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| Via Morgan J. Freeman |
September 18, 2025
Meanwhile. . .
More Perfect Union - The 400 richest people in the U.S. are now worth a record $6.6 trillion after getting $1.2 trillion richer over the past year.
Newsweek - The Supreme Court will hear challenges to President Donald Trump's power to issue tariffs on November 5. Earlier this month, the nation's highest court agreed to expedite a case challenging Trump's authority to impose broad tariffs under federal law. The justices scheduled arguments for November, an unusually quick timetable by the court's standards
Trump regime turning back on facts
NY Times - When the Trump administration said last week that it would stop requiring thousands of industrial facilities to report their planet-warming pollution, the move fit a growing pattern: If data points to a problem, stop collecting the data.
At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, experts are no longer tracking the most expensive extreme weather events, those that cause at least $1 billion in damage.
At NASA, Trump officials want to decommission two powerful satellites that provide precise measurements of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change.
And at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, layoffs have gutted a division that maintains statistics on car crashes, gun violence and homicides, among other things.
The consequences of these moves could be far-reaching, experts said, since the government cannot address a problem if it cannot quantify the issue in the first place.
“When we don’t measure things, it makes it much harder to claim that there is a problem and that the government has some kind of responsibility to help alleviate it,” said Sarah Pralle, an associate professor of political science at Syracuse University.
“Measuring itself is a political act with political consequences,” Dr. Pralle said. “And clearly the Trump administration does not want to do anything to alleviate a problem like climate change.”
Gaza
The Guardian - More than a quarter of a million people have been displaced from Gaza City in the last month, new figures from the UN reveal, with tens of thousands more forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in the face of a new Israeli offensive.
Multiple strikes by Israeli artillery, tanks and warplanes hit Gaza City again on Thursday, prompting what a UN official called “new waves of mass displacement” after about 60,000 fled the new assault in 72 hours earlier this week.
EV charging
Axios - Behavioral scientists at Toyota are trying to nudge customers to build better habits for charging their EVs and plug-in hybrids, Axios Future of Mobility author Joann Muller writes.
- EVs and plug-in hybrids can't deliver their full climate benefit unless people charge them regularly and at the optimum times to avoid stressing the grid.
Scientists at Toyota Research Institute's Human-Centered AI division developed a prototype app, ChargeMinder, that delivers just-in-time reminders about when to charge, while providing reinforcement with streaks, summaries and encouraging messages.
- Studies in the U.S. and Japan found that those nudges work. MORE
Health
Time - “Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, about half of the states have imposed abortion bans, with 12 banning abortion entirely. These bans are causing established doctors to leave and future doctors to increasingly steer clear of those states,” writes Atul Grover, a physician and former Executive Director of the Research and Action Institute at the Association of American Medical Colleges. Grover explains the brewing doctor shortage and what the stakes are if abortion bans continue to drive doctors away. More
NPR - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices starts meeting today to discuss vaccine recommendations. The committee’s decisions have a significant influence on who will have access to COVID vaccines this fall and whether babies get vaccinated against Hepatitis B. Many health and medical experts are paying close attention to what comes from the meeting because the Trump administration recently changed all of the committee members...
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Trump's war on constitutional democracy
SONIA SOTOMAYOR: Donald Trump “poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law.”
MSNBC - In a stunning move, Disney’s ABC announced on Wednesday night that it would be indefinitely pausing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's program after his comments related to the Charlie Kirk shooting were criticized by the Federal Communications Commission chair. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s personal legal battle against America’s media industry is also escalating. On Monday the president filed a whopping 85-page defamation lawsuit against The New York Times seeking $15 billion, plus punitive damages, which exceeds the market cap of the entire company.
MSNBC - Kimmel's remarks ... drew condemnation from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who said it "appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person.”
He added: “What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest."
Carr issued a stark warning to the network: "When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
The Guardian - Politicians, media figures and free speech organisations expressed anger and alarm at the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, warning that critics of Donald Trump were being systematically silenced... On Wednesday evening, California governor Gavin Newsom called the firing of commentators and cancelling of shows “coordinated” and “dangerous.” He went on to say that the Republican party “does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.”...
Comedian and actor Wanda Sykes said in a video that Trump “didn’t end the Ukraine War or solve Gaza within his first week, but he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.”
Hacks star Jean Smart wrote that she was “horrified” by the decision. “What Jimmy said was FREE speech, not hate speech. People seem to only want to protect free speech when it suits THEIR agenda,” she wrote on Instagram. “Though I didn’t agree at ALL with Charlie Kirk; his shooting death sickened me; and should have sickened any decent human being. What is happening to our country?”
