Big and Ugly 🤮 🤢 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤮 🤢 

The Bill 🤮:  The driving force behind Trump’s Big Ugly Budget Bill is the extension of the expiring tax cuts that Congress passed during Trump’s first administration. Those tax cuts mostly benefited the wealthy and increased the deficit but at least they left the social safety net intact.  This time not so much, because to achieve their objective to extend those cuts, the drafters of the bill are taking a huge bite out of Medicaid, cutting funding for food stamps, and eliminating incentives for clean energy though they’ve managed to insert a few for coal, while further blowing up the deficit. The House version of the budget bill is bad, the Senate’s version is worse, especially for those who value health care and the environment, who believe that getting food into the mouths of the hungry is worthwhile, and who are concerned about the deficit, an issue that many House and Senate Republicans only care about when Democrats are in control.  As it stands now, the Senate version of the bill cuts around $1 trillion 😱 from Medicaid, makes large cuts in the scheme that funds hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, and increases the deficit by somewhere from $3.3 to $3.9 trillion. Anyone who thinks those Medicaid cuts won’t affect them should think again because Medicaid funds nursing home care and hospitals and when those institutions aren’t supported lots of people, even those with private insurance end up in health care deserts.

State of Play 🤢: As in the House, with a slim majority, to extend the tax cuts Republican leadership had to balance the demands of its budget hawks, and the few members of its coalition who are, or at least pretend to be, concerned about the impact of the Medicaid cuts on their constituents and their state’s hospitals while also increasing spending on defense and “border” control. The Senate’s “solution” is a bill that cuts Medicaid even more than their House colleagues while further increasing the deficit. As bad as it is, the Senate’s version is still a work in process so it could get worse.  Late Saturday, by a vote of 51 to 49, with Kentucky’s Rand Paul and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis joining all the Democrats in voting against it, the bill survived a procedural vote and is now being “debated” on the Senate floor.  Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski voted to advance the bill after a provision benefiting hospitals in non-contiguous states (Alaska and Hawaii) was added but that provision has since been ruled ineligible for reconciliation by the House Parliamentarian so her vote may once again be in play.  Maine’s Susan Collins, up for reelection in 2028, said that she was still up in the air about the bill but that she only voted for it to get it to the floor to be nice, in other words she’s doing her usual “I am concerned, pearl twisting” routine.  Missouri’s Josh Hawley who spent the past few weeks whining about how the bill would hurt the Republican base including his constituents, and it will hurt them bigly, also voted for it.  Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, Utah’s Mike Lee, and Florida’s Rick Scott who all complained loudly about the bill not cutting enough voted for it too, but only after it incorporated provisions that further cut the economic incentives for clean energy.  Scott, who before becoming a Senator headed a company that paid a $1.7 billion fine for committing Medicaid and Medicare fraud, isn’t done yet; he’s pushing for an amendment that will phase out Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion because kicking 11 million plus people off of insurance isn’t enough for him. Tillis, who was mercilessly tweet attacked by Trump and promised a primary for his vote against advancing the bill announced yesterday that he won’t be running for reelection in 2028 and that he remains a “no” on the bill. The Cook Political report has now moved the North Carolina Senate race to toss up, if the state’s former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper decides to run, it could soon be reclassified to lean Democrat. Rand Paul, who is used to being skewered and who unlike Tillis is not up for reelection during the 2028 cycle also remains a “no.”  Trump and a number of Republicans are now threatening the Senate Parliamentarian over her rulings because as far as they are concerned it was okay when she made rulings that hampered Biden’s budget bill but ruling against Trump’s is beyond their pale. Though it’s not a given, with Trump twisting arms and making threats odds are the bill will pass through the Senate, after which it still has to be voted on again by the House where a few Republicans who should care about the Senate bill’s larger Medicaid cuts, bigger deficit and only temporarily increase in the SALT deduction will find it copacetic.   

The Supremes:  Every now and then it appears that Amy Coney Barrett has a conscience, on Friday she put that thought to rest.  By a vote of six to three, she together with all her conservative colleagues, issued a ruling limiting the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions against government policies, specifically in the context of the case challenging Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship. This decision “effectively curtails the power of lower courts to halt the implementation of federal policies across the entire country in response to individual lawsuits,” though it may not apply to class action lawsuits. Since the case was focused on limiting judges from blocking policies, the decision did not address the issue of birthright citizenship which is expected to be addressed by the Court during its next term.  In the meantime, the Court’s decision could lead to a “patchwork” of rules across the country, with some areas adhering to the challenged policy while others are shielded by the injunction.  In the extreme, a baby born in NY to noncitizens could be a US citizen while a baby born in Texas would not be and who knows what would happen if that baby crossed state lines.  At a time when we have a president issuing cockamamie (not a legal term, but you get the gist) orders which violate all sorts of rights and precedents, Judge Amy’s ruling is particularly problematic to put it mildly.  The Court also said that it will opine on an important Louisiana redistricting/voting rights case next term, an ominous statement because it had been hoped that Louisiana’s redistricting drama had already been put to rest.   

Foggier and Foggier:  The intelligence about the impact of the US bombing on Iran’s nuclear sites keeps pouring in and obliterated seems more and more like the wrong term to use when describing it.  The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said this weekend that in a manner of months Iran can have a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium” adding that Iran has the capacities, industrial and technological to do that. That’s a problem because the location of Iran’s uranium stockpile is still not known. The Washington Post reports that the US has obtained intercepted communication between senior Iranian officials discussing the strikes in which they are heard saying that the attack was less devastating than they had expected. The Post article is based on information provided by four sources who have access to that intelligence. Trump who is sticking with “obliterated” is irate that the information has entered the public domain and is both accusing the Post for lying and threatening them for “leaking” intelligence.  Bezos may want to extend his honeymoon and why not, it’s not like burning cash matters to him.  Trump also spent part of his weekend demanding that the ongoing corruption case against Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu be dropped, in his last tweet he threatened to stop aid to Israel if it isn’t.  There’s nothing normal about the leader of one country interfering in another’s judicial system, but then again neither Trump nor Bibi is all that normal. 

More:  Thom Tillis isn’t the only Republican not running for reelection.  Republican Congressman Don Bacon, who represents Omaha, Nebraska announced last week that he won’t be running in 2026. Bacon, who by Republican standards is a moderate, is another one having a difficult time balancing Trump’s demand with the needs of his increasingly competitive district.  And lastly, New York’s likely Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was all over the airwaves this weekend because apparently NYC is the center of the universe.  Wake me up when he retracts his call to “globalize the intifada.”

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

Obliterated💣🔨 😱 ✡️🌻😱🔨💣

Liars Lie: Yesterday was one of those days when the saying “you know they’re lying when they open their mouths” really resonated.  The day began with a Pentagon press conference featuring an unhinged Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the relatively new head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who despite appearing on the same stage as Hegseth came off as normal and measured. The bombastic Hegseth began the conference by screaming at and berating the media for “hunting for scandals all the time,” and hating on Trump. He then really lit into them for disseminating the “leaked” preliminary assessment produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the report that questioned whether Operation Midnight Hammer had really destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability. Hegseth more than implied without evidence that the report had been leaked by some Democratic member of Congress and that by reporting on its contents the press had collaborated in in treason.  After praising the “guys” who had participated in Midnight Hammer, a group that deserves praise because the operation was impressive, he handed the mic to General Caine who provided details including that the operation was fifteen years in the making. Casting a bit of sly shade in Hegseth’s direction, Caine mentioned several times that the team that participated in the Iran attack included women as well as “guys” and that at least one of those women was a pilot. Caine was also careful not to comment on how far Iran’s nuclear program had been set back, saying that conclusions about that were up to intelligence professionals and out of his wheelhouse.  Naturally when asked about the involvement of women, Hegseth who’d prefer that “his” military include only white frat guys, again lashed out at the press. The bottom line, the military did an awesome job and hugely damaged Iran’s nuclear sites, but, and it remains a big but, it’s likely that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have not been wiped out.  Moreover, it appears that Iran did manage to move its 400-kilogram stash of 60% plus enriched uranium out of harm’s way before the attack, and at least so far, the location(s) of the uranium stash is unknown. Both Trump and Hegseth are sticking with the narrative that Iran’s sites were “obliterated” because true or not they much prefer bragging about Iran being out of the nuclear bomb business for good to the alternative.  Last night, after sitting through a classified briefing on the mission, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut reported that while the attack itself was impressive, from what he heard Iran’s nuclear capabilities had only been set back only a few months. Most of the Republican Senators in attendance stuck with Hegseth and Trump’s “obliteration” claim except that Lindsey Graham admitted that the enriched uranium is still not accounted for.  Two things can be true: Operation Midnight Hammer was an impressive technical success and Iran’s nuclear capabilities have not been obliterated.  However, with Trump and his Fox fan boy Hegseth both outcomes are not an option, so they are sticking with obliteration. The problem with lying so much is that even when you’re not lying no one believes you, at least no one who isn’t afraid of the consequences.

