These questions are always questions about his administration's policies. He does not say that coupled with "I will find out." Delegation to a Cabinet member or Agency head might be a short-term answer.
#Ukraine: #Trump or #Putin as #NevilleChamberlin who is #Hitler?
Color By Numbers Without Any Numbers !!!!
DOGE or Dodge - The damage is done! We will recover!
MSNBC - Legal Corespondent - Lisa Rubin : Can They Do That PODcast
This PODcast shows us why Court/Judge appointments are so important ...
Color By Numbers Without Any Numbers !!!! #DOGE or Dodge
#DOGE #MSNBC - Legal Corespondent - #LisaRubin : Can They Do That PODcast
Bottom-Up Is The Only Way To Preserve Democracy
Be honest the voting public is fairly evenly divided. There seems to be two edges on the current division that may be pursuable to vote in one group or another. These are, the euphemistically the independents.
Which way they vote is incredibly important!
Can we assume they vote selfishly in their own interest unless they understand a broader message.
The House of Representatives is a disaster either way, left or right. The GOP has given its vote to the top-down elites. The Democrats sat on their hands because they didn't think Trump-Johnson could pull off a CR (Continuing Resolution) budget. Now the House Democrats blame the Senate Democrats for the budget.
That's the wrong focus. The budget is what it is.
The Democrats can build a bottom-up consensus coalition. How?
Townhall meetings, creating that bottom-up consensus and understanding that top-down always only serves a few.
There needs to be a drive to show that even if those of us in the bottom 95% have more in common with each other than we do with the elite 5%. The 5% elite is using it's megaphone to confuse and mislead us.
The elite version of selfish interest says if you don't have the money you can't have a secure life. That is the message!!!!
Democrats ... fan out and do Townhall Meetings relentlessly! When the GOP sees the effect they will start to waver on supporting Trump ... so will Trump! The locals will create their grass-roots
Bottom-Up Is The Only Way To Preserve Democracy - Top-Down Is Always Elitist and Exclusive
Townhall meetings - Bottom-Up Is The Only Way To Preserve Democracy - Top-Down Is Always Elitist and Exclusive
Townhall meetings Relentlessly - Bottom-Up Is The Only Way To Preserve Democracy - Top-Down Is Always Elitist and Exclusive
A vote Shimel is a vote for Elon Musk
New York Times
Reid J. Epstein has covered Wisconsin politics on and off since 2002.
Feb. 26, 2025
A super PAC funded by Elon Musk has in just the past week spent $2.3 million on text messages, digital advertisements and paid canvassers to remind Wisconsin Republicans about the April 1 election, which pits Brad Schimel, a judge in Waukesha County and a former Republican state attorney general, against Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge who represented Planned Parenthood and other liberal causes in her private practice.
The spending by Mr. Musk, the tech billionaire who is leading President Trump’s project to eviscerate large segments of the federal government, comes as Judge Schimel and his Republican allies have spent more money on television ads than Judge Crawford and Democrats have — a remarkable turnaround in a state where Democrats have had a significant financial advantage in recent years.
Voting for #Shimel is like voting for #Elon #Musk for being on the #WI #SupremeCourt
Why was Zelenskyy insulted by Vance in the White House on Friday!
Long term positioning whether Trump knows it or not. Vance wants to inherit MAGA.
Doesn't J.D. look like a 'Donald'. So tough!
Executing the 25th Amendment is going to be real tough. Autocrats tend to prefer dynastic succession plans if at all, even those tend to make them a little more paranoid
#Vance wants to inherit #MAGA. Long live the ...
#Vance wants to inherit #MAGA. Long live the ... think he can pull off the #25th ...
What is your "one" word guess ... and it is not "entitlements"!
Do you think the " politicians " have figured out what the billionaires are REALLY afraid about?
Reflect: The Ugly American - 1958 Irony 2025
In the form of a novel, Lederer and Burdick were making a policy argument — that the United States was doing foreign affairs in south-east Asia all wrong. Set aside smug superiority, they urged. Stop lecturing. Be curious. Learn. Be helpful. Make a real difference. That is how — to borrow a phrase from a later era — America will win hearts and minds.
And keep the Communists out.
...
The controversy wasn’t limited to foreign policy circles, however. The Saturday Evening Post — the magazine of middle America — serialized the novel. The Ugly American became a huge bestseller, eventually selling more than four million copies.
A young senator by the name of John F. Kennedy was particularly taken with the novel. He bought copies to give to every one of his colleagues in the Senate.
When Kennedy became president in 1961, he created the Peace Corps to advance the vision of Lederer and Burdick. He also collected the various foreign aid programs developed under Dwight Eisenhower and consolidated them into a new agency called the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID.
That’s right. The same USAID Trump, Musk, and Musk’s minions are carving up without so much as a cursory policy review.
Reflect: The #UglyAmerican - 1958 Irony 2025 - US foreign policy
Connecting the Crumbs or Podcasts or Dots:
All you have to do is look around ... satire and humor
Elon is not 150 years old but he may become COBOL immortal!
[D]epartment [o]f [G]overnment by [E]lon DOGE
Added 2/18/25 - Mistakes "error coding" for his birthday
GZERO Media - Ian Bremmer on Tariffs - Business Perspective
Added 2/3/25: Policy seems strange - 25% on Canada and Mexico; 10% China
Rachel Maddow Show clip - from 2/4/2025
Added 2//5/025: Perspective on what is going on - A Coup?!
Mary Trump Media ... always something current and NEW!
