American Politics from 2019 on

[Brian Peacock]

The article successfully undermines its own premises...

JD Vance could yet save his political skin. But it will mean turning on Trump – and soon

...But it will take a miracle.

[Tero]

Conclusion

In conclusion, the analysis presented here reveals that escalating US tariffs, particularly the
proposed 60% tariff against China and 10% tariff against all other trade partners, would impose
substantial economic costs on the United States. We show that while China and other US trade
partners may experience some losses, the United States would bear most of the global efficiency
cost, with potential economic losses surpassing $910 billion if all countries retaliate.
Interestingly, many of the US's trading partners, including the EU, South Korea, and other
OECD countries, stand to benefit from trade diversion as US goods become less competitive
globally.

The findings further underscore that transatlantic cooperation in imposing tariffs against China
would mitigate some of the US's losses while amplifying the economic pain for China. This
cooperation comes at a cost, however, for the EU in terms of the forgone benefits of letting the
United States go it alone. Overall, the results highlight the complexities and far-reaching
consequences of a “fortress America” protectionist trade policy, where, in the context of a global
trade war, the United States stands to lose the most, both in terms of economic welfare and global competitiveness

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/view ... ext=yiitpr

[Tero]

With the rapist out of the picture, becerra leads governor race in CA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Becerra

[Svartalf]

I don't get it, swalwell is apparently a congressman from ca, which explains why he wanted to be guv'ner, so he should be moving between DC and Sacville (or whatever district he's supposed to represent), so why is he being prosecuted in NY?

[Tero]

I don't get it, swalwell is apparently a congressman from ca, which explains why he wanted to be guv'ner, so he should be moving between DC and Sacville (or whatever district he's supposed to represent), so why is he being prosecuted in NY?

the alleged rape (she consesnted to date he got her drunk)

One former Swalwell staffer claimed Swalwell had sexually assaulted her on more than one occasion, including in a New York hotel room in 2024 when she was too intoxicated to give consent.[96][97][98] Two of the women claimed that Swalwell sent them unsolicited images of his penis and had requested nude images of them.[99] Politico reported that a former Swalwell employee signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) pertaining to employment discrimination when they left his office.

[Tero]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaZPiwxPqO4

[Tero]

"I was recently in Shenzhen, the heart of China’s industrial machine, talking to one of that country’s legendary businessmen. I asked him about the Iran war and his response surprised me. “For us, Trump’s attack on Iran is less consequential than his threat to attack Greenland,” he told me. “When he did that, to America’s oldest allies, I knew that Europe would not follow America’s approach to China.”

"In the United States, President Donald Trump’s periodic insults hurled toward Europe tend to get treated as routine tantrums, part of the reality TV show that is now the White House. But in Europe, the accumulation of abuse has reached a tipping point. “The war in Iran ... has forced Europe to grow a spine,” Daniel DePetris recently wrote in the Spectator, a conservative British and (usually) ardently pro-American magazine. “European leaders are no longer interested in dropping to their knees and groveling to stay on Trump’s good side.”

"The same logic is spreading beyond defense. The European Payments Initiative is building a continent-wide alternative to Visa and Mastercard. European institutions are seeking alternatives to SWIFT, PayPal and other U.S.-dominated financial platforms. France has moved gold reserves from New York to Paris; politicians in Germany and Italy have debated whether their countries should do the same. European governments are looking for alternatives to American software, fearing that U.S. firms might one day be ordered to cut off critical services.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... lies-away/

[Tero]

The 24 year olds playing video games again:
"Some conservatives argue that Medicaid was never intended to cover the population enrolled in the expansion — nondisabled adults without children whose income puts them just above the federal poverty line — and see that coverage as a threat to services for those in “traditional” Medicaid, including pregnant women, children, people with disabilities, and parents below the poverty line. Others say states can’t afford to keep funding the program at a time of severe budget crunches, although the federal government picks up 90 percent of the tab."
"Nebraska also started enforcement of the new rules this Friday, eight months earlier than the federal deadline.

