Applied part of the refund to estimated for 2026.

Got a letter this week that because they are behind on processing, my estimated payment did not occur. These anti tax fucksticks are letting the federal government keep my money indefinitely.

Criminals.

The Trump administration CANCELED the existing drone contracts with previous vendors JUST PRIOR to announcing new drone contracts/ investments that would be gifted to the Trump owned drone companies.

So they damaged what already worked just to inject their corruption in to a massive govt grift.

I'm all for banging on Jeffries and Schumer but to me this isn't a good brickbat.

Going from “none” to “one” is difficult, but can be done. And once you allow one use-case, it’s simpler to move to many.

Going from “none” to “all” is impossible.

This was a clearly explainable, simple win. Take the wins and own them.

The only thing Jeffries gets by voting no is that people get pissed off at him and he has to explain that he voted against something he supported because of a larger principle and by that point the argument is lost.

This would be like if Biden vetoed $35 insulin because we also should be getting $40 EpiPens and also all other medicine should be cheaper. Just take the win and market it!

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Historians will note that the end result was the collapse of both empires.

2 government contracts. Trump's budget proposal calls for increased drone production by 24,000 percent. Guess who has invested in a drone company?

groundwork for Trump?

I was conditioned to believe that the really dangerous people would be smart.

Though I suppose the better analogy here is that it's Thiel and Musk who are essentially Voldemort, and Trump is Pius Thicknesse.

Reading up on this, it's truly a dumb, narrow piece of legislation. He obviously didn't whip votes against it but he knew it would pass anyway so it was a free no vote. It seems like a move by him to talk about the Meng bill which is much better.

has nothing to do with our policy. Those people are "heathens" and have not "earned" God's blessings in this material world through their "faith."

Now, excuse me while I take a Zofran.

Jeffries’ preferred course of action would NOT pass.

So - Why vote against the bipartisan bill? Every journey begins with the first step, and this was a net good.

Ultimately; this is just another example of Jeffries being tone deaf and picking dumb battles. He has been wrong OFTEN. He should not be the party leader.

This thing passed 384-35 and Jeffries knew that and was clearly not trying to kill it. I don't think Hakeem Jeffries hates hot chicken, but why single out hot chicken for SNAP purchases? Also this was a Fetterman bill that seems like a bone tossed to a certain segment of the industry. It seems stupid to me.

administration.

Say what you will about Bannon. "Flood the zone" works.

Corruption.

Our government, our system, has become deeply corrupt.

Imagine if the president of South Africa sued his own government for 10 billion dollars? Or if judges there were flying all over on private jets on vacations as gifts from billionaires. We would take it as conclusive evidence of another corrupt African government. Well, if the shoe fits…. We should call it corruption, loudly and repeatedly.

Always willing to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, especially if it means that we get to move forward with no progress being made.

As you say, it's a shit ton of protein for cheap!

Ostensibly, what's the reason for voting that way?

Jeffries just voted AGAINST letting SNAP recipients use their funds on rotisserie chicken.

Now, as Joe Pera said, I don’t know why a rotisserie chicken is 5.99 and an uncooked chicken is 15.99 and i find it better not to think too much about it.

But I DO know that it’s probably the most protein/calories per dollar in the grocery store, and that taking food prep out of the equation helps people who are unhoused, or just crushed for time.

Jeffries and 12 other dems voted no. He should be run out of office, not just out of leadership.

is when I hear uneducated folks from this administration talk about how DEI is bad … Trump has literally been gifted more opportunity than any human being I know. His old man gave him the equivalent of $400 million and he’s still bankrupted a mindboggling number of ventures. Add on to that the Trump family wealth was greatly boosted by govt programs, much like Musk’s companies has been gifted a stunning amount of tax breaks/credits.

These guys are atrociously undeserving and there are good, hard working, intelligent and HONEST people in this country who deserve these opportunities way more than these liars and con artists.

and Russia is heavily dependent on China right now. Clearly, they are not a big scary bear.

sorry...fuck maga.

Where in their "Christian" theology does it say this type of shit is okay?

of keeping a promise given his prior 40+ years.

These people hated Kamala and Biden and they are largely racists. It has little to do with promises kept.

If they ran tomorrow, Trump would win again. IMHO.

Both are feckless in positions of leadership. Jeffries recently said that impeaching Trump is not on the agenda should they take the House. That should be item #1.

about the net impact of "DOGE." We didn't save any money. We didn't reduce the deficit. And we certainly didn't take the money we were spending overseas and spend it on Americans in need.

