Politics is Stupid

general
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Here we go again. We had another potential government shutdown coming up at this time of year, one we all kind of forgot about in the run-up to the election.

House Speaker Mike Johnson did again what he had to last time, which is working with Democrats to get their support and secure funding for another Continuing Resolution (CR) so that the government doesn’t have to shut down.

And just like last time, there’s compromises in there. Republicans get things they want and Democrats get things they want. All looked good… until Elon Musk decided it was the worst thing ever.

If you haven’t been keeping up, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been selected by Trump to run a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). And yes, the memes tying it to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency have been flying fast.

So after proclaiming, “I’m not going to support either candidate”, and then saying “I’m supporting Trump and here’s all this money I’m spending to help him get elected”, Musk is now in charge of an independent department that will make recommendations of where the government should cut spending. Even before he’s actually in charge of it, he already determined this latest CR qualifies, saying that anyone who supports it should be voted out in two years.

Musk and Trump are really good buddies, so much so that Musk is being referred to as the “First Buddy”. Trump listens to him, though Musk is hanging around Mar-a-Lago so much that he may be wearing out his welcome.

Because Trump listens to Musk, Trump is now against this CR. “Get smart and tough. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, call their bluff.”

And because Trump is now against this CR, Republicans are now against it. A few days ago, they liked it. It was ready to sail through and get approved. But now they hate it because Trump hates it because Musk hates it.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made the statement that whatever the fallout, it’s on Republicans. If there’s a government shutdown right around Christmas, ask them why.

When was the last time there was legislation that was all ready to go that would have made a major impact on how the government worked and fixed an existing problem, legislation that both Democrats and Republicans were happy with and had things both sides wanted, but then suddenly Republicans hated because Trump hated it?

The legislation that would have increased funding to protect the border between the US and Mexico and would have allowed the hiring of about 1500 more agents. Trump didn’t like it because it would have fixed a problem (or have been a big start on fixing it) that he couldn’t campaign on any more.

Besides the “Musk hates it so I hate it”, there may be another motivation why Trump’s against this CR. A motivation I have personal experience with and saw first-hand how badly that turned out. We’ll talk about that next time.

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I feel like Elon is going to be the shadow president. God help us all.

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He didn’t like the immigration bill for the same reason people don’t like this CR bill. It has so many little additions that should be their own bills. Why is there language allowing Congress to block House subpoenas? In an “emergency” funding bill.

Why hasn’t Congress passed a full and complete budget on time, or usually at all, since 1997? Gosh, why is funding such a disaster?

A 1500 page bill to extend funding for 3 months… If it was truly an emergency then you could simply write a one page bill that extends current funding 90 days. After legalese and exceptions this could be maybe 20 pages, certainly under 100 pages.

These things are happening because the public is seeing the sausage being made, and they don’t like it. As if Elon is the only one who is irritated at this. You should be mad about it, we all should.

The people, most of both parties, that are doing this shit care about their career, power, and reelection. Going along to get along has been the mantra, with occasional temporary grandstanding to get screen time. Anyone that doesn’t toe the line somehow gets primaried and loses. We are entering a time where summarizing of bills like this are popular enough that they are getting published for general review. It doesn’t even take 1,500 pages for a full budget, it’s the pork and hidden stuff that fattens these bills and makes them impossible to pass. Hopefully the public will stay engaged, Congress needs to be in fear for their jobs, not lives, about what they do and do not write, vote for, and support.

Oh, and this temporary continuing resolution also includes their own pay raise, technically the next session’s pay raise but with reelection being what it is they are getting it. A 3.8% increase is not a national emergency, read the fucking room maybe.

And does one Musk equal Zuckerberg plus a Gates plus a Soros plus a Bezos? Plus the usual suspects? People are pissed because a different person is in the government’s ear and they are doing it openly instead of through back channels. Think the alphabet departments, not Google, have been making decisions in a bubble without oligarch input?

Rule one of politics, it’s ok when our guy does it.

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Oh the irony. Two people doing the job of one is the ultimate in inefficiency :rofl:

Yep, too true. Or unelected vice president.
And on that note, who was it that ran as Trump’s running mate? I’ve forgotten who it is seeing as he has been completely invisible since the election.
I’ve seen articles that suggest that even the republicans are wondering where Vance has disappeared to. Maybe he got chopped up in the basement of that pizza place that doesn’t have a basement?

