Today's Life Tip

Try this: Wear a falconry glove to the park, and then run around frantically calling a made-up name, telling people you've lost your eagle.

Everybody there with small dogs and children will leave, and you can enjoy some uncrowded quality time with yourself.

Searchable Project 2025

25and.me

ex: I asked it for Democracy, Healthcare, Medicare, and Social Security

( ⇧ scan me ⇧ )

Democracy
Project 2025 will...

• concentrate power in the executive branch by advocating for expanding presidential power over agencies, including independent agencies, and for making it easier to fire civil servants. This could concentrate power in the executive branch and make it harder for Congress and the courts to check presidential power. [43] [825]
• weaken independent agencies like the Federal Reserve and the FCC and propose to bring them under greater political control. This could undermine the agencies' ability to act impartially and make decisions based on expertise rather than political pressure. [731] [845]
• make it easier for the President to fire government workers who are not political appointees. This would give the President more power over the people who work for the government and make it harder for them to do their jobs without worrying about being fired for political reasons. [80]
• allow religious organizations to discriminate against people they don't agree with. This would violate the rights of people who are discriminated against. [586]
• allow the government to use taxpayer money to support religious organizations. This would violate the separation of church and state. [261] [481]
• advance a conservative agenda, including by selectively enforcing laws and prioritizing funding for certain groups. This could undermine the principle of impartial government and create a two-tiered system of justice. [545]
• dismantle the administrative state, which, while often inefficient and bureaucratic, is also a key mechanism for implementing laws passed by Congress and protecting the public interest. Weakening these agencies could lead to less accountability and weaker enforcement of laws, particularly in areas like environmental protection, consumer safety, and worker rights. [6]

Healthcare
Project 2025 will...

• reform U.S. healthcare into a free market mostly regulated by states. This means patients will need to develop more healthcare expertise, rural areas may be underserved, low-income and vulnerable populations may be underserved, sicker patients may pay more, the system may be ill-equipped to handle public health emergencies, and it could lead to an overall decline in quality and safety standards. [450]
• reform the Affordable Care Act. This could lead to loss of coverage, reduced consumer protections and an increased financial burden for Americans. [469]
• reduce funding for public health by splitting the CDC and reducing its funding. This could weaken the nation's ability to respond to public health emergencies and address critical health issues. [452]
• prevent the CDC from advising that school children should be masked or vaccinated, saying such decisions should be left to parents and medical providers. This could lead to increased disease outbreaks and a resurgence of preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough. [454]
• tax employers on workplace benefits that exceed $12,000 per worker annually. This would lead to employers cutting back on these benefits and workers paying more taxes, and would be damaging for millions of families who rely on one working adult's employer-provided health insurance to cover dependents, such as children. [697]

If this tax was enacted, we estimate that just based on health insurance benefits in 2022 alone: (1) More than 15 million workers would have seen their benefits taxed. (2) Their taxes would have risen by more than $12 billion if employers shifted away from benefits to other forms of taxable compensation. [link]

Medicare
Project 2025 will...

• eliminate the Medicare Shared Savings Program. This program helps to lower the cost of Medicare, and getting rid of it will likely mean that Medicare will cost more. [465]
• repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. This law lowers the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare, and getting rid of it will likely mean that prescription drugs will cost more. [465]
• reduce the government share in the catastrophic tier of Medicare Part D. This means that people on Medicare will have to pay more for their prescription drugs. [465]
• repeal the drug price negotiation program in Medicare. This program lowers the cost of prescription drugs, and getting rid of it will likely mean that prescription drugs will cost more. [465]
• restructure 340B drug subsidies toward beneficiaries rather than hospitals. This program helps hospitals provide lower-cost drugs to low-income patients, and changing it could mean that those patients will have to pay more for their medications. [465]
• push more of the 33 million people enrolled in Original Medicare towards Medicare Advantage by making it the "default enrollment option". Medicare Advantage plans can require prior authorizations, making it harder for patients to access care, and they can restrict enrollees' choices of physicians and hospitals. [465]

Social Security
The Project 2025 document does not cover this topic. But here are relevant resources:

House Republican budget calls for raising the retirement age for Social Security

NBC News

The House Republican Study Committee Budget Proposes Harsh Changes to Social Security

The Center for American Progress

Days After Trump Calls for Social Security Cuts, Congressional Republicans Release Plan to Slash Benefits by $1.5 Trillion

Social Security Works

House Republican Budget Plans Would Cut Social Security Benefits

House Committee on the Budget

The Heritage Foundation is gunning for your Social Security

Media Matters for America

Social Security Administration funding cuts a disservice to Americans

The Hill

Today's Keith

The Press Poodles can always be counted on to cover up Trump's shit.

