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Posted
43 minutes ago, Okie State said:

What an unbelievably stupid argument too. Americans get too much time off work. Fuck off with that bullshit.

Bro didn’t you read it? The workers don’t like time off!

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Posted
10 hours ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

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https://wessiler.substack.com/p/lee-daines-amendment-now-threatens

 

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A more complete analysis of the massive public land sell off Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Steve Daines (R-Montana) are inserting into the Senate’s budget reconciliation package shows that areas it would authorize for sale total 294,646,021 acres, impacting vast swaths, if not majority areas of western states and Alaska. The analysis coincides with news that the budget would add $3.4 trillion to the national deficit, according to a non-partisan Congressional report.

Reporting around the amendment, which comes from the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which Lee chairs and which Daines sits on as the chairperson of the Subcommittee on National Parks, has been challenging due to the intentionally obtuse language it uses to parse lands and direct them for sale. That language is likely a deliberate attempt to obfuscate and conceal these efforts from the voting public.

Wes Siler’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The amendment, which Lee and Daines published on June 11 without a committee hearing or vote, mandates the sale of between 0.5-0.75 percent of all BLM land and that same percentage of USFS land, while designating 11 western states in which those sales can take place, excluding any lands in Montana, and carving out lands that are protected under various federal designations.

That’s a relatively challenging formula to apply, but according to math run by people much smarter than me at The Wilderness Society, total lands mandated for sale here could total between 2.02 and 3.04 million acres. Others running that math have come up with a maximum number of 3.3 million acres.

That amendment will be voted on by the full Senate sometime between now and the July 4 deadline they’ve arbitrarily set for completing the budget. Should it pass there, it will go to the House, where Republican representatives vulnerable in the 2026 mid-terms caved to voter pressure, and removed a previous provision that would have sold-off around 500,000 acres.

Should it become law, the amendment would push through the sale in short order.

“The secretaries of agriculture and interior will have 30 days to solicit nominations for lands to be sold from ‘any interested parties’ and must publish a list every 60 days of lands eligible for sale until they’ve reached the quota,” explained a TWS representative speaking to me on background. “The entire sell-off must be completed within 5 years.”

The amendment fails to give Indigenous people any right of first refusal or other priority for sale, even for lands of religious, cultural, or historic importance to them.

The Lee-Daines Amendment then goes on to define the lands eligible for sale. A TWS representative explains that formula:

Eligible states: AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY

Excludes federally protected land (defined by the bill as a National Monument; National Recreation Area; component of the National Wilderness Preservation System; unit of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System; unit of the National Trails System; National Conservation Area; unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System; unit of the National Fish Hatchery System; unit of the National Park System; National Preserve; National Seashore or National Lakeshore; National Historic Site; National Memorial; National Battlefield, National Battlefield Park, National Battlefield Site, or National Military Park; National Historical Park)

Subject to valid existing rights (understood to mean it excludes lands with property interests like oil and gas leases, rights-of-way or perfected mining claims in existence before the date of enactment of the bill; note that prior version of the bill defined lands with “valid existing rights” to include those with grazing permits, and the new version strikes that. Since “valid existing rights” is best understood to mean property interests like oil and gas leases, rights-of-way or perfected mining claims, this new version seemingly puts grazing permit lands back on the table for disposal, which sends the eligible acreage skyrocketing).

It’s that provision for including or not including grazing permit lands that has resulted in wild swings in estimates for total acreage made eligible for sale. Those lands were excluded from sale in the bill’s initial version, then quietly removed over the weekend, resulting in the new estimates.

Here’s the full text of the Lee-Daines Amendment, as it stands at the time of writing:

Redline (new25684 Vs

300KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Earlier today, the Outdoor Alliance’s GIS lab compared its calculations with TWS and the two agreed on a new conclusion that the Amendment authorizes the sale of a grand total of 194,629,653 acres of BLM land and 100,016,368 acres of National Forest, which add up to 294,646,021 acres.

You can see that map at this link.

“Perhaps the more challenging part, was figuring out all of the valid existing rights that were listed on the pages following the special designations,” explains OA’s mapping guy. “This included several datasets from the BLM like mining claims, oil and gas leases, permits/easements, mineral rights, and several others. I had a great discussion with TWS staff yesterday morning and they were very helpful discussing all the existing rights layers that should be included in the analysis.”

“In any case, it's A LOT of public land that could potentially be up for sale, and it's hard to pinpoint at this juncture where that could be, because there's not a lot of guardrails,” they continue.

TWS says that the ultimate total very much remains in flux, as Lee and Daines hash out final language.

“We’re hearing that SENR is likely to change the bill text again, maybe tonight, to change the way it treats grazing permits,” the TWS rep explains. “So the eligible acreage will swing back, presumably.”

