Today in Politics, Bulletin 56. 1/24/25

… Obama Derangement Syndrome continues, as Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced a bill to amend the 22nd Amendment to allow Trump to run for a 3rd term. The comical thing is that they fear Barack Obama so much that he worded it so it would not apply to him: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms.’’

… I guess Ogles doesn’t think Trump can beat Obama. Kind of insulting to his cult leader.

… Fox addressed the soaring cost of eggs today. After blaming Biden for the last four years for the cost of everything, Fox now says the problem is avian flu. Which, of course, has been a problem (along with price gouging) for a few years now. But last week prices were high because of Biden. This week it is suddenly avian flu. Amazing how that happens.

… Trump took trips to visit the disaster sites in NC and CA, and reiterated his intent to abolish FEMA: “I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA. I think we're gonna recommend that FEMA go away."

… What Trump really wants to do is to be able to dole out funds himself, rather than have FEMA do it. That way, he can decide who gets aid depending on: 1. Whether the state or community is Republican or Democrat; 2. Whether the elected officials in the area supported him; 3. How much officials in the area compliment him and kiss his ass; 4. How much money have they funneled into his various businesses.

… He proved this by adding that he would rather see federal relief funds go to private groups like Samaritan’s Purse and have them decide how best to spend the money to help disaster victims. Samaritan’s Purse is Franklin Graham’s organization.

… Trump was asked if he was going to put any conditions on aid to NC. He said he would not, but he will not agree to aid for CA unless they adopted mandatory voter ID, which would essentially end mail-in voting for that state.

… He also continued to repeat the lie that CA could have put out the fires but they don’t have any water because they are protecting the smelt fish: "It could've been put out if they let the water flow, but they didn't let the water flow. And they still haven't for whatever reason."

… Trump then flew to CA tonight to visit the wildfires. Apparently, he did not invite Gavin Newsom to be there, but Newsom decided to show up anyway. I thought Jesse Watters’ face was priceless when the news of that broke:

… Newsom met Trump on the tarmac, and things did not seem friendly

… Punchbowl reports that House Republicans have supposedly come up with $2-3 trillion in spending cuts to justify Trump’s massive tax cuts, which they intend to pair up in their massive reconciliation bill. I have two thoughts: 1. There is no way you can do this without cutting Social Security and Medicare; 2. If they have already identified these massive cuts then what is Musk doing in the WH when that is what DOGE was supposed to do?

… WaPo reports that Trump Budget Director Ross Vought intends to challenge the Impound Control Act of 1974, asserting that it is unconstitutional. The act prevents a president “impounding” or refusing to release funds approved by Congress to any program or person he chooses. Repealing this would allow, for example, Trump to seize any funds to be spent by the Department of Education - even if Congress authorized it - as long as he returns the money to the Treasury.

… The law was passed because Richard Nixon did this with funding for certain programs that a Democratic Congress passed which he did not agree with. Essentially, this would create a line-item veto for a president on spending bills, which no president has ever tried to exercise before besides Nixon on a very limited scale.

… Trump was asked whether the US would continue to support other NATO countries: "We're protecting them. They're not protecting us. We're protecting them, so I don't think we should be spending - I'm not sure we should be spending anything."

… Scottish comic Steve Blair: “Trump’s furious, because as a Bishop, Budde can move as far as she wants diagonally, but as a Russian pawn he can only move one square at a time.”

… House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries addressed the Republican war on DEI: “Diversity, equity and inclusion are American values. The motto of the US is E Pluribus Unum. Out of many, one. That’s diversity. The 14th Amendment provides equal protection under the law. That’s equity. We pledge allegiance to the flag. In that pledge, we promise, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. A-L-L. That’s inclusion. Not complicated. Diversity, equity and inclusion are American values. It’s about economic opportunity. It’s about merit for everyone, based on what you know, not who you know.”

… Elon Musk amplified another account to his 220+ million followers which posts a lot of pro-Russian content - Visegrad24. This post suggested that racial discrimination laws are worse today in South Africa than they were during apartheid, and white people are now allegedly being discriminated against the most.

… A new AP poll shows Musk’s popularity with the American public continues to drop since October. Just 36% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Musk with 52% saying they have an unfavorable opinion. Only 29% said they agreed that a DOGE committee should be formed with him leading it.

… Musk’s popularity in Europe is even lower. It seems like a bad time to be a Tesla owner in Europe these days.

… While Trump claimed that the first phase of his massive deportation effort was going to focus on rounding up migrants who committed crimes, his racial profiling operation instead ended up arresting a U.S. citizen who served in the military.

.. A dozen ICE agents raided a Newark, NJ, seafood wholesaler and restaurant on Thursday and arrested three people, including the Puerto Rican warehouse manager. Ocean Food Depot owner Luis Janota told PIX11 News: “I asked them what documentation they were looking for, and they said it was a license or a passport. I thought, who walks around with a passport?”

… Janota: “One of the employees was a military veteran, and the way it looked to me (they targeted him) because he was Hispanic. He is Puerto Rican and the manager of our warehouse. It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people—not every kind, because they did not ask me for documentation for my white workers.”

… Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is also running for governor of NJ: “One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned. Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized.”

… NBC is reporting that Mexico refused permission prior to takeoff to a request by a US military flight with deported migrants to land in their country yesterday, which resulted in the flight being canceled. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she opposes Trump’s attempt to take “unilateral actions” to deport migrants, and will not give consent for any US flights to land in her country unless the deportations have been coordinated with her government.

… Stephen Miller was asked by Fox to respond to reports that ICE entered a Chicago elementary school looking for migrant children. It was later learned that it was Secret Service at the school, but Miller didn’t know that at the time this was asked: Fox Host: “ICE Agents were denied entry to an elementary school in Chicago. Is that something that is acceptable? We've heard talk about schools and churches as sanctuary spots.” Miller: “There is no sanctuary for criminal aliens in this country.”

… MS State Rep. Rep. Justin Keen (R) introduced a bill to create an Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program, which would provide a $1,000 reward to registered bounty hunters for each successful deportation they help facilitate: “When Trump took office this week, he immediately recognized the emergency at our borders, rolling out executive orders to combat illegal immigration and cartels. This legislation builds upon that foundation, empowering local leaders and communities to support federal efforts in protecting our citizens.”

… Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Number of words in Trump’s inaugural address about renaming the Gulf of Mexico, renaming Denali mountain, and retaking the Panama Canal: 213. Number of words about making housing, health care, or child care more affordable: Zero.”

… The first month of this column averaged 100,000 readers a day. Month two was 150,000. This is the third month and we are now averaging 200,000 a day. Thank you for making this the fastest growing political column in America!

… JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg implored his family members to speak up about RFK Jr: “Why won’t they say what they know about him? Why aren’t they talking about all the stories they have? The guy’s about to be in charge of public health in the US. How come I’m the only one who’s speaking out? Wake up - this is not a fucking