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September 2, 2025
Trump results
Gavin Newsom - Since Donald Trump took office: - The Consumer Price Index has risen by 2.7%. - Prices for takeout and restaurants have surged by 3.9%. - Pre-owned cars prices have increased by 4.8%. - Electric bills have gone up 10%. - Companies from Sony to PepsiCo have announced price increases
Pope Leo XIV continues Pope Francis' alternative sex policy
AP News - Pope Leo XIV met Monday with one of the most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church and encouraged his ministry, sending a strong signal of welcome in the early months of his pontificate. The Rev. James Martin, a New York-based Jesuit author and editor, said Leo told him he intended to continue Pope Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the church and encouraged him to keep up his advocacy.
“I heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people,” Martin told The Associated Press after the audience. “It was wonderful. It was very consoling and very encouraging and frankly a lot of fun.”
Decline in immigrant workers
Indpendent, UK -Preliminary data suggests more than 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the United States’ labor force between January and July – an indication that President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies will have a significant impact on the workforce.
Immigrants make up nearly 20 percent of the U.S. labor force, according to census data analyzed by the Pew Research Center, with many working in farming, fishing, forestry, construction, and the service sector.
But as a result of Trump’s crackdown on immigration, the number of migrants, both with legal status and in the U.S. illegally, is declining, according to Pew’s analysis.
It’s unclear how much of that decline can be attributed directly to voluntary departures versus removals directed by the Trump administration. Data about undocumented immigrants is notoriously difficult to obtain due to underreporting.
The decline in foreign-born immigration participation is reflected in official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which also estimated a drop of about 1.2 million people between January and July.
Trump illegally sent National Guard to Los Angeles, federal judge rules
Independent UK - A federal judge in California has found that Donald Trump and administration officials violated the law by deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles in response to protests against his anti-immigration agenda.
The president’s troop deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act, passed by Congress in 1878, which prohibits “the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law,” according to Tuesday’s ruling from District Judge Charles Breyer.
“Nearly 140 years later, Defendants — President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense — deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced,” Breyer wrote. “There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence. Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”
Trump Orders Have Stripped Nearly Half a Million Federal Workers of Union Rights
NY Times - More than 445,000 federal employees saw their union protections disappear in August, as agencies moved to comply with an executive order President Trump signed earlier this year that called for ignoring collective bargaining contracts with nearly one million workers.
The termination of protections followed an Aug. 1 appeals court ruling on legal challenges to Mr. Trump’s directive. The order, signed in late March, directed 22 agencies to ignore contracts for employees in specific unions. Last Thursday, Mr. Trump signed a second executive order stripping union rights from thousands of other employees at six additional agencies.
Mr. Trump said that the affected workers had roles that touched on national security, and that provisions in their labor contracts could interfere with his policies being carried out. He cited, for example, the role that Department of Veterans Affairs employees play in providing care for wounded troops in wartime.
Polls
Independent, UK - A new poll has found most U.S. adults agree hard work no longer guarantees economic gain, crushing the long-held cultural belief known as the American dream...
Nearly 70 percent of people in the poll said they believe the American dream — an idea that, no matter who you are or where you are from, if you work hard enough, you will achieve your goals in America — is no longer true or never was.
The number of people who believe the American dream is dead is the highest it's been in nearly 15 years of surveys, according to the WSJ. ...
Only 25 percent of people in the WSJ-NORC poll believe they have a good chance of improving their standard of living, a historic low in surveys dating to 1987, according to the publication.
Gavin Newsom's polling surge has reached a major milestone as he is now tied with Kamala Harris in the race to win the 2028 Democratic primary. According to non-partisan group Political Polls' analysis of polling averages, the California Governor is now tied with the former Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate in a hypothetical match up.
Trump's fake antiwar presidency
Newsweek - It's hard to believe now, but Donald Trump once promised to be an antiwar president. "I'm not going to start a war," he said when he won reelection. "I'm going to stop the wars."
Instead, wars under Trump are becoming more deadly and expansive. Trump continues to arm Israel and defend its prime minister despite the country's well-documented genocide in Gaza. Russia's war with Ukraine—which Trump said repeatedly that he would end within "24 hours" of taking office—has been as bloody as ever.
Government shutdown?
| NPR - Congress returns to Capitol Hill today after taking its August recess. During their time away, frustrated constituents addressed lawmakers at town halls across the U.S. about issues related to the economic turmoil and concerns of presidential overreach. Now, lawmakers face those same challenges in Washington, along with a looming government shutdown deadline of Sept. 30. |
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COVID-19 back
Huffington Post - If you’re like most people in the U.S., you probably either know someone with COVID-19 right now, know someone who just got over an infection or have the virus yourself.
