Independent journalist Marisa Kabas was first with the news that some Trump zealots have crafted an Executive Order that pauses all federal grants. Here’s some of the nuttery:
The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.
This basically makes Trump the king, because Congress appropriates (i.e., passes laws) and the Executive disperses (i.e., follows the law). Congress doesn’t give the President a giant pot of money for him to throw at whomever he chooses, or just to sit on like Smaug and his pile of gold.
This is a de-facto shutdown. It’s not clear yet, but WIC, and perhaps Medicaid and CHIP, could be paused, as well as other programs:
House Republicans are at a beach retreat in FL right now btw
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) January 28, 2025 at 7:09 AM
(Factpost is the Democrat’s account that hired some of the KamalaHQ folks, and it’s good.)
In other news, Trump also banned transgender humans from the military, saying “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
It’s a real shitshow out there. This is one where I would urge you to call your federal representatives and, if they’re Democratic Senator, encourage them to engage in every delaying tactic they can imagine. If they’re Republicans, it’s worth asking if they’re just going to let Trump ignore the laws passed by Congress, and if so, what’s the point of us paying them a salary. They should just go home.
If you don’t think that calls work, remember the rumor that Sheldon Whitehouse was RFK Jr curious? Well, Josh Marshall posted this on BlueSky yesterday:
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tells local reporters in North Kingston, RI that people need to “chill” about news (first reported by TPM) that he’s considering voting for RFK Jr’s confirmation. Says not telegraphing his vote, will wait for hearing.
Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren and a number of others have announced their vote, and it’s a “hard no”. Whitehouse is clearly still RFK Jr curious, but he’s also clearly hearing from his constituents, because why else would he tell people to “chill”? Calling can work, keep it up!
Chief Oshkosh
I like Whitehouse, but telling concerned constituents to chill about the nomination of a murdering SOB is…not a good communication strategy.
sixthdoctor
The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal will sue to block the executive order against transgender people in the military. Doesn’t make it any less repulsive, though.
JerseyBeard
Democrats need to stop treating this administration as anything close to normal. Stop confirming nominees, for example. I’m looking at you Mr Disappointment Kim, voting yea on Kristi Noem.
Trump has illegally shut down the government. Dems should act like it.
I’m making calls.
matt
Whitehouse is gonna vote for his serial killer junkie bro RFK, Jr.
Ohio Mom
I keep reading that Trump’s role model is Victor Orban in Hungary. I know nothing about Hungary. What was it like before Orban, what is it like now? Off to google, I guess
Old School
‘Stops.’ The word that should be used is ‘stops.’
Some may restart. Others won’t.
There’s no need to use their spin.
Chief Oshkosh
@matt: I don’t think he will. However, I don’t understand why he is taking this path. Hell, Junior’s own family has already functionally disowned him.
E.
My Right Honorable congressman is . . . Tim Burchet. The guy who believes space aliens have established military bases in our oceans and are driving ships around underwater, and is willing to champion these beliefs on national television. The guy who always votes to shut down the government and always votes against whatever measure would reopen it. This man represents me. Now how do I frame my comment to him on this matter?
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: This helps me understand a little more: reuters.com/world/europe/factbox-what-has-changed-hungary-during-orbans-12-year-rule-2022-03-31/
But Hungary is a little country, not a/the world’s superpower.
Jeffro
exactly!
abusing/impounding Congressionally-appropriated funding is what got him impeached the first time and is sufficient for impeachment again
firing everyone at DOJ is also an impeachable offense
for those that doubt it, ask
Emily B.
A good analysis by two constitutional law experts at NYU came across my desk at work today: Trump’s Dictatorial Theory of Presidential Power – What the Executive Orders, in the Aggregate, Tell Us
“Trump’s claims to a roving presidential prerogative to transcend the law have no place in our system of government. To the extent those claims are challenged in litigation, the courts should reject them. And more broadly, we should all be concerned that these executive actions may be the first steps in the direction of a dangerous version of extralegal presidential unilateralism.”
NickM
Pete Hegseth — who fathered a child with his 3rd wife while still married to his second, who paid off multiple claims for rape and sexual abuse, who is by all accounts a drunk deadbeat father deplored even by his own mother — kicks trans service members from the military because they lack the “honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle” necessary to be service members.
Not just the injury of being kicked out, but with the added insult of being called dishonorable, untruthful and undisciplined by a blow-dried moral abortion like Hegseth, simply for the crime of wanting to serve.
Remember, in MAGA land, Hegseth is Honorable Truthful and Disciplined; trans people serving in our military are not.
JML
The cruelty is the point. The only constituency they care about is other gazillionaires and FauxNews, and all of them have convinced themselves they don’t need the federal government to function.
And by controlling so many media sources, people don’t hear the truth. I live in a deep red county, and I’m sure they’ll all be blaming the democratic governor or democrats in Washington for everything, even though it’s the Current Occupant’s EO’s that are literally pulling money out of their businesses, schools, and pocketbooks.
Nettoyeur
@E.: Urge him to oppose his leaderships attempts to keep the Trump admin functional. Let it burn.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Concept of a Reich.
