Thru The Back Door

Trump's fuckery is unlimited.

Every time we think it can't get worse,

he makes it worse.

There is no bottom.

But anyway -

Project 2025 is basically a plan to re-jigger the executive branch, in service of pushing hard for The Unitary Executive - which the wingnuts have been slavering over for decades.

Two things come to mind whenever I look at what President Musk and his frontman Trump have been doing the last 7 weeks.

First, it seems clear to me that the DOGE nonsense is at least partly about bringing the Line Item Veto back into play. This has been a major hobby horse for "conservatives" as far back as US Grant. Then Nixon's impoundment antics prompted legislation to outlaw that shit, and it popped up big in the Reagan years. They got Clinton to sign on for it in the mid-90s, but it got knocked down by SCOTUS in just a few years.

So it looks a lot like DOGE is an attempt to bring it in thru the back door.

Second, another bit they're trying to sneak in on us is the whole Schedule F thing - where they fire a huge number of career federal workers, and then hire (ie: appoint) people who are sufficiently loyal to Project 2025's ideology and objectives - where the ideological loyalty is disguised as loyalty to Trump.

All this shit is classic Republican fuckery on steroids.

1. Fuck something up
2. Wait for people to feel the pain, and start to push back
3. Bring in the changes you wanted to make all along, "per the mandate of the people"

Granted, government needs to work better - nobody disputes that. But only a very few obscenely wealthy assholes want to remake the whole thing so it fits the standard Animal Instincts Business Model.

Ready For A Showdown?

Random-ish thoughts:

• We have to tax the rich now, so we don't have to eat them later
• Double the Social Security cap, and the system is good for generations. Remove it, and the surplus takes care of practically everything seniors will ever need
• Tell Elon to keep his grubby mitts off my stuff
• Republicans aren't trying to eliminate waste fraud and abuse - they're trying to install it. If you're impressed with the way the Russian military is working, you're gonna love privatized schools and Social Security

IF WE TAX THE RICH NOW

WE WON'T HAVE TO EAT THEM LATER

Today's Today

March 4, 1789

236 years ago, the US Constitution went into effect.

I'm creating this post almost 13 months before it'll go live, hoping we'll still have a good shot at preserving the rule of law here in USAmerica, Inc.

HAPPY

CONSTITUTION

DAY

Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. Its first three words – “We The People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. The supremacy of the people through their elected representatives is recognized in Article I, which creates a Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The positioning of Congress at the beginning of the Constitution affirms its status as the “First Branch” of the federal government.

The Constitution assigned to Congress responsibility for organizing the executive and judicial branches, raising revenue, declaring war, and making all laws necessary for executing these powers. The president is permitted to veto specific legislative acts, but Congress has the authority to override presidential vetoes by two-thirds majorities of both houses. The Constitution also provides that the Senate advise and consent on key executive and judicial appointments and on the approval for ratification of treaties.

For over two centuries the Constitution has remained in force because its framers successfully separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the federal and state governments. More a concise statement of national principles than a detailed plan of governmental operation, the Constitution has evolved to meet the changing needs of a modern society profoundly different from the eighteenth-century world in which its creators lived. To date, the Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992. The first ten amendments constitute the Bill of Rights.

About That Memo

Government agencies have no idea what to do about Musk’s email

An email sent to 2.3 million workers asking them to outline their work last week is leading to confusion and differing instructions across the government.

The State Department told employees not to answer it. Employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were told: Definitely reply. And in some parts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers received instructions to draft a response but not send it yet.

After Elon Musk led a move to email all 2.3 million government workers over the weekend asking them to share five bullet points detailing what they accomplished last week, chaos and confusion reigned. Agencies issued conflicting guidance, as did different divisions within the same agency, in some cases.

Raising the stakes, Musk warned in a post on X that any employee who failed to respond would be treated as having resigned. But the email sent to workers made no mention of this possible consequence, which lawyers said would be illegal.

- more -

I don't work a government job, but I'm always looking to be of service to my country, so I consider myself "on the job" pretty much all the time.

