#Legislative Dysfunction

[slowtumbling]

A House Divided

The Media and Societal Polarization The phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand” resonates deeply in both biblical and historical contexts. Originating from Matthew 12:25, Jesus warns that “every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” This powerful statement was echoed by Abraham Lincoln in his famous 1858 speech, where…

[silentinkspills]

i love my country what i hate is what goes on there. shit. literal shit. you know what i mean like man judiciary is shit the PM is gonna hug and salute rapists and murderers but never listen to a tortured man's plea. someone's gonna rape and tortune woman and kids and get away with that coz judiciary? huh? what's THAT!? legislature is shit. executive is fucked up. judiciary doesnt exist. like literally, HELLOOOOOOOOOOO???

[jtwb768-babbles]

Happily Never After: The Final Chapter of Our Great American Fairy Tale

Once upon a final time—because yes, even nonsense deserves a nap—we come to the end of our enchanting journey through the Kingdom of the United States of Amnesia. You have laughed. You have winced. You have shouted at your screen, “Wait, that cannot be real!” only to Google it and mutter, “Sweet Liberty in a meat grinder, it is.” And now, like all good bedtime stories for traumatized adults, we…

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

Well maybe now congress will actually do its job and pass laws.

that's a HUGE maybe. congress is dysfunctional and inefficient and unwieldy. it is constantly mired in petty politics, mindless bickering, and perpetual gridlock. Really smart leaving the day-to-day regulations that govern the nation up to them! Then, when they eventually do get around to passing oppressively narrow regulations y'all will complain about how impossible it is to remove said regulations.

[wilwheaton]

One point about this plan which is worth noting explicitly is that it is a microcosm of the chaos-based authoritarianism we have now seen unfolding around us for years, and saw again in spades in the legislative chaos last week. As I mentioned, the plan outlined here was not really to allow or make it possible for Congress to install Donald Trump as President. It was rather to make Congress play the role of chaotic, dysfunctional laughingstock, a body which was clearly unable to bring the electoral chaos to a conclusion. In other words, the plan was to discredit parliamentary democracy as a functional system and thus provide an opening and justification for the Supreme Court to step in, as an unreviewable power, to install Trump as President against the electorally expressed choice of the American people.

TPM AT WORK: Never-Before-Published Details on the Trump Coup

[darkmaga-returns]

Story at-a-glance

Florida became the second U.S. state to ban water fluoridation after Governor DeSantis signed legislation calling it "forced medication" without informed consent; the ban takes legal effect July 1, 2025 — that’s when public water systems must stop adding fluoride and state regulators can begin enforcement

A National Toxicology Program review of 72 studies found consistent evidence that fluoride exposure lowers children's IQ scores and impairs cognitive development

Multiple states including Ohio and Texas are considering similar bans while federal agencies reevaluate fluoride recommendations under new leadership

Research links fluoride to thyroid dysfunction and neurological harm, with doses as low as 2 to 5 milligrams daily affecting hormone regulation

Many European countries rejected water fluoridation decades ago; 98% of Western Europeans now drink non-fluoridated water

[theaceandaroadvocacyproject]

Hello everyone! We wanted to do a piece talking about the intersectionality of disabled and aspec identities and experiences - does this ring true to your experiences? What did we miss? Info on the images are written out below and included in alt text.

[Text reads: July is Disability Pride Month. Let's discuss Disability and Aspec Identity. While individuals may be both aspec and disabled, the two groups also have many similarities outside of people who exist in both. Ableism and aphobia, while both robust issues on their own, have intersecting pain points. Ace and aro people may be accused of being "sick" or "unnatural", and in need of a cure. Simple existence is conflated with suffering, and some people may be more invested in "fixing" aspec people rather than accepting them.

The idealized future - long life, independent living, marriage, children, etc - does not necessarily leave room for people in these groups. Disabled and aspec people can definitely have wonderful futures, without adhering to ableist and amatonormative notions of what a future should look like. Both groups are frequently treated as an afterthought in the realms of legislation/political advocacy and community care*. *A great time to remind y'all that we are still in a pandemic. Wear a mask.

People who are both disabled and aspec may deal with the added stress of stereotype threat*. Stereotype threat is the anxiety and stress that comes from possibly confirming a negative stereotype about the demographic one is apart of. Stereotype threat may arise due to the stereotype that disabled people are not suitable for romantic and/or sexual relationships, or due to the stereotype that asexuality and aromanticism are signs of illness or dysfunction. *Stereotype threat can occur to people of any minority demographic - age, race, gender, orientation, etc.]

[ryuzakemo128]

Goodnight

Chapter One: Family Ties

Pairing: Poly 141 x female reader (Boomer)

Words: 1733

Masterlist - Prequel

Divider Credit: @cafekitsune + @strangergraphics

Content Warnings: Boomer is both a callsign and nickname for the female reader, Violence and Aggression, Mature Themes, Family Dysfunction, Mental Health, plus many others I might not have covered here.