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You can’t win if you are VP. Too visible, or not visible enough. Main usage in a strong presidency; lightning rod.

They’re always out there spelling words wrong, inventing the internet, and hiding from women or something.

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3123

This is the real issue right here. Pass an actual budget instead of holding us hostage every year.

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But then you can’t reliably use your gerrymandered wedge issues to win elections.

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On this side of the pond, Mozambique is in full civil unrest now, with the hoi polloi burning down factories and stuff, and damaging infrastructure.

Recently a prison containing 6000 violent inmates got compromised, and all escaped.

Currently our govt is doing diddly squat, except to seemingly support the new Moz president (because, hey, buddies).

Either this will die down on its own, or the violence will spill over into our country, which is an extremely dry and volatile powder keg at this stage.

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That’s a them problem.

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Its usually a Democrat problem because white democrats dont vote for minorities as a rule. Uaually the only minorities voted in by white majorities are Republicans.

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The US government didn’t shut down a few weeks ago because Mike Johnson did the same thing he did before. It’s had the same result of Republicans being mad at him for working with Democrats to secure funding. As reported before, this last round of redoing the negotiations was initiated by Elon Musk saying “it’s bad”. What I missed was Musk said “it’s bad” dozens of times before Trump chimed in with a “oh, yeah, better say this is bad, too”.

It was the same thing Trump did with endorsements. Go with a sure bet, like endorsing candidates who were running unopposed, which inflated his success results.
 

Today’s the day Mike Johnson finds out how long he has left as Speaker of the House. Before the newly-elected and existing people in the House can be sworn in, they vote on who will be the Speaker. If there’s no Speaker, they can’t be sworn in.

If they’re still dinking around by Monday trying elect a Speaker, there will be much swearing as the swearing in can’t begin because they can’t certify the Electoral College votes for President on Monday. It’s no big deal, really. Just certifying that Trump was elected President.

If they keep dinking around and can’t find someone to be Speaker by January 20, it gets really interesting because Biden’s last day is the 20th. If the EC votes can’t be certified by then, Trump can’t be sworn in, which means someone else has to be elected as a temporary President. And that would mean that Trump will be the 48th President instead of the 47th. Awkward.
 

Today’s vote for Speaker is going to be difficult for several reasons, some of which are Trump-caused:

  • Matt Gaetz resigned. He had been re-elected and toyed with showing up just to vote today, but after the Ethics Committee report was released, he’s better off not showing his face.
  • Trump selected a few people from Congress to be part of his cabinet. They already filed a notice to resign their post. The special elections to replace them won’t be done until around April, which means Congress is down that many votes until that time.
  • One of the Congresspersons from Texas stopped showing up around July. A reporter found out she’s been a resident of an assisted living facility that provides dementia care, so Congress has been down her vote. Hopefully no one’s been casting her vote for her while she’s been gone. That would be double-plus ungood, legally speaking.
  • There’s enough people that don’t like Johnson that Republicans can only afford one or two votes against him. It’s bad enough that a Democrat like Hakeem Jeffries could be elected as Speaker of the House. Awkward.
  • Trump finally got around to endorsing Johnson as Speaker. Some of those who say they don’t like Johnson say the endorsement isn’t going to change their mind.

Trump’s endorsement of Johnson is going to be an indicator of what his first 100 days will be like. If it doesn’t sway the holdouts, they could be a thorn in his side.

Trump’s already lost some ground. At the Continuing Resolution fight last month, Trump wanted to get rid of the debt ceiling. Republicans said no.

If the Republicans are smart (hold your laughter), they’ll vote to keep Johnson just so Trump isn’t embarrassed by having his inauguration disrupted. Then when the special elections get the replacements for those Trump siphoned off for his cabinet, hold a new election for Speaker and oust him, like what happened to McCarthy.

We’ll see today how things played out.

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The optics of promising to pay 100% of 6 months of firefighting and recovery seems awfully open ended for a State that is famous for overspending on everything. Not to mention this treatment has not been extended like this before that I know of. Sure, it’s the promise of a super lame duck president, but that’s going to cash some checks.

He just skipped multiple layers of FEMA there. Too bad people in NC, and even Maui are still screwed.

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Let’s do a quick recap on recent events and one not-so-recent.

