Congress

Trump Celebrates the House Passing His ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ in the Most Trumpian Way – By Lying

Posted by on May 22, 2025 at 12:34 pm. 2 Comments :

In a bizarre, overnight spectacle, the Republicans in the House of Representatives held a debate and vote on a budget bill that Donald Trump ordered to them call the “Big Beautiful Bill.” (BBB) They conducted these proceedings under the cover of darkness, presumably because they are too ashamed of the abomination that they are trying to shove down the throat of the nation to do it in the light of day.

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Donald Trump, Congress, Mike Johnson

The BBB barely passed on a party line vote of 215-214. If it weren’t for two recently deceased Democratic representatives, the bill might have failed. Trump’s loyal MAGA cult disciples in the House caved in to voting for the bill, even though several had previously insisted that they could not support a deficit exploding bill that violated their conservative “principles.” In the end, the cult and it’s Dear Leader, came first.

SEE THIS: Trump Cult Priestess, Karoline Leavitt, Preaches to ‘Trust in Trump’ to Bring Economic Salvation

For his part, Trump celebrated the passage of the BBB in a rambling rant posted on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social. Unable to contain his glee, Trump wrote that…

“‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ has PASSED the House of Representatives! This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!”

True to form, Trump’s comment was a stream of superheated hyperbole. In his mind there is nothing that he does that doesn’t surpass everything else of its kind in the history of human endeavors. However, he may be right this time, although not in the way he thinks. Because the BBB could be “the most significant piece of Legislation,” at least in modern times.

The bill is one Big Abhorrent Act of Betrayal to the American people. As Trump wrote in his comment, “the Bill includes MASSIVE Tax CUTS.” What he neglects to mention is that they are all for his wealthy pals and corporations. Meanwhile, his bill cuts benefits and services to the needy and middle class, including Medicaid and Medicare.

After “weaving” interminably, Trump closed his harangue with an impotent swing at his Democratic opponents…

“The Democrats have lost control of themselves, and are aimlessly wandering around, showing no confidence, grit, or determination. They have forgotten their landslide loss in the Presidential Election”

Let’s set aside Trump’s delusional and relentlessly repeated nonsense that his historically narrow victory was a landslide. His even more preposterous claim that Democrats are “aimlessly wandering around” and lacking in “confidence, grit, or determination,” is belied by the vigorous opposition to the bill by Democratic representatives throughout the night, and by the response to the BBB’s passage by Democratic Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries who said that…

“We will stand up today, stand up tomorrow, stand up this week, stand up next week, stand up this month, stand up next month, stand up this year, stand up next year, stand up at all times until we end this national nightmare and restore the American dream for every single person.”

Jeffries: We will stand up today, stand up tomorrow, stand up this week, stand up next week, stand up this month, stand up next month, stand up this year, stand up next year, stand up at all times until we end this national nightmare and restore the American dream for every single person

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-05-22T10:15:34.880Z

Trump’s giddiness over the BBB’s passage was shared by his Propaganda Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who offered a ludicrous description of the bill as having “common sense and massively popular policies,” and regurgitated Trump’s flagrant lie that…

“The one big beautiful bill also helps get our fiscal house in order by carrying out the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years, with $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings.”

The only way that Leavitt could arrive at that number is by neglecting to include all of the tax cuts for the rich and other measures that wiped out revenue, such as firing IRS agents who collect billions of dollars from wealthy tax cheats. She also left out the fact that the “mandatory savings” included slashing Medicare benefits. Leavitt was fact-checked by PolitiFact on this. They rated her assessment “False,” saying that “the bill would increase deficits by $3 trillion to $4 trillion over the next decade.”

There was so much more wrong with this bill that it’s impossible to summarize. But comedian Jimmy Kimmel did a pretty good job of it Wednesday night. He began by saying that “This “Big Beautiful Bill” literally takes from the poor and gives to the rich, brazenly. Republicans like the robbin’ part, just not the hood.” And it just got better from there…

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Trump’s Propaganda Secretary Flagrantly Lies that His ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Won’t Add to the Deficit

Posted by on May 19, 2025 at 3:16 pm. 1 Comments :

This weekend the House Republicans sought to get Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) passed in the Budget Committee. They failed on their first attempt. Then tried again in a post-midnight session with marginal success as four Republican opponents to the bill voted “present” in order to allow it to advance to the Rules Committee.