So, of course, I felt the need to "comply", and I emailed this to hr@opm.gov:

 

Per your directive via email this evening (2-22-2025), here are the bullet points you requested, regarding my activities for the week ending 2-21-2025

• Picked the fly shit out of my pepper shaker
• Did some laundry
• Finished knitting a turtleneck sock
• Downloaded several clips of nude celebrities
• Went to the grocery store, and stopped at the 7-11 for a Power Ball ticket
• Made cheese dip - yummy, btw
• Noodled around on my new guitar (I'm learning another Dylan tune)
• Karened some random lady about picking up her dog's shit in the park
• Sent several postcards to the White House asking President Musk to fire that loser Trump guy
  

Your pal,

Mike

The Central Conceit

The generic statement of MAGA-style "thinking" is:

The government can't be trusted

Now that MAGA is the government - and the fact that they haven't abandoned that sentiment - there's no doubt in my mind that what we're seeing from the rank-n-file movement and their leader is depression and self-loathing turned outwards, manifesting itself in hostility and aggression.

And that's typical of the authoritarian mindset.

Hitler didn't love Germany. He believed Germans had allowed themselves to be fooled and betrayed - and he hated them for it. But what he choose to do about it was to fool them in a different way, and in the end, to betray them just the same. He had to - he hated them.

He dragged his country into the abyss as a way to compensate for his own self-image of being crippled with shame, and a desperate denial that, ultimately, he wasn't worthy of the adulation that he sought and demanded. The more he gained, the more sure he was that he didn't deserve it, and that he needed to be punished for his ever increasing appetite, while at the same time, needing to demand more and more from his devotees in order to cover his inadequacies (which, of course, he couldn't allow himself ever to admit).

With Trump, it's not hard to see some very close parallels, but the problem behind the problem is that he's just the front man being manipulated by people who are absolutely bent on - and no longer shy about - tearing everything down in order to install a corporate-style plutocracy.

Trump has been named CEO, with Elon in the role of COO, all being overseen by a Board Of Directors (the cabinet), with liaisons from the major sectors of the economy - Finance, Manufacturing, Commodities, Transportation, Utilities, etc.

Welcome

We are

New Guy

I'm not unsympathetic, but I really don't understand how you look at the good things the Biden gang was doing for you, and then turn your back and vote for a guy who's never told anybody the truth in his whole miserable fucking life. Especially, when the whole Republican party has spent decades bitchin' about "over-spending", and how they intend to "starve the beast" and then "drown it in the bathtub".

What the fuck doesn't click for these people?

So I don't know how this guy intends to bring anybody around by talking nice and being all un-judge-y and shit. But hope springs eternal, and maybe we can look forward to a shift back towards reality.

IDK. Conventional wisdom says Democrats "lost" rural America by turning their attention to the problems of the population centers, leaving an opening for a Nixon to swoop in and grab up the American south by playing on their phobias.

Maybe that's kinda run its course, and getting the "people of the land" to come back to their senses is how we make the turn and approach resolution.

8 minutes on "The Fourth Turning" by Straus and Howe

Civics

Call your congress critter

202-224-2131

Bill And Sarah

Starting at about 25:45, Sarah makes 2 great points

1. If Republicans want to cut stuff, let them do their fucking jobs and cut it out of a proper budget bill 
2. Trump is setting the pretext to ignore the courts when they try to rein in his excesses

Strangling

That IG Thing

Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

202-224-4751

TwiXter Republicans: @HSGAC_GOP

TwiXter Democrats: @HSGAC

Hi - my name is ______________, and I'm calling from ______________.

I expect the committee to investigate Mr Trump's illegal firing of the Inspectors General, which was in direct violation of the Inspector General Act of 1978.

I need to know if you'll be doing anything about it, or if we just have to sit here and let Trump and the GOP screw us with our pants on - again.

Inspector General Act of 1978

An Act to reorganize the executive branch of the Government and increase its economy and efficiency by establishing Offices of Inspector General within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, the Interior, Labor, and Transportation, and within the Community Services Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Veterans' Administration, and for other purposes.

• Enacted by the 95th United States Congress
• Effective October 1, 1978
• Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 12, 1978

The Inspector General Act of 1978 is a United States federal law (92 Stat. 1101) defining a standard set of Inspector General offices across several specified departments of the U.S. federal government.