Summary:

What could he even give her in return?

What would he be able to give her?

What can he offer her that she doesn’t already possess?

Does he bring joy? Does he offer security?

What does he have to offer her?

John had to look up at her, stretching his neck to get a clear view of her face. Towering over him, much like her father would tower over many others around him.

Her mother, Meredith, warned him about her daughter’s height and intimidating presence beforehand. He assumed it was some kind of joke. An oddly specific joke.

Seeing her in person now? He started to swallow down the words of doubt piling up. Eat each word, each one as they clawed, crawled from the depths of his throat.

She had given him her file, and it made his skin crawl once I started looking through it. Her genetics written in the many medical forms. In greater detail than he bargained for.

Boomer hasn’t spoken to her mother since her parents divorced. She was nine years old at the time. Her opinion of her mother changed when the affair came to light. She couldn’t even look at her.

Adamant in her refusal to be around her. She wanted to stay with her father. She didn’t want to live with her mother and the affair partner.

Not only that, but she wanted nothing to do with her or her ‘uncle’.

Boomer never changed her mind on her choice. Not even once.

What took precedence over the other mission?

What did her mother hope to achieve by doing this?

Boomer, a daughter, descendant of a lineage of soldiers, political figures, legislators, and engineers. A young woman taught to be self-sufficient, independent, self-reliant, and autonomous.

What could he even give her in return?

What would he be able to give her?

What can he offer her that she doesn’t already possess?

Does he bring joy? Does he offer security?

What does he have to offer her?

Boomer, the operative with 'quirks' inside of her genetic DNA. According to the information, her mother had provided him. Heavily documented, recorded, detailed enough to make any scientist and genetics researcher wet their slacks.

The files listed them in great detail to make sure nothing was or ever will be left up in the air for assumption, postulation, conjecture or theorised.

Mental, physical, and technical prowess, all rolled into one intimidating package — that's how John Price saw the Australian operative.

All written down by numerous doctors, specialists, consultants, physicians, and practitioners.

Mental traits passed down to her from her father's side of the family genetics were:

Eidetic Memory: Also known as photographic memory and total recall. Essentially, it’s the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision for at least a brief period of time.

Hyperthymesia: This condition is known as Hyperthymestic syndrome or high superior autobiographical memory (HSAM). Leadings to people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of life experiences in vivid detail.

Indefatigability: This is a trait that allows Boomer to never get tired, even when everyone around her is begging for a break.

Physical traits passed down to her from her father's side of the family genetics were:

Hypermobility Syndrome: Also known as double-jointness. Which means the joints can move beyond the normal range of motion. Often stretching farther than the norm. Some hypermobile people can bend their thumbs backwards to their wrists and bend their knee joints backwards.

High Pain Tolerance: The ability to endure pain without succumbing to it. A trait that would come in handy in the line of work she's chosen.

Efficient Metabolism: A high metabolic rate that supports her indefatigability, keeping her energised and allowing for rapid recovery after physical exertion.

He had to take a short break to process through this new information. Boomer would be inducted into the task force sometime before the month was over.

In need to make sure this was the right choice for his squad, as well as Boomer, the woman in question. Her mother certainly didn’t.

John Price picked up the phone and dialled a familiar number, one that had been etched in his mind for years.

“Meredith,” he began, his voice ringing the bulk of his considerations, “I need to know more about your daughter's condition. What aren't you telling me?”

The silence between them stretched on painfully as a result. John had an on again, off again relationship with her for the past three years.

What would this mean for Boomer?

He imagined Boomer saying, 'Cheaters like her cheat serially without compassion' with the same conviction that she'd say, 'A bullet doesn’t care how much you believe it won't hit you'. He recognised she wasn’t one to forgive easily or ever.

Most likely, she had gridlocked her mother out of her thoughts entirely, and that was something he had to be ready for once she allied with the team.

“Look, Meredith, I need both sides, not just the father’s. Don’t put your own bias by removing your flaws from the equation. It won’t be fair for my team and ultimately you are withholding information from your own child.” John sighed disappointed Meredith didn’t put the entire genetic history forward into her medical file.

John looked up from the medical file in his hand, “It reeks of personal bias. I don’t understand why you would prevent her from learning these things.”

Meredith’s voice quivered over the line, “I wanted to protect her, John. You know what they’ll do if they find out she’s got my genes. They’ll turn her into a lab rat, not a soldier. You have to promise me, you’ll keep this between us.”

“You can’t protect her if you can’t be bothered to tell her the truth.”

Traits from her mother’s side of the family still remains a large unknown. Even to Boomer herself. She still doesn’t know what they entail for her and her health.

