The Common Ills: The Snapshot

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

The Snapshot

Tuesday, December 30, 2025. As Chump continues to decay, he destroys the economy and proves himself to be the failure so many always told him he was.

ADDED four minutes after THE SNAPSHOT posted. MEIDASTOUCH NEWS video on MTG.

US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene has revealed that when Chump tried to pressure her into taking her name off the call for the release of The Epstein Files, he screamed at her that his friends were going to be hurt if that happened. Again, this was added four minutes after THE SNAPSHOT originally posted, all below is from the original posting.

Let's start with the economy going into the new year. Nick Lichtenberg (FORTUNE) reports;

The weakest job market since 2011 is increasingly being framed not as a glitch, but as the new normal—one where growth roars and jobs barely move, leaving a generation asking, “Dude, where’s my job?”

Bank of America Global Research’s “Situation Room” note warned in mid-December that markets are priced for a robust 2026 even as hiring stalls and unemployment rises and recalled a now 25-year-old cult classic stoner comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott to make its point.

The entry-level worker would be forgiven, in other words, for feeling about their job search the way Kutcher and Scott felt about their stolen wheels. (In fact, the screenwriter of Dude, Where’s My Car? had a similar take on the show-business labor market, telling The Hollywood Reporter several weeks ago that he’d quit to become a therapist.)

“The job market has been weak this year,” wrote BofA’s Yuri Seliger and Sohyun Marie Lee, commenting on the double payroll report showing weak job growth in October and November. “A lack of recovery in the jobs market and a slower U.S. economy are key risks to watch for in 2026.”

Seliger and Lee flagged what they called the weakest U.S. job market since at least 2011 (with the notable exception of the mass layoff wave from COVID), with growth in monthly payrolls averaging just 17,000 over the past six months—by far the slowest pace of job creation since the Global Financial Crisis. Private payrolls are only modestly stronger at 44,000 on a six‑month average basis, still at their weakest level in well over a decade, while broader U‑6 underemployment has climbed to 8.7% and job openings per unemployed worker have slumped to 1.0, both the softest since 2017.

And FORTUNE's Nick Lichtenberg reports:

A stark new economic analysis reveals the Trump administration’s trade policies are extracting a heavy toll from Main Street, with small-business importers paying approximately $25,000 more per month in tariff costs since April 2025. The report, published Dec. 17 by the Center for American Progress (CAP), a left-wing think tank, details how a “chaotic approach” to trade and the elimination of key import exceptions have created a financial crisis for entrepreneurs during the critical holiday season.

According to the analysis by Michael Negron and Mimla Wardak, the administration’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement triggered a sharp increase in duties collected from American businesses. From April through September 2025, CAP estimated, the roughly 236,000 small-business importers in the U.S. paid an average of more than $151,000 in additional tariffs compared to the same period in 2024. (CAP cited the centrist Chamber of Commerce’s research on the small-business importer sector of the economy.)

“The Trump administration’s broad, costly, and frequently shifting policies threaten to undermine one of the strongest engines of the American economy,” Negron said in a statement to Fortune. “A season of opportunity for small businesses has turned into one of uncertainty.”

With regards to small businesses, the Convicted Felon is screwing over the very people who supported him. Paul Krugman points out, "Owners of small businesses are, on average, a strongly right-leaning group. Indeed, along with white Christian nationalists, they are one of the core components of the MAGA base. And small business owners celebrated Donald Trump’s victory last fall." Krugman offers:

But big corporations were much better positioned than small businesses to bear the cost of certifying that the goods they import are “USMCA-compliant.”

Finally, under Trump the United States has moved rapidly toward crony capitalism, a situation in which businesses with strong political connections get favorable treatment. Under this system, big businesses can in effect buy themselves a privileged position. Small businesses can’t.

For example, Apple has so far dodged most of the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs. Over the summer Trump imposed punitive tariffs on India, which is where most iPhones sold in the United States are produced. But for some reason smartphones were exempted from Trump’s India tariffs. What’s the logic behind this exemption? Might it have something to do with the fact that Apple is helping to pay for the construction of the grotesque ballroom that Trump is building to replace the demolished East Wing of the White House?

All of these factors help explain the trends shown in the chart at the top of this post: 2025 was a difficult year for many businesses not benefiting from the AI boom, but it was especially hard on small business.

The economy is screwed up. It's among the many reasons young men are turning against Donald Chump in such large numbers -- see Mike's "Fake males Donald Chump, Joe Rogan and JD Vance" for more reasons. Jobs. Where are the jobs? Going, going, gone to somewhere else. Economist Dean Baker (BEAT THE PRESS) explains:

In Donald Trump’s imagination, trillions of dollars are being invested in the United States. In the real world, factory construction, adjusted for inflation, was down by more than 10 percent from its year ago level, as of August (the most recent data available). Manufacturing employment, based on the data in the monthly employment reports, was down by 73,000 jobs year-over-year in November.

But the actual story on manufacturing employment may be somewhat worse than the monthly jobs data show. The monthly jobs data are based on the Current Employment Situation (CES), a survey that goes to 120,000 businesses and governmental units every month. While it generally gives a reasonably accurate picture of the economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has to impute jobs gained for new firms that are not included in the survey and for firms that don’t answer the survey because they have gone out of business. This “birth-death” imputation tends to be inaccurate when the economy hits a turning point, like a recession.