//
Steve LaBonne
@Jeffro: Great! Now how do we get House Republicans to vote to impeach and Senate Republicans to vote to convict? Performative stunts will get us nowhere. The kind of thing Democrats actually have to be doing is drawing up a list of demands, including deep-sixing this impoundment idiocy, that must be met to get any Democratic votes for raising the debt ceiling. That’s the only place where Democrats have any leverage.
azlib
I already contacted my Republican Rep.
Steve LaBonne
@Emily B.: So what happens when the Supreme Court rejects these EOs and Trump says “Mr. Roberts has made his decision, now let him enforce it”?
Betty Cracker
@NickM: Truth.
hrprogressive
Republicans said, repeatedly, out loud, they wanted a Fascist dictatorship, and to be the rulers of same.
Democrats just want bipartisan comity with these people.
The only person actively giving a shit about this is AOC and she’s only one person.
If this stands, you can just close up shop now.
Gin & Tonic
As I posted last week, Whitehouse’s office (I am a constituent) says they’re being “lit up” with calls about the RFKjr issue. I’ll call again today.
tam1MI
Thousands of tankies will rise up as one screaming, “WHY DIDN’T JOE BIDEN DO THAT?!?!”
Jeffro
@Steve LaBonne: noting that things are impeachable is not calling for impeachment
(but I get how it could be taken that way, I hear ya)
trumpov has the backing of the GOP (most willingly, some quite grudgingly) and corporate America (some willingly, most probably grudgingly). How do we get them to push back on some of this stuff?
Remind business that between tariffs (aka trump taxes) and deportations their costs are about to go through the roof? Remind them that we’re taking names and seeing who went quietly along with this garbage?
Remind the GOP that trumpov is 1.5%-win lame duck and that not only will there be elections in less than 2 years, there’ll be a presidential election in less than 4?
Remind the whole American public that next to no one voted for this chaos and disruption, and that none of it is going to make their life cheaper or better?
Geminid
@E.: Maybe start with,
More seriously, I can’t think of anything except maybe not using long words. I feel for you though. I used to have Bob Good for a Congressman
hueyplong
@Steve LaBonne: Glad you think the Supreme Court would actually attempt to block any of these EOs. I have abandoned any pretense to its legitimacy.
Kelly
Yeah all this sounds bad but
This will of course put out the fires and prevent all future fires…
Gin & Tonic
Well, maybe Sheldon is feeling the heat? Last week his Providence office answered on the first ring. Today it goes straight to voicemail.
Steve LaBonne
@Kelly: Many have suggested that Trump thinks all water flows north to south, just as he thinks Greenland is enormous, in both cases from looking at maps without understanding them. This seems entirely plausible to me.
K-Mo
Pete Hegseth DOD is looking for a few good men who lead an honorable and disciplined personal lives
#whatthewhat
EarthWindFire
@Geminid: And now you have John McGuire…is it an improvement? That hasn’t been my read.
Called my democratic senators and congressman on the EOs. Told them that if they cede the power of the purse to the presidency, there’s no point in paying them. It doesn’t only apply to Republicans.
Belafon
@Kelly: Some pumps that were under maintenance are fixed and now running.
Eolirin
If funding to Medicaid, WIC, SNAP, TANF and CHIP are all halted suddenly and for any significant length of time the ensuing recession and increase in unemployment will be massive enough to be impossible to miss. The knock on effects of which could result in contagion across other sectors.
Rural areas will enter full blown depression conditions.
Scout211
LOL. Yes, late night social media lies will prevent fires.
. . .
la caterina
I just left angry messages on both my Senators’ (Dem) voicemails. No cooperation! No more nominees confirmed!
Gin & Tonic
OK, I was premature. Whitehouse’s office answered, and I told them that him telling his constituents to “chill” is insulting. I said other Dem Senators are a hard “no” on that lunatic, and that despite any prior personal relationship between the two, Whitehouse needs to be a hard “no” as well.
JoeyJoeJoe
@Ohio Mom: In August 2023, my family visited Budapest while on a cruise along the Danube River. Even the tour guide seemed unhappy when speaking about recent developments in Hungary due to Orban. She didn’t say anything, but it was obvious just in how she sounded when Orban came up
jimmiraybob
I assume that rural communities will also be suffering from withdrawal of farm aid $, rural medical aid$, and Construction halts.
Maybe daddy will find us new homes in Jordan and Egypt.
pajaro
@Jeffro:
The shutdown is a flat violation of the Impoundment Act that was passed during or after the Nixon Administration. Trump will have to argue that the Act itself is unconstitutional in the various lawsuits against this shutdown, which will start sooner rather than later. The firings and reassignments at the Justice Department are also illegal and will be challenged. We are not where we were a week ago, and the response of Democrats will need to reflect that new reality.
I don’t think we will have Republican allies in the fight ahead, but I really doubt whether all of them are thrilled with being completely neutered, as Trump claims the power to decide, by himself, when and how or whether money they have appropriated is going to be spent.