Shoot: Sticking with the liars lie theme, yesterday RFK’s reconstituted immunization panel held its first meeting.  RFK is no longer even pretending to be openminded about the benefits of vaccines.  His new panel which so far only includes seven rather than seventeen members includes the who’s who of vaccine deniers.  Martin Kulldorff, the new chair told the panel he was fired from his job as a professor at Harvard University because he refused to get a Covid-19 vaccine.  What could possibly go wrong if another lethal epidemic hits with these clowns in charge?. Kulldorff announced that the panel will launch new working groups to examine child vaccination schedules and vaccines that were approved seven or more years ago. He’s questioned whether it is "wise" to give the hepatitis B vaccines to newborns even though the shot has been proven to be safe and effective at preventing the liver cancer causing infection. Also, despite RFK’s assurance to Senator/Dr Bill Cassidy that childhood vaccine schedules wouldn’t be altered, Kulldorff said that he will be reviewing those schedules. The group heard a presentation on the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines delivered by Lyn Redwood, a former leader of Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group RFK once ran. Redwood cited faux studies and overstated the amount of thimerosal used.  Theories that the preservative could cause autism in children have long been disproven and manufacturers voluntarily removed it from childhood vaccines years ago so this should have been mostly moot because while thimerosal is still used in some multi-dose vials there are no vaccines on the pediatric vaccine schedule that contain thimerosal.  Nevertheless, the panel banned its use in pediatric flu shots and for pregnant women, an action that is expected to disrupt global vaccine supply.  Not that global vaccine supply is as much of a concern as it should be because the US is ending its financial support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a global organization that provides vaccines to developing countries. This decision, will impact Gavi's ability to purchase and distribute vaccines, potentially putting millions of children at risk. The pro-life party strikes again.

Big and Ugly: The last big lies of the day concern Trump’s big ugly bill that Trump desperately wants delivered to his desk before the July 4^th holiday. Back from the NATO meetings Trump has shifted his focus back to getting his bill passed. Last night during a reception intended to secure Congressional support, he insisted that the bill doesn’t cut Medicaid but only reduces fraud, that it reduces the deficit, that it includes all the goodies he promised like no taxes on tips or Social Security,  and that taxes will go up by 68% if it isn’t passed.  Those are great talking points, unfortunately they’re not true which, together with the Senate Parliamentarian’s refusal to sign off on those parts of the Senate version of the bill that violate the Byrd rule, explains why he’s having a hard time getting all Republicans on board and he needs almost all of the Republicans to signoff because his bill is a total nonstarter among House and Senate Democrats.  Some of his most ardent Senate supporters including Tommy Tuberville who may soon be Alabama’s Governor, want the parliamentarian overruled or better yet, fired.  Perhaps remembering all the times that the Parliamentarian helped Republicans scuttle Democrats plans and recognizing that someday he’ll need her to do that again, Senate Leader John Thune says he has no intention of overruling her but it’s early so anything is possible.

And:  Republican Scott Brown who for a short time was a Massachusetts Senator has announced that he’s running again for the soon to be open New Hampshire Senate seat currently held by retiring Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. Polls out of Texas continue to show Senator John Cornyn running way behind his likely Republican challenger Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.  Democrats would love to run against Paxton as opposed to Cornyn so that election could be interesting though its Texas and we keep hearing that and they keep voting in Ted Cruz. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Planned Parenthood can’t sue South Carolina over the state’s decision to pull Medicaid funding from South Carolina’s two Planned Parenthood clinics. SCOTUS signed off on the state’s position that they shouldn’t be forced to support abortion providers even though the Hyde Amendment already bans Medicaid funding for abortions. Women seeking reproductive care, including birth control, in South Carolina will soon find it hard to find, which is the point. SCOTUS’s ruling is likely to have ramifications beyond South Carolina.  SCOTUS is expected to issue a few more pivotal rulings today.  And lastly, Trump is threatening to appoint a replacement for Fed Chair Powell this summer because he’s bigly mad about interest rates not being cut.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

 

The F Bomb 💣🔨 😱 ✡️🌻😱🔨💣 

Midnight Hammer:  On Monday Iran responded to the Operation Midnight Hammer attack on its nuclear facilities, retaliating with a few missiles launched at the US base in Qatar.  Then, later in the day, Trump announced via Truth Social that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire though it took hours more for the two sides to confirm his post. He didn’t mention that the Qataris who last month gifted him a gold-plated plane and who continue to host the leaders of Iran’s Hamas surrogates mediated the ceasefire. Then because wars don’t stop on a dime and ceasefires, particularly in the Middle East, are fragile, Iran shot off a few lethal missiles and Israel responded in kind.  Unhappy about his ceasefire edict being ignored, concerned that the Nobel Prize he craves might be in jeopardy, and really pissed that a leaked Defense Department report appears to indicate that our bunker bombs didn’t obliterate Iran’s nuclear sites, a frustrated Trump dropped an F-bomb saying out loud for everyone to hear in their bedrooms and at their breakfast tables “We have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” He then followed up with a series of all caps Truth Social Posts to hammer his point home. He raised almost as many eyebrows with his public utterance of the F-word as he did when he equated ally Israel with avowed enemy Iran, the country whose leaders have long called for the destruction of the US.  The ceasefire may or may not last, but it appears that “fuck” is no longer one of the “indecent” words that comedian George Carlin famously riffed couldn’t be used on television.  Trump is now attacking the media, sticking with his assertion that Iran’s nuclear facilities are gonzo, but also asserting that by “leaking” the Defense Department’s preliminary assessment that says that Iran likely moved a lot of its enriched uranium before the attack and that our bunker busting bombs only delayed Iran’s ability to develop nuclear bombs by a few months, CNN and the other mainstream outlets are committing treason.  Adding credibility to the reports that Iran’s capabilities have only been delayed, the White House keeps pushing off its planned Congressional briefing on the attack.  It’s now scheduled for Friday. The delay is particularly infuriating to House and Senate Democrats because unlike their Republican colleagues, the Democratic leaders who make up the Gang of Eight who are generally kept up to speed on such things were not given a heads up before the bombing took place.   

