On Monday, the Trump administration issued an extraordinary memo ordering federal agencies to indefinitely freeze the "disbursement of all Federal financial assistance." The freeze was scheduled to take effect at 5 PM on Tuesday, according to the memo, authored by the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Matthew J.
Add in a massive helping of incompetence, and you've got the GOP formula nailed. By mismanaging any and all government services, they then present privatization as the only solution.
The USPS is probably most at risk of being sold off; but Wall Street is even more eager to get their hands on "managing" the Social Security trust fund. Add in the insurance industry's desire to turn all of Medicare into private Medicare Advantage, and their entire playbook becomes clear.
One doesn’t know where to start resisting this horrific attack on our democracy. That is probably the idea. Do as much outrageous stuff as you can and do it immediately. The opposition has to regroup and fight like hell against this. Where is the leadership on the sane side of all this? I think many are getting their composure back but we need a focal point. A spokesperson. We need a hero!
My Daddy referred to this as sh*t slinging. Throw enough of it at the wall and some of it will stick.
Non profits, colleges and university research and programs that make life better. How I despise the 1%. He compounded the sling yesterday with the announcement of buyout of 2 million Federal employees and a one week time limit. The guy stiffed contractors as part of his biz for most of his life, so who thinks he has any honorable intentions to carryout severance. He has no right. This isn't a business. It's a government. Personnel rules are in place. How can he legally do any of it. Both moves smell of Musk to me. How is DOGE allowed? Not a real department.
Then there's the gang of Project 2025 he has installed in his administration...they are ticking off the list on a daily basis.
From Nov. 5th forward I knew it would be bad and so far it is. If Patel and RFK, Jr are given the rubber stamp confirmation it is going to get worse at warp speed.
I have 0 faith in SCOTUS to be of any help. Reminds me of W Bush saying, the Constitution is just a piece of paper. GOP moved toward this moment for decades.
And the ineptness of the Democrats cannot be forgiven either. Democrats love to lecture and be right, Republicans want to win, well they won. Pro-choice should have been a slam dunk, combatting the Koch Brothers and other dark money interests should have not happened, especially when they had majorities, but no they had to chase other things.
While it is tempting, Robert Hubbell says don't blame the Dems, blame Trump. Also, join resistance movements. One of them is indivisible. https://indivisible.org/groups
There are other groups to join. Locally anything that fits with what you would like to be working on.
Project 2025 documents most of what is happening now. I read it with a political discussion group in a book club. Knowledge it power, and it is still there to be read. I would recommend it to just understand the plans and intentions. It is a slog though.
Although the Dems were not as effective as they might have been it was in large part because of 2 Senators who did the damage and left the party.
As for the Koch Network & related $$ issues, I’m not sure how Dems are responsible for the SCOTUS rulings that Corporations are People (from the 1800s) and the newer Constitutional right that $$ = Speech.
Regardless IMO, we are where we are & we need to organize around things people care about. That includes inflation and basic needs. What happened here is not much different than in other democracies where disruption of society - economically and from pandemics - resulted in distrust, alienation and booting the party in change.
The beginning of the end was when Bozo Scalia propagated the silly idea of originalism in reading the Constitution. Funded by the Federalist Society and Cato Institute and bankrolled by Koch’s and Mercer and fellow Republican Luddites. This should have been stridently repudiated and mocked by the Democrats, exposing the sham that it is. Can you tell I’m not a fan of originalism?
Every single member of Congress regardless of party should have been outraged by this usurpation of their power and prerogatives, but no Republicans said a damn thing except maybe Susan Collins is "concerned" and most Democrats said little. This should have resulted in immediate impeachment and removal but what do we get? Sternly worded letters from Chuck Schumer??? We are in deep deep shit and it looks like no one is going to stand up for us except a few Democratic AGs and maybe a judge or two.
Rupublicans seem to believe that they hold their power through Trump, so no turning to them. Democrats seem stunned. They should have read project 2025 so they would know what they could expect and start planning for that.
Democrats actually said quite a lot. They had a press conference, the DNC and their rapid response account were pushing out a lot of information on programs that would be impacted. JB Pritzker gave a really good speech, Tim Walz made a good, impassioned statement.
I would feel better about the complaining about Dems if it came with something they could do as the now minority party. Frankly they were not able to act as a majority party with Manchin & Sinema who have left the party after doing their damage. As a minority party there are some procedural tools and the bully pulpit.
