Leopards Ate My Face

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults named health care or health issues in an open-ended question that asked respondents to share up to five issues they want the government to work on in the coming year. That’s up from about one-third last year.

The high cost of health care came as a shock to Republican Joshua Campbell when he and his wife recently sought a medical plan for their young daughter. The 38-year-old small business owner from Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, voted for Trump last year, and he mostly approves of the way Trump is handling his job, particularly on immigration. But health care expenses have become a major priority for him going into 2026.

“Health care costs are pretty crazy,” he said. “I just thought, ‘Man, there’s got to be something better than what we have.’”

Health care is a particularly high concern for adults between the ages of 45 and 59 — people who may have higher health care costs than younger adults but aren’t yet eligible for Medicare.

The poll shows a similar landscape to the one Trump faced at the end of his first year in office during his first term, when health care reform was at the top of many Americans’ minds. But Trump has an added complication now. At the end of 2017, very few mentioned cost of living concerns — now, about one-third do.

Campbell described his politics as conservative, and while he recalled viewing the Affordable Care Act somewhat negatively when it first passed, he said he now views it as a step toward helping improve health care.

“I do think they were at least trying, and at least trying to do something,” he said. “And I don’t really see that — it’s one of the things from the Republican Party as well that I don’t necessarily agree with. Or I think that they should be doing better at.” Cost and inflation concerns remain pressing

Inflation and the high cost of living have been a top priority for many Americans since the end of 2021. Tommy Carosone is reminded every time his wife returns from the grocery store, especially with their two kids, both teenagers, still at home.

“My wife is spending so much more money on groceries than just a few years ago. Every time she comes home from the grocery store, I hear about it,” said Carosone, from St. Peter’s, Missouri. “She tells me it’s stupid expensive, especially meat. Ground beef, bacon, anything from the deli. It’s outrageous.”

The 44-year-old jet aircraft mechanic, the sole wage earner for his family of four, doesn’t see the cost of living coming down any time soon. He voted for Trump and generally agrees with his tariff agenda as a way to make the U.S. more competitive, and he figures prices will stay higher until the trade war ends.

“In the meantime, what are you going to do, not eat?” he said.

Carosone said he is glad he voted for Trump and had been concerned before Trump took office again about illegal immigration. But it doesn’t register even as a top priority for him now, in light of action the administration is taking.

“It’s a lot better,” he said. “It’s not really one of the main concerns I have now. I mean, don’t stop. That’s for sure. But I don’t think it’s something that’s a top concern.”

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults want the federal government to focus on housing costs next year. That issue has been rising in recent years, with young adults being especially likely to mention it. About one-quarter of adults under age 30 want the government to focus on housing expenses, compared with about 1 in 10 of those 60 or older.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/32432803

“There are a lot more people out here living in abject poverty than what people like to think or admit to. You voted for this—and now we’re paying the price.”

Employees learned of the cuts on Monday in a video message from Michael Adams, CEO of BlueOval SK.

Adams announced the transition would mean “the end of all BlueOval SK positions in Kentucky.”

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/51826015

Across the US this year, farmers have seen costs soar and the price of their produce tumble as Donald Trump’s flagship tariffs sparked a trade war with China.

American farmers, who voted en masse for Trump last year, are now warning of the worst economic crisis since the 1980s, when soaring interest rates and a slump in exports saw the price of crops and the value of farmland collapse. About 300,000 farmers defaulted on their loans and thousands were driven into bankruptcy.

“We spent a hell lot of time in China building relationships, building those markets,” he said. “And then you basically piss it all away, to be blunt.”

Across the US this year, farmers have seen costs soar and the price of their produce tumble as Donald Trump’s flagship tariffs sparked a trade war with China.

American farmers, who voted en masse for Trump last year, are now warning of the worst economic crisis since the 1980s, when soaring interest rates and a slump in exports saw the price of crops and the value of farmland collapse. About 300,000 farmers defaulted on their loans and thousands were driven into bankruptcy.

“We spent a hell lot of time in China building relationships, building those markets,” he said. “And then you basically piss it all away, to be blunt.”

Zink voted for Trump but said he doesn’t agree with everything the president does. Zink clarifies he calls himself a “conservative” over calling himself a “Republican.” He doesn’t like Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. “I prefer common sense in the middle,” he said.

Original title: 'Catastrophe': Trump economy kills 1 in 3 jobs in deep-red Nebraska town

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40096934

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40096934

I'll give the author a modicum of credit, I didn't know wood banks were a thing, so at least I learned something. But gotta lambast them everywhere else.