COVID cases are high as kids go back to school and folks return home from summer trips. It’s part of the COVID pattern, the virus tends to peak in late summer and again in the winter, but just because it’s part of a pattern doesn’t make a COVID infection any less severe, scary or annoying than years past.
While COVID cases are high throughout the country (read: don’t discount your stuffy nose as “just a cold”), cases are particularly high in certain states. Here’s what to know:
COVID cases are high in Texas, California, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and other states in the West and South Central part of the country.
“We’re seeing COVID increase in many communities across the United States, particularly severe, at least according to our current data tracking, in the West and in the South,” said Dr. Sarah Whitley Coles, a founding member of Those Nerdy Girls, an online organization that’s dedicated to sharing accurate health and science information.
It’s worth knowing that COVID tracking data is less reliable now because of COVID funding cuts by the Trump administration, less testing and the discontinuation of certain tools researchers relied on.
While tracking is less accurate than it was a few years ago, COVID is surging in these regions based on the data that is available, Coles said.
September 1, 2025
Word
RBReich (@Robert Reich): Wages of unionized workers are 13% higher than their nonunion counterparts.... In high-union-density states, median household income is $12,000 higher than in low-union-density states.
Trump plans unconstitutional voter ID executive order
Time - President Donald Trump said Saturday he would sign an Executive Order requiring voter identification for all U.S. elections, a move that will likely be challenged in court as unconstitutional.
“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The president also reiterated his intention to ban voting by mail in all cases except for people who were very ill or “Far Away Military.”
The sweeping reform plans are based on Trump’s persistent claim that voter fraud is a widespread problem in the country that cost him the 2020 election—a claim that he presented no evidence for in the years since, and which numerous investigations by his own administration have also failed to bring charges for.
Voter identification laws currently differ in each state, but many Republican states have made their laws stricter in recent years in response to Trump’s repeated false claims of fraud. As of 2025, 36 states require identification from voters at the polls.
Still, states vary in their strictness. Some require photo identification, and some have exceptions for low-income voters, those who have religious beliefs against being photographed, or those who are victims of domestic abuse and require confidentiality.
Election laws are set by state legislatures, and are then governed by a combination of the governor, the attorney general, the chief election official and the state board of elections.
The Constitution does not give the president the power to regulate elections, and previous attempts by Trump to change election rules have been blocked.
Black women federal workers hit hard
NY Times -The most recent labor statistics show that nationwide, Black women lost 319,000 jobs in the public and private sectors between February and July of this year, the only major female demographic to experience significant job losses during this five-month period, according to an analysis by Katica Roy, a gender economist.
Experts attribute those job losses, in large part, to Mr. Trump’s cuts to federal agencies where Black women are highly concentrated.
White women saw a job increase of 142,000, and Hispanic women of 176,000, over the same time period. White men saw the largest increase among groups, 365,000, over the same time period.
Ms. Roy said that with the exception of the pandemic, Black women have never seen such staggering losses in employment. And over the last decade, the experiences of that population have consistently signaled what is to come for others.
Labor laws lag behind union popularity
Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs, MSBNC - Unions are as popular now as they have ever been and they're even receiving support from Republicans in Congress like Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. Yet the labor law that's currently on the books — the Wagner Act of 1935 — isn't strong enough to protect workers who want to unionize.
The basic problem is straightforward: Employers don't want their workers to unionize and are generally willing to fire union supporters to stop a union drive. That means that trying to form a union means risking your job, which is a risk that most workers rationally don't want to take. That's especially true when the law is too weak to provide recourse to pro-union workers who do get fired.
Building a labor law that actually enables workers to form unions requires a lot more than tinkering with the existing systems. Regardless of party, lawmakers who are serious about making sure workers have a clear path to joining a union need to support reforms more fundamental than any we’ve seen since the New Deal. full column
Brown Eggs Pulled From Shelves After Salmonella Outbreak
- A Salmonella outbreak tied to Country Eggs, LLC has sickened 95 people in 14 states.
- The recall affects large brown cage-free eggs sold in California and Nevada this summer.
- Don’t eat the recalled eggs—discard or return them and watch for Salmonella symptoms.
Good news for homeowners with high-rate mortgages
Wall Street Journal - The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped to a 10-month low of 6.56%, Freddie Mac said Thursday. The rate has inched down for nine of the past 12 weeks, tracking expectations that the Fed will cut its own rates next month. That means more than two million owners could now save money by refinancing, according to ICE Mortgage Technology, up from 1.7 million at the end of July.
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