Tag: funding

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Sorry Charlie — But We Have Other Things To Discuss

Sorry Charlie

But We Have Other Things To Discuss

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 14th 2025

Charlie’s a good Nazi. That’s all I have to say about that.

Because our servile corporate media can’t think of anything else to talk about this week, let me fill you in on some of the other, apparently less important stories, going on right now.

NATO has invoked Article 4 in the wake of the Russian drone attack in Poland. The Russians claim the incursion of 19 drones, many of them armed, into Polish air space was “unintentional.” The Poles shot four of them down, and the Russians seemed disinclined to object to that. Article 4 isn’t a declaration of war (that’s Article 5) but it’s the equivalent of when a skunk starts tapping his forepaws and lifts his tail. It means “Back off. Now.” Putin clearly thinks that America is too cowardly and weak to call his bluff because he knows the American president is too cowardly and weak. But even without America, the EU has an economy 40 times the size of Russia’s and a military that, while not as huge, uses well maintained equipment and ordinance from the 21st century. Also, if Putin is hoping Trump will support him when the chips are down, he’s living in a fool’s paradise.

Some idiot MAGA wannabe named Tori Branum put in a SWAT call to ICE to raid a Hyundai plant and the Icicles promptly rounded up some 475 people, 300 of which were actual Korean nationals there on Visas to train American workers. Only one didn’t have his papers in order, and there’s no evidence he did so intentionally. South Korea is furious. They got their workers back, but none of them want to return to the plant in what many of them doubtlessly now think of “that shithole country.” It may cost the US a half trillion dollars in planned investments, and Japan and Vietnam are both openly rethinking making manufacturing plants in the US. That idiot congressional wannabee and the cowboys at ICE just negated the whole rationale behind the tariffs.

A district court just ruled that Trump doesn’t have the Constitutional power to levy tariffs unilaterally. That was clear to anyone who knew anything at all about the law and separation of powers, but it came as a huge surprise to the Pedodent, who is screaming that it will cost the US (imaginary) trillions in revenue. Now, the Supine Court may make one of its secret rulings that Trump can continue the tariffs for a few decades while they pretend to think it over (now their favorite ploy for supporting the Unitary Executive, or what historians refer to as “the dictator”).

In a bit over two weeks, funding for the government runs out. This is a crisis we’ve seen far too often, dating back to Newt Gingrich and his scheme to blackmail America, but the difference this time is that because of Trump’s gratuitous and illegal use of Rescission (reallocating or just flat-out stealing budgeted funding) there’s no point in passing a budget and so the Democrats can’t be arsed unless and until someone puts a choke collar on the Trumpster.

In Brazil, where corporate interests haven’t totally neutered the government, the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was found guilty of plotting a military coup. Four out of the five Supreme Court justices tasked with judging the former leader found him guilty. He got over 27 years in prison. Hey, remember when we had a real supreme court that didn’t have six fascist clowns in black dresses? If the Suck-ass Six had been trying Bolsonaro, they would have put him back in office while they spent twenty years claiming to decide if he should have been voted out.

Netanyahu may have finally overstepped with the fascist right that support him, bombing Qatar. Supposedly they were bombing Hamas terrorists with those magic bombs that never hurt innocent people. The Qataris were not amused, and for a wonder, neither was the United States, usually head supplicant to Benji.

California, which still maintains American values, made it illegal for peace officers to wear masks or conceal their identities. In pre-Trump America that may have seemed a no-brainer, but now that Trump has his own secret police made up of January 6 rioters, mercenaries and other bottom-feeder thugs in masks, it’s become necessary. Steven Miller, poster boy for Gay Nazis Who Pretend to Like Jews, is planning to double down on ICE raids in Los Angeles. If they show up with masks, I hope the LAPD arrest them. Not holding my breath, but Californians are going to be asking them hard questions if they don’t.

Meanwhile, we’re hearing the word “Stagflation” more and more. Those of us alive in the 1970s remember it well: 15% annual inflation combined with 8% unemployment, the result mostly of the “oil shock” when OPEC doubled oil barrel prices. Ah, good times. The Republicans (!!!) tried the experiment of government control of wage/price freezes (Whip Inflation Now) which compounded the disaster. Republicans are weird. They hate all the good things about socialism (universal healthcare, schooling, child care,etc.) but when the heat is on, they embrace all the worst elements of communism (wage and price freezes, hiding unfavorable statistics, and economic coercion of corporations). Oddly, they insist socialism and communism are the same thing.

Meanwhile, farm workers, documented or not, are avoiding the fields because of ICE raids, and tariffs are driving the costs of all imported foods up. In July, the wholesale price of produce jumped 38%. Yes, in just one month. And we’re just now coming up on the main harvest time, and tariffs are just starting to bite. Job growth was already starting to slow when Trump took office as the Biden boom ran its course.

So there’s all that to consider while nervous talking heads on TV try to suck up to the MAGAt extremists. Just so you know, there’s more to talk about other than some asshole whose only redeeming feature is that he got shot, or as I like to call him, “2025 School Shooting #46.”

