Welcome to The Poverty Trap, a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to collectively make change.

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“Republicans and Democrats don’t need to come together, they need to come to the rescue.” Scott Galloway, CNN February 26, 2025

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Still photo from CNN interview with fired USAID worker published February 27, 2025. She didn’t mention the loss of her job, but the loss to the world of the care USAID provided.

The barrage of disastrous news last month has me clinging to a a few bright spots peaking through the rubble, like fired federal workers embracing the greater good of their work, smart people (including a few elected officials), speaking out directly and forcefully against government tyranny…and those who quickly and kinda humorously call out the lies, particularly those oozing out of the Oval Office.

Here are several video interviews and links that have kept me (somewhat) hopeful during February…

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— CNN often interviews Scott Galloway, an entrepreneur and marketing professor at NYU Stern School of Business, who has a knack for both in-depth-analysis of current issues and the ability to whittle these issues into creative soundbites. In this interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper a few days ago, Galloway discussed what appears to be our government’s growing kleptocracy in the context of mass government layoffs, and Republicans’ proposed slashing of social programs paired with large tax cuts for the rich. The ultra wealthy, like the tech CEO’s “paraded” at Trump’s Inauguration failed to realize that it was American values that gave them their wealth, Galloway said.

We don’t just need a separation of church and state, there needs to be a separation of state and business.

https://www.facebook.com/AC360/videos/i-believe-doge-and-all-the-outrage-over-it-is-essentially-a-weapon-of-mass-distr/1135824091542419/

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— This brief CNN interview with fired USAID employee, Juliane Alfen, is a testament to the importance of America’s foreign aid to help eradicate disease and poverty—and how former federal workers like Ms. Alfen embrace the importance of their work. She said it was “heartbreaking” to see the photos being taken down of all the projects she and her colleagues had worked on and the devastation to the millions of people around the world who had benefited from America’s help, provided through USAID programs. You can hear the tears in her voice:

Work like getting children vaccines or providing food aid, things that really matter, um, being treated as if they’re nothing. it’s really hard to see.

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— Here’s just one example of an elected official, Representative Seth Moultin, (D) Mass, speaking truth to power.

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— Finally for this first day of March, a collection of the 33 times President Zelensky thanked the United States government and its people for the aid it has received since Russia invaded its sovereign country on February 24, 2022. Despite his consistent expressions of gratitude, both President Trump and Vice President Vance berated President Zelensky in yesterday’s Oval Office debacle, for not being grateful enough. CNN fact checker Daniel Dale put the correct information together yesterday evening.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-33-times-zelensky-224333956.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGxTwhG_oexrsFa1FtB4UzxQ6Q6pbD0OtAacAJVWvLEdEz1ejtYwxA8VHdOjqf86dj9-osAYp226uVwhiZvRtfXiibbTYBXU8Ul3rQA1zw3WcX5OE2RJkN8-6WGbstcRy2H9c_S6Jql0OlGXd_LF-goZBqWiNLaglaWXzUofJGb

This is just one example of President Zelensky expressing his sincere gratitude to the United States:

Now, on this special Christmastime, I want to thank you, all of you. I thank every American family which cherishes the warmth of its home and wishes the same warmth to other people. I thank President Biden and both parties, at the Senate and the House, for your invaluable assistance. I thank your cities and your citizens who supported Ukraine this year, who hosted our Ukrainians, our people, who waved our national flags, who acted to help us. President Zelensy’s address to a joint session of Congress, December 21, 2022, address to US Congress.

Here is yet another correction of President Trump, noting the death toll of both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed in the war to date, and wildly overstating the number killed.

https://kyivindependent.com/a-very-bloody-war-what-is-the-death-toll-of-russias-war-in-ukraine/

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I’d love to hear your thoughts on these events and others. Do you have any video clips and/or links you’d like to share that captured your attention? Please add them to your comments below.

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