Tariffs and Consumer Confidence

STATISTA: Consumer Confidence Plummets

by Felix Richter,

Mar 31, 2025

Consumer sentiment in the United States fell to the lowest level in more than two years in March, as uncertainty over tariffs, their effect on inflation and the overall economy are clearly weighing on Americans' minds. The latest results from the University of Michigan’s monthly Index of Consumer Sentiment showed a steep decline in consumer confidence for the third consecutive month.

The overall index, which is based on at least 600 telephone interviews per month and focuses on personal finances, business conditions and buying conditions, fell to its lowest level since November 2022 and is now approaching its all-time low recorded in June 2022, when inflation peaked at almost 9 percent. The latest decline was driven by an 18 percent drop in the Index for Consumer Expectations, which is based on two questions looking 12 months ahead and one question looking at the next five years.

“This month’s decline reflects a clear consensus across all demographic and political affiliations," Survey of Consumer Director Joanne Hsu wrote. "Republicans joined independents and Democrats in expressing worsening expectations since February for their personal finances, business conditions, unemployment, and inflation. Consumers continue to worry about the potential for pain amid ongoing economic policy developments."

 

You will find more infographics at Statista

From Bernie: Rallies Report

 We just finished up a truly remarkable few days on the road. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I held five rallies in three states in three days. And the response was incredible.

North Las Vegas, Nevada

We began in Las Vegas on Thursday where we were joined by Congressman Steve Horsford — a former member of the Culinary Workers Union and past Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. The last time Donald Trump was in Las Vegas, in January of this year, 2,000 people came out to his event. 3,200 people joined ours. It was the largest event I have ever held in the city.

Tempe, Arizona

And then it was on to Tempe, Arizona. And that was pretty crazy.

The largest rally turnout we have ever had in the Tempe-Phoenix area was 11,300 in 2015 when I was running for president. This weekend, in a non-campaign event, 15,000 Arizonans turned out. Not only was the arena filled to capacity — many thousands waited outside in the parking lot. Remarkable.

Greeley, Colorado

On Thursday we began the day in Greeley, Colorado. Greeley is a small city with a population of 108,000. Well, 11,300 of those Coloradans joined our event. There were more people in the overflow area outside, nearly 6,000, than we could fit into the gym.

Denver, Colorado

And then it was on to Denver. Total insanity.

When you run for President you hold a lot of rallies. And I have. But I’ve never held a rally like this - ever. At Denver we were joined by great musicians and speakers from the trade union movement. And 34,000 people turned out. 34,000 people! This is, by far, the largest rally that I have ever held anywhere. And, by the way, it is a larger number than Trump ever had in Denver.

Tucson, Arizona

On Saturday morning we had our last rally - in Tucson, Arizona. We were joined by Congressman Greg Casar from Texas -- the Chair of the House Progressive Caucus. It was a warm, beautiful day. We were planning on 8,000 to 10,000 people attending. We were wrong. Over 23,000 showed up at the high school football stadium.

Our job in the days, weeks and months ahead is to energize and organize.

We need to hold meetings and rallies in all 50 states, and then do it again and again and again. And when those rallies are over, we need to organize the people who attend to mobilize in their communities and fight back in every way we can.

We need progressives to run for office at all levels. I am talking about school boards, city councils, state legislatures and the races that are not in the news but make a tremendous difference in local communities. I’m talking about races for governor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

But it’s not just running for office. At a time when many of our people feel lonely and isolated, we need to build community and bring people together. In the deepest sense we need to care for each other and give each other strength.

Department of Education Funding

 
STATISTA: 2/3 of Americans Say Hands Off Dept. Education

by Felix Richter,

Mar 21, 2025

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at shutting down the Department of Education. The order titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling her agency and return the authority over education to the states. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as shutting down the Department of Education was one of Trump’s campaign promises and he previously said that he had nominated McMahon to “put herself out of a job”.

McMahon herself was also aware of her task, as her first act as Secretary was outlining the department’s “final mission”. In a speech given on March 3, right after her confirmation, Secretary McMahon hit all of Trump’s talking points with respect to education, talking about returning power to the states and parents, removing red tape and eliminating “gender ideology”, “anti-American ideology” and DEI. While stopping just short of mentioning the outright elimination of the Department of Education, her repeated use of the word “final” made clear that she sees no future for the department she was just tasked with leading. “This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students,” she addressed her new staff. “I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete, we will all be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”

Earlier this week, democratic senators had addressed Secretary McMahon in a letter, urging her to stop the already apparent dismantling of the Department of Education. “At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it is a national disgrace that the Trump Administration is attempting to illegally abolish the Department of Education and thus, undermine a high-quality education for our students," the letter signed by 38 senators said.

