As Elon Musk pans Republicans' major legislative package this week, two House Republicans got an earful from constituents back home on the "big, beautiful bill."
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., was shouted down and booed in Seward, Nebraska, where hundreds of people attended his town hall.
"When you start to get 300 to 400 people and the majority of them are unhappy, that should start to send a message," attendee Don Hutchinson told KLKN.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, also faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall in Decorah, Iowa, as she praised President Donald Trump and the passage of bill in the House.
"I was also proud to vote for President Trump's one big, beautiful bill last week. This is a generational investment," Hinson said -- to loud boos from the crowd.
"This is your time," Hinson told the crowd. "So I am here to clear up a lot of the misinformation that's out there because this bill is about securing our borders. This bill is about providing continued tax relief for working Americans and returning our country to prosperity.
"So simply put, anyone who voted no on this bill also voted to allow your taxes to go up," she added.
The Medicaid changes in the bill would translate to $700 billion in reduced spending through new eligibility and work requirements that could force millions of people off the program, according to preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
In this screen grab from a video, people hold signs outside a town hall meeting with Rep. Mike Flood on May 28, 2025.
Hinson was also pressed by a constituent who had a disability on whether she could lose coverage under the bill.
"OK, so you're disabled. Anyone who is medically frail is explicitly exempted in our legislation," Hinson responded. "That is, that is you. Caretakers of those who are disabled, they are also exempted from that work requirement."
Flood and Hinson did admit there were provisions in the bill that they did not fully support, and Flood was booed when he said he was not aware that the bill contained language that would make it harder for judges to hold parties in contempt of court.
Democrats say the language could protect Trump administration officials from fallout if they defy court orders.
TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY! ENDLESS DEFICITS! DESTROYING MEDICAID! ELIMINATING FOOD PROGRAMS...
THAT'S WHAT MAGA CLOWNS VOTED FOR!
Republicans Roasted at Town Halls and More Great News That's Bad For Trump
Big student protests, a major court loss for Trump, GOP town halls continue to backfire, and more
Scott Dworkin
May 29
After dealing with another day of Trump’s madness, I’m happy to bring you this edition of Great News.
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Students across America are standing up and speaking out against the unhinged Trump regime. Protests have recently erupted on Harvard’s campus, in response to Trump’s war on the university. And yesterday, more than 500 students from dozens of New York City high schools walked out of class to protest ICE’s abuse of power.
Since GOP Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) refuses to host town halls, around 100 of his constituents showed up to hand-deliver letters to his district office. They were protesting cuts to Medicaid, among other issues. Luckily, Perry is facing one of the most targeted House races in the country, giving Dems a real shot at winning this seat in 2026.
PENNSYLVANIA: STOP ELECTING LOSERS!
Yesterday, Trump was actually confronted during one of his weird press gaggles in the Oval Office. CNBC’s Megan Casella showed reporters how it’s done: “Wall Street analysts have coined a new term. They call it the ‘TACO trade.’ They're saying Trump always chickens out (TACO) on the tariff threats … What's your response to that?”
Trump reacted by completely losing it. I’m not repeating his incoherent, rambling response, but I want to see much more of this.
Shortly after, judges invalidated most of Trump’s tariffs—including those he imposed using emergency powers. It also applies to the tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico that Trump tried to justify using a debunked fentanyl conspiracy theory.
In a separate case, a judge ruled that a lawsuit filed against DOGE and Elon Musk can move forward. Funny enough, after the ruling, Musk said his time at DOGE is coming to an end. Good.
Hundreds showed up in Nebraska for GOP Rep. Mike Flood’s town hall on Tuesday—and wow, it was a disaster. VOTE MAGA GOP LOSERS OUT & PROTECT AMERICANS!
When Flood said he voted for Trump’s bloated budget bill, he was loudly booed. He lied at an absolute constant, and the crowd wasn’t having any of it. He falsely claimed the budget protects Medicaid “for the most part,” and even lied about Trump winning a majority of the vote in 2024’s election.
