<[Event "2nd Harry Lyman Open"] [Site "Needham Mass"]
[Date "1999.01.10"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Young, Stephen"]
[Black "Tylevich, David"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A53"]
[WhiteElo "1852"]
[BlackElo "2243"]

<2025 is likely to be an extremely difficult year for people serving in state governments. Aside from the regular perils of trying to govern when so many critical influences — notably the national economic environment, but also the immense ripple effect of national party politics — are beyond their control, governors and legislators will have to deal with the fallout of big fiscal decisions underway in Washington, D.C., that directly control state budgets. According to a recent analysis from Pew, federal funds represent over a third of state-government revenues. And as any governor from either party will tell you, federal dollars typically come with “strings” (i.e., mandates) that aren’t necessarily relaxed when funding is decreased. So when great ideological pressure is exerted to cut federal spending, state lawmakers face the prospect of doing more with a lot less, particularly since (now as ever) federal officials don’t tend to look that closely at programs they run themselves (e.g., defense, Social Security, and Medicare).

The fiscal math of the second Trump administration and its subservient congressional wing, focused on tax cuts and major new border-security spending amid promises of deficit reduction, will require massive cuts in federal-state programs from Medicaid to education to emergency management to housing to nutrition. States are by and large responsible for social safety-net benefits and services focused on low-income folks. These are not high priorities for any Republican administration, and certainly weren’t for Trump 1.0, which nearly decimated state budgets with a cap on federal Medicaid costs as part of its failed legislation labeled as “repealing Obamacare.”

What’s coming down the pike this year is likely to be much, much worse for states. And that’s not even counting the havoc already being wreaked in federal-state grant programs even before Congress acts via Elon Musk’s DOGE attacks on federal agencies and their disbursements, and OMB’s efforts to freeze funding for a vast array of grants, an omen of deep cuts to come.

For Republican governors and legislators, getting clobbered by their alleged partisan allies in the federal government must be particularly stressful. But so far, instead of issuing warnings, many of them are leading cheers for Trump 2.0, and even emulating the hammer-headed, chaotic approach to budget-cutting that’s been one of its hallmarks. As NBC News reports, baby DOGE initiatives are springing up like mushrooms after heavy rain:

[G]overnors and lawmakers in at least 11 states have attempted to create their own version of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission that Trump put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of to find ways to cut federal spending.

The moves, largely centered in solidly red states, at the outset of Trump’s second term underscore the political grip he has on the GOP base and the desire of elected officials in the party to be seen as nothing less than loyal to him....>

<....Now it helps that the idea of looking at government programs to find improvements and efficiencies isn’t exactly a brilliant new insight; most states have something like that going on all the time. But state-level Republicans seem eager to rebrand this boring green-eyeshade stuff with the thrillingly wild excitement of Musk’s DOGE. That’s clearly the case with Iowa’s Republican governor Kim Reynolds, as KTVO reports:

Following the incoming Trump Administration’s cue, Governor Kim Reynolds is planning to launch Iowa’s own Department of Government Efficiency Taskforce through an executive order. Her office said she will be signing it soon. …

“In just a few short years we’ve turned our state into a national model for bold, get-it-done government and we’re not stopping,” Gov. Reynolds said.

Over the last two years, Gov. Reynolds said the reorganization of state government is saving taxpayers more than $200 million by reducing the number of boards, commissions, regulations and state agencies.

“To build on our success I’m launching our own state DOGE,” Gov. Reynolds said. “To find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government.”

It’s unclear whether Reynolds will hire a cadre of 22-year-old software engineers to camp out at state agencies, hack their IT systems, and terrorize staff. But she clearly wants to infuse her administration with the evil glamour exuded by Musk’s DOGE. An even catchier rebranding has been undertaken by Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, best known nationally for his anti-abortion absolutism. KFOR quotes his announcement:

Today, I’m launching DOGE-OK to keep the focus on flat budgets and limiting government,” Governor Stitt said. “Our top responsibility as leaders is ensuring we are working on behalf of all four million Oklahomans in the most efficient way possible. DOGE-OK will help identify and root out inefficiencies and government waste. It’s an essential part of making us a top ten state.

Good luck with that, Governor. Oklahoma is also a good example of another area in which state-level Republicans are emulating Trump, according to NBC News:

As state legislatures have convened across the country in recent weeks, elected GOP officials have sought to advance bills designed to help facilitate Trump’s mass deportation plans — some of which are named after or specifically reference the president. …

Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Ryan Walters, who oversees the State Board of Education, last week approved new rules requiring all families enrolling children in public schools to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship.

