Will Bri-Fi Withstand a "Blue Wave" in '26?

With the fall mid-term elections coming up, it’s time once more to engage in my bi-yearly ritual of taking a look at the voting record of our PA-01 U.S. House Rep Brian Fitzpatrick. So, without further ado, I give you the following:

Here, Fitzpatrick voted for a bill to let Generalissimo Trump arbitarily decide whether or not nonprofit groups would lose their tax-exempt status, giving them 90 days to fight this (which means the affected groups would have to expend massive amounts of dough for a court fight they’d probably lose...think Planned Parenthood probably, under the guise of fighting “terrorism” of course). This also includes any group supporting DEI or the BDS movement against Israel as well as supporting Palestine (and yes, I know 52 alleged “Democrats” voted for this mess also). I believe this needed unanimous consent the first time it was introduced, which is why it failed (here), though it was reintroduced and Bri-Fi voted Yes again (more here, here and here).

Also, Fitzpatrick supported the Social Security Fairness Act to repeal the so-called Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) Provision, which, according to Bri-Fi, “unfairly reduced (Social Security) benefits for our retired firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other public servants” (vote is here).

Hmmm, public servants...you mean, like Bri-Fi himself? And yes, this is particularly ridiculous when you find out how Bri-Fi puffs himself up by saying “Oh, I voted against pay raises.” What the hell do you call this, then?

And I’ll admit that you have to be a real Grinch, you might say, to criticize this (supported in overwhelming bipartisan numbers in the House...71 Repugs opposed it). But here’s the thing...this is expected to cost about $196 billion, and there’s no “pay-for” provision to this. And this affects a relatively small number of Social Security recipients.

Also, there were 4 Dems who opposed it, including John Larson of Connecticut (here), who said...

"While I am glad to see the House take up the issue of Social Security, we need to take comprehensive action to enhance benefits and extend the program's solvency, something the United States Congress has not done in more than 50 years," Larson said in a statement.

So you know what, Bri-Fi? Get back to me when you and your pals come up with legislation to FULLY FUND SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE (preferably removing the cap on earning subject to S.S. withholding, which is about $176K) and which also prohibits privatizing it, or making it “discretionary spending,” or turning it into some kind of a ”block grant” program or some such nonsense, OK?

Also, do you remember that infamous showdown between Don The Con and Couch Boy on one side, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine over funding that nation’s brave battle against Vlad The Butcher (where our “accordion hands” *preznit kept telling Zelenskyy “you haven’t got the cards” among other insults)?

Here is the obsequious, cowardly response from our PA-01 rep:

"It was heartbreaking to witness the turn of events that transpired in today's meeting regarding Ukraine's future. It is time to put understandable emotions aside and come back to the negotiation table."

If you want any further proof that Bri-Fi does the bidding of the leader of his party at all costs, there you have it.

Bri-Fi also voted for that garbage Republican budget to extend tax cuts at the expense of cutting Medicare/Medicaid 217-215 (here)...all Repugs voted Yes (except Thomas Massie of KY...Massie would end up paying for courageous votes like this, as well as keeping up the drumbeat on the Trumpstein files)...and just for good measure, Fitzpatrick voted for it again here.

Here, Bri-Fi voted for cuts to Medicaid and school lunches, a move which will undoubtedly hurt kids and cost lives and will likely lead to the closure of community hospitals and facilities for elder care (more here and here).

And just for good measure, Bri-Fi was NOT one of the 12 U.S. House reps who opposed Medicaid cuts in a letter to MAGA Mike Johnson here.

Bri-Fi also voted for the utterly wretched SAVE Act here (along with four alleged “Democrats”), which is a “solution” in search of an actual problem – as I and MANY others have pointed out, actual voter fraud takes place on a truly microscopic level (and often committed by Republicans), and when it DOES occur, it’s caught by election officials. The purpose of the SAVE Act is to disenfranchise individuals (including out-of-state students, married women, and anyone without a valid passport, which covers about 146 million people as noted here) who often vote for Democrats (more here).

