Author name: moderat ereport

Lajward Zahra “The message is loud and clear: You’re good enough to pick vegetables or clean hotel rooms, but not to go to college.” The post Texas Ended In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants. Students Are Already Feeling the Impact. appeared first on The Nation.

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his conspiracy theory that the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs reports are being rigged, rather than dealing with the damage his tariff policies are causing. “Last weeks Job’s Report was RIGGED, just like the numbers prior to the Presidential Election were Rigged,” Trump wrote on Monday on his Truth Social platform. “That’s why, in both cases, there was massive, record setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats. Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!!” Friday’s jobs report showed that following the implementation of Trump’s haphazard tariff policy, only 73,000 jobs were added in July—far below the expected 110,000. The BLS also revised the previous two jobs reports down by 253,000 jobs total. The report has increased fears of a recession and a repeat of Trump’s failed economic policies from his first term. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman noted that the jobs data is now confirming earlier warnings about the tariff policies. “The thing is, official economic data are basically starting to confirm what mainstream economists have been saying all along. Erratic policy that creates uncertainty depresses growth and job creation; tariffs raise prices,” Krugman wrote. Help-wanted sign is displayed at a live music and blues club in Chicago on July 24. Following the dismal jobs report, Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday. Over the weekend, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and tried to justify the purge, baselessly claiming there “have been a bunch of patterns that could make people wonder.” But this is nonsense.  As statistician and election analyst Nate Silver noted, “Each monthly payrolls figure is actually revised three times: once in each of the first two months after initial publication (so July’s 73,000 figure will be re-reported in August and then again in September) and then again each January as part of the BLS’s annual benchmark revisions.” Similarly, Politifact noted that “revisions are a standard part of the BLS process.” In other words, Trump just doesn’t like the way the wind is blowing. William Beach, who served as the BLS commissioner during Trump’s first term, signed on to a letter with Obama-era commissioner Erica Groshen, calling Trump’s firing decision “baseless.” “To politicize the work of the agency and its workers does a great disservice not only to BLS but to the entire federal statistical system which this country has relied on for almost 150 years,” they wrote. Trump’s lies about the jobs report echo his long-debunked falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election, which he decisively lost against former President Joe Biden. And like with Trump’s election denialism, congressional Republicans and right-wing media like Fox News and Fox Business are amplifying and repeating Trump’s conspiracy. This has been standard operating procedure for the right for decades—promoting and escalating nonsensical conspiracies, leading to the eventual rise of a conspiracy theorist like Trump leading the party. Trump’s tariffs are hurting the recovering economy he inherited from Biden. He has nobody to blame but himself, and he is just trying to lie his way out of another mess.

On Sunday, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to expel Democratic lawmakers from the state legislature and replace them with Republican yes-men who will rubber stamp his plan to rig the 2026 midterms by re-gerrymandering Texas’ congressional map. Abbott made the threat after most of the state’s 62 Democratic lawmakers left Texas to deny Republicans a quorum—a move that would block GOP lawmakers from passing a new gerrymandered congressional map that will steal as many as five U.S. House seats. Abbott called a special session to get the Republican-controlled legislature to redraw congressional districts at the demand of Dear Leader Donald Trump, who is so terrified of losing the midterm elections that he’s trying to cheat and rig them instead. “My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab,” Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico said in a post on social media on Sunday. “Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he’ll have to come through us. It’s time to fight back.” My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab. Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he’ll have to come through us. It’s time to fight back. [image or embed] — James Talarico (@jamestalarico.bsky.social) August 3, 2025 at 5:00 PM State Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said the move is a difficult one for Democrats—who now face a $500 per day fine. But he said it was the right thing to do. “Republicans are counting on us to quietly accept Trump’s demands, but we refuse to put Abbott’s political ambitions before the needs of our communities,” Wu said. “By breaking quorum, we’re putting an end to this corrupt special session. Texans deserve leaders who fight for them, not politicians chasing power.” The ingenious move has enraged Abbott, who without a quorum cannot carry out the will of Dear Leader.  “Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business. That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office,” Abbott wrote in a statement. He went on to cite a BS memo from corrupt and morally bankrupt state Attorney General Ken Paxton, which claims that “through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.” “That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution,” Abbott wrote. Of course, none of that is actually true.  An opinion from the state attorney general is not a legally binding doctrine. And Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution does NOT state that Abbott can fill a vacancy in the legislature without an election. The Constitution says Abbott would have to issue “writs of election to fill such vacancies.” But Abbott went further than lying about his ability to expel lawmakers and replace them himself. Abbott also threatened to charge the Democratic lawmakers with felonies, accusing them of “soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules.” “Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws,” Abbott wrote. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker  The Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas are now in Illinois, where Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said he will “do everything we can to protect every single one of them.” “We know they’re doing the right thing,” Pritzker said. “We know they’re following the law. It’s Ken Paxton who doesn’t follow the law. It’s the leaders of Texas who aren’t following the law.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is also standing by the Texas Democratic lawmakers. “House Democrats stand in solidarity with every single lawmaker who has taken the difficult step to deny a quorum to stop the rigged map,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement. “Republicans should also know that the fight to preserve our democracy is one that Democrats across the country are ready for. The DCCC will not stand aside while Donald Trump and House Republicans try to steal the 2026 election. With public opinion turning against the Republican record of broken promises, we will fight across the country to take back the majority, restoring the will of the people back to the People’s House.” Meanwhile, the Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas had a succinct message for the Republicans trying to scare them into returning to the state. “Come and take it,” they wrote in a statement.