And considering she hadn’t spoken to her mother since her parent’s divorce at the age of ten. Even then, school took precedence, and her father fought for full custody.

Her father didn’t care what she wore growing up, as long as she wore clothes. He received backlash from it after the mothers at the school noticed how he parented Boomer.

As well-behaved as Boomer was. Her father wasn't above the ire of the housewives, the stay-at-home mothers, the ones who saw her father's nonchalance as a form of neglect. Boomer knew better, her father didn't talk much, but he fixed more teddy bears than anyone she knew.

His tools were his words, his workshop his sanctuary, and his love, unspoken but as sturdy as the furniture he crafted. She often found refuge in his workshop, the smell of sawdust and the hum of his machines, comforting. It was here she discovered her love for tinkering, for creating, and for fixing things.

“D'ya think ebony varnish would look good for the bee's aviary?” Boomer asked one afternoon.

Her father, a six-foot ten giant of a man, broad shoulders, grey streaked beard, he didn't have the typical military buzzcut like most men inside the military.

Any blueprints he looked over for Boomer were meticulously studied, each piece of wood measured, sanded, and crafted with precision. Her curiosity grew with every project they completed together.

Sometimes, she frequently found herself lost in thought about the mysterious talents she might have inherited from her mother's lineage.

The odd questions, which slowly became rather uncomfortable, too personal and delving far too deep into personal information. If either one of them answered them, told them.

“I don’t feel comfortable talking about this with you. Can you please stop asking about it?”

They hated that answer.

Loathed it even.

Assumed they were anti-social losers of some kind.

They remarked that Boomer wasn’t ‘female’ enough because she wore overalls after school, got her hands dirty, played violent video games and loved horror movies.

Comments of:

‘If she was my daughter, I would have taken those violent video games from her and sent her to ballet classes’

‘If she were my wife she would not be allowed to leave the house dressed like that, she needs to learn to be a real woman’

‘Why is she so tall, she’s going to scare the men away’

‘What happened to her, is she a tomboy, why can’t she be more like a lady’

They echoed in the room like a symphony of ignorance.

Small comments to her father's disdain grew into a crescendo of whispers that followed her everywhere.

Meaning to those mothers. Boomer is the definition of the word ugly.

He didn't know mothers could get this vile or even be able to sleep at night being this level of horrid.

Part of him wanted to walk up to each one of those mothers and shake them until they saw some kind of sense between their ears. Telling them to leave his daughter alone.

He also knew he couldn’t do it and get away with it on legal terms.

What he could do? Send a passive-aggressive letter to each one of the mothers to get them to leave Boomer alone, or he would dig up so much dirt on them, they’ll regret ever speaking about his daughter in the first place.

The same moms who were poking, prodding and invading his privacy.

“You sure you want to give them those letters? They won’t or might not react all too nicely to them, dad.”

“It’s also for your safety, Boomer.”

“I know. I know. It just feels….nasty. Petty. Going down to their level.”

“Bullies often pick on those they deem to be weak or too shy to stand up for themselves. Often assuming just because the person they target is too weak to do anything about it.”

“I thought you said they also have a rough home life, too.”

“Children are bullies. Often because they have a rough home life because they have awful parents who shouldn’t have been parents.”

“And?”

“It means they never saw what they did was the wrong thing. They didn’t see it as a problem. Now, they’re still making everyone else’s life miserable.”

“These women could just double down on their stance.”

“And they could also take the hint. We won’t know until we find out.”

“Ten bucks to say they will.”

“Ten bucks and an extra week of laundry, they will take the hint.”

“Fingers crossed they don't get physical.”

“Fingers crossed they leave you alone.”

“Only one way, someone is gonna win this bet.”

“It's to let it play out.”

[kira-akira]

Bernie Sanders Introduces Long COVID Moonshot Legislation

This legislation "provides $1 billion in mandatory funding per year for 10 years to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support Long COVID research, the urgent pursuit of treatments, and the expansion of care for patients across the country." Announcement on Sander's twitter and the Long COVID Moonshot website.

This announcement references the number 22 million for adults affected by Long COVID in the US but that number is certainly much higher; in 2022 the CDC reported that 7.5% of US adults have Long COVID and that number can only have increased.

Here is an article published today on PBS if you need a primer or a refresher on what Long COVID is and why everyone needs to care about it. From the article:

"Long COVID is a complex chronic condition that can result in more than 200 health effects across multiple body systems. These include:

Heart disease

Neurologic problems such as cognitive impairment, strokes and dysautonomia. This is a category of disorders that affect the body’s autonomic nervous system – nerves that regulate most of the body’s vital mechanisms such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature.

