When he was sworn in as president, Joe Biden inherited a lousy economy. Too many people wrongly assumed that all the problems stemmed solely from the pandemic. Reality was that Donald Chump was running he economy into the ground, destroying all the advances taking place in the eight years of Barack Obama's two-term presidency. Had the pandemic not happened, the damage Chump was doing from the start of 20117 to the start of 2021 would have registered more. Joe spent four years building back the economy. In less than one year in office, Chump has undermined and destroyed all those advances.
Doubt it?
Look around.
Fast food chain Wendy's is planning to close hundreds more stores just a year after shuttering 140 locations.
Interim CEO Ken Cook told investors in a Friday, Nov. 7, quarterly earnings call that the company would be closing a "mid single-digit percentage" of locations. With around 6,000 locations still operating nationwide, this would amount to roughly 240 to 360 stores. One investor estimated the number at about 300 locations during the call. "When we look at the system today, we have some restaurants that do not elevate the brand and are a drag from a franchisee financial performance perspective," said Cook. "The goal is to address and fix those restaurants."
Shay Johnson (PENNY GEM) notes, "Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the United States, is planning to close about 60 stores over the next year and a half. These locations, which represent around 2% of the company’s total stores, are mostly ones that have been performing poorly. The decision highlights how the grocery business is changing as people shop differently, costs rise, and competition grows tougher." BUZZ60 notes, "Winn-Dixie, a staple of Southern grocery shopping for generations, is facing its most dramatic shift in decades. In October, parent company Southeastern Grocers (SEG) announced plans to close or sell 40 stores—32 Winn-Dixie and 8 Harveys Supermarkets—across Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi by year’s end."
So that's eateries and grocery stores, what about retail? Dominick Reuter, Sarah Jackson, Sarah Perkel, Brent D. Griffiths and Jordan Hart (BUSINESS INSIDER) report:
A Business Insider tally of disclosures from 16 retail chains found that more than 3,700 stores have closed or are set to close across the US so far in 2025.
The current number is up from last year's total and 2023, when the collapse of Bed Bath & Beyond contributed to the shuttering of more than 2,800 locations, by Business Insider's count.
UBS analysts estimated last year that US retail closures could reach 45,000 stores by 2029, primarily due to smaller stores going out of business.
As this more evidence piles up, Chump lies to the people. And some let him et away with it. There's one area where his lies don't work. Groceries. As SV Date (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:
President Donald Trump’s relentless lying finally appears to have encountered a problem it cannot overcome: grocery prices, which, in large part because of his tariffs, have been rising nearly twice as quickly as they had under predecessor Joe Biden.
“Grocery prices are way down,” the president has been saying, time after time after time after time, for months, including twice on Thursday and once again on Friday.
Tariffs was never an economic plan. It was just a sign of stupidity -- on the part of Chump and a huge number of Americans who didn't realize how stupid they were. Tariffs are a tax on the people of the country imposing them. Lawrence O'Donnell has sent hours going over that near nightly on his MS NOW program. There's no excuse for not knowing that.
B-b-b-but I-I-I watch FOX "NEWS"!!!!!
Your decision to destroy your mind with fake news and propaganda was your decision, don't whine to me.
Here's another issue of the stupid: The untaught and uninformed.
There are millions of topics in this world. I'm lucky if I can comment semi-intelligently on just a few. And I know that. I know my limitations. And I'm not embarrassed by them. I don't know why people have to pretend to be know it alls. But people who knew nothing about economics felt comfortable weighing in and demonstrating their stupidity.
I knew tariffs were taxes but that's about it on economics. I know what GDP stands for and what GNP stands for, but there's a book from an economic course that I have to pull down from shelves when I'm trying to remember which one overlooks a number of issues (GNP is the one that overlooks). There's no point in going after the aged text book I reference but you can read an essay Gloria Steinem did on this topic in her book MOVING BEYOND WORDS (which is old itself, having come out in 1994).
To cover economics here, I got crash courses from four friends. That involved conversations, lectures from them and their assigned reading. In addition, one said watch THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE because she covers economics regularly and intelligently. So I started watching and the professor and I would talk any segment she did on the economy and analyze that.
This time last year, I wouldn't have had any real strength in the area. I am by no means an expert -- I'm still working on increasing my knowledge -- but I am conversant in economics.
We're encouraged to fake it and pretend we're experts on everything. We're not. I'm certainly not.
And on somethin that important, you don't need people faking. And you don't need to be faking on something as important as the economy.
