“‘By law, we have one job,’ Rep. Tim Burchett (R‑Tenn.) asserted the last time he opposed the ‘continuing resolution’ (CR) on the federal budget. What is that ‘one job?’ It is ‘to pass twelve appropriations bills and a budget. We aren’t doing that, which is why we are $33 trillion in debt.’ You noticed the typo. But it wasn’t. Sure, $33 trillion isn’t right. Yesterday, the official public debt of the federal government was $36.6 trillion, with just a smidge of rounding up. Those first two paragraphs are from 2023; one can almost cut and paste old copy about Washington’s CR fiascos and place them in new pieces and get away with it, clean. On Tuesday, the House passed a continuing resolution to keep the federal government chugging along, with its usual substitute authorization for spending rather than a real budget.” (03/13/25)
“Several U.S. farmers and nonprofits filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday, arguing it is illegally withholding Department of Agriculture grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The USDA has frozen a broad swath of grants as it conducts an agency-wide spending review, including money for conservation and other farm programs funded by the IRA. The five farmers involved in the suit were awarded grants from a USDA Rural Energy for America Program to install solar panels. The three nonprofits involved were awarded Forest Service grants. The farmers have entered into contracts with solar installers and incurred costs they worry will not be recoverable if the grants are not unfrozen, the complaint says. The nonprofit groups have had to furlough or lay off staff or cut programs as a result of the freeze, it says.” (03/13/25)
“Robert Morris, the Dallas-area megachurch pastor who resigned last year amid sexual abuse allegations, has been indicted in Oklahoma for child sex crimes that date back to the 1980s. Morris is a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, and Gateway — one of the nation’s largest megachurches — has been particularly active in politics. In 2020, Trump held a ‘Roundtable on Transition to Greatness’ there that was attended by then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr and other prominent Republicans. Morris faces five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said in a Wednesday evening press release. The indictment comes less than a year after Morris resigned from Gateway Church in Southlake after an adult woman, Cindy Clemishire, said Morris repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she was a child in Oklahoma in the 1980s.” (03/12/25)
“Most of the studies and planning among public health researchers and officials in the decades before 2020 came to the conclusion that public masking and lockdowns were both ineffective and largely counter-productive (the 6-foot social distancing rule was so weak it had not even really been studied — it was a totally made up thing). The CDC’s own website had (still has) an infographic that the general run of masks were ineffective and stopping disease inhalation. Meta studies generally concluded lockdowns were counterproductive. But within weeks of the start of the pandemic in 2020, government agencies like the CDC threw out all this history and all their prior plans and decided to mandate masks and lockdowns. … why?” (03/13/25)
“President Donald Trump confronts the failing policy of his predecessor in Ukraine. Eight years ago he did the same in Afghanistan. There the United States was entangled in a shooting war, which made it difficult to leave without an agreement with the Taliban. In Ukraine Washington is waging a proxy war, ultimately more dangerous, given Russia’s involvement, but much easier to leave. Instead, the administration is attempting to impose its preferred solution on both Kiev and Moscow. So far, the path has proved anything but smooth.” (03/13/25)
“The results of a rare, closely watched auction in Japan that ended this week are about to be released. But there were no paintings or antique cars on the auction block. The government is selling 165,000 tons of rice — equivalent to roughly two billion bowls — from its emergency stockpile to make up for over 200,000 tons that some Japanese news media say have ‘disappeared.’ But there’s more to the story. Japan doesn’t have enough rice, a pillar of its diet. A shortage forced supermarkets to implement buying limits, and soaring prices have driven restaurants to hike prices of everyday food. Things have gotten so dire that, for the first time, the government is tapping its emergency stockpile in an effort to drive down prices.” (03/13/25)
“Judge Orders Hearing on Columbia Student Deportation Case; Is the Ukraine Ceasefire Plan Serious? Trump Attacks Thomas Massie for His Budget Vote.” (03/12/25)