Post-exertional malaise, a state of severe exhaustion that may happen after even minor activity — often leaving the patient unable to function for hours, days or weeks

Gastrointestinal disorders

Kidney disease

Metabolic disorders such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, or a rise in bad cholesterol

Immune dysfunction"

I know it's easy to give into despair but THERE IS HOPE for the future! For decreasing transmission of COVID-19, for developing preventatives against Long COVID, and for treating Long COVID. To highlight just a few of the possible pathways to prevention and treatment being currently researched:

The possibility of using antivirals to treat not just Long COVID but any autoimmune disease

The development of N95 masks that can sense SARS-CoV-2 in exhaled breath using a printed immunosensor

A nasal vaccine that halts transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (though does not stop the user from developing COVID-19)

A Japanese research team is looking to treat COVID-19 by using embryonic stem cells to target the virus

The possibility of using already-developed arthritis drugs to treat Long COVID respiratory symptoms

Researchers just identified a possible protein to target in treating Long COVID fatigue

This is an incredibly small collection of studies researching potential treatments but they themselves and the decades of research they are built on had to be funded. In fact, since the pandemic began, more than 24,000 scientific publications about COVID-19 have been published, making it the most researched health condition in any four years of recorded human history.

So there is hope! But all this research needs money. Money that Long COVID Moonshot will provide. And while we wait for research to bear fruit, that $1 billion per year will also be crucial in caring for those suffering from Long COVID in the meantime.

So What Can You Do?

Keep masking - We've just hit 900,000 new COVID cases per day in the US and this wave is not even at its peak yet (For reference, Fauci stated back in 2021 that getting under 10,000 cases per day would allow for mask mandates and safety measures to relax...)

Go on the Long COVID Moonshot website and write to your legislators in support (You can use their script, it only takes 1 minute!)

Keep yourselves and others informed - On the Moonshot website they also offer handy graphics and facts sheets that you can post wherever you can. Spread the word!

And if you or someone you know has Long COVID, you can write in to the Long COVID Moonshot website about your experience

And remember, no one is safe from Long COVID; your chances of developing Long COVID increase with every reinfection. Until research like what Long COVID Moonshot will fund discovers viable preventatives and treatments, the only way to not get Long COVID is to not get COVID-19 in the first place.

Stay safe, stay hopeful, support Long COVID Moonshot, and mask up!

[beardedmrbean]

House lawmakers have voted to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he was thrown out of President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.

Ten Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the measure. Green himself voted "present," along with first-term Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala.

"Al Green's childish outburst exposed the chaos and dysfunction within the Democrat party since President Trump's overwhelming win in November and his success in office thus far. It is not surprising 198 Democrats refused to support Green's censure given their history of radical, inflammatory rhetoric fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital.

Before the formal censure could be read out to Green, however, Democrats upended House floor proceedings by gathering with the Texas Democrat and singing "We shall overcome." Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was forced to call the House into a recess after failing multiple times to quell the protest.

Decorum eroded further afterwards, with several Democrats including "Squad" member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., engaging in a heated exchange with Republicans, including first-term Rep. Ryan MacKenzie, R-Pa.

The 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green are Reps. Ami Bera, D-Calif.; Ed Case, D-Hawaii; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Laura Gillen, D-N.Y.; Jim Himes, D-Conn.; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

Republicans raced to introduce competing resolutions to censure Green on Wednesday, with three separate texts being drafted within hours of each other.

Fox News Digital was told that Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., whose resolution got a vote on the House floor Thursday morning, had reached out to Johnson about a censure resolution immediately after Trump's speech ended on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus had aimed to make good on a threat to censure any Democrats who protested Trump's speech, and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, crafted his own censure resolution against Green that got more than 30 House GOP co-sponsors.

But Newhouse took to the House floor on Wednesday afternoon to deem his resolution "privileged," a maneuver forcing House leaders to take up a bill within two legislative days.

Newhouse told Fox News Digital after the vote, "President Trump’s address to Congress was not a debate or a forum; he was invited by the speaker to outline his agenda for the American people. The actions by my colleague from Texas broke the rules of decorum in the House, and he must be held accountable."

A bid by House Democrats to block the resolution from getting a vote failed on Wednesday. Green himself voted "present."

The 77-year-old Democrat was removed from Trump's joint address to Congress on Tuesday night after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president's speech.

He shouted, "You have no mandate!" at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.

Johnson had Green removed by the U.S. Sergeant-at-Arms.

It was part of a larger issue with Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday night, with many engaging in both silent and vocal acts of protest against Trump. Democrats were also chided for not standing up to clap when Trump designated a 13-year-old boy an honorary Secret Service agent.

The House speaker publicly challenged Democrats to vote with Republicans in favor of the censure on Thursday.

"Despite my repeated warnings, he refused to cease his antics, and I was forced to remove him from the chamber," Johnson posted on X. "He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort."

Green, who shook Newhouse's hand before speaking out during debate on his own censure, stood by his actions on Wednesday.

