Tag: Government Spending

Yet Another ‘Shutdown’ Two-Step

It seems every year the country has to go through this government shutdown BS….usually it is the GOP that is threatening the shutdown without their favorite spending cuts….after decades of silliness the Dems have now decided that the threat is such a good idea….

Centrist Democrats fear their party could blunder into a government shutdown this month as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) are taking a hard line on the government funding package that needs to pass by Sept. 30.

Democrats broadly agree the looming expiration of enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act — combined with deep cuts to Medicaid that Republicans enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — will hit millions of Americans with higher health care costs.

The senator said it’s “not clear” how voting against a short-term clean funding measure and forcing a government shutdown would give Democrats more leverage over Republicans on the looming expiration of the Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The senator argued the possibility that health care costs for millions of Americans could increase substantially in 2026 should be dealt with through the regular appropriations process, which would move forward if Democrats agree to short-term deal to fund the government through October or into November or December.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5499731-democrats-government-shutdown-threat/

Dems after the election of Donny promised to change things up with the way they handle their roll in government….and now as usual they have reverted back to the same tactics they have always had….react no original thought.

Then our Clueless Leader has called the Dems bluff….

Is a government shutdown imminent? President Donald Trump and the Senate’s top Republican said they don’t see a path to a bipartisan deal to fund the government, with 18 days left to make it happen.

The president and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., came out with slightly different messages  Friday, but they both would lead to the same result — a government shutdown.

Trump is telling Republicans they don’t need to work with Democrats to reach an agreement.

“Don’t even bother dealing with them. We will get it through, because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time,” the president said on Fox and Friends.

Republicans need at least seven Democrats in the Senate to get over the 60-vote threshold. Despite that, Trump wants Republicans to do it alone.

“If you gave them every dream, right now. Every dream that they want to give away money to this and that and then destroy the country; if you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it,” Trump added.

https://san.com/cc/trump-says-gop-shouldnt-work-with-democrats-to-fund-government/

Good to see the dream of compromise/bi-partisanship is still alive and kicking (that is sarcasm)….

It is also more good news that His Majesty wants nothing but division that is how is still worthless ass will stay in the WH.

This whole ‘shutdown’ drama is nothing more than theater of the absurd and our politician play their parts well….not for the people but rather for their party.

I kicked the party line to the curb many years ago and maybe others should look and do the same….these parties are destroying this country and most are allowing it….they should be ashamed of themselves.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Happened To DOGE?

For months after Donny took office and tagged in Elmo to lighten the government of personnel the media was fixated on his movement and his actions….then Elmo blew out of town after creating governmental chaos and the reports lessened and then seemingly to disappear.

So how was DOGE doing at making government lighter?

Good question that needs a good answer.

Elom promised to save the country $2 trillion.

That target quickly dropped to $1 trillion. Then in April, Musk started intimating that the savings would only be in the region of $150 billion, making it clear to all but his most diehard supporters that DOGE was failing on its own terms — even going by its own dubious estimates of its progress.

Now, it’s looking like those purported “savings” are somehow even more pitiful than once believed.

A new investigation by Politico found that of the $52.8 billion that DOGE claims it’s saved by cancelling federal contracts through July, its actual savings were closer to a paltry $1.4 billion — which is barely two percent of what it’s boasting to the public.

The books, it seems, have been well and truly cooked — but how? According to Politico, DOGE is using the maximum spending possible allocated for some of the 10,000 contracts it axed as of last month, a “ceiling value” that’s often way higher than what the government ends up spending.

“That’s the equivalent of basically taking out a credit card with a $20,000 credit limit, cancelling it and then saying, ‘I’ve just saved $20,000,'” Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University Law School, told Politico. “Anything that’s been said publicly about [DOGE’s] savings is meaningless.”

DOGE took a “move fast and break things,” take-no-prisoners approach to gutting the federal government. It gleefully pushed for firing tens if not hundreds of thousands of federal employees, demanded access to sensitive and private data, hollowed out the Social Security Administration, and targeted funds for science, education, and healthcare.

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-even-more-failure

So the stats are out and DOGE was NOT nearly as effective as promised….to be real it was a dismal failure.

Like many of the campaign promises many things are falling way short of their promise….but that is okay for Donny is taking revenge on all the people and groups that have defied him in the past…..and is not that what a president is suppose to do instead of putting the country on a positive footing?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Elmo Crapping In His Moccasins?

