It's weird that people are ok with an immigrant having so much control of the government yet these same people complained about the black man they wanted to try to say was born in Africa. I guess if he was a white south African it would have been fine. Musk is loving this. Knowing he could never actually be president since he isn't born here, but finding a pawn he can dupe and then be proxy president. It's not even shadow presidency. So weird people are ok with a foreign billionaire tanking our country.
Unelected foreign billionaire and Rand Paul says he should be Speaker. And Trump wants to eliminate the debt ceiling too. The joke presidency has started in earnest.
It's weird that people are ok with an immigrant having so much control of the government yet these same people complained about the black man they wanted to try to say was born in Africa. I guess if he was a white south African it would have been fine. Musk is loving this. Knowing he could never actually be president since he isn't born here, but finding a pawn he can dupe and then be proxy president. It's not even shadow presidency. So weird people are ok with a foreign billionaire tanking our country.
We all know white rich immigrants are not the ones magas are concerned about. Most of them likely don’t even know he’s not American
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
It's weird that people are ok with an immigrant having so much control of the government yet these same people complained about the black man they wanted to try to say was born in Africa. I guess if he was a white south African it would have been fine. Musk is loving this. Knowing he could never actually be president since he isn't born here, but finding a pawn he can dupe and then be proxy president. It's not even shadow presidency. So weird people are ok with a foreign billionaire tanking our country.
We all know white rich immigrants are not the ones magas are concerned about. Most of them likely don’t even know he’s not American
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
President-elect Donald Trump said he supports abolishing the debt ceiling because it's the "smartest thing," a day after scuttling a bipartisan spending deal that would have averted a federal government shutdown in two days.
Trump informed Republican lawmakers about his opposition to the 1,500-page bill put together by House Speaker Mike Johnson after billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump named to run a government efficiency panel, criticized it as full of Democratic giveaways.
In his Wednesday message, Trump pushed for a "clear" spending bill that increases the debt ceiling.
On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News that he would be fine with ditching it all together, saying it would be the "smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely."
"The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge," Trump said, noting that the concept of the debt ceiling "doesn't mean anything, except psychologically."
The debt ceiling sets a limit on how much money the U.S. government can borrow to "meet its existing legal obligations."
It is now set at $31.46 trillion.
Asked about the possibility of a government shutdown if a deal isn't reached by 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Trump said: "If there's going to be a shutdown, we're going to start it with a Democratic president," echoing a statement he and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued Wednesday, urging the debate to occur during the Biden administration and before they take office on Jan. 20.
"Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch," Trump and Vance said. "If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let's have this debate now. "
The debt ceiling was suspended in 2023 until Jan. 1, 2025.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
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0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,270
2023
Another great blog from Mr. Dan Rather. This is spot on:
Welcome
to a preview of coming attractions — your U.S. government (not) at
work. The new administration is a month away from taking office, and it
feels a lot like they’re already in power … except for the small problem
that there may be no government to run as a Republican-led shutdown
looms.
We’ve
seen this movie before, but now we have a new lead actor. Move over
Donald Trump and make way for the Ambassador of Chaos, Elon Musk. It
would be funny if it weren’t so troubling.
While almost every Steady these days could don the headline ‘You Can’t Make It Up,’ today’s raises the bar to new heights.
Now the machinations of the U.S. Congress tend to be a pretty dry subject, but bear with me. It’s worth your time.
Speaker
of the House Mike Johnson has spent the past few weeks working with
both House Republicans and Democrats to negotiate a spending bill to
keep the federal government open and running.
According to Politico, Donald Trump was given the broad strokes of the deal over the weekend, and he reportedly had no objections.
Late Tuesday, Johnson announced a deal that would keep the government funded for three months.
Wednesday
morning, a disgruntled Elon Musk began a tweet-a-thon in opposition to
the spending bill. Musk, who has no official role yet, is unelected, and
will not need Senate confirmation, decided he didn’t like the bill. He
let everyone know it with more than 100 posts on his social media
platform, X.
“SHUT IT DOWN,” Musk posted; followed by “Folks, American Democracy is in TROUBLE,” said unironically.
He falsely claimed that shutting down the government would hurt no one.
“Just close down the govt [SIC] until January 20th. Defund everything. We will be fine for 33 days,” Musk wrote on X.
