December 20, 2024

As I sit here beginning this rambling, after having survived the Christmas grocery shopping frenzy, we still don’t know if the government is shutting down tonight at midnight or not. It looked like Speaker Johnson had the votes all wrapped up on Tuesday, but then we got a glimpse of what the next four years will be like. In his typical fashion, tRump didn’t like the negotiated bipartisan plan that would have kept the government funded at it’s current annual rate, provided an additional $100 billion in disaster aid for storm-hit states and another $10 billion for farmers. tRump didn’t like the plan and demanded it be rewritten to include no debt ceiling until 2029, the end of his term, or be abolished all together. At that point, President MuskRat got involved and started a marathon tweet session telling GOP House members they better vote for this new plan or they’d be looking for a new job. Johnson presented that plan on Wednesday and it was soundly defeated by the House on Thursday, including 38 Republicans who basically gave tRump the finger. So here we are again, experiencing the chaos that tRump thrives on. Unfortunately, the new president, Elon MuskRat, seems to echo that same form of leadership. We might just have to start popping that corn sooner than January 20^th, as it appears the s—t show is starting earlier than expected. As Yogi said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”

And another development as part of this fiasco is an idea being thrown against the wall to see if any of it will stick. Make MuskRat the Speaker of the House. The Speaker does not have to be an elected Representative and thus you could end up with a non-elected Speaker, like Musk or Kari Lake or Herschel Walker as the leading member of the House of Representatives.  What a precedent this would make for the future. It sounds like MTG, Rand Paul, and some of the other circus clowns  are getting some tingly feelings about this possibility. MuskRat, the richest man in the world, has no problem shutting the government down and then sitting back and watching the mess. I’m glad I won’t have to be at an airport trying to get to Christmas dinner across the States or trying to catch a plane home if this shutdown occurs in the next few hours. What a Christmas gift for the non-essential Federal workers who would be furloughed with this shutdown.

Speaking of MuskRat, I wonder how many MAGA folks depend on their Social Security checks for living expenses and Medicare for health insurance. I don’t have time to start on this topic, so will just throw it out as a tease and discuss it in the next rambling. At some point after January 20^th, those MAGA lemmings out there are all of a sudden going to wake up one morning and realize that ‘what’s happening to me isn’t what I voted for.’ Sorry, you can’t cut the  2 trillion dollars from the Federal budget that Musk says is coming and not cut into those two entitlement programs that most Americans rely on. Stay tuned.

TGIF. Oh wait. I’m retired. Every night is Friday night. Hope you have a good one and remember to check your popcorn supply, cause I thinks you’re going to need it sooner than originally expected. Ziggyman