Tag: News

Saturda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

His name is Russell Vought.

A Project 2025 leader, he is Donald J. Trump’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget.

He is a Christian Nationalist.

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said in a video revealed by ProPublica and the research group Documented in October. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.”

Well, it’s just like Jesus said, right? “Love thy neighbor.”

Well, no, Russell Vought isn’t Christian enough to do that. Love thy neighbor? Not if they’re a bureaucrat.

“Do unto others.”

Oh, no, no, no, he doesn’t want this done onto him. He’s a Christian. He wants to be in charge.

“Love your enemies.”

Oh, hell no. Love your enemies? Who can love a bureaucrat? Russell Vought doesn’t even want to think of them as human.

Come on, man, these are ‘bureaucrats’. Bureaucrats are not to be considered in regard to all the good they’ve done to help the nation and the world. The work they’ve done on the government’s behalf for the nation’s ranchers and farmers, military members, Congressional members and staff, the medical and healthcare services…the list is endless. None of that matters. What they’ve done as part of the USAID to help the poor through charity…doesn’t matter.

The work done as part of FEMA to help people recover from hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and other disasters…doesn’t matter.

This ‘Christian’ sees none of that. He views them — Republicans, Democrats, military veterans, fire fighters, scientists, doctors, meteorologists, lawyers, food inspectors, air traffic controllers — in the EPA, NRO, IRS, DOD, USDA, NOAA, NASA, FBI, Secret Service — as ‘villians’.

So, he doesn’t want to just shut down the agencies.

No, he is crueler than that. He wants the human beings who work on our behalf as citizens, our fellow United States citizens, to be more than unemployed.

“We want to put them in trauma.”

Yes, he wants our fellow United States citizens to be put into trauma.

Isn’t that lovely. How very Christian of him, isn’t it? Sure, it’s just as Jesus would do.

This is the person PINO Trusk chose to lead his government.

Who you hang out with…who you trust…says much about your character.

I think we know who should be viewed as the villians.

0

Frieda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

The Great Deflector blames ‘globalists’ for the market drops.

Later in the same press event, Trump again blamed globalists for the market downturn. “I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.“

What an absolute crock. Couldn’t be the old standard of people and institutions who invest in the stock market were protecting their profits and selling stocks, could it? Oh, no, he has to pull up some bullshit bogey man.

Then again, PINO Trusk isn’t a deep thinker. Not a sharp guy. Doesn’t understand the global network of finance, manufacturing, and supply chains at all. Nope. He prefers a stone-age ‘isolationist’ approach. Thinks that will ‘make America great again’.

Meanwhile, treating your friends like shit ends up with them getting pissed at you and treating you like shit.

Ontario cancels Starlink deal over US tariffs — Italy may follow due to US pullback from Europe

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that he would cancel the $100 million deal the Canadian province signed with Starlink in response to Trump’s 25% tariff on Canadian goods. He’s also imposing a 25% tax on electricity exports, with New York, Michigan, and Minnesota being the most affected. CBC also reports that U.S.-based companies are banned from procurement contracts with the province.

X Threatens Our Democracy. Canada Should Ban It

Last year, as the U.S. government debated and then followed through on banning TikTok, Republican lawmakers advanced numerous arguments against allowing a hostile foreign power to control a significant medium of public discourse.

They said a social media application owned by someone who is close to an autocratic leader might be used as propaganda.

They said the amount of data harvested by the app from users’ phones could pose enormous security risks, providing information to the security services of a hostile power.

Of course, I might be in the minority in my concerns about PINO Trusk.

What Big-Business Leaders, Including Democrats, Say Privately About Trump

One Wall Street executive told me that Mr. Trump remains better than any of the alternatives. Another — citing Elon Musk’s government shake-up — said he likes what he sees so much, he now regrets voting for Ms. Harris.

It wasn’t just that this group resented Mr. Biden’s intrusive regulatory policies. They didn’t like diversity, equity and inclusion policies either — or anything they derisively described to me as “woke stuff.” Now executives and bankers alike (my circles tilt a bit toward Wall Street) are celebrating early signs of a reversal.

