POKING AROUND ON DAY 113

This is day 113 of the attempted fascist coup against America. There are 539 days to the mid terms. The Congressional Budget Office reported that proposed changes by Republicans to Medicaid and the ACA in the current House budget plan will cause 13.7 million people to lose their health insurance. What wasn't changed in the alleged "China Kneel"announced yesterday is an item that will be of interest to readers here, who purchase good directly from Chinese companies, or from small business here who import items from China: previous to Donnie Two Dolls' insanity, there was a "De Minimums" rule that imports from China of $800 or less were allowed in duty-free. Last month, Maladministration II announced that from May 2 on, the goods purchased under this scheme would be subject to tariff. The announced "kneel" today included in the "detail statement" the fact that the tariff on purchases of $800 or less would remain at 120%. So say good-bye to those items you bought that way, for your own personal use or for re-sale in your small business. The toy store you buy gifts for your kids from will likely be going under, since most of their importing was done under this rule.

From the Department of They Still Want To Play Where’s Elmo?: It’s now two months since Kilmar Abrego Garcia was kidnapped by the ICE Gestapo and thenwrongfully removed from the United States in an act Maladministration II was later forced to admit was an error, despite an immigration judge order barring it, and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador. The past two months have seen stonewalling federal courts by Maladministration II, which refuses to try to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release despite a month-old Supreme Court order to do so. DonnieTwo Dolls has even admitted in an interview that he could make a phone call to his fellow scumbag in El Salvador and obtain Abrego Garcia’s release, “but I’m not going to.” The Department of InJustice isn’t so obvious as Donnie, claiming repeatedly that they are in compliance with court orders when they obviously are not. They have now invoked the phony “State Secrets” rule - originally created 70 years ago so the USAF could avoid financial responsibility for the deaths of civilian contractors in the crash of a B-29 being used for tests, and used since to cover the government’s lies and bullshit. Garcia’s lawyers responded to this obvious head fake: The fact that the Government has repeatedly publicized information—in congressional testimony, public interviews, and social media posts—about Abrego Garcia and its unwillingness to facilitate his return confirms that answering the requested discovery would not imperil national security. More likely, the Government’s assertion of state secrets is consistent with an effort to avoid judicial scrutiny of its actions.” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is using this process to smoke out whether the administration should be held in contempt of court for repeatedly defying court orders. Stonewalling the discovery phase is part of the same overall pattern of contemptuous behavior. In other bullshit acts by these fascist scum, the InJustice Department is now investigating a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia and has given limited immunity to the owner of the vehicle he was driving, a convicted felon in an Alabama prison with whom investigators recently spoke. It’s hard not to see this as part of the larger White House-led smear campaign against the illegally deported Abrego Garcia.

From the Department of The Trumpscum Still Want To Fuck Us Over: The Republican budget bill would expire some of PINO’s key campaign promises on lowering taxes before he leaves office. The GOP budget included tax exemptions for tips and overtime wages. "There shall be allowed as a deduction an amount equal to the qualified tips received during the taxable year," the bill stated. A qualified tip was deemed to be "any cash tip received by an individual in an occupation which traditionally and customarily received tips on or before December 31, 2024." Overtime wages were also set to be exempted from taxation for a limited time. the exemptions for tips and overtime would expire on Dec. 31, 2028, just a month before Dimbulb is legally required to relinquish his office. There is nothing in the bill regarding dropping all taxes on Social Security payments.

From the Department of Senator Skeletor Strikes Again: While speaking to right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk on Monday Sen. Rick Scott demanded cuts to Medicaid spending because “Medicaid should be a program for the poor and the chronically ill. That's what should be. Not to have people sit on their butt at home that don't want to work." Scott acknowledged that Medicaid "might be nice to have, but that's somebody's money." He rejected calls to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans. "First off, I've never ever voted for a tax increase. We need lower taxes and we'll get more revenues." (FACT CHECK: This idea has NEVER WORKED since Reagan tried it.) "So no new tax increases, none. Reduce spending. That's what we have to do." Scott said he would pursue Medicaid cuts instead of increasing taxes on the rich.

From the Department of The Democrats Show What They Would Do: Social Security and Medicare protect tens of millions of American senior citizens from poverty and medical bankruptcy each year, but economic justice advocates have long said the programs would be strengthened and remain fully solvent for as long as possible if the richest Americans contributed more to them. Last Thursday, two Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation to ensure they do. The bicameral bill, the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, was reintroduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), with the aim of requiring people with yearly incomes of more than $400,000 to contribute a fairer share of their wealth to the two programs. Currently the maximum amount of earnings for which American workers must pay Social Security taxes is just over $176,000. The bill would lift the Social Security tax cap "to ensure that no matter the source of their income, high-income taxpayers would pay the same tax rate on their income exceeding that threshold," said the lawmakers in a press statement.

It would also increase the Medicare tax rate for income above $400,000 by 1.2% and include a provision ensuring owners of hedge funds and private equity firms can no longer avoid Medicare taxes.