There is no magic wand to wipe way the consequences of electing a lawless president. Not when the House & Senate are run by the GOP & totally in the pocket of lawlessness.
I agree, but I do think one thing they could do is not give another one of his nominees a single vote. I do realize that's largely symbolic since they are in the minority, but why would they let ANYTHING Trump wants look bipartisan?
Maybe, but I see a lot of Democrats despondent that our senators and representatives aren't doing more in the face of pretty blatant power grabs. As a Californian, I don't understand why my senators would vote for any of Trump's nominees. Trump is an autocrat, is that worth opposition or isn't it?
Ask them. You won’t be satisfied but they will know you’re concerned.
This was the P 2025 plan in large part because it is very difficult to stop if the president has a majority in the House & Senate that depends on him to keep their voters happy — especially hard since the immunity rulings.
Right now the clown show gets all the attention. Very little of what the Dems do even in the hearings gets reported - for 2 reasons. Clowns get them more clicks & the Dems don’t have the power to change anything.
DNC is getting ready to elect new leadership. We’ll see if new leadership comes in with a plan to break through while getting ready for the mid-terms.
Yeah, if someone picks up the phone in my senators's offices, I will definitely ask. I think the Dem response to the spending freeze has been fine. My issue is that overall, their behavior doesn't match the gravity of the moment.
As Republican states are consumers of federal funding at a far higher rate than blue states I say “have at it”. Let them awaken cold and hungry and affirm their religious commitment to the GOP and Christ. I care far more for the undocumented immigrants than I do for these flag waving, goose stepping patriots.
"The Trump administration seems determined to challenge this consensus. The legal process has already started. A group of non-profits filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration yesterday. A few minutes before the 5 PM deadline, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction, meaning the memo will not go into effect for at least a few days. The legal dispute may end up before the Supreme Court."
You are correct...
This is what Project 2025 is all about. You have to realize it doesn't cost them anything, dollar wise, to get the "other side" to spend lots of time, energy and funds to fight these ridiculous and illegal "Memo's"... which were per-written years ago during the planning stage of the government take over.
Project 2025 gets their perceived "enemies" to drain down their defense funds, at no cost to them. Perhaps a slight political cost but they have the government for 4 years in which to disrupt the voting process. This disruption will cost them nothing as the have the judges and MAGA crowds, again at no cost to them, to intimidate and change the voting process as needed in most all 50 states. They will win Congressional seats in 2026 just as they have been able to get idiot criminals approved to major government posts through Congress... as we speak.
Something outside of the box needs to be formulated in order to stop this backsliding that is costly to the country and costly, to those having to pay out to defend against illegal nonsense. The American people are paying the bills of both sides of this ridiculous farce. Huge, and I m talking huge, financial penalties need to be levied against these idiots for knowingly wasting the public's time, money and creating emotional aggravation, for putting forth memo's they know to be illegal in order to drain the funds of the Constitutional defenders...their perceived "enemies". This is a tactic that will work if not stopped immediately.
The Republican mantra used to be: "I've got mine; feel free to get yours." Then it morphed to "I've got mine and I'm coming for yours." Now it's "I've got mine, I'm coming for yours, and if you're not suffering, I'm not happy."
Follow the Money and find a way to take the money away from them extra-legally. Let them spend their time and money fighting charges of treason and insurrection for many years down the road.
Utilizing the State courts which are not under the control of the federal courts is a viable option. They aren't entirely captured yet and can be used to tie this crowd up for years with lots of statewide news/publicity, exposing to the public, in those states, to what is actually going on and how they have been "hood winked".
Bill boards in all states should display the ways to access "real news". People love to interact with the internet, especially to sites that they can do secretly, it adds the essence of excitement/entertainment?
Once there they can see " the path" of what happens when you give over power to the corporations with real examples that people deal with everyday that cause them to get angry. Redirecting that anger toward the real villains is the only way to get things turned around.
thank you...now...what are our billboards going to say? Should engage the reader...be short and to the point and be irrefutable for the simplest of minds.
Seems that even after convicting a number of people for an insurrection, that the "Don't say gay" language police were even more vehemently committed to "Don't say insurrection."
After the vast majority of nations recognized an ethnic cleansing and genocide, the language police had successfully recruited the Democratic Party stooges in shushing their own rank and file with "Don't say genocide."
So wondering when we see a coup taking place, what do the bipartisan language police with the authority of job titles currently deem appropriate to call what we see in public?
One reason people think Trump is great because he is unwilling to have his language and thoughts be shushed. We can do the same. We should not allow the party to shush us?
