Social Security Employees are now on Trump's Chopping Block

 

Elon Musk has descended upon  Social Security with the same careless, ruthless abandon he has brought to every other Federal Agency.  An anonymous whistleblower stated the following actions have been taken against the Agency:

1.Probationary attorney-level decision writers who are responsible for assisting Administrative Law Judges were terminated and at a time when the agency has massive backlogs in cases at the Hearing level.

2. The new acting commissioner gloated about firing 14 employees as an "accomplishment" in his commissioner broadcast to the agency.

3. The entire office of Transformation, and its 60+ employees were dissolved. Their purpose was to promote agency-wide efficiencies and faster processing times through oversight over SSA systems and use of information technology.

4. The entire Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and its 190 employees  were dissolved, including the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Civil Rights.  OCREO conducts statutorily mandated requirements for employees and members of the public including the reasonable accommodation request process, the public facing discrimination complaint process, and the EEOC employment discrimination complaint process. The National RA Coordinator whose position was court ordered was also terminated.

5. Component heads and executives were told to draft plans to slash  Social Security Administration (SSA) by 50% and to reduce the total SSA workforce by seven to eight thousand.

6.SSA staff were sent an email threatening massive reorganization of SSA followed with significant workforce reduction.  The email pressured seasoned employees, even front-line employees, with monetary incentives to resign or take early retirement and threatened to fire employees for cause should they not retire or resign.

7. Executive staff responsible for overseeing regional field office operations were terminated. One region had all but 3 out of 72 staff members terminated and it is very likely that the other ten regions had similar terminations.  The regional executive offices oversee hundreds of field offices.

8. The Acting Commissioner sent out a memo to SSA staff indicating significant restructuring of the agency due to a "bloated workforce and organizational structure", even though staffing at SSA is the lowest it has been in 50 years. The reorganization includes taking the ten regions  that SSA serves and consolidating into four regions; and combining multiple  independent components together in an effort to "downsize"
 or "streamline."  This could potentially lead to massive closures in field offices, a reduction in services, and a significant number of terminations of agency employees.

9. Terminations are happening swiftly and often late in the day to avoid bringing attention to any media or congressional attention to their actions.

10.The trauma they are creating for SSA staff is unreal. According to the whistleblower at least three terminated SSA employees have committed suicide, one which the whistleblower personally knew.

 The Social Security Administration issued a Press Release on the Re-organization that claims a fifty percent workforce reduction is not accurate.  The press release which you can read  HERE  states that the SSA intends to reduce the workforce from 57,000 to 50,000 employees, a reduction of 7,000 jobs.

Dear Followers of Donald Trump

At some point in his life,  Donald Trump  has screwed contractors, employees, investors, and bank that has crossed his path.  Publicly, personally, and radically he has destroyed lives in order to enrich himself and become more powerful.  And you MAGA cowards turned a blind eye to the truth of his character because you were afraid of an evolving America.  And we normal folk who embrace change, who celebrate individuality, and who practice tolerance and acceptance have allowed ourselves to be bullied by you.  You want to take our country back to Little House on the Prairie, where everyone is white and rural life is perfect, where there are still soda pop fountains at the drug store. Your America is Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, but the Mr. Douglas you see coming from the city, he don't look like you. 

In rural Maine, they say folks who come from other states,  come "from away".   A Mainer once said to me,  "You'll nevah be ah Mainah.  You can live hereah the rest of yor life and ya  still ain't nevah gonah be ah Mainah."  

Before that when I was an inspector in Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania  I had a running conversation with a white, local contractor, a good ol' boy.   His point was, and he made it several times, that one day they  (meaning him and his boys) are gonna take our country back. And my reply always was, "From who?"

Clearly this was a trend with white, rural baby-boomers across the farmlands and back woods of America.  Then Donald Trump showed up and all those rural white men who didn't like strangers, who wanted to take their country back, hitched their wagons to his horse.

 Even when he incited a riot to overthrow an election- after every other attempt to stay in power failed, even when he pardoned those rioters, who injured and killed police officers guarding one of our most sacred buildings- you cheered him on.   So when yesterday, a Nebraska cattle rancher went on Tik Tok to admit that her family's vote for Trump has directly resulted in their own bankruptcy, I felt nothing.   I simply noted that Nebraska is a Red State.  

