Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Buckle Up

Most days start out rather quiet and groggy. The kids don’t talk much and don’t make a lot of noise as they get ready for school. They’re teenagers. We don’t expect them to be off autopilot until later in the morning. Today was different, though. Tipper came across the guestlist for the Indiana Comic and Pop Culture Convention (ComiCon). She was excited by names she couldn’t even pronounce correctly: Brent Spinner, Jonathan Frakes, and “Willian Shanter, who’s that?” Yeah, Bill Shatner is going to be here. There appears to be a full-scale Power Rangers reunion happening and she’s especially excited about a host of anime voice actors she never expected would appear in the States. She’s so excited that not only did she nearly miss leaving for the bus, but she continued to text me all the way to school.

I love it. It’s great when kids have something to be excited about. I love seeing their faces light up and how animated they become when talking about something that is important to them. Dad just has to figure out a way to pay for her ticket. Hmmm…

Congress, on the other hand, is sidestepping not only paying for what people want but what they need. The near-party-line vote last night was close: 217-215. One Republican joined all the House Democrats in voting against the bill. THIS shows just how important down-ballot elections are. It’s not just who one votes for president, but who we elect as Congressional representatives. Honestly, some people are voting for imbeciles.

As we’ve seen over the past five weeks, just because Congress approves funding for something doesn’t mean that this White House will actually allow that funding to be administered without a fight. A judge has given the White House two days to release frozen funds for foreign aid. This is another potential setup for a constitutional crisis if the White House ignores the order. Never should approved funding be an issue. Once the budget is passed and signed, the funds must be distributed in the manner prescribed.

Of course, this budget has some pretty serious cutbacks and is going to affect a lot of people, especially those in poorer states in the South. You know, the people who voted for Felonious Punk in the first place. An $800 billion cut in healthcare spending, including Medicaid, is going to hit home fast. We’re left sitting here wondering if our medications will be remotely affordable if this bill makes it into law. I know many of my meds are incredibly expensive. If I hit the age of 65 this year and those meds are suddenly not covered, I won’t have enough income to pay for them. A lot of people my age are in the same boat.

Meanwhile, the rich get $45 trillion in tax breaks.

This whole administration is a nightmare. So much so that even DOGE troublemakers are quitting. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, perhaps the most stupid person to ever hold a congressional seat, is sitting there screaming that federal workers don’t deserve their paychecks. There are people within the administration who are actively trying to figure out a way to re-rig the Constitution so that this punk-ass president can run for a third term. At the same time, President Shitforbrains wants there to be a $5 million ‘gold card’ that people like Russian oligarchs can buy that would give them a straight path toward US citizenship. The goal is to bring more rich people into the US because that’s been going so well [/sarcasm].

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider on Wednesday an Ohio woman’s claim that she was denied a promotion and demoted because she is straight in a case that could make it easier for people from “majority backgrounds,” such as white or heterosexual people, to pursue workplace discrimination claims. Be sure that this is part of the continued assault on DEI programs. Any sane person wouldn’t have let this get past the first courtroom. That the case has made it all the way to SCOTUS shows just how broken we are as a society.

Consumer confidence is at a four-year low. As inflation continues to skyrocket, in NYC, 1 in 4 can’t afford the essentials. While that number is almost twice the national average, a 1 in 8 score isn’t really any better. People can’t buy food but SNAP benefits are being cut. Programs that help food pantries are being cut.

Air travel is in a shambles. Two significant near misses occurred yesterday as cuts to the FAA leave an already understaffed agency scrambling. And Muskrat wants the contract to fix FAA communications. This is not how a decent country operates. Government shouldn’t be enriching the richest man in the world by one cent. He’s already receiving $38 billion in government funding. If any program needs to be cut, it’s those enriching the Muskrat.

The Washington Post thinks that the resistance is beginning to wake in earnest. I suppose they could be right. There is definitely more anti-Punk activity taking place now than there was last week. Part of that is because of the time it takes to put together and file a lawsuit against any portion of the government. Another reason is that the volume of nonsense is so great that people who normally would sit on the sidelines are forced into battle to save themselves.

Wandering around online, one is likely to come across arguments that one-day boycotts, such as the one scheduled for this Friday, have little effect on businesses, especially when they know it’s coming. There is some truth to that perspective. Detractors will welcome the chance to shop without fewer people in the aisles. The shopping boycott is known well enough that managers have had time to adjust employee scheduling and take additional cost-saving measures. The pain they feel won’t be too severe.

Don’t think for a second that they won’t notice, though. They’ll see the numbers drop and that lets companies know how large a resistance their facing. They’ll begin to factor in the possibility of a longer-term boycott, one in which people buy nothing but absolute essentials. Large participation numbers will bring a level of fear into the conversation.

We have to flex our economic muscles where we can. I know there is talk of work outages and if people can be involved in that the impact on companies could be more severe than a shopping boycott. I’m concerned that too many people live on razor-thin budgets for the masses to participate. Staying home from work requires a position of privilege that most of us don’t have.

Still, every step, and every word of resistance has an effect. We can’t, for a moment, let the administration think that they’ve won. We have to fight. We have to go to battle in ways that are well outside our comfort zone. We may have to go so far as engaging in acts of violence.

Whatever it takes, we must act to save our country from the hands of oligarchs and the economically insane.