Bad News.

Simply very bad news. Precisely what Project 2025/Agenda 47/Republican National Platform said they want to do. I’m sorry; I don’t like to bring bad news. But people need to prepare. This is written in editorial/opinion style, but facts are within and there are citations. For people like us who need time to prepare for austerity, it’s news we ought to read.

Also, there are Senator names included for who we should write to regarding this bill. That’s our last chance. Shutdown is on Republicans, not Democrats, no matter how they try to deflect. We need to tell the Dem senators to speak what’s in this bill, every chance they get, and to refuse to vote in favor, pointing at Republicans the entire time.

There are parts in the article complaining about Democrats and their choices, etc., et. m. Read it if you want (you’ll have to click through for it,) but it won’t help anyone to read more complaining about Democrats. We the people need to energize Dem. Senators to speak out, and to vote no. Especially the speak out portion; Sen. Mark Kelly does that especially well, and is among those the author of this piece feels is wavering. I intend to start first thing in the morning, and I hope all of us will devote some time to this. It’s vital.

Senate Democrats’ Choice: Block the Republican Spending Bill or Dissolve Congress

The House’s continuing resolution would effectively hand over spending decisions to Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

by David Dayen March 11, 2025

Snippets:

Without the luxury of Republicans falling apart, Democrats in the Senate need to decide whether to prevent a dangerous and harmful budget that shrinks the power of Congress in the government. Since operating on principle goes against their “adults in the room” mindset, they are wavering on what to do. But it should be an open-and-shut case.

A normal continuing resolution funds the government at the same level as the previous budget. This bill does not. It cuts non-defense discretionary spending by $13 billion below last year’s level, while increasing military spending by $6 billion. It zeroes out funding for programs that fund homeless shelters and prevent child abuse. It cuts health care funding for clinics and hospitals, emergency preparedness for communities, clean water projects and tribal assistance. Meanwhile, it adds money for mass deportations, just as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has illegally detained a green card holder for his political beliefs.

Most of the budget cuts are achieved by removing earmarks, which members of Congress put in to direct projects. But usually when earmarks are removed, the money goes back to the agency to decide how to distribute it. This maneuver cuts the earmarks and the money.

The House Republican bill also fails to fix a carryover of a $20 billion rescission to IRS money from the Inflation Reduction Act, effectively doubling that cut. This was kind of pre-ordained when Democrats punted on this in a prior continuing resolution last December, but it still means that practically all of the IRA’s funding for greater enforcement of tax collection is now gone.

The bill not only adds $6 billion to the Department of Defense’s enormous budget, but adds $8 billion in “transfer authority” that allows the agency to shift spending where they deem important, a flexibility no other agency gets.

While Republicans tout a $6 billion increase in veterans health care in the bill, they neglect to mention the removal of a $23 billion appropriation to the Toxic Exposure Fund to implement the PACT Act, which cares for veterans exposed to burn pits and other cancer-causing chemicals. While there’s an extra $2.2 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, there’s no additional money to support the rebuilding in southern California after the January wildfires.

But most important, the bill grants an open invitation to Trump and Elon Musk to continue to ignore Congress and toss out disfavored spending. Vice President JD Vance, while selling the deal to House Republicans, stated outright that “Trump would continue cutting federal funding with his Department of Government Efficiency initiative and pursue impoundment — that is, holding back money appropriated by Congress.” This has been reiterated by others in the Trump administration.

In fact, the House Republican bill gives the president more leeway to move money around. It appropriates money for things that Musk has eliminated, meaning that money can operate as a floating slush fund for Trump’s priorities, as long as the courts don’t roll back the illegal impoundments.

… The Trump administration is saying that they will sign a bill appropriating specific funding, and then go about cutting funding anyway. If you’re a member of Congress, you’re being told that your work product doesn’t matter, that the constitutional power of the purse doesn’t matter, and that there’s no guarantee that anything you pass will actually reach the people you serve.

I can see why Republicans would take this deal: they want budget cuts but know they don’t have the votes for them, so they’re plenty happy to outsource that to the president, even if it turns Congress into a separate and unequal branch of government. But why would Democrats willingly submit to a fake budget on paper that can be so easily circumvented? As Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on X, “The Republican spending plan will supercharge Musk’s theft from working people to pay for billionaire tax cuts. Senate Democrats must stop it.”

