Comments

  2. says

    Trump suggests FEMA’s future is in doubt: ‘It gets in the way’

    No one was especially surprised when Donald Trump gave his first post-inaugural interview to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, since the two are longtime political partners. What did raise some eyebrows, however, were the parts of the interview related to federal disaster aid. The Washington Post reported:

    […] Trump threatened to withhold federal aid from California as it works to recover from devastating wildfires, recycling several baseless claims and attacks against California’s Democratic leaders during his first sit-down interview since his inauguration. ‘I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,’ he told Sean Hannity during a Fox News interview that aired Wednesday night.

    As the president really ought to understand by now, his comments didn’t make substantive sense. What’s more, he was presenting a threat without precedent in the American tradition: The federal government has never told an American community devastated by a natural disaster that its disaster relief funding would be conditional.

    But that was not the only relevant exchange related to federal responses to disasters in the interview. USA Today took note of the Republican’s related comments about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA.

    ‘FEMA is a whole ‘nother discussion, because all it does is complicate everything. FEMA has not done their job for the last four years,’ he said. ‘But unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really, it gets in the way. And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.’

    In fact, the new president suggested that if a state suffers in the wake of a tornado, he envisions a model in which the federal government doesn’t respond much at all. “FEMA is getting in the way of everything,” Trump added.

    [Bluesky post and video from Aaron Rupar is available at the link.]

    He did not elaborate as to what, specifically, FEMA “gets in the way” of.

    At face value, the Republican’s condemnations of FEMA and its work are difficult to take seriously. Just as importantly, Trump doesn’t appear to be interested in overhauling or reforming the agency, he appears interested in eliminating FEMA altogether.

    […] if the president is serious about states “taking care of their own problems” in the wake of devastating natural disasters, it will create a new test for Republican officials. Are they prepared to go along with the elimination of FEMA? Even in red states like Florida, Texas and Louisiana, which tend to get hit by deadly hurricanes?

    What’s more, it’s worth appreciating where this idea comes from. An Axios report noted, Project 2025 suggests “reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.” […]

  3. says

    Here are a few links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-2/#comment-2251408
    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
    Rachel Maddow’s new segment discussing Trump’s pardons, and the extraordinary rebukes from some judges (and from a few Republicans), is available at the link above. An excellent segment.

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-2/#comment-2251376
    Researchers say new attack could take down the European power grid

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-2/#comment-2251328
    Why Trump’s AI plan made Elon Musk flip out

    https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/03/infinite-thread-xxxiv/comment-page-2/#comment-2251327
    Zelensky speaks about negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

  4. StevoR says

    I’m half asleep now (maybe even a higher %~age) and all but just what the fuck.. did I just watch on my TV?

    (But, yeah, Biden was the senile one.. yeah? Really? F ing L.)

    How long can even the most craven, gutless, sycophantic media sane-washing cover up this when folks can see it right now live?

  6. says

    Team Trump eyes Congress’ power of the purse as part of new power grab

    […] In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Damon Linker explained that the new OMB director Russell Vought, Trump’s choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget], if confirmed, plans “nothing less than a full-scale assault on the regulatory and spending powers of the executive branch.” The writer added that it’s Vought and his agenda that could end up having “the greatest long-term impact on the shape of American democracy.”

    That might sound overdramatic. It’s not. Indeed, some of Vought’s testimony during his Senate confirmation hearing helped drive the point home. Politico reported:

    The big news out of Russell Vought’s second confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Budget Committee was impoundment. From emergency wildfire dollars to foreign aid and beyond, Democrats repeatedly prodded [Vought] about a stance he has taken for years: He doesn’t believe Congress has the final say on federal spending.

    I suspect some readers will see the word “impoundment,” assume the subject is wonky and boring, and click away. But hang in there; I’m going somewhere with this.

    Throughout American history, officials have recognized that the Congress has what’s known as “the power of the purse”: In our constitutional system, it’s lawmakers who have the sole authority to dictate government spending. When an appropriations bill emerges from Capitol Hill and becomes law, it’s not a recommendation or a suggestion about possible spending; it’s a directive to the executive branch.

    […] [I snipped some history] Nixon, weakened by Watergate, ultimately signed the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which made clear that presidents don’t have the legal authority to ignore Congress on federal spending.

    Vought, Trump’s OMB nominee, not only disagrees with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, he also believes the law is unconstitutional and should be ignored.

    [Bluesky post from Aaron Rupar, and video, are available at the link.]

    When Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, for example, asked during Vought’s confirmation hearing whether he would comply with existing law, the nominee replied that Trump “ran against the Impoundment Control Act” during the 2024 campaign.

    There’s some truth to that — though it’s obviously a stretch to think “impoundment” was on the minds of many voters when they cast their ballots last fall […] Laws must be honored, even if politicians run on a platform in opposition to those laws.

    At the same hearing Wednesday, there was a similar exchange between Vought and Sen. Patty Murray. The Washington Democratic asked, point plank, whether the OMB nominee would honor existing law. He again testified, “The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional [and] I agree with that.”

    It’s easy to imagine much of the public shrugging with indifference in response to debates like these, but there are foundational principles of government and constitutional law at stake.

    Even if you’ve never seen or heard the word “impoundment,” you’re probably familiar with core American ideas, such as checks and balances and Congress’ power of the purse. What Vought envisions is a new model in which the people’s representatives allocate funds, Trump smiles politely, and the White House then refuses to spend federal funds in line with Congress’ wishes.

    Why should the public care? Because it matters when an authoritarian-minded president and his team seize powers — powers to which they are not entitled — from a co-equal branch of government.

    Or as my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown recently summarized, “Under Vought’s watch, the executive branch would be transformed fully into the sole branch of government with any real say in how the country functions.”

    […] some congressional Republicans [are] prepared to go along with such a plan, freely handing over power to Trump that belongs on Capitol Hill. […] more than a dozen House GOP members sponsored a bill in the last Congress that would repeal the Impoundment Control Act entirely, “giving Trump unprecedented power to determine which funds are spent.” [Yikes!!]

    Senate Republicans are all but certain to confirm Vought. […]

  8. says

    Trump: “I won youth by 36 points.” (This is a ridiculous lie — Trump lost the youth vote.)

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lgessyyz6v2q

    Video at the link.

    Related: Fact check: Trump litters Oval Office interview with false claims

    […] The youth vote in 2024: Trump repeated a false claim he has made repeatedly this week about his supposed performance with young voters in the 2024 election, this time declaring “I won youth by 36 points.”

    […] Because votes in US elections are cast by secret ballot, there is no official source of information on who different subgroups of voters supported in any presidential election. But there is polling – and multiple high-quality surveys found that Trump did not win the youth vote in 2024, let alone by 36 points, even though it is true that he did better among young voters than he did in the 2020 election. According to CNN exit poll data, Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump 54% to 43% among voters ages 18-24, 53% to 45% among voters ages 25-29, and 51% to 45% among voters ages 30-39. […]

    More details from CNN fact check:

    The Capitol riot of January 6, 2021
    […] Trump repeated his false claim that the House select committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol “deleted and destroyed all of the information that they collected,” reiterating later in the interview that the committee “destroyed all of the work that took place over two years.”

    Trump’s claim that “all” information collected by the committee was deleted is not even close to true. While there has been a long-running dispute between Republicans and Democrats over the status of certain committee records that Republicans said should have been archived and that Democratic committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson argued did not have to be archived […] the committee preserved a large volume of evidence.

    […] the committee released not only a final report that was more than 800 pages long, but also transcripts of interviews with more than 140 witnesses – and, according to Thompson, the committee’s staff worked with the National Archives and Records Administration and other government bodies “in preparing the Select Committee’s more than 1 million records for publication and archiving.”

    Nancy Pelosi and January 6: Trump repeated his false claim that former House speaker Nancy Pelosi is “on tape admitting” that Trump had offered her 10,000 soldiers in advance of January 6, 2021, explaining that he was referring to footage taken by Pelosi’s daughter.

    That’s not what the footage shows, and Pelosi never made any admission that she rejected a Trump offer of 10,000 troops. In fact, she has consistently said she never received such an offer – and she wouldn’t have had the power to reject the offer even if it had been made to her, since it is the president, not the House speaker, who commands the District of Columbia National Guard.

    In the video recorded by Pelosi’s filmmaker daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, on January 6 and later obtained by House Republicans, who posted a 42-second snippet on social media in June, Pelosi was shown expressing frustration at the inadequate security at the Capitol, and she said at one point, “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.” But that general statement is clearly not a specific admission that she had rejected a Trump offer of 10,000 troops.

    In fact, another part of the video appears to undermine Trump’s claim that she was the person who turned down the National Guard. She said, “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”

    After Trump began referencing this video in June, Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett said in an email to CNN: “Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed again and again that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination on January 6th. Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips do not change the fact that the Speaker of the House is not in charge of the security of the Capitol Complex — on January 6th or any other day of the week.” […]

    More at the CNN link.

  9. says

    Fox News melts down over ‘woke bishop’ who called on Trump to show mercy

    Multiple video snippets plus text excerpts are available at the link.

    Here are just a few excerpts:

    […] “Fox and Friends” host Lawrence Jones exclaimed “Oh my God!” after a clip of Budde’s speech was aired. “As someone who comes from generations of preachers, I would have walked out,” he added.

    […] His co-host Ainsley Earhardt worried that “there are children there that are hearing this message,” apparently concerned that children might hear something about “mercy” toward others in a church—something frequently associated with Jesus Christ and Christianity.

    […] On “Outnumbered,” host (and former Trump press secretary) Kayleigh McEnany complained that Budde was “preaching politics from the pulpit” (something Fox News has encouraged for decades with conservative policy).

    Her co-host Harris Faulkner suggested that rhetoric like Budde’s reflected poorly on the Episcopalian church’s decision to allow women to serve as clergy.

    […] Faulkner [Outnumbered co-host Harris Faulkner] said, “If you believe in the Lord, that was offensive.”

    […] “The Five” co-host Jeanine Pirro labeled Budde as a “woke bishop” and “nasty clergywoman,” and accused her of “hijacking” the service.

    […] Despite the attacks from the sitting president and his cheerleaders at the right-wing cable news channel, Budde remained unbowed.

    “I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” Budde told NPR. “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy.”

  10. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/white-house-press-corps-so-glad-the

    “White House Press Corps So Glad The Nazis Are Back, WHEW!”

    Uh oh, time to hate the mainstream Beltway media again.

    No, this is not about how the Washington Post has become an utter joke whose editorial board writes with a straight face that Trump setting terrorists and child porn convicts free is the same as Joe Biden preemptively pardoning his family members to protect them from Trump’s Justice Department making up crimes in order to target them under bullshit pretenses.

    Obviously, that is worth your wrath.

    This is about the Columbia Journalism Review’s piece on how excited the White House press corps is to be done with those stinky Bidens and their White House comms team and have the Trump Nazis back, because the Trump Nazis are so much more fuuuuuuun and they talk to them a whole bunch […]

    Do the Trump Nazis consider journalists to be the enemy of the people and regularly incite threats and hatred against them? Well yes.

    Is Donald Trump currently raging that MSNBC should not even be allowed to be on the air? Well yes.

    Was a weather person in Milwaukee fired for criticizing Elon Musk’s Nazi salute? A weather person? Well yes.

    Does that bode well for, you know, the First Amendment? Well no.

    But […] the Biden team wasn’t fun or nice and didn’t invite them out for drinks at the hottest clubs or tell them all the latest gossip and OH MY FUCKING GOD, YOU HACKS, THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIENDS.

    CJR says:

    The return of Donald Trump to the White House has prompted predictable worries among many DC-based reporters about how his administration might seek to control and intimidate the press. But for a surprising number of people on the daily White House beat, that concern is mixed with another, more privately expressed emotion: relief at finally being rid of the Joe Biden press operation.

    Why yes, that is surprising. Are they morons?

    “I think it’s important for people to understand the context, that we’re coming out of four years of Biden and things haven’t been great,” one White House print reporter told CJR. “There’ve been fewer eyeballs on the press briefings and less attention than under Trump, so people just don’t understand some of the very frustrating things that we’ve dealt with and that we hope are going to be rolled back.”

    OMG Becky tell us.

    Among those frustrations: the Biden press office largely kept reporters at a remove from the president …

    OMG was he busy or something? […]

    Inside the briefing room, reporters who didn’t hold coveted front-row seats felt they got much less opportunity to ask questions.

    “For a lot of people, what was the point in even going?” said a veteran White House reporter.

    Hey, has anybody heard when Trump’s new Kayleigh Huckabee Spicynanny “Karoline Leavitt” has scheduled the first Trump daily press briefing? Or is that just not on the calendar yet?

    Oh well, we are sure she’ll get around to it and it will be awesome for all the reporters currently [complaining] anonymously in this article.

    Trump, on the other hand, adores the attention of the media, even as he frequently maligns the reporters themselves. During his first term, he regularly chatted with White House reporters during strolls to Marine One, and held a number of high-profile, if occasionally ill-conceived, televised sit-downs, with everyone from Axios’s Jonathan Swan to Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy. (On his first night back, Trump spent forty-five minutes casually answering media questions in the Oval Office, while he signed executive orders.)

    “Despite his sometimes strident and sometimes even violent rhetoric about the press, he loves talking to us,” the print reporter said. “And his team—they like talking to us, and they know that they’re going to have a huge audience.”

    THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIIIIIIEND.

    HE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIIIIIIEND.

    We get that in any situation where people share space for long periods of time, a certain level of collegiality will develop, you’ll be aware of when one of them is having a baby or maybe their mother is sick, and you are a decent human being, so you care about that.

    BUT THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIIIIIIIIEND.

    THE STUPID-HITLER-IN-CHIEF IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIIIIIIIIEND.

    “I actually think the team that’s coming in is not going to be as horrific as people might imagine,” the veteran White House reporter said. “It’s not going to be like the first Trump term, where nobody had any idea what they were doing.”

    Incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung are seen by White House reporters as “full MAGA, but they’re also professionals,” as the veteran reporter put it.

    Oh yeah? Are they going to be super professional now, while they lie to you? Are they going to be better at lying to your faces than the stable full of mouthbreathers from the first Trump term was?

    […] There’s more in the Columbia Journalism Review article if you want to hear more quotes from Beltway reporters who don’t quite understand what the job of “reporter” is. […]

    Regardless, we’re sure glad for the surely very serious White House press corps that they will now have Trump fascism to keep them entertained.

    […] Useless fucks.

  11. says

    From Trump’s Department of Homeland Security:

    Colleagues,

    We are taking steps to close all agency Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Orders titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” and “Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions.”

    These programs divide Americans by race, waste taxpayer dollars, and result in shameful discrimination.

    We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024, to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days.

    There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days will result in adverse consequences. [WTF?]

    Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

    From Andrew Ferguson, the incoming head of the FTC:

    DEI divides people into castes on the basis of immutable characteristics, and treats them as caste members rather than as individuals. It stokes tensions by elevating race and other immutable characteristics above merit and excellence. It promotes invidious discrimination. And it violates federal and natural law.

  12. says

    Trump speaks to Saudi crown prince in first foreign leader call of second term

    […] The Saudi government’s readout of the call said the kingdom intends “to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that.”

    Speaking virtually at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, Trump called the crown prince “a fantastic guy” and said he’s going to ask Saudi Arabia to increase that investment in the U.S. to $1 trillion. Trump also said he’s going to ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to bring down oil prices.

    “You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election,” he said. “That didn’t show a lot of love by them not doing it. I was a little surprised by that.” […]

    While signing executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump told reporters that Saudi Arabia was his first foreign trip in his first term because he said it had agreed to buy $450 billion worth of U.S. products.

    Asked where he plans to go now, Trump said that if Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another $450 billion or $500 billion — or more because of inflation — “I think I’d probably go there.” […]

    Sigh.

  13. says

    Nope. That did not go well.

    […] The day after his presidential inauguration, Trump was pressed for some kind of justification for putting violent criminals back on American streets. He said, among other things, “Murderers don’t even go to jail in this country,” which was both wrong and unpersuasive. [!! understatement]

    A day later, while sitting down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity in the Oval Office, Trump gave it another try.

    “Most of the people were absolutely innocent, OK?” Trump claimed, ignoring the fact that many of the people he pardoned had pleaded guilty and that many more were found guilty by jurors who considered detailed and overwhelming evidence.

    As for the violent assaults on police officers, Trump added, “They were very minor incidents, OK? You know that they get built up by that couple of fake guys that are on CNN all the time. They were very minor incidents.” [video at the link]

    For those familiar with the facts of Jan. 6, Trump’s rhetoric was obscene. Roughly 140 officers were injured by pro-Trump rioters, and five officers’ deaths are tied directly to the insurrectionist violence.

    A report in The Guardian noted, “Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. Many of the attacks were captured on surveillance or body-camera footage that showed rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police as officers desperately fought to beat back the angry crowd.”

    In one especially shocking instance, an officer suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury after a pro-Trump rioter drove a stun gun into the officer’s neck [Repeatedly!]. (In June 2023, the violent felon was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. He’ll now walk free thanks to a presidential pardon.)

    There were “incidents,” but they were not “very minor.” […]

    As for how and why Trump decided to take such a step, NBC News reported that he settled on a maximalist approach just two days before being sworn in for a second term, to the surprise of members of his team.

    [Maybe, not verified yet by multiple sources.] Trump saw the far-right backlash against Vice President JD Vance, who said a week earlier that violent felons “obviously” didn’t deserve presidential pardons, and it influenced his decision.

    All of which helped create an avoidable and unpopular fiasco to start the president’s second term.

    Link

  14. Reginald Selkirk says

    The Big Chill: How Yosemite Valley and Other Glacial Examples Disprove the Way-Too-Short Biblical Creationist Ice Age

    This article focuses on a subject that has received not much in the way of consideration, the young earth creationist (YEC) view of the Ice Age that they propose followed the super flood. In this examination I am going to put some emphasis on one of the biggest canyons in these United States. Not the often discussed Grand Canyon – the reasons why that colossal ditch was formed as a classic riverine V-shaped valley over millions of years in rocks up to 1.25 billion years old, rather than suddenly cut by a super flood in short order in post-flood deposits, has been well detailed.

    The valley focused on here is Yosemite. Yosemite has received notably little attention in either the anti- or pro- creationist literature. That is both despite, and precisely because, the California canyon poses overwhelming problems that YEC theory lacks practical means of explaining. This article also focuses on the apologetics of the top two creationist organizations, the Institute for Creation Research and, especially, Answers in Genesis headed by the most popular living YEC, Ken Ham…

  15. Reginald Selkirk says

    Judge blocks Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship

    A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it.

    Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge.

    “I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case whether the question presented was as clear,” Coughenour said…

  17. Reginald Selkirk says

    @ prev 497

    I found another article.
    Mississippi Democrat Launches ‘Contraception Begins at Erection Act’

    It’s a Democrat, which suggests to me that he is parodying “life begins at conception” laws.

    A Mississippi state senator has filed a bill called the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.”

    Democrat Bradford Blackmon’s bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”

    “You have male-dominated legislatures in Mississippi and all over the country that pass laws that dictate what a woman can and cannot do with her body,” Blackmon told Newsweek. “One of the reasons why this legislation is so important is that with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it has not only impacted women’s ability to get abortion care but it has also affected women’s ability to access basic gynecological care that includes contraceptive care.” …

  18. says

    Reginald @16, that proposed bill that parodies rightwing legislation, also slaps at religious organizations that promote “sex for procreation only” rules.

  19. says

    Discussion of more moments of farce:

    There was an unintentionally amusing moment during House Speaker Mike Johnson’s first post-inaugural press conference. Asked about Donald Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 criminals, including violent felons who assaulted police officers, the Louisiana Republican told reporters, “We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward.”

    Moments later, at the same press conference, Johnson added that the House GOP majority would, however, take a fresh look at the pardons Joe Biden issued as his presidency neared its end.

    It was a rather clumsy example of the House speaker’s malleable principles, but it also served as a timely reminder of a larger truth: The former Democratic president has exited the stage, but his Republican detractors aren’t quite done with him.

    In fact, shortly after Johnson’s remarks on Capitol Hill, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia appeared on Real America’s Voice, a far-right media outlet, and reiterated her belief that Biden and his family “really they do belong in prison.”

    As for Biden’s successor, the retired president also appears to be on Trump’s mind.

    On Inauguration Day, Trump signed a highly provocative executive order on “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.” As Paul Waldman explained in his latest opinion piece for MSNBC, the order “serves as a declaration that this administration is looking to punish those Trump perceives as his enemies. … From the start, the document makes its target clear: Joe Biden and those who worked for him.”

    Two days later, Trump sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and over the course of the interview, Trump said — four times — that Biden failed to pardon himself before exiting the White House. Trump added that he saw that as a mistake on the former president’s part, saying that Biden relied on “very bad advisers.”

    As the interview continued, he incumbent president added:

    I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal fees and I won, but I did it the hard way. It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also. It is very hard to say that.

    At that point, Trump quickly added, once again, that Biden didn’t pardon himself.

    The president went on to say, in reference to his immediate predecessor, “If you look at it, it all had to do with him. I mean, the money went to him.”

    In context, it wasn’t at all clear what “it” referred to, and despite bizarre conspiracy theories, there was no illicit “money” going to Biden.

    But reality notwithstanding, the emerging picture is tough to miss: Trump and his allies aren’t quite ready to move on from the former president, at least not yet.

    Link

  20. says

    At odds with free speech, and also at odds with Trump’s claim to end weaponization of federal agencies against one’s opponents:

    […] Trump and his cronies have been waging a war against the press for years now. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that members of his new administration want to help him destroy the Fourth Estate.

    On Wednesday, Brendan Carr, the new chair of the Federal Communications Commission, said it would again consider three complaints levied toward ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News after a conservative group alleged the networks were biased against Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.

    The Center for American Rights, a right-wing nonprofit law firm, initially filed the three complaints against the outlets. [snipped details]

    Shortly before Trump’s inauguration this month, the outgoing FCC chair, Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, dismissed four pending petitions and complaints before the FCC, including one regarding Fox News.

    “The facts and legal circumstances in each of these cases are different,” Rosenworcel said in her order dismissing the cases. “But what they share is that they seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment.”

    Carr, a Project 2025 contributor Trump picked to lead the agency, reversed her decision.

    […] partisanship is motivating his latest moves. Unsurprisingly, he did not revive the complaint against a Fox-owned television station. The complaint argued the station should lose its license for promoting baseless lies and conspiracy theories regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    With this move, Carr will put the three cases back into pending or active status, meaning the complaints can be adjudicated on their merits, according to right-wing outlet Newsmax.

    As expected, the announcement was praised by conservatives. [snipped details]

    It’s not surprising, then, that Trump is now floating the idea of shutting down MSNBC. Reacting to news that CNN would lay off about 6% of its workforce, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, “MSDNC is even worse than CNN. They shouldn’t have a right to broadcast—Only in America!”

    The post was a clear shot at the left-leaning network, with “MSDNC” being a portmanteau of the network’s name, MSNBC, and the Democratic National Committee’s initials.

    These statements, coupled with the latest moves by Carr, make it easy to wonder just how far Trump will take his grievances against those who dare to cross or question him.

    Link

  22. says

    Followup to comment 10.

    […] The snitching directive and other associated anti-DEI actions are a manifestation of the plans laid out in the right-wing Project 2025, which argues for replacing the nonpartisan federal civil service with conservative loyalists. Trump claimed that the plan was not associated with him, but his presidency is carrying out its directives.

    Federal workers are also facing other pressures. The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has been interrogating federal workers to uncover their purported political stances, while Trump has initiated orders that seek to undo long-held employee protections for those workers.

    Since Trump took office, federal workers are now facing unprecedented attacks in addition to their existing burdens of serving the public.

    Link

  23. says

    Donald Trump officially took steps on Tuesday to weaponize the Justice Department against private companies that have instituted diversity, equity and inclusion policies meant to make their workplaces more welcoming to marginalized groups.

    […] Trump administration efforts to root out DEI programs from the federal government [include] a memo demanding a plan to fire federal employees who specialize in that field by the end of the month and an executive order seeking to shutter all federal DEI initiatives. And another DEI-focused executive action, issued Tuesday, makes threats against private companies, as well.

    […] The self-proclaimed party of “free enterprise” is all too eager to dictate how businesses ought to be run.

    […] “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity,” […] calls on the attorney general to compile a report “containing recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”

    […] The executive action directs all government agencies to compile a list of organizations with DEI programs, including major corporations, foundations and colleges that fit certain criteria:

    As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars

    […] Diversity programs, of course, do not constitute discrimination. And contrary to the way they’re often portrayed by Trump and his allies, such initiatives are not corporate favors to marginalized groups. Studies of corporate America, for example, have repeatedly shown that workplaces that acknowledge and encourage diversity outperform companies that don’t. In other words, diversity is their strength. But Trump’s executive order demanding his officials compile a report suggesting otherwise aligns with right-wing portrayals of diversity efforts as an affront to straight white men (who can also benefit from DEI programs).

    I should note that many companies have already cowed to Trump’s demands and effectively abandoned their DEI programs. We can expect more companies to follow suit now that Trump’s aggressive, and fundamentally bigoted, effort to rid the country of what he calls “anti-white feeling” is starting to take shape.

    Link

  25. says

    Such bad news.

    To pay for Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations, the GOP has outlined a sweeping $5 trillion in cuts from Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

    These government-funded health care programs support 70 million elderly, poor, and disabled Americans. If the plan goes forward—which it is likely to in the GOP-led House and Senate—it could have devastating impacts on U.S. health care.

    […] If implemented, the GOP’s plan would strip undocumented immigrants’ eligibility for health care, cut Affordable Care Act expansion, implement requirements for Medicare that experts say would remove 600,000 recipients, and create “site neutrality” that would force doctors to perform procedures in their offices instead of outpatient hospital settings.

    Site neutrality is the idea that patients should pay the same price for the same service, regardless of where it’s performed. The goal is to reduce health care costs and promote the viability of independent practices—at the expense of potentially making a patient less safe due to not being in a hospital setting when they receive intensive care.

    Trump recently signed an executive order repealing President Joe Biden’s prescription price caps for people on Medicare and Medicaid, calling them “deeply unpopular” and “radical.” He also issued a directive Tuesday to prohibit any public communication from the Department of Health and Human Services until it is reviewed and approved by a presidential appointee.

    The Republican plan would reduce the federal government’s Medicare cost burden, leaving states to pick up the slack.

    […] In response to the anticipated slashes, Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts voiced their opposition in a letter to HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month.

    “I am concerned about Republican proposals to cut Medicaid in order to pay for proposed tax cuts to ultra-wealthy individuals and large corporations,” Warren wrote.

    “The House Republican Contract Against America will end Medicaid as we know it, destroy the Affordable Care Act, and eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, which will raise costs on tens of millions of working-class and middle-class Americans,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a press conference Thursday, adding that Democrats vow to push back on the agenda “with every fiber in our body.”

    The GOP’s proposed cuts would upend the lives of millions of people, all for the benefit of the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Will that stop them, though? Not likely.

    Link

  26. says

    The Senate voted largely along party lines Thursday to advance Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of Defense, brushing aside a litany of misconduct allegations and the objections of Democrats who argued he is unqualified for the job.

    The 51-49 vote to end debate on Hegseth’s nomination sets the stage for a final confirmation vote Friday, when he is expected to secure the majority support he needs to join Trump’s Cabinet.

    Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) voted against Hegseth. […]

    Link

  27. Reginald Selkirk says

    French divorcee wins appeal in case over refusing husband sex

    A French woman who stopped having sex with her husband has won a ruling from Europe’s highest human rights court, which has stated she should not have been blamed for their divorce.

    The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sided with the 69-year-old on Thursday, saying courts should not consider a refusal to engage in sexual relations as grounds for fault in divorce.

    The unanimous decision found that France had violated her right to respect for private and family life under European human rights law – ending a legal dispute which has dragged on for almost a decade…

  28. Reginald Selkirk says

    Giant iceberg on crash course with island, putting penguins and seals in danger

    The world’s largest iceberg is on a collision course with a remote British island, potentially putting penguins and seals in danger.

    The iceberg is spinning northwards from Antarctica towards South Georgia, a rugged British territory and wildlife haven, where it could ground and smash into pieces. It is currently 173 miles (280km) away.

    Countless birds and seals died on South Georgia’s icy coves and beaches when past giant icebergs stopped them feeding…

  29. Reginald Selkirk says

    Woman who ran barefoot over 100 metres of Lego says it felt like a bad massage

    Sprinting barefoot across 100 metres of Lego bricks feels kind of like getting the world’s worst foot massage, says Gabrielle Wall.

    On Jan. 16, the New Zealand woman dashed across a Christchurch running track covered in the jagged and colourful toys in 24.75 seconds.

    “It was like you had someone with sort of textured gardening gloves or something like that giving you a really deep foot massage,” Wall told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

    For her pain, she earned herself a place in the Guinness World Records, pending certification; the pride and incredulity of her children; and a pair of terribly tattered tootsies…

  30. Reginald Selkirk says

    District of North Vancouver exits X. Will other municipalities follow?

    The District of North Vancouver (DNV) is saying goodbye to X, formerly known as Twitter.

    The municipality’s corporate account was shuttered for good on Wednesday, a victim of falling public engagement and concerns raised by locals about the social media platform, according to the district’s chief administrative officer…

    “Did North Van lose a valuable communications tool? They did when Elon bought Twitter,” said Williams. “Just because something was useful before doesn’t mean it’s going to be useful in the future. North Van is probably famously also not on Orkut or Myspace.”

    CBC/Radio Canada canvassed three other Metro Vancouver cities about their use of X as a public communications tool…

  31. says

    Washington Post link

    “Johnson aide discouraged Hutchinson subpoena over concerns about lawmakers’ ‘sexual texts’”

    “The move was intended in part to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent Cassidy Hutchinson.”

    An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in an effort to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to written correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the effort.

    The aide intervened last June, citing concerns that a subpoena could expose the texts, according to the correspondence and the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about private conversations. Johnson revived the investigation this week as part of an effort by President Donald Trump and his allies to seek retribution against perceived political enemies, including those who investigated his role in the Capitol attack.

    In a meeting following the June conversation, Johnson (R-Louisiana) and senior aides also conveyed to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) and members of his staff that issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson and asking her to testify under oath would serve as an opportunity for her to retell her story and potentially embarrass the Trump White House, according to two people present for the meeting.

    […] a Johnson aide told Loudermilk’s staff that multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker’s office about the potential for public disclosure of “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors” with Hutchinson, according to correspondence produced at the time that detailed the conversation. Separately, a member of Johnson’s staff told Loudermilk aides that Hutchinson could “potentially reveal embarrassing information,” according to an email reviewed by The Post.

    In the last Congress, Loudermilk headed a Republican investigation into the Jan. 6 attack […]

    Loudermilk has been jockeying to lead a reconstituted investigation this year. On Wednesday, Johnson appointed him to chair a new select subcommittee that would continue the probe.

    […] The Washington Post reviewed documentation reflecting the speaker’s office’s concern ahead of the June meeting between him and Loudermilk that corroborated the person’s account, but has not seen the purported sexually explicit messages, nor identified who sent them or whether Hutchinson responded.

    In a statement, Hutchinson’s lawyer, Bill Jordan, did not address the existence of texts and said his client has cooperated voluntarily with the investigation. He also criticized the interim report Loudermilk issued in December, which accused Cheney of “secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.”

    “Ms. Hutchinson has testified truthfully and stands behind every word despite the efforts of men in powerful positions to attack her,” Jordan said.

    […] Loudermilk told CNN in an interview earlier this month that Johnson had agreed that his probe from the previous Congress would be reconstituted this year in a new committee. [Sounds like that might be a quid pro quo for Loudermilk’s vote to retain Johnson as Speaker of the House.] Johnson’s announcement Wednesday specified that the new investigative subcommittee would now sit within the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). It previously lived under House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin).

    Cheney, along with members and some staff on the committee, has since received blanket preemptive pardons from President Joe Biden to shield them from criminal prosecutions by the Trump administration. Hutchinson was not among those receiving pardons.

    […] It’s not clear if Cheney’s pardon will dampen enthusiasm for the House panel to continue its line of investigation. A growing number of House members and Trump allies are calling for deeper investigations around those who received preemptive pardons from Biden. And Trump himself has indicated that recasting the narrative around the Jan. 6 attack is still front of mind […]

    Loudermilk told reporters on Inauguration Day that Trump himself had asked him to “continue the investigation and continue to expose the truth.”

    “I know President Trump is 100 percent behind it,” Loudermilk said.

  32. Reginald Selkirk says

    US Supreme Court allows anti-money laundering law to take effect

    The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for the enforcement of an anti-money laundering federal law that requires corporate entities to disclose the identities of their real beneficial owners to the U.S. Treasury Department.

    The justices put on hold a nationwide injunction issued on Dec. 3 by a federal judge in Texas who had concluded that Congress had overstepped its powers under the U.S. Constitution in passing the Corporate Transparency Act. The 2021 law was challenged in court by small businesses…

  33. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Found Miraculously-Preserved Tattoos on the Hands of 1,000-Year-Old Mummies

    Living along the coast of Peru from around 900 to 1500 A.D., the Chancay people was well known for their impressive artwork, including wood carvings, ceramics, and textiles. However, one of the greatest masterpieces may be their immensely detailed tattoo-work, which is now found on mummies that are roughly 1,000 years old.

    Usually, the intricate details of these designs would be lost to history. But not this time, as an international team of researchers used a method known as laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF)—a popular technique in the world of paleontology—to analyze the tattoos in greater detail. This is the first time that LSF has been used in this way, and it allowed the team to see the ancient artwork with staggering clarity. Some tattoo lines were only between 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters thick, which implies a level of precision that rivals even modern tattooing techniques. The results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)…

  34. Reginald Selkirk says

    Surrendering North Korean soldier refuses to drop sausage at gunpoint

    A surrendering North Korean soldier risked his life by refusing to drop his sausage at gunpoint, according to the Ukrainian paratroopers who captured him.

    A detailed video account, published by Ukrainian special forces, described how the soldier refused to lay down his food, while one of his compatriots tried to kill himself by running into a pillar…

  35. Reginald Selkirk says

    Man who took a US Capitol tour with a gun in his possession is arrested, police say

    A man who entered the U.S. Capitol with a handgun in his possession and took a tour of the building faces weapons charges, police said Thursday.

    The 27-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested Tuesday after Capitol police officers found him leaving the Library of Congress and walking toward his car, police said in a news release. Officers found a handgun concealed in his waistband, police said.

    Nobody was hurt, and the Capitol police said they found no evidence that the man “was coming to harm the Congress.”

    A police officer who allowed the man into the Capitol after searching him has been suspended pending a department investigation.

    Security video showed the man entering the Capitol through a security checkpoint. After magnetometers sounded, the officer performed a “secondary hand search” and then let him into the building, police said…

  36. JM says

    CNN: Judge blocks Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship

    A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it.

    Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge.

    That takes the title for the most direct attack I have seen a judge make. The order and the objection are not surprising, the people behind this executive order knew it was incredibly unlikely to pass muster in court. It is an appeal to their racist base and an attempt to clog up the court, legal organizations and news organizations. If they can throw enough junk like this out they hope to slip a few past people.

  37. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Archaeologists are finding dugout canoes in the American Midwest as old as the Great Pyramids of Egypt

    Dugout canoes, the world’s oldest boat type found to date, are simply hollowed-out logs. In 2018, […] historians believed 11 existed in collections across [Wisconsin] […] Establishing the Wisconsin Dugout Canoe Survey Project, the pair and helpers have so far documented a full 79 dugout canoes, including two of the ten oldest dugouts found in eastern North America, ranging between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. Wisconsin’s dugout catalog sheds light on Indigenous knowledge, habits of trade and travel—and even environmental adaptation.
    […]
    a canoe would sit along the shoreline for the whole village to use. Nearly as vital to thriving as fire, a working canoe meant open trade and shipping networks, fishing in deeper waters, and travel to faraway places.
    […]
    the relatively new approach of treating small, urban waterways as potential archaeological sites. […] everyday citizens report dugout sightings […] via a tipline, the women then go hunting themselves, diving, wading or kayaking in Wisconsin’s bogs and shallow lakes, with little more to guide them than loose coordinates and a snorkel.
    […]
    Most of the finds are in surprisingly good condition—a few have even been accompanied by paddles or tools, like net sinkers and an adz, a wood-cutting implement similar to an ax. Some have turned out to be fragments, which is even more remarkable: The worse the specimen, the more likely it’s deemed kindling and thrown on the fire.

  39. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    Chris Hayes: “Boggles my mind”: Judge eviscerates Trump executive order after blocking

    It’s a video segment from today’s show. 8:32 minutes long.

    Chris’s guest, Sherrilyn Ifill, points out that Trump’s executive order ending Birthright Citizenship did not end up in Judge Cannon’s court, or in Judge Kacsmaryk’s court, nor in any other court that is under Trump’s thumb, or any court that is controlled by rightwing Republicans, therefore it did get a fair hearing. “Egregiously unconstitutional proposal [….]” “Republicans have talked themselves into the fever dream […]”

    In the segment that follows, Chris Hayes discusses the fact that the Trump administration has frozen NIH (National Institues of Health) research, like cancer research, alzheimer’s, diabetes, etc. This segment is also from tonight’s show.

  41. Bekenstein Bound says

    Antarctica melting. Blizzards in Florida. Events may yet overtake the troglodytes.

    I hope Mar-a-Lago’s pipes burst.

  42. StevoR says

    AJ Op Ed by 0Professorial Lecturer at American University in Washington, DC, Donald Earl Collins :

    For US Conservatives, DEI is code for ‘Don’t Ever Integrate’
    The real end goal of the far-right war against affirmative action is to return the US to a state of quasi-legal racial segregation.

    … (Snip)..

    So why is putting an end to DEI – which typically is the acceptance, even embracing of racial, gender, sexual orientation, and other differences and the creation of a welcoming climate for marginalised Americans at universities and in workplaces – such a priority for Trump, his conservative supporters and the wider far right?

    They want to see the end of DEI because they believe these programmes present a real challenge to their efforts to rebuild the “white man’s country” they long for. Their insistence on colour-blindness in educational and employment practices is really an insistence on returning to the days when only white men could affirmatively benefit from allegedly objective practices for social mobility. They want to do nothing short of closing already extremely narrow pathways for social and economic advancement available to people of colour and other marginalised people in the US. They want to ensure that DEI or other antiracist or “woke” programmes cannot force them to confront their own racism in the process. For them, DEI is just code for “Don’t Ever Integrate”.

    Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/1/23/for-us-conservatives-dei-is-code-for-dont-ever-integrate

    Good if a bit obvs in my view.

    Worth considering the oposites of Diversity Equity and Inclusion – monoculture, Inequity and Exclusion.

  43. StevoR says

    The iconic young star T Tauri could be about to vanish it seems :

    One of the most notable baby stars in the galaxy, T Tauri, could be about to vanish from sight for decades as a thick, obscuring disk of gas and dust marauds in front of it.

    T Tauri, which is located 471 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, is the namesake of an entire class of protostars that can fluctuate unpredictably in brightness…. (snip).. T Tauri is already of great interest to astronomers — but now, it’s about to become even more interesting as it is about to embark on a “great dimming” that could last for up to a century.

    Source : https://www.space.com/the-universe/stars/a-young-star-may-soon-disappear-inside-the-great-dimming-of-t-tauri

  44. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Follow-up on the car privacy nightmare.
     
    Subaru security flaws exposed its system for tracking millions of cars

    vulnerabilities in a Subaru web portal that let [security researchers] hijack the ability to unlock the car, honk its horn, and start its ignition, reassigning control of those features to any phone or computer they chose.
    […]
    they could also track the Subaru’s location—not merely where it was at the moment but also […] “You can retrieve at least a year’s worth of location history for the car, where it’s pinged precisely, sometimes multiple times a day […] there are a million scenarios where you could weaponize this against someone.”
    […]
    [This] would have allowed hackers to target any of the company’s vehicles equipped with its digital features known as Starlink […] Vulnerabilities they found in a Subaru website intended for the company’s staff allowed them to hijack an employee’s account […] and also access all the vehicle location data available to employees, including the car’s location every time its engine started
    […]
    Curry and Shah reported their findings to Subaru in late November, and Subaru quickly patched its Starlink security flaws. […] just the latest in a long series of similar web-based flaws […] that have affected well over a dozen carmakers, including Acura, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Toyota, [BMW, Ferrari, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Rolls Royce]. “The thing is, even though this is patched, this functionality is still going to exist for Subaru employees […] It’s just normal functionality that an employee can pull up a year’s worth of your location history.”
    […]
    Curry’s mother’s Starlink app connected to the domain SubaruCS.com, which they realized was an administrative domain for employees. Scouring that site for security flaws, they found that they could reset employees’ passwords simply by guessing their email address, which gave them the ability to take over any employee’s account whose email they could find.

    [Translation: Any rando could manually craft a signal to set a given new password without establishing credentials. Upon logging in, there was a 2FA security question prompt that was literally just a paywall-like javascript overlay they could comment out. Behind it was a fully functional employee portal.]
    […]
    In December, […] Der Spiegel revealed that Cariad, a software company that partners with Volkswagen, had left detailed location data for 800,000 electric vehicles publicly exposed online.
    […]
    Subaru tells WIRED that it “does not sell location data.”

     
    Subaru Privacy Notice

    [Subaru] does not collect any vehicle-generated data unless the vehicle is associated with an active STARLINK subscription
    […]
    You can stop the collection of geolocation data at ignition off/on events by going to the MySubaru App and clicking on STARLINK Connected Services or by submitting a Right to be Forgotten Request by clicking here.
    […]
    We share daily odometer data with LexisNexis. LexisNexis will not share your odometer information unless and until you have opted into such sharing with your insurance provider. […] The odometer data is tied to the VIN and not to a specific driver. To opt out of sharing odometer data with LexisNexis please click here. [Hm, That last word is not a clickable link.]

    We retain this information for one year. After one year, the VIN is pseudonymized at which point it is retained for seven years. We use the pseudonymized data to provide aggregate reporting for product planning and research and development.

     
    Unprotected VW data exposed locations of 800,000 EVs

    quickly patched […] “misconfiguration” […] unaware of anyone accessing the data

  50. KG says

    This fits with what I’ve been saying:

    Chicago was said to be an initial target of the mass deportations Donald Trump promised on his first day in office.

    But the promised raids did not wind up taking place, and it’s unclear if and when they will. Politico reports that the word in the Illinois state government is that Trump is interested more in spectacle than substance when it comes to immigration enforcement.

    “It’s not like anyone with the Trump administration is picking up the phone and calling us and saying ‘Here’s the plan,’” an Illinois state official told Politico.

    “They’re looking for a PR stunt.”

  51. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 39

    We don’t need cancer research anymore because RFK Jr. has found the cure: Reiki, smudging, and lots of roadkill meat.

  52. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 42

    it’s about to become even more interesting as it is about to embark on a “great dimming” that could last for up to a century.

    Funny, America is about to go through the same.

  53. says

    CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @43, my vehicle is too old to report its whereabouts to anyone. At least there are some good aspects of owning an older vehicle. It’s also easier to fix when something goes wrong.

  54. says

    Trump finds another group of politically allied criminals to pardon

    When Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on the third day of his second term, he had plenty to say about pardons, specifically his immediate predecessor’s use of the tool.

    “This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” Trump said in reference to Joe Biden. [LOL]

    […] 48 hours earlier, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 Jan. 6 criminals, including violent felons who were in prison for assaulting police officers. As his first term came to an ignominious end, he similarly scrambled to issue a series of similarly scandalous pardons to his political allies.

    On the fourth day of his second term, Trump kept the trend going. NBC News reported:

    […] Trump signed an executive order pardoning 23 anti-abortion-rights activists Thursday, one day before he is expected to address thousands of anti-abortion-rights demonstrators at their annual march in Washington. ‘Twenty-three people were prosecuted, they should not have been prosecuted,’ Trump said at the Oval Office signing ceremony Thursday, noting that ‘many of them’ are elderly. ‘This is a great honor to sign. They will be very happy.’

    That last point is very likely true: When criminals are pardoned, they tend to be “very happy.” But that doesn’t mean the pardons have merit.

    Roughly 30 years ago, as abortion providers and their patients faced intensifying violence, Democrats approved the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (often known by its acronym, the FACE Act). The goal was simple: Opponents of reproductive rights were free to exercise their First Amendment rights and protest, but they couldn’t commit acts of violence or prevent people from accessing legal medical services.

    The Biden administration enforced the law, prosecuting and successfully convicting people who were found to have blocked access to reproductive health clinics. Trump — a longtime proponent of abortion rights before entering GOP politics — wiped the slate clean for 23 such criminals on the eve of the 52nd annual March for Life in the nation’s capital.

    In the process, Trump offered yet another reminder about what he thinks the pardon power is all about. Historically, the idea behind presidential pardons was to allow a chief executive to right a wrong or to protect the innocent.

    For Trump, however, pardons are effectively party favors to be handed out to people he likes, agrees with and/or sees as political allies.

  56. says

    Aw, that’s a shame. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency is having a rough week.

    […] Referring to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, then the chairs of the fake “department,” the congressional staffer said: “Two people who know nothing about how the government works pretending they can cut a trillion dollars, both with decent pulpits to preach from, and the ear of an unpredictable president? Disaster.”

    Seven weeks later, the relevance of that prediction continues to linger — because things could be better in DOGE Land.

    As this week got underway, for example, Ramaswamy resigned from the advisory panel, and according to multiple reports, his colleagues weren’t exactly sad to see him leave. A few days later, as The Wall Street Journal reported, the fake “department” suffered another major departure.

    The top lawyer at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency said he is leaving just days after President Trump’s return to the White House. Bill McGinley, whom Trump appointed as DOGE’s legal counsel in December, is in discussions with several large companies to return to the private sector.

    [Yes. Get out while you can, Bill.[]

    The lawyer confirmed his departure in an interview with the Journal, emphasizing that he remains supportive of the president and his agenda.

    If McGinley’s name sounds at all familiar, it’s because Trump announced in December that the Republican lawyer would serve as the next White House counsel. Four weeks later, for reasons that were not disclosed to the public, Trump changed his mind, demoted McGinley and dispatched him to the DOGE endeavor — which McGinley is now leaving, just days after the new president’s inauguration. [Hmmm. Sounds like McGinley could no longer walk the tightrope he was on.]

    Making matters worse, it’s not the only challenge facing the initiative:
    – DOGE is the target of multiple lawsuits that allege the endeavor is failing to comply with disclosure and hiring laws that apply to all advisory panels.

    – The so-called department is facing new questions as to why it was created in such a way that it’s not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. [!!]

    – While the stated purpose of the project was to identify wasteful spending, Musk has already walked back Trump’s unrealistic campaign promises, and the president’s executive order creating DOGE said its purpose will be to “implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” suggesting that the reason for the endeavor’s existence has already been overhauled.

    Meanwhile, the “department” that was ostensibly created to address waste and fraud in federal spending is also already experiencing mission creep, reportedly contacting the U.S. Marshals Service this week to express concern about the speed with which pardoned Jan. 6 criminals were being released from detention.

    In case that weren’t quite enough, a Wired magazine report noted that DOGE, at an institutional level, has been parked inside the executive branch by reorganizing and renaming an existing entity, the U.S. Digital Service, as the U.S. DOGE Service. That might not seem especially notable, but the Wired article added that this is a move “that will give centibillionaire Elon Musk and his allies seemingly unprecedented insight across the government, and access to troves of federal data.”

    In other words, as the first week of Trump’s second term gets underway, the not-quite-real Department of Government Efficiency is both struggling and expanding its remit — which is far from an ideal scenario in an initiative clouded by secrecy.

    The “disaster” prediction from December might’ve understated the case.

  58. says

    Why Trump’s ridiculous new line on the war in Ukraine matters

    “After breaking a campaign promise about the war in Ukraine, [Trump] is making matters worse by blaming Ukraine for the conflict Russia started.”

    Given the circumstances, Donald Trump should probably stop talking about the war in Ukraine. The newly inaugurated president repeatedly promised voters that he’d end the devastating conflict before he was sworn in a for a second term, and he failed. Trump also promised the public that he’d resolve the crisis “within 24 hours” of returning to the White House, and he failed.

    […] Trump didn’t even try.

    But instead of changing the subject and hoping people don’t notice the obvious fact that he broke one of his most audacious campaign promises, Trump can’t seem to help himself. NBC News reported:

    […] Trump suggested in an interview that aired Thursday night that Ukraine should not have fought when Russia invaded it. ‘Zelenskyy was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful,’ Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. ‘He shouldn’t have done that, because we could have made a deal.’

    Trump added, “I could have made that deal so easily, and Zelenskyy decided that ‘I want to fight.’” In case that weren’t quite enough, Trump said in the same interview that Zelenskyy is “no angel,” adding that he “shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen.”

    If this sounds at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. A few weeks before Election Day, Trump also blamed the Ukrainian president for the war, saying that Zelenskyy “should never have let that war start.”

    An analysis by The Washington Post explained soon after, “Even in the context of Trump’s long-standing obsequiousness to Putin, it’s hard to understand how Zelensky would have prevented having his nation be invaded. He could, in theory, have taken the approach that many Trump allies have since endorsed: simply agreeing to cede some or all of Ukraine to Russia, a move that would have prevented the damage incurred to the country’s buildings but amplified the damage done to its sovereignty.”

    Three months later, the president is again blaming Ukraine’s leader for the war Russia started. While it’s hardly surprising to see Trump echoing the Kremlin line — he’s been doing this for years — there are real-world consequences to absurdities like these.

    In theory, the White House envisions a diplomatic dynamic in which the administration helps negotiate an end to the war. In practice, Trump is making it difficult, if not impossible, for the U.S. allies in Ukraine to see the American president as someone who can be trusted and relied upon. [True]

    Indeed, while Trump is blaming Ukrainian leaders for the fact that Russia invaded their country without provocation, he’s also making hollow and meaningless threats toward Moscow, vowing to impose trade tariffs on a country that we’re already not trading with. [Incompetent, ignorant, bullying nincompoop]

    In case that isn’t quite enough, Trump’s White House national security advisor, Mike Waltz, recently told ABC News that as far as the administration is concerned, it’s not “realistic” to think Russia will leave Ukrainian soil altogether, suggesting the White House envisions a resolution in which Putin is allowed to keep parts of Ukraine as a reward for launching a devastating and unnecessary war.

    Two days before Election Day 2024, The Washington Post reported, “[I]nside Russia’s elite there is a growing expectation that Donald Trump will win and that if he does, there could be a chance to end the war with Ukraine on Moscow’s terms and potentially redraw the global security map.”

    Nearly three months later, those Russian elites have reason to be pleased.

  59. says

    In his presidential inaugural address, the Republican told Black voters: “I look forward to working with you.” He apparently didn’t mean a word of it.

    [In his inaugural address, Trump] turned his attention to closely watched electoral constituencies. From the address:

    To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. Today is Martin Luther King Day. … In his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true.

    As a factual matter, Trump’s comments about having “set records” were demonstrably wrong: Plenty of other candidates, in both parties, have fared far better than he did among Black and Hispanic voters.

    What’s more, there was an obvious disconnect between the message and the messenger: Trump’s record is littered with countless examples of ugly and overt racism, which continued during his 2024 candidacy. This might not have been enough to defeat his candidacy, but it made it tough to stomach when he talked about “striving together” to make the Rev. Martin Luther King’s dream a reality.

    […] Consider the steps Trump and his new administration have taken in recent days.

    – As The Washington Post reported, Trump, on the third day of his second term, “revoked a landmark executive order signed by Lyndon B. Johnson to prevent discrimination in government employment and advance racial equality.”

    – As The Associated Press reported, Trump’s new Justice Department leadership has “put a freeze on civil rights litigation.”

    – As The New York Times reported, Trump’s new Justice Department leadership has also signaled that it’s prepared to “back out of Biden-era agreements with police departments that engaged in discrimination or violence.”

    – And as my MSNBC colleagues have explained in recent days, Trump and his team have launched a hysterical crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion policies designed to make workplaces more welcoming to marginalized groups.

    With these developments in mind, here’s that quote from Trump’s inaugural address once more: “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records, and I will not forget it.”

    By all appearances, Trump seems to have forgotten it.

  60. says

    The Trump administration is coming under fire for an immigration raid in New Jersey that detained an American citizen who is also a military veteran.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a Newark, New Jersey, business on Thursday. According to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, “one of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.”

    […] Baraka explained this “egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” referring to protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

    “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” he added.

    New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman described the raid as “unconstitutional” and evidence of “the reality of Trump’s reign of terror.”

    […] In a joint statement, New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said they were “deeply concerned” about the raid and that they have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, for answers.

    […] In a letter addressed to Trump, veterans’ groups expressed fear that the crackdown would endanger the safety of interpreters who had helped the military during the war in Afghanistan, as well as their families, now living in America.

    Trump is implementing the immigration policy he has long touted and Republicans are on board with it, but just a few days in and veterans are already among the people who are in the crosshairs.

    Link

  61. says

    Donald Trump ordered the declassification of files pertaining to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.

    “A lot of people are waiting for this for a long, for years, for decades,” Trump said as he signed the executive order Thursday.

    But, of course, Trump seems to have forgotten to declassify the files on Jeffrey Epstein, the serial sexual abuser of minors who hobknobbed with many wealthy and important folks during the 1990s and early 2000s.

    […] Maybe most problematic for Trump is his very public relationship with Epstein, which spanned the better part of two decades. […]

    Link

    Videos at the link.

  62. says

    Robert Reich has picked up on an editorial by Andrew Coyne from the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper.

    TRUMP’S ELECTION IS A CRISIS LIKE NO OTHER, NOT ONLY FOR THE U.S. BUT FOR THE WORLD, by Andrew Coyne

    Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.

    The […] the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.

    There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do – to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world – is incalculable. We are living in the time of Nero.

    https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-view-from-north-of-the-border

  63. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Lynna @52, here’s hoping you keep your car running long enough to miss the AI bubble.

    The dealer finance guy said to me, “It’s practically a self-driving car. All it needs is a software update.”

    Ugh. Driver assist these days can nudge steering, slam brakes, and cruise control the gas. On its own, that only amounts to a self-crashing car. The manual includes a looong list of things AI can’t recognize, like snowy lanes, deer, children, poles, walls, and the broad side of vehicles. And if there’s glare, or frost, or the windshield fogs, or condensation builds up—anything that prevents the little cameras seeing—all those features become unavailable. That stuff can generally be turned off.

    The car I rented did proximity locking. Would not recommend. The bought car was in the parking lot beside it a couple feet away to transfer belongings, just room enough to open one door at a time. And every time I closed the rental’s door and turned to open the bought’s door, the rental would lock itself, so I’d have to press the fob to unlock it again before the next round of opening for another item!

  64. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/mtg-mad-uk-wont-call-gulf-of-mexico

    “MTG Mad UK Won’t Call Gulf Of Mexico ‘Jewish Space Gulf’ Or Whatever”

    Fascism, it turns out, is hard. When you are a zero of a human being, a 34-times-convicted felon, a traitor to the Republic, an all around piece of shit, and just one of the dumbest motherfuckers on the globe, Americans and the rest of the world don’t just automatically respect your authority. Lots of them are just laughing at you. Not even 50 percent of American voters chose Donald Trump, and those who did mostly chose him because he was supposed to make their eggs cheaper.

    Guess what, [Trump] can’t even make their eggs cheaper.

    And now he’s all over the place doing Nazism to immigrants and trying to cancel birthright citizenship out of the Constitution, and Reagan-appointed judges are already telling him to eat their nutsacks about that.

    What part of “eggs” is that?

    He tried to HEREBY DEMAND in an executive order that everybody call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” and nobody gives a flying fuck […] (Shhhh, nobody tell him that “America” is actually the entire Western hemisphere, basically. He wouldn’t understand, just like he’s too stupid to understand that Greenland isn’t as big as it looks on maps.)

    The UK won’t be calling it “The Gulf of America.” The UK explains that it will change what it calls the gulf if people actually start using the name. Nobody is actually going to start using the name. Nobody that matters anyway. […]

    The Telegraph explains that the gulf is an international body of water, and several countries have coastlines that abut it, not just the US. One of them is, of course, Mexico. The other is Cuba. […]

    Anyway, so President Fuckwit McForgotAboutTheEggs can’t actually change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, despite what his little executive order says. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is mad about that. So she, who like her president is dumb […], is trying to pass a bill through Congress that would change the name of the international body of water called the Gulf of Mexico: [Screengrab of her post is available at the link.]

    “We rename post offices all the time this isn’t complicated.”

    As we said, she’s just dumb as absolute pigshit.

    The Associated Press has weighed in on how it’ll be handling this, as well as Trump’s executive order to change the name of Denali in Alaska back to Mount McKinley. Basically, they will call the Gulf of Mexico the fucking Gulf of Mexico, because that’s what the fuck it is. They note that the Gulf of Mexico has been called the Gulf of Mexico for 400 years, but explain that they will acknowledge that El Dumbfuck crossed out “Mexico” with his tiny hands and his big Sharpie and wrote “America.”

    As for McKinley, well, presidents actually can change such things, since that whole entire mountain is in Alaska, and Trump hasn’t given Alaska as a love gift to Putin yet. So the AP will use the name. Whatever.

    Remember when Barack Obama changed it to Denali, to reflect what native peoples in Alaska call the mountain? Yeah well that hurt the feelings of mediocre white losers like Donald Trump and made them feel small, so Trump had to change it back to the name of the white president who never visited the mountain, who didn’t give a shit about the mountain, who probably wouldn’t have pissed on the mountain if it was on fire, and despite how lawmakers in Alaska — a red state — didn’t want it changed back. When your masculinity is as fragile as Donald Trump’s, this is the kind of shit that matters to you.

    Anyway, you can still call it Denali, as will we, and as will people in Alaska. We will obviously still call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico.

    And we will call Donald Trump a weak, sad convicted felon and adjudicated rapist, a coward, an absolute dumbass, a sad little starfucker for dictators who think he’s an excitable, easily manipulated moron, a pathetic loser and whatever other mean and nasty names we want to call him that day.

    Sorry, it’s just our Wonkette style guide.

  65. says

    CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @62, well that’s nightmarish. Kafkaesque version of buying a new car.

    What I have discovered so far from having clients send me AI rubbishy text to edit is that AI is dumb, or at least very limited. Restrict it to certain uses and it is okay, but nuance and context are not AI’s strong points.

  66. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/creepy-fetus-hoarders-set-free

    “Creepy Fetus Hoarders Set Free”

    “115 dead fetuses in coolers are 115 dead fetuses in coolers too many.”

    This week, Donald Trump has gone on something of a spree, offering pardons and clemency to pretty much anyone who has committed a crime in the name of far-right politics. January 6 rioters, police officers who went to prison for murdering Black people, Proud Boys, etc., etc. Next week, surely, he’ll set the whole of the Aryan Nations free.

    On Thursday, Trump decided to free 23 anti-abortion terrorists, including 10 absolute loons who “occupied” and blockaded a Washington DC abortion clinic in 2020. One of these loons was Lauren Handy, who was discovered to be in possession of five fetuses (though she claimed she had 115 fetuses) she stole from a medical waste truck […]

    The anti-abortion terrorists were charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), which was enacted to prevent violence towards and harassment of people just trying to enter a damned abortion clinic — often for non-abortion-related appointments. It’s an especially necessary piece of legislation, given how fond the “pro-life” movement is of murdering those with whom they disagree. It’s also worth noting that these people did not just block an entrance, they “occupied” the clinic.

    Handy, who — weirdly enough — was not charged for her dead fetus collection, was sentenced to five years in prison for her actions. The other defendants were sentenced to less than three years.

    Via the New York Times:

    Steve Crampton, senior counsel at the nonprofit Thomas More Society law firm, which represented Ms. Handy, said that his client and her co-defendants “were treated shamefully by Biden’s D.O.J.,” referring to the Department of Justice, “with many of them branded felons and losing many rights that we take for granted as American citizens.”

    He added, “Thank you to President Trump and his team for righting these grievous wrongs of the previous administration.”

    They weren’t branded felons, they committed felonies and were subsequently found or pleaded guilty to having committed said felonies. There’s a difference!

    As if this isn’t bad enough, in the last few days, Congressional Republicans have actually moved to repeal the FACE Act altogether, in hopes of making it easier for future Eric Rudolphs, Robert Dears, and Scott Roeders to murder clinic workers and those seeking abortions.

    […] Republicans like Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene have argued that these particular criminals should get a pass explicitly on the grounds of “we also think abortion is bad.”

    Meanwhile, of course, we’re still seeing ridiculous thinkpieces about how very wrong and bad it was of Biden to preemptively pardon his family and Anthony Fauci for all of the crimes they didn’t actually commit […]

  67. says

    New York Times link

    “Israel Appears Poised to Keep Its Troops in Lebanon Beyond Deadline”

    “Israel and Hezbollah agreed to withdraw from southern Lebanon, but Israel says that Hezbollah hasn’t upheld its promise and that the Lebanese Army isn’t ready to fill the void.”

    Israel is set to occupy parts of southern Lebanon after a deadline for its full military withdrawal lapses on Sunday, the Israeli government implied in a statement on Friday, amid Israeli concerns that Hezbollah remains active there and doubts about the Lebanese Army’s ability to stymie the militia’s resurgence.

    Under the terms of a truce between Israel and Hezbollah in late November, Israeli troops were supposed to withdraw within 60 days from areas of Lebanon that they had recently wrested from the group’s control. Hezbollah was also required to withdraw from the region, allowing the Lebanese military to assert its control over an area where Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shiite force and political movement, had long dominated.

    Less than two days before the deadline, the office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced that Israel’s withdrawal was dependent on the Lebanese Army asserting its full control over the area, adding that the timeline was flexible and implying that Israeli troops would remain in Lebanon beyond the cutoff.

    “Since the cease-fire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by Lebanon, the gradual withdrawal process will continue under full cooperation with the United States,” the statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

    […] In a brief message, Hezbollah’s media office said it was awaiting reaction from the countries overseeing the cease-fire, the United States and France. In a longer statement released on Thursday, Hezbollah said that any “breach” of the deal would not be tolerated, because it would be “a blatant violation of the agreement, an attack on Lebanese sovereignty and the beginning of a new chapter of occupation.” [Seems like a legitimate concern]

    […] Violations of the truce are monitored and investigated by a committee chaired by the United States and involving France. […]

    After two months mostly without conflict, despite occasional violations, the specter of renewed fighting looms again, even if Hezbollah, battered and exhausted, no longer poses the same threat to Israel as it did at the start of the war nearly 16 months ago.

    If Israeli troops do remain beyond the weekend without Lebanon’s blessing, Hezbollah will have to choose between accepting the status quo and losing face — or resuming battle and risking a large Israeli counterattack that would further damage both its decimated ranks and Lebanese civilian infrastructure. Should fighting restart, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, has warned that Israeli strikes would no longer differentiate between Hezbollah and the Lebanese state. [!!]

    […] Since November, Israel has transferred more than 100 military installations and villages to the Lebanese authorities, but still occupies roughly 70 percent of the areas that it captured after invading Lebanon last fall […]

    In recent days, Israeli troops did not appear to be preparing for a complete evacuation, according to an official and an Israeli military officer who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more freely. […]

  68. JM says

    Newsweek: Russia Flooded With Cocaine Since Start of War in Ukraine: Report

    The amount of cocaine coming into Russia has surged dramatically since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a Monday report by a pro-Kremlin newspaper.

    Another problem for Russia resulting from the war. There is naturally increased demand in Russia because of the war. The borders of Russia are very long and have poor border control, there is a lot of stuff smuggled across the border making it easy to smuggle drugs in.
    What I found interesting is that there used to be a lot going through Ukraine because mixing it into the food shipments was a good route for smuggling into Europe. A bunch of this has been redirected into Russia.

  69. says

    […] It’s easy to seem like a comms genius during a presidential honeymoon, but so far, Trump’s scattershot strategy is paying off. One CBS article about his immigration crackdown said Trump “invoked muscular presidential powers,” which is a bit like saying Jeffrey Dahmer, “displayed omnivorous taste.” And that’s the kind of coverage Trump wants. MAGA diehards are pumped up. Swing voters who don’t like everything about Trump still see him as strong and decisive. The half of the country that voted against Trump is frightened.

    So what do we do about it?

    This isn’t just an intellectual exercise. Nor is it only a question for those with columns, newsletters, or podcasts. Many of the traditional homes where patriots like to argue their case — like newspaper op-ed sections — are crumbling or being hollowed out by their billionaire owners. (The Contrarian wouldn’t exist otherwise.) And even before Jeff Bezos started trying to mash the self-destruct button on one of America’s most hallowed papers, it was harder than ever for the pro-democracy side to compete in the marketplace of ideas, because the vast majority of Americans aren’t voracious consumers of political news.

    In other words, if America is going to survive this, communicating strategically isn’t just a job for politicians and professional commentators. No matter who you are, defeating Trump’s laundry-list strategy must be on your to-do list, too.

    It’s doable. It just requires doing something that can be both counterintuitive and emotionally difficult.

    When Trump goes big, we have to go small.

    In their excellent book Made to Stick, the brothers Chip and Dan Heath spend a lot of time talking about the idea that people are great at picturing one thing, but terrible at picturing lots of things. Normally, that’s a disadvantage for the party in charge. The Inflation Reduction Act invested over $100 billion in clean energy, which sounds nice. But it’s also such a large number as to be almost meaningless […]

    But for Trump’s big-government cruelty, big numbers are really helpful. Hitting pause on $40 billion in medical research is, obviously, worse than stopping a single study. But it doesn’t feel worse. It’s abstract, and hard to get your head around.

    So what does going small look like during Trump 2.0? It’s going to be different depending on who you are, and who you’re talking to. But here are three basic rules:

    Clear Stakes are Better than High Stakes

    If you’re reading a newsletter like this one, it might seem obvious that Trump is trying to destroy American democracy and put (at best) an oligarchy in its place.

    But saying something like this to someone who doesn’t already believe it is unlikely to convince them. In fact, it might backfire. “People who oppose Trump think Trump is ruining America,” is a mirror-image way of saying, “Trump is extremely effective.”

    It’s better to focus on something tangible. What is one thing that Trump’s actions are already making worse?

    Silence is (Sometimes) Strategy

    During Trump 1.0, and in the Biden years that followed, I sometimes heard that “silence is complicity.” And in many cases, that’s true.

    But in other cases, it’s important to recognize that some of Trump’s actions are popular – and that instead of litigating them, it’s better to stay focused on the stuff everyone agrees is heinous. Which, unfortunately, there will be plenty of.

    Don’t Let Trump Be the Main Character

    Like it or not (I don’t like it) Donald Trump won the popular vote. I suspect that over time, many people will regret that decision. But it’s a lot to ask people to regret it after a week.

    As a general rule, if Trump is the main character of the story you’re telling, then you’re asking people to weigh in on Trump. Opinions about Trump are pretty difficult to change right now. Focus the attention on someone else instead.

    An Example – and a Gleam of Hope

    Everyone will have different ways of winning the ideas war over the next four years and beyond. For right now, if a total stranger asked me to sum up this week, I’d say something like this:

    “There’s a guy named Daniel Rodriguez. On January 5th, 2020, he texted his friends ‘There will be blood.’ On January 6th, when he stormed the Capitol, he grabbed a police officer and shocked him repeatedly in the neck with a stun gun. A jury of peers sentenced him to twelve years in prison for his violent crime. And less than 24 hours after taking office, Trump let Daniel Rodriguez back out on the street.”

    I could say more, of course. But that’s the most important thing: a story about one person, who isn’t Donald Trump – and one action Trump took which just about everyone can agree makes us less safe.

    The good news, in a week not exactly full of it, is that a decent number of our political and cultural leaders are already zeroing in on these kinds of stories. Trump might be getting more favorable coverage than he deserves, but he’s also wildly overreaching.

    Trump isn’t a good person. But he’s good at driving his message. If we stay disciplined, focus on one story at a time, and keep the stakes small, clear, and personal, we can be even better.

    https://contrarian.substack.com/p/how-to-drink-from-a-firehose

  70. says

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:sey7sepxyhnke3h5aa6ttbon/post/3lgicdf2gos2i

    🇺🇸🚀 Trump accused Russia of stealing hypersonic missiles.

    According to him, during the Obama administration, “bad person” gave Moscow the blueprints, which is why the US still does not have hypersonic weapons.

    So, Trump has already given the order to create superhypersonic weapons.

    From the comments:

    The US already has hypersonic weapons. We’ve been working on them for about two decades. The Zumwalts are being retrofitted to carry them for example. They’re basically ballistic missiles. Trump is petty, vindictive and dumb as rocks.
    ————————
    So they copied the plans from us, which means we obviously have them,… which is why we don’t have them.

    Does Trump’s IQ crack 60??
    ————————–
    Yeah, this Nazi vegetable (our president) seems to think that crucial weapons designs exist on a single pice of paper somewhere and nowhere else.
    —————————
    Did this bad person keep those blueprints in a bathroom of a golfclub?

  71. says

    FFS.

    Trump cites voter ID, water flow as conditions for LA wildfire aid

    […] Trump on Friday said he wanted to see two actions taken in California before he offered federal support for Los Angeles as it grapples with wildfires.