Tell
that to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who would be
furloughed and therefore not paid until there’s a deal. For context,
when the government shut down for three weeks in 2018-19, the
Congressional Budget Office said it cost the U.S. economy $3 billion.
That estimate does not include lost productivity. But what’s a billion
or three to someone worth 440?
Musk
also threatened political retribution, saying he will financially back
any primary opponent of Republicans in Congress who supported the
original deal.
His
beef with the bill is too much pork, which is the appropriation of
funds for pet projects of individual House and Senate members. Pork is
included in spending bills to appease members and guarantee their vote.
It is how budgets are made and have been made since the dawn of American
democracy.
The bill also includes $100 billion for disaster relief and billions for American farmers.
By
the end of the day, Musk’s social media temper tantrum had worked.
Trump, who as a reminder is not yet president, put out a statement
noting his sudden displeasure with the bipartisan spending bill that he
was just fine with until Musk. Long story slightly shorter, that bill is
dead, as are Speaker Johnson’s chances of remaining Speaker Johnson.
More on that in a minute.
Who
exactly is calling the shots? It doesn’t sound like it’s the
president-elect. It does sound like it is the richest man in the world,
who paid an enormous amount of money to ride in Donald Trump’s sidecar.
“The
fact that Donald Trump has been completely AWOL during these
negotiations to the point where only after Elon Musk publicly tweets
about his displeasure, about this budget deal, all of a sudden Donald
Trump, chief of staff to Elon Musk, comes trotting in and blows up the
deal,” Democratic Congressman Daniel Goldman said on MSNBC.
Senator Bernie Sanders asked on X, “Are Republicans working for the American people or taking orders from ‘President Musk’?”
This morning Trump called, yes called, NBC to do damage control. During the phone interview he said he had spoken with Musk before the X owner went on his rant and that their views are “very much on track.”
So,
now what? Late today, Speaker Johnson says he has a new deal, one that
apparently makes Musk and Trump happy, but perhaps few others. Minority
Leader Hakeem Jeffries says it’s an unserious proposal and would be dead
on arrival. The new bill is a pared-down version of the original with a
debt ceiling increase.
Without
boring you to the point that you scroll to the end of this piece, let
me quickly explain. The debt ceiling is a limit on how much Congress can
borrow to pay its bills. If the ceiling isn’t raised and the government
can’t pay, it will be in default. If that happens, there will be actual
hell to pay. The consequences for the U.S. economy could be
catastrophic.
The
Council of Economic Advisers said that if the government defaults on
its obligations, “the economy would quickly shift into reverse, with the
depth of the losses a function of how long the breach lasted.”
And
now a twist no one expected. After Musk’s muscle flex over the
continuing resolution, Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee have
floated the idea of Musk replacing Johnson as speaker of the House. Yup,
you read that right. The Constitution does not require a speaker to be a
sitting member of the House of Representatives, though every speaker
has been.
Several months ago, The Washington Post
reported that Musk, who is originally from South Africa, was actually
in the U.S. illegally for a time after dropping out of Stanford to start
a business. He later became a citizen. Who would have thought that
someone who has railed against undocumented immigrants was perhaps one
himself, and now could be speaker of the House … the world’s richest
person, and answerable to absolutely no one?
These are serious matters for the future of our country. Strange and perilous times, my friends.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
😂😂 MAGA’s you voted for this 😂 tell the soldiers that they can just use credit cards to spend on the holidays since you won’t get paid! Tell us how you voted against your best interest and while the immigrant and 🍊🤡 screw you keep asking for more!
Good find Hugh. Posting this in case some cannot access instagram:
It said that debating an idiot is like playing #chess with a pigeon. They’ll knock over the pieces, they’ll crap on the board, and they’ll fly back to their flock and claim victory. It’s funny and insightful, but according to the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it’s also deeply worrying. Because for #Bonhoeffer stupidity is far more concerning than evil.
There are evil people in life. There are murderers, cheaters, and liars. But they are not the greatest threat. Because once something is known to be evil, the good of the world can rally to defend and fight against it. When we know somebody is bad, we know how to take a stand. And so, as Bonhoeffer put it, ‘evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion.’
Stupidity, though, is a different problem, and we cannot so easily fight it for two reasons. The first is that we are much more tolerant of it as a society. We do not take stupidity that seriously. We do not attack somebody for not knowing a thing. The second reason is that the stupid person is a slippery one. Like a pigeon playing chess, they are not open to either #reason or debate.