"I heard the speaker when he said that I should cease. I did not, and I did not with intentionality. It was not done out of a burst of emotion," Green said.

"I think that on some questions, questions of conscience, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences. And I have said I will. I will suffer whatever the consequences are, because I don't believe that in the richest country in the world, people should be without good healthcare."

Other recent lawmakers censured on the House floor have been Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and now-Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

[jtwb768-babbles]

Once Upon a Gavel: The Court of Forget-Me-Nots

Once upon a time, in the glittering ivory spires of the capital of the United States of Amnesia, there stood a mighty, unshakeable temple. It was said to be the final word on justice, the last breath of reason, and the ultimate guardian of the sacred scrolls known as the Constitution. This temple had nine thrones, each carved from the petrified bark of the Tree of Selective Memory, and it was…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Olivia Troye at Living It With Olivia:

Elon Musk has officially announced his departure from the Trump administration, stepping down as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, in name and irony. The announcement followed closely on the heels of a blistering CBS interview aired earlier this week, where Musk made his disillusionment unmistakably clear: [“I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. I don’t think it could be both.”] He was referring to President Trump’s latest budget bill, a $3.8 trillion deficit driver loaded with pet projects, retaliation slush funds, and performative cuts dressed up as reform. It's the kind of legislation that tells you everything about this administration's priorities: consolidating power, not governing effectively. Let's not romanticize Musk's role. He signed up for this. He knew what he was getting into, or at least he should have. But even he couldn't survive the dysfunction. His exit, after just six months, speaks volumes. Granted, he does have to go legally, given the spot he occupied in the government as a Special Government Employee, but since when does the Trump Administration abide by the law? That to me is the biggest tell. No extension or lies covering up for you, Mr. Musk. The man who redefined electric vehicles and launched rockets into space just got grounded by Trump's Washington. Musk came in promising $2 trillion in government savings. Instead, he claimed $175 billion in government cost-saving initiatives, many of which can't be verified. The rest? Red tape, infighting, and a political environment where facts are inconvenient, and loyalty is currency. He got what he wanted, though, access. His companies benefited from proximity, and he walked away with the keys to more information than most Americans will ever know exists. Databases that were purposely separated to prevent one individual or group from gaining access to all that data at once. Russia also enjoyed a nice piece of it, and I'm not talking about the perfect American honeypot. At one point, Musk’s DOGE team was granted extraordinary access to data inside the Department of Treasury, including internal audits, financial compliance systems, and even elements of IRS enforcement targeting. Where did all that information go? Who has it now? What protections were put in place, if any? Remember this whole fiasco? But hey, if nothing else, in addition to destroying the lives and careers of many public servants, he gave us a government era defined by endless, bizarre references to “Big Balls.” Perhaps that’s the legacy he wanted. Someone should commission a plaque for the U.S. Department of Treasury’s lobby. 

Musk’s departure isn’t just a headline; it’s a symptom. A sign that even billionaires with moonshot visions can't navigate the wreckage Trump has made of governance. Too bad the Trump propaganda machine knew this day would come and has been laying the groundwork for months to ensure that the MAGA crowd doesn’t connect the dots enough to realize that his departure is a red flag. In recent months, Trump-aligned media and surrogates began deliberately distancing themselves from Musk. Once a vocal Musk fan, Steve Bannon dismissed him after Trump reportedly denied Musk access to a classified Pentagon briefing. Conservative outlets started pushing the narrative that Musk was no longer aligned with Trump’s agenda. The point was clear: if Musk walked away, they wanted the base primed to believe it was because he wasn’t loyal enough.

Elon Musk said his goodbyes to the Trump Administration. During his time as a part of it, he helped decimated our country along with TACO Trump.

See Also:

The Guardian: Elon Musk announces exit from US government role after breaking with Trump on tax bill

AP, via HuffPost: Elon Musk Is Leaving The Trump Administration After Criticizing President's 'Big Beautiful Bill'

[tomorrowusa]

Trump hasn't been sworn in and the 119th Congress won't be seated until January. But Republicans are already proving that they can't govern competently.

An almost routine continuing resolution (CR) has been botched with an assist by Elon Putz. Now there could be a government shutdown by Christmas.

With a government shutdown deadline looming tomorrow, Trump blew up the bipartisan deal for a continuing resolution to fund the government through mid-March via an unhinged social media post late Wednesday afternoon. The details of the CR itself barely matter because this isn’t about legislation or compromise or striking a deal. It’s about creating a public spectacle, and nothing made that more clear than Trump’s last-minute demand that Congress raise the debt ceiling before he even takes office. Those are the facts of what happened, but after years of GOP brinksmanship, chronic self-ownage, disarray, and dysfunction, it is hard to credibly muster the same kind of alarm or dismay in the face of these facts. Republicans created this debacle on purpose. They own it. They are the only ones who can stop it. Elected Democrats can’t save Republicans from themselves, aren’t to blame for this folly, and are merely bystanders like the rest of us to performative hijinks that are divorced from the reality of governance. Real people will be hurt or will have to endure another round of living under the threat of harm. It’s a colossal waste of public resources and private emotional energy. It’s another spectacle for the sake of spectacle, and we are not even the audience.