You voted for Trump by a clear majority because you didn't listen to his words, and you sure as hell didn't listen to our words.   And now the fox is in your henhouse and is killing all your chickens. And in truth, my thoughts are:  Good, let it all fall, let the pain hit you hard, because the only way we survive is if you suffer the consequences of your decision, and wake the fuck up.   

This is what you red hats, including many of my friends, have taught me how to feel- I have no empathy for you, for your family, for your rights, for your guns, for your sons and daughters, because  you are ignorant and judgmental and you don't care about our rights.  In fact, you use political power to take away our rights. You stand on your church's narrow path to salvation and demand a government run by a Patriarchy, where women are modern handmaidens. You crazy born-again Christians couldn't keep your hands off the rest of us. 

You will never bring Rapture this way- only heartache and despair. You have failed every person who has died for our freedom, You have shown us how ugly humans can truly act. Even those who are my dear friends, you have damaged our friendship in ways you will never understand. 

What will become of this country I do not know., but I do know this- if this Nation survives its dismantlement and destruction by Donald Trump, I do not want to share our country again with you. I would rather go to war against you than even try to live in harmony with you again.  

You have shit on our founding fathers, you have shit on our constitution,  you have shit on our nation of laws,  you have shit on our child-bearing women, you have shit on our trans children, you have shit on our minorities, you have shit on our liberals, you have shit on our moderates, you have shit on everyone  who isn't as white as you and who doesn't pray in your churches.  You have shit on the few leaders trying to save our democracy.   You have shit on our immigrants, our Native Americans, on our history, on our alliances, our economy, our poor and forgotten, and you have shit all over our Declaration of Independence.   You really are full of shit, the one commodity Trump gives away for free every day.   

  The Nebraska ranch like so many, others, depended on migrant labor to survive.  And those laborers have vanished, gone because America is no longer a land of work and promise, it is now a land of hatred and bigotry, of fear and intimidation. So they packed their gear and went home.  Good for them, they show a stronger moral backbone than you ever will.

The problem is we told you this would happen.  Trump told you this will happen.  You dumb fucks.

We are now standing at the edge of a cliff  Donald Trump has led us to and he is pointing at the abyss and saying, here is where we must go to Make America Great Again.  And you take the lead dragging us all over the edge, like lemmings, while Donald steps into his golf cart and putters away, he is never late for his 10:00 a.m. tee time.

These are the Words of a Dictator

 The gutless Republican Party knows what they have to do. He is aligning us with our enemies.  That is a recipe for disaster, it is traitorous. Under Article II, Section 1. He has violated his oath of office to

"...preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

We can peaceably protest. It is our fist Amendment right.  We can wear masks. fucking dictator.

Keeping up With the Trumps, Vol I-2

Greetings and Welcome to Volume I:2 of Keeping Up With The Trumps

Our false King has been very busy holding his Castle together from the many attacks from the rebels.  When he invited a true war hero and former ally to the Trump Castle last week, King Trump and his Consort J.D. Vance  double teamed  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, yelling at him, bullying him to such a degree that many inside and outside the castle walls were appalled.  But the King's Royal Court of Partisans and Sycophants'  cheered him on. The rest of the world watched in disbelief and despair.   

Ukraine  has fought major super-power Russia to a standstill for 3-years and counting.  Russian Czar Vladimir Putin must have called King Trump and ordered him to do his job as a Russian plant or stand there quietly as the world watches the Czar's personal collection of videos. That is a sure fire way to encourage the people to overthrow the King and not un-similar to the videos themselves, but in a less graphic manner. That must be why our false King went on the attack in the meeting. 

Trump and Vance berated President Zelensky in the usual manner of overbearing, loud, obnoxious, and humiliating words and pushy body language.  President Zelensky, a gentleman,  did not tell King Trump or his consort JD Vance to take all those cards they are holding and shove them up their royal arses. Shame on that, just for the sporting satisfaction we could have all received.

King Trump has demanded the Ukraine pay him back with all their minerals for our support.   The meeting, which was scheduled so that Zelensky could sign a bad agreement with a bully, was so egregious that the good President left in embarrassment and did not sign it.  Never should he either.

Then today, false King Trump and his top wall-flowering white males ordered the United States to cease all support for Ukraine.  If palace walls could talk they'd tell you that our King will soon withdraw all U.S. forces from NATO while aligning our once great country with the "axis of evil", as once described by former President George Bush: Russia, Iran, North Korea.  But not China. False King Trump has never seen Shen Yun.

