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The Apocalypse Budget: The T***p administration is again seeking severe cuts to the U.S. Energy Department division charged with renewable energy and energy efficiency research, according to a department official familiar with the plan. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would see its $2.3 billion budget slashed by about 70 percent, to $700 million, under T***p’s fiscal 2020 budget request, which is set to be released on Monday. The request is unlikely to be granted by Congress, especially with Democrats in charge of the House, but the figure represents an opening bargaining position for negotiations by the White House. The Energy Department declined to comment and the White House Office of Management and Budget didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Timely Quote O The Day:

"There is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some diehard's vote." ~ David Foster Wallace, novelist, essayist (1962-2008)

The issue none are addressing: Pentagon spending now consumes nearly 70 percent of the discretionary federal budget. Even if we just count direct US military spending, the figures are enormous. At $610 billion in 2017, US military spending accounted for more than a third of the world total. This dwarfs the $294 billion spent by our potential adversaries—Russia spent $66 billion; China, $228 billion. Now is the time for democratic candidates to get this and start talking aboutbetter ways for the country to use that money. Will Harris talk about this? Gillibrand and Gabbard didn't. Maybe someone like Washington Governor Jay Inslee will bring it up. What all Democratic candidates need to know is that the polling shows that the voters would rather money go to infrastructure and social programs than policing the world. But of course the Military Industrial Complex won't let go of any money without a fight. Anyone up for the battle?

The banality of evil. How stupid do you have to be to chant “build the wall” at a Native American whose people were here at least 13,000 years ago before the European undocumented migrants showed up in their lands? How stupid do you have to be to chant “build the wall” at African-Americans whom white slavers kidnapped from their homes in Senegal and Nigeria and Angola and transported here against their will? How stupid do you have to be as a Catholic not to know that anti-immigrant slogans like “Build the Wall” and “Make America Great Again” are the descendants of the racist slogans (such as “Keep America American”) that white Protestants of the 19th century ‘Know Nothing’ secret society chanted at Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Italy and Germany just before they burned down Catholic churches? How stupid do you have to be to insist on a fetus’s right to life but to endanger the life of an elderly Vet by putting him into a bottleneck in the midst of an angry mob? How stupid do you have to be to think that “Make America Great Again” could possibly mean anything when chanted by chickenhawk young men at a Vet who risked his life for this country? How stupid do you have to be not to realize that the people Trump wants to keep out of the United States by building his idiotic, cruel and ineffective wall are for the most part Catholics? Nathan Phillips said he is afraid for where the country of going because of the wave of hatefulness sweeping the country. He is too polite to blame Trump for our collective national two minutes hate, but I’m not. This incident was Trump’s fault. Mean boys in high school acting out evil may be a bit banal as well. But if Nathan Phillips is apparently afraid that hatred is contagious, I am afraid that stupidity might be an infectious disease. Prof Juan Cole

The problem with T***p's choice of vengeful payback is that he has inadvertently affirmed Pelosi's reasons for delaying the State of the Union address. In fact, his reference to the 800,000 unpaid workers was the very same language that Pelosi used when explaining to the press why she had sought the delay. So now T***p can no longer complain that Pelosi's rescheduling of the State of the Union was inappropriate, since he adopted the same reasoning to delay the congressional mission. Even though T***p's speech is a pro-forma ritual that serves no productive purpose, while a congressional fact-finding and diplomatic trip is essential to foreign relations, the argument T***p is making completely shields Pelosi from any further criticism regarding the State of the Union. But don't expect that logic to register with T***p. He will likely continue to harague Pelosi even though it undercuts his own actions. After all, this is the same guy who promised to take full responsibility for the shutdown and swore that he wouldn't blame Democrats. That lasted about two days.

Seeking asylum is a legal right. I checked.

She's right behind me, isn't she?

Today this:

Full of Good Cheer!

Flag it? It is a baby ass after all.

Are Tumblr’s Community Standards being governed thru the eyes of parents of a 12 yr old boy that they let read Tumblr?

Flag it?

What happens when a president has zero credibility? I'll be honest. I'm of two minds on this Syria withdrawal that Trump impulsively announced on twitter yesterday. It's clearly a wag-the-dog moment for him but I have to admit that if a president is going to us such self-serving tactics (he isn't the first) I prefer such moves to be the withdrawal of troops rather than escalation. And if the president were a normal thoughtful person who understands the issues, reads all the briefing papers, has a good handle on all the geopolitical implications of his decisions, I wouldn't object to him going against the conventional wisdom of his party and the military. Their bias in favor of military options needs a counterpoint more often than not. But I think we all know that Trump is not that person. We don't know exactly why he's made this decision but it's fair to say that if it turns out have been a good one, it's a total accident. And there's some good evidence that it's based on something that will actually end up blowing back on the country and the world in unpredictable ways.

So much fun.

What seems likeliest at this point is that leadership gives into the maniacs and Trump. They put the $5 billion on the floor and it's defeated, just to prove to the maniacs and Trump that it's not going to happen. It doesn't have the votes. Not in the House. Not in the Senate. Will that make Trump more likely to sign the CR? Who knows? It could make him even more pissed off and obstinate. It's amazing watching the GOP just drag out their own and Trump's humiliation.

BREAKING. senior DOJ official: Whitaker has not recused from Mueller probe. After extensive review by senior officials, he did not seek formal ruling from ethics office. BUT a senior doj ethics official said it was a "close call" and he should recuse in an "abundance of caution."

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