By now we all know what a douche bag Musk is….even the allegations of drug use….but while in DC he snuggled up to Donny’s crotch and did all the stuff that was needed to make sure that all his enterprises would be very profitable and then he split while the going was good.

Now that Elmo was left the world of Donny he has started bad mouthing the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, tax tax cut bill that is being sold as something good for us all (a steaming pile of horse manure is the best way to describe it)…..

Elmo is rubbing the cobra’s butt with irritant about this bill….

Last week, as he prepared to exit his DC role, Elon Musk told CBS News that he was “disappointed” in the Big Beautiful Bill that passed the House to pay for President Trump’s domestic agenda. That comment was restrained compared to the criticism he leveled on Tuesday:

  • “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” he wrote on his X platform, reports CNBC. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
  • Musk’s big complaint is that the bill would add to the budget deficit, and he cited a figure of $2.5 trillion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the spending package—now under consideration in the Senate—would add $2.3 trillion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, reports Fox Business. GOP Sen. Rand Paul, meanwhile, puts the figure at closer to $5 trillion. It’s why he’s promising to vote against the measure in the Senate, per Fox News.

 

Why the change in heart from this tool?

Showing Their True Colors?

In my post from yesterday when the GOP and the Dems were in talks for the spending bill to avoid a government shutdown I asked the question….

“This is a problem….do they show backbone and fight the new spending bill which they will be accused of causing a government shutdown or do they support and betray a lot of what they say the are for?”

Last not my question was answered and answered predictably….

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday that he’ll vote to advance the Republican funding bill and bring enough Democrats with him to avert a government shutdown. “For sure the Republican bill is a terrible option,” Schumer said, per the Washington Post. Democrats have called the bill a power grab by President Trump and Republicans. “But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take … much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.” He added, “I will vote to keep the government open.”

The only other Senate Democrat so far to clearly state he’ll back the GOP bill is Sen. John Fetterman. But Schumer’s decision will give political cover to other Democrats, the Hill reports. He said that there weren’t enough votes in his caucus to pass the measure as of Wednesday but that many members were undecided. Schumer announced his switch during Democratic luncheon, shocking many of his senators, per the New York Times. Democrats in the Senate, House, and elsewhere, as well as party activists, have been pushing hard for Schumer’s caucus to block the bill and defy Trump.

But there are fears among Democrats that a government shutdown would give Trump and Elon Musk an opening to make greater cuts to the government, by decreeing which employees are essential and must work through a shutdown and which are nonessential. Senate Democrats have been wrestling with which option is worse. “For Donald Trump,” Schumer told the group, per the AP, “a shutdown would be a gift.” The procedural vote to which Schumer committed is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

The passage is not set in stone….but the leadership of the Dems proved my point ….time for a change.

In answer to ,y and others criticisms Schumer has taking to pen and paper….

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised enough Democratic support to pass the Republican funding bill that will avoid a government shutdown, despite admitting the bill is “terrible.” In a guest essay at the New York Times, he explains himself while calling President Trump a “nihilist” who’s “taken a blowtorch to our country” and now “wants full control over government spending.” Though the Republican bill is “deeply partisan” and, yes, “terrible,” it is the lesser of two evils, Schumer writes, arguing a government shutdown would give Trump and his billionaire advisor Elon Musk—who is reportedly very much in favor of a shutdown—”permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”

The administration “would have wide-ranging authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential” and “congressional Republicans could weaponize their majorities … to reopen only their favored departments and agencies while leaving other vital services that they don’t like to languish,” writes the New York Democrat. In other words, fighting the six-month government funding bill would be playing into Republicans’ hands. In backing the bill to avoid a shutdown, Democrats can at least avoid piling more suffering for “the most vulnerable Americans, those who rely on federal programs to feed their families, get medical care and stay financially afloat.”

But Schumer’s arguments are unlikely to sway some Senate Democrats, particularly those in the party’s liberal and progressive wings, who Schumer has ironically worked hard to appease over the last five years, per Politico. Elizabeth Warren said the bill, with $12 billion in cuts to non-defense programs, offers Trump and Musk “a blank check to spend your taxpayer money however they want,” while Bernie Sanders said it would “literally take food out of the mouths of hungry children, take healthcare away from seniors, and give a huge tax break to the wealthiest people on the planet,” per the Hill. One senator anonymously tells the outlet, “I think people will see this as a massive sellout to an authoritarian president. You don’t stop a bully by handing over all of your lunch money.”