Johnson was elected as Speaker again. Before then, Republicans changed their rules package from it only takes one to call a vote to get rid of the Speaker to nine, a very sensible move that prevented Johnson from being McCarthy’d. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the certification of the college electoral votes while Johnson sat beside her with a smirk on his face.

Mike Lindell’s been quiet lately. Rest assured, he hasn’t given up his fight to find the fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, he says Trump winning the 2024 election is proof that there was fraud in 2020. Because apparently those who were able to commit the undetectable fraud that only Lindell can detect to make Biden win were so good at it that they just didn’t do it this time? Never mind that if he ultimately succeeds in finding fraud that overturns the 2020 election so that Trump was the President in 2021 and his 2024 campaign and upcoming inauguration would be illegal because it would be his third term.

Speaking of Trump’s inauguration, he’s already unhappy with it. He’s ranting about the crowd size won’t be big enough and how Biden is impeding his preparation for it, even though Biden’s offered several times to meet with Trump, and even though Trump did the same thing to Biden after the 2020 election. He’s also unhappy the flags at the ceremony will be at half mast because Jimmy Carter died and it’s policy to lower the flags for 30 days after a President dies. Maybe he’d be happier knowing the flags will be at half staff because the ceremony will be on land instead of on a ship?

Some of the January 6th defendants want an extended pass from jail so they can attend the inauguration.

Trump’s sentencing in the Storm Daniels hush money fraud case finally happened last week. He almost completely got away with it with no financial penalties and no jail time because his patented Delay, Delay, Delay tactics worked and ran out the clock. However, his record as a convicted felon stands for the moment and he will be sworn in as President eight days from now.

But even though he tried to use Trump’s Delay, Delay, Delay method, it backfired on Rudy Giuliani. He was found in contempt of court twice last week for not turning over what he’d been ordered to. In the middle of it, he filed a motion to appear in court via Zoom instead of in person because he’s got a lot of health problem. The judge said okay, but you gotta show me the doctor’s note that says you’re too sick to travel for the next 30 days. The next day, Giuliani was miraculously well again, withdrawing his petition and talking about how uncertain his travel schedule would be, which just happened to include a mention of swinging by Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.

Meanwhile, more and more people have realized that jaguars will be eating their faces shortly.

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Let’s talk tariffs.

Let’s put aside that more and more economic experts around the world are saying what Trump says he’ll do with tariffs and mass deportations will push not just the U.S. into a recession, if not a depression, but also other countries as a trade war heats up and they impose their own tariffs against the U.S.

Put aside that some of the companies who were planning on the tariffs being enacted didn’t make plans to bring manufacturing their goods back to the U.S. and instead looked to see which other countries they could move the manufacturing to that didn’t have tariffs.

Put aside that we’re already starting to see supply chain shortages as people rush to make purchases before the tariffs will hit and companies are trying to buy as much as they can so they will have it their inventory before then. I’m confident those companies will make sure the retail price on their products that they bought pre-tariff stay the same until that stock runs out and then they’ll raise their prices, not raise them the moment the tariffs go live.

Put aside the fact that farmers in California are already worried about not having enough workers this year and beyond, or that California provides about 60% of the produce for the entire country. Or that immigrants comprise 25% of the 12 million people in the construction industry and we already have an affordable housing shortage. Or that shipbuilders, who Trump said would make America great again by building more ships, also rely on immigrants for their workforce and have to import some of their steel from overseas.

And certainly put aside the fact that there is an “Operation Second Look” whose purpose is to review paperwork for immigrants to make sure everything’s okay, which is going to be “supercharged”. That will just mean it happens faster and it certainly doesn’t mean the paperwork will be intensely scrutinized to catch even the tiniest of mistakes that could be used to justify someone being deported.
 

Trump’s still committed to signing executive orders the day as he’s sworn in to enact tariffs on everything imported. He denies that he might be moving away from or limiting them. Anything that says that is fake news, as usual.

His own staffers realize how bad the tariffs would be, but their bright idea is to only put tariffs on essential items, because putting a tariff on the things we have to buy instead of things we don’t makes more sense.

The current levels seem to be this:

  • 60% on goods from China
  • 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico, possibly until such time as they stop the migrants and illegal drugs flowing across their borders
  • 10% on goods from all other countries

Mid-December, Trump made a very definitive statement about tariffs: “They won’t cost Americans anything.”