The Act specifically creates Inspector General positions and offices in more than a dozen specific departments and agencies. The Act gave these inspectors general the authority to review the internal documents of their departments or offices. They were given responsibility to investigate fraud, to give policy advice (5 U.S.C. § 404; IG Act, sec. 4), to handle certain complaints by employees, and to report to the heads of their agencies and to Congress on their activities every six months (5 U.S.C. § 405; IG Act, sec. 5).

Many existing offices with names like Office of Audit, Office of Investigations, or similar were transferred, renamed, folded into the new IG offices.

The core of the law is in 5 U.S.C. § 403 (IG Act, sec. 3(a)): "There shall be at the head of each Office an Inspector General who shall be appointed by the President, without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, or investigations.

Each Inspector General shall report to and be under the general supervision of the head of the establishment involved or, to the extent such authority is delegated, the officer next in rank below such head, but shall not report to, or be subject to supervision by, any other officer of such establishment. Neither the head of the establishment nor the officer next in rank below such head shall prevent or prohibit the Inspector General from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit or investigation, or from issuing any subpoena during the course of any audit or investigation."

The Act and the Inspector General role were amended thirty years later by the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008,[3] which created the umbrella IG agency, Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).

In May 2020, after a series of IG firings for questionable causes, several House Democrats introduced a bill, H.R.6984, to amend the original act to protect against political retaliation and require just cause for IG dismissal.

Not A Good Start

So there won't be a honeymoon, and prices won't be coming down quickly, and the big-ass omnibus bill is a bit too complicated to get done before summer - if then - and the mass deportations will have wait a while, and at least some of Trump's cabinet picks are going to meet with resistance.

But hey - on the bright side, John Thune says he'll provide a little Congress 101 Tutorial for MAGA's mango-faced ape god so maybe he'll be a little less stupid about what it actually takes to get the whole governance thing done.

Fake Jesus have mercy.

On Sausage-Making

The gang of nine:

1. Roy
2. Massie
3. Norman
4. Biggs
5. Clyde
6. Cloud
7. Gosar
8. Harris
9. Perry

... with Spartz and Ogles in reserve.

And it just so happens that the new rules require 9 votes for a Motion To Vacate.

Johnson probably can't get anything done without throwing large bones to the Tantrum Caucus, so we might see an awful lot of monkey-in-the-middle type negotiations as he tries to get the Democrats to help him - which of course will require throwing large bones to them as well.

Blows My Mind

At this point, I think the bi-partisanship that everybody's been squawking for is all about Democrats and the normie - albeit gutless - Republicans teaming up against the MAGA freaks.

And it may be just too fuckin' weird to contemplate, but the "normie Republicans" may now include at least some of the Freedom Caucus Republicans.

Continuing GOP Fuckery

They never let up.

"Conservatives" have been gunning for Social Security for close to 90 years now. And it's the classic ploy - they refuse to do anything that might fix it, and in fact do things like drive up the debt and deficit so they can use "fiscal responsibility" as an excuse to kill off anything the government's involved with that doesn't put money in their pockets.

They won't say it, but we're right back to where they want to turn trillions of our retirement dollars over to their buddies on Wall Street so they can take some nice fat commission checks to the bank, and issue "Medicare vouchers" in order to make their other buddies in the Healthcare Insurance business wealthy beyond the dreams of Croesus.

Remember, Republicans want the government limited to just 3 basic tasks:

1. Defend business interests overseas
2. Keep the rabble in line here in USAmerica Inc
3. Settle contract disputes

Everything else is to be "privatized". (ie: converted to a coin-operated system)

Senate Finance chief rips GOP's 'backroom scheme' to cut Social Security

The chair of the Senate Finance Committee said legislation advanced Thursday by the GOP-controlled House Budget Committee is a "backroom scheme" to cut Social Security and Medicare outside of the regular political process, a warning that came as Republicans signaled their intention to attach the bill to a must-pass government funding measure.

"Republicans in Congress know their plans to gut Americans' Social Security and Medicare benefits are deeply unpopular, so they are resorting to schemes that short-circuit the legislative process, rushing through cuts to Americans' earned benefits," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said of the Fiscal Commission Act, which passed out of the House Budget Committee in a largely party-line vote.