He also voted for the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” because of course (here)...among the MANY cruelties in this bill, it guts Medicaid and takes billions from Medicare also and hammers SNAP benefits, though it DOES include a tax break for...wait for it!...gun silencers, and in the process of rewarding the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch once more, it blows up the debt by at least $3.8 trillion...to be fair, Bri-Fi, along with Thomas Massie, voted No on the final version of the BBB on 7/3/25, but as far as I’m concerned, the damage was already done since he voted Yes for EVERY PROCEDURAL VOTE leading up to that (and Bri-Fi says the House version never would have cut Medicaid – uh, no).

Bri-Fi also voted for the so-called GENIUS Act here, which legalized a lot of the crypto nonsense that, among other things, helped enrich #47 by putting this damn “stablecoin” token into a black box where it will ultimately go right into Dementia Donnie’s pocket with no oversight (and I know a lot of Dems voted for this mess also, probably because they saw the role the crypto industry played in sinking the re-election campaigns of Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester as noted here).

Along with every other U.S. House Republican, he voted against releasing the Trumpstein files (here).

Fitzpatrick also voted in favor of HR 4371, the so-called Kayla Hamilton Act (here – more from the ACLU is here and here...more here).

From what I read about this, it appears that the Kayla Hamilton Act is a version of the Laken Riley bill, meaning that the R team has chosen to exploit an awful tragedy to pass just-as-awful (and-maybe-worse) legislation that, among other things, subjects immigrant kids to body cavity searches (Stephen Miller will get his jollies over this for sure). It would also subject immigrant children to prolonged detention instead of unification with families in this country while their legal case proceeds (especially if the children pose a “flight risk” or present themselves with “gang tattoos” as determined by our cretinous ruling cabal...and did I fail to mention that we’re talking about children??!!).

Bri-Fi also voted to fund the government for fiscal year ending 9/26 (here), which sounds benign except for the fact that that includes still more funding for the ICE Gestapo. Let’s not forget, though, that Fitzpatrick said that ICE agents should be unmasked (here)...instead, how about DOING AWAY WITH ICE ENTIRELY SINCE THEY’RE A ROGUE AGENCY AND PUNISHING EVERYONE IN THAT BUNCH GUILTY OF A CRIME???!!!

He also voted in favor of a bill that would have blocked legislation challenging those beyond ridiculous Trump tariffs (here)...fortunately, the bill failed because every Dem voted against it along with 3 Repugs; Thomas Massie, Kevn Kiley and Don Bacon (but not Bri-Fi...I would ask that you keep this in mind the next time you hear Bri-Fi trying to sell himself as a moderate problem solver, or some such nonsense...our wet noodle PA-01 rep was willing to cede tariff power, which rightfully belongs to Congress, to our ruling criminal cabal).

However, to be fair, “Both Sides Brian” also voted for a bill to “disapprove” of #47’s tariffs with Canada here (I guess, since the head of the “R” party is in the White House, a “disapprove” resolution is the best we can get from MAGA Mike Johnson and his minions).

Maybe the worst of Bri Fi’s nonsense is his being utterly mute during the worst excesses of the Trump regime, including the destruction of US AID, DOGE and Project 2025 in general wrecking our government, along with the previously mentioned ICE horror show, in particular the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, to say nothing of all of the kids captured and held by ICE, some of whom have died, that stinking ballroom and the “Arch De Trump” on the way to Arlington, Our Ochre Abomination playing games with disaster aid to blue states, those horrible tariffs (and I know Fitzpatrick opposed Canada’s as noted, but I mean the others too), turning our backs on Ukraine, blowing up the South American fishing boats, unilaterally declaring war on Iran and Venezuela, antagonizing our trade partners including Canada and Denmark/Greenland, etc. (here and here)

Also, I couldn’t find any response from Fitzpatrick concerning the “VIP snorkeling” event around the U.S.S. Arizona that FBI head Kash Patel participated in (here). I mean, Bri-Fi was once an FBI agent – you would THINK he’d have something to say about that.

