Trump has done such a good job of normalising the lie that he has created an alternative reality that the uneducated inhabit, in which they no longer believe what they see with their own eyes.
We are in a stock market economy where stock buybacks are the norm instead of paying decent wages, and profit to the shareholders must increase year over year at all costs (to the detrement of the average person but to the benefit of "shareholders". At one point this will become unsustainable and that day can't come too soon. Unfettered capitalism is the scourge of modern society.
I have to agree, I also think the AI bubble will burst too. AI will clearly continue to be important, but too many have bet too soon. There will be a correction. Also I’m not backing off my assessment that AI job losses will decimate middle class jobs before the end of the Trump term.
Thank you for this excellent string of mostly dismal facts that we really need to hear and that should be distributed everywhere repeatedly!
Excerpt;
“There is little wonder Trump wants control of the inflation and jobs numbers.
He has moved beyond the point where he can report the actual state of the economy, instead being forced to create a fantasy that does not stand up to scrutiny.”
Your last paragraph about maga wanting to hurt the libs regardless of how they suffer reminds me of a Russian joke that has many variations that all make the same point. A genie appears before a poor Russian peasant. I grant you one wish, the genie says. But whatever you wish for, your neighbor will get twice as much. Without any hesitation, the peasant says: take out one of my kidneys. Hatred is stalking through America.
Thank you for your excellent work! I wanted to burst into tears as I read because it's all true. Maybe the worst part for me is that most Americans still don't care......for whatever reasons. I am tired of hearing people's fear excuses. When will the majority of Americans finally speak up and say enough of the regime?
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
This all true and very upsetting. I am not hopeful for the future of this country for the first time in my life! We are heading totally in the wrong direction. Unless you are in that top tier of earners, you are headed for a difficult time. The propaganda machine has accomplished the job of dividing the population into enemies, while what we need is to work together to solve our problems!
My only hope is that as more people see that the regime is headed in the wrong direction, they will stop following. Martin’s right about race-baiting, and I am curious about how we undermine that. White people who aren’t billionaires need to see that the actual danger they face is not brown and Black people, it’s rich people.
America is doomed if we don’t stop these bullshit shenanigans. For one there’s not enough men that will do the job I did. They are too lazy. Try working 12-16 days 5-7 days every week. Not going to happen.
Where did you get those numbers? I certainly wouldn't pat myself on the back as the true situation isn't at all "99%".
In the US, while the overall rate of adults possessing adequate literacy skills (Level 2 or above) is around 79%, a significant portion, approximately 21% (or 43 million adults), struggle with basic literacy tasks, performing below the Level 2 proficiency level of the OECD PIAAC assessment. Over half of these adults read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, indicating a substantial need for improved literacy support across the nation. Reading Below a Sixth-Grade Level:
A concerning statistic is that over half of adults in the U.S. read at a level below the equivalent of a sixth-grade education, hindering their ability to manage daily tasks effectively. Global Standing:
The U.S. ranks lower in global literacy comparisons, such as the 36th position reported by some sources, due to a large population with low literacy skills.
"I'm happy for you to delude yourself..." is responding to whose delusion? And why are y'all quibbling over literacy statistics, anyhow? Literacy is a route to information accumulation, not to how to evaluate information: that's called "education." Pay attention (that's called "woke"): there's stuff needs doing.
The site Julian Dodds cites notes, “Literacy rates display the % of adults ages 15 and above ‘who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.’” The difference in percentages is a difference in the definition of “literacy.”
Julian Dodds, said 99% as a country, not me. I just answered what means literate.
The article said 21% illiterate which is probably high but considering emigrants, those who never learn English and live in their communities, it is possible.
That also means that they do not read and write in English, while they can do it in their languages. It is not a mandatory practice to speak, read, and write in English.
America does not have an official language, thus all the state papers are coming in multiple languages even when you ask just one, English.
Anyway, this wasn’t the subject, the important thing is that it is easier to fool the uneducated, and we have a huge number of uneducated adults that lead to the stupid choices that they make, in fact against themselves, against their basic needs and interests. It is hard to convince them of the opposite when the language of the educated few is foreign to them. Moreover, they consider snubbing to even explain to them why their choice is wrong, for themselves in the first place.
But that is not at all the case! 99% cannot read or write (unless you consider not signing with an "X" as literacy! Serious studies show a substantial number of the illerate in the US.
You have encapsulated Project 2025 in its entirety in a few short paragraphs. Everything is going as planned. Russ Vought and Stephen Miller work the strings and Trump does the dance. Your statement "buckle up because things are about to get bumpy" is very true and it will be the ultimate distraction that will allow the authoritarian machine to keep rolling on.