Elon Musk is somehow a citizen of three countries: the US, Canada, and South Africa. Yet this semi-foreigner is allowed to meddle with the US government.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a typical obsequious MAGA weenie. But that didn't stop Trump from siding with Elon against him. Now Johnson's speakership may be in danger.

Donald Trump Sides With Elon Musk Against Mike Johnson Over Spending Bill

Be sure to put popcorn on your list for last minute shopping.

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review VII (WA 2025): Stop Pedophiles! Protect kiddies!

Prior reviews (as the Democratic Labour Party, although whether this is them is debated—see below for why): federal 2013, VIC 2014 (1 and 2), federal 2016, VIC 2018, federal 2019, VIC 2022

What I said before: n/a, see below

What I think this year: Settle in, folks. Get some snacks, crack open a beer, and make yourself comfortable. Here is the most batshit review of this WA state election cycle.

On 13 February 2024, a group acting under the name of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) applied for registration at state level in WA. This took forever, and it was not until 16 September 2024 that the party was registered—with other parties achieving registration much more quickly in the interim (even One Nation, who are famously dysfunctional!). Not long afterwards, the Australian Labor Party introduced legislation to the state parliament to prohibit parties from registering with names similar to that of existing parties, akin to legislation that exists at federal level. This passed into law on 15 November 2024, with one clause specifying that if two parties currently on the register shared the same word in their official name, the party that had used the word for longest could claim it. The legislation was drafted intelligently enough to account for variant spellings, and the Democratic Labour Party had to change its name because its registration was much newer than the Australian Labor Party, who had the superior claim to "labo(u)r".

The DLP WA submitted a new name on 6 December 2024, and within the following quotation marks I am reproducing it exactly as formatted: “Stop Pedophiles! Protect kiddies!” Yes, American spelling of "paedophiles"; no, no capital K. This name was approved on 14 January 2025 and I will refer to them as SPPK from here on. Before the name change, the party had been courting Wilson Tucker—yes, the bloke elected in 2021 for the Daylight Saving Party off just 98 first preferences under the thankfully now-abolished system of Group Ticket Voting—but this new name was so bad that he pulled the pin and is not contesting the election at all.

It seems the name change got sufficient attention outside WA that the DLP (who for now are only registered in Victoria and the ACT) felt compelled to respond. And hoo boy, what a response! The DLP is adamant that they have “never been registered in Western Australia” and that SPPK “has absolutely no association with us and does not share our values, policies or democratic processes”. They instead urge their supporters in WA to vote for the Australian Christians, which to me is fascinating as the DLP is a historically Catholic party and the Australian Christians are historically Protestant.

But it gets thornier. There is no website for a party called “Stop Pedophiles! Protect kiddies!”, nor for a WA branch of the DLP, and I cannot find any social media accounts either (let me know if you can!). Their lead candidate for the Legislative Council—and 11 of 17 overall—is identified only by a first initial and their last name. Every other candidate for the Legislative Council (and I mean every single one for all other parties) is on the ballot under their full first name, not only their initial. This is plain weird.

The lead candidate for SPPK in the Legislative Council is one “H. Dolan”. The WA Electoral Commission’s register of political parties lists the SPPK party secretary as Hugh Dolan, who is presumably the same person. Back in 2022, a Hugh Dolan stood as the lead candidate for the DLP in North Eastern Metropolitan at the Victorian state election. Hugh’s son Thomas Dolan ran for Labour DLP as a candidate in the Bayswater (Victoria) electorate at the same election and came a very distant sixth, then he founded the short-lived Gen Z Party (never registered) and got dismantled in an interview with fellow gen-Z interviewer Leo Puglisi. In that interview, Thomas described his father as “this crazy old man” and referred to “all this party infighting” within the DLP. Thomas diverged with his father on a range of policies and left the party.

Has Hugh moved to Perth, registered the DLP at state level, and then been disowned by the rest of the party? Is this the latest chapter of the infighting that Thomas described? I genuinely cannot be sure because of the paucity of information from the party has left me with no way to confirm whether Hugh Dolan of West Perth is the same bloke who stood for the DLP in Victoria in 2022. It seems likely! But unconfirmed. Trying to track down this party online was frankly more tedious than trying to track down most random independents, and that’s quite something given how badly some of these people campaign. It mystifies me how Hugh Dolan found so many friends prepared to put their name on the ballot for the WA Legislative Council: there are 17 candidates for SPPK, with only the Liberals and Labor standing more on their slates. Dolan also somehow rustled up three SPPK candidates to contest Armadale, Joondalup, and Mandurah in the lower house! Wherever this party is organising and campaigning, it is not online where an ordinary voter can get the slightest idea of who they are or what their policies might be.

