I express my condolences and sympathy for the families of the victims and survivors of the Texas floods. The tragedy is an ongoing catastrophe that will mark Texas and the nation forever. See this statement by the American Red Cross regarding reunification services and mental health support for survivors and families. Funds for victims are appearing online. If you support a donation fund, please do so through a verified source.
Staying on task: Overwhelm the opposition.
We face a historic challenge and a historic opportunity. Our democracy has never before been directly threatened by a sitting president and a complicit political party. The American people have never before risen up in the tens of millions in defense of democracy.
The partisan political environment is fractured as never before. The punditariat has shifted into overdrive with well-meaning but doom-spiraling commentary about the reconciliation bill, Congress’s abdication of its constitutional duties, and the executive office power grab by Trump. Within the Democratic Party, friction over generational change, messaging, and ideology is consuming much of the oxygen at the leadership level of the party.
That leaves us—the grassroots, the party faithful, the volunteers, the voters, and those holding the most important office in the land—that of citizen to assume responsibility for leading the defense of democracy.
We must tune out the noise and continue to drive the outpouring of pro-democracy fervor that will eventually overwhelm Trump and his MAGA extremists. The mass movement of concerned citizens is gaining momentum and heft. We must make it unstoppable, irresistible, and inevitable. When the resistance can reliably put 30 million people in the streets, even the NYTimes will no longer be able to falsely report that “tens of thousands” showed up for national protests.
More importantly, as we take to the streets in peaceful protest, we are converting citizens into voters who will defend democracy at the ballot box. And they will serve as inspiration to their friends, family, and neighbors. In a closely divided electorate, that relative advantage can make all the difference between painfully narrow losses and overwhelming victories.
Pro-democracy rallies have been growing slowly and steadily since Inauguration Day. The No Kings Day rallies were the largest single-day protest in our nation’s history. On July 17, 2025, there will be a continuation of the No Kings Day rallies under the banner of Good Trouble Lives On. Use the link to sign up for an event or to download an “organizer’s toolkit” to sponsor your own event.
The “Good Trouble Lives On” name was chosen to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the passing of John Lewis, civil rights activist and US Representative from 1987 to 2020.
The Good Trouble Lives On event takes place on a Thursday. Many events have been scheduled for the evening hours to accommodate the schedules of those who work during the day. Evening events will also help avoid the heat of the day during mid-summer.
If you attended a No Kings Rally, please make every event to attend a Good Trouble Lives On rally and bring a neighbor, friend, or work acquaintance! With the passage of the cruelest bill in our nation’s history, there are hundreds of additional reasons that should motivate new activists to join us in the streets for peaceful rallies.
Readers often send emails posing questions with unanswerable hypotheticals like, “If Trump stages an armed coup and uses the military to prevent elections, what is our plan?” The extreme hypotheticals will not come to pass as long as we refuse to allow them to happen. And the best way to prevent Trump's creeping authoritarianism is for him and his enablers to understand that further assaults on democracy will be met with overwhelming, massive, unprecedented demonstrations of the kind that have saved democracies across the globe.
During a time of fractured, frenzied partisan politics, it is up to us to remain on task, overwhelming the opposition by showing up for peaceful protests that stand up for democracy and against fascism. We can do that. Indeed, we are already doing it! We just need to increase the size, enthusiasm, and volume of our efforts!
The Social Security Administration’s false statements about the alleged “no taxes on Social Security.”
Within hours of the passage of the reconciliation bill of 2025, tens of millions of Americans received a statement from the Social Security Administration that claimed that
“The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries . . . . “
“The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits . . . . “
Those statements are false. See The Hill, Social Security no taxes message on Trump bill raises eyebrows.
Per The Hill,
“There is no provision in the budget bill that directly ‘eliminates’ or even reduces taxes on Social Security benefits,” Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the Washington Post.
The bill does not “eliminate” taxes on Social Security benefits or “ensure” that 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits. What the bill does is to increase the standard deduction by $6,000 for seniors, to be applied against all taxable income that does not exceed $75,000 individually or $150,000 jointly.
But as noted by The Hill’s reporting, “64 percent of seniors receiving Social Security income paid no tax on their Social Security due to exemptions and deductions.” Under the reconciliation bill, that percentage will increase to 88%, a difference of 24% of seniors who will not be paying taxes on some or all of their Social Security income as a result of the bill’s provisions.
Because of the way income deductions work to lower tax rates,
“The people who benefit by definition have to be richer, and people who benefit the most are the richest people,” Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, told CBS News.
In short, only about a quarter of seniors will see any tax benefit from the increase in the standard deduction—a far cry from claims made by the Social Security Administration about there being “no tax on Social Security benefits.”
Moreover, the statement by the Social Security Administration failed to mention that the increase in the standard deduction will expire in 2028 while the cuts to Medicaid under the bill and cuts to Medicare under the PayGo Act of $500 billion will continue for a decade (unless reversed by Congress).
A reader who leads a grassroots organization noted that members of her group would be sending postcards to swing districts and wanted information about the amount of Medicaid cuts by district. I located these sources:
State-by-state breakdown of cuts to Medicaid and ACA.
Breakdown by congressional district of cuts to Medicaid and ACA.
Know the facts; proactively rebut the lies being told by the Trump administration. Create “good trouble” by ensuring that voters know the truth!
Trump chickens out again on tariffs.
In the financial world, there is a phrase to describe Trump's constant failure to follow through on his threats. The financial world has come up with the phrase “Trump Always Chickens Out”—or TACO.
