Nobody’s home

| 8:00 pm EST December 22, 2024
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

President Joe Biden appointed two additional judges to the federal bench, bringing his total appointments to 235, which is over what Donald Trump did in his first term. Trump will, of course, have many opportunities to appoint additional judges, though those appointments will simply display Trump’s inability to appoint competent judges. Biden has carefully selected his appointments to include more women, minorities, and LGBTQ+, which surpasses all former presidents. Continuing to make his presence known, President Biden signed a stopgap bill Saturday morning to keep the government open. This is the difference between President Biden and that thing that is coming into office in 2025.

Trump wanted the government to shut down, which would have been disastrous right at Christmas. People would have been furloughed, and many essential services would have shut down. Not a nice way to ring in the holiday, but we might as well get ready for all the terrible things Trump will do while in office. Fortunately, not all Republicans are willing to go with whatever Trump says, and they showed that by siding with the bill that was eventually signed by President Biden. Trump and Musk (who really should have no say) wanted the bill to include a debt limit extension, which was not going to happen at the last minute. Leave it to an experienced bankrupter to think you can just borrow from Peter to pay Paul. It doesn’t work like that.

Mitch McConnell gave his “farewell speech” as the Republican leader and had some words for his Republican colleagues who decided they would listen to Elon Musk rather than people who have knowledge of shutdowns: the party responsible for the shutdown will take the blame for the shutdown. The thing about McConnell’s words is that they apparently aren’t true. We had a shutdown during Trump’s first “presidency,” yet he was reelected this year. In fact, if people would blame Republicans for all the negative things they do, we wouldn’t have a full Republican majority coming into power next year. People seem oblivious to what those in Washington do unless it somehow directly impacts them. Of course, there are those who are just too gullible to realize the impact. Meanwhile, Trump continues to listen to people who have no experience in government but who merely want attention. For example, Tucker Carlson said that if any Republicans fail to support Tulsi Gabbard, they are an “enemy” of the United States. Four words for Tucker Carlson: STFU. He knows nothing about anything and just needs to keep his nose out of the government’s business.

Trump’s transition to the presidency is one of the worst in modern history. It’s has been a mess. He has neither power nor control over his Republican colleagues. Jake Sherman, a longtime Washington DC correspondent, shared with MSNBC that the struggle behind a deal to stop the shutdown was “the worst he has ever seen.” Don’t expect much more. You have two egotistical narcissists trying to run the show, and neither of them apparently understand how Washington works. Prepare for four years of utter chaos during which nothing will get done.