Mostly Monday Reads: Another Fine Mess
Posted: February 24, 2025 Filed under: Black Women Lead, Broligarchy, FARTUS, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, The American Triumvirate and Shadow Minister Putin | Tags: 2, @johnbuss.bsky.social, Bernie Sanders, Elonia Musk, FARTUS, HUD hack, John Buss, Joy Reid, Medicaid, NYC Mayor, sanctuary cities 5 Comments
“Of course, they’ll blame Biden for the missing gold. The plan all along. John Buss, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
The grift and chaos are real. There is nothing golden about this new Gilded Age. The rich guys may have been rotten back then, but they did it by building railroads and steel plants. This new set throws their Dad’s money at things and tells everyone they are smart when they are anything but intelligent.
The Republican party deserves ignominious defeat at the polls.
Musk’s claws are all over Medicaid, and he’s being aided by Republican Congress Critters. Trump’s recent shake-down of the mayor of New York City is already giving Musk his jollies by throwing immigrants housed at the Roosevelt Hotel the boot. But that’s only one of 53 sites that will be shuttered without indicating who is waiting to hear their case in a court of law, which is likely a good portion if not all of them. Neo-Nazi encampments are on the rise too. But take heart: hackers have joined voters in trolling these folks. The midterm elections cannot come fast enough for me. Let’s take this news in order.
This analysis of the coming Medicare evisceration is provided by the site The Last Billionaires and is written by Jason Sattler. Guillotines one? “Here’s how Republicans are planning to throw millions off Medicaid and lie about it. Trump is teaching his minions to say, “We didn’t insure anyone”/”They deserved it.”
A lot of the horror in the Donald Trump sequel is new.
Sure, he was terrible the first time James Comey and Vladimir Putin made him president. But his misery couldn’t measured in donated kidneys that had to be junked, cures for diseases that won’t be found, and intentional infant deaths due to HIV.
That’s what Elon Musk has given us by singlehandedly electing Trump a second time.
However, one aspect of this Trump administration is nearly identical to the last. He wants to give rich people sloppy, unnecessary tax cuts and then “pay” for those tax cuts by basically ending Medicaid as we know it.
You’ll remember that he succeeded in the giveaways to the rich, but thanks to millions of activated Americans and John McCain’s thumb, he failed to gut Medicaid. Thankfully, because you may also remember that Trump bungled us into the worst response to COVID-19 in the rich world with a yearlong supercut of unforced errors that would have been infinitely worse if he’d succeeded in his dream of swiping insurance from masses of struggling workers and their families.
This time around, Trump, MAGA, and the Nerd Reich are determined to punish us for the few weeks rich people had to take out Olive Garden rather than enjoying the lush dining room by destroying the best medical research system ever created and simultaneously gutting the worst health insurance system in the rich world.
To be clear, we’re not sure how the details of this will look.
Republicans only need 50 votes in the Senate, which they have for pretty much anything Trump wants. The House is a mess. Speaker Mike Johnson only has a few votes to lose. While there are no true moderate Republicans in Congress, there are Republicans in losable districts—more than enough of them to lose the House in 2026 if democracy continues somewhat usually. If things go wrong enough, the GOP could even conceivably lose the House in special elections before November 2026.
One way they could go wrong is if Republicans touch a third rail and gut the largest provider of insurance in America. And that’s Trump’s plan. He has endorsed $880 billion in cuts for Medicaid, which is actually $44 billion MORE than House Republicans under his and Paul Ryan’s direction tried to cut Medicaid last time.
Because they tried this before, we have a decent idea of what the result would be, according to the Congressional Budget Office:
“In calendar year 2026, Medicaid enrollment is estimated to be 8 million lower under the AHCA than under current law due to the combination of two factors: (i) a decline of 6 million in enrollment for newly eligible adults under current law and (ii) a decline of 2 million in enrollment for all other Medicaid enrollees attributable to more frequent — 2 — eligibility redeterminations, the repeal of retroactive eligibility, and optional State work requirements for adults.”
That’s at least 8 million who’d be thrown off the program due to paperwork and ridiculous requirements that undermine the very nature of Medicaid, which exists to supplement Americans who can’t get insurance because they’re aged and not rich or taking care of a family member or trying to find a job or a kid.
As Kelly Hooper of Politico reminds us “Republicans’ plans for Medicaid have a political problem. GOP lawmakers expected to vote soon on slashing the insurance program for low-income people represent tens of millions reliant on it.
House Republicans who represent large numbers of Medicaid recipients are pushing back on their leaders’ plans to slash billions in funding for the insurance program for low-income people.
That dissension could grow considering that President Donald Trump has made the GOP more appealing to the working class. Republicans rely on low-income voters more than they have in decades, with Trump the first Republican presidential candidate to win the poorest third of the electorate since the 1960s.
