Tuesday, July 1, 2025
The people of Hungary were warned by their Dear Leader, Victor Orban, not to show up to the Gay Pride Parade this past weekend. He threatened arrests and incarceration. They heard him loud and clear.
It was the largest gay pride parade in the nation’s history.
Monday, June 30, 2025
NOAA is cutting back on weather data from three satellites that help with hurricane forecasting, and I think that’s a good thing. Why? Because DOGE fired 600 meteorologists so I’m guessing no one is left to read the data. BTW They’ve extended the cutoff deadline by a month.
TACO Tuesday – The BBB (Big Beautiful Bill) is running into a few problems. Lawmakers are “concerned.” Dems say that the bill slashes all this Medicaid funding. Republicans say no. Well, turns out that the funding isn’t cut. What the bill does is to change deadlines, add paperwork, and add more requirements. It is estimated that many people won’t realize they’ve been screwed until it’s too late. Good work guys (and gals)! Two Republican Senators won’t vote for the bill: Rand Paul and Tom Tillis. Tillis is not running again under the threat of being primaried this upcoming election. Sorry, that’s not what he said. He wants to spend more time with his family. Aw – so cute. Murkowski and Collins are both worried (or is it concerned?) about the cuts to health care. That means they’ll vote for the stinkin’ bill but with much hand wringing. The rest of the pusillanimous pack? Oh maybe Hawley will vote no. Should we send him a copy of his book on manhood?
Apparently, Fox News barely mentions the Medicaid cuts. What they do talk about is Biden! Yeah Baby. So people in Red America don’t know how they are getting screwed and as Mitch McConnell predicts, “They’ll get over it.” Yeah. I mean either they’ll get over it or they’ll die so who cares? And by then Fox will be on to blaming someone or something else.
Mike Johnsons says that there’s waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system. Why, he says, there are 1.4 million illegal immigrants on Medicaid right now. You gotta wonder, how does he know? Especially, because illegal immigrants can’t use Medicaid. Now if he or Elon wanted to go after the WFA – a cool TLA I just made up (Waste Fraud Abuse – WFA, TLA – Three Letter Acronym). They could go after the organized crime syndicates that are stealing peoples’ identities to file false disaster relief claims. In fact there was a group tasked with doing that, just like we had Inspectors General to root out that kind of stuff. But they’ve all been discontinued. But Mike probably found that 1.4 million number when he looked at the states health care programs that cover workers. That’s 1.4 million. He probably just skimmed the report and misplaced who was where.
Tommy Tubberville and Steven Miller made racist nasty comments about the character and people in New York City after a Muslim won the Democratic Primary. Hey, I’ve got an idea – why doesn’t Alabama stand on its own two feet and stop getting all that Federal money that New York is putting into the Federal coffers? And that goes for you too Stevie. In fact, if you look at who puts money into the Federal coffers it’s California and New York. Who takes it out? Why Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and all the red states. I mean the Republicans in those states have been doing a bang up job running those states. What’s Alabama in reading scores? 47th and Mississippi is like 49th? I mean they’ve had years – decades to do better and they haven’t.
Oh BTW our stock market is down compared to the stock markets in the rest of the world. What happened? Under that old dottering man – what’s his name? – Biden! We had the strongest economy in the world. How did Trump manage to ruin it so quickly? But don’t worry – immigrants are the problem. So are children of immigrants. And Trump wants $8B more for ICE to ship people out of here. Where to? I ask. I mean if you are born here where are you going to send them?
I know. Ivanka and Jared have just signed a deal with Albania to build a luxury resort on an island in the Adriatic. It used to be a Russian military base. Ship them there. There is unexploded ordinance on the island. Let them immigrants wander around that island. Maybe, they’ll trip on one of them. I mean better them than us – am I right? Oh but wait, if they were born here they aren’t immigrants, just people we don’t want. Same difference – right? Maybe, Donnie will ship Nancy Pelosi there? Who knows.
I’m guessing that Jared and Ivanka are waiting for Dad and Bebe to open up that beach front in Gaza.
Oh sorry got off track. The BBB will give $8B to ICE. Where did they get that money? I think they took it from NIH and the National Cancer Research Center. They are scheduled to lose $7.2B. Hey so ground breaking work goes a little slower and a few people die. That’s the breaks. Shouldn’t have gotten cancer. Like that legislator who had voted against women’s health care and then needed an emergency something or other and they told her sorry, you aren’t dead enough yet.
And for eight billion I want to see puppy killer Kristi in a whole new fashion line of ICE wear. Maybe with Megan Thee Stallion? Think about that for a second. Oh wait, Ivanka, have you started up your jewelry line again? Or how about the DOGE spokesperson who was doing her side hustle in her office? Showing off clothes while they were firing people left and right. Is she available? I mean things have slowed down there now right?
And why is ICE going after people at construction sites and Home Depot? Aren’t you supposed to be finding people scamming Medicaid? Or why bring 7,000 troops into LA and not go into the place where the gangs are? Oh. Right. You might get shot. And out gunned. Hey, go fight forest fires. Oh wait. You might get shot.
In the latest twist of hypocrisy, it is being reported that Trump will try and withhold money from Harvard because they aren’t doing enough to curb anti-semitism. Hey, turn slightly in your chair at the newly refurbished Resolution Desk (after Elon’s kid put a buggar on it) and see that bald headed F*ck? That’s Stephen Miller. He not only anti-semitic, he’s anti-muslim, anti-black, anti-woman etc. etc. etc. (There are bigger words for some of these antis but Trump is reported to have a 5th grade reading level so I didn’t want to appear too intelligentsia.)
