“It’s that time of year again. As students finish testing, school begins to shift. More time is spent on parties, watching movies, and projects that fall below grade level. I call it the ‘May Malaise.’ I don’t object to a little downtime as the school year winds down — most parents probably feel the same. But I do mind that the slowdown seems to begin earlier and earlier in the year, stretching into a multi-week period in May when little meaningful academic work takes place. What’s more, students don’t always enjoy it either. Speaking from my own experience, my kids are not exactly clamoring for more assignments, but their disengagement is obvious. This end-of-year drift is especially frustrating after months of being told how critical school attendance is.” (05/22/25)
“President Trump has indicated his interest in sending the U.S. military into Mexico ‘help with the cartels.’ Vice President JD Vance has spoken about sending in the military ‘to do battle with the Mexican drug cartels.’ Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth agrees, saying, ‘If it takes military action, that’s what it may take eventually.’ … Although there is a high chance that there would be tactical success against elements of the cartels, that success would be limited and fleeting — despite the capabilities that America’s military brings to bear. The demand by Americans for a range of illicit drugs is strong and constant. Any disruption of the trafficking of drugs (and all forms of illicit goods) from and through Mexico would be temporary.” (05/22/25)
Source: Inequality.org
by Ignacio Gonzalez, Juan Montecino, Aina Puig, Selin Secil Akin & Mary Hansen
“House Republicans’ tax plan would expand a tax break in the 2017 tax reform for ‘pass-through’ businesses that has overwhelmingly benefited high earners. ‘Pass-throughs’ are entities structured so that profits are not taxed at the business level but instead at the owners’ individual income tax rate. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act introduced a 20% deduction for Qualified Business Income (QBI) for pass-through businesses. House Republicans want to extend this tax break and increase it to 23%. Contrary to proponents’ claims that the QBI deduction stimulates economic growth, economic research suggests a more nuanced and challenging reality. Recent analysis from our team at American University’s Institute for Macroeconomic and Policy Analysis (IMPA) reveals that extending or increasing the QBI is likely to exacerbate economic inequality, while delivering no economic benefits in the long run.” [editor’s note: Five co-writers? I wonder who came up with the chorus? – SAT] (05/22/25)
“The ever-growing market for personal data has been a boon for American spy agencies. The U.S. intelligence community is now buying up vast volumes of sensitive information that would have previously required a court order, essentially bypassing the Fourth Amendment. But the surveillance state has encountered a problem: There’s simply too much data on sale from too many corporations and brokers. So the government has a plan for a one-stop shop. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is working on a system to centralize and ‘streamline’ the use of commercially available information, or CAI, like location data derived from mobile ads, by American spy agencies, according to contract documents reviewed by The Intercept.” (05/22/25)
“In May of 2011, I wrote the following words in the Chronicle of Higher Education: ‘Online learning has become the third rail in American higher-education politics: Step on it and you’re toast.’ In so doing, I planted my foot squarely on that electrified third rail. … there is no denying that much has changed in the 13 years since I penned those fateful words. For one thing, back then, I had never taught an online class. And, of course, that was one of the accusations leveled at me by my detractors. I didn’t know what I was talking about, they insisted, having never ‘been in the trenches’ myself. Yet one needn’t be directly involved in an activity to look at numbers and see a problem.” (05/22/25)
Has America been made great again enough for you yet? Personally, I don’t know how much more greatness I can handle. I mean, you got the Salvadoran gulag thing, the crackdown on free speech thing, the threats to suspend constitutional rights because of the latest ‘state of emergency’ (i.e., the ‘invasion’ of America by squads of ‘ren de Aragua assassins’ that Biden conspired with Maduro to unleash on God-fearing heterosexual white families), the luxury resort and theme park Trump wants to build on the ruins of Gaza …. well, I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but who can keep track of all this greatness? But, seriously, I don’t know how much more great again America can be made at this point, unless they decide to go the whole hog and declare Trump ’emperor.’ Which, I wouldn’t put that past them … you know, just to ‘own the libs.'” (05/22/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“In the United Kingdom, a mini political earthquake has thrown everything up into the air. At the beginning of May, several local councils held elections for the county, allowing voters a say in how their local services are managed—bin collection, potholes being filled in, local development plans, etc. These elections are not, therefore, the most decisive electoral events of the calendar. But politically, they can be used to send a message, and that is certainly what happened this time. Often seen as a chance for voters to express their discontent, local elections can be taken as a test of the current government’s performance, and this is one they definitively failed.” (05/22/25)
“Dear Jake Tapper, You co-wrote a new book in which you brazenly accuse the Biden administration of orchestrating ‘a cover-up’ to conceal the former president’s cognitive decline. But you were complicit. You played a major role. Why did Democrats and media co-conspirators, like you, keep quiet, downplay and viciously attack those pointing out former President Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline — even though his deterioration was an accepted fact behind Democrat closed doors? Easy. Until and unless Biden agreed to step aside, Democrats/media who publicly ratted out Biden’s decline would have given Democrat-generated opposition material and attack lines to his Republican challenger — likely the hated Donald Trump. And you/Dems/media arrogantly considered Trump ‘too fascist/racist/sexist/maniacal’ to win — even against a feeble, stumbling, incoherent Biden.” (05/22/25)
“Many commenters responded to yesterday’s post by challenging the claim that 1.2 million Americans died of COVID …. I didn’t know this was still such a topic of debate, but since it seems the comment section is split, let me present my case for the 1.2 million number and see if people still disagree.” (05/22/25)