My wife & I, too, feel the same. Our 2 adult daughters ate on their own in strong careers. One would like to/ or 3 children w her husband, but is fretting about what type of World will they grow up in? The older adult daughter has always said, "no kids," but now emphatically says, "it'd be child abuse to purposefully bring a child into today's World." She & her husband are climate change data scientists who understand fully what our Earth will look like by 2040 & 2070. They are most concerned about the thawing of The Permafrost...already beginning in Siberia, Alaska & Canada...eventually releasing more methane than ALL of the Industrial Revolution has released, 1825 to 2025) times 100,000,000 by 2070. Virus & bacteria, frozen for millennia will be released as well over the next 4-5 decades. Diseases frozen in time, for which today's humans will have ZERO immunity. Our daughter has 5 published papers on the thawing of The Permafrost alone. Food-producing belts around the Earth will move toward each pole. As the Ogallala Aquifer is drained dry by 2040, wheat & corn grown in Kansas, Iowa & Nebraska will move north into Canada, our American Great Plains crops will shift further north into Canada. The Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa & Nebraska will be an arid wasteland too dry for farming & livestock. This shift in the food belt will continue its northward journey as land temperatures rise. Then we'll see political & military battles fought over available farmland & water resources. We can expect the USA & Canada at War over these... THIS WILL OCCUR‼️ The only question is WHEN? ... 2045 or 2075??
Personally, I am glad I may have only 15 to 20 or so more years on this Earth.
As a 🇨🇦 the only thing I would dispute in this is the timing of action by your corrupt US regime suicidally attached to hyper consumption.
The US is coming for us alot earlier than 2045.
Your country is already desperately in debt, and looking for new opportunities to exploit.
It has been actively working to destabilize our economy, normalize the idea of wiping out our sovreign nation status, and has cut off intelligence sharing through the 5 eyes network.
We are tossing trade crumbs out, while we work diligently to disengage from the economic and military entanglement we've allowed to happen for 60 years.
Unless your country does something about regime change domestically, I fully expect the people occupying your federal government will manufacture a case to seize Canadian assets, land, and water/other resources within the next five years, particularly if working up a false grievance against 🇨🇦 can serve as a pretense for gaining a 3rd term/suspension of elections, both mid-term, and next federal one in 2028, under a tarted-up “state of national security/emergency”.
But we will do our best to appease the beast, while we get ready.
Probably months left, moi. Selfishly glad. At the same time also (in a strange way) glad you will stay around for a while, because you're aware and already fighting.
ALOHA... YEA YEA YEA....NOISE NOISE NOISE MADE BY THE ORANGE FACE TACO LOLO CLOWN........WHERE IS THAT FRICKIN' FILES????????????????????????????????????????????????????????SH*T HEADS... REAL PELAU ARSE HOLES... SUE THEM BAGAS..... " When people refuse the cool cynicism of despair. Despair is peddled by the right to convince us that resistance is futile, and it is echoed by too many on the left who would rather sit back and say all is lost. Cynicism asks nothing of us; hope demands everything. When people choose to act rather than surrender, that is what keeps democracy alive " TRUMP'S .G.O.P. guardians of pedophilics...“Silence and fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of silence and fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. WELA KA HAO.... GOP LAPUWALE....THEY GOT TO BE VOTED OUT...
There is a clear solution to the Wharton report. It is to cut grants for research to reduce the number of reports that can be written by those in academia.
You are so good at cutting to the chase and making the trip clear. I have another category I think about, involving our whole incarceration system, with all those years of lives rotting at our financial cost where we'd be so much better off if we put prisoners to work on whatever they're good at. Some would be laborers, plus we have plenty of sophisticated, smart individuals who could be helping us. Switch to Norway's system of serving the greater good rather than satisfaction from getting pounds of flesh, where Norway's recidivism rate is about 20% compared to our approximately 70%. Here's my recent Substack on that subject:
We are in a stock market economy where stock buybacks are the norm instead of paying decent wages, and profit to the shareholders must increase year over year at all costs (to the detrement of the average person but to the benefit of "shareholders". At one point this will become unsustainable and that day can't come too soon. Unfettered capitalism is the scourge of modern society.
I have to agree, I also think the AI bubble will burst too. AI will clearly continue to be important, but too many have bet too soon. There will be a correction. Also I’m not backing off my assessment that AI job losses will decimate middle class jobs before the end of the Trump term.
What about crypto?
Thank you for this excellent string of mostly dismal facts that we really need to hear and that should be distributed everywhere repeatedly!
Excerpt;
“There is little wonder Trump wants control of the inflation and jobs numbers.
He has moved beyond the point where he can report the actual state of the economy, instead being forced to create a fantasy that does not stand up to scrutiny.”