Yesterday, Trump's Lord of War Pete Hegseth, announced that the United States would no longer monitor the comings and goings of Russians with computers.   "Hack away Russia on our enemies, you are our dear, dear friend," said Lord Hegseth, according to his bartender.   "We suggest you hack our enemies- Canada, Mexico, Europe, and those dirty little Central American countries, like Panama." 

Meanwhile the Palace Treasury was informed that False King Trump is going to purchase something mysterious and magical, crypto currency. We are not certain how he can afford this, and still send out 8000 gold coins to each of his subjects. 

When deciding on which currencies to purchase, His Royal Highness asked his senior advisor, Royal Regent David Sacks, Minister of Blind Faith, what currency shall the Kingdom own?  

"My Liege,  I have invested heavily in these three currencies:  Ripple, Solana, and Cardano.  I breakfast lightly with Ripple, sweet and sensual. I lunch with Solana, delectable fruit so sumptuous, then a romantic dinner with Cardano, passionate and divine." replied the Regent.

   After hearing this, false King Trump, jumped up excitedly, "I  want my breakfast, lunch , dinner.  and then I want more.   We will create a Crypto Strategic Reserve.  We will enjoy those same commodities whenever we like, invite all three at once.  It will be like a beauty pageant in Russia!"   

When reminded by a King's aide that this purchase will enrich the Regent as well on his current holdings, creating a Conflict of Interest, false King Trump  smiled at the Tass Agency Royal Press and proclaimed, "Here is proof that I am already Making America Great Again by making this very wise, wealthy Regent become even richer."

This was witnessed by the King's diet soda servant, kneeling before the King, with a long straw at the ready, so that the King might drink a diet cola at his leisure.

Meanwhile on the West side of the Castle, Prince Musk issued a "Wall of Receipts" to be read in every public square and pasted to every Community Board.   Then he removed the first five line items after the royal press suggested the those items were either not factual or not correctly totaled.  Then he adjusted it again and if our sources are correct, he will have to do it again and again.  He may not have saved enough wasted gold to pay each subject even 80 gold pieces.  One Palace watcher whispered in our ear, "Prince Musk appears to be a very inefficient efficiency expert."

Royal Court News:

A Lesser Royal Judge has ruled that our false King has illegally fired his employed subjects, and then reminded the world that the Federal Marshalls always get their man, with no royal exceptions, possibly setting up a showdown between the Marshalls and the Royal Guard should Court Orders require the Marshalls Service to deliver them, or to arrest a royal for Contempt of Court.  Some Court watchers suggested that Timothy Olyphant may be available to assist the courts, if needed.  He isn't a real Marshall but he played one on T.V.

That's all for today from around the Kingdom. 

- The Castle Reporter

Mineral Quest: Trump's Copper Dog and Pony Show

 

Photo: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0

Reader Alert:  This may be the most boring article you've ever read. It's about copper.

On February 25, 2025 President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on that wholesome mineral we all love to talk about around the dinner table: Copper.

 According to President Trump, under Section 1, Policy:

Copper is a critical material essential to National Security, economic strength, and industrial resilience of the United States.

The Executive Order  goes further by stating that a single producer accounts for over fifty percent of  refining capacity in the world, but does not identify the country.  We'll clue you in- it's China.  So now we will deep dive into the world of Copper, the Threat.  

Trump is not wrong about the implications for National Security.  We use refined copper/copper end products  in electric vehicles and in tons of military equipment.  We use refined copper in communication systems.  Heck, I bet your computer is using electricity transported on electrical wiring of refined copper.  When an old house is foreclosed on, it is not unusual for thieves to break in and strip the house of it's electrical wiring and cut out all the exposed plumbing they can reach.  Thieves want the copper.

But the minerals industry has many facets, many hands in the pie, from the mines, the transportation, the refinement, the commodities trading to the shipping and delivery of the refined goods.   The copper industry is a reflection of the free market system, sloppy, unreliable, demand driven. and subject to political interference.

United States is blessed with several, large copper mines - mostly in Utah and Arizona. We've got plenty of copper in the ground, and large mining companies to extract it.  And that would be awesome news if we had the refining capacity to match.  We don't.  We're not even close. 

