August 08, 2025

Tariff Terror (Guest: Texas State Representative Mihaela Plesa)

36 minutes

This week’s show is sponsored in part by

EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research

MIRS News

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MAGA “Sheep” – The Lincoln Project

On the podcast this week…

Trump’s insane tariffs are now in effect … and the inflation surge is underway. Tomatoes, iPhones, Bananas, Automobiles, Coffee, Prescription drugs, Chocolate, Wine, virtually everything sold by Walmart and Amazon – prices are going up on just about everything. Economists at Yale this week estimated the impact on an average family at $2,400 per year.

Just to make things even worse, the Trump tariffs are pissing off all of our allies and increasingly isolating the United States from the rest of the world.

This last week included the 60th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Both Trump and his Supreme Court are working to finish gutting the law for which a lot of people gave their lives.

Between walks on the White House roof, Trump is ramping up the heat on Republican-run states to increase the rigging of congressional elections. What started with his claim that Texas “owed him” five additional districts rigged to favor Republicans is expanding across the nation with talk of new gerrymanders in multiple Republican-run states. Democrats are fighting back in multiple ways. Later in the podcast we’ll talk with one of the leaders of the anti-gerrymandering crusade, Texas state representative Mihaela Plesa – the vice chair of the Texas House Democratic caucus who is currently on an extended out-of-state trip.

And the Supreme Court has decided it will hear arguments on challenges to provisions of the law which provide protections against racial gerrymanders.

Also on our radar this week:

There’s a clear frontrunner for mayor of Detroit as Mary Sheffield gets 52% of the primary election vote in a 9-candidate field.

Republican fundraising emails promise a “Tariff Rebate Check”, and claim Social Security benefits are no longer taxes. Both claims are lies.

The online copy of the U.S. Constitution maintained by Congress was edited this month – leaving out the section on habeas corpus, and also omitting a prohibition on congress granting titles of nobility.

Trump is ordering the Commerce Department to conduct a new census which does not include undocumented immigrants – even though the Constitution requires counting everyone living in the United States, and doing it every 10 years.

State House Speaker Matt Hall is refusing to bring legislators back to town, even though the state’s budget is now 5 weeks overdue.

We’re joined on the podcast by one of the leaders in Texas fighting against a bigger gerrymander of congressional districts, Representative Mihaela Plesa. Representative Plesa is a lifelong Texan serving the Dallas area. She is the first-generation daughter of Romanian immigrants who fled Eastern Europe. Now in her second term as State Representative, Plesa was elected the Vice Chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. Representative Plesa owned and operated her own small business in fashion merchandising and design, focusing on Texas-made products while helping other entrepreneurs start and grow their own small businesses. Before running for the Texas House, Plesa served as a legislative director for three regular sessions and four special sessions. She currently is on an extended tour of an undisclosed location outside of Texas … rumored to be Chicago.

Michael Ramiez/Las Vegas Review-Journal

This episode is sponsored in part by

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EPIC ▪ MRA

a full service survey research firm with expertise in

• Public Opinion Surveys

• Market Research Studies

• Live Telephone Surveys

• On-Line and Automated Surveys

• Focus Group Research

• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns

• Political Campaigns & Consulting

• Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research

• Community – Media Relations

• Issue – Image Management

• Database Development & List Management

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Mike Luckovich-Atlanta Journal Constitution

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