    “I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina, where he was touring hurricane recovery efforts.

    […] California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) office responded to Trump’s comments with a fact-check about its voting laws, noting several other states do not require voter ID. Newsom’s office also said it is currently able to pump as much water as it could under Trump’s first-term policies.

    “Conditioning aid for American citizens is wrong,” the governor’s office posted on social media.

    Lawmakers in Congress are debating how to proceed with federal assistance to Los Angeles, where wildfires have killed dozens of people and destroyed communities.

    Republicans have floated tying aid to a debt ceiling increase or changes to California’s fire-mitigation policies. Democrats have vehemently opposed placing conditions on federal assistance to Los Angeles, arguing it would set a dangerous precedent.

    Trump has fixated on the claim that California officials could provide additional water flow to Los Angeles from the northern part of the state by simply switching on a valve. But experts have pushed back, arguing the state’s water supply issues are not that simple, and that fire hydrants ran dry in recent weeks because of a surge in demand.

    [Trump] has also for years pushed for the implementation of voter identification laws amid unproven claims of widespread fraud in elections.

    California passed legislation that would take effect in 2026 that blocks municipalities from requiring voter ID in elections, a move made in response to one city passing a voter ID requirement.

  72. lumipuna says

    Re 63, on renaming the Gulf of Mexico,

    This is apparently another of those Trump policies that started out as a random joke, and gained traction among the MAGAhats because it provides a sweet fantasy of hurting/dominating Mexicans and liberals. But now Trump, Taylor-Greene et al. are getting obsessed with it in large part because it’ll be handy for loyalty-testing US individuals, media outlets and public institutions. Whether other countries (even those speaking English) follow suit is pretty much irrelevant.

    As for McKinley, well, presidents actually can change such things, since that whole entire mountain is in Alaska, and Trump hasn’t given Alaska as a love gift to Putin yet. So the AP will use the name. Whatever.

    I’m not sure why jurisdiction (domestic vs. foreign places) should matter here. I’m vaguely aware that the US has some federal agency whose job includes maintaining a registry of official domestic place names for standardization purposes (at least within English language). It apparently doesn’t cover foreign place names, but that’s likely only because domestic names, already numerous enough, are far more relevant for US administrative purposes.

    Of course, other countries will not easily take cues from the US federal government on place names outside the US. OTOH, there’s no reason why even US private individuals and institutions should automatically comply, even on domestic place names, except for sucking up to Trump.

  73. says

    lumipuna @71, “OTOH, there’s no reason why even US private individuals and institutions should automatically comply, even on domestic place names, except for sucking up to Trump.”

    Yes, I agree. It’s annoying, but less of an urgent matter than seeing trumpian goons arresting immigrants, and even some U.S. citizens as well (supposedly by accident in the case of handcuffing citizens).

    Related, and a followup to comment 59.: “Trump ramps up ICE arrests, alarming cities and immigrant communities”
    Washington Post link
    “The number of suspects arrested — several hundred per day — has been outpaced by the psychological impact of the attention on ICE operations.” Yes, I think that’s true.

    The deportation blitz President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail kicked off in U.S. cities this week, delighting many of his supporters and jolting communities where immigration officers appeared — or whose arrival was merely rumored, sending a chill nonetheless.

    Trump’s executive orders have given immigration officers extraordinary new powers to cast a wider net and fast-track deportations. The president has scrapped restrictions that kept “sensitive” locations like churches and schools off-limits for immigration officers. Social media posts and school mailing lists have lit up with possible officer sightings, including many false alarms. […]

    In Boston, a Fox News crew broadcast live as officers knocked on doors and pulled suspects from homes. In other cities where ICE netted a smattering of arrests, immigrant advocacy groups and Democratic representatives denounced “raids” […]

    “It’s going very well. We’re getting the bad, hard criminals out,” Trump said, speaking to reporters during a trip to North Carolina to view the flood recovery from Hurricane Helene.

    Without evidence, he said: “These are murderers. These are people that have been as bad as you get. As bad as anybody you’ve seen. We’re taking them out first.”

    […] The Trump administration has stopped taking appointments for migrants waiting in Mexico to request asylum through the CBP One mobile app. Trump’s efforts are likely to face legal challenges, but lawyers say immigrants are not entitled to public defenders and therefore will have a difficult time defending themselves in a fast-track process, especially if they are detained. Earlier in the week, Trump officials abruptly halted some contracts that provided legal guidance to detainees.

    […] Leavitt [White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt] posted photos Friday showing U.S. troops loading shackled detainees onto a military cargo plane for a flight to Guatemala.

    […] The military flew two C-17 cargo planes, each carrying approximately 80 people, to Guatemala after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, according to a DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the operations. The flights departed from Texas and Arizona, officials said. ICE Air is continuing to operate deportation flights alongside military planes, officials said.

    Tom Cartwright, who tracks ICE deportations for the immigrant advocacy group Witness at the Border, called the military operation “theater of the absurd” in a post on X. “The only thing new about this is subjecting people to transport on a cargo plane,” Cartwright wrote. He noted that ICE carried out 508 deportation flights to Guatemala during the 2024 fiscal year on planes that averaged 125 passengers.

    Trump’s border czar Tom Homan cited a higher number of ICE arrests than the White House on NewsNation on Thursday night, saying officials had apprehended more than 3,000 people with criminal records in the first couple days of the administration. ICE, which detains and deports immigrants, did not respond to requests to clarify the numbers.

    […] Many local officials say they cannot keep someone in jail for a civil immigration violation after a judge has ordered the person released on bail in a criminal case. And some have expressed frustration that ICE targets minor offenders, making the broader community afraid to report crimes to police.

    “Sanctuary cities make it less efficient and more dangerous, but it’s not going to stop us,” Homan said. “We’re hitting every sanctuary city right now.” [It sounds to me like Homan may be prone to exaggerating.]
    […]

  74. StevoR says

    Seen today on fb and apparently via Bluesky, sadly no author listed with it, have asked to see if people know who wrote this :

    THE CLIMATE PROTESTS
    Arrest the rain.
    How dare it remind us that the Climate is changing?
    Let’s pretend it always rained like this.

    Handcuff the Wildfire.
    Why should we care about the trees?
    What did koalas ever do for us?

    Take the flood to court.
    It has no business blocking roads, or sweeping away bridges.
    What if an ambulance was stuck on the wrong side of the river?

    Give the clouds a suspended sentence.
    They are trying to remind us that a warmer world has wetter air.
    They should go and tell China not us.

    Dress the heatwave in an orange jumpsuit.
    It is probably a fault in the thermometer anyway.
    These scientists – what do they know?

    Sentence the melting ice to 10 years in the cooler.
    Why does it matter if the sea floods Bangladesh?
    And Miami can be the New Atlantis.

    The Earth is just causing trouble – lock it up!

    Author unknown.

    Via Rocky Rex on fb, author unknown.

  75. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: StevoR @73:
    Below a 2022 First Dog on the Moon comic about a heatwave, there was a “Guardian Pick” promoted comment by rockyrex that had the first line of each stanza. Perhaps an early draft. Still in quotes and titled. They hung around replying but neither claimed authorship nor attributed it to anyone.

    Googling a few phrases didn’t turn up anything prior to the date of that comment.

    A few months later, someone on Instagram screenshotted that same rockyrex off Guardian (annoyingly cropping out the nym but the avatar matches) who’d posted a longer version but with a different ending than yours. Attributed to “RR 2022” (also mostly cropped out). I couldn’t find the article.

    A couple weeks after that, rockyrex on FB posted short and long versions, unambiguously attributing it to themself with “RR 2022”.

  77. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Trump allies were told to stop saying they’ll put migrants in ‘camps’

    if he were to follow through with his plans to deport millions, would require massive new camps—something that Trump’s top policy-hand has explicitly told reporters. But openly describing these camps as “camps” invites supremely negative historical comparisons. Some top Trump advisers get so annoyed […] that they’ve cautioned the president-elect’s allies and surrogates to stop using the word “camps”
    […]
    says one close Trump ally. “Apparently some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

  79. KG says

    The half of the country that voted against Trump is frightened. – Lynna, OM@68 quoting David Litt

    If only half of the country had voted against Trump! Harris would have won by a landslide. The turnout was 63.9%, which means just over 32% of those entitled to vote, voted for someone other than Trump (I’m being generous here, given that those voting third party could not really be said to have voted “against Trump” in the sense of voting to stop him becoming president). Of course it also means just under 32% voted for Trump. But that under 1/3 of the electorate came out against fascism is a measure of the mountain American anti-fascists have to climb.

  82. says

    After Pete Hegseth’s survival, it feels unbearably credulous to suggest that Republican senators may block any of Donald Trump’s remaining nominees.

    Still, the ground seems shakiest under Tulsi Gabbard, the recent Democrat and Bashar al-Assad fangirl, who is improbably gunning to be Director of National Intelligence.

    She has no intelligence experience, and a troubling history of regurgitating Kremlin-backed conspiracy theories.

    But then, look at Hegseth: accused of sexual assault and habitual alcohol abuse, with a history of catastrophic mismanagement and derisive comments about the members of the military he’ll be tasked with leading. For every Senate Republican except Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the compulsion to please Trump overcame this list of deficiencies.

    But Hegseth has something Gabbard doesn’t: unwavering loyalty to the MAGA cause, in the body of the ultimate MAGA avatar.

    Gabbard was a Democrat so recently that she ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary! When she dropped out, she endorsed Joe Biden (after having been team Bernie in 2016).

    This is an era of total political war. Republicans have been booted from Trump’s good graces for crimes much less severe than running alongside “the enemy within.” And while Trump will take late-coming converts — if he only accepted those who were with him from the beginning, it’d be just him and, like, Rudy Giuliani — Gabbard is really late to the party. She was still a “libtard” after Trump’s first glorious term.

    Add to her questionable loyalty that she’s (gasp) a woman and (!!!) not a white one. In fact she was the first Samoan-American member of Congress, a nationality Tucker Carlson bizarrely appropriated as an insult when he called Kamala Harris “a Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor” (she is neither Samoan nor Malaysian).

    As evidenced by Trump’s anti-DEI push (and his campaign and entire ethos), his administration is overt about the fact that it has an inherent distrust of non-white men. Some members of minority groups willing to prop up his regime will always be allowed in, but they are conspicuously few.

    Gabbard, a woman of color, is already suspect. The endangerment of her nomination is unlikely to prompt the right-wing, manosphere war cry Hegseth’s did.

    If Senate Republicans vote her down, it’ll be less about her Russian mole-ishness, and more because a movement of and for white men won’t go to bat for one not of its own.

    Link

  83. says

    About the commutations, not full pardons, Trump gave to Oath Keepers:

    […] The judge in the case, District Judge Amit Mehta, emphasized that Trump had failed to commute the supervised release sentences in a Friday morning order: he barred Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers from going to D.C. or the U.S. Capitol.

    In walked Ed Martin, the interim acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. and a former Missouri political operative. Hours after Mehta’s order came down, Martin steamed into court with a motion framed more as a directive to the court than the typical, lawyerly request. The content was less of a surprise than the style: he backed the Oath Keepers.

    Same link as in comment 81.

    From the referred link:

    […] Trump’s handpicked acting D.C. U.S. Attorney insisted Friday afternoon that a federal judge should rescind his own order from Friday morning barring recently released Oath Keepers from going to D.C. and, specifically, the U.S. Capitol.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, a Missouri political operative, three time-failed candidate and activist on behalf of Jan. 6 defendants who Trump appointed to the office this week, raced to file a tersely worded motion […]

    In asking U.S. District Judge Ahmit Mehta for the District of Columbia to rescind his order, Martin said that President Trump’s commutation of the sentences of the Oath Keepers found guilty of seditious conspiracy covered all aspects of their sentences and left the judge with no power to impose restrictions on their release.

    No Assistant U.S. attorney, the line prosecutors who handle criminal cases, signed onto the incredibly unusual order.

    In an even larger break, Martin blasted out a statement to reporters accompanying the filing that seemed to threaten Trump critics.

    “If a judge decided that Jim Biden, General Mark Milley, or another individual were forbidden to visit America’s capital—even after receiving a last-minute, preemptive pardon from the former President—I believe most Americans would object. The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted – period, end of sentence,” Martin said in the statement.

    TPM reported earlier on Friday that Oath Keeper attorneys were either confused about or skeptical of whether the Trump commutations applied to the terms of supervised release that their clients had received. For Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, those conditions stated that he cannot consume extremist media or speak with members of extremist groups, presenting possible impediments to any plans he might have to jump back into his now-largely-degraded organization.

    Nine Oath Keepers and five Proud Boys members received commutations, while all other January 6 defendants received pardons. Trump’s commutation order only covered the “sentence,” and, unlike other commutations that explicitly limit terms of probation, the 14 January 6 defendants’ commutations do not specify anything else.

    This led to consternation among Oath Keeper lawyers, with some suggesting that whoever drafted the commutations for Trump may have made an error. [duh]

    Error or not, Martin is effectively asking Mehta to do what the commutation does not: remove the last remnants of federal criminal oversight from the Oath Keepers, allowing them to run free and potentially reconstitute their organization. […]

    The commutation itself does not say that it affects terms of supervised release; legal experts told TPM that such orders have to specify what they do into order to enter into legal force.

  84. says

    Debunking more of Trump’s annoying, ignorant and stupid lies:

    “They wanted to restrict you to 38 gallons of water a day. That sounds like a lot, but it’s not — when you’re a rich person and you like to take a shower, 38 gallons doesn’t last very long. And they have all this water and it’s really good water … and they are restricting it … and it’s to protect the Delta smelt — it’s a fish that’s doing poorly anyway.”

    That’s President Donald Trump talking about supposed water restriction in Beverly Hills, California this week while addressing the devastating Los Angeles fires.

    Someone rich please let me know how much water you need to shower. Those of us who are not want to know how different it is and live vicariously through you. My inbox is open.

    Also some quick fact checking: It’s unclear why Trump hates the Delta smelt so much (he did call them “worthless” not too long ago … very RUDE!) but the almost extinct fish has barely anything to do with the city’s water supply and the fires.

    Additionally, Beverly Hills does not restrict or limit indoor water use by residents, it does not restrict how many gallons a household can use or how long/how many times a day someone can shower. Beverly Hills only limits residents’ outdoor watering, keeping it to a maximum of two days a week. That’s a limit that was put in place in an effort to conserve water to help deal with challenges when California is experiencing droughts.

    But this is not the first time Trump has claimed people are only allowed to use a set number of gallons of water a day in Beverly Hills.

    Last year, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump claimed, “They’re notifying people in Beverly Hills, you can only use 40 gallons of water. They don’t have water … And it’s true: in Beverly Hills, you pay a fortune in taxes, they say you can only brush your teeth once a day.”

    This was also incorrect. He was likely referring to a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 setting a statewide standard of 42 gallons per person per day of residential indoor water use starting in 2030.

    But despite what Trump is claiming, that statewide standard would apply to the entities that supply water to residents, not to residents themselves. Meaning, the law won’t force people to spend less time brushing their teeth or showering, but rather water suppliers will have to take steps to meet the standards by doing a better job fixing leaks and offering incentives for residents to use more efficient devices.

    Same link as in comment 81

  85. larpar says

    Rich people do take longer showers. It’s not because they are dirtier, but because they feel dirtier. /s

  86. says

    Hegseth confirmed as Trump’s defense secretary in tie-breaking vote, by Associated Press.

    The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s defense secretary Friday in a dramatic late-night vote, swatting back questions about his qualifications to lead the Pentagon amid allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women.

    Rarely has a Cabinet nominee faced such wide-ranging concerns about his experience and behavior as Hegseth, particularly for such a high-profile role atop the U.S. military. But the Republican-led Senate was determined to confirm Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran who has vowed to bring a “warrior culture” to the Pentagon […]

    Vice President JD Vance was on hand to cast a tie-breaking vote, unusual in the Senate for Cabinet nominees, who typically win wider support. […]

    “Gone will be the days of woke distractions,” Thune [Senate Majority Leader John Thune] said, referring to the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives being slashed across the federal government. “The Pentagon’s focus will be on war fighting.”

    The Senate’s ability to confirm Hegseth despite a grave series of allegations against him will provide a measure of Trump’s political power and ability to get what he wants from the GOP-led Congress, and of the potency of the culture wars to fuel his agenda at the White House.

    Next week senators will be facing Trump’s other outside Cabinet choices including particularly Kash Patel, a Trump ally who has published an enemies list, as the FBI director; Tulsi Gabbard as director of the office of national intelligence; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, the anti-vaccine advocate at Health and Human Services.

    […] Trump leveled criticism of Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who announced they would vote against Hegseth. And Tump raised fresh questions about Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying, “And of course Mitch is always a no vote, I guess. Is Mitch a no vote?”

    In the end all three voted against Hegseth, as tensions soared late Friday at the Capitol.

    McConnell, the former GOP leader in the Senate, had not declared his vote, but signaled skepticism in an earlier speech when he declared he would confirm nominees to senior national security roles “whose record and experience will make them immediate assets, not liabilities.” He voted against.

    It takes a simple majority to confirm Hegseth, and Republicans, with a 53-47 majority in the Senate, could only lose one more objection.

    […] Hours before the vote, Democrat after Democrat took to the Senate floor to object.

    Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during the debate there are few Trump nominees as “dangerously and woefully unqualified as Hegseth.”

    [I snipped details regarding sexual assault and domestic abuse.]

    During a fiery confirmation hearing, Hegseth dismissed allegations of wrongdoing one by one, and vowed to bring “warrior culture” to the top Pentagon post.

    Hegseth has promised not to drink on the job if confirmed. [Well that’s silly. Not believable]
    [I snipped details regarding Hegseth’s military service and his stint as a Fox News host]

    Hegseth’s comments that women should have no role in military combat drew particular concern on Capitol Hill […] “I remain concerned about the message that confirming Mr. Hegseth sends to women currently serving and those aspiring to join,” Murkowski wrote on social media. [I agree]

    Collins said that after a lengthy discussion with Hegseth, “I am not convinced that his position on women serving in combat roles has changed.” [duh]

    […] Hegseth would lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

    In exercising its advise and consent role over Trump’s nominees, the Senate is also trying to stave off his suggestion that the GOP leaders simply do away with the confirmation process altogether, and allow him to appoint his Cabinet choices when the Congress is on recess.

    Trump raised the idea of so-called “recess appointments” during a private White House meeting with Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a step many senators are trying to avoid.

  87. says

    The Trump Administration Appears to Be Holding the NIH Hostage

    Per the source, the purchasing freeze covers basically everything needed to do all that scientific work — gloves, reagents and chemicals, anything. This, the source said, “will do a lot to stop ongoing work.” Much lab work can’t just be stopped and restarted — if an ongoing experiment runs out of one need or another, it might just have to be scrapped. There could very well be exceptions, but what happens if the food used to feed model organisms like fruit flies or mice runs out? Or the liquid nitrogen needed to keep things frozen?

    Link

  88. says

    The Trump II Destruction Is Already In Full Swing

    The Trump II Destruction Continues …

    Swathes of the federal government have ground to a halt in the first week of the second Trump administration:

    Disturbing: Trump moves to close Pentagon office focused on curbing civilian deaths

    Shitty: Trump DOJ rescinds job offers in its Honors Program.

    Alarming: Health researchers are reeling as Trump administration pauses travel, communications, and meetings.

    Vindictive AF

    After yanking special security protection from his own former national security adviser, President Trump has now done the same thing to Mike Pompeo, his own former secretary of state, and Brian Hook, his former special representative for Iran. Both men have been under threat of retaliation from Iran.

    Link

    Add Tony Fauci to the list of yanked security.

  90. says

    Donald Trump’s New Tower of Grift

    “Jared Kushner’s partnership with Trump Org for a Serbian development is a fresh avenue for foreign influence.”

    […]Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was a top White House official during Trump’s first term. After exiting the White House in 2021, Kushner launched a new private equity firm, Affinity Partners, and announced he was seeking to raise $7 billion. Kushner had no experience in private equity, and his most significant business experience was nearly bankrupting his family’s real estate company.

    Who would be interested in giving Kushner billions of dollars? Kushner raised $2 billion from the government of Saudi Arabia through its Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF committee that screens investments recommended rejecting Kushner’s proposal, citing “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management” and “excessive” fees.

    The committee’s recommendation, however, was overruled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), with whom Kushner formed a friendship during his time in the White House. Kushner helped MBS manage the fallout after United States intelligence agencies determined that MBS had ordered the brutal murder of the US-based journalist and Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. To date, Kushner has raised $4.6 billion, including additional funds from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. [That’s lot of cash.]

    From its inception, this arrangement was an ethical morass. Kushner is on the payroll of foreign governments and although he does not have a formal position in the second Trump administration, admitted that he still serves as an adviser to his father-in-law.

    Things just got much worse.

    Days before Trump’s inauguration, Kushner partnered with his father-in-law’s company, the Trump Organization, to develop a Trump-branded luxury hotel and apartment complex in Belgrade, Serbia. Affinity Partners is functioning as a vehicle for foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, to enrich the President of the United States.

    In an interview, Kushner insisted that this was all on the up-and-up. […]

    In October 2024, well before Trump Belgrade was announced, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to former Attorney General Merrick Garland and urged him to investigate Kushner’s “apparent ongoing efforts to sell political influence to the highest foreign bidder.” […]

    Bloomberg and Semafor were the only two major media outlets that covered Kushner’s new partnership with the Trump Organization. Foreign governments financing a major development by a company owned by the future president days before the inauguration is newsworthy. But the partnership and its potential violation of the Constitution has merited no coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, or other major outlets.

    The same outlets have covered related issues involving other politicians much differently. During the 2016 election, for example, the media extensively covered how foreign government donations to the Clinton Foundation could create a conflict for Hillary Clinton if she won the presidency.

    A Popular Information analysis found that the New York Times published 79 articles that covered or referenced foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation between January 1, 2015, and Election Day 2016. Over the same period, the Washington Post published dozens of similar articles.

    A key difference was money donated to the Clinton Foundation benefited charitable causes while the Saudi money, funneled through Kushner, benefits Trump personally. Further, the payments to the Clinton Foundation largely occurred when Clinton was not in public office. Trump’s company will be receiving money sourced from foreign governments while he is president. [Important differences.]

    Trump Tower Belgrade is not the only foreign business deal that the Trump Organization has been involved in over the last few months. In December, two new developments in Saudi Arabia were announced. […]

    In October, the Trump Organization announced a partnership with a Vietnamese real estate developer to build a $1.5 billion golf course and hotel. […]

    On January 10, the Trump Organization released an ethics statement outlining how it will seek to avoid conflicts of interest. The organization released a similar statement just before Trump took office for the first time in 2017.

    The most glaring difference between Trump’s 2017 ethics statement and his current one is how they handle foreign business deals. In 2017, the ethics statement prohibited “without exception—new foreign deals during the duration of President-Elect Trump’s Presidency,” including “any new deals with respect to the use of the ‘Trump’ brand or any trademark, trade name, or marketing intangibles associated with The Trump Organization or Donald J. Trump in any foreign jurisdictions.”

    It also prohibited transactions with “with a foreign country, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including a sovereign wealth fund, foreign government official, or member of a royal family.”

    The current ethics statement does not include any restrictions on “foreign deals.” [Important difference] Since real estate ventures like the new Trump Tower in Serbia require extensive government permitting to be completed, this could give foreign governments leverage over the president. […]

    Kushner has raised most of his money from foreign governments and now is partnering with the Trump organization on new deals.

    Since his first term, Trump has diversified his business interests, providing more options for foreign influence. Trump is the largest shareholder of a publicly traded social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social. Foreign governments seeking to curry favor with Trump could buy advertising on Truth Social or purchase stock in the company, driving up its price. Trump’s new crypto ventures, World Liberty Financial, and his meme coin, provide even more opaque ways for foreign entities to buy influence.

  91. says

    Senate confirms Noem to lead Department of Homeland Security

    The Senate on Saturday approved the nomination of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), putting her at the center of an administration focused heavily on immigration.

    The 59-34 vote to confirm Noem capped off a relatively smooth process even as other nominees face more intense scrutiny.

    Six Democrats voted with Republicans to confirm Noem: Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Andy Kim (N.J.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.).

    Noem will lead one of the most sprawling agencies in government and one of particular importance in a Trump administration determined to crack down on immigration.

    […] The nomination is a major win for Noem, a four-term congresswoman with little national security experience but who had been vocal on border issues as governor, sending the South Dakota National Guard to the southern border. She is slated to work closely with Tom Homan, who Trump tapped as his border czar. […]

  92. says

    Trump ousts more than a dozen inspectors general in late night action

    […] Trump on Friday ousted several inspectors general within government agencies overnight, shaking up federal oversight just days after returning to the White House, an administration official confirmed to NewsNation.

    Trump fired around 17 watchdogs at various agencies within the Defense Department, State Department, Energy Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and others. Those within the Pentagon, State Department and Transportation Department were notified of the termination over email, according to the Washington Post, which was the first to report on the firings.

    A spokesperson from HUD confirmed to The Hill that Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis received notice Friday that her position was terminated.

    The ouster of the independent inspectors may be in violation of the federal law as the president is required to give a 30-day notice to Congress of his intent, The Post noted.

    “It’s a widespread massacre,” one of the fired inspectors told The Post. “Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system.”

    Despite the firings, U.S. Inspector General Michael Horowitz — who works under the Department of Justice — was spared, The New York Times reported.

    The independent watchdogs at these agencies are instructed to probe various allegations including abuse of power, fraud and waste. They can serve in multiple administrations. [Correct. “Independent” is the important word here. Trump does not want independent oversight.]

    […] “Trump’s Friday night coup to overthrow legally protected independent inspectors general is an attack on transparency and accountability, essential ingredients in our democratic form of government,” Ranking Member of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a Saturday morning statement.

    “Replacing independent inspectors general with political hacks will harm every American who relies on social security, veterans’ benefits and a fair hearing at IRS on refunds and audits,” he added.

  93. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-shuts-down-all-science-until

    “Trump Shuts Down All Science Until He Figures Out What The Hell Is Going On”
    “If you want cancer research, pay for it yourself.”

    The Trump Administration has put virtually all federally funded health science research on hold for no apparent reason this week, imposing wholesale restrictions on the National Institutes of Health, America’s top research agency, including “the abrupt cancellation of meetings such as grant review panels. Officials have also ordered a communications pause, a freeze on hiring, and an indefinite ban on travel.”

    The sudden halt to most NIH activities has “generated extensive confusion and uncertainty” throughout the agency and the wider research community, with one senior NIH employee saying “The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating.”

    […] The attack on health started Tuesday with an order mandating an immediate, indefinite pause on health agencies issuing “regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website posts” until those communications and others have been cleared by political commissars appointed to ensure that the administration is OK with them.

    On Wednesday, Science reports,

    officials halted midstream a training workshop for junior scientists, called off a workshop on adolescent learning minutes before it was to begin, and canceled meetings of two advisory councils. Panels that were scheduled to review grant proposals also received eleventh-hour word that they wouldn’t be meeting.

    In some cases, meetings were cancelled while already in progress.

    On the other hand, now those snooty elitist “health researchers” will know what it feels like to have their lives and work completely disrupted, as punishment for making people wear masks, not cough directly on complete strangers, and even take vaccines […]

    Haha, take that, cancer patients!

    […] In addition, the journal Nature reported yesterday that “the Trump team appears to have deleted entire webpages about diversity programmes and diversity-related grants from the agency’s site.”

    Similarly, the FDA has scrubbed its research guidelines that were aimed at ensuring clinical trials include people from a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Biden administration had urged researchers to enroll more women and people of color in clinical trials after it became clear that COVID hit poor and minority populations far more severely than the rest of the population. No more of THAT wokeness under the new regime.

    After all, all human bodies are the same, so any health research into anyone other than white cisgender heterosexual men is discriminatory and divisive. Especially if that research suggests that just being Black in the United States is a risk to your health. Presumably, now we will never hear another official word about Black women dying from pregnancy complications at FOUR TIMES THE RATE of white women. Happily, the ban on any mention of race in research will likely prohibit researchers from even tracking pregnancy complications and deaths by race, thereby eliminating any possible disparities.

    See? Problem solved, just like Trump said in July 2020 that we should do half as much COVID testing, which he explained would cut in half the number of cases of the deadly “Kung Flu” outbreak [video at the link]

    The pause on health science research and communication is expected to last at least until February 1, but could go longer, who knows? Nature notes that the pause on advisory committee meetings means “the NIH cannot issue research grants, temporarily freezing 80% of the agency’s $47-billion budget that funds research across the country and beyond.”

    Further, Science reports that NIH’s top travel honcho, Glenda Conroy, emailed senior officials Wednesday to let them know that there was an “immediate and indefinite” suspension of all travel to conferences, visits to other branch offices, and other professional meetings, apart from allowing NIH staff who were already away to fly home from their now-cancelled presentations. The memo warned that “Future travel requests for any reason are not authorized and should not be approved.”

    […] Splinter editor Dave Levitan reports on Bluesky that according to an insider at NIH,

    for all internal research (of which there is like $10 billion worth or so), ALL purchasing shut down as of yesterday. That means gloves, reagents, anything involved with lab work, which means a lot of that work will stop.

    Levitan also said that one rumor circulating among scientists is that the freeze will remain in place until Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, is confirmed. That’s just speculation, of course, but it’s also the sort of rumor that starts in the absence of any actual word from the administration about why they’re doing this shit.

    With funding and much research at a standstill, Sandy Chang, Yale’s former assistant dean of STEM education and a professor of laboratory medicine, told Yale Daily News, “I’m just worried that if this trend continues, that we’ll lose a whole generation of scientists.” He added that “Without NIH grants, we’re dead.”

    […] One of the most immediate effects was the suspension of the normally scheduled release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” Thursday, a particularly important publication because it included multiple updates on the avian flu epidemic that has decimated poultry flocks, driving up egg prices, and which is also causing infections in of other animals, including cattle herds.

    Oh, yes, and the virus has also killed at least a dozen domestic cats in California since late November. The cats, in several different cases, died after drinking raw milk that was infected with the H5N1 virus. Raw milk is an especially nasty vector for bird flu and other diseases, and the CDC warns against drinking the stuff, ever. In November the agency issued guidance to farmers that workers could become infected if they’re splashed while handling milk from an infected cow. Of course, that was during the woke Biden administration […]

    And yes, of course, RFK Jr. is also a big fan of raw milk, and in December invited Mark McAfee, the CEO of a California raw milk company, to please come work for him in Washington. McAfee’s products have repeatedly been recalled after being contaminated with H5N1. Kennedy will be such a great health guy for America!

    Oh, and by complete coincidence, at least two of the cats that died (and a third who was blinded and lost the use of his hind legs) drank milk from Raw Farms, a McAfee-owned brand.[…]

    Before being silenced, the CDC emphasized that there are so far no signs that the bird flu virus can be transmitted between humans, and that the risk to the public remains low. Should that change, we’re fully confident the Trump administration will do everything it can to prevent being blamed, or to even harm the economy by trying to stop the disease from spreading.

    […] Reaction among Trump supporters has been difficult to gauge, as few believe in science anyway. An unscientific, non-control grouped sample of replies to a Twitter post about the funding freeze included comments like these:

    – Show me something that was brought to market from a research grant. That actually helped. And hadn’t already been figured out. And doesn’t have a safer/easier version in nature.

    – Good. The government has no constitutional authority to fund research. Time for the gravy train to end.

    – This guy just wants the cookie jar back so he can stuff his pockets

    – Excellent! NIH has been spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on DEI grants. NIH should get back to its mission to “use scientific research to improve health, extend life, and reduce illness and disability.”

    – That’s what happens when your institution becomes corrupted.

    – No more dogs, cats or rats to torture. Good!

    – I don’t think the funding suspension needs to be brief. We have seen too many BS medical grants and gain of function research out of this agency.

    – Maybe now the market for dead baby body parts will dry up.

    – The Biopharma/medical complex brought this upon themselves.

    – Good, we don’t need any new manufactured viruses

    So in general, we do not need medical research, because it caused COVID, which was both a deadly pandemic and only a bad cold, so let’s all go drink raw milk and take the kids to a measles party.

    OMFG.

  94. says

    Female soldiers who raised the alarm about Hamas threat before Oct. 7 return to Israel

    “The Palestinian prisoners authority has released a list of the 200 prisoners expected to be handed over by Israel as part of the exchange.”

    Four female soldiers released by Hamas on Saturday have crossed into Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces said, as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal.

    Karina Ariev, Danielle Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag were accompanied by Israeli special forces on their return to Israel, where they will undergo an initial medical assessment, the IDF added.

    All four hostages are alive.

    The Palestinian prisoners authority has released a list of the 200 prisoners expected to be handed over by Israel as part of the exchange. Of the 200 prisoners set to be released, 121 were serving life sentences, and 79 were serving long sentences. The list also includes 70 prisoners who will be deported outside of Gaza and the West Bank, the authority said.

    […] As part of the truce, which saw the first people released on both sides last Sunday, Hamas will release one civilian hostage for every 30 Palestinians held in Israeli custody and one female Israeli soldier for 50 detainees heading the other way.

    As happened last week, the hostages were first transferred to Red Cross vehicles, according to an NBC News camera crew at Gaza City’s Palestine Square.

    But unlike the previous hostage handover, this one was more organized and ceremonial, with Hamas setting up a stage in Palestine Square.

    The hostages, who appeared to be wearing military uniforms, were first taken to a stage for photographs, Reuters footage showed. They were then led into Red Cross vehicles, which set off accompanied by Hamas military escorts.

    […] The four hostages Hamas released Saturday were taken captive while they were serving as surveillance soldiers stationed at the Nahal Oz military base on the border with Gaza. […]

    A fifth female soldier taken hostage, Agam Berger, 20, will remain in Gaza.

    Several of their colleagues were killed Oct. 7, 2023, but video footage of the surviving women taken during their capture has been widely circulated on social and broadcast media.

    For three months prior to Hamas’ terrorist attack, Karina Ariev, 20, had warned her family of impending war, her sister Sasha Ariev, told the Christian Broadcasting Company, days after her sister was taken.

    “They knew something, the girls who were the eyes of the country,” Sasha Ariev said, adding that her sister called her on the morning of the Hamas attack. Sasha Ariev said her sibling told her that she could hear shooting and screaming in the background and received a message from her sister telling her “the terrorists are here.”

    Footage circulated on the day Ariev was kidnapped showed her in a Jeep, her face bloodied and her hands tied together. In January last year, Hamas released a video showing that she was still alive.

    […] Daniella Gilboa’s younger sister Noam Gilboa identified her in videos that were widely circulated, recognizing her from her ponytail and pajamas.

    […] Naama Levy, 20, is one of the more recognizable of the five women because she was so clearly caught on video in Gaza on the morning of Oct. 7.

    In footage shared with NBC News, she can be seen barefoot, wearing gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt, with her hands tied behind her back and blood on her ankles. A man wearing a flak jacket and carrying a gun can be seen pulling her by her hair and pushing her into a car. There is blood on one of her arms. […]

  95. says

    Maddow blasts Trump for his dangerous public health gag order

    The first few days of Donald Trump’s second term have given Rachel Maddow a lot to cover, including the president’s approach to public health.

    “[Trump] has ordered that all information be stopped, including scientific information, to advise hospitals on how to deal with this emerging epidemic,” Maddow said.

    The Trump administration’s decision to cease all public-facing communication from federal health agencies has been widely criticized.

    “Is that popular? Is that a good idea? Is that perceived as a popular idea among the American people? Is that what you thought you were voting for?” Maddow asked. “You know what else isn’t a popular idea? Bird flu.”

    Maddow went on to point out that the price of eggs has skyrocketed as a result of the bird flu, inflating an already fraught economic situation.

    At the same time, Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has reportedly solicited a raw milk purveyor to take up a role in the Food and Drug Administration. Scientists warn against the consumption of raw milk for many reasons, least of which is that it can spread diseases like bird flu.

    “In the meantime, stop releasing any information on this bird flu thing—anything,” Maddow concluded. “Honestly, it sounds scary. Maybe if we don’t talk about it, maybe it’ll go away. And by the way, pay no attention to the price of eggs.”

    The bird flu has affected livestock across the United States, from poultry to cattle. In January, the first human death connected with the disease was recorded in Louisiana. [video at the link]

  96. birgerjohansson says

    Brit Labour government makes far-right move: opening the door for monopolies.
    So the anti-trust laws of Republican Teddy Roosevelt a hundred years ago are too left-wing for PM Keir
    Starmer.
    “Labour’s decision to muzzle regulators in the name of ‘growth’ will backfire horribly | Nicholas Shaxson | The Guardian”
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/25/labours-decision-to-muzzle-regulators-in-the-name-of-growth-will-backfire-horribly

  97. KG says

    Trump again demands to buy Greenland in ‘horrendous’ call with Danish PM

    To all appearances, Trump is serious in his demand to buy Greenland – it was not, as a lot of people have confidently pronounced (some here as well IIRC) floated as a distraction from something else. According to the article he’s threatening tariffs targeted at Denmark. Whether the EU will have Denmark’s back in that case, I don’t know: there are now five EU states with far right dominated governments (Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovakia, Austria). It’s possible part of Trump’s motivation is precisely to break up the EU.

  98. says

    KG @96, According to multiple reports, Trump’s first call to the Danish PM caused quite an internal kerfuffle in Denmark, however, the Danish PM’s response was fairly mild and diplomatic.

    If Trump keeps this up, if he continues to make threatening phone calls, I wonder if the Danish PM will drop the diplomatic-speak and find a way to create a coalition to fight Trump.

  99. says

    Josh Marshall:

    I’ve mentioned a few times that Donald Trump is giving Democrats a big, big opening by so conspicuously surrounding himself and seeking the counsel of almost all of the country’s super-billionaires. If you’re a bruised party looking to get a footing in a populist moment, having the billionaire (at least branded as such) head of the opposite party surround himself with the country’s top billionaires and basically say, “We’re Team Billinoaire” is a pretty good opening. And the American people seem to agree.

    AP has a new poll out which asked whether people think it’s a good or bad thing that the President “relies on billionaires for advice about government policy.” When I first saw the results of this poll as “good” coming in at “+12” I thought they meant “net” 12% and I thought, “eeeesh, the honeymoon phase is more intense than I thought!” But no, 12%: as in, 12% of the public think it’s a good thing. 60% think it’s not. That’s U.S. adults. The only outliers are Republicans, 20% of whom think this is a good thing. But even that is pretty feeble. To put it simply, these are terrible numbers.

    The most important thing to remember about polls is that the opinions captured in them are often less important than the salience of those numbers. Maybe Donald Trump likes linguini and 90% of Americans are against it. But who cares? No one’s going to make their vote on that basis. Salience is critical. On its own I’m not sure surrounding yourself with billionaire friends is a major voting issue. But it’s unlikely to stay on its own since we’re about to see huge shifts in fiscal policy which favor billionaires at the expense of everyone else. The biggest point is that Democrats need to make it salient. […] these numbers show there’s very fertile ground for doing so.

    One consistent challenge for Democrats over the years in populist fiscal policy is, who’s rich? The family making over $400,000 a year, $500,000, $1,000,000? A mix of the spiraling rates of wealth inequality combined with Trump’s own decisions have managed to make many of these questions quite dated. Elon Musk is currently worth $426 billion; Jeff Bezos $249 billion; Mark Zuckerberg $219 billion. If you go down the list of the two or three hundred top billionaires it’s hard to find more than a few associated with supporting Democrats and maybe half of those are the ex-wives of the guys at the top of the list. When you’re focused in on wealth at this scale, in political terms, the difference between a hundred thousand or a few hundred thousand dollars a year recedes into the background. And that is a helpful fact for a party many of whose core supporters are solidly in the middle and upper middle class if not higher.

    A few other data points. 29% support “DOGE”; 39% oppose it. A fairly large 20% don’t know and 12% don’t have a clear opinion. Rather strikingly, when asked which things the government isn’t spending enough money on social security (67%) and education (65%) ranked highest, with assistance to the poor (62%) and Medicare (61%) just slightly behind. Notably, just slightly further behind are Medicaid (55%) and Border Security at (51%)

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/new-poll-recommends-eating-the-billionaires

  101. says

    Washington Post link

    “Project 2025 appeared in Trump’s presidential directives”

    “A Post analysis identified at least two dozen presidential directives with some text that closely resembled the language or policy of Project 2025.”

    […] Since his inauguration Monday, President Donald Trump has signed more than 50 presidential directives, from scrubbing references to diversity, equity, and inclusion out of federal policy to pardoning those convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    Many of the directives mirrored the priorities of Project 2025, the plan for a second Trump term that was spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation and written largely by alumni of the first Trump administration. A Washington Post analysis identified more than two dozen presidential directives containing language that resembled text published in Project 2025 — that amounts to more than half his directives since taking office, excluding pardons and appointments. […]

    […] most prominent: [see below]

    1. Removing antidiscrimination protections
    Trump rescinded a landmark antidiscrimination executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 that mandated federal contractors take certain affirmative action measures to promote racial equality in the workplace. That change was also recommended in the pages of Project 2025. […]

    2. Revoking security clearances
    On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order revoking security clearances from former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton and dozens of intelligence officials who signed a letter suggesting the dissemination of information from Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 might be part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The idea of revoking those clearances was proposed almost two years ago in Project 2025, in a section describing a “crisis of confidence” in the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA. The section was written by Dustin J. Carmack, who served as the chief of staff in the DNI in Trump’s first term. […]

    3. Sex and gender policy
    In a lengthy day one executive order on sex and gender, Trump revoked President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14020, which had established a Gender Policy Council with a mission of advancing gender equity, and rescinded a lengthy list of guidance documents related to LGBTQ+ inclusion.

    Trump’s executive order is similar to the recommendation made in Project 2025 by Russell Vought […]

    4. Ending anti-misinformation efforts
    Trump’s third executive order outlined a harsh criticism of the Biden administration’s work to combat misinformation, ending such efforts and planning a report on the Biden administration’s anti-misinformation work. […]

    The language mirrored some terms from Project 2025, where Gene Hamilton, who served in the Department of Justice in the first Trump administration, argued that the U.S. government must end its “efforts to combat ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ or ‘malinformation,’ ” and that the intelligence community “should be prohibited from monitoring so-called domestic disinformation.”

    5. Withdrawing from international alliances
    On his first day in office, Trump ordered the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization, the Paris climate agreement, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD and Paris Climate withdrawals were explicitly recommended in Project 2025. And while the document did not explicitly recommend leaving WHO, it heavily criticized its behavior as “an example of the danger that international organizations pose” to America and recommended the United States “end blind support” for international organizations.

    More details at the link.

  102. says

    New Yorker Link

    “Trump Is Already Drowning Us in Outrages,” by Susan Glasser

    Excerpts:

    Exhausted yet? It’s been three full days since Donald Trump returned to the Presidency, and so far he has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate treaty and the World Health Organization; announced the unilateral cancellation of the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship; reversed an order lowering prescription-drug prices for seniors; threatened a trade war with Canada and Mexico starting February 1st and an actual war with Panama if it doesn’t hand over the Panama Canal; declared an emergency at the southern border and moved to order thousands of U.S. military personnel there; eliminated federal government programs to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion and demanded that employees snitch on anyone inside the bureaucracy who might be tempted to continue doing such work anyway; and pardoned the vast majority of the pro-Trump insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, at his behest. And that was in between sword-dancing onstage to the Village People at an inaugural ball; cashing in on the Presidency by marketing the $trump cryptocoin, currently worth billions of dollars; and getting in a pissing match with an Episcopalian bishop who dared to question him to his face.

    Eight years after the first Trump Inauguration, we know the drill. He loves to drown us in outrage. The overwhelming volume is the point—too many simultaneous scandals and the system is so overloaded that it breaks down. […] It can’t fight back. […]

    Who has time to point out that Trump also promised to end the war in Ukraine and bring down inflation on his first day back in the Oval Office? And yet drones are still firing on Kyiv and eggs are still crazy expensive.

    [Regrouping] On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s birthright-citizenship decree, calling it a “blatantly unconstitutional order,” […]

    One clear observation from his first few days back in office is that Trump remains a pugilist who sees politics as a series of battles, whether consequential or very, very stupid; he has already shown that, in Trump 2.0, as in his first term, he will seek out fights wherever he can, picking new ones as necessary to put himself at the center of the action. It’s also true that, like all bullies, Trump gravitates toward weaker targets—Panama and Canada rather than Russia and China. He punches down.

    […] If you really want to know someone, look not just at his public appearances but at what he worries about late at night and early in the morning—an impossibility with previous Presidents, but an inescapable reality with this social-media-obsessed one. On his first night back in the White House, at 12:28 a.m., Trump posted on Truth Social about his plans for “identifying and removing” more than a thousand government employees “who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.” He then specified a random group of four people he’d already ousted from various honorific government commissions and councils—the activist chef José Andrés, his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, his former chief envoy for Iran Brian Hook, and the former Democratic mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms.

    The message here was clear: Trump not only goes in for petty revenge, it’s what he dreams about when he’s all alone. On his second evening at the White House, he posted at 12:39 a.m. about the Episcopalian bishop who had confronted him at an interfaith prayer service that morning at the National Cathedral, urging him to show compassion and empathy toward those who were “scared” of his policies. In his late-night response, Trump called her “ungracious,” “nasty,” “not compelling or smart,” and “not very good at her job!”

    […] this or that anonymous source familiar with the President—always a risk in Washington, but all the more so with a man for whom a decision is never final until he’s actually announced it. On his first day back in office, Trump essentially made liars of his incoming Vice-President, Attorney General-designate, and the Speaker of the House when he announced the January 6th pardons, which turned out to cover even the most violent offenders—extremist militia leaders, thugs who beat police officers and attacked them with flagpoles. So much for J. D. Vance’s statement, days earlier, that “obviously” Trump would not include them. The President has a long history of embarrassing those who predict he won’t do something so extreme; a safer bet, looking ahead to the next four years, would be to expect that, whatever the most contentious, divisive option, he will choose it. […]

  108. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Elon Musk makes Holocaust jokes one hour after Netanyahu defends him as ‘great friend of Israel’

    His post earned reprobation from […] the Anti-Defamation League, a group that took criticism days earlier for declaring that Musk’s hand gesture was not a Nazi symbol.

    Rewinding to 2023…

    Israel’s repulsive embrace of Elon Musk is a cynical betrayal of Jews (2023-11)

    Elon Musk received a hero’s welcome from Israel’s leaders […] The same Elon Musk who recently told a far-right user […] that he spoke “the actual truth” when the poster explained why he was “deeply disinterested” in Jewish concerns over spiking antisemitism. […] The Israel visit comes just weeks after Musk […] platformed the antisemitic conspiracy theory cited by Robert Bowers, the assailant behind the deadliest massacre of American Jews in U.S. history.

    This is not the first time Benjamin Netanyahu has, for the sake of political expediency, plummeted to the depths of sycophancy regarding Musk. Visiting the United States in mid-September, at the height of the controversy surrounding his government’s plans to gut Israel’s judiciary, the prime minister visited Tesla HQ after failing to score a White House invitation. At the time, he defended Musk against allegations of antisemitism while implying that the entrepreneur was more powerful than the U.S. president.

    Those comments came during Musk’s then-nadir on trafficking in antisemitic tropes, after he participated in and amplified an antisemitic social media campaign targeting the Anti-Defamation League.

  109. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    US Justice Department drops case against Texas doctor charged with leaking transgender care data

    a Texas doctor who called himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors and was accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients who weren’t under his care […] and shared it with a conservative activist with “intent to cause malicious harm” to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, one of the nation’s largest pediatric hospitals.
    […]
    At the time, transgender care for minors was legal in Texas, but the hospital had announced in 2022 that it would stop […] A ban in Texas […] went into effect in September 2023.
    […]
    faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine

  110. lumipuna says

    KG at 96,

    To all appearances, Trump is serious in his demand to buy Greenland – it was not, as a lot of people have confidently pronounced (some here as well IIRC) floated as a distraction from something else. According to the article he’s threatening tariffs targeted at Denmark. Whether the EU will have Denmark’s back in that case, I don’t know: there are now five EU states with far right dominated governments (Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovakia, Austria). It’s possible part of Trump’s motivation is precisely to break up the EU.

    With allies like these, who needs Russia.

  112. StevoR says

    A 16-year-old boy is among a group of far-right activists arrested following a march through Adelaide’s CBD on Australia Day. The group of 16 people, believed to be a part of the National Socialist Network, will remain in custody over the weekend. The march resulted in the city’s Survival Day rally being delayed to ensure the groups did not cross paths. A 25-year-old man, from Western Australia, was charged with using a Nazi symbol and possessing an article of disguise.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-26/sa-far-right-protest-arrests-australia-day/104861510

  113. StevoR says

    Prosecutors in South Korea have indicted the impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law, the main opposition party said.

    “The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesman Han Min-soo told a press conference. “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally.”
    Yonhap news agency reported that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Mr Yoon over rebellion in connection with his December 3 decree that plunged the country into massive political turmoil.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-26/south-korea-prosecutors-indict-president-yoon/104861904

  114. StevoR says

    After the smallpox, after the shootings and terrorism, the poisoned flour, and genocides, after inspiring HG Well’s 1898 ‘War of the Worlds’ in their treatment of Australia’s First People’s, they did this : Archie Roach – Took The Children Away (Official Music Video) 5 and half mins and, yes,b my eyes are wet right now after bhearing that song. No, its not dust. Yes, people are people and yes we did that. All of it. Happy Australia raising the British flag over a colony of convict slaves and smallpox speading genociding invaders Day.

    Change the date! For Fucks Sake change the fucking date.

    There were eleven ships . That started arriving on the 18th Jan 1788. They carried vials of smallpox with them. They carried a Govenor who kidnapped young men and got speared. They founded a penal colony on lands long known before Lt Cook rocked up late and claimed what he did not have any right to claim. Our ocker history is both more intresting and far crueler than it appears.

    Sixty thousand years of Dreaming. Two hundred years of nightmares.
    – Author unknown.

    Graffiti I saw as a kid back in the 1980’s and paraphrased and updated for today. Still sticks with me. A sheltered white human of Aussie-British heritage..

  115. StevoR says

    Happy Australia raising the British flag over a colony of convict slaves and smallpox speading genociding invaders Day.

    Alkready 27h not 26th now hee buit still. Tiomezones huh..

  116. StevoR says

    Happy Australia raising the British flag over a colony of convict slaves and smallpox speading genociding invaders Day.

    Dutch got to New Holand / Beach / Van Dieman’s land much earlier natch. Starting 1606 and maybe not teen the first Europeans. Then there’s the Makassans.

  117. StevoR says

    ^ even ..

    See :

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makassan_contact_with_Australia

    The earliest history of exploration here is extremely murky and we really just don’t know..

    But ..

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janszoon_voyage_of_1605%E2%80%931606

    Plus first Europeans to live permanently (maybe briefly? Maybe longer?) on this continent were mutineers from the Batavia shipwreck and real life histroical horror story :

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship)

    Lt Cook wasn’t even the first Brit since William Dampier – inspirastion for Robinson Cruseo – landed mnay years before .. but hey, yeah, let’s celebrate, well, what exactly?

  119. StevoR says

    See also :

    Indigenous people have called Australia home for more than 60,000 years, being custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture. When the First Fleet arrived there were more than 500 Indigenous groups and about 750,000 people thriving in what we now call Australia. The colonisation of this land was done through force, displacing Indigenous communities from their ancestral homelands.

    By the 1900s, the Indigenous population was estimated to have reduced by 90%.

    In that context, it’s understandable that 26 January is not universally seen as a day of celebration within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. As an inclusive and multicultural Australia, it doesn’t seem fitting that we celebrate our nation on a date that so many mourn.

    26 January has been celebrated in varying forms throughout our colonised history but it wasn’t until 1994 that it became a national public holiday. Indigenous groups have been protesting the date for over 90 years. In 1888 when Henry Parkes – the premier of NSW at the time – was asked if there was anything planned for Aboriginal people on Australia Day he said: “And remind them that we have robbed them?”

    Source : https://www.australianethical.com.au/blog/australia-day-why-we-need-to-change-the-date/

  121. JM says

    Reuters: Trump says he may consider rejoining World Health Organization

    President Donald Trump said on Saturday he may consider rejoining the World Health Organization, days after ordering a U.S. exit from the global health agency over what he described as a mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
    “Maybe we would consider doing it again, I don’t know. Maybe we would. They would have to clean it up,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas.

    Trump is flip flopping but making demands at the same time. This will probably happen multiple times during the next 4 years, where Trump does something and then considers reversing course but only for concessions or as a negotiating point.
    Two additional points of importance. First, Trump doesn’t understand that one reason the US gives a lot to organizations like this is that the big donors have influence at the organizations. Trump doesn’t understand how to use subtle influence. He makes demands that he expects to be done right now, no matter if they make sense or not. Second, Trump is following basic right wing dogma. Poor nations should be putting in more because they have more medicinal problems. The poor should be punished for being poor. Ignore the point that wealthy countries with a lot of international trade and travel have a lot to gain by stopping medical problems in other countries before they spread.

  123. JM says

    CNN: CIA assesses lab leak most plausible source of Covid-19, though with low confidence

    The CIA now assesses the virus that causes Covid-19 more likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China, rather than occurring naturally, according to a statement from the agency Saturday, just days after Director John Ratcliffe took the reins.

    The agency has for years said it did not have enough information to determine which origin theory was more likely — and its new assessment is only a “low confidence” judgment. It still deems that a natural-origin scenario remains possible.

    This assessment predates Trump but his new CIA head jumped at the chance to publish it. I’m sure people will vastly overstate what this is saying. It’s saying that the CIA now holds it’s slightly more likely that it was a lab leak then natural but only slightly and natural occurrence is still reasonably likely also. The CIA still holds that Covid-19 wasn’t intentionally leaked or designed. Also, this is just the CIA, other US organizations that have looked at it still favor natural origin or don’t make a decision.

  124. says

    Nebraska went big for Trump—and that may kill its economy

    Nearly 60% of Nebraska voted for Donald Trump last November.

    There is perhaps no state more dependent on immigrants than Nebraska.

    Oops.

    This excellent NPR story highlights the challenges this Trump-loving state now faces as a result of its voters’ choices.

    “Nebraska is one of the top meat producers in the U.S. It also has one of the worst labor shortages in the country,” reporter Jasmine Garsd writes. “For every 100 jobs, there are only 39 workers, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”

    She mentions the executive director of the state’s pork producer’s association as smiling “wearily” as colleagues urge attracting more immigrants to the state to help fill positions … and yet they vote for the guy who wants to deport them all.
    [Nebraska county map showing how many voted for Trump]

    On the other hand, there remains a staunch belief that Trump won’t actually carry out his mass deportation threats. “There’s no way it can,” the pork guy says about the deportations.

    And for now, maybe he’s right. Trump seems more interested in using performative raids in Chicago and other sanctuary cities to demonize local Democratic politicians and officials who refuse to do his bidding (which they are generally permitted to do). Trump may rip a few dozen undocumented immigrants out of their new community, but he’s more interested in a raid’s propaganda value than he is in its results.

    If he really wants to deport masses of undocumented immigrants, there’s an obvious place to start: red states. Many Republican governors have offered to help. Take Nebraska.

    “I am encouraged by the strength of President Trump’s immigration and border security orders,” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement this past Tuesday. “The state of Nebraska will support these efforts. On my return to Lincoln this week, I will issue an executive order to all state agencies directing them to cooperate to the full extent of the law with federal efforts to enforce our immigration laws and affirmatively support the apprehension of criminal aliens.”

    The NPR story quotes a lovely parishioner at an Episcopalian church who is working to serve and protect the state’s immigrant community: “I think there’s still enough in our Nebraska DNA that we do depend on each other. We come from storms, weather incidents, where you depend on your neighbors and you go dig somebody out of a snowstorm. Even if you don’t really like them, you go dig them out because it’s what you do. Because we’re Nebraska.”

    That parishioner says people in the state “understand the economic necessity of [immigrant labor], and we are not stupid.” […]

  125. says

    Followup to comments 91 and 104.

    From The Daily Mail:

    […] Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system,’ one of the unnamed fired agents told the Washington Post.

    But soon after Hannibal ‘Mike’ Ware, Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, challenged the decision in a thinly-veiled threating letter.

    Addressed to Sergio Gor, Head of the Presidential Personnel Office, Ware, wrote: ‘I am writing in response to your email sent to me and other Inspectors General earlier this evening wherein you informed each of us that ‘due to changing priorities, your position as Inspector General . . . is terminated, effective immediately.

    ‘As Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), I recommend that you reach out to White House Counsel to discuss your intended course of action.

    ‘At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed Inspectors General.’

    The January 24 document further cites the 2022 amendments to the Inspector General Act of 1978 – which state that the president must notify Congress 30 days prior to removing IGs.

    The Inspectors General are resisting. Their point is that Trump’s firings are not legal.

  126. says

    Alexander Burns of POLITICO interviewed Ontario, Canada’s premier Doug Ford, who says that he will fight fire with fire with the tacky shoe salesman on the issue of tariffs.

    Ford has threatened to cut power transmission to U.S. homes and businesses and banish U.S. liquor from Ontario shelves. Wearing a MAGA-like hat reading “Canada Is Not For Sale,” Ford has pledged to target red states with dollar-for-dollar retaliation. In an interview Wednesday, he described himself matter-of-factly as a brawler with a reflex for combat. […]

    It is not difficult to imagine Ford, a 60-year-old smiling bulldozer of a man, enjoying the buffet at Mar-a-Lago or taking in a UFC match at Trump’s side. A right-of-center businessman-politician with a loyal working-class base, Ford has drawn casual comparisons with Trump for years. In our conversation, Ford cast his own blue-collar, anti-elite coalition as a precursor to Trump’s: “We have something up here called Ford Nation — well before Trump Nation.”

    In another life, or maybe a few weeks from now, they might be friends and allies.

    And that is what makes Ford important in this moment. For all his apparent kinship with Trump, he is pursuing not appeasement but confrontation. It is a revealing choice and the world should take note.

    Link

  127. says

    Mississippi bill would pay bounty hunters to catch undocumented immigrants

    A Mississippi district attorney proposed new legislation Wednesday to pay bounty hunters a reward for helping to deport immigrants in the country illegally.

    DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton announced his support for House Bill 1484, authored by state Rep. Justin Keen (R), which would create the Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program.

    […] “President Trump’s administration has made it clear that deporting illegal immigrants is a priority, and we are proud to do our part here in Mississippi to help support his agenda and protect our citizens.”

    Keen and Barton suggested offering a $1,000 reward to registered bounty hunters for each successful deportation they help facilitate, which would be funded by the general assembly and administered by the state treasurer, according to a press release from his office. […]

    What could go wrong?

  128. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/nine-out-of-10-premiers-adopt-corey

    Followup of sorts to comment 125.

    Hey guys, you ever see that really old movie The Matrix? You surely remember the part where Joey Pants meets online with the fearsome Agent Smith to make a deal to betray his people mainly because he likes the taste of simulated steak better than the slop that serves as supper in a dystopian wasteland run by AI.

    Canada now finds itself in a similar situation as the crew of the good ship Nebuchadnezzar, where the capacity to strike back against a high-stakes threat is undermined by a scheming backstabber. Someone who also happens to really like a good steak.

    Cow flesh is one of the province of Alberta’s main exports, and Premier Danielle Smith is currently beefing with her fellow premiers over what to do exactly about the mad king to the south who is yammering about slapping 25 percent tariffs on imports from America’s largest trading partner. Or maybe just 10 percent. Who knows? Certainly not him!

    Smith, the leader of the chaotic, MAGA-adjacent United Conservative Party, has refused to sign a joint statement with (still) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other nine provincial premiers promising to keep all economic cards on the table for potential retaliation. And she has a big ace up her sleeve by being in charge of the place where we keep our oil.

    […] Not that an unwanted trade war erupted as promised on Day One, surely the most depressing Blue Monday of all time. Turns out it’s a bit more complicated than simply pressing a “tariffs” button like the one used to summon Diet Cokes to the Oval Office, the reinstallation of which reportedly WAS a pressing priority for his transition team.

    The last time the Very Stable Genius pulled this shit was when it “only” applied to Canadian steel and aluminum products rather than pretty much everything, which would involve Crom only knows how many different levels of government and regulatory bodies to enforce, and he instead offered a variation on the standard empty promise of “in two weeks” you may recall from the first round with this dumb motherfucker.

    “I think we’ll do it February 1,” he told reporters at a press conference following the first and hopefully last presidential inauguration ceremony to feature Sieg Heil salutes and Snoop.

    Former deputy PM Chrystia Freeland, one of two front-runners for her old boss’s job, laid out a compelling case for Canadian unity in a fiery op-ed in the Toronto Star, the country’s largest remaining newspaper. It’s worth quoting at length, not least because it’s being kept behind a paywall during a national crisis. Not that Zuckerberg allows Canadians to share news stories on Facebook anymore even if it wasn’t. Including this one.

    While it may be tempting to turn the other cheek, we must take President Trump at his word. Hope is not a strategy and capitulation is not an option.

    Now is the time for us to be strong, united and smart.

    Being strong means being clear with our American neighbours: we love our country just as much as you love yours. If you hit us, we will hit back. We will not escalate, but we will never back down.

    Being united means recognizing that our differences pale in comparison to our love for our country. We must urgently build a true Team Canada response, uniting every province and territory; business and labour; and Canadians from every walk of life. This is not a time for partisan agendas.

    Being smart means retaliating where it hurts. If President Trump imposes 25 per cent tariffs, our counterpunch must be dollar-for-dollar — and it must be precisely and painfully targeted.

    Florida orange growers, Michigan dishwasher manufacturers and Wisconsin dairy farmers: brace yourselves. Canada is America’s largest export market — bigger than China, Japan, the U.K., and France combined. If pushed, our response will be the single largest trade blow the U.S. economy has ever endured.

    Smith made the trek to DC for the big day but the preening petrostate preem hilariously got left out in the cold after she wasn’t deemed important enough to join groveling billionaires, Wayne Gretzky, sundry sycophants, Secret Service, and SS stans after the shameful event was moved inside at the last minute due to cold temperatures most Canadians would shrug at. […]

    Not that it was the childless dog lady’s first visit to the MAGAverse this month; Smith also joined “Shark Tank” blowhard Kevin O’Leary in Palm Beach to ostensibly pitch the importance of unimpeded bilateral trade relations. There’s no record of the chat — not unlike the time the president had a performance review with Putin in Helsinki back in 2018 and the translator’s notes were destroyed — so we’ll have to give her the benefit of the doubt she didn’t promise him Alberta oil wouldn’t be banned for export or subject to levies as part of a domestic response […]

    Here’s O’Vichy describing the meeting on Instagram:

    I just got back from Mar-a-Lago, where Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and I sat down with Donald Trump. We tackled tariffs, pipelines, and why a strong Canada-U.S. partnership matters now more than ever.

    I told Trump straight: the Trudeau policies have been a disaster, but Canada isn’t done. Alberta has massive potential, and Danielle is leading the charge to bring capital back.

    But if it turns out she also, say, […] threw other industries such as wheat (worth roughly $2.3 billion a year at last count) or beef ($1.9 billion) under the bus while protecting her oilpatch pals, it could likely spell the end of her troubled tenure as the boss of Alberta.

    A majority of voters might finally clue in that, as the host of an early aughts reality show might say, Danielle Smith is the weakest link.

    Or even an actual Agent Smith.

  129. says

    I know that we have noted this trend before, but I see that it is accelerating.

    Social media users flock to Bluesky as Musk makes X a hellsite

    […] Bluesky now boasts more than 29 million users, exploding to more than three times the 9 million users recorded in September 2024. At the start of 2024, Bluesky had just under 3 million users, according to PC Magazine.

    Bluesky’s growth can be connected to Elon Musk, whose far-right politics have permeated his social media platform, and Bluesky competitor, X.

    A poll by the science journal Nature revealed that an overwhelming majority of its readers (70%) switched from X to Bluesky. While the results are not representative of the entire online science community, they certainly fall in line with other studies that have found that science researchers are leaving—and preferring—Bluesky.

    Similarly, an exodus of journalists and others have been making the switch from X to Bluesky over the past few months, in search of a digital forum that isn’t saturated by right-wing extremism, misinformation, and (so many) garbage ads.

    Subreddits have begun banning direct links to X, and according to WIRED, mega popstar Taylor Swift’s fans—dubbed “Swifites—have also moved away from X, citing Musk’s grotesque rhetoric.

    Meanwhile, X has lost an estimated 80% of its value since Musk bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022. Every move Musk has made since the purchase—firing three-quarters of the workforce, monetizing the blue-check verification system, allowing hate speech and misinformation to run rampant, and offering up an ethically dubious image generator—has only devalued it even further.

    Since Musk’s purchase of X, users have continued to flee—and at a significantly increasing rate after Musk officially threw his support behind Donald Trump and took over the @America handle on X one month before the presidential election.

    While X boasts more than 500 millions users worldwide, that number is suspect to researchers who question Musk’s definition of “active users.”

    According to the Bluesky user count, the social media platform gains approximately 3 users every second. Perhaps it won’t be too long now until it overtakes X.

  130. says

    Trump places tariffs, travel ban on Colombia after not accepting deportation flights

    […] Trump said Sunday he is placing tariffs, a travel ban and other measures after the government rejected two planes carrying migrants, and the country’s president said he would prohibit U.S. deportation flights entry.

    “I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

    Trump added that the Colombian president’s “denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States,” and that, therefore, he had “directed my Administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures,” including U.S.-bound goods facing tariffs of 25 percent and the prohibition of travel “on the Colombian Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters.”

    “These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!” Trump said.

    […] “The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” the Colombian president said on X earlier Sunday. “I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory.” […]

  131. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    US DOJ halts all ongoing and future civil rights litigation

    Notable settlements affected by the freeze were the DOJ’s agreements with the cities of Minneapolis and Louisville, which only awaited judge approval before taking effect. The division’s investigations found civil rights abuses by Minneapolis police following the police killing of George Floyd and abuses by Louisville police following the police killing of Breonna Taylor.
    […]
    Trump’s nomination for the head of the Civil Rights Division is Harmeet Dhillon, a nationally renowned attorney who has not yet been confirmed by the US Senate. She has become a national figure by taking on controversial legal cases in California, such as challenging public schools’ handling of gender identity issues, social media companies’ exclusive platforming of certain speech, 2020 coronavirus restrictions on in-person worship services, and mandatory corporate diversity programs.

  132. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/bet-you-could-use-some-nice-climate

    “Bet You Could Use Some Nice Climate ‘N’ Energy Things Today, Huh?”

    “The terrible stuff is still out there. But don’t forget to recharge.”

    Well, that was Week One of 208 in the second Trump administration, and we are both worn out and recommitted to getting through this mess, and to helping our readers face it too. With that in mind, we’re going to make a point of occasionally bringing you some reminders that there are still good people out there making good news, even while the established constitutional order in the USA is starting to look more and more like a dirty sock that the dingoes got to. (A purely speculative simile, I should add. If dingoes turn out to be very loving, diligent custodians of laundry, we will of course retract.)

    […] It’s Our World, So We Have To Care For It

    Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled earlier this month that the country’s coastal marine ecosystems have actual rights for protection and restoration. (Ecowatch)

    A women-driven effort to plant trees in Uganda is making progress in reforesting areas that have been hit hard by climate change. Planting indigenous trees like ficus and Dracaena afromontana provides shade and help reduce erosion, and then there’s the whole women’s economic empowerment thing, too. (Mongabay)

    Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers successfully rescued some 30 sea turtles that were stunned by the recent freezing temperatures and snow along the Gulf Coast. Another 40 turtles in Volusia County are also being rehabilitated at a Marine Science Center. Once they recover, they’ll be returned to the wild. (WESH-TV)

    This is one of those decidedly mixed Nice Time stories: The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is creating the world’s largest reserve for tropical forest, protecting an area of the Congo River basin the size of France that serves as one of the world’s biggest carbon sinks. It hopes to create green jobs and clean energy development, as well as to stop trafficking of natural resources. Unfortunately, part of the reserve in the eastern part of the country is where rebels aligned with neighboring Rwanda have been fighting against the government for decades; rebels are now about to capture the major city of Goma, and that’s all looking horrible. (World Economic Forum / AP)

    Sometimes people save themselves by saving their own parts of the planet. Read this cool redemption story about Juan Guillermo Garcés, 74, a man in Colombia who as a teenager nearly died when he was burning a section of jungle to create cattle pasture on his family’s ranch. He went on to found a nature preserve that’s protecting biodiversity in an area where more than 100 new species have been identified. About 80 percent of the reserve is reclaimed farmland that has been allowed, over decades, to return to jungle. (Guardian)

    Clean Energy Too!

