Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A Russian drone attack late on Tuesday killed one person and caused power, water and heating cuts in Odesa for the second day running, said the regional governor, Oleh Kiper. A 77-year-old woman died of shrapnel wounds on the outskirts of the city, he said, and drone strikes damaged critical infrastructure, leaving neighbourhoods without services. Kiper said fragments from downed drones had damaged private houses and started fires in outlying city districts. A missile strike had destroyed an empty sanatorium near the town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, south of Odesa, he added.” (03/05/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/05/ukraine-war-briefing-deadly-odesa-drone-attack-cuts-power-water-and-heating-for-second-day
Source: Beat the Press
by Dean Baker
“The waiting is almost over, Donald Trump is about to hit America’s workers with the largest tax increase they have ever seen. Trump’s taxes on imports (tariffs) from Canada, Mexico, and China will cost people in the United States somewhere around $400 billion a year or around $3,000 a household. This is far larger than any tax increase we’ve seen in the last half-century, and unlike tax increases put in place by Clinton and Obama, it will primarily hit low and middle-income households. Their tax increases primarily hit the top 1% percent, which is probably why they got so much more attention from the media. It is not clear what our reality TV show president hopes to accomplish with these tax hikes. His stated reasons don’t make much sense. Canada, Mexico, and China are already cooperating with the U.S. on the issues he is complaining about. There is a minimal flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants from Canada.” (03/04/25)
https://cepr.net/publications/donald-the-taxman/
Source: Politico
“The chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm told Republican lawmakers Tuesday to stop holding in-person town halls amid a wave of angry backlash over the cuts undertaken by President Donald Trump’s administration. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the NRCC chair, delivered the message inside a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private remarks. Trump on Monday dismissed the town hall uproar — much of it trained on the sweeping cutbacks made by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency — as being the work of ‘paid ‘troublemakers.’ Many other GOP leaders have adopted a similar tack, asserting that the protests Republican lawmakers have encountered have been concocted by Democrats and do not reflect genuine voter anger over the Trump cuts.” (03/04/25)
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/04/congress/gop-town-halls-richard-hudson-00210024
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“In recent years, the quit rate for federal workers has been about one-quarter the rate for workers in general. Deliberate buyouts aside — the quit rate for federal workers will remain rock bottom. What makes me so confident that federal quit rates will remain low despite working conditions that most of them must find repugnant? To understand my answer, you have to ask another question: Why were federal workers quit rates so low in the first place?” (03/04/25)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/why-federal-workers-wont-quit
Source: Barron’s
“President Donald Trump showed no signs of letting up on a budding trade war during his joint address to Congress on Tuesday, vowing to usher in a ‘golden age of America’ through a combination of tariffs, tax cuts, and reductions in government spending. … Trump also attempted to pass off some of the country’s struggles over the past couple weeks on former President Joe Biden, whose economy Trump labeled a ‘catastrophe.’ Trump, for example, blamed his predecessor for recent price rises in eggs and other goods.” (03/04/25)
https://www.barrons.com/articles/trump-speech-tonight-news-94053a14
Source: The UnPopulist
by Shikha Dalmia
“The White House wanted the Ukrainian president to sell out his country to appease Putin.” (03/04/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/ukraine-is-being-punished-because
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In war-torn Sudan, a key to peace may be in a child’s fingertips. After nearly two years of civil war, an estimated 25 million people in the predominantly Arab country in northeast Africa face acute hunger and 15 million have been forced from their homes. Roughly 90% of schools have closed, leaving 19 million children without a classroom. Yet along Sudan’s relatively calm Red Sea coast, thousands of displaced children have space in more than 600 schools that remain open. One, a third grader who fled fighting in the south with her family, sat sketching in a notebook with colored pencils. ‘The war is very bad,’ she told the United Nations last week from a classroom in Port Sudan. ‘I will share the colours with my siblings.’ ‘In times of crisis,’ UN News reported, ‘education is critical, not just for academic learning, but also for providing a sense of normalcy, stability and safety.'” (03/03/25)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0303/Drawing-peace-in-Sudan
Source: Associated Press
“Pope Francis stabilized enough Tuesday after two respiratory crises to resume using a nasal tube for oxygen, rather than a ventilation mask, as he continued to fight pneumonia, the Vatican said. The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, woke up after sleeping through the night, the Vatican said. The fact that Francis no longer needed the mask by Tuesday morning was a sign of some improvement after crises that required doctors to extract ‘copious’ amounts of mucus from his lungs. But the doctors’ prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was not out of danger.” (03/04/25)
https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-pneumonia-a5b7c0e597b38d329da55fb1720b4404
Source: Cato Institute
“The Return of Bipolarity.” (03/04/25)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/power-problems/return-bipolarity
Source: The Daily Economy
by unknown
“Lately, Donald Trump (and Elon Musk) have agreed to consider returning at least some of the money that DOGE saves to the American people. Estimates vary on how big of a check could be going to Americans and there is, of course, debate as to which Americans should get the money and, if so, how much money. … This discussion highlights an important debate in the administration of government and the provision of civilized society. What is the role of and justification for taxation in society?” (03/04/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-trolley-problem-of-taxation-should-doge-savings-go-to-taxpayers-or-the-national-debt/
