President Trump has relentlessly blamed foreign countries for much of what ails Americans. Trade imbalances, fentanyl overdoses and the economic struggles of working class Americans are all laid at the feet of foreign governments.
According to that logic, tariffs are the ideal policy instrument for extracting concessions from foreign governments to remedy those harms, while also raising money for America’s treasury. Of course, there is an inherent conflict between these two goals: If foreign governments make the requisite changes, and Mr. Trump drops the tariffs, they will raise no revenue. And yet, the president pushes ahead, seemingly unconcerned by warnings of the damage tariffs will cause; some observers dismiss the threats as mere bluster or a negotiating tactic.
A better way to think about tariffs is as a key tool to achieve the core of Mr. Trump’s economic agenda: He wants to shift the tax burden away from the well-off and toward the poor and middle class — while also consolidating his power.
The signature legislative achievement of Mr. Trump’s first term was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, legislation which permanently lowered the corporate tax rate by 14 percentage points, alongside temporary tax cut provisions that expire at the end of 2025. Extending these provisions would provide most Americans with only a small tax cut relative to current law, but it would disproportionately benefit those at the top. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, shows that the top 1 percent would save more than $70,000, about 3 percent of after-tax income, while the median household would get only about $1,000, about 1 percent of after-tax income.
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While the poor get few of the rewards from those tax cuts, they bear more of the burden from tariffs, which are a tax on imported goods. The poor spend a larger share of their income than the rich do on things they want or need, including on imported goods, rather than saving or investing it, so tariffs operate as a sharply regressive tax.
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It is a mistake to imagine that the imports subject to tariffs are luxury goods like fine wines or sports cars; the tariffs threatened so far would fall instead on everyday household goods made in China, Canada and Mexico, along with steel and aluminum, which are used in a vast array of things Americans buy. It’s not yet clear what the final level of tariffs will be, but the highest levels Mr. Trump proposed during the campaign — a 20 percent across-the-board tariff, combined with a 60 percent tariff on China — would cost a typical American household in the middle of the income distribution more than $2,600 a year.
If a candidate announced a tax increase on the poor and middle class to fund a tax cut for the rich, voters would soundly reject that proposal. But tariffs wrap this fiscal switch in a veneer of nationalism.

A question for Democrats: How did you spend the weeks around Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration? Moping? Doom scrolling? Ordering in?
Mike Zimmer had no time for any of that. He was running in a special election for an Iowa State Senate seat, in an eastern pocket of the state that had gone for Mr. Trump by 21 points in November. A longtime educator, Mr. Zimmer spent January introducing himself to voters via phone banking, social media videos, podcasts, postcards, media interviews and relentless canvassing. In a month’s time, Team Zimmer knocked on more than 7,700 doors.
“I am not going to sit here and talk about, ‘Oh, at every doorstep we knocked, everyone’s having policy conversations,’” Mr. Zimmer said with a chuckle in a recent phone interview. “They were like, ‘I saw you on the television, I’ve gotten three of your fliers, and oh, by the way, you’re letting $20 worth of heat out the door.’”
Nevertheless, he persisted. And, defying the odds, he won, flipping a Republican seat and beating his opponent by around four points. He was just sworn in to the Iowa Senate.
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After the electoral thumping the Democrats suffered in November, it will take more than a down-ballot upset here and there for the party to regain its mojo. But this is how the rebuilding starts. The wounded party begins clawing back voters and territory, often in unglamorous contests.
Practically speaking, it can be easier to win these one-off contests, far from the presidential scrum. The Democrats can test-drive messages and candidates mostly under the radar of the national Republican Party (and political media). The candidate can focus on bread-and-butter issues with less risk of getting swept into the polarized chaos of the national scene. This happened for Democrats with special elections in 2017, after Mr. Trump’s team dominated the 2016 cycle. And Mr. Zimmer’s unexpected success has some in his party dreaming of a similar surge this year. In recent weeks, his campaign team has been fielding calls from Democratic strategists and players far beyond Iowa, all eager to know how the campaign did what it did and which elements could be exported to other places and races.
It goes without saying — but let’s say it anyway — that candidate quality matters. And “you couldn’t use a computer to generate a better candidate” for his district than Mr. Zimmer, said Tyler Redenbaugh, the executive director of the Iowa Senate Majority fund and the chief architect of the Zimmer campaign. The candidate grew up in the area and after college worked as an educator in schools all across the district. His campaign motto was no frills — “Iowa raised, Iowa values: hard work and fairness.” And his focus was on kitchen-table issues like lowering costs, raising wages and improving public schools.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has been busy. It’s not because she’s standing up for Iowans. Instead, she’s working overtime to defend the Trump administration.



Bird is leading 19 attorneys general in red states in a lawsuit to defend President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been operating under no statutory authority to fire federal employees, target agencies and withhold federal funding. The authority of DOGE’s leader, billionaire Elon Musk, is also being challenged.


Bird also is leading multiple states in a defense of Trump’s executive order erasing birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.




By now we’re used to Bird joining politicized lawsuits. But her commitment to serve Iowans also is revealed through the lawsuits Bird won’t join.


Bird has ignored a Trump executive order freezing USDA funding owed to farmers and landowners who instituted water quality improvement measures. So, Iowa farmers waiting for tens of millions of dollars they’re owed by the federal government to be paid.


Going to bat for medical research and farmers seems like a bipartisan no-brainer. Legal action by a Trump backer such as Bird might get the administration’s attention.


