2025 - Page 65 of 69

Where a Historian Finds Solace During Trump’s Second Term

January 18, 2025 Buck Banks

“It’s weird to find solace in the Civil War, or the Great Depression, or the beginning of World War Two, but my whole optimistic temperament depends on saying that we will get through it and emerge stronger.”

— Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Old Boy Envoys

January 17, 2025 Buck Banks

Some say Hollywood’s brightest years are done and gone,
But Donald Trump plans to bring back those days of halcyon.
He scoured Tinsel Town’s trash bins
And recruited some famous has-beens,
Naming as “special envoys” Mel Gibson, Jon Voigt and Sly Stallone.

U.S. Government Takes Back $31 Million from the Dead

January 17, 2025 Buck Banks

$31 million

The U.S. government clawed back more than $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people, a recovery that one official said Wednesday was “just the tip of the iceberg,” the AP reports.

Biden’s Legacy Is Tragedy

January 17, 2025 Buck Banks

“The Joe Biden story is one of the great tragedies of American politics. I really mean that. He should be having a glorious, well deserved, highly acclaimed retirement. And he’s not. It’s hard to blame anybody but him.”

— Veteran Democratic political strategist James Carville, quoted by NBC News.

Inaugural Resistance: Who Is Skipping Trump’s Swearing in

January 17, 2025January 17, 2025 Jon Ponder

inauguration-crowds — President Barack Obama’s audience on the National Mall in Washington. At right, photo of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Photos courtesy of the National Park Service

The Resistance to the coming fascist state under Donald Trump unofficially kicks off at his inauguration on Monday with the notable absence of key Democratic figures who would normally appear on stage with an incoming president.

Hell Freezes over

Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, is going to be bitterly cold in Washington, D.C. WTOP reports that there is a chance of snow on Sunday and predicts gusty winds on Monday, with a high temperature of just 20 degrees.

Ex-Presidents Out at Lunch

Of course, Pres. Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will be on the podium, as will former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, along with his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush and his wife Laura. However, Michele Obama has opted not to attend.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not attend the inauguration, and it is not because she recently broke her hip.

[…]

Krugman Warns of Trump’s Scamming Nature

January 16, 2025 Buck Banks

“A lot of people are going to get brutally scammed …. Scamming people like that is what his whole life has been around.”

— Paul Krugman, talking about the incoming Trump administration on The Daily Blast.

Biden Warns Nation of Rising Oligarchy

January 16, 2025 Buck Banks

“Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America — of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

— President Biden warned Americans of a “dangerous concentration of power” in the hands of a “very few ultra-wealthy people” and the impact he feared it would have on the country’s democracy as he delivered a farewell address Wednesday from the Oval Office, Bloomberg reports.

Fewer than 1 in 5 Support Hegseth for Defense Secretary

January 15, 2025 Buck Banks

19%

A new AP-NORC poll finds just 19% of Americans approve of Pete Hegseth being nominated as the secretary of defense.

Trump Has No Economic Plan

January 15, 2025 Buck Banks

“Even though he will take office in just a few days, we have almost no idea. … That’s not because the Trump team is keeping its plans closely held, nor is it because there are major factional fights. All the evidence suggests, instead, that Trump’s economic team still doesn’t have any plans, or even concepts of plans. All it has are some half-formulated thoughts about how to cater to Trump’s prejudices without doing massive economic damage.”

— Paul Krugman

Laken Riley Act Would Cost $83 Billion

January 15, 2025 Buck Banks

$83 billion

“Senate Democrats are warning that the Laken Riley Act is unworkable in its current form, requiring tens of billions in new spending and enforcement resources that are ‘not feasible’ to detain undocumented immigrants accused of theft,” Semafor reports.

“It’s weird to find solace in the Civil War, or the Great Depression, or the beginning of World War Two, but my whole optimistic temperament depends on saying that we will get through it and emerge stronger.”

— Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in an interview with the Financial Times.

$31 million

The U.S. government clawed back more than $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people, a recovery that one official said Wednesday was “just the tip of the iceberg,” the AP reports.

“The Joe Biden story is one of the great tragedies of American politics. I really mean that. He should be having a glorious, well deserved, highly acclaimed retirement. And he’s not. It’s hard to blame anybody but him.”

— Veteran Democratic political strategist James Carville, quoted by NBC News.

Hell Freezes over

Ex-Presidents Out at Lunch

— Paul Krugman, talking about the incoming Trump administration on The Daily Blast.

“Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America — of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

— President Biden warned Americans of a “dangerous concentration of power” in the hands of a “very few ultra-wealthy people” and the impact he feared it would have on the country’s democracy as he delivered a farewell address Wednesday from the Oval Office, Bloomberg reports.

19%

A new AP-NORC poll finds just 19% of Americans approve of Pete Hegseth being nominated as the secretary of defense.

— Paul Krugman

$83 billion

“Senate Democrats are warning that the Laken Riley Act is unworkable in its current form, requiring tens of billions in new spending and enforcement resources that are ‘not feasible’ to detain undocumented immigrants accused of theft,” Semafor reports.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

“Your generation has a great bullshit meter, because you’re fed bullshit online all day. And the Democratic Party brand right now is so bullshit.”

— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), quoted by The Atlantic, speaking to college students.

“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”

— Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), on CNN.

Numerati

+175,000

“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.

$4,600

11

30%

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

61% to 35%