I’m not really astonished by claims that business leaders ‘favor’ PINO Trusk’s trash and burn approach. Stories are rising across the political spectrum about people who first cheer the Trusk Regime’s behavior. Then they’re personally affected, and the song they’re singing goes from praises to complaints. So, as PINO Trusk burns supply chains, declares tariffs (and reverses them), and alienates markets and customers outside of the US, we’ll see how they’re feeling in a few months. Sure, they’re wealthier; their wealth cradles their asses as we go through chaos and inflation.

Or, as Paul Krugman stated it, One thing that really struck me from Rattner’s piece — something I’ve heard from other sources — is that big businessmen think Elon Musk is doing a good job. I guess this is one of those cases where power and privilege make you blind to things that are obvious to everyone else.

After all this fucking around, I’m waiting to find out.

0

Frieda’s Theme Music

Howdy men and women, boys and girls, and all others regardless of your name, gender, or orientation. Welcome to another installment of Frieda.

Today is March 7, 2025. Blue sky and sunshine are stamping Ashlandia’s scene. Although it’s 38 F now, warming sun will carry us into the upper 50s. I can dig it.

So the Jobs Report came out, and I think I smell a con.

The US economy added 151,000 jobs in February in first full jobs report under Trump’s second term It’s like, what? How? Given all that I’d read about job losses throughout the month of Feburary, suddenly it’s good news? Call me old-fashioned but if I step in a pile of shit and it smells like shit, I call it shit. Additionally, given how the Trusk Regime has infiltrated every Federal computer system, and PINO Trusk’s propensity of lying, cheating, and being generally untrustworthy, I think there’s every reason to believe that we’re being gaslighted. That economists believed 160000 new jobs would be added blew my mind.

This is an interesting piece of the article:

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has made monumental policy shifts — including large-scale federal layoffs, funding cutbacks, a back-and-forth on tariffs and mass deportations — that have spilled into the broader economy, shaking business and consumer confidence, and resulting in several data points flashing warning signals.

However, the Department of Government Efficiency-driven employment cuts weren’t expected to make a big splash in February’s jobs report. That’s partly because of timing of the two surveys that feed in to the monthly employment snapshot and also due to the structure of employment separation agreements.

Still, Friday’s report gave a hint of what could come: The federal government posted a loss of 10,000 jobs for the month, with 3,500 of those losses coming from the US Postal Service.

So, they’re saying this is all timing? I remain incredulous.

This being the anniversary of one of America’s version of Bloody Sunday, reading about it triggered The Neurons to fold U2’s song, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, into the morning mental music stream. It’s the 60th Anniversary of the violence in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.

The U2 song is about another government killing citizens. “One of U2’s most overtly political songs, its lyrics describe the horror felt by an observer of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, mainly focusing on the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters.” h/t to Wikipedia.org

Little changes, it sometimes feels. Governments kill their protesting citizens. Reminds me of PINO Trusk’s first term. Remember when he wanted to have the military shoot protestors?

Coffee has rescued me again. Hope you have a solid day. Cheers

0

Thirtsda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

My wife and I remain surprised by how many friends and families are acting as though events under PINO Trusk is business as usual and no big deal. Pretty astonishing to me and downright demoralizing to the household’s female ruler. While one friend scowls and proclaims there won’t be 2026 elections — or they’ll be a sham — many others speculate that life will go on as usual; we just won’t have a useful Federal government.

Head-shaking to us, it’s head-in-the-ground thinking IMO. “Let’s just not pay attention and and pretend nothing is going to change and we’ll be fine.” These are self-professed Democratic lifers and progressives, retired professionals such as doctors, accountants, teachers, college professors, and nurses. I wonder, are my wife and I too deep into Doom Scrolling to make objective and intelligent assessments of WTF is going on? I don’t think so.

  • Hard to plan things now as His Idiocy is perfecting the skill of being unpredictable. PINO Trusk is quite the dancer, two-stepping around truth, logic, and consistency. Gotta love that shit show he put on the other night. Pulled in a juvenile saved from cancer as a prop after cutting funding to NIH and medical research at colleges and universities. No shame in the PINO, not at all.