Flood’s forehead was literally flooding with sweat during the event. When asked about a slimy part of the budget bill that could limit the court’s ability to enforce contempt orders, Flood responded: “This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill.” The fact that he didn’t actually read the entire bill, is absolutely horrific.
Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson held two town halls in Iowa, where she was met with the same level of rightful anger at both. When Hinson said she believes “Trump is fighting for you,” attendees shot back with boos and a resounding “NO!”
IOWA: YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!
VOTE OUT MAGA GOP REP. ASHLEY HINSON!
When Hinson lied about DOGE, the passionate yells from the crowd were overwhelming. Some of the loudest negative roars from the crowd came when Hinson said she was “proud” to vote for the garbage budget. Seriously? “Proud?” Not sure what she’s so proud of.
Republicans are so out of touch with their constituents—it’s baffling to see why anyone ever voted for any of them. That’s why I’m pushing back full force against every awful and disastrous thing they’re trying to do.
On top of publishing one of the most widely-read daily news briefs, I also manage one of the largest Contact Congress campaigns out there. Plus, the social media initiatives I’m running generate billions of impressions monthly.
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Onward!
Scott
What are your thoughts on the acronym TACO? (Trump Always Chickens Out)
All links related to this article are at the top of the comments section.
Happy Thursday! A federal trade court has blocked President Trump from abusing emergency powers to impose sweeping new tariffs — a major win for workers, small businesses, and the rule of law. The ruling reaffirms that economic policy should follow the Constitution, not political whims.
Sign the petition to celebrate this critical victory for fairness and democracy SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE CIVIC SHOUT single click petitions!
In other inspiring news: Trans teens are standing up for their rights in Kansas, high schoolers became hometown heroes after saving a family from a fire, and 16 states are suing to stop Trump’s dangerous science cuts. Even a lost engagement ring found its way home!
Hope is everywhere. Let’s dive into it together. 💛
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THIS IS NOT NEW, BUT IT'S TIME TO ADDRESS RACISM & BLACK POVERTY IN
THE U.S.
WE HAVE JUST PASSED THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE KILLING OF GEORGE FLOYD.
WHAT'S CHANGED?
TRUMP ET AL ARE ILLEGALLY DEPORTING DARK COMPLECTED 'IMMIGRANTS' & WELCOMING WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS....
SOUTH AFRICA SUPPORTED HILTER.
APARTHEID PROMOTED THE EXPLOITATION & OPPRESSION OF BLACKS
NAZI MUSK BROUGHT THAT LEGACY WITH HIM...HIS $$$ ORIGINATED FROM THE
EXPLOITATION OF NATIVE BLACKS.....
Plundering Black America
An excerpt from an important new book chronicling the history of the racial wealth gap
Steven Beschloss
Mar 31, 2025
Fighting for equality in 1963 in the March on Washington. (Photo by Leffler/Library of Congress via Getty Images)
We’ve been confronted in recent years with a ridiculous amount of lies that there is no such thing as structural or systemic racism in America. This fallacious flood of misinformation has helped fuel the hostile attacks on the study of racial history and the virulent rejection of diversity, equity and inclusion by the white nationalist Trump regime.
My friend and former colleague Calvin Schermerhorn, a historian of slavery in the United States, addresses the factual reality in his new book,The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made.By telling the stories of seven families over 400 years, he shows how the fruits of their labor were stolen again and again, from generation to generation, saddling Black families with a deeply inequitable struggle to advance economically.
Calvin’s powerful book is full of insights—and I hope you’ll consider getting a copy and reading it. What follows is a short excerpt, in which he describes the scale of the racial wealth gap in America, how it happens, and the reasons why it remains a terrible burden for everyone who cares about equality and justice.
Wealth’s absence in Black America has a long history. By one recent measure, for every dollar that a median white American household has, an African American one has only sixteen cents.
African Americans did not lose or squander wealth on the ongoing road from enslavement to equality. Black people did not invest unwisely or fritter away the fruits of their labor. Instead, each time the American economy changed, the agents of that change have dispossessed, disinherited, or decapitalized African Americans.