I was shushed by the NYT in the spring of 2016. I wrote that I was worried that Trump was going to be staging a coup. They did not publish that. It was months later that they published the same discussion only by one of their regular contributors. So, I thought, see, my idea was not so off. On Jan 6, while I was still shocked, because I had been expecting Trump to try a military coup, not a legislative, I see that Trump is still up to his Coup staging tricks, and probably someone pointed out to him that South Korea's president's fate could become his, even though he just released his violent Brown shirts to help attack everyone.
Most New Yorkers of a certain age will recognize these names: Joel Steinberg, Hedda Nussbaum and their daughter Lisa Steinberg. I see an analogy of their story as a symbol for the American people. By the time Joel had killed 6-year-old Lisa through beatings and starvation, Hedda was a bruised and bloody foil. When Hedda's dead eyes on her swollen face were perp-walked into jail, we were shocked and confused. What had happened to this middle-class, educated family?
Trump and his enablers, including the voters who put him in power are Joel Steinberg, who through his drug-addled megalomania, beat and bloodied his wife, beat and starved his children. The police, doing their job, arrested he and Hedda, an obvious victim of serious abuse. Hedda's face told the story of what happens when a narcissist with all the power, terrifies and controls those without any power. In this analogy, we the people, are Hedda. Poor little Lisa, emaciated and abused, dead on arrival, is the future of America.
Minor point here. Medicare is not disbursed directly to the individual. It is disbursed to the doctor on behalf of the individual. Just as lunch aid is disbursed to the school on behalf of the child. And so on. The order had to specifically mention it to get it into the exception they claimed didn't apply. Now, miraculously, Medicaid is also said to be disbursed to the individual. The same applies to student loans, paid to the colleges. Let's amend illegal orders by Press Conference. Works as well as sharpies.
I've been calling my republican congressman every day. You should call your representative and senators too. Let them know you are not OK with what trump is doing. And if your senators are Democrats tell them to stop voting for trump's nominees. There are 53 republican senators. Those nominees don't need Dem votes. Tell them to show resistance.
(202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with your rep or senator.
This is all part of the overall process to centralize power and control in his hands. He is demonstrating that he can take away whatever he wishes whenever he wishes. Once that point is made, he can then start to give some back. He will be the dispenser of all largesse and you will be grateful to him for what you have received.
I’m looking forward to the Substack thinkers discussing further.
I have not yet read discussion of the magnitude of the economic impact of cutting off Medicaid funding, or holding it hostage for awhile.
It’s not just the awful moral impact on patients and families, but in fact, that funding keeps clinics and hospitals alive, and their employees and vendors paid.
The health care economy is ~20% of US GDP. That’s why Medicaid funding increases stimulate growth, and why these funding interruptions
will fuck up a lot more than “just” patients and doctors: it will shred the US health care economy.
These tactics are designed to cow us into submission.
Judd you and your reporters are like a breath of fresh air. After reading mainstream media this morning to find out what fresh hell happened overnight, reading this article that contains actual journalism and addresses the heart of the matter, was such a relief. Thank you for the work you do. I’m so grateful I found Popular Information - I subscribed immediately.
People, including Trump’s most rabid supporters, will suddenly see what the federal government actually does for them that they would miss were it to go away. The value of government will be made more clear than ever, even though some people will be more affected than others. The most vulnerable will definitely suffer more, as is always the case.
And, the 50% of the country that didn’t vote for this clown now have a reason to wake up from their stupor, come together and start fighting again. His “shock and awe” may be exactly what the left (and even center) needed to mobilize. The threat is now clear, he wasn’t kidding, and it’s time to get moving.
Marxism is not the problem. Dictatorship is. Fascism is. You are right on the money, Judd.
Add in a massive helping of incompetence, and you've got the GOP formula nailed. By mismanaging any and all government services, they then present privatization as the only solution.
The USPS is probably most at risk of being sold off; but Wall Street is even more eager to get their hands on "managing" the Social Security trust fund. Add in the insurance industry's desire to turn all of Medicare into private Medicare Advantage, and their entire playbook becomes clear.
I hear that! Well said!
One doesn’t know where to start resisting this horrific attack on our democracy. That is probably the idea. Do as much outrageous stuff as you can and do it immediately. The opposition has to regroup and fight like hell against this. Where is the leadership on the sane side of all this? I think many are getting their composure back but we need a focal point. A spokesperson. We need a hero!
My Daddy referred to this as sh*t slinging. Throw enough of it at the wall and some of it will stick.
