Re: Thanks for your concern, lol

Tiggity®

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This highlights a BIG problem we've had that hasn't been a big problem until

Feb 21, 2025, 8:55 AM

it was made into one with Trump. That's the sheer amount of money the federal governemnt has given to states. There's going to be a lot of pain, and regrettable compliance because of this.

I looked into this issue after Trump's post. I'd heard about "congestion pricing", charging people to drive into Manhattan, to reduce traffic. I thought it was dumb, but I also thought...."Well, this is NYC, let NYC do NYC." It's a local issue, or I thought it was, BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE.

BUT......I learned the US Dept of Transportation, under Biden "approved" this plan. OK, WHY? This is NYC, and NYC wants to make less traffic and charge a fee, more power to them. NOPE. Seems the federal governemnt pays to maintain the roads in Manhattan, and as such, they have a say in this otherwise LOCAL issue.

The problem I ran into is a common one these days (happened a LOT with covid). I have a question, but the question is IMPORTANT, so you obviously can't find an answer in the tribal news media. Question is simple....2 actually.......

"How much money does the federal government give NYC for roads in Manhattan yearly? All time?" - You literally won't, and cannot find an answer, or a number.

HOWEVER, apparently the roads in Manhattan were built with funds from the "Federal-aid Highway Program", a program started in 1916 (same year we started the federal income tax - *wink* go figure). Read up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal-aid_highway_program

Now Trump, like the good/chosen/preferred son of a rich controlling parent, knows that money can be a powerful tool to use to coerce compliance. Snot-nosed rich kid in college gets bad grades, and daddy cuts the funding. These are the WORST types of parents, btw, who produce the WORST types of kids. Because they actually enjoy the fact they have control and power over their kids, even into and sometimes THROUGH adulthood. These are the parents who often, when they're 80yo and dying, won't see their kids and haven't in decades since the children abandoned them to finally be able to their own lives.

ANYWAY......Manhattan streets and roads are (to some unknown extent) federally funded. Now we've never had the billionaire son of a rich, controlling parent in the White House, until now. And until now, most local governments assumed the federal governemnt was a loving parent, and would gladly provide help out of love, and not seek to use money as a form of conditional control. And largely states and cities have been free to use federal funds..... freely. Trump knows the power and control he has now, at least $36 trillion dollars, PLUS much more. EVERYTHING funded by the federal governemnt, is now under his control to coerce, as he sees fit. Congress has done this in the past and I've cringed when they do it. The "national" drinking age, and tobacco ages were attached to funding bills as CONDITIONS, forcing compliance to receive money. HATE THIS, ALWAYS HAVE. But now we have a "king" willing to do the same thing, and that's a MASSIVE unchecked power.

States will hurt over this, starting of course with the states Trump likes the least, or has the biggest business interests in, or both as in the case of NY, which is first on the hit list. DeSantis in Florida better watch his back. He's next. California is probably third to be hit.

Here's the letter where Trump is forcing the program to stop. It's the simple breaking of a contract, which kings can do, especially when they control your money you depend on. NYC or even the governor in NY, may not have a leg to stand on. THIS IS WHY AN INCOME TAX IS BAD, and WHY ACCEPTING FEDERAL FUNDS COLLECTED THROUGH FEDERAL TAXES IS BAD FOR STATES. Americans assume the federal government is benevolent, loving, and not evil and prone to blackmail or coercion using money, like bad parents. Well, they are now.

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/memorandum/VPPPletter_termination_021925.pdf

At least when Congress forces compliance by using money, the conditions are filtered through a legislative process, meaning the conditions are USUALLY beneficial overall.

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In the 1980s when Reagan tried to deregulate NHTSA seatbelt laws, he was sued by the insurance companies over the seatbelt law and lost in a unanimous SCOTUS decision forcing him to regulate. The constitution worked, Reagan took the L and the states conformed were allowed to determine on their own the extent of the seatbelt laws, fines, and enforcement.

There's no way this would happen in our current political morass. First off, Trump would fire the NHTSA staff that came up with the seatbelt regulations. Then he'd fire all the statisticians collecting and analyzing traffic data. Then he'd hire some IT kids to bury whatever data existed prior, thus making the issue disappear entirely.

Then he'd force any states with seatbelt regulations to pay excessive fines til they bent the knee, using the proceeds to fund the loyalists in red states.

If any states challenged him in a court of law, he'd just fire the judiciary and pack them with loyalists, problem solved.

He essentially did that the other day in NY, when the prosecutor resigned because he didn't like being coerced by Trump's DOJ to drop the corruption charges against the Mayor of NYC. His resignation letter was epic:

“No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives.”

“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”

Ben Hunt in his blog Epsilon Theory wrote a great piece about what all this really means to him, and it really hits home the direction we are headed.

https://www.epsilontheory.com/it-was-never-going-to-be-me/

Long Live the King, posted from the White House

King of the hill, Top of the heap....

Re: King of the hill, Top of the heap....

true, but its also true

Dang man, you ghana have a heart attack.

Thanks for your concern, lol