Now we’re seeing His Slickness reversing the tariffs. No, puttin’ ’em on hold. How’s that make sense? He’s all bold speech about how great tariffs are and then jumps back when he installs them and they have the immediate expected negative impact which anyone with common sense predicted.

“And you listen to some of our stupid people, and some of the very stupid people in Washington, DC, “We don’t want to charge tariffs. That’s not… It’s going to increase inflation.” China paid us hundreds of billions of dollars and we had almost no inflation. This group that came in, they had the highest inflation in the history of our country. We took in billions and billions of dollars from foreign countries in the form of tariffs that I hadn’t even gotten started yet. We’ll be a rich nation again. We’ll be able to do what we want to do. We have to do the tariffs. We have been treated so badly mostly by allies. If you want to know the truth, our allies treat us actually worse than our so-called enemies. But we have been treated so badly on trade and other things on military. We protect them, and then they screw us on trade. We’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re going to be a tariff nation. It’s not going to be a cost to you. It’s going to be a cost to another country.”

That was Donald J. Trump in Wisconsin last year. Seems like stupid is as stupid does and DJT is cornering the market on stupid.

The Trump administration’s massive federal cuts and swelling feelings of economic uncertainty helped fuel a recession-level spike in layoff plans last month, new data showed Thursday.

US-based employers last month announced plans to slash 172,017 jobs, a 103% increase from a year ago and the highest February total since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s latest monthly job cuts report released Thursday.

It’s the 12th highest monthly total in the 32 years Challenger has been tracking job cuts. The 11 others (four came during the Covid-19 pandemic) all occurred when the US was in a recession, Challenger data shows.

The largest share of job cut announcements came in the government sector, where the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has axed jobs, slashed federal spending and scrapped contracts.

By Challenger’s count, there were 62,242 announced cuts across 17 federal agencies. That’s a 41,311% increase from the 151 cuts announced through February 2024, Challenger noted.

The DOGE effect was not limited to the public sector: Downstream impacts, such as the loss of funding for private nonprofits, led to another 894 cuts, according to the report.

Outside of the government, the next largest cuts were in retail (38,956), technology (14,554) and consumer products (10,625).

I fully expect PINO Trusk and his MAGAzens to proclaim this to be former President Biden’s fault. Cos we know that story well, how PINO Trusk tries to take responsibility when things go well and blames every other biped when it doesn’t.

The firings of over 5,000 probationary employees at the Agriculture Department may have been unlawful, and the workers should be reinstated for at least the next 45 days, a federal civil service board ruled Wednesday.

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board Chair Cathy Harris issued the order after the Office of Special Counsel alleged that the Agriculture Department had “engaged in prohibited personnel practices” to carry out the mass firings.

The question for me is, seriously, if you’d treated me like crap, firing me in the manner that you did, and then brought me back because it was probably illegal, how would I respond? Sadly, I’d prefer to act like a professional and do a good job because the nation depends on it and I swore that I would. But it would be evilly tempting to be spiteful and sabotage PINO Trusk’s government, basically treating him and his kind as assholes because that’s how they treated me.

Guess it’s a good thing that I’m not part of that workforce.

3

Wenzda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

I didn’t watch PINO Trusk’s speech. Several media outlets highlighted some lowlights that provoked some thinking in me.

Look how he’s asking for patience and claiming to be working hard to lower the prices. Why, PINO Trusk sounds just like President Biden, but somehow, we’re supposed to be more patient and tolerant of Trump when he shows none for others.

Egg prices have risen since Trusk took office, for the same reasons they were rising under President Biden. Now, the Times reminds us that last week, ‘Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced $1 billion in efforts to contain the bird flu outbreak and “make eggs affordable again.”’

But, DOGE fired Dept. of Agriculture workers, including the agencies who would administer this program. I give PINO Trusk’s efforts Zero points on the logic scale and Ten points on the bullshit scale.

Remember, zero is the least amount of points rewarded — well, none are — while ten points on the BS scale is the most which can be rewarded. A BS of ten means that it’ll go over great with the unthinking right wing minions while the rest of us respond, “WTF?” This specific promise gets zero on the logic scale because he fired the people who can actually help do what he claims to be trying to do. If it follows that ‘actions speak louder than words’, his actions of firing the people who can help way outweigh Secretary Rollins words.