And so, for Bonhoeffer, stupidity is far more dangerous because it is a weapon that evil people can often use. Because evil people find it hard to take power themselves, they will need stupid people to do their work for them. A stupid person can be guided, steered and manipulated to do any number of things. And history teaches us that #stupidity does not mean you cannot be powerful.
#Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as a powerful idiot.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Sheck...you voted for a who, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, swore that he would somehow get prices of everything to drop and that it would be "easy" to do so.
Then, not even before he is sworn in, that same guy admitted that he actually, likely, cannot do the thing he lied to you about over and over and over again during the campaign.
You've been easily manipulated by an idiot. Yes, absolutely. Congrats.
The government shutdown could not have happened without Elon. They were ready to roll and then he tweets and it's all over. He bought a country, plain and simple.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
-EV 8/14/93
natural born you mean..
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.ibtimes.com/donald-trump-abolish-debt-ceiling-3756192
Trump Calls For Abolishing Debt Limit: 'Smartest Thing' Congress Could Do
The president-elect floated the idea a day after he came out against the bipartisan spending deal to fund the government and avert a shutdown
Published 12/19/24 AT 11:26 AM EST
President-elect Donald Trump said he supports abolishing the debt ceiling because it's the "smartest thing," a day after scuttling a bipartisan spending deal that would have averted a federal government shutdown in two days.
Trump informed Republican lawmakers about his opposition to the 1,500-page bill put together by House Speaker Mike Johnson after billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump named to run a government efficiency panel, criticized it as full of Democratic giveaways.
In his Wednesday message, Trump pushed for a "clear" spending bill that increases the debt ceiling.
On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News that he would be fine with ditching it all together, saying it would be the "smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely."
"The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge," Trump said, noting that the concept of the debt ceiling "doesn't mean anything, except psychologically."
The debt ceiling sets a limit on how much money the U.S. government can borrow to "meet its existing legal obligations."
It is now set at $31.46 trillion.
Asked about the possibility of a government shutdown if a deal isn't reached by 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Trump said: "If there's going to be a shutdown, we're going to start it with a Democratic president," echoing a statement he and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued Wednesday, urging the debate to occur during the Biden administration and before they take office on Jan. 20.
"Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch," Trump and Vance said. "If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let's have this debate now. "
The debt ceiling was suspended in 2023 until Jan. 1, 2025.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Is Trump Really Calling the Shots?
Just when you think it can’t get weirder or more dysfunctional …
Dan Rather and Team SteadWelcome to a preview of coming attractions — your U.S. government (not) at work. The new administration is a month away from taking office, and it feels a lot like they’re already in power … except for the small problem that there may be no government to run as a Republican-led shutdown looms.
We’ve seen this movie before, but now we have a new lead actor. Move over Donald Trump and make way for the Ambassador of Chaos, Elon Musk. It would be funny if it weren’t so troubling.
While almost every Steady these days could don the headline ‘You Can’t Make It Up,’ today’s raises the bar to new heights.
Now the machinations of the U.S. Congress tend to be a pretty dry subject, but bear with me. It’s worth your time.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has spent the past few weeks working with both House Republicans and Democrats to negotiate a spending bill to keep the federal government open and running.
According to Politico, Donald Trump was given the broad strokes of the deal over the weekend, and he reportedly had no objections.
Late Tuesday, Johnson announced a deal that would keep the government funded for three months.
Wednesday morning, a disgruntled Elon Musk began a tweet-a-thon in opposition to the spending bill. Musk, who has no official role yet, is unelected, and will not need Senate confirmation, decided he didn’t like the bill. He let everyone know it with more than 100 posts on his social media platform, X.
“SHUT IT DOWN,” Musk posted; followed by “Folks, American Democracy is in TROUBLE,” said unironically.
He falsely claimed that shutting down the government would hurt no one.
“Just close down the govt [SIC] until January 20th. Defund everything. We will be fine for 33 days,” Musk wrote on X.
Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who would be furloughed and therefore not paid until there’s a deal. For context, when the government shut down for three weeks in 2018-19, the Congressional Budget Office said it cost the U.S. economy $3 billion. That estimate does not include lost productivity. But what’s a billion or three to someone worth 440?
Musk also threatened political retribution, saying he will financially back any primary opponent of Republicans in Congress who supported the original deal.
