Hey look! Root causes are back in the news again after a brief hiatus

 The root cause of the Ukraine war is Vladimir Putin and the root cause of the illegal immigration problem was Joe Biden.

 

 

House Freedom Caucus caves completely to King Ludwig and Prince Elon, House votes 217-213-2 to continue spending at Biden levels through the end of fiscal year 2025

 

Two seats remain vacant due to Trump appointments and one is newly vacant due to sudden death. 

Republican Massie voted Nay and Democrat Golden of Maine voted Yea. Republican Moore of North Carolina and Democrat Grijalva did not vote. 

The bill moves to the Senate.

The Republican controlled House dares Senate Democrats to vote Nay and has gone on vacation until March 24th.

The government will close down on Friday at midnight if the Senate fails to pass the measure.

60 votes are needed in the Senate where the Republicans are in the majority with 53 seats. 

 House narrowly passes six-month funding bill as shutdown deadline nears

 Roll Call 70 | Bill Number: H. R. 1968

 

 

The do-nothing US Senate under John Thune has passed 0 of 5 appropriation bills passed by the US House under Mike Johnson who still hasn't passed the other 7 and now they all want to pass Biden's spending instead through FY2025 to please phony Republican Donald Trump

 

Trump's GOP is Bush's GOP: We have to pass a bill continuing Joe Biden's deficit spending full of waste, fraud, and abuse through September so that Elon Musk can cut it

 

Meanwhile Trump's Social Security today also boasts of spending $7.5 billion authorized by Congress and Joe Biden for people who didn't pay taxes, just one day after DOGE saves $800 million lol

 

 Social Security Pays Billions of Dollars in Retroactive Payments

The Social Security Administration (SSA) today shared its significant progress to quickly implement the Social Security Fairness Act. Through March 4, 2025, SSA has already paid 1,127,723 people more than $7.5 billion in retroactive payments. The retroactive payments are the result of the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). The average retroactive payment so far is $6,710.

“President Trump made it very clear he wanted the Social Security Fairness Act to be implemented as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We met that challenge head on and are proudly delivering for the American people.”

The WEP and GPO provisions reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits for over 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security (a "non-covered pension") because they did not pay Social Security taxes.

The agency continues to pay remaining retroactive payments and is ready to begin paying higher monthly benefit payments beginning in April for people’s March benefit.

Phony baloney Trump, but I repeat myself, takes credit for Ukraine's success provided under Joe Biden

 

“Ukraine, I will say they’re very brave, and they’re good soldiers, but without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short time,” Trump added on Tuesday. ... Zelenskyy had also noted that any assistance Ukraine was still receiving was a legacy of the previous U.S. administration under Joe Biden . . ..

Reported here.

Nutball worlds in collision: Trumpism defends freedom in Europe with its right hand, stabs it in the back in Ukraine with its left, Biden defended freedom in Ukraine with his right, attacked it in America with his left

 

 But The Federalist has its blinders on. Biden baaaaaaad! Trump gooooood!

"Let's see if we can find some naive kid to write a story about it!" 

By Defending Free Speech Worldwide, Team Trump Reclaims America’s Global Moral High Ground:

Under President Donald Trump, the suppression of natural rights by Western powers will no longer be ignored by the United States.

Yep, J. D. Vance goes to Europe to beat up on our friends. But suppression of freedom will be ignored, in places like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China. And above all in Ukraine.

This is the essence of libertarianism: Make the good the enemy of the perfect.

But defending freedom where it really counts would take some courage, and they don't have it. 

The author of this article, who graduated from college in 2022 with a BA in political "science", ends it touting the execrable Darren Beattie at Marco Rubio's State Department, a Taiwan surrender monkey. 

 

The article is the second in the queue at Real Clear Politics this morning. One goes there looking for some serious editorial judgment and gets this.

Trump/Vance don't have the moral high ground. They are just the cowardly other side of the same old hypocritical American coin.

Look it up

 

Good morning to all, except in Canada, Greenland, Panama, and Colombia

 

J6 prisoners were abused in jail under Biden and frequently moved from place to place to prevent due process, family says DC authorities are still dragging their feet to release them

 Story here.

