We sure wish the MAGA Republicans would have panicked BEFORE confirming Hegseth, Patel, Kennedy, and Gabbard…as if these confirmations weren’t going to impact their constituents! Every damn letter I wrote to Idaho’s Senators and my U.S. Representative were replied to with, “well, Trump had an overwhelming mandate in November so we have to support him.“ I’m sure they said that about Hitler too.
Trump only won by a slim majority and had no overwhelming mandate. His evocation of a mandate is as delusional as his election victory in 2020. While everyone knows that Trump is mentally unstable and needs to buy into delusions to feed his voracious ego, what is most pathetic and pitiful is that his followers cower into flattering him and signing off on his illusory visions of greatness. Trump is a modern day Pied Paper leading this country into domestic and international disasters.
I find some of the "panicking"/statements purely performative.
Susan Collins remains "concerned" (of course) and several R Congressional Reps and Senators have made statements and then turned around and done the bidding of FOTUS.
It's like folks who do parlor magic tricks who share "look at the hands (what they do) and ignore the patter (what they say)".
And the "overwhelming mandate is a pile of steaming equine biosolids.
But they ALL parrot the party line - every single one of them.
Discussion with a friend who commented on another publication thread: they'll comment in private, never in public.
Thom Hartmann has written some good pieces in the past few days about whether folks (elected or not) will have the courage to do what needs to be done.
And over 90 million registered voters ignored their right (and DUTY) to vote. So essentially about 30% of voters actually chose the orange felon, based on how many voters actually turned out. Not a mandate by any definition.......
Oh no! Republicans discover Musk isn’t about politics but pure power. When he bought Trump for $250,000,000, he bought all the hangers-on. Dat includes you, pally.
How can they pass a budget without considering the department, agencies, and federal workers dismantled by Musk? They’re approving a budget to continue funding what no longer exists. They should demand a reconciliation of the departments etc dissolved and the impact on the budget. If the amount of money put back in the federal coffers is even close to what’s claimed, there’s no justification to cut Medicare, Medicaid, SS , and VA. Due diligence is required if they are claiming to be fiscally responsible.
Due diligence generally requires some thinking and intelligence.
I think we have the wrong crowd for that here.
And they have NEVER been fiscally responsible, regardless of what they say (or parrot). If they wanted an audit, they’d have looked at forensic accounting measures - but that was never their intention so we got feral children with hacking skills unleashed on the systems.
Yes. And this group HATES oversight, inspection, etc.
Because they're "transparent" don't cha know (yes, that's sarcasm).
Look at the # of inspectors and oversight groups let go, disbanded, etc pretty much immediately. Then look at later reports of "X" blocking Signal and other numbers for folks to report fraud. It's all part of the larger pattern.
The question I really want Joe to answer - in his travels in the Capitol, has he encountered any Democrat members of congress who are still gullible enough to negotiate the budget with Mike Johnson’s team in good faith? If any D’s are still credulous enough to believe the executive branch will spend the money the legislature budgets, then both parties have lost the plot. Don’t expect Joe to provide names. Just hoping the Democrats are still living in the real world.
Constituents have been trying to get any response (beyond a standard thank you for your contact) from them for the past month+. It's not reassuring, unfortunately.
I have only republicans to represent me in Congress, so I can only imagine what it feels like to feel frustration upon contacting a Democratic member of congress, but perhaps this letter from Senator Chris Murphy will help a little:
February 22, 2025
“Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.
So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back.
The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted.
In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.
Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.
So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it.
Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires.
The corruption and theft is happening in the open here. The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children.
They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.
Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.
This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials.
So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.
And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment“
I have a lot of respect for Chris Murphy - he’s been a consistent voice.
We also have family who live in CT and they feel he is very responsive, accessible.
Again, our rep (solid D who shows up, listens, keeps showing up) is great - but our Senators are beyond disappointing and their continued silence feels like betrayal and their staff can’t be as poorly trained, informed, etc as they present should one get through to them.
Tim recently interviewed Jared Moskowitz, rep from Florida, and he brought this up in that interview. Per Jared, if they pass a CR, then all the funding, etc., that DOGE is attacking gets reinstated. For this to not happen, an actual budget bill needs to pass. Check out the interview. Jared was very much on topic.