Oh, and for the record, Bri-Fi was also mute when Cantaloupe Capone said he didn’t care about people’s finances or his previously noted war of choice against Iran (here).

Also, Bri-Fi has actually tried to legislate about getting PFAS chemicals out of our environment, though the head of his party couldn’t give a fig about the danger from PFAS of course (here). However, to be fair, Fitzpatrick has pushed back on that, somewhat (here – I won’t give Bri-Fi credit for much, but I will for that).

Also, Bri-Fi and Tom Suozzi in the House introduced a bill to keep Bronzer Beelzebub from paying off the 1/6 insurrectionists #47 pardoned from this “anti-weaponization” fund BS (another point in his favor – here).

It should also be noted that Bri-Fi said that a War Powers Resolution over Iran must be brought to Congress if the 60-day limit from the date of declaring hostilities is reached (here)...true, but that’s a pretty milquetoast response as per usual to the insane, delusional demagoguery from The Orange Demon *preznit Who Must Not Be Named (and I’m sure you can imagine what the response was from Cheetoh Hitler to THAT).

By the way, I know Bri-Fi was endorsed by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the largest PA union representing teachers and support staff (here)...

“We value the relationships you have built with the public school employees throughout the district and your efforts to support policies that strengthen public education and protect the rights of working people,” wrote Aaron F. Chapin, the president of PSEA, which is also the largest labor union in Pennsylvania (in explaining the endorsement).

I wonder if Chapin is aware of the fact that, by voting for the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck, Bri-Fi helped kick-start what is in essence a national school voucher program, with the impact not scheduled to hit until January ’27 based on this (how con-vee-nient)...

“What is clear, is that in any state that wants to do so, the program can be used to support private school choice, and that's what makes it significant,” (Professor Martin) West says. “It really does have the potential to turbocharge the movement to expand private school choice in the United States, which already had significant momentum at the state level.”

I also would SERIOUSLY like to know what the rank-and-file of Chapin’s union thinks of this endorsement. It’s possible that they may go along with this, but somehow I doubt it.

Also, here is something else from Our Demented Orange Lunatic of a *preznit (this corrupt-as-hell nuclear deal with the Saudis) that Bri-Fi has been absolutely mute about.

Fitzpatrick has also voted against the right to contraception for his PA-01 constituents, along with voting against codifying Roe v. Wade protections, as well as supporting a nationwide abortion ban and so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” which “manipulate women seeking care with unproven and dangerous medical misinformation.” He has also voted against capping the cost of prescription drugs, failing to support extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits, and supported cuts to common-sense energy tax credits (that and MUCH more is here).

With each passing year, it becomes more and more obvious to yours truly that Brian Fitzpatrick, having perfected the art of the meaningless gesture (in terms of improving the quality of life for those he ostensibly represents), will never provide anything more than half-based “solutions” to the important needs that require the skill and commitment of a U.S. House rep committed to his constituents.

So, given all of this, what kind of campaign is Bri-Fi running against his Dem opponent Bob Harvie? Well, given that Fitzpatrick has made the beyond sleazy charge that Harvie is the target of an FBI investigation (which even the Huffington Post says is nonsense here), that should tell you that Fitzpatrick has dragged this campaign directly to the gutter in a truly vile manner (which, again, isn’t surprising given Fitzpatrick’s failure to make substantive accomplishments over the years of his representation in Congress).

Oh, and Bri-Fi has frequently tried to criticize Harvie as a “career politician.” Given that Fitzpatrick has held his seat for 10 YEARS, what the hell does that make him?

To vote for new representation at long last, click here to support Bob Harvie, so Brian Fitzpatrick can continue his servile fealty to Donald Trump and launch mud-slinging attacks at Democrats merely as a private citizen instead of an elected representative to the U.S. Congress.

Update 8/7/26: The CBO originally said the Medicare fund could run out in 2052. Well, under Repug “governance,” now the fund could run out in 2040. I seriously hope no one is surprised.

