Among the executive orders signed by Trump on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020, after Covid-19 relief negotiations broke down (because Republicans refused to budge) is one extending federally-funded “enhanced” unemployment benefits (on top of state benefits) through the end of this year, but at $4[...]
Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category
August 8th, 2020 - 5:17 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
States begged for help. Trump gave them another bill to pay.
August 8th, 2020 - 4:55 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
Trump’s smoke and mirrors
One of the executive orders President Trump signed on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020, after Covid-19 relief negotiations broke down (because Republicans refused to budge) creates what CNN is calling a “payroll tax holiday” for people earning less than $100,000 a year. In a nutshell, Trump autho[...]
Our journey from FDR’s “New Deal” to Trump’s raw deal
FDR, faced with America’s worst economic crisis, didn’t know what to do. He threw spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. Some ideas spawned by his “brain trust” were failures; others, like Social Security, were spectacular successes. Before the economy had recovered, [...]
August 6th, 2020 - 1:20 pm § in Donald Trump, Religion
ACLU sues Trump a lot
Trump creates jobs for lawyers. Specifically, “Donald Trump has provided a full employment program for ACLU lawyers,” the organization says. The ACLU (aka American Civil Liberties Union) is a public-interest law firm and lobbying organization, supported by donations and member dues, that defends[...]
August 5th, 2020 - 11:32 pm § in Donald Trump, Foreign Affairs
Nuclear Taboo in the era of Trump
The Nuclear Taboo is the title of a book by Nina Tannenwald, an academic who specializes in “global security issues, efforts to control weapons of mass destruction, and human rights and the laws of war,” according to her profile here. She works at Brown University. Other people like her [...]
The fight over unemployment benefits
Mailing a letter the other day, I saw a “Help Wanted” sign in the post office window, for jobs starting at $17.59 an hour. Some quick math in my head and that’s about $700 a week, which is maybe $600 of take-home after taxes. Here in Washington, a person who earned $700 a week befo[...]
August 3rd, 2020 - 12:41 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
Democrats issue Supreme Court threat
“Democrats are warning Republicans not to fill a possible Supreme Court vacancy this year after denying President Barack Obama the chance in 2016, saying it would embolden a push on the left to add seats to the court,” NBC News said on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, under the headline, “Dem[...]
August 2nd, 2020 - 7:48 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
This Trump appointee is too rancid even for some GOP senators
Trump makes him DoD’s top policy guy anyway A conspiracy nut who called President Obama a “Muslim terrorist” President Trump nominated Tony Tata to be Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, but withdrew him from consideration after the nomination stalled in the Senate Armed Services Committ[...]
Trump lobbies GOP senator on base names
A Washington D.C. diner recorded a conversation between Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and President Trump in which the senator promised to help Trump prevent the renaming of military bases bearing Confederate names. Read that story here. Congress has already passed a Defense Authorization Act containing [...]
July 30th, 2020 - 11:01 am § in Donald Trump, Politics
Herman Cain at Trump’s June 20 Tulsa rally
No masks or social distancing. Now he’s dead from Covid-19. Read story here. [...]