Sharing recent footage of Fox commentator Brian Kilmeade calling for mentally ill and homeless people to be killed, comedian Paul Scheer wrote: “So let me get this straight. Kimmel is off the air for his comments about the politicization of an assassination but this is totally fine.” Kilmeade later apologised for his “extremely callous” remarks....
monologue on Monday, Kimmel said that “we hit some new lows over the weekend with the Maga gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”...
There have been reports of teachers, firefighters, journalists, nurses, politicians, a Secret Service employee, a junior strategist at Nasdaq and a worker for a prominent NFL team, being sacked or censured in some form after publishing opinions on Kirk’s politics or death...
MSNBC - Indiana’s Republican governor said he’s concerned that his state could face political ramifications — potentially, a loss of federal benefits — unless it forces through a mid-decade redraw of its congressional districts ahead of next year’s midterms.Gov. Mike Braun is facing backlash after he told an Indiana radio station that there could be “consequences” if state Republicans don’t quickly move on the Trump administration’s demands.
Trump has urged GOP-controlled states for help in next year’s electoral races by redrawing districts in ways that favor Republicans — in some cases, as with Texas and Missouri, by diluting the power of nonwhite voters. The administration has had Indiana in its sights, with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance reportedly pressuring Indiana lawmakers — some of whom have been skeptical — to get on with the rigging already.
Braun framed it as an offer Indiana can’t refuse.
![Trump: “We’ll probably go after [journalists] like you, because you treat me so unfairly.”](https://mcusercontent.com/cc0374dd9e0152c8c6792963e/images/67021bef-f250-732e-9760-5ec5b2da8ba7.png) |
College debt
Wallet Hub - With the average student loan debt reaching over $39,000 per borrower,
the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s States with the Most and Least Student Debt, as well as expert commentary.
To determine the states that are friendliest toward student-loan
debtors, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia
across 12 key metrics. The data set ranges from average student debt to
unemployment rate among the population aged 25 to 34 to share of
students with past-due loan balances.
| States With the Most Student Debt | States With the Least Student Debt |
|---|---|
| 1. Mississippi | 42. Alaska |
| 2. New Hampshire | 43. Nevada |
| 3. Pennsylvania | 44. District of Columbia |
| 4. Delaware | 45. Colorado |
| 5. South Dakota | 46. Oregon |
| 6. South Carolina | 47. Washington |
| 7. Kentucky | 48. New Mexico |
| 8. West Virginia | 49. California |
| 9. New Jersey | 50. Utah |
| 10. Ohio | 51. Hawaii |
Best vs. Worst
- Utah has the lowest average student debt, which is 2.2 times lower than in New Hampshire, the state with the highest.
- Utah has the lowest proportion of students with debt, which is 1.9 times lower than in South Dakota, the state with the highest.
- Montana has the lowest share of student loans in past-due or default status, which is 7.5 times lower than in New Hampshire, the state with the highest.
September 17, 2025
Trump Administration Destroying Birth Control
Newsweek - The Trump administration may have destroyed almost $10 million worth of taxpayer-funded birth control and other contraceptives that were meant for women in low-income countries. The vast amount of products would have provided pregnancy protection for more than 1.5 million women for between 1 and ten years, Guttmacher Institute researcher Chelsea Polis said in an interview with CNN in July.
While The New York Times reported that the contraceptives had been destroyed last week, citing a statement from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the next day, it reported that Belgian authorities had found the contraceptives were still there.
Family planning assistance from the U.S. government usually helps more than 47 million women and couples every year, preventing 8.1 million unintended pregnancies, 5.2 million unsafe abortions and 34,000 maternal deaths, according to U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July urging him to reverse the decision to burn the supplies.
Many of the women and couples supported by the U.S. government's support are those living in crisis, many of them in war zones and refugee camps.
Polls
Newsweek - The latest poll from Data for Progress found that nearly six in 10 American voters would blame the GOP or Trump himself for a shutdown—not Democrats.
In total, 32 percent said they would blame Trump, while 27 percent said they would blame Republicans in Congress if the government shuts down. Only 34 percent said they would blame Democrats.
Among independents—a critical voting bloc—30 percent would blame Trump, while 24 percent would blame Congressional Republicans. Thirty-one percent would place blame on Democrats, according to the poll.
Newsweek - In the poll released on Tuesday, Trump's approval rating shows 39 percent, with a disapproval rating of 57 percent. The poll was taken from September 12 to September 15 among 1,567 U.S. adult citizens, with a 3.6 percent margin of error.