His beef with the bill is too much pork, which is the appropriation of funds for pet projects of individual House and Senate members. Pork is included in spending bills to appease members and guarantee their vote. It is how budgets are made and have been made since the dawn of American democracy.
The bill also includes $100 billion for disaster relief and billions for American farmers.
By the end of the day, Musk’s social media temper tantrum had worked. Trump, who as a reminder is not yet president, put out a statement noting his sudden displeasure with the bipartisan spending bill that he was just fine with until Musk. Long story slightly shorter, that bill is dead, as are Speaker Johnson’s chances of remaining Speaker Johnson. More on that in a minute.
Who exactly is calling the shots? It doesn’t sound like it’s the president-elect. It does sound like it is the richest man in the world, who paid an enormous amount of money to ride in Donald Trump’s sidecar.
“The fact that Donald Trump has been completely AWOL during these negotiations to the point where only after Elon Musk publicly tweets about his displeasure, about this budget deal, all of a sudden Donald Trump, chief of staff to Elon Musk, comes trotting in and blows up the deal,” Democratic Congressman Daniel Goldman said on MSNBC.
Senator Bernie Sanders asked on X, “Are Republicans working for the American people or taking orders from ‘President Musk’?”
This morning Trump called, yes called, NBC to do damage control. During the phone interview he said he had spoken with Musk before the X owner went on his rant and that their views are “very much on track.”
So, now what? Late today, Speaker Johnson says he has a new deal, one that apparently makes Musk and Trump happy, but perhaps few others. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says it’s an unserious proposal and would be dead on arrival. The new bill is a pared-down version of the original with a debt ceiling increase.
Without boring you to the point that you scroll to the end of this piece, let me quickly explain. The debt ceiling is a limit on how much Congress can borrow to pay its bills. If the ceiling isn’t raised and the government can’t pay, it will be in default. If that happens, there will be actual hell to pay. The consequences for the U.S. economy could be catastrophic.
The Council of Economic Advisers said that if the government defaults on its obligations, “the economy would quickly shift into reverse, with the depth of the losses a function of how long the breach lasted.”
And now a twist no one expected. After Musk’s muscle flex over the continuing resolution, Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee have floated the idea of Musk replacing Johnson as speaker of the House. Yup, you read that right. The Constitution does not require a speaker to be a sitting member of the House of Representatives, though every speaker has been.
Several months ago, The Washington Post reported that Musk, who is originally from South Africa, was actually in the U.S. illegally for a time after dropping out of Stanford to start a business. He later became a citizen. Who would have thought that someone who has railed against undocumented immigrants was perhaps one himself, and now could be speaker of the House … the world’s richest person, and answerable to absolutely no one?
These are serious matters for the future of our country. Strange and perilous times, my friends.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDe203ZILa3/?igsh=MWY5d3p6emFmcHkyOQ==
-EV 8/14/93
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
It said that debating an idiot is like playing #chess with a pigeon. They’ll knock over the pieces, they’ll crap on the board, and they’ll fly back to their flock and claim victory. It’s funny and insightful, but according to the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it’s also deeply worrying. Because for #Bonhoeffer stupidity is far more concerning than evil.
There are evil people in life. There are murderers, cheaters, and liars. But they are not the greatest threat. Because once something is known to be evil, the good of the world can rally to defend and fight against it. When we know somebody is bad, we know how to take a stand. And so, as Bonhoeffer put it, ‘evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion.’
Stupidity, though, is a different problem, and we cannot so easily fight it for two reasons. The first is that we are much more tolerant of it as a society. We do not take stupidity that seriously. We do not attack somebody for not knowing a thing. The second reason is that the stupid person is a slippery one. Like a pigeon playing chess, they are not open to either #reason or debate.
And so, for Bonhoeffer, stupidity is far more dangerous because it is a weapon that evil people can often use. Because evil people find it hard to take power themselves, they will need stupid people to do their work for them. A stupid person can be guided, steered and manipulated to do any number of things. And history teaches us that #stupidity does not mean you cannot be powerful.
#Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as a powerful idiot.
trump getting cucked by Elon wasn't on my 2024 bingo card, but here we are.
Glad you got your boy in the white house shecky. He'll do you proud. LOL
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
Then, not even before he is sworn in, that same guy admitted that he actually, likely, cannot do the thing he lied to you about over and over and over again during the campaign.
You've been easily manipulated by an idiot. Yes, absolutely. Congrats.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
yep. 77, 302, 000 give or take....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
-EV 8/14/93