 In 2024, the United States smelted/refined  865,000 tons of copper.   By comparison,  the Guixi Plant in China had a total refining capacity in 2024 of 1,100,00 tons smelted/refined. China has 9 of the top 20 plants with over 5,575,000 tons of refined capacity in 2024.  The United States refines 15.5% of the copper that China refines in a single year. How did we get to such a disparity?

In the past 5 years, China has invested heavily in building  copper smelters/refineries and their market share has increased from 20% to over 50% of the world market. In 2017, the U.S., under some guy named Trump, adopted a policy on  surpassing China in refining copper. That policy failed to accomplish any of its goals, with one exception, we are the world leader in recycling copper.  We k now how to strip foreclosed homes. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copper, Refined

Copper that is cast into ingots or ingot-bars for re-melting (e.g., for alloying purposes) or into wire bars, slabs for roll­ing, billets (including those of circular cross ­section) and similar forms for rolling, ex­truding, drawing or forging into plates, sheets, strip, wire, tubes and other semi-wrought products.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because Trump's 2017 policy was not successful, China now has us over the copper barrel.  They have leverage and we now face two significant problems:  

1. In a time of conflict with China, we could see shortages of refined copper and end products such a car parts and batteries.  When a part breaks on a military vehicle, and replacement parts are "in shipment" or not available, we cannot maintain our vehicles and equipment.  Our troop readiness is placed at risk.

2. A 25% Trump tariff on copper imports, as proposed,  would have an immediate impact on the cost of manufacturing say, a Tesla.  Likewise, the countries we export raw copper to, like say, Canada, the number one importer of raw copper from the United States, will retaliate with tariffs on our copper exports, again increasing the costs for transportation, refinement, and end product manufacturing.  Higher costs means higher prices and higher prices means inflation and reduced sales. Lower sales means lower earnings, lower profits, lower stock prices, unhappy shareholders and a market downturn.   The copper knee bone is connected to the copper thigh bone.

Since we spent three days researching copper with AI Gemini assist, we were able to identify the issue and can propose a way forward to resolve this copper crisis. However, instead of implementing a nuanced and balanced approach to the copper conundrum as we will suggest in a moment, Trump orders a full investigation involving multiple agencies, with nine line items of required investigatory humping across several Federal Departments- some of which Elon Musk recently decimated with dismissals based upon "what have you done this past week?"  Who do they expect to perform these studies after laying off thousands of the professionals qualified to research?  Someone ask AI Gemini that question.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Global leading copper refineries 2024, by capacity

Published by 

Madhumitha Jaganmohan,

 Oct 25, 2024

The Guixi refinery, property of Jiangxi Copper Corporation in China, 

was ranked as the number one copper refinery in the world based on capacity 

as of August 2024. The refining capacity of the Guixi refinery amounted to some

 1.1 million metric tons of refined product annually at that time. By comparison, 

the second and third largest copper refineries in the world were 

Shandong Fangyuan Jinchuan Gansu, both with a capacity of 700 

thousand metric tons. Almost half of the largest copper refineries worldwide are located in China.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trump's Executive Order could  have been simplified to this: Commerce (dog)  meet the ponies  (Energy, Defense, Interior).  Now please put on a show for us 270 days from February 25th.

The issue is tariffs, China dominance of refining/smelting, and Elon Musk.  Trump cannot stab Elon in the back with 25% tariffs on the products Elon needs to build his cars after all Elon has done for Trump with DOGE.  But Trump also cannot back down from China, Canada, and Mexico. And we all know Trump when faced with facts that are inconvenient to his fable, doubles down on his decisions.  Someone should measure how thin his skin really is.

China claimed dominance over copper  in just 5 years.  In the United States experts estimate 10-15 years to simply obtain the approvals, then another 3-5 years to build a plant.  It can take 20 years in our great nation to build one plant. By then the technology is outdated.  We can't get ahead when we walk backwards towards our goal

And now, a proposed solution in a single paragraph:

Waive environmental regulations or expedite reviews.  find industrial partners,  provide government financial assistance (billions of dollars) to the companies assuming the risk, really educate the public to gain their support, and then build, baby, build. In the meantime. no tariffs on the import of copper and copper-related products.  

The only way we regain dominance in the copper market is to build enough plants to refine and smelt the copper we quarry out of our ground. We need to meet domestically the increasing demand for copper products. 

