopular views. These are not neo-Nazis. I am talking about real Nazis. They proudly claim they are Nazi.
They have thrown handbills around town, demonstrated in front of a synagogue, marched through streets with the Nazi flag, jeered the Black boys who bang plastic buckets on Broadway for tips, and showed up at a Metro Council meeting and spoke out of turn or somehow caused a disturbance. A lot of people are demanding something be done.
Mayor O'Connell has proposed several ordinances to counter these Nazi demonstrations. We need to be cautious.
I think back about other protest in Nashville is recent years. I was appalled that Black Lives Matter and Antifa protestors were allowed to spray paint buildings and monuments with impunity. Vandalism is already against the law, however, laws against vandalism were not enforced during those protest. The Nazis have not engaged in vandalism, but if they do, the law should be enforced, but it should have been enforced against BLM protestors also. Sometimes we do not need more laws but we need law enforcement.
During the BLM protest, protestors took to the Interstate interloop and closed it, and they staged a set-in the street on Lower Broadway blocking traffic. That should not be allowed to occur and was already against the law and since then the State has increased the severity of the punishment for blocking a State road. I support that. Closing an interstate highway, where one is trapped in a car with no way to exit is dangerous and should absolutely be prohibited. Protestors should not be allowed to close roadways. The Nazis have not done that, but we have a law to handle that if they do.
If you recall from some years ago, the Nashville version of Occupy Wallstreet, occupied legislative plaza for weeks or maybe it was month, denying its use to the public. Since then, the State has passed a law making it illegal to camp overnight on public property not designated for camping. If the Nazis go camping, we got a law to cover that.
More recently, following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, several protests occurred advocating restrictions on firearms. One occurred in the House chamber and made famous "the Tennessee Three." If you think that protest was acceptable, you should extend the same right to Nazi protestors to disrupt legislative bodies.
Students from Hume-Fogg marched from the school to the Capitol, without obtaining a permit, in order to make their anti-gun views known. I am unsure if the Hume Fogg students needed a permit or not. If we pass a law, or if we enforce a law, requiring a permit before a group can march in protest then the same law that applies to Nazis would have to apply to Hume-Fogg students protesting gun violence.
I am not sure of the legal status of covering one's face during a protest. I thought there was already a law against that and had been for a long time, originally passed targeting the Ku Klux Klan. During the BLM/Antifa riots, many of the rioters identified as Antifa covered their face. Rioter or protestors could cover their face to protect themselves from criminal liability for crimes committed during the protest or they could cover their face to intimidate. I understand the concern, but I think people should be permitted to hide their identify when protesting. In any event, if such a law applies to Nazis, it has to apply to Antifa also.
I think we have sufficient laws to regulate yet protect the right to protest. Illegally occupying building, vandalism, and closing a street are already illegal. We need to be careful in how far we go to prohibit protest. If you think pro-lifers should be permitted to protest in front of an abortion clinic, then you must support the right of Nazis to protest in front of a synagogue or pro-Palestinian students to do so too.
If you want to ban handbills from being thrown in yards, then it must apply to everyone who does it, including that guy trying to solicit your business to spray for mosquitoes. One cannot ban speech you do not like and permit speech you do. I do not trust our Metro Council to wisely consider these issues. We have seen the Councils lack of concern for free speech when it failed to approve a routine ordinance allowing a sign to overhand a sidewalk. The sign was rejected for no other reason than they did not like the person whose name was on the sign. That is not an opinion, Council members said so.
I hope that before the Council passes and the mayor proposes laws restricting speech, they will ask themselves, would I want these same restrictions to apply to BLM protest, or anti-gun violence protest, or pro-choice protest.
To read the Nashville Scene's take on this issue follow this link.
by William Kristol, The Bulwark, Aug 26, 2024- Before Kamala Harris’s convention speech fades into the mists of history, I want briefly to discuss one passage:
In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.
Harris didn’t dwell on the first point at all—that Trump is an unserious man. She did spend a fair amount of time discussing the very serious consequences of putting Trump back in the White House.
But why even mention the fact that Trump is an unserious man? Because I think the Harris campaign understands that it’s precisely Trump’s unseriousness—his showmanship, his buffoonery, his shtick—that can make it hard to appreciate just how dangerous he is. So somehow one has to stipulate Trump’s apparent unseriousness in order to get to his dangerousness. (read the rest)
by Peter Bergen, CNN, Aug. 25, 2024- Until now, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster has held his fire about his stint in the Trump White House. McMaster served with distinction in key American conflicts of the past decades: the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Afghan War, but as McMaster recounts in his new book, “At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House,” in some ways, his most challenging tour as a soldier was his last one: serving as the national security adviser to a notoriously mercurial president.
