Source: The Daily Economy
by Glenn Furton
“The damage done by Trump’s tariffs is not some transient dip in output or a blip in prices. It is a structural downgrade in our capacity to create.” (04/15/25)
Source: TomDispatch
by Liz Theoharis & Noam Sandweiss
“The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the 10 richest people in the world — including nine Americans — expanded their wealth by nearly $64 billion, the greatest single-day increase in recorded history. Since then, an unholy marriage of billionaire investors, tech bros, Christian nationalists, and, of course, Donald Trump has staged an oligarchic assault on our democracy. If the nation’s corporate elite once leveraged their relationships within government to enrich themselves, they’ve now cut out the middleman. We’re living in a new Gilded Age, with a proto-fascistic and religiously regressive administration of, by, and for the billionaires. With the wind at their backs, leading elements in the Republican Party have rapidly eschewed euphemisms and political correctness altogether, airing their anti-immigrant, anti-Black, and anti-poor prejudices in unapologetically broad and brazen terms. The effect of this, especially for the most vulnerable among us, is seismic.” (04/15/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/you-only-get-what-youre-organized-to-take/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Ethan Yang
“The demise of independent agencies would not spell the end of accountability.” (04/15/25)
Source: Racket News
by Greg Collard
“Despite court rulings, the Trump Administration shows no interest in helping Abrego Garcia return to the U.S.; El Salvador’s president calls releasing him ‘preposterous.'” (04/15/25)
https://www.racket.news/p/timeline-the-case-of-kilmar-armando
Source: OtherWords
by Lindsay Koshgarian
“Each year for Tax Day, my colleagues and I at the Institute for Policy Studies release a tax receipt so you can learn where your taxes are actually going. This year, you may be more worried about the price of eggs than your tax dollars. But with President Donald Trump now urging a $1 trillion military budget, it’s worth thinking about what we’re already spending. Last year, the average taxpayer paid $3,707 for weapons and wars. That’s the equivalent of 628 dozen eggs. So if you thought buying a dozen or two a week for your family was taxing, well, that’s just the beginning. Taxpayers are directly subsidizing the world’s wealthiest man even as he cuts programs for the poorest people on Earth.” (04/15/25)
https://otherwords.org/if-you-think-eggs-are-expensive-wait-till-you-see-trumps-pentagon-budget/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“The most profound and ominous aspect of the controversy surrounding the deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to El Salvador is that the Trump administration has figured out a way to circumvent the right of habeas corpus, not just for foreigners but also for the American people. Why is that important? Because without habeas corpus, a right that stretches all the way back to Magna Carta in 1215, there is no free society. … it is the right of habeas corpus that enforces the right of freedom of speech and the exercise of other rights. Without habeas corpus, people’s rights become a dead letter.” (04/15/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/04/15/the-circumvention-of-habeas-corpus/
Source: Common Dreams
by Thom Hartmann
“Yesterday was the day democracy in our nation officially died. We no longer live in the America we grew up in: ‘The land of the free and the home of the brave.’ … The country that claimed to follow the rule of law, and valued compassion and the protection of its most vulnerable people. We are now in the midst of a outright coup against the Constitution, against the United States, and against our founding ideals: Donald Trump proclaimed it yesterday when he openly defied the Supreme Court and our founding documents with a sneer, and his neofascist sycophants chuckled and giggled in the Oval Office. When Marco Rubio claimed that arresting and deporting a man legally living in the US was ‘foreign policy’ that can’t be overseen by the Supreme Court and then congratulated himself on his cleverness.” (04/15/25)
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“On April 18, 1689, eighty-six years and a day before the ‘shot heard ‘round the world’ at Lexington and Concord, the people of Boston and surrounding towns rose up and overthrew the royal governor in a rebellion against taxation and arbitrary power. It no mere local uprising. It was the first major step toward what would later become the American Revolution. While most Americans today know that ‘no taxation without representation’ was a battle cry of the American Revolution, few realize this principle and active resistance against it began almost a century earlier.” (04/15/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/04/15/tax-resistance-and-the-birth-of-the-american-revolution/
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“Before the Liberation Day tariffs were imposed on April 2, grocery giant Albertsons sent a letter to its suppliers, noting the potential economic challenges ahead. ‘We understand this situation may raise concerns for your business operations and the ongoing relationship we share,’ stated Albertsons executive vice president and chief merchandising and digital officer Omer Gajial, who wrote that he wanted to ‘clarify’ Albertsons’ policy regarding the tariffs. ‘We are committed to maintaining the value proposition our customers expect,’ Gajial continued. ‘Therefore, with few exceptions, we are not accepting cost increases due to tariffs.’ In other words, regardless of higher supplier costs from components of their goods sourced from China or other countries, they would have to absorb those increases if they want to sell to Albertsons. Tariff costs could not be included in invoices without prior authorization, Gajial said.” (04/15/25)
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-04-15-how-trump-tariffs-assist-monopoly/
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
“Most financial commentators are of the view that increases in the stock market strengthens economic growth. The reason being because the increase in stock prices lifts consumer and business optimism, which in turn boosts the consumers and businesses demand for goods and services, which in turn strengthens the economy. But is it valid to hold that what drives the economy is the demand for goods and services?” (04/15/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/04/economic-growth-and-the-stock-market/