Kelly
I hadn’t read about the pump maintenance. As a lifelong Oregonian his rambling about PNW water flowing to CA is amazing.
Eolirin
@la caterina: You know they can’t stop the confirmation of nominees right?
The no votes aren’t actually resistance. It sends a message isn’t a strategy. Especially since the electorate doesn’t seem to really follow or care about politics at this level. And also when the message that’s really being sent is that Democrats in the senate can’t stop anything.
taumaturgo
As we wait, the most courageous conservative Democrat congressional leadership ever are preparing a series of strong worded messages that will have MAGA dying of …laughter.
Josie
I listened this morning to an interview the Texas Tribune held with Rep. Gene Wu, the newly elected leader of the Texas House Democrats. He was answering questions about school vouchers, and his approach was one we all should be using. He asked why the hard earned tax money from middle class Texans should be used to fund rich people’s attendance at expensive private schools. This question should be asked in various forms for every Republican effort.
When asked what people could do in response, he said to vote and to contact all your representatives in every way possible. It’s the only response that is available to ordinary people at this point.
What he was saying was so obvious and logical, but he was very inspiring. I could detect restrained rage in his presentation.
Scout211
Looking at the end game of Project 2025 and what now amounts to all lawsuits against these illegal power grabs ending up at SCOTUS, will they have the courage to reverse or at the very least limit their decision to grant Trump complete immunity as
KingPresident?I don’t know how to do this, but donations to legal groups seems like a very good idea right now.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Eolirin: They can delay the nomination process significantly by refusing unanimous consent votes, etc. The Senate has been bum rushing Trump’s nominations. That could definitely be slowed down. IMO it’s worthwhile to call your D Senator.
Eolirin
@taumaturgo: The electorate chose not to give them the power to stop this. What do you expect them to do, start murdering their colleagues?
Steve LaBonne
@pajaro: In fact (not that this Court respects precedents) previous Courts have held that impoundment is unconstitutional and that its illegality does not depend on the Impoundment Act.
la caterina
@Eolirin: Yes, I know. I think we must resist at every level. To do otherwise is complicity in my book.
Eolirin
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Does that gain us anything?
TBone
(Disclaimer: I have a huge crush on Sheldon for a long time.)
Back in the day, if Sheldon said “chill!” it meant “STFU you know I’m gonna vote correctly.”
But now in upside down world, I’m shook!
Citizen Dave
@E.: I would happily trade for your guy (sounds crazy fun) in exchange for mine, born in the USSR and possibly a Putin agent, Victoria Spartz.
Hildebrand
@jimmiraybob: I’ve been working with those who have food security issues my whole life – it’s the senior rural folks who are really going to get hammered with any reduction in meals on wheels and SNAP.
I mean, make no mistake, the urban poor are going to get screwed badly, but it’s so much easier to find out who is in need in the city, so at least we can be faster in our response. The folks we used to deliver to in North Dakota? Jeez, those people are going to be in bad shape. This will kill people.
Trump’s cruelty is staggering.
gene108
@Jeffro:
Aren’t EO’s official acts? Doesn’t the president have absolute immunity for official acts?
I know people like to bring up Seal Team Six carrying out a murder spree for the president, but I think the absolute immunity ruling will mostly enable a president to abuse their authority without fear of repercussions, like not distributing appropriated funds.
TBone
@Josie:
That’s how I first came to have a huge crush on Senator Whitehouse. All of what you said.
The 200+ Speeches. The Scheme presentations. (If people don’t know what those are, please look it up).
Eolirin
@gene108: The president can’t be arrested for it, it doesn’t mean the EO gets to stand.
The court can order the people under him to carry out the law. He can pardon them if and when they refuse, but until he’s got enough of his own people in enough of those positions, the civil servants will follow the courts on this. They want to be doing their jobs.
Once the agencies are completely corrupted the courts won’t matter anymore, but that’ll take some time.
Tazj
@azlib: I have to do that. I’m out right now but I’ll have to take time to compose myself before I do. My district is maybe plus eleven or twelve Republican, but he’s going to hear from me. My senators are both Democrats.
scav
So, what’s now going to happen at birth? Small bathtub-swimming government going to swoop in and:
a) tag all females at birth so they can have bathroom privileges in future life and have their pregnancy status monitored at all times and
b) determine the proper, necessarily binary, and thus True sexual identity for all those with sexually ambiguous genitalia and non XX/XY chromosomes so they can be sharpie inscribed! and thus proper gender expression, clothes choice, possible military careers and honor can itself can be tracked for all times. Surely we can’t let parents and doctors run wild and decide such things on their lonesome and carve their decisions into the infants flesh and documentation willy-nilly. What if an XXX or XO or XXY or XX/XY mosaic individual walked into the wrong bathroom! Imagine the crime-sprees unleashed!
gene108
@JerseyBeard:
Kim was my Congressman. He’s quiet by nature and not going to stir shit up.
I think there’s so much awful shit coming from Trump that we need to pace ourselves on what hills to die on.
Belafon
@taumaturgo:
Then they have a power I didn’t realize a party not controlling the House, Senate, Executive, or Supreme Court had.
gene108
@Eolirin:
He can’t be arrested, but does absolute immunity mean he cannot be impeached? I don’t think anyone knows the limits of that stinky SCOTUS ruling because it’s so damn vague.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Eolirin:
To answer that question, refer to when the Republicans have had minorities in the Senate and what they got by obstructing. There were concessions made many times.
Also, in the House, Johnson can’t pass anything of significance without D votes. The Freedom Caucus doesn’t like to vote for anything. The debt ceiling is a good example.
And, at a minimum, our Senators and Representatives can make speeches on the floor that will be covered, to at least blunt a little bit of the right wing propaganda.
In short, it’s not time to give up, and if the last couple of weeks have shown anything, the D’s on the Hill need some prodding, because they’ve been “in disarray” as one of them said the other day.
Eolirin
@gene108: No, I believe the argument they were making was that the remedy was impeachment, so there didn’t need to be another one.
Which is great for constraining a lawless Democratic president, but useless for constraining a Republican one. Which was rather the point.
Belafon
@gene108: He could be impeached and convicted, in part because the Constitution only gives the Supreme Court in this case the right to watch that the trial is performed.
taumaturgo
@Eolirin:
How about they stop with the bipartisanship nonsense. The public sees it as duplicitous, since they never stop shouting the worst that could happen to Democracy was to elect Trump. As of yesterday, we transitioned to cooperation and strongly worded letters, a far cry from genuine opposition to the issue at hand.
Geminid
@EarthWindFire: I lucked out. Bob Good was my Congressman for only two years, after I moved from Augusta County to Greene County in 2020. Then redistricting moved Greene into the 7th CD and I got Abigail Spanberger who was a vast improvement.
Now Spanberger is running for Governor, and Eugene Vindman is my Rep.*
I haven’t heard anything about McGuire this Congress.. Objectively, McGuire is probably worse than Good because he’s more of a team player. I was still glad when he beat Good. That guy made my skin crawl; just a nasty man.
* I’ve had 5 different Representatives in 7 years. In my Valley days, it was Bob Goodlatte until he retired in 2018 and Ben Cline took over the 6th CD. Then it was Good in the 5th, and Spanberger and Vindman in the 7th.
EarthWindFire
Mine too. Both have shown obey in advance moments this past week. We need to stiffen their spines.
Ksmiami
@Eolirin: ok. We’re probably close to civil war anyway
pajaro
@Ohio Mom:
This isn’t really like Hungary. Orban went slowly, weakening other power centers slowly but steadily. What’s happening here is a kind of constitutional coup, with Trump deciding he’s going to be our dictator. Even Democrats who don’t want to fight have, I believe, little choice other than opposing across the board what’s happening.
EarthWindFire
@Geminid: That’s great. I’m happy for you.
taumaturgo
This will have the felon shaking!
In the letter, DeLauro and Murray wrote, “As leaders of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, we write with extreme alarm about the Administration’s efforts to undermine Congress’s power of the purse, threaten our national security, and deny resources for states, localities, American families, and businesses.”
Eolirin
@@mistermix.bsky.social: For Democrats, who care about the functioning of agencies, preventing people from getting into position to run them is a real issue. Trump seems to be trying to shut down most of the federal government. I’m not sure they care the same way. So the ability to extract concessions likely doesn’t exist here.
Everything else isn’t about blocking unanimous consent on literally every part of the nomination process for all nominees. I asked a very narrow question.
Scorched earth opposition to literally everything is not necessarily the best harm reduction strategy. Dems do not have very much power right now, especially in the Senate. The House is a different matter.
Old School
@taumaturgo:
What do you propose?
zhena gogolia
@hrprogressive: Oh bullshit. I just got a long essay from Chris Murphy calling them out. Sorry he’s not the blog darling.
Geminid
@EarthWindFire: Are you in the 10th? I’m really impressed by Rep. Subramanyam. He’s only 37 years old, too.
pajaro
@gene108:
The Supreme Court case was about immunity from criminal prosecution. We can still sue to block what he’s trying to do, and get an order telling him to stop.
zhena gogolia
@Eolirin: I’m glad to see you’re still here trying to speak the truth.
Steve LaBonne
What Josh Marshall said. The (House) Democrats have one pressure point and they need to use it. Performative gestures may make people feel better but they accomplish nothing and actually telegraph weakness.
Citizen Dave
What would be different if Vladdy Putin was President? Wonder when our nation will wake up to trump. This is chaos.
Steve LaBonne
@Citizen Dave: To be fair I imagine Xi is pretty happy as well.
lowtechcyclist
@tam1MI:
If you run into any tankies asking that, the answer is that the Administration of a Democratic President takes people and entities to court who violate the laws and regs, on everything from discrimination to pollution.
A Democratic President can’t just tell the courts to fuck off without gutting his own ability to see that the laws are executed. So that means putting up with the horrid decisions of the Seditious Six, which sucks but it beats the alternative.
NotMax
@jimmiraybob
Also too gonna eat into the bottom line of wherever they shop (hint, hint: Walmart).
Eolirin
@zhena gogolia: This is an issue not with the blog, but with a specific set of posters on it.
Steve LaBonne
@NotMax: So badly that the 90 days this supposedly will last are probably enough to trigger a major recession with millions of jobs lost.
taumaturgo
@Old School:
The current leadership’s approach is not working and needs to change. If they are unwilling to abandon their ineffective strategies, they should at least listen to the younger members of the party. The Senate is unlikely to take meaningful action, as they seem unwilling to stand up for the type of threat to Democracy.
pajaro
@gene108:
The Supreme Court’s immunity decision doesn’t change the power of Congress to Impeach, or the power of the courts to decide if a particular action of the President is in excess of his power.
cmorenc
Holy Cow! None of us agree with Texas rep. Chip Roy about almost anything, but the righteous rant he just let forth with on the House floor about the gross fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP (omnibus?) bill under consideration is something we BJers could applaud, if only we weren’t aware that his notions of what’s superflous and irresponsible are way out of sync with ours. But hey, for once the disarray induced by Chip Roy ranting about GOP irresponsibility is at least temporarily…useful.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Eolirin:
So we should grease the skids for people like RFK Jr? I don’t understand this point. The people he appoints to run those agencies will ruin them faster if they’re nominated faster.
Old School
@taumaturgo: So they should try….?
cain
We really need to be calling the Republicans they all hold the power. Once again I think we ourselves have also started thinking only Dems have agency.
Let’s start focusing on Republicans. They always seem to escape from this stuff. Start talking to your conservative GOP voting people, we can unite against this.
Steve LaBonne
@Eolirin: It’s a general issue with the degradation of our political culture. Too many on the left have bought into the right’s idea that politics is about performative gestures and striking the right attitudes. That works for the right because they are only interested in destroying things. It doesn’t work if you’re trying to make people’s lives better.
cain
@cmorenc:
GOP are literally acting like liberals – because they are. Neoliberals. These spends are increasing govt by quite a bit and the spending is off the scale. But what they are spending on doesn’t help anybody and combined with all the tariffs life is going to get a lot worse.
Even they are not stupid enough to think that it’s ok to take away the safety net while also drastically increasing prices in every sector because of their policy on illegal immigration, tariffs, and stopping govt payments.
FDRLincoln
My younger son is disabled, relies on Medicaid, SSDI, and special education transition funding.
My older son works for a nonprofit relying on Federal grants to operate.
My wife works for a nonprofit relying on Federal grants to operate.
My entire family faces financial and social ruin if Trump’s actions aren’t reversed, and very soon.
I will never, ever, EVER forgive Trump voters for this.
I hate these people.
I may convert back to being a (liberal) Christian just so I can believe in Hell again.
sixthdoctor
Eric Michael Garcia has several responses from senators; he had one from Thom Tillis as well but it was as worthless and mealy-mouthed as you’d expect.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@cmorenc:
Chip Roy is a great example of why Johnson will need Democratic votes to do anything. He loves to oppose, but doesn’t like to vote for anything.
NotMax
@Steve LaBonne
“It’s not a recession, it’s a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the economy>”
//
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
But I would contend that voting Yes for people that have no business running a Federal agency sends a message that there’s no point in actual resistance, since Dem Senators can’t even be bothered to cast a ‘no’ vote where appropriate.
Which is TRUE, and is an important message! If the Senate Dems can’t stop anything, then the Republicans are responsible for anything bad that happens. We want to be sure people are frequently reminded of this.
sixthdoctor
Eric Michael Garcia is listing responses:
Belafon
@taumaturgo: So what do you want them to do?
Ohio Mom
@FDRLincoln: I’m right with you. I dint know what else to say.
sixthdoctor
Eric Michael Garcia is listing senator’s responses, an example:
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: Which pressure point is that? I can’t get to the article from here?
Shalimar
@Ohio Mom: Hungary is a role model because Orban basically turned it into a soft dictatorship. He has done everything he could to control the government and media. Opposition parties have no chance of winning elections despite discomfort at what the country has become. You can see why Republicans want this here.
The biggest problem with their vision is that Hungary is a small part of the EU and there is only so much damage to infrastructure that Orban could do. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the economy and popular programs here. That is going to hurt his chances of keeping a majority so that all of his changes won’t be rolled back in 4 years
This is their all-in though. They either take over or face huge backlash that significantly damages their brand.
Belafon
@taumaturgo: What do you think will work?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I sense Trump got told no last night by the House GOP during that retreat they doing at Mar-a-largo and this EO shut down is Trump punishing them.
Jeffro
this is a GREAT point and I will add it to my next round of calls
thank you!
Sister Golden Bear
@Kelly: Especially as CA’s water system — while impressively extensive — ends well short of the Oregon border, let alone Canada.
For you Easterners not familiar with West Coast geography, just to be clear, there’s no aqueducts between Oregon (or Washington or Canada) and California. There’s not even any aqueducts between Oregon, Washington or Canada themselves.
Cordonazo
I’d call Fetterman, but I think he’d just mock my concerns.
FDRLincoln
@Ohio Mom: I called my worthless GOP congress people again. As before, one senator went to voice mail, the other isn’t taking any constituent calls, and the poor intern from the Representative took down my comments and information but said (like last week) that staffers haven’t been given any guidance on what to tell people.
We are completely on our own.
Shalimar
@taumaturgo: I don’t see that the current strategy isn’t working. As far as I can tell, our strategy is to legally challenge every illegal act and publicize everything that hurts people. Outrage builds over time, so saying you don’t see results 8 days in seems premature.
People seem really upset at not having total opposition to every nominee.
#1. Republicans have the votes to get all of them in anyway, so it doesn’t really matter whether 40 or 47 Democrats vote against someone, and
#2. some of these people will be total disasters. it sucks for the country for the next 6 months to 2 years, but it isn’t bad for Democrats if they have an incompetent fuck-up instead of an efficient fascist in X job.
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: I’m sorry that didn’t work, it was supposed to be a gift link. The debt limit. Republicans know they can’t do it without Democratic votes.
raven
What a snake Karoline Leavitt is.
zhena gogolia
@Belafon: I admire your persistence! You never get an answer out of these people.
John S.
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
16 Democrats voted to confirm Trump’s shitty Treasury secretary yesterday.
When Steve Mnuchin was nominated, they boycotted the committee vote. And then the only Democrat to vote for him was Joe Manchin (spit).
That’s what a functioning opposition looks like.
Josie
@FDRLincoln:
Similar to the response I got–voice mail for both senators and a very polite young man for my representative–all Texas Republicans. I can only hope that their voice mail boxes are filled to overflowing.
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: Thanks. It’s not about the link, it’s about my work.
zhena gogolia
@raven: Oh, God, another blonde bimbo I have to worry about.
Eolirin
@@mistermix.bsky.social: He’s fully capable of ruining them via EO if he doesn’t get the nominees as is clearly being demonstrated. And a few weeks worth of delay isn’t going to make a difference when we’re looking at a potentially four year appointment. We can’t delay any of these nominations to even the midterms. We can’t stop the damage that’s going to happen to the executive branch by the nominees.
There is no mechanism for it. This isn’t like the situation with batch military promotions. It doesn’t drag out the process to the point where it effectively halts it.
And not denying unanimous consent everywhere it can be isn’t greasing the skids, it’s the normal operating of the senate. The people greasing the skids are the Republicans, not the Democrats for not weilding a one weird trick that even the Republicans don’t use systematically, that won’t even work for very long and will likely have consequences for other more important and possibly winnable fights.
Getting obsessed with tactics isn’t going to help here. There’s no strategy behind what you’re demanding. It’s purely so you can feel better about something being done, even if that something does fuck all to make anything better.
What happens next? What is actually prevented, what can be prevented, what can’t? How does that move us forward? I don’t expect you to have an answer to any of those questions, and I don’t expect you to be able to have an answer, but that’s what leadership in the party has to be figuring out and it’s not going to be an easy thing.
Slogans like, “say no to everything!” don’t actually help. That’s not the environment we’re in. It’s not a plan. It’s an emotional replacement for one. It’s a venting of outrage rather than an attempt to do the work of minimizing damage.
FDRLincoln
@Josie: The intern I spoke with, probably the same one from last week, sounds absolutely miserable. I’m sure he’s getting an earful with each call. And he was very clearly frustrated about not getting any guidance from his bosses on what to tell people.
“I’m sorry, sir, I really do understand why you are upset and I’m writing down all your comments and sending them up the ladder, but they aren’t telling us what to tell people. I’m sorry.”
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
I’m gonna say GOOD. This Administration was going to cause a major economic fuckup sooner or later. Sooner means it’s all on them. It’s 1,453 days before the Dems will be in a position to fix things.
rodwell
Called mine Senators (Booker and Kim) and mine Representative (Sherrell).
I did not speak to a live person. All calls went to voicemail. Express my outrage over the EOs and also suggested to Senator Kim that you cannot be bipartisan with people who support this.
Kelly
@Sister Golden Bear: A Trump project to build aqueducts to carry PNW water to California is guaranteed to unite Red rural Oregon with Blue urban Oregon in fierce opposition.
Eolirin
@Steve LaBonne: Yeah. It’s driving me insane.
sentient ai from the future
@Shalimar: except that it’s the Deputies who are doing the real work of dismantling and looting the government. his top choices are loyalist yes-men who will rubberstamp the deputies and probably also to prevent a 25th amendment challenge.
Steve LaBonne
@lowtechcyclist: It makes me physically ill to agree given the massive harm to so many people (many of them innocent), but I have to agree. The only way out is through. People have to finally learn the hard way how bad things can get when they put Republicans in power.
CaseyL
Called my Rep, Jayapal, first and spoke to one of her office people. I said the “pause” in research and grant funding would destroy the US health and research systems and to please oppose it. The aide said she would convey my message to Jayapal.