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

They Are Coming For Medicare

As promised a look at the Medicare situation taking shape in DC.

This post is for retirees and those close in on retirement…..

A benefit that many of us old farts depend on is soon to be under the knife…The Trump admin and the wretched GOP are looking at the program for cuts….

Beltway journalists reported Thursday on “confusion” spreading throughout the White House and the Republican caucus following U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement of a House plan that would slash Medicaid and comments from the administration that suggested Trump will not protect Medicare—but Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocates said the message was crystal clear.

” Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to cut taxes for billionaires like themselves—and pay for it by gutting Medicare and Medicaid,” Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement. “They don’t care if families have to take on crushing debt to pay for care, as long as it makes them much, much richer.”

Mitchell offered the translation of contradictory statements from Trump that came Wednesday, with the president expressing support for a House resolution aimed at imposing his border and energy policies and extending his 2017 tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy.

The House resolution “implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it,” the president said, suggesting his opposition to a Senate proposal that would push for two separate bills.

Calling for $2 trillion in spending cuts in order to fill the $4.5 trillion hole the tax cuts would blow in the deficit, the proposal would include potential cuts of $880 billion to Medicaid, which have made some Republicans in Congress express doubt that they could support the package without angering millions of constituents who rely on the low-income healthcare program.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-on-medicaid

And after some lame campaign promise to guard the benefit….they LIED!

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s billionaire buddy turned commerce secretary, has confirmed that the administration was simply lying to MAGA supporters about not touching Social Security and Medicare.

“Back in October … I flew down to Texas, got Elon Musk to [set up DOGE], and here was our agreement: that Elon was gonna cut a trillion dollars of waste fraud and abuse,” Lutnick told Jesse Waters of Fox News Wednesday night. “We have almost $4 trillion of entitlements, and no one’s ever looked at it before. You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicaid and Medicare are wrong. So he’s gonna cut a trillion and we’re gonna get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against America and we’re gonna raise a trillion dollars of revenue.”

Just last week, President Trump promised that “Social Security won’t be touched, other than if there’s fraud or something. It’s going to be strengthened. Medicare, Medicaid—none of that stuff is going to be touched.”

Fast forward a week, and he endorsed House Republicans’ budget plan, which is expected to make an $880 billion cut to Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

This is a long cry from the party that was telling its voters—many of whom are elderly conservatives on government benefits—that they wouldn’t lay a finger on the programs they need most.

(newrepublic.com)

You were warned numerous times during the campaign and yet 40-50% of you voted for this….how stupid do you feel now?

Hatred makes one stupid and stupidity has found a home here in America.

And when one is stupid then Project 2025 can be used with full support.

I reiterate….You Were Warned!

Speaking of Medicare I start my next round of treatment today, 5 days a week for 6 weeks, I do not know how it will effect me or my writing…..hopefully I will continue my ‘crusade’.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

DOGE, The Money Pit

Money pit a term we all use from time to time but do we have a good grasp on the definition?  If not I can help….

Money pit….A massive non stop waste of money that you regret severely in hind sight

I would say that explains this whole stupidity of the DOGE.

Billionaire CEO and White House advisor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has amassed roughly 30 staffers with the goal of slashing the US government’s budget.

As it’s targeted president Donald Trump’s number one bogeyman — diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — something ironic is happening: even as it’s trying to cut costs across the government, the so-called department’s expenses are ballooning.

As Business Insider reports, DOGE’s spending more than doubled from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8, according to its latest financial filings.

While that’s still quite a bit less than the roughly $60 million the Biden administration set aside for the United States Digital Services last year — the department was reincarnated as DOGE — it’s nonetheless a sign that Musk is quickly racking up bills, despite employing underqualified high school grads, drug sellers, and racist shitposters.

Meanwhile, according to DOGE’s dubious back-of-the-envelope accounting, the department is purportedly saving the government “approx. $1 billion/day.”

“A good start, though this number needs to increase to > $3 billion/day,” DOGE’s official X account tweeted late last month.

DOGE has gloated about canceling government subscriptions to news outlets and consulting contracts related to “executive coaching.”

But considering the mountain of legal complaints filed against the nascent entity, DOGE will likely have some much steeper bills to pay in the upcoming months and possibly years.

In just a matter of weeks, Musk’s group of young lackeys — who have torn through sensitive data at lightning speeds without the necessary clearances — have already amassed a litany of lawsuits from district judges, religious groups, teachers’ unions, federal worker unions, the American Foreign Service Association,  and 22 attorneys general, to name a few.