In his blistering, insightful account of his time in the Trump White House, McMaster describes meetings in the Oval Office as “exercises in competitive sycophancy” during which Trump’s advisers would flatter the president by saying stuff like, “Your instincts are always right” or, “No one has ever been treated so badly by the press.” Meanwhile, Trump would say “outlandish” things like, “Why don’t we just bomb the drugs?” in Mexico or, “Why don’t we take out the whole North Korean Army during one of their parades?”
... McMaster’s account of the Trump team is not pretty. Steve Bannon, Trump’s “chief strategist” early in the presidency, is portrayed as a “fawning court jester” who played “on Trump’s anxiety and sense of beleaguerment … with stories, mainly about who was out to get him and what he could do to ‘counterpunch.’”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis were often at odds with Trump, ... McMaster writes that Tillerson and Mattis viewed Trump as “dangerous” and seemed to construe their roles as if “Trump was an emergency and that anyone abetting him was an adversary.” Trump himself also contributed to the dysfunction: “He enjoyed and contributed to interpersonal drama in the White House and across the administration.”
.... The assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, seems to have marked a decisive break from Trump for McMaster, ... McMaster writes that in the aftermath of his 2020 electoral defeat, Trump’s “ego and love of self… drove him to abandon his oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ a president’s highest obligation.” (read it all)
By Scott Lincicome, The Atlantic, Aug. 23, 2024- Last week in North Carolina, Kamala Harris called for a new federal law to ban “price gouging on food.” Such a law might be popular, but it would have, at best, no impact on grocery prices and might even make the problem worse. That’s especially unfortunate because it distracts from all the federal policy changes that actually could reduce food prices.
The evidence that price gouging was responsible for the post-pandemic spike in food prices is somewhere between thin and nonexistent. A recent report from the New York Federal Reserve found that retail food inflation was mainly driven by “much higher food commodity prices and large increases in wages for grocery store workers,” while profits at grocers and food manufacturers “haven’t been important.” ....
... Even if excessive corporate profits had been the cause of higher food costs, a price-gouging ban would do nothing to relieve Americans’ current burdens for the simple reason that food prices long ago stopped rising. .... In reality, the grocery business has always had notoriously thin profit margins. ... the industry’s average net profit margins were just 1.18 percent in January 2024—ranking 80th of the 96 industries surveyed and lower than the margins the food industry recorded in all but one of the past six years .... As economics textbooks and centuries of experience teach us, limiting the amount that companies can charge is more likely to reduce supply by discouraging investment and production: a recipe for both shortages and higher, not lower, prices in the long term. ...
In addition to tariffs, regulatory protectionism—against imported products such as tuna, catfish, and biofuel inputs—causes more consumer pain for little health, safety, or environmental gain. ... Propping up the domestic food sector is a long-standing American tradition. (read it all)
By Jon Styf | The Center Square, Aug 16, 2024 -Beacon Center has filed a lawsuit, on behalf of the Association of Christian Schools International, to fight a new U.S. Department of Labor overtime rule that would require anyone making less than $58,000 per year as an hourly, non-exempt employee.
The previous rule had that threshold at $35,568. The new rule is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1 and includes a stipulation to increase the salary threshold every three years.
The increase came in two parts, with an increase to a threshold of $43,888 on July 1 and the increase to $58,000 on Jan. 1. Several challenges were reportedly filed before the July 1 implementation across the country as well, according to Employment Law Watch from attorneys Reed Smith LLP.
"This new rule is not only unlawful but will also have many unintended consequences,” Beacon Vice President of Legal Affairs Wen Fa said in a statement. “It threatens the livelihoods of small business owners and employees alike. Our client represents thousands of schools in the United States, and this rule will hinder their mission to provide a quality education to the students they serve."
The new rule would require 4.3 million salaried workers to be reclassified nationwide and become eligible for overtime.
The ACSI is a non-profit that has 2,500 member schools nationwide and 97 in Tennessee, where Beacon Center is based.
The ACSI schools say they are heavily impacted as the rule change will happen in the middle of the school year and financial year.
"The timing of this new rule couldn't be worse,” Fa said. “Many schools have already budgeted for the upcoming school year and are ill-equipped to deal with the 2024 rule's drastic changes. We look forward to standing with organizations and businesses in Tennessee and across the country challenging this unfair and blatantly illegal rule."
The Beacon Center lawsuit argues the new rule is similar to a 2016 overtime rule that was thrown out because its increase of the salary-level threshold made “overtime status depend predominately on a minimum salary level, thereby supplanting an analysis of an employee’s job duties.”
