Scorching Hot
Trump's consumer tax has set producer prices on fire. The Producer Price Index increased by the most in three years in July, presaging an upturn in consumer inflation. The cost for goods and services jumped 0.9% in July, topping economists' forecasts that PPI would rise 0.2%. In the 12 months through July, the PPI increased 3.3% after advancing 2.4% in June. In only 213 days, Don the Con has wrecked the Goldilocks economy that Biden handed him.
Shocked, but Not Surprised
The “daddy” dynamic captures both the infantilization involved—looking for a strong father figure to protect them from scary changes in the world—and the way authoritarian movements depend on personal loyalty rather than institutional consistency. Daddy doesn’t need to deliver results; he just needs to make the right enemies suffer. And if he happens to embarrass America on the world stage, collaborate with adversaries, or betray fundamental values—well, that’s just daddy being daddy.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that the MAGOP budget reconciliation bill, or the Butt-Ugly Bill, will add $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. These deficits will trigger the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (S-PAYGO), which requires automatic cuts to government programs if legislation increases the budget deficit. S-PAYGO will set off $491 billion in cuts to Medicare from 2027 to 2034 in addition to the trillion dollar cuts to Medicaid. All to give the richest 1% a tax cut. (CBO)
The combination of that weird summit in Alaska with Vladimir Putin and the only slightly less bizarre gathering of NATO leaders in Washington, was the latest reminder that U.S. President Donald Trump is a terrible negotiator, a true master of the “art of the giveaway.” He doesn’t prepare, doesn’t have subordinates lay the groundwork beforehand, and arrives at each meeting not knowing what he wants or where his red lines are. He has no strategy and isn’t interested in the details, so he just wings it.
Don the Con signed another executive order making it easier to part fools from their money by allowing workplace retirement plans, like 401(k)s, to invest in alternative assets such as private equity, cryptocurrencies, and real estate.
"These funds are high-fee, risky, and opaque," said Helaine Olen of American Economic Liberties Project. "Private equity consistently underperforms the S&P 500. This is a windfall for billionaire fund managers and a disaster in the making for regular Americans trying to save for retirement.”
The lords of finance have been on a losing streak lately and needed to get creative, so they joined Don the Con's pay-to-play, self-enrichment scheme. The Don's 2024 campaign slush fund was heavily funded by both private equity and the crypto bros, with private equity nearing $200 million and the crypto sector exceeding $245 million. For that meager investment, they gain access to the $12.2 trillion Americans held in all employer-based DC retirement plans, of which $8.7 trillion was held in 401(k) plans. (Common Dreams|Lever Podcast)
Democratic Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez on the attempt to weaponize the FCC under FCC Chair and Project 2025 contributor Brendon Carr: "I never thought I’d see this agency so willingly cede its independence to this administration and allow itself to be turned into an instrument of censorship and political retaliation. We are meant to be an independent, stable, expert-driven regulatory body, not a tool to settle personal grievances."
On extortion as political retribution of media companies such as CBS/Paramount and ABC/Disney: "What this FCC did was revive those baseless complaints as a justification to retaliate against broadcasters whose content or coverage is perceived to be unfavorable by this Administration. Their goal is to instill fear in broadcast stations and to influence a network’s editorial decisions. That is, of course, a blatant violation of the First Amendment and an attack on press freedom." (Status)
America or Trumpistan
Until the 2026 Midterm Elections
Source: Anchorage Daily News
Swamp Rob
MAGOP Pennsylvania Representative Rob Bresnahan is one of the swampiest swamp creatures in Trumpistan. Despite campaigning for a ban on stock trading by lawmakers, Bresnahan has made 625 trades since taking office, as reported by Capital Trades, a site that provides “real-time politician trading data.” Moreover, Bresnahan financially benefited from his votes that negatively impact his constituents. He repeatedly vowed not to vote to cut the safety net, yet voted for Trump’s Big, Beautiful Gift to the Top 1%. When a report identified 9 rural hospitals in Pennsylvania at risk of closing, he sold between $100,000 and $250,000 in hospital bonds. Bresnahan also sold up to $15,000 of stock he held in Centene Corporation, the largest Medicaid provider in the country, whose stock dropped 40% after the BBB. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Bresnahan made between $200,000 and $1.4 million from stock trades that included selling clean energy stocks and buying fossil fuel stocks before voting to repeal clean energy tax credits. The Congressman has now introduced a bill to bar members of Congress from buying or selling stocks, which is either a ruse or a cry for help—stop me before I profit off my vote and sell out my constituents again. (Common Dreams)
You Might Be A Racist If …
Saying slavery was an atrocity and slave owners monstrously ran concentration camps from their pretty villas is only divisive if you’re a racist.
Saying the Confederacy was a seditious betrayal of the United States in the service of human bondage and trafficking, and that its leaders were traitors to their oaths who should be condemned at every turn, is only divisive if you’re a racist.
Saying the internment of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps during World War II was a disgrace and the kind of violation of the Constitution and moral decency that must be condemned is only divisive if you’re a racist.
Saying the vigilante, mob, and governmental violence against Latino Americans across all of U.S. history including the present is an abomination is only divisive if you’re a racist.
Saying Jim Crow-era neo-Confederate monuments and memorials are statues for racism and domestic terrorism against African Americans that should be pulled down from their plinths is only divisive if you’re a racist.
Saying that the violence against Native Americans, from 1492 to the present, should be studied as a systemic, ongoing attempt at genocide is only divisive if you’re a racist. (The Bulwark)
A graphical representation of the Trumpocalypse sortable by agency, subject and status. Timeline and charts help to visualize how 21th Century America is being outfitted with an 18th Century state.
The 911 Presidency
The tyrant’s first textbook tactic, of course, is declaring an emergency to justify the seizure of arbitrary power. Trump has now done so over 30 times in various executive orders and directives in his first seven months.
And unlike, say, Putin, who capitalized on (and may well have orchestrated) an actual emergency — a terror attack — to make his first big move, Trump just declares non-existent ones real on Twitter — and presto! — they are real. He knows he doesn’t even have to bother to justify them. He rightly assumes that Americans have less resistance to bald-faced autocratic lies in 2025 than Russians did in 1999.
Andrew Sullivan – Substack
Musk profited handsomely from his $270 gift to Mafia Don.
Since Election Day, Musk’s net worth has increased by over $100 billion. While serving as a “Special Government Employee” in the White House and leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has maintained extensive financial conflicts of interest through his ownership or stake in: Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI, the Boring Company, and Neuralink
Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.
Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security.
Socialism is what they called farm price supports.
Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance.
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.