Wyden argued Thursday that "the term fiscal commission' is the ultimate Washington buzzword, and it translates to trading away Americans' earned benefits in a secretive, closed-door process."

"Instead of trying to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid," Wyden added, "Republicans should work with Democrats to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share, which would go a long way towards securing Social Security and Medicare long into the future."

If passed, the Fiscal Commission Act would establish a bipartisan, bicameral, 16-member panel consisting of both lawmakers and individuals from the private sector, all chosen by congressional leaders.

The commission would be tasked with crafting and voting on policy recommendations for Social Security, Medicare, and other trust fund programs. If approved by the commission, the recommendations would receive expedited consideration in both the House and Senate, with no amendments to the final document allowed.

Social Security defenders have long warned that the GOP-led push for a fiscal commission is a ploy to slash the New Deal program, which helps keep tens of millions of seniors and children above the poverty line every year.

During Thursday's budget committee hearing, Republican members did nothing to assuage concerns about their intentions, voting down a proposed amendment from Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) that said the fiscal commission "shall propose recommendations to strengthen and secure Social Security" by "protecting Social Security benefits" and requiring the wealthy to contribute more to the program.

Republican committee members also rejected Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's (D-Texas) amendment stating that the fiscal commission "shall propose recommendations to strengthen and secure Medicare" by "protecting the traditional Medicare program" and extending its solvency by "requiring taxpayers with incomes above $400,000 to contribute more" and closing a loophole that allows rich business owners to avoid Medicare taxes.

"This bill should be opposed by any member of Congress who cares about Social Security, Medicare, and their constituents who depend on them."

At a press conference following Thursday's hearing, House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — a longtime supporter of deep Social Security and Medicare cuts — is "100% committed to this commission" and hopes to tie it to government funding legislation.

"Probably that's its best chance of success, but I also think it's most germane to attach it to our final funding bill."

The Fiscal Commission Act has some support in the Senate. In a joint statement on Thursday, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — both of whom declined to run for reelection this year — applauded the budget committee for "advancing this commonsense legislation."

"We also appreciate Speaker Johnson's continued support for this effort," added the senators, who are leading a companion bill in the upper chamber. "Taking immediate, corrective action to reverse this catastrophic financial demise of our own making will help ensure that our children and grandchildren are not burdened by our poor fiscal choices."

But the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) stressed Thursday that "Social Security and Medicare Part A are fully self-funded and do not contribute to the debt."

"The biggest drivers of the debt are 'tax expenditures' — giveaways to the wealthy and large corporations like the Trump/GOP tax cuts of 2017 that Republicans insist be extended," the group noted. According to a recent analysis by the Center for American Progress, debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy would be on the decline if the Bush and Trump tax cuts were never passed.

Max Richtman, NCPSSM's president and CEO, said in a statement that the fiscal commission push is "designed to give individual members of Congress political cover for cutting Americans' earned benefits."

"Any changes to Social Security and Medicare should go through regular order and not be relegated to a commission unaccountable to the public and rushed through the Congress," he added. "This bill should be opposed by any member of Congress who cares about Social Security, Medicare, and their constituents who depend on them."

Absolute My Dyin' Ass

Trump's horseshit argument that POTUS enjoys total immunity from all criminal action against him for anything he did while in office is Peak Daddy State.

...The goal is to dictate reality to us.

THE RULES:

1. Every accusation is a confession.

2. Every boast is an admission of inadequacy, or an attempt to claim credit for something they had practically nothing to do with.

2a. What sounds like boasting ("I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any votes") is intended to soft-peddle some horrific thing they've done - or intend to do, in which case, the "boast" is instructive as to what the devotees will be expected to embrace.

These MAGA idiots are fully conditioned, and they're telling us straight out, "The king can do no wrong".

But things continue to shift against Trump and his MAGA loons.

The action against him in Colorado was led by Republicans. And now, this newer thing is being led by some pretty bright lights in the GOP.

Fix It

The US House Of Representatives hasn't expanded since 1920, when the US population was about 106,000,000.

There were 435 seats, each representing about 235,000 Americans.

We still have that same number of seats, but now each Congressperson represents about 760,000 Americans.