I also heard on NPR that the framework they’re patting their backs over after weeks of discussion is supposed to be the easy part of the process. Next up are the actual detail discussions. This shit is gonna get wild lol.
I posted this on today's Morning Shots. Note the use of "legally entitled". I bet a lot of currently legally entitled will suffer a change of state during discussions on the details.
Today, Congressman Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) released the following statement after voting to pass the House budget resolution:
“To be explicitly clear: today’s budget resolution did not include any cuts to specific programs. Anyone saying otherwise is lying and engaging in the fearmongering of our farmers, veterans, seniors, and most vulnerable populations. The budget resolution simply sets the framework for how the federal government can be better stewards of taxpayer dollars.
“Millions of Americans depend on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and I will have no part in cutting these programs for the folks that are legally entitled to them.
I’m not sure it’s possible to overstate the disgust many North Carolinians are developing with Thom Tillis. He’s proven to be the ultimate hypocritical politician. His votes for Hegseth & Gabbard far outweigh his “virtuous” floor speeches in support of Ukraine. A lot of us will be working overtime to rid our state of this parasite, even if the extreme gerrymandering gets in the way.
Gerrymandering kills an opposition party in a state. In North Carolina you basically have had a 50-50 state for several cycles but the State has a veto proof majority in its Legislature and sends 10 Republican Congress members to D.C. and only 4 Democrats. There is a major voter suppression head wind for the opposition party in these states...why bother with the "fake" democracy? Go spend your time and money on fantasy football
“We like what DOGE is doing, but maybe it’s doing it a little too quickly”. So to those Congressmen, it’s ok for an unelected billionaire who bought himself into the good graces of the Dear Leader to gain unfettered and unauthorized access to the personal information of all Americans, summarily dismiss thousands of federal employees, and interrupt the flow of funds to states and individuals that have already approved by Congress. Wow, so in other words the Congressman was saying, I want people to be hurt by these illegal acts, but maybe the pain could be prolonged.” No consideration that maybe funding decisions should be the process of informed deliberation and compromise rather than imposed by a dictator.
Not a group that seems particularly bright but also seem to be missing spines, prefrontal cortexes (important in judgement and decision making) but certainly no moral compasses.
And they DO NOT CARE about their constituents. Perhaps they care about some of their very big donors but the rest of us seemingly can just go rot... or starve... or die.
I constantly make the case to my rep that he is hurting his constituents, along with farmers and vets, since that's his focus in the House, whenever I contact him.
I get one response that did not quite relate to my message. I respond that he missed the point of what I was talking about. I did get a few canned "What I doing" responses from my senators. I haven't decided what to do about them. Regardless, I will still send my rep emails about the damage he is abetting, just to, you know, keep him honest. I do need to get back on my senators, though.
Joe, Are there any Republicans in Congress who are concerned about the US allying with Russia and North Korea? Any willing to maybe whisper their disapproval? Personally I am outraged, disgusted and ashamed. Why isn't this the main focus of every news report? They should have reporters in their faces, following them everywhere.
In a long business career, including employee, consultant and entrepreneur, I have seen many individuals and organizations attempting the analysis and re-organization of specific activities. Some worked, some failed, some achieved nothing but stasis.
But never, in my experience, have I witnessed such a grotesquely unprofessional, undisciplined, incompetent and confidence-sapping entity as the SO-CALLED (capitals to make clear it's not an actual or approved entity) DOGE. They have achieved nothing except--and this is crucial--the apparent deliberate destruction of a functional government. But that's the point.
Next: "I alone can save you," coming from the Fraud in Chief, standing in the ruins of what he and his Principal Co-conspirator have achieved.
Re: “It is vitally important that every one of your taxpayer dollars is spent wisely and in the service of this nation and its people,”
I think, if I was running a campaign against this guy, my message would be: "Ted Budd thinks inspecting meat is a waste of money. That's why he supported letting Elon Musk fire all the meat inspectors."