    This is a big one: In 2024, solar generated more of the EU’s electricity (11 percent) than coal (down to just 10 percent) for the first time ever. Gas generation fell for a fifth straight year, and total fossil fuels used for energy dropped to an all-time low, 29 percent in 2024, compared to 39 percent just five years ago. Wind also generated more of the EU’s power (17 percent) than gas (16 percent) for a second year in a row. (Elektrek)

    Also, some specifics on energy progress in various European countries! Italy is now getting not quite half of its electricity from renewables, as more hydroelectric and solar come online and coal-powered plants are decommissioned. (Il Post; in Italian with Google translation)

    Those cheese-eating nuclear show-offs in France have the rest of the Euro Zone beat when it comes to decarbonizing their grid, with nuclear and renewable energy providing 95 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2024. Nuclear and hydroelectric production both surged, and France’s nuclear plants have mostly recovered from maintenance problems that, along with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, worsened Europe’s energy crisis. France exports much of its electricity to other EU countries. (Bloomberg via Reddit [requires email signup])

    Anyone who tells you renewables can’t power growth in developing nations is probably trying to sell you fracking and a dirty refinery. Water wheels are having a moment as a new source of small-scale electricity generation in places from England to Nepal. Another excellent choice for local mini-grids, along with solar and battery storage. Hey, any bored billionaires really want to do some good? Small electric projects — and training electricians, and supporting local clean-energy entrepreneurs — all over the developing world! (Guardian)

    Hey, speaking of economic development and clean energy, a startup in Tanzania is manufacturing backpacks equipped with solar panels and batteries, plus a reading light, that lets kids in areas with no electricity study at night. The company has grown from a small demonstration project to selling 36,000 of the backpacks in Tanzania and other African countries so far. (CNN)

    Well now I have a little more optimism to recharge my own supplies. Hope you do, too!

    Embedded links to the sources are available at the main link.

  133. says

    Well this does not sound like a good idea at all: “Trump officials issue quotas to ICE officers to ramp up arrests”

    “The administration wants to increase the number of arrests from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, increasing the chances that non-criminals will be detained.”

    Washington Post link

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been directed by Trump officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, because the president has been disappointed with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far, according to four people with knowledge of the briefings.

    The quotas were outlined Saturday in a call with senior ICE officials, who were told that each of the agency’s field offices should make 75 arrests per day and managers would be held accountable for missing those targets. The four people spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal briefings.
    The orders significantly increase the chance that officers will engage in more indiscriminate enforcement tactics or face accusations of civil rights violations as they strain to meet quotas, according to current and former ICE officials.

    White House “border czar” Tom Homan has said for weeks that ICE would not conduct mass roundups and its officers would prioritize immigrants with criminal records and who are gang members. But the quotas issued this weekend would place ICE officers under more pressure to seize a wider range of potential deportees to avoid reprimand, including immigrants who have not committed crimes.

    […] ICE announced in a statement Sunday that agents “began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in Chicago,” with help from other federal agencies, including the FBI. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine C. Huffman last week revoked a directive that had essentially barred ICE from arresting immigrants in or around from sensitive areas such as schools, hospitals and churches.

    […] The agency manages a docket of 7.8 million people who potentially face deportation, but many of them have pending claims in the U.S. immigration system or a form of provisional residency status. ICE’s caseload more than doubled during Joe Biden’s presidency amid record numbers of illegal border crossings.

    ICE officers deployed aggressively during President Donald Trump’s first week in office, boosting the number of immigrants taken into custody from fewer than 400 on Tuesday to nearly 600 on Friday. The number declined to 286 on Saturday, according to ICE.

    Trump’s supporters and others have pointed out that those totals will not yield the “millions” of deportations the president has promised.

    […] Trump officials have told ICE the president expects arrest operations to proceed around-the-clock and that officers should cancel personal leave, according to the four people briefed on the directives. [oh FFS]

    ICE has about 5,500 officers nationwide working on immigration enforcement, a staffing level that has remained roughly flat for the past decade. The Trump administration took steps to supplement those numbers these week by deputizing officers and agents at the Department of Justice to investigate immigration violations and make arrests, enlisting personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

    Trump also ordered ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division to shift its focus to immigration enforcement. The agency is DHS’s investigative division for counterterrorism, drug smuggling, human trafficking cases and other crimes.

  134. says

    Israeli troops have opened fire on displaced residents in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, as crowds of people tried to return to their homes under the terms of separate ceasefire deals, one of which expired in Lebanon on Sunday, while the other, in Gaza, stalled over the status of an Israeli hostage.

    At least 22 people were killed and 124 others injured in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the Health Ministry said, after Israel confirmed it would not meet the 60-day deadline to withdraw and blamed Hezbollah and the Lebanese army for failing to comply with their own obligations under the agreement.

    In Gaza, a long-awaited return to the northern part of the territory was delayed after Israel said it would not retreat from the heavily fortified Netzarim Corridor, which divides the enclave, and allow residents to cross until another female hostage was released from captivity.

    At least one person was killed and 18 others injured when Israeli forces shot at Palestinians gathering along a coastal road less than a mile from the checkpoint, according to Mohammed Shatali, spokesman for al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza.

    The violence underscored the fragility of both agreements, which were brokered in part by the United States and sought to halt months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. […]

    Washington Post link

  135. says

    Lukashenko wins ‘sham’ election in Belarus with 87.6 percent of vote

    “This is a blatant affront to democracy. Lukashenko doesn’t have any legitimacy,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

    Longtime Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko won a “sham” presidential election on Sunday with 87.6 percent of vote, according to an official exit poll, marking his seventh term as leader of the Eastern European country.

    Four opposition candidates appeared on the ballot — but all were loyal to Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for more than 30 years.

    […] Neither the EU, the U.K. nor the U.S. recognize Lukashenko’s government as legitimate. Fraudulent presidential elections in 2020 ignited mass protests that almost led to Lukashenko’s downfall prior to a brutal crackdown to suppress protesters and opponents, backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    […] Inside Belarus, public reaction to the results was muted, a far cry from 2020, when many thousands took to the streets in protest of Lukashenko’s rule.

    Art Balenok, a Belarus activist living in Austria, attributed that to the repression so many faced in the aftermath of the 2020 unrest.

    […] More than half a million people have fled the country since Lukashenko’s last rigged election victory.

    “If you go out and start protesting, you’ll be thrown in jail,” Balenok said. “Maybe you’ll come out one day. Maybe not.”

    […] “People feel that the costs of protest increase while the benefits of protest decrease. They don’t see that right now their votes or their actions can change anything,” Alahnovic told POLITICO on Sunday. “Lukashenko and his forces, they can kill people, they can arrest people, they can close businesses of people who are disloyal and everything else.”

    […] The European Parliament also denounced the Belarus election as a “sham.” A resolution adopted last week called on the EU to refuse to recognize Lukashenko’s anticipated victory.

  136. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    ICC braces for swift Trump sanctions over Israeli arrest warrants

    the US House of Representatives voted earlier this month to impose sanctions on the ICC, advancing legislation that […] will soon be voted on in the Senate. […] the court’s leadership fears Trump will not wait […] issuing an executive order
    […]
    the court is planning for a “worst case scenario” […] sanctions against senior court figures would be difficult but manageable, whereas institution-wide sanctions would pose an existential threat to the court as they would block its access to services it depends on to function. […] access to banking and payment systems, IT infrastructure and insurance providers. Such measures would prevent US-based companies from conducting business or transactions with the court.

    One key concern […] the ICC’s reliance on Microsoft which has deepened in recent years […] Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform is critical to its operations and suspending access would paralyse its investigations. “We essentially store all of our evidence in the cloud,”
    […]
    Court authorities […] have ended some commercial relationships in an effort to reduce its exposure. Some staff have been advised to consider closing any US bank accounts they hold.

    Working with some of its member states, the court […] explored using legal mechanisms in the EU and UK that prevent residents and companies from complying with certain foreign sanctions regimes.
    […]
    Disrupting the ICC’s operations […] appears to be part of an explicit effort to force the court to withdraw the arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and Gallant.

  137. JM says

    @132 Lynna, OM:

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been directed by Trump officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, because the president has been disappointed with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far, according to four people with knowledge of the briefings.

    Disappointed with the results? His new policy has been in effect for days. It isn’t something that can be ramped up overnight. This the worst kind of executive thinking, political or business. He makes a declaration and expects the people to scurry to produce results. He doesn’t care if it actually works or how much damage is done as a side effect, only that there is a big statistic he can quote to show things are happening.

  138. whheydt says

    Re: CompulsoryAccount7746 @ #135…
    You don’t own (or control) anything stored or processed in “the cloud”. As for the other issues the ICC might face with regards to Microsoft…looks like a switch to Linux would be a good idea.

  140. Bekenstein Bound says

    A switch to Linux might be a good idea anyway. I’ve always worried about what would happen if a sufficiently evil and corrupt US government started leaning on Microsoft to use its access to Windoze machines to institute surveillance or worse.

    I’m seriously contemplating at the very least permanently disabling Windoze Update. I don’t know if they might have secret back doors they can use to circumvent that, though. Router-level blackholing of M$ IP ranges is sadly beyond my technical capabilities (to ensure the block was hit before any potential backdoors I’d need to do it at the router, or in some other piece of non-Windoze-powered hardware sitting between my machine and the Internet, but the only such hardware I currently have is an ISP-provided router, I don’t know if it has the capability to do that kind of thing, and obtaining any pricey new hardware right now would be a rather questionable decision for me to make, budget-wise. I’m also unsure of any way to automatically keep such a blacklist up to date, and doing it manually pretty much ensures it slipping out of date sometimes. The safest bet would seem to be Linux … but I don’t have an easy migration route that doesn’t risk data, or a plan to migrate some applications/functionality I use regularly, at this time.

    I suspect I will have to begin by disabling the updates, then hope that’s sufficient until such time as I have my ducks in a row. I’ve been meaning to eventually anyway because W10 is a steaming heap of dogshit and 11 is bound to be far worse. Now the timetable is accelerated. I just hope Lenovo hardware isn’t backdoored in some way too …

  141. whheydt says

    Re: Beckenstein Bound @ #139…
    You can get fairly inexpensive routers that run open source code. If you have admin access to your existing router, you put that in “bridge” mode (where it is a simple pass through device) and do the real router functions in your own–and owned–device.
    One easy (and inexpensive) way to get started with Linux is to get a Raspberry Pi and run RPiOS on it. That way you get reliable and well supported hardware AND a well supported OS. For general use, I’d recommend starting with a Pi5-4GB, Pi5-8GB, or Pi-500. (If you tend go excessive with open browser tags, you could consider the Pi5-16GB version.)

  142. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Bekenstein Bound @139:

    W10 is a steaming heap of dogshit and 11 is bound to be far worse.

    W10’s serviceable once you clear out the bloatware (the silly apps reinstall with updates sometimes) and replace the start menu with OpenShell, and just use the OS to run 3rd party stuff, including a browser, etc. W11 is basically a paywall to continue receiving updates with a gratuitous hardware dependency. It behaves the same as W10, barring some future update that screws it up.

    If you really want to, there are several easily-searched ways to stop Windows from attempting to fetch updates like a group policy or disabling the service that fetches. Or maybe the hosts file.

    I’m also unsure of any way to automatically keep such a blacklist up to date

    DNS not IPs, if you choose to stop network traffic. And with DNS you’d only need to have a list circa your final update, because you wouldn’t get any further updates that might inform your OS of new locations.

    Regarding routers: you can connect all your stuff to a router of your own and hook that to your ISP’s black box. The inner router will mostly transparently relay traffic and provide you with a choke point under your control. That arrangement only slightly complicates port forwarding (relaying connections from the internet via the ISP black box to the inner router to a particular PC), which I doubt you’re doing. No bridging necessary. Routers tend to have simplistic web interfaces to configure them. Their stock blocking features may be limited. If you want to get fancy, OpenWrt can be installed on some routers.

  143. birgerjohansson says

    I heard something about tuberculosis in Kansas. Is this confirmed, or is this a rumor that is spreading as national health agencies have been muzzled?

  145. says

    CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @138:

    […] At the end of this All Hands meeting, the unit commander called me aside and said he would no longer be endorsing my application to the [Top Gun program]. He smiled as he spoke to me and then rationalized this decision because “women won’t ever be in combat again” and I “should not be taking a male Naval Aviator’s place”. […]

    That is so alarming! It’s clear that some MAGA people who are in leadership roles in the military are taking Trump’s anti-DEI pronouncements as a license to act in bigoted and/or misogynistic ways.

    Quoted text is from a report to which Sky Captain linked in comment 138.

  146. says

    JM @136: “He doesn’t care if it actually works or how much damage is done as a side effect, only that there is a big statistic he can quote to show things are happening.”

    All too true.

    I am reminded of the reports we saw earlier in the war that Russia launched against Ukraine. Putin’s lackeys were more or less forced to lie to him about meeting unrealistic goals. I wonder how long it will be before Trump’s lackeys start lying to him? Maybe they are already. Border Czar Homan, for example.

  147. says

    […] a new national poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research touched on an issue that generally isn’t included in surveys. From the AP’s report on the poll, which was conducted with 1,147 adults between Jan. 9 and Jan. 13:

    U.S. adults broadly think it’s a bad thing if the president relies on billionaires for advice about government policy, according to the poll. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say this would be a “very” or “somewhat” bad thing, while only about 1 in 10 call it a very or somewhat good thing, and about 3 in 10 are neutral.

    […] As is often the case in such surveys, there was a partisan gap, but in this instance, the gap wasn’t that great: 8% of Democratic voters said it’s good for the president to rely on billionaires, and 20% of GOP voters came to the same conclusion.

    […] [Moreover] Trump is giving jobs to billionaires, offices to billionaires, perks to billionaires, and his choice to lead the Treasury Department is even prioritizing tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Among the most jarring sights at the Republican’s presidential inauguration last week was seeing Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — respectively, the planet’s three wealthiest individuals — receiving prime seats at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.

    If the newly inaugurated president was hoping that viewers at home were impressed, he might need to readjust his expectations […]

    Link

  148. says

    […] Trump attended a national prayer service in Washington, where he sat and listened to the bishop of the local Episcopal Diocese. […] The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde spoke truth to power, urging the newly inaugurated president to reconsider his attacks on marginalized communities.

    Trump reacted furiously […] House Speaker Mike Johnson and the new White House press secretary condemned the bishop’s sermon, and Fox News personalities repeatedly lashed out at Budde on the air. One GOP lawmaker went so far as to introduce a congressional resolution to formally condemn her remarks — and it quickly picked up 20 Republican co-sponsors.

    It served as a timely reminder that too often in GOP circles, religion is treated as something that must be celebrated, protected and respected — just so long as the faith community is telling the party what it wants to hear.

    In fact, the first week of the Trump era ended on a similar note to the way in which it began. JD Vance sat down with CBS’s Margaret Brennan for his first on-air interview as vice president, and the “Face the Nation” host reminded her guest that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last week condemned some of Trump’s executive orders, most notably the administration’s new policy on allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to enter houses of worship.

    “Do you personally support the idea of conducting a raid or enforcement action in a church service, at a school?” the host asked. The Ohio Republican, who is himself a Roman Catholic, replied:

    Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime [blatant reframing!], whether they’re an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. That’s not unique to immigration. But let me just address this particular issue, Margaret. Because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement. And I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?

    So, a few things.

    Right off the bat, it was curious to hear Vance say that officials have a responsibility to “get” those convicted of violent crimes “to protect the public safety.” Trump’s pardons for violent Jan. 6 felons suggest the Republican White House has already rejected the vice president’s assertion.

    What’s more, it’s unusual, to put it mildly, to see a prominent American political leader use such pointed language in reference to Catholic leaders. “Are they actually worried about their bottom line?” is the kind of question that, I suspect, will not be well received by the USCCB.

    But let’s also not brush past the larger context. In recent years, in instances in which the Biden administration disagreed with the Roman Catholic Church, Trump and other Republicans were quick to accuse the former Democratic president of being “against God,” “against the Bible” and “essentially against religion.” At the Republican National Convention, one speaker condemned Biden — by all accounts, a devout Catholic — as a “Catholic in name only.”

    What are the chances Republicans will hear similar talk after a week in which party leaders launched a hysterical offensive against Budde and publicly questioned whether Catholic bishops are principally concerned with “their bottom line”?

  149. says

    As international incidents go, the mess between the United States and Colombia seemed easily avoided. Colombian officials said their country would accept planes of migrants who tried to enter the United States illegally, but they objected to military jets landing on Colombian soil.

    With this in mind, Colombia did, in fact, turn away deportation flights, prompting a rather hysterical response from Donald Trump, who announced “emergency” tariffs and a diplomatic response that the Republican president described as “a Travel Ban and immediate Visa Revocations on the Colombian Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters.”

    But just as Americans started facing the prospect of more expensive coffee and cut flowers, among other products, the two countries came to an apparent agreement. NBC News reported:

    The White House said Sunday that Colombia has agreed to all of President Donald Trump’s terms after Trump threatened to impose sweeping retaliatory measures against it, including tariffs and visa sanctions, after it denied entry to two U.S. military deportation flights.

    Of course, the fact that the U.S. administration appears to be getting the outcome it wanted makes it far more likely that Trump will use similar tactics with other countries going forward.

    But stepping back, it’s hard not to notice that this was hardly the only international incident Trump created in the first week of his second term.

    Trump’s comments about wanting to “clean out“ Gaza and relocate Palestinians to other countries have reportedly “astonished moderate Arab leaders who had been looking forward to working with him.”

    His comments blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion will likely do little to end the war.

    Trump’s ambitions about acquiring Greenland have led him to make increasingly provocative comments directed at officials in Denmark — a NATO ally. “I think we’re going to have it,” the president said over the weekend, referring to taking control of Greenland. He added, “I don’t know really what claim Denmark has to it. But it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen.”

    The Trump administration’s foreign-aid freeze is affecting international programs “aimed at alleviating hunger, disease and wartime suffering around the globe, as well as ones that help nations with economic development.”

    Panama submitted a formal letter to the United Nations last week, rejecting the Republican’s comments about reclaiming the Panama Canal.

    The German ambassador to the United States last week reportedly wrote a diplomatic report warning that Trump’s return to power will pose new threats to American democracy and our constitutional system.

    And in case that weren’t quite enough, Trump also had some comments last week about the international BRICS coalition, which he occasionally pretends to understand. “They’re a BRICS nation, Spain,” the president told reporters. “You know what a BRICS nation is? You’ll figure it out.”

    Spain is not, in reality, a part of BRICS — and Spanish officials did notice Trump’s screw-up.

    At this pace, the new American president should be able to alienate just about every other country on the planet by, say, mid-summer.

    Link

  150. says

    Followup to comment 148.

    Mexico denied a U.S. military plane access to land Thursday, at least temporarily frustrating the Trump administration’s plans to deport immigrants to the country, according to two U.S. defense officials and a third person familiar with the situation.

    Two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s, carrying about 80 people apiece, flew deportees out of the U.S. Thursday night, the sources said. The third flight, slotted for Mexico, never took off.

    […] tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, neighbors and longtime allies, have risen since […] Trump won the November election. Trump has threatened to slap 25% across-the-board tariffs on Mexico in retaliation for migrants crossing the border the countries share. But he has not yet put them in effect.

    A White House official said in a text message that “the flights thing was an administrative issue and was quickly rectified.”

    After the publication of this article, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted, “Yesterday, Mexico accepted a record 4 deportation flights in 1 day!”

    A White House official did not clarify whether they were military, commercial or private flights.

    A Department of Homeland Security official later told NBC News that the four deportation flights accepted by Mexico on Thursday were run by Ice Air Operations and were government-chartered flights, not military aircraft.

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has said it opposes Trump taking “unilateral” action to implement restrictive immigration standards — including the reinstatement of a “remain in Mexico” policy that forces migrants to stay in that country while they await adjudication of asylum claims. Flying deportees into a foreign country requires the cooperation of that nation’s government. […]

    Link

  152. KG says

    Trump’s comments about wanting to “clean out“ Gaza and relocate Palestinians to other countries have reportedly “astonished moderate Arab leaders who had been looking forward to working with him.” – Lynna, OM@148 quoting MSNBC

    Where have these “moderate Arab leaders” (n.b. most Arab leaders are dictators of one sort or another) been living for the past decade?

  153. says

    KG @151, I see your point. Does “moderate” mean “not ordering journalists to be cut up with bone saws”?

    In other news, here is an update to comments 138 and 144:

    […] Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama complained that it had been a case of “malicious compliance” and that Trump and his administration “will continue to deeply respect and elevate the Tuskegee Airmen’s legacy.” [sounds like CYA announcement meant to make Trump look better than he is]

    Recently installed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the video had been restored. The Air Force said on Sunday that content about the Tuskegee Airmen and WASPs would still be taught.

    […] Trump issued orders that nullified an executive order signed by former President Lyndon B. Johnson to oppose segregation among government contractors, and Trump has issued directives throughout the federal government to root out pro-diversity programs. Trump has even told federal employees to snitch on each other if their work involves advancing civil rights. […]

    Link

  154. says

    Trump’s move to freeze Biden-approved funding

    […] alarm over President Trump’s move to freeze funding approved in two of former President Biden’s signature laws.

    Trump issued an executive order pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

    […] Trump’s order appears to violate a law called the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which lays out limits on how much power a president has to restrict funding approved by Congress.

    Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, bashed the measure this week as “illegally impounding” critical investments, while adding “uncertainty to every company, nonprofit organization, and state and local government that has any stake in either of those laws.”

    Republicans, meanwhile, are dismissing the attacks, defending Trump’s moves as within his powers as president while also noting plans to yank back some of the funding anyway.

    “Clearly, we’re going to try to claw back funds there,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a spending cardinal, told The Hill this week. “We made that very clear, and that’s something we look at doing in budget reconciliation.”

    […] Part of the issue is that it’s not clear exactly what is included in Trump’s order. The laws fund a wide variety of matters, including tax credits for low-carbon energy projects, consumer rebates for technology to make homes more climate-friendly, grants aimed at cutting pollution, and funds for roads, bridges and electric vehicle chargers.

    The White House issued a memo Wednesday saying the pause only applies to funds “supporting programs, projects or activities that may be implicated by the policy established” in a certain section of the executive order.

    That section of the order states, among other things, that it is U.S. policy to “eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ … by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles,” and that it is policy to “safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances … and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries.”

    But it’s still murky what exactly that applies to — and whether it includes money committed by the federal government that hasn’t officially been released.

    Conclusion, nobody knows WTF is going on.

  155. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 152

    I’m sure they remove it again once the heat has died down and no one is looking… or cares to look.

  156. says

    ACTUALLY Trump Caved To Colombia. Sorry, MAGA.

    “Your coffee will remain affordable. FOR NOW.”

    For a minute there on Sunday, you might have thought that your daily grande drip coffee from Starbucks was going to start costing about 10 bucks, which you would have happily paid because you are degenerate caffeine addicts who cannot function in an even vaguely human way without your morning fix. […]

    Sorry, sorry, we don’t mean to be so harsh to you, our beloved readers. We just haven’t had our morning coffee yet. And for a minute on Sunday, we thought we were going to have to start selling our plasma or take out a second mortgage to afford a pound of that sweet, sweet nectar. […]

    We’re still sorting through exactly what happened. But as best anyone can tell, last week the United States government, under its newly installed tangerine führer, began slapping shackles on many of the undocumented migrants it is rounding up and putting on military planes and flying out of the country. This is a break with past practices. Normally, deportees are put on charter or commercial flights back to their country of origin […] It’s the minimal amount of humanity to show them.

    Needless to say, the shackles and the military flights and perhaps the pictures the Trump administration made sure to distribute of handcuffed detainees shuffling onto a C-17 like Taliban fighters being transported to Gitmo infuriated Central and South American governments. The Brazilian government filed a formal “request for clarification” over the “degrading treatment” given to detainees on a flight to Brazil:

    [T]he Brazilian government claims that the use of handcuffs and leg irons “violates the terms of the agreement with the US, which requires the dignified, respectful, and humane treatment of deportees”.

    On the plus side, the six children on the flight to Brazil reportedly were not shackled. […]

    That was Saturday. On Sunday reports emerged that the government of Colombia had refused to even let similar flights carrying shackled detainees land, as a protest against their being treated like human garbage. Seems like a fairly simple fix, right? Just don’t treat the deportees worse than you would a planeload full of cattle, and avoid a diplomatic crisis.

    Instead, Trump threw a tantrum. He released a statement on TruthSocial threatening to slap tariffs of 25 percent on any imports from Colombia. The tariffs would rise to 50 percent in a week if Colombia continued resisting. Colombian coffee accounts for somewhere around 20 percent of all coffee beans imported to America. You can see where this might cause problems of both supply and cost.

    Trump threatened to cancel diplomatic visas for members of the Colombian government and their families, as well as fully imposing “Banking and Financial Sanctions.”

    The White House also managed to misspell Colombia as “Columbia” in the accompanying press release, which, no, you idiots, America is not deporting undocumented migrants to the apparel company that makes outerwear.

    […] Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, immediately announced retaliatory tariffs of 50 percent on anything imported from America. He also absolutely roasted Trump in a long post on social media:

    You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die true to my principles, I resisted torture and I resist you. … You don’t like our freedom, okay. I don’t shake hands with White slavers. I shake hands with the White libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the Black and White farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield.

    After what we assume were some frantic calls between smarter, more diplomatic officials in both governments — it is now such a low bar on the US side — the media reported they had reached an agreement. From The New York Times:

    Colombia’s foreign ministry released a statement soon afterward that said “we have overcome the impasse with the United States government.” It said the government would accept all deportation flights and “guarantee dignified conditions” for those Colombians on board.

    Meanwhile, the White House released a statement saying that Petro had acceded to all of Trump’s demands, huge victory for America, the rest of the world is on notice, blah blah blah. Which is how the right-wing media spun it […]: [Screengrab at the link.]

    “Brought to heel.” Like dogs! [Yep, they really issued a “BROUGHT TO HEEL” statement. FFS.]

    On “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, Steve Doocy was giving Trump the full “North Korea slobbering over Kim Jong-un” treatment. [Bluesky post and video at the link.]

    We were going to say something to the effect of “Good God, man, have some dignity.” Then we remembered: Steve Doocy. (Also, we guess at least Steve Doocy understands that tariffs are a tax on the American consumer. He just thinks Americans are so racist they want to pay it.)

    Somehow, Colombia reportedly managed to accept 475 deportation flights from the United States between 2020 and 2024 — the Biden administration — without, to our knowledge, one of them blowing up into an international incident. The difference here is that the Colombian government appears to have objected to how America started treating deportees under the Trump regime, with the handcuffs and shackling. The country was still willing to accept these deportation flights, so long as the Colombian citizens on them were being treated with whatever dignity past deportees have been treated.

    Doing that, however, would conflict with the Trumpists’ eternal need to thump their chests and be the biggest bullies on the block.

    […] Trump caved to Colombia, not the other way around […] At least that’s how the South American media is reporting it. We think they are right, and when White House spokesidiot Karoline Leavitt crowed in a release Sunday night that “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again,” they are being complete morons. But they are getting the headlines and the framing they want in right-wing media and even in more mainstream outlets, and that is all they care about.

    This is how Trump often resolves issues, as we saw throughout the first term. He throws a tantrum, then caves in exchange for a minimal concession that often isn’t even a concession so much as a re-commitment to the original deal, but that he and his lickspittles can still spin as a huge victory. It’s grotesque.

    Presumably there will also be long-tail problems with this latest showdown. Other countries will not like the bullying, even though larger countries can resist it. Smaller countries in regions such as South America will grudgingly go along to avoid economic sanctions that could affect their access to the American dollar.

    But those countries will also look elsewhere for trading partners, like to China. And China will only be too happy to expand its influence in the region at the expense of the United States’s relations with those countries. This, in the long term, is bad for the United States!

    But Donald Trump got to preen in front of all his sycophants, so congrats to President Deals, we guess.

  157. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/inspectors-general-demonstrate-proper

    “Inspectors General Demonstrate Proper Method For Responding To Little Orange Tyrants”

    That Man [Trump] may have made Elon Musk, the skipping dipshit of outer space, head of the made-up Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but there are already people in government getting paid with tax dollars to rout out waste and fraud: seventy-three inspectors general, mandated by statute and confirmed by the Senate. And, in a Friday-night purge, That Man illegally tried to fire at least 15 (NBC says 18) of them via an email from Sergio Gor, the former Mar-a-Lago DJ/Matt Gaetz’s wedding officiant/Junior’s baggage-handler to Greenland who is also now the new head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.

    Welp, if you’re the manager of a bank and you plan to rob the bank, firing the security guards is step one!

    Gor’s fuck-off letters — reading “due to changing priorities, your position as inspector general … is terminated, effective immediately” — went out to inspectors general at the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration.

    Not having it: Hannibal “Mike” Ware, Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), who pointed out that this was illegal, and said how about you go fuck off yourself, clown, in a businessy kind of way.

    [B]ased upon the 2022 amendments to the Inspector General Act of 1978, the President must notify Congress 30 days prior to removal of an IG and provide “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for such removal. 5 U.S.C. § 403(b), as amended by the section 5202(a) of the Securing Inspector General Independence Act of 2022 (Title LII, Subtitle A, of P.L. 117-263, 136 Stat. 2395, 3222). The requirement to provide the substantive rationale, including detailed and case specific reasons, was added to better enable Congress to engage on and respond to a proposed removal of an Inspector General in order to protect the independence of Inspectors General.

    [Screengrab of letter is available at the link.]

    […] Not fired, Michael Horowitz at the Justice Department, an Obama appointee who found himself in That Man’s favor because he criticized James Comey, giving cover for firing Comey for being TOO MEAN to Hillary Clinton about her emails. […]

    Also not fired: Joseph V. “Joey Cuffs” Cuffari Jr. Remember him? He’s the DHS inspector general holdover from the first Trump administration, whose […] refused to investigate the Secret Service over those deleted text messages from January 6, and deleted messages from DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and acting DHS Deputy Ken “Cooch” Cuccinelli.

    Cuffari, a low-level incompetent who Trump elevated from the sticks of Tucson, had been under investigation since his confirmation in 2019 for stuff like spending $1.4 million in taxpayer funds on lawyers to investigate the dozens of staff members who complained about his misconduct; ignoring sexual harassment claims (10,000 employees out of a survey of 28,000 DHS employees reported experiencing it); and spending another of the government’s $1.1 million to settle a wrongful termination claim over his alleged attempts to influence investigations.

    President Joe Biden sure had more than enough cause to fire him, and should have, so why didn’t he? We will surely never know. Though Biden did remove the IG of the Railroad Retirement Board, Martin Dickman, and he replaced the acting IG of the Department of Commerce, Roderick Anderson, with Jill Baisinger, after Anderson was accused of whistleblower retaliation and other misconduct, both times following the law to give Congress 30 days notice. So why not Joey Cuffs? It’s a mystery.

    […] Susan Collins is concerned. “I don’t understand why one would fire individuals whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse. So this leaves a gap in what I know is a priority for President Trump.” And then she stared off into the sea. Lindsey Graham conceded that this action was technically illegal. Which is also the only kind of illegal.

    Meanwhile, Adam Schiff knows what’s up. Trump doesn’t want anybody who might bring attention to his grifty memecoins or whatever: [video at the link]

    Could Congress do something about this? They could! Will they? […]

  158. says

    […] Under-qualified loyalist dipshits were confirmed by a complicit Senate:

    Boozehound/accused sexual predator Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Secretary of Defense. (AP)

    Puppy-killer Kristi Noem confirmed as Director of Homeland Security, and John Ratcliffe, the guy who helped slow-walk reports about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and Russian interference in our elections, as head of the CIA. (The Intercept)

    [Trump] illegally fired 18 inspectors general late Friday night […]

    That Man released Biden’s hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel and said that he’d like Egypt and Jordan to take all of the Palestinians, and as for the Gaza strip, “we just clean out that whole thing.” He added, “Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location, on the sea. The best weather, you know, everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it.” Sure, the fourth season of “White Lotus” could be Jared running a resort. Dear Leader talked to King Abdullah II of Jordan and he was like, NO, and he had not even bothered to talk to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi yet when he announced this. The AP called his genocidy-sounding plan “a nontraditional view.” (AP)

    That Man said that Ukraine should not have fought back against Russia, and repeated his gripe that the US should not spend anything on NATO. (NBC/Reuters)

    Larry Ellison, upon whose Oracle Cloud storage TikTok resides, is angling hard to buy the company, even though it’s not clear that it’s for sale. Relevant, he told Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last year in a resurfaced clip that AI is going to make everybody stay in line. “Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” Man, all of our George Orwell references sure are gonna get a workout! (Business Insider archive link)

    In other crap news, Harvard has disbanded its $100 million Slavery Remembrance Program and fired all of its employees, and outsourced its work to a New England-based genealogical nonprofit. (The Harvard Crimson)

    […] Now the better news!

    McDonald’s wants you to know that even though they’ve rolled back some of their diversity trainings and external employer surveys, they’re still committed to inclusion and have rebranded its DE&I team as its “global inclusion team.” (McDonald’s Corporate)

    For the first time last year, solar provided more power than coal in Europe. (Euro News)

    Teen Vogue posted tips on how to start an ICE watch program in your neighborhood, and a downloadable organizing playbook. (Teen Vogue)

    Relentlessly brave Jackson Reffitt, son of January 6 defendant and Texas Three Percenter Guy Reffitt, talked to ABC about his efforts to get his father mental health help, and how he’s trying to keep himself safe now that the father who threatened to shoot him (and his band of criminal lunatics) are all out of prison. “This is not the world we should be living in.” (BBC) [Video at the link]

    There were massive protests in about 60 towns and cities across Germany this weekend against far-right extremism and that Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party that Elon Musk makes kissy faces at. Crowds were estimated at more than 35,000 people in Cologne and 40,000 in Berlin. (Voice of America)
    […]

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/when-it-rains-it-pours-tabs-mon-jan

    Embedded links to sources are available at the main link.

  159. says

    Tech stocks fall as China’s DeepSeek sparks U.S. worries about the AI race

    “DeepSeek released an open-source artificial intelligence model in December after saying that it took only two months and less than $6 million to create it.” Video at the link.

    Tech stocks plunged Monday morning, as fears mounted that Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek leapfrogged U.S. dominance in AI development.

    The Nasdaq Composite, which tracks the country’s largest tech firms, plunged more than 3%. The Dow fell less than points and the S&P 500 tumbled almost 2%.

    The sell-off was sparked by advances claimed by China’s DeepSeek, which released an open-source AI model in December, after saying that it took only two months and less than $6 million to create. Those claims would be far less than the hundreds of billions of dollars that American tech giants such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta and others have poured into developing their own models, fueling fears that China may be passing the U.S. in the scale and efficiency of their AI investments.

    DeepSeek’s app is now the top free app in the Apple App Store, pushing OpenAI’s ChatGPT into second place.

    Among the biggest losers in the stock market slump: chipmaker Nvidia, whose shares plummeted as much as 18%. Nvidia has been among the better performers as of late, with shares soaring more than 200% over the course of the last two years, making it one of the largest companies in the world. Nvidia’s drop would wipe more than $500 billion in market value off the company. If its shares close at these levels, it would be the biggest market value drop in U.S. stock market history, according to Bloomberg.

    Other semiconductor companies also saw major losses. Micron Technology and Arm Holdings fell 7%, while ASML slid 9%.

    Mega-cap tech firms also felt the pain, with Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet falling 4%. Meta Platforms, which is developing its own open-source AI model, fell almost 2%.

    Worries about DeepSeek’s alleged advances come despite export controls on sales of advanced semiconductors to China.

    Speaking at the World Economic Forum last week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said DeepSeek’s advances appeared to be “super impressive … and super-compute efficient.” “We should take the developments out of China very, very seriously,” Nadella added. […]

  160. says

    Defectors offer insight into mindset of North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine

    “All North Korean recruits are taught a song that includes a verse about saving their last bullet for themselves to avoid capture, one former soldier told NBC News.”

    […] Lee [Lee Chul Eun], 38, a North Korean defector and former soldier now living in South Korea, said it is “devastating” to see troops from the reclusive, communist-ruled North being sent abroad by leader Kim Jong Un, “only to then give up their youth for a land that is not even theirs but the foreign land of Russia.”

    He is one of multiple defectors who spoke to NBC News about the training, conditions and mindset of North Korean soldiers, including their willingness to take their own lives if necessary.

    Lee said his former colleagues “are essentially just sent out to be cannon fodder on the front lines.”

    For the first time since they arrived in Russia in the fall, North Korean soldiers have been captured alive by Ukrainian forces, with video and photos showing one man with bandages around his jawline and another with bandaged hands.

    […] The U.S. and allies say there are more than 11,000 North Korean troops fighting in the Russian region of Kursk […]

    […] All North Korean recruits are taught a song that includes a verse about saving their last bullet for themselves to avoid capture, said Ryu [Ryu Sung Hyu], who served in the North Korean military until 2019, when he escaped to freedom in South Korea.

    According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, there was at least one recent incident in which a North Korean soldier, faced with possible capture by Ukrainian forces, tried to detonate a grenade while shouting Kim’s name but was killed before he could succeed.

    The South Korean military said last week that North Korea is preparing to send additional troops to Russia after about 300 of its soldiers were killed and 2,700 others were injured. […]

    Kim is thought to be providing Russian President Vladimir Putin with troops and weapons in hope of receiving technical assistance with his nuclear and ballistic missile programs. […]

    Trump drew ire from South Korea on Tuesday after he described the reclusive regime as a “nuclear power,” a phrase that U.S. officials have long refrained from using, as it could signal recognition of North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

    Kim is sending troops to Russia for two reasons, “both of which are driven by desperation,” said Ahn Chan Il, who served in the North Korean military for over a decade and defected to South Korea in 1979. The first is to earn foreign currency, which is in short supply in North Korea under United Nations sanctions imposed over its weapons programs.

    The deployment also provides valuable experience for the North Korean military, which has not been deployed overseas since the Vietnam War. […]

    Lee, who spent five years in the North Korean military, said the troops had been sent to Russia as mercenaries rather than soldiers, noting that they weren’t wearing their uniforms. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has said they were given Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons, along with forged identification documents.

    “Even if they die there it does not matter, because North Korea sent them out without officially recognizing them,” Lee said. “They were sent there not to bring honor to the country, but to give up their lives and bring back lots of money.”

    Military service is compulsory in North Korea, which has one of the world’s largest standing armies. […]

    “As soldiers,” Lee said, “they are told they are individuals who are now no longer a part of the society and their families, and must follow the orders of the supreme leader,” meaning Kim.

    They have no trouble believing this, having been indoctrinated by North Korean propaganda from childhood, said Lee.

    North Korean soldiers spend most of their time not actually being soldiers but working on farms and construction projects, Lee and others said.

    “I think I only fired three bullets per year,” said Lee Hyun-seung, who served in the North Korean military for more than three years. When he moved to a more elite unit, he said, “we had more like 20 bullets.” […]

    For North Korean soldiers, who receive food and clothing but are otherwise essentially unpaid, the main enemy is hunger. [!]

    North Korea struggles with food shortages as Kim devotes the majority of resources to his weapons programs, meaning that, like most of the broader population, soldiers suffer from malnutrition and can even starve to death.

    Meals are made up mainly of plain rice, corn or potatoes, sometimes mixed with grass or even tree bark, said Lee Chun Eul.

    He said his feelings about North Korea changed gradually, largely due to his exposure to foreign media that finds its way into the country despite tight government controls […]

    The defectors say they hope the North Korean troops fighting in Russia will take the opportunity to leave like they did.

    “When North Korean workers, who have lived their entire lives trapped in a restrictive system, experience life abroad, they come to see North Korea as nothing short of a prison,” Ahn said. […]

    In addition to finding freedom, they could provide the U.S. and others with valuable intelligence regarding the North Korean military’s strategies and capabilities, which are often exaggerated by the North Korean government.

    […] they [defectors] watch with heavy hearts as casualties mount among North Korean soldiers whose experiences they know only too well.

    “These young people did not go knowing they were going to die,” Lee said, “but died because they did not know.

  161. says

    A week into Trump’s new term, Republicans are flunking Democracy 101

    “Congress’ Republican majority has a responsibility to serve as a check on Trump’s ambitions — but it doesn’t want to exercise its responsibilities.”

    Under existing law, presidents are required to give Congress no less than 30 days’ advance notice before ousting inspectors general. What’s more, according to the same law, it’s incumbent on the White House to provide lawmakers with a “substantive rationale” for removing IGs.

    Late last week, Donald Trump decided to ignore that law and fire at least a dozen inspectors general without cause. When the president engaged in similar tactics in 2020, congressional Republicans made their displeasure known.

    More than four years later, they’ve changed their minds.

    Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” and conceded that the firings appeared to be “technically” illegal, but the South Carolinian endorsed the move anyway. When Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville was asked for his reaction, the Alabaman replied, “[Trump’s] the boss.”

    Except, of course, he’s not actually the boss. While it’s true that many executive branch officials serve at his pleasure, presidents lead one of three co-equal branches of government. Checks and balances were not repealed on Election Day 2024. Neither was the rule of law.

    But for many GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the idea that Trump is “the boss” is quickly becoming ingrained.

    Unqualified Cabinet nominees? Most Republicans are going along.

    Pardons for violent felons who assaulted police? Many Republicans are toeing the party line.

    Ignoring the TikTok law? Many Republicans are shrugging with indifference.

    Ignoring the law on inspectors general? Many Republicans simply don’t care.

    Fresh corruption allegations? Many Republicans are content to look the other way.

    New attacks on Congress’ power of the purse? Many Republicans have endorsed the effort.

    An executive order rejecting the foundational element to the 14th Amendment? Some Republicans introduced legislation to give Trump a hand.

    The White House is going to outlandish lengths to ensure that the president doesn’t get any pushback from members of his own team, and given the state of the Supreme Court, there are reports that Trump is prepared to “test the limits of the law by issuing policies he knows to be unlawful,” assuming that Republican-appointed justices would side with him.

    For those looking for governmental checks on the president’s ambitions, that leaves Congress — featuring a Republican majority that doesn’t want to exercise its responsibilities.

    […] The less congressional Republicans care, the more dangerous this becomes.

    […] given the number of shrugged Republican shoulders we’ve seen over the past week, I’ll believe in the existence of GOP lawmakers’ spines when I see some evidence.

    Embedded links to additional sources are available at the main link.

  162. says

    ‘A clear danger’: World leaders react to Musk’s neo-Nazi crusade

    The world’s richest broligarch Elon Musk made a virtual appearance Saturday at a rally for Germany’s far-right extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, during which he told a crowd of 4,500 people that Germans should not feel “guilty” about the country’s recent past.

    “It’s okay to be proud to be German. This is a very important principle. It’s okay. It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” he said.

    “I only hope that this leads to people realiz[ing] what kind of person he is,” Christiane Benner, the head of Europe’s largest industrial union, told the press. “As citizens in a democracy, we have to stand up against this.

    “The remembrance and acknowledgement of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping the German society,” Dani Dayan, chairman of Israel’s official Holocaust memorial wrote on Musk’s X. “Failing to do so is an insult to the victims of Nazism and a clear danger to the democratic future of Germany.”

    “The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. “Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

    Musk, who endorsed the neo-Nazi-friendly AfD on X last month, was introduced at the rally by AfD leader Alice Weidel, who has her own set of racist-scandals to contend with. Musk also hosted an interview with Weidel on X earlier this month, and he has had an op-ed published in the Germany’s largest newspaper supporting the AfD.

    Musk’s virtual speech comes just days after making not one but two Nazi salutes during the inaugural parade for Donald Trump last week. His oversimplified whitewashing of Germany’s history is a far cry from how German-native Arnold Schwarzenegger has described the need for everyone—including Americans and Germans—to remember how the path of fascism ends.

    “You will not find fulfillment or happiness because hate burns fast and bright. It might make you feel empowered for a while but eventually consumes whatever vessel it fuels,” he said in a video address in 2023. “It breaks you. It’s the path of the weak.”

  163. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-brings-back-dangerous-global

    “Trump Brings Back Dangerous Global Gag Rule On Abortion, Doubles Down On Hyde”

    Well, we knew this one was coming. On Friday, Donald Trump reinstated the famously terrible Mexico City Policy — also known as the global gag rule on abortion — which defunds non-governmental family planning organizations (and, under Trump, all health-related NGOs, period) that provide abortions, tell people where they can get abortions, or even acknowledge the existence of abortion.

    This is being presented by conservative media as him barring the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. For instance, the headline for the news is “Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions” on the Fox News website, and “Trump Bars Taxpayer Funding for Abortion in the U.S. or Overseas” in The Tablet Catholic Newsletter. [Misinformation.]

    That’s not what this is. Unfortunately, because of the Hyde Amendment, federal funding for abortion is already illegal, both in the US and overseas. What this does is bar family planning services from providing abortions that we do not fund, or even mentioning their existence.

    […] Trump’s version of the rule — Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) —also extends to any NGO health provider, it means that access to healthcare that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with abortion will also be impacted.

    As you might imagine, this measure, which has been implemented by every Republican president since Reagan, has not worked out especially well. It also hasn’t actually prevented any abortions.

    Conversely, the Mexico City policy has historically resulted in an increase in abortions rather than a decrease, for reasons that should be completely obvious to anyone with a modicum of sense. It defunds the family planning programs that provide birth control and other forms of contraception to people in these nations, which then, obviously, increases the number of unplanned, unwanted pregnancies and therefore the number of abortions. [Abortion rates graph available at the link.]

    A 2019 study published in The Lancet concluded that the policy led to a 40 percent increase in abortion in sub-Saharan African countries. [!]

    Via Plan USA:

    The 2019 study compares contraception use, pregnancies and abortion rates in 26 sub-Saharan African countries during the reinstatement and subsequent repeal of the policy (also known as the Global Gag Rule) across three Presidential Administrations. Similar to a June 2018 report from the Center for Health and Gender Equity, the Stanford study published in The Lancet finds that when the policy is in place, there is “a rise of approximately 40% in relation to the average abortion rate,” versus when the policy is not in effect. This enormous increase in abortion rates is also mirrored by a decline in the use of contraception and an increase in unwanted pregnancies.

    […] Healthcare workers reported that there had been a stark increase in the number of back alley abortions, because (duh) contraception was harder to come by. Not great, when you consider the fact that 35 percent of maternal deaths in Kenya are caused by illegal abortions. [!]

    Of course, those who support this policy don’t actually care that it kills people or even that it results in more abortions overall. They only care that they are punishing the right people and NGOs.

    Trump’s executive order, by the way, makes a startlingly false claim:

    The first Trump Administration also extended this policy to global health assistance. A 2020 report by the United States Agency for International Development found that this life-affirming policy in no way diminished women’s health around the world.

    [Misinformation]

    Oh really? So, first of all, this report only studied the first six months. Second, despite the fact that it was very clearly written to diminish the actual negative impact of this “life-affirming policy,” it’s still fairly obvious that it caused significant harm:

    The declinations occurred in awards that span various health technical areas, including HIV/AIDS, voluntary family planning/reproductive health, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, and cross-cutting innovation activities.
    – […] USAID found that, in a few cases, the declination resulted in some impact on the delivery of healthcare, including for HIV/AIDS, voluntary family planning/reproductive health, tuberculosis, and nutrition programming.

    – Slightly more than half, or 60 percent, of the awards with declinations included funding for the provision of health care to clients. The remaining 40 percent focused on other types of health activities. While these awards offer health-related benefits to clients, they generally do not involve the direct provision of health care to such clients.

    – Of the declinations, three of the six prime awards involved health-care delivery, and each of them reported that some disruption in the provision of health care resulted from their declination.

    – Thirty-one of the 47 sub-awards that declined to agree to PLGHA involved some health-care delivery. Fewer than half of these (12 out of 31) reported a gap or disruption in the delivery of health care as a result of a declination.

    They really, really tried here and it’s still quite clear that the policy had a negative impact on the care women and others were able to receive. They even included a cute little chart showing how few NGOs were actually impacted. [Table of Health Awards available at the link.]

    The US Government Accountability Office, however, pointed out that the NGOs that declined to accept the terms of the PLGHA policy were also the largest — accounting for $102 million of the $153 million in planned funding in prime awards. Planned Parenthood International and Marie Stopes international alone accounted for $79 million of this funding. Of the 47 sub-awards that declined the terms — accounting for $51 million in funding — 32 of them had been intended to go to Africa.

    Here in the United States, Trump also doubled down on the Hyde Amendment, the policy that (already) bars taxpayer funding for abortion at home and abroad.

    To restore this longstanding policy, the Order rescinds two executive orders from President Biden that violate the Hyde Amendment:
    – Executive Order 14076 imposed a whole-of-government effort to promote and fund abortion and to politicize enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. […]

    – Executive Order 14079 recategorized abortion as “healthcare” in order to provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. This included using Medicaid funding to pay for travel costs for elective abortions.

    […] Under Trump, the Department of Defense will no longer reimburse abortion-related travel expenses and VA hospitals will no longer be allowed to provide abortions.

    […] Trump also proudly included, in this order, a list of ways he harmed and opposed access to abortion here and around the world.

    – Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, ensuring that taxpayer money is not used to fund abortion globally. [Which, again, actually increases abortion globally — Ed.]

    – Issued a rule preventing Title X taxpayer funding from subsiding the abortion industry. [I assume they meant subsidizing, but who can be sure — Ed.]

    – Cut all funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports coercive abortion and forced sterilization. [Just to be clear, that is absurd and they do not — Ed.] [Misinformation]

    – Signed legislation overturning the previous administration’s regulation that prohibited states from defunding abortion facilities as part of their family planning programs.

    – Fully enforced the separate payment requirement for abortion coverage in Obamacare exchange plans.

    – Stopped the Federal funding of fetal tissue research. [That research actually saves lives — Ed.] [Anti-science]

    – Worked to protect healthcare entities and individuals’ conscience rights, ensuring that no medical professional is forced to participate in an abortion in violation of their beliefs.

    – Issued an executive order reinforcing the requirement that all hospitals in the United States provide medical treatment or an emergency transfer for infants who are in need of emergency medical care—regardless of prematurity or disability.

    – Led a coalition of countries to sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, declaring that there is no international right to abortion and committing to protecting women’s health.

    – First president in history to attend the March for Life.

    So weird how he didn’t brag about any of that during his campaign!

    Of course, anyone who voted for Trump thinking he wasn’t going to go after abortion is probably daft enough to have voted for him even if he did brag about all of that. Guess they’ll just have to cross their fingers and hope that none of this ends up biting them in the ass as well.

  164. says

    Satire:

    MEXICO CITY (The Borowitz Report)—The president of Mexico announced on Monday that her country was building a wall along its northern border to keep newly-pardoned January 6 insurrectionists from pouring across it.

    “The United States is opening its prisons and releasing its most heinous criminals,” President Claudia Sheinbaum declared. “This leaves us with no choice but to build a wall and make the United States pay for it.”

    Describing the January 6 convicts, she said, “When the United States sends its people, they’re sending people who have a lot of problems. They’re sending people who riot, vandalize government property, and attack law enforcement. They’re not sending their best.”

    Link

  165. says

    Navajo Nation leaders raise alarm over reports of Indigenous people being questioned and detained during immigration sweeps

    At least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement and asked to produce proof of citizenship during immigration raids since Wednesday, according to Navajo Nation officials.

    The reports, which have caused panic amongst tribal communities in both states, come amid the Trump administration’s attempt to ramp up undocumented immigrant arrests nationwide and amass a larger force to carry out the president’s deportation pledge. […]

    The reported raids and the exact number of Diné/Navajo and other Indigenous tribal citizens who were apprehended are still under investigation […]

    Navajo Nation officials have contacted the Department of Homeland Security, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico, and ICE to address the reports, the Office of Navajo President Buu Nygren said in a news release Friday.

    “My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants in the Southwest,” Nygren said in the release.

    […]Arizona state Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, who is Diné/Navajo, told CNN she received a report from the family of a Navajo woman who said she was questioned by ICE and asked to show proof that she was Native after her workplace was raided Wednesday morning.

    The woman says she was at her work site in Scottsdale, Arizona, when she and seven other Indigenous citizens were lined up behind white vans and questioned for two hours without their cell phones or a way to contact their families, according to Hatathlie.

    […] The woman says she was eventually permitted to use her cell phone and text family members, who sent her a photo of her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB), and she was then allowed to leave […]

    The Navajo Nation Council received the reports through social media and calls to council delegates from families who said they were visited by ICE at their apartments and place of work, Curley said.

    […] “I think there’s a confusion with other races, maybe just because having a brown skin, automatically being profiled or stereotyped to be in a certain group of race.”

    […] “It’s too kind to say it’s racism or discrimination. It’s disrespect for humanity.”

    Indigenous people urged to carry their documentation

    Operation Rainbow Bridge, a nonprofit that supports Navajo citizens who are victims of Medicaid fraud in Arizona, has launched the Immigration Crisis Initiative to assist Indigenous people impacted by federal law enforcement raids.

    […] Indigenous tribal members are being advised to carry state-issued identification along with their Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood in preparation of possible run ins with federal immigration officials and other law enforcement. […]

  166. JM says

    @153 Lynna, OM:

    Trump issued an executive order pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

    […] Trump’s order appears to violate a law called the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which lays out limits on how much power a president has to restrict funding approved by Congress.

    Pay attention to this because it is one of the big goals of Trump and his handlers. To greatly increase the effective power of the president by giving him the ability to change the budget set by congress and allocate money however he wants. He can’t come out and say he wants to set the budget himself, it would be too blatant and defies the Constitution. However, if the president can substantially change how money is actually spent then it amounts to the same thing.
    This breaks one of the primary ways power is divided between the legislature and the executive. Congress sets the budget and allocates the money. The president manages actually spending it.

  167. says

    JM @165, I agree.

    In related news: Trump’s revenge tour tactics range from petty to potentially dangerous

    “JD Vance claimed last year that Donald Trump is ‘not a vengeful guy.’ The claim was absurd at the time. It’s vastly worse now.”

    A couple of weeks after joining his party’s national ticket, then-Sen. JD Vance was eager to ease the minds of voters concerned about Donald Trump and his retaliatory tactics. Trump, the future vice president told Fox News, is “not a vengeful guy.”

    At the time, it was a bizarre assertion, contradicted by voluminous evidence of Trump routinely seeking revenge against political foes — real and imagined. But six months after Vance’s curious claim, his rhetoric appears even more ridiculous. NBC News reported:

    For those who may have crossed […] Trump, the message is sinking in: Payback is coming, and coming fast. … A question that loomed over Trump’s 2024 campaign was whether he’d use presidential powers for retribution against his perceived political foes. For some, the answer has arrived.

    To be sure, some of the new president’s retaliatory tactics appear petty but ultimately inconsequential. The White House, for example, reportedly requested the removal of a Pentagon portrait honoring retired Gen. Mark Milley, who served as Trump’s handpicked chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before the president turned on him. Similarly, Trump canceled a variety of former officials’ security clearances as part of an apparent political tantrum, which didn’t amount to much, since some of the former officials didn’t appear to have active security clearances anyway.

    He also raised the prospect of going after Joe Biden, though that sounded more like wishful thinking than a meaningful plan.

    But some of Trump’s efforts to settle scores are far more serious. For example, the Biden administration provided John Bolton, a former White House national security adviser, with a Secret Service detail following assassination threats from Iran. Trump, who now sees Bolton as an enemy, yanked the protective detail last week.

    The new president did the same thing for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Brian Hook, former special envoy to Iran; and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Asked by a reporter if he’d feel partially responsible if something awful were to happen to any of these former officials, Trump said he would not, adding, “Certainly, I would not take responsibility.”

    When Trump sat down with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker for a post-election interview, the Republican tried to sound reasonable. “I’m not looking to go back into the past,” he said. “I’m looking to make our country successful. Retribution will be through success.”

    A month later, I have some bad news for those who took the comments seriously.

    A New York Times analysis noted that the examples from the last week, when taken together, “send a clear signal that Mr. Trump feels unconstrained about punishing the disloyal, that he is potentially willing to go further against his enemies than he had pledged on the campaign trail and that there will be a price for any opposition to come.”

    The same analysis added that his retaliatory tactics are intended “not just to impose punishment for the past but also to intimidate anyone who might cross him in the future.”

    The Times quoted Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library and the author of several books on the presidency, who noted, “The theme of this week was vengeance and retribution when all other presidents have used their inaugurations to heal wounds, bring people together and focus on the future. That sounds like a norm, but it’s actually fundamental to the survival of the republic.”

    There’s no reason to assume that this will improve anytime soon. On the contrary, the president has nominated a partisan operative named Kash Patel as the next FBI director, and Patel is the author of a notorious enemies list.

  168. says

    Trump back to golfing after demanding federal workers return to office

    Donald Trump is already playing hooky one week into his job as commander in chief, spending his Monday morning golfing at one of his golf properties in Florida, rather than working.

    Trump is golfing even though he told reporters aboard Air Force One over the weekend that he didn’t think he would have time to golf at his Doral course—where he is grifting off taxpayers to host a retreat for congressional Republicans to come up with a plan for how to pass his tax cuts for the rich.

    “No. I don’t think so. I’m busy,” Trump told reporters who asked if he’d be golfing.

    Trump’s visit to one of his resorts to hit the links took place much earlier than his first disastrous term, when he waited until the first week of February to golf […]

    Trump golfing instead of working comes after he issued a memorandum on Inauguration Day requiring that all federal employees return to the office five days a week.

    According to the memo:

    Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.

    Trump failson Donald Trump Jr.—who had everything he has handed to him on a silver platter by his father—took a victory lap on the return to work order.

    “No more showing up to work one day a month. If you’re going to collect a paycheck from the government, you actually have to show up to work!” Don Jr. wrote in a post on LinkedIn, along with a video of his daddy signing the order from a big boy desk surrounded by adoring MAGA fans in the Capitol One arena in Washington, D.C.

    Of course, return to work policies hurt women and minorities the most, research found—two groups Trump and his MAGA fans hate. The Washington Post reported:

    Research from Gartner and McKinsey, released in 2024 and 2022, respectively, said office mandates mostly impact women and people of color, who are more likely to quit over flexibility or office mandates. In a separate 2024 study released by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers who studied the start-up labor market found that changing a job opening to remote work increased female applicants by 15 percent and minorities by 33 percent.

    As this author can attest, being the primary caregiver of school-aged children makes it difficult to commute to an office, as it requires additional child care expenses to keep kids in school later or to hire nannies to pick up from schools that end far earlier than the typical workday.

    Since parents have already made their child care arrangements for the school year based on their current work situation, abruptly changing policies on federal workers will cause stress and financial strain as parents have to quickly secure child care coverage that’s already difficult to find. […]

    As for Trump golfing, it’s likely to cost taxpayers a pretty penny. During Trump’s first disastrous stint in office, he played at least 142 rounds of golf, costing taxpayers $142 million, according to data tracked by the now defunct site TrumpGolfCount.com.

  169. says

    DOJ fires prosecutors who worked on Trump criminal cases

    Justice Department officials fired several prosecutors who worked on President Trump’s criminal cases, saying they could not “trust” them.

    The move impacted at least a dozen prosecutors who worked both on Trump’s election interference case as well as another for improperly retaining records at Mar-a-Lago.

    “Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” a DOJ official said in a statement.

    “In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.” [Hypocritical]

    CNN first reported the terminations.

    The firings come as The Wall Street Journal reported DOJ is likewise asking prosecutors who worked on the case of Jan. 6 defendants to turn over their files on those who were charged with felony obstruction under 1512(c)(2).

    [….] the second week move signals how the Justice Department plans to contend with the numerous career prosecutors who worked on the cases, some of whom predated [Jack} Smith’s arrival.

    Some appeared to have anticipated possible blowback.

    Jay Bratt, the top prosecutor on the Mar-a-Lago case, retired earlier this month.

  170. says

    How did the first day in the office go for newly sworn in secretary of Defense Pete (hic) Hegseth? [I snipped humorous description that verified he was not drunk.]

    Hegseth had already given his first order as SecDef on Sunday on the site formerly known as Twitter. Did he want to talk to the public about military readiness, or homeland protection, or assisting other nations in defense of freedom around the globe, or some other rah-rah imperialistic hubris crap?

    No, of course not, he went out of his way to let us know that starting Monday, no longer would America sleep under the weakly flapping banner of a military made soft by treating all its personnel with respect and dignity. Because dignity doesn’t slaughter thousands of enemies, you weenies: [Screengrab of childish order scribbled in sharpie.]

    Remember when Donald Rumsfeld was famous for what he called his “snowflakes”? Little memos, sometimes as short as one sentence, that he would fire out from his office in a constant stream throughout the day? The new guy has out-dumbed Rumsfeld by posting handwritten orders on a social media site. But thank you for saving us from the nation-destroying specter of a transgender soldier changing their name.

    Then on Monday Hegseth stood in front of the scrum of reporters stationed in front of the Pentagon, […] Hegseth ran off a litany of horseshit about the “warfighters” and how awesome Donald Trump is and how Pete Hegseth is going to put an iron dome of masculinity around the Pentagon, or something.

    He also wanted to let soldiers know that he knows they exist, which was nice of him:

    “Every moment that I’m here, I’m thinking about the guys (pauses as he remembers that women also serve) and gals in Guam, in Germany, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg.”

    We suppose his reference to these two bases is a signal that they are getting their old names back, and probably soon. It was one of Trump’s campaign promises. After the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Fort Bragg was renamed Fort Liberty. Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore, after Hal Moore, a highly decorated war hero. We do not know what Hegseth has against the word “liberty” or against war heroes that he would rather name those two bases after a couple of feckless Confederate generals who got their asses kicked in the Civil War. The Lost Cause, it does endure for some goddamn reason. [video at the link]

    Hegseth also referred to executive orders that Trump was expected to sign on Monday. These orders, per CNN, will ban transgender soldiers from the military, gut the military’s DEI programs that dipshits like Hegseth think made the military weak, and reinstate any soldiers who were discharged for refusing a COVID vaccine.

    […] now Pete’s going to clean everything up, just in time to send military units to the southern border to fight the deadliest enemy of all: starving migrant children fleeing gangs and economic despair in the poorer nations where they were born.

    Even before Hegseth’s Twitter post, the military had been scrambling to comply with the president’s orders to remove all traces of DEI training from every corner of the organization. This had led to an outcry when the Air Force pulled videos about the Tuskegee Airmen from its training, just on the off-chance that anti-diversity initiatives meant not acknowledging that Black people fought in World War II.

    Naturally, the president’s allies were incensed — INCENSED WE TELL YOU — about this obvious act of bureaucratic ass-covering:

    Supporters of the Trump administration responded angrily […] arguing that in removing the videos from training, the service was attempting to make Trump look bad.

    It’s always someone else’s fault.

    […] Anyone with experience in large bureaucracies knows that in the face of vague directions such as Trump’s executive orders, people are going to cast a very wide net to make sure they are complying and won’t get yelled at. […].

    Personally, we think the Trumpists could pause for a second and wonder why faceless bureaucrats were so familiar with their program that they assumed they needed to hide any material that referred positively to Black people. But that would require some self-reflection, which is not in their skillset.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/pete-hegseth-already-so-good-at-pentagon

  171. says

    Quaker groups file suit over the end of policy restricting ICE arrests in houses of worship

    “The suit appears to be the first from a faith-based organization challenging the change in court.”

    A group of Quaker congregations is suing the Department of Homeland Security for changing a policy that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from carrying out operations in so-called “sensitive locations” such as houses of worship, playgrounds, schools and hospitals without approval from supervisors.

    The policy, which had been in place under multiple administrations — including during President Donald Trump’s first term — was rescinded last week.

    The lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court in Maryland on Monday, alleges, “The very threat of that [immigration] enforcement deters congregants from attending services, especially members of immigrant communities,” and argues that attending religious services is at the heart of the “guarantee of religious liberty.”

    […] “A week ago today, President Trump swore an oath to defend the Constitution and yet today religious institutions that have existed since the 1600s in our country are having to go to court to challenge what is a violation of every individual’s constitutional right to worship and associate freely,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is providing the lawyers representing the Quaker groups.

    Perryman said the lawsuit addresses more than churches that act as sanctuaries. “The troubling nature of the policy goes beyond just houses of worship with sanctuary programs — it is that ICE could enter religious and sacred spaces whenever it wants,” she said.

    Noah Merrill, secretary of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, told NBC News in an email: “Quaker meetings for worship seek to be a sanctuary and a refuge for all, and this new and invasive practice tangibly erodes that possibility by creating unnecessary anxiety, confusion, and chilling of our members’ and neighbors’ willingness to share with us in the worship which sustains our lives. This undermines our communities and, we believe, violates our religious freedom.”

    […] The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are several regional umbrella groups representing Quaker congregations in the mid-Atlantic and New England. […]

  172. says

    ICE arrests close to 1,200 arrests in one day

    Immigration authorities made close to 1,200 arrests in just one day, and nearly half of those detained don’t have criminal records, according to a senior Trump administration official.

    Data first obtained by NBC News shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a total of 1,179 people on Sunday which is more than the figure of 956 the agency posted on X on Sunday night. But just 613 of those total arrests —nearly 52% — were considered “criminal arrests.” The rest appear to be non-violent offenders or people who have not committed any other criminal offense than crossing the border.

    When breaking down those arrests, eight of those arrests were considered “Worst Criminals Arrested,” including two gang members, according to the official.

    Still, at least 566 people arrested Sunday had not committed any crimes and were only detained because they lacked legal authorization to remain in the U.S.

    Being undocumented is not considered a crime, but a civil offense. But it’s considered a crime when an undocumented immigrant who was previously deported re-enters the U.S. without permission. It’s unclear how many, if any, of the 566 had entered the country a second time illegally.

    Officials in the administration of […] Trump […] have stated repeatedly that they would prioritize the detention and deportations of undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes, but the latest numbers may be casting doubts around such promises. […]

  173. says

    Hamas says 8 of remaining 26 hostages are dead, according to source

    Hamas has told Israel that eight of 26 Israeli hostages set to be released as part of the first phase of the ceasefire are dead, a Middle Eastern official briefed on the matter told NBC News on Monday.

    It is believed to be the first time that the militant group has said exactly how many hostages are dead or alive. Later, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said these numbers matched information gleaned by Israeli intelligence.

    The first three Israeli hostages — Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, a dual British citizen — were freed earlier this month in exchange for 90 Palestinian detainees — mostly women and children.

    On Saturday, four female Israeli soldiers were released in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.

    The ceasefire’s first phase, which is set to run until early March, includes the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The second phase has yet to be fully negotiated.

    The fragile truce was placed in jeopardy Saturday after Israel prevented Palestinian civilians from moving back to their homes in northern Gaza. It said Hamas had violated the agreement because it had not released hostage Arbel Yehoud.

    Hamas also accused Israel of breaking the deal, but on Monday, Qatar, one of the leading mediators in the talks to bring an end to the fighting, said in a statement that Yehoud would be freed along with two other hostages before Friday.

    Three other captives are also set be released Saturday, and many in Israel are hopeful that Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage still in captivity in the Gaza Strip, will be among those released.Kfir was just shy of 9 months old when he was kidnapped during the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, along with his 5-year-old brother, Ariel, and his parents, Yarden and Shiri Bibas.

    He turned 2 earlier this month, having never known a birthday outside captivity.

    While all other child hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a one-week ceasefire in November 2023, the Bibas family never emerged from Gaza, and on one of the final days of the brief pause in fighting, Hamas said in a statement that the toddler had been killed in an Israeli airstrike along with his mom and brother. […]

  174. says

    ‘It will kill people’: Chaos, confusion after Trump halts US foreign aid

    The Trump administration’s sudden halt on U.S. foreign aid is causing chaos inside groups ranging from health providers to landmine removers — interrupting lifesaving programs as officials struggle to understand the scope of the directive.

    Following the Friday order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, leaders of aid organizations are looking at which programs to stop, and whether to immediately cut staff or even shut down. As they seek waivers, aid groups are scrambling to adjust — from seeking non-federal funds to help refugees arriving in the U.S. to halting efforts at HIV clinics in Africa.

    “This ‘stop work’ order is cruel and deadly,” said Asia Russell, the executive director of Health GAP, a nonprofit working on access to HIV treatment in developing countries. “It will kill people.”

    Many federal workers, from the Pentagon to the U.S. Agency for International Development, are confused by the wording of the order, such as what exactly could qualify for an exemption. In some cases, their ability to get information is being stymied: In a note to staff obtained by POLITICO, a top USAID official told employees they needed prior top-level approval to even talk to institutions outside of the agency.

    “The pause on all foreign assistance means a complete halt,” Ken Jackson, USAID’s assistant to the administrator for management and resources wrote in an agency-wide email to some 10,000 employees. Jackson said “all communications outside the agency, including to the State Department, must be approved by the Agency Front Office.” Failure to do so, he wrote, would result in unspecified disciplinary action.

    Some USAID officials said that prompted them to reconsider requesting waivers. One said that “anyone that contradicts [the stop-work order] is seen as obstructionist, so putting something forward for a waiver can be risky.” The person, like others in this story, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

    […] Among the aid groups that appear affected are ones that remove landmines from conflict zones; provide testing and treatment for people with HIV in many African countries through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; fund investigative reporting into Russian disinformation and organized crime networks; and tackle food insecurity worldwide.

    The order also affects foreign military financing programs to places such as Ukraine, Jordan and Taiwan. The extent of that impact is still uncertain. “I’m not sure anyone knows all the details right now and key folks are almost certainly trying to unpack the actions and implications,” a former senior Pentagon official said.

    The U.S. is the world’s No. 1 provider of humanitarian aid. The billions involved are less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget, but advocates say the money is key to protecting lives and helping America’s global reputation as it competes for influence with geopolitical rivals such as China and Russia.

    The U.S. foreign assistance budget also includes many areas outside the realm of traditional humanitarian aid.