Since the start of the year, MS NOW's Stephanie Ruhle has noted one of the key problems with Chump's tariffs, for what he has said he is trying to pull off requires moving a lot of manufacturing to this country and that requires manufacturing facilities which do not sprout leaves and buds and grow overnight. There were no plans for building new manufacturing facilities in the US. And even if there were, is there really a labor force left in the country to absorb an increase in massive construction? Berenice Garcia (TEXAS TRIBUNE) reported last week:

One morning in mid-November, Mario Guerrero, the executive director of the South Texas Builders Association, was checking a group chat when a video of federal agents detaining people from a construction site popped up.

He watched the video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining workers who were pouring cement in front of a home in an idyllic neighborhood here in the Rio Grande Valley.

For nearly a year, Guerrero had seen similar videos or read news reports of arrests and raids. This was the last straw.

The raids and the specter of more to come have struck fear in construction workers, causing many to stay home. ICE agents have arrested more than 9,100 people in South Texas — nearly one-fifth of all such arrests in the entire state since Trump took office, according to government data provided by ICE in response to a FOIA request to the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Texas Tribune.

Without enough workers, construction has slowed, sending a ripple effect throughout the economy. Economists suggest that this will drive housing costs up — even as Texas officials focus on bringing such costs down.

That's what happens when you put an idiot conman into the White House. There is no 'synergy,' there is no real plan. Just a lot of 'concepts' that distract from how stupid the idiot truly is. He's a con man who thinks he can trick you with a shell game, he thinks his words will make you believe what's happening isn't actually happening and he'll be able to run his con game just a little bit longer.

Callum Jones and Aliya Uteuova (GUARDIAN) note, "The US economy is thriving, according to Donald Trump: jobs are surging, prices are falling, wages are soaring. The government’s own official statistics paint a more complicated picture of 2025." And Chump's nothing but a liar.

That is the key to his floundering all these years. Rakes and worse have been elevated in NYC society since before the days of Edith Wharton. Outright liars? Not really. And that's why Chump had to haul his fat ass to Florida -- the state of relocation -- long, long ago. He lacked class. He lacked money. And he lacked honesty. He was just a cheap grifter and one scheme after another left others broke as he cut and run with the money. He's hoping his con job this go round lasts long enough for him to be out of the White House while it's just noticeable water leaks in the subpar construction of one of his casinos. I don't think he's going to be that lucky. I don't believe this is anything that can be faux fixed by setting some buckets out in the hallways.

Donald Chump is the little bitch who didn't get the homecoming queen sash years ago and spends the rest of his life complaining about it, in other words, he's Riley Gaines.

Riley can't get over being a loser --she's so like Chump. Three years ago, she came in sixth -- she didn't tie for fifth, Lia Thomas actually beat her by something like a fraction of a second. But they were kind and called fifth place a tie. And it's bit them in the ass ever since. Riley is loser. She may have been on steroids at the time, that would explain the boyish and the breasts that never really developed. She's a physical joke and face is repugnant. I'm a good judge on faces. Sometimes people listen, sometimes they don't. Those who don't later regret it like a friend who cast a man with a repugnant face in the lead of his romantic film almost a decade ago and that was the last film my friend ever directed. He hasn't directed one since and there's no cavalry riding to the rescue to save him. His career's over. And he directed several films that made money. And one bomb -- the one starring a character actor with bad facial structure. Riley has a bizarre and, yes, ugly face.

And Donald Chump is just like her.

Jennifer Bowers Bahney (MEDIAITE) reports:

Attorney General Pam Bondi has confirmed that the Department of Justice is investigating “lawfare” under former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that she believes amounts to an “ongoing criminal conspiracy.”

In an interview with conservative outlet Just The News, Bondi said she asked prosecutors to probe what she termed the “ongoing election-meddling conspiracy” that she claimed was used to persecute President Donald Trump and his supporters, while protecting Democrats.

So while the economy has tanked, Chump has wasted his time 'on the clock' -- as have these other in the administration taking our tax dollars -- obsessing over the past.

Riley Gaines was never a world class swimmer. She never made it to first place in any real adult race. She was a loser who dreamed of being the best at swimming and now she's left with her failure. Donald's only success has been as a grifter which even he can't take pride in. He's going out a failure -- like his father always told him would happen.

Ewan Gleadow (RAW STORY) reports:

The Republican Party is waiting for Donald Trump to "quit or die," according to a political analyst who believes the party will struggle next year.

The 2026 midterms could be a blowout for Republican candidates, with many dropping out of the race before it really starts. Abrupt resignations and shock retirements throughout the GOP, including ex-Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene and recently Virginia state Senator Bryan Reeves, have sent the party into turmoil.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte, writing in her Substack, noted that "Virginia state Sen. Bryan Reeves abruptly quit his campaign [Sunday] against an incumbent Democratic senator, Mark Warner of Virginia."

"Reeves gave the usual family excuses, but then basically admitted that there’s no point in running when Trump is the party’s leader. 'We must stop the infighting, regroup, and unite behind principled leadership worthy of our cause,' he posted on X."

"As I wrote earlier this month, Republicans are in a holding pattern, basically waiting for Trump to die or finally quit politics, with the latter feeling almost like a pipe dream at this point in time. Some of them increasingly seem to understand that they don’t really have a political party, just a cult of personality. Their best hope is to bide their time and plan on rebuilding the GOP from the ashes once Trump is gone."

Even Karl Rove appears to grasp that.