Big Ugly Bill:  Senate Leader John Thune is still trying to get his version of Trump’s bigly ugly bill passed out of the Senate by July 4 with Trump making it clear to all Republicans that he’ll cancel their flights out of Washington if they don’t get their shxt together.  Thune has made some progress, among other things, he appears to have figured out a workaround that will facilitate cuts in SNAP food stamps while also satisfying the Senate Parliamentarian. However, several members of the Republican caucus are still unhappy.  A few like Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson and Kentucky’s Rand Paul want more cuts while others, most notably North Carolina’s vulnerable Thom Tilles are warning that by “drastically” cutting Medicaid Republicans are setting themselves up for a midterm election bloodbath akin to what Democrats experienced after the passage of Obamacare, the health insurance program that a majority of the electorate now loves but initially hated. Tilles has circulated a flyer to his Republican colleagues warning how much states like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri will be hurt by the Medicaid cuts.  His list also includes Kentucky but Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell who has been warned by his state’s hospital association that the Medicaid cuts will be responsible for the closing of their hospitals, showed that he’s a member of Iowa Senator Joni Ernst’s “people die” club by saying “Failure to pass the bill is not an option….I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they’ll get over it.” With one foot already in the grave, the ashen Mitch doesn’t have to worry about reelection, and he will be long gone before any of the people back home “get over it.”  The same schism exists in the House where a number of the so-called Republican moderates who will probably support whatever emerges from the Senate, are squawking about the Senate’s Medicaid cuts exceeding the huge ones they already voted for while some of the budget hawks, most notable Kentucky’s Thomas Massie remaining upset that the ugly bill isn’t ugly enough.  As to the bill’s impact on the deficit, Bloomberg reports that Thune intends to employ controversial math to wipe away $3.8 trillion of the bill’s red ink, just the ink, not the actual debt, meaning the deficit will balloon while he uses smoke and mirrors to pretend that it doesn’t.  Maybe he thinks maturing Treasuries can be paid off with Monopoly money and Melania meme coins.

Human Resources: Hearings for Trump’s ghoulish personal lawyer Emil Bove’s nomination to serve as a federal judge on the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals are about to start. Yesterday, NBC revealed that a whistleblower, fifteen-year DOJ veteran Erez Reuveni, sent a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees asserting that as assistant Deputy Attorney General Bove told Justice Department lawyers that the administration would defy court orders that stood in the way of carrying out Trump’s mass deportations plans. Sticking with the f-bomb theme, Reuveni asserted that “Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court orders.”   Reuveni was subsequently fired for refusing to lie about Kilmar Abrego Garcia who was illegally deported to the gulag in El Salvador. It’s likely that Republicans will have no problem confirming Bove because they’re good at following orders and the order is to confirm him. Though Garcia is back in the US facing what one judge acknowledged appear to be trumped up charges, the Supreme Court has given the go ahead for Trump to continue sending undocumented migrants wherever they want to send them.  To that end, with cameras rolling, a group of emboldened ICE thugs beat the crap out of Narciso Barranco, arresting the father of three US Marines, this week, while he was doing landscaping work outside of a Santa Ana IHOP.  Despite video evidence to the contrary the INS agents claim that Barranco was about to hit them with a weapon.  The so-called weapon wasn’t a weapon; it was the weed wacker that Barranco who has asked one of his sons to finish his weeding assignment was using when he was grabbed. That son reports that his father, who was injured by the gun waving INS team, is now languishing in a cramped INS facility where he has received no medical attention and is still wearing his bloodstained clothing. In related news, the wife of another veteran who was in the process of obtaining a green card is now being held in a Louisiana internment facility separated from her newborn baby because obviously that, like nabbing the landscaper who raised three Marines, makes us all safer?  The FBI teams who’d been tasked to help with the rounding up of migrants have been called back to the FBI to focus on counterterrorism because of concerns about Iranian sleeper cells and lone actor terrorists.  The not so good news on that front is that the person at the Department of Homeland Security in charge of counterterrorism is 23-year-old former grocery clerk Thomas Fugate.  In addition to being good at bagging produce, Fugate who describes himself as a “Trumplican” interned at the Federalist Society.  Lastly, because not all screw balls are Republicans, the apparent winner of NYC’s Democratic Mayoral primary is Zohran Mamdani, best known in New York for wanting to globalize the intifada among other not so friendly to NYC’s Jewish population things.  Apparent winner, because though former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who came in second place among a list of candidates that included Paper Boy Love Price, has conceded, NYC uses ranked choice voting and won’t announce the official winner until next Tuesday.  Mamdani will face off against Republican candidate/Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa and at least two Independents, current Mayor Adams, and a little-known lawyer named Jim Walden.  I am thinking about moving.                      

#BringThemAllHomeNow because there are still hostages and ceasefire with Iran or not the Gaza mess continues to fester.    

 

 
Midnight Hammer 💣🔨 😱 ✡️🌻😱🔨💣 

🕛 🔨:   Trump still hasn’t made good on a health plan, infrastructure funding, or a myriad of the other things that he’s promised to do in “two weeks,” but by bombing Iran’s nuclear sites he got one bigly thing off his to do list.  Don’t call the attack a war, because Trump says it’s a one off, for now, and also don’t say he wants regime change despite his tweet last night suggesting that he does. Depending on who you listen to, Trump’s decision to bomb Iran was brilliant or a catastrophic violation of the Constitution that will lead to World War III. The reality is probably somewhere in between.  Just about everyone agrees or should agree that Iran having an arsenal of nuclear weapons would be a very bad thing; the challenge has always been how best to insure that doesn’t happen.  President Obama’s solution was the 2015 multi-lateral JCPOA nuclear deal, which instead of eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, involved monitoring and limiting the country’s enrichment of uranium, pushing their nuclear bomb capability off to some future date.  The JCPOA was flawed, it did nothing about Iran’s missile capability and didn’t curtail the country’s aggressive behavior and support for murderous surrogates, but it did slow down its nuclear progress.  Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018 but never negotiated an alternative though, until this weekend, he was sort of trying to do so with his ill-equipped real estate buddy Steve Witkoff.  Iran responded to the US withdrawal from the JCPOA by enriching its uranium stockpile beyond what had been agreed to in the deal and beyond what was needed for the peaceful purposes it asserted that its program was all about. The question going into this weekend’s attack was whether Iran had North Korea level nuclear ambitions and how close they were to achieving them. Some “experts,” a group that included everyone from the real scientists who actually monitored Iran’s program to Tucker Carlson, who insisted that Iran’s ambitions were limited, believed that Iran wasn’t on the verge of becoming fully nuclear, others, including Israel and some, though far from all members of the intelligence community, insisted that the Ayatollah was weeks away from becoming the Middle East’s Kim Jong un. This weekend’s military operation makes that debate moot.  The question now is whether Trump’s decision to bomb the bejesus out of Iran’s nuclear sites did what it was intended to do.  The good news is that Operation Midnight Hammer went off without a hitch and that all our pilots have returned home safely.  The not so good news is that we don’t know whether the much heralded but previously untested bunker bombs destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability and there are real concerns that Iran managed to move a large part of its enriched uranium stock to places unknown before the attack, possibly in response to Trump’s public musings. Moreover, though we are sure the Ayatollah and the remaining members of its teams that the Israelis haven’t taken out will retaliate we don’t know how or where those attacks will take place. Iran is still sending missiles into Israel and has announced plans to close the important oil transport lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. Some “experts” are now asserting that if anything the US operation will accelerate Iran’s development of nuclear bomb capability; ironically, some of those experts are the very same people who insisted that Iran didn’t have any nuclear bomb ambitions. And lastly, in case you are wondering, according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth who despite his freshly slicked back hair looked like he desperately needed a drink or maybe just had one, anything that goes wrong going forward is due to all the “dumb” presidents who preceded Trump.    

Midnight Express:  This morning’s NY Times has one of those Haberman-Swan and team tick-tock articles about the lead up to Trump’s decision to move forward.  A few of the takeaways: the two week announcement was a ruse, Trump had already authorized the attack, and military equipment was being put into position before Press Secretary Leavitt insisted he was giving the Iranians two weeks to come to the negotiating table; concerned about Trump’s bombastic statements and social media posts giving away their plans, the military sent a few B 1 bombers off in the wrong direction, allowing the stealthy planes to be tracked as a diversion; and, Trump had already decided to bomb Iran before meeting with anti-interventionist Steve Bannon but had him over for burgers and fries to make it look like he was still persuadable.     

