Trump Administration Includes Journalist in Classified Chat

Seriously, you can't make this shit up. Apparently a journalist was included on a chat detailing upcoming military operations against the Houthis in Yemen. What coming out of the White House about this is ludicrous and has gone something like this:

Day 1: We didn't send classified data to a journalist.

Day 2: We sent data to a journalist but it wasn't classified.

Day 3: We didn't send any data to a journalist besides, it wasn't classified.

Day 4: No journalist received any data, besides, President Trump thought about declassifying it before it wasn't sent so it wasn't classified.

Day 5: This data doesn't exist so we couldn't have sent it to anyone, besides, it was never classified and President Trump declassified it anyway.

Day 6: Elon Musk saved $3.46 today so why are you talking about data which doesn't exist that was never sent to a journalist? Besides, the data was never classified, the journalist never received it and President Trump declassified it before it wasn't sent so this is just a big witch hunt.

In the meantime the market is crashing, people can't reach Social Security customer service on the phone, millions of dollars are being pulled from schools because Trump doesn't like their politics and foreign students are being arrested in broad daylight because they expressed disagreement with the administrations foreign policy.

Yet, according to a recent poll, large numbers of Americans now say that the country is headed in the "right direction."

We truly are an Idiocracy.

My Walmart Refund

 I decided to call Walmart Customer Service again but this time I fought my way through the automated answering system to Tammy, a real person.

Tammy did her magic and I immediately got an e-mail telling me that the price of my order "had changed" and I would get a refund.

Whoopie!

The next day I got $22 credited to my account...but I only paid $17. You know what, screw it. I'm keeping the extra five bucks.

Walmart, Taxes and Musk Oh My

It's been a while because I really don't have much to say.

Walmart never refunded my $17 and I just don't have the patience to deal with them so I might just write it off. Then again, I may not.

I got my taxes back and, I knew it was going to be bad, but wow. The federal government gets a check for $41,795 and the state a check for $4,149 bringing my total tax bills this year to $64,477 and $8,364 respectively.

As soon as I got the tax returns I filled out the New Jersey Property Tax relief application. We'll see how that goes. They don't start processing the applications until July and we won't see any payments until October. Given our income level I'm not even sure it was worth filling out the form.

That brings me to Musk who is still causing chaos without taking into account the consequences. He keeps screwing around with Social Security and, so far at least, Social Security isn't impressed. I wonder if Social Security could be Musk's Waterloo as the Army was McCarthy's?

SNAP and Medicaid Cuts

 First of all, let's understand that these cuts WILL NOT lead to a reduction in the deficit or the debt because they will be more than offset by $4.5 trillion in tax cuts which the COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS has been instructed to implement. 

The GOP framework itself estimates about a $2 trillion deficit for each year which will raise the debt to about $55 trillion. This is NOT about reducing the debt or balancing the budget. It's about giving tax cuts to people who already have more money than they know what to do it. Elon Musk, if these tax cuts are implemented, will make more in saved taxes next year than any of us will earn in our lifetimes.

The GOP is playing a bit of a game here. The framework passed by the GOP doesn't specifically say that Medicaid and SNAP should be cut. What it does do is instruct the committees responsible for these programs to make cuts. The COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, which controls SNAP, is instructed to reduce the deficit (cut) by not less than $230 billion over 10 years. The COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, which controls Medicaid, is instructed to reduce the deficit (cut) by not less than $880 billion over 10 years. 

So about $23 billion and $88 billion a year respectively. The problem is it's hard to see how these cuts can be achieved without impacting SNAP and Medicaid. But that doesn't mean they won't try to gaslight the whole country about what they're actually doing.

Walmart

There is no Walmart close to where I live. There is one in Suffern, New York but that's a fair distance. During the pandemic I started buying online from Walmart because sometimes it would be cheaper than Amazon. This worked out especially for paper goods.