…

So far, only Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has committed to voting yes. But as Josh Marshall has documented at Talking Points Memo, a number of Senate Democrats have stated no position on the bill, leaving their options open. In general, senators have been hedging their bets until forced to make a decision. That time has come.

Credible sources indicate that the most likely Democrats to offer up the remaining seven votes to avoid a shutdown are Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Michael Bennet (D-CO), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Mark Warner (D-VA).

Taking another swing at the melon

Hello All. I recently managed to completely confuse everyone with a post titled “I differ from Belle a bit on This”. It may help to put the rest of this post into context…Scottie insisted that I take my medication before I try to express myself a bit better with this second swing. I’ll have you know that my doctor says I’m feeling much better now, so… here goes; strap up buttercup!

I would like to preface this attempt at face-saving with the reminder that just because something sounds incredibly insane does not mean that it isn’t in fact, uh, fact. Let’s face it, America just voted back in a guy who… well, you know who he is. I don’t think I need to explain more there.

For those of you brave (crazy?) enough to have gone back and read that previous post, I begged for help with an eventuality that I see in our future. I told Scottie that it is like seeing something horrifying coming towards you on a fog covered road; too indistinct to quite make out, to loathsome to articulate. And for those of you keeping score, I still don’t want to say it because I don’t want to speak it into existance and I’m truly afraid of the outcome. Nonetheless…

Despite drumpf’s denials, he is plugging right down the perditious road of project 2025. We have seen him bring on banana-nut musk and his flying monkeys as they take a reaping scythe to a functioning government, mostly to the rabid applause of the far right.

For those of you who know people who work in the government, they are typically non-political. Why? Because politicians come, politicians go, and these folks have to be to work on Monday morning to do the work that needs to be done. But, drumpf and his crew of merry men fired thousands for being “unfit”.

They said that this was to “save money”, “to be more efficient” and to “root out corruption”. They told you they were going to do this in their project 2025. They also told you that they would replace them with right minded compatriots. That was such batshit craziness that no one believed them, including the now fired government workers who voted for them.

Now, for some things that they didn’t tell you that I alluded to in the previous post:

I believe that the project 2025 is a grass-roots restructuring of the American Government. The replacement of the top people every four years is expected, and has a limited effect. The rank and file ignore them and do their job around them.

The replacement of the rank and file in relevant positions will change the structure of the government in the same way that the take over of the school boards drove home the confusion and dismantling of personal freedom for young people… who grow to be the upcoming generation. The removal of DEI and reasonable minded government workers, is only the pretext for replacement of those people who mirror the very American population with compatriots who demonstrate their “fitness” by being willing to violate any law, any policy, any moral code upon direction of their Dear Leader.

In short: I believe that the drumpf administration is seeking to create the very deep state they accused the democrats of having.

I believe this grass roots movement will mirror the change in the top, but will be around for 20-30 years, long after we would presume, hope!, drumpf to be gone.

I believe this movement will not only facilitate the end goals of project 2025, but normalize it.

I believe this is designed to not just dismantle the normalcy of the government, not just open the very institution to pillaging by the powerful, but to bring about a future that would not be recognizable pre-maga.

And, the ramifications of this terrify me.

Yup. Just Like, “Look What You Made Me Do.”

Grok … ?

Two From Clay Jones

Enola Macho by Clay Jones

Ooh, yeah Read on Substack

The Pentagon is conducting a DEI (diversity, equity, inclusiveness) purge, and one of the victims is the plane, Enola Gay. Trust me, there’s nothing further from Woke than dropping an atomic bomb on a city full of non-white foreigners.

The Trump administration (sic) is making me suffer from an overload of stupidity.

The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, sent a directive last week for the Pentagon to “remove all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” citing one of Trump’s idiotic executive orders.

This doesn’t just include the Enola Gay, but over 26,000 images in the military database across each branch. One anonymous source said the purge could delete as many as 100,000 images and posts in total.