The Byrd 🐦  Bath: Though this weekend’s focus was on Trump’s bombing mission, there’s lots going on in budget bill land. The Senate is still working on its version of Trump’s Big Ugly Bill. To pass through the Senate via reconciliation, the process that allows finance bills to pass with only a majority vote, the components of the bill have to be signed off on by the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. Her review is called the “Byrd Bath” because the reconciliation process follows rules set by the late Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd.  To be approved by the parliamentarian, the components of the bill have to be linked to the budget, must be fiscal in nature, and must deal with taxation. So far, MacDonough has rejected the shifting of the cost of SNAP (food stamps) from the federal government to the states, the axing of all funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Senator Mike Lee’s efforts to give Congress new authority to claw back federal regulations, and efforts to place limitations on federal district judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions.  She has signed off on the controversial provision in the bill that limits the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), a problem for some Senators including Missouri Republican Josh Hawley. Her decisions are causing math problems for the Senate bill which is already more expensive than the House version.  It’s not just the Byrd Bath process that’s slowing things down.  The Senate has finally come to the realization that their cuts to Medicaid and their planned changes to Medicaid’s hospital tax scheme will kill rural hospitals, so they are trying to come up with a special fund for those hospitals, and the SALT (state and local tax) problem continues to fester.   

More:  RFK, the Make America Healthy brain hole guy, who is committed to killing vaccines, is shortening the Obamacare enrollment period because he can. The Trump family is launching a new phone grift which will include a $45.47 monthly fee achieved by following the Mint Mobile playbook which involves buying up excess capacity from larger providers, something that is cheap but results in a lower quality of service.  The phone plan includes selling a $499 gold phone that despite Eric Trump’s assertion otherwise will not be produced in the US. And that quality of service problem, maybe Trump can fix it by having all the regulators he controls prioritize his company or maybe his subscribers won’t care because people who buy gold Trump emblazoned products with fees determined by his presidential order just don’t care.    

#BringThemAllHomeNow     

 

Two Weeks 💣 🚀 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣 🚀 

TACO Trump:  Trump has chickened out again.  Well maybe. Yesterday, while not celebrating Juneteenth because why would he celebrate the freeing of slaves, Trump announced that his decision on whether or not to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, like infrastructure week, tariffs, and revealing a health care plan, has been put off two weeks.  However, like everything the mercurial Trump says, his Iran plans should be taken with a grain of salt because if he is planning to drop those bunker busting bombs on Iran, it would be foolish, even for him, to say so beforehand.  Politico reports that Defense Secretary/Fox Weekend anchor Pete Hegseth, too busy rooting out DEI and transgender soldiers, has deferred authority for the Iran decision to General Erik Kurilla, a hawkish general who is pushing for a strong military response against Iran.  Additionally, though a lot of the press and many members of Congress continue to assert that Iran isn’t on the verge of going nuclear, mostly based on an assessment from DNI Tulsi Gabbard, NBC reports that Gabbard’s been sidelined by Trump and is no longer involved in the White House’s Israel-Iran discussions.  Apparently, Trump was aghast at an unauthorized video she posted on social media during her recent unexpected side trip to Hiroshima, another thing he wasn’t pleased about. The video showed a simulation of San Francisco getting bombed, warning about imminent “nuclear annihilation.”  Gabbard has always walked to the beat of a peculiar drummer, she was an admirer of Syria’s brutal Bashar Assad and is known to parrot Putin talking points so even if she’s right, she has a credibility problem.  As one anonymous White House source told NBC, “If you adopt a Chihuahua, you should not be surprised that you have a Chihuahua.”  The procrastinating Trump says he’s putting off his bombing decision to give Iran and the Ayatollah another chance to come to the negotiating table where he says he’ll expect them to agree to stop all things nuclear, even though they won’t.  Meantime the missiles are flying.  Iran is now targeting and getting missile through to Israeli hospitals and using cluster bombs on civilian locations.  Bunker busters or not, the trajectory doesn’t look good. As I said earlier this week, presidenting isn’t easy especially when your advisors are out of their depth.

Viral Musings:  Unfortunately, Gabbard isn’t the only chihuahua in Trump’s kennel, he’s also gifted the country RFK Jr and the consequences for that adoption are mounting. Next week’s meeting of the newly comprised Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be revisiting long settled vaccines safety issues, potentially upending how vaccines are manufactured, paid for, and distributed.  Among other things, the panel is expected to make decisions that could impact the availability of adult flu vaccines and children’s vaccine schedules. In addition, RFK, who is neither a doctor nor a scientist, wants to ban the use of aluminum, an immunity boosting adjuvant long used in polio, hepatitis, HPV, meningitis, and whooping cough vaccines. With two of his new ACIP members long term opponents of the cancer preventing HPV vaccine, many immunization specialists are concerned that he is ready to torpedo those shots because why would we want to keep up with the countries who are well on their way to eradicating HPV related cancers.  Moreover, reports are that the newest strain of COVID, already out and about in Europe and hitting our shores, is highly contagious and accompanied by the awful sounding and probably way worse feeling “razor blade throat.” That’s particularly alarming since RFK has already announced limitations on who will be eligible for this year’s COVID shots, assuming the new ones ever make it to the market. Does anyone know if there is an effective treatment for “razor blade throat.” Maybe, RFK thinks that his weekly trips to the Washington DC tanning salon he’s been seen going in and out of will spare him, or maybe he’s working on a new heroin cocktail? As to the tanning thing, where does skin cancer fit in his Make America Healthy again model?  Alongside mesothelioma maybe? Trump appears ready to repeal the ban on chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen that causes mesothelioma, a particularly deadly cancer.  He’s frequently to asserted that had the World Trade Center buildings had asbestos, they wouldn't have burned down or melted, a claim that is contradicted by scientific consensus. It seems doubtful that the construction industry and insurance companies would want to open themselves up to more litigation from what would inevitably be more mesothelioma sufferers or their survivors but we’ve got Trump so who knows.

More:  Last night, overturning a district courts temporary restraining order, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government made a required "strong showing" in arguing it would prevail against California’s challenge to the legality of the deployment of troops usually under the governor's control. The case is on its way to the Supreme Court.  Those troops have been doing little besides burning money, since their call-up was more about Trump flexing than about them being needed but that appears beside the point. In other migrant news, more and more businesses that rely on migrant labor report that their workers have stopped showing up, fearful of being rounded up and deported if they do. Who really needs fruit and vegetables, or packaged meat anyway and why should we be concerned that the Fed is now projecting even lower economic growth?  And, after a Fox News host responded to an announcement by the management of the LA Dodgers that they planned to support their migrant workers and fans, by suggesting that ICE should show up at Dodgers’ stadium, ICE did just that.  Dodgers’ management refused to let them into the parking lot.  ICE responded that they had no nefarious intentions, they just wanted to park. As if.  Lastly, the Supreme Court has upheld the State of Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care for transgender youth because apparently six of the Justices know more than those children’s parents and doctors.  In related news the Trump administration said it will shut down the national suicide prevention hotline’s LGBTQ youth-focused services, terminating a program designed to offer expert help to a group that is especially vulnerable to suicide.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow                    