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Donald Trump and Karoline Leavitt

These are the kinds of childish stunts that the GOP trots out in order to stumble forward in their efforts to implement the ultra-rightist MAGA agenda and to placate Dear Leader Trump. It isn’t easy to force unpopular policies by an unpopular president down the throats of the American people. Particularly when you have a narrow legislative majority that is divided between hardcore conservatives and frightened moderates. Not to mention a president who doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s doing.

SEE THIS: What Trump Admits He Doesn’t Know: 13 Examples of His Failing Mental Acuity – or Blatant Lying

On Monday morning Trump’s Propaganda Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, responded to a question about the BBB’s estimated costs and how it would contribute to the national deficit. To no one’s surprise, Leavitt outright lied through her teeth…

Question: Is the president okay with this bill adding to the deficit?
Leavitt: This bill does not add to the deficit. In fact. according to the Council of Economic Advisers, this bill will save $1.6 trillion. And the president absolutely understands and hears the concerns of fiscal conservatives and of Americans who want to get our fiscal house in order. That’s what the intention of this bill is.

“There’s $1.6 trillion worth of savings in this bill. That’s the largest savings for any legislation that has ever passed Capitol Hill in our nation’s history. The next bill that even comes close was $800 billion. That’s less than half of the savings that we see in the One Big Beautiful Bill. And so, the goal of this bill is to produce economic growth, to cut taxes and to get our fiscal house in order. And this is the right step in the right direction towards doing that.

REPORTER: Is the president okay with this bill adding to the deficit?LEAVITT: This bill does not add to the deficit

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-19T13:29:52.789Z

There isn’t a single word of truth in Leavitt’s reply. Every credible analysis of the bill has produced a conclusion that it will severely increase the deficit. For instance, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, “the net cost of the committee’s provisions would rise to $5.3 trillion over 10 years. The bill also increases the statutory debt limit by $4 trillion.” Why would Republicans even consider raising the debt limit by $4 trillion if they were actually anticipating a decline in the deficit? Their actions reveal their true intent.

Furthermore, Leavitt’s reference to the Council of Economic Advisers is hardly an independent affirmation the bill’s impact. The Council is, of course, a White House office staffed by Trump sycophants. Asking them to analyze his BBB would be like asking John Barron to analyze it (ICYMI, John Barron was a pseudonym that Trump used when pretending to be his own PR rep).

Anyone who believes that Trump is serious about reducing the deficit is terminally naïve. After all, he increased it by about $7 trillion in his first occupation of the White House. And this time he is already demonstrating his irresponsible, profligate spending habits by accepting a 747 from Qatar that will cost the U.S. a billion dollars to cleanse of possible surveillance devices and to retrofit for use as Air Force One. He is also planning a $92 million birthday parade to honor himself. And his cuts to the IRS will result in the loss of $850 billion in uncollected taxes from wealthy cheaters.

MORE HERE: Trump Pledges to Forgo 100’s of Billions in Revenue By Letting Wealthy Tax Cheaters Off the Hook

Leavitt never actually says where she got the $1.6 trillion figure that she says this bill will save. She likely pulled it out of her asinine assumptions that only count cost reductions in the bill, but not any of the cost increases or revenue reductions. Among those savings are an $800 billion cut to Medicaid that accounts for half of Leavitt’s alleged savings. And since there are numerous benefits for the wealthy in the form of tax cuts and revocation of regulations that protect people and save lives, she is missing the bulk of the bill’s economic impact.

This bill still has to get through the House Rules Committee, the floor vote, and then the Senate. And considering that there are some Republicans who oppose the bill because it isn’t cruel enough, and others who are afraid that supporting cuts to Medicaid will cost them their seats in swing districts, its final passage is far from certain. Which is why Leavitt is lying so hard to deceive the public about it’s deficit exploding effects.

In the meantime, the American people can have a profound effect on the outcome if they call their representatives in droves and let them know that they are fervently opposed to the Big Abhorrent Bill. That would be an encouraging end to this disastrous legislation, and a satisfying smackdown of Trump and MAGA. LFG!

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Trump is FREAKING OUT About His Coming Recession and Is Begging Weaselly Republicans for Votes

Posted by on March 8, 2025 at 1:30 pm. 2 Comments :

Last week the economy got bad news from multiple fronts. The monthly jobs report showed that the nation added fewer jobs than economists expected in February, the first full month under Trump. Also, the stock market suffered its worst decline in six months, partly due to Trump’s incompetent machinations with tariffs.

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Donald Trump

Many of the signals from a variety of economic indicators are pointing to the likelihood of a recession triggered by Trump’s gross mismanagement of the booming economy that he inherited from President Biden. But despite the abundant evidence that Trump has horrendously botched his responsibilities as the country’s financial steward, his fluffers at Fox News have been predictably covering for his incompetence.