Trump executive order reverses Biden's pause on new approvals of LNG projects

 It is little discussed, but Biden's pause on the new projects was based, in part, on the negative impact on prices paid by consumers because natural gas was being diverted to LNG exports. Reduced domestic supply has led to higher prices paid by consumers:

The current economic and environmental analyses DOE uses to underpin its LNG export authorizations are roughly five years old and no longer adequately account for considerations like potential energy cost increases for American consumers and manufacturers beyond current authorizations or the latest assessment of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Natural gas diverted to export already reached 10% of production in 2022.

Reported here:

The president reversed the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas export facilities. Trump directed the Energy secretary to start reviewing new LNG projects as quickly as possible.     

Natural gas prices have exploded by 210% since Trump was elected in November.

As if the pre-emptive pardons of Fauci, Milley, and the Jan 6 lynch mob weren't bad enough, Biden pardoned his own siblings and their families at the last second

 Meanwhile, earlier in December Biden's own Department of Justice warned Jan 6 "insurrectionists" that accepting a pardon from Trump would amount to a confession of guilt.

So Fauci, Milley, et alia are all ipso facto guilty.

Biden pre-emptively pardons his own supporters as he heads out the door after prosecuting his opponents for four years, admits "the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances"

"It's OK when we ruin you, but not if you ruin us".

 

Biden pardons Fauci and Milley in an effort to guard against potential ‘revenge’ by Trump

 

... It’s unclear whether those pardoned by Biden would need to apply for the clemency or accept the president’s offer. Acceptance could be seen as a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, validating years of attacks by Trump and his supporters, even though those who have been pardoned have not been formally accused of any crimes. ...

This is just BS from Speaker Mike Johnson about LNG exports and Joe Biden's memory

 Whatever may be said about Joe Biden's memory, he didn't have a memory lapse in this instance as alleged by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. It's troubling that Mike Johnson would misrepresent this in this way. 

Joe Biden doesn't have a monopoly on "fake shit".

Sir, why did you [President Biden] pause LNG exports to Europe? Like, I don't understand. Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? You understand -- we just talked about Ukraine -- you’re fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine because they’ve got to get their gas from him."

He looks at me, stunned, and says, "I didn’t, I didn’t do that."

I said, "Mr. President, yes, you did. It was an executive order, like, three weeks ago."

He says, "No, I didn’t do that." He’s arguing with me.

-- The Moment Speaker Mike Johnson Knew Biden Wasn't "In Charge" Anymore 

LNG exports to Europe were not paused. And demand in Europe dropped in 2024. Biden signed a temporary pause for pending approvals of LNG exports, not for existing approvals of LNG exports. This and Mike's other comments in the story indicate that he is not exactly reliable on the subject. But he could have easily just looked it up.

Jan 26, 2024:

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports

Sep 4, 2024:

US LNG export dominance tested as Europe's demand wilts

Meanwhile, Mike Johnson didn't tell anybody about this until now? Seems like a dereliction of duty for the man in line right behind the VP to become president in the event of incapacity or death.

And, oh yeah, US LNG export tanker loads hit a seven-month high in January 2025 at 71, through yesterday:

 

 

 

J. D. Vance aptly summarizes Joe Biden's Equal Rights Amendment gambit

Cincinnati Reds fan.

 

Joe Biden is the authoritarian Democrats only dream Donald Trump will be

 

These ridiculous goofs, President Biden, VP Harris, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand should all be removed from office before Monday

 The ERA was never ratified according to the rules. Pretending otherwise and using the power of the executive to assert otherwise is a violation of their oaths of office. There is no 28th Amendment to the US Constitution. The ERA is not the law of the land. These are renegade Democrats, but I repeat myself, enemies of the rule of law and enemies of democracy. They mock us with this stunt, and deserve mockery in return.

 

 

Los Angeles inferno enters its sixth day, four days after Beavis and Butt-head meet to declare wildfires a major disaster