Barackface: 12: Bihar

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

12: Bihar

The Banyan Revolt (novel)
Gen Z Kranti (novel)
Madhya York: The Merchant and the Mystic (novel)
The Drum Report: Markets, Tariffs, and the Man in the Basement (novel)
Trump’s Default: The Mist Of Empire (novel)
Deported (novel)
Empty Country (novel)
Poetry Thursdays (novel)

War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Grocery Prices Are Way Down. Lying has worked for Trump in the past. Is this a lie too far? .......... Donald Trump continues to say that polls showing that Americans are unhappy about the economy are “fake.” But the blowout Democratic victories in last week’s elections may have given him a wakeup call. As the New York Times reported, Trump “has mentioned affordability as much in the last week as he has in the past nine months.” .............

Trump is not, in fact, pointing to any statistics. He’s just lying.

........... Trump, by contrast, is engaged in what CNN calls a “lying spree” about inflation. We all know that many media organizations have long had a habit of “sanewashing” Trump, downplaying the craziness of his remarks. What we’re seeing now is “truthwashing,” pretending that there is some factual justification for bald-faced lies. ........... Trump’s pants-on-fire claims about prices. ........... By 2024, prices were about 20 percent higher than pre-pandemic — but wages were 25 percent higher. ........... when there’s a global inflation shock, as there was in 2021-2023, incumbent governments take much of the blame no matter what they do — which is why, as John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times has noted, 2024 was a “graveyard of incumbents” around the world. .......... in 2024 voters who said that the economy was their most important issue favored Trump by 63 points over Kamala Harris. .......... This worm has, however, turned with astonishing speed. In last week’s gubernatorial elections, economy-focused voters favored Democrats by almost 30 points —
a 90-point swing
. Voters appear to have decided that Trump’s campaign promises to bring prices down were fraudulent, and punished his party accordingly. .................... Voters can sometimes be convinced, falsely, that bad things are happening to other people, even when they themselves are doing OK. Many Americans who don’t live in Chicago probably believe administration claims that the city, which just had its safest summer since the 1960s, is a war zone. ................... Are violent mobs overrunning Portland? If you watch Fox News, you might believe that. Are groceries “way down,” as Trump keeps insisting? Anyone who does their own food shopping — even Republicans — knows that this isn’t true. ........... we’re experiencing “K-shaped” economic growth, with those at the top doing well but those further down losing ground. Many people on both the left and the right claimed that this was happening under Biden, but the truth was the opposite: Under Biden, wages at the bottom consistently rose faster than wages at the top. This year, however, that pattern has been reversed .............
As that left-wing rag the Wall Street Journal points out, the only people who seem to be feeling good about the economy right now are those who own a lot of stock.
.............. Trump is utterly dishonest ...... he’s completely out of touch with the reality of American life.

Why are Democrats so undisciplined and Republicans so regimented? The asymmetry explained ............. Chuck Schumer couldn’t hold his senators together at a time when their unity and toughness were essential. Yet Trump cracks the whip and gets all Republicans to do his bidding.......... Does this mean Schumer should go? Yes. .......... But the problem runs deeper — to a fundamental asymmetry at the heart of American politics: Democrats are undisciplined. Republicans are regimented............... For as long as I remember, Democrats have danced to their own separate music while Republicans march to a single drummer......... That was the story in 1994, when Bill Clinton couldn’t get the Democratic Senate to go along with his health care plan, on which Clinton spent almost all his political capital.......... And when Al Gore didn’t demand a statewide recount in Florida in 2000......... And when a majority of Democratic senators voted for Bush’s 2002 resolution to use military force against Iraq........... And when Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked Biden’s agenda............ And now, when Democrats appear weak and spineless in response to Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the government. ............ There’s a psychological-structural difference between the two parties.......... Democrats pride themselves on having a “big tent” holding all sorts of conflicting views. Republicans pride themselves on having strong leaders................. People who run for office as Democrats are, as a rule, more tolerant of dissent than are people who run for office as Republicans. Modern-day Democrats believe in diversity, E Pluribus. Republicans believe in unity, Unum. .............

in our collective subconscious, Democrats reflect the nurturing mother: accepting, embracing, empathic. Republicans represent the strict father: controlling, disciplining, limiting.

................ why Democrats often appear spineless while Republicans appear adamant, and why the Democratic message is often unclear while the Republican message is usually sharper ......... Even over the last few weeks, as Democrats tried to hold the line over expiring health care subsidies that could send millions of Americans’ insurance prices soaring, voters have still favored Republicans on the economy and cost of living. Why? Because the Democratic message has been so garbled. .............