    “State Department counterterrorism advisers around the world may need to fly home since their contracts are also funded out of — guess what — foreign assistance,” one U.S. official familiar with the matter said.

    […] many in the aid space said they couldn’t remember any such sudden halt to funding in the past. They also didn’t understand why programs had to be stopped so that the new administration could inventory and review them.

    Some NGO leaders said even several weeks without funding could force them to shut down.

    “We operate on a shoestring budget. In 30 days you’ll start to see a very significant cash crunch across the board and probably some bankruptcies,” said the head of one non-governmental group that receives State Department and USAID funding, who was granted anonymity as they feared they would lose future contracts if they spoke out publicly. “It’s an absolute dumpster fire and no one has any idea what’s going on.”

    […] Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), ranking member in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State and Related Programs, warned in a letter to Rubio on Friday that the freeze could be deadly, referring to, among others, PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative, which provide drugs for HIV and malaria to millions of people.

    “These lives depend on an uninterrupted supply of medicines,” the two Democrats wrote.

    Russell, of Health GAP, said the stop-work order “will snatch HIV medicines, prevention services and support from the hands of adults, babies and young people across PEPFAR-supported countries.” […]

    More details at the link.

  175. says

    Orbán, Le Pen to hold ‘Make Europe Great Again’ rally in Madrid

    The newly created European Union far-right party the Patriots for Europe [aaaarrrggghhh], home to populists like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and France’s Marine Le Pen, will hold a “Make Europe Great Again” rally in Madrid on Feb. 8, two officials told POLITICO.

    The rally’s headline is a tribute to United States President Donald Trump’s campaign and rhetoric, which the Patriots party is now emulating across Europe
    .
    The Patriots party, a brainchild of Orbán that has a €5 million annual budget, was founded after the June 2024 European election to bring together Europe’s populist far right and influence Brussels from within its institutions.

    Of the 720 lawmakers in the European Parliament, 86 are a part of the Patriots, making it the third largest political group.

    Over in the European Council, the Patriots are currently only represented by Orbán but that could change with the current shift of political power across Europe. Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which is part of the Patriots, is in government coalition negotiations, with its leader Herbert Kickl on course to become the country’s chancellor.

    Meanwhile, National Rally’s Le Pen is at the top of polls in France and could score the presidency in the 2027 election, while the Czech Republic’s anti-establishment ANO party and its leader Andrej Babiš are on course to lead the country after October’s national election.

  177. says

    Associated Press:

    U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all agency staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and “await further guidance.”

  178. says

    There’s no good reason, no defense for this (as reported by Reuters):

    President Donald Trump’s foreign aid pause has forced a suspension of flights for more than 40,000 Afghans approved for special U.S. visas and at risk of Taliban retribution, a leading advocate and a U.S. official said on Saturday.

  179. says

    Here’s the insane reason Boebert thinks young people can’t get jobs

    Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, seemed to suggest that the national minimum wage should be lowered, claiming that the high teenage unemployment rate is due to it being too expensive for companies to hire young people.

    Boebert made the comment in response to a tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.

    “No taxes on workers under 18 yrs old. I love it because: 1. They need experience to pick a college major. 2. They need to develop a work ethic. 3. The economy needs more workers. 4. They don’t get to vote,” Massie said.

    Boebert replied, “So many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements,” she wrote. “High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them with skills training for their future.” [X post at the link]

    The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. If someone worked 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks in the year and took no days off, they would only earn $15,080—a salary below the poverty line and impossible for anyone to live on. In Boebert’s state of Colorado, the minimum wage is $14.81.

    [snipped Boebert’s history of making similar claims] Opposing a livable minimum wage is bad politics, as polling shows that voters overwhelmingly believe that the federal minimum wage is too low and should be raised.

    […] While it is true that the unemployment rate is the highest for workers between the ages of 16 and 17, it isn’t because the minimum wage is too high.

    Rather, it’s because the labor force participation rate is currently higher, and older workers with more experience and skills are getting jobs over inexperienced youth, according to an S&P Global report.

    But that fact doesn’t seem to matter to Boebert.

  180. says

    Trump fires all three Democrats on privacy oversight board

    […] Trump on Monday fired all three Democrats on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), bringing much of its work to a standstill.

    The White House informed the three Democrats on the board on Thursday it was seeking their resignation, but the members were officially terminated Monday.

    It’s an action that removes some voices on the panel critical of some foreign surveillance actions – a detail that often had them aligned with right wing Republicans who wish to curtail such programs.

    It also stands to diminish oversight of the intelligence community.

    PCLOB confirmed the dismissals and indicated it would need new members to continue its work.

    The move guts a board designed to ensure the government’s work to fight terrorism is balanced with protections for civil liberties. […]

    More at the link.

  181. Bekenstein Bound says

    W10’s serviceable once you clear out the bloatware (the silly apps reinstall with updates sometimes) and replace the start menu with OpenShell, and just use the OS to run 3rd party stuff, including a browser, etc. W11 is basically a paywall to continue receiving updates with a gratuitous hardware dependency. It behaves the same as W10, barring some future update that screws it up.

    IIRC hearing elsewhere that W11 fucks up Explorer and Notepad. In any event, even leaving aside my concerns about the Trump regime, there is a clear trend by M$ in recent years to turn Windoze into a closed platform and usurp the authority of individual machine-owners to run their computers as they see fit. The aim seems to be to make it more like Android: unless you root your own device you’re at the mercy of app developers who can use DRM and lock-in to trap you in walled gardens and then enshittify their products.

    Add in the Trump factor and it is probably a bad idea for anyone who isn’t a white cishet abled middle class right-wing or “apolitical” Christian man to use any proprietary OS whose vendor is US-based. That would, obviously, include Apple’s offalerings as well.

    If you really want to, there are several easily-searched ways to stop Windows from attempting to fetch updates like a group policy or disabling the service that fetches. Or maybe the hosts file.

    I’m well aware of, and use one of, such methods already, thanks.

    Regarding routers: you can connect all your stuff to a router of your own and hook that to your ISP’s black box.

    Indeed, but see previous post re: ability and willingness to spring for additional expensive hardware right now.

    The inner router will mostly transparently relay traffic and provide you with a choke point under your control. That arrangement only slightly complicates port forwarding (relaying connections from the internet via the ISP black box to the inner router to a particular PC), which I doubt you’re doing.

    Wrong: I sometimes use peer-to-peer filesharing software. That requires (or at least works far better with) port forwarding/UPnP to open listen ports through NAT.

    No bridging necessary. Routers tend to have simplistic web interfaces to configure them. Their stock blocking features may be limited. If you want to get fancy, OpenWrt can be installed on some routers.

    At the risk of bricking them. I doubt the consequences would be good if I meddled with the ISP-provided one, and if I did spring for my own it would certainly behoove me not to risk bricking it given it would have been a questionable decision, with respect to financial responsibility, to buy even one, let alone two (or more).

  182. says

    Dear supporters of Reclaim Idaho,

    This afternoon, we received notice from members of the House Health and Welfare Committee that the committee will not move forward with a hearing on House Bill 58—a bill introduced last week that would repeal Idaho’s Medicaid Expansion program.

    For now, at least, House Bill 58 appears to be dead. This news comes after citizens across the state made phone calls, wrote emails, and let our legislators know that the people of Idaho support Medicaid Expansion and want to see it protected.

    This is a significant victory. But make no mistake: This fight is far from over. In fact, we are hearing that legislators and special-interest groups are now planning to introduce another bill that is every bit as dangerous.

    The new bill, we’re told, will be presented as a “compromise” when in fact it would have the same result as the last bill: the total elimination of Idaho’s Medicaid Expansion program.* […]

    https://www.reclaimidaho.org

    Donation link at Act Blue

  183. says

    […] Trump’s protection of right-wing violence is clear—just ask the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley. Chansley was released from prison in May 2023 after serving 27 months, but he still had a criminal conviction on his record. Upon receiving the pardon, Chansley gloated on X, “I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!! NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!”

    Trump’s pardon of insurrectionists who attacked police officers raised the hackles of police departments and unions, many of which issued a flurry of statements condemning the move. So Trump quickly threw police a bone by pardoning two Washington, D.C., police officers convicted in the death—and cover-up of the death—of a 20-year-old motorist.

    Trump said officers Andrew Zabavsky and Terence Sutton were in prison because “they went after an illegal” who was “a rough criminal, by the way.”

    In reality, the officers pursued 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, an American citizen, for the extreme crime of … riding a moped without a helmet. Prosecutors said the officers chased him at “unreasonable speeds,” with Sutton forcing Hylton-Brown into an alley and then accelerating toward him. When Hylton-Brown exited the alley, another vehicle struck and killed him. Then the officers agreed to cover it up, turned off their body-worn cameras, and destroyed evidence.

    This was certainly a move to re-ingratiate Trump with fans in law enforcement. Indeed, the Washington, D.C., police union had been begging Trump to pardon the two officers.

    But in the end, these pardons serve the same purpose as the pardons of the rioters who attacked law enforcement: to send the message that violence is forgivable, even welcomed, as long as it is violence Trump likes, directed against people he hates. […]

    At root, all of these pardons send the same type of message: Right-wing violence is perfectly acceptable, and there will be no consequences.

    Make no mistake. Trump’s plans for the country require the active participation of people like this, and he’s well aware of it. It’s why he told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by. It’s why he called the neo-Nazis at Charlottesville “very fine people.” It’s why he has repeatedly encouraged and praised violence at his rallies. He needs people who are easily goaded into committing future violence on his behalf—and now he’s pardoned those most eager to do so.

    Link

  184. says

    Fox News attacks AOC over Trump tariffs—then admits she may be right

    Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was wrong when criticizing Donald Trump over threatened tariffs against Colombia, but then had to admit on-air that the congresswoman’s comment was accurate.

    McEnany, who was a press secretary during Trump’s first administration, made the slipup during an episode of the conservative network’s “America’s Newsroom” program on Monday.

    The controversy began when Trump threatened Colombia with increased tariffs after its president, Gustavo Petro, said migrants being sent to that nation deserved to be treated with dignity. (Migrants had been restrained on a recent flight to Brazil.)

    “To ‘punish’ Colombia, Trump is about to make every American pay even more for coffee. Remember: *WE* pay the tariffs, not Colombia,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in response to the threat. “Trump is all about making inflation WORSE for working class Americans, not better. He’s lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class.”

    On Fox, McEnany responded, saying, “She said this, which is factually untrue.”

    Then McEnany paused mid-sentence and appeared to realize the congresswoman was in the right. “[Tariffs] could lead to inflation,” she admitted (without conceding Ocasio-Cortez’s argument was accurate).

    “There’s also a universe in which people lower their prices, other countries lower their prices, and the prices could come down because they want access to the U.S. market,” McEnany added, detailing an extremely unlikely response to a tariff increase.

    McEnany then pivoted to an unrelated (and out of nowhere) attack on Ocasio-Cortez, alleging that other Democrats who could possibly run for the presidency in 2028 have been more “muted” in their criticisms of Trump. [video at the link]

    Despite the deflection, recent history backs up Ocasio-Cortez. Tariffs imposed by Trump when he was first president led to increased costs that have been passed on to consumers. A tariff isn’t a penalty shouldered by a foreign government; it’s instead paid by the people who use the product in question. In the case of Colombia, that would be staples like coffee, flowers, and petroleum.

    The factual misfire was just the latest episode Fox and the rest of conservative media lashing out at progressive leaders, like Ocasio-Cortez. But based on her track record since taking office, it is unlikely that complaints from Fox will deter the New York representative.

  185. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Someone on Instagram described a croudsourced ICE monitoring map.
    (Currently unreachable. See farther below for another such project.)
    https://www.instagram.com/javierdiegojacinto/p/DFDb59ePjB6/

    JuntosSeguros.com is a site to help keep our community informed. […] When you see ICE officers, you can drop a pin on the map
    […]
    Each pin shows a 0.5-mile radius, so you’ll know the general area where the sighting occurred. […] If the sighting is still happening, it will display as “Still There.” If the situation has cleared up, it will say “All Clear.” We do not collect or store your personal information, including your IP address or cookies. […] No Login Required
    […]
    If you have ideas or questions, please reach out to us at: palagente@proton.me

    * Eschewing tracking is understandable but implies a limited ability to flag and ban returning bad actors.
     
    juntosseguros Instagram (2025-01-22):

    Site under construction

    We are still working on the site while implementing security measures to combat attacks. We are experiencing a lot of traffic and hope to be able to restore it soon. Stay tuned.

    * Their TikTok bio says, “We’re working on the site.”
    * They created a GoFundMe on 2025-01-24 to shore up the server.
     
    Immigration lawyer concerned over false ICE raid reports (2025-01-24)

    experts caution that the site could be used to spread misinformation. “It appears to be well-intentioned people […] However, it is community-reported information, so you must take it with a grain of salt.
    […]
    don’t be afraid just because you see a report. There might be action near you. Without having all the details, it shouldn’t be a concern for someone who otherwise is at low risk of enforcement.”

    Mahern says that if reliable information about mass raids or deportations existed in [her] area, members of her legal association would have shared it. So far, she has not heard anything.

     
    Another map is still up, with photos/videos. It’s called People over Papers.

    Our purpose is to collect data on sightings; the locations are not confirmed sightings; however, they are reviewed by moderators. Please take this information with caution and account for human error. Use this information to cross-reference with your state or local rapid response networks.

    That someone on Instagram above described this as well, presumably copied off the site at the time.
    https://www.instagram.com/javierdiegojacinto/p/DFWCaQLTzvd/

    While submissions are heavily vetted, it’s your responsibility to verify the information […] If you come across any inaccurate information, please alert me immediately […] the integrity of our shared resources is crucial.

    To guide your reporting, we use the SALUTE framework:
    * Size: Number of officers or vehicles/trucks.
    * Activity: What are they doing?
    * Location: Street or destination—where are they headed?
    * Uniform: What are they wearing?
    * Time and Date: When did you observe this?
    * Equipment: Are they armed or carrying any weapons?

    * No contact info here to alert the mods. However clicking on a sighting allows adding a comment which might get noticed.

  186. gijoel says

    Jan 6th rioters pardoned by Trump shot dead days after his pardon.

    State police said that the deputy officer tried to arrest the man from Hobart, Indiana, when an altercation “took place between the suspect and the officer, which resulted in the officer firing his weapon and fatally wounding the suspect”.

    His uncle’s piece of work too.

  187. birgerjohansson says

    A post at Facebook by Sigurd The Mighty :
    “I am so tired of living like it is the 1600s. Can I afford eggs at the market? Are my friends gonna die in the plague? Puritans coming for my sinful lifestyle. I want some modern problems. Modern Problems.”

  189. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

    Rachel Maddow discusses the fact that Trump is wasting a LOT of money using military planes to carry out deportations.

    “Trump spares no expense wasting taxpayer money on deportation plane photo-op stunt.”

    Yep, wasting about $800,000 dollars per day if they stick to their plans.

    Plus, there is a discussion of the fact that Trump’s team is already arresting people who have not committed a criminal defense.

    The video is from last night’s Rachel Maddow Show. It is about eight minutes long.

    There is no Inspector General to report Trump’s waste of taxpayer’s money. Trump fired the Inspectors General.

  190. KG says

    birgerjohansson@187,

    That video is 4 months old. Arguably, Musk’s investment in Twitter has paid off in spades, given the opportunites for corruption he has secured by buying Trump’s “friendship”, and helping him back into power. Although of course they may fall out, if Trump’s ego overpowers his greed.

  191. jo1storm says

    Good news, everybody. After almost three months of mass protests, Serbian prime minister has finally resigned.

    https://www.euronews.com/2025/01/28/serbian-prime-minister-milos-vucevic-resigns-after-months-of-protests

    @89:

    Fun fact: the location for Trump hotel was at the location of Chief Military HQ destroyed in NATO bombing by US bombers and the Serbian regime was heavily criticized about the deal. This would be comparative to US going to war against Jamaica, losing Pentagon due to bombing (and never rebuilding it) then jamaican prime minister building his brand of hotel on Pentagon ruins 25 years later.

  192. Reginald Selkirk says

    14 Jewish Groups Leave X as Elon Musk Doubles Down on Nazi Rhetoric

    Fourteen U.S. Jewish groups announced they were leaving the social media platform X on Monday. A statement from the groups cited the rise of antisemitism on the social media platform since Elon Musk purchased the site in late 2022, as well as the “coarsening of discourse that is so pervasive on X,” but didn’t specifically call out Musk’s recent Nazi-style salutes.

    The 14 groups released a joint letter explaining their decision to leave X, signed by leaders at the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, among others…

  193. Reginald Selkirk says

    Thieves Blow Out Museum Door to Steal Ancient Artifacts, Including 2,500-Year-Old Gold Helmet

    The Drents Museum, which is located in the Netherlands, recently announced the theft of four valuable pieces from its archive. On the morning of January 25th, police responded to the museum at around 3:45 a.m., where they found significant damage to the building and evidence that explosives had been used. Cops ultimately determined that the thieves had somehow blown out the museum’s door, then ransacked the place, taking with them a number of valuable pieces, including a 2,500-year-old golden helmet known as the Helmet of Coțofenești. In addition to the helmet, three golden bracelets were also stolen…

  194. birgerjohansson says

    I found a claim on Youtube that RFK Jr.s nominatiin has hit a snag, but I am trying to confirm it.
    If it is true, there may still be guardrails preventing the worst of Trump’s impulses.

  196. whheydt says

    Re: Lynna, OM @ #188…
    That Felon in the White House tried to fire the Inspector Generals, but the method used was specifically illegal and the IGs are fighting back.

  197. Reginald Selkirk says

    Boom’s XB-1 becomes first civil aircraft to go supersonic

    Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator plane just went supersonic in the skies over California’s Mojave desert, making it the first civil aircraft to break the sound barrier.

    The American startup’s plane notched the historic achievement in its twelfth test flight. It cleared Mach 1 and stayed supersonic for around four minutes, reaching Mach 1.1. Test pilot Tristan Brandenburg broke the sound barrier two more times before receiving the call to bring the XB-1 back to the Mojave Air & Space Port.

    The supersonic flight comes eight years after Boom first revealed the XB-1. It’s a small, roughly one-third scale version of the 64-passenger airliner Boom eventually wants to build, which it calls Overture…

  198. Reginald Selkirk says

    Sweden seizes cargo ship after another undersea cable hit in suspected sabotage

    Swedish authorities have “seized” a vessel – believed to be the cargo ship Vezhen – “suspected of carrying out sabotage” after a cable running between Sweden and Latvia in the Baltic Sea was damaged on the morning of January 26.

    The cable runs between the Latvian town of Ventspils and Sweden’s Gotland island and belongs to the Latvian State Radio and Television Center (LVRTC). Vezhen is sailing under the flag of Malta, and its historical movements can be viewed here, showing it passing close to the relevant position, which does not necessarily prove involvement…

    As for the cable breakage over this past weekend, Swedish security forces were contacted by Latvia, which was first to grok the disturbances in the cable, and began a preliminary probe yesterday, the National Unit for Security Cases said in a statement. Senior Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said (translated from Swedish): “We are now carrying out a number of concrete investigative measures, but I cannot go into what they consist of due to the ongoing preliminary investigation.” …

  199. says

    Trump’s fixation on water takes a weird turn with California announcement

    Donald Trump likes to talk about water. Water in showers? Trump’s on it. Water in dishwashers? He’s on that, too. Water in faucets? That’s also one of his subjects of interest. Water in water heaters? Yep. Water in toilets? Unfortunately, that’s also been a popular topic for the Republican.

    As a rule, the Republican president’s water-related preoccupation generates eye-rolling and easy jokes. Sometimes, however, it’s not funny at all.

    Last week, for example, Trump falsely blamed officials in California for not sending enough water to Southern California to fight fires, ignoring reality. Similarly, the president said it’d be easy to address the fires. “All they have to do is turn the valve,” he said at a press conference last week.

    Whether Trump understands this or not, there is no such “valve.”

    It was against this backdrop that Trump began the second week of his second term with a curious announcement published to his social media platform. The missive, published shortly before midnight, read in its entirety:

    The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!

    It sounds rather dramatic: The military, in the middle of the night, presumably acting on Trump’s orders, “entered” California and apparently took some kind of remarkable actions to ensure water flows to the fine people of the Golden State.

    The problem is that Trump had no idea what he was saying. As Politico reported, the president was referring apparently to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s water pumps in Northern California, which had been temporarily down for maintenance.

    Officials at California’s state Department of Water Resources further explained in an online statement of their own, “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.”

    Officials did not say, “Please don’t listen to Trump’s nonsense,” but that does seem to be the broader takeaway.

  200. says

    Summarized by Steve Benen from an X post by Aaron Blake:

    * A sign of the times: Joe Biden’s popular vote margin in 2020 was roughly triple Trump’s popular vote margin in 2024, but recent polling suggest most Americans — and even 1 in 4 Democrats — believe the Republican’s victory was larger.

  201. says

    Josh Marshall: Trump Sparks Constitutional Crisis, Seizing Budget Authority from Congress

    I write the following with the caveat that everything in the unfolding Trump administration is cloaked in secrecy and uncertain from one moment to the next. But overnight President Trump kicked off a what can only be called both a wide-ranging constitutional crisis and also very likely a fiscal crisis. He has unilaterally halted – as of 5 pm this evening, according to an executive memorandum first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas – all “grant, loan and federal assistance programs” for at least 90 days.

    This appears to include everything the federal government does beyond the salaries of federal employees, direct checks to Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries and the US military. Mainstream media journalists are calling this “temporary” or a “pause”. But that’s like saying you’re “temporarily” shutting down Congress or “pausing” elections. “Temporary” isn’t a meaningful term in this case. It’s hard to think through everything affected. Already the halt to USAID budgets has cut off funding for the prison guards holding 9,500 ISIS prisoners in northeastern Syria, according to Syria expert Charles Lister. Cancer research, major parts of every state’s budget, the grants that keep the local daycare center running. This hits basically everything.

    The best way to understand this is that it is essentially a unilateral government shutdown on steroids. Even government shutdowns distinguish between essential and inessential government activities. This doesn’t, though it doesn’t appear to effect the salaries of government workers. If this goes into effect it will show up more or less immediately everywhere across the country, as I noted above. It is also blatantly unconstitutional and violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, a law intended to prevent much more targeted versions of this which had been attempted by President Nixon. In practice, it amounts to the executive illegally seizing spending authority from Congress.

    This action will trigger a host of lawsuits and rapidly make its way to the Supreme Court.

    I really don’t know just how this will shake out or what the Democrats should do. But I’ll give you the bare outlines, as far as I can make them out.

    First, this is fundamentally a battle over public opinion. This is, yes, patently unconstitutional. Presidents have discretion over spending decisions at the margins. […] It also violates the Impoundment Act of 1974, as I noted above. But, as we know, laws and constitutions aren’t self-enforcing.

    This is so clear cut I’m not even sure this Supreme Court will go along with it. But obviously that’s nothing to rely on. And once you start breaking the law and operating dramatically outside the constitution it tends to get easier. So again, this is in the last analysis a battle over public opinion.

    Will the public accept it? This isn’t a conversation about norms or aid to a country you’ve never heard of. It will show up all over the place pretty much immediately. Federal funding for cancer research? Full stop. Various federal grants that fund parts of state and local government basically everywhere. Again, as I said, this is basically a government shut down on steroids.

    The big thing to understand in terms of the Democratic opposition is that they’re out of power. This really comes down to the Courts and congressional leadership, which is all Republican. This gets to a broader reality. Whatever battles Democrats do with the Trump administration has to be asymmetric. […] That is certainly part of the design here: do all sorts of things all at once […] The best response? This goes back to dominance politics. Find what you can actually do that’s not begging or meaningless and then do it. The clearest lever out there is that the White House needs a debt limit increase sometime this Spring, probably pretty soon. There’s been chatter that Republican leaders are going to try to put together a spending deal with Democratic help that would include a debt limit increase or suspension. That has to be taken off the table. No debt limit increase unless the President renounces illegal and constitutional actions. That’s the clearest place where opposition Democrats can take the initiative and force the President and GOP leadership to come to them. Anything that doesn’t force that is basically meaningless.

    You’ve probably heard me say before that no one should ever play chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States. Well, these are extraordinary circumstances. But really you don’t even need to make that argument. The Republicans are in the majority. They can do this themselves if they want. The Democrats aren’t in the majority and holding anything hostage. The Republicans are the majority. It’s the majorities job, literally, to do this stuff. They can’t because they can’t get their own caucus in order. So they’re coming to the Democrats for help. It’s a perfectly reasonable condition. That’s not the only thing they should demand. There are a bunch of additional things Democrats can do that are deeper in the budget process weeds. But it’s the minimum. No cooperation without an agreement to operate only within the law and the constitution. Yelling and begging not only won’t help. It signals powerlessness, which demoralizes supporters and all opposition. There’s power on the table and this is the first and central piece of it as of this moment.

  202. says

    Followup to comment 200.

    ‘This is insane’: Trump slammed for cutting off federal aid to millions

    The White House released an order on Monday night effectively shutting off trillions of vital federal dollars for programs across the United States. Immediately, the order has been described as “insane” and a violation of federal law that will have a devastating effect on millions of people.

    The memo from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget is a stew of right-wing grievances and complaints.

    “Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” Vaeth wrote.

    Conservatives in recent years have resorted to describing any advances on civil rights for historically oppressed groups—including racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ+ people—as “woke.” President Donald Trump has been at the forefront of these complaints and has acted in the presidency to undo decades of societal gains.

    The order could lead to the cancellation of infrastructure projects currently in operation across the country, including repairs and construction involving roads, bridges, public transit, airports, and internet service. The directive also withholds funding for spending that could impact domestic and national security, while also hurting thousands of families who rely on employment directly related to government spending.

    Democrats quickly slammed the radical OMB directive.

    “Hey so this is insane,” Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee wrote in response on X.

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the order as “more lawlessness and chaos” in a statement. Schumer accused the administration of “blatantly” disobeying the law.

    “Donald Trump’s Administration is jeopardizing billions upon billions of community grants and financial support that help millions of people across the country. It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities,” he added.

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar noted that Article I of the Constitution gives Congress, not the presidency, the right to make sweeping funding changes. Klobuchar, a cancer survivor, also asked, “Are you stopping NIH cancer trials?”

    The federal government funds cancer research in multiple ways, including through grants administered by the National Cancer Institute.

    Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the minority leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, sent a joint letter to Vaeth opposing the directive.

    “The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country. We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law,” they said.

    […] The funding order adds to the chaos currently underway under the administration. Trump issued a gag order that has prevented federal health agencies from communicating with the public, which has led doctors and other science-related officials to express concerns about their inability to inform people about health threats. […]

    The new order shuts down significant government functions and adds fuel to ongoing crises sparked by Trump.

  203. says

    Dear Lynna, all you post is accurate and just clearly proves the tRUMP cult is dragging us back to 1984. Orwell is spinning in his grave.

  205. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-picking-your-pocket-again-__

    “Trump Picking Your Pocket Again ¯_(ツ)_/¯”

    “We get around to wonksplaining the $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins!”

    A fool and their money, etc etc!

    It’s another day, another Trump grift! This time it is a $TRUMP memecoin, as well as a $MELANIA one, to hang out in your digital wallet next to your Trump NFTs, your Trump-endorsed World Liberty Financial $WLFI tokens that you cannot sell or trade, and your Trump Media stock. Oh hey, how’s that going? [Graph at the link]

    Oh.

    Anyway, your new Trump memecoins, you can buy them while wearing your Trump Never Surrender sneakers, Trump Victory Tourbillon watch and Melania bouquet-of-scrotums necklace, clutching your Trump Bible, hanging your Trump Christmas ornaments and smelling your Trump FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT cologne, admiring your commemorative gold and silver coins, and your Trump University diploma. Federal ethics rules, what are those? They checked into the Trump International Hotel, and they never checked out.

    The acting chairs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, SEC, acting secretary of the Treasury, and director of the Office of Government Ethics are concerned and wrote a letter, and what else can they do? The Supreme Court and Republican Congress have deemed everything Dear Leader does legal and ethical forever and ever, amen.

    Like the hundreds of testicle-themed memecoins on pump dot fun, and Hailey Welch’s $HAWK Tuah coin, Trump’s is on the Solana blockchain. And like any obviously money-losing thing that does not want to run afoul of fraud laws or the SEC, the terms and conditions make clear that it’s just for COMMUNITY and FUN, you guys, with a big fat disclaimer that it is for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY: “Trump Memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$TRUMP’ and the associated artwork, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”

    The coin is to celebrate his win, but not in any political kind of way, you see, and by the way, if you lose money, you can’t sue. Ha, look how thin and normal-colored he made himself. [Image at the link, AI-generated and photoshopped Trump even has big hands.]

    Also on the disclaimer:

    NEITHER THE TRUMP MEMES NOR THE SERVICES ARE POLITICAL AND HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY POLITICAL CAMPAIGN, GOVERNMENT AGENCY OR GOVERNMENTAL OFFICE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OR ELSEWHERE.

    Uh huh. And: “The Services are not available to (i) individuals or entities (including those owned or controlled by individuals) that are the subject of economic or trade sanctions administered or enforced by any governmental authority or otherwise designated on any list of prohibited or restricted parties.”

    So don’t even THINK of pouring money directly to Trump and Melania’s pockets with this, China or Russia! Never mind that wallets being anonymous is the entire point of crypto, just pinkie swear that you are not in a country trying to bribe Trump, okay? In real life, Dear Leader is also playing dumb.

    “Will you continue to sell products that benefit yourself personally while you’re president?” asked a reporter at his AI infrastructure announcement press conference last week. “Well, I don’t know if it benefited, I don’t know where it is, I don’t know much about it, other than I launched it. I heard it was very successful, I haven’t checked it,” he vaguely moaned, in his way, about the magic bean venture his companies own 80 percent of.

    Like most things Trump, the coin’s price surged $75 within a day, then deflated to $27. And $MELANIA hit a high of $13.38 before plunging to a sad $2.40.

    Even the most pro-crypto guys are side-eyeing this. After all, if Trump is serious about making the case that cryptocurrency is just as solid as some kind of government-issued legal tender, so the Federal Reserve ought to liquidate itself to buy Bitcoin, issuing some wildly fluctuating digital “fun” that picks suckers’ pockets within a week is not the way to go about it.

    Andy Baehr, managing director and head of product at CoinDesk, to USA Today:

    “Our industry is trying very hard to demonstrate that it’s serious, that it welcomes useful regulation, that it wants to be more regulated, that it wants to have serious conversations with regulators and legislators to help improve how finance works, how investing works, how capital raising works, how trading works. And something like this, that is so public and so unavoidably top-of-fold headline, threatens to set back how seriously the conversation is taken.”

    How investing works? Memecoins are a game of digital hot potato. There are no fundamentals behind it, it’s more like the game where you stop the clock to win a beer […] and you win by not being the last sucker holding the bag.

    Nic Carter, Trump supporter and founding partner of crypto investment firm Castle Island Ventures, to Politico: “It’s absolutely preposterous that he would do this. They’re plumbing new depths of idiocy with the memecoin launch.” Another lobbyist: “This is a horrible look for the industry already trying to make the case that we’re not a bunch of hucksters, scammers and fraudsters.”

    Well, congrats, cryptobros, you are now the latest zimzams to get flimflammed by the man who’d kick his grandma in the shins if it would make him a buck. At least he let your buddy Ross Ulbricht out of the can?

  206. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/what-if-hes-totally-full-of-sht-tabs

    I had trouble posting text from the link above. Something is triggering PZ’s filters.

    Anyway, at the link you’ll find a roundup of recent news reports, such as this one:

    Some news:

    Wonkette was able to figure out in real time that Donald Trump and MAGA were full of shit, and that it was Trump who caved to the president of Colombia, and not the other way around. Alas, the mainstream media is finally starting to pick up on it, far too late, after the damage is done. [Bloomberg] […]

  207. says

    Caroline Kennedy warns senators of ‘predator’ RFK Jr. in searing letter.

    Washington Post link

    Caroline Kennedy warned senators Tuesday about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling her cousin — now President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — a “predator” whose victims have ranged from family members to the parents of sick children.

    In a copy of a letter obtained by The Washington Post and sent to lawmakers ahead of Kennedy’s confirmation hearings to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the former ambassador to Australia alleges that her cousin, “addicted to attention and power,” has given hypocritical advice by discouraging parents from vaccinating their children while vaccinating his own children. She alleged that his “crusade against vaccination” has also served to enrich him.

    “I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together,” Caroline Kennedy wrote. “It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.”

    […] Caroline Kennedy goes on to claim in her letter that through “the strength of his personality,” other family members followed Kennedy “down the path of drug addiction.”

    “His basement, his garage, his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”

    She commended Kennedy for “pulling himself out of illness and disease” but lamented the “siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life.”

    Caroline Kennedy has been reticent to publicly comment on her cousin’s politics, and she told senators Tuesday that she only reluctantly is speaking up now.

    “I have never wanted to speak publicly about my family members and their challenges,” she wrote.

    She did not criticize him during the presidential campaign, but at an event in November at the National Press Club in Canberra, the capital of Australia, she dismissed her cousin’s views on vaccines as “dangerous” and said they did not reflect the views of “most Americans” and the rest of the Kennedy family.

    “I would say that our family is united in terms of our support for the public health sector and infrastructure and has the greatest admiration for the medical profession in our country, and Bobby Kennedy has got a different set of views,” Caroline Kennedy said at the time.

    In Tuesday’s letter, she cited a New York Times report that her cousin would keep his financial stake in litigation against a manufacturer of a vaccine that protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. The vaccine, which is administered to adolescents, can prevent cervical cancer.

    “In other words, he is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls,” Caroline Kennedy wrote. She also referenced her work in Australia working on the QUAD Cancer Moonshot, where she learned that cervical cancer is a top form of cancer among women in a majority of countries.

    Kennedy is among Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees. Former vice president Mike Pence and his conservative advocacy group have raised concerns about his past support for abortion. Several Republican senators, including Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), who chairs the Senate’s Health Committee, have said that he has wrongly questioned the safety of vaccines. Sen Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), a polio survivor, does not appear to have granted a meeting with Kennedy, raising questions about whether he will vote to confirm him, and other Republican senators have also not said where they stand on the nomination.

    To win confirmation, Kennedy can lose only three Republican votes if all Democrats vote against him.

    […] Protect Our Care, a Democrat-aligned advocacy group running a “Stop RFK” war room, has commissioned advertisements highlighting Kennedy’s visit to Samoa and meetings with anti-vaccine activists before an outbreak of measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, hit the island nation. 314 Action, another liberal advocacy group, unveiled new ads Monday that also focus on Kennedy’s rhetoric and Samoa’s outbreak.

    […] In her letter, Caroline Kennedy contrasted health-care researchers and scientists against her cousin’s record.
    “They deserve a Secretary committed to advancing cutting-edge medicine to save lives, not rejecting the advances we have already made. They deserve a stable, moral, and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency,” she wrote. “They deserve better than Bobby Kennedy — and so do the rest of us.”

  208. says

    🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨FIVE ALARM FIRE🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
    […] Trump’s corrupt retribution against the Justice Department is now fully underway, with a series of moves over the past 24 hours that in any other era would be the defining political and legal story of the age. Today, it didn’t even make the front page of the New York Times.

    – Trump’s acting attorney general sacked the career prosecutors who worked on the Trump prosecutions. Among those let go were Molly Gaston, J.P. Cooney, Anne McNamara, and Mary Dohrmann, NBC News reported.

    – Trump’s acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., a political lackey from Missouri, launched an investigation of the prosecutors who brought the criminal charges against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters.

    – DOJ’s most senior career official was sidelined by being moved to a department backwater. Separately, the DOJ official who oversaw the prosecution of public corruption, who had previously been reassigned to the same backwater, resigned rather than continue in a reduced role.

    The corrupt wholesale cashiering of career prosecutors who worked on the Mar-a-Lago and Jan. 6 cases against Trump was the most egregious of the corrupt acts, in defiant violation of the civil service rules and the rule of law. But the most absurd development was acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin’s purported investigation into why DOJ had pursued obstruction charges against Jan. 6 rioters. While the Roberts Court ultimately cut prosecutors legs out from under them, the obstruction charge was ratified by multiple federal trial judges and the DC Circuit before the Supreme Court held otherwise.

    If you were taking a measured approach to see how things played out once Trump took office, the waiting is over. It’s a five-alarm fire at the Justice Department. Ousting independent career prosecutors is just Step 1, a prelude to Step 2, which is using the Justice Department to protect Trump and his administration from accountability for their wrongdoing. Step 3 turns DOJ into a weapon against anyone who Trump perceives as less than fully loyal and obedient.

    The retribution is being exacted precisely as promised. As Joyce Vance put it: “The real witch hunt is here.” […]

    Link

  209. says

    Trump’s press secretary is the corrupt monster he’s always wanted

    At 27, Karoline Leavitt is the youngest White House press secretary since disgraced former President Richard Nixon picked 29-year-old Ronald Ziegler for the same position in 1969 (and the parallels are not lost on us).

    Leavitt hit the MAGA-atmosphere during the first Trump administration, where she worked as an assistant press secretary before leaving to become New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director.

    In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Leavitt made two social media posts that she has since erased: one that called the officer who tricked insurrectionists into going the wrong way, “A hero,” and another describing the insurrection as, “a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.” [That figures. She backtracked, did a 180 and then supported every corrupt thing Trump did.]

    Like her previous boss Stefanik, Leavitt has been willing to debase herself and pretend any pretense of a conviction she might have had about justice and our constitution was no match for a position in President Donald Trump’s orbit.

    A few months after Jan. 6, she was fully on board and promoting debunked election fraud claims on social media. [social media post and video at the link]

    In 2022, she ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in the First District of New Hampshire before folding herself back into Trump’s 2024 campaign for president.

    In the run-up to the election, Leavitt showed an almost unhinged ability to spin for Trump, unabashedly calling the Trump campaign “disciplined” after every disastrous press conference Trump gave.

    In August, she denied that Trump’s campaign had any connections to Project 2025. Here she is featured in a Project 2025 training video “The Art of Professionalism.” [video at the link]

    While Trump and others repeatedly promoted lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and elsewhere in 2024, Leavitt showed the kind of shamelessness Trump desires in a mouthpiece. During an appearance on CNN, Leavitt’s lies and inability to answer simple fact-checking questions ended with the interview being cut short.

    Since the election, and Trump’s announcement that Leavitt would be the next White House press secretary, Leavitt has continued her monomaniacal vigilance to create an alternative reality for her narcissist in chief. After Trump pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists, including seditious conspirators, Leavitt tried to downplay the negative response.

    “I don’t think it’s causing much controversy,” she told Fox News. “President Trump is restoring faith in our justice system,” she added.

    A recent investigation from NOTUS shows that about a week ago, Leavitt “amended” campaign filings from her failed 2022 congressional run. It reportedly shows that she failed to disclose, for years, at least $200,000 in “inappropriate donations.” It also shows that she still owes more than $300,000 in unpaid debts. Only the best conartists people.

    Leavitt will now join the ranks of other Trump press secretaries. That clowncar includes waste-of-space Sean Spicer, fancy-podium-hoarder Sarah Huckabee Sanders, afraid-of-the-press Stephanie Grisham, and world’s-worst-prognosticator Kayleigh McEnany.

    Leavitt seems a perfect fit for Trump, as her first press conference Tuesday will undoubtedly show: [video at the link]

  210. lumipuna says

    More on renaming the Gulf of Mexico (re: 63, 71)

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/google-maps-will-rename-gulf-of-mexico-as-gulf-of-america-in-us

    The new name alone is supposed to soon show up for Google Maps users in the US, while a dual name will show everywhere else, except Mexico (and possibly Cuba?), where the old name alone is shown. This policy is apparently meant to reflect the idea that the naming of the water body (presumably made sensitive by different political connotations of the names) is now contested between the surrounding nations. As I see it, this is a central part of what Trump and the MAGAhats want to gent out of the whole issue – starting a new geopolitical dispute just for the sake of being abrasive to foreigners.

    Explaining the different labels for the gulf in the US, Mexico and the rest of the word, Google added: “When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.”

    …

    Google has applied the same locale-based labelling conventions to other locations subject to naming disputes. Outside of Japan and South Korea, the body of water bordering both nations is listed as the “Sea of Japan (East Sea)”.

    In 2012, Iran threatened to take legal action against Google over its decision to drop the name Persian Gulf from Google Maps and leave the waterway between Iran and the Arabian peninsula nameless. The body of water is now labelled “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)” in other countries.

    It’s pretty clear that this policy is only meant to be consistently applied in cases where someone sues or otherwise pressures or threatens to pressure Google. The names Sea of Japan and Persian Gulf were established conventions in English-language geographical nomenclature, so there is a good reason to treat them as the default, at least for English-language interfaces outside of South Korea and Iran. They are indeed still treated as the primary/default name, but since South Korea and Iran complained, an alternative English name form is now shown in parentheses. As for the Gulf of Mexico, there is no local US tradition for the alternative name, and no one has complained on this issue yet, but you can bet someone influential would soon complain if Google didn’t comply in advance.

    (The name of Myanmar/Burma is also treated as contested – I think that’s between different political factions within the country that have varying levels of recognition abroad?)

    The above apparently also applies to other languages that traditionally use directly translated equivalents of Sea of Japan and Persian Gulf. I personally usually use the Finnish-language interface when browsing Google Maps, if only because my laptop/OS has Finnish set as the default language. Likewise, for Gulf of Mexico, it presumably won’t matter whether you browse the map in English, Spanish or some other language. Only your IP location will make the difference.

    For names that aren’t openly contested, anything goes and convention generally rules. For example, the Baltic Sea is called some variant of “Baltic Sea” in Baltic and Slavic languages, “Eastern Sea” in several Germanic languages plus Finnish and “Western Sea” in Estonian. That’s just counting the official or dominant languages in surrounding countries, analogous to English in the US and Spanish in the neighboring countries – presumably nobody cares what the Gulf of Mexico is called in local indigenous languages. Only one name form is presented in both English and Finnish map interfaces.

    Curiously, while the names in English and Finnish map interfaces (at least here in Finland) are usually presented only in Latin alphabet form (if such is available), localities in Russia are named in both Cyrillic and Latin form, without putting either in parentheses. The former is the standard Russian-language form. For English maps, the Latin form is usually the official latinized Russian form, except for some names that have commonly used English forms (such as the White Sea, as a direct translation for Beloye More). In Finnish language, numerous localities of northwestern Russia have more or less commonly used traditional name forms, that often differ from the Latin Russian form, including but not limited to territories ceded by Finland during WWII. These are used by Google Maps in the Finnish-language map interface, though I don’t know how it’d work outside of Finland.

  211. StevoR says

    A US judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s sweeping order to pause federal grants and loans.

    The White House earlier announced it would pause federal grants and loans while the administration conducted an across-the-board ideological review to uproot progressive initiatives.

    The order from US District Judge Loren L AliKhan came minutes before the funding freeze was scheduled to go into effect.

    It lasts until Monday afternoon, local time, and applies only to existing programs.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-29/us-judge-blocks-trump-bid-to-pause-federal-grants-loans/104870550

  212. Reginald Selkirk says

    1,900-Year-Old Papyrus Reveals Gripping Case About Roman Tax Fraud and Forgery

    In 2014, a researcher realized that the longest Greek papyrus ever found in the Judaean Desert was not what it seemed. The newly translated scroll reveals extraordinary details of a judicial hearing involving two men accused of crimes, including inciting rebellion on the eve of a massive revolt.

    Researchers in Austria and Israel have translated the longest Greek papyrus ever found in the Judaean Desert. Previously unearthed, misidentified, and then nearly forgotten, Hannah Cotton Paltiel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem rediscovered the papyrus in 2014. Now, Paltiel and her colleagues have translated the text, revealing it to be prosecutors’ notes for an ancient Roman trial from the early second century CE. The artifact provides unique insight into a case that dealt with tax fraud, forgery, and the fraudulent sale and freeing of enslaved people during a period of tension in the Roman province of Judaea…

    Sounds fascinating.

    “This is the best-documented Roman court case from Iudaea apart from the trial of Jesus,” said Avner Ecker, also a co-author from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Iudaea is another spelling for Judaea…

    Chucklefuck. Can’t let any classical research stand on its own, got to relate to teh Bibel. Does fictionalization count as “documentation” or not?

  214. says

    lumipuna @209: “As I see it, this is a central part of what Trump and the MAGAhats want to gent out of the whole issue – starting a new geopolitical dispute just for the sake of being abrasive to foreigners.”

    I agree. And it may also be for the sake of being abrasive and/or domineering to anyone who is not a MAGA cult follower. That includes me.

    Thanks for all the additional information.

  215. says

    NBC News:

    The number of tuberculosis cases linked to an outbreak in the Kansas City area continues to swell, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The outbreak, which began a year ago, killed two people in 2024, Jill Bronaugh, the health department’s communications director, said in an update Tuesday. As of Friday, at least 67 patients were being treated for active tuberculosis in Kansas.

  216. says

    Washington Post:

    A government-wide hiring freeze has led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to yank job offers to more than 200 new examiners, the front-line employees who closely monitor banks to ensure they operate safely and adhere to an extensive rule book.

  217. says

    A story to watch as it unfolds, and possibly bad news for another major newspaper.

    LA Times owner Soon-Shiong finds his MAGA whisperer

    The owner of the Los Angeles Times has been leaning on a veteran Republican who ran a pro-Trump PAC to shape the future of one of the West Coast’s biggest news organizations.

    The pharmaceutical billionaire who owns the publication, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, has publicly expressed a desire to revamp the editorial board, and he appointed Scott Jennings, CNN’s pro-Trump commentator, to a role with the paper. He’s also said he did not want to run a piece criticizing Trump’s nominees for Cabinet roles if the paper did not publish an opposing view as well. (The paper’s unsigned editorials this year have focused exclusively on the dominant local issue — the fires.)

    As part of the new strategy, Semafor has learned, Soon-Shiong recently enlisted Eric Beach to help recruit new voices to join the editorial board and a new opinion forum that the LA Times is forming that will sit alongside it.

    A veteran of California Republican politics, Beach ran Great America PAC, the pro-Trump super PAC that supported the Republican presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020, and paid a large FEC fine after accepting a contribution from undercover journalists from the Telegraph posing as representatives of a Chinese donor. Beach also worked to elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2000s.

    Soon-Shiong’s plans to reshape the paper’s opinion section remain slightly opaque, even to senior members of the newsroom. A Times insider told Semafor that Soon-Shiong is considering a host of national and California-based conservatives to join both the traditional editorial board and the opinion forum, and has interest in adding new media personalities on the left as well. The media newsletter Status reported last year that Soon-Shiong had invited Rob Schneider and Cheryl Hines to the office to pitch them on collaborating with the publication in some capacity. On X, Schneider teased an upcoming collaboration with the paper. It’s unclear whether Beach’s role is paid or simply informal and advisory. […]

  218. says

    Followup to comments 63, 71, 209 and 213;

    At least he didn’t name it “Gulf of Trump,” and then make us all pay him a branding fee.

  219. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scoop: Trump offering buyouts to all federal workers, source says

    The White House will issue a memo Tuesday offering to pay federal workers who don’t want to return to the office through Sept. 30, as long as they resign by Feb. 6, an administration official tells Axios.

    Why it matters: It’s an acceleration in President Trump’s already unprecedented purge of the federal workforce.

    Zoom in: “The government-wide email being sent today is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards. We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable,” a senior administration official tells Axios…

    Government jobs are jobs. Government spending is economic activity. Dismissing a large number of employees, even federal employees, is going to have a negative effect on the economy.

  220. says

    Donald Trump’s illegal Monday night order to freeze the disbursement of all congressionally appropriated federal funds will have sweeping negative consequences for millions of Americans, including unhoused veterans, seniors, and children. […]

    Reports about the negative impacts of Trump’s funding freeze came fast and furious on Monday, showing that the blanket pause on spending—which is illegal under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974—will not only hurt the most vulnerable, but it could also impede law enforcement operations.

    “Last night 500 pounds of meth were seized in Arizona thanks to federally funded programs that could see their funding paused under Trump’s unlawful order. This illegal action would seriously hamper the work of law enforcement agencies working to keep our communities safe,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes posted on Bluesky.

    Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, said on Bluesky that states are reporting that they are unable to access portals to Medicaid, which provides health care to more than 79 million low-income people across the United States.

    “Multiple states locked out of Medicaid portal. This is a Trump shutdown, except this time it’s unlawful,” he wrote.

    Sen. Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, issued a memo listing the possible impacts of the spending freeze, including cuts to state food inspectors, K-12 schools across the country, federal student loans, small business loans, and more.

    Meals on Wheels, which provides nutritious meals and companionship for 2.2 million seniors across the country every year, told HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney that “the uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they should be serving meals today. Which unfortunately means seniors will panic not knowing where their next meals will come from.”

    According to Huffpost, Head Start programs received communication from the Trump administration that payments could be delayed due to the freeze. Head Start provides preschool and other services to nearly 800,000 low-income children, and a freeze in payments could cause providers to be unable to make payroll for their employees.

    Jeff Stein, White House economics reporter for the Washington Post, reported that a Northern California nonprofit that assists unhoused veterans by helping get them off the streets and into shelters will be unable to provide those services if federal grants are shut off.

    “They are close to 100% funded by federal grants,” he wrote on X. “Official warned homeless veterans will get hurt if their grants are frozen, which they think appears likely under the OMB order.”

    Topher Spiro, an Office of Management and Budget official during the Biden administration, said that the funding freeze will also cut off opioid prevention funding, funding for the suicide lifeline, HIV/AIDS treatment, and grants to help states address the bird flu outbreak.

    In an attempt to stem the chaos created by its late-night memo, the Trump administration is now saying that the freeze is not across the board.

    In a memo obtained by Stein, Trump’s OMB said that the freeze is “expressly limited to programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President’s Executive Orders, such as ending DEI, the green new deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest.”

    The Green New Deal is not law, and thus no federal funds are tied to it.

    The original memo announcing the freeze was not clear, and the Trump administration’s attempt to clean it up is a sign that it feared public backlash from the insane and lawless order.

    “This is written in a very matter-of-fact way as if all this was clear from the original memo. It really was not,” NOTUS reporter Tara Golshan wrote on X.

    What’s more, in the first daily White House press briefing of the new Trump administration, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that organizations need to personally ask budget chief nominee Russ Vought, who has yet to be confirmed, to get funds—even though Congress already appropriated the money, and the law says that Trump can’t cut off funding just because he wants to. [video at the link]

    […] Despite the fact that this is blatantly illegal and will hurt millions, Republicans are shrugging their shoulders about the pause.

    “I think that’s normal practice at the beginning of an administration until they have an opportunity to view how the money is being spent,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters—a blatantly false statement. […]

    Link

  221. Reginald Selkirk says

    Man arrested with Molotov cocktails aimed to kill Treasury secretary at Capitol, police say

    A Massachusetts man arrested at the U.S. Capitol with Molotov cocktails and a knife told police he was there to “kill” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

    Ryan Michael “Reily” English, who turned himself in to U.S. Capitol Police at 3:12 p.m. ET on Monday, said he traveled to Washington, D.C., initially planning to kill Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and/or House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a police affidavit said.

    But English shifted his target to Bessent after stopping at a library in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and reading that the Senate was voting Monday on Bessent’s nomination as President Donald Trump’s Treasury chief, the document said.

    English contemplated throwing the Molotov cocktails at Bessent’s feet, according to the affidavit, which was filed in Washington, D.C., federal court. English also told police that if he were able to get close enough, he would have stabbed Bessent with a knife, the affidavit said.

    Bessent’s nomination was confirmed about three hours after English’s arrest..

  222. says

    Watch what they do, not what they say:

    A group of House Republicans on Monday introduced a bill that would ban medication abortion nationwide and impose a prison sentence of up to 25 years on anyone who dispenses the drugs, which are used in the majority of abortions across the country.

    “I’m taking a stand against the irresponsibility of the Democrats and working to protect women and girls across America,” Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, the lead sponsor of the bill, wrote in a news release. “I’m taking a stand for life because, born or unborn, every single person is uniquely and wonderfully made. It’s not merely a political issue; it’s a moral duty to uphold the sanctity of life. I am committed to safeguarding the innocent and voiceless in our society.”

    Ogles introduced the bill along with 18 other House Republicans, including Mary Miller of Illinois, who infamously declared that Adolf Hitler “was right on one thing”; Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who is against abortion but loves AR-15 rifles that are used to blow children to bits in school shootings; and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who believes teenagers should be paid below minimum wage.

    Republicans are targeting medication abortion even though 72% of Americans support it, according to a March 2024 Axios/Ipsos poll. Civiqs’ tracking poll also finds that 60% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

    Ogles’ proposed nationwide abortion-pill ban is a reversal of a position he took in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to allow states to ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

    At the time, Ogles said he believed abortion is a state issue and that he wouldn’t vote for a federal ban. […]

    Trump has made similar promises.

    “My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint,” Trump said in a lie-filled video address during the 2024 campaign. “The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land—in this case, the law of the state.”

    However, we shouldn’t take Trump’s word on anything.

    Since he was sworn in roughly a week ago, Trump has pardoned unrepentant anti-abortion activists who illegally blocked access to a health care facility that provided abortions. One of his pardons was for an activist who violently assaulted a facility employee.

    He also instructed the Department of Justice to stop enforcing the law that makes it illegal to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with someone “obtaining or providing reproductive health services” or to damage a facility “because such facility provides reproductive health.” And he reinstated the global gag rule, which blocks U.S. aid to foreign organizations that perform or discuss abortion care.

    Trump has broken other promises, too.

    He’s been hiring people connected with the right-wing Project 2025, and implementing Project 2025 policies—despite ridiculously claiming during the campaign that he had nothing to do with Project 2025. Project 2025 calls for banning medication abortion.

    During the campaign, Vice President JD Vance said Americans don’t trust Republicans on the issue of abortion.

    “My party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American’s people trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said during the vice presidential debate. [video at the link]

    Can’t imagine why!

    Link

  224. says

    New York Times link

    “Trump’s Order on Transgender Troops Will Likely Ban Their Service, Again”

    “In an executive order issued Monday night, the president said transgender service members ‘cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary’ for the military.”

    President Trump’s order did not offer evidence to back up its claims that the presence of transgender people harm the military’s ability to carry out missions.

    Hours after President Trump signed a darkly worded executive order targeting transgender service members, rights groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday saying that the ban violates the Constitution.

    The order framed transgender service members in harsh terms, saying the military had been “afflicted with radical gender ideology” that had crippled its effectiveness.

    The statement does not use the word “transgender” but appears to call for a ban on transgender people serving, saying that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

    The order authorizes the Defense Department to make rules that would effectively bar transgender troops by considering identifying as a gender other than the one assigned at birth as disqualifying for military service.

    “It really is the nuclear option, it is really as sweeping as can be,” said Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “The only impact this will have is to exclude service members who are otherwise qualified and meeting the same standards as everyone else.”

    The center, along with the GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, filed the suit challenging the ban on behalf of six active service members and two individuals who are seeking to enlist.

    One of the plaintiffs, Nicolas Talbott, 31, of Akron, Ohio, said he had just completed officer candidate school in Fort Moore, Ga., and had been looking forward to returning to his reserve unit this weekend.

    “My bag is all packed, I’m so excited to go and finally get to do this. And we get this memorandum and — it’s a bummer,” said Mr. Talbott, who is a second lieutenant.

    The first Trump administration in 2017 banned transgender recruits from joining the military and prevented active-duty troops from beginning to transition, but allowed troops who had already started to transition in uniform before the ban to continue to serve. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. overturned the ban in January 2021.

    This week’s order gives the Defense Department 30 days to shape the specifics of a new ban, and allows the military 60 days to implement them.

    It is unclear what shape the new policy will take, but transgender rights advocates say the order’s strident language suggests the Trump administration may be considering a total ban, which could lead to the discharge of thousands of active-duty troops.

    Many of those troops are senior personnel with years of expensive training. They are pilots, flight nurses, nuclear reactor supervisors, special operations medics, explosive ordnance disposal technicians, air-defense missile battery commanders and cyberwarfare planners — people who are hard to replace.

    There is no official count of how many transgender people currently serve in the military. In response to queries from The New York Times, the Defense Department and the military branches said they considered that data to be private as it pertains to an individual’s health care and there is no centralized tracking.

    The transgender service member advocacy group SPARTA Pride estimates there are 15,000 to 25,000 transgender troops serving, or slightly more than 1 percent of the force.

    Mr. Trump’s order says that defending the United States “requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos” — without defining that ethos — and that “the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”

    The administration did not offer evidence that the presence of transgender troops harmed the military’s ability to carry out missions, nor did it say how they harmed unit cohesion.

    Mr. Minter said the caustic language in the order may lead to its being found unconstitutional.

    “This language clearly shows unconstitutional animus toward a group of people,” Mr. Minter said. “In America, we’re not allowed to make laws against people just because we don’t like them.” […]

  225. says

    Russ Vought’s fingerprints are all over Trump’s new federal funding freeze

    “The Project 2025 architect has long argued in support of the president’s power to impound — that is, refuse to spend — funds allocated by Congress”

    A new memo issued by the Trump administration directing the federal government to temporarily cease disbursing billions of dollars in funds appears to draw on arguments made by Russ Vought, the president’s selectee to run the Office of Management and Budget.

    Vought was a primary architect of Project 2025, a sprawling effort organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide policy and staffing recommendations for President Donald Trump’s second term. In addition to that role, Vought is also the founder of the Center for Renewing America, a MAGA-aligned think tank that has spent over a year arguing that the president can unilaterally refuse to spend funds allocated by Congress, an authority known as the impoundment power that was severely curtailed by Congress in 1974.

    The new Trump administration memo was issued by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of OMB pending Vought’s confirmation vote. The document calls for federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.”

    “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo states.

    Although the two-page memo doesn’t use the term impoundment, law professor Steve Vladeck argued that the Trump administration is claiming “the unilateral power to at least temporarily ‘impound’ tens of billions of dollars of appropriated funds—in direct conflict with Congress’s constitutional power of the purse, and in even more flagrant violation of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.” […]

    Vought and his think tank pushed for a radical interpretation of the impoundment power for years prior to Trump’s election.

    In June 2023, Vought posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Making Impoundment Great Again!” Days later, the Center for Renewing America’s X account wrote that “the impoundment power is our secret weapon to totally dismantle the WOKE & WEAPONIZED federal bureaucracy.” The CRA post linked to a Real Clear Politics article quoting Vought as saying, “When you think that a law is unconstitutional” — referring to the Impoundment Control Act — the response should be to “push the envelope.”

    In July 2023, CRA senior fellow Jeffrey Clark — who as a DOJ attorney attempted to overturn the 2020 election by pushing a fake elector scheme at the end of Trump’s first term — appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room to argue against the Impoundment Control Act.

    “So what I’m working on, essentially, are the constitutional arguments for why that was wrong and various ways in which the Impoundment Control Act is just flatly unconstitutional,” Clark said. [video at the link]

    Vought continued to beat the drum months later.

    “The loss of impoundment authority — which 200 years of presidents enjoyed — was the original sin in eliminating the ability for a branch-on-branch to control spending,” Vought said the following February on Fox Business. [video at the link]

    In June 2024, the Center for Renewing America released a white paper arguing that the Impoundment Control Act — passed following President Richard Nixon’s refusal to spend funds for environmental, transportation, and educational priorities — is unconstitutional and a break with legal precedent. The authors of that paper later wrote articles for The Hill and right-wing blog The Federalist making similar claims.

    Vought highlighted the centrality of the impoundment power to his think tank’s project. “Why did we found the Center for Renewing America?” he wrote on X. “To write papers like this.”

    During Trump’s first term, he attempted to unilaterally withhold roughly $400 billion in foreign aid funding for Ukraine, leading to his first impeachment for violating the impoundment law.

    During Vought’s recent confirmation hearing to serve as director of OMB during Trump’s second administration — a job he also held during Trump’s first term — Vought refused to promise to follow the Impoundment Control Act on the grounds that both he and Trump believe it is illegal.

    Last August, Vought was filmed in an undercover video claiming that he and his Project 2025 collaborators had written “about 350 different documents that are regulations and things of that nature” in preparation for a possible Trump victory. He said in the video that one of his goals is to “end multiculturalism” in America.

    The OMB memo has triggered a massive reaction across the political spectrum. Bannon celebrated the move on War Room, while Senate Democrats are calling for a delay to Vought’s confirmation vote following the news. A former OMB official said the memo read like a “hostage note written directly by Russ Vought.”

  226. JM says

    ISW: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 27, 2025

    Ukrainian forces recently recaptured lost positions near Toretsk.
    Russian forces recently advanced near Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, and Kurakhove.
    The Russian government continues to expand the federal “Time of Heroes” program, which aims to install Kremlin-selected veterans into government positions, by creating similar programs for Russian veterans across government, including at the regional level.

    Russia is making more attacks with less overall progress then they have for most of the war but they continue to make piecemeal progress. The Russians seem really desperate in Kursk where they have made almost continuous small attacks. They want to push the Ukrainians out, likely because it makes their negotiating position much better.
    Inside Russia the government is expanding a program that replaces civilian officials with military veterans selected by the government. Which is to say that Putin is turning the country into a military dictatorship. This isn’t a good sign for Putin because it means the country is reaching the point where Putin doesn’t trust anybody. He doesn’t trust the military either but the knows the veterans are willing to take any order.
    Newsweek: North Korean Troops Pull Back From Frontline in Russia: Ukraine Military

    North Korean troops have pulled back from at least one section of the frontline in the Kursk region of Russia, according to members of Ukraine’s military.
    Sky News on Monday reported a Ukrainian special forces commander said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s servicemen fighting on behalf of Moscow had temporarily withdrawn from the Kursk frontline after suffering heavy casualties.

    It isn’t entirely clear why. It may just be casualties but it may be conflict between North Korean soldiers and Russian soldiers or the limited utility of the North Korean soldiers. In any case this is only one limited area and it’s know that North Korea is already shipping some more troops towards the front. A bunch of the new troops appear to be artillery corp, the North Korean army has vast units of somewhat outdated artillery. The plan may be to give them targets to hit while keeping them off the front line and away from Russians.
    Forbes: For Russian Forces In Ukraine, It’s Now Normal To Ride Into Battle In Compact Cars

    As reserves of armored vehicles run out amid catastrophic losses in Ukraine and western Russia, the Russian military is normalizing assaults in civilian cars. And not just any civilian cars, but Lada Zhigulis: compact models that are just 16 feet from fender to fender and weigh slightly more than one ton.

    A sign of just how bad things are going for the Russians. Troops are now going into combat in the Lada. There are not enough armored vehicles left and they can’t replace them fast enough. So anything available is being thrown in.

  227. JM says

    Navigating Russia: Russia’s Hidden War Debt

    Moscow has been stealthily pursuing a dual-track strategy to fund its mounting war costs. One track consists of the highly scrutinized defense budget, which analysts have routinely deemed “surprisingly resilient.” The second track—largely overlooked until now—consists of a low-profile, off-budget financing scheme that appears equal in size to the defense budget. Under legislation enacted on the second day of the full-scale invasion, the Kremlin has been compelling Russian banks to extend preferential loans to war-related businesses on terms set by the state.

    It’s an obvious idea that most countries use to some degree or another. Force banks to loan money to military industries during war. The scale of Russia’s operation is boggling though, with banks forced to loan money on a scale something like twice the official military budget. Even if Russia was to totally win the war there is no way all of that could be paid back.
    As it is the entire economy is beginning to crumble under the weight. Inflation continues to run rampant because of all of this loan money running into the economy. Essentially Russia has reached the point where they are just printing money to finance the war but doing it indirectly through loans. This is having the inevitable effect of driving inflation on an ever rising scale and driving more of the economy into the black market. The central bank wants to raise rates even higher to combat inflation but the government refuses to allow it and these military loans are being made at below market rate anyways.

  228. StevoR says

    @ 212. Dóh! Apologies for very rushed typing without checking spelling and thus typos. Doomsday Clock obvs.

    Official statement :

    In 2024, humanity edged ever closer to catastrophe. Trends that have deeply concerned the Science and Security Board continued, and despite unmistakable signs of danger, national leaders and their societies have failed to do what is needed to change course. Consequently, we now move the Doomsday Clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to catastrophe. Our fervent hope is that leaders will recognize the world’s existential predicament and take bold action to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, and the potential misuse of biological science and a variety of emerging technologies.

    In setting the Clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal: Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.

    @211.. Reginald Selkirk : ““This is the best-documented Roman court case from Iudaea apart from the trial of Jesus,” said Avner Ecker..”

    Wait, there are Roman documents – good ones – from the trial of Jesus?!

    News to me!

  230. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    DistroWatch

    Starting on January 19, 2025 Facebook’s internal policy makers decided that Linux is malware and labelled groups associated with Linux as being “cybersecurity threats”. Any posts mentioning DistroWatch and multiple groups associated with Linux and Linux discussions have either been shut down or had many of their posts removed.

    We’ve been hearing all week from readers who say they can no longer post about Linux on Facebook or share links to DistroWatch. Some people have reported their accounts have been locked or limited for posting about Linux. The sad irony here is that Facebook runs much of its infrastructure on Linux and often posts job ads looking for Linux developers.

    Unfortunately, there isn’t anything we can do about this, apart from advising people to get their Linux-related information from sources other than Facebook. I’ve tried to appeal the ban and was told the next day that Linux-related material is staying on the cybersecurity filter. My Facebook account was also locked for my efforts. We went through a similar experience when Twitter changed its name to X
    […]
    In an effort to continue […] We have RSS news feeds […] We also now have a Mastodon account where I will start to post updates […] our weekly newsletter […] we may also add news stories

     
    Randos’ commentary:

    not sure alienating a huge number of people who know far more about computers, networking, security, etc than the typical FB employee is really the smartest thing to do
    –
    to be fair… we *are* all cybersecurity threats.
    –
    Be Tux, do crime
    –
    So spyware started banning people for talking about software that can’t be monitored and controlled by the spyware company during a time our country has fallen to fascism?

  232. Pierce R. Butler says

    Lynna… @ # 223, quoting the NYT: … the president said transgender service members ‘cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary’ for the military.

    Help me out here: Transgender athletes are so proficient that their mere existence, regardless of actual results, threatens all sports – but TG troops are so substandard, even though they’ve passed all tests required for their military operations specialty, that they endanger the entire nation?

  233. Bekenstein Bound says

    Jim Acosta announces on air that he’s leaving CNN and says, “it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant … don’t give in to the lies.”

    … he says, while bowing down to a tyrant and giving in to the lies rather than staying on and keeping fighting for the truth.

  234. StevoR says

    @ ^ Pierce R. Butler : I know right! Just like immigrants are both gunna take veryone’s jobs and just sit around taking all the welfare all the time. Paradoxical huh?

    .***

    On the Allan Lichtmann live chat somone noted that Hegseth is a DUI hire. ;-)

  236. StevoR says

    Awful news unfolding from northern India and the Kumbh Mela Hindu religious festival – live updating BBC coverage here :

    Several worshippers are feared dead (seems to me like that’s going to be a massive undercount perhaps by hundreds – ed.) and many more are injured after a crush at the Kumbh Mela festival in northern India – although officials are yet to confirm how many casualties there are.

    The accident is believed to have happened when people who were sleeping by the riverbanks in Prayagraj were trampled on by other pilgrims who had taken a dip in the holy waters

    Officials had said up to 100 million people were expected to attend the biggest bathing day at the festival.

    Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cgq07z0yexvt

  238. says

    New segments from today have been posted at:
    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    Two segments:
    ‘Focus is power’: Trump doesn’t want you to pay attention to this. “Sensory bombardment, total attention domination […]” “Attention is the most valuable resource […]” “Focus is power […]” 6:46 minutes

    Trump funding freeze is ‘chaotically spiteful’
    “Straight out of Project 2025” [Chris Hayes reads from sources]: “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

    “[…] confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze. This is blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.” [quoting Senator Ron Wyden]

    80 million Americans use Medicaid.

    [Quoting Maxwell Frost] “Just got off the phone with a medical provider who accepts Medicaid. Because they are shut out from the Medicaid portal, they might not be able to make payroll. They exclusively serve low-income Floridians.”

    [Quoting Chris Van Hollen]: “Federal grants to help veterans in rural areas access health care, and grant to help veterans get other critical services, including suicide prevention resources, transition assistance, and housing for homeless veterans will be cut off.”
    10:13 minutes.

  239. says

    Contact your Representatives.

    United States Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

    “Public opinion didn’t disappear when Donald Trump got elected […]”

  240. says

    Trump administration offers roughly 2 million federal workers a buyout to resign
    Video at the link.

    “An email went out to the federal workforce Tuesday evening, with a subject line that had ties to Elon Musk.”

    […] Trump’s administration is offering federal workers the chance to take a “deferred resignation,” which would mean they agree now to resign but get paid through September.

    A senior administration official told NBC News that they expect 5%-10% of the federal workforce to quit, which, they estimate, could lead to around $100 billion in savings.

    All full-time federal employees are eligible, except for members of the military, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, positions related to immigration enforcement and national security and other jobs excluded by agencies.

    “American taxpayers pay for the salaries of federal government employees, and therefore deserve employees working on their behalf who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “If they don’t want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work, and the Trump Administration will provide a very generous payout of 8 months.”