Bigly Bombs🔥🔥😱 ✡️🌻😱🔥🔥 

War Drums:  Trump has a history of bailing out of G7 meetings early.  During Trump 1.0, he bailed early to meet with his pen pal North Korea strong man Kim Jong un.  It’s not entirely clear why he skedaddled out of this week’s Canada meeting early. It may have been because he needed to be back at the White House to address the escalating war between Iran and Israel.  It could have been because he didn’t want to be in attendance when Ukraine President Zelenskyy arrived.  Or maybe it was just because he’d been banished to the kid’s table when none of the adults wanted to eat with him.  In any case, with little to show on the tariff front, on his way home a petulant Trump slammed our ally, or one time ally, France’s Emanuel Macron for saying that he’d left Canada to work on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying Macron ”always gets it wrong.”  What is clear is that presidenting is hard, even harder when you’ve surrounded yourself with a bunch of numbskulls.  Trump is now confronting an existential crisis advised by the likes of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with “friends” Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon breathing down his neck. Yesterday, Trump dissed Gabbard, questioning her earlier congressional testimony where she said that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon, saying that he “didn’t care what she had to say.” Whether Iran is, or was, close to having a nuclear arsenal or not, Gabbard’s recent firing of the security analysts who said that we aren’t at war with Venezuela as well as her habit of repeating Putin talking points makes her advice questionable. As to Hegseth, who was chosen despite his flawed personal history because Trump liked how he looked on Fox, he’s got his own set of problems, not just his Signal calls and lack of experience but his inability to find anyone willing to work with him at the Pentagon. The Iran nuclear problem has been festering for years. The Obama era JCPOA nuclear deal that Trump pulled us from was flawed, it left Iran’s missile capability intact and it didn’t address Iran’s funding of surrogates like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, while only delaying the fruition of the Ayatollah’s nuclear ambitions, essentially pushing the Iran problem forward rather than solving it all together, but it was better than nothing. Trump’s decision to pull the US from the deal made it easier for Iran to move forward faster and his appointment of real estate buddy Steven Witkoff to negotiate a new deal while comical was idiotic so now the music has stopped, Trump’s the one who is left dealing with the radioactive hot potato. To finish off or come close to finishing off Iran’s nuke production capability, Israel’s persistent and difficult to manage Netanyahu who warts and all, has outlasted many US presidents, needs our big “bunker busting” bombs and presumably also needs access to the planes and maybe also the pilots that would deliver those bombs. Tough decision, even tougher when the advisors you’ve surrounded yourself with were chosen for all the wrong reasons. Trump wanted this job, he picked his team, and now. like it or not the decision rests with him. This morning, despite Trump’s threatening call for Iran to capitulate or else, Ayatollah Khamenei said that’s not gonna happen.

The Usual Suspects? Over the weekend Trump said that he wouldn’t be rounding up “good” but undocumented agricultural and leisure industry workers. Unfortunately, pressured by Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, the TACO president has changed his mind, so those migrants are once again fair game.  Apparently, so are Democratic politicians and “liberal” judges.  Yesterday, Brad Lander, NYC’s Comptroller who is also one of the city’s many mayoral candidates in its screwball election, was manhandled and arrested by some ICE agents.  His “crime” accompanying and then linking arms with someone INS was trying to detain at an immigration court, one of the places that INS hangs out to pluck the easy to nab migrants showing up for their hearings. Lander was held for a few hours but was released and at least for now the charges against him have been dropped largely because Governor Kathy Hochul intervened. However, the person he was trying to protect has been taken off to a jail somewhere.  Add Lander to a list that already includes California Senator Alex Padilla,  NJ Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan. To state the obvious, politicians and judges aren’t supposed to be arrested in democratic countries.  Neither are sitting US Senators supposed to make light of murder, but for some unfathomable reason Utah Senator Mike Lee has descended so far down the MAGA rabbit hole that he’s been doing just that.  Even after it was revealed that the Minnesota murderer who stalked, shot, killed, and injured several politicians and their family members was a Republican who’d voted for Trump, Lee kept pushing the lie that the murderer was a “Marxist,” MAGA speak for all Democrats, while also attacking Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who Trump says he won’t commiserate with because “he’s a mess” and it “would be a waste of time.” Lee has finally taken down his social media posts, not because he gets how hurtful and inappropriate they were but because both of Minnesota’s Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, who were on the assassin’s “hit list” spoke with him and then went public with their disgust.  Lee has always been very conservative, but there was a time when he was viewed as a “normal” Republican. Makes you think that spreading conspiracy theories, lacking empathy, and being super MAGA is now normal?  In other MAGA news, Kristi Noem was rushed to a hospital yesterday after having an allergic reaction.  The jokes write themselves but in the interest of civility I’ll abstain.  And lastly, Malta born Sergio Gor, the director of the presidential personnel office, who was instrumental in getting Elon Musk’s preferred NASA nominee removed over his contributions to Democratic candidates, hasn’t filled out his own disclosure form.  What is he hding?              

The BUB:  The Senate version of the Big Ugly Bill appears to be even worse and more expensive than the House version.  While it slows down the defunding of Biden’s climate related projects, among other things the Senate version takes a bigger bite out of Medicaid, lowers the SALT deduction back to $10,000, and raises the debt limit by $1 trillion more than the House version. The Medicaid cuts target a tax mechanism that help hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, stay afloat while also disproportionately hurting the 41 states that have signed on to the Medicaid expansion, a backdoor way of chipping away at Obamacare.  Majority Leader John Thune insists that the bill does not increase the deficit even though the Congressional Budget Office says that it does, bigly.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

Split Screens🔥🔥😱 ✡️🌻😱🔥🔥 

No🤴🤴🤴:  We always knew that Saturday was going to be a split screen day, but the expectation was that the split would be two-way, between Trump’s Palantir, Coinbase, UFC’s Dana White, and Oracle sponsored military/birthday parade and what turned out to be two thousand No Kings Day marches. As it turned out the split was more of a complex fracture, the result of a crazed, partisan, “pro-life” Minnesota lunatic shooting two prominent state politicians and their spouses, killing one of the couples and sending the other to the hospital with life threatening injuries and the barrage of missiles going back and forth in the Middle East. After an intense two-day man hunt the Minnesota shooter, a 57-year-old white man whose target list included many other prominent Minnesota Democrats, was finally captured last night. The Orange wannabee 🤴 who pardoned the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol and threatened to lynch his VP and has been publicly toying with pardoning the men who plotted to kidnap and kill Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic Governor of Michigan, declared his military jamboree a wild success though at best it was just meh, with fewer than the expected attendees and, as indicated by the yawning Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a bit of an hours long snoozefest. With somewhere north of five million attendees, the No Kings rallies were upbeat, plentiful, and well attended. Kudos to whoever came up with the no 🤴 🤴 moniker. They were mostly peaceful with a few hiccups including a big burp in the Los Angeles epicenter where local police shot tear gas and rubber bullets into some of the crowd, perhaps because they really feared that things were about to get out of hand but just as likely because they wanted to demonstrate to the federalized National Guard and Marines that they were unneeded. As to the migrant roundups that triggered the LA demonstrations, under pressure from some in the business community, Trump now says that he’ll be pausing the deportations of hospitality and agricultural workers including those employed in meatpacking plants, because those migrants are “very good long-time workers.”  To the extent he follows through, that’s good news for those workers but not so good news for the others, including the construction workers, nannies, and garment center employees who will have to make-up the rest of Trump and Stephen Miller’s daily quotas. To that end, last night Trump directed federal immigration officials to keep doing their thing, but to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities because to be clear only migrants in blue areas are really bad, the rest at times tolerable. To put this purge in perspective, the American Immigration Council estimates that unauthorized immigrants make up 4.6% of the nation’s employed labor force, around 7 million people. The Department of Agriculture estimates that about 42% of America’s farmworkers are undocumented.

Fog:  The war between Israel and Iran is now in its fourth day with both countries shooting more and more advanced missiles at each other, Israel’s targeted at nuclear sites, nuclear scientists, and military leaders; Iran’s targeted mostly at civilian populations including Tel Aviv and Haifa.  Trump, who initially insisted he had nothing to do with Israel’s pre-emptive anti-nuclear attacks, now says that he was just pretending, engaging in his unique brand of “strategery.” Regardless of whether he gave Netanyahu the go ahead, Trump has been helping Israel shoot down incoming missiles.  He’s also calling for the warring parties to get back to the nuclear negotiating table even though it appears that Iran’s nuke negotiators are no longer among the living, one of the reasons that the next round of negotiations have been cancelled.  During a birthday call to Trump, because of course Putin called to wish his dutiful puppet a happy day, the Russian leader offered to act as an intermediary between Iran and Israel and why not, it’s not like he’s engaging in any peacemaking on the Ukraine-Russia front.  Ironically, unlike the US, Russia is still a party to the JCPOA nuclear deal that Trump walked away from. Imagine where we would be if Iran’s leaders spent their money on improving the lives of Iranians instead of spending tens of billions on developing nukes, supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis and calling for the destruction of Israel. In related news, Voice of America, the government-funded broadcasting system shut down by the Trump administration is in the process of calling back Farsi speakers who’d been on paid leave so that it can broadcast into Iran. Note that we didn’t save a dime since they were on paid leave, but we are behind the eight ball because stupid, short sighted decisions are just that.

