Thursday, March 13, 2025
Marco Rubio and his fellow barbarians are shredding and burning USAID classified documents and personnel records
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees and outside groups are fighting an order from the agency’s leadership to shred and burn its classified documents as well as personnel records.
An email obtained by The Hill sent by USAID’s acting executive secretary instructs remaining employees at the dismantled agencies to “shred as many documents as possible first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.” ...
More.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
In February 2025 the average cost of electricity is 31.6% higher than it was 2016-2020
The average price per kWhr was $0.136 for the five years 2016-2020.
In February 2025 piped utility gas to heat your home, heat your water, and cook with costs 55.7% more than it did on average 2016-2020
The average price 2016-2020 was $1.0174 per therm.
In February 2025 gasoline costs 34.8% more than the average 2016-2020
The average price 2016-2020 was $2.419/gallon.
Beef, breakfast, and bliss just went up again: A dozen basic foods posting new all time high average prices in February 2025 according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank
Choice chuck roast $8.104/lb
Ground chuck $5.744
All uncooked ground beef $5.96
All uncooked beef roasts $7.995
Round roast $7.49
Round steak $8.485
Eggs $5.897/dozen
Frozen orange juice $4.492/12oz
Coffee $7.246
White Sugar $1.011
Table wine $14.087/liter
Beer $1.819/pint
Ohio shoulda said pwease
Local projects like Milliken Road, Wright-Patt sidelined as U.S. House votes to avoid shutdown
Even as Ohio Republicans stuck with President Donald Trump and voted on Tuesday to approve a six-month government funding bill in the U.S. House, that decision came with a price — as the GOP plan denied federal funding for a variety of local projects across the state. ...
Core cpi inflation was 3.117% year over year in February 2025, still 58.6% worse than the average 2017-2020
We've been stuck in this range for 8 months.
The worst inflation in decades first fell to 3.1% in July 2024.
We're still there.
The purchasing power of the US dollar fell again in February 2025: The dollar now buys 26.5% less than it did 10 years ago
The monthly decline in February was another -0.63%.
The year over year decline in February was -2.795%.
That's your headline inflation number today.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
I wrote to my Congressman John Moolenaar last week about today's continuing resolution vote
He wrote back today, today!, explaining his February 25th vote for the budget framework, about which I asked nothing, mentioned nothing.
But what I did ask about went entirely unaddressed.
This is called being without representation.
What a moron.
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
Ed Kilgore: Senate Democrats have no choice on the dirty continuing spending resolution if it passes the House, have only one filibuster to use in 2025, and now's the time
Johnson added conservative sweeteners to the CR, which isn’t “clean” (i.e., a simple extension of current funding levels for everything) as advertised, but instead adds immediate money for defense and mass deportation, and cuts domestic spending by $13 billion. House Democrats already inclined to vote “no” on the CR because it contains no language forcing the executive branch to actually spend the money appropriated (which would restrict the power of DOGE or OMB to unilaterally “freeze” spending, cancel grants or contracts, or fire personnel) now have even less motivation to keep the government open. ...
To kill the CR, Democrats would have to launch a filibuster, and in that
circumstance it would be much easier for Republicans to blame the
Donkey Party for shutting down the federal government, despite the clear
intention of the Trump administration to keep gutting the government if
it remains open. If just seven Senate Democrats choose to join
Republicans (or all but Rand Paul, who is demanding deeper cuts; he’s
effectively matched with Democrat John Fetterman, who’s vowed to vote to avoid a shutdown), the CR will pass.
If Senate Democrats are put to the challenge and subsequently cave, they will have more than likely forfeited any real Democratic leverage for the remainder of 2025 beyond stirring up public unhappiness with Trump 2.0. Appropriations aside, most of Trump’s legislative agenda will be enacted via a gigantic budget reconciliation bill that cannot be filibustered. So the decision not to deploy a filibuster on the one crucial occasion it is available will represent an admission of powerlessness that won’t make rank-and-file Democrats happy. ...
More.
Mad King Ludwig declares war on Representative Thomas Massie (KY-4), one of only two Republicans remaining with the gumption to oppose the proposed continuing spending resolution
The other Republican opponent of the CR is Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. He won his 2022 Senate race with 61.8% of the vote and won't need to stand for re-election until 2028 when Trump is history.
Massie is unafraid. He's been there, done that, and is still standing:
Monday, March 10, 2025
War is the father of everything awful
War is the father of debt, and of the Navy Seal barbarians in Congress who know how to destroy but not how to build:
... a lethal band of expert killers ... the current generation of ex-SEALs, who mostly came of fighting age during the Gulf War and the war on terror, have eagerly embraced a more combative style of politics — one that favors partisan warfare, legislative brinksmanship and an open embrace of Trump. ... it draws on the combativeness at the heart of what several of the members called the SEALs’ “warrior mentality”: the sense the SEALs will do whatever it takes — short of opposing Trump outright — to achieve their objective. ... they see the objective of their mission as tearing down an irreparably broken system rather than working within that system to pass bills. Judged by this metric, the former SEALs have been diligent foot soldiers in the MAGA movement, especially insofar as they have green-lit the Trump administration’s more aggressive efforts to extend his authority over independent agencies created by Congress and concentrate policy making power in the executive branch. ...
More.
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