Today's GOP Fuckery

Because a painful, and potentially deadly pregnancy is god's punishment for being a woman.

And maybe the same can be said for breast cancer.

So AIDS is god's punishment for being gay.

And I guess that means testicular cancer is god's punishment for being a total dick about everything.

Apparently, Republicans just can't stand anything that ends up helping women and minorities and queer folk and poor people.

Republicans delay more than $1 billion in HIV program funding

Life-saving PEPFAR program has been ensnared for months in a broader political fight around abortion

Republicans have delayed more than $1 billion in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, the latest complication facing a lifesaving HIV program that has been ensnared in a broader political fight around abortion.

Created by President George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives around the world. The nearly $7 billion annual initiative, which is managed by the State Department, has distributed millions of courses of medicine to treat HIV, funded testing and prevention services, and supported an array of other interventions. Dozens of foreign governments rely on PEPFAR as a key partner.

The program has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress, which has reauthorized it every five years. But lawmakers this fall failed to reauthorize PEPFAR by a Sept. 30 deadline amid claims from conservative advocacy groups that the program is inadvertently funding abortions overseas — allegations that Biden officials, PEPFAR staff and public health leaders say are unfounded and threaten the program’s mission.

PEPFAR can continue to operate without congressional authorization, with much of its current funding intact. But Republicans have been placing holds on notifications that the State Department is required to send to Congress before PEPFAR spends any additional money, according to four people with knowledge of the funding delays, three of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

The GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee in August began objecting to language in PEPFAR’s country and regional operational plan, which offers guidance to partners around the globe about how to administer the aid program, according to the people with knowledge of the dispute.

The Republicans’ funding delays and objections, which have not been previously reported, center on PEPFAR’s use of terms relating to abortion, transgender people, sex workers and other areas, with the committee repeatedly demanding rewrites from the State Department. The negotiations have delayed the State Department from releasing more than $1 billion in funding for PEPFAR — funding that the program is planning to use to buy medicines, pay for staff and support other essential PEPFAR functions, several of the people said. PEPFAR officials have pushed back on some of the requested changes, including an attempt by House Republicans to change how terms such as “human rights” appear in the document.

Keifer Buckingham, advocacy director for the Open Society Foundations and a former Democratic congressional aide who worked on PEPFAR’s last reauthorization in 2018, said that prior PEPFAR documents used similar language and addressed the same issues.

“None of that phrasing is new … and it’s not like policy has dramatically changed,” Buckingham said, adding that House Republicans’ complaints about PEPFAR language are “ideological” and parallel their domestic political priorities around abortion and transgender issues.

The State Department confirmed that the House Foreign Affairs Committee has delayed approving the notifications that are required for allocating funds to PEPFAR.

“The delays in approval are straining PEPFAR country operations and threatening PEPFAR’s ability to continue implementation,” the State Department said in a statement. “If the [notifications] are not approved very soon, PEPFAR’s lifesaving work and gains will be threatened.” The department did not specify the amount of funding at stake.

Lawmakers have placed holds on PEPFAR funding in prior years in hopes of securing changes or getting answers about the program. But experts noted that the climate around the program has shifted in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned the national right to abortion.

“If the current [funding] delay is based on these larger issues that have also stymied reauthorization, it would be a potentially serious situation,” said Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the health policy nonprofit KFF.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee referred questions to the State Department.

Stuck in a stalemate

Republicans’ hold on PEPFAR funding comes as lawmakers continue to debate whether to reauthorize the program for one year, five years or not at all. In the wake of the Dobbs ruling, Republicans have alleged the Biden administration is using PEPFAR and other programs to support abortion access, a claim that public health experts roundly deny.

“PEPFAR’s never been an abortion program,” John Nkengasong, the program’s director, said in remarks Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington. “It is not and will never be because there’s a law, the 1973 Helms amendment,” which restricts U.S. foreign assistance programs from funding abortion abroad, he added.

Public health experts have clamored for lawmakers to swiftly reauthorize PEPFAR for five years through what is known as a “clean reauthorization” — effectively rolling over the current structure. Current and former PEPFAR officials said that a five-year reauthorization would protect the program from political pressures and help global partners plan their strategies.

