Will Senate GOP throw out the Constitution?

PRESENTED BY THE PINOVER PINUP

Government funding runs out in two days, the House is gone and Senate Republicans face a stark choice: Provide the votes for a continuing resolution to effectively strip Congress of its Constitutional spending authority or the federal government shuts down.

Senate Republicans don’t want to be blamed for shutting the government down but also don’t want to look like they’re anointing the wildly unpopular billionaire Elon Musk as an unelected dictator over America’s public services and programs and giving Donald Trump monarchical powers. And they are agonizing over how to handle what has become a truly unenviable situation. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has already chosen to withhold his support.

The bill, crafted by the theocratic House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La., no relation) with Trump’s blessing, demolishes the WDC budget, hands authority over the federal government spending to Musk and Trump through September, blows up the Internal Revenue Service, cuts disaster relief, increases deportation spending, and protects DOGE.

Fortunately for them, they are protected by a corrupt, corporate political press who act as if this is entirely a problem for Democrats, including Punchbowl News Presented By Meta, Politico Playbook Presented by the American Bankers Association, the Washington Post Presented by Northrup Grumman, and ABC News Sponsored By Honda.

A few Senate Democrats understand their role in the opposition party is to oppose the figurative shredding of the Constitution (and the literal shredding of classified government documents); Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall is keeping track.

However, Senate Permanent Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) agrees with the corporate consensus, as he is now calling his caucus to rustle up at least eight votes in support of throwing out the Constitution.

Indivisible has a tool to call Senators to filibuster the MAGA discontinuing resolution.

This afternoon at 2:30 pm, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) are holding an informal hearing on the Trump coup’s illegal freeze of climate spending, with Maryland county executive Calvin Ball, schoolbus dealer Caley Edgerley, former EPA official Lisa Heinzerling, and Climate United’s Phil Aroneanu, whose organization is contracted to distribute $7 billion in climate investments, but whose contract was illegally frozen by Trump EPA demolisher Lee Zeldin.

The anti-science, pro-universal-paperclips Republican operative Michael Kratsios, Trump's Office of Science and Tech Policy nominee, was backed in committee this morning by a vote of 24-4. Ranking member Maria Cantwell (Wash.), led Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.), and John Fetterman (Pa.) in support of Kratsios.¹

Kratsios, 38, was a technology advisor in Trump’s first term and is now managing director at Scale AI, Inc., which specializes in training data for AI. He met with Elon Musk in December. Unlike previous OSTP heads, Kratsios has no scientific background; he has a bachelor’s degree in politics, then interned for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and worked at a Peter Thiel investment fund.

And now, we turn to fashion news:

Here’s a better ensemble:

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), a disturbingly reliable vote for the Trump coup, announced she is not seeking reëlection in 2026, joining Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in abandoning the sinking ship of state.

The Trump coup is illegally firing half of the Department of Education staff.

Following a court order, the Trump Department of Agriculture hires back all 6,000 fired workers from the past month, including public land employees.

The Trump coup is planning to cut National Park Service payroll by another 30 percent.

L.A. officials issue evacuation warnings for areas hit by fossil-fueled wildfires ahead of heavy fossil-fueled rains, while wildfires rage throughout the Southeast. As the megastorm moves east, a severe thunderstorm outbreak this weekend is likely with tornadoes, damaging winds, hail threats In Midwest and the South. Scientists detail how climate whiplash is hitting the world’s biggest cities with increasing floods and drought.

How NOAA satellites help us stay ahead of severe weather season.

Hearings on the Hill:

• 9:30 AM: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
  Votes on Nominations of Michael Kratsios to be OSTP Director and Mark Meador to be FTC Commissioner, National Mesonet Program, Sea Turtle Rescue, and Other Legislation

• 10 AM: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
  Mining Legislation

• 2 PM: Senate Budget Committee
  Vote on the Nomination of Dan Bishop to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget

Climate Action Today:

• 12 PM: Popular Democracy
  Billionaires Are Killing Us: Mobilize To Save Healthcare

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.

1  It would have been easier for me to list the Democrats opposed to Kratsios: Ed Markey (Mass.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Andy Kim (N.J.), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.).