According to a recent survey conducted by YouGov and The Economist, the majority of Americans is also opposed to closing the Department of Education. Two thirds of respondents in the survey fielded March 16-18 said that the department should either be expanded (39 percent) or kept the same (27 percent). At the other end of the scale, 13 percent of respondents said that the department should be reduced, while 17 percent called for its outright elimination. This is another example of the Trump administration and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seemingly overstepping their mandate. According to the same survey, 46 percent of U.S. adults think that Trump’s cuts to federal agencies have gone too far, while 25 percent think the efforts have been about right and 17 percent think they haven’t gone far enough. Funnily enough, 34 percent of respondents think that DOGE itself should be eliminated – the highest share for any federal agency mentioned in the survey

You will find more infographics at Statista

Splashdown

Some good news, for a change.  The two NASA astronauts, who have been on the International Space Station since last summer after equipment issues turned an expected eight day stay into nine months, returned to earth safely on Tuesday, March 18th. There was even a pod of dolphins which greeted their space capsule.

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are 59 and 62, respectively.  Which is older than typical astronauts, and hopefully they won't  suffer any permanent health damage from their time in space. They are both married, and Wilmore has two teenage daughters.  I imagine it would be like any military family, reuniting after a long deployment. An adjustment to make, even though they would be overjoyed to be back together again.

I said prayers of thanksgiving because there were so many things that could have gone wrong. The journey in the space capsule to return to earth took 17 hours. I have never taken space travel for granted, and can't imagine what it would have been like to be up there for nine months. I have borderline claustrophobia, and I'm afraid I would have gone nuts or killed somebody if I were confined in a space not much bigger than a trailer house bathroom with three other people for that long. Plus, there is the cold dark emptiness of space to contend with.

Not everyone would feel that way. One of my sisters said she wished Grandma could have seen this.  Our maternal grandmother was always interested in space travel, and followed closely the space missions of NASA.

Here is a good summary from  NPR:

Two NASA astronauts return to Earth after an unexpectedly long mission : NPR

The Deer's Cry

St. Patrick's Breastplate, also known as the Lorica, or the Deer's Cry, is one of my favorite prayers.

A good article is found on this site: Saint Patrick's Breastplate

Pandemic Denial?

 

Covid 19 Ranks Among Deadliest Disease Outbreaks in History

Five years after the virus was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2025, worldwide deaths from Covid-19 are estimated at 19-36 million by sources like the World Health Organization and The Economist. This death count places the coronavirus among the deadliest disease outbreaks in recorded history. Epidemics and pandemics have taken their toll on humanity throughout the centuries and even though much has changed in the modern age, the devastation from the loss of life in disease outbreaks has remained the same. 

Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, published data on the seven deadliest disease outbreaks in history in 2021 and even then, estimates of the extrapolated Covid-19 death toll already placed the pandemic among them. While Covid-19 might be more similar from an outbreak perspective to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920, another one is actually closer in time to it: The HIV/AIDS pandemic. First reported in 1981, the disease spread rapidly around the world and peaked at 1.6 million annual deaths in 2004. Since then this number has halved and experts believe that the pandemic as a public health threat can be ended by 2030 due to advanced medications and public health campaigns limiting the disease's spread. While fewer people die of AIDS today, the disease has claimed 27-48 million lives globally. 

The outbreak on the list that claimed the most lives is the so-called Black Death plague epidemic that took place in Europe, North Africa and Asia in the Middle Ages, from around 1334 to 1353. The outbreak is estimated to have killed up to 200 million people, decimating the European population by 30 to 60 percent. There are actually three outbreaks of the plague, a bacterial disease, among the deadliest pandemics and epidemics in the world, also including the Plague of the Justinian in late antiquity (541-549) as well as a third outbreak of the disease in the 19th and 20th century, killing 12 million people mostly in India and China.

The latter was - together with the less deadly cholera and influenza outbreaks of the 19th century - the first pandemic that reached the entire world, while previous outbreaks were also often classified as Old World pandemics. The New World smallpox epidemic is an abnormality in this context, as it ravaged native American populations that did not have a built-up tolerance to the disease, killing 25 to 55 million people in the 1500s and 1600s. Finally, the Spanish flu is often called the first true pandemic as with the increased connectedness of the world in the 20th century came the faster spread of disease.

The words epidemic and pandemic refer to a sudden increase of the spread of an infectious disease, in a limited area or all around the (connected) world at the time. While some diseases can theoretically be eradicated, most can only be limited in their spread and are poised to keep existing, especially if they can be re-transmitted to humans from the environment. Five years after being declared as such, Covid 19 is still referred to as a pandemic by the WHO, but is not considered a global health emergency anymore

Temptation

I'm remiss in not posting this homily last weekend.  This is my homily from this past Sunday, March 9th, the first Sunday of Lent, Cycle C.  The readings from last Sunday are here.

Big Farms Breed Big Flu:

Dennis Kucinich is a maverick Democratic politician from Cleveland. He has served as major, representative, and has run for president.  He writes the Kucinich report with his wife. 

Big Farms Breed Big Flu: End the Cage Age for a Healthier, Affordable Path to Food Security

The industry’s reliance on mass culling, vaccines and “biosecurity measures” fails to address the root cause of so many food safety and food security crises: an unnatural, high-stress, squalid system.