We don't need an investigation.  We need action.  

Find more statistics at Statista

 

Do Not Kiss the Ring, Do Not Bend a Knee to the False King

Your country is invaded by a ruthless dictator.  His goal is to erase your national identity from the history of the world.  Your country is a democracy, built upon the same foundation as the great United States of America.  Freedom and liberty for all.  This dictator publicly declares he will wipe you off the face of the Earth in three days.  He makes clear to the world he won't stop there, he won't stop until the he has control of every country that was under his umbrella and then lost when the walls of Berlin fell.

You fight back. For three years you fight back.  The United States of America and the European Union provide weapons and training to you so you can fight this repressive ruler.  His name is Putin.  You' ve lost ground during those three years,  you've lost thousands of lives. Putin has turned your cities into rubble.

He has bombed your schools, your hospitals, your theaters, your shelters, your infrastructure, homes, apartments, playgrounds, and churches.  The definition for this is clear: genocide.

The people of the United States elect for the second time, a man who wants to be King, does not respect the rule of law, not does respect freedom and democracy- he only respects one thing: power.  He sends goons into every Federal agency to disrupt, and destroy their purpose.  He hires a billionaire to fire hundreds of thousands of workers in a slash and burn campaign of terror.  He celebrates his cruelty with a mock Times Magazine cover where he is depicted as King.  The definition of his actions is clear:  political genocide.

You visit the King, to sign an agreement on your natural resources, basically giving away a large portion of your natural resources that he never wanted, he simply demanded this from you because he could.  HIs name is Donald Trump and he is asking for the impossible and expecting a refusal.  Instead you negotiate a deal which is not what he ever wanted.  

You visit Trump and during a photo op, he attacks you, his vice president attacks you.  A kiss-ass reporter attacks your choice of clothing.  You are double-teamed and it is at this point you know for certain, the President of the United States is an asset for Putin, the dictator.   You are double-teamed, yelled at, questioned about your character- and you are the hero for your country.  

Fear not, President Zelensky.  Fight on, President Zelensky. The American people know what real sacrifice is,  we know what needs to be done.   We have deposed Monarchs before and we will do it again.  Thank you for not bending your knee to a false King. Thank you for not kissing his ring.  

We stand with Ukraine.

An Open Letter to Jeffery A. Tucker, President and Founder of the Brownstone, and Epoch Times Columnist.

 Dear Mr. Tucker,

Jeffery A Tucker    Photo by By Gage Skidmore,
CC BY-SA 3.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61547947

In your most recent column in the Epoch Times you chose to reinforce a falsehood about non-partisan public civil servants, essentially blaming dedicated non-political employees for the large amounts of waste in our Federal system. You also claim, without providing any proof, that this system has been  corrupted by "a very small group of career bureaucrats who "manage the multiple millions of dollars  coming and going without oversight."  Sir, that is a bold-faced lie and you, with your pedigree, know it to be false

I am calling you out on it because you have a responsibility as a journalist to be plain and truthful to your public and not attempt to justify your support for Trump's unconstitutional and Federal law-breaking  by lying about not only Federal employees, but about the audit process itself.  

Let's begin with your demonizing of the the Federal employees who have access to the system.  I promise you that when they fill out their ethics forms each year, they are listing all their loans, credit cards, and bank accounts.  Yet the research on the non-profit you founded, Brownstone Institute, confirmed that  you chose not to list a single donor for the  $2,288,044 in contributions, grants, and other income you received in 2023.  That represents over 93% of all revenue your non-profit firm received.   You want transparency from others that you do not provide to the public yourself.  There is a name for that- hypocrite. While you are holding the wrong government worker's feet to the fire (for the purpose of creating a false narrative of fraud and waste somehow caused by the folks processing the payments the government authorizes to spend), you shut and locked the doors to your own barn.  Your historian father must be rolling over in his grave.  

There is a very distinct difference between the employees of the Bureau of Fiscal Service (BFS) who process payments and the folks in government making the policy-level decisions that determine who receives those those payments.  The BFS employees have a primary task of making certain that payments are processed accurately, efficiently, and  to verify that the data they receive is correct.  I am going to underline the next sentence even though I know, from your extensive economic background, that you already know this but decided to patronize these employees anyway. These employees are not making policy-level decisions on who gets paid or how much.  Do you know who is? Try reading the Republican Budget  Resolution where they plan on raising the debt ceiling by over 4 trillion dollars.