The problem with that was since I didn't want to pay to join their Walmart+ for free shipping I always had to have at least $35 in my order in order to avoid paying shipping costs. That's really not too difficult because I can always throw in some toilet paper or paper towels which I then store in my garage.

This was sort of my downfall.

My wife wanted coffee. Folger's Decaf in the 25.9 oz. plastic cannister in particular. I must have been bored that day because I checked Walmart, Amazon and Stop & Shop and it was a little cheaper on Walmart. But that only amounted to $17 so I threw in two packages of toilet paper.

It all arrived in a big box about two days later. As soon as my wife found the box she told me she could smell coffee.

Well, that wasn't a good sign.

The two packages of toilet paper and the coffee had been put in the box with no packing material or any way of keeping things from moving around during shipping. As a result the toilet paper had sort of crushed the coffee cannister and coffee had spilled out into the box.

The toilet paper smelled good though.

The toilet paper went into the garage and the coffee cannister and spilled coffee went into a garbage bag which we immediately put in the garbage can.

Then I decided to contact Walmart for a refund. I tried setting up a refund through their online website but it told me it couldn't process a coffee refund and I should call their 1-800 customer service number.

OK...of course what I got was an automated system which I went around in circles with for a bit before it finally connected me to Mohammed.

Mohammad listened patiently, apologized for the problem with the order, and then asked me if I could return the damaged item to a Walmart store. As previously explained, there ain't any Walmart close to me. 

When I said "no," Mohammed put me on hold to confer with greater powers. I figured he was going to come back and tell me to just dump the coffee (which I had already done) and they would simply refund my charge card.

Well, not quite. When Mohammed came back on he asked me if I could take the coffee to a Fedex return store. Now, we have a UPS store in the next town but I had no idea where I might find a Fedex store so, again, I said "no."

Mohammed put me on hold again and presumably went to confer with greater powers once again. Again I was expecting him to come back and tell me to just dump the coffee.

Nope. When Mohammed came back on he asked if it would be OK if they sent a Fedex truck to pick up the item the next day. That sounded absolutely ridiculous but I was going to be home so I said sure, why not? Mohammed said he would e-mail me a shipping label, which I should attach to the original box (you know that REALLY BIG box) and then wait for the Fedex truck to show up.

So, I retrieved the box from the garage, the coffee from the garbage, attached the shipping label and waited excitedly for the next day when the Fedex truck would arrive. I was finding the whole process wildly entertaining. This was all of a $17 item which, even if the container wasn't damaged, they couldn't legally resell anyway.

Sometime on Thursday February 20th, 2025, the Fedex truck arrived to pick up the broken coffee cannister. I couldn't resist sliding my hand under the flap of the huge box and lifting it effortlessly. the Fedex driver's eyes almost popped out until I explained that all that was in the box was a broken cannister of coffee, a garbage bag and some loose coffee. He returned to his truck humming and juggling the mostly empty big box.

So, today I said to myself it's been over a week since the Fedex truck picked up the box yet I see no refund on my charge card. Honestly, I was in no mood to call Walmart Customer Service but I figured I should play out this farce to the end.

Again I got an automated voice system which surprisingly got me to "checking on the status of a refund" pretty quickly. Now please note that today is Friday, February 28th, 2025 (the day where we're not buying anything from large corporations).

The first issue was to determine which order I was referring to. The automated voice asked me "are you referring to your most recent order of Angel Soft Toilet Paper on Saturday, March 2nd, 2025?"

Now there are SO many things wrong with that question not the least of which was that it would be Saturday, March 1st and that day was still in the future.

Anyway...after getting the order right, we arrived at they had processed the return and it could take up to 10 business days for it to appear on my charge card.

We shall see what we shall see. But why do I suspect I have a future date with Mohammed.

Dear Gaslit MAGATs,

To those of you that think the random mass layoffs of government workers is somehow going to improve things and lower the debt, I'd like to know WTF you're smoking?

They're firing people simply because they're vulnerable to being fired. If they were reviewing competency and efficiency and then making cuts, which is how RIFs are normally conducted, that would be different.

