1) Only One in Five Americans Trust the Government To Do the Right Thing
According to Pew, as of April 2024, 22% of Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right "just about always" (2%) or "most of the time" (21%).
That Americans recognize the incompetence of our government is a highly encouraging result. After all, how do you spend and borrow $6 trillion and have absolutely nothing to show for it?
Over the past sixty years, trust in government has been inversely related to the size of the government. The more it tries to do, the worse job it does at everything.
Are Democrats or Republicans the party of smaller government? Right now, we'd have to say... neither.
We've heard protests from throngs of our readers about the fawning press treatment of Kamala over the past month. It isn't just your imagination.
A Media Research Center study of coverage on the news broadcasts of NBC, ABC, and CBS since July 21 found it to be 84 percent positive towards Harris, while Donald Trump's coverage was 89% negative.
Ironically, some of the few voices willing to talk about how Kamala Harris fell short as President Biden's deputy are aides close to Biden. Former chief of staff, Ron Klain, told the New York Times:
Normally, such an admission would make some news. But not in the New York Times which buried it deep inside a story headlined: "Inside the Ascent of a VP Quietly Making Her Mark."
In the campaign so far, the media is allowing Kamala to again "make her mark" and in such a quiet way. She has had no one-on-one interviews or press conferences for almost two months.
3) Americans Want Businesses to Keep Politics Out of the Boardroom
Good news: Americans want businesses to make products and services and make money. They don't want them intervening in ESG and other political issues.
A new Gallup Poll finds just 38% of voters think businesses should engage in politics.
That's a decline of 10 percentage points from just 2022 and may help explain why firms such as John Deere and Home Depot are no longer emphasizing top-down DEI programs.
But the big news is that the biggest decline in support for political involvement comes in groups that normally want business to be more vocal. That includes Democrats, Americans under the age of 45, Black Americans, and Asian Americans.
Only 53 percent of Democrats now want businesses more involved in current issues. Republicans, some of whom may be tired of seeing firms they patronize decline to confront "woke" causes, saw a slight uptick from 18 percent to 22 percent in wanting businesses to speak up.
4) RIP Adam Andrzejewski, Founder of "Open The Books"
A sad loss of a crusader for government accountability and fiscal responsibility. We worked closely with Adam over the years and were especially appreciative of his successful FOIA litigation against Anthony Fauci. He will be missed.
Adam Norris Andrzejewski, 55, of Hinsdale passed away peacefully in his sleep at home on Sunday morning, August 17. He is survived by his wife, Kerry, and their daughters Ellie, Molly and Emma, and by six younger siblings, his mother, and many good friends.
Starting with a gathering of concerned parents and taxpayers at a neighbor's kitchen in 2008, Adam began obtaining and publishing local school district expenditure records online. His call to "publish the public checkbook" and create better governmental accountability grew quickly from suburban school districts to community colleges, and from there to eventually become OpenTheBooks.com. With the mission "Every Dime, Online, in Real Time" Adam's nonprofit became the nation's largest government transparency portal, growing eventually to include billions of searchable government payroll, pension, and line item expenditures from all units local, state, and federal government.