Follow up: "George Buttowski of Bugtussle, MO earned his degree in Ag Science from Mizzou in 1987. At age 24, he went to work as a federal meat inspector. He got his master's degree in food science in 1991. He went back to the USDA and ran a project to improve tracking of food suspected of being adulterated. It makes it possible to quickly recall foods before they make it to your grocery store. Then he got his Ph.D. in food microbiology from MIT in 2000 and went back to the USDA to train the next generation of food safety specialists. But George isn't there anymore, because Elon Musk and Ted Budd think inspecting meat is a waste of taxpayer dollars. So, America, when it comes to the safety of the meat you buy, you can rest assure that no one's looking out for you anymore, but, hey, at least you the federal budget went down by George Buttowski's salary. Thanks, Ted and Elon. Good luck, America."
I predict that the 2025 word of the year will be schadenfreude as more and more supporters of FFOTUS lose jobs, benefits, health insurance, etc. My black heart is already laughing.
"reporters " to some Appalachian holler to cover Meemaw's gangrenous foot/leg, but Meemaw still loves Trump, and jester know that Gawd saved him so that Trump could kill all the Nwords, says, feminists, etc.
I live in a rural county in Nebraska. Perhaps the most prominent faces of the federal government for farmers are the employees at the local Farm Services Agency. Almost all farmers are on a first name basis with these employees, as they are the contact point for all the many ways federal programs impact agriculture. Gotta believe the disdainful and cruel way Musk and Trump are speaking about and acting toward these workers will not sit well with some farmers.
So far, I heard reporting the the Iowa and Wisconsin Farmer Unions (or whatever they call themselves) are quite unhappy with what is going on. What they will do about it? I don't know.
I wonder if thats true....Musk spent a LOT of money to buy himself a president and capture the regulatory state to save his flailing businesses. I can't imagine he'll go quietly.
And remember that JD Vance is also a wholly owned subsidiary of the weird Elon Musk/Peter Thiel techno-autocrat faction.
Oh, yes. Musk cares about as much for money as did the Joker. He's bananas. Follow the stock. Everyone all over the world hates Elon. That, he cares about.
Oh, c'mon - even with the money he's a nasty, loser dweeb...
He also has his own revenge and other agendas (see role of USAID in dismantling Apartheid in South Africa) and a jaw dropping list of conflicts of interest around oversight of his various gov't contracts, side deals, etc..
“Republican Joe Kent has been nominated to become the next director of the National Counterterrorism Center despite (or perhaps because of) a longstanding habit of amplifying Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine.”
I’m just shocked he didn’t nominate Edward Gallagher for the position, but I guess Trump’s running a turn-key operation; insert one unqualified conspiracy theorist, for a killer!
That said, as promised, Trump just fired Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Which begs the question, what are the chances the election won’t be rigged? And if democrats claim a rigged economy, will anyone believe it?
LOL, thanks for including the Crocs incident. I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but if you could have a light-hearted fashion tidbit on the regular, I'd love it. Breaks the tension, if only for a second
We sure wish the MAGA Republicans would have panicked BEFORE confirming Hegseth, Patel, Kennedy, and Gabbard…as if these confirmations weren’t going to impact their constituents! Every damn letter I wrote to Idaho’s Senators and my U.S. Representative were replied to with, “well, Trump had an overwhelming mandate in November so we have to support him.“ I’m sure they said that about Hitler too.
Trump only won by a slim majority and had no overwhelming mandate. His evocation of a mandate is as delusional as his election victory in 2020. While everyone knows that Trump is mentally unstable and needs to buy into delusions to feed his voracious ego, what is most pathetic and pitiful is that his followers cower into flattering him and signing off on his illusory visions of greatness. Trump is a modern day Pied Paper leading this country into domestic and international disasters.
Pied Piper, maybe, though I don't want to see him in his leotard!
ChatGPT could help out with the leotard.
Actually he didn't even win by a majority, the majority of voters did not choose Trump
They say it but not true. 1 1/2%.
I find some of the "panicking"/statements purely performative.
Susan Collins remains "concerned" (of course) and several R Congressional Reps and Senators have made statements and then turned around and done the bidding of FOTUS.
It's like folks who do parlor magic tricks who share "look at the hands (what they do) and ignore the patter (what they say)".
And the "overwhelming mandate is a pile of steaming equine biosolids.
But they ALL parrot the party line - every single one of them.
Discussion with a friend who commented on another publication thread: they'll comment in private, never in public.
