Senate Democrat Finally Says Fuck This Shit
Chris Murphy says he's done playing ball with these dicks (paraphrasing)
Aug. 13: Murphy has a top position on appropriating funds and he’s not afraid to use it … EXCLUSIVE: Trump White House tells me they’ve got nothing to say about the cabinet Bible study teaching that the Jews killed Jesus … State Dept.’s human-rights report abuses the term “report” … Goldman Sachs says Trump’s tariffs have not yet begun to bite …
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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in a new interview that he has decided to fuck this shit, including all this fucking bullshit.
Murphy is the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees funding for “Homeland [sic] Security.” Which means it’s his job, as the leading Democrat on that subcommittee, to oversee negotiations with the Republicans who control it and come up with a budget for the Department of Homeland (sic) Security, which is now, against all odds and logic and physics, run by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
But Politico reports that Murphy has decided to take a new tack on that part of his job. Namely, to fuck it.
Specifically, Murphy’s been voting “fuck that shit” on everything, no matter how bipartisan. Other Democrats are continuing budget talks with Republicans, as if it matters, but Murphy’s out.
Here’s Politico:
“…in recent weeks, he opposed all spending measures advanced during Senate Appropriations Committee markups for which he was present, challenged his Republican counterpart on the DHS funding bill and voted ‘no’ on the Senate’s first bipartisan funding package of the year.”
As Murphy told Politico, “It’s lonely. 28-to-1 votes are lonely.” So why, then, is Murphy solo-fucking it?
Because Pres. Donald Trump, in Murphy’s words which are also TFN’s, “doesn’t give a fuck what we write” into law.
Murphy’s point is that Trump is treating spending laws as menus rather than mandates, ordering Big Macs at the Taco Bell drive-through.
Trump is ignoring spending he’s legally required to execute and he’s spending money he doesn’t legally have. Like he always has.
And Republicans are letting him because they, too, in their own way, have opted to fuck it.
According to Murphy and also to TFN, by continuing to negotiate spending bills, Democrats are creating the impression the process is still working. And the outcomes legitimate. Here’s Murphy:
“Every time that we go along with these appropriations bills, we’re putting a bipartisan veneer of endorsement on an illegal process that’s ultimately part of his [Trump’s, duh] campaign to destroy our democracy.”
With yet another government-shutdown deadline coming up fast on Sept. 30, however, the tippy-top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee — which includes Murphy’s and all the other spending subcommittees — has decided to continue not fucking this shit. Even though it’s already fucked from the other side.
Appropriations Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) told Politico without evidence that “the more we can do to get bills done, the better chance we have of getting better things for our country,” as if the last seven months hadn’t just happened in the same space-time continuum where we are.
What Politico doesn’t really get into, but TFN sure as fuck will, is that there are still Democrats who want to help Republicans avoid a government shutdown on Sept. 30. And Republicans still need Democratic help passing spending bills because their further-right flank will balk at basic spending needs.
And Democrats still aren’t demanding any actual accountability or oversight in these spending bills, they’re just haggling over what numbers to put down for Trump to ignore.
You may remember Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) behind closed doors screamed at her colleagues to vote for a Republican bill to avoid a government shutdown in March. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had vowed they would stand fast, but they didn’t even slow-walk it.
Gillibrand’s role was largely downplayed, but your up-playing TFN newsfucked the shit out of it at the time. Basically, Gillibrand’s point was that shutdowns give presidents vast powers to decide what to shut down. TFN’s much smarter point was that if Trump wanted that power he could’ve just vetoed the bill.
Trump — and Republicans — don’t want to shut down everything like they’ve said they do, because they know that’ll make them even more unpopular. But if they’re understood to have total power and still don’t use it, that’ll piss off their anarchist1, commerce-über-alles faction.
Politico, because they can’t help themselves, frames this solely as a 2028 presidential race will-he-won’t-he thing, as if this were a sit-com no one would watch without the chance the two leads might fuck each other. But the real question here, now, is whether Murphy will press Democrats to take a stand the way Gillibrand pressed Democrats to take a seat. Or whether he’ll say fuck it.
Trump White House Okay with Teaching that the Jews Killed Jesus
EXCLUSIVE The White House on Monday told me they would have no comment on the Bible study sponsored by cabinet members and taught to cabinet members, even though it includes the antisemitic smear that the Jews killed Jesus.