The new rules — if approved by the governor and the state Legislature — would require public school districts to track students who cannot verify their immigration status and report those figures to state officials.

ICE has a friend in Oklahoma City.

We’ll see if this eagerness about what’s happening in Washington persists when developments there begin to make life hell on Earth for Republican governors and legislators trying to balance budgets and facing their own 2026 election challenges.>

<[Event "First Boston Futurity"] [Site "Boston Mass"]
[Date "1981.04.??"]
[EventDate "1981"]
[Round "1"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Dymond, David"]
[Black "Kelleher, William"]
[ECO "B40"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is being ridiculed over a flub in her Wednesday question time.

When asked when Americans can expect grocery prices to come back down, Leavitt struggled to answer. Instead, she referred to the "grocery pump," an apparent mix of "gas pump" and "grocery store."

Within just 15 minutes of her flub, someone had created an account on Blue Sky for the "Grocery Pump." According to its biography, it's concerned eggs are reaching $500 a gallon.

"But 'on day one...'!! Trump told us 'I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries...We're going to bring those prices way down.' I want my prices at the 'grocery pump' to go down NOW! I can't afford the eggs I need to put into my tank,'" cracked former Republican Party chair Michael Steele on X.

"We are still being given that Trump has 'concepts of a plan' while he is IN office! There is no plan. He will continue to blame Biden on inflation for the next 4 years," wrote Chamber of Progress director of economic analysis Tahra Jiraiya.

"White House Barbie will have a complete meltdown one day, mark my word. The constant lying and avoiding direct answers cannot hold up under scrutiny. She is in over her head," said Tom Haudricourt, a former reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"The grocery pump? Okay that’s a new one. Tell me you’ve never been inside a grocery store without telling me," quipped a junior project manager at NBC News.

The last time Leavitt spoke on the issue, she blamed the mass killing of chickens by Joe Biden's administration for high egg prices.

Leavitt was also accused of misleading the press when she implied that Elon Musk's coders aren't writing government code.

Fox correspondent Peter Doocy asked whether the Musk team has "read-only access" to the government systems. Leavitt said "yes."

Doocy then asked, "So they are not allowed to write new code?"

Leavitt answered, "no."

It prompted questions from those online who doubted what she said. One called it a "hard-boiled lie."

Former Buzzfeed tech reporter Max Wolf said, "I suspect 'not allowed to write new code' is leaving relevant wiggle room.">

Lovely portmanteau, Karoline Airhead; you make 'potatoe' coming from Dan Quayle sound half bright.

<[Event "First Boston Futurity"] [Site "Boston Mass"]
[Date "1981.04.??"]
[EventDate "1981"]
[Round "1"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Dracup, James"]
[Black "Sulman, Robert M"]
[ECO "C19"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<[Event "23rd Queen City Open"] [Site "Manchester NH"]
[Date "1999.02.27"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Fang, Joseph"]
[Black "Sciacca, Patrick"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A27"]
[WhiteElo "2359"]
[BlackElo "2057"]

<Disaster officials responding to the historic blazes that leveled large swaths of southern California last month received notification from the Trump administration that they must immediately change their vocabulary around gender and immigration, according to an email obtained by 404 Media.

The email instructs employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to cease calling undocumented immigrants “migrants” and instead call them “aliens”. It also directs employees to replace “gender” with “sex”.

The email came just days after Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. That order instructs federal employees to remove “all radical gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms”.

The email was sent to Fema employees in the recovery division of Region 9, which is responding to the Los Angeles wildfires. It includes specific language about how Fema officials should handle immigration: “While the following chart presents examples of terminology that should be replaced, it should not be considered to be comprehensive, particularly in the immigration space.” A chart which follows directs employees to replace words like “integration” with “assimilation”.

In southern California, where residents hail from across the world, one in three Angelenos identifies as an immigrant.

A second email directed Fema officials to immediately cease using any forms that used prohibited language.

“In the event that there is a FEMA pre-printed, standardized form that would cause a violation of the newly established expectations for compliance with EO 14168 Defending Women and DHS Memo re: Immigration Language, employees are directed to refrain from using the form,” the email said. “And to notify your immediate supervisor of the conflict for resolution.”

It’s unclear whether that guidance has slowed Fema’s efforts to assist families recovering from the devastation of the Palisades and Eaton wildfires.

“This is the most 1984 email I’ve ever seen,” a Fema employee told 404 Media. “We’re all just locked in to focus on response and recovery efforts.”>