Viral Musings:  RFK is turning out to be as bad as many thought he would be, and Louisiana’s gutless Republican Senator/Dr Bill Cassidy knew he would be. RFK’s new picks for the Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (ACIP) that he recently gutted include people with a history of criticizing vaccine recommendations and questioning vaccine safety including some who served as paid experts in lawsuits against vaccine makers.  The next ACIP meeting is scheduled to start on June 25.  The panel will decide whether to recommend vaccines for COVID-19, the human papillomavirus, meningococcal disease, and RSV.  As the internationally recognized expert in virology and immunology Dr. Paul Offit puts it: “These are established vaccines, and we’re voting on them?......The entire childhood and adult immunization schedule is on the table!” RFK whose been vocal about his doubts that AIDS is caused by a virus, believes in the long-discounted miasma theory, that contagious diseases are caused by “bad vapors” rather than viruses or bacteria.  We’re rapidly moving back to the dark ages and that’s not an exaggeration.  What, but everything, could go wrong? And it’s not just vaccines. RFK’s slashing of the NIH is gutting research on cancer and many other diseases.  The impact of those cuts will be felt for decades.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

  

End Stage Democracy🔥🔥😱 ✡️🌻😱🔥🔥 

Where to Begin?  Yesterday was one of those days when everything happened.  With Trump more focused on retribution than governing, the day began with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, whose neighbor once beat him up over his poorly maintained lawn, kvetching on camera about being disinvited from an upcoming bi-partisan White House picnic.  The picnic diss was punishment for Paul’s refusal to support the Big Ugly Bill (BUB).  Paul, who supported Trump during his two impeachment hearings has just discovered that the orange one is “petty, vindictive, and immature.” By the end of the day, Paul was back on the invite list with Trump saying that he hopes the reinstatement will convince Paul to back the bill. Paul and his family will be at the picnic but Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, who voted against the BUB won’t be, his invitation remains “lost” in the mail. With that small indignity resolved, the administration moved on to bigger things, manhandling and handcuffing Alex Padilla, the senior Senator from California, the son of Mexican immigrants and a bilingual graduate of MIT with a degree in engineering.  In addition to being Hispanic, Padilla’s crime, showing up and shouting a question at Ice Barbie Kristi Noem’s California press conference, interrupting her while she was busy asserting that with the help of the National Guard and the Marines she was “liberating Los Angeles from its socialist government.” Noem defended the decision to knock Padilla to the ground by asserting that no one knew he was a Senator and anyway he was charging at her. The Padilla incident was caught on tape.  He wasn’t charging anyone, and he is heard on the tape identifying himself as a US Senator several times.  Moreover, he’s interacted with Noem before, so she knows him. After he was released, a shaken and somewhat emotional Padilla pointed out that if Trump’s troops respond to a US Senator by knocking him to the ground, imagine how they’re treating farmers, cooks, and day laborers. We don’t have to imagine, we know and it’s not good. Naturally, when asked about the Padilla incident Speaker Mike Johnson, who earlier in the week called for California Governor Gavin Newsom to be “tarred and feathered” said that at a minimum Padilla’s behavior “rises to the level of a censure.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that he’s “gathering information” a variation of leave me alone and stop expecting me to do anything about our democracy going up in flames. Late last night, federal District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled Trump’s federalization of the California National was illegal returning the control of the California National Guard back to Governor Newsom. Newsom’s victory was short lived because overnight the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the district court’s decision while they consider arguments from both sides. As to the treatment of those farmers and laborers, Trump says he concerned and might get his team to grant some of them some special consideration.  Spoiler alert, he could give a shxt about them, but he is hearing from Republican big wigs in the leisure and agriculture industries that his aggressive migrant roundups are leaving them without anyone to pick their crops and wash their dishes. 

Fog:  Late last night, Israel attacked Iran, targeting nuclear sites, scientists, and Iranian generals.  Earlier in the week Trump said an Israeli attack could be imminent, the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) reported that Iran had violated its agreement and was enriching more uranium than previously agreed to, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been talking up his plans to  eliminate  Iran’s nuclear capabilities so though this is depressing we kind of knew it was coming even though Trump had his real estate bestie Steve Witkoff “negotiating” a deal with Iran.  Last night Secretary of State Rubio released a statement saying that Israel’s attack was “unilateral” and that the US had nothing to do with it.  That’s curious because Axios reports that the Israel attack which had been “eight months in the making” was coordinated with Washington, that Trump and his aides were only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in public and didn't express opposition in private. "We had a clear US green light," an Israel official claimed.  What, Trump speaking out of both sides of his mouth? Shocking 😊😱.  In any case, Israel says that their attack isn’t a one and done, it will be ongoing for awhile more.  Reports are that Israel had even managed to smuggle explosive drones into Iran in anticipation of the attack. Iran has already responded with drone attacks and are likely planning to follow up with more including missiles.  Of course, oil prices are now up, a further complication for Trump’s economy because the thing that’s been keeping measures of inflation down has been lower gas prices. 

More:  The House passed Trump’s recission package, voting to claw back $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid, NPR, and PBS. As expected, RFK Jr is staffing up the vaccine advisory panel with anti-vaxxers.  Jeremey Greenberg, who led FEMA’s storm response agency has resigned.  Greenberg said that while he agrees that FEMA needs reforms he can’t in good conscience stand by and watch it dismantled, that dismantling is now scheduled to take place after this year’s hurricane season.  And lastly, that inappropriate rally style speech that Trump gave at Fort Bragg, soldiers who weren’t Trump supporters were excluded from the audience.  The good news is that they haven’t been thrown in the stockade but it’s early, at the rate we’re going up in flames, that could happen soon enough.   Tomorrow is Trump’s expensive birthday/military parade.  There will also be No Kings Day protests across the country. If you want to participate, check Google for the one nearest to you.  Stay peaceful and safe.

#BringThemAllHomeNow  

 

 

 

"Terrible Things Are Happening Outside" Anne Frank 1943 🔥🔥😱 ✡️🌻😱🔥🔥 

Fanning the Flames🔥🔥🔥: During a 2020 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Trump said “We have to go by the laws. We can't move in the National Guard. I can call insurrection but there's no reason to ever do that….We can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested by a governor.”  Now he’s surrounded only by sycophants and rubber-stampers, malignant actors like Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, and Pam Bondi who accede to everything he demands and Stephen Miller who fuels his hate, so despite his earlier acknowledgement we have the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles where their very presence, over the objection of California’s Governor, is serving as a violence accelerant. The order authorizing the sending of the troops to LA is so broadly written that it allows for troops to be sent wherever Trump wants to send them. Just a reminder that Trump refused to send them to quash the January 6 insurrection because those thugs were his thugs.  With anti-INS demonstrations now spreading across the country in response to his heavy-handed response to the events unfolding in LA which started after his INS ramped up the arrest of non-violent migrants to meet the quotas imposed by Stephen Miller, it’s only a matter of time before the troops show up elsewhere. As California Governor Gavin Newsom who Trump said should be arrested for the “crime” of being elected Governor and who Speaker Mike Johnson said should be “tarred and feathered” put it last night in an eloquent speech which, if you missed it, is well worth a listen, tyranny begins with the demonization of those least able to defend themselves, but it doesn’t end there.  Democracy is under assault, and we are all at risk. California is suing Trump to prevent what Governor Newsom and the state’s Attorney General call an unlawful militarization.  Last San Franscico federal judge, Charles R. Breyer, brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, set a hearing for Thursday to hear arguments but didn’t issue the temporary restraining order that California requested. Though the cost of Trump’s autocratic bull-shxt is the least of our problems right now, it should surprise no one to learn that the reality star who has filed for bankruptcy multiple times, has his cronies in Congress working on a budget that strips health care and food from the poorest among us to benefit the richest, who thinks that tariffs will replace income taxes, and won’t spend the money to help North Carolina recover from storms, is spending $137 million plus on this military show of force, an amount that’s above the $45 million plus being spent on this Saturday’s military parade, the one that’s supposedly about celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the Army but is really a big birthday bash for the wannabee👑king.