    […] The email included a draft resignation letter for them to review. If a person wishes to resign, they will be able to reply with the word “resign.”

    The resignation period will begin Tuesday and go through Feb. 6.

    “If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce,” the email that will be sent to federal workers reads. “At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.”

    The email also tells workers that if they resign under this program, “you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason).”

    AFGE National President Everett Kelley sharply condemned the Trump administration’s email, saying it “should not be viewed as voluntary.”

    “The number of civil servants hasn’t meaningfully changed since 1970, but there are more Americans than ever who rely on government services,” Kelley said. “Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.”

    “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to,” he added.

    Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is now in charge of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, famously sent a similar email to employees shortly after he took over Twitter, which he renamed X, asking them to opt in to keep working at the company.

    White House officials wouldn’t say whether he was involved in the current effort. But the subject line of the email that will be sent to federal workers is: “Fork in the Road.”

    t’s the same subject line Musk used in that email to Twitter employees. And Musk now has a post pinned on X of an art piece he commissioned called “A Fork in the Road.”

    ‪Joyce White Vance‬ ‪@joycewhitevance.bsky.social‬

    This is a blatant effort to get career people to leave so Trump can replace them with loyalists. And, given his track record in his own business dealings, it’s not hard to imagine him looking for a way to renege once people are out.

    Yeah. The “generous payout” is likely to somehow disappear.

  242. StevoR says

    Further to #235 :

    ..if all legal voters were allowed to vote, if all legal ballots were counted, Trump would have lost the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Vice-President Kamala Harris would have won the Presidency with 286 electoral votes.

    And, if not for the mass purge of voters of color, if not for the mass disqualification of provisional and mail-in ballots, if not for the new mass “vigilante” challenges in swing states, Harris would have gained at least another 3,565,000 votes, topping Trump’s official popular vote tally by 1.2 million.

    Stay with me and I’ll give you the means, methods and, most important, the key calculations.

    Source : https://orlandoadvocate.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won-here-are-the-numbers/

    So as this is known – now what?

  245. birgerjohansson says

    …so, by having the Trump family to tea, Biden played into the myth of free and fair elections. Which is what I expect from “legacy” Democrats.

  246. birgerjohansson says

    Stephen Colbert 

    Autocratic Moves | Trump’s CDC Gag Order | Record High Egg Prices | Goodbye Groundhog?
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=a4DfuxFOmQA

    If they are going to do weather reveal parties like gender reveal parties, let’s do it the American way…and send fireworks into tinder-dry vegetation.

  249. Reginald Selkirk says

    Scientists Re-Create the Conditions That Sparked Complex Life

    Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab…

    Now, for the first time, researchers have watched the opening choreography of this microscopic dance by inducing endosymbiosis in the lab. After injecting bacteria into a fungus—a process that required creative problem-solving (and a bicycle pump)—the researchers managed to spark cooperation without killing the bacteria or the host. Their observations offer a glimpse into the conditions that make it possible for the same thing to happen in the microbial wild…

  250. Reginald Selkirk says

    Suspects in Recent Murders Are Two Young Computer Nerds That Reportedly Have Ties to a Techno-Cult

    Two separate murders have been blamed on a pair of young computer science students who, in addition to being accused of having ties to the same bizarre Bay Area tech-cult, may also be married, according to recent reports.

    Open Vallejo reports that Maximilian Snyder, 22, and Teresa Youngblut, 21, previously applied for a marriage license in Washington state, and are now both suspects in two separate murders that occurred over the past week in separate parts of the country.

    Snyder, described as a data scientist who had previously studied at the University of Oxford, has been accused of stabbing a man to death in Vallejo, California. The murder victim, Curtis Lind, previously had violent encounters with young people living on his property, Open Vallejo reports, though it doesn’t specify how—if at all—Snyder may have been tied to those people. Those people had “lived in box trucks on his Vallejo property and had stopped paying Lind during the pandemic-era rent moratorium,” the outlet notes. Why Snyder would have wanted to kill Lind isn’t known.

    Meanwhile, Youngblut is accused of shooting a Border Patrol officer to death during a traffic stop in Vermont. Youngblut was traveling with a German citizen named Felix Bauckholt, in Coventry, Vermont, when they were stopped by authorities. A gunfight ensued in which Bauckholt was killed and Youngblut allegedly shot one of the agents, David Maland, who later died of his injuries. Youngblut was also shot. A recent DOJ press release about Youngblut’s arrest says that she is charged with various firearm offenses for the incident involving Maland’s death.

    Open Vallejo reports that both Snyder and Youngblut’s social media accounts “display beliefs consistent” with a movement dubbed “Zizianism,” although “court records do not explicitly tie them to the ideology.” While the outlet notes a potential connection to the movement, it’s not exactly clear from the reporting what the connection is. Open Vallejo characterizes the Zizians as an “ideology centered on using scientific techniques to enhance human decision making,” though a better description might be “a bunch of Extremely Online wackos with radically bad ideas.” Indeed, online descriptions of the Zizian worldview make it sound pretty damn out there: it’s an apparent offshoot of the Rationalist movement, which is a (mostly) online movement that circulates around the LessWrong web forum…

  251. says

    Rachel Maddow’s A block segment has now been posted.

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

    Video is 10 minutes.

    “Trump goes too far: Zeal to dismantle federal government triggers public outrage

    Rachel presents headlines from across the country, including “red” states that voted for Trump.

    Ohio: “Millions in funding at risk as Columbus nonprofits scramble to deal with potential Trump pause.

    Oregon: “Oregon officials scramble to respond to Trump order freezing many federal funds.”

    Alaska: “Catastrophic for a state like ours: Alask governments, nonprofits react to federal grant funding freeze.”

    Florida: “Confusion in Miami over federal grant freeze […]”

    Idaho: “Idaho grant recipients scrambling for clarity after federal freeze.”

    Nebraska: “Nebraska officials assessing impact of very concerning Trump funding freeze order.”

    Illinois: “Illinois shut out of Medicaid as Trump enacts temporary freeze on federal funds.”

    Louisiana: “Trump’s order puts $700M in grants on pause for Louisiana schools.” etc.

    Rachel: “The bad news is bad. This is them dismantling the government. And it’s not because they think there’s a nice, smaller government in there that they’re trying to find […] This is them trying to get rid of the American system of government.”

    “The order demanded that the green new deal funding must stop. The green new deal is a year’s old piece of old legislation that never actually passed.”

    Stupidity mixed with cruelty … and with bumper-sticker Executive Orders that do not take the facts into account.

  252. says

    White House acknowledges truth about N.J. drones and it doesn’t make Trump look good

    […] there was a dramatic bruhaha in New Jersey and neighboring states last month related to drones. […] local residents saw the drones’ lights, grew concerned, contacted their elected officials, and a controversy soon followed.

    On Jan. 9, shortly before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump did what he usually does: He touted a conspiratorial vision. “I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration,” the Republican told reporters. “Because I think it’s ridiculous that they’re not telling you about what’s going on with the drones.”

    The Biden White House tried to explain to the public that there was no cause for concern, and the fears were unfounded, but Trump was apparently unconvinced.

    Trump predictably failed to keep his promise about delivering a report on the first day of his second term, but as NBC News reported, his administration did look into the matter and eventually got around to sharing its conclusions.

    The mysterious drones that caused alarm among many New Jersey residents last year were in large part authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said Tuesday. […]

    “This was not the enemy,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary told reporters, reading a statement she said came from the president.

    “The drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” she added. “Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity.”

    Or put another way, when Trump said that it was “ridiculous” that “they” were hiding the truth, his accusations were baseless.

    But before the political world moves on, it’s worth pausing to note that the Republican president was hardly the only irresponsible voice. Media Matters, for example, recently noted that assorted far-right media figures who promoted bizarre ideas related to last month’s drone sightings, including comments about space aliens.

    And then, of course, there was Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who thought it’d be a good idea to tell the public that the drones might have been “linked to a missing Iranian mothership,” creating “a national security crisis.”

    When officials at the Department of Defense said that Van Drew was wrong, the GOP congressman accused the Pentagon of hiding the truth. […]

  253. says

    Iowa Democrats flip Senate seat in special election to cut into Republican majority

    Iowa Democrats have flipped a state Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Chris Cournoyer, who resigned to become the state’s new lieutenant governor.

    Democrat Mike Zimmer has defeated Republican Kate Whittington in the special election for Senate District 35.

    According to unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State’s website, Zimmer won with 52% of the vote to Whittington’s 48%.

    […] “Mike Zimmer’s victory in Senate District 35, which President Trump won in November with nearly 60% of the vote, is a clear rejection of the Republican agenda led by Kim Reynolds and the Senate Republicans that have failed Iowans,” Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner said in a statement. […]

    Good news. This is at the state level in Iowa, but I think it may still resonate s national news.

  254. says

    Team Trump’s revenge tour now includes retired Gen. Mark Milley

    “A pardon will prevent Donald Trump and his allies from prosecuting the retired general, but the administration is going after Mark Milley in other ways.” Video at the link.

    […] Within hours of his presidential inauguration, Trump complained publicly about the pardon his former handpicked chairman of the joint chiefs of staff received. Soon after, the White House directed the Pentagon to take down a portrait of Milley. The next morning, Trump fired Milley from an advisory panel.

    Each of those steps were, of course, petty and largely inconsequential. They left little doubt that the retired general was on Trump’s mind, but the moves did little more than make the president look small.

    They were, however, just the initial steps from Team Trump. NBC News reported:

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley that he is revoking his security detail and clearance and ordering a review of the retired general’s conduct to see whether his rank should be re-evaluated, the Pentagon said. Hegseth, whose first day at the Pentagon was Monday, directed the Defense Department’s inspector general to look into ‘the facts and circumstances’ surrounding Milley’s conduct ‘so that the Secretary may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,’ Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said.

    For good measure, according to multiple published reports, the Pentagon is also taking down a different Milley portrait, recognizing him as a former chief of staff of the Army.

    […] In the not-too-distant past, Trump was content to target the retired general with juvenile taunts, calling Milley a “dumbass,” a “stupid person” and an “idiot.” But in late 2023, Trump went much further, falsely accusing Milley of having committed a “treasonous act” in the wake of Trump’s 2020 defeat.

    “[I]n times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

    The underlying accusations were completely bonkers, though Milley felt the need to take “adequate safety precautions” to protect his family in the wake of the Republican’s radical offensive. […]

  255. says

    […] Amid chaos over everything from Medicaid access to scientific research to HIV treatment abroad, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., put a hold on the Trump administration’s abrupt spending freeze.

    In a sign that the White House power grab had exceeded its reach, it was forced to issue a follow-up memo midday that purported but mostly failed to offer clarity.

    At heart, the move was not about spending but about control. The White House press secretary gave away the game when she told reporters that the door was open for departments and agencies to make direct appeals for exemptions from the freeze to Russell Vought, Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed nominee to run OMB. [Well that will give Trump and Vought an opportunity to lift the freeze for loyalists and to retain the freeze(s) to punish others whenever possible.]

    It’s a practical impossibility for the White House to directly approve every expenditure in the vast federal government, but Trump’s transactional orientation to power is as clear as it is unconstitutional: Every government service, benefit, and contract is a thing of value that he’ll dangle as inducement for things he wants. […]

    Link

  256. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 250

    “The order demanded that the green new deal funding must stop. The green new deal is a year’s old piece of old legislation that never actually passed.”

    Yes, but it rallied the rank-and-file right wing chuds who HATED it and they have very long memories. Hell, they’re still livid of freaking Jane Fonda’s Vietnam trip!

  257. says

    Compelling Mass Civil Servant Resignations Will Create Chaos

    Elon Musk’s role at Twitter represents a Rorschach test for how people think he will fare in restructuring government. For fans, he was able to cut the majority of the employees, and the site continued to run more or less as before. For detractors, the site became unusable, Twitter lost most of its value, and failed to deliver what Musk promised in terms of services and experience as it was converted into a vehicle to further his and Trump’s political goals.

    We should worry then about the severance offer — which is actually an invitation to make a “deferred resignation” — that was sent out to almost all federal employees. As Ken Klippenstein points out, the offer mirrors what Elon Musk offered to employees when he took over Twitter, all the way down to the metaphor of a “fork in the road.” [screengrabs at the link]

    For the last week, federal employees have seen wave after wave of announcements that has made their job less secure and the prospect of staying with the federal government less appealing. One federal employee I spoke with compared it to going through the seven stages of grief.

    In this context, a severance offer looks like a rare carrot after a lot of stick.

    For feds who value remote work, and are told they must return to the office full time, this exit offer will be attractive. For those who suspect they will be fired in the future (such as those being put on administrative leave currently), this will be attractive. For those who did not sign up to be political appointees, but will be forced to do so, this will be attractive. For those worried they might be forcibly relocated, reassigned to duties inconsistent with their skills, or otherwise put in work conditions that compel them to resign, this will be attractive. For those who can expect increasingly worse material work conditions in terms of pay and benefits, this will be attractive. For those who cannot see themselves dealing with four years of being abused by their employer, engaging in illegal actions, or serving an administration that seeks to undermine the mission that attracted them to public service, this will be attractive. [Unfortunately true.]

    […] The draft resignation letter shared by OPM includes the phrase that “I am certain of my decision to resign and my choice to resign is fully voluntary”. On the other hand, employees are also told by OPM “we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency.” So, fully voluntary, if you ignore the gun being held to their head. Fully voluntary, when the alternative is a toxic workplace.

    The offer is not as good as it sounds

    Some details about the offer. To accept the offer, employees must respond by February 6. The resignation offer specifies: “If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025.” An FAQ on the topics says: “Except in rare cases determined by your agency, you are not expected to work.”

    The draft resignation letter employees would be committing to amounts to a lot less:

    I understand my employing agency will likely make adjustments in response to my resignation including moving, eliminating, consolidating, reassigning my position and tasks, reducing my official duties, and/or placing me on paid administrative leave until my resignation date.I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition during my remaining time at my employing agency. Accordingly, I will assist my employing agency with completing reasonable and customary tasks and processes to facilitate my departure.

    To be clear: employees are not being offered a buyout or severance package. […]

    For media, it is important not to report this as a buyout and severance package, since this might mislead federal employees who have to make a big decision, and the public watching them do it. Don’t adopt misleading framing pushed by the White House!

    Their office *may* decided to lighten their workload, or put them on paid administrative leave, but there is no guarantee of that. They remain federal employees. This makes it difficult for such employees to seek other formal work in the meantime, since their federal employer could call them to complete a full work week at any time. [True.]

    Federal employees should be both confused and concerned. The email server that is sending out these out may not even be an official OPM server. [Bluesky post at the link]

    […] In particular, we have not seen confirmation from the Office of Management and Budget that the offer will be honored. If this is Elon’s employees making a DOGE play, not coordinated with OMB or even other parts of OPM, the offer may be as credible as a random Musk tweet.

    Trump has a reputation for reneging on payments to people who worked for him. Musk is also being sued by former executives and employees for failing to honor their Twitter compensation packages. These are not honorable men, bound by their word. Senator Tim Kaine made this point. [Video at the link]

    […] There are some reasons for skepticism. There is a dollar limit for Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments, or buyouts, is $25,000 which for most employees would be much less than the value of approximately seven months pay. This is why the offer is structured as paid administrative leave. But as noted above, paid administrative leave is not a real severance, and leaves the power in the hands of the employer to revoke the offer at any point. Another seemingly basic problem with the use of administrative leave here, and its use to remove DEI employees, is that employees are not supposed to be put on such leave for more than 10 days per year. Administrative leave is intended to be a short term solution to problems, not a means to get people out of the office indefinitely, or to create no-show jobs. [True]

    Employers would be making a gentleman’s agreement, where they assume all of the risk […]

    […] Inspectors General might reasonably query whether paying people to not work represents a waste of government resources. Federal supervisors dealing with a wave of exits will be within their rights to tell those who have signed resignation letters that they need to continue to contribute until the day they leave.

    […] Whatever the offer means for federal employees, it is unquestionably bad for you as a member of the public. […] Lower administrative capacity affects us all.

    As I’ve noted before, the federal government does not have an large number of employees in historical terms. [Graph at the link]

    As an employer, the biggest HR problem for the government is in hiring people, not firing them. The people deciding that a downsizing is necessary are a) Trump, who deeply distrusts government, b) Trump supporters who oppose core missions of government, c) Silicon Valley types who have come to view government, especially its regulatory component, as the enemy. These are not people who care deeply about state capacity, and many have little real sense of what government does. […]

    In the midst of massive uncertainty, the federal government is encouraging the employees with the best skills to exit public service. The Trump administration is making no meaningful effort to sort out high and low performers, or to manage the outflow of staff. What if the most knowledgable employees decide to go? […]

    […] The New York Times was admirably blunt about the effects on large-scale departures of federal employees:

    Regular activities like traveling, renewing passports or filing for a tax return could be delayed or disrupted. The operation of national parks and museums, and the administration of benefits like Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ care and food stamps could also be affected. Regulators and inspectors for food, water, drugs and workplace safety could also leave the government. Among the government employees who could turn in their resignations are skilled researchers and doctors; environmental, nuclear and rocket scientists; and meteorologists at the National Weather Service. Depending on how the Trump administration defines “national security,” officers at law enforcement agencies like the F.B.I. and Drug Enforcement Administration may also resign.

    […] I can certainly empathize with their temptation to leave, even as I caution them to read the fine print. As a taxpayer, I am furious that the federal government is taking such a half-assed approach to managing the people who provide the services we all rely on.

  259. says

    […] “After two days at our House Republican winter retreat [at Trump’s crappy resort in Doral, Florida], we still do not have a plan on budget reconciliation and our Speaker and his team have not offered one. Not even if we are in a one bill or two bill framework, even though President Trump (who prefers one big beautiful bill) literally told us here at the start of our conference that he now does not care if it’s one or two,” Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a lengthy post on X.

    Republicans want to use a process called budget reconciliation to pass Trump’s agenda of cutting taxes for the rich and deporting part of the country’s workforce. Budget reconciliation allows the Senate to bypass the filibuster (which requires 60 votes) and advance legislation with a simple majority, thereby letting the GOP pass Trump’s agenda without having to earn a single Democratic vote.

    But budget reconciliation has a major caveat: Bills passed through this procedural method cannot add to the deficit past a 10-year cutoff. (That is why much of the legislation that passes this way sunsets after 10 years.) That means Republicans have to find a way to pay for the massive tax cuts for the rich and Trump’s expensive deportation plans. [Uh-oh]

    In order to do that—and line the pockets of the wealthy—Republicans have proposed making cuts to programs that help working-class Americans.

    Some of the GOP’s proposed cuts have leaked, and they include cutting food stamps and school lunch programs for needy children, imposing work requirements to receive Medicaid, taxing scholarship money, eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction (which would make it more expensive to own a home), ending tax credits for child and dependent care, and making work commutes more expensive by allowing for employer transportation benefits to be taxable, among other things.

    Agreeing on what cuts to make should be the hard part for the GOP and its extremely narrow majority.

    So the fact that Republicans can’t agree on the basic idea of whether to split the tax cuts and deportation plan into two bills is a bad sign for the party’s ability to pass the legislation down the road.

    At a news conference Wednesday morning, as Republicans were set to leave the retreat, House Speaker Mike Johnson told people not to worry, he’s got things under control, saying Republicans are “right on schedule.” [Baghdad Bob]

    But even Greene isn’t buying that.

    “I very much want House Republicans to be successful, all of us, with our razor thin majority. Next time we meet, I hope to know a framework of our plan and I hope this doesn’t turn into another bill with thousands of pages dumped on us with less than 72 hours to read it all before we have to vote on the eve of another government shutdown,” she wrote in her post. “But why would I expect different?”

    Ultimately, it appears the only thing Republicans accomplished at their three-day retreat is lining Trump’s pockets. By holding the three-day event at his resort in Doral, Florida, Trump personally profited—a disgusting violation of ethics. (Just six years ago, The Washington Post reported that the resort was in “steep decline.”)But for Greene, throwing money at Trump was the one benefit of the getaway.

    “I would normally complain about spending money that didn’t accomplish anything, but we stayed at Trump Doral, which is a phenomenal resort, and the weather was sunny and in the 70’s,” Greene wrote, giving a nice little plug for Trump’s shitty resort near the Miami airport. [sucking up to Trump]

    Link

  260. says

    Trump ramps up war on civil rights

    On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump fired two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, potentially hobbling a federal agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws.

    Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, who were appointed by Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, were let go before their terms were set to expire. Without their presence on the EEOC board a quorum cannot be reached and the agency will be unable to carry out many of its duties.

    “Removing me, along with Commissioner Samuels, well before the expiration of our terms is unprecedented and will undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws,” Burrows said in a statement.

    She also said she would “explore all legal options available to me.”

    The EEOC was formed in 1965 in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. It is tasked with investigating allegations of discrimination across a wide swath of issues including race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.

    The agency’s web page detailing what type of discrimination is against the law has been removed. The page was intact on Jan. 7, when the Biden administration was in power. […]

    Example of EEOC action at the link.

  261. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Trump’s border czar whines that many immigrants are smarter than ICE

    “Sanctuary citizens are making it very difficult to arrest the criminals. For instance, Chicago, very well-educated. They’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE. I’ve seen many pamphlets from many NGOs: ‘Here’s how you escape ICE from arresting you’; ‘Here’s what you need to do.’ They call it ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it ‘How to escape arrest.'”

    Homan is referring to the city’s Know Your Rights campaign, launched by Mayor Brandon Johnson. […] The information is posted on video screens throughout the city’s public transit system.

    Czar admits his goal is illegal arrests.

  262. birgerjohansson says

    Jimmy Kimmel Live :
    ‘Jabba The Pizza Hutt’
    “Trump Saves California with WATER, Plans to Build an Iron Dome & People Want Trump On Mount Rushmore?”

    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=RmgxMqeW0TI
    Also, deSantis is up north reminding people why he was no substitute for Trump.

  263. says

    Trump press secretary leans on friendly right-wing media in first briefing

    While […] Trump wreaks havoc in the White House, one of his most trusted cronies announced plans to introduce new changes to the briefing room.

    In her first press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced plans to allow “new media voices” to attend her press conferences. Notably, that could include anyone ranging from TikTok content creators to podcasters to reporters from conservative news outlets […]

    […] She added that the White House will now “encourage anybody in this country, whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, [or] podcaster,” who is creating “legitimate news content, no matter the medium,” to apply for White House press credentials.

    […] According to the New York Post, several right-wing media personalities—including those from One America News Network, Real America’s Voice, and Steve Bannon’s War Room—were among the first to ask questions.

    The changes announced on Tuesday come after Trump practically declared war against the mainstream media. […]

    Karoline Leavitt is so hard to watch. More smug than Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a smoother and more blatant liar than Sean Spicer, and more of a blonde-beauty-sucking-up-to-Trump than Kayleigh McEnany. Younger, perhaps even dumber than we expected, but extremely manipulative when it comes to what the public hears (as in preferring questions from rightwing doofuses).

  266. says

    I work in municipal transportation and run my small city’s public transit system. I spoke with my FTA contact today about whether we should go ahead and apply for reimbursement on expenses. It was a lighthearted conversation and I joked that I wasn’t too worried about our federal funding, as we operate public transit and weren’t in the business of advancing “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering.” They suggested I could go ahead, but no guarantees on how quickly we could get reimbursed on the funds, though they are already obligated to us by the federal government.

    A short while later they called me back with a complete change in tone, saying they were concerned I had recorded the call and to stress that they hadn’t consented to such recording. They went on to say they had spoken to their supervisor, who urged them to call me back and tell me they should not have spoken so casually about the situation. I assured them I had most definitely not recorded the call and they had absolutely nothing to fear from me. I said this several times and we hung up. I realized minutes later they must have heard me on my loud clackety keyboard (I’m always multitasking) during the first call.

    I called back and when they answered the phone it was clear they were crying. CRYING. I explained that the clicking they had heard was my keyboard, not a recording device, and they thanked me over and over, clearly relieved at the explanation.

    This person is a low level bureaucrat whose job it is to track grants and payments for transit agencies. AND THEY WERE AFRAID. Not just for their job, but for their personal safety. I can’t get over it. They don’t make jobs more innocuous in the federal government, yet my contact is afraid of what would happen if … what? Will they continue to wonder if I will rat them out for being insufficiently loyal? Will they always be looking over their shoulder now?

    I am at a loss to describe my rage and despair. And for what? […] the evil soul of one sad insecure little man-child. I will struggle to sleep tonight.

    Link

    That’s a good example of the conditions that Trump and Musk have created.

  267. says

    23 Democratic attorneys general sue Trump over chaotic funding shutdown

    The Trump administration’s unprecedented, sweeping freeze on $3 trillion in federal grants and aid sent shockwaves through vulnerable communities and every level of government on Tuesday, but Democratic attorneys general quickly banded together to fight back. Twenty-three states filed a lawsuit just minutes after U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the freeze Tuesday afternoon. The administrative stay pauses the action until Monday, according to the Associated Press.

    Donald Trump’s latest stunt would have halted essential programs like Medicaid and Head Start, which are vital lifelines for low-income communities who rely on them for school meals, health care, and early childhood education. The funding freeze also jeopardizes critical education initiatives like Pell Grants and ESSA funding, which help students access college, and child care block grants that support working families.

    Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii announced on Tuesday that health care providers in multiple states had been locked out of the Medicaid portal, essentially blocking Medicaid payments and jeopardizing medical treatment.

    “This is a Trump shutdown, except this time it’s unlawful,” he wrote on BlueSky. […]

    A mere four hours after the funding freeze first made headlines, Democratic attorneys generals from six states held a press conference to announce they were forming a multistate coalition to sue the Trump administration over the shutdown. Filed late Tuesday, the lawsuit seeks an immediate court order to stop the policy’s enforcement and keep funds flowing and was brought by Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James called Trump’s order “reckless, dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional.”

    […] Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha emphasized that Trump’s shutdown affects everyone, not just the vengeful president’s perceived political enemies.

    “If you drive on a road, you’re impacted,” Neronha said. “If you get health care, you’re impacted. If your children are being educated, you’re impacted. If you believe in public safety, you’re impacted. If you’re a man or woman in blue, and all of you who are protected by them, you’re impacted.”

    Some of Trump’s reliable Republican cronies were quick to defend the brazen move, including Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia, who defended the decision to take school meals away from children during a Tuesday interview with CNN.

    McCormick said those kids should work for McDonald’s instead of “sponging off the government.” [FFS]

    […] Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced that the House Democratic Caucus will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to strategize about how to challenge Trump’s order in court and what message to communicate to constituents.

    “Republicans are ripping off hardworking Americans by stealing taxpayer dollars, grants, and financial assistance as part of their corrupt scheme to pay off billionaire donors and wealthy corporations,” Jeffries said in a statement. “The Republican Rip Off will raise the cost of living for the working class, while hurting children, seniors, veterans, first responders, houses of worship and everyday Americans in need.”

  268. JM says

    CNN: White House rescinds federal aid freeze

    The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded the federal aid freeze, according to a memo obtained by CNN from a Trump administration official.
    “OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel,” the memo reads.

    The White House blamed the reverse on the media causing confusion but that is just silly. If the memorandum was vague enough that the press could cause confusion that quickly then it was very badly written. It’s far more likely because of some combination of realizing they had reached too far too fast on presidential power, the number of lawsuits being raised and the number of Republican politicians complaining.

  269. says

    JM @267, Ha! Public response worked! No matter how the Trump administration tries to spin the federal aid freeze, everyone knows they fucked up big time.

    In other news, here are some excerpts from Wonkette’s live coverage of Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s confirmation hearing:

    […] Mike B made an opening statement, it was blah blah. Now Ron Wyden making his opening statement. Old white Democrat man. Opens by saying RFK has embraced quacks and conspiracy theories, especially on vaccines, and has made lots of money off it. (cf. Caroline Kennedy’s letter above) [Caroline Kennedy’s letter is available at the link]

    10:09: What is that sound, is it the worm in Robert F. Kennedy’s brain breathing? Is it not dead? Does he just heavy breathe like Jabba the Hutt? Does he have the leaky brain? (He believes WiFi gives people a condition he made up called “leaky brain.”) Is this what leaky brain sounds like? […]

    10:17: Kennedy opening statement. Introduces whichever family members who don’t think he’s a disgusting predator.

    10:18: Hahahaha, GROSS, why is Megyn Kelly there over his burping right shoulder?

    Vile sickos and freaks everywhere.

    10:23: Kennedy lies and says he’s not anti-vax. Some people […] ineffectively starts yelling and saying he’s lying. Nothing about the result of the hearing will change as a result. He just lied again, and again. Keeps saying he’s not anti-vax.

    10:25: Kennedy says he gets on his knees every morning and prays for God to help him make America’s children healthy or something. Guess he doesn’t do that prayer for Samoan kids with measles.

    […] Kennedy says people should be able to get Big Macs and Twinkies, but they should know they are unhealthy.

    […] Anyway, Wyden, now bringing receipts on how freakishly anti-vax Kennedy is, times he’s said “No vaccine is safe and effective.” Kennedy is trying to explain how all the times he’s said that in the past don’t count and are lies.

    Wyden: “You have a history of trying to take vaccines away from people.”

    (He tried to take the COVID vaccine away.) [More embedded links are available at the main link]

    […] 10:33: Kennedy is mad because apparently we all have it wrong about the evil he committed in Samoa. (Link above.)

    10:34: WYDEN: Is measles deadly, yes or no?

    KENNEDY: I will now explain how I exploited a tragic situation in Samoa for my own sicko conspiracy theory reasons. You’re all wrong! It’s all lies!

    We note that it’s easy to get RFK to act : craaaaaaazay. We are like six seconds into this hearing.

    10:37: KENNEDY: I love vaccines! I love the measles vaccine! I love the polio vaccine! I love vaccines so much if vaccines were a dead whale I would put them on the roof of my car!

    WYDEN: People should probably read your shitty measles book.

    Now it’s Chuck Grassley’s turn to tell us if he knows where he is.

    10:40: This is just a five-minute Grassley monologue about his Corn Concerns. No questions.

    10:42: Kennedy affirms that he agrees with the five minutes of Corn Concerns.

    […] we skip to Republican John Cornyn.

    10:44: Why do Republicans think 320,000 migrant children are missing and being sex trafficked in the United States, and is that true? You will be shocked to learn that um not really.

    Anyway, Kennedy is going to find them.

    10:47: It’s funny that John Cornyn is talking about how awesome PEPFAR is, considering how Donald Trump’s little “delete the US government” stunt canceled distribution of HIV medications worldwide, and they only fixed it because of the screaming outrage from literally fucking everyone. (Reminder: screaming outrage works.) [True!]

    […] Can somebody give them a class on how to humiliate one of these motherfuckers in the first hour before everybody turns off the TV?

    10:51: BENNET: Did you say COVID was a bioweapon that targets Black and white people but spares Ashkenazi Jews?

    KENNEDY: I was just reading science!

    BENNET: Did you say Lyme Disease is a bioweapon?

    KENNEDY: Probably!

    BENNET: Did you say pesticides make children transgender?

    KENNEDY: No!

    BENNET: We’ll enter it in the record! Did you say African AIDS is different from other kinds of AIDS?

    KENNEDY: Ummmmm (He has extremely weird views on HIV/AIDS.)

    BENNET: We’ll enter it in the record! Do you love abortion?

    KENNEDY: Every abortion is a tragedy!

    BENNET: Fuck off.

    […] Bennet is yelling at this freak. And that quick pivot to how much he loves abortion was fun for fucking with Republicans.

    11:00: Bill Cassidy tries to make it like this is a normal hearing about “Medicaid” and “Medicare.” Kennedy lies and says people don’t like the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid, but that they love private insurance. (Hahahahahahahahahahaha, is that what they love?)

    11:01: Mark Warner makes a joke about how if Trump was going to replace the ACA with something, we might have seen it by now. Kennedy tries to answer, Warner tells him to fuck off.

    WARNER: Was your campaign grifting off of Trump’s government freeze?

    KENNEDY: Burp burp campaign no exist!

    WARNER: Sombody’s grifting for you LOL.

    KENNEDY: Heavy breaths.

    11:04: WARNER: You said you want to get rid of 2,200 people from HHS. Which parts of it do you want to cut?

    […] 11:09: Republican James Lankford, […] they are talking about abortion. Kennedy says again that “every abortion is a tragedy,” and that we can’t have a moral nation if we have all these abortions every year. Babbles the conspiracy theories Trump believes about “late-term abortions.”

    Basically Kennedy has decided he’s an anti-abortion activist because that’s the direction his grifting has taken him these days.

    11:13: […] The point is that Mifespristone is safe. Lankford is insinuating conspiracy theories that say otherwise. Kennedy is totally willing to go along with this bullshit.

    Here comes Sheldon Whitehouse. Let’s see what he does, since they were law school buddies.

    11:16: WHITEHOUSE: “You frighten people.” Says if he wants to have people’s trust he’s going to have to disavow literally everything he’s ever said about vaccines.

    11:19: Whitehouse is listing all kinds of senseless and stupid CMS bureaucracy problems, which is all cool but is that a good use of these five minutes? Kennedy looks bored. Whitehouse did not ask one question.

    We repeat our call for new Democrats who aren’t old white men.

    11:22: Steve Daines […] is also lying and making false insinuations about the safety of Mifepristone, because they’re going to fuck this chicken until it’s dead. Kennedy agrees that he will go along with whatever anti-abortion bullshit chickenfucking, but just says he will do whatever Donald Trump says.

    11:27: Maggie Hassan. Reminds Kennedy that people love Medicaid and are alive today — including people struggling with addiction — because of Medicaid.

    Moves on to Kennedy’s conspiracy theories, talking about how vaccines are great, says she’s worried he will “exploit parents’ natural worries” and convince them not to vaccinate their children. “There is no reason for any of us to believe” that he’s changed what he’s believed for 25 years.

    Hassan says she’s glad Kennedy loves abortion so much, just like she does. Pulling out receipts of all the times Kennedy has said nice things about abortion.

    Hassan says it’s great that all her pro-life Republican colleagues are so excited to vote for such an abortionista.

    11:31: Kennedy starts babble-burping again that “every abortion is a tragedy.” Says it twice. Hassan’s question is when he sold out […]

    Hassan holds up a stack of a million studies showing that Mifepristone is safe.

    […] Catherine Cortez Masto starts out, wants to know what Kennedy will do about states where people who need medically necessary abortions can’t get them because of fascist state laws. Does federal law provide for that? Does federal law preempt state law? He ain’t know, because he’s a moron.

    Can he as HHS director make sure hospitals getting money from Medicare will provide emergency abortion care? (She’s talking about EMTALA. He doesn’t know what EMTALA is.)

    11:43: Whole bunch of babbling about how RFK, who has no medical training and really no discernible medical knowledge, definitely no expertise, has been asked by Trump to end the chronic disease epidemic. The mouthbreather supporters in the room cheer for him. He thinks bumblefucking his way around this issue is his only job at HHS.

    11:47: […] Ron Johnson begins. He is appalled that Democrats won’t support RFK’s work in solving All The Problems. Also he is appalled that Democrats won’t support this Totally Normal Guy From The Left named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to find out what causes autism.

    […] Why did China invent autism in a lab in the year 2019? Ron Johnson holds up a bunch of letters from what we guess are some total wingnut “medical” organizations who support giving Kennedy a stethoscope and a rectal thermometer to diagnose America’s problems.

    Something something “Dr. Fauci’s emails.” The end.

    His only question is “Will you make HHS transparent and be nice to Congress?” That’s it.

    11:52: RFK will unite the Left and Right together to find out which vaccines cause peanut allergies. “There’s nobody who will fix it the way I can,” he said. […]

    Oh thank God here’s Elizabeth Warren.

    11:56: Warren bringing receipts on how Kennedy gets money from a law firm that sues over vaccines. He doesn’t plan on divesting himself from that, by the way.

    “You’re making me sound like a shill!” says Kennedy, upset at Elizabeth Warren’s very unfair insinuation that he is a … LOL.

    […] 12:00: Kennedy is just fucking lying and saying Warren is asking him not to sue drug companies. She’s yelling at him. It’s literally all about him grifting off this shit and “keep cashing in” on his antivax work as HHS secretary.

    WARREN: Will you say you won’t make money off what you do as secretary of HHS?

    No.

    Mike Crapo cuts in to say RFK has promised to be very “ethics,” how extremely dare you suggest any Trump appointee will not be extremely very “ethics”!

    12:03: Oh good, here is Thom Tillis. If anybody has any allegations of Kennedy abusing women — and oh boy, there are allegations! — you should not tell Thom Tillis, because he’ll say it matters if you come forward and then he’ll vote for the white fascist anyway. [Reference to the Hegseth confirmation hearing.]

    TILLIS: Are you a conspiracy theorist?

    KENNEDY: That’s a pejorative that people say to make me not Just Ask Questions!

    Kennedy starts babbling about fluoride, Tillis quickly cuts him off to protect the white Republican fascist nominee from accidentally making a viral clip.

    12:08: It’s amazing how Republicans just start believing their own conspiracy theories as gospel and totally forget that they pulled them out of their assholes. Apparently social distancing didn’t work at all, and masks were all bad.

    Anyway, Bernie Sanders now. Should we guarantee healthcare as a human right? RFK cannot say “yes” or “no” to that. RFK starts babbling about smokers who get cancer being takers.

    Does RFK agree that we shouldn’t be paying more than other countries for “the same damn drugs”? RFK says “in principle” we should end that.

    Bernie Sanders says climate change is real, and it’s a healthcare issue. Trump thinks it’s a Chinese hoax. RFK says he and Trump agreed to disagree on that, and his job is only to Make Americans Healthy Again.

    12:15: Bernie says he’s never seen anybody flip so fast on an issue as Kennedy did when he started eating Trump’s ass. Kennedy once again burps out his line that “every abortion is a tragedy.”

    “They are selling what’s called onesies!” Bernie yells, about onesies on the website for Kennedy’s Children’s Defense Fund, which he founded. The onesies are anti-vax and say things like “No vax, no problem.” Will he stop selling them? He says he has no power over that.

    Marsha Blackburn, a home ec major with zero to contribute to any conversation, reassures Kennedy that he will be confirmed and will be so great.

    12:25: Maria Cantwell wants to know if Kennedy understands that real science research saves lives, that we did as well as we did with COVID because of real scientists doing real research. Kennedy says he LOVES science!

    Also is babbling about how you don’t even need fetal tissue for stem cell research, because he’s not allowed to say stuff about how much he loves abortion anymore.

    […] 12:30: Ben Ray Lujan asks Kennedy if he knows how many babies’ births are covered through Medicaid. He says he doesn’t know so he just randomly makes up a number, which is 30 million.

    12:32: Kennedy insists people hate Medicaid, but he promises he doesn’t want to cut it, but he won’t answer whether he would support cutting it if Trump wants it.

    […] 12:51: LOLOL stupid weird freak Roger Marshall says God has a “divine plan” for RFK to Make America Healthy Again. […]

    12:53: RAPHAEL WARNOCK: You have said the CDC is like Nazi death camps and child sex abusers. Is that a thing you said?

    RFK: No I never said!

    (Yes he did.)

    12:59: Warnock wants to know if RFK believes in Trump’s illegal tyrannical Hitler scam to try to force federal employees to take buyouts in exchange for retiring, so he can replace them with bootlicking mini-Hitlers. RFK says he can’t imagine anybody would resign who wants to Make America Healthy Again! So Warnock is like yeah you agree with it.

    1:03: TINA SMITH: Do you still think antidepressants cause school shootings?

    RFK: I never said that!

    SMITH: You did.

    RFK: Maybe they do!

    SMITH: Do you still think people who take antidepressants are addicts who should be sent to “wellness farms”?

    RFK: I don’t think they should be forced!

    […] Uh oh! Peter Welch was talking to RFK about how it’s illegal for the president to impound money that Congress has appropriated, and RFK said A SIN, which is that he will uphold the Constitution. We’ll see if Trump pulls his nomination for that one.

    […] 1:28: Elizabeth Warren wants to know if RFK will accept any responsibility for all those children’s deaths he contributed to in Samoa with his antivax bullshit. Of course not. She’s gonna just make sure it’s all in the record what he did.

    1:30: Tina Smith clarifies that RFK wants to devote resources to fighting bird flu, since it’s literally happening now, and that he understands that it’s caused by the avian influenza virus. […]

    Please tip your bartenders!

    Tomorrow we have like nine confirmation hearings. We will be liveblogging at least Kash Patel and whatever else we can, but uuuuuuuughhhhhhh yeah.

  270. says

    SURPRISE SURPRISE, Project 2025 Was The Plan All Along!

    […] every single thing happening right now was laid out meticulously in that 922-page tome. How about all of this stuff straight out of its pages from just the past week?

    – An end to separation of powers and making the President be the unbeholden Holy Deciderer, with a spending freeze as if Congress does not exist. Oh, they rescinded it? Already? FUCK THEM ANYWAY.

    – Militarized immigration enforcement, and an executive order suspending the US Refugee Admissions Program, right out of Project 2025’s wish for an “indefinite curtailment” of refugee admissions.

    – War on “DEI” and trans people, kicking trans people out of the military, and sliding zygote personhood into that “gender ideology” order.

    – War on the environment by pulling out of the Paris Agreement and executive-ordering drilling in Alaska.

    – Bringing back Schedule F so disloyalists can be more easily fired.

    – Cutting emergency management grants to states, and forcing them to deal with disasters on their own.

    – Pulling out of the World Health Organization and ending foreign aid.

    In other words, all of it, other than pardoning Ross Ulbricht and the rioters. Those seem to be the only executive orders that President Felon thought of on his own.

    The enmeshment is so blatant that two Heritage Foundation/Project 2025 people, Noah Peters and James Sherk, have been busted writing government memos before That Man was even sworn in for the Office of Personnel Management, which they forgot to scrub their metadata from. [LOL. True.] Trump doesn’t just have Project 2025 ties, Heritage Foundation people are literally running the government on his behalf while he farts around his Florida golf course. It’s not his plan, that is technically true. It’s their plan, and his plan is to fuck off and let them do everything for him except rake in “donations” from techbros and the anonymous wallets that buy his memecoins. Totally different.

    […] Conservatives knew they were lying, we know they’re lying, we know they know they’re lying, and it’s now a hilarious joke to them that they were able to sow doubt about the most obvious thing in the world. Watch podcaster “Comfortably Smug” chortle to Megyn Kelly: “The funniest joke we ever pulled on the Democrats is convincing them that Project 2025 wasn’t real,” and they all have a big laugh about it. [video at the link]
    […]

  271. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/death-before-detransition

    “DEATH BEFORE DETRANSITION”

    “The trans care apocalypse is here. What now?” by Crip Dyke

    On Tuesday, January 28, the Trump White House released a new executive order, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation. The order is extreme, tyrannical, nationwide, and is going to kill people. While titularly targeting health care for adolescents, the text of the order explicitly targets 18-year-old adults, and its impacts on providers are likely to disrupt care for trans patients of all ages. There is no good here.

    What does the order do?

    – Defines “children” as persons under the age of 19, not 18.

    – Defines chemical mutilation as including deferring puberty with GnRH agonists, the use (in the context of trans health care) of androgens and androgen blockers, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

    – Defines “surgical mutilation” as “surgical procedures that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions.”

    – Bans the use of research and guidance produced or endorsed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the most experienced and knowledgeable experts in the field.

    – Mandates a “Cass Review”-style report, with conclusions that are inevitable, given restrictions on WPATH sources.

    – Denies the existence of trans children though use of language such as “children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion.”

    – Denies coverage for trans-related health care when using government-funded coverage such as federal employee benefit plans, Tricare (health insurance for military service members and their families), and Medicaid.

    – Bans all funds to institutions or individuals that provide care similar to the treatments prohibited above.

    – Mandates investigations and enforcement to ensure no entity in the United States provides the banned care, including through use of the female genital mutilation provisions of the criminal code —Title 18 § 116.

    – Investigates and prosecutes violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and probably the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

    – Mandates the attorney general and Secretary of Health and Human Services to protect “whistleblowers who take action related to ensuring compliance with this order,” such as Eithan Haim, whose indictment for criminal violation of HIPAA was dismissed on Friday.

    – Utilizes the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to disarm “sanctuary state” laws.

    – Creates a private right of action for patients or their parents to sue care providers.

    What does it all mean?

    It means that about 40 percent of children who have health insurance will now have plans that forbid coverage of trans-related care. But more than that, it means that care providers will be investigated as aggressively as any theocrat might wish […]

    While many of the provisions explicitly state that they apply to medical care for persons under the age of 19, the anti-fraud language isn’t limited by age at all. And that is scary as hell.

    Since the executive order is active immediately but guidance about what the government considers to be “misleading” information about treatment side effects is not yet available and might not be available for years, any care provider, even gerontologists who only treat trans persons over 90 years of age, is running the risk of heavy fines or even jail time every time they write a prescription or perform surgery.

    It is unclear if there will be any physicians in any state or territory who will still be able and willing to write prescription refills next week.

    But it’s just trans people, right? Right?

    If you’re breathing a sigh of relief that this is only targeting trans people and that means you don’t have to speak up yet, there’s more bad news. The “anti-fraud” efforts […] apply to surgical or chemical “mutilation,” which, we should all remember, is defined like so:

    procedures that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions

    Is yr Wonkette crazy or does attempting “to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize their natural biological functions” via surgery or chemicals sound exactly like birth control. It sounds especially like birth control when discussing options like Norplant and IUDs, but even your average birth control pill minimizes the “natural biological functions” of the ovaries. Under this executive order, the federal government very much appears to have decided that it’s illegal to provide birth control to persons under 19 years of age, and that even when providing it to persons over 19 it has to be accompanied by information sufficient to prevent “misleading the public” about side effects.

    Given that theocrats and Republicans (but I repeat myself) have asserted for decades that the pill and abortion both cause cancer and that Planned Parenthood and your average GP minimize or deny that risk, it’s hard to imagine that this order isn’t going to be used to hound birth control prescribers — at the very least those who prescribe to teens.

    So what is this going to do?

    Kill people. […]

    More at the link.

  272. says

    Trump orders preparation of Guantánamo Bay facility to house migrants

    President Trump said he is signing an executive order on Wednesday to prepare a massive facility at Guantánamo Bay to be used to house deported migrants.

    The order will direct the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to prepare a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay, a facility in Cuba that has been used to house military prisoners, including several involved in the 9/11 attacks.

    “We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo [Not true! About 780 is closer to correct.] to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said during an event to sign the Laken Riley Act into law, stiffening the nation’s immigration laws.

    “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo,” Trump added. “This will double our capacity immediately. And tough, it’s a tough place to get out of.”

    The order is the latest step in a government-wide effort enacted by the Trump administration to remove certain immigrants from the United States.

    Guantánamo Bay is best known as a military base where terror suspects are held. It became infamous for accusations of torture and abuse as the U.S. carried out the war on terrorism. The Biden administration sought to wind down operations at the facility. There are 15 detainees still there. […]

  273. says

    Caption for a New Yorker cartoon showing a couple watching the news on TV: “I would love to dramatically reduce the workforce by firing one guy.”
    Link

  276. says

    New Yorker link

    “How Donald Trump Seizes the Primal Power of Naming”

    “For the President, a name can become an instrument by which to exert his will upon our shared reality.” By Jessica Winter

    […] [I snipped the introduction which included descriptions of how David Lynch used naming objects as a way to spur creativity.]

    “We are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump declared. “And we will restore the name of a great President, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.” (The Indigenous Koyukon people of Alaska have long known this mountain as Denali, a name that the U.S. federal government officially recognized in 2015.) Trump codified these promises in an executive order titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness”—one of an avalanche of such orders that he signed immediately after his Inauguration, and which included ordering troops to the southern border, suspending admissions of refugees, ending birthright citizenship, expanding oil drilling in Alaska, pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, and pardoning the January 6th rioters.

    The name at the top of the American-greatness list, of course, has always been the President’s own—Trump expanded his empire less by building things than by slapping trump all over them. And the flip side of the relentless dissemination of his own name is his diabolical gift for modifying those of others: Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, Low Energy Jeb, Little Marco. When other candidates struggled to articulate their brand, Trump’s epithets did the job instead.

    For Trump, any name can become an instrument by which to exert his will upon our politics. Sometimes this urge is associative, as when he links undocumented immigrants to “the late, great Hannibal Lecter.” Sometimes it appears largely aesthetic, as when, in 2020, he suggested that nato should expand into the Middle East with a new name, natome, pronounced na-TOE-me. (“What a beautiful name,” he mused.) Sometimes his intuition seems to be steered by contrarian spite, as it was last year, after President Biden signed a proclamation recognizing the Transgender Day of Visibility. It happened to fall on Easter, and Trump quipped that Election Day itself should be renamed: “Let’s call it Christian Visibility Day,” he told a crowd at a Wisconsin rally.

    […] For Trump, it is also extremely on-brand, given that transphobia is so often expressed by the refusal to call another person by their name.

    To give a thing a name is to make it real and even to decide on its meaning; it’s a godlike and patriarchal power […]

    during the 2016 campaign, Clinton and the Democratic National Committee coördinated a brief attempt to rename Trump, via press release, as Dangerous Donald, which managed both to reinforce her image as a phony and to make him sound kind of cool.

    Last summer, the Democrats briefly succeeded, for once, in defining Trump and his allies, rather than the other way around. “These are weird people on the other side,” Tim Walz, soon to become Kamala Harris’s running mate, said at the end of July.

    […] Trump knows what he wants and how to name it. This has rarely been so frighteningly evident as it was in the first week of his second Administration. He may not know why he wants what he wants, and it may have changed by tomorrow. But he knows his audience, and the confidence with which he foists his impulses, desires, and grievances on their world never wavers, and is self-fulfilling. […] “I’m good at names, right?” he asked reporters back in 2020. The question answers itself: it’s true because he says so. The change comes from the name.

    I think the article ignores the power of repetition. Trump has an army of rightwing media and other commentators repeating his naming nonsense on a seemingly endless loop.

  277. JM says

    NBC News: Despite Trump’s involvement, Ron DeSantis expected to veto a Florida immigration bill

    A push to implement President Donald Trump’s immigration deal in Florida is set to fall flat, with Gov. Ron DeSantis vowing to veto the proposal passed by Republican legislators late Tuesday night.

    Power games. The elected government of Florida, including DeSantis, are happy with the general flow of Trump’s immigration shut down. The problem is that plan takes most of the power over immigration from DeSantis and transfers it to the state agriculture commissioner. Somebody in Trump’s circle is aware that DeSantis isn’t on Trump’s good list and is insuring that DeSantis will find it hard to take any credit.

  278. JM says

    @275 Lynna, OM: I wonder if Trump will try to name something after himself before he leaves office. He is tasteless enough to try it but has a history of messing up the implementation. Not everything can be easily renamed and some things are so easily renamed that the next president will be able to trivially reverse it.
    I’m hoping he picks some random military base and the next president can convert it to Trump toxic waste disposal facility.

  279. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Trump toxic waste disposal facility.

    Of course, they’d need a commemorative plaque:

    We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor… no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.

  280. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Trump’s “buyout” offer for federal workers is already backfiring

    Trump’s ultimatum to federal workers is backfiring—making them vow to stay in their positions out of sheer spite.
    […]
    “I’ve never been more motivated to stay. Before the ‘buyout’ memo, I was ready to go job hunting, but then a revelation hit. I took an oath under this position to the American people and leaving my job under the current state would be failing to maintain my oath as civil servant,”

  281. Reginald Selkirk says

    Tiny Linux kernel tweak could cut datacenter power use by 30%, boffins say

    Hardware keeps getting faster, but it’s still worth taking a step back periodically and revisiting your code. You might just uncover a little tweak that wrings out more efficiency or extra throughput than you’d expect.

    That’s exactly what researchers at Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo have managed to do. Just around 30 lines of code — to the Linux kernel’s network stack, and they say you could curb datacenter power consumption by up to 30 percent.

    These changes have now been published as part of the 6.13 kernel release, making their way to the public…

    By reducing the number of interrupt requests, or IRQs, the host CPU can spend more time crunching numbers and less time waiting on packets that aren’t ready to process…

    Constantly polling the network also comes with overheads of its own…

    With this insight, the research team looked for a way to accomplish both. What they came up with was a kernel patch introducing adaptive polling. During periods of heavy traffic, this allowed the host to poll the network for a new chunk of data as soon as it was finished processing the last. If traffic died down and there were no new numbers to crunch, the system could then revert back to an interrupt-based approach, saving energy in the process. More importantly, because all of this is handled in the kernel, it’s essentially automatic…

  282. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 275

    Sometimes his intuition seems to be steered by contrarian spite, as it was last year, after President Biden signed a proclamation recognizing the Transgender Day of Visibility. It happened to fall on Easter, and Trump quipped that Election Day itself should be renamed: “Let’s call it Christian Visibility Day,” he told a crowd at a Wisconsin rally.

    Or he knows that his audience. Most of his supporters are very right wing Christians who have embraced a narrative of persecution by modern secularism. Stealing a day from the godless LBTQs and granting it to the poor oppressed Christians–forced by the equally godless left to tolerate and accept “sin”–makes him look like a hero.

  284. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Steven Monacelli (TexasObserver):

    SCOOP: The email Andrew Kloster, the Office of Personnel Management’s new general counsel and self described “raging misogynist,” used to sign up for his X/Twitter account appears in a leak for an escort service website. The IP address for the escort service website account is [geolocated near his house.]
    […]
    To be clear, the issue at hand here isn’t one of moral turpitude, but rather a question of whether a high ranking government official could potentially be compromised due to possible interactions that are still technically illegal and could be used as blackmail against him. No shame to the workers.

     
    “Raging misogynist” now federal government H.R.’s top lawyer

    Kloster, who is now responsible for advising the government’s H.R. department, has a long history of racist and sexist online comments […] Kloster wrote, “Consent is probably modern society’s most pernicious fetish.” He also has written online that “Slaves owe us reparations.” In 2023, roughly six months after being served a temporary restraining order, he tweeted, “I need a woman who looks like she got punched.”
    […]
    During his first stint at OPM, Kloster simultaneously held a position at the Trump White House’s Presidential Personnel Office during a period when this office was reportedly administering loyalty tests to Trump’s own political appointees.

  285. Reginald Selkirk says

    18-year-old dies after fall from light pole while celebrating Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl berth

    An 18-year-old man who was celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles victory over the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game on Sunday has died after he fell from a light pole during the celebrations, officials said…

    City officials did not say if they greased the poles on Sunday, adding that they don’t want to release public safety tactics, WPVI said…

  286. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    JuntosSeguros, the ICE monitoring map @184, is accessible again.

    Warning: Do not donate money to any creators or individuals on social media claiming to represent us. Our service is completely free.

    The “hacer una donación” banner at the top leads to a LinkTree, which includes the aforementioned GoFundMe, so that was legitimately theirs.

  287. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump signs order to plan nation’s 250th anniversary celebration, punish those who vandalize statues

    President Donald Trump is making plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence and create a new national sculpture garden while reviving efforts to harshly punish those who vandalize or destroy existing statues and monuments.

    Trump signed an executive order Wednesday establishing a White House task force to plan what he says will be a “grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence,” which the country will celebrate on July 4, 2026.

    Trump will serve as chair of the task force, which will include a long list of senior administration officials, including cabinet secretaries.

    The order also revives Trump’s plans to build a “ National Garden of American Heroes ” with statues memorializing 250 historical figures.

    Trump first announced plans for what he said would be “a new monument to the giants of our past” in a 2020 speech celebrating Independence Day at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. It was to have featured sculptures of dozens of American historical figures, including presidents, athletes and pop culture icons.

    Trump himself curated the list of who was to be included — Davy Crockett, Billy Graham, Whitney Houston, Harriet Tubman and Antonin Scalia, among others…

    Why stop short? Add Adolph to the list. Maybe Musk will kick in a couple million extra to pay for it.

  288. Bekenstein Bound says

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley that he is revoking his security detail and clearance and ordering a review of the retired general’s conduct to see whether his rank should be re-evaluated, the Pentagon said.

    This leads immediately to another concern: does a preemptive presidential pardon protect against courts martial, or only against civilian legal action? Any current or former military person who got a Biden pardon to protect from Trump persecution might not be very safe, even in the short term, in that event, starting with Milley.

    (None of them are safe in the longer run if they stay in the country, since the pardons will be worthless once the erosion of the rule of law and the capture of the judiciary has passed a certain point. Even living abroad might not be safe if the Trump/postTrump regime decides to send out assassins to kill dissidents on foreign soil, Russia-style. Putin will no doubt be happy to loan them some polonium-pellet-squirting umbrellas if they’re running short.)

    Indeed, online descriptions of the Zizian worldview make it sound pretty damn out there: it’s an apparent offshoot of the Rationalist movement, which is a (mostly) online movement that circulates around the LessWrong web forum…

    I knew it was only a matter of time before the goofs who came up with Roko’s Basilisk started murdering people.

    At heart, the move was not about spending but about control. The White House press secretary gave away the game when she told reporters that the door was open for departments and agencies to make direct appeals for exemptions … Every government service, benefit, and contract is a thing of value that he’ll dangle as inducement for things he wants.

    Personalist rule. Problem with that is, it doesn’t scale. Trying to run a country the size and complexity of the US on personalist rule with Trump’s signing pen as a bottleneck every single thing has to pass through to get done would be like trying to run a site the size of Facebook off a Pentium II using a web server coded in Python.

    Trump, of course, is too stupid to know this, or to extrapolate that just signing everything that would be needed to keep the lights on in the room where he did the signing would subject him to a labor pace that would rapidly make him envy slaves, burger-flippers, and Amazon warehouse workers.

    I’m not, however, convinced that that’s his aim, or at least his sole aim, or that of his handlers. I have a nasty feeling that a major objective of the “freeze”, and many of his other recent ExLAXs, is to create so many widespread little fires in so many places that everyone will be too distracted putting them out and picking up the pieces to be able to present an organized resistance to something else. Another commenter at Pharyngula recently suggested somewhere on the site that the freeze was a smokescreen to distract from his firing of a bunch of inspectors general, but firing inspectors general is itself an action one would take to hide something or delay and discombobulate resistance to it. The freeze, the firings, and other recent Trump actions are all a smokescreen and a distraction, and I don’t think we’ll like it one bit when we discover what it is these are meant to distract us from.

    The ExLAX to end the availability of all contraceptive surgeries, medications, and devices disguised as a “mere” anti-trans one (but seen through immediately by the smarter people around here, in particular Crip Dyke, who sounded the alarm) is of course an obvious suspect …

  289. whheydt says

    Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #286…
    What do you want to bet that That Felon in the White House plans to have a giant statue of himself as the centerpiece…?

  293. Reginald Selkirk says

    Exclusive: USDA inspector general escorted out of her office after defying White House

    Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
    Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her Friday, saying that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols, the sources said.
    In an email to colleagues on Saturday, reviewed by Reuters, she said the independent Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency “has taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.” …

  295. Reginald Selkirk says

    Nintendo Loses After Trying To Oppose The Trademark For A Costa Rican Grocery Store

    While most of our conversations about Nintendo recently have focused on the somewhat bizarre patent lawsuit the company filed against Pocketpair over the hit game Palworld, traditionally our coverage of the company has focused more on the very wide net of IP bullying it engages in. This is a company absolutely notorious for behaving in as protectionist a fashion as possible with anything even remotely related to its IP. That reputation is so well known, in fact, that it serves the company’s bullying purposes. When smaller entities get threat letters or oppositions to applied-for trademarks and the like, some simply back down without a fight.

    But not the Super Mario shop in Costa Rica, it seems. The supermarket store owned by a man named Mario (hence the name), has had a trademark on its name since 2013. But when Mario’s son, Charlito, went to renew the registration, Nintendo’s lawyers suddenly came calling.

    Last year it was time to renew the registration, Charlito stated, which prompted Nintendo to get involved. While Nintendo has trademarked the use of Super Mario worldwide under numerous categories, including video games, clothing and toys, it appears the company did not specifically state anything about the names of supermarkets.

    This, Charlito says, was the key factor in the decision by Costa Rica’s trademark authority, the National Register, to side with the supermarket.

    But not the only factor, to be sure. As you will see from the picture below, it is extremely clear, based on the rest of the store’s signage and branding, that there is absolutely no attempt in any of this to draw any kind of association with Nintendo’s iconic character…

  297. Reginald Selkirk says

    Man who staged Quran burning protests in Sweden shot dead, authorities say

    Salwan Momika, an Iraqi man who sparked outrage by staging Quran-burning protests in Sweden in 2023, has been shot dead, according to Swedish authorities.

    A spokesperson for Sweden’s prosecutor’s office confirmed to CNN that Momika was shot dead in capital city Stockholm on Wednesday.

    Stockholm police told CNN that five people had been arrested on Wednesday night on suspicion of murder…

  298. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

    Rachel Maddow’s segment “Trump team frantically claws back foolhardy funding cut orders as outrage grows” from last night is posted at the link

    Pretty funny presentation of how shambolic the Trump administration is. “They have repeatedly, just abjectly, humiliated themselves every single day, including the President personally.”

    Video is 5:05 minutes.

  299. Reginald Selkirk says

    You’ll die without a solar roof says Musk, whose admin made it harder to get solar

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that “your family’s life might depend on” having solar, despite that he’s part of a US government administration that has already made it harder to get solar, and seems poised to try to make it even harder…

    Then, CEO Elon Musk went into a soliloquy about the benefits of having home solar, which are true if perhaps a little overstated:

    I think it looks really cool, and your house generates electricity. And if you combine it with the Tesla Powerwall battery, then you can be self sufficient, so that even if the grid turns off – even if the grid turns off for several days – your house still works. And your roof looks awesome. So it’s like, I recommend anyone who can afford it, get Tesla’s solar roof and Powerwall, your family’s life might depend on it. And just in terms of convenience, your kids are not gonna yell at you cause their computers don’t work and their power went out and they cant charge their phone. Actually happens. You literally cant even call anyone cause your phone’s out of juice.

    …
    Unfortunately for the US, and for Elon Musk’s businesses selling renewable energy products, that three-time candidate finally managed to get more votes than his opponent (while still failing to attain a majority, and despite committing treason in 2021, for which there is a clear legal remedy). And after campaigning against solar, he’s already started attempts to marginalize it as an energy source in his first week squatting in the Oval Office.

    On his first day occupying the seat on which traitors do not belong, he signed a memo stating that the US should focus on all forms of energy except wind and solar, the latter of which the company that virtually all of Musk’s wealth comes from sells.

    Mr. Trump has also attempted to freeze disbursement of funds related to the Inflation Reduction Act, some of which go to solar projects. The IRA reduces energy costs for Americans and was responsible for a massive boost in American manufacturing, both things which Mr. Trump opposes…

  300. Reginald Selkirk says

    Rescuers race to pull out truck driver stuck in Japan sinkhole for days

    Rescue workers in Japan are trying to pull out a truck driver from a sinkhole that appeared on Tuesday and has since widened.

    The sinkhole appeared in Yashio city in Saitama prefecture, near the capital Tokyo, swallowing a truck.

    Rescue efforts have been hampered by road collapses, and officials have ordered scores of households in the area to evacuate their homes.

    The 74-year-old driver was last heard responding to rescuers on Tuesday afternoon, according to local media.

    While emergency crews managed to remove the truck bed from the pool-sized sinkhole, the driver’s cabin remains buried under soil and debris.

    The hole measuring about 10m (33ft) wide and 5m deep first appeared on Tuesday morning at a road junction.

    It is believed to have been caused by an underground sewage pipe rupturing.

    Officials said that as waste water from the damaged pipe flooded the hole, it caused a second sinkhole to appear on Thursday.

    Video footage showed a utility pole and a restaurant signboard falling in that collapse.

    The road then collapsed further, merging the two sinkholes together to become a 20m-wide crater, further complicating the rescue operation.

    The massive sinkhole also contains a gas pipeline, prompting fears of a potential leak. Officials have issued evacuation orders for 200 households in the surrounding area…

  302. says

    The problem(s) with Trump’s new plan for Guantánamo Bay

    With just a couple of weeks remaining in Joe Biden’s presidency, the Democratic administration was able to transfer another group of prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, successfully shrinking the overall prison population to just 15 people. It led the editorial board of The Washington Post to note soon after, “Leaving only 15 detainees in Guantánamo Bay at an estimated cost of about $500 million a year — $33 million per prisoner — exposes the absurdity of keeping the prison open at all.”

    […] Trump has an entirely new vision for Guantánamo Bay’s near future. NBC News reported:

    […] Trump signed a memo Wednesday that sets in motion preparations for a facility to house thousands of migrants at the U.S. military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he said was an effort to ‘halt the border invasion.’

    He went on to say that this facility would detain “the worst” undocumented immigrants, adding that it would be “a tough place to get out of.”

    […] On the campaign trail in 2016 Trump suggested he’d try to expand Guantánamo’s prison population, rather than try to shrink it. “We’re gonna load it up with some bad dudes, believe me, we’re gonna load it up,” he boasted at the time.

    Once in office, however, he lost interest. On the first day of Trump’s first term, there were 41 prisoners at Guantánamo. On his last day in office, the total was 40, his “bad dudes” assurances notwithstanding.

    If his latest directive to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are any indication, however, the president is far more serious about his expansive Guantánamo plans for his second term. At a White House event, he said he’s instructed officials to “begin preparing” a 30,000-person “migrant facility.”

    As is often the case with Trump’s initiatives, there are all kinds of substantive questions that don’t appear to have answers yet. NBC News’ report noted that even Defense Department officials were caught “off-guard” by the announcement.

    How will the military be involved? No one seems to know. Why will the military be involved? No one seems to know. Is this a short- or a long-term mission for the military? No one seems to know. How much will this cost? No one seems to know.

    Why transport tens of thousands of apprehended migrants to the facility at all? The administration might come up with a detailed explanation, but that hasn’t happened yet.

    Nevertheless, newly sworn in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sat down with Fox News — the former television personality’s previous employer — for his first interview since joining the White House Cabinet, and he insisted that Guantánamo Bay “is a perfect place” for migrants.

    He also clarified that the mass detention facility would be separate from the high-security prison used to house terrorism suspects.

    It was also of interest, however, when Hegseth took a moment to claim, “This is not the camps. … This is a temporary transit.”

    Of course, if the administration intends to transport tens of thousands to a military facility on an island, officials shouldn’t be too surprised if the word “camps” comes up from time to time.

  303. says

    Followup to comments 206 and 268.

    NBC News:

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, stumbled multiple times during his first Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday when lawmakers pressed him about potential changes to Medicaid. … At the end of the hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the ranking member of the Finance Committee, said Kennedy was “unprepared,” suggesting that he didn’t seem to know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid.

    Commentary:

    […] Kennedy said, “Most people who are on Medicaid are not happy. The premiums are too high, the deductibles are too high, the networks are narrow.”

    In reality, there’s ample public-opinion research that shows broad support for Medicaid, and the vast majority of its beneficiaries do not pay any premiums or deductibles.

    Soon after, Kennedy also testified that he believes Medicaid is “fully paid for” by “the federal government.” That was wrong, too: State governments fund nearly a third of the program.

    One need not be a health care policy wonk, intimately familiar with granular and obscure details, to be aware of these facts. Indeed, this is the kind of basic information one would assume that an HHS nominee would already know.

    Kennedy, however, tripped over his ignorance. […]

    Link

  304. says

    Followup to comment 208.

    D’oh, Trump’s Press Secretary Is Off To A Brilliant Start!

    In just her second week on the job, Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is breaking new ground in creating bad news for her boss.

    It started Tuesday with her first televised press briefing from the White House, a format that is so highly formalized and choreographed that it long ago outlived its usefulness. Leavitt breathed new life into the form when she:

    confirmed that the order for the DOJ purge of Trump prosecutors came from the White House;
    let slip the real agenda of the White House’s abrupt funding freeze by saying OMB nominee Russell Vought’s door was open to any department or agency that wanted to plead its case for why it was entitled to use the funding Congress had already appropriated it. White House control over spending instead of Congress’, it turns out, was the point.
    But Leavitt really hit her stride yesterday when she managed in a single tweet to screw up the Trump administration’s legal defense of its chaos-inducing funding freeze. Around midday, amid all the confusion and blowback wrought by the funding freeze, the White House purported to rescind the OMB memo from Monday night that had kicked it all off. But Leavitt then tweeted:

    This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.

    It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.

    Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction.

    The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.

    Her tweet completely undercut Justice Department lawyers who were in court yesterday afternoon arguing the case brought by aggrieved states against the funding freeze was now moot because the OMB memo had been rescinded.

    In light of Leavitt’s tweet, U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island wasn’t buying DOJ’s argument that the policy was no longer in effect, leading to this classic of judicial exasperation: “That’s my read of the tweet. I can’t believe I’m saying that.”

    The judge indicated he would side with the states and enter an order blocking the freeze. A DC federal judge had similarly blocked the freeze a day earlier in a separate case. […]

    Trump’s new press secretary is a bumbling, incompetent fool. Funny though, how much of a farce this is, as Karoline Leavitt helped to extend the duration of this fucked up mess.

  305. says

    Unqualified ex-Fox hosts lead response to deadly plane crash

    The two highest-ranking men tasked with investigating what appears to be the worst commercial jet crash in the U.S. in more than 15 years are unqualified former Fox News hosts who are completely in over their heads.