Asking Congress to vote every year to reauthorize PEPFAR “is basically asking for the appropriations over time to dwindle down and [in] an irrevocable way,” Mark Dybul, a former head of the program, said at the CSIS event.

The Biden administration has also warned that Congress’s delay to reauthorize the program is “damaging the United States’ image globally, particularly in Africa,” and threatening plans to acquire supplies, roll out innovations and take other steps that require certainty about PEPFAR’s long-term viability.

But some Republicans want to reauthorize the program for just one year — arguing that it would allow a future GOP president to make changes to it. Conservative advocacy groups also have warned lawmakers that a vote to reauthorize PEPFAR in its current form will be viewed as a vote to support abortion abroad.

House Republicans last month advanced a measure that would extend PEPFAR funding for one year while reinstating a Trump-era policy, Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, that explicitly bars global assistance funds from being used for abortion.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he had “high hopes” that lawmakers could reach a compromise to reauthorize PEPFAR.

“Time is running out and it’s critical to find a path forward and get PEPFAR reauthorized. I know all parties involved in this discussion care about PEPFAR’s success,” McCaul said in a statement. “But that means they also all need to be willing to come to the negotiating table — and everyone needs to be prepared to give a little.”

Having failed to sway holdout Republicans by focusing on PEPFAR’s public health accomplishments, advocates are increasingly touting the program’s national security implications. The George W. Bush Institute sent a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, signed by more than 30 organizations and leaders in global health, foreign relations and faith communities, saying that a five-year “clean” reauthorization would help fend off strategic rivals seeking influence in regions that rely on PEPFAR support.

“As authoritarian China and Russia seek to increase their influence in Africa by any means possible, PEPFAR has been a shining example of compassion, transparency and accountability, as well as a massive strategic success story for the United States,” the letter reads. “Abandoning it abruptly now would send a bleak message, suggesting we are no longer able to set aside our politics for the betterment of democracies and the world.”

Deborah Birx of the Bush Institute, who led PEPFAR during the Obama and Trump administrations and helped organize Wednesday’s letter, said the congressional debate over the program “is bigger than PEPFAR,” citing the growing political divides over foreign aid, funding the Defense Department and other areas that were traditionally bipartisan.

“There are places where this country has compromised across the aisle for issues that transcend any specific party,” Birx added. “That’s what PEPFAR was about — translating the best of America.”

PEPFAR’s fate has been further clouded by uncertainty in Congress, as House Republicans spent most of October without a speaker, paralyzing legislative efforts in the chamber. Lawmakers and staffers told The Washington Post that it was unclear whether newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is staunchly antiabortion and a longtime ally of conservative advocacy groups that allege PEPFAR is funding abortions abroad, would favor swiftly reauthorizing the program.

Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Senate’s PEPFAR efforts have also been disrupted. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who was steering Democrats’ efforts and working with Republicans to find a deal, stepped down last month as Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair after he was indicted over allegations he accepted bribes in exchange for exerting political influence. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who had not been closely involved in the PEPFAR negotiations, is now serving as committee chair.

Lawmakers in both parties have discussed attempting to attach PEPFAR’s reauthorization to a larger bill to fund the government at the end of this year, but congressional staffers and experts have said they remain cautious about its prospects.

“If the only conversation is abortion, we’re not going to have a reauthorized bill,” Dybul said this week, calling on public health experts “to stand up, to speak, and not allow the misinformation to win.”

PEPFAR partner organizations across the globe said they are nervously watching the congressional negotiations, which have raised international questions about whether the United States remains committed to its long-running HIV program.

“The anxiety we are causing to patients and health workers is unfair,” Nkatha Njeru, the coordinator and CEO of Nairobi-based African Christian Health Associations Platform, wrote in an email.

It is unclear what will end the logjam. Bush appealed to Congress to reauthorize the program for five years in an op-ed in The Post published last month, and senior officials from both parties have increasingly issued their own pleas.

“I can’t think of another thing like PEPFAR until I go back to the Marshall Plan,” said Bob McDonald, who served as secretary of Veterans Affairs during the Obama administration and who co-signed the letter sent by the Bush Institute on Wednesday. “Imagine if we had been against the Marshall Plan.”

