Mountains of💩  😱✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱

💩Tsunami:  On Wednesday Trump announced that “his” Department of Transportation was cancelling NYC’s congestion pricing program.  The program, approved under President Biden, is controversial but much to the surprise of many it’s actually working; the roads are less congested, commuting times are down, more people are using mass transit, and the air is cleaner. For now, despite Trump’s announcement, congestion pricing isn’t going anywhere except to court where Trump and NY’s Governor Hochul will duke out its survival. The congestion pricing brouhaha was the least of it, what was more outrageous was that in his social media post trumpeting his faux for now congestion cancellation, Trump referred to himself as a king, establishing his “royal” status by including a mock-up of a Time magazine cover with him wearing a crown.  Also on Wednesday, the wannabe king responded to Ukraine President Zelenskyy’s accurate but probably impolitic jibe that Trump has been caught in a “web of disinformation,” a reference to Trump’s belief in and use of his idol Putin’s talking points, by calling Zelensky a dictator. Trump, the self-appointed king, who adores a Russian dictator, envies China’s ironfisted leader, models his policies on a Hungarian autocrat and counts the despotic leader of North Korea as one of his besties justified calling the duly elected President of Ukraine a dictator by pointing out that Zelenskyy, in the midst of a brutal war and like Churchill before him hasn’t held a new election. Maybe that’s because he’s been busy fighting the war started by Russian invaders? To add to the absurdity, Trump who inherited his wealth and was saved from financial ruin first by his rich dad and then by a distorted reality TV show, further slammed Zelenskyy for having been just a modestly successful comedian.

More💩:  We are living through truly 💩ty times and things aren’t getting any better because here on the home front, Trump is still firing people willy nilly, eviscerating FEMA, stripping funding from national parks, cancer, and Alzheimer’s research, and forcing out thousands of IRS employees during tax season. His Homeland security people have sent shackled Chinese and Iranian migrants of all ages to Panama where they’re locked in hotels, flown others on expensive military flights to Guantanamo only, upon releasing that using Guantanamo is illegal, shipping ship them on to Honduras, and so freaked out one 11-year old American born Texan that she committed suicide after being taunted by red pilled schoolmates that her parents would be deported next.  His health secretary, the former heroin addict with a brain worm problem, has “postponed” an upcoming CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting and is now investigating the usage of commonly prescribed and likely needed now more than ever anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medicine while also “looking into” vaccine schedules, something he promised during his confirmation hearings that he would not do. His Department of Justice is considering opening an investigation into President Biden’s “crimes,” and has sent letters to Democratic members of Congress warning that they might be brought up on charges for saying not nice things about presidential advisor Elon Musk who yesterday appeared under the influence of recreational drugs while hiding his pupils behind dark glasses and cosplaying with an electric saw at CPAC, the organization led by Matt Schlapp who was once again accused of grabbing another man’s crotch after having a few too many drinks at a Washington DC area bar. Oh, and late yesterday, while the rest of us were still shaking from the confirmation of Konspiracy Kash Patel as FBI Director, wannabee king Trump announced that he plans to dissolve the leadership of the US Postal Service, absorbing the “independent” mail agency into his administration.  How much do you want to bet that his newly configured postal agency will refuse to accept mail-in ballots or deliver mifepristone, because both bans would fulfil the stated objectives of his Project 2025 overlords and who needs elections anyway, especially ones which make it easy for people to vote.

People and Politics:  Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against confirming Konspiracy Kash but Mitch McConnell did not despite having no primary to worry about since earlier in the day he announced, as expected, that he will not be running for reelection. Because he’s termed out Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won’t be running again for governor but he was planning to meet with Trump to ask him to endorse his wife Casey but that meeting has probably been scotched because last night Trump endorsed Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, one of those who attended Trump’s African American Month festivities last night, you know the type of gathering that Trump has told all his cabinet secretaries to ban in their departments.  The guest list included such notables as Herschel Walker and Tiger Woods. No confirmed reports of Eric Adams being in attendance.  He’s still Mayor of NYC but going forward he won’t be making decisions on his own.  Instead of booting him, NY Governor Hochul says that she’s establishing an oversight board to keep him in check.  Although many would have preferred that she just fire him, as MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out on Wednesday night the process for ridding New Yorkers of a troublesome mayor isn’t straightforward and would likely end up being litigated so oversight and a short leash is what we’re getting instead.  Republicans in the House and Senate are working up dueling budgets.  Because the Senate’s version includes funds for Ukraine, Trump is throwing his support to the House’s version which makes more drastic cuts in social programs including Medicaid which you may remember he promised he wouldn’t touch.  The problem is that Speaker Johnson’s moderates, or what passes for moderates in the Republican Party, have already expressed concerns about cutting the social programs that lots of their swingier districts rely on and his budget hawks are insisting on larger cuts. As to the Democrats, if he loses three or four votes, Johnson will need their help, and they’re not inclined to step up right now.  The government is due to run out of money in March so Johnson will also need help there. March Madness is going to take on new meaning this year.

Reproductive Health: Abortions are once again available in Missouri; the result of November’s referendum votes and a recent court decision that ruled against the inappropriately burdensome requirements that the state had been foisting on Planned Parenthood facilities. Elon Musk has thirteen kids by various and sundry women including a conservative influencer who recently went public with the birth of “their” child, one who he doesn’t talk to because she is transgender, and another one with musician Grimes who reached out to him over X this week for help with one of their children’s medical emergencies, using X because he’s been ignoring her calls.  If reports are true only one of his children was conceived naturally which may explain why Trump who during the campaign called himself the “Father of IVF” signed an executive order that purports to expand IVF’s availability. That looks good on paper but don’t count on it really happening because, many of his supporters including the Project 2025 guys, oppose IVF and because providing expanded access would cost bigly bucks, money that would otherwise go to billionaire tax relief. But the king loves optics, so he signed that order.

Fog:  Yesterday, in a macabre staged ceremony Hamas handed over four coffins, claiming they contained the bodies of the two Bibas family babies, Ariel and Kfir, their mother Shiri, and peace activist Oded Lifschitz who among other activities used to drive Gazans to doctors appointments.  Last night Israel announced that two of the coffins did contain the Bibas children while another contained Lifschitz but that the fourth was an unidentified woman, not Shiri Bibas. The evil knows no bounds.

#BringThemAllHomeNow