Cuomo: America was never that Great

New York’s Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, mocked President Trump’s ubiquitous “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan on Wednesday in Manhattan. Cuomo made the comment at the end of a 20-minute speech that focused heavily on Trump. The event was ostensibly a bill-signing ceremony for new penalties for sex trafficking in New York. 

“We are not going to make America great, America. It was never that great,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We have not reached greatness. We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged.” 

Cuomo went on to suggest that Trump wanted to return to a time before gay marriage and the women’s equality and environmental protection movements and “before these new immigrants started to come across the border. That’s when America was great, in his head,” Cuomo told the crowd in Manhattan. 

On Wednesday after the backlash from Cuomo’s comments, the governor’s press secretary, Dani Lever, issued a statement. 

"The Governor believes America is great and that her full greatness will be fully realized when every man, woman, and child has full equality. America has not yet reached its maximum potential. When the President speaks about making America great again -- going back in time -- he ignores the pain so many endured and that we suffered from slavery, discrimination, segregation, sexism and marginalized women's contributions. The Governor believes that when everyone is fully included, and everyone is contributing to their maximum potential, that is when America will achieve maximum greatness." 

When he ran for governor in 2010, Cuomo said in his announcement video, “Together, we can make New York great again.”

Newspapers Run Editorials Promoting Press Freedom After Trump Attacks on Media

According to CNBC, more than 300 U.S. newspapers are running editorials Thursday that promote press freedom to counter Donald Trump's attacks on the media, in a move coordinated by The Boston Globe. Larger papers such as the Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Enquirer have published editorials and the list extends to small weeklies, the Globe reported. 

The Boston Globe's initiative aims to denounce "the war against the free press" and it suggested that editorial boards take a stand against Trump's words regardless of their politics. 

In its own editorial, the Boston Globe's editorial board wrote under the headline "Journalists are not the enemy." The Globe wrote: "Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current U.S. administration are the 'enemy of the people.' This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president, much like an old-time charlatan threw out 'magic' dust or water on a hopeful crowd."

Trump Pulls Ex-CIA Chief's Clearance

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he has revoked former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance. Brennan is the first former national security official to see his security clearance revoked since the White House announced last month that Trump was considering taking that action against several of his most vocal critics in the national security world. 

The White House provided no evidence that John Brennan has misused his security clearance since leaving government. However, Brennan has been a vocal critic of the President since Trump took office, calling him unfit to serve. 

President Trump said in a statement Wednesday he is still considering revoking the security clearances of several others, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA director and National Security Agency chief Michael Hayden, former deputy attorney general Sally Yates, former national security adviser Susan Rice, former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, former FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, and Bruce Ohr, a current Justice Department official. 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated on Wednesday that President Trump's decision to revoke John Brennan's clearance and put other critics on notice is not politically motivated. 

"The President has a constitutional responsibility to protect classified information and who has access to it, and that's what he's doing is fulfilling that responsibility in this action," Huckaee Sanders said.

Joe Biden 'Under Doctor's Orders' to Skip Campaigning

Former Vice President Joe Biden, 75, has canceled his plans to attend Democrat Day at the Illinois State Fair this week because he's "under doctor's orders" to limit his travel. Biden was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the County Chairs’ Association brunch at a Springfield hotel. 

A source with ties to Joe Biden said the illness is not serious, but the former vice president is under the weather and needs a few days’ rest.

 “Everyone who knows Vice President Biden knows that he gives our party and our country his all, but unfortunately he is sick and is under doctor’s orders not to travel,” Doug House, president of the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association, said late Tuesday.  

Joe Biden, a staunch critic of President Donald Trump, has been working hard to improve voter turnout ahead of this year’s midterm election as his party battles to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress.

CDC: Drug Overdoses Hit New Record

More than 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a new record. The CDC recorded a 6.6% increase in fatal drug overdoses from 2016 but noted that the preliminary numbers likely underestimate the final death toll. 

More than 40,000 people died from opioid overdoses, and nearly 30,000 people died from overdoses of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl. The overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids rose sharply from 2016, while deaths from heroin, prescription opioid pills and methadone fell, the CDC said.

While the Department of Health and Human Services has declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, skeptics have said few solutions have actually come out of the White House or Congress. 

Earlier this summer, the House passed a massive package of opioid-related bills, but the Senate has yet to take it up. While some Democrats voted for the legislation, others opposed it for not going far enough and for not containing guaranteed funding.

U.S. Household Debt Hits Record $13.3 Trillion

Total household debt hit a new record high, rising by $82 billion to $13.29 trillion in Quarter 2 of 2018. That number is 3.5% higher than a year earlier according to the NY Fed's latest household debt report. 

It was the 16th consecutive quarter with an increase in household debt, and the total is now $618 billion higher than the previous peak of $12.68 trillion, from the third quarter of 2008. 

Mortgage balances are the largest component of household debt, rising by $60 billion during the second quarter to $9.00 trillion. Credit card debt rose by $14 billion to $829 billion. Auto loan debt increased by $9 billion to $1.24 trillion. Student loan debt hit a record high of $1.41 trillion, an increase of $2 billion.

The Average American Takes Less Holiday Time Than a Medieval Peasant

The U.S. is the only advanced country with no national vacation policy. The U.S. also has a culture of long working hours. Many American workers must keep on working through public holidays and vacation days often go unused, according to Business Insider. 

According to Juliet Shore, economist, during periods of high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants worked no more than 150 days a year. Americans today work on average 40-hour work weeks, 5 days a week, while taking little or no vacations.

What is to blame? The advent of smartphones means that clocking off is no longer an option, with millions of workers continuing to write and check emails long in to the evening. Commentators blame consistent high unemployment job insecurity and weak unions for encouraging extra work. Plus, the lack of contracted holidays means workers live under threat of being laid off if they complain. The 2007 financial crisis also saw a rise in hourly and part time work, which offers even fewer benefits. 

Medieval peasants faced disease, famine or being bumped off in bloody wars, but the church often enforced mandatory holidays to prevent the surfs from uprising. Sundays were national holidays and there were breaks after harvest seasons. 

America, however, continues to work in worse conditions than historic Europeans. Overworking can lead to depression, deteriorating health, and long hours can reduce productivity. Meanwhile, it has been reported that American congressman have had up to 239 days off in a single year, while the working American is guaranteed none.

Mail Time!

• Bill, in regards to socialism, can someone without bias please explain in layman’s terms why a Western European version of socialism would never work in this country. I find myself in these debates often and people throw around wildly different facts and figures.

• Dear Bill, just a few questions for the Boston Globe editorial board: Just how "free" is a press which marches in lock-step with leftist opinions? Just how "free" is a press which suppresses stories which it deems contrary to its ideology? Just how "free" is a press which consistently reports only one side of every issue? And finally, just how "free" is a press which only hires reporters and editors who share their political and ideological bent?

• Bill, your analyses of media coverage of Omarosa vs Peter Strzok's firing, Elizabeth Warren vs Brett Kavanaugh, the importance of Catholic theology vs the failings of certain priests, and your interview with Seamus Bruner were all excellent. We Premium Members are so much better informed than the average news seeker.

Word of the Day: Bumptious