And as plenty of experts have since pointed out, DOGE’s indiscriminate combing through sensitive data is likely illegal.

Who will foot the bill for the ensuing legal challenges remains to be seen. Besides, we’ve already seen the Trump administration bristle at the legal blowback, with Trump accusing judges of “intolerable judicial overreach.” If the judicial system will survive Musk’s coup is also a hotly contested subject these days; Congress, meanwhile, has mostly sat on the sidelines.

Apart from ballooning expenses, DOGE at least won’t have to give the richest man in the world a paycheck, as BI points out, since he’s a “special government employee.”

(futurism.com)

The whole idea of giving this tool Elmo unlimited power is stupid….but then look who is allowing it.

As Elon Musk stood beside him, President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that gives Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency group control over hiring and firing at federal agencies. Six takes on what that means:

  • Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo: “I don’t think it’s too much to say that it puts Musk functionally in control of the US government,” he writes, noting that “political commissars” will be assigned to each federal agency and given control over hiring and firing, with a requirement that for every four people who are let go, only one person can be hired. “We’re in dystopian quasi-science fiction territory here,” Marshall concludes.

Rex Huppke, USA Today: He likewise calls Musk the nation’s “most powerful person” and “de facto president”—an “unelected rich snot” who is “demolishing the federal government, probably illegally” and “acting downright gleeful about thousands upon thousands of Americans losing their jobs.” “It is vile, bordering on sadism,” Huppke writes. “Losing a job is a catastrophe for most families. It’s not a damn joke.”

  • Tressie McMillan Cottom, New York Times: Musk wants to dismantle and “demoralize” the federal government, she writes, noting his “narration of power as a vicarious gamelike experience of dominance” is “a skilled manipulation of content in a content-saturated culture” that “obscures what is actually happening.” Look beyond his exuberant tweets and you’ll see “a strategic takeover of national interests that will demolish the state’s functionality in a way that benefits the ones swinging the hammer.”
  • Nicole Russell, USA Today: Taxpayers should be celebrating these efforts “to bring financial responsibility to the federal government,” she writes, noting that as a parent, she’d love to know why $268 billion in annual education funding hasn’t delivered “a better return on our investment.” She believes Trump when he says billions of dollars in waste and fraud will be found and argues the hunt “is exactly what Americans want.”
  • Cal Thomas, Tribune Content Agency: Indeed, Trump promised to downsize government, and now he’s following through on that promise, writes Thomas. He compares Musk’s moves to “spring cleaning,” the eliminating of “wasteful, fraudulent, and, in many cases, unnecessary and duplicative programs” that came from bureaucrats and regulators who, like Musk, weren’t elected by the people. And “sometimes it takes a chainsaw, instead of a scalpel, to get a job done.”

I like the term ‘president de facto’ when describing Elmo.

Nothing about this unit impresses me….it will in the end go down as a colossal waste of time and money.

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It’s That Time Again!

Time for one of the silliest games in DC….the spending bill and the looming government shutdown.

Theater of the Absurd at it’s best.

That time again when there is no spending bill and the government is only hours away from a shutdown….like I said a silly game that is truly sad.

There was a bill but Trump and his band of misfits peed on it.

The bipartisan spending bill Congress put forward to prevent a government shutdown is dead, according to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who responded “yes” when asked Wednesday night if the deal had been officially scrapped following President-elect Trump’s rejection of it. House Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet said how he plans to proceed, the BBC reports. Rather than passing a budget for the fiscal year that started October 1, Congress passed a temporary spending bill, which expires Friday. Without a short-term funding bill passing, a federal government shutdown looms.