Diaper Donnie Tilts At You-Know-What

We all know how much our dearly despised abhorred reviled tolerated *preznit hates renewable energy because he can’t game the market and profit from it, and of all the alternative forms of power out there, I think wind is #1 on his hit list, as Desi Lydic pointed out yesterday. Well, with that in mind, I was recently visited by the muse, and I’d like to share the following:

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Or the grumbling in your stomach when you miss a Happy Meal
Affection for your children that you feel just now and then
Or delusions of Joe Biden when he used an Autopen
As Ivanka Trump lay buried underneath the fairway green
Or those rallies with “the faithful” where you always make a scene
Showing all the gaps they find in the windmills of your mind

Like the wormhole that you follow to delusions in your head
Where a cognitive exam should find some common sense instead
When the bronzer starts to melt, revealing layers of your tan
As you escalate pre-emptive war without end in Iran
As Xi detects our defense posture slowly start to crack
Knowing full well that this century belongs to Asia PAC
It’s a pity just to find only windmills of your mind

Like the growing voice of protest that you’ll never, ever quell
Or your Mar-a-Lago bathroom full of classified “intel”
Or all the ICE detainees fighting bravely to be free
Or musicians that are bailing on “250” in D.C.
Or those who hope our economic hardship does relent
Or Russell Vought’s conniving to protect the one percent
Our integrity's declined from the windmills of your mind

Like the pardons handed out when all the bribery was paid
Like the pain to poor and farmers from destroying US AID
Our infrastructure crumbles, while you act so unaware
As your FLOTUS flouts compassion, showing only a blank stare
Like the swirling lies behind the dark spaces we all find
In the windmills of your mind

With apologies to Michel Legrand, wherever he may be (a parody of a song in a movie about a crook, appropriately enough).

More Dem Concern Trolling From The "Paper Of Record"

I honestly have tried to avoid dwelling on too much corporate media nonsense about what the Democratic Party supposedly must do in order to remain competitive because I get tired of the idiocy almost breaking my brain, but this recent post mortem on the 2024 election from the editorial board of “the old gray lady” caught my eye and deserves a response IMO (from here).

In particular, that applies to the following excerpts...

Last year’s election was close, despite President Trump’s hyperbolic claims about his margin of victory. Still, the Democratic Party clearly lost — and not only the presidential race. It also lost control of the Senate and failed to recapture the House of Representatives. Of the 11 governor’s races held last year, Democrats won three. In state legislature races, they won fewer than 45 percent of the seats.

I don’t have an issue with these facts since, as far as I can tell, they’re not in dispute. However, I would add the following from here...

The Republicans, led by incumbent Speaker Mike Johnson, narrowly maintained control of the House with a small majority of 220 seats (the narrowest since 1930), despite winning the House popular vote by 4 million votes and a margin of 2.6%.[5][6] Democrats made a net gain of 1 seat from the Republicans, which represents the smallest net change in US history in the House of Representatives. The majority was decided by just over 7,000 votes across three congressional districts (Iowa's 1st, Colorado's 8th, and Pennsylvania's 7th) out of nearly 148 million cast in this election;[7] this was a roughly 2-point bias in favor of Democrats, resulting from Democratic outperformance in swing districts. Despite the Democratic overperformance, the results gave Republicans a government trifecta for the first time since the 2018 midterms.

Am I arguing that Dems don’t have work to do? Of course not. In my beloved commonwealth of PA, Repugs out-registered new voters by a sizeable margin. I’m not exactly sure what the answer is to that since we can’t outspend the other side. However, there’s more work for sure that we can do when it comes to organizing and keeping the issues that matter front and center to drive turnout (and we’re going to be helped indirectly by all of the Trumpist insanity raging out of control, but we can’t rely on that without doing our own homework, you might say).

With that in mind, I’d like to present this item once more (I know I pointed this out already - sorry to be a bit repetitive, but I think it matters). Dem James Andrew Malone ran on issues that his constituents cared about, Repug Josh Parsons ran on the typical Trumpist playbook, and as a result, Malone won the state senate seat, which hadn’t gone to a Dem in 42 years, which is the length of time that that seat has even existed. So as far as I’m concerned, this doesn’t indicate that MAGA has some magical hold on the voters of this country regardless of their party affiliation.