It also argues that the automatic threshold increase every three years violates the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice and comment requirement. In the past, threshold increases have gone through a public notice period that allows for objections.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, published July 31, 2024 -Earlier today, former President Donald Trump suggested eliminating the partial income taxation of Social Security benefits, which currently helps fund the Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust funds. Without a replacement source of revenue, we estimate repealing taxation of benefits for seniors would:
Increase deficits by $1.6 trillion to $1.8 trillion through 2035
Increase Social Security’s 75-year shortfall by 25 percent – or 0.9percent of payroll
Nearly triple the Medicare HI 75-year shortfall, increasing it by 0.6 percent of payroll
Advance the insolvency date of Social Security’s retirement trust fund by over one year
Advance the insolvency date of the Medicare HI trust fund by six years
US Budget Watch 2024 is a project of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget designed to educate the public on the fiscal impact of presidential candidates’ proposals and platforms. Throughout the election, we will issue policy explainers, fact checks, budget scores, and other analyses. We do not support or oppose any candidate for public office.
In a post on Truth Social today, President Trump declared that “SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!”
President Trump is likely referring to the fact that some Social Security benefits are currently taxed as ordinary income and have been since 1984.
Under current law, seniors that earn less than $25,000 per year ($32,000 for married couples) of “combined income” – that is adjusted gross income plus certain adjustments and half of their Social Security benefits – pay no taxes on Social Security retirement benefits. Above that amount, 50 percent of Social Security benefits are subject to income tax, with the revenue going toward the Social Security retirement trust fund. For seniors earning combined income above $34,000 per year ($44,000 for married couples), an additional 35 percent of benefits are taxable, with this revenue going toward the Medicare HI trust fund.
Although taxation of benefits has been a relatively modest source of revenue over the past 40 years, revenue collection is growing over time because Social Security benefits are getting larger and the thresholds for exempting benefits from taxation are not indexed to inflation. This year, for example, taxation of benefits is projected to raise about $94 billion.
Based on data from the Social Security and Medicare Trustees, we estimate that eliminating taxation of Social Security benefits for seniors would cut taxes and thus reduce revenues by about $1.8 trillion between Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 and 2035. This includes $1.05 trillion less in revenue collection for Social Security and $750 billion less revenue for Medicare. Based on data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the total reduction in revenue would be $1.6 trillion, with $950 billion less revenue for Social Security and $650 billion less for Medicare. In these estimates, we assume benefits for non-seniors – including those benefiting from the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program – continue to be taxed.
Effects of Ending Taxation of Social Security Benefits
Ten-Year Revenue Impact (CBO)
Ten-Year Revenue Impact (Trustees)
Effect on 75-Year Actuarial Balance
New Insolvency Date
Social Security Revenue
-$950 billion
-$1.05 trillion
-0.9% of payroll
2032 (-1 year)
Medicare HI Revenue
-$650 billion
-$750 billion
-0.6% of payroll
2030 (-6 years)
Total
-$1.6 trillion
-$1.8 trillion
N/A*
N/A
Note: Ten-year budget window is from FY 2026 through FY 2035. *Percentages of payroll are relative to the Social Security and Medicare tax bases, and thus are not additive. Sources: CRFB estimates based on Congressional Budget Office, Social Security Trustees, and Medicare Trustees data.
This revenue reduction would grow over the long run, significantly widening Social Security’s and Medicare’s 75-year actuarial imbalances. Based on Trustees’ data, we estimate the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance (OASI) trust fund imbalance would grow by roughly 25 percent – or about 0.9 percent of payroll – from 3.6 percent of taxable payroll to 4.5 percent. Meanwhile, the Medicare HI trust fund imbalance would nearly triple – increasing by 0.6 percent of payroll – from 0.35 percent of payroll to nearly 1.0 percent. This assumes the lost revenue isn’t replaced with revenue from other sources.
As a result of these changes, Social Security’s retirement trust fund would become insolvent more than one year earlier – in early 2032 instead of late 2033. Medicare’s insolvency date would advance by six years – from 2036 to 2030.
Upon insolvency, the law requires spending to be cut to match revenue. The 21 percent cut to Social Security benefits projected under current law would expand to 25 percent under this proposal. After-tax benefits would not meaningfully change – though reductions would be larger for lower income seniors and smaller for higher income seniors.
Importantly, consequences would differ if taxation of benefits were replaced with another source of revenue or offset with changes to benefits.
As the author of A Disgruntled Republican I often post items which I think may be of interest to the conservative, Republican, libertarian or the greater community. Posting of a press release or an announcement of an event does not necessarily indicate an endorsement. Rod
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