Rural America knows the truth long before the rest of the country feels it.

Rural America wouldn't know the truth if it bit them in the ass. This is what they voted for, a silver spoon city slicker who calls functioning institutions "the deep state" before totally destroying them, to their delight.

The article is full of this coddling "woe is they" language.

Rural families don’t get to pretend. ... They also know what it means when everything gets privatized except the consequences.

What a load of baloney. Rural voters have been playing pretend my entire life, to the tune of 64% support for Trump in 2024. They've been pretending that piss-down economics works since the 80's. Maybe you mean they can't afford to pretend, but they've been happily running a deficit on that front and won't stop even if they freeze in the winter.

So I say let them freeze. They can beg for scrap wood and call it charity, because that's exactly what they wanted.

Source: https://www.threads.com/@becker316024/post/DSGZXoeEgA3/she-should-stop-whining-and-be-grateful-that-a-new-white-house-ballroom-is

Welp, 8 Democrats have nibbling on their faces so far...

But we'll see.

Pro-Trump owner shocked as grocery store that thrived for 43 years goes bankrupt under his tariffs and policies Wong, who supported Trump in the last election, said he was swayed by campaign promises to reduce grocery costs. But now, as his business struggles to stay afloat, he admits the reality looks very different. Grocery inflation is at a two-year high, and prices continue to climb with no end in sight.

Wong told NPR that virtually all of his products have increased in price since early this year. For instance, a box of mabo tofu sauce — a popular Sichuan dish — has gone from $2.75 last year to $3.95 at the beginning of this year. “We just had this shipment come in yesterday — it’s $5. We cannot catch up. Every shipment coming in, we have to put a new price on it,” Wong said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/38036515

After arriving in the United States from Somalia back in 2009, Fiqy never expected to be contacted by a major political campaign—yet Trump’s team reached out, asking him to help energize Somali-American voters before the election.

He took on the task with pride. But now, as a sweeping ICE operation targets Somali communities across the Twin Cities—and after hearing the president repeat harsh, blanket remarks about Somalis—Fiqy says his support has collapsed.

Trump launched into a pair of vicious and increasingly racist rants against Somalia and Somali Americans this week, first at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and then during an Oval Office photo op on Wednesday. He called Somali migrants “garbage” and said they should “go back to where they came,”

WHITNEY WILD: How did it make you feel when you heard the president say that?

MOHAMED AHMED: I got five children. My children are not garbage!

WHITNEY WILD: What would you say to the president if he were standing here right now?

MOHAMED AHMED: Mr President, we campaigned for you. We have hope in you. We see hope in you. Please differentiate between good, bad and evil.

https://rairfoundation.com/mass-defection-somali-voters-minnesota-abandon-democrats-rally/

The residents came in camouflage hats and red shirts signaling unity, more than 300 of them packing into a rural Pennsylvania planning commission meeting to protest a proposed data center they feared would carve up their farmland and upend the quiet rhythms of their valley.

Most were loyal supporters of President Donald Trump, who carried their home of Montour County by 20 percentage points in the 2024 election. But they bristled at Washington’s push to fast-track artificial intelligence infrastructure, which has driven data-center growth in rural areas around the U.S. where land is cheap.

On a recent November evening, residents in this county of 18,000 people stepped to the microphone, questioning Talen Energy (TLN.O), opens new tab officials about how their planned data center might raise residents' utility bills, reduce working farmland, and strain local water and natural resources.

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/37419690

https://www.reddit.com/r/trump/s/CLIh3NlXBc

But on his first day in office, Donald Trump scrapped Biden’s clean energy and environmental programs, which he lambasted as woke, anti-American liberal hoaxes.

The 2022 cash injection came through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s landmark climate and infrastructure legislation, and was designed to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities over the long haul.

It was the largest investment in Appalachia since the 1960s’ “war on poverty” under Lyndon Johnson.

but like many blue-collar regions is now part of the loyal Maga base who believed Trump when he pledged to resuscitate coal country and put American first.

Trump has won big in West Virginia in the past three general elections, securing every county in 2024 with an average of 70% of the vote – the highest percentage any party has won in the state’s history. His vote share was even larger in rural counties including Clay and Wayne, which Huntington straddles.

So you'd expect anger at Trump but you'd be wrong !

yet many of those interviewed by the Guardian blame Washington politics generally rather than Trump.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39454757

Her husband James Brown, from Missouri, served in U.S. Navy from 1985 to 2005.

He is asking people for help.

Source