Frederick Douglass called this process “plunder.” Douglass saw the United States as a nation whose citizens cooperated in robbing him of his liberty and the reward of his labor. That history did not begin with the kind of enslavement Douglass experienced in the nineteenth century. It began long before, and it didn’t cease when slavery ended. The wealth stripped from Black people like Douglass became white family assets passed down as inheritance. The effects of that plunder have also been passed down to African American families.
Each time Black Americans gained a little wealth, new policies or economic practices stripped them of that wealth and imposed new barriers to its creation and retention. That process unfolded in stages, peeling away assets in the present and obstructing opportunities for helping the next generation. Americans may believe that wealth is a product of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps and striving, diligence, resilience, or good fortune. But there’s more to it than individual effort. Household wealth is founded on the strivings and savings of previous generations who passed on to children resources that include inheritance, education, stability, and wisdom, among other potential income-generating tools.
The accepted narrative of United States history has been of a long march to freedom, the cadence of which slowed with the growth of slavery and quickened at Emancipation. It faltered the era of Jim Crow and found its footing again during the Civil Rights era. Over the last forty years, the march got mired again and civil rights moved backward. Yet the stripping of Black income and wealth has persisted even in those times of revolutionary steps forward. It has been so relentless that the stripping of Black wealth has come to resemble an algorithm, intelligence, or rule set governing American economic development.
The year Americans elected the firstBlack president was when Black households lost 48 percent of their wealth in the 2008 housing crisis. In the new century, artificial intelligence replicates Black disadvantage in credit scoring, leading effectively to surcharges on blackness. African Americans pay more for vehicles and carry more costly debt for home loans, credit card borrowing, and education debt than whites. Most African Americans report having no credit or subprime credit, and Black families pay proportionally more income for homes and college. The covid-19 pandemic and restrictions on women’s reproductive care in the form of abortion bans have intensified health disparities.
Decapitalization shows no signs of attenuating. More than 160 years after Emancipation, Black Americans own just 3 percent of national wealth despite constituting 13.4 percent of the population, while whites own 84 percent of national wealth despite representing only 60 percent of the population. Four percent of Black households have over $1 million in net worth, but a quarter of white households do.
And that racial wealth gap has been stubbornly wide over the last four decades: whites have collectively greater upward mobility, and Black Americans have higher rates of downward mobility. Today the typical African American family has about one-sixth the wealth of the typical white family. Some 3.5 million Black families have zero or negative wealth, or fewer liquid assets than might be found in a lost wallet.
The first Trump term made clearthat the plan was to continue undermining economic progress for Black America in myriad ways. Trump elevated judges opposed to civil rights, women’s reproductive rights, health equity, environmental justice, and affirmative action. His administration reversed rules meant to make school lunches more nutritious and tried to restrict the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Americans struggling with hunger. The Trump administration reversed environmental and antidiscrimination rules and removed roadblocks to residential resegregation and rules for banks to lend to low-income borrowers.
The Trump administration also cut Pell Grants to low-income students, and the Trump-backed 2017 tax cuts continued the Reagan Bush-era practice of financing widening inequality at public expense, since benefits went to top earners and corporations and there was negligible trickle-down effect. In short, the administration cut or tried to ax proven ways of boosting working families into the middle class across the board.
Trump’s leadership and party touted economic populism clothed in the old garb of white nationalism while championing policies that promoted wealth inequality. Rochell [who’s that?] called it a “suppression of truth and fact” and a cynical “return on narrative” to stoke white grievance fantasies targeting Black people.
In short: Wealth—the endgame of income— has widened into a chasm of inequality. “Every dollar has a history,” a prominent historian declares—a story of how someone made it, saved it, invested it, or squandered it. Theft of wealth has a history, too.
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COMMENTS:
This is the time to stand, shout, and act if you are not already doing so.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel
Eugenics weren’t first used on the Jews, by the Nazis. The American eugenics movement, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, promoted selective breeding and sterilization to “improve” the population. Some proponents advocated or tolerated public health neglect to eliminate “undesirable” groups.
