See previous post for explanation.

 

Nothing would be safe. Even your Medicare and Social Security benefits could be in danger. I'm bracing for losing Medicaid. Must yet depressing read from Pro Publica.

 

Here's the link:

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-impoundment-appropriations-congress-budget?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

An excerpt:

“We can simply choke off the money,” Trump said in a 2023 campaign video.

 “For 200 years under our system of government, it was undisputed that the president had the constitutional power to stop unnecessary spending.”

His plan, known as “impoundment,” threatens to provoke a major clash over the limits of the president’s control over the budget. The Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate the federal budget, while the role of the executive branch is to dole out the money effectively. But Trump and his advisers are asserting that a president can unilaterally ignore Congress’ spending decisions and “impound” funds if he opposes them or deems them wasteful.

Trump’s designs on the budget are part of his administration’s larger plan to consolidate as much power in the executive branch as possible. This month, he pressured the Senate to go into recess so he could appoint his cabinet without any oversight. (So far, Republicans who control the chamber have not agreed to do so.) His key advisers have spelled out plans to bring independent agencies, such as the Department of Justice, under political control.

If Trump were to assert a power to kill congressionally approved programs, it would almost certainly tee up a fight in the federal courts and Congress and, experts say, could fundamentally alter Congress’ bedrock power.

Old Star Trek review with some really nice art by J D Lendl. I really like his art.

 

Great Science Fiction, Pulp and Comics Art (+ Related News +Random Tunes)

Philip Shropshire  · noteoSpsrd320ia2c12 Jlg1hhi7250998a0l868i6,i 2741uacuui3ym0l  · 

One of the best episodes. Has some nice writing and acting moments. New Spock's best performance. Definitely a serious episode. I loved the fact that they brought that weird kid back from the original series. (He's been in other series. Maybe all of them.) I have to admit that this makes me think that a medical Star Trek show would be really interesting. Of course, so would a legal Star Trek show. Why does the Star Trek world even need great civil rights attorneys? That would be an interesting question to answer. Of course, the great thing about Star Trek is how you can do every other tv show within it. Also I'm very impressed with how they're developing M Benga. Klingon Sambo? That also utilizes Babs' grappling skills. Well done. Update with spoilers: I agree with Jim Levogiani that the killing didn't seem "Star Trek". Also with that sick bay how did he die. Just being an armchair doctor who watches lots of Star Trek he should have been immediately put into stasis. Surely they can keep brain function alive in Star Trek future. They mentioned that, in this episode, they have organ regenerators....No way that Klingon should have died. Would have been a better episode with M Benga repairing him too. "I can't go on diplomatic trips with you...but Nurse Chapel is open to the suggestions."

Something the Republicans do well and the GOP lite corporate Dems didn't respond well to.

Here's something that Republicans do pretty effectively. If they're in power America is Great and they have an overwhelming media advantage where it's guaranteed that message gets out. However, if they're out of power they'll tell you "America Sucks" and we're about to get into a nuclear conflict with Putin. And a non passable migrant tranny will stab you to death at night. Those were pretty much the Pro Trump ads that I got soaked with during the election and it looks like they worked. (Mainly because these ads weren't effectively countered but that's another short essay.)Average voters think America isn't great not just because of those somewhat silly things but the fact that you're being raped by the predatory companies in the illustration below. However, the now GOP lite Dems, thinking about Rahm as their next chairman which would mean they have learned nothing (Nothing. Really.) from losing all three branches, can't make the argument that this is the problem of living in the US. Harris insiders and Sen. Chris Murphy pretty much admitted this. The GOP solutions will make your life worse in pretty much all of these areas. Every one of them. And Dems can't point out that they have either better solutions or that they would actually crackdown on these problems.

Update: Now that I think of it it's not clear that the Dems would do much about these problems, either. And it's clear that voters felt that way as well. The Biden Way, as I've noticed on student debt and Cenk Uygur has noticed about everything else, involved Biden only solving about 5 percent of a problem and you'll get more in some second Biden term, which we now know is a fantasy. Why not completely forgive student debt as the 65 housing authority permits you to do? Helps 40 million voters. He didn't need GOP votes to pass that. I just shake my head at this. Biden wouldn't even support Medicaid/Medicare buy in. The Biden/Harris admin did forgive about 1 percent to 5 percent of student debt. Was that enough? Apparently not. I mean really. It wasn't enough. The Ernest Partridge theory of the Democratic Party as the Washington Generals seems to be true. It just didn't seem like they cared much if they lost. And, considering all the bribe money they took, maybe they were paid to lose.

I'm happy that white women voted for pro choice ballot measures and as a majority against Trump in PA. Not happy that white women nationally voted for Trump as a majority and they sent Hawley and Scott back to congress to enact a nationwide abortion ban.

Look I'm happy that white women voted to pass pro choice ballot initiatives. I'm really happy that white women voted as a majority in PA against Donald Trump. I'm not happy that white women voted as a majority for Trump nationally. It's a failure of logic to vote against statewide abortion bans while sending Corporate Theocrats like Josh Hawley and Batboy Rick Scott back to congress, where they will probably pass a nationwide abortion ban. The filibuster only stops things that help working class ppl. It seems to disappear whenever the GOP really wants something or if it's a tax cut. We'll probably get a national abortion ban. The fantasy part of Alex Garland's "Civil War" isn't just the unlikely alliance of Texas and California. It's the idea that a coalition of states or the left could defeat a man who has selected the leaders of the Army, Navy and Air Force. BTW, looks like Trump has selected a scary Christian radical (Think Sons of Gilead.) with tats to run the Department of Defense. So if Trump wants to send in army troops to enforce Texas abortion bans in Illinois or Pennsylvania or some other sane blue state who exactly would stop him? The Supreme Court or what I call it: The Handmaid's Court. Or the show where you can hang an out lesbian several minutes after sentencing. You could have avoided all this simply by voting for Hillary and probably Harris, the one issue she ran on that I believed. This is an IQ test that white women have failed, twice.

No the Democrats didn't, generally, run woke campaigns. What John Oliver said.

 What John Oliver said.

Off the cliff we go.

 

I lost my Twitter appeal. But just to repeat: when I was referring to "about to be murdered by a knife wielding migrant tranny" I was describing the Pro Trump ads I had seen. It wasn't a personal opinion. Migrants commit less crime.

 

I'm a news junkies but everyday for the next four years is going to be sheer torture in terms of policy issues. I'm hoping the judge on Nov. 26th throws his ass in jail. Vance just doesn't seem that crazy to me. I think.

 

Thing I said on Facebook that nobody gets to read.

 

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

 

This looks plausible. But the blue wall has to hold. I'll check in again at around midnight. Watch a movie or something.

 

Twitter post where my reach was limited by the very impartial Twitter owner, seen dancing around on the stage with Trump like a bit of a Dip. Thank god Musk doesn't own Blogger, yet.

Post where the reach was limited on Twitter. On the day of the election. And the warning was completely false and had nothing to do with the post. There was no hate speech involved. I was clearly joking.

I was responding to this Twitter post.