And let’s not forget Iran. We obliterated their Nuclear program. That’s done. Let’s move on. Too bad we didn’t have someone who could do the art of a deal with them? Oh wait, we did. Hillary and Barrack and the former Secretary of Energy, who btw is like a nuclear scientist. Maybe, he even is one? I mean a PhD in physics at least. Wow. We could have known exactly what the Iranians had been doing etc. all without firing a shot. Now? Well, they are pretty pissed off – I’m guessing, And they are probably going to go operation warp-speed to build a bomb. Good job Donnie!
So much winning.
Happy 4th!
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Fascinating. The most unpopular bill anyone can imagine and it might be made into law. Josh Hawley doesn’t like. He’s very worried about it. But he’s going to vote for it. Because that’s what Republicans do. Meanwhile, we hear the Democrats are lost, have no message, and are waffling about. In New York, a young man went up against the Democratic establishment and won. Yet, the establishment Dems wonder what should they do? For months we’ve seen Bernie Sanders and AOC rallying huge crowds. And the Dems wonder what should they do?
Well, I know. You should run the same old tired shit you’ve been running on. It hasn’t worked before. It won’t work now. But it’s what you do.
Great.
There are voices and actions that tell all of us exactly what to do. It’s not that hard. Tax the rich; help the poor; lift up the middle class.
What’s that you say? Oh right. You sent “a strongly worded letter.” Great. You Republicans “are very concerned.” Great.
All of you need to go. None of you are willing to do what needs to be done.
Here’s a radical idea. Help people. The country is screaming at you.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
You may have noticed I haven’t been writing much. There are two reasons for this: grandkids and there’s nothing new.
When I say there’s nothing new I mean it’s the same old garbage recycled in a different form. It’s worse and more offensive. I can’t help but think that every problem this president has wrought he brought upon himself. There has not been a peep about improving people’s lives since he was elected. And the bombing of Iran? It’s been pointed out that if he had just stayed in the deal the world would be in a much better situation.
So there’s really nothing new there. What might be considered new this time around is how he and those around him are systematically dismantling our government. Is that because he’s a Russian asset? A tool of the ultra wealthy? Or something else? I was struck by a post I saw a few days ago where a woman dumped the BBB (Big Bucking Bill) into ChatGPT and asked for analysis. It came back and concluded it was a blueprint for an authoritarian take over and that it was well crafted in certain areas (maybe all?). In other words, it was not a sloppy pasted together piece of legislation.
There is also the many scenes of masked unidentified men detaining people. I wonder which will come first: someone “standing their ground” and shooting some of these people, or folks deciding to dress up like this and go rob and rape? It’s hard to say, but I don’t think we are far off from either if not both.
As to grandkids I have one thing to conclude – there is a reason to have kids when you are young.
That is all. Carry on. I’ll be working on the Mayan Lunar Series. Don’t hesitate to ask me about it. Hello? Hello?
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
This was the question Paul Krugman asked yesterday. I’ve always liked Paul because he’s a serious fact based economist. That’s why he won a Nobel prize in economics. What he says is spot on. Yesterday, he asked the above question and what he meant was, “are we serious about being a country?” because our leaders sure aren’t acting like it. What did he mean? Where’s the evidence? Hum?
As Paul usually does he presents evidence. Data to support his claim. Weird, I know.
Okay so where to begin? Start with the dollar. Paul pointed out that when interest rates on U.S. Treasuries go up, typically, so does the value of the dollar. This indicates faith in the idea that the U.S. will cover its debts. That it won’t default. However, in the most recent data this is not what is happening. Treasury rates have gone up and the value of the dollar has gone down. This indicates a lack of faith in the U.S. dollar.
He points to Mexico. They had a similar crisis where interest rates went up in that country and the peso went down. This indicates a lack of faith in the government to act responsibly, something we associate with third world countries. But now that lack of faith has come to our shores.
Why might there be this lack of faith? The U.S. has never defaulted and Paul points out that we have the money to cover our debts. But, he asks, do we have the political will to do so? And do we have the competency? He points out that Trump enacted his tariffs on “Liberation Day.” It was obvious that there was no plan. Why, for example, would you declare a huge tariff on China without stockpiling the rare earth minerals they provide? Why also did the Liberation Day plan slap tariffs on islands that had no residents, only penguins? The economic markets reacted as the administration had been told they would – by tanking.
So the administration backed off those tariffs and enacted new ones, all with the same lack of planning as before. The China tariff policy was the work of Peter Navarro. He’s been advocating putting tariffs on China for years. Peter is not an economist, and I dare say, not very smart. In his books on the subject he quotes what he says is an economist and expert on tariffing China, turns out it’s a person that doesn’t exist. The name of the fictitious person is none other than Peter Navarro but with the last name being a rearrangement the letters of his last name – Ron Vara.
The one thing that Trump seemed to actually contribute to this reckless and stupid stuff was to make sure Russia was not tariffed. There’s a lot we still don’t know about Trump and Russia. This goes back to his first campaign where a server in Trump Tower – NYC was directly connected to a Russian server. Which raises the question now, as it did then, “Who is Trump working for?”
Then there is the budget bill. It will give huge tax breaks to the very wealthy while destroying the social safety net for everyone else, and it will explode the deficit. Paul asks again, “Does this look like a responsible government?”
And then there’s Elon Musk and his drug use. His behavior has been hugely harmful to the functioning of this government and has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world, For what? Well, we can speculate, but Krugman’s assessment is that he’s surprised more capital hasn’t left our shores. He thinks that people can’t believe how mush our country has changed economically. He thinks that those folks are clinging to the belief that an adult will enter the room. They are in for a rude shock.