Then called both my Senators, Murray and Cantwell, both of whom voted Yes on Rubio but No on every other Cabinet post. I thanked them, mentioned the de facto shut-down, and asked them to not only continue voting No but also to organize and rally the rest of the Senate Democrats to do likewise. Give Trump nothing, I said.
After the election, but before Biden left, the Governors of CA, OR, and WA said they were strategizing how to respond to an expected reign of terror from the White House. I hope they came up with effective plans, but it doesn’t help that all three states have a large MAGA contingent.
Eolirin
@lowtechcyclist: Okay, but also, several hundred thousand people may starve to death in the process.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: That is way too many words to waste on someone who has no interest in civil discourse and just wants to undermine the Dems from the Left, most likely while in service to Putin and/or the US Oligarchy. My response to anyone who says “WHY DIDN’T JOE BIDEN DO THAT?” will be “BECAUSE FECKLESS GARBAGE HUMANS LIKE YOU WOULDN’T SUPPORT HIM WHEN IT MATTERED!”
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
Look, I remember plenty of times when a new Dem President was trying to get his nominees confirmed. The GOP made sure that each nominee that had the least bit of iffiness in his or her background was up there long enough so people would know every little bad thing about the nominee.
You don’t think we should do the same for GOP nominees that are genuinely horrendous? That we should let them all through, en masse, without laying a glove on them?
Call it performative if you will. To me, it’s INformative. People need to have some awareness of what a bunch of shits these people are.
Sure, let Micro Rubio through because there’s no ‘there’ there. But Kristi Noem? Really???
Steve LaBonne
@Eolirin: I hope the courts will put a stop to this madness in time to prevent that, but it’s a wan hope.
Steve LaBonne
@lowtechcyclist: Nobody but people like us ever heard of Rubio or gives a shit. And Trump doesn’t care, he can do the same shit via acting officials (as is happening).
Kayla Rudbek
@E.: starting with the framework of “why are you buying into Russian/Chinese propaganda”? Other than that I got nothing
BellaPea
@E.: God help you, he’s my rep too and he’s a total idiot. I doubt you’ll get anything but spin from his office, but it might be worth trying. Good luck.
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
Several hundred thousand?? If you’re gonna exaggerate by multiple orders of magnitude, then I’m done with this conversation.
Yes, people will die due to Trumpian policies, just like last time. Again, sooner or later. Sooner is more likely to minimize the overall damage by killing his support and rousing widespread opposition early.
taumaturgo
@Belafon: Not to do the same old, the same old.
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
I agree. I’m OK with that 99-0 vote.
So I’ve noticed. But it raises the question, how come Democratic Administrations didn’t do nearly so much with acting officials right off the bat?
One of the points that’s been raised in Merrick Garland’s defense, for instance, is that he got off to a late start because it took months to get him confirmed. OK, but what was the acting AG doing during those months?
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: Last time it WAS several hundred thousand (over a million but I’ll spot him some who would have died regardless), but that was a plague. Famine could, but it’s unlikely unless Trump actually blockades the specific states he wants to starve out.
Steve LaBonne
@lowtechcyclist: The ridiculous immunity decision shows that if DOJ had managed to get a Trump conviction, the Court would have overturned it. What a waste of time to still be complaining about Garland. And the reason Democrats when in power don’t engage in the kind of lawlessness we are seeing now should be obvious- we need the rule of law, whereas to the fascists it’s nothing but an impediment.
Belafon
@Belafon: So, what do you want them TO do?
Sean
@lowtechcyclist:
Given what we’ve seen, why do we expect anything other than EO’s that dismantle the underpinnings of elections? I’m sure there are a lot of ways he can use the new Trump DOJ to obfuscate, confuse and frustrate the process for the states. I worry there is no election path out of this. I don’t know if there is a path at all. We go on like there is, because we must, but I don’t know anymore.
cmorenc
@gene108: While Roberts’ immunity decision was undoubtably designed primarily to hobble attempts to successfully prosecute Trump if Biden / Harris had won in 24, he likely had as a secondary (and not at all trivial) objective to insulate Biden from Trump vengeance if Trump won.
Roberts overall objective is to constrain government to big-business-friendly with a pared-down ability to constrain it by regulation, as well as making it friendly to conservative social values. But his attempted public cautioning to Trump against violating court orders may indicate SCOTUS won’t compliantly go along with Trump’s attempt at unconstrained dictatorship – RW though the current 6-3 majority is, they will likely attempt to fiercely push back on many of Trump’s imperial maneuvers, in significant part because failing to do so would hugely etode their own institutional power. However, will SCOTUS be able to make their decisions and orders stick if Trump has thoroughly corrupted the Justice Dept and enforcement agencies?
zhena gogolia
@Belafon: Keep asking.
Matt
Translation: he’s absolutely going to vote for Mr. Brainworm, but he’s too chickenshit to admit it and would like people to stop yelling at him.
Matt
@cmorenc:
LOL as if Roberts wouldn’t reverse himself instantly if the opportunity presented itself. He’s a liar with no principles beyond “because I want to”.