Thom Hartmann has written some good pieces in the past few days about whether folks (elected or not) will have the courage to do what needs to be done.
49.8% of the popular vote, what an overwhelming mandate!
And over 90 million registered voters ignored their right (and DUTY) to vote. So essentially about 30% of voters actually chose the orange felon, based on how many voters actually turned out. Not a mandate by any definition.......
I too am disgusted…
Oh no! Republicans discover Musk isn’t about politics but pure power. When he bought Trump for $250,000,000, he bought all the hangers-on. Dat includes you, pally.
"Looks like Muskrat love"
More like the Hokey-Pokey
David, I have had enough of the hokey-pokey at wedding receptions! That is second only to Elon's cyber trucks on my rant meter!
Uh-oh, seems I put my right foot in it!
And you swing it all about.
Okay, okay—I’ll pull my right foot out now. So shake it off, Dave, shake it all around!
(At least, in Minnesota we shook it—too dumb, I guess, and awkward to swing.)
And we all know what it’s called when one person pays money for the favors of another person.
And we also all know what it’s called when he offers “protection” against imagined threats?
Another thing Tillis should watch for — Congress is also a waste of money to an imperial president.
Not black money.
Nope. Nor blackmail nor grift— American politics shines only for the craven.
How can they pass a budget without considering the department, agencies, and federal workers dismantled by Musk? They’re approving a budget to continue funding what no longer exists. They should demand a reconciliation of the departments etc dissolved and the impact on the budget. If the amount of money put back in the federal coffers is even close to what’s claimed, there’s no justification to cut Medicare, Medicaid, SS , and VA. Due diligence is required if they are claiming to be fiscally responsible.
Due diligence generally requires some thinking and intelligence.
I think we have the wrong crowd for that here.
And they have NEVER been fiscally responsible, regardless of what they say (or parrot). If they wanted an audit, they’d have looked at forensic accounting measures - but that was never their intention so we got feral children with hacking skills unleashed on the systems.
"Feral children with hacking skills" -- very good!
The Inspector General position was created to provide employees and other citizens with a way to report claims of fraud, abuse etc.
Yes. And this group HATES oversight, inspection, etc.
Because they're "transparent" don't cha know (yes, that's sarcasm).
Look at the # of inspectors and oversight groups let go, disbanded, etc pretty much immediately. Then look at later reports of "X" blocking Signal and other numbers for folks to report fraud. It's all part of the larger pattern.
The question I really want Joe to answer - in his travels in the Capitol, has he encountered any Democrat members of congress who are still gullible enough to negotiate the budget with Mike Johnson’s team in good faith? If any D’s are still credulous enough to believe the executive branch will spend the money the legislature budgets, then both parties have lost the plot. Don’t expect Joe to provide names. Just hoping the Democrats are still living in the real world.
Our D senators are MIA.
Constituents have been trying to get any response (beyond a standard thank you for your contact) from them for the past month+. It's not reassuring, unfortunately.
I have only republicans to represent me in Congress, so I can only imagine what it feels like to feel frustration upon contacting a Democratic member of congress, but perhaps this letter from Senator Chris Murphy will help a little:
February 22, 2025
“Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.
So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back.
The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted.
In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.
Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.
So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it.
Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires.
The corruption and theft is happening in the open here. The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children.
They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.
Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM.
This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials.
So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.
And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment“
Chris Murphy
Thanks for sharing that, Marcia.
I have a lot of respect for Chris Murphy - he’s been a consistent voice.
We also have family who live in CT and they feel he is very responsive, accessible.
Again, our rep (solid D who shows up, listens, keeps showing up) is great - but our Senators are beyond disappointing and their continued silence feels like betrayal and their staff can’t be as poorly trained, informed, etc as they present should one get through to them.
But - we persist.
Not a fan of the other options here.
Tim recently interviewed Jared Moskowitz, rep from Florida, and he brought this up in that interview. Per Jared, if they pass a CR, then all the funding, etc., that DOGE is attacking gets reinstated. For this to not happen, an actual budget bill needs to pass. Check out the interview. Jared was very much on topic.
