tRump is manufacturing crises — mostly the deportations and arrests of Dem leaders — in order to distract from his failures and shortcomings in others.
Here are some of the distractions (note they are real, but they are distractions from the main events):
- Possible war with Iran (yes, serious)
- Attacks on judges
- Attacks on Democratic leaders, such as Senator Padilla and Comptroller Lander
- That damned military parade
These are all meant to divide us and to make tRump look “strong” and to appease those in the maga who are still up in arms about immigrants.
In the meantime, here are some of the things they want us to ignore:
What they are doing: The bill for billionaires is deeply unpopular.
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Harry Enten on Trump's bill: "The amount of disapproval for this bill -- holy cow, my goodness gracious! We're talking about 29 points underwater ... we're talking about a negative 41 net favorability rating among independents. You rarely ever see proposed pieces of legislation as unpopular"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-06-17T12:54:58.458Z
Contact your representatives today to complain.
General unfitness of trump
Donald Trump’s White House even now contains staffers convinced he is unfit to be president, a former senior administration official who famously spoke out anonymously about such concerns during Trump’s first term said.
“If I was sitting with Donald Trump right now, I would say, ‘I have friends in your White House, and some of them are … laying very, very low, but share some of the same concerns that I had during the first Trump administration,’” Miles Taylor said.
Those concerns, Taylor said, were that Trump “is still the same man, but worse and emboldened, still deeply impulsive, but impulsive without checks and balances around him.”
the administration is destroying the agencies that keep us safe David Rothkopf New Republic
If you live in the United States, you are in greater jeopardy today than you were six months ago. So is your family. So are your friends and neighbors.
Virtually all of the most important parts of the U.S. government that were created to protect the U.S. from the greatest risks we face are being shut down, gutted, or marginalized. What is more, plans and statements of the president and his advisers suggest further cuts are contemplated that increase the likelihood that one or more crises will catch us unawares and that when that happens, we will be much less equipped to handle it than we have been in decades.
Our early warning capabilities, our planning tools, our interagency coordinating mechanisms, and the resources available to the government to respond to crises have all been greatly diminished. This will remain true despite planned increases in defense and homeland security spending—especially as those resources are directed at illusory “invasions” and nonexistent “insurrections.” It will remain true despite—and even to a degree because of—costly and distracting displays of military and law enforcement muscle-flexing.
Area after area of the government with responsibility for anticipating, preparing for, and handling major national security threats has been affected. Despite news reports addressing some of these developments individually, the scope of the changes to institutions, personnel, budgets, and policy, and the interrelated and cumulative consequences of those changes, must be better understood and reversed.
A sobering, serious article. And what makes it even worse is that we’re spending resources on imaginary threats — there’s no invasion! — while not preparing for those that are real.
BAD Polling
Look at the drops by age! tRump now underwater now with every age group, with the steepest drop among the youngest
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NEW Economist/YouGov Poll
Net favorability of Donald Trump [at the start of his second term | now] among U.S. adult citizens by age
18-29: +5 | -31
30-44: -6 | -11
45-64: +12 | -2
65+: -4 | -5
d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
— YouGov America (@today.yougov.com) 2025-06-17T14:23:52.616Z
By ethnicity. And, as a white, I apologize for my race, but at least the numbers have gotten better (from my perspective)
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NEW Economist/YouGov Poll
Net favorability of Donald Trump [at the start of his second term | now] among...
White Americans +13 | +3
Hispanic Americans -12 | -28
Black Americans -31 | -58
d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
— YouGov America (@today.yougov.com) 2025-06-17T14:23:52.615Z
OUR Economy
Retail sales down in May Josh Schafer Yahoo Finance
Retail sales fell in May, dragged down by declines in gas and auto purchases during the second month that a wide array of President Trump's tariffs were in effect.
Headline retail sales declined 0.9% in May, surpassing economists' expectations for a 0.6% decline month on month. By comparison, sales decreased 0.1% in April, according to revised Census Bureau data. A 2% decline in gasoline sales, a 3.5% slide in auto purchases, and a 2.7% decline in building materials drove the May headline number lower.
Jerome Powell’s predictions that there will be inflation David Lawder, Reuters News
WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday goods price inflation will pick up over the course of the summer as President Donald Trump's tariffs work their way to U.S. consumers, who he argued would bear some of those costs.
"Ultimately, the cost of the tariff has to be paid, and some of it will fall on the end consumer," Powell told a news conference after the Fed again held rates steady. "We know that because that's what businesses say. That's what the data say from the past."
Trump administration officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have said that the steep tariffs, including 25% on imported steel and aluminum goods and over 50% on many Chinese goods, would not be passed on to the consumer, as some companies have opted not to raise prices and foreign producers would eat the costs.
The U.S. Treasury took in a record $23 billion in customs receipts in May because of Trump's new import taxes, nearly quadrupling the $6 billion collected in May 2024.
The tariffs' impact on inflation will drive the pace and timing of any Fed decision to cut borrowing rates. Fed policymakers on Wednesday projected two quarter-point rate cuts this year but a slower pace of future easing as they estimated higher inflation flowing from the tariff agenda.
Any more things the tRump admin wants us to ignore? Please put them in the comments.
Hope everyone is having a good Juneteenth, despite the conditions in our country.
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🐦 I do a lot of other writing. Newest offerings: Messing with the Myths — two books so far in this series. (Give them a try; they’re fun!) Older offerings: the Crow Nickels (chronicles), about crows who want to save birdkind from extinction (Hunters of the Feather). Mysteries based on Jane Austen’s novels, such as The Meryton Murders. Others based on history and Greek mythology, e.g., Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus. All titles also available through Kindle Unlimited.