Asked how to break the political stalemate, Nkengasong called for a “dialogue” with the program’s critics. “We have to have a forum where we have an honest conversation … and lead with facts and not misinformation and disinformation,” the PEPFAR chief said.

Death By A Thousand Cuts

Our House Is A Mess

Rephrasing the old adage:

Never attribute to incompetence that which can be understood as nefarious intent.

Republicans can’t govern. Just ask them.

As the party flails in its search for a speaker, the GOP is increasingly acknowledging publicly that its discord is embarrassing — and even dangerous.

It’s not clear yet that House Republicans’ inability to elect a new speaker has significantly recast the political paradigm in this country. But the danger for the party is in a drawn-out process continuing to cast doubt on the GOP’s ability to actually govern when voters give it power. A poll released this weekend showed two-thirds of Americans agreed that “Congress needs to elect a speaker as soon as possible” to deal with issues such as Israel, Ukraine and the looming government shutdown.

The situation has apparently gotten so dire that Republicans are effectively admitting that they can’t govern — that their party is so badly broken that it can’t do the most basic work voters elected it to do. And in some cases, they’re indicating their own party is actually doing damage.

The word of the day Sunday was apparently “embarrass.”

“Well, it’s embarrassing,” ousted former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” when asked about how this undercuts perceptions of the GOP’s ability to govern.

He later returned to the word: “This is embarrassing for the Republican Party, it’s embarrassing for the nation, and we need to look at one another and solve the problem.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) did McCarthy one better, saying what Republicans were doing was not just embarrassing but also “so dangerous.”

“The world’s on fire. This is so dangerous, what we’re doing,” McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And most importantly, it’s embarrassing because it empowers and emboldens our adversaries like [Chinese President] Chairman Xi [Jinping] who says, you know, democracy doesn’t work.”

McCaul’s comments built upon what he said early in the speaker fracas, when he placed the threat of the GOP discord alongside external threats.

“Our adversaries are watching what we do — and quite frankly, they like it,” McCaul told the New York Times, adding: “One of the biggest threats I see is in that room, because we can’t unify as a conference and put the speaker in the chair together.”

In that same story, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said, “We’re not a governing body.” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said, “This is a bad episode of ‘Veep,’ and it’s turning into ‘House of Cards.’”

“It is an embarrassment,” added Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) last week.

When CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday likened the GOP infighting to high school, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said that gave his party too much credit.

“That’s kind of offensive to high school people, because it’s really junior high stuff,” Womack said, adding: “I mean, look, we get wrapped around the axle on a lot of nonsensical things. But, yes, the world is burning around us. We’re fiddling. We don’t have a strategy.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a prominent foreign policy hawk like McCaul, agreed that the lack of a speaker “could” make the United States vulnerable on the world stage.

While many of these members come from the more institutionalist wing of the party, perhaps the most undersold and colorful review came from someone on the other side. It was from Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), who was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy.

“I don’t think a lot of people here in this conference actually give a s--- what the American people want,” Crane told The Washington Post on Thursday, as his party was rejecting Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for speaker.

Republicans don’t care about what Americans want them to do. They’re embarrassing. They’re acting dangerously. They’re falling down on the job at a critical time. They’re even helping nefarious foreign strongmen. Back during the drawn-out process to elect McCarthy in January, it was Democrats like President Biden saying these kinds of things; now it’s Republicans themselves.

It’s a reflection of just how dire the situation is. The strategy here is clearly to say these kinds of things to inject some urgency into the process — to get the 217 out of 221 House Republicans necessary to elect a speaker to come together and bring this sorry exercise to a conclusion. But before the party can get to that point, it apparently needs to have a bunch of prominent members going on the record to talk about how feckless it is and how perilous what it’s doing is.

And all the while, they strengthen the case Democrats will make during the 2024 election about how Republicans are the governing gang that can’t shoot straight.

All I really want is for the Press Poodles to ask

• "Is it possible that Republicans are making government dysfunctional on purpose?"
• "If there's any possibility of intentional dysfunction, what might be the goal(s) driving that effort?"

What’s next in the Republican fight for a new House speaker

It’s been nearly three weeks since eight Republicans lawmakers ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House speaker, and since then the GOP conference has not been able to find a new leader.