Today's Vic

For Labor Day

Dirty Fuels

For the next time some yahoo squawks about how Biden has killed the domestic oil bidness.

How Dumb Is he?

'Are You Seriously This Stupid?': Legal Minds Nail Trump After Fox News 'Confession'

The former president's latest defense backfires on social media.

Donald Trump on Sunday tried to defend himself from the criminal charges he’s facing in the election interference case ― but experts say it sounded more like a confession.

Trump on Fox News bragged that his poll numbers go up every time he’s indicted.

“Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up,” he said.

Trump is facing charges in multiple jurisdictions and cases, including election interference in a criminal case filed in federal court in Washington. Last week, he was reindicted to comply with directions from the Supreme Court, which in July ruled that Trump was immune from prosecution for “official acts.”

On Sunday, however, Trump flat out said he had “every right” to have been “interfering” with the election.

Lawmakers, former prosecutors, attorneys and other legal minds were ready with a fact-check ― and some said it sounded like Trump was admitting to a crime:

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Are you seriously this stupid? You think President Biden has the right to interfere in the upcoming election? Do you want VP Harris to do what you tried to get former VP Mike Pence to do? Are you really this dumb?

Also, interfering in elections is illegal. https://t.co/9ceSd99K1t

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 2, 2024

There's no right to "interfere" with a presidential election. This is the banality of evil right here—Trump asserting he can override the will of the voters to claim victory in an election he lost. And, he will do it again. We must vote against him in overwhelming numbers. https://t.co/S0ECtVdPOt

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 2, 2024

I love that Trump uses the word "interfere" thereby making the case against himself.

— Elizabeth de la Vega 🇺🇸🦅 (@Delavegalaw) September 2, 2024

Paging @ManhattanDA —

A transcript of this interview might be helpful for the sentencing memo your office is drafting https://t.co/OFB9tDLG4z

— Jennifer Taub (@jentaub) September 2, 2024

Criming and then confessing to the criming.

That’s a Trump specialty. https://t.co/mK3HiH76kc

— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) September 2, 2024

In his defense, Trump’s not wrong to suggest that indicting a President for interfering with an election is without precedent. Then again, so is a President interfering with an election. So that’s where we are. https://t.co/QuYL9AwB3k

— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) September 2, 2024

To be clear: NO ONE “has a right to interfere in a presidential election” nor indeed any other election. It is against the law to do so. It is a violation not only of law, but indeed of every oath that son of a bitch and his enablers swore. https://t.co/90ptLsccuT

— (((Denise A Rubin))) (@DeniseARubin) September 2, 2024

No one has the right to interfere with an election. Either 1) Trump believes his lies, or 2) Trump is old and delusional. Either way, he is unfit to be president.

— Taylor E. Darcy (@tayloredarcy) September 2, 2024

More On The Arlington Thing

Trump is defending his shitty behavior by blaming the family of the dead uniform - because of course he is, because he's a weak little shit-waffle - excusing his actions by saying first, he had no idea about any of it, but then saying the family invited him to do it.

I think the family probably got the idea because Trump's helpers suggested it to them.

And anyway, It doesn't matter if some random family invited you to steal their nephew's car - you stole a car and that means you're guilty of theft. Because you stole a fucking car.

It's too typical - and it's perfectly in line with the usual gaslighting bullshit - the guy says he's the smartest dude ever, but he keeps getting suckered into doing really stoopid shit.

So which is it? Both can't be true at the same time.

If you're all that smart, then you don't get suckered.

If you keep getting suckered, then you ain't all that smart.

Marketing

If you can't earn it - buy it.

Lando Kalriz:

Overheard

I took the road less traveled.

And now I don't know where the fuck I am.

Representative Government

Jaimie Raskin nails it perfectly - starting at about 11:05.

The people in DC have petitioned for statehood so they can have equal and adequate representation because they don't want to be kicked around by other people's representatives - representatives from far away places - telling them what they can and can't do in their own city.

And there's a lot more, but let's be clear - Republicans have no intention of allowing autonomy of any kind anywhere at any time. They're in the process of strangling democracy little by little.