Mr. Tucker,  there are only three groups that can determine the amount, the recipient, and the timing of payments. The first and most important of these is Congress who passes legislation that authorizes payment.  Federal Agencies that administer departments like Social Security, and Medicare, and the Directors of those agencies.  That is it, that's the whole bunch. Please stop blaming  the mechanic for the lousy driver who owns the car and then totals it.

Now let's research your other bold-faced lie.  You claim there is no auditing oversight.   If that is correct why is there an FASB at all?  The Office of Inspector General (OIC) is the auditing watchdog for several Federal agencies. President Trump fired seventeen OIC inspectors after taking office. But he didn't fire Heather Hill, the TGIA Inspector General who has oversight and answers to the Secretary of the Treasury and probably he cant' fire her without violating The Inspector General Act of 1978, which they may have already violated in their earlier firings of 17 other inspectors. 

Congress can also audit the books as a requirement for every expenditure they authorize.  It is a standard practice for Grant recipients to be audited. This is where you should be concerned, instead of attacking civil servants with no decision-making ability for the hard work they do, And finally, the TGIA Inspector alone has audit responsibilities over the IRS, not some poor schmuck  cleaning the processor. 

We are all patriots here, Mr. Tucker. So when you write a disingenuous patently fact less column in order to gaslight your readers, we fellow patriots must respond.  The Guinea pigs running on the machinery wheels to keep payments moving efficiently are not society's thieves.   I would submit that those thieves are the ones who, (according to your own tax records), turned a beginning balance of  $932,000 in January of 2023 into $2,500,00 through publicly traded investments. Wow,  Brownstone made $1.5 million off of less than a million dollars.in a single year.  And this during Joe Biden's term!

Finally,  the Institute you founded and donate your time to  (how magnanimous of you) gave a grant in the amount of $250,000 to a foreign entity. Who are you in bed with, other than Donald Trump, Mr. Tucker? That  is more than you pay your Executive Director.   A quarter million just flies away.

In conclusion, you might want to take a good look in your Baptist mirror and think about your historian daddy.  Because you are helping to destroy the very fabric of our country and, like so many others in the Trump Kingdom,  you are a hypocrite and you have lied to your readers in order to advance a coup.  

My daddy used to say that some folks go to school half their lives and when they get out they don't know a damn thing about how to manage life so they make shit up.  Bird-dog 'em when you can.  Sir, you've been sniffed out.

Sincerely,

Rick Fisher, Retired Town Manager

Ridgecrest, California

Brownstone Institute Tax Records

  

You Can't Sew a Riff with Words - The Stitch is in the Details

Last weekend phones across the country blew up Elon Musk, Executive Director for the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sent an email to every Federal employee.  Mr. Musk wanted each employee to provide information on the work they had done the previous week. Failure to provide would be considered a resignation. On the military side of the fence, soldiers, and civilian employees were ordered to email DOGE by midnight Sunday or resign their position.  Then came the counter-orders from Central Command-  do not respond, do not reply, do not engage Mr. Musk concerning his request.  Do not comply. 

When the midnight deadline passed, non-compliance with the DOGE order had spread across the several Federal agencies, from the military to the Department of Justice.  The irresistible force had met the unmovable rock.

The most recent DOGE Executive Order issued by President Trump includes a Section on Exemption that waives the heartless requirements on employees, contracts, and even credit cards, under  a  microscope made by a South African billionaire and designed to find waste where there is none,  find laziness where hard work thrives,  and end public service to communities because this government does not know how to govern efficiently.  They don't want to govern at all actually.  

This administration wants to hire UFC fighters to train our FBI agents,  they want to embarrass the Democratic leader because he did not bend a knee and kiss the President's ring.   They want to align with the dark and evil forces of the world while they "dismantle the deep state."  

This poorly-mannered bully of a President, has skin so thin, it's transparent.  We can see right through him.  He will respond to protests with violence, he will respond to criticism with arrests and detainment, and he will never, ever accept the blame when this country falls.  There has never been a more despicable person in charge of the U.S. government since Andrew Jackson was President.  We must be prepared to stand up, to fight if necessary, and to defeat this administration and his cult of worshippers.