💉💉 💉 :  In the run up to his confirmation hearing, RFK Jr promised Louisiana Senator/Doctor Bill Cassidy that “If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes.”  Guess what, RFK lied to Senator Cassidy. On Monday, the guy with a worm hole in his brain who brags about his steroid use and is a “recovering” heroin addict with no scientific background but lots of vaccine “skepticism,” removed all seventeen members of the expert panel of advisers that guides the federal government’s vaccine recommendations.  Naturally, RFK said he removed them because they were all corporate tools and Democratic partisans. He promises to replace them with competent professionals rather than anti-vax lunatics, but that promise is likely as good as the one he made to Senator Cassidy, in other words it’s worthless. For his part, Senator Cassidy whose concern about being primaried from the right continues to trump his concern for the nation’s health, promised to “continue talking” to RFK. Stock up on masks and pray for your children because what’s coming won’t be pretty.      

People, Places:  In a totally inappropriate rally style speech to troops at Fort Bragg, Trump announced that he was restoring the Confederate Army names to many of the forts that celebrate insurrectionists and slaveholders.  He also promised to liberate Los Angeles and sadly, the troops applauded him while booing former President Biden, something that should really concern us since Cosplay Kristi asked Foxie Pete Hegseth to direct the troops to arrest civilians, one of those things that the military is not supposed to do.  On a more positive note, Brad Bondi, brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, didn’t just lose the election to lead the influential Washington DC bar association, he lost by a landslide because scads of lawyers who under ordinary circumstances wouldn’t bother to vote cast their ballots for his opponent.  And yesterday, Congressperson Mikie Sherrill, a former Navay officer and prosecutor, won NJ’s Democratic Gubernatorial primary.  She will face off against the Trump endorsed Republican candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, a former state representative and current businessman.  Both are vying for the seat currently held by term limited Governor Phil Murphy. In other Garden State news, Alina Habba, the interim US Attorney/Parking Garage lawyer announced the indictment of Congressperson LaMonica McIver, one of the representatives who tussled with INS agents while trying to gain access to an ICE detention facility.  A performative and ridiculous action by Habba but expensive for McIver which is the point.     

#BringThemAllHomeNow   

 
Californication🔥😱 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱🔥 

California Nightmare:  Though New York comes close, the state that riles Trump the most is California. It’s the home of lots of liberal actors who regularly diss him and it’s led by a governor whose GQ looks make Trump’s faux orange face and whipped up coiffure look even more pathetic and ridiculous than they are.  It’s Nancy Pelosi’s home, and even though it has nine Republican members of Congress, it’s 54 electoral college votes and two Senate seats are reliably Democrat. There are somewhere around 1.7 million undocumented immigrants in California, around 900,000 in the Los Angeles County area. They work as domestics, as gardeners, in agriculture, manufacturing, and construction where they are helping to rebuild the fire ravaged parts of Los Angeles some of them in Santa Monica, the part of LA where the immigrant hating Trump advisor Stephen Miller who has been pressing the INS to meet increasingly high daily deportation quotas was raised. The week began with Trump threatening to defund California, to punish Governor Newsom for a 16-year-old transgender athlete’s two track and field victories, a threat that had more to do with distracting from Trump’s failure to negotiate any real tariff agreements, the escalation of hostilities in those areas of the world that he promised to “solve” on day one, and his Musk break-up than anything else because when things are going bad scream about transgender athletes and when that’s enough, have threatening masked INS guys conduct raids and round-up thousands of migrants, especially those hanging outside of Home Depot stores looking for construction day work, and showing up for scheduled immigration check-ins, and students on their way to high school graduations and, of course, claim that they are all violent gang members living off of government subsidies. Then when community members get upset about the rounding up of their friends and relatives, and when one of those protesting the round-ups who also happens to be the head of the head of the Service Employees International Union of California is arrested and injured, express shock and disgust about the “violence” that follows and call up the National Guard, threaten to call in the rest of the military too and have Ex-Fox guy/ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth freshen his make-up and repeat the threat. Sadly, nothing about what is happening in Los Angeles is shocking because wannabe king Trump promised to arrest and deport millions and mused about calling up the military during his campaign, so here we are.  It’s going to get worse, not just in California.  Trump’s big military parade/birthday party takes place on June 14. Lots of military hardware and soldiers with guns, Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth in the mix. What could possibly go wrong? 

People:  ABC journalist Terry Moran was suspended over the weekend for posting harsh words about Stephen Miller saying that what’s interesting about him is not that he’s the brains of “world-class hater” Trump’s operation but its “bile.”  It’s hard to miss that ABC punished him preemptively over fears that they’ll be sued again. We’re only 140 days into Trump 2.0 and the mainstream media is falling. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, one of the migrants deported to the El Salvador gulag, is back in the US.  Though Trump insisted that he couldn’t bring him back, El Salvador President Bukele said he was returned because Trump asked. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously promised that Garcia would never be brought back to the US, announced Garcia’s return during a press conference where she also detailed all of the “crimes” he’d allegedly committed. Curiously, those “crimes,” only two of which were listed on the indictment handed down by a Tennessee grand jury, were discovered after Garcia had been unlawfully deported and none of the others involved in the crimes were charged.  Also curious, Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee who served for fifteen years in both Republican and Democratic administrations, resigned on May 21, the same day that the Garcia indictment was handed down.  Schrader’s resignation was “prompted” by his concerns that the case was against Garcia was being pursued for political reasons.  While Musk is gone, probably for good, some of his DOGE-rats remain, including the infamous “Big Balls” who at least for now is a permanent employee of the General Service Administration.  The Wall Street Journal reports that many of the DOGE-niks, whether they’ve got permanent gigs in government or not,  now fear that their association with Musk will cost them their jobs because their loyalty to Trump is being questioned. Cue the violins 🎻 🎻 🎻.  We should also be questioning their competence, over the weekend the Washington Post reported that “Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE’s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process,” among others. It shouldn’t be surprising that a number of those being asked to return are wary of rejoining, that those who’ve been able to find new jobs elsewhere are expressing no interest, and that some rejoining plan to leave as soon as they find a job elsewhere.  Unfortunately, the SCOTUS conservatives don’t really care who is running DOGE these days, at least for now they are fine with all of our private information, including everything that the Social Security Administration has,  going into their hands.

Politics:  The Senate is still working on their version of the Big “Ugly” bill.  A number of House Republicans who voted for the House version of the bill now claim that they didn’t know what was in it and won’t vote for it when it comes back to the House if certain components remain though they’ll probably all will.  Texas Republican John Cornyn who is up for reelection to the Senate in 2026, is currently polling 22 points behind his Republican challenger Ken Paxton, the state’s very Trumpy Attorney General.  

