3/14/2025

 Friday, March 14, 2025

D+127/54

2019 US Senate passes resolution overturning President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration

In bed at 9:50, awake at 4:20, up at 4:30.

Prednisone, day 327; 4 mg., day 10/21; Kevzara, day 10/14.  2 mg. of prednisone at 5 a.m. and 6  p.m.  Other meds at 6 p.m.  Trulicity injection around 10 a.m. 

Damned if we do; damned if we don't.   Hitler was appointed Chancellor of  the Weimar Republic of Germany on Monday morning, January 30, 1933, 92 years ago.    On Thursday, March 23, 53 days later, the Reichstag, Germany's legislature, passed the Enabling Act that gave him dictatorial power.  Hitler and the Nazis gained this power not with tanks and artillery, but with legislation, which is to say, the Germans did it to themselves.  Yesterday was the 53rd day of Trump's second term.  I watched an interview of Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, who had earlier announced that he would vote in favor of the Republicans'  Continuing Resolution that would govern the country's spending until the end of the country's fiscal year, September 30.  It gives the administration wide discretion over how federal dollars are distributed, in effect handing off the legislative branch’s spending authority to Donald Trump (and Elon Musk.)    It also surrenders Congress's ability to undo Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.  “This is us, in a sense, giving the keys to the president to be able to continue to do the great work that they’re doing,” Far-right Representative Michael Cloud, Republican of Texas, said earlier this week.   Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, "This is the Super Bowl.  This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for our entire careers, and finally, the stars have aligned so we can do that better.”  Schumer explained his 'yes' vote to Chris Hayes by asserting that if the CR isn't passed and the government goes into 'shut down' mode, Trump will have even more power than he gains under the CR.  He also argued that with a government shutdown, the courts also shutdown, which would remove the only venue where the Democrats have had any success in stopping Trump and Musk.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said of Schumer's decision: "“There is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal, and this is not just about progressive Democrats. This is across the board — the entire party."

Trump's and Musk's unoverseen power increases both under the CR and under a shutdown.  Damned if we do, damned if we don't.  I have to wonder what got Schumer to change his vote overnight.  Was he bought?  Does the switch pass the smell test?  Is it conceivable that he made a deal with the Republicans (unlikely) or with his donorr riends on Wall Street (more likely)? The more I think of it, however, I think Schumer is probably correct that the shutdown would almost certainly be worse than passing the CR.  Trump could keep the shutdown going for all long as he and Musk wanted as they decimate federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies.  I'm impressed that Angus King voted with Schumer, and even voted for passage of the CR inself, as did Jeanne Shaheen.

Race to the Outhouse by Willy Makit.  Old age is a time of indignities.  There are the multiple medical indignities of being poked and prodded, invaded by needles, catheters, scopes, and probes of various kinds, and the indignities of sphincter failure.  When I was a kid, book title jokes were common for awhile.  "Taming Wild Cats" by Claude Balz.  "Why You Need Insurance" by Justin Case.  "Aches and Pains" by Arthur Itis.  On the other hand, it's also a time of unexpected kindnesses: strangers holding doors open for you, the old timer at the Chinese restaurant who offered me his chair while we waited for our takeaway dinners, the old lady at Sendkik's who offered to carry my groceries to my car, and so on.  

Sump pump discharge pipe.  I tried to fix the broken pipe outside but failed.  I called Cliff Bergin plumbing who will be here at 8 a.m. Monday morning.

Anniversary thought.  There was a time when some Republicans in Congress had both backbone and balls.  Those days are long gone.  From CNN/s web site on this date in 2019:

Washington CNN.  The Senate delivered a high-profile rebuke to President Donald Trump over his signature agenda issue Thursday when 12 Republicans joined Democrats to overturn the President’s national emergency border declaration.  The vote was 59-41, an overwhelming vote against the President’s executive action.

Lawmakers don’t have enough votes, however, to override a certain veto from the President, but passage of the resolution in the Senate after it passed the House last month is nevertheless an embarrassing blow to Trump delivered by his own party over the President’s top campaign pledge of a wall at the US-Mexico border.

The 12 Senate Republicans who voted in support of the resolution were: Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Marco Rubio of Florida, Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Mitt Romney of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah. 

The vote forced many to choose between loyalty to a President unafraid to attack members of his party who defy him and an emergency declaration that conservative critics describe as executive overreach and warn could set a precedent used by Democratic presidents to declare emergencies over liberal priorities such as action on climate change.

“Declaring a national emergency to access different funds sets a dangerous new precedent,” GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio warned in remarks on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “It opens the door for future presidents to implement just about any policy they want.”