    Newly minted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy—a reality TV contestant turned congressman turned Fox Business host with no transportation experience—seemed like a deer in headlights during a news conference Thursday morning. He tried to provide updates on the late-night crash between a regional commercial jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that took place as the jet prepared to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, near Washington, D.C. All 64 passengers on the commercial jet and three service members on the helicopter are assumed dead.

    “Obviously, it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that,” Duffy said at the news conference, in what is perhaps the most “no shit, Sherlock” comment in history. [video at the link]

    When a reporter later asked whether there’s an acting Federal Aviation Administration director—after Donald Trump’s co-president, Elon Musk, told the previous head to resign—Duffy did not answer and continued to walk away. Trump announced later on Thursday that he was appointing an “acting commissioner” to the FAA.

    Meanwhile, around the time of the crash, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—a title the misogynistic degenerate and former Fox News host should never have gotten—was on-air with fellow misogynistic degenerate and current Fox News host Jesse Watters, declaring that “diversity is not our strength.”

    In fact, on his fourth day on the job of overseeing the Pentagon, Hegseth twice appeared on his former network to yuk it up with his former colleagues, according to Media Matters for America’s Matthew Gertz.

    Hegseth did not appear at Duffy’s news conference. Instead, he filmed a video message about the crash, saying the helicopter was piloted by a “fairly experienced crew” who had been conducting a “required annual night evaluation” with night-vision goggles, and that the military is “actively investigating” what went wrong.

    “It’s a tragedy. A horrible loss of life,” Hegseth said.

    And how did the nation’s new president respond? Shortly after the crash, Trump fired off an unhelpful Truth Social post implying something nefarious had happened and feeding into conspiracy theories before much information was known about what had happened.

    “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn,” he wrote. “Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!” [Trump went on the blame “Democrats, “Woke,” and “DEI.”

    […] You’d expect more from the president of the United States until you remember Trump is nothing more than a stupid reality TV host with no filter and a penchant for lying and spreading conspiracies.

    The incompetence of the Trump administration is about to have real-life consequences.

  306. says

    […] Trump scrapped an aviation safety committee that had been in place for more than three decades, just a few days before a deadly airplane crash at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.

    […] On Jan. 21, his second day in office, Trump sent a memo to members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee telling them that their membership had been eliminated. The committee made recommendations to the FAA on issues relating to travel safety.

    […] The Trump memo said the gutting of the committee was being done as part of a process of “eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that [Department of Homeland Security] activities prioritize our national security.”

    […] As part of an ongoing effort to upend civil rights gains, Trump also issued an executive order ending diversity recruitment programs at the FAA. The order went out even though the FAA has experienced a shortage of critical air traffic controllers for years. […]

    Link

  308. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/live-americas-neediest-most-pathetic

    “LIVE: America’s Neediest, Most Pathetic Liar Gets A Confirmation Hearing”

    “Come on down, Kash!”

    Today is the confirmation hearing for Kash Patel […] for the position of FBI director, which Trump shouldn’t even be filling. But his last nominee Chris Wray didn’t turn out to be enough of a loyalist for his tastes and so he announced his intent to cut Wray’s 10-year term short and put the dumbest, neediest, most desperate-to-be-liked person he knows into the role.

    Some of our favorite stories about Kash Patel are about his lies, because: They’re lies told by a man who is laughed at and mocked by every person of quality he’s ever met, who is self-evidently just an absolute loser, so he tries to survive by impressing people who are equal in loserdom to him, telling them fantastical things about himself.

    “I gave the order to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!” LOL no.

    “I was the lead prosecutor on Benghazi!” What?! Oh my God, no.

    Do y’all remember during Donald Trump’s first impeachment, for trying to extort Ukraine into helping him steal the 2020 election, how Kash had Trump convinced that he was the Ukraine expert on the National Security Council? He was not the expert of shit, Trump was very confused to learn. Kash claimed he was in charge of two directorates at the NSC. Again, LOL no.

    Bless his heart.

    Please love me! Please think I’m cool! […] I have latched on to MAGA and Donald Trump, because this movement is full of absolute dead-ends like me, guys with chips on their shoulders and deep emotional wounds!

    Also please buy my incredibly pathetic and dorky merch! […]

    Have you heard about his children’s books, where he is the main character and is also a wizard and hero? Alexandra Petri has:

    Kash and Devin visit Russionia and discover that there is no such place as the Swirly Tower Tavern. They return to the Land of the Free to confront the shifty knight, who admits his deception. But then he rushes out and tells the heralds to alert the people that he has another secret reason to think King Donald is a cheater.

    The heralds are more than happy to spread this lie! Their perfidy saddens King Donald. But Kash comes to the rescue. He scurries up to the top of the castle tower to shout the truth to the people, with Hillary Queenton and the shifty knight hot on his heels. When he stops to tie his wizard shoe, they trip over him and fall … not to their deaths, just into the moat, where they get covered with mud. (My toddler loved this part.) Kash announces there is no proof that Donald Trump conspired with the Russionians and that Hillary Queenton was behind the incriminating, slimy papers in the steel box. “Now that you know more of the facts, it’s time for you to think carefully and decide what you think of the king. Don’t just trust the person with the loudest trumpet.” The people realize they were fooled. They throw a big party for the king and banish Keeper Komey, Hillary Queenton and the shifty knight from the kingdom for good.

    About the second book: “There is a reason most franchises don’t sideline the main characters for a full installment and tell a story about Dinesh D’Souza instead.”

    […] Rachel Maddow’s A-block about Kash was pretty entertaining the other night. It features things we’ve talked about here, and so much more, like the way Trump AG Bill Barr laughed his ass off at Trump when he wanted to make Kash the FBI deputy director. Watch it if you haven’t seen it: [video at the link]

    There was this:

    “He’s absolutely unqualified for this job. He’s untrustworthy,” said Charles Kupperman, who served as Trump’s deputy national-security adviser and worked closely with Patel. “It’s an absolute disgrace to American citizens to even consider an individual of this nature,” he said.

    […] John Bolton called him a “climbing weed” on Jen Psaki’s show the other night. Have y’all heard about the times Patel reportedly endangered highly sensitive hostage negotiations and rescues, because he’s a fucking idiot who apparently can’t keep his mouth shut?

    Yes, today is Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing. […]

    Today there are also confirmation hearings for Russia’s girlfriend Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, and another hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Seems like MAGA doesn’t want people paying too close attention to these morons, predators and useful idiots.

    There’s so much fucked up Tulsi news coming out this week, we can’t even get into it. But her nomination might not even make it out of committee. Oh man we want to watch that hearing.

    But we have to choose, and we choose Kash. […]

    All the livestreams are in here, though. Kash starts at 9:30 Eastern, Tulsi and Wormbrain start at 10.

    If MSNBC starts flipping back and forth between hearings, we might do that too. [multiple videos at the link]

    9:40: You guys, Chuck Grassley says Kash Patel has had an “extensive career” to prepare him for this moment. We bet he heard that from Kash Patel. He should probably read this post.

    9:41: LOL Kash Patel’s qualifications are that he was Devin Nunes’s fluffer in helping the Trump campaign and Russians escape accountability for what they did in 2016. […]

    9:49: Watching 91-year-old Chuck Grassley babble incoherently at clouds about how Kash Patel isn’t the real weaponization, LIBERALS are the real weaponization, you can really see how fucked we are right now.

    9:51: Now Grassley is babbling that he has some emails from T-Bo (?) that prove Jack Smith did a lawfare to Trump. T-Bo said it right here, in this email! […]

    All he’s doing is literally sharing correspondence that suggests that there were emails about whether Trump should be a criminal target of the treason documents investigation (the one where Trump stole state secrets and concealed that, only to have the case dismissed by a judge who thinks she’s the den mother of Eric’s Cub Scout troop).

    […] 10:05: Durbin is reciting Kash’s conspiracy theories about the FBI from his book — that the Capitol Police were “cowards in uniform” and that the FBI was planning January 6 for a year.

    Also mentions that Kash Patel was the “producer” of that stupid fucking January 6 song where the jailed January 6 terrorists sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Lots of that in this great article.

    […] Speaking of cowards, now we have Senator Thom Tillis to introduce Kash.

    There really isn’t a predator, grifter, traitor or hack Trump wants in his Cabinet that Thom Tillis isn’t willing to give a piggyback ride into their confirmation hearing.

    […] “Through his work as an author,” Tillis just said. THROUGH HIS WORK AS AN AUTHOR.

    10:19: Hey you guys, don’t worry, MSNBC is occasionally showing a letterbox of the Patel and Gabbard hearings, without sound, so people are definitely getting all the news they need to know about putting fascists and traitors in charge of two important Cabinet positions.

    […] 10:29: PATEL: Anybody who says I’m anti-law-enforcement should listen to the way I’m about to namecheck Seal Team 6 like a starfucker right now, like they’re my friends!

    […] 10:31: Hahahahahaha, Kash Patel says he believes he personally is uniquely qualified to run the FBI because he has been so painfully Deep Stated by the government, awwwwww big victim […]

    now Durbin is questioning Kash’s ties with batshit Laura Loomer.

    10:39: DURBIN: Does Kash know who Stew Peters is?

    PATEL: I dunno!

    DURBIN: You went on his podcast eight times.

    […] 10:42: Lindsey Graham is very upset Democrats won’t mention all the MAGA mouthbreathing conspiracy theories MAGA idiots believe about Trump and Russia, like the Devin Nunes memo Kash wrote, which was roundly mocked by all good people […]

    10:51: Sheldon Whitehouse is reading quotes from former Trump officials talking about how unqualified and what a joke and what a liar Kash is. Bill Barr saying he’d never command the respect when Trump wanted him for the deputy director position. Former CIA Director Gina Haspel threatening to resign rather than have Kash as a CIA deputy.

    Every person of integrity who has met this guy fucking hates him. Also lots of people without integrity, like Bill Barr.

    […] KLOBUCHAR: Did you say all the elections all the time were rigged, but especially the 2020 election?

    PATEL: I can’t remember any of the things I have ever said.

    KLOBUCHAR: Did you post on the internet that January 6 wasn’t an insurrection, and “cowards in uniform,” etc.?

    PATEL: I cannot possibly know!

    KLOBUCHAR: Did you do clinical trials before promoting bullshit supplements claiming they could reverse the COVID vaccine?

    PATEL: I only gave people a choice!

    11:10: Kash Patel does not like it when you call his enemies list an enemies list! It is merely an enemies glossary!

    […] Klobuchar just mentioned it, but yes, Kash Patel embraced the bugfuck conspiracy theory that Italian toaster ovens stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden or whatever.

    KLOBUCHAR: Did Kash Patel say he wants to close FBI HQ and reopen it as the “Museum of the Deep State”?

    WONKETTE: Yes. They play this clip all the time on TV.

    PATEL: False attacks and gross mischaracterizations!

    […] 11:30: COONS: You have said out loud that you want to prosecute Christopher Wray. Are you going to?

    KASH: I will be far too busy fighting violent crime! I am going to be good at FBI job-bing!

    […] Hawley moves on to babbling about conservative mommy Nazis being treated as domestic terrorists simply for protesting at the school board. This is the second phase of Hawley’s chicken-fucking in every hearing. We don’t even think he writes a new hearing script every time anymore. [Apt description.]

    11:39: The third phase of the chickenfucking is where Hawley whines about people prosecuted for violating the FACE Act, AKA people who unlawfully block and terrorize abortion clinics. He calls this “targeting based on people’s religious beliefs,” because in Mark Hawley’s Christian Fascist worldview, conservative Christians should be able to hurt and victimize other people without being questioned. This is because Mark Hawley is a Christian nationalist […]

    11:41: Uh oh, he just yelled “Hunter Biden laptop!”

    […] 11:47: Kash says accusing him of supporting political violence just because of all the stuff he’s done for Trump’s J6 terrorists is evidence of how divided we are, WAAAAAAAAH!

    […] 11:52: Ted Cruz is making up a Democrat Lie to debunk, saying Democrats are accusing Kash of causing the violence on January 6. Now they will definitely prove that Kash did not cause January 6.

    11:57: Kick his fucking ass, Mazie Hirono.

    […] 11:58: HIRONO: Is this one of your J6 choir buddies who assaulted cops, was he “proteesting for election integrity”?

    PATEL: I don’t know who that is!

    HIRONO: I just told you who he is, let the record show that the witness is unresponsive. Let’s list out the people on your enemies list, do you plan to prosecute them?

    PATEL: No one who didn’t break the law will be investigated.

    HIRONO: Unresponsive. Let’s talk about your weird horse paste boner bills COVID vaccine “detox” pills. Did you make money from this?

    PATEL: DO YOU KNOW ANYBODY WHO DIED OF THE VACCINE? BECAUSE I DO!!!!!!!!!

    Hahahahahahahahahahahaha that happened, what a lunatic.

    […] 12:01: HIRONO: Did Trump lose the 2020 election?’

    KASH: The same weird answer all Trump appointees give because they’re not allowed/scared to tell the truth.

    HIRONO: Unresponsive. Do you still plan to come after the free press?

    KASH: I can’t go after the media for other people, that’s their decision!

    HIRONO: I didn’t hear a no.

    […] KENNEDY: You were the guy who found out that the Trump Russia investigation was a hoax!

    KASH: I was!

    (SEE ABOVE. Marco Rubio’s Senate Intel Committee concluded it was decidedly not a hoax.)

    […] BOOKER: Does Kash remember any of the people who interviewed him when he got immunity for the Trump classified documents case? And does he know anything about whether them getting fired by Trump last week?

    PATEL: Kash Patel does not know any things!

    […] 1:02: There is some whole fight going on where Marsha Blackburn, an absolute moron, is accusing Dick Durbin of keeping the Epstein flight logs from her or something, and he like no, you moron, you just don’t understand Senate rules.

    Anyway, Alex Padilla from California.

    1:06: Padilla is asking about the times Patel has jeopardized the safety of hostages, as reported all over the media lately. He denies everything, of course, and again seems offended at the very suggestion. Kash Patel is always very offended at the suggestion.

    1:09: Patel keeps whining that the funds for his J6 choir song went to charitable causes, by which he means the families of the Trump terrorists who did J6. Padilla wants to know if any of the money went to families of the police officers they brutally attacked.

    That’d be a no.

    […] 1:12: Gross creep Eric Schmitt is upset about the centuries-long campaign between the Deep State and all the big companies to suppress Hunter Biden’s laptop, the most important thing that ever existed, and make people think it was Russian disinformation.

    Hey, guess who still says the laptop actually is full of Russian disinfo? Lev Parnas.

    […] 1:23: While weasel-wording about whether he would investigate somebody like Kamala Harris, Kash Patel — AN INDIAN MAN — misponounces “Kamala.”

    […] Adam Schiff is reading quotes Kash said to Steve Bannon about how involved he was in making the J6 choir song happen. So why did he testify this morning that he had nothing to do with it?

    Kash is trying to suggest that not all instances of the word “we” include the person who is speaking. It’s definitely not that he committed perjury today!

    Kash says he wasn’t lying to Steve Bannon either, he was just using the “proverbial” we. (There is no proverbial “we” that doesn’t include the speaker.)

    1:37: Schiff is daring Kash to look the Capitol Police in the room in the eye and tell them how awesome it was that he helped the J6 terrorists make their little song. Kash is too much of a worthless coward.

    “I AM FIT TO BE DIRECTOR OF THE FBI!” says Kash, humbly. “Based on my 16 years of service!” (Which were a joke.)

    1:39: SCHIFF: Did you claim Trump declassified all the documents at Mar-a-Lago that he stole?

    KASH: Claim where?

    SCHIFF: Anywhere!

    This is fun, he’s trying to get Kash to admit if he lied under oath to the grand jury. We sure would like to know!

    1:41: Schiff wants to know if Kash will support the release of his grand jury testimony and all the parts of Jack Smith’s report that pertain to him. Kash doesn’t seem so excited about transparency anymore!

    […] 2:06: Dick Durbin tries again to get Kash to own up to his batshit belief that the FBI spent years planning January 6. Kash insists that to understand his true meaning, you have to listen to him babble for fucking hours on these goddamned Nazi and incel podcasts he goes on.

    Hard pass. […]

  309. says

    As you may have heard, this Donald Trump guy who’s sitting in the White House has been spewing out executive orders like he has a bad case of decreearrhea, and a bunch of them […] are of very dubious legality, by which we mean they’re facially illegal as shit.

    Already, a couple of Trump’s EOs have been put on hold by federal judges, which is nice, because as the judge in the first of those cases said — just two and a half days after Trump tried to eliminate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship — the order was “blatantly unconstitutional,” and stood out for being the clearest question he could remember handling in 40 years as a judge. And that was only the first of five lawsuits against the order.

    The other big judicial win against Trump came in response to the Office of Management and Budget’s flatly unconstitutional attempt this week to freeze federal funds for programs Trump dislikes […] The order was issued late Monday night, and by Tuesday afternoon, a judge had already blocked it, because Congress has the power of the purse and Trump can’t get away with being a pursey-grabber.

    The OMB then rescinded the order Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to make the lawsuit go away, but the White House then announced that only the memo was rescinded, while the actual freeze remains in place. That was a very tricksy trick aimed at making the lawsuits go away! But it didn’t fool the judge in a separate case against the funding freeze, who called the pretended recission a “distinction without a difference” and said he too would block the freeze just to be sure it fuckin’ stayed blocked.

    So far, so good, but we do find ourselves wondering whether the courts will continue doing their jobs and actually protecting Americans from Trump’s power grabs, or if we’re going to see several replays of last year’s “presidential immunity” case, where every court up to the federal appeals level laughed the case out of court and said hell no a former president isn’t above the law, until the Supreme Court decided its only job was to explain exactly how far above the law Donald Trump could be.

    Specifically, we’ve been thinking lately about the odds that courts — especially the Supreme one — will hold Trump to anything like the scrutiny that they applied to Joe Biden […]

    According to various courts, Joe Biden supposedly exceeded his authority as president when he or his administration:
    – Paused oil leases on federal land his first week in office, because the pause was outside the bounds of leasing plans approved by Congress.
    – Required workers at large companies to be vaccinated against COVID, or to agree to wear a mask and be tested regularly for the virus. The Supremes threw out the requirement in an unsigned “shadow docket” ruling that said OSHA supposedly exceeded the authority of the workplace safety law it relied on in writing the rule.
    – Tried to extend the CDC’s pandemic freeze on evictions in 2021, while the pandemic was still going strong. In another unsigned “shadow docket” ruling, the Supremes decided the CDC exceeded its authority to protect public health, because the law the agency cited only applied to pest control, not pandemics.
    – Tried to forgive up to $20,000 per borrower in student loan debt, because the order supposedly exceeded the authority of the HEROES Act.
    – Created — following the guidelines in that previous decision, even! — the SAVE plan for income-based repayment of loans, because the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said it supposedly violated the “major questions doctrine” that John Roberts pulled out of dead Antonin Scalia’s ass in 2022. While it was at it, the Eighth Circuit also put the kibosh on all other income-based repayment plans except the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan, because it was indeed passed by Congress in 2007 with guidelines specific enough to satisfy courts. So far.
    – Tried to keep businesses from suppressing wages through “non-compete agreements” that, for instance, restricted the ability of fast-food workers from getting better jobs at other fast-food restaurants. A federal judge in Texas killed that one, deciding that the Federal Trade Commission had overstepped its authority to prevent monopolistic practices.
    – Expanded rules to make sure more people on salary were entitled to overtime pay, because supposedly the rule overstepped the Department of Labor’s authority.
    – Protected undocumented spouses of American citizens from deportation. In August 2024, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the regulation supposedly exceeded Biden’s authority to set immigration priorities and had instead rewritten immigration law without Congress.
    – Expanded the interpretation of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education, to protect LGBTQ+ students as well. This one’s fresh — a district court in Kentucky threw out the rule earlier this month, finding that the rules “exceed the [Education] Department’s authority under Title IX, violate the Constitution, and are the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action,” and also were icky.

    There are probably others, but those are some of the big ones, almost all of them turning on what the courts decided was allowed under various existing statutes, with constitutional questions arising only in a few cases (and on the SAVE student loan plan, invoking the completely bogus and arbitrary “major questions” doctrine, which you’ll never convince us is remotely valid, so there).

    But it’s a whole new day and a whole new administration, and Donald Trump […] is now acting like he can ignore all sorts of laws as long as he insists he has the authority to do so. We can only hope that the courts will be at least half as “tough” as they were with Biden. The first two weeks have each seen Trump EO’s put on hold […] But it may be at least another two or three weeks before any of Trump’s excesses are so extravagant that they get to the Supremes.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/remember-how-the-court-kept-jamming

  310. says

    Following deadly plane crash, Trump blames Democrats, DEI without evidence

    Video at the link.

    According to the latest available information, American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it collided midair with an Army helicopter, which was carrying three people, near Reagan Washington National Airport. The White House has since confirmed that there were no survivors. A recovery effort is ongoing in the Potomac River.

    […] all a president has to do in a situation like this is extend his sympathies, marshal available resources, and keep the public informed.

    […] Trump, true to form, chose a different direction.

    The first sign of trouble emerged shortly after midnight when Trump published an odd statement to his social media platform, offering baseless speculation about what happened. “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented,” Trump added. “NOT GOOD!!!”

    As the morning progressed, the White House announced that the president would offer additional public remarks on the tragedy […] he made matters vastly worse. As NBC News reported:

    […] Trump targeted former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in his remarks on the deadly D.C. plane crash, saying Biden’s “policy was horrible.”

    To be sure, expectations were low ahead of the Republican’s public remarks on the disaster. Trump hasn’t exactly earned a reputation for excellence when it comes to post-tragedy responses.

    But the incumbent president failed to clear a low bar.

    “We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary,” Trump said, without providing evidence or citing specific policy. [bullshit and lies]

    “And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level,” he continued, adding, “their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse.” [bullshit and lies]

    Trump took an especially aggressive line toward Buttigieg, calling him “a disaster” […]

    Despite the inconvenient fact that the investigation is just getting started, and officials don’t yet know the cause of the crash, [Trump] also felt comfortable sharing his assumptions about “a pilot problem” that Trump also chose to blame.

    In case that weren’t quite enough, Trump also decided to point fingers at an “FAA diversity push” that “includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities that is amazing.” [JFC!]

    Asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, the president said, “It just could have been.”

    A reporter pressed Trump to explain how, exactly, he came to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash. He replied, “Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.” [video at the link]

    […] asked whether he’s “getting ahead of the investigation,” Trump went on to say, “No, I don’t think so,” adding that he didn’t consider that a “smart question.” [video at the link]

    So to recap, as recovery efforts continue, Trump responded to a deadly crash by blaming Democrats, DEI, the FAA, a former cabinet secretary, and unnamed pilots.

    “Listen, it’s one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracies, it’s another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families are still being notified,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the press conference. “It just turns your stomach.”

    It was an easy sentiment to agree with, but the larger context makes matters even worse. The New York Times’ David French recently noted that Trump “is at his absolute worst in a crisis.” The columnist, whose observation was unrelated to the crash, added in reference to the president, “He is not a man who is ready to meet important and dangerous moments.”

    Trump keeps proving the point. When there was a deadly hurricane in North Carolina, he flunked a leadership test. When there was a deadly attack in New Orleans, he flunked again. When responding to deadly fires in California, he flunked again. In the wake of Flight 5342, he’s flunking again.

    In 2025, Americans simply can’t count on their president for reliable and trustworthy information in the wake of a tragedy.

  311. says

    Trump’s F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Stations

    New York Times link

    Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, informed NPR and PBS this week that he had ordered an investigation into the practice of their member stations airing sponsorships.

    Mr. Carr told Katherine Maher, NPR’s chief executive, and Paula Kerger, PBS’s chief executive, about the investigation in a letter on Wednesday. […]

    “I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Mr. Carr said in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

    Ms. Maher said in a statement that NPR’s sponsorships, also known as underwriting, “complies with federal regulations.”

    “We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules,” Ms. Maher said. “We have worked for decades with the FCC in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States.”

    PBS said in a statement that it was proud of “noncommercial educational programming,” and worked “diligently to comply with the F.C.C.’s underwriting regulations.”

    Mr. Carr said in the letter that he planned to notify members of Congress about his plans.

    “In particular, Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming,” [Yep. That right there is the real reason for this harassment.] […]

  312. says

    […] Trump used the tragedy to play a blame game that included everything from President Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg, to the helicopter pilot and “dwarfism.”

    […] “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems,” Trump claimed, before generating an incorrect retelling of the Federal Aviation Administration’s hiring policies.

    […] Trump also mentioned a mythical “Obama policy” that he claims to have changed at least four times. […]

    Link

  313. says

    Bending the knee:

    Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump filed for suspending his Facebook and Instagram accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

    First reported by the Wall Street Journal, this news is the latest instance of a large corporation settling with Trump, who once threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with jail time. The settlement comes as Zuckerberg and other tech bros have attempted to ingratiate themselves with the new Trump administration.

    Of the total settlement, $22 million will go toward funding Trump’s presidential library, while the remaining $3 million is earmarked for the legal fees of Trump and other plaintiffs who joined the lawsuit. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta is not admitting wrongdoing as part of the agreement.

    The settlement is a huge concession by Meta, which once defended Trump’s suspension from its platforms. The temporary ban was put in place following a string of of incendiary posts Trump made during and after the Capitol riot.

    At the time, Zuckerberg said the risks of Trump’s activity on the social media platforms “are simply too great” and paused his accounts for two weeks, which was later extended. Trump’s accounts were restored in January 2023. […]

    The settlement builds on Zuckerberg’s recent ring kissing, a culmination of moves that have earned him praise from Trump and other conservatives. Earlier this month, Meta announced plans to disband its third-party fact-checking team and replace it with a community notes-style system similar to the one currently used on Elon Musk’s X. Days later, Meta ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, effective immediately.

    […] Meta’s settlement comes after ABC News similarly caved to Trump. Last month, the network agreed to pay $15 million for his presidential library after anchor George Stephanopoulos incorrectly said on air that Trump was found “liable for rape.” He was actually found liable for sexual abuse.

    And ABC News isn’t the only outlet that Trump has targeted. […]

    More recently, he appointed a new chair for the Federal Communications Commission who revived three complaints levied against ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News.

    Between corporate news outlets and social media conglomerates, it seems no one plans to stand up to Trump any time soon.

    Link

  314. Reginald Selkirk says

    I declare 2025 to be the International Year of the Interrobang‽

    Someone else seems to have declared this for 2025 already, but I will not be linking to the Nazi channel‽
    Also, 2006 and 2023 also seem to have been the Year of the Interrobang‽ But one can never have too much interrobang, is what I say‽

  315. says

    Hamas frees 8 more hostages. Israel releases Palestinian prisoners after delay

    […] Red Cross vehicles carrying Palestinian prisoners and detainees were engulfed by revelers in both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

    In Ramallah in the West Bank, people leaving the buses were carried on the shoulders of chanting civilians. Video showed the newly released men throwing their hands up in greeting as they were carried through packed streets.

    Video showed similar scenes in Gaza as the freed prisoners and detainees could barely make their way past people while exiting the vans. Al Jazeera reported that hundreds of people rushed to the courtyard of a Khan Younis hospital to greet the prisoners.

    […] Arbel Yehoud’s family has said they are “overwhelmed with emotion” following the release of their daughter, which they said marked the end of a “life’s mission to bring Arbel back to us.”

    The family added that they continued to grieve the loss of their son, Dolev Yehoud, 25, who was killed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks. And that Arbel’s partner, Ariel Cunio, 27, remains held in Hamas captivity.

    “Ahead of us lies another journey of family rehabilitation,” they said in a statement released through the Hostage Families Forum. “We are a bereaved family, still aching and missing our Dolev.”

    “Our Arbel has been returned. However, our mission is not yet complete,” they added, with Cunio, his brother and a close friend also still among those held hostage.

    […] The hostages released by Hamas today are being taken to hospitals for medical treatment and review, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said.

    Gadi Moses was being transported on Israeli Air Force helicopters, along with five Thai nationals, Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakham, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat and Rumnao Surasak, the spokesperson said.

    The 80-year-old is expected to meet with his family at the hospital and receive medical treatment, they said. The Thai nationals released will be accompanied by representatives from their government, they added.

    […] There were chaotic scenes as Israeli hostage Arbel Yehoud was led through a crowd in Gaza before she was transfered to Israeli forces.

    Thousands of people pressed around a handover site in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, in front of the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. […]

  317. says

    In education order, Trump revives failed ‘1776 Commission’

    As part of his strange and brazenly dishonest presidential inaugural address, Donald Trump declared that the United States has “an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves — in many cases, to hate our country.” The Republican assured the public that this would “change very quickly.”

    In reality, of course, the president was peddling a bizarre and baseless myth. But as NBC News reported, that didn’t stop him from issuing an executive order on the subject.

    The White House announced [Wednesday] evening that Trump signed an executive order aimed at “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling,” according to its title. The order directs several Cabinet members within 90 days to “provide an Ending Indoctrination Strategy to the President” that includes “protecting parental rights” and eliminating funding for “illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools.”

    For those concerned about their local schools, all of this might sound alarming, but some caveats are in order. In fact, the phrasing in the executive order itself reflects a degree of hollowness: Trump has directed officials to provide him with a “strategy” that meets his expectations. The president didn’t literally say, “Go figure something out,” but he might as well have.

    But a large chunk of the same executive order was devoted to something called the “President’s Advisory 1776 Commission and Promoting Patriotic Education,” the point of which is to apparently promote patriotism — or at least a Republican-preferred version of patriotism — into school curricula.

    To that end, the EO allows Trump to handpick 20 people to serve as commissioners of this 1776 initiative, who will work with the White House on “promoting patriotic education.” The whole thing will be financed by way of funds from the U.S. Department of Education, which is a federal cabinet agency the president has vowed to destroy.

    This stood out for me, not only because it’s a misguided idea, but also because it’s a return to a misguided idea.

    As regular readers might recall, one day before Election Day 2020, Trump signed an executive order establishing what the White House described as the “1776 Commission.” Explaining its value, the Republican said the initiative would help “clear away the twisted web of lies in our schools and classrooms,” adding that versions of history at odds with conservatives’ values constituted “a form of child abuse.”

    On the last full day of his first term, the White House issued a rather pitiful document, which, as The New York Times reported, was quickly denounced by scholars as ridiculous.

    “This report skillfully weaves together myths, distortions, deliberate silences, and both blatant and subtle misreading of evidence to create a narrative and an argument that few respectable professional historians, even across a wide interpretive spectrum, would consider plausible, never mind convincing,” James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, told the newspaper. “They’re using something they call history to stoke culture wars.”

    The Times also noted a highly relevant detail: Trump’s “commission” featured conservative educators, but it did not include a single professional historian of the United States. [Yep. No experts allowed.]

    Four years later, Trump apparently wants to do it all again — as if the first go around was a success. It was not.

    In 2021, the Republican’s 1776 initiative was largely ignored and forgotten. In the president’s second term, it’s hardly unreasonable to wonder whether it might be more menacing.

  318. says

    Josh Marshall: White House Says We Were Out of the Loop—ON EVERYTHING

    We’re getting clearer indications now that the effort to bamboozle, frighten and entice federal workers into resigning their positions in exchange for non-existent “buy outs” was very much a product of the Elon Musk/DOGE cabal now wilding through and embedding itself within the federal government. We don’t need a lot of confirmation: they left a slew of meme Easter eggs scattered through the process more or less announcing it. What’s notable is that the White House is now going out of its way to tell reporters that it definitely wasn’t them. They were, in that well-worn phrase, out of the loop, etc. [That sounds like a great way to run the government. Not.]

    I suspect this is true, as far as it goes. But that understates — straight up ignores, really — the degree to which Donald Trump and his top advisors have, entirely by design and intentionally, spun up a series of independent fiefdoms, with Musk’s being the largest, to move fast and break things and push every boundary in the interest of a number of overlapping but distinct ideological agendas. In other words, they probably did “bypass key Trump officials.” But that’s pretty much the idea when you wind up guys like Elon Musk and Russell Vought with “let’s be legends” gusto and give them the keys. [True.]

    The news, linked above, that the resignation emails were Team Elon’s idea and didn’t have the okay of the White House comes from a Washington Post article. But we get pretty much the same story in an Ashley Parker article published overnight in The Atlantic, only this time about the across-the-board federal spending freeze and the “memo” that kicked it off Monday. That one was Vought’s team — if not Vought himself, who has yet to be confirmed — at OMB. White House officials told Parker that the memo “was released without going through the usual White House approval processes.”

    So the White House is saying they were out of the loop, caught as off guard as everyone else, by the two big conflagrations that have roiled the federal government over the course of this week and led to what is now universally conceded to be a fairly epic face plant little more than a week into the administration. […] Trump remains entirely a transactional creature. Ideology, in any articulate sense, is entirely alien to him. He wants to be loved, which in his mind means total power and total subservience. […] we learned yesterday afternoon that Trump told Mark Zuckerberg last November that the price of being “brought into the [Trump] tent” was arranging a $25 million bribe in the form of settling a meritless lawsuit from 2020 which had no hope of success.

    Here’s how the Journal captured that moment …

    Toward the end of the November dinner, Trump raised the matter of the lawsuit, the people said. The president signaled that the litigation had to be resolved before Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent,” one of the people said.

    This remains who Trump is and has always been. But along the way he has struck up common cause with a series of ideologues and chaos actors who advance Trump’s interests with ideological and business agendas he cares, in themselves, nothing about.

    So the “resignations” gambit from the Office of Personal Management is from Team Musk, which appears to be running OPM, trying to “disrupt” the federal workforce with “move fast and break things” Silicon Valley values. The OMB memo is the work of Christian nationalist Russell Vought, who envisions an electoral presidential dictatorship which uses its power to enforce a top down re-traditionalizing of American society and culture.

    Republicans in their hubris and Democrats in their disconsolation tell themselves that this is what the voters voted for. But that’s not and is never really true. […]

    The most fractional victory unleashes a wave of legal authority. But the reality is that at most 40 percent of the electorate is firmly aligned with each parties’ ideological aims. The remaining 20 percent or more make consequential choices on the basis of a very limited engagement with electoral politics, reacting to evanescent moods, undulations in the national economy which may have little relation to the actions of elected officials and personal impressions of political leaders themselves. […] it means is that they may be as surprised as anyone else at what their “choices” actually meant or made possible. […]

  323. says

    After Donald Trump tried to blame Pete Buttigieg for the deadly plane crash in Washington, D.C., the former transportation secretary fired back, defending his service and telling Trump to be an adult and show leadership rather than find a scapegoat in the middle of a horrific tragedy.

    “Despicable,” Buttigieg wrote in a post on X, referring to Trump’s batshit crazy news conference in which he blamed everyone from Buttigieg to former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, to people with dwarfism for the crash that killed 64 civilians and three members of the military. “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”

    Buttigieg then said Trump bears some of the blame for the crash, as he is in charge and has already taken actions to make the skies less safe.

    “President Trump now oversees the military and the [Federal Aviation Administration],” Buttigieg continued. “One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

    At the time of the crash, there was no head of the FAA, as Trump’s co-President Elon Musk had forced out the previous administrator because the FAA fined Musk’s company SpaceX.

    Trump also gutted an aviation safety committee days before the crash, getting rid of a three-decade-old safety committee that was created by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Because the committee was created by an act of Congress, Trump couldn’t get rid of it, but he did fire all of its members, which will make the committee unable to do the work of looking into airline safety issues, the Associated Press reported. […]

    Link

  324. says

    Donald J. Trump may be a draft-dodger, but he’s at the front line in the war on aviation safety—a war declared by a Republican president four decades ago.

    Last Tuesday—on his second day in office—Trump fired the entire membership of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee as part of his demolition of the Department of Homeland Security.

    The DHS, of course, is now headed by former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Although best known for killing a defenseless puppy, Noem’s signature accomplishment in her previous job was launching the state’s memorable antidrug slogan: “Meth. We’re On it.”

    I wish I had made that up. [Image at the link.]

    That’s right: Trump fired the committee overseeing aviation safety and hired Kristi Noem. Does that make you feel secure, Homeland?

    You might wonder why Trump thought eliminating people who keep the skies safe was a good idea.

    To the extent that Donald Trump has thoughts, they’re not original. His anti-immigrant rhetoric, for example, owes a debt to a prominent German political leader of the 1930s and 40s. And his decision to axe air safety advisors calls to mind the wrecking ball that Ronald Reagan wielded on August 5, 1981, when he fired 11,345 air traffic controllers in one fell swoop.

    For decades, anti-union Republicans have hailed Reagan’s draconian response to the strike by members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) as the beginning of the end of the American labor movement. But it was also the beginning of a crisis in air safety.

    Joseph A. McCartin, a Georgetown professor and author of Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America, writes, “Reagan’s decision to ban all strikers meant that it took years for the system to come back to its prestrike staffing levels.” That system is still reeling.

    According to a 2023 report, “Ensuring adequate staffing and training for air traffic controllers—an essential part of maintaining the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS)—has been a challenge for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), especially at the Nation’s most critical facilities.”

    Who issued this alarming report? The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General. As you may have heard, Trump purged over a dozen Inspectors General in an overnight massacre last Friday. Department of Transportation Inspector General Eric Soskin was among them.

    There you go again.

    Link

  325. says

    Satire:

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Amid the chaos of his first days in office, on Thursday Donald J. Trump accidentally signed an executive order deporting himself to Panama.

    Elon Musk reassured reporters that Trump’s imminent departure to the Central American nation would have “no effect whatsoever” on the running of the White House, adding, “I got this.”

    But news of Trump’s deportation drew an angry response from Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino, who accused the U.S. of “trying to offload felons to our shores.”

    “This will not stand,” Mulino said. “We will consider any attempt to relocate Donald Trump to Panama an act of war.”

    Link

  326. Reginald Selkirk says

    @229
    Facebook admits that the Linux topic crackdown was ‘in error’ and has been fixed

    Facebook’s heavy-handed censorship of Linux groups and topics was “in error,” the social media juggernaut has admitted. Responding to reports earlier this week, sparked by the curious censorship of the eminently wholesome DistroWatch, Facebook contacted PCMag to say that it had made a mistake and that the underlying issue had been rectified.

    “This enforcement was in error and has since been addressed. Discussions of Linux are allowed on our services,” said a Meta rep to PCMag. That is the full extent of the statement reproduced by the source…

    Copenhagen-hosted DistroWatch says it has appealed against the Community Standards-triggered ban shortly after it noticed it was in effect (January 19). PCMag received the Facebook admission of error on January 28. The latest statement from DistroWatch, which now prefers posting on Mastodon, indicates that Facebook has lifted the DistroWatch links ban…

    Nine days to respond to something so straightforward?

    In the above post, DistroWatch notes that it is aware of the supposed lifting of its ban but that the account still seems to be locked. We just checked DistroWatch’s Facebook page (so you don’t have to). A post yesterday was ‘403 Forbidden’ by Facebook (10 likes), but one about a new BSD release published earlier today seems successful (2 likes)…

  327. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump’s FCC chair investigates NPR and PBS, urges Congress to defund them

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS in a move that Democrats described as an attempt to intimidate the media.

    “I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation regarding the airing of NPR and PBS programming across your broadcast member stations,” Carr wrote in a letter yesterday to the leaders of NPR and PBS.

    Carr alleged that NPR and PBS are violating a federal law prohibiting noncommercial educational broadcast stations from running commercial advertisements. “I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Carr wrote. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

    Carr’s letter did not provide any specific examples of underwriting announcements that might violate the law, but said the “announcements should not promote the contributor’s products, services, or businesses, and they may not contain comparative or qualitative descriptions, price information, calls to action, or inducements to buy, sell, rent, or lease.” …

  328. StevoR says

    Let’s not forget this evil man was an LNP puppet-master esp of ex-PM Abbott – and that these are only some of the cases we know about :

    WARNING : Child sexual assualt references

    Two men have been granted compensation by the federal government’s National Redress Scheme for abuse by the late Cardinal George Pell, including one whom the scheme accepted was raped by Pell when the Cardinal was a young priest in Ballarat in the 1970s.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-31/george-pell-ballarat-abused-boys/104863920

  329. whheydt says

    Article from Kyiv Independent focusing on an all-women resistance movement in Russian occupied territories:
    https://kyivindependent.com/for-ukraines-female-partisans-in-occupation-hope-lies-in-resistance/

    Somewhere in the streets of Russian-occupied Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, a woman puts a sticker on the wall. It’s a short message, but if she is seen doing it, she will face arrest, prosecution, and likely, torture.

    The message is: “Soon, we will be home again.” On another sticker, the most dangerous three words in the occupied Crimea: “This is Ukraine.”

    What makes it even more risky for their bearer is the language. The words are in Ukrainian.

    The woman putting up the stickers is a member of Zla Mavka, an all-female resistance group. She is on a dangerous mission: to give hope.

    The illustrations are worth a look even if you don’t want to read the article.

  332. Bekenstein Bound says

    Sixty four people were on the American Airlines flight and three on the military helicopter when the aircraft collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport

    Looks like after all these decades Reagan will be firing one more air traffic controller.

  334. whheydt says

    Re: Bekenstein Bound @ #330….
    What I keep wondering is…what in blazes was a military helicopter doing anywhere near civilian landing pattern?

  335. says

    Politico:

    A senior NATO official has confirmed that there was a Russian scheme to kill Armin Papperger, the head of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. The plot, which was foiled by United States and German intelligence, was part of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe, according to NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber James Appathurai.

  336. StevoR says

    Australian Human Rights Commission accepts complaint against Peter Dutton
    Georgie Hewson profile image
    By Georgie Hewson

    A group legal action has been accepted against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton under Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act, accusing him of discrimination and inciting racial hatred.

    Solicitor Moustafa Kheir, who is representing the complainants, said the complaint referenced 25 individual incidents where Mr Dutton had engaged in racial hatred and discrimination.

    A group of 10 complainants, including Jewish Professor Peter Slezak and Palestinian-Australian Nasser Mashni, made the complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission alleging discrimination on the grounds of race, descent, national and ethnic origin, and racial hatred under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

    “Among the allegations Mr Dutton has been accused of includes the endangerment of Australian Jewish people through the deliberate conflation of the State of Israel with Jewish identity, which has seen a rise in Antisemitism,” Mr Kheir said.

    “Further, in a Chanukah message in December 2024, Mr Dutton condemned the International Criminal Court as being engaged in a ‘sordid moral inversion’ for attempting to uphold international criminal law to protect Palestinians.

    “My clients are gravely concerned that someone who could very well be the next Prime Minister of Australia not only holds such racist and xenophobic views but publicises those views nationally, inciting others to engage in the same rhetoric and discrimination.”

    The Australian Human Rights Act gives the Commission’s president the power to investigate and attempt to conciliate complaints alleging unlawful discrimination. Mr Dutton has not publicly responded.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-31/federal-politics-blog-january-31/104877214

    Need to scroll down to that.

  339. Reginald Selkirk says

    A New Zealand mountain is granted personhood, recognizing it as sacred for Māori

    A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.

    Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.

    The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain’s theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized. It fulfills an agreement of redress from the country’s government to Indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since…

  341. KG says

    Add Adolph to the list. Maybe Musk will kick in a couple million extra to pay for it. – Reginald Selkirk@286

    Adolph who? From context, I surmise you mean Adolf Hitler. He never spelled his name “Adolph”, German rarely uses “ph” in place of “f”, and AFAIK never in the case of personal names. Why is this error so prevalent? When and where did it start?

  342. JM says

    404 Media: ‘Everything I Say Leaks,’ Zuckerberg Says in Leaked Meeting Audio

    At an all hands meeting inside Meta Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg did not address Meta’s $25 million settlement with Donald Trump that will see the company paying $22 million for the eventual establishment of the Trump Presidential Library. But Zuckerberg did say that he had to be increasingly careful about what he says internally at Meta.

    “Everything I say leaks. And it sucks, right?,” Zuckerberg said.

    Funny on 3 different levels. The basic comment about leaks getting leaked is funny on it’s own. For Zuckerberg the problem of his data being sent to a 3rd party without his consent is also funny. It’s almost like his company is built on doing something he doesn’t like when it happens to him. And the executive problem of his comments being embarrassing when leaked is also funny. I would have some sympathy if it was giving away company secrets or plans. But no, it’s because the plans are bad for both the company and the US.

  343. Reginald Selkirk says

    Metal Detectorist Unearths Miniature 1,600-Year-Old Roman Lock

    A metal detectorist in Germany has unearthed a tiny ancient Roman golden lock. The 1,600-year-old artifact is likely the first discovery of its kind in Europe, and sheds light on the extraordinary blacksmithing and locksmithing skills present in ancient Roman provinces.

    Hailing from the third or fourth century CE, the miniature lock is 0.43 by 0.47 inches (1.1 by 1.2 centimeters)…

    Based on its shape, construction, and style, archaeologists at LWL immediately identified it as a Roman lock from the third or fourth century CE, produced in one of the imperial provinces. In fact, it was identical to a regular ancient Roman lock in everything but its size. Although the detectorist, Constantin Fried, found the artifact without its chain and key, it likely resembled a bike lock and could have secured a chest or box. A single chain link survived, and is still visible inside the lock…

    Gold is a rather soft metal. I would suspect that this lock may have been functional, but was primarily intended to be ornamental.

  344. Reginald Selkirk says

    Welsh woman fined for flatulence-fueled cyber harassment

    Wales has given the world many things – Tom Jones, laverbread, and the equals sign. But one woman from Caernarfon has added weaponized flatulence to the list. Her unorthodox approach to WhatsApp landed her with a community order and fines.

    The court heard that the 25-year-old stinkerbell, Rhiannon Evans, sent a series of videos to her boyfriend’s former partner of her holding her smartphone camera to her rear end, farting into it while smirking throughout.

    The series of four tootally “malicious” messages, sent on December 22, were deemed tantamount to cyber harassment. Evans may have even got away with it if she stopped after the resulting police warning.

    Her fartal error, however, was sending additional videos on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Evans was later arrested at her home and admitted to the gaseous exchanges.

    According to North Wales Live, which reported the story from Caernarfon magistrates’ court, the victim, Deborah Prytherch, was perturbed by Evans’s messages, saying: “I would like to feel safe in my home.”

    The court also heard that the relationship between Evans, her partner, and Prytherch came to blows amid disputes over access to child visitation. Evans and her ex had previously been in a relationship for two years…

    Evans’s solicitor said her client had issues related to her mental health, had a difficult upbringing, and sent all the videos after having “some drinks.”

    She was also said to be unaware that her actions were illegal and refuted the prosecution’s accusation that the messages were sent with malicious intent…

  345. Reginald Selkirk says

    Aurora supercomputer is now fully operational, available to researchers

    Argonne National Laboratory this week said that its Aurora supercomputer is now fully operational and is available to the scientific community. The machine, which was announced in 2015 and faced massive delays, now offers over 1 FP64 ExaFLOPS performance for simulation as well as 11.6 mixed precision ExaFLOPS for artificial intelligence and machine learning. ..

    The availability of the Aurora supercomputer for open scientific research may be considered a formal acceptance of the system by ARNL, which marks an important milestone for the troubled machine. Initially planned for 2018, Aurora missed this target due to Intel’s decision to discontinue its Xeon Phi processors. After the machine was re-architected, the project faced further setbacks due to Intel’s 7nm process technology delay, pushing the completion date to 2021 and then again to 2023. ..

    While Aurora is not the most powerful supercomputer for simulations, as its FP64 performance barely exceeds one ExaFLOPS, it is the most powerful system for AI as it can achieve 11.6 mixed precision ExaFLOPS according to the HPL-MxP benchmark…

    On the hardware side, Aurora clearly impresses. The supercomputer comprises 166 racks, each holding 64 blades, for a total of 10,624 blades. Each blade contains two Xeon Max processors with 64 GB of HBM2E memory onboard and six Intel Data Center Max ‘Ponte Vecchio’ GPUs, all cooled by a specialized liquid-cooling system.

    In total, Aurora has 21,248 CPUs with over 1.1 million high-performance x86 cores, 19.9 PB of DDR5 memory, and 1.36 PB of HBM2E memory attached to the CPUs. It also features 63,744 GPUs optimized for AI and HPC equipped with 8.16 PB of HBM2E memory. Aurora uses 1,024 nodes with solid-state drives for storage, offering 220 PB of total capacity and 31 TB/s of bandwidth. The machine relies on HPE’s Shasta supercomputer architecture with Slingshot interconnects.

    Note that the delays are tied to Intel’s troubles. The Top500 list of top performing supercomputers has seen an increase in AMD systems in the last few years. AMD systems now hold spots 1, 2 and 5.

  346. says

    Rachel Maddow reported: “Trump pick for HHS doubles down on weird racial vaccine theory he apparently misunderstood”

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

    January 30th presentation. It’s good. Video is less 3 minutes long.

    It is followed by a report in which Rachel discussed “How Americans ended up without an FAA administrator.” She just blasted Trump and his response to the crash in DC. That video is 9:43 minutes.

    Another Rachel Maddow presentation: “Contrast in defense secretaries highlights Trump’s failure to take staffing government seriously” 6:10 minutes.

    All well worth watching.

  347. KG says

    Trump’s batshit crazy news conference in which he blamed everyone from Buttigieg to former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, to people with dwarfism for the crash that killed 64 civilians and three members of the military. – Lynna, OM quoting DailyKos

    Did Trump (even Trump) actually blame people with dwarfism for the crash? I’ve had a look at the DailyKos post, which doesn’t provide details. I’m not sure I could stand actually watching Trump’s “press conference”. Has anyone had the fortitude to do so?

  348. says

    https://www.msnbc.com/all

    Chris Hayes highlights comments made by Bernie Sanders: The video is 6:33 minutes long.

    That video is followed by a report in which Senator Warnock is interviewed: “Warnock: We’re seeing Project 2025 play out ‘before our very eyes’”

  349. Reginald Selkirk says

    WhatsApp disrupts spyware campaign targeting journalists

    WhatsApp says it disrupted a spyware campaign last month that targeted journalists and civil society members, according to reports from The Guardian and Reuters. The campaign originated from an Israeli spyware company called Paragon Solutions and impacted around 90 users.

    WhatsApp told The Guardian that it has reached out to affected users, saying it had “high confidence” that they were targeted and “possibly compromised.” The Meta-owned app also sent a cease-and-desist order to Paragon and is “exploring its legal options,” The Guardian reports…

    Paragon, which Reuters called a competitor to Pegasus maker NSO Group, bills itself as an “ethical” cyber defense company. It was acquired by the Florida-based private investment firm AE Industrial Partners last year, while a recent report from Wired revealed that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a $2 million contract with Paragon in September 2024…

  350. Reginald Selkirk says

    Pasteurization is capable of inactivating HPAI in milk and cheeses, according to Center for Dairy Research

    The Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin is conducting research on high path avian flu in dairy.

    They say that pasteurization is capable of inactivating the virus in milk.

    According to John Lucey, “It seems like this virus, this bird flu virus, this influenza virus is pretty easy to inactivate by heat treatment. So, I’m pretty hopeful that all of these raw or heat-treated cheeses, milk used for cheeses, would be inactivated by the treatment when we’re using it.”

    While experts have warned about the dangers of consuming raw or unpasteurized milk, Lucey says that many packaged cheeses are sold with “raw” on the label without actually being 100% raw.

    “There are a couple of important details for the public to understand. Something will be labeled or considered raw by the FDA for cheese purposes, even though it might have a heat treatment that’s pretty significant. But if it doesn’t reach the number or the level that the FDA considers pasteurization, everything below that number is completely raw from their perspective,” he explains. “For example, something could be 5º Fahrenheit, less than the critical temperatures, and the FDA would still consider that raw. It’s either pasteurized or raw. There are only two definitions for them.”

    The research included the same FDA industry standards for pasteurization that also inactivates pathogens like salmonella and listeria.

    Key phrase to remember: for cheese purposes
    ‽

  351. says

    Washington Post link

    “Senior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system”

    “A top Treasury career staffer, David A. Lebryk, announced his retirement. Surrogates of Musk’s DOGE effort had sought access to sensitive payment systems.” Ominous!

    The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department is departing after a clash with allies of billionaire Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks.

    David A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, announced his retirement Friday in an email to colleagues obtained by The Washington Post. […] Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week. Lebryk had a dispute with Musk’s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. […]

    Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

    […] When Scott Bessent was confirmed as treasury secretary on Monday, Lebryk ceased to be the acting agency head.

    Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. […]

    The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal bureaucracy as the Trump administration nears the conclusion of its second week. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate. […] His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.

    The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems. [Aiyiyiyi]

    […] the possibility that government officials might try to use the federal payments system — which essentially functions as the nation’s “checking book” — to enact a political agenda is unprecedented, said Mark Mazur, who served in senior treasury roles during the Obama and Biden administrations.

    “This is a mechanical job — they pay Social Security benefits, they pay vendors, whatever. It’s not one where there’s a role for nonmechanical things, at least from the career standpoint. Your whole job is to pay the bills as they’re due,” Mazur said. “It’s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda. … You have to really put bad intentions in place for that to be the case.”

    In the 2023 fiscal year, the payment systems processed nearly 1.3 billion payments, accounting for about $5.4 trillion, nearly 97 percent made electronically, according to the Treasury Department. Every payment was made on time.

    Lebryk’s departure is expected to be a shock to Treasury personnel, among whom he enjoys a sterling reputation. The lifelong bureaucrat joined the department as an intern in 1989 and spent three decades at the agency under 11 different treasury secretaries, serving as acting director of the U.S. Mint and commissioner of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, among other roles.

    In his email announcing his retirement, Lebryk praised the department’s staff.

    “Please know that your work makes a difference and is so very important to the country. It has been an honor to work alongside you,” he wrote. “Our work may be unknown to most of the public, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t exceptionally important.”

    Michael Faulkender, whom Trump nominated as deputy treasury secretary in December, praised Lebryk’s work in 2023.

    “I could not, to this day, tell you his politics,” Faulkender, who served as an assistant secretary at Treasury during Trump’s first term, told The Washington Post at the time. “He always seemed to be relaxed and under control.”

    The difference between Lebryk and Musk is striking.

  352. says

    WTF?!

    On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a memo saying that the Trump administration will prioritize areas with higher marriage and birth rates when it decides where to dole out transportation funding.

    Duffy detailed the “Handmaid’s Tale”-esque policy in a memo that he said “updates and resets the principles and standards underpinning U.S. Department of Transportation policies, programs, and activities.”

    The memo says Trump’s DOT will “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.” The memo added that the policy will also apply to how the administration will administer the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants program, which “funds transit capital investments, including heavy rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars, and bus rapid transit,” according to the DOT.

    […] Of course, prioritizing high birth and marriage rates to determine who gets funding to fix their roads and public transportation systems is just imposing a far-right agenda on the country.

    The top 10 states with the highest birth rates—South Dakota, Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota, Texas, Louisiana, Utah, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Kansas—are all Republican-run. That means Duffy’s policy would prioritize red states over blue states.

    Duffy, a former reality television contestant turned GOP congressman turned Fox News personality who has no actual transportation experience, has nine kids with his fellow right-wing wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy. He is also an anti-abortion extremist who during his time in office voted multiple times for nationwide abortion bans.

    He is one of a number of Trump administration officials with a weird obsession with having tons of kids.

    Donald Trump’s co-President Elon Musk has a breeder fetish, fathering at least 12 children with three different women. He is now trying to create a compound for them to live on in what sounds more like a horror movie plot. He’s openly railed about declining birth rates, calling it “the biggest danger civilization faces,” and wants Americans to have more kids, even though he doesn’t support the kind of policies that would make that economically feasible.

    What’s more, Vice President JD Vance gave a speech to the anti-abortion March for Life on Jan. 24 in which he declared, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

    Vance also notoriously criticized Democratic women who do not have kids, calling them “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

    Now, it turns out, the official Trump administration policy is to punish people who do not have kids by denying them funding to fix their roads and transportation systems.

    Link

  353. says

    Trump’s grift grows as his shady empire expands into finance

    Truth Social’s Trump Media & Technology Group announced Wednesday that it will expand into financial services and potentially purchase bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

    Per the press release, the company built on President Donald Trump’s brand will launch the fintech brand Truth.Fi. The brand will partner with Charles Schwab and offer financial and investment advice and strategy.

    Despite Trump having America’s biggest tech bros front row at his inauguration, the press release also states that Truth.Fi seeks to create a “robust ecosystem” for “American patriots” free from the “threat of cancellation, censorship, debunking, and privacy violations committed by Big Tech and woke corporations.”

    Trump has spent quite a bit of time crafting his brand on the idea of anti-woke, anti-cancellation ideology—now, fans of the convicted felon can invest directly through his platforms while wearing his cologne and sneakers, too.

    Watchdog groups have long been sounding the alarm about conflicts of interest in Trump’s business and policy decisions in the White House. […]

    More at the link.

    Sounds like Charles Schwab will do all the work and Trump will put his brand name on it while also raking in a lot of money.

  355. Reginald Selkirk says

    @350 Lynna, OM
    On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a memo saying that the Trump administration will prioritize areas with higher marriage and birth rates when it decides where to dole out transportation funding.

    You could try to make a case that places with a higher birth rate will have higher populations of drivers in the future. I could counter that by pointing out that some conservative hellholes with high birth rates do not have higher adult populations because any young adult who can, moves away from those hellholes at the first opportunity.

  356. Akira MacKenzie says

    @ 351

    Chances are my MAGAt father will claim that the Democrats were doing the same thing so the liberals are hypocrites. That seems to be his response to EVERYTHING the right does these days.

  357. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: KG @345:

    Did Trump (even Trump) actually blame people with dwarfism for the crash?

    Clips from the press conference.
    Trump rails against DEI after deadly D.C. plane crash (4:00)
     
    He was quoting from a 2024 New York Post article complaining about hiring under Biden.

    The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.

    “Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

    Q and A (0:27)

    Trump: It’s all under investigation.
    Reporter: I understand that. That’s why I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.
    Trump: Because I have common sense, okay.

    The common sense would preclude citing the New York Post.

  358. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    His other source in the first clip was Fox, again 2024, but he only read as far as the subheadline.

    What Trump didn’t read from it:

    “[…] Like many large employers, the agency proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible, all of whom must meet rigorous qualifications that of course will vary by position,” the FAA said.

  359. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Oh. Fox published the article, then the New York Post mirrored it. So Trump cited the same article twice and ignored that bit both times.

  361. Reginald Selkirk says

    FCC demands CBS provide unedited transcript of Kamala Harris interview

    The Federal Communications Commission demanded that CBS provide the unedited transcript of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that is the subject of a complaint to the FCC and a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump.

    CBS News on Wednesday received a letter of inquiry in which the FCC requested “the full, unedited transcript and camera feeds” of the Harris interview, The New York Times reported today. “We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do,” a CBS News spokesperson told media outlets.

    FCC Chairman Brendan Carr repeatedly echoed Trump’s complaints about alleged media bias before the election and has taken steps to punish news broadcasters since Trump promoted him to the chairmanship. Complaints against CBS, ABC, and NBC stations were dismissed under former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, but Carr reversed those dismissals in his first week as chair. Carr also ordered investigations into NPR and CBS…

  363. says

    NBC News:

    The White House said Friday that President Donald Trump would impose a 25% tariff on goods coming to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on those from China on Saturday, a move that could drive up prices for products coming into the U.S. from those countries.

  364. Reginald Selkirk says

    Mongolian sumo wrestler appointed grand champion

    A Mongolian sumo wrestler has been promoted to the sport’s highest rank in a ceremony on Friday.

    Hoshoryu, real name Sugarragchaa Byambasuren, became the 74th yokozuna, or grand champion, after winning a major tournament last week.

    To become a yokozuna, the wrestler must not only achieve great sporting success but also display good conduct and be approved by a board of judges…

    Mongolians have dominated sumo for the past 25 years.

    Since the turn of the century, six of the seven wrestlers promoted to yokozuna hailed from the Asian country…

  365. says

    Federal appeals court says ban on 18-year-olds buying handguns is unconstitutional”

    The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling that the federal law infringes on the Second Amendment rights of 18- to 20-year-olds.

    A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that a law stipulating a minimum age of 21 years to purchase handguns is unconstitutional, citing in part the history of firearm use in its connection with militia service.

    A three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans — which has been behind some of the nation’s most conservative rulings on issues like abortion, gun rights and immigration — wrote in its ruling that 18- to 20-year-olds should not be barred from making handgun purchases.

    The panel said it disagrees with the federal government’s argument that age restrictions on the purchase of handguns do not infringe on the Second Amendment because those between the ages of 18 and 20 are not counted among “the people” protected by the constitutional right to bear arms. The court pointed to the Militia Act of 1792 as evidence for its reasoning.

    “Ultimately, the text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old individuals among ‘the people’ whose right to keep and bear arms is protected,” the judges wrote. “The federal government has presented scant evidence that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds’ firearm rights during the founding-era were restricted in a similar manner to the contemporary federal handgun purchase ban, and its 19th century evidence ‘cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence.’”

    The ruling does not mean that licensed firearms dealers can now begin selling handguns to those in the age range at issue. The court did not issue a temporary injunction on the ban, instead punting the case back to a lower court for consideration. But its decision means it’s more likely that the issue of older teenagers buying handguns will make its way to the Supreme Court.

    Firearm deaths are the leading cause of death for those between ages 18-25, according to KFF, a nonprofit that focuses on health policy. Federal law currently restricts handgun purchases from a licensed seller to those 21 and older, and long gun purchases to those 18 and older, according to gun safety advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety. But 18-year-olds can buy handguns from unlicensed dealers, and there is no age limit on such purchases for long guns.

  366. says

    […] “I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?” Vance [said in response to an interview question about the administration’s new policy on allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to enter houses of worship.]

    As The Washington Post reported, the comments did not go unnoticed.

    With his criticism of U.S. Catholic bishops for supporting immigrants, Vice President JD Vance has reignited years of GOP attacks on the Catholic Church […] questioned whether the church’s substantial, decades-long work with migrants is driven by a desire for money.

    Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York hosts his own program on SiriusXM and told listeners, in reference to Vance, “I was really disappointed with what he said. … I don’t mind telling you, somewhat hurt. This was not only harmful, this was inaccurate.”

    Dolan — whom the public might’ve seen delivering prayers at both of Trump’s inaugurations — went on to say, again referring to the vice president’s on-air comments, “That’s just scurrilous. It’s very nasty. And it’s not true. You want to come look at our audits, which are scrupulously done? You think we make money caring for the immigrants? We’re losing it hand over fist.”

    The Post’s report also noted that John Carr, the former head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ office on social justice efforts, said Vance’s criticisms “showed an unprecedented lack of respect for the work of the Catholic community, lack of restraint in promoting false and outrageous claims that the Church does this for the money and promotes human trafficking, and a lack of knowledge of Catholic teaching and ministry with refugees.”

    Carr added, “It seemed like an effort to intimidate instead of a call to seek the best way forward.”

    To date, the vice president has not made any public effort to walk back what he said to CBS. Watch this space.

    Link

    Perhaps JD Vance cannot conceive of helping immigrants if one is not making money doing so.

  367. says

    Russell Vought isn’t a normal Cabinet pick. Democrats were right to make a scene., by Rachel Maddow.

    On Thursday, Donald Trump’s nominee for budget director, Russell Vought, passed through his Senate committee hearing 11-0, a unanimous vote. Vought’s nomination will now go to the full Senate.

    After hearing it was a unanimous vote, you may be asking yourself: Did all Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee vote for Vought? The same man who says the president can refuse to spend the money Congress tells him to spend, no matter the chaos, no matter the authority vested in Congress by the Constitution?

    While Vought’s nomination did pass 11-0, it was not because Democrats on the committee voted for him. Yes, the vote was unanimous but it was also homogeneous because only Republicans voted.

    Earlier Thursday, Democrats announced they would boycott the vote and they let the public know why: “Budget Committee Democrats are boycotting today’s committee vote on Russell Vought’s nomination to OMB,” Democratic members said in a post on X. “We will not vote for someone so clearly unfit for office.”

    Rather than take part in voting on this nominee — and knowing they’d be in the minority even if they all did show up and vote no — Democrats instead decided not to show up at all.

    They decided to make a point that this nominee, the architect behind Project 2025 — a strategy to consolidate all government power in the presidency and essentially render Congress powerless — is not a normal nominee and that he doesn’t even deserve their no votes.

    In other words, they made a fuss. They made a scene. It’s in keeping with what Democrats around the country have been asking the elected members of their party to do: Do not participate in what the Trump administration is doing here. Shut it down.

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly heard that message Wednesday night from half a dozen Democratic governors, who, according to The New York Times, were “all but begging the minority leader to persuade Senate Democrats to block whatever they could.”

    We have heard it from the press. The Washington Post editorial board wrote Wednesday, “Senators who back Vought are choosing to undermine their own institution and give away their power of the purse.” [True.]

    Also Wednesday, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus wrote that if Vought’s nomination ultimately goes through and Trump grabs the power of the purse, “lawmakers might as well pack their bags. There won’t be much of a constitutional role left for them.”

    The progressive group Indivisible, which has chapters across the country, has been demanding that Democrats effectively shut down the Senate.

    “We need Democrats to use every procedural maneuver to grind things to [a] stop and use every media tool to raise alarm and allow public pressure to build,” the group’s co-founder said in a statement Tuesday.

    And Thursday, Senate Democrats — in this way, on this vote — did what they could. They may not be able to stop this particular nomination, but they are doing everything they can to say to the American people: This is a disaster.

  368. Reginald Selkirk says

    Exclusive-Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say

    Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.

    Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.

    Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and X owner tasked by Trump to slash the size of the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce, has moved swiftly to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management.

    The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department’s data systems.

    The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.

    “We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.” …

  369. says

    FBI agents who worked on Trump investigations and Jan. 6 probes could be fired as soon as Friday, sources say

    FBI agents who worked on the bureau’s probes of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the federal investigations into President Trump’s handling of classified records and his post-2020-election conduct could be fired as soon as Friday, multiple sources familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.

    […] The moves would expand an ongoing purge of employees within the Justice Department and the FBI, where top officials have been told to retire, resign or be fired by Monday. Government officials are reviewing lists of FBI agents who worked on the probes to determine who should be fired and the numbers of agents affected could grow, two of the sources said.

    The senior FBI officials receiving notice to resign or be fired include those at the executive assistant director level at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and numerous heads of FBI field offices across the country. The special agents in charge of Miami and Las Vegas offices, as well as the assistant director in charge of the Washington field offices have also received notice, three people familiar with the moves told CBS News. These agents are expected to accept retirement.

    The top officials at the executive assistant director level being instructed to retire manage the FBI’s criminal, national security and cyber investigations. […]

    While the number of agents affected by the latest changes remains unclear, the decision to include those who worked on the complex probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could reverberate across the country, since agents from a number of FBI field offices participated in what became the largest investigation in Justice Department history. More than 1,500 defendants were charged in nearly every state, and FBI personnel played critical roles in each case. On his first day in office, Mr. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all Jan. 6 defendants.

    […] FBI agents also worked with federal prosecutors as they investigated and later charged Mr. Trump in two cases brought by former special counsel Jack Smith, one tied to the president’s handling of classified records and the other related to his conduct after the 2020 presidential election. Those agents are expected to be removed from their positions. The charges against Mr. Trump were dropped before his inauguration and the special counsel resigned.

    […] “These actions also contradict the commitments that Attorney General-nominee Pam Bondi and Director-nominee Kash Patel made during their nomination hearings before the United States Senate,” the association continued. “They also run counter to the commitment that Director-nominee Patel made to the FBI Agents Association, where during our meeting he said that Agents would be afforded appropriate process and review and not face retribution based solely on the cases to which they were assigned.” [gaslighting Congress, gaslighting the public, bullshitting and lying]

    Last week, CBS News reported that more than a dozen federal prosecutors who worked on Smith’s team to charge Mr. Trump were fired by the Justice Department. […]

  370. says

    Disappearing websites, data among the chaos as Trump’s anti-trans censorship begins

    “A stark picture presented across the federal government, with particularly concerning information coming out of the Census Bureau and CDC.”

    [Screengrab of the order is available at the link]

    An anti-transgender, government-wide, totalitarian form of censorship is being implemented right now on the orders of an acting federal appointee with the effects of erasing significant amounts of information from the public less than two weeks after President Donald Trump retook the presidency.

    A Wednesday order from Chuck Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, that the entire federal government scrub any mention of what the Trump administration derisively calls “gender ideology“ or even the word “gender” by 5 p.m. Friday is leading to censorship and chaos across the government, as understaffed agencies and departments seek to take action based on orders of questionable legality and with only the vaguest of implementation guidance.

    On Friday afternoon, an email sent to State Department employees showed the scope of Ezell’s directive. In it, Ambassador Tibor Nagy, currently acting as the undersecretary for management at the State Department, noted the steps the department was taking to comply — and ordering all employees to “remove any gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks by 5:00 PM today.“

    On top of the information erasure, agencies are also to end programs and grants that advance “gender ideology” by then and “[e]nsure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by biological sex and not gender identity” — in other words, institute an anti-trans bathroom ban.

    Among the most stark reports provided to Law Dork about what is happening, information-wise, are those involving the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    A Census employee told Law Dork, “[S]everal of our ongoing surveys have been ordered by their sponsoring agencies to be modified to remove any reference to the word gender and any gender identity related questions.”

