#1,019: The Mump Regime

Timothy Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University, is without question, one of the most profoundly important thinkers of our time. The author of a dozen books, including such seminal works as On Tyranny, Our Malady, Black Earth, and his latest, On Freedom, Dr. Snyder (who earned his PhD at Oxford), is a polymath: an expert in diverse fields. His books, monographs and essays deal with both medieval and modern European history, the underpinnings of the Holocaust, the rise of American authoritarianism and healthcare in America. He speaks five and reads ten European languages, and is one of the few American intellectuals to be named a permanent fellow at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, the “Institute for Human Sciences” in Vienna.

I owe the title of this blog, The Mump Regime, to Professor Snyder. It comes from a piece he wrote for his own blog, Thinking About . . . Just as I had, within the past year, searched for a new epithet-cum-nickname for the once-and-future POTUS (IT), he had been looking for a term to use in place of “The Trump Administration.” In paying close attention to the implied threats and actions of the president-elect and his current BFF, Elon Musk (AKA “The richest man on the planet” TRMOTP), Prof. Snyder concluded that Musk just might do more of the political planning and damage than his “poorer” leader. Because of the fact that TRMOTP does seem, at this point, to wield more public power than IT, Prof. Snyder decided that his term for the new regime should be “MU(sk)TruMP. After all, as co-head of the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), TRMOTP has taken it upon himself to make pronouncements on everything from eliminating funding for childhood cancer research to tearing down the Department of Education to eliminating the debt ceiling and replacing it with a $280 Trillion Price Bitcoin Reserve To Save The Dollar. (It should be noted that “DOGE” is also the name of the bitcoin the incoming regime is pushing for its own financial gain . . . as well as the name given to the supreme leaders of Venice from roughly the 5th to the 18th century.)

Congress’ last minute passage of a spending bill that will keep the government running until March was a dangerous, headlong drive down a poorly-paved road. That 38 Republicans (along with all but one Democrat who voted “present”) voted against MUMP - despite their threat to run and fund MAGA purists against any and all dissenters - was a major defeat for a regime which has yet to take the oath of office. Much of the blame must rest with Musk, who in over 100 online messages repeatedly lied about what was in the original bill.

TRMOTP falsely claimed that members of Congress would get a 40% pay raise as part of the package. The truth is that members of the House and Senate have not had a raise to their $174,000 salaries since 2009, after repeatedly freezing a law implementing automatic cost-of-living (COLA) increases. The bill they passed did not include a COLA freeze, but this means a maximum potential pay adjustment of a mere 3.8%. (Even if lawmakers had given themselves all 15 years of rejected COLAs (which again, they are not doing), it would result in only a 31% increase, according to the Congressional Research Service. TRMOTP also posted a claim that the bill would provide $3 billion for a new NFL stadium in Washington. This is pure stuff fand nonsense. The bill transfers control of the site of the existing RFK Stadium to the D.C. local government for redevelopment, which could potentially include a stadium. No federal funds are changing hands as part of the transaction.

The entire funding affair didn’t do much for Speaker Mike Johnson’s hold on power. When he jettisoned the bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown after facing the fierce criticism from MUMP, Democrats got into the act, decrying the omission of four bills related to pediatric cancer research and treatments from the revised funding bill. “Republicans would rather cut taxes for billionaire donors than fund research for children with cancer,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, said Friday on social media.

But with the clock ticking down the minutes and seconding until Friday December 20 turned into Saturday December 21 (the “witching hour”) the Senate voted unanimously to renew the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act (named after a 10-year-old girl who died from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma [DIPG], an inoperable brain tumor in 2013). The bill extended $12.6 million in annual cancer research funding through 2031, allowing the National Institutes of Health to continue researching the biology of childhood cancer and structural birth defects.

(It should be noted that three other cancer-related measures were scrapped at the end of 118th Congress. These include a new policy that would have made it easier for low-income children on Medicaid to cross state lines for specialized cancer treatment, and two bills aimed at incentivizing pediatric cancer drug development.) TRMOTP and his titular boss proclaimed that this kind of spending was precisely what the DOGE was looking to jettison in order to bring down a deficit which they know perfectly well will skyrocket once ITs 2017 tax cuts are reinstated in 2025. Unless, of course, members of the House grow a pair and just say no . . .or go back and take Econ 101, which will teach them that passing massive tax cuts for the wealthy at the same time you are initiating historically high tariffs is a prescription for economic disaster.

Notably AWOL in last weeks fiscal sturm und drang was the Vice President Elect, J.D. Vontz, Republican of Ohio. The question is why? Why has he faded from view? Could it be because he has been replaced in ITs political affection by TRMOTP? If this is so - and I believe it is - then we can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Because, if history is any indicator, the one thing that can get a person removed from IT’s A-list faster than anything is garnering more public airtime. than the boss of bosses. IT loves TRMOTP because he is a multi-multi billionaire who is willing to do anything and everything necessary to make his fellow narcissist the eternal king of kings. But that could be the source of his very downfall. Already, Musk is being chided and derided for knowing even less about politics, legislation, and the day-to-day operation of government than his “poor pitiful cousin.” Loyalty is one thing; publicity is another. I would give the MUMP Regime less than 6 months before it begins to suffer what in medical terminology is known as a comminuted fracture . . . e.g. trouble in paradise . . .

Thank you, Prof. Snyder, for giving a truly sharp-witted appellation to what is shaping up to be a sinister administration.

And we have yet to speak of such hideous afflictions the regime looks to foist on America, such as mumps (Parotitis), measles, polio . . . and getting Fluoride out of our drinking water . . .

Wishing one and all a HAPPY, MERRY EVERYTHING! See you next week.