And as for this the Executive Order, the Exemption Section simply shows that the monkeys in his tree are already fighting over the bananas.  Be proud.  You most likely are reading this article in English, the official language of the United States, according to our Muslim-hating, Putin-kissing  Embarrassment in Chief,  Donald Trump.

z

 

Keeping Up With the Trumps

Keeping Up With The Trumps

This will become a regular feature of our blog.  It is when we try to play catch-up with all the exciting events happening at Trump Castle. This were we peek inside the white walls and see how the heck the the Trumps are getting along with their subjects.

02/25/2025

DOGE EMPLOYEES RESIGN

 It has been whispered along the castle walls that twenty-one civil servants working for Prince Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) jointly resigned today. These heroic Federal workers, software engineers, product managers, and others, released a joint statement, stating they were refusing to use their skillset to "dismantle critical public services" and place American individuals' data at risk.  We cannot yet confirm that these brave rebels may soon be arrested by the Palace Guard.   

02/26/2025

KING'S DECREE - IMPLEMENTING THE PRESIDENT'S "DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY" COST EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE

Declaring that the word Efficiency must be used redundantly or twice, the King has issued an Executive Order that he hopes will cover his naked arse, since Prince Musk has been actively scraping every last coin out of the empty coffers of the King's Departments and Guilds.  The King mocks the U.S. Constitution again by beginning his Decree with the words "By the Authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America,..."  when it has been clearly explained that he does not have this authority under the Constitution and he is violating Federal Law with the reckless and dangerous actions of Prince Musk and his young co-horts, twenty-one of who quit his service in protest.

The Decree provides Definitions of Administrator, the second time that was necessary, the first being the King's Decree No. 14158 of January 20, 2025 which first established this Department, we shall call DOGE for brevity's sake.   Our favorite definition is "DOGE Team Lead" which is defined as "the leader of the DOGE Team at each agency" which also was previously defined in the previous Decree, as redundancy remains a critical asset to the King.   Some in the castle have wondered  who is paying for DOGE teams at every agency and whether it would have cost less to use the normal auditing process already in place for several years and fully lawful.

This Decree demands that every agency submit every contract for review, with a few notable exceptions.

Under Section 4, the King has decreed that the Decree does not apply to:

 (a)  Law enforcement officers, as defined in 5 U.S.C. 5541(3) and 5 C.F.R. 550.103, or covered contracts and grants directly related to the enforcement of Federal criminal or immigration law;

(b)  U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security;

(c)  the Uniformed Services, as defined in 20 C.F.R. 404.1330;

(d)  any other covered grant or contract, agency component, or real property that the relevant Agency Head exempts in writing from all or part of this order, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead and the Director of OMB; or

(e)  classified information or classified information systems.

Well, that is a relief, especially concerning (c) the Uniformed Services.  

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP AND MUSK CANNOT FIRE CIVIL SERVANTS EN MASSE

On Thursday, February 27th a Federal Judge ruled that the mass firings of Federal government employees is illegal.  However a final ruling has not yet been issued. An appeal of the final decision is likely from either party, although the King may choose to ignore the ruling altogether in keeping with his current practice.  Further appeals to the Palace Court are likely.  In other Court action, Head Palace Justice Roberts paused a Lower Court ruling unfavorable to the King, whilst he reads it over lunch before afternoon prayers..

-The Castle Reporter

Congress and the Budget- A Process Broken by Both Parties

 

U.S. Capitol Building / Photo: National Park Service

I won't ever bend a knee to a King, but I would like to know why Congress, and specifically  the U.S. House of Representatives, cannot follow a budget procedure and has to complicate the process.  Both parties do this when in power, partially to avoid a Senate filibuster through arcane rules, but also because they are basically cowards when it comes to having to make tough budget decisions.

Oh, you thought they passed a budget on February 25, 2025 by a vote of 217-215? They did no such thing.  They passed a budget resolution and sent the budget back to the committees that oversee individual Departments.  The Committees are now tasked with the responsibility to find savings, trim the budget for the specific departments they have oversight on, and then return later this Spring with a Reconciliation Budget- and that is where the rubber meets the road.   

The debt limit increase is an imaginary budget number, a maximum amount that can be reduced by committees meeting their task of reducing the budgets of their respective departments. If the committees cannot find savings, then the debt ceiling will remain at the current proposed increase of 4.5 trillion dollars or even increase.