You should also have some common sense. Every time the GOP claims the presidency, the push is for tax cuts for the rich. We're supposed paying down debt during times when a Democrat is in the White House. And I'm tired of that too. All that happens is that any progress made is then used by the Republican president to insist it's time for tax cuts (for the wealthy).
Over and over this cycle has continued.
So when Chump, a Republican, starts making economic promises, your own common sense should tell you, "I need to be suspicious."
In other news, Cory Turner (NPR) reports:
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees when it replaced their personalized out-of-office e-mail notifications with partisan language blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
"When government employees enter public service, they do not sign away their First Amendment rights," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his decision on Friday, "and they certainly do not sign up to be a billboard for any given administration's partisan views."
The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
"This ridiculous ploy by the Trump administration was a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the workers at the Education Department," said Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, which represents many Education Department workers, in a statement. She added it is "one of the many ways the Department's leadership has threatened, harassed and demoralized these hardworking public servants in the last 10 months."
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
“If the Trust for the National Mall has become a tool for favor-seeking between billionaires and the President of the United States, the American people deserve to know.”
Washington, D.C. — In a response to an October letter from U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Wyden (D-Ore.), Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Markey (D-Mass.), the Trust for the National Mall refused to answer questions about its role in fundraising efforts for President Trump’s new White House Ballroom.
Billionaires and billionaire corporations with business in front of the Trump administration have funneled money to the new ballroom, raising questions about potential corruption. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon this week explained that the bank has not given to the ballroom because "we're quite conscious of risks we bear by doing anything that looks like buying favors or anything like that.”
“If the Trust for the National Mall has become a tool for favor-seeking between billionaires and the President of the United States, the American people deserve to know. It’s my job as a United States Senator to uncover possible corruption and get answers for Americans. I’ll keep pushing to find out if the Trust is facilitating wink-and-nod arrangements between Trump and his billionaire ballroom donors — and what these donors are getting in return,” said Senator Warren.
“The Trust for the National Mall’s response is insultingly unsatisfactory. It’s an insult to our intelligence and their integrity. The President is abusing this respected nonprofit institution to facilitate special interest access and fund his $300 million vanity boondoggle. Billionaires and big corporations are exploiting this vehicle to cozy up to Trump. It will be diminished in credibility and trust as it becomes entrenched in Trump’s quicksand. The American people deserve to know whether there have been any quid-pro-quos or backroom favors for donating to his gilded ballroom project. I’ll continue to press for answers,” said Senator Blumenthal.
“$300 million in private donations are bankrolling Trump’s vanity project at the White House, with much of it coming from corporate interests with high-stakes matters before the federal government. The Trust’s wholly inadequate response to our letter only deepens our serious concerns that they are enabling a major pay-for-play scheme, allowing the wealthy and megacorporations to curry favor with a lawless president – all while Trump refuses to negotiate the end of his government shutdown. Given Trump’s clear pattern of shaking down businesses in exchange for sweetheart deals with his Administration, we will keep working to shine a light on these donors and what’s motivating them – including whether they expect favorable treatment in return for their ‘generosity,’” said Senator Van Hollen.
“As Americans struggle to feed their families and federal workers struggle without pay, Trump builds a golden ballroom funded by billionaires and large corporations. We demanded answers about Trump's corruption and pay-to-play politics and got zero answers. Public office is a public trust — not a VIP suite for the highest bidder,” said Senator Markey.
The Trust was established as a nonpartisan, nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. But the scale of funds raised for President Trump’s ballroom, President Trump’s personal involvement in fundraising for the project, and the number of corporate donors with business before the Trump Administration raised questions for the lawmakers about whether the organization is facilitating these donors’ corrupt access to and favor-seeking from President Trump and his administration.
On October 23, the senators pressed President and CEO of the Trust, Catherine Townsend, and National Park Service Comptroller Jessica Bowron, about the exact agreements in place regarding the building of the ballroom, the source and amount of donations, whether the donations are charitable deductions, and more.
In the Trust’s response, Townsend confirmed the Trust is “managing the private donations gifted to support the [ballroom] project,” but refused to answer questions regarding the agreements between President Trump, the White House, and the Trust with regard to funding and building the Trump Ballroom.
Townsend also declined to release details about the donations made to date, along with any terms and conditions related to each of these donations, saying “donor names and identifying information are not subject to public disclosure under [federal law].”
Townsend directed the senators additional questions about the project to the National Park Service and the White House.
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The following sites updated:
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PREDATOR: BADLANDS7 hours ago
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Chump pardons his fellow GOP felons18 hours ago
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Chump the legal mess19 hours ago
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