Ruckus
@Chief Oshkosh:
It depends on what the temperature of the concerned constituents is. And I imagine that for many the boiling point has been reached. I mean it’s been a week and the premise of decades upon decades of mostly rational, decent government being destroyed by a asinine jackoff with several severe issues, such as senioritis, greed, pompous arrogance, and his head located in his exit chute might just be a bit too much. And that said that, jackoff seems to have support of a not insignificant level of the population is somewhat disconcerting.
Chris Johnson
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Very likely. It’s impossible the Republicans did NOT tell Trump ‘stop it, you’re costing us money even without considering votes’. Because he is, he’s ruining them.
He’s doing that on purpose. He’s an agent of Putin, and that’s who’s giving him detailed instructions (technically, Putin’s experts in studying the structure of American government, needn’t be personal) and yes, he is 100% ruining the Republicans. Their bases are fucked, many important structural parts of America are suddenly broken, Democrats are said to be having a meeting tomorrow to come up with a plan, and Trump is doubling down on attacking all the Republicans by breaking all their shit, in desperate haste.
I will be interested to see what the hell they do. In a link upthread, it said Mitch McConnell was refusing to talk to reporters, and smirking. Republicans don’t want to be stuck with the results of all this, and their base will be even slower than Congressional Democrats to get up to speed with what’s happening, but I think Trump fucked up in attacking his own party.
Dan
Regarding starvation, one of the grant programs that is likely affected by this shutdown is TEFAP – the Emergency Food Assistance Program, operated by USDA. It provided roughly one-third of all the food distributed by the nations 200 or so food banks. USDA buys surplus food all over the country and gives it to food banks to distribute.
If you instantly take that food out of the game, it is not going to get replaced for a long time.
Another program likely affected is LFPA – the Local Food Procurement Assistance Program, which provides grants, through states, to not for profits to buy food in their local economies to distribute to low income folks. Again, a huge source of food.
Both of these programs provide a lot of income to farms, and that may be the only thing that saves them, if they are saved.
So I don’t know if anyone will starve but millions of people are gonna be really hungry.
Darkrose
It does matter, though. I do not want Padilla or Schiff voting for any of Trump’s nominees. If they’re going to win anyway, why should we help them?
McConnell didn’t succeed in making Obama a one-term president, but he did manage to prevent a lot of progress. Obstruction works; if nothing else, it signals that you’re not just going to roll over. Right now–and I say this as someone who’s called myself a Democrat since 1976, when I tried to get votes for Carter in the Weekly Reader poll in first grade–the country is in crisis, and the Democrating party doesn’t seem to know how to respond. It’s incredibly discouraging.
Darkrose
@Belafon: I want the Democrats to obstruct. Make Johnson have to pass everything with his caucus, or fuck off. Since y’all wouldn’t get rid of the filibuster, use it, and actually keep talking. Drag out every single committee hearing and bring up everything possible to “cast shadows” or raise “lingering questions.”Ask Noem if she’s going to deal with undocumented immigrants like she dealt with Cricket. Most of all, STAND UP for your constituents! Call out the racism and misogyny and transphobia. This shit is not popular, and Trump didn’t get a mandate, so stop acting like it is and he did.
EarthWindFire
@Geminid: I’m in the 11th but agreed on Subramanyam. He’s definitely going places. Some of my family is in the 5th, they live about 30-45 minutes south of Charlottesville.
Dougboy
JFC, I just tried to call Husted (R Sen – Ohio), and the mailbox is full. Shocking, I know.
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
You have clearly misunderstood me.
First of all, I’m not complaining about Garland. I have no dog in that fight.
I’m asking a question about the period between January 20 and whatever date Garland was confirmed as AG. Garland wasn’t AG during that period, and I have no idea who was acting. So I am not complaining about Garland, and do not even know the identity of the person I am ‘complaining’ about, if asking a serious question constitutes complaining.
OK, this is the first I’ve heard anyone say that it’s illegal for these acting heads of agencies that haven’t been confirmed by the Senate to issue orders, period. If that’s true, I’d have figured that it would have been frequently brought up during this past eight days. So I’m kinda puzzled by your assertion.
If you’re right about that, then that would explain why whoever was acting while Garland was awaiting confirmation didn’t move the ball forward on the J6 investigation. But the fact that everyone’s been talking about how evil this or that order is, but nobody AFAIK is saying, ‘wtf, the acting heads of these agencies don’t even have the authority to issue these orders, how can they even be doing this,’ was what raised the question in my mind this past week.
Does that make more sense?
HopefullynotCassandra
The gop leader is lying again.
The military did not enter California and turn on a non-existent faucet (which faucet he claimed was in Washington).
The military did not enter the delta. The federal government turned on federal pumps that were offline.
Steve LaBonne
@lowtechcyclist: The orders are lawless, not the persons issuing them. Which is why I said that confirmation or not of his figurehead Cabinet secretaries is of limited importance.
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
So they have the authority to issue legal orders.
Then my question about the opening months of the Biden Administration still stands.
ETA:
Well, it should be of significantly less importance than has been ascribed to it in the past, if the acting secretaries can issue orders as if they were the real McCoy.