  • “There’s still a lot of negotiations and conversations going on,” and no clear path forward yet, Scalise told reporters, per the New York Post, which refers to the rejected bipartisan stopgap bill as “bloated” at 1,547 pages. Trump has called for it to be streamlined.
  • Elon Musk, who had also spoken out aggressively against the bill, posted victoriously after news broke that it had been killed. “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed.”
  • Trump and VP-elect Vance are also calling for the national debt ceiling to be raised; asked whether that’s on the table for the revised stopgap measure, Scalise would only say, “We’re obviously looking at a lot of options.”
  • The Hill reports lawmakers on both sides seemed to be “caught off guard” by the debt limit increase demand. Politico reports it’s a “complicated issue lawmakers hadn’t planned to deal with for months,” and there’s quite a bit of concern that it can’t be dealt with in a matter of days.
  • Before the deal’s collapse, Johnson went on Fox and Friends to talk about it Wednesday morning, and revealed that he’s on a group text with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and that he’d been texting with them about the background of the deal the night prior, NBC News reports.
  • He said he reminded them that with the thin margin Republicans have in the House, Democrat votes are needed, but apparently they (and Trump, and Vance) were unconvinced; as the Washington Post explains, critics of the bill claim it contains too many “giveaways to Democrats.”
  • Sources tell Politico and the Hill Johnson is now considering a “clean” continuing resolution as a Plan B, meaning additional provisions such as disaster aid and financial assistance for farmers would be dropped from the spending bill and considered again in the new year. It’s unclear Democrats, or even all of the House’s conservative lawmakers, would support such a move.

It is the same song and dance every time….and then the idiots come to a last minute deal to save the shutdown….but with Trump and the Boyz in the wings will they come top a deal?

Let’s look at the dark cloud….

President-elect Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate—days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.

  • Trump’s sudden decision to make new demands sent Congress spiraling as lawmakers are trying to wrap up work and head home for the holidays, the AP reports. It leaves House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambling to salvage a new plan, days before Friday’s deadline to keep the government open. “Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a statement.
  • The president-elect offered a proposal for a continuation of government funding along with a much more controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit—something his own party routinely rejects.
  • Democrats decried the GOP revolt over the stopgap measure to keep federal offices running. “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “And hurt the working-class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”
  • Already, the bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard-right conservatives and Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk rejected the plan. Rank-and-file lawmakers decried the massive 1,500-page bill over its increased spending—which includes their first pay raises in more than a decade. A number of Republicans were waiting for Trump to signal whether they should vote yes or no.
  • “This should not pass,” Musk posted on X in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. He warned that “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
  • Sources tell the Hill that Johnson is looking at a “Plan B” involving a “clean” resolution that would continue funding the government while dropping provisions including $10 billion in aid for farmers and $100 billion in disaster relief.
  • The stopgap measure is needed because Congress has failed to pass its annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon and national security apparatus, to the health, welfare, transportation, and other routine domestic services. When the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, Congress simply punted the problem by passing a temporary funding bill that expires Friday

This sad saga gets more ridiculous by the session.

I cannot wait for the rest of the story.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“It’s Good For World Peace”

It is official that bill to Ban TikTok was signed by Biden….but that was not what the bill was really about….TikTok was just the cover for a massive spending bill for the War Department and its piglets that suck in its teats.

It has been awhile since the vote and the signing and not much in the news these days….is TikTok really a threat or is it something else?

The real meat of this bill was the aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan….

Packed into the $95 billion bill is $61 billion to spend on the Ukraine proxy war, $26 billion to support Israel, and $8 billion for military aid for Taiwan and other spending in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for war with China. It also includes a mechanism that could ban TikTok if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest within nine months and gives the federal government the power to steal frozen Russian assets.

The legislation includes $61 billion for the proxy war in Ukraine, much of which will go to US weapons makers to replenish US stockpiles. It includes over $9 billion in economic aid in the form of repayable loans, but Ukraine is not actually expected to pay it back. Another provision will authorize the US to sell off frozen Russian assets, which could be used to pay the loans. CNN previously reported that the Biden administration will also be able to cancel the debt.

The bill also includes $26 billion to support Israel. About $9 billion will go toward humanitarian aid in Gaza and other places, while the remaining $17 billion will go toward military aid to support the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and replenish Israeli air defenses. The aid is on top of the $3.8 billion in military assistance that Israel receives from the US each year.

Another $8 billion will go toward military aid for Taiwan and other spending in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for a future war with China. It includes $1.9 billion to replenish weapons sent to Taiwan and regional countries and $2 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US weapons. Over $3.3 billion will go toward submarine infrastructure in the region.

(antiwar.com)

Even a Repub Mitt Romney, who I seldom agree with, has seen the real reason for the assault on TikTok….

In a conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) acknowledged that banning TikTok has such strong support in Congress because the social media platform has hurt Israel’s public relations battle.

“Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down, potentially, TikTok or other entities of that nature,” Romney said at the McCain Institute this past Friday. “If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts.”

