The Progressive Midwesterner

For the first time in U.S. history, the sitting President of the United States is going to declare a national emergency for purely political reasons. Donald Trump is going to declare a national emergency in order to build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border despite the lack of any legitimate basis to declare a national emergency. Already, Democrats in Congress are strongly opposing Trump's abuse of emergency powers. For example, Bobby Rush, who represents the Chicago-area 1st Congressional District of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives, has announced that he will co-sponsor a resolution, which is expected to be introduced by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, that, if enacted, would effectively nullify Trump's national emergency declaration: If @realdonaldtrump declares a national emergency to fund his border wall, I’m prepared to introduce a resolution to terminate the President’s emergency declaration under 50 U.S.C. 1622. (National Emergencies Act) #F...

Do y'all remember when President Donald Trump and then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker promised people in Southeastern Wisconsin that a giant liquid crystal display (LCD) factory by electronics manufacturer Foxconn was going to bring massive amounts of jobs to Wisconsin? Well, Walker was voted out of office by the people of Wisconsin last year, and Louis Woo, a special assistant to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, is saying that Foxconn may not build the giant factory that Trump, Walker, and Foxconn promised after all: When Terry Gou, founder and CEO of the (Taiwanese) manufacturer Foxconn, came to Wisconsin to celebrate his company's first American factory, he was in a Midwestern state of mind. “This is our home, my home, Wisconsin,” he told an audience including then-Governor Scott Walker in 2017, citing Walker's strong family traditions as a reason he was so eager to work in the state. The deal guaranteed 3,000 factory jobs for Wisconsin workers with Walker and President Trum...

President Donald Trump is floating a political trial balloon for potentially launching a government-run media outlet that, if launched, would serve as a taxpayer-funded, pro-Trump propaganda outlet that would be comparable to, for example, state-run media in authoritarian dictatorships like North Korea: President Trump on Monday suggested the government start its own television network as he voiced frustration with the way CNN in particular has covered his administration. "Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!" Trump wrote on Twitter. It's important to note that Trump is already the beneficiary of pro-Trump propaganda from a segment of the corporate media, including Fox News, Sinclair-owned television stations, and right-wing talk radio. Furthermor...

Brady Mallory, a news reporter for Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based CBS affiliate KELO-TV, interviewed President Donald Trump following a rally for South Dakota Republican gubernatorial candidate Kristi Noem, a far-right Trump loyalist. During the interview, Trump insulted farmers whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by the Trump trade war: You heard that correctly. President Trump said that farmers whose lives have been negatively impacted by the Trump trade war would have lost their farms anyways. That kind of rhetoric is insulting and hateful to farmers and people who live in communities where agriculture is a vital industry to their community. Furthermore, America has a lot of arable land that is used for many different forms of agriculture, and many states, especially in the South, the Midwest, and some of the western states, have large agricultural industries that have seen loss of export markets due to the Trump trade war. As someone who is probably more of a pro...

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who is in a competitive election in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, is downright laughably claiming that the fact that President Donald Trump is soft on the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia is a "false narrative": Congressman @DonJBacon : “I believe the assertion that this administration is soft on Russia is a false narrative.” https://t.co/73DFjRBClw — Edward G Robinson ☕️ (@Post_Truth_Era) July 16, 2018 In cased you missed the Helsinki summit between Trump and Putin, you missed one of the biggest acts of betrayal in U.S. history, in which Trump openly sided with Putin, the Russian dictator, against the U.S. intelligence community on the issue of the Putin regime's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections to the benefit of Trump and the Republican Party. It's not a false narrative to say that Trump is soft on Russia, in fact, it has been alleged , although not confirmed, that the Russians have kompromat (i.e., compromising i...