In the meantime the GOP budget framework calls for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts but $4.8 trillion in additional spending through tax cuts. The framework estimates a $2 trillion deficit each year for the next 10 years. That would increase the debt by $20 trillion.

Massively increasing the debt and the yearly interest payments is not how you become more prosperous.

In the meantime they're putting the quality of our air, the quality of our water, the safety of our food, our ability to protect against disease, our ability to educate our children, end of life care for the elderly, healthcare for the poor and food for hungry children at risk in order to fund tax cuts for people who already have more money than they know what to do with. By firing IRS personnel they're also making it easier for those same people to cheat on their taxes.

As for those of you crying about government regulations, we have regulations because far too many businesses would happily poison large segments of the population, including YOU, simply to make a buck. You think everything is good because of those regulations that quietly protect you and everyone else. You are enjoying the benefits of that government bureaucracy, that you clearly don't understand, every day. 

Does the Math Actually Work?

 I quoted the Republican budget framework but I really have analyzed it much. So, let's add up the numbers. Remember that all of these numbers are over ten years.

(1) COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE.—reduce the deficit by not less than $230,000,000,000.

Total = -$230 billion.

(2) COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES.— increase the deficit by not more than $100,000,000,000.

Total = -$230 billion + $100 billion = -$130 billion

(3) COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE.—reduce the deficit by not less than $330,000,000,000.

Total = -$130 billion - $330 billion = -$460 billion

(4) COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE.—reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000.

Total = -$460 billion - $880 billion = -$1,340 billion

(5) COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES.—reduce the deficit by not less than $1,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,340 billion - $1 billion = -$1,341 billion

(6) COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY.—increase the deficit by not more than $90,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,341 billion + $90 billion = -$1,251 billion

(7) COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY.—increase the deficit by not more than $110,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,251 billion + $110 billion = -$1,141 billion

(8) COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES.—reduce the deficit by not less than $1,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,141 billion - $1 billion = -$1,142 billion

(9) COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM.—reduce the deficit by not less than $50,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,142 billion - $50 billion = -$1,192 billion

(10) COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE.—reduce the deficit by not less than $10,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,192 billion - $10 billion = -$1,202 billion

(11) COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS.—increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000.

Total = -$1,202 billion + $4,500 billion = $3,298 billion

So we have cuts that total $1,502 billion but increases that total $4,800 billion. Now, I've been retired for a long time and perhaps my math and accounting skills are a tad rusty, but that comes out to an INCREASE in spending of $3,298 billion over 10 year or about $330 billion per year.

As far as I can determine there is about a $2,600 billion increase in revenues assumed (I suppose as the result of the tax cuts). But that still leaves about $698 billion unaccounted for as far as I can tell.

The GOP Budget Bill

 The GOP budget bill just passed by the House is a criminal disgrace. Here are the main points.

(1) COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE.—The Committee on Agriculture shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $230,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(Agriculture is responsible for SNAP.)

(2) COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES.—The Committee on Armed Services shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the deficit by not more than $100,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(This is an increase in the defense budget.)

(3) COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE.—The Committee on Education and Workforce shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $330,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(This committee controls money for education and adult vocational training.)

(4) COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE.—The Committee on Energy and Commerce shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(This committee controls Medicaid.)

(5) COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES.—The Committee on Financial Services shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $1,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(6) COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY.—The Committee on Homeland Security shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the deficit by not more than $90,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(7) COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY.—The Committee on the Judiciary shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the deficit by not more than $110,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(8) COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES.—The Committee on Natural Resources shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $1,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(9) COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM.—The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $50,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(10) COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE.—The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to reduce the deficit by not less than $10,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(11) COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS.—The Committee on Ways and Means shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.

(Ways and Means is where the tax cuts for the wealthy get defined.)

(c) Increase in statutory debt limit.—The Committee on Ways and Means shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the statutory debt limit by $4,000,000,000,000.

