TRUMP REGIME

CNN - It’s not 2020 anymore, but some Americans are stocking up on essentials — like canned vegetables and toilet paper — nonetheless. They’re worried that prices will spike if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with the tariff threats he has made.

New Republic -Trump wants to kill the United States Postal Service.The president-elect was asked about the USPS losing money during a press conference in Palm Beach on Monday. “Well there is talk about the Postal Service being taken private, you do know that. Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard, it really isn’t,” Trump said. “You know it’s a lot different today … between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that, it’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. We’re looking at it.”

The comments confirm a Washington Post report from over the weekend that Trump is considering plans to privatize the entire Postal Service due to its financial losses. He has reportedly spoken about the idea to Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary pick and head of his transition team.

USPS privatization has been in the works for some time now. Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been doing his best to corrode one of the oldest, constitutionally ensured institutions in this country.

Jacobin -   The very design of the postal service is tied to its public mission. Indeed, common sense should tell anyone that no private company would ever have an incentive to carry a letter from Los Angeles to rural Alaska for seventy-three cents (the current cost of a USPS stamp).

And there are large swathes of the country where, if the public post offices were closed or sold to corporations whose first duty was to shareholder revenues, it simply wouldn’t be profitable to offer mail service at all. The USPS has a “universal service” mandate that requires it to operate everywhere in the country. No private alternative ever would.

The USPS lost $2.1 billion on $21.6 billion gross revenue in the first quarter of this year. But a core point of the institution is that profitability is not its primary imperative. A public postal service, that has far greater freedom to operate at a loss since it doesn’t have shareholders of its own, plays a vital role in propping up the business models of any number of for-profit businesses.

Any enterprise that sells things through the mail, receives checks through the mail, or even just orders supplies through the mail, benefits from the USPS in the same way all firms benefit from being able to operate on public roads and use power, water, and gas utilities. Privatization could thus not only deprive the public at large of vital services directly offered through the Post Office, but cause ripple effects of unpredictable chaos throughout the economy.

The postal service has also been an important source of unionized jobs, available to all comers according to fair civil-service rules. Historically, this made it an important source of upward mobility for many black families locked out of other careers by racial discrimination. By the end of the twentieth century, black Americans made up 21 percent of the postal workforce, around double their representation in the general civilian labor force.

AP - An AP-NORC poll asked Americans what they think about Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s pick to head the Defense Department. More from AP’s Jennifer King. Hegseth is still an unknown quantity for many Americans. About 4 in 10 don’t know enough about him to give an opinion, according to the poll. But his selection is viewed more negatively than positively among Americans who do know who he is. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Hegseth being picked for Trump’s Cabinet, while 36% disapprove and about 1 in 10 don’t know enough to have an opinion....

[Tulsi] Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in the House for four terms as a Democrat, sought the 2020 presidential nomination before leaving her party. She was one of Trump’s most sought-after surrogates in the 2024 campaign....

Gabbard is as unknown as Hegseth is, but Americans are a little less likely to disapprove of her nomination. About 2 in 10 Americans approve of Trump’s pick of Gabbard, while about 3 in 10 disapprove. The rest either do not know enough to say — about 4 in 10 said this — or have a neutral view...

A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, [Robert] Kennedy made a name in his own right as an environmental attorney who successfully took on large corporations. In recent decades, he has increasingly devoted his energy to promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists. Trump has said he would give Kennedy free rein over health policy — from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

Only 14% of Americans say they don’t know enough to have an opinion about Trump’s move to name Kennedy, but that greater name recognition doesn’t translate into warmer feelings. About 4 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s selection of Kennedy, while about 3 in 10 approve and 14% are neutral.

CBS News -  President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that his new administration will challenge a deal reached between the Social Security Administration and its union that would allow employees to continue teleworking into 2029. During remarks at his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Trump blamed the Biden administration for what he said was a "terrible" and "ridiculous" agreement that would allow tens of thousands of federal workers to continue working from home several days a week. 

The president-elect said "it was like a gift to a union, and we're going to obviously be in court to stop it." He said federal workers who don't return to in-office work will be fired. "If people don't come back to work, come back into the office, they're going to be dismissed," said Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term Jan. 20.