In a short email exchange with Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers, I explained that the White House Bible study is led by Ralph Drollinger and his organization, Capitol Ministries. And I provided links to text and video of Drollinger saying that a Bible study in June included his teaching that the Jews killed Jesus.
So, uh, y’know…any comment on cabinet members being taught that the Bible supports a lie that’s fueled two millennia of antisemitism?
“This is not an Official WH Bible Study, so I don’t think we would comment.
“Would refer you to Capitol Ministries on their specific teachings and beliefs.”
Um, okay. And wow.
Except, um, I already know their teachings. I read their teachings.
I’m asking, I told Rogers, whether Pres. Donald Trump is okay with them teaching their teachings to members of his cabinet. Especially given that Trump has made a priority of deporting people for saying much less and punishing schools as antisemitic if the schools didn’t go after students for things like supporting Palestinian rights.
And, uh, that’s when our correspondence came to a tragic end!
IN FAIRNESS I should note that this administration is generally more responsive to my inquiries than Pres. Joe Biden’s was and than any number of congressional Democrats are. It’s absolutely insane that White House cabinet members are getting lessons that would get professors arrested, and that the corporate media are ignoring this story … but at least now the White House is on the record officially not giving a shit, which I'm guessing will matter eventually.
You can read my full report here, and remember that they’re now on the record with this only thanks to you TFN supporters making my work possible.
Rubio Green-Lights Black Holes for Human Rights
Every year, the State Department is required by law to report to Congress on the state of human rights in every country on Earth, not counting uninhabited ones which are only counted when applying tariffs.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued the report on human rights in 2024 yesterday, almost six months late. And unlike that time I asked for more time to do my paper on The Crying of Lot 49 because I wanted to write more than allowed (insert joke about TFN windbaggery here), Rubio’s report is shorter.
Entire sections of human-rights abuses have been disappeared like the victims of human-rights abuses. Reports on individual nations are much shorter, half the length of last year’s and in some cases even shorterer than that.
Critiques of government corruption have largely disappeared, especially in governments so corrupt they’re corrupterating with our corrupt government. Allies like El Salvador and Israel got great marks despite not having shown any improvement since sucking last year.
El Salvador, home of the notorious prison where Pres. Donald Trump delights in sending brown people, had “no credible reports of significant human rights abuses.” Last year’s report found “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions,” so big ups to El Salvador for fixing that whole situation!
Also apparently making huge strides in not abusing the rights of humans were Hungary, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, the entries for which in yesterday’s report were apparently written by the Hungary-Saudi Arabia-UAE Tourism Board. The report also suggests that human-rights abuses against women and LGBTQ+ people have virtually ended. Whoo-hoo! Arc of the moral universe, baby!
Meanwhile, new categories of human-rights abuses have been invented for thorns in Trump’s delicate side. South Africa and Brazil are called out for abuses like “suppressing the speech of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro,” Trump’s buddy. In fact, free speech is now only being suppressed on the right, so we’re half-way there, world!
Next year’s report, the State Department said, will reflect Trump’s priorities even more, even though the law requiring the report does not direct it to reflect Trump’s priorities.
TEASER Over on my original-reporting Substack I’m working on a new story — for today, I hope! — about a glaring LGBTQ+ omission in the corporate-media coverage of all the Rubio report’s glaring omissions. (If you don’t want to miss it, or if you want to support this work, you can do both here.)
Judge Orders ICE to Suck It
A federal judge yesterday ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to feed its prisoners three times a day and give them something to sleep on that isn’t literally a floor. (h/t)
Human-rights abuses, after all, could land ICE in next year’s report from Secretary of State Marco Rubio!
Judge Lewis Kaplan gave ICE until Aug. 26 to provide sleeping mats and also more than two feedings per day. ICE must also provide hygiene supplies and clean the holding cells three times a day. (Wait, am I supposed to clean my house three times a day?!?)
A Peruvian detainee who lives in New Jersey filed the lawsuit, alleging a lack of medical care, showers, and clean clothes. As many as 90 people have to share toilets that are in open view of the holding cells because this administration is fucking teeming with sex pests.
A Justice Department lawyer basically conceded all of the allegations, saying, in effect, “Shit, this sounds pretty bad. I guess we should get our shit together, huh?”