Bird also isn’t joining legal efforts to overturn a freeze on research spending by the National Institutes of Health. At the University of Iowa, Trump’s NIH executive order could mean the loss of $30 million for medical research, such as drug trials.





A federal judge has halted enforcement of the funding freeze. But Trump’s action has pushed important medical research into uncertainty.


Four months ago, according to journalist Laura Belin at Bleeding Heartland, Bird did join a multistate lawsuit ostensibly to remove one mention of “gender dysphoria” in the preamble of revised federal disability rights written during the Biden administration.


But the lawsuit’s main objective is declaring section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 unconstitutional.

LOL

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Good Friday maga morning!

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With “Morning Joe” in the background, did I hear Joe mention by name “the University of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa “ will be hurt disproportionately by cutbacks in research programs in the DOGE cuts?… that and Joe’s U of Alabama…Interesting.

Login to view embedded media Big pickup here! Let’s go!

It has been more than a decade since I’ve been to a national tournament. I remember in Omaha and Des Moines it was really easy to find people selling tickets outside the arena. With most tickets going digital I would assume that has changed at more recent nationals? I’ve got a ticket in the Iowa section but didn’t know how hard it would be to find more outside the arena. All the prices I’ve seen on Stubhub and SeatGeek are crazy.

What you got? Last night on Amazon I watched:

• Bunker77- (from IMDB) - is the wild true story of a young American rebel seeking freedom, love, and authenticity in a chaotic world. Bunker Spreckels, Clark Gable's stepson and heir to a sugar fortune, defied expectations and grew into a controversial surf star from the late 60s into the 70s.
  • You can watch it on Youtube here
• Banksy And The Rise Of Outlaw Art - (from IMDB) - Banksy, the world's most infamous street artist, whose political art, criminal stunts, and daring invasions outraged the establishment and created a revolutionary new movement while his identity remained shrouded in mystery.
  • You can watch it on Youtube here

Both are very good, but Banksy was very interesting Ifrom a social commentary perspective. I just wish I was in Central Park when he was selling his art for $60, a lady bought two for $50 and sold them for $125K.

Check out Hands In The Sky (Big Shot) by Straylight Run on Amazon Music

Against Trump? Against Musk? Against Trump supporters?

Many of the people in the first 2/3 of this vid have gone off the deep end.

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What's your go to listen? I d have to say my most listen to is hawkeyofthe storm . Gets annoying when he let's guys just ramble though. Least favorite is locked on hawkeyes. Some thing about him just rubs me wrong just hard to listen to.

I think there is a high chance they will vote against the speaker and trump. These people hate all the debt and I think they will not like the $4 trillion raising of the debt limit.

I wonder if any will have the guts to spend for the big tax cuts to the wealthy when they know it come back to bite them in the ass in 2026.

And the cuts to Medicaid and some say Medicare, SNAP, and other programs to help the poor and elderly will hurt a lot of older voters, REpub voters.

Those southern states and a whole lot of poor, unhealthy people, W VA also

I bet the Repubs dont pass it the first vote

On May 1st it was reported that as a 4th round pick, Tory's 4 year deal would be worth $4,780,061.

The detailed numbers have now come out.

Tory signed a 4 year, $4,767,900 contract with the Chicago Bears, including a $747,900 signing bonus. $747,900 of the $4,767,900 is guaranteed.

However, if everything goes according to plan, this is what he will earn over the 4 years:

2024:.....$1,542,900
2025:.........960,000
2026:.......1,075,000
2027:........1,190,000
......................................
TOTAL:...$4,767,900
=================


Click on "chicagobears.com" in the tweet to take you to the story.

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Some SWEET CAROLINE... THE LIVE VERSION!!!!!!!!!

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PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. (WPLG) – A hospital nurse in Florida was seriously injured when a patient brutally attacked her, according to authorities.

The patient, identified as 33-year-old Stephen Scantlebury, is now facing charges for attempted murder.

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office said the attack happened at HCA Florida Palms West Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

Deputies were called to a patient room on the third floor of the hospital and found the nurse critically injured.


Deputies said Scantlebury ran out of the hospital and into traffic. Video shows him running on the highway, shirtless, with what appears to be EKG leads still attached to his chest.

Deputies were able to arrest Scantlebury, who is now undergoing medical clearance and faces one count of attempted murder.

The nurse was transported to St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach for treatment.

According to an affidavit, “essentially every bone in the victim’s face is broken and the victim is likely to lose the use of both eyes.”


Detectives are still investigating.

HCA Florida Healthcare said in a statement Tuesday night:

“Our primary concern is with our beloved colleague and we are praying for her recovery. We are also providing support to our hospital staff who are understandably shaken by this incident. The attack on our nursing colleague happened within a matter of seconds and was witnessed by multiple people who came to assist. We are grateful to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office who acted to detain the suspect and we are assisting law enforcement in their investigation.”

And not winning the battle of popularity on his own platform.

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Increasingly being debunked in community notes

And if you are, do you have tickets? It looked last year like tickets wouldn't be an issue, But I'm driving from Muscatine with a friend, and maybe going the long way through Albia to get my granddaughters, so I'd like to avoid a fiasco like the Cedar Falls one I told about on the Panthers thread.
I was all over the NCWWC site and the Simpson site and couldn't find a way to buy tickets. I'm going either way, I would just like to know I have tickets, and what they cost.

Are you ok, good, bad, or terrible.