SEE THIS: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Insists that the Coming Trump Recession Has Nothing To Do With Trump

Those efforts by Fox News notwithstanding, Trump is feeling the heat from a nation that is growing more disturbed by the hour by Trump’s utter failure to fulfill his campaign promise to fix everything on day one of his reoccupation of the White House. His policies have only succeeded in making things worse. And his resulting flip-flops reveal how lost he is and incapable of coming up with a solution.

Consequently, Trump is resorting to what he knows best: Whining on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, and seeking to coerce his MAGA minions in Congress to supplicate themselves to his desires. He posted a message that is little more than begging for votes to pass an interim Continuing Resolution, because Republicans can’t manage to put a passable budget bill on the floor.

“The House and Senate have put together, under the circumstances, a very good funding Bill (‘CR’)! All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week. Great things are coming for America, and I am asking you all to give us a few months to get us through to September so we can continue to put the Country’s ‘financial house’ in order. Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen. We have to remain UNITED — NO DISSENT — Fight for another day when the timing is right. VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Note that Trump is now reversing course on his prior opposition to CRs. He knows that a new budget won’t get enough votes, even from his fellow Republicans. And he has lowered himself to begging for votes (“Please!”) that his party is reluctant to give him. They know that in order to achieve the goals that Trump and GOP leaders have articulated, they would have to make huge cuts to popular programs like Medicare and Social Security. And at least some of them don’t appear to be willing to do that.

So now Trump is asking for more than one day to deliver his Trumptopia. He’s asking for at least six months. However, even that may not be sufficient if forecasts of recession come to pass. And with the dismantling by DOGE of the governmental agencies that provide so many of the services that keep the economy humming, it’s difficult to see any relief from the purposeful sabotage over which Trump is presiding.

Making matters even more difficult for the Trump regime, his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News, is starting TO waver. Greg Sargent at the New Republic published an article titled “Fox News Suddenly Starts Panicking About Trump’s Economy: ‘Weakening!’“ It begins…

“Fox News figures are willing to propagandize on President Trump’s behalf on pretty much every horror that he throws our way. Do Fox personalities back Trump when he sells out our allies in tandem with murderous tyrant Vladimir Putin? Yes, indeed. Do they support Trump when he tries to purge federal workers by the thousands to corruptly replace them with loyalists? Enthusiastically. Do they stick with Trump when he declares himself above the law, explicitly using the language of world-historical dictators to do so? Without reservations.

“But it turns out there are limits. One topic Fox personalities are not quite as willing to run interference for Trump on is the economy. And with signs mounting that Trump’s economy is hitting the skids, they are beginning to sound the alarm.”

Sargent provides some examples of the slippery slope emerging at Fox. They include…

“Maria Bartiromo practically shouted that ‘the jobs picture is weakening!'” [and]

“‘I think the boom times are over,’ Fox anchor Charles Payne declared.” [and]

“‘We are sliding towards a recession,’ Newt Gingrich fretted on Fox News.”

Sargent closed saying that…

“Trump’s overall political project is heavily dependent on an enormous network of propagandists and other pliant institutional players to sustain itself [and] to keep alive the fiction that it’s producing dramatic results.” […]

“If the public continues to sour on his economic performance, the deep cuts to government will look less about efficiency and instead appear maliciously, dangerously incompetent [and] they’ll sound like what they truly are — the rantings of a genuine wannabe dictator.”

Fox News may be unalterably worshipful of Trump, but they are also proponents of right-wing economic policies and the corporate interests that push them. So if Trump continues to lose Fox News due to his fumbling on the economy, he will have an even harder time corralling his GOP flock. And if that happens, the whole MAGA sandcastle will crumble. And it couldn’t come a moment too soon.

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Collected Quotes Displaying Trump’s Obsession with Himself In His Pseudo State of the Union Spiel

Posted by on March 5, 2025 at 12:23 pm. 2 Comments :

On Tuesday night, the first convicted felon and adjudicated rapist to ever deliver a speech before a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump, spent more than an hour and half unleashing his hallmark barrage of lies, insults, and self-exaltations, that he presented as a wildly perverse version of the state of the union (annotated transcript here).

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Donald Trump Messiah

The American people, however, already know what state the union is in. They are paying more for everything, which is about to get worse after Trump’s tariffs kick in. They are watching him supplicating himself to Vladimir Putin, and betraying our democratic allies. And they see that his agenda is one that mirrors the failures of his personal businesses, which he threatens to impose on the nation.

SEE THIS: OH-NO! Trump WH Aide Brags They are Running the Country Like Trump and Musk Run Their Businesses

The speech itself was an interminably long, boring, and bitterly divisive ordeal. And of course, the lies about everything including Social Security, immigration, energy, inflation, Ukraine, and so much more. The fact checkers are already having a field day unwinding his blitzkrieg of bullpucky (video below). So what follows here is a more narrowly defined collection of all the times that Trump referred to himself, rather than offering an appraisal of the status and outlook for the nation, which is typically what these speeches are about.

As usual, nothing about Trump is typical, particularly when he can focus exclusively on himself to satisfy his massive, yet fragile, ego. So without further ado, here the words of America’s foremost malignant narcissist and messiah in his own mind…

“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the Golden Age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.”
[Note: Swift and unrelenting? Sure. Successful? No way!]

“[O]ur country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again. Never been anything like it. The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.”
[Note: Trump’s mandate was a massive 1.5%, which was indeed among the lowest in many decades]

“Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction.”
[Note: this is precisely the opposite of reality]

“Joe Biden, the worst president in American history.”
[Note: This isn’t really about himself, but he just needed to throw it in]

“This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud, nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease and these people sitting right here will not clap.”
[Note: He could say, “I resign!” that would get him tons of applause]

“Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid. I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization, and I also withdrew from the anti-American U.N. Human Rights Council.”
[Note: It’s interesting that Trump can brag about a list of awful things that the American people oppose]

“I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.”
[Note: Trump banned and/or removed news organizations from the White House and replaced them with MAGA media. And he even had a Democrat ejected from this address for exercising his free speech rights]

“I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE! Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk.”
[Note: Funny, Trump previously had his lawyers tell a court that Musk is not the head of DOGE]

“I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.”
[Note: Gee thanks. That will surely reduce the price eggs. And it has no effect on international maps]

“I signed an order making the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” [and] “I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.”
[Note: Trump thinks that he can dictate gender identity by declaration. And he’s claiming to ban something that never happens]

“There’s nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody.”
[Note: Poor baby. And not remotely true]

“I was saved by God to make America great again.”
[Note: Trump’s messianic complex is showing again. And if god cared about making America great, the last person he would send is Trump, who has committed all seven of the deadly sins, and is proud of it]

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What If Trump Gave His State of the (Soviet) Union Speech and No Media Was There to Hear It?

Posted by on March 4, 2025 at 9:43 am. 1 Comments :

Tuesday, March 4, 2025, is the designated day for Donald Trump to deliver what is referred to as a “Joint Session of Congress Address.” It serves as the first state of the union speech for the first year of a newly elected president. There is sometimes some controversy in the content of such speeches, but the fact that they occur is generally regarded as routine.

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Donald Trump, Mocking Disability

However, controversy stains everything that Trump engages in. It’s by design from the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who revels in creating chaos and making waves. Consequently, his appearance before Congress tonight is already stirring a tsunami among members of Congress, as well as the people who they purportedly serve. Although there are those who are anxiously anticipating his address…

SEE THIS: Russian TV Host: What Trump Says is ‘So Correct…In Total Alignment With the Way We See Things’

The question of how to deal with a president who has so flagrantly demonstrated his allegiance to America’s enemies is weighing on the members of Congress who would ordinarily be expected to attend the speech. Trump has proven by his words and deeds that he is more aligned with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, than with the values of America and its Constitution.

Trump’s overtly traitorous offenses include halting U.S. aid to Ukraine, advocating that the U.S. quit the U.N. and NATO, pushing for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 assembly of nations, and his conspicuous inability to ever say anything remotely critical of Putin, while repeatedly blasting American leaders in the most vile terms. Could he possibly be more of an asset to Russia?

As a result, the day prior to Trump’s address several members announced that they will not be attending. Others have said that they will attend, but bring with them guests who will highlight Trump’s animosity toward American principles and laws. There are rumors of other types of protests that might occur in the chamber during Trump’s speech.

What hasn’t been mentioned so far is: What will the media do? There are good arguments to be made that the press should not cover Trump’s speech live. After all, why present to American and international audiences the nearly incoherent rants of a notorious enemy of democracy? Why allow a certified Putin stooge to get an extended chunk of primetime television to advance the interests of America’s foes? Why should viewers have to suffer through the infantile insults that he unleashes every time he speaks? And why would a well known pathological liar be permitted to spread flagrant falsehoods unchallenged?

