Thank you, Latrice. Before your e-mail, I did not know there was a website for Kamala's Recipes. Noting that October means times about to pick up and go "boom-boom-boom November to December," she suggested that I note the recipe there --at Kamala's Recipes -- for Sunbelt Cornbread Dressing:
Ingredients
- 2 8 oz packages of cornbread mix
- 1 lb spicy pork sausage
- 2 onions chopped
- 2 apples cored and chopped
- 4 celery stalks diced
- ¾ cup of chicken broth
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
- 2 teaspoons sage
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon rosemary
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Bake your cornbread according to the instructions on the package. This can be done the day before. Once it’s cooled, crumble it.
- Take the sausage out of its casing, crumble it, and brown it in a little oil. When it’s cooked, use a slotted spoon to remove it from the pan and set it aside.
- Sautee the vegetables and apples in the remaining oil in the same pan.
- Mix that with the sausage, cornbread crumbs, melted butter, herbs, and chicken broth.
- Put the mixture in a baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes.
The idea that immigration has a negative impact on the U.S. job market is a common theme of former President Donald Trump's speeches on the presidential campaign trail.
"They're taking your jobs," the Republican nominee told supporters on Sept. 21 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Immigration is also a top issue for Republican voters: 82% of Trump supporters say immigration is "very important" to their vote in the 2024 presidential election, second only to the economy, according to the Pew Research Center. It's the lowest-priority issue for Democrats, Pew found. Pew polled 9,720 U.S. adults from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2.
However, evidence suggests immigrants help the overall economy. And, at a high level, they aren't taking jobs from or reducing the wages of U.S.-born (or so-called native) workers, according to economists who study the impact of immigration on the labor market.
There are several reasons why immigrants largely benefit the economy and job market, economists said.
For one, the job market isn't static.
Immigrants take jobs but they also create new ones by spending in local economies and by starting businesses, economists said. One 2020 research paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found immigrants are 80% more likely to become entrepreneurs than native workers.
A recent "surge" of immigrants to the U.S. is expected to add $8.9 trillion (or 3.2%) to the nation's GDP over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan scorekeeper for Congress.
The US economy might confront a fate more challenging than a recession if Donald Trump retakes the White House, famed economist Nouriel Roubini said.
"The combination of trade, currency, monetary, fiscal, immigration and foreign policy of Trump poses much higher risks of stagflationary outcomes than if Kamala Harris is elected," he said at the Greenwich Economic Forum on Wednesday, first reported by Bloomberg.
The famously bearish forecaster is referring to the one scenario central banks hope to avoid at whatever cost. Stagflation occurs when inflation keeps rising but growth slows.
There are no painless solutions for an economy that tumbles into this situation.
Typically, central banks lower interest rates to revive weaker activity, but this option goes away if prices keep rising. Rates must stay high to reduce inflation, leaving authorities between a rock and a hard place.
When stagflation last hit the US in the 1970s, a deep recession was required to finally break out of the crisis.
According to Roubini, Trump's proposals would fuel these two key ingredients: lower growth and higher inflation.
For instance, scores of economists have criticized the former president's pledge to introduce a 10% universal tariff on all US imports. Not only are duties past down to consumers, but these taxes cause producers to pull out their products. When this happens, supply falls and prices rise.
This comes after Trump and running mate JD Vance have spent weeks tarring Haitians with vicious lies about eating pets.
The problem for a possible future President Trump is that it’s not up to the president. This is not Louis XIV proclaiming: “l’état, c’est moi,” i.e. “I am the state.” Trump apparently has not bothered to think through whether a president has the legal capability to make a decision in this manner because it doesn’t matter to him.
The former president seems to have forgotten that, when he was in the Oval Office, he already tried to terminate multiple TPS designations and was shot down by a federal judge, who pointed out that these are supposed to be agency decisions free from direct political interference.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Wednesday:
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said she thinks former President Donald Trump has no empathy for others as he continues to spread misinformation about the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness. … Lives are literally at stake right now,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View.” “I mean we’re talking about real human beings and their lives and they’re losing everything, everything.”
She added, “The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself – but this is so consistent about Donald Trump.”
“He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up especially in a time of crisis,” she added.
Following Hurricane Helene, and with Hurricane Milton barreling toward Florida, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed, without evidence, that the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. While FEMA does manage grants for housing and helping migrants, that is a separate account and unrelated to the disaster relief funds.
Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s response to Helene, including falsely saying that the president wasn’t picking up the calls and that there is an anti-Republican bias in how President Joe Biden and Harris are responding to the crisis.
Harris described personal stories she heard from those affected by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath after traveling to Georgia and North Carolina.
"People are losing their home with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return, and the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself -- but this is so consistent about Donald Trump," she said. "He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it's to lift people up."
Harris' sit-down on "The View" marked her first live interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. She is ramping up her media appearances this week with now just one month until Election Day.
Former President Donald Trump’s deadly lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene — and soon, inevitably, Hurricane Milton — depend on the impermeability of the right-wing information bubble.
President Joe Biden has directed an ongoing federal and state response to the swath of death and destruction Hurricane Helene left on the southeastern United States, an effort which includes tens of thousands of personnel helping victims across several states.
Trump’s Helene response has been characterized by conspiracy theories and grievance-mongering for political gain.
The Biden administration won plaudits from GOP elected officials across the region, but Trump falsely claimed the federal government abandoned the public. Americans affected by the storm can access a robust program of federal assistance, but he falsely claims they could only get $750 in aid. The White House stressed there’s plenty of FEMA funds to respond to both Helene and Milton — and Republicans are reportedly the ones blocking additional funding — but Trump falsely claims Vice President Kamala Harris blew “all her FEMA money” housing immigrants.
The former president, through these deranged fabrications, is trying to win votes in the coming election. He is summoning an alternate reality in which Biden and Harris are blithely unconcerned with the fates of millions of victims because many of those victims are Republicans and they instead prioritize immigrants. And he is doing so despite his own record as president of allegedly withholding disaster aid for political reasons.
The only reason this strategy is remotely plausible is that the right-wing media ecosystem is willing to play along with it. The news sources Republicans rely on, from MAGA influencers to Fox stars, have bolstered Trump’s lies at every turn. The result is that right-wing audiences are bombarded with falsehoods from within an echo chamber.
The MAGA media ecosystem responds in this same fashion to every news event because its function isn’t to report on what is happening. Instead, right-wing pundits offer a scapegoat — immigrants, Jews, journalists, teachers, trans people, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans — in order to hold their audience’s attention, make money, and support the GOP’s core agenda of tax cuts for rich people and abortion bans.
This incentive structure is universally toxic. But when it collides with issues like disaster relief, the consequences can turn deadly. Before, during, and after a hurricane, people on the ground need credible information about what to do, what help is available, and how to get it. Right now, the sources many victims depend on for news are lying to them.
Hurricane misinformation is plaguing the response to Helene. Local media outlets, federal and state officials, and emergency responders all are desperately trying to swat down rumors and falsehoods — some promoted by the former president. Republican officials in affected areas are begging the people pushing “conspiracy theory junk” to stop lying and pitch in instead.
Labor unions and consumer advocates were among those applauding Tuesday after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced her proposal for home healthcare coverage under Medicare—a broadly popular idea, according to polls, that supporters said would be a "game-changer" for millions of families.
On the ABC talk show "The View," Harris spoke about the "sandwich generation"—middle-aged Americans who find themselves caring for aging parents while they're also raising their own children.
"There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle," said the Democratic presidential nominee. "And it's just, almost, impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress. And so what I am proposing is that basically what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in-home healthcare."
Medicare currently only covers in-home healthcare for short periods of time, such as in cases of a patient recovering from surgery. But the number of aging Americans who need need prolonged healthcare at home is expected to explode in the coming years as members of the baby boomer generation reach their 80s.
Medicaid covers home care for low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, but waiting lists are long and beneficiaries are required to max out their savings before qualifying.
Covering at-home healthcare for Medicare's 67 million beneficiaries would "provide much-needed relief and financial support" to about 37 million people who currently provide unpaid eldercare to their family members, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, said that "home health expansion through Medicare is a smart and desperately needed place to start" on the road to expanding and improving Medicare.
"This important expansion would finally allow Medicare to cover crucial services where many beneficiaries would prefer to receive them—in the safety and comfort of their homes," said Gilbert. "Such an expansion would lay the groundwork for even further improvements and expansions to Medicare including hearing, dental, and vision services. A low out-of-pocket cap on medical expenses would ensure seniors can afford to get the care they need, and by reining in Medicare Advantage overpayments, we could fund many of these priorities."