From the ever-busy Department of Surprise! Surprise!: Maladministration II quietly announced Thursday that it is abandoning a Biden-era effort to close a loophole that allows large business partnerships to repeatedly manipulate the value of their assets to minimize their tax obligations. (I wonder who ordered that one) The IRS and Treasury Department announced the decision in a notice that received little attention in the mainstream press. The notice states that the administration, guided by an executive order Donnie Dipshit signed in February, intends to scrap so-called basis-shifting regulations that were finalized at the end of Biden's term. As the Biden Treasury Department explained last year, it was targeting a tactic whereby "a single business that operates through many different legal entities ('related parties') enters into a set of transactions that manipulate partnership tax rules to maximize tax deductions and minimize tax liability." The department said, "These transactions defy congressional intent to avoid tax liability with little to no other economic consequences for the participating businesses. For example, a partnership might shift tax basis from property that does not generate tax deductions (such as stock or land) to property that does (such as equipment). Taxpayers may also use these techniques to depreciate the same asset over and over." The Biden administration estimated that the crackdown on basis-shifting would have raised $50 billion in federal revenue from wealthy taxpayers over a 10-year period. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said, "Donald Trump is a known tax cheat, and it's clear his core economic agenda is to turn the government into an ATM for his billionaire pals, but that doesn't make it any less outrageous that his administration would reopen this kind of tax loophole for the rich while simultaneously wrecking Social Security and attacking Medicaid."

The impending removal of IRS regulations targeting the rich comes as Maladministration II is weaponizing the agency against nonprofits and immigrants and as congressional Republicans work on a legislative package that will likely call for massive tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. A recent analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the GOP tax package could cost $7 trillion over the next decade, notwithstanding Republicans' misleading efforts to make the tax cuts appear free of cost.

From the Department of what Else Can They Do To Fuck Us Over?: Maladministration II, in consultation with the DOGE Bros, will shut down the free tax filing system known as Direct File. AP reported Wednesday that Maladministration II would eliminate the popular program developed under Biden. Users have praised the system for its ease of use. However, Republicans and paid tax filers complained that the program was a waste of money. The program was first used in 2024 after Biden's Inflation Reduction Act provided the IRS with funds to create a "direct file" system. The AP said: "But the IRS has faced intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have made billions from charging people to use their software and have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing returns each year." Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that Donnie and Elmo "are going after Direct File because it stops giant tax prep companies from ripping taxpayers off for services that should be free. Americans want a free and easy way to file their taxes. Trump and Musk want to take that away."

From the Department of Now We See What DOGE Was Creat ed For: DOGE is now jumping into the fight to help with Donnie’s mass deportation project, Wired reported on Friday. "DOGE is knitting together immigration databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies including the Social Security Administration, as well as voting records, sources say. This, experts tell WIRED, could create a system that could later be searched to identify and surveil immigrants. The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations for citizens, certified foreign workers, and undocumented immigrants." Part of tthis project will be to hunt for any evidence that immigrants are illegally voting, a practice which elections experts and data show is very rare, but has been a constant paranoid obsession of MAGA world. ACLU senior policy counsel Cody Venzke laid out the stakes in dire terms: “As part of their fixation on this conspiracy theory that undocumented people are voting, they're also pulling in tens of thousands, millions of US citizens who did nothing more than vote or file for Social Security benefits. It's a massive dragnet that's going to have all sorts of downstream consequences for not just undocumented people, but US citizens and people who are entitled to be here as well. The ultimate concern is a panopticon of a single federal database with everything that the government knows about every single person in this country. What we are seeing is likely the first step in creating that centralized dossier on everyone in this country.” This morning, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that last month’s agreement between the IRS and DHS does not violate federal tax law. He pointed out that the federal tax code generally keeps taxpayers’ records confidential. But it includes some exceptions, including one that enables a federal agency head to request certain information to assist in criminal enforcement proceedings. “At its core, this case presents a narrow legal issue: Does the Memorandum of Understanding between the IRS and DHS violate the Internal Revenue Code? It does not,” the judge wrote.

From the Department of It’s Always The White Supremacy, Always: Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau spoke to the press while welcoming a group of over 50 Afrikaner “refugees.” Speaking to BBC News, he brought up the South African Expropriation Act, so named because it allows for the expropriation without compensation of farmland. "A fair number of these refugees were farmers who have farmed this particular land for generations and now face the threat not only of expropriation but also of direct violence." (FACT CHECK: These “farmers” were the beneficiaries of 400 years of colonialist Afrikaner expropriation of land of the indigenous inhabitants of what is now South Africa.) "These people have been living under a shadow of violence and terror for some time now," Landau said. He went on to tell the BBC that one of the main reasons Maladministration II hose these refugees over others is that they fit in more easily. "Some of the criteria is making sure that refugees did not pose any challenge to our national security and that they could be assimilated easily into our country." The flippant comment enraged commentators who argued that claiming "assimilation" was another word for helping white people. "This is part of a Trump Day One EO. He shut down the refugee resettlement program and said it could only come back once the program had been changed 'to admit only those refugees who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States.' For Trump, that’s Afrikaners," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. On his first day in office, PINO signed an executive order that the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.” "Translation? 'White.' For Trump, it’s WHITE refugees," said former Rep. Joe Walsh, who left the GOP . The Albuquerque Free Press posted the excerpt of the poem on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The account then commented, "as long as they’re white." University of Connecticut journalism professor Mike Stanton remarked, "This guy puts the 'ass' in assimilate." The Episcopal Church is ending its refugee resettlement partnership with the federal government over Maladministration II’s “preferential treatment” of white South Africans. In a letter to church members this morning, the Most Rev. Sean Rowe objected to the administration‘s call to help resettle white Afrikaners while refugee admissions from many other countries remain on hold. “In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.” Unsurprisingly, he church came under immediate MAGA attack. “According to the Episcopal Church Jesus doesn't love white people,” wrote Charlie Kirk. Alex Jones demanded an end of support for the church: "All Federal Funds MUST Be Pulled From The Episcopal Church. It's Time To Enforce The Separation Of Church And State.”