What I expected to write for this review was something to the effect that “it’s incredibly funny that a party aligned with Catholicism is running on an anti-paedophile platform given how many paedophiles the Roman Catholic Church has protected and how often it has sought to deny justice to victims of paedophilia”. What I got was something even more absurd.

I have never, and I mean never, in my 12 years of doing these reviews and 20 years of voting across Australia and NZ, found it impossible to get even a skerrick of information about the policy platform of an actual registered party. Well, here we are!

Recommendation: Give Stop Pedophiles! Protect kiddies! a weak or no preference in the Legislative Council. If you are in the Legislative Assembly seats of Armadale, Joondalup, or Mandurah, where you must preference all candidates, you need to make a judgement call on whether SPPK should go dead last as a totally unknown quantity, or whether to put them above known terrible quantities like One Nation. I personally would go dead last, as the DLP connection does not imply much positive.

Website: I haven’t found one!

Edit, 7 March: see my first update and second update (including website!)

[mariacallous]

This summer, the Supreme Court is poised to overturn a cornerstone of administrative law known as "Chevron deference." Established in the 1984 case Chevron v. NRDC, this doctrine instructs courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of laws where the underlying statute is ambiguous (or even silent). Absent Chevron, Congress could be forced to be much more specific in how it crafts legislation, delegates authority, and conducts regulatory oversight. If it refuses to adapt, agencies could be incapacitated and service delivery could stall.

Ironically, the effort to dismantle Chevron and return responsibility to the legislative branch may happen amid a historically unproductive and divided Congress. Briefing and oral arguments for Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the case challenging the 1984 decision, raised questions about Congress' preparedness. And outside the Court, commentators fear Congress may be too broken to fix.

As close watchers of efforts to modernize Congress over the past decade, we don't share that pessimism. But a lot will have to change. In the 40 years since Chevron was decided, Congress has seen worsening dysfunction and atrophy. Staffing on House committees has shrunk by 41 percent. Critical support offices like the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office have downsized by more than 25 percent. Meanwhile, the complexity of the federal bureaucracy has increased immensely.

While Chevron is often described as diminishing congressional authority, that's not entirely accurate. Rather than stealing authority from Congress, the ruling created the political conditions for Congress to be deliberately ambiguous, and punt contentious policy details to the executive branch. This change was then followed by a hollowing out of committee expertise, increased dependence on lobbyists, centralization of power in leadership, and more gridlock. As attorney Paul Clement argued in Loper Bright v. Raimondo:

Chevron is a big factor in contributing to gridlock. And let me give you a concrete example. I would think that the uniquely 21st-century phenomenon of cryptocurrency would have been addressed by Congress, and I certainly would have thought that would have been true in the wake of the FTX debacle. But it hasn't happened. Why hasn't it happened? Because there's an agency head out there that thinks that he already has the authority to address this uniquely 21st-century problem with a couple of statutes passed in the 1930s.

A post-Chevron world could force Congress to increase its internal capacity, invest in expertise, overhaul its processes, better monitor implementation, and respond more quickly. If not, depending where SCOTUS comes down, things could start to break.

Massive institutional reforms in Congress are rare and usually come in response to a crisis or scandal, whether post-Nixon budget changes, post-Jack Abramoff lobbying reform, or post-9/11 security changes (including the embrace of email after Anthrax attacks).

More recently, we saw continuity upgrades accelerated during the pandemic, and Congress is now responding with remarkable haste to responsibly adopt AI tools. Since 2019, a bipartisan modernization effort in the House has produced and implemented over 100 reforms, creating a virtuous cycle in which members, staff, and outside experts work together to improve the institution.

Post-Chevron, these efforts need to be dramatically expanded. This will require not just incremental adjustments but a comprehensive upgrade in resources, staffing, and operations. It will require a major increase to the legislative branch's budget even as the U.S. faces a difficult fiscal outlook. Indeed, while Congress is a mere 0.1 percent of federal expenditures, it has long been a salient and politically expedient place for politicians to make cuts.

One key area where Congress will need to improve is its regulatory monitoring and oversight. AEI scholars Kevin Kosar and Philip Wallach proposed a vehicle for this change: a new "Congressional Regulation Office" (CRO). The CRO would undertake critical tasks such as conducting benefit-cost analyses of significant agency rules, performing retrospective reviews to assess the effectiveness and impact of existing regulations, and identifying redundancies or conflicts across the regulatory landscape. Another approach would be to build this function inside of an existing agency, such as the Government Accountability Office or the Congressional Budget Office.