Non profits, colleges and university research and programs that make life better. How I despise the 1%. He compounded the sling yesterday with the announcement of buyout of 2 million Federal employees and a one week time limit. The guy stiffed contractors as part of his biz for most of his life, so who thinks he has any honorable intentions to carryout severance. He has no right. This isn't a business. It's a government. Personnel rules are in place. How can he legally do any of it. Both moves smell of Musk to me. How is DOGE allowed? Not a real department.
Then there's the gang of Project 2025 he has installed in his administration...they are ticking off the list on a daily basis.
From Nov. 5th forward I knew it would be bad and so far it is. If Patel and RFK, Jr are given the rubber stamp confirmation it is going to get worse at warp speed.
I have 0 faith in SCOTUS to be of any help. Reminds me of W Bush saying, the Constitution is just a piece of paper. GOP moved toward this moment for decades.
And the ineptness of the Democrats cannot be forgiven either. Democrats love to lecture and be right, Republicans want to win, well they won. Pro-choice should have been a slam dunk, combatting the Koch Brothers and other dark money interests should have not happened, especially when they had majorities, but no they had to chase other things.
While it is tempting, Robert Hubbell says don't blame the Dems, blame Trump. Also, join resistance movements. One of them is indivisible. https://indivisible.org/groups
There are other groups to join. Locally anything that fits with what you would like to be working on.
Project 2025 documents most of what is happening now. I read it with a political discussion group in a book club. Knowledge it power, and it is still there to be read. I would recommend it to just understand the plans and intentions. It is a slog though.
Although the Dems were not as effective as they might have been it was in large part because of 2 Senators who did the damage and left the party.
As for the Koch Network & related $$ issues, I’m not sure how Dems are responsible for the SCOTUS rulings that Corporations are People (from the 1800s) and the newer Constitutional right that $$ = Speech.
Regardless IMO, we are where we are & we need to organize around things people care about. That includes inflation and basic needs. What happened here is not much different than in other democracies where disruption of society - economically and from pandemics - resulted in distrust, alienation and booting the party in change.
The beginning of the end was when Bozo Scalia propagated the silly idea of originalism in reading the Constitution. Funded by the Federalist Society and Cato Institute and bankrolled by Koch’s and Mercer and fellow Republican Luddites. This should have been stridently repudiated and mocked by the Democrats, exposing the sham that it is. Can you tell I’m not a fan of originalism?
That is the idea. Here is fascism expert Prof. Ruth Ben Ghiat talking with Anand Giridharadas talking about how to view things now.
https://youtu.be/p2DEU9Wi6OA
Thank you, they are both more than worth this listen.
Every single member of Congress regardless of party should have been outraged by this usurpation of their power and prerogatives, but no Republicans said a damn thing except maybe Susan Collins is "concerned" and most Democrats said little. This should have resulted in immediate impeachment and removal but what do we get? Sternly worded letters from Chuck Schumer??? We are in deep deep shit and it looks like no one is going to stand up for us except a few Democratic AGs and maybe a judge or two.
Rupublicans seem to believe that they hold their power through Trump, so no turning to them. Democrats seem stunned. They should have read project 2025 so they would know what they could expect and start planning for that.
Democrats actually said quite a lot. They had a press conference, the DNC and their rapid response account were pushing out a lot of information on programs that would be impacted. JB Pritzker gave a really good speech, Tim Walz made a good, impassioned statement.
I would feel better about the complaining about Dems if it came with something they could do as the now minority party. Frankly they were not able to act as a majority party with Manchin & Sinema who have left the party after doing their damage. As a minority party there are some procedural tools and the bully pulpit.
There is no magic wand to wipe way the consequences of electing a lawless president. Not when the House & Senate are run by the GOP & totally in the pocket of lawlessness.
I agree, but I do think one thing they could do is not give another one of his nominees a single vote. I do realize that's largely symbolic since they are in the minority, but why would they let ANYTHING Trump wants look bipartisan?
Probably because they have constituents who don’t agree with that approach.
Maybe, but I see a lot of Democrats despondent that our senators and representatives aren't doing more in the face of pretty blatant power grabs. As a Californian, I don't understand why my senators would vote for any of Trump's nominees. Trump is an autocrat, is that worth opposition or isn't it?
Ask them. You won’t be satisfied but they will know you’re concerned.
This was the P 2025 plan in large part because it is very difficult to stop if the president has a majority in the House & Senate that depends on him to keep their voters happy — especially hard since the immunity rulings.