Your last paragraph about maga wanting to hurt the libs regardless of how they suffer reminds me of a Russian joke that has many variations that all make the same point. A genie appears before a poor Russian peasant. I grant you one wish, the genie says. But whatever you wish for, your neighbor will get twice as much. Without any hesitation, the peasant says: take out one of my kidneys. Hatred is stalking through America.
Thank you for your excellent work! I wanted to burst into tears as I read because it's all true. Maybe the worst part for me is that most Americans still don't care......for whatever reasons. I am tired of hearing people's fear excuses. When will the majority of Americans finally speak up and say enough of the regime?
You are most welcome, keep your chin up. We can win this.
Or, better yet, your elbows!
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️🩹🤍💙
This all true and very upsetting. I am not hopeful for the future of this country for the first time in my life! We are heading totally in the wrong direction. Unless you are in that top tier of earners, you are headed for a difficult time. The propaganda machine has accomplished the job of dividing the population into enemies, while what we need is to work together to solve our problems!
My only hope is that as more people see that the regime is headed in the wrong direction, they will stop following. Martin’s right about race-baiting, and I am curious about how we undermine that. White people who aren’t billionaires need to see that the actual danger they face is not brown and Black people, it’s rich people.
America is doomed if we don’t stop these bullshit shenanigans. For one there’s not enough men that will do the job I did. They are too lazy. Try working 12-16 days 5-7 days every week. Not going to happen.
According to various websites reviewing world population statistica the USA has 99% literacy!
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp
Where did you get those numbers? I certainly wouldn't pat myself on the back as the true situation isn't at all "99%".
In the US, while the overall rate of adults possessing adequate literacy skills (Level 2 or above) is around 79%, a significant portion, approximately 21% (or 43 million adults), struggle with basic literacy tasks, performing below the Level 2 proficiency level of the OECD PIAAC assessment. Over half of these adults read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, indicating a substantial need for improved literacy support across the nation. Reading Below a Sixth-Grade Level:
A concerning statistic is that over half of adults in the U.S. read at a level below the equivalent of a sixth-grade education, hindering their ability to manage daily tasks effectively. Global Standing:
The U.S. ranks lower in global literacy comparisons, such as the 36th position reported by some sources, due to a large population with low literacy skills.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/literacy-rate-by-country
I’m happy for you to delude yourself, just like the great leader, but the evidence is very clear from us based stats
"I'm happy for you to delude yourself..." is responding to whose delusion? And why are y'all quibbling over literacy statistics, anyhow? Literacy is a route to information accumulation, not to how to evaluate information: that's called "education." Pay attention (that's called "woke"): there's stuff needs doing.
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-literacy-statistics
The site Julian Dodds cites notes, “Literacy rates display the % of adults ages 15 and above ‘who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.’” The difference in percentages is a difference in the definition of “literacy.”
Looks like you cherry-picked the one that shows the "best " results. Most searches come with results stating nowhere near that number.
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+literacy+rate&oq=us+literacy+rate&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDUwNThqMGo3qAIPsAIB&client=ms-android-samsung-rvo1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Julian Dodds, said 99% as a country, not me. I just answered what means literate.
The article said 21% illiterate which is probably high but considering emigrants, those who never learn English and live in their communities, it is possible.
That also means that they do not read and write in English, while they can do it in their languages. It is not a mandatory practice to speak, read, and write in English.
America does not have an official language, thus all the state papers are coming in multiple languages even when you ask just one, English.
Anyway, this wasn’t the subject, the important thing is that it is easier to fool the uneducated, and we have a huge number of uneducated adults that lead to the stupid choices that they make, in fact against themselves, against their basic needs and interests. It is hard to convince them of the opposite when the language of the educated few is foreign to them. Moreover, they consider snubbing to even explain to them why their choice is wrong, for themselves in the first place.
Only the lazy think they can lie without being checked: https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-literacy-statistics
On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.
21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
Low levels of literacy costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year.
Literacy means that 99% can read and write. That is not enough to call a population educated!
The article mentions 6th grade education, which is half of what a high school graduate has.
Besides, the American students are notoriously uneducated in basic knowledge of history, geography, biology, and social studies.
Some of them get to university level and do not know how to spell correctly. Education is a problem not a reason for pride.
But that is not at all the case! 99% cannot read or write (unless you consider not signing with an "X" as literacy! Serious studies show a substantial number of the illerate in the US.
You have encapsulated Project 2025 in its entirety in a few short paragraphs. Everything is going as planned. Russ Vought and Stephen Miller work the strings and Trump does the dance. Your statement "buckle up because things are about to get bumpy" is very true and it will be the ultimate distraction that will allow the authoritarian machine to keep rolling on.
Oh I have written at length about Project 2025 and also covered Project Esther too Ron.