In addition to building a new regulatory support function, Congress will need to bolster its staff capacity and technology resources, with a particular focus on committees with substantial regulatory jurisdiction, as well as support agencies.

Unfortunately, to date, we are unaware of any major hearings or other efforts in Congress to address this challenge. Meanwhile, court watchers see that an upheaval to Chevron is coming. Regardless of where you come down on the merits of the case, it's crucial to get ready. While most will be focused on the November election throughout 2024, some of the biggest changes coming to Congress may soon be decided by nine votes.

[yourreddancer]

sSoeondrtpf4c522l9fl918h5a1ug65713ugmu731utgh0hllg84l47c2lc6  · 

Elizabeth MacDonough doesn’t give fiery speeches on the Senate floor. She doesn’t pound podiums, tweet clapbacks, or beg for airtime on cable news. Most people couldn’t pick her out of a photo lineup. But this week, she did more to derail Donald Trump’s legislative fever dream than any Democrat in Congress. With nothing but a binder, a brain, and a spine forged from 230 years of procedural precedent, she calmly gutted the “Big, Beautiful Bill” — and sent the Republican Party into a frothing, incandescent rage.

Here’s the part that should terrify the GOP: she’s not even elected. She’s the Senate Parliamentarian, the nonpartisan referee responsible for interpreting the arcane rulebook that governs the world’s most dysfunctional deliberative body. She doesn’t write laws. She doesn’t vote. She doesn’t grandstand. Her job is simple: enforce the rules, no matter who’s in charge. And when Republicans tried to use reconciliation — a fast-track process meant for tweaking budgets — to shove through a far-right wishlist of land seizures, healthcare rollbacks, and anti-trans cruelty, she read the fine print and dropped the hammer.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” was supposed to be Trump’s magnum opus: a tax-slashing, Medicaid-burning, land-devouring beast of a bill that would reshape America in his image. It included everything from selling off millions of acres of federal public land to states and private developers, to gutting Medicaid for low-income families, immigrants, and trans people, to defunding Planned Parenthood and hacking away at environmental protections like they were weeds in a billionaire’s backyard. It was grotesque. It was rushed. And it was entirely dependent on sliding past Senate rules without a fight.

Elizabeth MacDonough was the fight. She reviewed the bill’s contents and ruled — piece by piece — that major provisions violated the Byrd Rule, which bars unrelated ideological junk from hitching a ride on budget bills. The land sell-off? Not budgetary. Out. The Medicaid provider tax cap? Out. The bans on gender-affirming care, immigrant coverage, and ACA subsidies? Out. The GOP was left holding a gutted husk, their legislative trophy reduced to a few tax cuts and a pile of redacted dreams.

This wasn’t sabotage. This was MacDonough doing her job — the job she’s held since 2012, appointed under a Democratic majority, and respected by both parties until it became inconvenient. She is the Senate’s quiet guardian of process, a civil servant who doesn’t answer to polls, Super PACs, or social media mobs. Her loyalty is to the rules — even as the people around her treat those rules like a hotel minibar. She doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t yield. She simply reads the law and applies it, with the precision of a scalpel and the force of a freight train.

And oh, how the GOP hates her for it.

Mike Lee, who tried to shove his public lands fire sale into the bill like it was a foreclosure listing, is already scrambling to rewrite the language and sneak it back in. Trump, fuming from whatever taxpayer-funded golf course he’s currently defiling, is screaming about “deep state rule tyrants.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune is getting asked uncomfortable questions about whether it’s time to “review” the Parliamentarian’s role — a polite way of saying, “Can we fire her for being smarter than us?”

Because that’s the rub. They didn’t lose because the Democrats outmaneuvered them. They didn’t lose because of public pressure or media backlash. They lost because a woman they barely understand said, quite plainly, “You can’t do that.” And when they asked why, she handed them the rulebook. And when they tried to argue, she pointed to precedent. And when they blustered, she didn’t even blink.

Elizabeth MacDonough has no political agenda. That’s what makes her so dangerous to people who do. She exists outside their theater. She answers to no party. And yet, she is currently one of the most powerful people in Washington — not because she makes the laws, but because she refuses to let anyone break them.

So no, she didn’t kill the Big, Beautiful Bill. The GOP killed it themselves — by trying to use budget procedure as a battering ram for authoritarian fantasy. MacDonough simply told the truth. And in 2025, that might be the most radical thing anyone in government can do.

Let the Republicans rant. Let them plot her removal. Let them rewrite their monstrosities and try again. But remember this: when the bulldozers were revving, when the Medicaid cuts were inked, and when Trump’s wrecking ball of a bill was barreling toward the American people — it wasn’t a senator who stopped it. It wasn’t a protest. It was a woman with a binder and a backbone.

We see you, Elizabeth. And we thank you.