Wednesday, March 26, 2025
The Atlantic calls Trump's bluff and publishes full Signal thread sent to its editor by mistake by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz
The Atlantic publishes full Signal thread with Hegseth, Waltz after Trump says texts not classified
... Goldberg in Wednesday’s report wrote: “If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests—or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media—the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds.”
“The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic,” he wrote. ...
Liberals are upset with Trump's EO on elections because it threatens to withhold federal money from jurisdictions which don't crack down on voting by non-citizens
Whether liberals will address this head on, however, remains to be seen. They may simply challenge the meddling of the executive in a matter the constitution reserves to the states.
The Supreme Court has consistently deferred on this to the states, even during all the election controversy of 2020, rebuffing Trump over and over again, and is likely to do so again, which would be yet another defeat for Trump.
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
-- Article I, Section 4, clause 1
Trump promises more EOs on elections in the future.
He's already issued 100 of them. And the next guy can issue 100 overturning them.
This is all theatre. Republicans' narrow majorities in the House and Senate make any of these becoming permanent law extremely unlikely.
Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship
US Postal Service will not count Saturday as a transit day for packages starting April 1, adding an extra day, and some first class mail will experience delays
More here.
... Despite generating $79 billion in revenue in 2023, the USPS lost $6.5 billion. ...
In conjunction with DOGE, the USPS announced it would be cutting around 10,000 jobs by using an early retirement program. Select employees would be offered $15,000 for taking their retirement early - a move that’s expected to save the agency billions. ...
Get ready for America to lose its AAA credit rating entirely under Trump
... The agency said in a report that the country's fiscal health deteriorated further since Moody's lowered its outlook on the U.S. triple-A rating in November 2023. ...
Moody's is the last among major ratings agencies to keep a top, triple-A rating for U.S. sovereign debt, though it lowered its outlook in late 2023 due to wider fiscal deficits and higher interest debt payments.
Fitch cut the U.S. sovereign rating by one notch to AA+ from AAA in 2023, citing fiscal deterioration and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills. It was the second major rating agency to strip the United States of its top triple-A rating, after Standard & Poor's did so after the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. ...
More.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson wants to straight up demolish an entire US federal district court in retaliation against judges who issue rulings he doesn't like, just because he can
... "We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things." ...
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said eliminating a district court would create "massive, massive backlogs". ...
Reported here.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Trump and Musk are crashing Social Security and its elderly customers are panicking
The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days
this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from
logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. ...
The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants and legal immigrants who need Social Security cards with less access or shut out of the system altogether, according to those familiar with the problems. ...
Leland Dudek — the accidental leader elevated to acting commissioner after he fed data to Musk’s team behind his bosses’ backs — has issued rapid-fire policy changes that have created chaos for front-line staff. Under pressure from the secretive Musk team, Dudek has pushed out dozens of officials with years of expertise in running Social Security’s complex benefit and information technology systems. Others have left in disgust. ...
Alarmed lawmakers are straining to answer questions from angry constituents in their districts. Calls have flooded into congressional offices. The AARP announced on Monday that more than 2,000 retirees per week have called the organization since early February — double the usual number — with concerns about whether benefits they paid for during their working careers will continue. Social Security is the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans.
Trump has said
repeatedly that the administration “won’t touch” Social Security, a
promise that aides say applies to benefit levels that can only be
adjusted by Congress. But in just six weeks, the cuts to staffing and
offices have already taken a toll on access to benefits, officials and
advocates say. ...
More.
This should be good for election turnout in November 2026.
Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was mistakenly included in the Houthi Signal Chat because he shares the same initials as Jamieson Greer
Goldberg, who has the same initials as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, was mistakenly added to the group by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
Reported here.
I hope they don't bomb Ireland when they intend to bomb Iran.
I guess we'll just have to have a Fourth Reich, then, armed to the teeth with nukes: Millennials Pete Hegseth and J. D. Vance think the Europeans are freeloaders
In the chats, the user identified as Vice President JD Vance expresses concerns about the strikes but ultimately agrees to go along with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth's plan - before adding 'I just hate bailing Europe out again.'
Hegseth responds: 'I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It's PATHETIC.'
And of course they want to throw Mike Waltz under the bus:
There are claims that Mr Waltz is facing the sack over the saga - as he's believed to have been the official who 'added the editor-in-chief [of The Atlantic] to the group'.
One source told Politico: 'Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f***ing idiot.'
The Financial Times reports that privately some German officials are starting to wonder out loud whether the time has come to acquire their own nuclear arsenal.
Monday, March 24, 2025
Republican Mike Waltz' former FL-6 seat looks in peril next week if the fundraising figures are any guide
Or is the Republican advantage there so great that Randy Fine doesn't need the money to win?
Incompetent Pete Hegseth, or was he drunk?, texted US Houthi attack plan to The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg just hours before it was launched on March 15
The Ides of March will get you every time.
Ha ha ha, the budget framework House Republicans were so proud of passing in late February will have to be completely reworked in the Republican Senate, reconciliation bill won't move until the end of July
... “Thune and others have said they don’t think it’s realistic we’ll move the finished product until the end of July,” a Republican senator said of Thune’s projected timeline for moving Trump’s agenda.
“Thune said he thought that the House’s timeline on this was totally unrealistic and that the House doesn’t have their ducks in a row, and their budget resolution has to be completely reworked, and this idea that we do it by April or May is just ridiculous,” the source said. ...
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last month that the House-passed budget needed “a major overhaul” before it could pass the Senate. ...
More.
The major areas of disagreement include switching to the so-called current policy baseline to get the cost of the package to zero, a complete fantasy; choosing which tax cuts, most of which are ad hoc and targeted and not broad-based, to include in the package; cutting future deficits by $880 billion as the House says it wants without cutting Medicaid funding; and goosing defense spending by $175 billion.
Just minor details like that.
Stupid Republicans who work for the IRS in Ogden, Utah voted for their own firings
Republican politicians face mounting anger over Doge cuts
... In a county Donald Trump won by more than 20 percentage points last November, Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) seemed to be “actively working to destroy our lives and the livelihood of our local economy”, said IRS employee Torrie, whose mother and grandmother also worked at the agency, and who asked for her full name not to be published for fear of reprisals. ...
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Republicans under Trump lay the groundwork for the police state which Democrats could only wish for: AG Pam Bondi threatens US House Representative Crockett (TX-30) with terrorism charge
In the future, everything wrong will be deemed "domestic terror" and suffer the draconian punishments for domestic terror.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has nothing better to do than appear everyday on Fox News, has the temerity to threaten a Congresswoman. Wait until it's your free speech which is threatened.
On second thought, don't wait. It already is.
... “She is an elected public official, so she needs to tread very carefully because nothing will happen to Elon Musk, and we’re going to fight to protect all of the Tesla owners throughout this country,” Bondi said during an appearance on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” ...
If AG Merrick Garland had done this to a Republican, you would have never heard the end of it from the likes of Mark Levin and his ilk.
But hey, when Republicans do it it's OK!
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