I used to be sad our adult kids have decided against becoming parents. Now I’m thankful they didn’t!🥹 what are we leaving them? Slave labor…
My wife & I, too, feel the same. Our 2 adult daughters ate on their own in strong careers. One would like to/ or 3 children w her husband, but is fretting about what type of World will they grow up in? The older adult daughter has always said, "no kids," but now emphatically says, "it'd be child abuse to purposefully bring a child into today's World." She & her husband are climate change data scientists who understand fully what our Earth will look like by 2040 & 2070. They are most concerned about the thawing of The Permafrost...already beginning in Siberia, Alaska & Canada...eventually releasing more methane than ALL of the Industrial Revolution has released, 1825 to 2025) times 100,000,000 by 2070. Virus & bacteria, frozen for millennia will be released as well over the next 4-5 decades. Diseases frozen in time, for which today's humans will have ZERO immunity. Our daughter has 5 published papers on the thawing of The Permafrost alone. Food-producing belts around the Earth will move toward each pole. As the Ogallala Aquifer is drained dry by 2040, wheat & corn grown in Kansas, Iowa & Nebraska will move north into Canada, our American Great Plains crops will shift further north into Canada. The Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa & Nebraska will be an arid wasteland too dry for farming & livestock. This shift in the food belt will continue its northward journey as land temperatures rise. Then we'll see political & military battles fought over available farmland & water resources. We can expect the USA & Canada at War over these... THIS WILL OCCUR‼️ The only question is WHEN? ... 2045 or 2075??
Personally, I am glad I may have only 15 to 20 or so more years on this Earth.
So my wife & I get our daughters' concerns.
As a 🇨🇦 the only thing I would dispute in this is the timing of action by your corrupt US regime suicidally attached to hyper consumption.
The US is coming for us alot earlier than 2045.
Your country is already desperately in debt, and looking for new opportunities to exploit.
It has been actively working to destabilize our economy, normalize the idea of wiping out our sovreign nation status, and has cut off intelligence sharing through the 5 eyes network.
We are tossing trade crumbs out, while we work diligently to disengage from the economic and military entanglement we've allowed to happen for 60 years.
Unless your country does something about regime change domestically, I fully expect the people occupying your federal government will manufacture a case to seize Canadian assets, land, and water/other resources within the next five years, particularly if working up a false grievance against 🇨🇦 can serve as a pretense for gaining a 3rd term/suspension of elections, both mid-term, and next federal one in 2028, under a tarted-up “state of national security/emergency”.
But we will do our best to appease the beast, while we get ready.
Sadly, I completely agree.
Probably months left, moi. Selfishly glad. At the same time also (in a strange way) glad you will stay around for a while, because you're aware and already fighting.
Wow! Yeah your smart daughter sounds about right! I hope it’s quick when end times starts happening..
Sadly, at least 30% of us love what is happening. Another large percentage are paralized in disbelief.
I fear you are correct my friend
These demons can't hide from Jesus.
ALOHA... YEA YEA YEA....NOISE NOISE NOISE MADE BY THE ORANGE FACE TACO LOLO CLOWN........WHERE IS THAT FRICKIN' FILES????????????????????????????????????????????????????????SH*T HEADS... REAL PELAU ARSE HOLES... SUE THEM BAGAS..... " When people refuse the cool cynicism of despair. Despair is peddled by the right to convince us that resistance is futile, and it is echoed by too many on the left who would rather sit back and say all is lost. Cynicism asks nothing of us; hope demands everything. When people choose to act rather than surrender, that is what keeps democracy alive " TRUMP'S .G.O.P. guardians of pedophilics...“Silence and fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of silence and fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. WELA KA HAO.... GOP LAPUWALE....THEY GOT TO BE VOTED OUT...
There is a clear solution to the Wharton report. It is to cut grants for research to reduce the number of reports that can be written by those in academia.
You. Funny. Lightness is a gift we need right now, so thanks!
You are so good at cutting to the chase and making the trip clear. I have another category I think about, involving our whole incarceration system, with all those years of lives rotting at our financial cost where we'd be so much better off if we put prisoners to work on whatever they're good at. Some would be laborers, plus we have plenty of sophisticated, smart individuals who could be helping us. Switch to Norway's system of serving the greater good rather than satisfaction from getting pounds of flesh, where Norway's recidivism rate is about 20% compared to our approximately 70%. Here's my recent Substack on that subject:
Recruiting Michael Moore
The job is to change humanity's mind
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/recruiting-michael-moore
PS: I haven't been able to get a response from Michael Moore. Any help would be appreciated.
Trump is bound and determined to ruin America…he wants the dollar to tank Will the so called checks and balances kick in before it’s too late?
SCOTUS is seeing to that. The answer is there won't be any. Very few left even now. Remember, the Heritage ides is the Unitary Presidency.