The press could easily record the event and replay any significant parts with a short delay. That would likely reduce the running to about two minutes due to the absence of anything significant in his speech. With the time delay the press would also have ample time to conduct appropriate fact checking. Which could increase the running time if they decided to report on all of Trump’s lies.

Finally, Trump has already demonstrated his hatred for the media that he refers to in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” He has barred credible news agencies from covering him, including the Associated Press and Reuters. He has replaced news outlets in the White House Press Briefing Room such as NBC News, the New York Times, and NPR, with the Trump-fluffing propagandists at Newsmax, One America News Network, the New York Post, and Breitbart.

MORE HERE: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

It is Trump’s obvious intention to suppress the free press, ignoring the Constitution’s First Amendment protections. He seeks to emulate the censorious practices of his heroes, Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un. So why shouldn’t the press exercise its rights to report on him in an appropriate manner that respects their mission to keep the American people informed, and honors their duty to reporting the truth? And the best way to do that is to refrain from all live coverage of Trump, including tonight’s speech before Congress.

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Pete Hegseth’s Lawyer: His Misconduct Was Due to Stress, So Let’s Make Him Secretary of Defense

Posted by on December 27, 2024 at 4:07 pm. 1 Comments :

The Cabinet of Donald Trump is shaping up to be an even more frightening version of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, with all of the twists and turns of that psychological horror story populated by inmates of an asylum.

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

If Trump gets the Republicans in Congress to capitulate to his commands, the U.S. government will be run by incompetents and sycophantic flunkies who have little to no experience for the jobs they are tasked to perform. They include Kash Patel at the FBI, Tulsi Gabbard heading Intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, in charge of healthcare, and a madhouse of MAGA minions who have scant relationships with the lives of average Americans.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Featured in this cast of circus psychos is Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has zero experience managing anything on the scale of the Pentagon. But he has had a presence on Fox News where Trump found and recruited him. He also has a history of managerial failure, excessive drinking, and alleged sexual assault. Which makes him an ideal candidate for a job in the Trump administration. They have so much in common.

On Friday morning Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, was interviewed by Pamela Brown on CNN. It was a revealing discussion during which Parlatore offered up a peculiar defense of his client in the following exchange…

Parlatore: The FBI background check is really going to strip away the false allegations and focus on just what the evidence is. And the evidence is he didn’t do any of these things that he’s been accused of.
Brown: But he’s also openly admitted he’s a changed man from several years ago. So how does that square? If you’re saying he didn’t do any of it, but he’s a changed man?
Parlatore: I’m saying he didn’t commit any of the misconduct they’re alleging. The sexual assault, totally false. All of this stuff at CVA (Concerned Veterans for America) where they said that he was climbing on the stage at a strip club. Yeah that happened, but it was somebody else. […] The fact that earlier in his life when he was a young recent combat veteran who came home and dealt with the demons by drinking too much, that’s not uncommon.

In order for Parlatore’s denials to be valid, you would have to dismiss the testimony of the woman who filed the police report against him, as well as all of Hegseth’s colleagues and coworkers who witnessed his shenanigans at the strip club, and suffered through his mismanagement of organizations like the CVA, that he brought to near bankruptcy.

The core argument that Parlatore is making is that Hegseth behaved badly because of the stress he encountered during his military deployment. He goes on to say that Hegseth overcame his problems because “that which drove him to drink is not driving him anymore.” Perhaps that’s because he’s been a weekend host on a Fox “News” program for the past eight years. So the stress of combat wasn’t affecting his behavior.

However, if his duties in the military were sufficiently stressful to result in years of drunken depravity, how might the stress produced by running the entire Pentagon – with an $850 billion budget and the responsibility of millions of soldiers and civilians, none of which he has any experience with – affect his ability to cope emotionally and to refrain from the deviancy of his past? Surely there’s no stress involved in any of that, right?

Parlatore also claimed that Hegseth’s excessive drinking wasn’t a “drinking problem.” Which is reminiscent of the Tom Waits lyric “I don’t have a drinking problem. Except when I can’t get a drink.” Although he did promise to abstain if he were to be confirmed. Which suggests that he is still drinking, but is willing to stop if he’s handed the nuclear codes. That should not fill any senator with confidence that Hegseth would be up to the job. The question is: Will Republicans vote to confirm him anyway?

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Steve Bannon is Right? Matt Gaetz Should Return to Congress and Expose All the Sexual Depravity

Posted by on December 24, 2024 at 1:23 pm. 1 Comments :

In the few short weeks since the election, Donald Trump has been working at breakneck speed to assemble his Cabinet. His haste and aversion to properly vetting his nominees serves as an object lesson in incompetence. Already three of his first choices have been bumped from consideration. And several others are teetering on the ledge of political exile.