Right now the clown show gets all the attention. Very little of what the Dems do even in the hearings gets reported - for 2 reasons. Clowns get them more clicks & the Dems don’t have the power to change anything.
DNC is getting ready to elect new leadership. We’ll see if new leadership comes in with a plan to break through while getting ready for the mid-terms.
Yeah, if someone picks up the phone in my senators's offices, I will definitely ask. I think the Dem response to the spending freeze has been fine. My issue is that overall, their behavior doesn't match the gravity of the moment.
As Republican states are consumers of federal funding at a far higher rate than blue states I say “have at it”. Let them awaken cold and hungry and affirm their religious commitment to the GOP and Christ. I care far more for the undocumented immigrants than I do for these flag waving, goose stepping patriots.
"The Trump administration seems determined to challenge this consensus. The legal process has already started. A group of non-profits filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration yesterday. A few minutes before the 5 PM deadline, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction, meaning the memo will not go into effect for at least a few days. The legal dispute may end up before the Supreme Court."
You are correct...
This is what Project 2025 is all about. You have to realize it doesn't cost them anything, dollar wise, to get the "other side" to spend lots of time, energy and funds to fight these ridiculous and illegal "Memo's"... which were per-written years ago during the planning stage of the government take over.
Project 2025 gets their perceived "enemies" to drain down their defense funds, at no cost to them. Perhaps a slight political cost but they have the government for 4 years in which to disrupt the voting process. This disruption will cost them nothing as the have the judges and MAGA crowds, again at no cost to them, to intimidate and change the voting process as needed in most all 50 states. They will win Congressional seats in 2026 just as they have been able to get idiot criminals approved to major government posts through Congress... as we speak.
Something outside of the box needs to be formulated in order to stop this backsliding that is costly to the country and costly, to those having to pay out to defend against illegal nonsense. The American people are paying the bills of both sides of this ridiculous farce. Huge, and I m talking huge, financial penalties need to be levied against these idiots for knowingly wasting the public's time, money and creating emotional aggravation, for putting forth memo's they know to be illegal in order to drain the funds of the Constitutional defenders...their perceived "enemies". This is a tactic that will work if not stopped immediately.
The Republican mantra used to be: "I've got mine; feel free to get yours." Then it morphed to "I've got mine and I'm coming for yours." Now it's "I've got mine, I'm coming for yours, and if you're not suffering, I'm not happy."
Are we all forgetting that SCOTUS determined Presidents have immunity from prosecution for “official acts” last summer?
Seems like a plurality of voters (and nonvoters) did not factor that in to their decisions in November.
Now we are seeing exactly what that means in real time. It means dictatorship.
Preserve us our Union.
Follow the Money and find a way to take the money away from them extra-legally. Let them spend their time and money fighting charges of treason and insurrection for many years down the road.
Utilizing the State courts which are not under the control of the federal courts is a viable option. They aren't entirely captured yet and can be used to tie this crowd up for years with lots of statewide news/publicity, exposing to the public, in those states, to what is actually going on and how they have been "hood winked".
Bill boards in all states should display the ways to access "real news". People love to interact with the internet, especially to sites that they can do secretly, it adds the essence of excitement/entertainment?
Once there they can see " the path" of what happens when you give over power to the corporations with real examples that people deal with everyday that cause them to get angry. Redirecting that anger toward the real villains is the only way to get things turned around.
"Bill boards in all states should display the ways to access "real news"."
Shout it from the rooftops. This is one of our main problems. People seem to think if a thing is said loudly and enough times, it must be true!
If this is the reality, then we need to accept it, and use it...we can't keep bring knifes to gunfights.
You're damn right. I'm ready.
thank you...now...what are our billboards going to say? Should engage the reader...be short and to the point and be irrefutable for the simplest of minds.
I think light or heavy sarcasm might work? My group down here just change red into blue in our county and signage was one of the key factors.
Agreed. I know that most folks are not like me and will not last through even one article like Robert Hubbells: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/an-upwelling-of-outrage-spreads-across?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=fgj4&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
"So how about the price of eggs?"
"Has your Medicare recently been turned off?"
" Still winning, right?"
"Drill baby drill = Oil prices rising!"
"You didn't believe it before but how about now?"
"Trump = Grandaddy Nuts!"
"Still feeling GREAT after just 8 days?"
"It's been 8 weeks. Ya still feeling GREAT?"
"The CDC can no longer warn the American people about the potential spread of disease cause your daddy don't care if you get sick."
