The Federal Reserve may be forcing a growth cool-down in the U.S. to reduce inflation, but the U.S. added 187,000 jobs in July. Unemployment falling to 3.5 percent maintains its near 50-year lows. Economists have begun to agree that a recession is unlikely with these figures plus the GDP and rising wages. The big glitch for the stock market, damaging savings and retirement funds, is the games that conservative Republicans are playing in their attempt to take over all three branches of the government and all 50 states by tearing down the country.
Thanks to the inability of far-right conservatives to compromise, Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. credit rating earlier this week from “AAA” to “AA+,” citing the reason as “deterioration in standards of governance … including on fiscal and debt matters.” The company added, “The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management.” The warning included “increased political polarization and partisanship as witnessed by the contested 2020 election.” The downgrade removed the world’s impression of the U.S. government as one of the safest borrowers in global finance.
Congressional members such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) blame House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca) and extreme MAGA supporters “who openly rooted for default” in last spring’s debt ceiling standoff. Despite the caution that the debt ceiling crisis would result in a downgrade, the GOP proceeded with its attempts to ruin the U.S. economy—just like it did exactly 12 weeks ago this week when GOP behavior caused the first rating downgrade.
Federal GOP legislators aren’t the only irrational people in the U.S. political world:
Aileen Cannon, the southern Florida federal judge assigned to hear one of the most important trials of the century, has again demonstrated her ignorance of the law, inexperience, carelessness, or all of the above. Appointed by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), Cannon will likely be presiding over his trial dealing with obstruction charges of hiding classified documents and surveillance tapes at Mar-a-Lago. In a June trial, she made two critical errors which may have violated the defendant’s constitutional rights and could have invalidated the proceedings. She closed the courtroom during jury selection, saying her courtroom was too small for an audience, and failed to swear in the prospective jury pool, forcing her to restart jury selection. The 6th Amendment guarantees a public trial.
The defendant, an Alabama man accused of running a website distributing images of child sex abuse, pled guilty after her mistakes but kept his right to appear certain rulings by the trial judge. Thus far, Cannon has presided over only four criminal trials resulting in jury verdicts. Her demonstrated favoritism for the man who appointed her as a federal judge may not be the only reason for removing her from DDT’s complex trial on 40 counts of retaining classified records, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and concealment in a tiny courtroom.
Another Floridian and first runner-up to DDT for 2024 presidential candidate, Gov. Ron DeSantis, told an audience at a New Hampshire campaign barbecue that he will be “slitting throats on day one” to root out the so-called “deep state” lurking in the federal government. His statement falls in line with all his other authoritarian moves, according to Harvard professor Steven Levitsky. DeSantis used the same expression in his plans to change the hierarchy in the Department of Defense. The American Federation of Government Employers warned that this type of rhetoric promotes violence against federal workers such as the 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.
DeSantis claims he isn’t “demeaning” LGBTQ+ people, but his handpicked state education department “effectively banned” AP Psychology in Florida schools because of lessons on sexual orientation and identity, according to the College Board. His actions deny students the ability to earn college credit. Over 28,000 Florida students took the class in 2022-2023 which has been part of the state high school curriculum for over three decades. Florida expanded its ban on classroom discussion about sexual orientation to all K-12 students from a 2022 law for children K-3. The College Board caved to Florida by changing its AP course on Black history but refuses to revise the psychology AP course at Florida’s demand. Since the state’s bad publicity, Florida superintendent of education said that the course can be taught in an age-appropriate way but didn’t explain what that would be.
Cases of malaria coming to Florida, led by anti-science health disinformation, are accompanied by Hansen’s disease, commonly called leprosy, especially in the central portion. With about six percent of the population, Florida provided 20 percent of 159 new cases in the U.S. in 2020, 81 percent of those in central Florida. Scientists aren’t positive about transition methods but believe it spreads through droplets in coughs and sneezes. In Florida, masks were blocked in 2020 during the pandemic. Local infection shows that leprosy has become endemic in Florida, and DeSantos’ motto is “Make Florida America.”
In DeSantis’ war on Disney, his handpicked board for the district has abolished all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Disney World along with job duties related to them. DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ rights laws came after his laws protecting white people by eliminating racial equality in a public-school curriculum about Black slaves’ benefits in job training. One of DeSantis’ five Disney board members taught a seminar in 2021 with false information about white people being slaves in America from the “Irish slave trade” beginning in 1625. The board member also spread falsehoods about Irish “slaves” being forcibly bred with enslaved Blacks. Historians said that the “research” the board member cited is based on inventions and factual errors. Although whites have been indentured servants for a specific time period, usually five to seven years, servitude was not inherited. On the other hand, Blacks were considered property for life with children inheriting the mother’s status.
Ken Paxton, Texas’ suspended AG and leader of the state’s corrupt ideas, is fighting his current impeachment trial scheduled to begin on September 5. Reelected for a third term in 2022, Paxton also faces criminal securities fraud charges. For the first time in several years, he appeared in a Houston court on August 3, the same day DDT was arraigned for the third time. The four charges in this case have been removed from the impeachment, including some related to the 2015 solicitation of investors in a tech company without revealing he was paid to do so, but they may be considered later. Other charges allege Paxton misused his office to help his donor Nate Paul, a real estate developer arrested in June on felony charges for lying to financial institutions to secure business loans, and interfered with criminal investigations into Paul.
Paxton has filed to remove 19 of 20 articles of impeachment passed in the GOP-led House, including the statements from whistleblowers in his office. In addition, he wants three Democrats to be removed from the trial in the Senate for “bias.” He also insulted the impeachment managers, avoiding a gag order by putting his statements into a court filing.
In exchange for Paxton’s interfering with criminal investigations, Paul paid to remodel Paxton’s Austin home and hired a woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair. The woman allegedly worked for a state senator, causing a possible conflict of interest. Another conflict of interest comes from the fact that Paxton’s wife is a state senator. Senate rules prohibit her from voting on trial-related matters in Paxton’s impeachment.
While red states ban books and outlaw “woke” information for youth, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is selling disinformation for children. Among brightly-colored guides embellished with cartoons such as The Kids Guide to Socialism and The Kids Guide to Our One Nation under God is The Kids Guide to the Truth about Climate Change. No one will be surprised to learn that it’s highly inaccurate. The purpose of the “guide” is to minimize severe climate change and delay action. Yes, the climate is warming, states the guide, but there’s no problem and humans aren’t responsible. Last year, Huckabee ridiculed a doctor for citing climate change’s connection to heat-related illness.
Kids can get a “free” gift bundle including the guide for free with only $1 shipping at keepkidscool.com although Huckabee’s company, Ever Bright Media, has received complaints about hiding fees and charges, obscuring terms, and automatically enrolling people into a magazine subscription program that costs $19.95 plus sales tax every three to four weeks, plus a monthly magazine charge of $7.95. Last year, Arkansas used $260,000 of emergency Covid funds to buy Ever Bright’s guide to coronavirus, spreading falsehoods about the effectiveness of wearing masks. The state Department of Education also bought a constitutional booklet from the company.
Fifteen months before the 2024 election, election deniers controlling county ballot counting voted to do hand counts. Georgia requires the use of voting tabulation machines so Spalding County, population 68,000, plans these hand counts, far less reliable and more expensive, to compare to the machines results. It’s as if we haven’t had a break from the GOP insanity; almost 70 percent of Republicans now believe, with no evidence, that President Joe Biden’s win was not legitimate. Buckle up!
Nel's New Day 