    The National Crime Victimization Survey — conducted for the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics — and National Health Interview Survey — conducted for the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics — have already been altered, per the employee.

    “Both surveys will have removed those references starting with their data collection cycle in February,” the Census employee explained, adding that similar changes are being made to the consumer expenditure surveys conducted for the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics but that those “will likely go out in March.“

    Federal employees from across the government also tell Law Dork that affinity groups have been disbanded, staff have been assigned to scrub websites of newly verboten language, and that queer employees are operating in fear.

    “We are an office of mostly women, minority and queer employees who have been scrubbing DEIA references from internal sites,” a State Department employee told Law Dork. “It has been a rough week.“

    Yikes.

  371. says

    Defense secretary says invading Mexico is ‘on the table’

    Donald Trump’s brand-new secretary of defense spoke with Fox News’ morning crew Friday and said that invading countries such as Mexico is a very real option.

    “The drug cartels have been declared terrorist organizations,” “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade said, adding that invading countries such as Somalia, Sudan, and Syria would be prime for an American military strike if a terrorist organization such as al-Qaida was found there.

    “As the secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or wherever they are?”

    “Brian, I don’t want to get ahead of the president and I won’t, but that’s ultimately going to be his decision,” Hegseth said. “But let me be clear. All options will be on the table.”

    “The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border,” Hegseth continued. “That is something we will do, and do robustly.” [video at the link]

    The conversation was ostensibly about fentanyl coming into our country and how serious the GOP is about using might to stop it. Of course, one of Trump’s first acts as president was to pardon infamous drug trafficker Ross Ulbricht. The idea that the GOP is serious about anything other than what the billionaire class, led by Elon Musk wants them to do is laughable.

    The preoccupation with Mexico, and many non-white countries for that matter, has been a focus of the GOP for decades, which has only heightened under Trump. Trump and the GOP have routinely used Mexico as a xenophobic scapegoat for their failed economic policies. From calling Mexicans “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists” to telling ghost stories about a mythical “caravan” of immigrants winding its way through South America to invade the U.S. to changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, nothing is too low for Trump.

    Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host, squeezed through confirmation, even as allegations of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse, and a deluge of general inadequacies as a person were revealed to the public.

    I’ll state my opinion. I do not think the USA should invade Mexico.

  372. says

    Followup to comments 350 and 353.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/transportation-secretary-sean-duffy

    “Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Orders Road Projects To Make More Babies”

    “These guys are so freaking weird.”

    Donald Trump’s new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who qualified for the job by being on MTV’s “The Real World” and later on Fox News, has been in the public spotlight because of Wednesday night’s aviation disaster in Washington DC. Yesterday, Duffy took part in Donald Trump’s unhinged press conference, adding little information on the crash but promising that only the “best and brightest” will now work in his department, a pledge he betrayed by not immediately resigning. [LOL] It was a weird, obsequious, fawning performance, in which Duffy frequently looked not at the cameras, but at the Great Man, presumably to make sure his praise of Trump was being heard.

    The crash has brought instant scrutiny to Duffy and his first actions on the job, including a really strange memo turned up by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The memo, one of several released Wednesday by Duffy, includes a weird directive that DOT officials should take care to prioritize funding road projects in “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” because that will somehow be good for America, you see. The memo also called for upgrading transportation access for “families with young children” as well as mitigating the downsides of transportation projects on families.

    It also prohibits contractors working on DOT-funded projects from “imposing vaccine or mask mandates,” which is apparently another important priority of the federal government. [FFS]

    […] the memo was one of several released by the DOT Wednesday that Duffy claimed were necessary to provide Americans “an efficient, safe, and pro-growth transportation system based on sound decision-making, not political ideologies.” Definitely nothing political or ideological about using transportation funding to push for a higher birth rate. [True]

    […] Duffy, a former member of Congress who represented parts of northern Wisconsin, is a very pro-forced-birth Catholic who has nine children, so he knows how important it is for roads to help Americans keep filling their quivers with children, we suppose. […]

    […] the Journal-Sentinel, out there in the heartland, points out that Wisconsin actually has declining birth and fertility rates, although the article adds that a “spokesman for the state Department of Transportation said it was too early to determine whether such metrics would result in more or less funding than current levels.”

    Heck, maybe the new regime of transportation funding will do the job and encourage Wisconsinites to get married and screw more, the way God and JD Vance want?

    In another DOT order issued by Duffy Wednesday, the secretary directs all Transportation Department personnel to “identify and eliminate” any written material produced during the Biden administration that refers to topics that no longer exist under the Trump administration. The order specifies that the to-be-eliminated materials and topics include

    all orders, directives, rules, regulations, notices, guidance documents, funding agreements, programs, and policy statements, or portions thereof, which were authorized, adopted, or approved between noon on January 20, 2021 and noon on January 20, 2025, and which reference or relate in any way to climate change, “greenhouse gas” emissions, racial equity, gender identity, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” goals, environmental justice, or the Justice 40 Initiative.

    That’s rather a lot! And of course, it’s once again a completely illegal order, like the attempted “freeze” of federal grants, because much of the stuff that Duffy wants to redact into the cornfield, especially the items about funding, was established by federal laws, not just Biden policies. And that’s leaving aside the notion that greenhouse gas emissions are simply an ideological invention that can be bleeped out of existence as easily as, say, Juneteenth or LGBTQ+ people.

    […] We’re sure the Roads For White Babbies Initiative will also face lawsuits, because there’s no earthly rationale for skewing transportation funding based on marriage or birth rates. But like everything else from these weasels, it’s going to take time and money and effort […]

  373. says

    Followup to comment 349.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/elon-musk-now-in-charge-of-paying

    “Elon Musk Now In Charge Of Paying Nation’s Bills, Which Seems Like A Terrible Idea”

    Have you ever wondered who writes the nation’s checks? The actual checks, we mean. Who is in charge of wire transfers of Social Security, paychecks to federal employees and pension payments to retirees, and all the gazillions of other transactions that are literally the physical manifestation of the $6 trillion in spending the United States government puts out every year?

    It’s not something we have ever thought about a whole lot or at all. But the Treasury Department has something called the Bureau of Fiscal Services, which runs the nation’s various payment systems. The department is staffed by a relatively small number of nonpartisan career bureaucrats. Obviously, with the sensitive nature of who literally controls the purse strings, it seems critically important to keep any sort of politicization far away from the BFS.

    Given all of that, who is the absolute last person on Planet Earth you would want to have in charge of these systems? If your first thought was “Elon Musk or one of his lickspittles” and your second thought was “Are you fucking kidding us,” congratulations, you are as rational a human being as we expect to find in the exciting nightmare that is now all our lives.

    The Washington Post reports that David Lebryk, a career bureaucrat who has spent several decades climbing up to his position of Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, is leaving after a dispute with Musk subordinates over access to the sensitive payment systems. […]

    The Post headline — “Senior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system” — really underplays the seriousness of this latest assault on the federal government by the Nazi ketamine addict and his merry band of teenaged sieg heil enthusiasts. Imagine these Silicon Valley nitwits, with their “move fast and break things” ethos, their arrogance, their assuredness in both their own genius and their own untouchability, with direct access to and control over every payment made by the Treasury Department.

    Like disaster aid, the payment systems have never been used for partisan purposes until Donald Trump came along […] Does anyone think Musk and his people will continue to be good stewards of it? [Good point!]

    But equally importantly, why is nobody asking: Can they use these levers to divert unknown hundreds of million to themselves? It’s not as if Musk is known for paying his bills and obligations – just ask anyone who he fired from Twitter.

    […] Elon Musk is not an elected official. He has not been confirmed by the Senate, even in one of the sham confirmation hearings where the outcome is in zero doubt, and which is the province of Republicans in 2025. He has been ostensibly placed in charge of an obscure office called US Digital Services, which Trump has renamed the Department of Government Efficiency, mostly so Musk and all his crypto bros can giggle that they work for DOGE. Why the fuck is he spreading his tentacles into every corner of American government?

    This all brings up something we have been thinking about, and that is that Donald Trump seems even more disconnected from his second administration than he did from his first. During his first term, there was little doubt that all the action revolved around the Oval Office and access to the president. The collection of motley losers surrounding him fought and fought for that access, often anonymously stabbing each other in the back in the press because they knew Trump got most of his information from Fox News or the New York Post.

    But as best we can tell, the power centers this time around are not in the West Wing. They are wherever the hell Elon Musk has set up for the day. (On Thursday, that was the General Services Administration, another one of those functional and important government departments that no one should want the wrecking ball that is Musk anywhere near.) They are in the departments where Musk’s lackeys, in conjunction with whatever sociopaths the Trump team has hired from the Heritage Foundation or Claremont, are busily trying to make federal employees miserable enough to quit so they won’t have to do the hard work of firing them.

    Meanwhile, every glimpse of Donald Trump, he’s sitting behind the Resolute Desk signing whatever executive orders addressing some imaginary panic among right-wingers that his lackeys put in front of him. [Sometimes Trump even seems surprised by the subjects or issues the executive orders purport to address.]

    Tim Marchman of Wired put it well when he suggested on BlueSky that Elon Musk is the head of government while Trump is the head of state. We think Jamelle Bouie gets even closer to the question: [Bluesky post at the link]

    […] We are begging, absolutely begging the Democrats to throw sand in the gears in the Senate until the public can get some answers about whether Elon fucking Musk and his cement-brained lackeys have taken over writing the government’s checks. Sand in the gears, monkeys in the wrench, pick your metaphor. […]

  376. says

    Followup to comment 373.

    No matter what a potential employee’s disability may be, standards still have to be met before the FAA hires that person. Training goals also have to be met. So, one ends up with a fully qualified employee.

    Also, I’m not surprised that Trump launched the controller diversity program he is now criticizing (criticizing in deceptive ways that amount to disinformation). That’s because Trump seldom if ever does real work. He has other people do work for which he then takes credit. And, Trump is forgetful … if he ever knew a thing about it, he forgot it. The man is an embarrassment .

  378. says

    NATIONAL SECURITY NEWS ALERT, as discussed on The Contrarian.

    Link

    Attention Contrarian community!

    Before our evening roundup, we strongly urge all those concerned with preserving our democracy to watch this essential triple feature. Three of our top legal and national security experts sound the alarm on Trump’s latest confirmation hearings—raising fire-engine-red flags over prospective picks for FBI director, Kash Patel, and director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. We would not sound this alarm in such a manner were this not a matter of very serious danger.

    However unsurprised you may be, it is crucial that you understand precisely what this means, how it affects you, and the extent to which this must be stopped lest we lose our Republic. We interviewed these three experts in order to best equip you all with the most comprehensive awareness possible of the actions that have already been taken to strip us of our freedom and independence. Please watch them, and please take care of yourself.

    Videos at the link:

    Jen Rubin spoke with Andrew Weissmann, a professor of practice at NYU school of law who served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office and as General Counsel for the FBI. […]

    Jen Rubin also spoke with Asha Rangappa, an Assistant Dean and Senior Lecturer at the Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Special Agent of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. They spoke about the state of the national intelligence community after Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearings for key leadership positions. […]

    Finally, Jen Rubin, Norm Eisen, and Stuart Gerson, former acting Attorney General of the United States and currently a lawyer. Additionally, Gerson is a founding member of the right-of-center, pro-rule of law organization, Checks and Balances.

    This danger is real, and it is upon us all. Thank you for watching. Please take care and feel free to respond with comments or questions for The Contrarians.

    Some additional embedded links are available at the main link.

  379. JM says

    CNN: Private business jet crashes in northeast Philadelphia neighborhood

    A twin-engine business jet crashed in a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia Friday night, causing a fiery explosion, according to authorities and video from the scene.
    A Learjet 55 crashed around 6:30 p.m. ET after departing from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN in a statement.

    The story mention closing the roads around where Cottman and Bustleton avenues cross. That is a busy area.

  381. StevoR says

    I reckon Winton is onto something here and more places should follow its example :

    Winton, a 15-hour drive north-west of Brisbane with a population of 850, attracts travellers on the hunt for opals and dinosaur bones, but often sits idle in the stifling heat of summer. Now, locals are pushing for the area to become an accredited “Dark Sky Community”.In simple terms it is when a town is recognised for its breathtaking views of the stars, and efforts to lessen light pollution through enforcing outdoor lighting policies and education.

    Naomi Miles, the head of museum at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs said dark sky tourism was on the cusp of becoming something much bigger. “In the last few years it’s really taken off,” Ms Miles said.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-01/dark-sky-tourism-winton-outback-australia/104872542

  382. Bekenstein Bound says

    Trump: Because I have common sense, okay.

    Erm … no.

    A twin-engine business jet crashed in a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia Friday night, causing a fiery explosion, according to authorities and video from the scene.

    Two plane crashes in as many days?

    What the hell is going on?

  383. KG says

    Two plane crashes in as many days?

    What the hell is going on? – Bekenstein Bound@380

    Coincidence. But more such coincidences are likely the more air travel there is.

  384. KG says

    StevoR@378,
    Thanks for that link – very informative. But the idea that becoming part of the USA would protect Greenland from corruption and authoritarianism is truly hilarious! Greenlandic culture is highly communitarian and egalitarian – and although one could not guarantee this would survive an influx of foreign companies, money and workers, it would have a better chance of doing so than under any plausible US president, let alone Trump!

  385. Reginald Selkirk says

    FDA approves first non-opioid pain medicine in more than 20 years

    The Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of a new non-opioid pain medication this week, marking the first time in over two decades that the agency has approved a non-opioid pain drug with a novel mechanism of action.

    The drug, Journavx (suzetrigine), is an oral pill that treats acute pain, such as from surgery or injuries. Unlike opioids, which work by latching onto receptor proteins on nerves in the central nervous system, suzetrigine works only in peripheral nerves—that is, those outside the brain and spinal cord. Specifically, the drug inhibits a voltage-gated sodium ion channel called 1.8 (NaV1.8) that is known to relay pain signals, but only in peripheral nerves.

    Because it works outside the brain by a different mechanism than opioids, the new medication offers a safe alternative to opioids, which can be highly addictive…

    The company behind the drug, Vertex, said a 50 mg pill that works for 12 hours will have a wholesale cost of $15.50, making the daily cost $31 and the weekly cost $217…

  387. StevoR says

    In late February, if all goes to plan, a new character will enter NASA’s space telescope epic. It’s an eggshell white, conical probe named SPHEREx, which (get ready for a mouthful) stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer. And, because it works with infrared light, SPHEREx is meant to reveal things even the trailblazing James Webb Space Telescope cannot.

    “Taking a snapshot with JWST is like taking a picture of a person,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, told reporters on Jan. 31. “What SPHEREx and other survey missions can do is almost like going into panorama mode, when you want to catch a big group of people and the things standing behind or around them.”

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/new-nasa-space-telescope-spherex-to-launch-in-february-it-can-do-what-the-jwst-cant

  388. KG says

    CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain@355,
    Thanks!

    Mark Zuckerberg did not address Meta’s $25 million settlement with Donald Trump that will see the company paying $22 million for the eventual establishment of the Trump Presidential Library. – JM@340 quoting 404 Media

    Seems a lot of money, but I suppose it has to have solid gold toilets, and be large enough to contain both of the books Trump has read.

  389. says

    Followup to comments 349 and 371.

    https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

    The Rachel Maddow Show segment that discusses “Top Treasury official exits as Musk makes grab for federal payment system.” January 31 segment.

    Musk has bad intentions. Maddow interviewed the Washington Post reporter who broke the story. He makes the point that Lebryk is a professional that besides making payments that are required, also helps to make sure that the USA does not exceed the debt limit. We have renewed debt limit negotiations coming up soon in Congress.

    The video is 5:28 minutes long.

    That video is followed by this segment “Trump moves toward ending independent law enforcement as a core American value with mass purge.” Maddow’s presentation is thorough and precise. She makes the point that it’s hard to see how what is being done can be undone.

  390. says

    KG @386, my bet is that Trump will contrive to skim a lot of the money that is supposed to be used for the Trump Presidential Library. Trump will use that money for his personal expenses, which do not include buying books.

  391. JM says

    Tennessean: Tennessee GOP passes immigration law to criminalize elected officials’ votes

    Tennessee Republicans finalized an immigration bill Thursday establishing a new enforcement office exempt from public records law and criminalizing local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants.
    The GOP supermajority in the General Assembly this week gave swift passage to the immigration enforcement law despite warnings from staff attorneys that the bill is “constitutionally suspect” in its unprecedented effort to curtail elected officials’ voting decisions.

    “It is illegal under state law to set up sanctuary cities. That statute, as defined now, does not have any teeth in it,” said House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland. “We are not going to allow cities and counties set up a sanctuary city. If they vote to do so, absolutely it will be a felony and they will be removed from office.”
    The criminalization clause is an unprecedented step by the Republican legislative supermajority to control the specific votes of local officials. There are protections in both the U.S. Constitution and state Constitution that shield official actions such as votes or speech made during legislative debate.

    “constitutionally suspect” is an understatement. This would be blatantly unconstitutional if applied to elected state officials but might slip under the bar for local officials. If you ever wondered why the US Constitution and state constitutions have weird stuff about elected officials having protections against arrest and such, this is it. The people that wrote the various constitutions were aware of this sort of abuse and wrote broad protections against it. As far as I know they have not really been tested in court though because nobody has tried to so directly violate them.
    The rest of the bill is disgusting also.

  392. birgerjohansson says

    “How close is the bird flu to human transmission? Status update.”
    .https://youtube.com/watch?v=tWrUklXprIc

    While I do not consult Hossenfelder on HBTQ issues, some of her podcasts make sense.

    Imagine bird flu aquires the crucial last mutation while the adjuciated rapist is in office. 
    I am safe over in Europe where preparations are being made. I worry about the 330 million living in Dumbfuckistan.

  393. says

    In Hindsight, Electing the Narcissistic Rapist Autocrat May Have Been a Mistake

    Elon Musk tried to lock me out of my blog, but my password’s got an uppercase letter, a number, AND a symbol, so I’m safe for now. As safe as anyone can be, here in the shit-flooded zone that is…well, whatever we’re calling the landmass north of the Gulf of ‘Murica these days.

    So, we had ourselves one zany little constitutional crisis this week, when Littlefinger pulled his favorite move from the private sector on the whole dang federal government, the one where he decides to not pay the bill.

    See, when you don’t pay the bill, you get to keep the money, right? He had big plans for that Meals on Wheels budget, you guys. He was gonna re-gild all the toilets down at Marm-a-Lago, really splurge on his next order from the Too-Long Red Necktie of the Month catalogue…but alas, the nation’s olds declined to meekly transport themselves to the glue factory, at their own expense. Filthy takers.

    Basically, Fat Q*bert tried to grant himself line-item veto over every dollar ever appropriated, and congressional Republicans obediently yapped, “Sounds wonderful, sir! Thank for not pointing your hammer-wielding cultists in the direction of my home, or even my vacation home!”

    Oddly enough, shutting Medicaid off proved unpopular, so the Turd Reich swiftly backpedaled away from their own memo, like it was a candidate for Attorney General who got caught trafficking minors for sex or somethin’.

    I do so enjoy watching these shitbags lose. Especially big, fat, stupid, sloppy blunders like this, setting massive stacks of political capital ablaze, only to walk away with absolutely nothing.

    Nothing except a rejuvenated opposition […]

    Right in the nick of time, too, since these pudding-brained billionaires are gonna get us all killed.

    Because the government must be shrunk until the entire executive branch fits up Donald Trump’s ass, the new administration has, to date, largely focused on purges of the insufficiently sycophantic. They gutted an aviation safety committee at DHS, and Elon forced the FAA chief out over a lingering SpaceX grudge, and in a wacky, completely unrelated coincidence, America immediately experienced the worst aviation disaster since 2001.

    News of the tragedy reached the President […] “This looks like a job for a septuagenarian rapist with a cranium full of rancid cottage cheese!” he declared […]

    Ah, Donnie Dotard in the briefing room! I assume that triggered the same flashback in all of us, to the look of cosmic horror in Dr. Deborah Birx’s eyes as her boss told a fearful nation to douse their innards in disinfectant.

    The problem, he explained, is that women and minorities are allowed to have jobs. This is bad, because it is not meritocracy. “Meritocracy” is when white dudes from the magical talking picture box are in charge of everything. […]

    While neither aircraft involved in the accident seems to’ve been piloted by anyone non-white or non-male, it was still ENTIRELY DEI’S FAULT […]

    I think the question that’s destined to most befuddle the historians of the future is like…how, precisely, did such blithering bumblefucks come to believe in their own racial superiority? Any civilization with the slightest interest in survival would completely reverse our current deport/confirm-as-Cabinet-secretary standards.

    Elon’s certainly been a busy little bee. Between all the heiling and cheating at video games and undermining of air safety, he’s still somehow found time to try to bully his way into the traditionally non-partisan Treasury Department office that oversees trillions in government payments. That, um, seems like a bad idea.

    Anyway, that’s one more exemplary career civil servant to toss on the purge pile. You probably won’t even notice him, amidst all the inspectors general, and everyone at the FBI who was even tangentially involved in investigating Individual 1’s many, many crimes. Oh, also every prosecutor at DoJ who thinks domestic terrorism is bad.

    Musk apparently hopes to entice vast swaths of the federal workforce to self-deport, with “buyouts” reminiscent of those offered when he turned Twitter into a playground for white supremacists. So, y’know, if history would be kind enough to not repeat itself this one time, I’d be grateful.

    In the unlikely event that the DOGE crew possesses any actual interest in cutting wasteful spending, this plan to reinstate COVID vaccine refusers to the military with back pay feels like low-hanging fruit. Paying petulant idiots for work they didn’t do seems mighty damn inefficient to me.

    On the other hand, we can probably make up the revenue by implementing Georgia Congresscreep Rich McCormick’s plan to make child labor great again. You wanna tax the little sponges at the highest possible rate, too, leave ‘em just enough to pay for school lunch […]

    (Any children declining assignment to the coal mines will be sent to Coach Senator Tuberville’s office, to be beaten with a belt.)

    What else, what ellllllllllse?

    Oh, I see Kristi Noem’s making the media rounds in her raciest storm trooper costume, so I guess the mass deportations are under way. […]

    No, there hasn’t been nearly enough human suffering yet. Heck, the cruelty is the whole dang point, remember? And if that means diverting resources from actual law enforcement to meet Tangerine Idi Amin’s racial purity quotas, so be it. Gotta pay that upcharge to use military flights for deportations, that’s just basic showmanship. Plus this new concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay ain’t gonna fill itself up, y’know.

    Things’re going about as well on the foreign affairs front as they are domestically, though thankfully, Secretary Rubio has yet t’be called upon to drink any water. There was a brief, embarrassing kerfuffle with Colombia, and sure, our government misspelled the name of the country they needlessly antagnoized, but it coulda been worse.[…]

    Causing real misery in the name of imaginary problems, that’s the Trump Doctrine™️.

    Which brings us to the trade war. Ignoring the warnings of economists in favor of a controversial theory espoused primarily by Hulk Hogan, the dizzy twit slapped 25% tariffs on our two largest trade partners, Canada and Mexico. Smaller tariffs for China, because obviously we want to be harder on democratic allies than hostile autocratic regimes. Obviously.

    And the pain won’t be confined to your grocery bill, by the way. Pharmaceuticals, oil, semiconductors, electronics…the President of the United States is committed to inflicting senseless, unnecessary destruction on every corner of the American economy.

    Because so many of the Oath Loaders and Glad Lads he pardoned keep getting re-arrested on kiddie porn charges, or gunned down by law enforcement for resisting arrest during routine traffic stops, Off-Brand Orbán went and pardoned a bunch of anti-abortion extremists, because how’s an aspiring dictator supposed to create a climate of fear without a free-ranging army of legally unaccountable, wingnut vigilantes?

    A Michigan priest was defrocked this week, because the Anglican Catholic Church knows what to do with dudes who throw Nazi salutes, even if the U.S. government doesn’t.

    I’ll say this about flooding the zone with shit, I’m five beers deep into this blog, and I haven’t even touched on the motherfucking Cabinet confirmation hearings yet. And yoo guyz, Tulshi Gabbard ish a Russian spy yoo guyz, we can’t confarm her we just *hic* can’t.

    I guess RFK throws live animals into blenders? I honestly don’t know if that’d make the top ten list of reasons why he shouldn’t be HHS secretary, but still…gross.

    And Kash Patel is…well, he’s Kash Patel, isn’t he?

    Yeah, shit’s moving pretty fast, but I gotta cut this blog off someplace, so if I missed a story, […] my apologies.

    Look, I know it’s a lot, folks, but in the very first special election under this new Reich, we flipped an Iowa state Senate seat in a district that voted Dotard by 21 points. And that was before the fucking trade war. […]

    Lots and lots of embedded links are available at the main link.

  394. JM says

    Newsweek: Have North Korean Troops Been Withdrawn From Front Lines? What We Know

    Unnamed Ukrainian and U.S. officials quoted by The New York Times said North Korean soldiers have been withdrawn after suffering heavy casualties.

    Colonel Oleksandr Kindratenko told Agence-France Press: “Over the past three weeks, we have not seen or detected any activity or military clashes with the North Koreans. We believe that they have been withdrawn because of the heavy losses that were inflicted.”

    No sign of North Korean troops over past 2-3 weeks. It’s believed that is because of combat losses, with some reports that as much as 1/3 of the troops already injured. Military intelligence groups think that North Korea is sending more troops.
    MSN: North Koreans struggle to avoid conscription through costly bribes

    They are selling their properties and taking out loans—all to pay doctors for false tuberculosis diagnoses. Families of North Korean conscripts are doing everything they can to prevent their sons and husbands from being sent to Russia to the front lines. From there, they rarely return.

    The price for fake medical reports is way up, as much as 5 fold. Despite attempts to keep things quiet word has slipped out of just how many North Korean soldiers are being injured in Ukraine. Families are desperate to keep young men out of the army.

  395. says

    […] The only candidate in history with a lower incoming approval rating than Trump in 2025 was Trump in 2017.

    Most voters hate what Trump is doing. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll:

    70% oppose renaming the Gulf of Mexico;

    62% oppose the January 6th pardons;

    60% oppose imposing tariffs on Canada;

    59% oppose ending birthright citizenship;

    56% oppose leaving the Paris Climate Accord; and

    52% oppose delaying the TikTok ban.

    […]\ Democrats have a very strong chance of taking the House majority in 2026. Presidents tend to perform poorly in their second midterm; and because of changes in our coalition, Democrats have real turnout advantages in non-presidential elections. We saw evidence of this trend in Iowa on Tuesday night when a Democrat picked up a state Senate seat in a district Trump won by 21 points in November.

    If Democrats win the majority, Trump will never pass another law without Hakeem Jeffries’ permission.

    Trump is dangerous. I am not dismissing the threat. It is very real, but he is not the political colossus he claims to be. Democrats can find comfort and develop courage by taking a realistic view of his many, many weaknesses. […]

    Link

    Much more at the link.

  396. JM says

    @393 Lynna, OM

    Democrats have a very strong chance of taking the House majority in 2026. Presidents tend to perform poorly in their second midterm; and because of changes in our coalition, Democrats have real turnout advantages in non-presidential elections. We saw evidence of this trend in Iowa on Tuesday night when a Democrat picked up a state Senate seat in a district Trump won by 21 points in November.
    If Democrats win the majority, Trump will never pass another law without Hakeem Jeffries’ permission.

    This is one of the reasons they are working to steal power from Congress now. Project 2025 wants to transfer this power to the president in general but the planners for project 2025 are smart enough to look at future elections. They need to grab enough power by 2026 that they can rig the vote nationally in 2028 and install a selected candidate.
    I don’t think even Project 2025 wants Trump long term. His mind is obviously going, he is getting increasingly erratic and paranoid, and he isn’t a believer in the project goals. They are just convenient tools for each other. Trump needs somebody to take care of the actual day to day management of running the country and Project 2025 is happy to work behind the scenes as long as they can implement their basic ideas.

  397. says

    ponder this:
    The magat guacamole and other disaster
    Most of us like guacamole. the magat in the whitehouse just destroyed guacamole for us. He ‘who we will not mention by name’ just ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release maximum flow from all the federal dams in california. Then, the magat bragged that ‘Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons’ are being wasted, flowing from california reservoirs toward the sea. This is an horrendous vindictive, destructive, petty act. This water is held in reservoirs and will be REQUIRED by california farmers to grow all the crops.
      First, this means the magat’s tariffs on mexico will drive the price of guacamole up drastically. Second, now the california avocado trees will shrivel and produce tiny and few avocados.
    &nbps; Thus, Guacamole will be unbearably expensive, and maybe not even available due to the scarcity of avocados. Just one more sign of the magat disasters we face. Yes, this is not directly life threatening, to us, but likely life destroying for california farmers. It is just another push down the death spiral.

    ref: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/carl-gibson/112838/very-dangerous-trump-dumps-billions-of-gallons-of-water-farmers-were-counting-on-for-summer

  399. says

    A few updates on recent news:

    […] Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, posted a letter on X stating that he is leaving his position, even though he has one year left on the five-year term former President Joe Biden appointed him to in 2021.

    In the letter, Chopra wrote, “It’s been an honor serving as your @CFPB Director. Every day, Americans from across the country shared their ideas and experiences with us. You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better.”

    He told The New York Times earlier this week, “I swore an oath to a five-year term, and I will keep serving that until I can pass the baton to someone else. I totally respect and understand that the president can choose a director of his choice.”

    The CFPB has been a target of Trump ally and tech mogul Elon Musk. In a November post on X, Musk wrote, “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.” […]

    Link

  400. says

    I meant to include this news in comment 397: Dems elect Ken Martin to lead their anti-Trump strategy

    “The chair of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party defeated Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler on the first ballot.”

    I don’t think that Democrats have only an “anti-Trump strategy.” They have progressive plans to pass legislation that improves people lives.

    Ken Martin, a longtime Democratic tactician and Minnesota state party leader, was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, calling for Democrats to take a more pugilistic stand against a Republican-controlled Washington as the party seeks to rebuild following its losses in November.

    “This is a new DNC,” he told reporters after his election. “We’re taking the gloves off.”

    Martin said, “I’ve always viewed my role as a chair of the Democratic Party to take the low road, so my candidates and elected officials can take the high road, meaning, I’m going to throw a punch.”

    Martin, chair of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, defeated Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler on the first ballot, earning 246.5 votes out of the 428 cast. Wikler received 134.5 votes.

    Martin, well known to party insiders but with little national profile, will now lead Democrats into the second Donald Trump administration, helming a party still sorting through the wreckage of 2024. It’s a precarious moment for the party, which has been left with no clear national leader or strategy on how to push back on Trump’s agenda.

    But if Democrats are in need of an overhaul, this month’s DNC contest hardly suggested as much. The election wasn’t defined by ideological differences or big-name candidates. Martin and Wikler, the two leading candidates, largely agreed with each other on committing to rebuilding a permanent campaign infrastructure and reinvesting in state parties. Neither candidate promised radical reforms to the party.

    Several other candidates who competed offered sharper criticisms of the DNC but didn’t gain traction in the contest: former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign manager; and Marianne Williamson, an author and former presidential candidate, who endorsed Martin in her speech before the vote on Saturday.

    The result reflected a disconnect between the DNC, run by party insiders, and some of the biggest names in Democratic politics. Wikler had been endorsed by Democratic heavyweights including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

    “People wanted something different for sure, just based on the results of the presidential election,” said former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who was helping support Wikler.

    “Some of the chatter that I’ve heard was, in this room, in this space, was a frustration with the system as it is,” he added. “How can we present something new when so much of the current power structure is behind Ben?”

    Williamson told POLITICO, “This had come down to a race between two people, and Ken to me is the one who does not represent billionaire funding that has become inherent to the functioning of the DNC. […]

  402. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-solves-california-water-crisis

    “Trump Solves California Water Crisis, Will Next Claim To Have Put Out Fires By Himself”

    “Our big boy president continues saving America in his head”

    A few weeks back, when parts of Southern California were engulfed in wildfires – we just checked the calendar and realized it only feels like 17,000 years ago – America’s […] president had a genius idea.

    Firefighters battling the blazes in the Pacific Palisades reported that they were running out of water. This was due to the fires being so huge that they overwhelmed Southern California’s firefighting infrastructure. The nearby reservoirs were mostly full, but the amount of water flowing from hydrants (and burned homes) all over the city and county led to a catastrophic loss of water pressure. The fires were simply a worst-case scenario beyond what pre-climate change infrastructure was designed for.

    But Donald Trump had a solution. There was plenty of water in the Pacific Northwest. All California needed to do was turn a giant spigot, and all the beautiful water from Oregon and Washington would flow to them, and then everyone would have enough water forever and ever, hallelujah. And the only reason the liberals in California had yet to turn the spigot on is because they are a bunch of radical Marxists who care more about fish than they do people, and also they hate TRUMP. Obviously.

    Which led to this announcement from Trump’s TruthSocial account on Tuesday: [Screengrab of social media post is available at the link.]

    The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water California!!!

    Wait, “beyond?” Where else does he mistakenly think this water comes from? Because it certainly is not coming from the Pacific Northwest, let alone … Canada? The Yukon? The Aleutian Islands?

    In reality, a couple of water pumps in California that are controlled by the federal government and are part of the vast infrastructure that moves water around the state were offline for a couple of days for routine maintenance. The Army Corps of Engineers had simply restarted these pumps. This had zero effect on the amount of water available to firefighters still battling blazes around Los Angeles.

    Trump, because he doesn’t have the brains that God gave an avocado, translated this as some sort of show of force by the United States government against those dang California hippies. His spokesidiot, Karoline Leavitt, repeated the lie in her first press conference (the same one she kicked off by promising to never lie to the media), complete with some dramatic-sounding language about the military being “on the ground” in California to make this miracle happen.

    Well, of course the Army Corps of Engineers was “on the ground” maintaining the federal government’s responsibilities in the vast archipelago of water infrastructure in California. The Army Corps of Engineers is always fucking doing that, just as it works on and maintains civilian engineering projects all over the country.

    But the Corps wasn’t done. Perhaps it had to show Great Leader that it was still working the problem. Or, more likely, some asshole Trump appointee in the Pentagon demanded a larger contribution than simply turning a couple of pumps back on. Which led to Friday morning, when the Corps suddenly released water from two dams in rural Tulare County, which sent water towards the San Joaquin Valley and its abundant farmland.

    The problem? The Corps didn’t warn local water managers in advance like they usually do. Doing controlled releases of water requires a lot of coordination between local, state and federal agencies to avoid unintended consequences.

    From the LA Times:

    [California water consultant Dan] Vink said local water officials heard Thursday afternoon that the Army Corps planned to “go from a fairly nominal release to channel capacity in two hours.”

    A release of that magnitude, he said, would normally be coordinated days in advance, in part because farmers might have expensive farm equipment placed near riverbanks. There are also homeless encampments near some riverbanks, and officials would want to make sure people were out of the way and not in danger before unleashing so much water.

    [Duh. Ya think?]

    The small, independent news outlet SJV Water, which covers water policy in California, was even more alarmed:

    Water managers said they got about an hour’s warning from the Army Corp’s Sacramento office to expect the Tule and Kaweah rivers to be at “channel capacity” by Thursday night.

    Channel capacity means the maximum amount of water a river can handle. For the Kaweah, that’s 5,500 cubic feet per second and for the Tule, it’s 3,500 cfs.

    Those levels were last seen, and surpassed, during the 2023 floods, which destroyed dozens of homes and businesses and caused significant damage to infrastructure.

    This is why these releases need to be coordinated – so you don’t flood the state’s 40% of farmland that is dedicated to agriculture and provides about a third of America’s vegetables and three-quarters of our fruits and nuts. […]

    There’s also the not-trivial detail that a huge release of water from the dams now means there’s likely to be less water stored for the summer, in a drought year when rainfall has already been scarce — one of the chief contributing factors to the LA fires. [!!]

    Also, and almost needless to say, none of the released water was destined for firefighters in Southern California, where the fires have mostly been contained anyway.

    Also also almost needless to say, none of this water comes from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The water from these two rivers comes from rain and melted snowpack.

    Also also also this week, federal firefighters who fought the LA fires got the same deferred resignation offer as all other 2 million federal employees. Which, if any of them take it, means fewer firefighters during the next crisis.

    […] reality means nothing in Trump’s America. Which is why the walking turd posted this on X on Friday: [Screengrab of social media post is available at the link.]

    Hey everyone, look at this stock photo of a mountain pool someone on my staff found for me! This is now how all of Southern California looks now. Don’t forget to thank your favorite president, TRUMP! [Actual text available at the link: “If only they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!” etc. etc. Effing lying liar] […]

  403. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Who can stop Elon’s ‘team’ wilding its way through the federal government?

    Democrats in Congress mostly can’t do anything to stop what the Trump administration is doing. […] This emphatically does not mean Democrats are doing all they can or that there’s nothing they can do. But it is critical at every level to understand what the menu of actions includes. […] Fundamentally this is a battle over public opinion. And there are three areas of action to engage that battle.
    […]
    First, Democrats’ job is to make the case every day what a disaster Trump governance is and ask voters whether they’ve decided yet that they’d like to make a change. In a way any opposition must almost exalt it’s powerlessness. […] Second, there is the critical but highly compromised avenue of court action. It was blue states that brought the lawsuit which just put the budget freeze under a restraining order. Third, there’s […] moments when Democrats, even in the minority, can force the majority to come to them or simply delay or even stymie action. The debt ceiling
    […]
    Item #1 […] involves stunts; it involves making news happen in ways that require knowing how reporters decide what’s a story.
    […]
    In this post I want to focus on what is mostly a legal avenue. […] According to The New York Times, Musk has tasked engineers with figuring out how to cut off the flow of funds from the Treasury to programs and priorities he believes conflict with the brief he received from Donald Trump. He has also taken control of some portion of the federal agency computer systems, allowing his operatives to lock federal workers out of key computer systems. We need a lot more reporting on just how he is exerting this power, specifically under what authority and who the people are he’s installed at these government agencies. […] many are employees from his private companies operating with no legal authority at all.

    There’s a pretty developed law that you can’t do stuff in the federal government if you’re not an employee of the federal government, or a contractor who is placed under the rules of the federal government. If you do do those things you become a de facto government employee and the law says you come under all sorts of record-keeping and disclosure requirements. […] Now to be clear, I don’t expect a federal judge to start smacking Elon Musk around […] But […] when laws are being broken at such high velocity you’re looking […] to get into court with a live argument. And this is a very live argument. […] slowing things down as much as possible […] That stretches out the amount of time people have to get an understanding of what’s happening. […] It also focuses attention, rightly, on Elon Musk who is much more unpopular than Donald Trump.

  404. says

    New Yorker link

    “What’s the Point of Trump’s War on D.E.I.?” By Jay Caspian Kang

    “To distract from his larger plan to gut the federal government, [Trump] has taken a relatively powerless program and turned it into an excuse for everything that goes wrong in the country.”

    […] Trump 47 seemed bored for the first half of his inaugural speech, then rambled on about Panama, Mars, and “the electric-vehicle mandate.” The flurry of executive orders that followed might have made for good headlines because they touched on culture-war topics such as trans rights and D.E.I., but outside of a few notable exceptions—withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and curbing renewable-energy programs—Trump’s first round of legislation mostly seemed like repurposed archival footage from his campaign, chopped up and stretched out into a new, thin form.

    The Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America. Denali is once again Mount McKinley, because we’re not cancelling dead white men anymore, especially not for some tribe. D.E.I. is over at federal agencies and in the military. Now please go fight among yourselves about all this culture-war stuff while we deregulate everything.

    This period of unhinged […]Trump theatre lasted until Monday, when his Office of Management and Budget released a memo freezing all federal spending […] (The White House later rescinded the order, while also saying that the spending review remains in “full force and effect.” A judge has paused its implementation until February 3rd.)

    Given the potential seriousness of Trump’s freeze, I think it’s good practice, especially after the recurring freakouts between 2016 and 2020, to point out when Trump mostly seems to be doing something for purely symbolic reasons and when he’s actually trying to get something done.

    The first Trump Administration and the constant stream of stories that ended in Russiagate ultimately desensitized much of the public to the actual bad things he was doing, disoriented the audience’s priorities, and might have even led to a quiet backlash or at least a sense of disbelief that Trump could actually be that bad.

    The renaming of bodies of water and mountains, for example, is easy enough to cast aside as Trumpian bluster, but what about the handful of executive orders Trump signed regarding D.E.I. which included the end of all such programs in the military and the federal government as well as the repeal of a 1965 executive order that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, gender, and national origin? It’s still unclear how many employees will lose their jobs—the executive order calls for a list of everyone who might work in some D.E.I.-related endeavor and a review, which could either mean that everyone who has said a word about racial or gender equality or diversity will be out of work, or it could just mean that after a few high-profile firings of D.E.I. officers this list never really gets made, the review never happens, and everyone moves on to the next dimension of the culture war. [We never know with Trump.]

    [I snipped text explaining more about how D.E.I. works, how useful (or not) it is, and so forth.]

    What it did was provide a safety valve (I am speaking about D.E.I. in the past tense because I do think it will quickly be expunged from the private sector as well) for institutions that were dealing with racial and social-justice problems. […] A couple years ago, a D.E.I. officer at Stanford Law School went viral after she supported students who were shutting down a conservative guest speaker. […] Her job was to intervene, give the students a “space” to vent, and, ultimately, find a solution that didn’t end with Stanford Law going viral for an instance of campus cancel culture.

    [I snipped text that relates to the growth of D.E.I. offices after the George Floyd protests.]

    Trump […] is taking a relatively powerless program, vilifying it, and using its dissolution as proof that he has single-handedly ended the woke era. The clearest example came on Thursday when he outrageously blamed “diversity” for the tragic airline crash in Washington.

    When his O.M.B. gambit turned into a legal and political disaster this past week, Trump’s Administration retreated to a familiar, safe space. The funding freeze, they said, was only for the parts of the federal government directly affected by Trump’s earlier executive orders, the most prominent being D.E.I. He and his Administration are wielding the word “diversity” both as a slur and an excuse for everything that goes wrong in this country.

    [I snipped text describing what Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is doing. I also snipped text describing the firing of 17 inspectors general on Friday.]

    […] Trump’s endgame has started to reveal itself and it will not be coming through the tired culture war we have all been fighting for the past decade but rather through the bureaucracy. Whatever rises to enforce or resist it will not sit nicely in a corporate or academic office, nor will it be neatly summarized through words like “woke” or “anti-woke,” or the endless campus wars. The next four years, instead, will be filled with true extremism on both the left and the right that will make supposedly out-of-control D.E.I. feel like a quaint company retreat in comparison.

    So, yes, the war on D.E.I. is almost certainly a catchall scapegoat meant to distract from Trump’s larger plans to gut the federal government, but I also can’t imagine it will hold the public’s attention, just as a similar focus on racial politics in academia and élite corporations did not work for Ron DeSantis during his failed run for President.

    The American public elected Donald Trump, but between social-justice warriors, “woke,” and D.E.I., the right has now been fighting the same tired culture war for more than a decade, and it has largely lost the capacity to outrage anyone outside of a small set of terminally online, mostly conservative activists.

    Trump is going to need a better distraction, but one thing we know about him is that he stubbornly sticks to a theme. He might not be able to credibly blame diversity for everything from plane crashes to children’s reading scores, but I imagine he will try.

  405. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-announces-big-tariffs-for-our

    “Trump Announces Big Tariffs For Our Friends, Little Tariffs For China”

    The Trump administration announced Friday it would impose new tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China, to go into effect today. Almost immediately after that, the stock market drove off a cliff, flipped over several times, and burst into flame. […]

    At yesterday’s press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the tariffs of 25 percent on goods from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on goods from China, apparently after spinning a wheel and deciding the reason was … oh, how about fentanyl? Yeah, why not fentanyl! It’s not immediately clear how raising import duties on cars, produce, and energy will have an effect on the illegal drug trade, but Trump has been itching to slap some tariffs on something and wreck Joe Biden’s good economy, so here we are.

    On top of the new duties on Canada, Mexico, and China, […] the administration also plans “additional import taxes on European goods, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, steel, aluminum, copper, and oil and gas.”

    Asked about the economic effects of the broad range of new taxes, Trump burbled some inane crap about how there might be “some temporary short-term disruption,” but no biggie, because “People will understand that.”

    Trump has never in his life acknowledged that tariffs are actually paid by American companies that import goods, with the costs usually passed on to consumers with higher prices. Instead, he pretends other countries pay the tariffs, because he is an idiot and a liar. That was the case Friday, when he told reporters, “Tariffs don’t cause inflation. They cause success.”

    However, in what may have been a very subtle acknowledgement that Americans actually are harmed by tariffs, Trump suggested that maybe imports of Canadian oil would “probably” have a 10 percent tariff instead of the higher 25 percent tariff on other imports.

    In a quick demonstration of how much success tariffs bring, US stock indices successfully plunged after the announcement, faster than you can remember that the plural is not “indexes.”

    All three major gauges fell into the red Friday. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost 0.5% at the closing bell, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed 0.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gave up 0.3%, reversing earlier gains.

    The dramatic tariff news pushed aside more optimistic updates from earlier in the day, which had buoyed stocks. Solid earnings from Apple (AAPL) and an inflation reading that matched expectations lifted market sentiment for much of the day.

    All three countries being hit with new tariffs said they would respond by increasing tariffs on US products, because if you go around punching other economies in the snoot, you should expect your own exports to take a roundhouse kick to the head […]

    For the sake of pointing out that the trade war will dope-slap states that voted for Trump, the New York Times pointed out that products likely to get hit with retaliatory tariffs include “Florida orange juice, Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky peanut butter.”

    Canada and Mexico have both called the tariffs stupid, but more diplomatically than that, and pointed out that they will hurt Americans by driving prices higher for food and consumer goods, and may disrupt supply chains as well. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter Friday that “No one — on either side of the border — wants to see American tariffs on Canadian goods.” He added that he was meeting with his trade negotiators in hopes of preventing the tariffs, but that “if the United States moves ahead, Canada’s ready with a forceful and immediate response.”

    Oh, also, while she was announcing the tariffs yesterday, Karoline Leavitt added a little bonus disinformation about fentanyl! See if you can spot it in the video! [Video at the link.]

    “The president will be implementing tomorrow 25 percent tariffs on Mexico, 25 percent tariffs on Canada and a 10 percent tariff on China, for the illegal fentanyl they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans.”

    Did you notice the lie? (Or at least the big whopping mistake, because we are way too generous sometimes.)

    While fentanyl remains a serious problem, it’s not killing “tens of millions of Americans,” thank Crom. Per the CDC, the total number of overdose deaths between 2003 and 2023 was nearly 1.2 million, and about 70 percent of drug overdoses are from synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

    That’s still terrible, but Leavitt either lied or misspoke (“tens of thousands” would be accurate). Worse, some press outlets like CBS News and even the BBC quoted Leavitt’s “tens of millions” without any corrections. Jesus, these people are exhausting, but golly whillikers, reporters need to do their jobs, too.

    For contrast, here’s journalism actually explaining things well. The New York Times story on the tariffs includes a fun oily fact that I did not previously know, and maybe you didn’t either: Even though the US has for the last couple years been producing more oil than any other country at any time in history, and is a net exporter of the climate-destroying stuff, we still import oil from Canada because the light oil produced in US oilfields needs to be combined in US refineries with heavier oil from Canada (or elsewhere) to make diesel and gasoline. Huh!

    There’s a factoid for you, and now I’m going to drive my new Kia EV6 to go buy produce while it’s still relatively affordable. Glad I leased it before Trump decided to increase tariffs on Korea or declare EVs a national security threat.

  406. says

    […] And look, it’s the MAGA-fied LA Times, twisting an op-ed beyond recognition even though the writer has the receipts. Psychoanalytic clinician Eric Reinhart wrote a piece for them opining that RFK Jr.’s wrecking ball to public health is not going to fix the health care system, with the snappy title “RFK Jr’s Wrecking Ball Won’t Fix Public Health.” And then some editor or higher-up took a wrecking ball to his piece instead, changing the headline and photo and deleting his criticism of Brainworm Bobby to make it look like Reinhart was a big fan. New headline: “Trump’s healthcare disruption could pay off — if he pushes real reform,” [WTF? That is NOT a good faith edit!] and the paper deleted his conclusion:

    Although RFK Jr. and Luigi Mangione are both responses to the same underlying problem of US healthcare corruption, there is a major difference between them: one operated outside the law to kill one person in defense of millions, whereas the other—via his egomaniacal disregard for scientific evidence—seeks to use law itself to inflict preventable death on those millions.

    Here is the original Op-Ed, and here is the edited version that went to print.

    Reinhart on Twitter:

    My first and definitely last time working with the Los Angeles Times. Editing out the most urgent point of an OpEd in the minutes before sending to press while then also assigning a title and image that suggest an argument entirely opposite to the author’s clear intent is pretty shitty.

    Yes, yes it is, and possibly lawsuit-worthy too. […]

    At least CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has been in the media room and the TV giving Trump the what-for. If you can stand seeing his fug face, enjoy watching her making that dictator flustered by calling out his “DEI causes plane crashes” nonsense, then laying out some facts: [Video at the link.]

    Will Trump start threatening to sue Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN’s parent company) next, or make Collins ask questions from a broom closet? Probably.

    But let’s hope she and other reporters still pushing back can hang in there, we need them.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/this-week-in-media-complicity

    Text above is excerpted from a longer report.

  407. says

    It’s official! “Trump signs order imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China”

    First official action of second-term trade war.
    Washington Post link

    […] Trump on Saturday imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the nation’s three largest trading partners, in response to what he said was their role in permitting illegal immigration and drugs to enter the United States.

    The president signed three executive orders establishing the measures, the first official actions of his second-term trade war, according to a White House official who briefed reporters.

    American importers will pay a new 25-percent tax on goods from Canada and Mexico and a 10-percent levy on products from China, the president said. Most products from Canada and Mexico currently face no tariffs, under a trade deal Trump signed during his first term, while many Chinese goods incur taxes of up to 25 percent. The new tariffs are in addition to those fees.

    Energy products, including crude oil from Canada, will suffer a 10 percent charge.

    […] For the typical American household, the tariffs will mean a loss of about $1,200 in purchasing power, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University, a nonpartisan research center.

    American companies and consumers purchased about $1.3 trillion worth of merchandise from those three countries, including food, electronics, cars and car parts, and clothing, according to the Census Bureau.

    Trump’s abrupt imposition of steep tariffs on goods moving across U.S. borders threatens significant disruption for regional supply chains that have become deeply intertwined over the past three decades. The auto industry in particular could soon be plunged into enormous upheaval.

    JFC

  408. says

    Also official now … and very bad news! “Musk aides gain access to sensitive Treasury Department payment system”

    “The access — granted by Scott Bessent, Trump’s newly confirmed treasury secretary — comes after the ousting of the agency’s top career official.”
    Washington Post link

    […] Billionaire Elon Musk’s deputies have gained access to a sensitive Treasury Department system responsible for trillions of dollars in U.S. government payments after the administration ousted a top career official at the department, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe government deliberations.

    On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent approved access to the Treasury’s payments system for a team led by Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive working in concert with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” the people said. […]

    More at the link.

  409. says

    Interesting. There was/is some pushback: Senior FBI official forcefully resisted Trump administration firings

    “Brian Driscoll pushed back so aggressively that some feared he would be dismissed. He has so far not handed over the names of thousands of FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases.”

    Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll on Friday refused a Justice Department order that he assist in the firing of agents involved in Jan. 6 riot cases, pushing back so forcefully that some FBI officials feared he would be dismissed, multiple current and former FBI officials told NBC News.

    The Justice Department ultimately did not dismiss Driscoll. He sent out a memo to the workforce Friday night explaining that he had been ordered to remove eight senior FBI executives and turn over the names of every FBI employee involved in Capitol riot cases.

    The eight executives have been forced out but Driscoll did not say in the memo whether he would turn over the broader list of Jan. 6-related names — a list that he noted encompasses thousands of FBI employees, including him.

    “As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always,” Driscoll, a former member of the FBI’s elite hostage rescue team, wrote.

    In a message that circulated widely among bureau personnel, an FBI agent summarized what happened as: “Bottom line — DOJ came over and wanted to fire a bunch of J6 agents. Driscoll is an absolute stud. Held his ground and told WH proxy, DOJ, to F— Off.”

    The FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment. A senior FBI official disputed the accounts of the current and former officials saying, “It’s not true.”

    A former FBI official who knows Driscoll well said, “He pushed back hard.”

    […] “We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,” Driscoll wrote. “I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director (Rob) Kissane.”

    […] “He was trying to do right by the workforce,” one person familiar with the thinking of agents told NBC News. “He’s putting it in writing and naming names.”

    […] Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process.

    The Trump White House argues, though, that the president has the absolute right to fire anyone he wishes in the executive branch. The Supreme Court has ruled that federal employees have a right to a hearing before they are disciplined or terminated.

    Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney and NBC News legal contributor, called the firings illegal.

    “Career federal employees can be fired for conduct or performance issues, not because they failed to demonstrate political loyalty to the current incumbent of the White House,” said Vance. “Trump ignored controlling law and regulations to do this, and unless the Supreme Court changes their interpretation, any firing of permanent members of the civil service should not stand.”

    Even if some of the employees sue and win, they said their public service careers have been irreparably damaged, if not ended.

    [… Current and former FBI agents say the purge at the bureau has had a shattering effect on the morale, sending a message that agents who work on cases that anger someone in the Trump administration could be targeted.

    “Who right now would want to work on a case that would get them crosswise with the administration?” one former FBI official asked. “They will come after you.”

  410. says

    ICE keeps moving migrants

    From this report, it looks to me like ICE is moving migrants for dubious and possibly nefarious reasons.

    ICE claims that they have run out of room at facilities, but the number of apprehended migrants has dropped.

    ICE has separated husband/wife migrants who had legal counsel in California, so the wife lost the services of legal counsel. She was moved to Louisiana, where asylum claims are denied at much higher rate. (That’s one example among many of migrants losing the service of legal counselors.)

    Asylum claims that were almost complete before have now been delayed because migrants were moved.

    Facilities to which migrants have been moved often do not make migrants available for scheduled video appearances in court.

    Some judges do not have good video conference hardware or software, so hearing cases is a struggle.

    […] ICE said it follows a 2012 agency memorandum regarding transfers that says officers will not transfer people who have documented attorneys on file, family in the area, pending hearings in ongoing cases, or been granted bond or scheduled for a bond hearing unless the local ICE field office director determines that the move is necessary. […]

    But in many of the cases that attorneys described to Capital & Main, ICE is transferring people who have attorneys, family, and pending hearings in the San Diego area.

    Garcia said he recently met with ICE again to ask why his attorneys’ clients keep getting transferred.

    “ICE’s position was that this is strictly because of the needs of the facility,” Garcia said. “They didn’t have any numbers that they showed me that indicated an increase in the number of detentions.” […]

    Many more details are available at the link.

  411. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Trump signs memo that claims to cancel late Biden-era union contracts

    Republicans in recent months have railed against then-Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley for signing a contract last November with the American Federation of Government Employees locking in existing telework policies until 2029. And the Education Department similarly entered a new contract with AFGE effective Jan. 17. […] contracts cannot be superseded except by legislation.
    […]
    “Federal employees should know that approved union contracts are enforceable by law, and the president does not have the authority to make unilateral changes to those agreements,” [the union prez] said. “AFGE members will not be intimidated. If our contracts are violated, we will aggressively defend them.”

  412. Reginald Selkirk says

    America’s FDA Warns About Backdoor Found in Chinese Company’s Patient Monitors

    Thursday America’s FDA “raised concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities” in patient monitors from China-based medical device company Contec “that could allow unauthorized individuals to access and potentially manipulate those devices,” reports Reuters.

    The patient monitors could be remotely controlled by unauthorized users or may not function as intended, and the network to which these devices are connected could be compromised, the agency warned. The FDA also said that once these devices are connected to the internet, they can collect patient data, including personally identifiable information and protected health information, and can export this data out of the healthcare delivery environment.

    The agency, however, added that it is currently unaware of any cybersecurity incidents, injuries, or deaths related to these identified cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

    The FDA’s announcement says “The software on the patient monitors includes a backdoor, which may mean that the device or the network to which the device has been connected may have been or could be compromised.” And it offers this advice to caregivers and patients:…

  413. StevoR says

    Peter Gleick quote that was shared by friend on fb :

    If there was a movie where Nazis in WWII or Russians or Martians conquered the US and took over the government, this is what they’d be doing. Purges. Censorship. Destroying science capabilities. Subverting financial institutions. This is a hot war on democracy.

    Source : https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1319449892714965&set=a.108198967173403

    I agree. Enemies now run the USA. Fascists. Those who will destroy the best of the nation and collapse it’s economy. Who will hurt it’s allies and empower hostile nations. Will they be stopped and, if so, how and when? How much damage will they do them – and the rest of the world first?

  415. Bekenstein Bound says

    Trump Presidential Library

    It will be an XXX video store, you watch. If there’s any printed material to be had there it will no doubt be a rack full of Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler.

    And he will actually claim he reads them for the articles.

  416. StevoR says

    Old news obvs but I don’t recall anyone noting this before the election – which is a real pity. :

    With just a week until the presidential election, Donald Trump’s close ally and major economic adviser Elon Musk is warning supporters to expect economic chaos, a crashing stock market and financial “hardship” – albeit “temporary” – if Trump wins.

    It sounds so extreme that Trump fans must either wonder why he had been so foolish as to say the silent part out loud, or maybe hope that the whole story is made up – “fake news.”

    But it’s very real.

    Billionaire Musk, Trump’s would-be budget-cutting and government-efficiency czar, also says there will be “no special cases” and “no exceptions” when he starts slashing federal spending after Trump takes office.

    And he predicts he will need “a lot of security” personally because of the likely reaction to his policy moves.

    Speaking Tuesday on a “telephone town hall” with supporters, Musk promised deep federal budget cuts, austerity and economic pain ahead in a new Trump administration.

    Source : https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20241031226/elon-musk-predicts-hardship-economic-turmoil-and-a-stock-market-crash-if-trump-wins

  418. StevoR says

    That’s weird tried to comment sharing an article noting Musk preducted pre-election that Trump would crash the USoA’s economy buit wouldn’t go through..

    Morning Star article titled “Elon Musk predicts ‘hardship,’ economic turmoil and a stock-market crash if Trump wins.”

  425. KG says

    The next four years, instead, will be filled with true extremism on both the left and the right that will make supposedly out-of-control D.E.I. feel like a quaint company retreat in comparison. – Lynna, OM@402 quoting New Yorker

    Huh. I’d got the impression the New Yorker didn’t go in for “bothsides” shit.

  429. birgerjohansson says

    Economists in Sweden warn of the “Trump fog”, a deliberately induced confusion about Trump’s objectives. A way to get a “fog compass” is to keep track of what Tr*mp can decide on his own, and what he needs the congress to do for him. The latter takes much more time which reduces insecurity about the future.

  430. says

    […] In his Thursday press conference discussing the crash [The crash of an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter above Ronald Reagan National Airport, near Washington, D.C.]—instead of addressing the core of these issues, including his role in possibly hobbling the government response—Trump instead blamed a frequent conservative punching bag: diversity.

    Conservatives like Trump have for years insisted that the government needs to operate like a business, and that the size of the federal government (including its budget and the size of the workforce) must be curtailed. This message has frequently been touted by Republican politicians, but it has been repeated endlessly in conservative media outlets, like Fox News.

    Conservatives have so embraced the notion that government must run like a business that Trump, whose businesses have repeatedly failed, has been the leader of the party since 2016.

    The right has railed against government-based solutions as harbingers of communism and socialism […]

    But America is a massive nation. There are more than 341 million Americans behind the largest economy in the world, with the most powerful military in the history of humankind. American policy on both domestic and foreign issues has a ripple effect felt in every other nation in the world. It simply isn’t practical for a nation of that size and scope to operate in the conservative dream of a government in the 1800s.

    […] massive crises have been caused or exacerbated through government inaction.

    During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the government failed to alleviate the suffering of millions of Americans under Republican President Herbert Hoover. More recently, under Republican President George W. Bush, big business was allowed to put the global economy at risk while profiting from the mortgage bubble. And under Trump, the purported business skills that were touted during his stint as host of NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” were absent as he failed to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

    What has worked have been the initiatives and legislation the right has decried as “big government.”

    Under President Franklin Roosevelt, the New Deal became law, leading to massive government expenditure to fight the Great Depression and World War II. Landmark programs like Social Security were created to provide government backing for the retirement of seniors.

    Later, President Lyndon Johnson put in place his Great Society agenda, expanding the safety net with programs like Medicaid to meet the needs of low-income earners needing health care. That was not being addressed by the profit-motivated private sector.

    In more recent history, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in response to the Great Recession, and saw unemployment significantly decline during his eight years in office. And President Joe Biden passed the American Rescue Plan to stimulate the economy following the massive losses that had occurred on Trump’s watch during the pandemic.

    Despite the conservative fixation on small government and operating the government like a business, it simply has not worked. […]

    When the government is too small or not given enough resources to operate, disaster has been the result—over and over again. Yet, despite the carnage, conservatives are unlikely to change their rhetoric and world view because they would have to admit they were wrong all along.

    Link

    Posted by readers of the article:

    It’s very simple: “Small government” means unlimited wealth for oligarchs and unlimited corporate power. That has always been the GOP’s mission.
    —————————
    However small government does not necessarily mean less expensive. To do the job they will still hire multiple govt contractor agencies and their people who are paid much more than the highest govt employee. A programmer employed by the government will be paid less than a govt contractor.
    —————————
    It isn’t how much the government actually spends, it is who gets the money. Big business wants all of it.
    —————————–
    Those in charge—i.e. the ultrawealthy—want to privatize whatever they can, like schools and public services for profit; cut the taxes that go to the public good because they don’t believe in the public good.
    ———————-
    Small government? Are you kidding me?

    The party of government intrusion into women’s bodies and menstrual cycles wants small government? The party raiding schools and churches wants small government? The MAGA machine imposing tariffs on American consumers wants small government? The party that wants to have big government regulate gender surgeries, and even the speech of how transexual people are described is for small government?
    ————————–
    I was an employee of the Customs Service which became Customs & Border Protection from 1989 to 2015. My job was to administratively judge cases brought against companies that were accused of filing false entries, generally resulting in an evasion of duties.

    With Dump’s tariffs he announced today (in violation of the free trade agreement we have with Mexico and Canada), we can expect an astronomical rise in tariff evasion. But with a reduction in the number of civil servants, who is going to collect the tariffs, who is going to investigate suspected violators, and who will be adjudicating the cases?
    ——————————
    Much like “rule of law”, when it comes to Republicans “small government” has always been a malleable slogan.

    They want “small government” when talking about the government restricting their abuses or flat out law breaking.
    ——————————-
    I’d argue it was born of the desire of corporate America to limit taxes and regulation. It has since morphed into a meaningless and often hypocritical rallying cry. Conservatives want small government except when it comes to your healthcare, bedroom, gender, education, and the next culture war whim.
    ——————————-
    1. Only a federal government can stand up to the wrongdoings of a big corporation, so they want a government incapable of doing that.

    2. They want the government to support the social hierarchy with themselves at the top. For them the purpose of government is impose the hierarchy (banning abortions) and oppress those that don’t fit in it (gay and trans people). Everything else in the government is useless and should be eliminated.
    ————————–
    FDR: Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

    These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.
    ——————————–
    The discussion on changing FEMA? Privatization $$$ for billionaires.

    The role that ignorance plays in the actions of Trump and Musk may have been left out of the equation.

  431. says

    […] European Union officials then [in 2018] imposed a 25% retaliatory tariff on American whiskey exports, which it suspended in 2022.

    “We saw tens—if not hundreds—of millions of millions of dollars of impact on exports that the bourbon industry is just recovering from,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a Jan. 16 press conference. “A state, again, that voted for Trump by 30 points will get hit incredibly hard.”

    Eric Gregory, the president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, an industry group, told WCPO that the 2018 tariffs cost his industry—and hence the state—upwards of roughly $580 million, which is a breathtaking amount. Those EU tariffs were 25%. The new tariffs, set to take effect on March 31 if no deal is reached between the U.S. and EU, will be double that: 50%. Kentucky distillers export over 95% of the world’s bourbon products, with the EU being their biggest export market, according to Gregory.

    Want to guess the next-biggest market? Mexico and Canada—Trump’s newest foes.

    Bourbon is a $9 billion industry, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Organization. The group says the local industry employs over 23,100 people and generates $358 million in tax revenue. In other words, these distillers and Kentucky could be in for a world of hurt.

    “We’re trying to sound the alarms as much as possible that these are good, paying American jobs that are in jeopardy,” Gregory told WCPO. “We have been caught up in trade wars that have nothing to do with whiskey.”

    Except it has everything to do with Trump’s trade wars. Trump started a fight that has already generated a great deal of collateral damage. The smartest trade partners will do what the EU did—retaliate against his own supporters. And given that Trump’s answer to everything right now is “TARIFFS,” expect the pain to go deep.

    […] As the state that also foisted Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell on us (as well as Sen. Rand Paul)—if anyone deserves what’s coming, it may just be Kentucky.

    The hope is now that as countries weigh retaliatory tariffs, they take the EU’s lead and focus their retaliations on red states and red-leaning industries as much as possible. […]

    Link

  432. says

    Paul Krugman:

    So basically this is a slap on the wrist for an autocratic regime that is a dangerous rival and even potentially a military foe, versus a body blow to a democracy that is arguably our best ally.

    Wait, it gets worse. China runs a large overall trade surplus, which isn’t always a bad thing but in this case does reflect China’s attempt to export its way out of the failure of its domestic policies. Canada runs roughly balanced trade… […]

    Bottom line: I can’t think of a reason punishing Canada with tariffs, let alone treating our neighbor far more harshly than Trump is treating China, is in the national interest. Trump’s spokesperson says that it’s because of the fentanyl pouring across our northern border, which wouldn’t justify tariffs even if it were happening — which it isn’t.

    But who says that these tariffs have anything to do with the national interest — as opposed to the personal interests of the people calling the shots?

    My guess is that Trump is imposing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico just to show that he can — that it’s essentially a dominance display. And the many people pointing out that it’s a terrible idea probably only reinforced his determination to show that he’s in charge and smarter than anyone else.

    https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-has-trump-gone-soft-on-china

  433. Reginald Selkirk says

    Attorney who helped exonerate Michigan prisoners shot to death with wife

    Leaders of the Michigan Innocence Clinic and exonerees were mourning after learning that an attorney whose work helped clear three wrongfully convicted men in Michigan had been shot and killed.

    Mike McKenzie, 72, and his wife, Darla, 68, of suburban Atlanta, Georgia, were found shot to death Tuesday at a home in Alabama.

    Police say the couple had been visiting their daughter’s home in Etowah County, Alabama, two hours west of Atlanta, when they were shot by the daughter’s husband.

    The son-in-law, Christopher Scott Johnson, was charged with capital murder and is being held without bond, sheriff’s deputies said…

  434. says

    Kyle Orland of Ars Technica:

    If you search Google for a way to turn off the company’s AI-powered search results, you may well get an AI Overview telling you that AI Overviews can’t be directly disabled in Google Search. But if you instead ask Google how to turn off “fucking Google AI results,” you’ll get a standard set of useful web suggestions without any AI Overview at the top.

    The existence of this “curse to disable Google AI” trick has been making the rounds on social media in recent days, and it holds up in Ars’ own testing. For instance, when searching for “how do you turn off [adjective] Google AI results,” a variety of curse word adjectives reliably disabled the AI Overviews, while adjectives like “dumb” or “lousy” did not. Inserting curse words randomly at any point in the search query seems to have a similar effect. […]

    For those who want to get rid of AI Overviews without a curse-filled Google search history, users have discovered plenty of other methods for disabling the intrusive recommendations. Just after Google launched the AI Overviews feature, savvy searchers noted that adding “&udm=14” to the search URL would get rid of both the AI Overviews and the “Web Snippets.” A little fiddling with browser settings or plug-ins can even get this URL parameter inserted automatically into every search.

  435. says

    Israel is building outposts in Syria, raising local fears of occupation.

    Washington Post link

    As the Israeli military swept into a string of Syrian villages in December, the soldiers assured locals that the presence would be temporary — the aim limited to seizing weapons and securing the area after the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

    But the earthmoving vehicles that followed suggest a more permanent presence.

    “They are building military bases. How is that temporary?” asked Mohammed Muraiwid, the mayor of Jubata al-Khassab, who has watched Israel troops construct a new military outpost on the edge of his village.

    Satellite imagery examined by The Post shows more than half a dozen structures and vehicles in the walled Israeli base, with nearly identical construction five miles to the south. Both are linked by new dirt roads to territory in the Golan Heights that Israel captured in its 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. An area of cleared land, which experts say appears to be the beginnings of a third base, is visible another few miles south.

    Hours after President Assad’s grip on his country crumbled in December, Israeli tanks and troops broke through the “Alpha line” that has marked the ceasefire boundary over the past half-century and moved into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone inside Syrian territory, and in some cases beyond. […]

    Photos and more details at the link.

    Looks like a Netanyahu land grab.

  436. says

    Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said President Trump should “cut the crap” when it comes to his involvement in the firing of FBI officials and prosecutors involved in his criminal proceedings.