Goldman Sachs Confirms: Most Tariffs Will Get Passed On to Other Countries Shareholders You
Despite Pres. Donald Trump’s fleeting, half-hearted attempt to make American businesses eat the cost of his tariffs by keeping prices where they are, American businesses are not.
A new report from Goldman Sachs breaks down who’s paying for Trump’s half-assed tariffs, which, keep in mind, have an unstable half-life. Here’s how much of the tariffs are being eaten by whom:
Foreign exporters: 14%
American businesses (importers): 65%
Humans who buy their crap: 22%
That’s gonna change, Goldman Sachs reported. Businesses have been holding back on passing on the full tariffs — aided in part by stocking up before the tariffs hit. But they’re going to gradually tilt the burden on to you, the consumer.
Here’s where Goldman predicts the new mix of tariff-suffering is headed:
Foreign exporters: 25%
American businesses (importers): 8%
Humans who buy their crap: 67%
In other words, when it comes to the price we’ll pay for the presidential half-wit’s half-baked half-truths about putting the global economy in a half-nelson, we haven’t seen the half of it. (h/t)
THE GOOD NEWS Trump Always Chickens Out™. Sometimes he calls his losses a victory, other times he can’t be bothered. But if inflation starts spiking the way Goldman predicts — 3.2% by December — Republicans will have to do something about it. You can’t cover up the cost of inflation from the people paying for it.
Economic-Stats Nominee Unveils Plan to Cover Them Up, Then Re-Veils It
Pres. Donald Trump’s nominee to “run” the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unveiled a plan yesterday to un-unveil a veritable bureau full of labor statistics.
E.J. Antoni, Trump’s replacement for the BLS commissioner whose jobs numbers made Trump look like he’s bad at his job, said in an interview published yesterday that the BLS monthly job numbers might, y’know, have an accident or suddenly leave town.
As TFN has previously newsfucked, BLS data on jobs and inflation are load-bearing pillars of the global, human-chewing economy. Plus, the whole point of putting Antoni in there is to fudge the numbers, not to eat them.
So, before the day was over, Antoni had apparently re-veiled the plan he had unveiled to veil the jobs numbers. Fellow Heritage Foundation economist and fellow Trump toady Stephen Moore told CNN that Antoni had already dropped his plan.
Add it to sheer incompetence and inexperience on the list of topics for Antoni’s highly anticipated confirmation hearing. Economists across the political spectrum report that Antoni is wildly unqualified, which is the only qualification that matters to Trump.
And if at any point you thought to yourself, “This Antoni guy seems like the kind of jackhole who’d have a Nazi warship as his Zoom background,” you may be interested in pursuing a career as a psychic:
Senate Candidate Calls Congressional Religious Events “Christian Nationalism”
EXCLUSIVE, ALBEIT A FEW DAYS OLD In our live chat on Friday, I asked Jordan Wood — running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine — about the weekly congressional Bible studies and prayer breakfasts, and the granddaddy of theocratic incursions into government, the National Prayer Breakfast.
And yesterday, I finally got around to posting my article focusing on the news Wood made with his answer, starting with his response to me raising the issue:
“Love this. I mean, call it what it is, which is right-wing Christian nationalism. It is this idea that America should be a theocracy, where there should be a very conservative understanding of Christianity that is inherently part of America and that that should be in power. That is so [antithetical] to the Christianity of my family, of my grandparents.”
I also asked Wood something almost no politician ever gets asked: When you say you believe in Jesus, what does that mean? His answer: It’s the stories that matter, not the literal truth of crucifixion.
You can check out his thinking in the article, but getting either answer on the record from a U.S. Senate candidate is rare. And important. And your support helps me do that kind of thing.
TCB
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RESOURCES
Go get ‘em, kids! Even a U.S. senator is henceforth fucking this shit.
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
In the lay sense of “burn it all down,” not the actual, legitimate political ideology of lifting people up.
Sen. Murphy needs to replace Chuck Schumer. If you didn't see John Oliver's take-down of Schumer, it's not to be missed. We need a Minority Leader and, being hopeful here, a Majority Leader in 2027 that talks to real constituents instead of his imaginary friends/constituents.
Senator Murphy has it right. You don’t appease dictators. Lending any kind of legitimacy to what they do only gives them an excuse to do more. See Putain v Ukraine.