Under the guise of reducing veteran suicides, the Trump administration has released a plan that could radically reshape veteran care in the United States. The stated goal is to expand mental health services for newly transitioned veterans, the proposal, which administration officials approved on May 31, contains provisions that could starve the Veterans Health Administration […]
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Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Trump Launches Full-Scale Attack on Abortion Access
Once Donald Trump claimed he would keep abortion legal if he became president. “I am pro-choice in every respect,” the real-estate developer said in a 1999 NBC interview. What a difference 20 years makes. With a willing Republican Congress, President Trump has moved to obliterate abortion access at every turn. Last week, the Senate Appropriations […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
One in Nine Full-Time Workers Remain Mired in Poverty
On the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, the Economic Policy Institute has reflected on how the campaign called attention to the injustice of poverty; government’s ability to fight it; and the importance of raising wages to mitigate poverty. The Poor People’s Campaign also called for a government commitment to full employment. The […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
A Great Deal for Banks, Not So Much for American Jobs
On Thursday, a bill progressives had dubbed the “Bank Lobbyist Act” was signed into law by President Trump after passing the House 258–159 this week. The bill rolls back a number of Dodd-Frank regulations in order to aid a “suffering” banking sector—even though banks have reported record-high profits this year. And while the bill was […]
Posted inTAP
It’s Impeachment, Stupid
Rudy Giuliani, in his role as Trump’s lawyer, has been crowing about an unconfirmed conversation in which Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team supposedly said that an impeachment would have to come before any indictment of the president. In the upside-down world of the Trump defense, this is presented as a victory. To paraphrase the Greek […]
Posted inTAP
From the Mouth of a Bigoted Ignoramus…
In his inimitable fashion—that of a bigoted ignoramus—President Trump referred to undocumented immigrants as “animals” in a meeting with similarly anti-immigrant officials on Wednesday. “Animals” is probably not a term that more politic Republicans would use; it suggests a sensibility too crude for a proper elected official to put on display. But based on their […]
Posted inTAP
A new report out from the National Center for Education Statistic…
…one branch of the Department of Education that Betsy DeVos hasn’t gotten around to dismantling yet—finds that 94 percent of schoolteachers spend their own money buying supplies for their classrooms and students. On average, the teachers spend $479 a year. (Having accompanied my daughter on several occasions to a Staples outlet during her years of […]
Posted inTAP
Too Normal
I had one of those “aha” experiences over the weekend. My wonderful nephew, Ben, graduated from medical school. To be precise, he graduated from the medical school of the University of South Carolina, in the state capital, Columbia. The ceremony was lovely. Some 85 med students who had worked their hearts out for four years […]
Posted inTAP
Our Red-Faced President
For more than 30 minutes on Wednesday, President Trump, his face “reddened” (that’s the description in today’s Washington Post), “yelled” (that’s from today’s New York Times) at his cabinet in general, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in particular, about the number of immigrants still crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump’s tirade makes clear what’s behind […]
Posted inTAP
Homage to Stormy
It is somehow fitting that the indignation of a wronged porn star could lead to the final undoing of Donald Trump. Despite the growing power of the #MeToo movement, and the falling of predatory male icons across the political spectrum, the Predator-in-Chief has gotten away with it—until now. As Deep Throat (whose nickname is now […]