Okay, let’s put that to the test. Here’s four items I bought from Walmart last week. We’ll use them to verify his belief that it’s the country exporting the goods that pays the tariff, not the company in the U.S. that buys what’s imported. The dual UPC numbers are from the UPC on the receipt having a different last digit than what’s on the package.

  1. Mainstays Adjustable Folding Table. $21.98
    Model # MS13-017-046-01, UPC# 044681377470 / 044681377471
    Made in China
    https://www.walmart.com/ip/39131547
     
  2. Energizer CR2032 batteries, 4 pack with a coating to make them taste bad if a kid tries to eat them. $8.77
    UPC# 039800117270 / 0398001172704
    Made in China
    https://www.walmart.com/ip/37300766
     
  3. Equate Beauty Sensitive Skin Body Wash, 34 fl. oz. $5.98
    UPC# 681131052480 / 81131052481
    Made in Canada
    https://www.walmart.com/ip/24093699
     
  4. Gorilla brand Epoxy, 0.85 ounce. $5.98*
    UPC# 052427420010 / 052427420015
    “Made in USA with Domestic & Imported Materials”
    https://www.walmart.com/ip/626168582

The in-store price was the same as the online price, with the epoxy being listed as originally at $11.00 but $5.98 if purchased online.

If what Donald Trump says is correct about his tariffs not costing Americans anything, then those prices should stay about the same throughout the year. They might fluctuate a little, based on normal conditions, but not much.

However, if it is actually the company that imports the goods that pays the tariff and they do not choose to eat some or all of the additional cost and instead pass it on to the consumer, then we would see prices around the following for each of them:

  • Mainstays Adjustable Folding Table: Was $21.98. Now $35.17 (60% tariff for being from China)
  • Energizer CR2032 4 pack batteries: Was $8.77. Now $14.03 (same tariff)
  • Equate Body Wash: Was $5.98. Now $7.48 (25% tariff for being from Canada)
  • Gorilla brand Epoxy: Was $5.98. Now ??? (price would change based on what specific material was imported)

This is all just theoretical, of course. Trump’s just talking tough to scare the other countries and force them come to the negotiating table. He’s not actually going to do it, even though he’s been talking about it for months or years and he campaigned on promising he would and he imposed tariffs in his first term that we’re still stuck with over seven years later.

It will be different this time. Right?

Right?

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Awful lot of footage of Hamas fighters with war equipment coming out of “Defenseless Gaza Tents and Hospitals.”

It’s almost like they were there the whole time and everything was a valid target. I cannot imagine being one of the surviving hostages at this point. Especially knowing that the people that tortured you for months are considered victims by quite a few people who should know better.

Also, welcome to the world of the blanket pardon. Hunter was the first example, but now we have a bunch more people who are pardoned for “whatever it was they did, not saying they actually did anything, but in case they did here is a pardon.” Which, unlike unilaterally approving a Constitutional Amendment, is actually a power he is allowed to use, just looks shady as hell. And if Trump is really gunning for these people it does nothing to protect the little guys and only the ones who are most able to defend themselves.

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Speaking of stupid. If you think saying “My heart goes out to you”, grabbing your chest and awkwardly throwing your hand out is a Nazi salute you need to up your medication.

If it’s a disguised Nazi salute it’s about as weird as you can get with one, considering there are still photos of just about everyone on the planet accidentally forming the pose he could have jus theld his hand out to the crowd and slowly waved.

If it’s an intentional attempt at a Nazi salute, he should be checked for Parkinsons or something.

If it’s a truly awkward man doing an awkward thing then it’s body shaming or something?

Also, AOC Jewsplaining the ADL is just a move I wouldn’t make. But she’s already on record wanting Israel to roll over and die, so not surprising.

There are legitimate issues on the table that people can discuss and agree or disagree with, this kind of crap is like shitting in a public pool. You can do anything else you want while everyone freaks out about the shit in the pool.

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Not even 12 hours in I ended up squarely in the crosshairs of the new administration. Glad to know they’re focusing on the really important shit first. eyeroll

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Davos 2025.

Ramamargarine harping on about “working together” and all that jazz… but back home he have got several laws targeting white people financially, doing nothing about farm murders and ignoring high corruption levels in the government.

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Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht. Silk Road was not a good thing.

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Wow, a life sentence for drug dealing though. 9 years might be too short, but 2 lifes plus 40? Woof.