The out of pocket cost of the war, resulting in substantial impacts on US consumers has got to be the easiest talking point in history.

But there's also the money that has quite simply been lit on fire. Like the "rebranding" of the DOD.

But it's probably too much to ask for Dems to scream anything from the rooftops. Or even use a mild "outside voice."

his ADD is so bad that his sister had to do his homework for him. Dad pulled strings to get him into Wharton. He claimed to have graduated first except the school newspaper from his graduation year was unearthed and it showed all the young men (and they were all men) who made Dean's list there. He's not pictured.

There was a Wharton professor (since deceased) who every time Trump would come on TV would say "Donald Trump is the dumbest f**king student I ever taught."

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both passed bar exams. So who's the "low IQ" among them and Trump?

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Is that Russia is not the heir apparent. Long gone are the days where the world was split in two by the Iron Curtain. The big winners of America's step backward will be China, India, and possibly the EU/Germany.

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He didn’t belong there and while he was there he certainly didn’t learn anything.

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about education other than the one about disassembling the education system.

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Trump voters who now regret their votes. The American educational system has clearly failed my poor Franceska:

Franceska, 26, Wash., mixed race, independent, deckhand
We were made a lot of promises during the election. I know that it’s only been a year and a half, but I don’t think I’ve really seen much progress toward even moving toward what he said he was going to do, such as tax breaks or, let’s see, helping with the education system. I feel like he just defunded a lot of the education systems, the schools. I don’t know why he made so many promises.

I have one idea why he may have made promises that he had no intention of fulfilling…

But let’s all be honest, he transferred into Wharton. No way he’s getting in through the normal admissions process.

because this Wharton School grad doesn't understand a thing about basic economics.

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You can only get away with promoting incompetence and ignoring expertise for so long before it catches up with you eventually.

As someone with a very broken EV at the moment, I can’t wait to get it back. I can only imagine the frustration of those with long commutes and gas guzzling trucks. FAFO, etc.

Would be interested in a trip report when you get back, if you have time.

just as Putin hoped.

Now, if along the way, someone could go full on French guillotine justice on the Epstein tech bros that helped fund our orange moron, we might finally settle back down, but until then … the blatant corruption is just as damaging as the completely incompetent leadership.

from superpower status. Everyone assumed Ukraine would crumble in their war with Russia due to Trump's lack of support. Turns out they don't need us at all. The rest of Europe is figuring out the same thing. Any country that's fucking ignorant enough to elect a shit-for-brains troglodyte to its highest office *twice* cannot be counted on for support or even basic competence. And over time, the rest of the civilized world will figure out that they can manage capably enough on their own in most respects. "America First" will ultimately prove to be the biggest goddamn own-goal on the world stage over the past 75 years.

My middle kid is a big nerd, and so are his friends, and they all talk about Musk committing the biggest self-own in history. No kidding. They were all laughing about it last night while blowing one another away in Valorant.

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The guy who thinks climate change is a hoax, who is paying companies not to complete wind farm projects, who has rolled back all the meager progress the U.S. has made in this area might be indirectly most responsible for helping usher in a renewable energy revolution.

There was always some measure of pride in being able to talk about the role that USAID and PEPFAR were playing, not perfect by any means, but making a very real difference in the lives of many. The effects of what we have done, from those cuts to the war, are going to reverberate for years, decades, to come and cause so much suffering and death. And for what? It is a heartbreaking tragedy.

There is going to be some significant pain in the short term, but the shock is changing things very quickly. The articles about Pakistan going electric with cheap Chinese solar panels have been going around. Also the speculation that UAE leaving OPEC is a signal of peak demand, they want to get as much out of the ground now while there are still buyers.

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I've mentioned my family members who are doctors in Malawi. As if the USAID cuts weren't bad enough, here's a message from them this morning:

I recently heard a pundit say that if gasoline increased to over $5.00/gallon in the United States, people would riot in the streets. For context: since the war in Iran began, the price of gasoline in Malawi has increased to $15.00/gallon, with lines into gas stations stretching upwards to twelve hours. This in a country where the median Malawian lives on $2.00 per day, and one in four are food insecure. There has been a spike in families calling our pediatric cancer center saying they want to continue chemotherapy for their child, but they can't afford the transport, often over 12 hours, into the city. It's important to know how our politics ripple across the world into its most vulnerable communities.