Oops:  Mifepristone, the important abortion drug that anti-abortion activists hate, was first approved for use in the US in 2000, way before the 2020 that I mistakenly typed last week.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

 

 War of the Roses (Thorns?)🍿 😱✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱 🍿 

🍿🍿 🍿🍿:  Yesterday’s eruption between Ketamine Musk and the Mango Maniac was inevitable and fun to watch in a ghoulish, train crash kind of way.  In case you missed it the two traded poison tipped barbs over Trump’s Big Ugly Bill with Musk trashing it as a bloated monstrosity and Trump responding that Musk was just really peeved because he wasn’t getting his share of all that pork he was whining about.  The battle quickly turned personal with Musk claiming that the reason more of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s files haven’t been released by the FBI is because Trump figures prominently in them;  that without his financial lift Trump would have lost the 2024 election, more than implying that Pennsylvania’s Senate seat would have remained in Democratic hands; calling for the creation of a third party and then doubling down by calling for Trump’s impeachment.  Trump threatened to cut Musk’s lucrative government contracts, adding he never understood why Biden hadn’t done so when Musk started funding his campaign.  Musk then said, great idea Donnie, I’ll start by cancelling the Dragon 🐉 capsules, the essential rockets that bring US astronauts to and from the International Space Station and by the way, you should be replaced by JD Vance, who remained awfully quiet during the intense dust up.  Steve Bannon who knows a thing or two about being on the outs with Trump also weighed in, calling for Musk to be criminally investigated and deported back to South Africa perhaps with a long pit stop in the infamous El Salvador gulag.  Republicans in the House and Senate either ignored the ruckus or said nice things about both players because though they know their voters are Trump supporting MAGAs they also don’t want Musk funding their opponents.  Before the day ended, Musk backed off a bit, saying that he wouldn’t cancel his Dragons 🐉 🐉.  Reports are that some in the White House are trying to negotiate a truce, maybe one that solves the dilemma of who gets custody of Stephen Miller’s wife Katie and their three toddlers.  Will the truce be successful, who can say, but we all know warring couples who fight bitterly and then make-up only to fight again, and as Diddy trial watchers know abusive relationships can last a long time, so don’t count this bromance out just yet.  Tesla’s stock price which took a big hit yesterday is up in early trading. Replenish your 🍿 🍿supply, this could be just one chapter in a long saga.  Also, regardless of how it ends, the Big Ugly bill is still heading our way.    

Global Politics:  Yesterday in the same televised Oval office meeting where he bemoaned his deteriorating Musk relationship, Trump who had more than once promised to end the Ukraine-Russian war on day one of this term, told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that “it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia fight for a while before pulling them apart and pursuing peace.”  He likened the war to a “fight between two children who hate each other” adding "sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart." Fred Trump must have been one helluva a father, little wonder that Trump’s older brother turned to alcohol. It’s also no surprise that Russia, one of those warring children, unloaded a slew of missiles on the other, Ukraine, last night. Trump also finally spoke directly with Chinese leader Xi yesterday. According to the readout of the call provided by the Chinese because we no longer get real US generated readouts, going with a ship analogy, Xi told Trump that the two needed to “steer clear of various disturbances or even sabotage” to keep their trade war truce intact. Xi doesn’t have to worry about mid-term elections, four-year presidential elections, or term limits, so he’s got all the time in the world to wait out Taco Trump and his tariffs. Does anyone know how to say popcorn in Chinese, or any other language because it’s fair to assume that leaders around the world are watching, not just how the trade talks with China turn out, but Musk and Trump’s very public spat.

Reproduction:  The war over reproductive rights wages on.  The Trump administration rescinded guidance from the Biden administration that required hospitals, including those in states with near total abortion bans, to provide emergency abortions when needed to ensure the health of a pregnant woman seeking emergency room care. Keeping with the theme of making life more difficult, even deadly, for women seeking reproductive autonomy and emergency care, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said he plans to review the safety of abortion drug mifepristone. Mifepristone which was approved for use in the US in 2000 has a long track record and remains the only option for women in states where abortion is banned so this review has little to do with its safety but a lot to do with satisfying the anti-abortion crowd.

#BringThemAllHomeNow  

Kill Bill 3 😱✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️😱

The Abominable Bill:  Elon Musk is trying very hard to kill Trump’s not so beautiful bill.  Yesterday he continued attacking it on X, tweeting “KILL the BILL. Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok!”  He’s not wrong about the bill, though his solution includes making more cuts to social programs and all those other things that keep the government running and people safe rather than raising taxes or just letting some or all of the Trump 1.0 tax cuts expire. Naturally, much of Musk’s criticism is personal. He’s angry about the elimination of EV (electric vehicle) incentives; that the FAA won’t be using his Starlink in its updated control systems; that Trump pulled the nomination of his man Jared Isaacman to serve as the head of NASA; and that Trump refused to override the 130 day limitation for special government employees because despite the party line that he needed to get back to focusing on his businesses, Musk wanted to stay on at DOGE.  Trump didn’t expect Musk to publicly display his fury because he thought those humongous campaign contributions were just a gift with no strings attached, kind of like the $400 million plane that no one should believe is a bribe. Though a number of Senate and House Republicans are doing their best to tap dance around Musk’s criticisms because offending the guy with the bulging purse is never a good idea, some are using Musk’s slams to bolster their efforts to push for changes, mostly more cuts in the House bill but also some add backs like the funding of some of the projects that Biden strategically placed in red states.  Whatever emerges from the Senate will be different than the House bill.  That’s a problem for Mike Johnson because he had to placate his right-wing budget hawks while also satisfying his swing district members who demanded the increase in the SALT cap in exchange for their votes.  That SALT cap, together with Trump’s elimination of taxes on overtime and tips are among the items that are likely to be watered down or eliminated in whatever emerges from the Senate. A further complication are the conclusions of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (the CBO).  The CBO estimates that as it stands, the bill will cause 11 million people to lose health insurance, mostly due to the cuts in Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and that it balloons the deficit by $2.4 trillion over ten years, probably more but they are giving Trump some credit for tariffs.  That’s a problem for Republicans who’ve been claiming that only lazy bums will lose their health insurance while also asserting that the bill won’t grow the deficit so, naturally, they’re now attacking the biased “socialists” at the CBO.  The fun and games have just begun.  There will be more Elon tweet attacks and many more Trump eruptions as well as lots of arm twisting before it ends, assuming it does end because though the odds are that a tax bill will pass largely because Trump and the Republicans need to pass something there is also a chance that it gets broken into two pieces.

Shiny Objects:  To distract from the tax bill mess, Trump lobbed a few shiny objects into the air yesterday.  He had Linda McMahon’s Education Department, the department he’s trying to eliminate, notify the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the entity responsible for accrediting Columbia University, that Columbia has failed to meet the standards for accreditation, asserting Columbia is violating federal antidiscrimination laws.  Essentially, Trump is trying to intimidate the accrediting institution into pulling Columbia’s accreditation which would make it impossible for Columbia’s students to receive federal financial aid including Pell Grants. Then late last night Trump signed a proclamation suspending visas for Harvard’s new international students. Trump wants us to think that these actions are to punish Columbia and Harvard for allowing anti-Semitism to flourish on their campuses.  Don’t be fooled, the guy who dines with and promotes white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and according to wife one Ivana slept with a copy of Mein Kampf near his bed, cares little about anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism on and off college campus is a real problem, the universities have screwed up big time, but Trump is using the oldest hate of all to promote his interests, not to protect Jews. If anything, he’s putting a big target on every Jewish person’s back. It’s not just Jews, late last night Trump issued an executive order restricting the entry of nationals from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will face a partial restriction. The orange TACO guy is hoping that today’s news cycle will focus on his newest travel ban, his war on “elitist” educators, and his newest assertion that Sleepy Joe’s pardons were invalid because he was sleepy, rather than Musk’s tweet attacks and the state of his ugly bill.

Fog: Yesterday, Trump had a wonderful “hour plus” phone call with his sometimes BFF Vladimir Putin.  The White House no longer releases transcripts of anything Trump says, especially his calls with foreign leaders, but after the call Trump posted on social media that they “discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides…..”It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”  Oh and “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.” Trump failed to say that he told Putin that further escalation needed to stop, nor did he suggest that he threatened Putin with more sanctions likely because he didn’t. To summarize, Putin bombed Ukrainian civilian targets, Ukraine responded by attacking unmanned war planes, and Trump pretty much yawned when Putin said he’d now attack more civilian targets.  In other news it looks more and more likely that Trump is negotiating a deal with Iran that looks just like the Obama one he walked away from and there’s no progress out of Gaza except that Israel has retrieved the bodies of Judi Weinstein and Gadi Haggai two of the hostages who died during the October 7 massacre. Sadly, the live hostages remain in Hamas’ hands.

And:  Thank you to the reader who pointed out that I mistakenly wrote that Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders was the Governor of Alabama. Alabama has lots of problems, Huckabee Sanders is not one of them. 😊  

#BringThemAllHomeNow