Trump has once again “chickened out” on tariffs. Does this matter? Yes. Here’s why:
Ninety days ago, Trump gave over 100 nations ninety days to negotiate a trade deal with the US or suffer punitive tariffs. That ninety-day deadline expires on July 9—and Trump has not signed a single trade deal. (Trump has claimed that a handful of preliminary agreements are “trade deals.” They are not. They are agreements to keep talking or to impose temporary tariffs while the countries continue their negotiations.)
Although Trump claimed that “the phone was ringing off the hook” with nations clamoring to capitulate to Trump, Secretary of Commerce Bessent has just disclosed that most nations never bothered to call Trump in response to his insane tariffs. So, rather than impose the punitive tariffs on July 9 as originally threatened, Trump has now moved the deadline to August 1. See Politico, Trump team moves goalposts on tariffs again.
The Trump administration is now sending letters to over 100 nations telling them that if they do not strike a deal by the new deadline, the April 2 tariff levels will be imposed. The last time the April 2 tariffs were imposed, the markets took a nosedive. See Newsweek (April 2, 2025), Stocks Plunge After Trump's Sweeping Tariff Announcement.
Despite Trump's on-again-off-again tariff threats, Trump is falsely claiming that his new tariff regime has raised $88 billion in new tariff revenue in the last two months. That claim is false. See FactCheck.org, Trump Exaggerates Tariff Revenue.
As explained by FactCheck.org, the total tariff revenue collected by the US over the last eight months (which includes the last three months of the Biden administration) is $81 billion. So, Trump's claim of collecting $88 billion in two months is a lie.
Yet, a reader forwarded me an email from her son repeating Trump's false claim about $88 billion in tariff revenue as an example of Trump's “winning.” A simple response citing FactCheck.org would rebut the lie—if the reader’s son were open to hearing the truth.
The most recent example of TACO is significant because it highlights Trump's misleading claims about his trade policy. More than a hundred countries have simply ignored Trump's threat—and he has attempted to convert that fact into a “victory” by claiming that he will reimpose insane tariffs that he walked away from in April when the market’s dove in response to the tariffs.
And, I have buried the lead. Tariffs are a tax on consumers. So, whatever amount of new revenue Trump has collected as a result of his tariffs, they are paid by US consumers. See Investopedia, The Basics of Tariffs and Trade Barriers. (“Tariffs are paid by domestic consumers and not the exporting country . . . .”)
Opportunity for Reader Engagement
Join Force Multiplier on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at 7:00 - 8:00 pm ET on Zoom (A link will be sent on the day of the event) to hear from first-term Congresspersons Nellie Pou (NJ-09) , Laura Gillen ( NY-04) and Josh Riley (NY-19), all of whom won by very thin margins in 2024 and whose seats we must hold in 2026.
They will discuss how House Democrats are pushing back against the Trump agenda and how we can regain the majority in 2026. There will be a Q&A session which should be very interesting given everything that is going on. Register and Donate HERE Give what you can, all are welcome.
Concluding Thoughts
The passage of the reconciliation bill has shaken people’s confidence. There is, of course, reasonable grounds for confidence shaking. The bill was grotesquely cruel but managed to garner the support of all but three Republicans in the Senate and all but one Republican in the House. That outcome is still shocking after everything we have experienced over the last eight years.
One way the blow from the bill has affected some readers is that they assume the worst in every situation as a matter of emotional defense. Assuming the worst can mitigate disappointment if the worst materializes. But that is a high price to pay for emotional insurance against disappointment. Apart from the psychological cost, it can demotivate people by creating a sense of helplessness, futility, and defeatism.
Case in point: A handful of readers have written about their concerns that Elon Musk’s announcement of a third party is bad for Democrats. Maybe. Maybe not. The outcome is uncertain. But what is certain is our ability to affect the outcome.
If we continue our political attacks on Musk, DOGE, and Tesla, it seems less likely that his third-party bid will affect either party, much less the Democratic Party. The damage done to the Tesla brand is transferrable to the DOGE Party candidates. But if we assume the worst and do nothing, our inaction becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It is difficult and exhausting to maintain a fighting spirit when a news cycle is painful and gut-wrenching. That’s understandable. Take a break, take a deep breath, wait a day, and get back to the fight. The DOGE Party is a liability for the Republican Party and Musk if we make it so. We can do that! We are already doing that! We must continue to do so!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Daily Dose of Perspective
The Crescent Nebula is formed by the stellar winds of a central star. The nebula is about 5,000 light-years from Earth and is 25 light-years across.
Enjoy!
Encouraged today that at my Episcopal church in San Clemente CA (former home to Richard and Pat Nixon), our priest brought down the house with a powerful sermon about standing with our immigrant parishioners against this authoritarian rule. Many in our Latino congregation are afraid to come to church, as ICE has been on the park across from the church. Expect more to be said by the Episcopal Diocese of LA this week.
I can't forget Trump saying that all of the countries were "begging for a deal," and using the phrase "kissing my ass" That they were all calling "dying to make a deal." "Please, please, I'll do anything, sir." How disgusted I was by this man. He is a two bit thug that has tarnished the presidency with his disgusting language.
I guess it's no surprise to know that it was all a lie. There were no phone calls, no deals. Now as his 90 day deadline nears, there are 100 letters going out to countries stating the tariffs that are being imposed on them. Those letters are not deals; they're threats. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the letters say, and what the leaders will do, but I don't expect any deals.