What’s the difference between the three-or-so million acres mandated for sale by the Lee-Daines Amendment and the 294,646,021 acres authorized for sale by it? There’s nuance to that answer, and that matters.

Lee and Daines have included language that states all lands authorized for sale are, “considered to meet the requirements of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act," which, if this passes into law, would mean they can be sold without any further public process.

It’s important to remember here that this budget is being pushed through the Senate using budget reconciliation. That helps Republicans avoid debate on unpopular provisions like this one—the reconciliation process means that Senators will only have to vote on the amendment once, during a full floor vote, and not separately in committee—and avoids the filibuster so that the budget can pass on a simple majority vote, rather than the typical 60 votes, which Republicans do not have.

But, using budget reconciliation also means that any measure which adds to the deficit must be offset by equivalent savings.

(The math Congress uses is of its own creation, and is very much not tethered to reality. A measure passed by the House in January, for example, prevents the consideration of ongoing revenues on these lands from being considered. Those revenues are likely considerable, the BLM nets $262 billion annually, while National Forests rake in over $300 billion.)

Reports indicate that target revenue for the mandated sale is $5 to 10 billion over that five year sale period.

All this is relevant to this discussion because balancing revenues generated by land sales against the deficit in a bill that also authorizes 46 percent of all public lands for sale without public process sets up an impossible scenario for future budgets, no matter who takes charge of Congress or the White House in future elections.

Not only does the Lee-Daines amendment create precedent for selling public land in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires, but it also creates a scenario in which future budgets will need to create new revenue from other sources (like politically challenging increases to taxes) in order to make up for revenues now achieved by ongoing sales of land. Land that, should this measure and budget pass, will already be authorized for sale. And that’s going to come even as lawmakers will have to find money to service massive increases to the nation’s interest payments.

According to polling conducted by the Trust for Public Land in April, 71 percent of Americans oppose any sale of public land.

 

This is basically all of the hiking land in the west. They can pry it from my cold dead hands. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Sbbruin said:

They wear their racism like a badge of honor.

Black people=lazy. Juneteenth is for black people. Therefore it should be a working holidays because the blacks are lazy enough. They don't need another reason to sit on the porch. -TrUmp

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Posted
27 minutes ago, C-Man said:


Might be more. Seth Meyers said in tonight’s A Closer Look that he’s golfed 37 times since taking office — and “those are the times we know about.”

Which honestly feels light compared to his first term when he golfed 3x a week it felt liked.

Posted
1 hour ago, VABuckeye said:

Fucker is bored in two minutes because he has no cognitive thought process. 

Maybe in this sole way does he mirror the American populace and constituents on both sides, thanks to brain rot cellphones.

Posted
35 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Matt Drudge has finally become kind of funny and useful in his older age

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Now that’s a font and website UI/UX I haven’t seen in a while /obiwon

Posted
1 hour ago, VABuckeye said:

Fucker is bored in two minutes because he has no cognitive thought process. 

I was talking to my kids about this when they started whining the other day and I realized that I am pretty much never bored.   How can someone who is leading the country and multiple cons ever have the time to be bored.  The only thing I can think of is that he isn't really that invested in any of it.  Just instant gratification and tweeting.  Everything else is delegated and dumbed down to meet his short attention span.  

50 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Matt Drudge has finally become kind of funny and useful in his older age

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Fuck him, he is partly responsible for this.

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Posted
On 6/18/2025 at 10:58 AM, Pato del Muerto said:

The message will be “I just learned of this when told staff are not working today- we have too many federal holidays and I’ll be changing that immediately by herewith and hereby rescinding Juneteenth and mlk day as federal holidays.  Thank you for your attention in this matter.”

 

15 hours ago, HenryJames said:

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Pato for the win. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Ghost of NMAS said:

Can't he just sit there and tweet while real leaders make decisions?  Treat him like the toddler he is, give him a tablet to distract him.

That technology would befuddle him. 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Yeah I really thought he would sneak in a "DEI holiday". I expected more. 

I guess we just can no longer sustain ourselves as a country with 4.2% of the normal M-F work week designated as Federal Holidays.  But I am convinced that when we pare that down to 3.5% we are going to be great again. 🙄 

Posted (edited)
10 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Astonishing that the majority of voters in this country let him get away with that shit. So fucking pathetic.


It really isn’t astonishing. The vast majority won’t even be aware of it.

The foxnews anger manufacturing plant won’t mention it. However, they’ll talk about hillary’s emails for three years straight. 

Edited by GenXer
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Posted
1 minute ago, GenXer said:

The foxnews anger manufacturing plant won’t mention it. However, they’ll talk about hillary’s emails for three years straight. 