Elizabeth Kucinich Mar 11

Pope Francis on the Elderly, i.e. Himself

Commonweal on March 3, 2025, published a brief article

Pope Francis's Preferential Option for the Elderly

by Carmen Nanko-Fernández, professor of Hispanic theology and ministry and director of the Hispanic Theology and Ministry Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

On my Lake County Ohio Weal blog, I have published an extensive version of the article which includes summaries of all the hidden links included in the original article. I decide to give it a more popular and less theological title consistent with the original article.

Old Age is Not a Disease

In the new deanery structure of the Diocese of Cleveland, each deanery is to develop a three- year deanery plan with up to three priorities. Those priorities should be things that are best done at the deanery level rather at the parish or diocesan level.

Old Age should be a very good candidate at least for our deanery which includes Lake and Geauga Counties. Most of the parishes are in suburban Lake County with only a few in rural Geauga. The situation of the elderly in Lake County is very different from Cleveland. Geauga is probably much like Lake County except for the rural distance problem.

This Commonweal article provides the perfect Commonweal introduction to the extensive teaching of Pope Francis which the Hispanic author summarized as his preferential option for the elderly.

************************************************

However, I am posting it here to open a very different discussion. In all his teaching Pope Francis clearly positions himself as one of the elderly, therefore his teaching applies to himself, and has much to tell us about how he views his present health situation.

Reflection for Ash Wednesday: hypocrisy and authenticity

I gave this reflection late this afternoon at an Ash Wednesday service.  Then I smeared ashes on many foreheads.

The readings for Ash Wednesday are here.  

Catalyst for a Grassroots Spiritual Movement?

During the last several years I have been developing a blog designed to help anyone to discern the place of the Hours in their lives by using a common set of virtual resources just 15 minutes a day. (Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer each take about 15 minutes.) The website emphasizes quality of prayer over quantity, better to do just one Hour or even a part of an Hour than to hurriedly do both. Virtual resources on computers and phones enable us to integrate the Hours with our lives.  The subtitle is praying the Hours anytime anywhere with anyone I use the site when I am doing my morning and evening physical exercises or walking outside in warmer months. 

In November I received an email from the Commonweal website indicating that a person associated with John Carroll wanted to join our CLC. So, I began working on a post to reopen our CLC that would emphasize its grassroots character, i.e. that anyone with a Commonweal subscription can easily start one in their home, parish, local library etc. because the other participants have five free articles per month. I want to get away from notion of a CLC as just for Commonweal subscribers. 

 

Our bishop issued his Pastoral Letter, A Flourishing Apostolic Church on December 17t. We found it on the internet on December 29th, Betty's birthday. I was amazed to find that it is the perfect framework for everything that I am doing and everything that I am asking the local CLC to do, i.e. to form CLCs and try out the Hours in their lives. 

From a Media Interview

“It’s simply a letter about how we can draw closer to Christ, and there is no controversy in that,” Bishop Malesic said. “Let’s just pray 15 minutes a day; join a small group; invite your Catholic neighbors and friends together to have a cup of coffee and talk about ‘Why are you Catholic?’; ‘How can you become a disciple of Jesus?’ 

I think these are the basic things.” 

From the Bishop's Letter

"I invite every Catholic in the Diocese of Cleveland to read this pastoral letter in its entirety, as I have written it with each of you in mind. Make notes and underline your copy of the letter; Consider reading it more than just once. then, meet with some other Catholics who have read this letter and discuss it in a small group. Over the next year I would like this letter to be at the forefront of conversations around the diocese. "

My Post to the Cleveland CLC Blog

Essentially the post contains excerpts from the Bishop's Letter with boxes that provide my commentary and the implications of the letter for CLC members. It is essentially my invitation to them to begin an e-mail or phone conversation with me and others (both members and nonmembers) about the letter. 

In my cover e-mail to them I am inviting them during Lent to spend 15 minutes a day first in studying the letter and my post and then conversing with others about it especially by e-mail. When they have finished that, I am inviting them to try my website for fifteen minutes a day and share their experiences with me especially by e-mail.

Essentially, I am recreating the CLC as an e-mail community. If I get sufficient e-mail data from them on the letter and on the Hours website, I will post that on the CLC which everyone then can use to promote the CLC.

Bishop's Pastoral Letter: Prayer and Small Communities  

Can AI Compose an Authentically Christian Sermon?

Here is a response I got from ChatCPT to questions about AI creating Christian sermons.

If a super-intelligent AI were to exist, it could certainly write a technically proficient Christian sermon. It could analyze thousands of sermons, scripture, theological commentaries, and historical religious debates to produce a sermon that is rhetorically effective, logically sound, and emotionally resonant. But would it be truly Christian? That’s where things get more complicated.

Under the Bus

 

By now we've all heard of the shameful meeting with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump, and JD Vance.  I am linking the story from the AP site (because they also have been cast forth into exterior darkness after refusing to bend the knee). 

Trump's Oval Office thrashing of Zelenskyy shows limits of Western allies' ability to sway US leader | AP News

"The stunning episode in Washington had capped a week of what turned out to be largely futile efforts by U.S. allies to paper over differences between Washington and Kyiv and to try to steer Trump away from his flirtations with Moscow.