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president April Verrett said the plan offers the latest contrast between Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who aims to repeal the Affordable Care Act and has said he has "concepts of a plan" to replace the law.
"Along with her proposals to invest in childcare, in paid leave, and to make Medicaid investments in home care, as well as lower costs for working families and raising wages for care workers, Kamala Harris is showing that she's been listening to working families," said Verrett. "In this presidential election, we have the choice between a candidate who has a plan for working families and one who has only offered 'concepts of a plan,' including gutting the Affordable Care Act and the nonsensical idea of paying for childcare through tariffs, which would actually raise prices."
"Care workers rallied to elect President [Joe] Biden and Vice President Harris, and this administration has demonstrated again and again that they stand with us," added Verrett. "Now we need to finish the job with Kamala Harris as president, making home care accessible to all and delivering the historic investment in care that our nation desperately needs."
The vice president said Medicare negotiations over drug
prices, which were begun under the Biden administration over the
objections of Republicans and which she supports expanding, would pay
for the new Medicare benefit.
"Part of what I also intend to do is allow Medicare to continue to negotiate drug prices against these big pharmaceutical companies, which means we are going to save Medicare the money, because we're not going to be paying these high prices, and that those resources are best then put in a way that helps a family," said Harris.
Gilbert expressed hope that the new
benefit, which would need to be approved by Congress, would be just one
step toward expanding Medicare coverage to all Americans.
"We must continue to expand the availability of Medicare by lowering the qualifying age," she said, "so we can finally build a healthcare system that ensures that every American can get the care they need when they need it without going bankrupt."
Vice President Harris is criticizing Donald Trump following new reporting by the journalist Bob Woodward that the former president secretly shared COVID-19 test machines with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a moment in 2020 when tests were out of reach for most Americans.
The revelation, first reported by CNN and The Washington Post on Tuesday, is detailed in a forthcoming book called War by the famed Watergate journalist, about Trump’s record on the international stage, as well as President Biden’s.
According to the book, Trump sent the secret shipment of testing equipment to the Russian leader at the height of the pandemic in 2020, even as the U.S. and other nations were facing crippling shortages of testing kits.
When Biden, a record-breaking 107 days before the election, finally left the race and endorsed Harris, the act unexpectedly unleashed an outpouring of enthusiasm and joy, emotions rarely associated with politics in recent years. The mood shift not only proved Harris’s naysayers wrong but also revealed how Biden’s frailty and Trump’s darkness had drained the party to sepia tones. Harris’s run, quite unexpectedly, infused it with color and light again. If the left had the same sanctification tendencies as the Trumpian right, the improbable events leading to Harris’s nomination might have been cast as divine intervention—Jesus taking the wheel, only to hand the keys to Harris, so she might steer America away from Trumpism and back onto a righteous road.
But the Democratic Party is not a cult of personality, a fact proved by Biden’s withdrawal. Harris’s run produced a jubilance incomparable to anything seen since at least Barack Obama’s first run, and it may even have eclipsed that. Within hours of becoming the presumptive nominee, Harris was buoyed by organizers who had begun laying the groundwork for her run years before. A Zoom organized by Win With Black Women drew 44,000 participants, an unprecedented number that required the site’s engineers to increase capacity. The call ultimately raised $1.5 million in just three hours. At least a dozen other calls followed—South Asian Women for Harris, Win With Black Men, White Women: Answer the Call—each enlisting volunteers and strategizing for a Harris win. In mid-September, Voto Latino reported a 200 percent surge in its voter registrations since the day Harris replaced Biden. A senior analyst at TargetSmart, a data research firm, reported that registrations are up more than 85 percent among Black voters overall and a staggering 98 percent among Black women. Potential youth voters increased most impressively. In 13 states, registrations have gone up nearly 176 percent and 150 percent among 18- to 29-year-old Black and Hispanic women, respectively. Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated endorsement of Harris, which came moments after Harris thrashed Trump in the debate, drove “a 400 or 500 percent increase” in people going to vote.gov to register, according to a TargetSmart analyst. What’s more, young Democrats are 14 percent more enthusiastic about voting than their Republican counterparts. While party killjoys such as David Axelrod suggested Democrats were feeling “irrational exuberance,” and James Carville chastised their “giddy elation,” organizers were getting down to work and galvanizing people to get Harris elected. Those on the ground, doing the real heavy lifting, helped consolidate support for Harris, building a campaign powered not from the top down, but from the grassroots up.
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