We were made to believe that what Hunter Biden was doing was the worst thing in the world. Meanwhile, Trump has doubled his net worth since being elected president and that's totally cool. 

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Posted
Just now, immamac said:

There are significantly more stupid people than you think. 

It is not just the stupid people, it is the willfully stupid that I cannot relate to.

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Posted
29 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Astonishing that the majority of voters in this country let him get away with that shit. So fucking pathetic.

 

18 minutes ago, GenXer said:


It really isn’t astonishing. The vast majority won’t even be aware of it.

The foxnews anger manufacturing plant won’t mention it. However, they’ll talk about hillary’s emails for three years straight. 

 

16 minutes ago, immamac said:

There are significantly more stupid people than you think. 

Astonishing my ass.  Depressing?  Sure...

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Posted
2 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Fucker is bored in two minutes because he has no cognitive thought process. 

[MAGA] He's just like us! [/MAGA]

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Posted
52 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

That technology would befuddle him. 

Barron could help.  According to Trump, if you turn off Barron's computer he can get it rebooted in 5 minutes.  Kid's a genius.

Posted
2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Barron could help.  According to Trump, if you turn off Barron's computer he can get it rebooted in 5 minutes.  Kid's a genius.

He's not Donald's kid. He's like a foot taller than him and is still growing. Melania banged some tall ass dude back then. I think it's weird that I seem to be the only one who see this, I never see it anywhere else.

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Posted
1 minute ago, 'stache said:

He's not Donald's kid. He's like a foot taller than him and is still growing. Melania banged some tall ass dude back then. I think it's weird that I seem to be the only one who see this, I never see it anywhere else.

He's still a computer genius.  Reboot a computer in 5 minutes?  Come on, that usually takes hours.

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Posted (edited)

just catching up but fucking lol at the idea that the american worker is upset at federal holidays. because what the american worker yearns for is more time working. goddamn what a total and complete imbecile. just nothing but jenkem for brains

Edited by Longhorn_Fan68
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Posted
2 hours ago, Ghost of NMAS said:

Can't he just sit there and tweet while real leaders make decisions?  Treat him like the toddler he is, give him a tablet to distract him.

They should create the equivalent of a Thanksgiving children’s card table. While the grown-ups are talking, they can have Trump sit at it - watching a computer showing clips of cheering crowds over both Trump‘s presidencies, with clips of the sycophants telling him how brilliant and great he is.   With some Big Macs and a bowl of ice and Diet Cokes next to it.

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Posted
On 6/18/2025 at 10:58 AM, Pato del Muerto said:

The message will be “I just learned of this when told staff are not working today- we have too many federal holidays and I’ll be changing that immediately by herewith and hereby rescinding Juneteenth and mlk day as federal holidays.  Thank you for your attention in this matter.”

I wasn’t too far afield 

Posted
Just now, 'stache said:

He's not Donald's kid. He's like a foot taller than him and is still growing. Melania banged some tall ass dude back then. I think it's weird that I seem to be the only one who see this, I never see it anywhere else.

Facially he looks like young Dotard. 

"Young Dotard", Tuesdays at 8:00 on CBS.

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Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

just catching up but fucking lol at the idea that the american worker is upset at federal holidays. because what the american worker yearns for is more time working. goddamn what a total and complete imbecile. just nothing but jenkem from brains

“Jenkem” is a word I’ve not heard in a long time.

apropo.

Edited by TheStoicPaisano
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Posted
1 minute ago, 'stache said:

He's not Donald's kid. He's like a foot taller than him and is still growing. Melania banged some tall ass dude back then. I think it's weird that I seem to be the only one who see this, I never see it anywhere else.

Yeah, I've wondered that too. I'm bored on Friday during a weird holiday week so let's do a quick run to Google with a query of how likely is it that a son would be four inches (or more) taller than his father. The answer appears to be "relatively uncommon." Officially, Dotard is 6-3 and I think that might be fudging things a bit. Barron is 6-7 and still growing? Melania is 5-11. Neither of her parents are much taller than that it appears. Dotard's dad was 6-1, Junior is 6-1 and big, dumb Eric is 6-5.

Screenshot2025-06-20at11_01_33AM.thumb.png.fe3f95793c7e02f1d2178d68a1090ff6.png

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Posted
9 minutes ago, 'stache said:

He's not Donald's kid. He's like a foot taller than him and is still growing. Melania banged some tall ass dude back then. I think it's weird that I seem to be the only one who see this, I never see it anywhere else.

He has the telltale lack of a chin just like his half-brothers and sister Ivanka (pre-plastic surgery).  

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