But what’s new with PINO Trusk? That isn’t. He’s always making promises, claiming what he’s going to do. Remember some of his previous claims and promises:

  • He would reveal his taxes if elected president. No, he would release them if President Obama released his birth certificate, which was part of the Trump birther scam. President Obama released his birth certificate a week after Trump made this claim; Trump took years before they were released.
  • He would build a new wall and Mexico would pay for it. Didn’t happen.
  • He would be ‘too busy’ as President to golf. He ended up playing more golf than any POTUS in history, and scammed the Federal government along the way to make money from it. He’s already spent a quarter of his time in office this year golfing.
  • As early as 2015, Trump promised to replace ‘Obamacare’ — ACA — with ‘something terrific’. Ten years later, he has yet to reveal anything material to do anything of the sort.
  • Donald Trump said COVID-10 would disappear. “…when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” He said that just over 5 years ago, on Feb. 26, 2020. COVID-19 remains a threat to this day and has killed millions of Americans.

Remember, he’s a failed businessman. Here’s some of that history:

  • The Trump Taj Mahal
  • Trump Shuttle Inc.
  • Trump Mortgage, LLC
  • Trump University (also known as the Trump Wealth Institute and Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC)
  • The Plaza Hotel in Manhatten
  • ‘Trump Steaks’
  • Trump Vodka
  • Trump: The Game
  • Trump Magazine
  • GoTrump.com

We have PINO Trusk’s documented track record. We have his documented lies. The bottom line: he promises everything and can’t be trusted.

Only a fool — or a Republican — would.

2

Twosda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Stories I followed today.

Elon Musk’s satellite business Starlink may not have officially taken over Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract with the Federal Aviation Administration yet to upgrade the systems it uses to manage America’s airspace. However, on Friday, FAA officials ordered staff to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal, according to a source with knowledge of the FAA and two people briefed on the situation. 

The sources note that these internal directives have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally — which they say is unusual for a matter like this. The source with knowledge of the FAA tells Rolling Stone that it appears as though “someone does not want a paper trail.”

Isn’t it amazing that while Elon Reeve Musk is busy cutting projects, programs, funding, and contracts legally established by the voters and Congress, he’s working hard to enrich himself.

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall Runs From Veterans – Marshall held a rural town hall expecting softball questions. Instead, his own voters confronted him about Trump’s VA cuts and mass firings under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). His response? He fled the room mid-question. SMITE!

Rep. Diana Harshbarger Gets Roasted by Her Own Voters – She confidently declared that “there’s been a mandate for the president from the American people.” The crowd immediately shouted back “NO!!” in unison, shutting her down instantly. SMITE!

Texas Rep. Keith Self Owns Himself – In deep-red Texas, Self tried to calm an audience furious over federal cuts and layoffs. Instead, they booed him and chanted “Do your job!” SMITE!

Just a timely reminder of who the fuck Russia is. I stand with President Zelensky, Ukraine, and NATO. They’re our allies.

The administration’s lawyers waited until the literal 11th hour last Wednesday to appeal the DC Circuit’s action to the SCOTUS, which for all the reasons noted above should have routinely refused to consider it. So it wasn’t a good sign when John Roberts, who oversees appeals from the circuit, paused the operation of the already appealed District Court order requiring the Trump administration to release the already appropriated money.

Now what REALLY isn’t a good sign is that here we are six days later, and the SCOTUS as a whole hasn’t already gotten rid of this ridiculous appeal of a wildly illegal act on the part of the government. 

The Roberts Court, already complicit in the creation of the Trusk Regime, seems to be lending it another helping hand by stalling taking action. WTF.

Georgia recently relaunched its maternal mortality review committee after dismissing all 32 of its members last year. But state officials won’t say who the current members are.

Hiding in the dark, they can do whatever they want and then shift and squirm and pretend that it wasn’t them and avoid responsibility for their actions and try to dodge repercussions. It’s the Grand Ol’ Trump Party way.