Some of these include the first Black military pilots and mentions of commemorative months, including Women’s History Month and others associated with Hispanics and Pacific Islanders. Anyone with the last name “Gay” is being deleted, along with a Corps of Engineers project on fish because it mentioned gender. But then again, maybe these are gay fish. We already found out how the Trump administration (sic) feels about fish.

These are mistakes, though, right? RIGHT?

Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot told the Associated Press (despite the fact the outlet won’t use the name “Gulf of America) that the department is “pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content,” clarifying if “content is removed that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct components accordingly.” Clearly? Are you sure, Mr. Ullyot?

That means they’ll fix it, right? RIGHT? It’s not clear. (snip-MORE, and it’s choice!)

======

Elon Cuts in the Burg by Clay Jones

DOGE eliminates local IRS office Read on Substack

This cartoon was drawn for The Fredericksburg Advance.

When I sent this to one of my proofers, she didn’t know there is an IRS office in Fredericksburg, at least for now.

You may think, “Good. Fuck the IRS and delete all those offices.” But when you’re having tax issues, it’s much better to deal with them in person. I used the local office once about two decades ago, and my issue was worked out.

Think of it like a city bus. If you drive, you don’t plan to ever take the bus, but you’re glad your town has buses just in case. This isn’t a good analogy for me because I use the local bus all the time.

But yeah, a lot of IRS offices are on Elon’s list, and Fredericksburg’s is one of them. According to the DOGE website, the lease for the 6,162-square foot office space will be terminated as part of a “mass modification” of government contracts.

The website states that the lease costs $153,000 per year and that terminating it will save $395,504, but the website does not provide a source for that information. I also wonder how much of that lease has already been paid. Elon has boasted about saving money by cutting government contracts that have already been paid. He’s an idiot.

I don’t know how long the office will be there, but in case you need it now, it’s located on the fourth floor of 1320 Central Park Boulevard. I hope something else comes up and it’s saved, like a court order.

Neither Elon nor DOGE has legal authority to make cuts. This is something MAGAts and a LOT of Republicans keep ignoring. DOGE operates outside of the three branches of government and ignores the other three.

DOGE is making cuts without transparency or oversight from the three branches. Many of these cuts are being made from the recent Nazi college grads Elon has hired without any oversight, even from Elon.

As Harry would say in Resident Alien, this is some bullshit.

According to the Advance, other Virginia leases targeted for termination are the Office of U.S. Attorneys, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection office, and the Geological Survey office in Richmond; the General Services Administration in Charlottesville; the General Services Administration, the Office of the Undersecretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Mine Safety Health Administration in Arlington; the General Services Administration in Lorton; the Bureau of Industry and Security in Herndon; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Hampton; and the Government Accountability Office in Virginia Beach.

Creative note: When I saw this story, my first thought was I shouldn’t do a cartoon about it this week because I’ve drawn on Elon and DOGE for the Advance the past two weeks, and this would make it three weeks in a row. Check out here and here. But these issues are important, so I drew it anyway, and then I sent it to my editor.

I wasn’t going to fight for this cartoon because we’ve done Elon the past two weeks, so I sent a rough on a different subject along with this one. I was also prepared to draw more roughs because Martin, my editor, had sent about five subjects for me to choose from.

Martin picked this one while acknowledging we’ve done a lot on Elon and DOGE. So, we probably won’t do another Elon cartoon next week…unless he does something else extremely stupid that hurts our community. What are the odds of that happening again? (snip)

Open Windows

The grift continues by Ann Telnaes

Trump is making money off the presidency…again Read on Substack

Business leaders are paying $5 million for a one-on-one dinner meeting with President Trump at Mar a Lago, WIRED reports.

I Differ from Belle a bit on This

Hello All. I am stumbling over how to express my thoughts on this or even if they are accurate, so I think I need your help. I don’t know if it is best listening to Belle talk about Recisions first, but I’ll put forth her video and let you know my thoughts after that I need some help understanding.