Oh, yes. Release the Epstein files!

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In the Wake of Helene — Trump finds new lows

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

October 6th 2024

In the days following the passage of Hurricane Helene through the deep South, the shitposters came swarming out of Truth Social, Newsmax, and other anal orifices of the web to decry the horrible, even non-existent response by the Biden administration in the way of disaster relief.

It’s going to be a while before we can even really assess the amount of damage Helene did. Certainly, the region suffered more damage than it did during the Civil War. The number of homeless may number in the millions. A lot of regions are accessible only by helicopter, due to the number of roads and bridges that were swept away.

But to the right wing shitposter, no crisis should go to waste. The tone was often openly gleeful; it would make Harris look bad, which would help Trump, so the more dead Americans the better. They even showed up in non-political corners of the web (non-partisan weather-related sites were especially targeted) to spray lies about the catastrophe like AR-15s in a kindergarten. Biden wasn’t answering calls from southern governors. FEMA was showing a clear “anti-Republican bias” in aid efforts. In a bout of wishful thinking, the Lord Haw-Haws reported the entire nation was furious over the lack of response. Harris spent all the FEMA money on “illegals.” Over a billion dollars was supposedly missing. And there were no signs of rescue operations at all in North Carolina.

These were all blatant lies, easily debunked. Some didn’t even make sense on the face of it. The Vice President has no say in FEMA spending, or access to same. Air traffic over NC was triple what it would normally be due to the huge amounts of helicopters flying food, water and shelter in to ruined areas.

The source of these lies was easy to pinpoint: it was Donald Trump himself. The king of American shitposters. Just last night, he posted, “This has been the worst Hurricane Response by a president and vice president since Katrina—and this is simply unacceptable… Kamala wined and dined in San Francisco, and all the people in North Carolina—no helicopters, no rescue. They’re offering $750 to people whose homes have been washed away—meanwhile, they send our money to other countries by the billions.”

It’s a disgraceful response by a disgraceful man. But his followers are ecstatic. They flooded social media with an AI picture purporting to show Trump, in full business suit, wading into floodwater to rescue victims of the storm. No, really. It’s a shame the image isn’t real; they desperately need rafts down there right now, and Trump would make a fine raft.

Normally these shenanigans wouldn’t warrant a response from me. We’re all so used to self-serving, self-aggrandizing bullshit from Trump and his followers that ranting more about it would just put my readers to sleep. Some of you are probably nodding off like Trump in a courtroom right now.

But there’s a couple of more elements to all this that put this up to a higher level.

First, FEMA really is nearly out of funds. Like most of the rest of government, they’ve been getting by on Continuing Resolutions, which means they aren’t even getting cost-of-living adjustments, let alone funds to deal with the ever-increasing weather disasters that stem from climate change. And no, the money wasn’t spent on undocumented immigrants by Kamala Harris.

Congress is in recess. All the representatives are at home for the campaign, sucking for dollars. But responsible members from both parties have been clamoring for an emergency session to provide FEMA with the needed funds. That seems like a no-brainer, and I’ll repeat that the demands are bipartisan.

The man empowered to call Congress back into session isn’t Joe Biden. The President doesn’t have that authority. Neither is it Kamala Harris, even in the role of Presiding Officer of the Senate. Only House Speaker Mike Johnson can do that.

And he will NOT be calling the House back early to vote on a disaster aid supplemental He told Politico’s Olivia Beavers the cost of damages has to be ‘tabulated’ before a supplemental is considered. And that could take some time.

Remember that $750 that Trump was sneering at? It wasn’t to “rebuild homes”–it was just to give people in areas not totally destroyed money to get food, water and shelter right now in order to stay alive. And it will save thousands of lives. Johnson, in effect, is saying “don’t do anything for desperate people until we have some idea of how much they lost.”

I don’t know if it’s an act of political calculation or just pure sociopathy, but Johnson obviously sees merit in crippling rescue and recovery operations. I’m sure that Trump is delighted.

But there’s more. Another hurricane is coming. Hurricane Milton. It is aiming straight toward Tampa Bay, Florida, and is projected to arrive as a major hurricane. It’s a nightmare scenario, since the heavily populated areas around Tampa Bay are particularly vulnerable to storm and tidal surges. It will arrive at new Moon, when tides are particularly high. The result could be a far smaller area devastated, but far more deaths and property damage than we have seen from Helene.

But not to worry. Congress will reconvene after the election, and if they aren’t too busy figuring out how to steal the election for Trump, they might consider throwing a few bucks to the survivors, even if the survivors were too thoughtless to submit an itemized bill first. It’s the Christian Nationalist thing to do, after all.

Also, the long range is hinting at another hurricane which may sweep up past Miami and up the eastern seaboard and into New England. Unlike Milton, it’s far enough in the future to hope that it won’t happen, but it’s a signal that the climate isn’t finished with us just yet, no matter what Congress thinks.

Call your own reps and demand they meet to establish emergency relief aid. It is critically needed, and it will get far worse in the next week. Or go here (https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/hurricane-helene-how-to-help/story?id=114345534 ) and donate to the charity of your choice.