‘I don’t know where to begin!’ Morning Joe angrily shreds JD Vance’s diplomatic blunder – Raw Story

Speaking with host Sean Hannity, Vance downplayed Britain’s support for Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky as “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years“

I was appalled, disgusted, and furious over Jackass Vance’s ridiculous fucking comments. How goddamn dare he? True to the Trump Regime nature, Vance shows no honor and little intelligence. He blurts shit, too stupid to realize what he doesn’t know, insulting the fallen and our allies. Damn him, damn him, damn him.

First Trump threatened to nuke hurricanes. Now he’s waging war on weather forecasters – The Guardian

Six weeks into Trump’s second term, the president hasn’t bombed any hurricanes, but he has nuked the US’s weather-forecasting capabilities. Last week, hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency, were abruptly fired.

Experts and lawmakers have warned that the ramifications could be wide-ranging and deadly. “Ships will not be able to safely navigate through our waterways. Farmers will not have the data they need to manage their crops,” Maria Cantwell, a Democratic senator from Washington, said in a statement. “This action is a direct hit to our economy, because Noaa’s specialised workforce provides products and services that support more than a third of the nation’s GDP.”

Six weeks in, and Donald Trump and his Project 2025 regime has proven to be the most damaging force the United States has faced in our history.

2

Twosda’s Theme Music

For Twosda, March 4, 2025, in Ashlandia, the numbers are 44/50/37 F. Current, high, low. Showers spray us like a gardener going by with a squirt bottle. Some artist used spray paint of the sky. Layers of white with gray highlights. Some spray spills over the hills and mountains, obscuring the tops. Snow still streaks the northern ridges when they’re seen.

The household ant report is unchanged. I did several patrols and counted no more than twelve. They still wander without clear intentions or origins.

Well, as many of us predicted, the future of the PINO Trusk US economy has alarms sounding about bad things coming. Atlanta Fed model forecasts nearly -3% GDP growth in first quarter of this year

But the Feb. 28 update of GDPNow saw a plummeting forecast from roughly that same 2%+ mark to -1.5%. The model updated Monday with an even more pessimistic outlook: -2.8%.

The Atlanta Fed web page stresses that the GDPNow estimate is not an official forecast of the Atlanta Fed, and there are no subjective inputs to the model. 

“The estimate is based solely on the mathematical results of the model,” it states.

True to form of being an idiot, PINO Trusk’s response is said to be to try to conceal the truth, i.e., lie to people. Sure, that’ll work with the true believers, a.k.a. the MAGAts. And yea, verily, a subsection of low-informed ‘Mericans will be confused and taken in. But the tangibles will tell the truth. Economists not swallowing the Trusk pill will understand what’s going on. So will ‘Mericans filling up their cars, paying for ‘lectricity, buying food and goods, and looking for a job. PINO Trusk will try to paste it all up with shoddy gold leaf, you know, like his horrendous golden shows, but most of us will know that he’s taking the piss. Certainly, outside of the U.S., they’ll know and point out the descrepancies.

Whole thing has my spouse diligently doomscrolling and urgently prepping for rising prices and reduced supplies. The song being played in many parts of the progressive world is buy now, while you can.

That scripture has encourage The Neurons to resurrect a 2001 Gorillaz song. Part of this was due to my SO not being familiar with the Gorillaz. Said, “Never heard of them” when the Gorillaz were shown on a television talk show. True to my pedantic self, I had to educate and remind her of Gorillaz tune. I then found “Clint Eastwood” staying in my morning mental music stream cos of its lyrics.

I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
The future is coming on

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Yep the future is now with Trusk’s shitty touch. Gonna be a looonnnggg, ugly, messy future, with a problematic, uncertain end. Many have hopes of guillotines being resurrected as part of Trusk’s finish, with Trusk Regime members making the regretful climb.

Oh, sorry. That’s not my music video. Sorry. Didn’t mean to share this video of MAGA Republicans getting booed. Also featured is the Rogan podcast featuring evil criminal Elon Reeve Musk calling social security a ponzi scheme.

Here is the music video.

Coffee has given me a hand up, and I’m ready to go. Hope your day is strong, wherever you are, whatever you do. Let’s rock on. Cheers

2

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