Below, you will find some headlines we may have missed and some interesting video clips on several subjects. Please feel free to share anything you may have run across; just make sure it’s not from a McMAGAt infested shithole.
Updates:
Zelenskyy hits back against Trump’s comments blaming Ukraine for the war with Russia
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that he wants the U.S. to stop using disinformation when talking about Russia’s war on Ukraine, after President Donald Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war — a Kremlin talking point.
“I would like to see more truth from the Trump team,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv, adding that disinformation hurts Ukraine and is laying the groundwork to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin out of isolation.
We Miss Mayor Pete:
Economy:
A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances
A new poll also found that four in 10 Americans have shifted spending to align with moral views in recent months
Americans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration, according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian.
Four out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll.
- 31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year – a sentiment especially felt by younger (gen Z: 37%), Black (41% v white: 28%) and Democratic consumers (35% v 29% of independents and 28% of Republicans).
- A quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics (Black: 35%, gen Z: 32%, Democratic: 31%).
Congressional Gems:
Chickenshits:
The Fascist Felons, His Brownshirts, and the DOGEbags:
Trump’s approval rating slips as Americans worry about the economy
- Approval of Trump’s handling of the economy has sagged
- His approval on immigration is little changed
- Majority oppose new tariffs; mixed views on Chinese tariffs
- WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rating has ticked slightly lower in recent days as more Americans worried about the direction of the U.S. economy as the new leader threatens a host of countries with tariffs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
- The six-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, showed 44% of respondents approved of the job Trump is doing as president, down from 45% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 24-26. Trump’s approval rating stood at 47% in a January 20-21 poll conducted in the hours after the Republican’s return to the White House.
From the MarKODA Files-The McMath Edition: DOGE Says It’s Saved $55 Billion; Data Show Much Less
- Cost-cutting effort itemizes about $8.6 billion in savings
- Data includes error that inflates value of DOGE savings so far
The federal cost-cutting effort dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency says it has saved $55 billion in federal spending so far, but its website only accounts for $16.6 billion of that.
And that’s before factoring in an error in the data published on DOGE’s website that mislabels a contract as $8 billion, which was later corrected in the federal database to only be $8 million. That cuts nearly in half the total of DOGE’s itemized savings, including from contracts and leases, to about $8.6 billion.
Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims
The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
Over the past few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly getting benefits — a “HUGE problem,” Musk wrote, as his Department of Government Efficiency digs into federal agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
Here are the facts:
A July 2024 report from Social Security’s inspector general states that from fiscal years 2015 through 2022, the agency paid out almost $8.6 trillion in benefits, including $71.8 billion — or less than 1% — in improper payments. Most of the erroneous payments were overpayments to living people.
***And the Geniuses Fired all the Inspector Generals who Handle these Matters—DERP!
Trump says ‘inflation is back’: ‘I had nothing to do with it’
“Inflation is back. No, think of it: Inflation’s back,” the president told Fox News’s Sean Hannity during an interview alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk that aired Tuesday night. “And they said, ‘Oh, Trump,’ and I had nothing to do with that.”
“These people have run the country. They spent money like nobody has ever spent. … They were given $9 trillion to throw out the window — 9 trillion,” he added.
Trump pointed to bills turned law during Biden’s four years in office, noting the government spent money on the “’Green New Scam,’ I call it.”
“The greatest scam in the history of the country. One of them. We have a lot of them, I guess. But one of them. Dollar-wise, probably,” he said, likely referring to Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in 2022.
“OOOOPS, What Does this Button Do?”
Trump: PBS, AP, CBS are ‘bad,’ MSNBC the ‘enemy’
President Trump ripped into media outlets he says are too critical of him and referred to one leading cable network as “the enemy” during an interview Tuesday.
“It’s a big con job. And they are so bad for the country, so dangerous and so bad. And the media is so bad,” Trump said during a joint appearance on Fox News with tech billionaire Elon Musk and host Sean Hannity. “When I watch MSNBC — which I don’t watch much, but you have to watch the enemy on occasion — the level of … arrogance and cheating, they are just horrible people.”