"The 39% of Americans who approve of Trump is the lowest share to do so in any weekly Economist / YouGov Poll in Trump's second term," YouGov's Public Relations Lead Allen Houston told Newsweek via email in part.
"The 57% who disapprove is the most to do so in Trump's second term," Houston added.
Cocaine is more popular than ever in the US
Independent UK - Cocaine use is now more popular than ever in the U.S., with a major resurgence in recent years allowing the Mexican drug lord largely responsible for the boom to cash in. Consumption of cocaine in the western U.S. has increased by 154 percent since 2019, according to data from drug-testing company Millennium Health. In the same period, use is up 19 percent on the East CoastS.
Health
Washington Post - Susan Monarez, who was fired last month as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told senators Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pressured her to change the childhood vaccine schedule and told her he was also speaking to President Donald Trump about the issue.
Testifying before the Senate health committee, Monarez said she was fired for “holding the line on scientific integrity” and pushing back on demands from Kennedy to preapprove vaccine recommendations from his advisers who have criticized vaccines. Kennedy told senators at hearing earlier this month that Monarez was lying, while conceding that he asked her to fire senior staff.
Monarez, in her first public appearance since her firing, said Kennedy told her that “every day” he was speaking to Trump about changing the childhood vaccine schedule and pressed Monarez to back him.
Debra Houry, one of three top CDC officials who resigned in protest of Monarez’s firing, also testified. She said she had to push back against Kennedy for trying to disseminate misleading medical claims through the CDC.
A Harris Poll of poll of physicians, nurses and other frontline clinicians found that more than half are actively looking for a new job in hopes of leaving their current role in the next year. (Health Exec)
University of California students and faculty sue the Trump administration
The Guardian - The Trump administration is using civil rights laws to wage a campaign against the University of California in an attempt to curtail academic freedom and undermine free speech, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by faculty, staff, student organizations and every labor union representing UC workers.
The lawsuit comes weeks after the Trump administration fined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) $1.2bn and froze research funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus and other civil rights violations. It was the first public university to be targeted by a widespread funding freeze. The administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against elite private colleges, including Harvard, Brown and Columbia.
According to the lawsuit, the Trump administration has made several demands in its proposed settlement offer to UCLA, including giving government access to faculty, student and staff data; releasing admissions and hiring data; ending diversity scholarships; banning overnight demonstrations on university property and cooperating with immigration enforcement.
Word
“Well, guys, President Trump just arrived in the U.K. for a state visit with King Charles and Queen Camilla. Charles and Camilla are Trump’s second-favorite king and queen, next to Burger and Dairy.” - Jimmy Fallon
Right wing responsible for more terror deaths
Time - In the last five years, 81 people have been killed by political violence in the United States. Right-wing terrorists account for over half of those murders, some 54%, according to research by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Islamists account for 21%, and left-wingers for 22%.
The same study looked at data as far back as 1975 and found that terrorists inspired by Islamist ideology account for some 87% of all deaths (3122) from political violence, due to the mass casualties of the 9/11 attacks.
Excluding the 9/11 attacks, over the same period, terrorists inspired by right-wing ideology are responsible for 63% of deaths from political violence during that time, compared to 10% for left-wing attacks. Since 1975, there have been 391 deaths caused by right-wing terror attacks in the United States, and 65 deaths from left-wing terror attacks.
Sonia Sotomayor Appears to Rip Pam Bondi
New Republic - Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday seemed to throw a sidelong barb at Attorney General Pam Bondi for foolishly suggesting the existence of a “hate speech” exception to free speech.
As the far right wages an ongoing crusade against people accused of mocking slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Bondi said on a Monday podcast that “hate speech” is not free speech. The Department of Justice, she vowed, will “target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
The sentiment was widely criticized, including by MAGA commentators, for undermining the First Amendment. Bondi attempted to walk back her statement on Tuesday.
During a Tuesday morning panel at New York Law School, Sotomayor seemingly took aim at Bondi but did not mention the attorney general by name.
“Every time I listen to a lawyer-trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way, I think to myself, that law school failed,” the liberal justice reportedly said. “If any student who becomes a lawyer hasn’t been taught civics, then that law school has failed,” she added. “Because it is for that system that you’re working as a lawyer.”
Sotomayor also raised concerns about people’s awareness, or lack thereof, of constraints on the power of the executive branch—evidently referencing Donald Trump, without mentioning him by name, either.