(This increases the debt limit.)

But the biggest insanity may be in the estimated DEFICITS over the next ten years.

(4) DEFICITS.—For purposes of the enforcement of this concurrent resolution, the amounts of the deficits are as follows:

Fiscal year 2025: $2,081,821,000,000.

Fiscal year 2026: $1,856,417,000,000.

Fiscal year 2027: $1,755,228,000,000.

Fiscal year 2028: $1,901,485,000,000.

Fiscal year 2029: $1,854,462,000,000.

Fiscal year 2030: $1,975,904,000,000.

Fiscal year 2031: $1,990,221,000,000.

Fiscal year 2032: $2,044,925,000,000.

Fiscal year 2033: $2,229,056,000,000.

Fiscal year 2034: $2,119,226,000,000.

More on Trump and Musk

There are plenty of people running around and moaning about how Trump and Musk are demolishing our democracy.

Well, technically, they haven't demolished anything. Although they are using the loopholes in the system to cause some chaos. But they haven't done anything clearly illegal. At least not yet. There's a number of court cases challenging some of the things they've done so we'll have to see how that plays out. 

The president can legally create special advisors to investigate specific things and that's technically what Musk is doing. The difference is most "special advisors" don't make crazy claims in the press.

But that alliance isn't going to last. Musk is already making Trump look bad with some of his claims.

As for the stuff going on, it is legal to fire probationary employees and political appointees. Of course something can be legal and stupid at the same time. No one ever expected a president to be stupid enough to fire probational employees en masse but it is legal. 

USAID was created by executive order so it can be dissolved by executive order. 

Illegal immigrants are breaking the law so, legally, they can be arrested and deported. Like I said, something can be legal and stupid at the same time.

The bigger issue is the Republicans in Congress seem OK with what's going on. At least so far.

Let's not forget the ultimate objective, which is to at least extend the Trump 2017 tax cuts. But the only realistic way to do that is through Budget Reconciliation and they need a dollar in spending cuts for every dollar in tax cuts.

Honestly I'm surprised that Musk is paying such attention to Social Security because Social Security can't be changed through Budget Reconciliation. I'm thinking this is all misdirection so people don't realize they're about to gut Medicaid until it's too late.

Who Do I blame for the Mess We're In?

Trump is not a fascist and calling him a fascist doesn't make him one. Fascism is characterized by extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of the nation over the individual. Trump espouses none of these things. Trump's driving force is simple greed and self aggrandizement. He's a malignant narcissist that only cares about Trump.

To Trump, Musk and the Republicans it's all about money. They support the military not for the military's sake but for the millions of dollars in contributions that flow in from military contractors. To the Trump supporters it's all about "winning" after a lifetime of "losing."

The majority of people that support Trump are convinced that he's somehow fighting their battle for them. They're happy as long as they see themselves as "winning" and people that they don't like as "losing." It's not any deeper than that.

But the people I really blame for sticking us with Trump are the pure lilies of the left.

These are people who are totally intolerant of anyone that disagrees with them. We wouldn't be stuck with Trump now if millions of left wing idiots hadn't decided that because Harris wasn't walking around waving a Palestinian flag, that they weren't going to vote for her. They stayed home because they didn't like her stance on a war they didn't understand in a region of the world that they knew nothing about.

The right is ignorant but the left is arrogant. Those of us in the middle are disgusted with both of you.

The Musk Saga Continues

The more I hear about Musk and company the worse it gets and I had a REALLY low opinion of them to begin with.

Is Trump smart enough to be doing a Machiavelli with Musk? 

Prince sends Envoy to town or village. 

Envoy does bad stuff and people hate Envoy. 

Prince rides in, is horrified at the bad stuff that Envoy is doing. 

Prince chastises envoy for doing bad stuff. 

Envoy sees error of his ways or gets punished.

People cheer wildly for Prince as he rides out in triumph. 

I almost hope that he is that smart but I sort of doubt it.