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Matt Gaetz

The most high profile of Trump’s losers has to be Matt Gaetz, his first pick to be Attorney General. It was a profoundly bold move for Trump to nominate someone whose only prior experience in criminal law was having been a criminal. At least Gaetz and Trump have criminality and sexual deviancy in common. They also share an obsession with exploiting the media to grab attention for themselves…

SEE THIS: Matt Gaetz is Taking His Moral Decrepitude to One America News Network

When Gaetz dropped out of the running for Attorney General, he likely thought that he would avoid the embarrassment produced by the House Ethics Committee releasing its report on his misconduct in Congress. The report concluded that Gaetz had violated “standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” And this was Trump’s top choice to be Attorney General? What does that say about the rest of his nominees?

Unfortunately for Gaetz, he not only resigned his seat in Congress, and was axed as Trump’s AG nominee, but the Ethics Committee released the report anyway. Under ordinary circumstances, a decent person with a smidgen of self-respect would scurry away to his ignominious obscurity. But decency is not a trait that is associated with Trump or his MAGA minions. Consequently, Gaetz has spent the last few days whining about how unfairly he was treated considering the abundance of deviants that he claims are present among his former colleagues.

Now Gaetz also has a key supporter backing up his allegations. Trump whisperer Steve Bannon went on his podcast with a hearty endorsement and a suggestion, proclaiming that…

“I’m strongly urging Matt Gaetz to return to Congress and on its first day next year, take a page from that old song ‘The Harper Valley PTA’ and expose all the hypocrites in the House who have used tax money to cover up their sexual depravity.”

Hear, hear! Gaetz should take Bannon’s advice and reclaim his seat in the House. From there he can point his bony finger at his fellow perverts and see to it that they are held to the same standards of accountability that he is. He would be doing a sort of penance for his own misconduct by ridding the People’s House of sleazeballs like himself. In fact, after asserting that he knows of such slime in the House, if he doesn’t expose them he is protecting them and is an accomplice in their continuing malfeasance. And is anyone surprised that Gaetz knows these pervs personally?

In the same program, Bannon proposed that Trump get behind an effort to have Gaetz become the next Speaker of House. That’s another great idea by Bannon that would make Gaetz, now known for his sex and drug crimes, the face of Republicans in Congress. And also a wholly inept legislator who would doom the GOP’s agenda to failure.

Needless to say, this would all be great news – for Democrats. So good that it might just be too good to hope for. Although, Gaetz himself posted a comment endorsing the idea, suggesting that he might indeed return and “File a privileged motion to expose every ‘me too’ settlement paid using public funds (even of former members).” And on behalf of all Democrats, I say “Go for it, Matt!” Let’s clean the House up from filth like you. It’s a safe bet that most of them will be Republicans anyway.

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UH-OH: Even Fox News Calls Out the Unelected Billionaire ‘Calling the Shots’ in Place of Trump

Posted by on December 19, 2024 at 2:31 pm. 0 Comments :

After weeks of tense negotiations, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives agreed on a bipartisan bill to fund the government and avoid a devastating shutdown that would cause severe harm to millions of Americans. So naturally, that effort was sabotaged by the two most divisive and destructive dimwits in American politics, Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

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The torpedoing of the Continuing Resolution was aided and abetted by the spine-deprived GOP Speaker of the House, MAGA Mike Johnson, who obediently nixed his own bill at the behest of his puppet masters. As a result, he will maintain his record of having presided over the most unproductive Congress in modern times.

SEE THIS: DO-NOTHING CONGRESS? The Republican House of Representatives is the Least Productive Ever

The spectacle of a couple of billionaires bullying Congress into abandoning its obligation to the Constitution and the people is a nauseating devolution of the great expectations for American democracy. It most resembles the melodramatic inanities of reality TV wherein pathetic contestants vie for supremacy by playing idiotic games. And in this season it appears that the Celebrity Apprentice will be Trump, who is now noticeably subservient to his financial benefactor, Musk.

This swapping of roles is not something that has been observed only by Democrats and other Trump critics. On Thursday morning Stuart Varney of Fox News delivered a commentary that could have been composed by Bernie Sanders. He said in part…

“Think about this: Nobody voted for Elon Musk. But with the support of Donald Trump he called the shots on shutting down the government, and he’s calling the shots on trimming the fat in government. In fact, he has influence on just about every aspect of policy, including who should take which job in the Cabinet.