“Do we understand what the difference is between a king and a president?” Sotomayor said (a distinction that was blurred by the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling on presidential immunity in United States v. Trump, as she warned in her dissent at the time). “I think if people understood these things from the beginning, they would be more informed as to what would be important in a democracy.” More
Press Freedom Hits 50-Year Low
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance - Democracy around the world has weakened, with most countries declining in their performance while freedom of the press suffered its most far-reaching fall in 50 years, according to a report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
The deterioration is part of a global trend of democracy under threat, with 54 per cent of countries falling in at least one key indicator of democratic performance in 2024 compared to five years before....
The categories of Rights, Rule of Law, and Representation—which include core aspects of democracy such as freedom of the press, judicial independence and credible elections—all suffered broad declines in this five-year period.
Reduced international support for democracy, including cutbacks in US development assistance, may further challenge efforts to strengthen democracy institutions worldwide.
Last year was marked by the global elections super-cycle when around 1.6 billion people cast ballots. But this unprecedented exercise in voting unfolded amid global deterioration in the key category of Representation. The indicator for Credible Elections fell to its worst level in 30 years, with declines impacting a fifth of all surveyed countries. More
FBI director Kash Patel
NPR - FBI Director Kash Patel will face questioning today from the House Judiciary Committee. This comes a day after a combative hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which Patel defended his leadership of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. Patel is facing criticism for the usage of his social media account to announce inaccurate information about Kirk’s murder, his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and for the firings of veteran agents.
The Senate hearing lasted more than four hours and had “two starkly different messages,” according to NPR’s Elena Moore. Democrats spoke on reasons why they feel Patel isn’t fit for the job, pointing to his missteps. Republicans mostly stayed in Patel’s corner and focused on the issue of political violence. GOP lawmakers alleged that the far left is inciting a broader culture of political violence. However, Democrats opposed the narrative as they have also been targets in recent acts.
September 16, 2025
Trumpflation
Under Donald Trump’s economy:
Coffee is up 26%
Beef is up 14%
Oranges are up 17%
Bananas are up 6%
Chicken is up 6%
Chocolate Chip Cookies are up 5%
Potato Chips are up 4%
Milk is up 4%
But average worker pay is only up 2%
Trumpflation is eating up your paycheck.
Hiding slavery
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Trump has ordered the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.
This famous photo is one of them. .... Information at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, where George Washington kept slaves is also being removed.
Polls
Newsweek - New polling conducted by Somos Votantes and the Global Strategy Group between August 26 and September 4 shows that Trump's net approval rating among Latino voters has dropped from -11 points in February to -23 points in September. His favorability rating has seen a similar drop, from -12 points in February to -20 points in September.
Growing depression
Newsweek - The reported percentage of U.S. adults suffering or receiving treatment for depression has been higher than 18 percent for the past two years. A decade ago, in 2015, the number was just over 10 percent.
"The increase is alarming, and it is important that we keep an open mind and explore all possible causes for the rapid, and apparently sustained, rise in depression rates over the past decade," Dr. Gerard Sanacora, a professor of psychiatry, director of Yale Depression Research Program and co-director of Yale New Haven Hospital Interventional Psychiatry Service at Yale University, told Newsweek.
Depression is a common mental health condition that can affect how a person thinks, sleeps, eats and acts, and often causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest in previously enjoyed things, but is different to sadness or grief.
It affects millions of Americans, and recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that as many as 1 billion people worldwide are living with mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.
There are many different types and severities of depression, and in severe cases, it can lead to self-harm or death by suicide. Tens of thousands of Americans take their own lives each year, highlighting the crucial importance of mental health treatment and support.
“America's Comeback” Is Nothing but a Con Job
Hartmann Report - When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, he was sitting under a tent that had “America Comeback Tour” printed in huge letters across all four sides. It was the theme of his tour of college campuses, a tour run by his Turning Point organization that was, according to NBC News, early-funded by ten morbidly rich rightwingers.
The question is “America Comeback” to what?
In 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn into office:
— Fully two-thirds of Americans were in the middle class,
— College was so cheap you could pay your tuition with a weekend job,
— Healthcare was inexpensive and widely available,
— Women and minorities had achieved legal (albeit not yet actual) parity with white men,
— And school and mass shootings were largely unknown because weapons of war were mostly outlawed from our streets.
Today, however, as a result of the Reagan Revolution:
— Only around half of us are in the middle class,
— College debt has crushed two generations to the point where they can’t start a family or buy a house,
— A half-million families end up homeless or bankrupt every year because somebody got sick,
— The GOP is leading an effort to make it harder for women and minorities to vote or maintain employment,
— And, with more guns than people, mass shootings are an almost-daily occurrence.
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