The Federal budget resolution also proposes spending and actual outlays for the next ten years which is our government's way of sprinkling cat shit on top of horse shit. An outlay is the actual amount already spent, and you can't spend in the future, although you can provide hard numbers on mandatory costs and estimate  the percentage those costs will increase based upon estimated inflation, estimated program costs, and other incidental costs. 

 For example, if a fighter jet costs a billion dollars to build and you have contracted with Boeing to build 100 jets over 4 years, then you will be outlaying 25 billion a year.  Of course, that contract has material, labor, and inflationary triggers built in that will allow the manufacturer to increase the cost per unit.  So the outlay is an estimate as well.   I am not an accountant and government accounting is its own animal, but I believe I am not far from accurate with this assessment.

The budget resolution may show no change to Medicare, but if left as is the debt ceiling increase is too low.  So those poor schmucks at committee central will be tasked with  cutting 2 billion dollars in order to balance the books or to reduce the amount the Treasury has to borrow.

But you don't have to take our word for it.  Here is how the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit, non-partisan foundation, views the current budget process,

The norm of applying the rules and procedures of the Congressional Budget Act on an annual basis has largely broken down. For the last decade or more, Congress has rarely followed the Act’s orderly process. Deadlines are routinely missed. Perhaps most importantly, Congress has sought to adopt a budget resolution mainly when it has chosen to create a reconciliation bill, which is not subject to a Senate filibuster. 

The mainstream press cannot report this convoluted mess of a budget resolution without confusing the public, so they simplify the story and ignore the process itself because they fear the public will never understand. No wonder we feel so dumb. They sell us short and grandstand on the few line items that people fear losing.   Sometimes we forget that the press needs ratings to make a profit and education is not possible in 5 second sound bytes.

Tomorrow into the budget we go anyway. And look, we will review what Reuters found- simple math errors!

Health Spending 2023/ Chart by Reuters

Budget Time in Washington! Hazzah!

 

House of Representatives Passage of Trump Budget/ Photo: C-SPAN

By Rick Fisher, Retired Town Manager,

When I was younger, I called myself a Blue Dog Democrat- strong on defense, supporting critical community services to serve the poor, the disabled, and our seniors, infrastructure improvements, support for our allies overseas, and all within a balanced budget.

In my experience in local government, our focus was often on roads maintenance, road improvements, storm-water controls, vehicle and equipment maintenance and replacement, and infrastructure improvements. We would donate to local non-profit community-based organizations, maintain our municipal structures,  serve the people, respond to their complaints, and find solutions to community problems.  We also had to deal with storms, floods, snow and ice, and the occasional natural disaster.

And we had to either get the job done within the approved budget, or have retained earnings to carry over in case next year is the natural disaster year.  If we couldn't make a budget that worked, costs too high, revenue dipping, we would have to raise taxes.   We could not run a deficit.  That is why preparing the budget was my favorite challenge.   And I succeeded over six years, in two different towns in two different states, to propose a balanced budget each year, with no new taxes, receive budget approval and then proceed to collect taxes that met expectations and run the government within the budget.

The citizens or their representatives in my communities could have taken it a step further and propose tax reductions.  But that requires a leap in human nature,  we don't want to trust our appointed officials that much and then end up holding an empty boot and an I.O.U. if they are wrong.  It is difficult for elected officials to stand up in front of their neighbors and admit they made a mistake on a critical line item.  That is why the challenge was so much fun and the result so rewarding.  

Budget numbers are not facts, but rather an estimate based upon factual expense data from previous years. They include an estimate of what the future needs might cost, and what new stuff we are planning to add to the budget. So we create 5 and 10-year plans for each area of expense, roads more elaborate than office administration.  Our elected officials cannot vote to raise the debt ceiling.

The citizens get involved as we hold public meetings on the budget.  The refrain No New Taxes dominated the meetings, and the request for more community services could also be heard.  Two competing forces, kind of like we see on the National stage between Democrats and Republicans.

Since I enjoy preparing budgets like some folks enjoy vanilla ice cream cones, I am going to take a deeper dive into the budget proposed by President Trump and approved by the  House of Representatives and share my budget thoughts with all of you.  I think it will be revealing, revolting, reviled, refreshing, and potentially something I can relieve myself upon.