    “The reality of it is Trump said that, oh, I had no idea about these firings. I didn’t request any of these firings. Can we just cut the crap,” Steele asked during a Saturday morning appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.”

    “Because the FBI is not going to fire anybody at that scale without the White House knowing about it.”

    NBC New’s Ryan Reilly chimed in agreeing with the Steele’s disbelief.

    “This was not like an individualized assessment of their conduct. This was just anybody who worked on January 6th cases who they could fire, they did. And that basically they focused on those people who were in these term positions,” Reilly said on air.

    “[…] The expectation was that a lot of these people would continue on.”

    Top officials braced for a hit amid the transition between two vastly different administrations including demotions but were shocked by a wave of dismissals.

    Trump previously told reporters that he thought the agency’s decision to fire individuals was a good idea but didn’t take credit for the move.

    “They came after a lot of people like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn’t involved in that,” the president told reporters on Friday.

    “If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing, because they were very bad,” Trump later added.

    However, some lawmakers aren’t buying his claim, saying it’s “alarming” and keeping a close watch on further changes under the Republican.

    “It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration appears to be purging dozens of the most experienced agents who are our nation’s first line of defense,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said

    Link

  437. says

    Satire:

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In retaliation for Donald J. Trump’s threatened tariffs, on Saturday Mexico, Canada, and China cut off Elon Musk’s supply of ketamine, “effective immediately.”

    The decision drew howls of protest from Musk, who said that the ketamine embargo would interfere with his effort to make the federal government as efficient and profitable as X.

    But the leaders of the three nations seemed unmoved, telling the American people in a joint statement, “You’ll thank us for this.”

    Mexico, Canada, and China Cut off Elon Musk’s Supply of Ketamine

  438. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research

    The CDC has instructed its scientists to retract or pause the publication of any research manuscript being considered by any medical or scientific journal, not merely its own internal periodicals […] to ensure that no “forbidden terms” appear in the work. The policy includes manuscripts that are in the revision stages at journal (but not officially accepted) and those already accepted for publication but not yet live.
    […]
    researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: “Gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,” […] The policy goes beyond the previously reported pause of the CDC’s own publications […] The policy also goes beyond the general communications gag order that already prevents any CDC scientist from submitting any new scientific findings to the public.
    […]
    Most manuscripts include simple demographic information about the populations or patients studied, which typically includes gender […] just about any major study would fall under the censorship regime […] let alone anything that the administration considers to be “woke ideology.”
    […]
    While the policy is only meant to apply to work that might be seen as conflicting with President Trump’s executive orders, CDC experts don’t know how to interpret that. […] What can and cannot go forward appears to require approval by a Trump political appointee […] That’s slowing many things down. At present, there is only one political appointee in the entire CDC, acting Director Susan Monarez (plus her personal assistant, who is not a scientist).

  440. says

    Trump is, as usual, making things worse by further damaging the relationship between the USA and Canada.

    This morning, at 8:26 AM, Trump posted:

    We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada. Why? There is no reason. we don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited Energy, should make our own Cars, and have more Lumber than we can ever use. Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!

    Commentary:

    Trump is now linking the tariffs to Canada completely surrendering its sovereignty. In a Truth Social post Trump claimed Canada is not a viable nation without massive American subsidies [That last bit is a lie. See Paul Krugman in comment 426: “Canada runs roughly balanced trade.”]

    Put simply, Trump is claiming that tariffs are the cost for Canada being a nation free and independent of the United States. It’s economic warfare, a sort of invasion by tariff. In so doing Trump has made it much harder for Canada to not fight back. Canada is no longer fighting for its economy. It is fighting for its very existence as a free nation and people.

    What’s more this imperialism by tariff is a threat to every free nation in the world.

    Trump thinks national identity is negotiable. Can you imagine if another nation pulled this garbage on us? How Americans would feel? […]

    Link

  441. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Timothy Burke:

    Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, operating senior living facilities across the state. Republicans are shutting it down

    Perhaps more concerning is Mike Flynn, known foreign asset, having access to this data?

    [Twitter Screenshot]

    Musk: The DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.

    Mike Flynn: Now it’s the “Lutheran” faith (this use of “religion” as a money laundering operation must end): Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations receive massive amounts of taxpayer dollars
    […]
    Here are just a few of the recent grants awarded (pre @RobertKennedyJr ) by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):

    LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE INC: $367,612,906
    LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTH, INC: $134,190,472.95
    LUTHERAN SERVICES FLORIDA, INC.: $82,937,819.95

    […]
    It’s time to hold these organizations accountable. American taxpayers deserve transparency. Enough is enough! And there is much more where these screen shots below came from.

    yeah don’t sleep on the fact that Wazzu [Washington State University] is also on this list of “money laundering” operations

    Someone added:

    I just want to point out this moron could have gotten this data publicly by visiting [usaspending.gov]. Not only would he have the payment amount but he’d see why it was approved in the first place and a lot more detail than a single line of payment. [usaspending entry for “Lutheran Immigration And Refugee Service Inc”]

    Another reply:

    Lutheran Services Florida is the state’s largest private social services organization. In many red states these orgs exist to fill in the spaces where GOP legislature have eviscerated gov’t social aid for decades. Now they’ve decided to cut it out altogether?

    One more:

    Wouldn’t an audit have been a better option to look at these line items? During my public utility career, audits were done periodically—internal & external—on all kinds of processes & data. You don’t just stop things w/o audits & investigations. Incompetence at its finest here.

    MotherJones
    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-treasury-department-doge-trump/

    former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a Christian nationalist and purveyor of misinformation (who lied to the FBI and was later pardoned by Trump)
    […]
    Congress appropriates federal funds, but Musk is acting as if the law will never catch up to him. Musk’s tweet may be getting ahead of the reality of what he and his team are doing at the moment. But imagine if the US government were to stop paying bills because a billionaire saw a social media post from a conspiracy theorist urging him to do so.

     
    /Wikipedia – Tim Burke

  442. says

    More details about Musk taking control of and rummaging around in the U.S. government’s payment system.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lamzlaxo4gvxvz65vsbrhvty/post/3lh6mmqf3ws2n

    Commentary:

    [From] this morning a snippet posted on BlueSky that appears to report on a Twitter conversation between Musk and Mike Flynn (!) […]

    Musk bragging about working through the nights.

    [Musk said: “The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.” That was in response to Mike Flynn posting that : “Now it’s the ‘Lutheran’ faith (this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end): Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations receive massive amounts of taxpayer dollars, and the numbers speak for themselves. These funds, total BILLIONS […]” Attached is a list of payments.]

    […] where did these data come from? Is Musk sharing whatever he’s accessed at Treasury with Flynn in particular, and/or the world at large? Did Flynn pick this up from public records or elsewhere? Unclear.

    –Flynn characterizes payments to Lutheran Family Services and related entities as “money laundering.” We can’t tell from the fragments of data, but it looks like these payments are for grants or, more likely contracts, i.e., for services rendered.

    –Musk in response characterizes them as “illegal payments” and asserts that his non-Department DOGE is “rapidly shutting down” the disbursements. In other words, that yes, they may be tampering in some way with the U.S. government payment system.

    –One more thing to notice: at least 13 of the listed disbursements in 2024 that Flynn is complaining about were to LUTHERAN IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE SERVICES INC. My guess, just a guess, would be that these are contracts for helping to take care of asylum seekers, possibly while in detention. Unless we see the contract paperwork, it’s not possible to tell, but it could be a clue to one thing Musk might be after in those records.

    Ideas

    You may have some of your own […]

    Contact the Treasury Department directly and demand that Secretary Scott Bessent immediately revoke Musk’s access to these systems.

    Bessent seems like a smart guy, and a number of Ds voted to confirm him, but he obviously has NO idea what he is dealing with in terms of data systems (or human beings, apparently). It’s like giving the keys of a 747 to a 14-year-old video gamer

    […] Here is the career civil servant who did know what harm they could do, and announced his retirement when ordered to turn the keys over to Musk and his shambolic gremlins. [David Lebryk biography]

    They need to get him back, because there is no knowing what may have already been effed up, let alone how to put it back. Ignorant botchers won’t be able to, and may not want to. They could in principle even have installed spyware or malware at this point. Or taken money out and covered their trail.

    Treasury contact page. Ask for the Office of the Secretary. If you can’t get through to the main number, might another one apply? […]

    Link

    More at the link.

  443. says

    CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @435, my apologies. I did not see your post before I added my own.

    Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.

  444. says

    […] The average price for a dozen eggs in the U.S. has jumped 50% in the past year and the cost increase appears to have accelerated since November, the same month Donald Trump was elected president, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    In the week ending Jan. 18, a dozen yolks cost $5.29, a steep climb from February 2024 when the price was a little over $3.50 a dozen, data compiled by the NIQ consumer research group shows.

    […] The chief reason for the price spike, economists and market analysts have said, is the highly-infectious bird flu that has cut like a scythe through the chicken population and reduced egg supplies, along with strong consumer demand for eggs that is typical during the winter holiday season.

    More than 13 million hens have been lost or slaughtered since December 2024 as a result of the bird flu outbreak, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest Egg Markets Overview. [graph at the link]

    New York’s Attorney General Letitia James is one of several local government officials who are warning businesses against price gouging.

    “The bird flu is affecting poultry farms and causing a national shortage, but this should not be an excuse for businesses to dramatically raise prices,” James said over the weekend.

    Consumers are already outraged.

    “It’s just robbery,” Minneapolis resident Sage Mills, who bought eggs to bake a birthday cake, told NBC News recently. “Eggs used to be kind of a staple food for us, but now you know, you might as well just go out to eat.”

    The egg price explosion also poses a potential political problem for Trump, who won the White House in November by hammering the Biden Administration for high food and other costs. Trump also promised to bring grocery prices down on his first day in office.

    Already, the Democrats are hammering Trump for not making good on his promise to “immediately” lower food prices.

    […] The surge in egg prices comes as Trump has signed executive orders that, starting Tuesday, implements tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China — a move that many economists predict will drive-up the prices of other consumer goods and stall, or even stop, the strong post-pandemic economic recovery that began under Biden.

    “So at the end of the day, it’s the American taxpayer and American people who are going to pay and pay dearly for this stupid move,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday on MSNBC of the tariffs.

    Canada and Mexico have already vowed to retaliate by implementing tariffs on goods from the U.S.

    Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Beijing would file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization “and take necessary countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests.”

    Link

  446. Reginald Selkirk says

    Caitlin Clark Sends Clear 2-Word Message About Fever Offseason Acquisitions

    The Indiana Fever have made a massive splash over the past week in terms of bolstering their roster for the 2025 season.

    Their flurry of acquisitions began when they re-signed star guard Kelsey Mitchell, which was announced on January 29. This was the clear top priority for Indiana, and them bringing Mitchell back meant that the core of players they had for their 2024 campaign would be returning.

    But the Fever were far from done. Since that was announced, the Fever have also acquired Natasha Howard on January 31, traded for Sophie Cunningham that same day, and news broke on Sunday morning that they had also signed veteran star DeWanna Bonner in free agency.

    These signings undoubtedly make the Fever WNBA championship contenders in 2025. And when speaking with the media before her Iowa Hawkeyes jersey retirement on February 2, Caitlin Clark discussed her reaction to these moves.

    “I’m excited,” Clark said with a smile, per an X post from Dallas Jones…

    Can you watch Caitlin Clark jersey retirement ceremony on TV? Time, schedule for Iowa women’s basketball event

    Just one season removed from her final game at Iowa, Caitlin Clark will join other Hawkeyes legends when her No. 22 jersey is retired on Sunday…

    Caitlin Clark career stats at Iowa

    28.4 points per game
    8.2 assists per game
    7.1 rebounds per game
    1.5 steals per game
    0.5 blocks per game
    46.2 percent field goal shooting
    37.7 percent 3-point shooting
    85.8 percent free throw shooting

    ‽

  447. Reginald Selkirk says

    ATHEIST Plans To Write Their First New Album Since 2010 This Year

    Atheist’s output is generally minimal, but it always makes a massive impact. Atheist released three vital records to the genre in the ’90s – Piece Of Time in 1990, Unquestionable Presence in 1991, and Elements in 1993 – before breaking up in 1994. Atheist reunited in 2006, released Jupiter in 2010, and has been touring and plotting new music ever since.

    So when are we getting a new Atheist record? In a new interview with Altars Of Metal, Atheist mastermind Kelly Shaefer said the band will be working on it this year.

    “We have a really busy year coming up. In a couple of weeks, we head to South America with our friends in Cryptopsy. And so we’re gonna do that. And then we have a North American run in April that’s yet to be announced. We plan on hitting Japan and New Zealand this year, in June, and then Europe in September and then another U.S. tour in November. So somewhere in between, we’re gonna be writing [new material].”

    He continued: “We’ve got about six new songs written. And it’s the first new Atheist music in a lot of years — 15, to be exact, which blows my fucking mind, that Jupiter is 15 years old already. Jupiter is a teenager. It feels like it was just a minute ago.”

    Atheist in 2025 is founding members Shaefer and drummer Steve Flynn alongside guitarists Alex Haddad (Arkaik) and Jerry Witunsky (who is part of Shaefer’s other project Till The Dirt), and bassist Yoav Ruiz-Feingold (Till The Dirt)…

  448. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Two senior USAID security officials put on leave after attempting to refuse Musk’s DOGE access to agency systems

    personnel from the Musk-created office physically tried to access the USAID headquarters […] and were stopped. The DOGE personnel demanded to be let in and threatened to call US Marshals to be allowed access […] wanted to gain access to USAID security systems and personnel files […] sources also said the DOGE personnel wanted access to classified information, which only those with security clearances and a specific need to know are able to access. […] DOGE personnel were eventually able to access the headquarters.
    […]
    “Reports that individuals without appropriate clearance may have accessed classified USAID spaces as well as American citizens’ personal information are incredibly serious and unprecedented,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said Sunday. “We are seeking immediate answers about any implications for our national security and are bringing a group of bipartisan Senators together on this as soon as the Senate comes back tomorrow,” continued Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    On Sunday, in response to CNN’s report about the incident, Musk said that “USAID is a criminal organization.” “Time for it to die,” he posted on X. It was one of many posts and reposts by the X owner attacking the agency on Sunday.
    […]
    On Saturday, USAID’s website went dark and a new page for the agency appeared on the State Department website. USAID’s X account also went offline Saturday. […] it would be illegal for Trump to unilaterally eliminate a federal agency without consulting Congress.
    […]
    The State Department doesn’t “have the capacity, the expertise, the training to do that kind of work. It is a completely separate line of effort that is undertaken on the ground,” a former senior USAID official said.
    […]
    Around 60 senior USAID staff were put on leave last week on accusations of attempting to circumvent the executive order on foreign aid. Another senior official was put on leave for trying to reverse that move after finding no evidence of wrongdoing. One source said the entire USAID public affairs office was put on leave and locked out of their systems.

  451. Reginald Selkirk says

    New York doctor indicted for prescribing Louisiana teen abortion pill

    A New York doctor has been indicted for allegedly sending abortion pills to a teenager in Louisiana, in what could be the first time a provider has faced criminal charges for mailing the medication since the rollback of abortion rights in the US.

    On Friday, a grand jury issued an indictment against Dr Margaret Carpenter for criminal abortion, a felony in the state, which has a near total ban on the procedure. An indictment was also issued against the teenager’s mother.

    New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the state would not comply with an extradition request for the doctor’s arrest and said they would shield her…

  452. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    The young, inexperienced engineers aiding Elon Musk’s government takeover

    a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel […] WIRED has identified six young men [names at the link]—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and […] all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer.
    […]
    “What we’re seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what’s going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what’s happening because these aren’t really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”

    Commentary:

    my god. If your own legal framework has no remedy for a hostile actor breaking the law within the system, your legal framework is bad. So either there’s truly no mechanism for congress to intervene and defend the institution, or it’s just that none of current congress people will enforce it… which one, I wonder.
    –
    sad they used such a shitty and disempowering quote!
    –
    right?? like is this true? Like I get that no, this congress in particular isn’t gonna do shit, but is it actually true they legally cannot? Because there is a difference and it’s worth noting, I think. Even without the legal framework, they could also do something like “send in the capitol police” in an extralegal manner but that’s a totally separate issue.
    –
    Reddit is all over these chuds. Here’s some info on the 19-year-old, Edward Coristine. HOLY SHIT, this kid’s dad’s company, “Lesser Evil” had a product line of snacks that had high levels of lead in it.
    […]
    I was hoping these guys were not that knowledgeable. But having looked at their level of education, these guys could absolutely do A LOT of damage. I hope they like prison food.

  453. JM says

    Newsweek: Russia, Iran to Sign Strategic Pact on Eve of Donald Trump’s Inauguration

    Russia and Iran plan to formalize relations with the signing of a new strategic partnership treaty in the days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

    The news was broken by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, who told reporters on Monday that he hoped the leaders of the two nations would sign the agreement “at the end of January,” Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik reported.

    The deal was signed but the details are not public. What is known and critical is that it doesn’t have the mutual defense portion of the deal signed with North Korea. No Iranian troops in Ukraine. Iran doesn’t trust Russia and has more other things to offer. North Korea doesn’t have much to offer but basic military gear and soldiers.
    On paper these are long term deals but nobody in either deal trusts the other party to keep the agreement 20 years down the road.

  455. JM says

    Washington Post: Driscoll refuses order to list FBI employees involved in Jan. 6 cases amid ouster of agency leaders

    Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll is on shaky ground with Department of Justice leaders for refusing to deliver the names of bureau employees involved in Jan. 6 cases and other Trump investigations.

    President Trump tapped Mr. Driscoll, an FBI veteran, to lead the bureau temporarily while his nominee for director, Kash Patel, goes through the Senate confirmation process. But questions remain over whether Mr. Driscoll can stay in the job before Mr. Patel is confirmed and sworn in.

    Driscoll did comply with removing some officials involved with other cases but a list of everybody involved with the Jan 6th cases was too broad for him to tolerate. He has directly refused right now but it may be more self serving then principled. By his own admission, Driscoll would be on the list of everybody involved with the Jan 6th cases.

  456. Bekenstein Bound says

    The son-in-law, Christopher Scott Johnson, was charged with capital murder and is being held without bond, sheriff’s deputies said

    Any word on motive?

    researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: “Gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,”

    https://hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/

    First they came for the transes, then the trade unionists and so forth.

    It’s May, 1933 again, with a holocaust and a world war looming over the next twelve years.

    OpenAI strikes deal with US government to use its AI for nuclear weapon security

    Shit. Where’s John Connor when you need him?

  457. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Jacqueline Sweet:

    Yes totally cool that a 19-year-old who called his deleted LinkedIn “Big Balls,” where he lists his experience working as a camp counselor can access the entire US federal payment system without anyone looking into his background, for instance, his Russian national close relatives or anything else

    Someone replied pointing out his High School, Rye County Day School, is a PreK-12 that charges $49-$55.6k a year, circa 2024.

    So not quite like the homeless/possibly-undocumented movers Musk’s cousin flaunted dollar bills at to carry Twitter servers away.

  458. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Josh Marshall:

    Several conversations today w people in the key executive departments. […] the Musk take over stuff is considerably worse than is being presented in the press. […] putting together the big picture abt how different pieces fit together
    […]
    There also seems to be a significant amount of downloading government data onto private servers, etc, totally outside any cybersecurity regime. […] I’ve had multiple references to their refusing to identify themselves by anything but first name. The rationale given is that they could be doxed.
    […]
    Impoundment by the president is illegal. It’s hard to think through the levels of illegality having a group of people who don’t even seem to be US government employees doing it.

    Jacqueline Sweet:

    Elon and his minions’ conception of doxing is so insane. Total victim bully mentality. They think unelected, no security clearance having randoms should be able to access entire federal systems but oh no they might be identified

     
    Josh Marshall at TPM – Musk’s Little Green Men

    between 19 and 24 years of age, often college dropouts who left to go into tech and various kinds of algorithmic financial trading, in most cases interns at Thiel’s or Musk’s companies […] hard right, techno-red-pilled bros, who now have access to things like your social security checks […], your financial and, likely in some cases, medical records and at least the ability to shut down whole sections of the federal government at will
    […]
    We don’t know who in that group is making those decisions, whether there’s any meaningful command and control. The ability to do things doesn’t mean they will be done—though Musk is saying publicly that they’ve “found” as much as $4 billion dollars of waste a day that can and will be turned off.
    […]
    Luke Farritor, […] dropped out of college to become a Thiel Fellow, a fellowship which pays super smart kids to drop out of college (no, really.) And now, at what I think is age 24, he appears to have root-level access to all records and payments through the Department of Health and Human Services.

  459. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Followup to Lynna @406 from Politico:

    One person familiar with the effort said Krause’s role will be subject to safeguards that would not allow any ability to make changes to the system and that no one outside Treasury would have access. “The secretary’s approval was contingent on it being essentially a read-only operation,” the person said.

    Read-only’s still an unfathomable breach. Non-Treasury DOGE thugs did get access. And the Treasury-only restriction wouldn’t have been reassuring anyway, coming from a stooge at the top who went along with THIS.

  460. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Bruce MacKinnon (Halifax Chronicle-Herald):

    I drew this last November 26th knowing full well no self-respecting family newspaper in the country would be likely to print it. I was right. But given the events of this weekend, I’m gonna to let ‘er rip anyway.

    [Cartoon: How Tariffs work]

    /Nice callback to his alleged fondness for uh Tariffs.

  462. StevoR says

    Health services already affected by hot weather are warning residents about the dangers of heat-related illness as scorching conditions move across south-east Australia.

    The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has issued severe heatwave warnings for South Australia, Victoria and NSW border regions.

    The BOM is forecasting above-average temperatures well into next week, with maximums in the high 30s to low 40s.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-01/heatwave-nsw-victoria-sa-health-tips-triple-0-calls/104882806

    Here in Adelaide its been another extreme heat day today. Forecast 41 degrees Celsius (105 F) here & has reached at least 39 degrees C. (102 F.) Hate this heat.

  463. StevoR says

    Meanwhile there’s been more devavatsing flooding in our continents North :

    Floodwaters are rising for the third day across parts of north Queensland, with some pockets recording more than a metre of rain since Saturday. An emergency alert was issued for the Cardwell area, before being reduced, while residents north of Ingham have spotted crocodiles in flooded streets.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/north-queensland-flooding-live-updates-townsville-cardwell/104888424

  464. Silentbob says

    @ Stevo

    Forecast 41 degrees Celsius (105 F) here

    Holy fuck, man. I didn’t even think that was possible so far south. Take care.

  465. StevoR says

    Fellow Aussie s here note that FourCorners and MediaWatch are now back for 2025. On now c2 ABC in SA timzezone anyhow. 6.30 pm start onwards. Episode on elections and minor parties. Thank fuck our system is so much better than the USoA’s!

  466. StevoR says

    @ 458. Silentbob : Thanks. Been spending alot of days lately -today included just inside hiding from the heat. Able to keep one room pretty cool and stay there and been soaking the garden to keep that alive. Put out water for wildluife and passing dogs too.

  467. StevoR says

    Just seen on fb* and not sure how accurate this is so keen tosee what folks particularly American folks think but FWIW (any typos mine.) :

    jefflocker (blue tick) 18 hrs ago (o doubt longer now- ed)

    For those of you who aren’t caught up – and especially those who can’t be bothered to pay attention :

    Elon Musk – with Trump’s stamp of approval – is trying to stage coup in real time
    And rob America blind in the process.

    This is not a f**king drill. I’m not being hysterical. This is a goddamm four alarm fire.

    So? What do folks think? Fair assessment or?

    .* Think via Feminist News fb page but could be mistaken.

    FWIW if it is this Jeff Locker : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Locker

  468. StevoR says

    @ ^ Which may (or may not?) have something to do with this one def seen via Feminist news fb page :

    Suzanne Catelli Allison
    16 min (again screenshot so longer no doubt now -ed.)

    This is a nonpartisan issue. If you are American no matter what your status and you receive any type of benefit through our government, Elon Musk and a small group of men ages 19 to 24 have stolen data from the Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, USAID (extremely high security) and more. It is likely the largest data breach on the planet. Systems were broken into and some items were removed from the building. What can you do? Contact your Congresspersons, Governors and other elected officials. Tell them you want action taken now. Whether you did or did not vote for Trump, you did not release your personal info for Musk to take unauthorized possession of it. Please share.

    Er, folks know what’s up with this?

    USA what is going on over there? Who is really in charge and what the fuck are they doing?

  469. JM says

    @462 StevoR

    USA what is going on over there? Who is really in charge and what the fuck are they doing?

    Nobody knows. Nobody is in charge, there are several people acting like they have unlimited power but they are not coordinating their actions. They have different ultimate goals.
    Musk in particular is taking whatever orders Trump gave him and going berserk. Musk is running the US government like he just made a hostile take over of a company and is securing power before getting rid of most of the existing employees.

  470. redwood says

    @463 Seems like Republicans are finally finding out what it’s like to run a gov’t like a business. Enjoy!

  472. JM says

    <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mexico-agrees-deploy-10000-troops-us-border-exchange-tariff-pause"FoxNew: Mexico agrees to deploy 10,000 troops to US border in exchange for tariff pause

    Mexico has agreed to deploy 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for a one-month delay on President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday.

    10,000 troops is nothing along the US/Mexico border and Mexico will just have them make some public patrols. It’s a cheap nothing move that Trump will be able to claim as a success in the US. It buys time for Mexico to negotiate something more substantial.

  473. says

    Followup to comment 252, which was good news about a Democratic Party win in Iowa.

    […] in Iowa, Mike Zimmer, a Democrat who unexpectedly won a state legislative special election last week, told Semafor about his experiences on the campaign trail. “The impact of Fox News is just jaw-dropping,” the state senator-elect said, adding: “I don’t think I fully grasped just how strong that propaganda machine is, day in and day out. It’s just incredible.”

    As summarized by Steve Benen from a Semafor article.

  474. says

    Rejects from Trump’s first term make comebacks in his second term

    Yep, even more of Trump’s version of the best people.

    In August 2018, officials in the Trump White House started receiving media calls about a speechwriter and policy aide named Darren Beattie. Journalists wanted to know whether Beattie’s colleagues were aware of his role at a conference regularly attended by well-known white nationalists. Soon after, he was fired.

    Seven years later, however, Beattie is apparently back in Team Trump’s good graces. Semafor reported:

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio will appoint Darren Beattie, a speechwriter in President Donald Trump’s first term, acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, two people briefed on the plans said. Beattie has been a vocal critic of broad swathes of American foreign policy and represents a dramatic step away from the establishment Republicanism Rubio long embodied: In a widely-circulated essay on the site he founded, Revolver, Beattie compared the “color revolutions” that Western democracies backed in Eastern Europe in the 1990s and 2000s to “the coordinated efforts of government bureaucrats, NGOs, and the media to oust President Trump.”

    […] he’s not the only reject from Trump’s first term who’s facing a friendlier terrain in the Republican president’s second term. Around this time eight years ago, for example, Andrew Puzder, Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Labor, saw his nomination collapse in the face of bipartisan opposition.

    Puzder faced a variety of controversies, including spousal abuse accusations, which he denied. Nevertheless, in 2017, even Senate Republicans, who tended to act like rubber stamps for Trump nominees, told the White House that Puzder was a bridge too far.

    Two weeks ago, Trump nominated Puzder to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the European Union, despite what transpired eight years ago, and despite his lack of diplomatic experience.

    Let’s also not overlook Mark Green, whom Trump tapped eight years ago to serve as his secretary of the Army. As the political world soon learned, Green — at the time, a Republican state legislator in Tennessee — had compiled a record of strange beliefs, including arguing that being transgender is a “disease,” promoting creationism, criticizing public health care programs for interfering with Christian evangelism, and even raising some strange concerns about Victoria’s Secret catalogs.

    A Slate report added that Green also “agreed with a questioner that President Obama is not a citizen and he refused to answer whether the former president is really a Muslim.” [Full spectrum asshat.]

    As this information came to light, some GOP senators felt compelled to raise concerns about his nomination, deeming the Tennessean a bit too radical to be confirmed, and on a Friday afternoon in May 2017, Green quietly withdrew from consideration.

    As it happens, he’s another first-term reject who made a comeback, too: Green is currently the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

  475. says

    Followup to comments 442, 446, 451, 452 and 453.

    […] There’s still great uncertainty surrounding what, exactly, Musk’s surrogates intend to do with the Treasury system, though the Times’ report added that it could give the Trump administration “another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress, a push that has faced legal roadblocks.”

    Indeed, Musk has already claimed that his fake department is “shutting down” payments that he and his associates have deemed “illegal,” though (a) it’s not yet clear if this is actually happening; and (b) DOGE has no authority to overrule Congress on allocation of federal funds.

    What’s more, as the world’s wealthiest individual and his friends gain access to highly sensitive information — including, in all likelihood, your Social Security number — it’s probably fair to characterize this as the most dramatic data breach in the history of the world.

    Making matters vastly worse, there’s no reason to see this as an isolated incident. On the contrary, Musk and his cohorts appear to be approaching a variety of government agencies in a systematic way.

    NBC News reported, for example, that Musk’s surrogates also wanted to access to personnel files and security systems, including classified systems, at the U.S. Agency for International Development. When the agency’s director of security and his deputy balked, they were placed on administrative leave — but not before DOGE representatives threatened to call U.S. marshals.

    NBC News also reported that according to Musk, he and Trump are “in the process” of “shutting down USAID,” which the billionaire condemned as “a criminal organization.”

    Meanwhile, at the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the entire civilian government workforce, Musk’s associates reportedly have locked career civil servants out of computer systems. They’ve also reportedly taken on new roles overseeing the General Services Administration, which manages federal offices and technology.

    And for good measure, let’s not forget that the National Transportation Safety Board also announced that, going forward, it will only distribute public notifications by way of the social media platform that Musk owns.

    I’m trying to think of a parallel for this kind of power grab in American history. Nothing comes to mind.

    Link

  479. StevoR says

    Aussie political polcy shift .. jump back in terror becoz cost of doing probly right thing..

    Plans to toughen online safety requirements for big tech platforms are on ice after the federal government’s hand-picked expert recommended threatening Meta, Apple and Google with billions of dollars in fines. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has been sitting on the recommendation from top public servant Delia Rickard since November and will publish it on Tuesday without stating the government’s position.

    … (Snip!)…

    But the government now has no timeline to legislate it before the federal election and no timeline for revealing whether it plans to adopt Ms Rickard’s fine regime, which would fine non-compliant platforms either 5 per cent of their global annual turnover or $50 million, whichever was greater.

    The UK and the EU already take a similar approach, and the government itself proposed similar in its shelved misinformation and disinformation bill.

    But committing to the fines now would risk upsetting the Trump administration and its allies in the tech sector at a precarious time when the government is scrambling to avoid mammoth tariffs.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-03/labor-postpones-big-stick-for-big-tech/104891616

    Cowards!

    Also poliicians so synonymns.

    (But the alternatives to politicians is…? )

  480. StevoR says

    Uncontrolled space debris reentries are of growing concern. The prospect of leftovers from space hotfooting into the Earth’s atmosphere can create a collision risk with aircraft in flight. While the probability of a strike is low, the consequences could be catastrophic.

    …( Snip – ed.)…

    ..In short, there is a 26 percent chance of an uncontrolled space debris reentry in busy airspaces such as the Northeastern United States or Northern Europe each year,” said Ewan Wright at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

    Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/falling-space-debris-is-a-growing-worry-for-aircraft-new-research-suggests

    Then there’s the Kessler syndrome to worry about too… a la that Gravity movie w Sandra Bullock and conveniently close “brick moons”. LEO is relativel small but not that small I reckon.

  481. says

    No respect:

    Donald Trump has long been preoccupied with the United States’ international standing. As his first term came to an ignominious end, the Republican delivered a strange farewell address in which he found it necessary to tell Americans, “The world respects us again.” The Republican added, in an apparent message for his Democratic successor, “Please don’t lose that respect.”

    None of this made any sense. International public-opinion research found that the United States’ global stature soared during Barack Obama’s presidency, collapsed during Trump’s first term, and then recovered during Joe Biden’s presidency. Trump had the entire story backwards.

    And yet, the incumbent president has apparently convinced himself that he, and he alone, can restore the country’s international standing, despite reality. Indeed, in his second inaugural address, Trump declared, “From this day forward, our country will … be respected again all over the world.”

    Twelve days later, Canadians started booing our national anthem during sporting events. HuffPost reported:

    Canadian hockey fans weren’t so friendly toward the United States national anthem on Saturday after President Donald Trump sparked a trade war by imposing new tariffs on most goods from their country. … The latest boos for the anthem arrived after Trump hit America’s northern neighbor with 25% tariffs on most goods ― with the exception of oil, which will face a lesser surtax ― coming from the country.

    The report highlighted incidents in Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal, as well as related booing in Toronto ahead of a basketball game.

    On Sunday night, Trump published a message to his social media platform that read in part, “The response to Tariffs has been FANTASTIC!” Among congressional Republicans afraid of the president’s followers? Maybe. Among the United States’ closest allies? No.

    Unfortunately for the White House — and those concerned about the United States’ reputation around the world — the booing in Canada was emblematic of a larger truth: The president’s goal of ensuring great respect for the United States appears to be failing quite spectacularly.

    Recent polling in Denmark, for example, found that many Danes see the United States as a bigger threat than Iran and North Korea. (Denmark and the United States are NATO allies.) This came on the heels of a related survey that found only 6% of Greenland’s population wants to join the United States — an apparent White House priority. […]

    It was against this backdrop that Trump accused the European Union over the weekend of an “atrocity” that he failed to identify.

    Meanwhile, as Panama turns to the United Nations, rejecting the White House’s campaign to reclaim the Panama Canal, Trump continues to posture in provocative ways. “We’re gonna take it back,” Trump told reporters on Sunday night, referring to the Panama Canal, “or something very powerful is going to happen.”

    But the American president isn’t just alienating people in North America, Europe, and Central America; he’s also taken an interest in a specific country in Africa. Trump wrote online over the weekend that he’s “cutting off all future funding to South Africa” as part of a newfound objection to the country’s current land reform policies.

    “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” the Republican wrote. “A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see.” He made related comments on camera soon after.

    During Trump’s first term, the United States’ global standing reached levels unseen since the dawn of modern polling. It’s reasonable to think our international respect will reach new depths in his second term.

    Link

  482. says

    Followup to comments 218, 239, 256 and 409.

    […] It’s difficult to say with certainty how many federal employees, if any, took the appeal seriously, and two days after the initial message, Trump’s Office of Personnel Management sent a follow-up appeal, trying to cajole government workers to quit with a more brazenly ridiculous argument.

    “The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector,” the agency told the workforce.

    Paul Krugman, formerly of The New York Times, described the policy as “illegal,” noting that Congress hasn’t approved funding for such a scheme and that existing law prevents federal employees from being placed on administrative leave for more than 10 days in a calendar year. […]

    It’s also an open question whether those who took the “deal” will actually get the money they’ve been promised.

    As for why, exactly, he’s doing this, Trump offered some new insights on Friday, after a reporter asked him whether his so-called buyout plan might adversely affect public safety. [Aaron Rupar’s social media post and video are available at the link.]

    “Everybody is replaceable, and we’ll get very good people to replace them if it turns out to be more than we thought,” Trump said. “It could be a lot; it could be a little. We don’t know.

    “But we’d love to have them leave. We’re trying to — remember this — we want them to go into the private sector. It’s our dream to have everybody, almost, working in the private sector, not in the public sector.”

    The first part of the answer was predictable: When he talked about replacing federal workers with “very good people,” Trump appeared to be pointing to a plan in which MAGA sycophants would fill the vacancies left by career employees of the federal government.

    But it was latter part of his response that struck me as especially significant: By sharing his “dream” of moving “almost” all public-sector employees to the private sector, Trump effectively sketched out a vision that would break the federal government.

    That might not have been what Americans thought they were voting for in November, but it’s what the Republican president and his team apparently want to do now that they’re in power.

    Link

  483. says

    Trump hedges (again) on whether he’s spoken directly to Putin

    “[Trump] won’t say whether he has had a recent conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He also won’t say why he won’t answer the question.” Related video at the link.

    On Friday afternoon, Donald Trump said his administration is currently having “very serious discussions” with Russia about the war in Ukraine, which led to an important follow-up question: “So you’ve already spoken to Vladimir Putin?”

    The Republican responded, “I don’t want to say that.”

    Asked why he wouldn’t answer the question, the president added, “Well, I just don’t want to say that.” [Aaron Rupar’s social media post, and a video, are available at the link.]

    In other words, Trump doesn’t want to talk about this, and he doesn’t want to talk about why he doesn’t want to talk about it.

    What’s more, this keeps happening. Two weeks ago, Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked the president whether he had spoken to the Russian leader. Trump replied, “I don’t want to say.”

    Similarly, Time magazine asked Trump in a post-election interview, “Have you spoken to Vladimir Putin since your election?” All he had to do was say yes or no. The Republican did neither.

    “I can’t tell you,” Trump replied. “I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate.”

    There is, of course, nothing “inappropriate” about the president disclosing conversations with foreign leaders. In fact, Trump discloses these interactions all the time. There are no external constraints preventing him from acknowledging the discussions — but he keeps refusing, as he has done periodically over the course of the last decade.

    For those concerned about the president’s relationship with his benefactor in Moscow, this isn’t going to help.

    As for the other part of Trump’s answer from Friday — the reference to the “very serious discussions” between the United States and Russia — the comment did not go unnoticed in Kyiv.

    “If there will be direct talks between America and Russia without Ukraine, it is very dangerous, I think,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Rhe Associated Press the day after Trump’s comments. “They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone.”

  484. says

    Trump II Went On A Weekend Bender The Likes Of Which America Has Never Seen Before

    The Calamity Is Upon Us
    The lawless events of the past 72 hours accelerated what has since Trump’s second inauguration been the most rapid tear-down of the nation’s constitutional structure that Americans have ever witnessed.

    And yet … there’s no reason to think that we have anywhere near a full accounting of what has transpired over the last two weeks. The free and transparent flow of government information to the public is being strangled, making any such accounting increasingly difficult. […]

    At this crucial moment, it is not at all clear that there is sufficient institutional or structural might anywhere in government or the private sector to counter the Trump-Musk anti-constitutional rampage. The Republican-controlled Congress is a cipher; business and industry continues to be a Trump patsy even in the face of an unprovoked trade war that he started over the weekend with devastating tariffs against close allies Canada and Mexico; the federal courts are a question mark at best.

    […] Early but incomplete indications are that the Trump administration is at least partly abiding by a federal court injunction blocking the unprecedented spending freeze that OMB purported to initiate a week ago. As ordered, the administration seems to have distributed notice of the injunction throughout government; but there continue to be reports on the ground that the funding spigots remain shut off, especially at USAID and for its contractors.

    Priority No. 1: DOJ
    Morning Memo continues to be most focused on the purges at the Justice Department, including the FBI. They are part of broader plan to neuter and then co-opt federal law enforcement and prosecutors. Without independent, non-partisan enforcement of the law (both criminal and civil), there is little possibility of accountability for all of the degradations being committed by the Trump administration in other departments and agencies and in the wider world.

    Oy, When The FBI Is The Resistance
    […] More than two dozen federal prosecutors in DC who worked on the Jan. 6 cases were terminated by Acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, a political hack brought in from Missouri.

    Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a member of Trump criminal defense team, ordered the sacking of career FBI agents in top leadership positions both in DC and in select field offices around the county.

    Bove also demanded a list of FBI personnel who worked on the Trump criminal cases. A questionnaire was sent out, purportedly bureau-wide, asking FBI personnel to self-report the specific roles they played in the Trump criminal
    cases.

    The acting FBI director distinguished himself by resisting the most egregious of the moves and communicating transparently to bureau personnel. […]

    Real World Harms: USAID
    While sacking of the Justice Department is our main focus, it is not where the most immediate harm is being done to the most people. That dubious distinction goes to USAID, which funds programs that project American soft power around the world with health care, education, economic development, and civil society programs, to name just a few of the many categories of USAID work.

    USAID funding appears to be cut off either in whole or in part. Reports continue to come in that nonprofits, both at home and abroad, whose work is funded by USAID have had to not just cease providing services but begin to layoff workers due to the funding shutoff.

    […] President Trump is reportedly planning to exceed his lawful authority by folding USAID into the State Department, without any action from Congress approving such a move.

    Elon Musk and his DOGE minions ran amok through USAID all weekend. […]

    Real America Harms: HHS
    Like at USAID, the spending freeze at HHS is having acute real world impacts on an array of health services and the vendors that provide them. Services have been shuttered, layoffs by contractors have reportedly begun, and the time frame for when funding will resume remains uncertain. […]

    The WSJ, perhaps inadvertently captures the dynamic in a headline that feels like it came from a developing nation: “Musk Moves With Lightning Speed to Exert Control Over the Government.”

    Elon Musk’s Deranged Weekend
    […] the world’s richest man turned the federal government into his own personal plaything. Using his perch at DOGE to target the Treasury Department’s payment processing system and to threaten to USAID with closure, Musk seemed to be taking his playbook for destroying Twitter and applying it to key components of the federal government:
    – Musk and his team were given unprecedented and legally questionable access to Treasury Department payment systems, with the hare-brained notion that they could cut government spending at the payment processing level.
    – Spewing disinformation, Musk falsely accused USAID of being a “criminal organization” and said it must “die,” among other things. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk bragged on X/Twitter.
    – The two top security officials at USAID were put on administrative leave after trying – unsuccessfully – to block Musk’s team from accessing internal systems.
    – Musk’s team has reportedly locked career staff at OPM out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees.

    It Takes Guts To Make A Stand
    […] people risk their own lives, careers, financial security, and reputations to do the right thing. In the coming weeks, I want to highlight these profiles in courage without mythologizing them […]

    – FBI HQ: Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll sent out a message to the bureau that made clear the purge orders were coming from Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
    – FBI NY: The top FBI agent in NYC, James Dennehy, vowed in an email to staff to “dig in” as he called the FBI’s acting director and acting deputy director Robert C. Kissane “warriors” for defending bureau employees. ““Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,” Dennehy wrote in the email.
    – USAID: Director for Security John Vorhees and Deputy Director for Security Brian McGill were both put on leave Saturday night after trying to block Musk’s team from accessing classified information in restricted areas.

    So Much More …
    The pace of news precludes Morning Memo from flagging every major development. It is painful to have to leave out what’s happening at the National Science Foundation, or the way transgender Americans have been singled out for particular targeting, or the way even government workers who simply attended DEI training have been swept up in the anti-DEI purge.

    The Logic of Destruction
    Timothy Snyder:

    Theirs is a logic of destruction. It is very hard to create a large, legitimate, functioning government. The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don’t want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.

  485. says

    […] USAID is funded via Congress, which almost certainly makes it illegal for Musk—an unelected billionaire who runs a federal advisory commission that appears to be running afoul of federal law—to unilaterally shut it down.

    However, Musk said on X Space—an audio platform on his X social media site—that he convinced Trump to shut the agency down, and that Trump agreed.

    “I went over it with the president in detail and he agreed that we should shut [it down]. I checked with him multiple times,” Musk said early on Monday morning.

    Trump has yet to publicly say the agency is shut down, but he told reporters on Sunday that USAID is run by “radical lunatics.”

    “We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” he said.

    In the meantime, the USAID website is offline as of Monday morning. Dozens of people at the agency have been put on leave after they reportedly refused to follow a seemingly illegal funding freeze of all foreign assistance, which Trump had put in place.

    And on Sunday night, one of Musk’s barely-out-of-college tech bros sent an email to the entire USAID agency, saying the office was closed and that no one should report to work unless told otherwise. […]

    Neither Trump nor Musk appear to have the legal authority to shutter USAID. Former President John F. Kennedy created the agency by executive order in 1961, following the passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which reorganized the U.S.’s foreign aid. Any major change to the agency is assumed to require congressional approval.

    What’s more, the agency has been funded by Congress, and unilaterally impounding the congressionally approved funding also would seemingly run afoul of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Already, two federal judges halted Trump’s attempt to freeze all congressionally appropriated funds.

    […] closing USAID would be devastating for millions of people worldwide—as well as Americans living in the United States since USAID helps contain the spread of deadly viruses and diseases that could impact Americans if they are not kept at bay. […]

    Link

    Atul Gawande, who was the assistant administrator of global health at USAID under former President Joe Biden, said ending USAID would be a disaster. Gawande also laid out just some of the programs that would expire by ending the agency:

    I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:

    1. Stops work battling a deadly Marburg outbreak in Tanzania and a wide outbreak of a mpox variant killing children in west Africa before it spreads further.

    2. Stops monitoring of bird flu in 49 countries, a disease which already killed an American on home soil.

    3. Stops critical work to eradicate polio.

    4. Stops >$1B in corporate drug donations and coordination eradicating tropical diseases like river blindness, elephantiasis, and others on the verge of elimination in whole regions.

    5. Stops medicines, supplies, systems building, staff support aiding >90 million women and children to get low cost vaccinations, prenatal care, safe childbirth, contraception, and other basic lifesaving health needs.

    6. Stops direct services for 6.5 million orphans, vulnerable children, and their caregivers affected by HIV in 23 countries.

    7. Stops donated drug supplies keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive.

    8. Would furlough all USAID contract staff — which includes half of its global health bureau—unless exempted.

  487. says

    This might have been missed in the tsunami of bad news:

    […] Legacy media has bent over backwards to sanewash Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI. Instead of focusing on Patel’s repeated pledges to “come after” members of the media, outlets including NBC News focused instead on Patel’s disagreement with Trump over pardoning 1,500 felons involved in the Jan. 6 riot. Not a single cable news outlet led with Patel reaffirming his commitment to investigate the president’s personal enemies.

    […] Patel’s invisibility in the mainstream media is one of the biggest abdications of journalistic responsibility we’ve seen so far. That media sanitization has allowed Patel to come within a hair’s breadth of the FBI’s considerable police powers, and its continued silence makes his confirmation more likely with each passing day.

    Kash Patel is ready to be Donald Trump’s federal enforcer. […]

    Link

  488. says

    This Is What A Coup Looks Like, by Mark Sumner.

    In films—and too often in history—a coup d’état comes accompanied by the sound of explosions and gunfire. Military forces make their way through a capital city. The bearded colonel at the head of some new junta or rebel faction announces that he’s now in charge.

    That’s a coup.

    But it’s not the only variety of coup. A coup can also come in the form of a “putsch,” where the followers of a failed politician attempt to impose their candidate on the nation by force. The United States experienced one of those on January 6, 2021, when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.

    There’s also a type of coup known as an “autocoup” or a “self coup.” That’s what’s happening in the United States right now. Right. Now.

    In a self coup, the government isn’t displaced by some new faction or overturned by rebellion. Instead, the people already in charge of the government expand their power. […]

    Take this for example… [Screengrab at the link of Alt National Park Service post.]

    Musk and his team are not only violating laws protecting the privacy of workers and citizens, they are interfering with the operation of programs and agencies authorized, not by executive order, but by law. Their actions are illegal.

    As Wired reports, Musk has attempted to not only access the personal information of millions of Americans, he has also attempted to alter systems vital to the operation of agencies and replace them with “a suite of new AI software … recreating the [GSA] in X’s image.”

    Musk’s actions are clearly an enormous overreach of a vaguely defined authority handed to him by Trump when he renamed an office created to assist in maintaining government websites. But Musk has since created at least one new site for his faux department. That site contains only a single line: “The people voted for major reform.” Now that Musk is in the door, he wants it all. This isn’t a data breach; it’s a threat.

    This may not be what the people voted for, but it’s certainly what they are getting […]

    Musk’s actions are horrendous, unacceptable, and illegal. But they are only part of a larger action that was described by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and enacted by Trump’s flurry of executive orders over the last two weeks — the seizing of the American government by a white nationalist oligarchy. From Trump’s disastrous efforts to shut down all government spending, to the purge of the FBI and military, this is a coup.

    This is what a coup looks like. We are in a coup.

    Fighting against a coup by an outside force is difficult and costly. Should that new regime manage to take power, those who opposed El Comandante are often the first against the wall.

    Resisting a self coup is even more difficult. The people who are violating the law and grasping for ever more power are the ones who already hold the capital, already control the military, and already have friends and allies in the legislature.

    At this point in the self coup of the American government, Trump has already announced he is constructing a concentration camp in a conveniently out-of-sight location, he has already made it clear he wants to vastly expand the death penalty, he has already moved to punish news organizations he doesn’t find sufficiently supportive, he has already acted to purge those who followed the law rather than demonstrating personal loyalty, and he has already removed government watchdogs in direct violation of the law. That included sending federal agents to physically remove the head of the USDA from her office when she refused to follow an illegal order.

    Standing up to Trump in the face of these actions requires bravery from politicians and others who understand that doing so may mean more than merely losing positions of power or sacrificing wealth. It may mean losing their freedom. It may mean losing their life.

    We are already there.

    […] Time only cements a despot in power. Surrounded by cronies and with every lever in the hands of supporters, attempts to check their actions or remove them from control become ever more difficult. […]

    The best time to halt a coup is before it starts. America missed that opportunity in November. But the second-best time is while it’s still in progress.

    To that end, Democratic leaders should be calling for the arrest of Elon Musk and the removal of his team from government offices; drafting articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; and blocking all Senate votes until action has been taken to restore the executive to its lawful functions. All of that represents a huge risk. But none of it carries the price of refusing to act. [Bluesky post from Senator Ron Wyden is available at the link.]

  490. says

    Trump adds consumer protections to billionaire bud’s job duties
    Slightly misleading headline. It’s about hobbling or dismantling CFPB, which does, in a way, protect Trump’s billionaire buddies.

    […] Trump’s purge of federal agencies continued on Monday, when he forced out the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and replaced him with pro-big bank billionaire and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

    The CFPB, which seeks to prevent predatory behavior by banks, credit unions, debt collectors, and payday lenders, was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from the kind of financial abuses that led to the near collapse of the U.S. banking industry.

    It was led by Rohit Chopra, who since October 2021 helped lead the Biden administration’s efforts to cap “junk fees,” such as banking overdraft fees and credit card late fees, that can lead to financial ruin for low-income Americans.

    But since Trump forced out Chopra over the weekend, the Consumer Bankers Association—a trade association of banks—has been celebrating Bessent’s appointment.

    “We’re hopeful that Secretary Bessent will take into account the real-world ramifications regulations have on America’s leading banks, the millions of consumers they serve, and the economy as a whole,” CBA President Lindsey Johnson said in a statement.

    Republicans, who are in the pocket of big banks and predatory payday lenders, have been trying to get rid of the CFPB since its creation.

    As the Washington Post reported after the 2024 election:

    Republicans have long opposed these policies, blasting the CFPB for harming businesses through regulatory overreach. But party leaders are beginning to devise ways to turn that rhetoric into policy, signaling they intend to use control of the House, Senate and White House next year to impose new restrictions on the agency, in some cases permanently. […]

    Republican lawmakers have suggested they’ll pursue their own legislative overhaul targeting the bureau. In recent weeks, they have proposed to rethink the CFPB’s leadership structure, curtail its investigative powers and tweak its funding source, since the bureau derives its budget from the Federal Reserve in a unique arrangement meant to spare the watchdog from political wrangling and industry lobbying.

    It seems that appointing Bessent, who supports less regulation on banks, is Trump’s first step to making good on that promise.

    Add it to the mountain of evidence that Trump doesn’t care about middle-class Americans—only his billionaire benefactors.

  491. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-idiot-sean-duffy-thinks-planes

    “Trump Idiot Sean Duffy Thinks Planes Crashing Because DEI Took The ‘Cock’ Out Of Cockpit”

    We’re just a couple weeks into to the new Trump administration, and we’re already stuck in a Groundhog Day time loop watching these morons break our country while they pretend they’re geniuses. […]

    Trump’s new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was on the Sunday shows this weekend.

    The former Wisconsin Republican congressman and “Real World” cast member appeared on both CNN’s “State Of The Union” and “Fox News Sunday,” where he was asked what evidence there is for Trump’s unhinged claims that “DEI” caused the DC air collision.

    On CNN, Duffy fumbled and stumbled into a really weird Freudian situation: [video at the link]

    TAPPER: So you just alluded to DEI, the diversity, equity, and inclusion processes of trying to expand people in the work force.

    DUFFY: Yes.

    TAPPER: Is there any specific evidence that backs up Donald Trump’s claims, President Trump’s claims, that DEI or FAA hiring practices […] are responsible in any way for this tragedy at Reagan National?

    DUFFY: So, Jake, I think the better question is, am I going to guarantee the American people that only the best and the brightest serve in this incredibly important body of the Department of Transportation, that they’re driven by safety, and DEI doesn’t matter? So I do know that, in the last administration, they were focused on not safety, but they were focused on changing the name from cockpit to flight deck, or notice to airmen, they want to change it to notice to air mission.

    Taking the “cock” out of cockpit caused the DC air disaster. Got it.

    Duffy tried to make the same point on Fox News to Shannon Bream, who was more receptive to Duffy’s bullshit. [video at the link]

    DUFFY: Over the last four years, when they are having a conversation in the last administration about changing names…from ‘cockpit’ to ‘flight deck’, or ‘notice to airmen’ to ‘notice to air mission’ because it’s too gender-specific. They’re focused on social justice and the environment. Or racist roads and E.V.s…they lost sight of the mission of this department.

    Duffy is what happens when you give a shallow culture war knob an important job. He mentions social justice, the environment and not venerating military losers like it’s a bad thing. Why? Because it’s red meat for conservative rubes.

    Changing “cockpit” to “flight deck,” is not unique to the FAA. Civilian aircraft equipment operators like Rockwell-Collins refer to it as a flight deck and have for a long time.

    Admitting you feel emasculated by the removal of a metaphorical cock[pit], or by using more inclusive terms than “airmen,” is quite the fragility self-report.

    Also, many companies in the aviation industry, like Gulfstream, Learjet and Boeing, are embracing more environmentally sustaining methods and fuels. It is both better for the environment and, if you believe in capitalism, profitable to do so.

    Back on CNN, the topic eventually moved to the actual issue of air traffic controller staffing shortages. Duffy, like his boss Donald Trump, tried to blame previous administrations, while not admitting Trump’s culpability in the problem. But Jake Tapper came prepared.

    DUFFY: We’re going back to our mission of safety. And so back to the — we’re talking about the FAA and the staffing levels. So, under the Obama administration, they did change the recruitment standards and brought more people in, but less people were certified. That caused a shortage in the system. But, also, they lowered — this is the Obama administration — or the Biden administration.

    TAPPER: […] So staffing has been an issue in air traffic control stations since at least 2006 because there was a wave of retirements under President [George W.] Bush.

    DUFFY: That’s right.

    TAPPER: The FAA has said staffing has declined by 10 percent over the last decade, including — including under the — in the first Trump administration, and lots of reasons why, the sequestration deal between President Obama and Republicans…

    DUFFY: Yes.

    TAPPER: … repeated governments, shutdowns, the pandemic, all of that. Hiring did increase under President Biden of air traffic controllers. We just put up a chart there.

    Tapper carefully walked Duffy into his point until he caught him off guard like Columbo making his grand revelation.

    TAPPER: And I guess one of the questions I have is, one of President Trump’s first actions in office was to implement a government-wide hiring freeze, and offered blanket buyouts to federal employees, which did impact FAA and NTSB. I’m not saying it had anything to do with this accident. But it did impact — it has impacted those agencies.

    DUFFY: No, it didn’t, Jake. No.

    TAPPER: It hasn’t — well, I was going to say, there is a report that you lifted the freeze and that you lifted the buyout offers.

    DUFFY: No, no.

    TAPPER: Tell us more about that.

    DUFFY: So, I will. So, in regard to the employment freeze, we had almost 1,200 positions that were critical safety positions that were exempted. Those included air traffic controllers. […] So air traffic controllers were exempted from a hiring freeze, as well as other safety positions like inspectors. In regard to offers for people to take early retirement, for our department, actually, the critical positions in regard to safety are not offered that early retirement.

    Really? […] [Screengrab from Associated Press, showing that Air Traffic Controllers were initially offered buyouts and told to consider leaving government.]

    Nah, Duffy is full of shit. Just like the administration he works for that hurriedly scrubbed its proclamation about aviation safety and DEI purges from the White House website as soon as this accident [the plane/helicopter crash in D.C.] happened. [Sccreengrab at the link]

    Have a week.

  492. says

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/claudia-sheinbaum-es-la-presidenta

    “Claudia Sheinbaum Es La Presidenta De ‘El Arte Del Trato'”

    “Ella arrebata los aranceles de las manitas naranjas de Trump.”

    How much have we missed Donald Trump’s signature “whine like a baby and wave your tiny hands in the air until some foreign leader picks you up, burps you, and puts you back down in your baby swing that plays gentle instrumental covers of Lee Greenwood songs” style of governance? Not even a little tiny bit, we’re not members of the White House press corps.

    Nonetheless, that’s what the people voted for — or what voter suppression voted for — so that’s what America is getting […]

    And as in the giant baby’s first term, the president of Mexico — Claudia Sheinbaum — is soothing him with nothing gestures in order to keep him from slapping giant tariffs on her country’s exports to the US and thereby tanking both economies:

    Mexico has deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and National Guard in the north of the country to stem the flow of illegal immigration across the border into the United States, the head of the Mexican Army said on Monday. […]

    Former Mexican national security official Gustavo Mohar said Mexico’s security forces had not been used this way before, describing the development as “sad.”

    Mohar blamed the change on Trump’s threats to impose tariffs.

    Whoops, our mistake. That quote is not from today! That quote is from the first time Trump pulled this move back in 2019, when Mexico had a different president and the tariffs were going to start at five percent. Sheinbaum, who has only been in office for four months, learned the lesson well. On Monday she announced that Mexico will send 10,000 new troops to its northern border to help slow the flow of drugs across the border that Trump and Stephen Miller see in their Nazi fever dream nightmares.

    That is actually 5,000 fewer troops than former Mexican President Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador got away with sending in 2019. In return, Trump announced that he will postpone for one month the 25 percent tariffs on Mexican goods that he signed into existence over the weekend.

    […] Trump also promised that the US would work to stop the flow of high-powered weaponry south to Mexico. That promise will probably last as long as it takes the gun nuts in the GOP to get in his ear about impinging on their Second Amendment rights to mount .50-caliber chain guns atop their Cybertrucks, and even a genuine effort would probably be about as effective as deploying Neosporin to cure chlamydia, but it’s a nice thought nonetheless.

    Trump couldn’t wait to brag about his big deal on his Truth Social rage-board (though he didn’t mention the part about stopping all our guns from going to Mexico, huh): [Screengrab of social media post is available at the link.]

    All Sheinbaum did is restart a policy that Mexico had during Trump’s first term. And which for all we know never ended, but we don’t have information about Mexican troop deployments to the border since 2021. Though we can be pretty sure if the US got Mexico to put any there, they did it quietly, without Joe Biden throwing himself to the floor and kicking his feet in the air.

    The point is, Sheinbaum perhaps would have done the same thing if Trump had asked nicely. But Trump being Trump, he had to have a sustained angry outburst about the situation, so that he can now spin this to his MAGA base as some sort of huge win that only he could accomplish.

    It is a pattern we have seen over and over and over again with Trump. We have already seen it with deportations. In that example, the nation of Colombia, which has been accepting deportation flights from the US for years, objected to passengers on those flights being handcuffed and shackled and generally treated without an ounce of human dignity. Trump responded with all sorts of insane threats, then quietly accepted to stop the shackling while the White House loudly trumpeted that Colombia had caved to all of the president’s demands.

    We fully expect that in one month Trump will post on TruthSocial that he’s already seeing a slow-down of drugs and migrants coming across the Mexican border (whether it is true or not), and therefore he’s putting the tariffs off indefinitely while negotiations continue.

    One other fun thing about Sheinbaum’s move is that she just got Trump to pause the tariffs while she moves troops to the border that Trump has been threatening to send Special Forces across to stop drug cartels. He’ll probably back off that threat now that Mexico is sending troops, not because he’s afraid the Mexican National Guard can stop teams of Navy SEALs, but because he thinks his threats are getting results. Meanwhile, there will be 10,000 more Mexican soldiers in the region to get in the US military’s way if Trump does do the “sent in covert Special Forces” option.

    Everything is still very bad and dangerous and America is again a laughingstock because we are being led by one of the dumbest people to ever walk the Earth, but there is sliiiiiight comfort in seeing the rest of the world is still not fooled by this asshole.

  493. says

    Tulsi Gabbard’s and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nominations were already on shaky ground. New reporting about their records won’t do them any favors.

    […] two of the president’s most outlandish personnel choices are clearly facing headwinds.

    Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, for example, is Trump’s choice to serve as the director of national intelligence, which is utterly bonkers for a great many reasons. This has apparently not gone unnoticed on Capitol Hill, where even Republican senators have been unimpressed with the former Hawaii congresswoman.

    Gabbard’s confirmation was an opportunity for her to turn things around, and by accounts, she fell far short. In the aftermath of her Senate committee flop, The Washington Post made matters considerably worse for the controversial DNI nominee.

    During her sworn testimony last week, Gabbard was asked about her trip to Syria in 2017, which has become highly controversial given her interactions with then-President Bashar al-Assad. But she also met with a cleric named Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who threatened the United States with suicide bombers.

    Asked if she was aware of the threats made by Hassoun, Gabbard said under oath, “I was not and had not heard that until today.” It was against this backdrop that the Post reported:

    [D]ocuments reviewed by The Washington Post indicate that Gabbard was aware of Hassoun’s threats soon after she returned from her controversial visit to the country in January 2017. The documents, which appear within a larger trove from Gabbard’s former congressional office, show that Hassoun’s comments on suicide bombers were flagged as problematic by one of her aides in early 2017 and were identified in an external vetting process as the likeliest source of negative publicity about the trip.

    […] Gabbard’s nomination was already struggling. If she lied about her knowledge of a guy with a network of suicide bombers, whom she personally interacted with in Syria, that probably won’t help tip on-the-fence senators in her favor.

    As for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the conspiracy theorist’s nomination has faced fierce pushback from literally thousands of physicians, scientists and Nobel laureates. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, however, tried to help even the scales at one of his confirmation hearings, introducing into the record of nearly 800 doctors who support Kennedy’s confirmation.

    There was, however, a problem: Johnson didn’t do his homework. The Associated Press reported that many of the doctors on the list aren’t actual doctors. There were some physicians on the list, but many of them “have had their licenses revoked, suspended or faced other discipline.” [Sheesh. There’s stupid or incompent (or both), and then there’s Senator Ron Johnson who is even worse. Farce.]

    While that was no doubt embarrassing for RFK Jr. — and Johnson — The New York Times reported on an even more dramatic development: In response to written questions from senators, Kennedy “disclosed he had reached at least one settlement agreement with a company or individual that had accused him of ‘misconduct or inappropriate behavior.’”

    According to Mother Jones’ reporting, senators asked two specific questions: “Yes or no, have you ever reached a settlement agreement with an individual or organization that accused you of misconduct or inappropriate behavior?” and “Yes or no, have you ever agreed to or been subject to a non-disclosure agreement with any individual or organization?”

    Kennedy answered yes both questions. He did not, however, elaborate, and no one on Capitol Hill — or the public at large — knows what the misconduct is.

    JD Vance appeared on Fox News over the weekend and said, in a message to his fellow Republicans, “You don’t have to agree with everything Bobby Kennedy has ever said. You don’t have to agree with everything that Tulsi Gabbard has ever said. You are meant to ask, do they have the qualifications and the character to do this job?”

    Honestly, it’s the first thing the vice president has said in a long while that I agree with.

  494. says

    Even Republicans are starting to admit tariffs are an awful idea

    Who would’ve thought Democrats and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, would find themselves agreeing on the stupidity of President Donald Trump’s latest executive order regarding tariffs?

    During a Sunday interview with Lesley Stahl, of CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” McConnell ripped into Trump’s plan and said American consumers would be affected the most.

    “[Tariffs] will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it will be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?” McConnell said.

    By that, McConnell was referring to Trump’s newly announced decision to impose tariffs against Canada, China, and Mexico. On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on Canadian oil and gas. Trump cited the countries’ respective questionable failures to curb the flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants to the United States. Trump also levied a 10% tariff on goods from China.

    The reaction was swift: Not only did the stock market plunge, but Canada and Mexico quickly announced plans to order retaliatory tariffs on American goods if Trump moves forward with his shortsighted plan. Already, though, he’s showing signs of wavering. […]

    Perhaps it’s not shocking that McConnell, a vocal critic of the president, was one of the first Republicans to flat-out say that Trump’s tariff idea was a stupid one. But he’s not the only member of the GOP who has cited concerns about tariffs leading to inflated prices for Americans.

    Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who only recently started to sour on the president, wrote in a recent post to social media that “tariffs are simply taxes.”

    “Conservatives were once united against new taxes,” he said on X. “Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices.”

    Meanwhile, Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, also expressed skepticism about the tariffs.

    “We already had a trade agreement and it was a good trade agreement,” he said on CNN. “It’s hard for me to square that circle. We’ll see what the impacts are over the next couple of weeks.”

    Then there are a few members of the GOP who are more concerned with how tariffs will affect them personally. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said farmers in his state are still reeling from high fertilizer prices […] can’t afford another hit. As a result, he recently begged Trump to exempt potash, or potassium-rich minerals that are a critical component of fertilizer.

    “Family farmers get most of our potash from Canada,” Grassley wrote on X.

    While most Republicans are keeping their powder dry, likely out of fear of pissing off Trump and his MAGA loyalists, the combined statements from Paul and McConnell, at least, put the duo squarely in line with where most Democrats are on the issue. After all, we know tariffs won’t bring down the price of groceries, something Trump pledged to do.

    There’s a widespread fear that Trump’s tariffs will instead lead to soaring grocery store bills. The cost of cars and car parts, electronics, and gas are likely to increase as well.

    Trump’s delusion has led him to believe his tariffs, or the threat of him imposing them, will force other countries to comply with his whims and demands. But we don’t yet know that to be true. What we do know is that starting soon, Americans might experience some sticker shock the next time they go to the store. And they have Trump to blame for that.

  495. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Federal workers block doors of Admin building over Elon Musk data breach (Feb 2)

    About 100 Federal employees and supporters occupied the courtyard of the OPM building for most of Sunday afternoon and into the evening. For a brief period they blocked the doors to the building when a handful of self-identified ‘data miners’ waited to be admitted to the building. The small group of young men eventually left without entering […] the doors remained locked from the inside.
    […]
    While a half dozen protesters blocked the doors the remaining group chanted slogans and heckled Musk’s surrogates inside [More surrogates!?] who periodically looked down on the protesters from the windows of the fifth floor. They chanted, “There’s a robbery in progress! Stop the steal!” and “No Oligarchs No king!.” […] “No Elon, no coup, no fascist shiba inu!” [Musk’s doge cryptocurrency dog]
    […]
    Towards the end of the night a security guard from the OPM came outside to lower the American and DC flags. One of the protesters questioned […] if he was allowing un-credentialed third parties into the building to access commuter systems. He said he was just doing his job.

    The OPM protests are planned to continue all next week
    […]
    [Update Jan 3]: Several protesters who stayed late into the night keeping an eye on the OPM building doors watched as two people entered a service portal at the west side of the building after hours at approximately 0100 EST (1 am). There would typically be no official Federal employees entering the building at such late hours

    USA Today added:

    to stand up against […] Musk, an “unelected foreign national” […] chants of, “We don’t want your tech solutions, give us back our constitution,” and “Elon, Elon, have you heard? You’re a nasty, fascist nerd.” […] On Tuesday evening, they would bring a protest to the Treasury Department

  496. Reginald Selkirk says

    Ontario cancels $100 million Starlink contract in protest at US tariffs

    Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service.

    The news comes soon after President Donald Trump announced this weekend a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian imported goods, causing Canada to impose a 25% tariff on U.S. goods in response.

    “Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford posted on X on Monday.

    Musk has become a close confidant of President Trump, and now oversees the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a team within the Trump administration tasked with conducting massive cost-cutting to government spending and widescale deregulation. At the same time, Musk’s Starlink has been looking to strike deals with local and national governments to provide satellite internet. The Ontario government’s Starlink contract was signed in November 2024 and was supposed to provide fast internet to remote parts of the province.

    In a press conference on Monday, Ford also said U.S. companies will be banned from future provincial contracts in Ontario until the U.S. government removes the tariffs. Ford said Musk was “part of the Trump team that wants to destroy families, incomes, destroy businesses.”

    “[Musk] wants to take food off the table of people, hard-working people, and I’m not going to tolerate it,” said Ford.

    “U.S.-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues. They only have President Trump to blame.”

    Starlink did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

  500. Reginald Selkirk says

    Fungus-infected ‘zombie spiders’ found in Irish caves

    It’s the stuff of nightmares – or even the hit TV show and video game The Last of Us: a novel fungus that turns its hosts into “zombies”.

    Thankfully, so far, it’s only been found in spiders located in several cave systems across the island of Ireland, including the Whitefathers’ Caves on the Fermanagh/Cavan border.

    Named after Sir David Attenborough, Gibellula attenboroughii was first discovered in County Down during the filming of BBC Winterwatch in 2021.

    The fungus changes the spider’s behaviour, making it leave its concealed lair or web to die in an exposed position on the roof or walls of a cave…