The official justification for targeting TikTok is the unfounded allegation that it’s a Chinese spy tool because its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. But Romney’s comments suggest the real purpose of the renewed push to ban the app after a similar effort failed years ago was to censor news coming out of Gaza and pro-Palestinian content.

Blinken blamed social media in general when asked by Romney why Israel was losing the global PR war. Palestinian journalists have been able to broadcast to the whole world the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza using social media, including graphic videos of dead or wounded children being dug out of rubble following an Israeli airstrike.

(antiwar.com)

I’d bet you are wondering what the title is all about….world peace?

President Biden…claimed the legislation, which funds the proxy war in Ukraine and Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, is good for “world peace.”

“It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe, and it’s a good day for world peace, for real. This is consequential,” Biden said.

“My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad. The security of Israel is critical,” Biden said.

Have you heard such total bullsh*t….ever?

Biden just keeps spreading his fecal matter.

Geez Nelly how much does AIPAC pay this old fart for such outright lies?

What a f*cking hypocrite!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Shutdown Two-Step!

Here we go again!

The political dance.

Remember just a couple of months ago we were holding our breath waiting to see if the idiots in Congress would allow a shutdown or do the right thing and keep the government working.

And as usual the game came down to the last minute before a deal was announced to keep the government up and running.

Well sports fans if you exhaled at the success then may had better take a deep breath….

Prepare to hear three words a lot this week in regard to DC news: “looming government shutdown.”

  • Two deadlines: Around 20% of government funding expires at midnight Friday unless the two sides strike a deal, with services including food stamps and housing assistance at risk, reports the Washington Post. A shutdown involving the remaining 80% could come the following week, with the deadline there on March 9.
  • Impasse: It’s “all about House Republicans,” particularly hardliners, who are pressuring Speaker Mike Johnson to “string out this fight as long as possible in order to trigger automatic spending cuts,” in the assessment of Punchbowl News, which digs deep into the nitty gritty of negotiations. House Republicans also are making policy demands on issues including abortion, immigration, and LGBTQ rights, per the Post.
  • Busy week: The Senate is back Monday and the House on Wednesday, and hoped-for deals expected over the weekend never materialized, reports the Hill. President Biden will meet with the top four congressional leaders—Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries, and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell—at the White House on Tuesday, per the AP.
  • One big problem: Biden and Johnson “have virtually no relationship,” as an analysis at Politico explores. They rarely talk and barely know each other, and this chasm is contributing to the DC stalemates, according to the story.

By this time the threat means little of to us peasants….we are numb to these accusations and threats and manure slinging.

Even if it shutdown we will not remember it come September….out attention span is very short.

But if you want to know about these things…..this game that the idiots play (oh BTW Congress still gets paid during a shutdown)….will just be headline fodder and then be gone…but if you want to know then read on….

https://usafacts.org/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-a-government-shutdown/

Not to worry the Sun will still come up Tomorrow.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

This Is What I Have been Talking About!

Since the US has taken it upon its checkbook to finance the war in Ukraine I have been bitching about the money that is being wasted with very little return.

I recently read a story about this conflict and the War Department’s lack of oversight.

More than $1 billion in weapons that were shipped to Ukraine have not been properly tracked by the Pentagon, a report from the Defense Department’s inspector general has found.

The report examined $1.699 billion in weapons sent to Ukraine that are subject to enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM), which includes Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, night vision goggles, AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, and other types of weaponry.

The IG report found that the majority of the EEUM arms, nearly 40,000 weapons in total worth approximately $1.005 billion, have not been accounted for after being sent into Ukraine. Smaller, more portable weapons are subject to EEUM since they’re more likely to be smuggled and sold on the black market.

Robert P. Storch, the Pentagon’s inspector general, said there’s “no record” of inventories being taken. “It doesn’t mean they’re not there, or they’re not being used,” he said, according to The New York Times. “[But] because of their sensitivity, their vulnerability to diversion, or misuse, or the consequences of that, it’s particularly important to have this additional tracking and accountability in place.”

The US policy of pouring weapons into Ukraine has been done with very little oversight, and the shipments examined in the IG report are just a fraction of the over $40 billion in military equipment the US has provided or committed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year.

(antiwar.com)

This is a continuing problem and no one seems to care that this situation continues war after war.

This is what we get when we allow lobbyists and special interests run our foreign policy.

But let’s not worry about this…..better yet lets pretend the border is more important or cutting Social Security or Food programs.

You should be shouting from the treetops that your money is being mishandled in such a way….but sadly you will not.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”