World's Richest Man Is the Biggest Loser in Wisconsin

The richest person in the world couldn’t buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which was won by liberal Susan Crawford, who defeated Elon Musk’s favored candidate and Trump toadie, Brad Schimel. She will serve a ten-year term, cementing liberal dominance for some time. Vested interests poured $100 million into the race, a record for a state Supreme Court contest. This orgy of big money in politics was unleashed in large part by John Roberts’s wretched Citizens United ruling in 2010, which solidified America’s march to (further) plutocracy.

This election may signal the beginnings of a backlash against the Trump regime. Since his inauguration, Trump has acted more lawlessly than any president in history, even Tricky Dick Nixon, willfully thwarting the legislative intention of Congress in funding government agencies to do jobs Congress wanted them to do. Trump has undermined the basic parliamentary principle that the people’s elected representatives have the power of the purse, a principle that goes back to Britain hundreds of years ago.

At the same time, the Trump regime has exalted toxic masculinity and signaled its intent to liquidate workers’ unions. The problem for Trump is that a majority of Americans are women or workers or both.

Moreover, Trump’s surrender of such fiscal decisions to Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency has resulted in mass firings of government personnel and the gutting of America’s health services, scientific research and threats to the solvency of the country’s preeminent research universities. The attack on Social Security — removing the ability of recipients to do business by phone, the firing of 7,000 Social Security employees (14% of the workforce), the breaking of the agency’s website — has alarmed the elderly nationwide.

American democracy is stronger today because voters in one Midwest state stood up to the richest man in the world.

Trump won Wisconsin last fall by less than a percentage point, with a margin of only 29,000 votes. Trump’s full court press against the institutions Americans depend on has made a bad impression. In early March, Savannah Kuchar explained in USA Today, a Marquette poll found that 51% of the voters in Wisconsin viewed Trump’s initial weeks in office negatively. He had frittered away his slight advantage in the state. Of course, Republicans supported him and Democrats despised him. But the key is the independents, and of those 60% disapproved of the initial Trump record and only 39% approved.

As for Elon Musk, the same poll found that 53% of Wisconsin voters viewed him negatively, and only 41% saw Musk positively. Someone with such high negatives and so few supporters in a relatively conservative “purple” state likely made a mistake by taking a high profile, pouring $20 million into the Supreme Court race, and offering a million dollars to select voters to vote for the conservative candidate.

Elon may have defeated himself, just as Trump did.

Of course, there were other issues. Schimel as attorney general of Wisconsin a decade ago attempted to defend a restrictive abortion law that Federal judge William Conley in Madison struck down as unconstitutional in 2015. More recently, Republicans have argued that a nineteenth-century law banning abortion came back into effect once the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. A liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court is likely to find that the freedoms enshrined in the state constitution take precedence over Victorian era legislation.

Abortion rights activists came out to vote in large numbers in an off-year election of a sort that often sees low turnout in the state. Abortion rights helped drive the blue wave of 2018 and the return of the Democrats to the White House in 2021.

Union issues also brought out workers. The far right wing Gov. Scott Walker had in 2011 gutted teachers’ unions, which resulted in a precipitous fall in pay and in high turnover, which disadvantages schoolchildren. Late last fall a state judge found the 2011 law to violate the equal protection clause of the constitution, since Walter had actually favored police and fireman unions that supported him politically but had placed disabilities on teachers’ unions. Republican attempts to overturn this ruling by taking it to the Supreme Court have now been dealt a substantial blow.

Finally, Wisconsin’s congressional delegation is skewed 6 to 2 for Republicans, even though the two parties are neck and neck in the state. The current districts for federal elections disadvantage Democrats concentrated in Madison and Milwaukee. Districts for the state legislature, however, were made fairer in 2022 by legislation.

In 2020, as well, the Trump campaign demanded that 200,000 votes in the presidential contest be thrown out in Wisconsin. Any further such scurrilous demands will clearly be rebuffed in the state.

American democracy is stronger today because voters in one Midwest state stood up to the richest man in the world. The people of Wisconsin and of the United States have more rights today because of Wisconsin voters. Trump’s catastrophic policies, which threaten the health of the Republic both literally and figuratively, may produce not so much a blue wave as a blue tsunami as people realize that they are the ox to be gored.

Call Your Senators Now: Sanders' Bill Seeks to Block U.S. Weapons Transfers

Another moment of truth for Gaza has arrived.

Any day now, the Senate will vote on Senator Bernie Sanders' resolutions to block $8.8 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel – and every single American who believes in human rights needs to flood Senate phone lines demanding support for these resolutions.

Let's be crystal clear about what's happening: Since Israel unilaterally shattered the ceasefire on March 17, over 600 Palestinians have been killed, disproportionately women and children in just the initial wave of strikes. These aren't just statistics—these are human beings, families, entire communities being obliterated with American-made weapons, paid for with our tax dollars.

Whether you just believe in following U.S. and international law when it comes to human rights, or you see this as part of a broader struggle against U.S. imperialism and militarism—or both—this is your moment to act.

The humanitarian catastrophe has reached unimaginable levels. According to the UN, Israel imposed a complete blockade on all aid into Gaza for several weeks, despite desperate daily efforts by UN agencies to deliver essential supplies. Think about that – 40 out of 49 aid movements coordinated with Israeli authorities were denied in just one week in March. Tom Fletcher, the UN relief chief, warned that food is “rotting, medicine expiring, and vital medical equipment stuck” while children are sick and starving. This isn't just a policy failure – it's a moral catastrophe of historic proportions.

What's at stake in Sanders' resolutions? We're talking about 35,000 MK84 2,000-pound bombs—massive weapons that have already been used to demolish Gaza's hospitals, schools, and refugee camps. The death toll has now surpassed 50,000 Palestinians. And the Trump administration wants to send more of these weapons, bypassing congressional oversight through cynical abuse of "emergency" authorities.

Trump’s Gaza policies are part and parcel of his authoritarian drift: In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked “national security emergency” waiver provisions to ram through these weapons transfers—despite the fact that many won't even be delivered for years. Some "emergency." This is nothing but a transparent attempt to avoid public scrutiny and democratic oversight of our role in this catastrophe.

Simultaneously, Trump’s bizarre “Riviera of the Middle East” plan for Gaza has been repeatedly endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The plan would involve forcibly relocating Palestinians under the guise of voluntary migration, a move widely condemned as ethnic cleansing. Netanyahu affirmed his support for Trump’s vision, describing it as a coordinated effort between their governments. This approach not only violates international law but also exemplifies Trump’s authoritarian tendencies: consolidating executive power to implement policies that prioritize militarism and demographic engineering over human rights and democratic accountability. Together, these actions reflect a pattern of governance rooted in unilateralism.

Whether you just believe in following U.S. and international law when it comes to human rights, or you see this as part of a broader struggle against U.S. imperialism and militarism—or both—this is your moment to act. We cannot let weapons paid for with our tax dollars continue to devastate civilian populations. We cannot allow a wannabe dictator to bypass democratic oversight through bogus "emergency" declarations.

Here's what you need to do right now (the vote is expected any day):

1. Call your senators’ offices immediately at (202) 224-3121. Demand they vote YES on Sanders' Resolutions of Disapproval on U.S. arms transfers to Israel – S.J.Res 26 and S.J.Res 33.

2. Remind them that these are the exact weapons used to destroy Gaza’s schools, hospitals, and homes.

3. Remind them that U.S. law requires U.S. weapons sales to cease when the weapons are being used in exactly these kinds of violations of human rights.

4. Spread the word – share this article, organize call-in campaigns, make your voice heard.

The vote could come any day. UN human rights experts have warned that Israel's recent actions have opened "the gates of hell" in Gaza. Will the United States continue to supply the weapons that keep those gates open? That depends on what we do right now.

So... Pick up your phone. Call your senators. Demand they vote YES on Sanders' resolutions to block these arms sales. Countless Palestinian lives hang in the balance, and history will judge all of us by what we do in this moment.

Trump's Absurd Trade Policies Will Impoverish Americans and Harm the World

U.S. President Donald Trump is trashing the world trade system over a basic economic fallacy. He wrongly claims that America’s trade deficit is caused by the rest of the world ripping off the U.S., repeatedly stating things such as, "Over the decades, they ripped us off like no country has never been ripped off in history…”

Trump aims to close the trade deficit by imposing tariffs, thereby impeding imports and restoring trade balance (or inducing other countries to end their rip-offs of America). Yet Trump’s tariffs will not close the trade deficit but will instead impoverish Americans and harm the rest of the world.

A country’s trade deficit (or more precisely, its current account deficit) does not indicate unfair trade practices by the surplus countries. It indicates something completely different. A current account deficit signifies that the deficit country is spending more than it is producing. Equivalently, it is saving less than it is investing.

America’s trade deficit is a measure of the profligacy of America’s corporate ruling class, more specifically the result of chronically large budget deficits resulting from tax cuts for the rich combined with trillions of dollars wasted on useless wars. The deficits are not the perfidy of Canada, Mexico, and other countries that sell more to the U.S. than the U.S. sells to them.

Trump blames the rest of the world for America’s deficit, but that’s absurd. It is America that is spending more than it earns.

To close the trade deficit, the U.S. should close the budget deficit. Putting on tariffs will raise prices (such as for automobiles) but not close the trade or budget deficit, especially since Trump plans to offset tariff revenues with vastly larger tax cuts for his rich donors. Moreover, as Trump raises tariffs, the U.S. will face counter-tariffs that will directly impede U.S. exports. The result will be lose-lose for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Let’s look at the numbers. In 2024, the U.S. exported $4.8 trillion in goods and services, and imported $5.9 trillion of goods and services, leading to a current account deficit of $1.1 trillion. That $1.1 trillion deficit is the difference between America’s total spending in 2024 ($30.1 trillion) and America’s national income ($29.0 trillion). America spends more than it earns and borrows the difference from the rest of the world.

Trump blames the rest of the world for America’s deficit, but that’s absurd. It is America that is spending more than it earns. Consider this. If you are an employee, you run a current account surplus with your employer and a deficit with the companies from which you buy goods and services. If you spend exactly what you earn, you are in current account balance. Suppose that you go on a shopping binge, spending more than your earnings by running up credit-card debt. You will now be running a current account deficit. Are the shops ripping you off, or is your profligacy driving you into debt?

Tariffs will not close the trade deficit so long as the fiscal irresponsibility of the corporate raiders and tax evaders that dominate Washington continues. Suppose, for example, that Trump’s tariffs slash the imports of automobiles and other goods from abroad. Americans will then buy U.S.-produced cars and other merchandise that would have been exported. Imports will fall, but so too will exports. Moreover, new tariffs imposed by other countries in response to Trump’s tariffs will reinforce the decline in U.S. exports. The U.S. trade imbalance will remain.

While the tariffs will not eliminate the trade deficit, they will force Americans to buy high-priced U.S.-produced goods that could have obtained at lower cost from foreign producers. The tariffs will squander what economists call the gains from trade: the ability to buy goods based on the comparative advantage of domestic and foreign producers.

The budget deficit is not due to the salaries of civil servants, who are being wantonly fired, or to the government’s R&D spending, on which our future prosperity depends, but rather to the combination of tax cuts for the rich, and reckless spending on America’s perpetual wars...

The tariffs will raise prices for automobiles and wages of automotive workers, but those wage hikes will be paid by lower living standards of Americans across the economy, not by a boost of national income. The real way to support American workers is through federal measures opposite to those favored by Trump, including universal health coverage, support for unionization, and budget support for modern infrastructure, including green energy, all financed with higher, not lower, taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporate sector.

The federal government does not cover its overall spending with tax revenues because wealthy campaign donors promote tax cuts, tax avoidance (through tax havens) and tax evasion. Remember that DOGE has gutted the audit capacity of the IRS. The budget deficit is currently around $2 trillion dollars, or roughly 6 percent of U.S. national income. With a chronically high budget gap, the U.S. trade balance will remain in chronic deficit.

Trump says that he will cut the budget deficit by slashing waste and abuse through DOGE. The problem is that DOGE mispresents the real cause of the fiscal profligacy. The budget deficit is not due to the salaries of civil servants, who are being wantonly fired, or to the government’s R&D spending, on which our future prosperity depends, but rather to the combination of tax cuts for the rich, and reckless spending on America’s perpetual wars, U.S. funding for Israel’s non-stop wars, America’s 750 overseas military bases, the bloated CIA and other intelligence agencies, and interest payments on the soaring federal debt.

Trump and the Congressional Republicans are reportedly taking aim at Medicaid—that is, at the poorest and most vulnerable Americans—to make way for yet another tax cut for the richest Americans. They may soon go after Social Security and Medicare too.

Trump’s tariffs will fail to close the trade and budget deficits, raise prices, and make America and the world poorer by squandering the gains from trade. The U.S. will be the enemy of the world for the harm that it is causing to itself and the rest of the world.

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How to Combat Misinformation

Misinformation is nothing new. It has, however, become ubiquitous and, in some cases, more difficult and time-consuming than ever to debunk. Here's our advice on how to identify bogus posts and factual distortions.

The post How to Combat Misinformation appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Trump’s Misleading Claim on Canadian Dairy Tariffs

To support his plan to increase tariffs, President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the Canadian government charges U.S. farmers a 250% or 270% tariff on dairy products exported to Canada. That's misleading. There are rates that high on the books, but they would only be charged if U.S. exports exceed predetermined tariff rate quotas, which the dairy exports don't come close to meeting. 

The post Trump’s Misleading Claim on Canadian Dairy Tariffs appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Q&A on the Alien Enemies Act and Tren de Aragua in the U.S.

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift a District Court judge's order blocking the use of an obscure 18th century law to summarily expel Venezuelan immigrants. Earlier this month, the administration sent hundreds of immigrants to an El Salvador prison because, officials alleged, they were members of a dangerous gang. We'll lay out the facts as we know them regarding the key issues.

The post Q&A on the Alien Enemies Act and Tren de Aragua in the U.S. appeared first on FactCheck.org.

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