Democrats are Racing to Fund Illegal Government they Oppose
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Trump is using the U.S. government to violate multiple laws, and Democratic leaders promise they'll continue funding it
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Democratic Party leaders are racing to approve funding for a lawless national government that has deployed its military against its own people, attacked another nation with which it’s not at war, and is now threatening to detonate the transcontinental treaty that’s been key to world stability for decades.
The government in question that’s seeking funding from Congress to continue its reign of terror and imperialist conquest is the federal government of the United States led by Pres. Donald Trump, a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, and, more recently, a pirate.
Trump’s funds expire at the end of this month and he needs new allocations from Congress to continue his rampage against the U.S., the rule of law, and global stability. Without new funding, the Trump regime could be forced to shut down much of the government, cutting back dramatically on its theocratic, tyrannical, inhumane operations.
Democrats have said that Trump is using government funds to violate U.S. law in multiple ways — kidnapping people into and/or out of the U.S., not adhering to lawful allocation of funds, oil-tanker piracy, maritime serial killing, and more — and party leaders are working to renew his funding.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Sunday that there will be no shutdown. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) would not say on Sunday whether he supports shutting down the lawless Trump government or providing it with new funds it will use however it wants.
Last year, the Democratic Party at first refused to continue funding the Trump regime, as part of a battle to force the renewal of expanded tax credits to help make health insurance affordable for 22 million people. Party leadership eventually caved — agreeing to fund the Trump administration’s illegal kidnappings and boat murders — and the tax credits expired last week.
Funds approved by the Democratic Party were then used to attack Venezuela. And, as of Tuesday, to blame Democrats for Jan. 6.
That’s right. On Tuesday — the five-year anniversary of what most people thought was a violent and briefly successful attempt to usurp Congress and steal the presidency — the White House posted a new website about Jan. 6, 2021. It says, “it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election.” The website blames Capitol Police for harassing peaceful protesters.
That programming, of course, was made possible by the financial support of the Democratic Party and supporters like you.
While it’s true that the Democratic Party is in the minority in both chambers, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing they can do. For one thing, funding the Trump administration is not all-or-nothing.
Funding is supposed to be done via 12 separate bills for the different divisions of what’s left of the government. Some of that 2026 funding has already been approved. Allocations for Congress itself, agriculture, military housing, and veterans, are already in place through this October.
Which means Democrats could, in theory, be surgical about starving the illegal regime of funds, specifically in some of the most illegal divisions.
Like the Defense Department, Homeland (sic) Security, and the Justice Department.
Some Democrats, however, not only don’t want to starve Trump of the funds he needs to carry out the deeds crimes that Democrats are criticizing. They’re affirmatively on board with funding those crimes.
Asked whether there will be a shutdown, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) said, “I hope not.” It’s not clear whether that was before or after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller went on an unhinged public rant about how the U.S. government doesn’t give a shit about laws anymore because it has the strength to do whatever it wants. Might makes right-wing, thanks to congressional funding.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) told the Wall Street Journal she’ll vote to fund the lawless Trump administration to prevent the harm a shutdown could cause everyday people. Rosen cited the suicide last year of a 44-year-old woman who had trouble finding work after being furloughed in last year’s shutdown.
It’s a horrific case. But there’s no reason to believe its parallels don’t play out in the opposing scenario: Trump’s Democratic-funded actions causing suicides and death.
Besides, any funding given to Trump can still be cut off as part of his political bullying. Trump’s pulling support for child care in Minnesota over a made-up scandal just to bully Democrats there.
The only way to stop it is to block red-state funding, all funding, without guarantees of future funding for red and blue — or at least legislating future prison time for anyone in the executive branch who refuses to allocate allocated funds.
Democrats can use the threat of ‘no’ votes to add real teeth to the funding bills, with legal consequences for Trump’s lawlessness.
At a minimum, block funding for Defense, Justice, and Homeland (sic) that doesn’t include specific real consequences for crimes and abuses of power.
And it doesn’t matter that Democrats are in the minority in both chambers. A single senator can gum up the works, obstructing regular business by demanding full votes on every procedural matter. (New York Magazine reports that the two Colorado Democrats are threatening to hold up the Senate over a state water project; I can’t find confirmation of that, but if it’s even conceptually possible over a state water project surely it’s possible over the American experiment.)
Right now, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is expected to fail with a war-powers resolution on Venezuela. The resolution would ostensibly force Trump to obey existing resolutions he’s not obeying. But Democrats could make law-abiding a condition of new funding for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who lied to Congress about not planning regime change in Venezuela.