Oh, and as far as the U.S. Senate is concerned, that indeed will be a tougher nut to crack, you might say, for Dems. A factor in losing the Senate last year was the ridiculous over-spend by the crypto industry to take out primarily Dem Sherrod Brown in Ohio ($40 million in that race alone as noted here), as well as Bob Casey in PA and Jon Tester in Montana as noted here (once more, love and kisses to the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR for Citizens United).

Returning to the Times Op-Ed, I give you this...

A key part of this argument involves voter turnout. Party leaders claim that most Americans still prefer Democrats but that voter apathy allowed Mr. Trump to win. According to this logic, Democrats do not need to worry about winning back Trump voters and should instead try to animate the country’s natural liberal majority. “I don’t think we’re going to win over those 77 million that voted for Donald Trump,” Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee, said this month. “I’m concerned with the 90 million who stayed home.” It was an unfortunate echo of Hillary Clinton saying that millions of Trump voters were “deplorables” and “irredeemable.”

Did you catch that? According to the Times, Tim Walz’s acknowledgement of numerical political reality smacks of “elitism” somehow. It should be noted from here, however, that the popular vote margin of victory for Generalissimo Trump was about 2.5 million nationwide, so I don’t see where Walz’s comment was off the mark (if, say, two-thirds of those 90 million turn out between both candidates, I have a felling we’d be in a very different – and much better - circumstance with President Harris and Vice President Walz). Oh, and failing to acknowledge those who didn’t vote absolves the Times of its role in DOING EVERYTHING IN ITS POWER TO DUMP ON BIDEN AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, WHICH DEFINITELY PLAYED A ROLE IN DEPRESSING TURNOUT LAST YEAR ALSO.

And with that in mind, given last year’s results, guess what the number one takeaway is for the Dems according to the Times?

To regain voters’ trust, Democrats should take at least three steps. ... First, they should admit that their party mishandled Mr. Biden’s age.

Oh, go f*ck all the way off!

This is an absolutely typical response from the Times, which, as noted here, fixated on Biden’s age versus Trump’s even though only 3 years separated the two of them (and call me crazy, but I don’t recall any stories about #47’s age after Kamala Harris took over for Biden). I’ve read that the Times went out of its way to pick fights with Biden on this because his administration didn’t give them the “access” they wanted to people in Biden’s administration, which is a typically jaded and shortsighted attitude (here).

Were the optics terrible for Biden in that debate last year? Yes. Did he need to drop out? Probably.

However, what do you think would have happened if the roles were reversed (Biden came out firing on all cylinders and Trump had stumbled around looking confused)? I’ll tell you – Trump and his lackeys would have screamed about “liberal bias” for-freaking-ever and defended their guy, that’s what! And the Times would have acted like it was another day with a “y” in it.

The editorial also chides the Democrats on the issue of “gender-affirming care for prisoners.” What a shame that the editorial board didn’t follow reporting of their own newspaper; if they had, they would have learned that such care took place under Trump’s first term as noted here. There’s also some noise in today’s Op-Ed about Dems “(remaining) too focused on personal identity and on Americans’ differences — by race, gender, sexuality and religion — rather than our shared values.” If that’s indeed true, it’s only to defend individuals who are under attack from the “party of Lincoln” on the basis of those characteristics (and God only knows what the paper means by the Dems not recognizing “shared values,” though I’m sure the Times will have no trouble getting a quote from Jared Golden or Marie Gluesenkamp Perez complaining about “coastal elites” again to buttress such an idiotic claim).

Again, do the Dems have a lot of work to do with policy and messaging? Yes (and based on some quotes I’m hearing from new DNC head Ken Martin, I think he realizes that – I hope so anyway). But paying heed to the opining from a bunch of well-heeled media types as opposed to gathering the data on key issues and crafting messaging and policy to drive turnout is definitely not the way forward.

Basically, with “friends” like the New York Times editorial board, the Democrats definitely don’t need enemies.