{"id":33525,"date":"2025-06-11T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=33525"},"modified":"2025-06-10T23:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T03:28:41","slug":"the-blue-states-are-hurting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/the-blue-states-are-hurting\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blue States are Hurting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trump seems to have turned off the faucet that Biden was using to keep the blue states solvent.\u00a0 A sense of panic is setting in and lots of towns are finding their voters are revolting against the budget increases that followed the end of the COVID gravy train (CARES Act).\u00a0 All of the unfunded mandates that were paid for with that money now have to be paid for by the state and local governments.\u00a0 And the local governments are squealing like stuck pigs because the state is hanging them out to dry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In Dunwich it\u2019s reaching a crisis.\u00a0 There are grumblings against Cthulhu because he took credit for the CARES Act spending.\u00a0 Now he\u2019s being blamed for the higher taxes and another Great Old One; Azathoth is taking advantage of the outrage to challenge Cthulhu in the coming First Selectman race.\u00a0\u00a0Azathoth\u2019s campaign literature is branding his plan as MAGA (Make Azathoth Govern Again).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Make-Azathoth-Govern-Again.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-33524\" src=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Make-Azathoth-Govern-Again.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Make-Azathoth-Govern-Again.jpg 960w, https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Make-Azathoth-Govern-Again-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Make-Azathoth-Govern-Again-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Make-Azathoth-Govern-Again-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s handing out red hats and recently he\u2019s started to take on a familiar orange tint.\u00a0 His boldest campaign promise is that under his administration he would pledge not to eat anyone at public meetings or official town functions.\u00a0 When asked for public comment by the local radio channel Cthulhu ate the reporter and walked out of the studio vowing to put a stop to all this \u201cfake news\u201d and misinformation.\u00a0 He was quoted (from a distance) as saying, \u201cThis is madness.\u00a0 If I can\u2019t eat my constituency when they cross the line, then Dunwich would descend into anarchy and no one wants anarchy, except anarchists and I hate anarchists, even thought they taste really good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Outside of the Dunwich enclave the human (or somewhat human) local governments are probably going to have to tighten their belts a good deal.\u00a0 Lots of services that everyone has come to think of as critical will be on the chopping block.\u00a0 One of these is winter road treatment.\u00a0 Salt, sand and other materials have surged in price this year and depleted supplies will likely bust the budgets of towns and cities if we have another normal winter like we had in 2024\/25.\u00a0 Likewise with neglected infrastructure and school costs.\u00a0 The state has mandated very expensive special education requirements.\u00a0 Providing these mandated services may mean that the rest of the students will lose out on curriculum and services like library and arts classes.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s believed by the local governments that if these services are curtailed that voters will agree to add them back into the budget.\u00a0 But from what I\u2019ve heard and seen this isn\u2019t the case.\u00a0 A revolt is going on and the angry voters in New England may finally have become fed up with the feckless spending that their politicians routinely legislate.\u00a0 The next few weeks are going to be instructive as these towns and cities struggle to resolve the impasse that has developed.\u00a0 The budgets are overdue and without a budget they can\u2019t begin signing contracts and paying salaries.<\/p>\n<p>I think I\u2019ll go to Azathoth\u2019s July rally.\u00a0 I hear he dances a mean YMCA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump seems to have turned off the faucet that Biden was using to keep the blue states solvent.\u00a0 A sense of panic is setting in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,1263,6],"tags":[4935,3341,4638,2534,4934],"class_list":["post-33525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-trump","tag-azathoth","tag-dunwich","tag-first-selectman-cthulhu","tag-new-england-idiots","tag-unfunded-mandates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Blue States are Hurting - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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