Think about how insane it is for Democratic senators to even consider giving one penny to Hegseth while Hegseth is using his existing funding to carry out personal campaigns against Democratic senators. And pennies don’t even exist anymore!
Some Democrats are at least using the bully pulpit to oppose funding for the bully’s purse. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said, “We need to use every tool in the toolbox.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is the party’s top Senate appropriator and last month said the GOP’s Homeland (sic) Security funding bill lacked accountability for the “out-of-control” department.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is contemplating “tighter constraints on spending to make sure that we don’t all greenlight a fundamental revision of American foreign policy.” Like greenlighting Greenland.
“I don’t want to be in the business of looking back on these budgets and knowing that I have provided the votes to destroy our democracy,” Murphy said no-shit-Sherlockishly.
Progressive groups, too, are urging Democrats to refuse to fund the destruction of American democracy. Like crazy, wild-eyed radicals.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) are pushing legislation to block funding for military operations in Venezuela. So what about Greenland? Or Cuba? Or Los Angeles?
And will they filibuster funding without these restrictions?
Kaine was asked whether he’d filibuster and said, “You’re too many steps down the chessboard,” even though the filibuster has zero tactical advantage as a surprise. And this isn’t actually chess.
One bill wrapping up funding for the Justice Department, environmental protection, and energy, reportedly already has support from both parties. But why?
The Justice Department, after all, is the federal agency providing the Miracle-Gro™ for Trump’s crimes by sprouting legal opinions justifying them. What future crimes will Democrats enable by funding this department?
We already know one: Covering up The Epstein Files™!
And the violation of The Epstein Files™ Transparency Act, which the Justice Department is violating with Democratic funding by not releasing the files in time for last month’s deadline and by redacting shit the law specifically says can’t be dacted, redacted, dedacted, method acted, or pterodacted.
Democratic funds will keep the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) churning out illegal counsel. The OLC has already used its federal funding to generate legal advice even worse than ChatGPT’s, claiming it’s legal to be a Boat-iac Killer™. Just on Tuesday, the New York Times revealed that prior to illegally attacking Venezuela, the OLC distributed a memo calling it legal to illegally attack Venezuela.
You can bet your frozen, newsfucking ass that they’re right now using the funds from ending the last shutdown to whip up reasons it’s legal to land U.S. troops in Greenland. New Democratic funding literally could be used to generate legal opinions authorizing the imprisonment of Democrats who refuse to fund legal approval for imprisoning Democrats.
Democrats could block Justice Department spending unless the allocation bill includes real reform of the OLC, in terms of both personnel and its mission; the OLC’s original mission of providing legal advice has been perverted into the power to decide what’s lawful, which is the job of Congress and the courts.
The funding bill including the Justice Department — known as a mini-bus bill (as opposed to an omnibus or a free Mamdanibus) — won support from Democratic appropriators on Monday. The top Democratic appropriator in the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said, “Let’s go. Let’s get the bills done.”
Y’know, to fund the lawless theocratic regime!
That’s even though the bipartisan mini-bus left out an amendment from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) forcing the Justice Department to retain its Jeffrey Epstein records. It’s expected to get a vote as soon as Thursday.
But Democrats could block it! They have an Epstein majority in the House and they could filibepstein the bill in the Senate.
On the plus side, the mini-bus is carrying new language that more narrowly constrains how the administration can use the funding in the three departments the mini-bus would fund.
So Democrats can impose those kinds of restrictions across the board!
Democrats keep complaining that the Supreme Court is rubber-stamping Trump. And that congressional Republicans are kowtowing. But so are they.
Even after the Pentagon’s boat murders and illegal attack on Venezuela, Senate Democrats are confirming Trump military nominees who’ll presumably help out with boat murders and Operation: Absolute Greenland.
Democrats have leverage with this funding, right now. If they refuse to use it, they’re complicit not just in normalizing what Trump is doing, but in doing what Trump’s doing.
Here’s how you can contact your congressional representatives. Of whom there are now fewer…
GOD REDUCING HOUSE GOP MAJORITY Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) just performed perhaps his greatest service to the country in a long career of voting against the interests of his country.
LaMalfa unexpectedly reduced the Republican House majority by one early Tuesday morning by dying.
And another House Republican, Rep. Jim Baird (R-IN), won’t be casting a vote any time soon. For all we know, he’s in a cast after being hospitalized Monday following a serious car crash. Luckily for him, he’s got a great health-care plan.
EVEN TRUMP IS PUSHING FOR FUNDING IMPROVEMENTS In a stunning and dramatically underreported development Tuesday, Trump told House Republicans they should end their decades-long block on using federal funds to fund abortion.