Recision is a trackable and mostly upfront process where the congressionally approved monies are rejected by the executive branch. Where I differ from Belle on this, sort of, is that the republicans in general and more specifically whoever is the brains behind the drumpf administration would seriously consider this idea of Recision. I think this is pure smoke and I very much do not believe that is their goal for a variety of reasons:

First and foremost, that then makes those funds unavailable. Not for a moment do I believe that drumpf want to limit his access to funds.
Making the Recision process fact is time consuming. The type of governing, if I can call it that, drumpf engages in is one of misdirection and chaos. Recision is a predictable and voted process that does not allow for dictatorial maneuvering by the powers that be, which not only allows for others to opine or even stop the process, it limits the “well what’s done is done, can’t stop it now” response.
But Mostly: The goal of replacing government workers with partisan drones has not been forgotten. The game plan outlined in Project 2025 that drumpf repeatedly said he knew nothing about yet seems to be marching right along point by point was to replace government workers with partisan compatriots so that he would not be blocked from accomplishing those plans.
- In a recent interview Elon said that the rank and file government workers are a hinderance to his ability to make the “efficiency” mandates and cuts a reality.
- Of the first firings were the very people who are trained with the policies and laws associated with the departments they oversee and charged with investigating allegations of abuse and fraud.
- drumpf has used the ‘how creatively can you kiss my ass’ process for his cabinet and department meetings since his first term, expecting these grown men and women to expound on how great ‘dear leader’ is as a man and a leader. Those government workers removed – while individually agreeable perhaps – as a whole are not willing to debase themselves to perform their jobs.
- Elon required government workers to list what they did last week so to justify their job. (It did not go well)

This is what I am betting I will see soon: These displaced workers performed x-amount of work. That work, those services, will soon to be seen as necessary, but as the workers were dismissed for being “unfit“, they will need to be replaced with those “fit” for the job. And, of course, the first definition of “fit” is one who will do what they are told no matter what while publicly kissing sweet potato hitler’s ass.

Where I need input now is in consideration that the guy in the mirror isn’t giving me a lot of erudite thoughts on this issue, so I’m a bit lost in my own wanderings and I simply don’t have the time in front of the interviews and news to have better information. So far I’m not hearing the news organizations talking about this in this expected outcome. What do you think?

Thanks!!

randy

From Shelldigger-

Good News, Bad News

Peace & Justice History for 3/6

More repetition. sigh

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march6

‘For the record…’: Rachel Maddow sets the record straight on Trump address falsehoods

Rachel Maddow runs through an exhausting but by no means exhaustive list of false statements made by Donald Trump in his first address to a joint session of Congress of his second term.

Republicans. Whatcha Gonna Do?

Run Against Them! Vote Them Out!

Skreeky DOGE by Clay Jones

Governor Youngkin is looking out for you, or is it coming after you? Read on Substack

This cartoon was drawn for the FXBG Advance.

Virginia is one the states being hit the hardest by the DOGE cuts, you know…Elon’s Department of Government Efficiency, which isn’t an official department.

Virginia has more federal employees than any other state except California, which has maybe around 2,000 more. In case you suck at geography, Virginia borders Washington, DC. Virginia, along with Maryland, donated land to form DC…and then took it back many years later. But a lot of federal workers live in NoVA (Northern Virginia) because as expensive as it is there, it’s even more expensive in DC.

It’s cheaper to live in Fairfax, Arlington, Falls Church, Manassas, and even Fredericksburg for federal workers. People in Fredericksburg don’t like to admit they’re a part of Northern Virginia, and there are arguments for and against, but we’re definitely a commuter town. We have a commuter train that runs several times a day.

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I did a cartoon about housing and commuting in the Burg? The issue in the cartoon was about the housing problem in the area, and the only way to afford the newly-built homes was to work in NoVa or DC. Now, a lot of people won’t be able to do that, thanks to Elon Musk.

Right about now is when you need your governor to swoop in and fight for you. Since our governor is a Republican and has always supported Trump, he may have some sway in easing or even ending the layoffs of Virginians. Oh, boy….here comes our governor, red-vest-wearing Glenn Youngkin. Where are the horns announcing our champion’s arrival? Here, I’ll do a. mouth trumpet for it. DOO-DA-Doo!

What’s your message, Gov? Let’s hear it! Here it is! Youngkin said, “Listen. We have a federal government that is inefficient, and we have an administration that is taking on that challenge of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse and driving efficiency in our federal government. It needed to happen.”

Uhhhh….what?