And if you encounter Trump’s shitposters, don’t bother being polite. They don’t deserve any human courtesy.

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Trumpcare Savage, Unreasoning, Malevolent

July 20th 2018

One of the elements of Obamacare is something called “risk-adjustment payments” which transferred funds from health insurance companies with a lower percentage of chronically or severely ill patients to companies with a higher percentage of such patients. The program, which involved on average, about $10 billion a year, was designed to keep insurance premiums and profits level among companies. It worked well.

In a compromise with Republicans, the program was designed to be revenue-neutral, to transfer money amongst the insurance companies with no net cost to the taxpayers.

Some smaller insurance companies sued, arguing that that the payment arrangements favored larger insurance companies and made it more difficult for insurance company startups. A Massachusetts federal judge ruled that no such adverse condition existed and bade the program continue.

But a federal judge in New Mexico ruled that the program must be suspended on the curious grounds that the government had not adequately articulated its reasons why the program should be revenue-neutral. Therefore, the program should be suspended so an investigation could be conducted as to why this wasn’t costing the taxpayers anything. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/us/politics/trump-risk-adjustment-payments-obamacare.html)

Given the two conflicting rulings, it’s not hard to guess which the Trump administration decided to side with. Trump had already signaled during the Health Care debate of 2017 his intent to sabotage Obamacare in any way he could.

In July of 2017, Trump tweeted, “If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!”

He’s been working to fulfill this promise to unnecessarily hurt the American people to spite Obama ever since. And it’s having a dire effect already.

Two weeks ago, I got this in my email from an online friend, a highly-respected journalist who requested I withhold his identity due to harassment from trolls. He had suffered a stroke at the beginning of last year and been working hard to rebuild his life since.

He wrote:

As you no doubt know, about a year and a half ago, I suffered a massive stroke. I am told that most people who have a stroke of the type and severity of the one I had don’t survive it.

But I survived it with most of my mental faculties intact, although at times I have a bit of difficulty focusing and my short term memory is spotty. I have lasting nerve impairment that makes coordination and locomotion difficult. I live with constant fatigue, as well as lack of equilibrium. I am on medical prescriptions that leave me weak and dizzy, on top of the already existing difficulties. I had seizures last fall that required an additional med that puts me in even worse shape.

My doctors (my primary care doctor and the battery of specialists on my case) recommend I don’t even try to work outside the home, which is fine because black men of my age are not high on the priority list for companies to employ. This wasn’t hard to accept. Many days it is necessary for me to remain lying down all day because of the weakness and dizziness. I no longer have regular sleep patterns and often must sleep for large parts of daylight hours.

My expenses are covered by Medicaid, including my health care and prescriptions. By chance, I had enrolled in Obamacare shortly before the stroke, and fortunately, it covered all my hospital expenses, which would have left me in perpetual debt. Without Obamacare and Medicaid I am here to tell about it. My housing is also covered by a state program which utilizes Medicaid funding to help keep me going.

Yesterday I received a letter informing me that to retain my health care it will be necessary for me to start paying them $685 a month.

Today I received a notification informing me that it will now be necessary for me to begin paying $685 monthly to continue living in the home where the state moved me.

I don’t get SNAP any more. My only income is the $750 monthly from Social Security disability.

As far as I can tell, this is all due to Trump and his GOP cronies messing with both Obamacare and Medicaid.

My friend is one of hundreds of thousands of people affected by this cruel and capricious action by the Trump administration, and it will get far worse as the criminals and vicious ideologues of the Republican Party, led by the treasonous Trump, slash away at Obamacare in their drive to keep the American public desperate, frightened, and totally reliant on the supposed largess of the corporations. You have a party that is essentially middle management as envisioned by John Galt, and a malevolent narcissist leading us off a cliff.

One response my friend got to his post was this: “Be warned, ****, I have low empathy.  Your situation as described is very unfortunate; I hope you find a resolution.  It’s fair to point out that you’re not the only person who has faced a similar situation, since Obamacare resulted in many people losing their insurance, forcing them to get new policies with very high premiums and high deductibles.  I can’t hold you personally responsible for their problems, as you can’t (and I’m sure don’t) hold me personally responsible for yours. Even if the government didn’t meddle in the health care system, some people would come up short.”

This is a good example of the utter savagery of Trump and his supporters. “Low empathy” indeed.

My friend isn’t alone, and of course, the number of people affected by Trump’s tearing at the very fabric of society will grow and grow and grow, to the millions, and then tens of millions, and on up.

< The original promise was to “repeal and replace Obamacare with something better.” No Republican anywhere has proposed a replacement. They simply want to go back to the old Ayn Rand system, the wor>st in the developed world.

It’s easy to miss in the clownishness of Trump’s two-hour tryst in the Helsinki Don’t Tell Motel, or the efforts to drive the world economy into a ditch through trade and currency wars, but it is Trump’s vicious, unreasoning and vindictive attacks on health care that are having the most immediate, and horrific, effects.

Reread his words above very carefully. You’re next.

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