The broader eugenics movement in the U.S. was driven by figures such as Charles Davenport and organizations like the Eugenics Record Office (ERO). It was funded by influential philanthropies, including the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Harriman family, which supported sterilization laws and racial hygiene programs that later influenced Nazi policies.
History can teach us so much, but unfortunately facts have never gotten in the way of conservative policies.
An attorney scheduled an appointment in the Boston area at a colleague's office. Not knowing how unpredictable traffic was, I arrived early & wandered the neighborhood. Neighborhood was clearly poor - CHECK CASHING/PAYDAY LOAN business, lots of JUNK FOOD places.
I wandered through local stores, checked prices of household goods & clothing. The prices were 3 or 4 times the cost of ordering ON LINE. If you don't have a credit card or internet access or a safe place for delivery, you're paying the price.
Very few cars visible which means public transportation was a necessity - an additional cost & time invested.
There was no BANK, LIBRARY or POST OFFICE.
The recognition of the lack of access should concern us all.
Recently, I got lost in a poor neighborhood, passed a POST OFFICE & stopped for directions. The line of customers filled the building because there were only 2 windows for service. This was AM on a week day. My only thought was 'this wouldn't happen in a WHITE neighborhood!'
I encourage everyone to wander through a POOR NEIGHBORHOOD!
Poverty is expensive!
Learning from my grandfather and father as a young person about saving. It was eye-opening how one person paid a different amount for a car than someone else. That was hard to grasp, but a lesson I have used.
Thank you, Steven, for again steering us to truth. We still have so much work to do on equality in America, and cannot let the clown show currently in DC deter us. They must be voted out so we together can restart government by and for all peoples.
There are so many things to abhor from the current administration, but the one that I find most repellent is the anti-DEI/woke BS. Any serious person should know this. What's playing out right now is the blowback Isabel Wilkerson wrote so compellingly about in "Caste." If only that book, and the new one you cite here were required reading for all Americans, most especially White Americans.
I worked for the National Park Service for decades. For some time, the agency has made a concerted effort to be more inclusive of representing the fuller breadth of American history. I helped administer programs to expand interpretation to tell the untold parts of the American story, the ones this administration wants stripped from all programs/websites, etc. It is beyond shameful.
I'll be asking for this book at the library, thanks for the recommendation
Alliances are still being formed to strategize how best to succeed in the face of relentless pushback against all things minority, non-white male. Alliances can learn from the failures and successes of the civil rights era. I suggest that white America will now be facing the loss of its wealth as we hand over federal dollars to billionaires. White America will be feeling its version of powerlessness in a contemporary Jim Crow era.
I cite two other books that offer lessons from the civil rights history: The Young Crusaders, the Untold Story of the Children and Teenagers Who Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement, by V.P. Franklin; and Waging a Good War, by Thomas E. Ricks.
To compound this, and no one has written about this move yet, at least not who I subscribe to, has said all that much about the whitification of the Smithsonian Museums which, of course, will basically shutter the Black History Museum and the Native American Museum. I understand that a Women’s History Museum in the works will probably never open. Statues that show diversity around DC(thinking about the statue dedicated to the nurses in the Viet Nam War as well as the moving Korean War Memorial). I wonder too if they’ll be whitifying the WW II Memorial, scratching names from the Viet Nam Wall. What will be next; Arlington National Cemetery? We already know he doesn’t give a shit about our fighting men and women buried there. It’s probably just as well the Unknown Soldier is unknown or 47 would likely defile that tomb as well. He’s going to try to be as ruthless as the Taliban was in erasing as much history of those he hates as he can in the time he has. I shudder to think what might happen should he try to mess with the Library of Congress.
A good example of one of American's dirty little secrets that we have never fully admitted or confronted in an honest way. And now we are confronted with a threat that may just lead to the end of America's experiment of liberty and justice for all. Will you fight for what you are about to loose?
We, are in fact the majority. We are not bending. We shall erase any difference