I also heard on NPR that the framework they’re patting their backs over after weeks of discussion is supposed to be the easy part of the process. Next up are the actual detail discussions. This shit is gonna get wild lol.
I posted this on today's Morning Shots. Note the use of "legally entitled". I bet a lot of currently legally entitled will suffer a change of state during discussions on the details.
Today, Congressman Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) released the following statement after voting to pass the House budget resolution:
“To be explicitly clear: today’s budget resolution did not include any cuts to specific programs. Anyone saying otherwise is lying and engaging in the fearmongering of our farmers, veterans, seniors, and most vulnerable populations. The budget resolution simply sets the framework for how the federal government can be better stewards of taxpayer dollars.
“Millions of Americans depend on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and I will have no part in cutting these programs for the folks that are legally entitled to them.
That hasn't been done in years because we've only had continuing resolutions to keep the government running.
I’m not sure it’s possible to overstate the disgust many North Carolinians are developing with Thom Tillis. He’s proven to be the ultimate hypocritical politician. His votes for Hegseth & Gabbard far outweigh his “virtuous” floor speeches in support of Ukraine. A lot of us will be working overtime to rid our state of this parasite, even if the extreme gerrymandering gets in the way.
Gerrymandered districts don’t matter in a US Senate race, which is a statewide vote.
Oh my bad. I’m completely aware of that. I just got carried away. The gerrymandering is a significant problem here.
I figured. Sadly, it is in my nature to provide information no one asked for. 🤪
Me too…
Gerrymandering kills an opposition party in a state. In North Carolina you basically have had a 50-50 state for several cycles but the State has a veto proof majority in its Legislature and sends 10 Republican Congress members to D.C. and only 4 Democrats. There is a major voter suppression head wind for the opposition party in these states...why bother with the "fake" democracy? Go spend your time and money on fantasy football
We were discussing statewide, popular votes.
“We like what DOGE is doing, but maybe it’s doing it a little too quickly”. So to those Congressmen, it’s ok for an unelected billionaire who bought himself into the good graces of the Dear Leader to gain unfettered and unauthorized access to the personal information of all Americans, summarily dismiss thousands of federal employees, and interrupt the flow of funds to states and individuals that have already approved by Congress. Wow, so in other words the Congressman was saying, I want people to be hurt by these illegal acts, but maybe the pain could be prolonged.” No consideration that maybe funding decisions should be the process of informed deliberation and compromise rather than imposed by a dictator.
So McCormick thinks they need to turn down the boiling water so the frog won’t jump out of the pot when he realizes he’s dinner.
Or...."damn, they're getting caught!"
Will this look bad for me?
Not a group that seems particularly bright but also seem to be missing spines, prefrontal cortexes (important in judgement and decision making) but certainly no moral compasses.
And they DO NOT CARE about their constituents. Perhaps they care about some of their very big donors but the rest of us seemingly can just go rot... or starve... or die.
I constantly make the case to my rep that he is hurting his constituents, along with farmers and vets, since that's his focus in the House, whenever I contact him.
Are you getting any response?
Our D rep is great and specific about what she's working on.
The Senators aren't responding.
I get one response that did not quite relate to my message. I respond that he missed the point of what I was talking about. I did get a few canned "What I doing" responses from my senators. I haven't decided what to do about them. Regardless, I will still send my rep emails about the damage he is abetting, just to, you know, keep him honest. I do need to get back on my senators, though.
Joe, Are there any Republicans in Congress who are concerned about the US allying with Russia and North Korea? Any willing to maybe whisper their disapproval? Personally I am outraged, disgusted and ashamed. Why isn't this the main focus of every news report? They should have reporters in their faces, following them everywhere.
Maybe he should ask them how their Russian, North Korean, and/or Mandarin language classes are going.
In a long business career, including employee, consultant and entrepreneur, I have seen many individuals and organizations attempting the analysis and re-organization of specific activities. Some worked, some failed, some achieved nothing but stasis.
But never, in my experience, have I witnessed such a grotesquely unprofessional, undisciplined, incompetent and confidence-sapping entity as the SO-CALLED (capitals to make clear it's not an actual or approved entity) DOGE. They have achieved nothing except--and this is crucial--the apparent deliberate destruction of a functional government. But that's the point.
Next: "I alone can save you," coming from the Fraud in Chief, standing in the ruins of what he and his Principal Co-conspirator have achieved.
Sic transit gloria mundi, for Latin enthusiasts.
Re: “It is vitally important that every one of your taxpayer dollars is spent wisely and in the service of this nation and its people,”
I think, if I was running a campaign against this guy, my message would be: "Ted Budd thinks inspecting meat is a waste of money. That's why he supported letting Elon Musk fire all the meat inspectors."
Follow up: "George Buttowski of Bugtussle, MO earned his degree in Ag Science from Mizzou in 1987. At age 24, he went to work as a federal meat inspector. He got his master's degree in food science in 1991. He went back to the USDA and ran a project to improve tracking of food suspected of being adulterated. It makes it possible to quickly recall foods before they make it to your grocery store. Then he got his Ph.D. in food microbiology from MIT in 2000 and went back to the USDA to train the next generation of food safety specialists. But George isn't there anymore, because Elon Musk and Ted Budd think inspecting meat is a waste of taxpayer dollars. So, America, when it comes to the safety of the meat you buy, you can rest assure that no one's looking out for you anymore, but, hey, at least you the federal budget went down by George Buttowski's salary. Thanks, Ted and Elon. Good luck, America."
I predict that the 2025 word of the year will be schadenfreude as more and more supporters of FFOTUS lose jobs, benefits, health insurance, etc. My black heart is already laughing.
I wait for the NYT to send 15
"reporters " to some Appalachian holler to cover Meemaw's gangrenous foot/leg, but Meemaw still loves Trump, and jester know that Gawd saved him so that Trump could kill all the Nwords, says, feminists, etc.
I hate these people.
Did you see the interview w the rancher in CO from a few days ago.
Doesn't like anything Trump has done, etc - would still vote for him again.
It's a cult.
It was a bit dumbfounding. If he's not careful, he might love himself some Trump right into bankruptcy.
Dumbfounding is a good word. Total U-turn.
So sad—you run against Big Government … only to see it replaced by Big Government.
Big government GOP is the worst!
I live in a rural county in Nebraska. Perhaps the most prominent faces of the federal government for farmers are the employees at the local Farm Services Agency. Almost all farmers are on a first name basis with these employees, as they are the contact point for all the many ways federal programs impact agriculture. Gotta believe the disdainful and cruel way Musk and Trump are speaking about and acting toward these workers will not sit well with some farmers.
So far, I heard reporting the the Iowa and Wisconsin Farmer Unions (or whatever they call themselves) are quite unhappy with what is going on. What they will do about it? I don't know.
Elon is nuts. He'll do a complete 180. Trump will say that he fired him. End of story.
I wonder if thats true....Musk spent a LOT of money to buy himself a president and capture the regulatory state to save his flailing businesses. I can't imagine he'll go quietly.
And remember that JD Vance is also a wholly owned subsidiary of the weird Elon Musk/Peter Thiel techno-autocrat faction.
Oh, yes. Musk cares about as much for money as did the Joker. He's bananas. Follow the stock. Everyone all over the world hates Elon. That, he cares about.
Elon, without the money he is a nasty, loser dweeb.
Oh, c'mon - even with the money he's a nasty, loser dweeb...
He also has his own revenge and other agendas (see role of USAID in dismantling Apartheid in South Africa) and a jaw dropping list of conflicts of interest around oversight of his various gov't contracts, side deals, etc..
I think Elon is there as a fall guy. Lots of these folks are.
Please put “Department” in quotes when referring to DOGE. Department means something in the federal government and DOGE isn’t it.
“Republican Joe Kent has been nominated to become the next director of the National Counterterrorism Center despite (or perhaps because of) a longstanding habit of amplifying Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine.”
I’m just shocked he didn’t nominate Edward Gallagher for the position, but I guess Trump’s running a turn-key operation; insert one unqualified conspiracy theorist, for a killer!
That said, as promised, Trump just fired Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Which begs the question, what are the chances the election won’t be rigged? And if democrats claim a rigged economy, will anyone believe it?
LOL, thanks for including the Crocs incident. I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but if you could have a light-hearted fashion tidbit on the regular, I'd love it. Breaks the tension, if only for a second