Brooke Harrington - Trump’s “Broligarchy” of Tech Billionaires | The Daily Show
#BROliogarchy #Billionaires - #DailyShow #Harrington #Wealth Privilege hath Responsibility - Capital Without Borders
#BROliogarchy #Billionaires - #DailyShow #Harrington #Wealth Privilege hath Responsibility - Offshore
Another Trump perspective by a long time journalist, best selling author and now Professor.
The Mark Thompson Show
#Trump should read the #Constitution ... and today tried
to ignore Constitutional Article II and NOT spend dollars
appropriated by Congress as directed according to law
There is a tendency for public statements to be too clever!
Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense during the 9/11 crisis!
He is famous for the line, "You don't know what you don't know."
Pete Hegseth, during 2025 Senate confirmation hearings to become Secretary of Defense, for Donald Trump, should become famous for uttering, "I know what I don't know!"
Really, how do you do that? That says it all. Perhaps Hegseth will use the 'defense' --
"That is an anonymous smear."
Peter #Hegseth compared to Donald #Rumsfield -- What do you really know? Senate #ConfirmationHearings for head of #Defense Department. Hope Hegseth becomes #anonymous !
"You don't know what you don't know." - Donald Rumsfield
"I know what I don't know." - Pete Hegseth
PEW - Americans are following the news less closely than they used to By Naomi Forman-Katz
In 2016, 57% of Republicans and independents who lean Republican said they followed the news all or most of the time. In the 2022 survey, 37% said the same, a decrease of 20 points. By comparison, the share saying this among Democrats and Democratic leaners dropped by only 7 points, from 49% to 42%.
#Americans are following the #news less closely than... is the default to be #uninformed
#Americans are #StovePipes - following the #news less closely than... is the default to be #uninformed
What does aberrant mean?
ab·er·rant/ˈabÉ™rÉ™nt,əˈberÉ™nt/adjective
Know anybody like that? Whose name should be on this page?!
I say aberrant personality as it relates your first impression of of something unusual about another person. This "impression" can be positive or negative but for some reason you reacted to noting something out of what you consider the "ordinary". Of course this can be problematic if you have have an "aberrant personality".
Beware the 'Aberrant Personality' ! #Deviant #Eccentric #Uncommon #Odd #Transgressing - Who would you tag ?
Know any Narcissists? Beware the 'Aberrant Personality' ! #Deviant #Eccentric #Uncommon #Odd #Transgressing - Who would you tag ?
It is the only plank you need in your political platform!
...
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. ...
What's a 'Living Wage'? What's a 'Poverty Wage'?
It's so simple - It's not #Socialism - It's not #Communism - It's a #LivingWage! It is #Liberty and #Happiness
Living Wage calculator (MIT)
The living wage shown is the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time, or 2080 hours per year. The tables below provide living wage estimates for individuals and households with one or two working adults and zero to three children. In households with two working adults, all hourly values reflect what one working adult requires to earn to meet their families’ basic needs, assuming the other adult also earns the same.
The poverty wage and state minimum wage are for reference purposes. Poverty wage estimates come from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Poverty Guidelines for 2024 and have been converted from an annual value to an hourly wage for ease of comparison. The state minimum wage data is sourced from the Labor Law Center and includes the minimum wage in a given state as of January of that year.
For further detail, please reference the Methodology page. The data on this page was last updated on February 14, 2024.
ProPublica 12/11/24
The three billionaires contacted for this article said they followed the law as written. They also pointed to the fact that they paid substantial income tax, which for them carries a much higher rate. Medicare tax is 2.9% for most people and 3.8% for high earners.
But these maneuvers by the rich hasten Medicare’s future crisis. Sometime in the 2030s, the program’s trust fund is due to run dry. Closing the loophole, along with eliminating other ways around the tax for wealthy business owners, could raise more than $250 billion over 10 years for Medicare, according to recent government estimates
Billionaries - Never enough - Billionaires Avoid Medicare Taxes
https://www.cbo.gov/
In this report, the Congressional Budget Office compares the cost that the federal government incurred in 2022 for the wages and benefits of its civilian employees with the cost that private employers incurred for employees who appear similar in their educational attainment and other observable characteristics likely to affect wages.
Summary
The federal government employs about 2.3 million civilian workers—or 1.4 percent of the U.S. workforce—in jobs that represent over 650 occupations at more than 100 agencies. It competes with private-sector employers for people who possess the mix of attributes needed to do the work of its various agencies.
In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spent roughly $271 billion to compensate those civilian employees. About 60 percent of that total was spent on civilian personnel working in the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Homeland Security. (bold added)
Compared with private-sector workers, federal workers tend to be older, more educated, and more concentrated in professional occupations. To account for those differences, the Congressional Budget Office limited its comparisons to employees with a set of similar observable characteristics—education, occupation, years of work experience, geographic location, size of employer, veteran status, and certain demographic characteristics (sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, immigration status, and citizenship)—in this report.
Even so, the estimates do not show precisely what federal workers would earn if they were employed in comparable positions in the private sector. Even among workers with similar observable characteristics, federal and private-sector employees may differ in other traits, such as motivation or natural ability, that are not easy to measure but that can greatly affect individuals’ compensation.
This analysis focuses on wages, benefits, and total compensation (the sum of wages and benefits). It is intended to address the question of how the federal government’s compensation costs would change if the average cost of employing federal workers was the same as that of employing private-sector workers with certain similar observable characteristics (the benchmark group). This analysis looks at compensation in 2022 because the temporary effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the federal and private-sector workforces had largely subsided by then.
#DeepState - #Trump and #Psycho Warfare ... Fire Everybody ...
#DeepState - #Trump and #Psycho Warfare ... Fire Everybody ... At best looking in the wrong shallow rabbit hole