“We have never seen anything like this before. No previous administration has allowed an unelected outsider this degree of power. Of course it’s all a function of Musk’s relationship with the president-elect. They’ve been inseparable for months. He practically lives at Mar-a-Lago. And they seem to be in agreement on everything. It doesn’t hurt that he’s the richest man in the world, and threw over $200 million into Trump’s campaign.”

What Varney is describing is the undermining of democracy by an unelected, foreign-born, oligarch with the resources to buy a weak narcissist who is desperately trying to stay out of prison and retain some measure of perceived power. Musk is not constitutionally able to be president, so he’s settling for the next best thing: controlling the president. That relationship, however, could make things complicated for Trump’s former significant other. And that isn’t Melania…

What was once the Republican Party is now fully indoctrinated into the Musk/Trump Cult. Some GOP members of Congress are even suggesting that Musk be elected Speaker of the House. So if the GOP is not satisfied with the level of idiocy that is presently in place, they have options. A competent Speaker must be someone with extensive knowledge of how the House operates. Musk doesn’t have a clue. So while Johnson has proven to be a disaster, Musk would be even worse.

While the rules of the House do not require the Speaker to be an elected member, there are other concerns that are being neglected. For instance, the Speaker is second in the presidential line of succession, after the vice-president. But the Constitution would not permit Musk to be promoted to the presidency. So the job would fall to the president pro tempore of the Senate. And if Democrats were to regain the majority in 2026, that would be Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. If not, it would be 91 year old Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

In the meantime, the nation is being run by billionaires who couldn’t care less about the government shutting down because it won’t affect them in the slightest. And what they do care about – getting richer, lowering their own taxes, and eliminating pesky regulations that protect the environment, workers, and America’s middle and lower income families – would be theirs for the taking. Congratulations MAGA. This is what you voted for. I hope you like being subservient to the oligarchs.

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GOP Oversight Chair Excuses Trump’s Corruption Unless Bank Records Prove It – Well, Guess What?

Posted by on December 18, 2024 at 2:05 pm. 2 Comments :

As Donald Trump prepares to reoccupy the White House, every American that hasn’t been indoctrinated into the MAGA cult is aware that he is setting new precedents as the first president to be a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist, who has advocated terminating the Constitution, and incarcerating his political foes.

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Trump Penthouse Phone

That’s not exactly a record that would instill pride in either the officeholder or the people he purports to represent. To the contrary, it’s a resume of shame that would, and does, produce nausea in patriotic citizens. It would also spur responsible public officials to keep a tight rein on a leader who is as disposed to criminality as Trump has been.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

On Wednesday morning the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, was interviewed by Pamela Brown on CNN. Comer is the prime antagonist in the long-running persecution of President Biden and his family. After years of sensationalized probes that failed to produce a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing, Comer is now dismissing any inquiry into Dear Leader Trump’s blatantly unlawful enterprises, as he affirms in the following exchange..

Brown: Do you have any concern if [Trump] doesn’t divest about present future President Trump using public office to enrich himself and his family? I mean, if he doesn’t divest, would that concern you?
Comer: I think the most important thing is transparency. And with respect to tax records, I come from a banking background. Tax records don’t mean anything. If you want to know whether someone’s doing something corrupt or not, get their bank records because bank records don’t lie. People cheat on their taxes all the time. Most important thing is the bank records. And I think as long as President Trump is transparent, I think the American people will give him a pass on honest business activity. But if it ever comes out that they’ve got secret deals or whatever, then that that could potentially be a problem, obviously.”

It’s interesting that Comer warns against using Trump’s tax records because “People cheat on their taxes all the time.” Is he implying that Trump cheats and, therefore, his tax records should be ignored?

More to the point, Comer asserts that nothing Trump does should be investigated because he’s such a pure paragon of transparency, and that his bank records would confirm that. However, in 2020 the New York Times reported that Trump had a secret bank account in China that he failed to reveal in his official financial disclosure forms. The Times discovered the account in his tax returns that they got from an undisclosed source because Trump repeatedly refused to make them public like every other president in modern times…

“President Donald Trump’s tax records show he has pursued expansive business projects in China for years and even maintains a Chinese bank account, The New York Times reported […] An analysis of Trump’s tax records by the Times shows that the President holds a previously unreported bank account in China that was not included on his public financial disclosures.”

So according to the criteria specified by Comer, there should be immediate hearings into Trump’s finances by Comer’s Oversight Committee. Trump has obviously not been as transparent as Comer implied. And that’s been the case for many years. Here are a couple other examples of Trump’s deceit with regard to his finances…

NOPE! Eric Trump Lies that Daddy Gave All Foreign Money Made at His Hotels to the Treasury
As reported by NPR last year… “Documents released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee show extravagant spending from foreign leaders at former President Donald Trump’s luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., which the committee says could have violated his oath of office by distorting U.S. foreign policy for personal financial gain.

