Snow: Economy not helping most: Treasury Secretary John W. Snow acknowledged yesterday that the Bush economy is not helping those who most need help.”One of the things we know is that less educated people have seen their incomes and wages grow more slowly. That’s what the numbers tell us.” Countdown starts now on Snow’s “retirement.”
Government reform sought in Ohio: Critics of the Republican grip on Ohio politics filed petitions on Tuesday that seek a statewide vote on three constitutional amendments that would overturn the way elections are run and strip elected officials of their power to draw legislative districts.
Charges against DeLay’s henchmen upheld: A Texas judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss charges of money laundering and accepting illegal political contributions against two of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s flying monkeys.Their attorneys will appeal the ruling.
Donald Trump’s latest tariff move beggars belief,
He says he’s providing some needed price relief.
But the move will most certainly harm
The folks who own ranches and farms.
Trump thinks he’ll win the midterms with cheap imported beef.
“Young Americans today have never witnessed Congress authorize a war, they’ve never seen a U.S. administration balance its books, they’ve never watched a well-funded and empowered state department operate, and they see only mistrust between allies. They assume the situation is normal. It is not. … The real cost of forgetting the pre-9/11 world is not a country that has changed, but one that no longer knows it could be different.”
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state. They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”
— Jared Kushner, quoted by CBS News, on the lack of progress in Gaza.
“If they haven’t understood by now, they should understand before it’s too late that the rules of the game have changed and that from now on, any violation of Iran’s interests and security will receive a ‘faster, heavier, and more painful’ response.”
— “Iran’s ‘proportionate responses’ to U.S. attacks are over, the country’s parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday, while acknowledging the economic impact of the war,” CNBC reports.
“The war in Iran has now cost U.S. consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices, and the bill is rising another $1 million about every two minutes, per a real-time estimate from Brown University as of Monday morning,” Axios reports. “Energy inflation shows up across the entire economy, and the recent surge in diesel prices in particular threatens to have a dramatic impact on freight and travel in the weeks and months to come.”
A new Economist/YouGov poll finds the president’s approval at 36%, while 60% disapprove. Key takeaway: Just 27% of adults aged 30 to 44 approved of Trump’s job performance, while 70% disapproved.
“ICE officers and agents arrested roughly 50,000 people in August,” NBC News reports. “That number is on par with July’s number, which was the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration.”