"Nebraska’s Medicaid director Drew Gonshorowski told POLITICO that the state is confident its existing staff can handle the early enforcement."

"Ballot initiative expansion states have “ranted and raved for years now about the undeserving poor,” said Rosenbaum. “But when you look at the 55-year-old farmers, the hourly workers, and other people who are going to lose their coverage, they’re going to see that they are not, as they insisted over and over again, all 24-year-olds playing video games.”

"Katch and other experts are most worried about Nebraska, which is starting enforcement of the rules on Friday for the roughly 70,000 people enrolled in its Medicaid expansion."

“This is just bad policy,” said Sarah Maresh, the program director for health care access at the nonprofit Nebraska Appleseed. “A vast majority of Nebraskans are working or would count as an exemption, but it is the red tape that causes the problems and really causes people to lose coverage. People don’t know what’s coming, and they don’t know it applies to them, and they’re just, frankly, unable to understand this really complicated system.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/0 ... s-00903627

[Tero]

They had all those people in frog etc costumes ptotesting ICE in Oregon.

Now Pencil is running for governor. An education promoter. But he is just a "write in" candidate.

[Tero]

Ecstatic Republicans

"Just two weeks ago, Democrats felt increasingly emboldened about taking control of the House in November after seeming to fight the redistricting wars to a draw.

"But two court rulings — one by the Supreme Court and another by Virginia’s top court — and an aggressive new push by red states to carve up congressional maps have delivered the Republican Party its biggest burst of momentum in many months.

"Put bluntly, Republicans have roughly 10 more House seats that favor them than they did just 10 days ago, and Democrats are suddenly grappling with a new landscape."

"Democrats are still widely seen as favored to win the House this fall. Republicans face a daunting political climate, saddled with President Trump’s sagging approval ratings, high gas prices and an unpopular war with Iran. In special elections and last year’s races for governor, Democratic enthusiasm has swamped Republican turnout."

"But after the latest map changes, winning the House majority will require Democrats to flip more seats in less hospitable territory."

"Add all the seats up where Democrats lost or could lose ground — up to four seats in Virginia, up to four in Florida, one or two in Louisiana, one in Tennessee, one in Alabama — and the total gives Republicans renewed optimism. Voters, of course, do have the final say, and Democrats are still aiming to flip two Virginia seats and compete in some of the new Florida districts."

"At the end of April, the Cook Political Report, which handicaps political races, listed 217 House seats as at least leaning Democratic — meaning the party would have needed to win just a single “tossup” race to seize the majority. As of Friday, Cook rated 208 seats as at least leaning Democratic — meaning the party would need to win 10 of the 18 “tossup” races."

"Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said that House Republicans were “ecstatic” after the Virginia ruling, and that the gerrymandering war had turned out to be a “home run” for (Speaker) Johnson."
"But he said that Democrats still had an advantage going into the midterm House races, and that the winnowing of the electoral map down to a small number of swing districts could cause lasting damage to American democracy.

“Any time you don’t allow the voters to pick their elected officials, that’s a recipe long-term for disaster,” Mr. McCarthy said."

NYT

[Tero]

Universities are experiencing a strange item of political correctness. In the Trumpian times of less regulation.

We got orders not to send "digital information" such as Powerpoints to students in senior classes, unless each picture slide has a slide after it, explaining the picture in words. This is due to vision and hearing impeded students. They should not be singled out. They get this without asking.

So my students will no longer get the pdf I used to send out.

I can use paper handouts, but I am not paying for that.

[Brian Peacock]

PDFs are not accessible to assistive technologies unless the author/creator goes to some lengths to make them so. A plain text file (.txt, .md) or a rich text format (.rtf) file is accessible and will be displayed with a double click on all systems as well as being rendered automatically on most cloud services.

The largest group in society with low vision isn't 'the disabled' with diagnosed visual impairments, it's seniors with old eyes. Making something that's easy to access for 'the disabled' simply makes it easy to access for everyone.

What says you grandpa?