13 August 2024

• Both former President Trump’s and Vice President Harris’ campaigns have adopted the idea of waiving taxes for tipped income. (Trump proposed this during an event in Nevada back in June. Harris embraced the idea as well during an appearance in — guess what state? Perhaps one that has a lot of people working for tips in places like casinos…) The White House just this morning expressed openness to signing a bill calling for it. That being said, though, economists are sounding warning bells that this plan could ultimately prove detrimental to federal coffers. LINK
• Last night, Trump sat down for an interview with Elon Musk on X (formerly Twitter). Much like Musk’s previous event with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the event was massively delayed and marred by technical glitches. (For his part, Musk blamed the issues on a cyber-attack. Former Twitter employees scoffed at this explanation, finding it more likely that the site just wasn’t up to the technical challenge.) Once it did finally commence, though, the unstructured two-hour “conversation” between the two hyper-wealthy men largely consisted of them talking past each other, rambling about conspiracy theories and disinformation, and served little new for fans of either one. LINK
• Shifting the focus from national politics to central Pennsylvania, long-time state Representative Mike Sturla of Lancaster city has announced that he is dropping his bid for re-election. This does put the local Democratic party in a bit of a bind, as they need to nominate someone to replace him within the next two weeks — not to mention the added pressure from the Democratic National Convention happening next week. LINK