#spending freezes

[gwydionmisha]

Atlanta Fed shock sounds 'Trumpcession' warning: McGeever

Trump is deliberately tanking the economy and then trying to cover it up with more firings and cooking the books. If no federal economic data is reliable then no one can trust it for things like investments, business decisions, government planning for economic downturn, etc.. This is yet another essential step in the Republican plan to ruin the economy for the benefit of Vladimir Putin and a hand full of Billionaires so rich they benefit if there is stagflation, or even worse deflation.

There is no non-sinister reason to do any of this.

Trump administration disbands two expert panels on economic data

Trump Advisers Want to Strip Public Spending From the GDP Tally. Why It Makes No Sense.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[rejectingrepublicans]

[themoderatespeaks]

America needs MAX PARTICIPATION for the economic blackout this Friday. This thing is snowballing fast because so many reasons are popping up for why people are doing it (including some "what it's really about" lists). A short list:

-inflation/the egg thing

-protesting the trend of corporations getting bigger and richer and more powerful while normal people are finding it harder and harder to keep up with the cost of living

-protesting corporations who heard Trump say diversity is out and went "Oh thank God" and immediately dropped (sorry, "didn't renew") their DEI policies, their support for the LGBTQ+ community, all of it

-protesting consumerism/huge corporations in general

-Trump giving a giant chainsaw of power to Musk and they are literally having fun with it

-the giant, reckless cuts Trump is making in general

-Jon Schwarz started a grassroots movement for government accountability and corporate reform and is going to make a million bucks this week selling Tshirts of his Blackout Tour

-moderate Republicans, Trump leavers, and even Trump supporters are starting to realize that Trump needs reining in from every angle possible because wow.

IT DOESN'T MATTER, at least not on Friday. The point is that the energy this has gathered is part of a wider pool of protests, boycotts, spending freezes, etc. that are gathering steam fast. And that's a good thing, because this Friday, Feb 28th, has become a productive, nonviolent flashpoint. There is so much anger and fear building right now in America and this is a good, healthy way for it to emerge. But if participation is too spotty, it will lead to absolutely nothing.

So please, less gatekeeping and more welcoming. Honestly, for the sake of max participation, if even one of these reasons matter to you, or matters to people that you care about, please participate.

Tl;dr: What is Friday really about? It's about momentum. Please, participate.

[nattikay]

OmatiCon is holding an art contest and one of the categories was to make some fanart of their little mascot "Teyvì", so here's my entry. Definitely not as polished as I would've liked because I was rushing like mad to get it done by the deadline, but hey it's something!

[saywhat-politics]

Kris Mayes, 22 other attorneys general file lawsuit to block freeze

PHOENIX (AZFamily/AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that she and 22 other attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s “illegal” federal spending freeze.

The attorney general discussed legal action during a news conference Tuesday, shortly before a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze that was supposed to begin at 5 p.m. EST/3 p.m. MST. The move pauses the freeze until Monday.

Mayes says the proposed freeze would cause children to miss out on school lunches, that crime victims could lose critical assistance, and that law enforcement agencies across the country could be defunded, putting critical public safety operations at risk.

[in4newz]

[astrobei]

I GOT A FISH

[volcanicsleep]

rottmnt/gotham dream drawings as promised lmao

[losersolace]

will solace is the type of guy to wear shorts year round no matter the weather or the circumstances. you might think its because he runs warm but you’re WRONG he has sensory issues and can’t stand material touching his calves. in this essay i will

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Oliver Milman and Anna Betts at The Guardian:

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze of all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government, a decision that upended programs relied upon by millions of Americans.

US district judge Loren AliKhan ordered an administrative stay on the funding pause on Tuesday afternoon, moments before it was set to take effect. The stay, issued in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of non-profits and small businesses, pauses the administration’s action until Monday. In a two-page internal memo on Monday, Matthew Vaeth, Trump’s acting head of the office of management and budget (OMB), instructed all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”. Vaeth said that the pause did not include social security or Medicare , and that the assistance put on hold “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals”. If allowed to take effect, the order could have far-reaching consequences that touch nearly every corner of American society, including universities, the non-profit sector, cancer research, food assistance, suicide hotlines, hospitals, community health centers, non-profits that help disabled veterans and many more.

Democratic attorneys general said on Tuesday they also planned to sue to prevent the memo from taking effect. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, said her office would take “imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding. We won’t sit idly by while this administration harms our families.” The administrative stay came in response to a lawsuit filed by four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses in which they said the directive was illegal and would have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”. The groups said the directive would disrupt education, healthcare, housing and disaster relief and would devastate “hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”. At a news conference on Tuesday morning, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader from New York, described the order as “a dagger at the heart of the average American families, in red states and blue states, in cities and suburbs and rural areas”.

Joined at the news conference by the Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar, Patty Murray, Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim, Schumer noted that among the programs potentially affected was Meals on Wheels, which provides hot meals to at-risk seniors and is partly funded by the federal government. The proposed halt in spending comes days after the US also immediately cut off all foreign aid, and was designed to ensure that financial assistance is in line with Trump’s policies, Vaeth wrote.

[...] Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said that the White House was aware of the “website portal outage” and that they had confirmed that no payments had been affected and that payments “are still being processed and sent”. “We expect the portal will be back online shortly,” she added. In a press conference on Tuesday, Leavitt pushed back against suggestions the memo caused chaos and uncertainty and said it would not affect direct assistance to individuals, including social security, Medicare, welfare and food stamps. She did not clarify, however, whether aid that goes through organizations to individuals, like Meals on Wheels, would be affected. “[The] only uncertainty in this room is amongst the media,” said Leavitt, blaming the press for anxieties spurred by the measure.

In a dose of good news, just before the disastrous freeze would have taken effect at 5PM ET/4PM CT yesterday, Judge Loren AliKhan put a temporary halt to Tyrant 47’s egregiously dictatorial order to freeze all federal grants and loans.

[luetta]

it’s so annoying that inaction is itself an action

[frogayyyy]

went swimming (in the sea!!!!!) for the first time in YEARS my crops are watered my skin is clear my sinuses are inflamed 🥰

[northernstcr]

light fires at night (to fill the void) by inthesea is required reading for andreillers

[alteregozowie]

"It shouldn't be this cold in the hotel! It's fucking HELL."

[optionalwarninglabels]

🎉🎉🎉Give it up for No Funds Friday🎉🎉🎉

The government doesn't deserve your money so don't give it to them!!!