Our “champion” just said that many Virginians are wasteful, fraudulent, abusive, and inefficient. Youngkin is taking the side of DOGE over Virginias, but he doesn’t care. Most of those federal workers live in NoVA, and NoVA didn’t vote for Youngkin. But, he’s still gonna help us out.

Youngkin said, “We have a lot of federal workers in the Commonwealth, and I want to make sure that they know we care about them and we value them and we want them to find that next chapter.”

Dawwww, thank you, Mr. Red Vest. We’re so happy you care. Now, lay it on us.

Youngkin announced a new “resource package” at an event hosted by Capital One and introduced a new government website, VirginiaHasJobs.com, for fired federal employees. The site has information for recently fired federal workers that includes information on “virtual job fairs,” advice on how to apply for unemployment, and helpful tips on updating their resumes.

The next time your car doesn’t start, maybe Mr. Red Vest will come along and helpfully say, “Try kicking the tires.”

You would think Youngkin would have more sympathy since he was once a commuter when he was co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, an investment firm that helped make Youngkin a multimillionaire with a net worth of around $440 million. No wonder he doesn’t give a shit about you.

And I wouldn’t care about you either if I was a Republican worth $440 million. I’d be in an ivory tower penthouse somewhere, smoking huge cigars while laughing evilly, Bwa-ha-ha-ha-cough-cough-cough-hack-hack-hack-gag-gag-gag. I just remembered that I don’t like cigars.

Anyway, the new website includes an incomplete list (is Enron still around?) of some of the state’s largest employers (a Youngkin staffer did some googling), including Capital One (the Capitol One Cafes are nice. Maybe you can get a job there if you can’t land a position in offering predatory loans). Basically, the governor is telling you to search LinkedIn and Indeed and make sure you smile during your job interviews. Thanks, Governor.

Thank God there’s a one-term limit on governors in Virginia.

Hey, speaking of that. The governor is about to be unemployed himself. Since I have as much empathy for him as he has for his constituents, I’ll give him some job-hunting advice.

Governor, update your resume and make sure to include you’re an orange Kool-Aid-swilling MAGAt, and maybe you can get a job in the Trump administration (sic). After all, you have chosen Trump and Elon Musk over your constituents.

Make sure you include that you like Nazis in your resume because that can get you in good with Elon Musk, who is a Nazi. Don’t get your hopes up too much because word is, Elon favors young boys for those positions. I’m not insinuating anything nasty here, but it’s true. Elon favors young, inexperienced men still in the Clearasil demographic for jobs in DOGE.

During your campaign for governor, you spread lies about the FBI tracking and intimidating parents of students in public schools. Mention that, too. Say something hateful about Biden. They love that shit.

Since you don’t have any accomplishments from your time as governor, you might have to start as an intern. Just crawl up Trump’s ass and wait for your call. What? You’ve already done that? Good job thinking ahead.

Also, tell them you really really really really really wanted to ban abortion in the state, but those commie socialist woke Democrats in the General Assembly wouldn’t let you.

Just hang in there because there will be an opening in the Trump cabinet soon. Which cabinet? Who knows, but this is Trump. He’ll fire someone soon, or perhaps one of them will discover he or she has a couple of ounces of dignity left and will quit after the next international shameful embarrassment. No, it won’t be Rubio.

Also, if you do get inside the Oval Office, be cautious about sitting on any couches. JD’s been in there.

You could also apply for a job at Fox News. Perhaps you can get Pete Hegseth’s former seat on the couch (I’m not sure if JD’s been on that one). What? You don’t have any journalism experience? HAHAHAHA. You’re funny, Gov. This is Fox News, not an actual news outlet.

Ya know, Gov…I think you’re going to be fine (you can probably scrape by with your $440 million), at least for the first three years after you leave office, but it could be close to four years if you leave now.

Nudge, nudge. Hint, hint.

Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Sears made a direct-to-camera video acknowledging “concern about the federal government workforce transition” and shared five links to “additional resources to assist.” All five links led to “404 Page Not Found” website errors. Sears is going to have a lot of fun running to replace Youngkin in this year’s gubernatorial election. Winsome, make sure to constantly mention these firings “needed to happen.” It’ll be a real winner of a message in NoVA, Richmond, Norfolk, etc, ect.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see.)