“Government officials from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China collectively spent over $750,000 at the Trump International Hotel during his presidency.”

[And…]

Trump earned as much as $160 million dollars from foreign sources while president. A more expansive investigation by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that… “Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest […] When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.”

Not surprisingly, the most frequent contributors to Trump’s coffers were from the Middle East and China.

Lest anyone think that Trump’s fiscal malfeasance is all in the past, take a look at his latest vehicle for enriching himself via shady self-dealing…

The Grifter-In-Chief: Will Donald Trump Divest From His Bribery Platform, Truth Social?
“Surely he is not planning to divest from any of the businesses that he didn’t divest from last time. […] Trump’s Truth Social, via its parent corporation, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. It is therefore available for any crooked scheme-ster to shovel shiploads of cash into, enriching the other shareholders, of which Trump is the biggest.

No one should expect Trump to change his nefarious ways now. And Comer’s hypocrisy amounts to the willful wearing of blinders in the hopes of avoiding observing Trump’s illegal activities. But he knows. And so does everyone else whose eyes – and minds – are not glued shut. The only question that remains is whether others in Congress or the press will seek to bring him to justice.

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So-Called ‘Christian’ Mike Johnson Does the ‘Weave’ When Asked if Morality Matters to the GOP

Posted by on November 17, 2024 at 2:54 pm. 4 Comments :

As Donald Trump unveils the principle personnel of his upcoming administration, it is becoming clearer every day just how bereft of principles, knowledge, and experience will be available in some of the most critical positions in the United States government.

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Donald Trump, Congress, Mike Johnson

Unfortunately, it isn’t just a problem of ignorance and incompetence, but one of downright malice by nominees who have expressed ideas and intentions that are contrary to American policies and values.

Among those nominees are an accused sex trafficker (Matt Gaetz) for Attorney General, a health conspiracy crackpot (Robert Kennedy Jr) for Secretary of Health and Human Services, a TV host who has defended war criminals (Pete Hegseth) for Secretary of Defense, and a suspected Kremlin sympathizer (Tulsi Gabbard) for Director of National Intelligence. What they all share is an unwavering devotion to Trump, whose own values are wanting and/or warped.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

America’s founders designed a system of government that anticipated some of the potential pitfalls that we face now. However, that system of checks and balances doesn’t work if the equal branches of government are run by lily-livered supplicants to an aspiring totalitarian. Which is precisely the situation we find ourselves in today as revealed in an interview of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson by Jake Tapper of CNN…

Tapper: You’re a man of faith. You’re a man of God. You’re a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party?
Johnson: Sure. It’s an important issue for anyone in leadership. This is what I’ll say about the nominees that the president has put forward, is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo. And I think what the American people have believed, and what they’ve delivered with the mandate in this election, is a demand that we shake up the status quo. […] Any president has the right to name their own cabinet to nominate persons that they think the people that will fulfill their agenda. And the people that are on this list will do that.

First of all, Tapper was exceedingly generous in his description of Johnson’s alleged piety. There has been little of that demonstrated in his public life, outside of vacant rhetoric.

More to the point, Johnson conspicuously avoided any coherent response to Tapper’s question. After a perfunctory concession that morality matters, he “weaved” (as Trump might describe it) into a lengthy, but unrelated, discourse on “shak[ing] up the status quo.” He further claimed that Trump had an electoral mandate that is a figment of his – and Trump’s – imagination. He won by one of the smallest margins in history, and failed to get a majority of votes.

Johnson’s justification for supporting the morality deprived candidates nominated by Trump is that “Any president has the right to name their own cabinet.” That’s true. But it is the Senate’s right to confirm those that the president names, or to decline to do so. And there has never been better justification to refuse confirmation than with the cretins Trump has named.

Will Johnson take a principled stand on these nominees? Don’t hold your breath. To the contrary, he has already stated his intention to object to the release of a report by the House Ethics Committee detailing their investigation of Gaetz for sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And he made his announcement of that objection after visiting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago where he likely got his marching orders from Dear Leader.

That’s about all that can be expected by Johnson as Speaker of the House, as well as by Sen. John Thune as GOP leader of the Senate. Hopefully there will be a few Republicans with the minimum measure of morality to join with Democrats and block Trump’s worst nominees. But that may be a thin lifeline to cling to. Time will tell.

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