From the Department of Donnie’s Still Pissed At The Judges Who Block Him; On Monday, Donnie Two Dolls went to Lies Anti-Socialrump and railed against the judicial system: "If we’re not allowed to send the murderers and other criminals of every type, size, and shape, IMMEDIATELY out of our Country, we aren’t going to have a Country anymore. Radical Left Judges and politicians don’t care, but 90% of the people in the U.S.A. do. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will agree with this and, SAVE AMERICA!" The post comes after Chief Justice John Roberts took a thinly veiled shot at Donnie him during an interview last Wednesday in which he said, “In our Constitution, judges and the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law — and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the President. And that innovation doesn't work if the judiciary is not independent." This comes as the first of the big cases to see if the Supreme Court is up to blocking the Dictatorship of the Dumbfucks arrives for argument this week.

From the Department of The Corruption flows 24/7: The WSJ reported that each of the three countries Donnie is visiting have extensive new business deals with Trump and Trump Org: “Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the three countries on the president’s itinerary, stand out for their warm embrace of Trump Inc. In the past year, Trump-branded residential towers have been launched in Dubai and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and a developer in April unveiled a Trump luxury golf resort at a state-owned project in Qatar at an event featuring Eric Trump and a Qatari minister.” A UAE state and royal family fund earlier this month used $2 billion of a new crypto stablecoin issued by Trump’s World Liberty Financial to invest in a crypto exchange. Sovereign or royal funds from all three states have committed more than $3.5 billion to a private-equity fund run by Jared Kushner. In addition, state-backed funds from Qatar and the UAE were major investors in a $6 billion fundraising round for Trump adviser Elon Musk’s xAI. In February, Dubai tapped his Boring Company to build an 11-mile tunnel network.” This morning, PINO announced a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States, along with a multibillion-dollar defense partnership that includes the UAE, following a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Sen. Chris Murphy said: “I will block any arms sale to a nation that is doing direct personal business with Trump. We should have a full Senate debate and vote. UAE's investment in Trump crypto and Qatar's gifting of a plane is nuclear grade graft. An unacceptable corruption of our foreign policy. Normally, arms sales go forward without a vote. But any Senator can object and force a full debate and Senate vote. I will do that for any military deal with a nation that is paying off Trump personally. We can't act like this is normal foreign policy.” This morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he is placing a hold on all political nominees for the InJustice Department in response to PINO’s pending acceptance of a luxury jet gifted by Qatar to serve as the next Air Force One. “This is not just naked corruption — it is also a grave national security threat. Until the American people learn the truth about this deal, I will do my part to block the galling and truly breathtaking politicization at the Department of Justice.”

From the Department of Yes, They Do Want To Destroy The Constitutional System: Iowa-based talk show host Steve Deace called for the MAGA movement to break the courts to establish Republican dominance over the government. In an op-ed in the Conservative Review castigating U.S. Supreme Court chief Justice John Roberts for claiming the judiciary was “independent” from the other branches of government while also insisting the courts had authority to “strike down” both legislation and executive actions, Deacesaid: "So which is it? Are judges independent arbiters — or unaccountable gods? Roberts may not understand what 'independent' actually means. How can the judiciary call itself independent when it relies entirely on the other two branches for its power? Judges don’t appoint or confirm themselves. They don’t fund their own operations. They can’t enforce their own rulings or impose new policies. They act only through the political structures that created them." He argued that the judiciary was dependent on the other branches of government for their power and were designed, as Alexander Hamilton wrote to possess “neither force nor will." He called for Republican leaders to ignore court rulings that went against them. Thee people are no longer - if they ever were - “conservatives.” They are far right radical revolutionaries - a word salad the term “fascist” describes.

The good news is:

Pardoned J6 defendant Brent Holdridge, was just arrested on Monday and booked into the Humboldt County (CA) Correctional Facility on new charges of Burglary, Grand Theft, and Possession of Stolen Property. He is accused a stealing a large quantity of copper wire from an industrial site.

And that’s all I can stand today. The Stink-A-Thon’s going to get really putrid over the rest of the week.

Bastet looking like the goddess she was

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