That ban is known as The Hyde Amendment and it’s more sacred to Republicans than the Bible that doesn’t prohibit federal funding of abortion. Republicans have expanded the Hyde Amendment to include Obamacare, preventing the use of federal dollars to fund any health-care plans that even include abortion.
But on Tuesday, at a meeting with the House GOP, Trump said, “You have to be a little flexible on Hyde.”
It’s one thing for House Republicans to be a little flexible on the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses prohibiting boat murders, but for Trump to push flexibility on abortion was a stunning request.
The context is ongoing negotiations about what to do about those expiringed Obamacare tax credits. But one foe of reproductive rights slammed Trump’s remarks as an “abandonment” of microscopic babies — which are indistinguishable from Sea-Monkeys™ but, according to GOP ideology, aren’t supposed to be abandoned until after they exit the birth canal and enter the workforce without collective-bargaining rights.
Point being, Trump just handed Democrats massive leverage at least on Obamacare and abortion. But if they want to protect girls and women from being forced to push out babies, Democrats are going to have to push Republicans.
MEDIA WATCH The unspoken premise of corporate media is that the government must be funded. Even a fascist government. This is also sometimes the spoken premise.
Here’s a Tuesday headline from the Washington Post: “Congress has four weeks to dodge another shutdown.” How about, “Congress has four weeks to curb a mad dog”?
GOPers BALK AT GREENLAND INVASION Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Tuesday, “I don’t see military action being an option” for the U.S. to somehow, um, acquire Greenland.
“I think that’s probably getting the cart ahead of the horse,” said Thune, suggesting he’d go along with Democratic refusal to fund any cart that’s ahead of the horse.
STILL, GREENLAND IS A BIG DEAL Secretary of State Marco Rubio is out there promising that Trump is just trying to negotiate a good price for Greenland with his threats to invade.
But in Foreign Policy, Casey Michel, head of the Human Rights Foundation’s Combating Kleptocracy Program, writes that even threatening a NATO ally risks shattering global alliances that have held autocratic kleptocracies in check.
Which NATO nation, now, would join Trump in defending Taiwan, for instance?
Venezuela Update
There’s no clear sign that the Venezuelan government is giving Pres. Donald Trump what he wants.
He claimed they’ve agreed to give him oil, but they haven’t said so. And there’s no sign that political prisoners are dancing happily into the sunlight.
Reportedly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is demanding that interim President Delcy Rodriguez expel the diplomatic envoys of ally countries China and Russia and Cuba and Iran.
But even if Rodriguez complies, and only allows in those diplomats Rubio approves of … what if Venezuela has Zoom?
See B.S.
Right-wing-billionaire-owned and right-wing-ideologue-
I’m sure I’ll soon get bored of mocking new anchor Tony Dokoupil. But not yet!
Dokoupil was tapped for the anchor position by new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who was tapped by Paramount CEO David Ellison, who was raised by Paramount owner Larry Ellison.
And on Tuesday, Dokoupil interpreted his new vow of working for the viewers by dedicating his last segment to saluting one of the most powerful people in the country, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Instead of afflicting the comfortable, as journalists are supposed to do, Dokoupil said he was saluting the comfortable:
Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social
Reportedly, Weiss wants to end each newscast with a light-hearted segment, apparently about heartlessness. Weiss calls these end-segments “bon bons.”
As any veteran TV journalist will tell you, Weiss has just invented “kickers,” the light-hearted segments newscasts have ended with for decades. In the past, however, they were about waterskiing squirrels, not waterboarding nuts.
Of course, the best way to respond to our decaying corporate journalism, to flex your muscle as a news consumer, is to support the independent journalists you trust to bring you the facts, dig up the dirt, and not fucking salute anyone. Ahem!
Three Quickies
Fun fact: The funding bill for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts but Not President Donald Trump’s Performative Narcissism does not refer to it using Trump’s name for it. Also refusing to recognize Trump’s attempt to co-opt the center is banjo impresario Béla Fleck, who on Tuesday joined the list of performers canceling performances at The Kennedy Center. “Wicked” and “Godspell” composer Stephen Schwartz has also pulled out.
Democrat Michael Jones easily beat Republican John Thomas in a Virginia state Senate special election on Tuesday. Fittingly, it was “Jerk for Kirk” day when Jones beat this particular John Thomas. Jones outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris’s results in the district last year, beating Thomas 69.9% to 30.1%, and preserved the slim Democratic margin of control in the state Senate.
In a South Carolina special election Tuesday, the Republican candidate for a state House seat was leading by just 20 votes this morning. That’s in a district that Pres. Donald Trump won by seven points in 2024. Expect a recount, a court battle, dirty tricks, shenanigans, and tomfoolery.
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