"If you get sick the president-elect + his MAGA crew will find a way to blame and profit off of you!"
At what point is it appropriate to describe a coup with that term?
This has already been described as a governmental coup by several people yesterday.
Seems that even after convicting a number of people for an insurrection, that the "Don't say gay" language police were even more vehemently committed to "Don't say insurrection."
After the vast majority of nations recognized an ethnic cleansing and genocide, the language police had successfully recruited the Democratic Party stooges in shushing their own rank and file with "Don't say genocide."
So wondering when we see a coup taking place, what do the bipartisan language police with the authority of job titles currently deem appropriate to call what we see in public?
One reason people think Trump is great because he is unwilling to have his language and thoughts be shushed. We can do the same. We should not allow the party to shush us?
I was shushed by the NYT in the spring of 2016. I wrote that I was worried that Trump was going to be staging a coup. They did not publish that. It was months later that they published the same discussion only by one of their regular contributors. So, I thought, see, my idea was not so off. On Jan 6, while I was still shocked, because I had been expecting Trump to try a military coup, not a legislative, I see that Trump is still up to his Coup staging tricks, and probably someone pointed out to him that South Korea's president's fate could become his, even though he just released his violent Brown shirts to help attack everyone.
Most New Yorkers of a certain age will recognize these names: Joel Steinberg, Hedda Nussbaum and their daughter Lisa Steinberg. I see an analogy of their story as a symbol for the American people. By the time Joel had killed 6-year-old Lisa through beatings and starvation, Hedda was a bruised and bloody foil. When Hedda's dead eyes on her swollen face were perp-walked into jail, we were shocked and confused. What had happened to this middle-class, educated family?
Trump and his enablers, including the voters who put him in power are Joel Steinberg, who through his drug-addled megalomania, beat and bloodied his wife, beat and starved his children. The police, doing their job, arrested he and Hedda, an obvious victim of serious abuse. Hedda's face told the story of what happens when a narcissist with all the power, terrifies and controls those without any power. In this analogy, we the people, are Hedda. Poor little Lisa, emaciated and abused, dead on arrival, is the future of America.
Minor point here. Medicare is not disbursed directly to the individual. It is disbursed to the doctor on behalf of the individual. Just as lunch aid is disbursed to the school on behalf of the child. And so on. The order had to specifically mention it to get it into the exception they claimed didn't apply. Now, miraculously, Medicaid is also said to be disbursed to the individual. The same applies to student loans, paid to the colleges. Let's amend illegal orders by Press Conference. Works as well as sharpies.
I've been calling my republican congressman every day. You should call your representative and senators too. Let them know you are not OK with what trump is doing. And if your senators are Democrats tell them to stop voting for trump's nominees. There are 53 republican senators. Those nominees don't need Dem votes. Tell them to show resistance.
(202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with your rep or senator.
This is all part of the overall process to centralize power and control in his hands. He is demonstrating that he can take away whatever he wishes whenever he wishes. Once that point is made, he can then start to give some back. He will be the dispenser of all largesse and you will be grateful to him for what you have received.
Thank you so much for this important post.
I’m looking forward to the Substack thinkers discussing further.
I have not yet read discussion of the magnitude of the economic impact of cutting off Medicaid funding, or holding it hostage for awhile.
It’s not just the awful moral impact on patients and families, but in fact, that funding keeps clinics and hospitals alive, and their employees and vendors paid.
The health care economy is ~20% of US GDP. That’s why Medicaid funding increases stimulate growth, and why these funding interruptions
will fuck up a lot more than “just” patients and doctors: it will shred the US health care economy.
These tactics are designed to cow us into submission.
Rally!
Judd you and your reporters are like a breath of fresh air. After reading mainstream media this morning to find out what fresh hell happened overnight, reading this article that contains actual journalism and addresses the heart of the matter, was such a relief. Thank you for the work you do. I’m so grateful I found Popular Information - I subscribed immediately.
Two potential upsides to the current mess:
People, including Trump’s most rabid supporters, will suddenly see what the federal government actually does for them that they would miss were it to go away. The value of government will be made more clear than ever, even though some people will be more affected than others. The most vulnerable will definitely suffer more, as is always the case.
And, the 50% of the country that didn’t vote for this clown now have a reason to wake up from their stupor, come together and start fighting again. His “shock and awe” may be exactly what the left (and even center) needed to mobilize. The threat is now clear, he wasn’t kidding, and it’s time to get moving.