Over the last two weeks, the two top candidates to replace McCarthy — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Steve Scalise (R-La.) — failed to gather enough support among their GOP colleagues to successfully win the speakership in House floor votes. Scalise, the first of the two to be nominated speaker, did not bring his nomination to the floor, aware that he would not be able to get majority support in the full chamber. Jordan brought his candidacy to the floor three times. Each time, he lost more support from fellow Republicans.

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The GOP tries once again to pick a House speaker, this time from the middle

The search for a speaker continues this week as Republicans try to choose among nine candidates, with the goal of getting a speaker-designate to the floor once again. Democrats, meanwhile, are widely expected to continue nominating and voting for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as speaker.

All this is happening as Congress inches closer to a key deadline: The government will run out of funds in mid-November and shut down if the House and Senate do not pass a number of appropriations bills. Republicans have virtually frozen activity on the House floor for almost three weeks over their inability to choose a new leader.

How many Republicans are running?

Nine House Republicans are running

• Tom Emmer (Minn.)
• Kevin Hern (Okla.)
• Pete Sessions (Tex.)
• Austin Scott (Ga.)
• Byron Donalds (Fla.)
• Jack Bergman (Mich.)
• Mike Johnson (La.)
• Dan Meuser (Pa.) 
• Gary Palmer (Ala.).

What’s the next step?

The nine candidates are expected to make their pitches to the GOP conference on Monday during a closed-door meeting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. During this candidate forum — run by the office of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House Republican Conference chairwoman — lawmakers are also expected to continue to air their grievances over the process and plot out where their party should go next.

The House has never been speakerless for so long mid-session

When will Republicans pick a new nominee?

A conference-wide, closed-door vote on the next speaker-designate will probably happen Tuesday morning at around 9 a.m.

To win the vote in conference, a candidate must receive 50 percent of the vote, plus one. With nine Republicans running, it could take awhile to coalesce around a single candidate.

If no candidate gets a majority on the first ballot, the lawmaker with the fewest votes will be dropped and the process repeats itself until someone prevails.

How soon could there be a floor vote?

To win the speakership, a candidate has to win a simple majority of the members in the full House. If every member of the current Congress is present the day of the floor vote, that means the candidate must receive 217 votes.

The earliest the House could vote on a speaker is Tuesday at 11 a.m., when the chamber is next scheduled to meet.

But don’t expect it to be that early, given that Republicans will likely need several rounds in their conference to find their candidate.

The speaker-designate then must coordinate with House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) on when to bring their nomination to the floor.

What might be different this time?

Already, some Republicans are circulating a pledge to support the party’s next nominee.

Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), who last week told reporters he was tired of the lengthy speaker fight, is asking his colleagues to sign a unity pledge in which they promise to vote for the speaker-designate in the next floor vote.

“House Republicans need to elect a Speaker as soon as possible in order to return to work on behalf of the American people,” reads the pledge. “It is time to put politics and personalities aside and unite behind the next Republican Conference choice for Speaker.”

According to a Flood spokeswoman, a “growing number” of House Republicans — including speaker candidates Bergman, Hern, Johnson, Meuser, Scott, and Sessions — have already signed the pledge.

It’s not clear if any of the eight House Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy from the speakership will get behind the pledge. On Friday, seven of the eight signed a letter saying they’re willing to accept censure, suspension, or removal from the conference for their actions, as long as the party supported Jordan for speaker — an effort that failed.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), one of the eight, on Monday shared a statement from the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus demanding that leadership keep Republicans in Washington until this situation is settled and a new speaker is named.

“We must proceed with all possible speed and determination,” the statement reads.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), another of the eight, told Fox Business on Monday morning that he wishes “we could have resolved it sooner.”

“We have a very deep bench. Every one of those nine members would be a step up and I believe would be a great leader,” he said.

I'll Say It Again

Three things, actually:

1. When Ken Buck sounds like the voice of reason, we've got serious problems
2. The "silent moderates" of the GOP are silent because they think they'll get their plutocratic agenda through by hiding behind the freak show at the MAGA circus 
3. Democrats are not to blame for the shitty behavior of the Republicans

Jordan loses again: