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What happened to Trump’s Greatest Economy In The World?

Fourth-quarter U.S. GDP up just 1.4%, badly missing estimate; inflation firms at 3%

Source: CBS News

Published Fri, Feb 20 2026 8:31 AM EST Updated 15 Min Ago

U.S. growth slowed more than expected near the end of 2025 as the government shutdown impacted spending and investment, while a key inflation metric showed high prices are still a factor for the economy, according to data released Friday. Gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of just 1.4%, according to the Commerce Department, well below the Dow Jones estimate for a 2.5% gain.

Consumer spending rose at a slower pace for the period while government spending tumbled sharply in a quarter marked by the record-length shutdown. The department estimated that the shutdown subtracted about 1 percentage point from growth, though it added that the exact impacts “cannot be quantified.”

For the full year in 2025, the U.S. economy grew at a 2.2% pace, down from the 2.8% increase in 2024.

“The Federal government shutdown clearly sent the economy careening off its strong growth path in the fourth quarter which is a one-off that won’t be repeated in early 2026,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds. Just prior to the data release, President Donald Trump warned that the GDP number would be soft, blaming it on the government shutdown that ended in November.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/pce-inflation-december-2025.html

NO.  The problem is not the government shutdown.  These figures reflect economic activity BEFORE the shutdown.  These figures show the impact of Trump’s tariffs, his blocking federal funds for construction and other projects, and a gradual slowdown in consumer spending.

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Just when I think things cannot get any more loony, in steps Trump . . .

Florida man claims to find hidden language in the Constitution that would allow Trump to impose voter ID

In a recent, completely unhinged social media rant, Trump promised that “there will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” Obviously, Trump can’t do that, but he may think he can because of a ridiculous claim that there’s hidden language in the U.S. Constitution that vests electoral power in the federal government… which was discovered by a retired hotel manager in Florida.

  • As election scholar Rick Hasen pointed out, John N. Goodman, a retired hotel manager in Florida, recently claimed he was looking at a microfilm copy of the original Constitution and found “a faded shadow” of text that says the federal government has electoral power over the states in certain circumstances.
  • The “research” was shared with anti-voting activist Steve Stern — who hosts the popular MAGA podcast Stern American — who then shared it with MyPillow CEO and election conspiracist Mike Lindell, who in turn met with Trump to share the find.
  • Trump’s post noted that he has “searched the depths of legal arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the near future.” Could this be the “irrefutable” legal argument Trump plans to present soon?

 

Isn’t this the plot of National Treasure? 

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Let’s hope they use cadaver-sniffing dogs and ground-penetrating radar

SANTA FE, Feb 16 (Reuters) – New Mexico lawmakers on Monday passed legislation to launch what they said was the first full investigation into what happened at Zorro Ranch, where the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is accused of trafficking and sexually assaulting girls and women.

A bipartisan committee will seek testimony from survivors of alleged sexual abuse at the ranch, located about 30 miles south of Santa Fe, the state capital. Legislators are also urging local residents to testify.

Epstein died in what was ruled a suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges.

The so-called truth commission, comprising four lawmakers, seeks to identify ranch guests and state officials who may have known what was going on at the 7,600-acre property, or taken part in alleged sexual abuse in its hacienda-style mansion and guest houses.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-mexico-approves-comprehensive-probe-epsteins-zorro-ranch-2026-02-17/

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Why do people become ICE agents? Because they made C’s and D’s in high school

Do you agree that ICE agents are just normal everyday people that are trying to do their jobs in order to bring food to the family table and keep a roof over their heads?

No.

My father, after a failed semester in college, graduated from a police academy and served, at various times, on a couple of police forces. His experience (which he characterized as “making minimum wage plus a nickel to wear a shiny target right over my heart”) fueled this advice to me, which he gave when I was still a bit too young to understand the full ramifications.

“Son, I want you to remember two things: first, never trust a cop; second, do every damn thing they say. The badge attracts the kind of (sexually explicit epithet) who gets his jollies by making other people’s lives a living hell.”

That was in the mid-1980s, and it referred to police officers with half a year’s training, at one of the few times in American history when we got halfway serious about trying to rein in police abuses.

In 2002, in response to the September 11 attacks, ICE was created as a special police force to round up foreigners in the US. It had been a right-wing wish list item for over a decade beforehand, but civil liberties activists had, until then, managed to prevent Congress from making it happen. Thanks to anti-Islamic paranoia and a Bush administration which would go on to make torture official government policy, the civil liberties people lost the fight, and ICE was created.

And let us be perfectly blunt: from the very beginning, ICE was intended to be a white supremacist organization with no accountability and nearly infinite powers. By its very nature it was intended to attract exactly the kind of person my father tried to warn me about- the sadists, the bullies, the undercover Klansmen. They were restrained by one thing and one thing only- the need of their bosses and their political superiors to pretend that racism had nothing to do whatever with immigration policy.

Then came Trump, who made it both politically and socially acceptable to be openly white supremacist again.

Today, in attempts to hit the purge goals set by the Trump administration, new ICE recruits are going straight from signing the paperwork to the front lines. Many of them have been repeatedly rejected b police departments and military services for incompetence or bad attitudes. There is no background check. There is no training. There is, at most, a questionnaire in which the most important feature is not training in law enforcement or public safety, but rather loyalty to Donald John Trump.

This is a group of men with nigh absolute power, made up of people who have waited all their lives to have power so they can abuse it, backed by superiors who want to see violence, chaos, and fear. And their orders from the top are loud and clear: haul in as many brown people as possible, legal or not, foreigners or citizens, elderly or children, and make Examples of them. Create a situation so horrible that people fleeing brutal regimes or organized crime will fear the United States more than they fear drug lords or dictators.

These people were hired to be evil, and the people who apply are applying specifically for the opportunity to be evil.

People seeking an honest living do not join ICE.

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Miscellaneous news, today, Feb 14

Trump is really, really, REALLY soiling his pants over the Midterms. If anyone else posted this stuff, they would be put into a rubber room.

“I hope the Supreme Court realizes, as they ‘painstakingly’ review the very simple topic of Country Saving Tariffs (Those same Tariffs that have been used, by other Countries, against the U.S.A. to drain it of its Treasure and Security — for many years!), and all sorts of other things, that are making our Country Rich, Powerful, and Safe Again, that these Corrupt and Deranged Democrats, if they ever gain power, will not only be adding two States to our roster of 50, with all of the baggage thereto, but will also PACK THE COURT with a total of 21 Supreme Court Justices, THEIR DREAM,” the president wrote Friday.

Trump went on to claim that Democratic leaders would accomplish this by “immediately” terminating the filibuster – “probably in their first week, or sooner.”

“Our Country will never be the same if they allow these demented and evil people to knowingly, and happily, destroy it,” he added, comparing voter ID opposition to “Men playing Women’s Sports,” “Open Borders,” and “Transgender for Everyone,” while calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries “crooked losers.”

Trump ended the post by signing off, “SAVE AMERICA!”

 Top European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas tries not to laugh as Trump’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz repeats the bullshit claim that Trump ended eight wars.

 

 

Remember on Feb 12 — US AG Pam Bondi was pretending to testify before the US House of Representatives.  Her staff had prepared binders from the districts of each Democrat on the committee.  The binders contained photos and details of immigrants from the districts who had been convicted of murder, assault, rape, and the like.

Each time a Democrat asked her a question, Bondi refused to answer — instead she flashed the photos of the criminals and read what they had been found guilty of.  I guess she was trying to embarrass the Democrats.

HOW ABOUT WE POINT OUT THAT BONDI WAS FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL WHEN THE PARKLAND, FLORIDA, SCHOOL SHOOTING OCCURRRED.

On February 14, 2018, a tragic shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered the school and opened fire, resulting in the deaths of 17 individuals and injuring 17 others. 

 

 

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What is this fool up to now? Oh — elections.

America’s favorite demented malignant narcissist was ranting last night about how he’s going to take over the midterm elections if Congress doesn’t pass the Voter Suppression Act of 2026:

Donald Trump threatened on Friday to impose a requirement that US voters present photo identification before being allowed to cast ballots in the upcoming midterm elections.

Trump insisted he will push for the change even if Congress fails to pass the Save America act, which cleared the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill would impose a national photo identification requirement to vote, in addition to requiring proof of citizenship to register and drastically limiting mail-in voting.

“There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” Trump posted while onboard Air Force One on Friday afternoon after speaking to troops at Fort Bragg.

“Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability, Illness, or Travel,” the president added, falsely, since there is no popular majority for banning vote by mail.

In fact, polling conducted last year showed the exact opposite: 58% of Americans favor allowing any voter to cast their ballot by mail if they want to.

Trump’s efforts to impose voter ID requirements are likely to face immediate legal challenges, as the US constitution leaves the conduct of elections to the states.

The president, however, claimed to have “searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one” that would allow the federal government to take unprecedented control of elections run by the states. But in a second post during his flight to his Palm Beach resort, he offered more hyperbole than facts, in a long diatribe punctuated with all-caps words.

“We cannot let the Democrats get away with NO VOTER I.D. any longer. These are horrible, disingenuous CHEATERS,” Trump wrote.

“If we can’t get it through Congress, there are Legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted. I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order,” Trump added.

“I hope the Supreme Court realizes, as they ‘painstakingly’ review the very simple topic of Country Saving Tariffs … that these Corrupt and Deranged Democrats, if they ever gain power, will not only be adding two States to our roster of 50, with all of the baggage thereto, but will also PACK THE COURT,” the president posted.

Trump has long alleged systemic voter fraud contributed to his 2020 presidential election loss, despite no evidence to back up that claim.

Predictions are dangerous, especially about the future, but here goes anyway:

(1) If Trump tries this I think the federal courts will block it.

(2) Even if it were somehow to go into effect, I suspect the GOTV factor would swamp the marginal value to the GOP of their latest poll tax/literacy test attempt.

(3) I don’t think the Trump regime will be able to interfere with the fall elections enough to keep the Democrats from taking the House, although their no doubt crude and bungling attempts might end up making a difference at the margin in regard to the Senate, which is going to be very close. OTOH the GOP isn’t even running a candidate in New Mexico for the Senate seat held by Ray Lujan, because they were too incompetent to collect the fewer than 2,500 signatures necessary to get someone on the ballot. This illustrates how putting fanatical idiots in charge of important things can blow up in your face, which has always been a key weakness of fascism.

(4) More generally, I have a feeling, a feeling deep inside, that there’s a significant probability that enough of the right wing power structure gets sick enough of Trump at some point over the next 35 months that his presidency collapses into something close to impotence. I see this happening in the wake of midterm losses, plus the SCOTUS clawing back his precious tariffs, plus the moronic American electorate is very easily distracted these days, and a general boredom with the Trump show may well play a role here.

Anyway, there have been some green shoots over the past few weeks, although I note Thomas Massie is afraid of suffering a mysterious sudden death, which illustrates that it’s likely to be a bumpy ride. Or maybe Trump will just up and die, like the dog in the song.