A POLITICO review of enrollment in Medicaid by congressional district found that 11 Republicans in competitive seats represent larger-than-average Medicaid populations — collectively nearly 2.7 million recipients. A vote to cut the program presents a politically sensitive decision that may come back to haunt them in 2026.
With a 218-215 House split — the tightest in modern history — Republicans will be fighting for every seat during the midterms to keep control of the chamber. And they can only lose one vote in the House and still pass their budget bill.
House Republican leaders plan to use Medicaid cuts to pay for tax relief, border security and energy production in the coming weeks.
“The bulk of these cuts would have to be in Medicaid, and that’s why they’re not going to get the requisite votes they need to get it passed with the margins that they have right now,” said Bill Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former GOP Senate Budget Committee staffer. “Leaders are going to have a lot of difficulty getting the votes to pass this resolution.”
Nationally, about 24 percent of people in the United States are enrolled in Medicaid, according to an estimate compiled by NYU Langone Health. Just over 72 million people nationwide had Medicaid coverage as of October 2024, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Garret Graff has written “An Obituary for the FBI. America’s dream of a politically independent bureau is officially dead” at his blog Dooms Day Scenario. This year, Richard Nixon’s FBI and DOJ will be a quaint takeover by comparison.
The Sunday night announcement that Dan Bongino — a bombastic MAGA podcast host, fiery right-wing troll, one-time Secret Service agent, and three-time failed Republican congressional candidate — would be the new FBI deputy director and join the newly confirmed director Kash Patel, another MAGA loyalist better known for his hucksterism of Trump merchandise than his management, leadership, or law enforcement experience, and lead the FBI marked an almost certainly permanent alteration of the fabric of the institution.
In the entire modern history of the bureau, the deputy director — the #2 person who serves as the day-to-day operational leader of the FBI — has always been a civil servant and career special agent, one who has worked his (they’ve always been men) way up the ranks over a two-decade career and is deeply familiar with the workings of the bureau, its wide-ranging missions, and curious culture.
All previous modern directors, meanwhile, have had deep experience with the FBI — working in senior roles in law enforcement, atop the Justice Department, or as federal judges. Patel and Bongino, who does not require Senate confirmation in the role, bring none of that acquired expertise or wisdom to the role; neither has worked for the FBI for a single day and neither has meaningful senior management experience.
Both have been installed, effectively, to troll the libs — and, more dangerously for every American, to weaponize the normally fiercely independent bureau in service to Donald Trump personally. Don’t take my word for it — Bongino said it himself in 2018: “My entire life right now is about owning the libs.” He added then: “We win, you lose, the new rules are in effect.” Or try this video:
More recently, he said this on his podcast: “What matters? Anyone? Power.” Listen to that clip, watch the glee on his face as he says, and imagine him as the second most-powerful person in a vital national law enforcement agency that holds enormous sway over Americans of all stripes, and tell me that isn’t one of the darkest things you’ve seen yet out of the Trump administration.
Dan Bongino, who hosts a popular pro-Trump podcast and has appeared regularly on Fox News, will serve under Kash Patel. http://www.ft.com/content/510e…
— Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-02-24T17:46:58.462Z
FARTUS’ shakedown of the Mayor of New York City is already paying off big time. This is from NBC News. “NYC Mayor Eric Adams to close Roosevelt Hotel migrant center targeted by Musk, Trump administration. The hotel’s closure comes as Adams promises to close another 53 emergency shelter sites by June.” I wonder if they’ll ship The Statue of Liberty out, too?
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that the city will close the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel, a site that was the frequent target of criticism from Elon Musk and the Trump administration.
Over 173,000 migrants completed registrations at the Manhattan hotel since its opening in May 2023, accounting for nearly three quarters of the 232,000 migrants who entered the city since the spring of 2022, the Adams administration reported.
“While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said in a Monday statement.
The mayor added that his administration has “skillfully managed this crisis,” and that the Roosevelt Hotel has been “key in allowing us to effectively manage our operations.”
On top of closing the arrival center at the hotel, Adams also announced the closure of the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center located at Roosevelt.
The mayor cited a downtick of migrant registrations as well as the success of migrants who have “sought care” from the city to take their “next steps in their journeys,” as inspiring the move to shut down the core center at Roosevelt Hotel.
Adams’ administration said that while an average 4,000 migrants were arriving each week to New York City during the “height of the international asylum seeker crisis,” the average number of registrants in the city has dropped down to the about 350 migrants per week in recent months.
“Now, thanks to the sound policy decisions of our team, we are able to announce the closure of this site and help even more asylum seekers take the next steps in their journeys as they envision an even brighter future, while simultaneously saving taxpayers millions of dollars,” Adams said in a statement.
Remember, seeking asylum is not illegal in the US. It’s a process that’s part of an international treaty that we signed. Our government’s site about the process is still online. You may read about it here. However, bribing foreign politicians is a big no-no. The BBC reports that “Ex-Reform UK Wales leader accused of taking Russian-linked bribes.” Sound familiar?
The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has appeared in court accused of accepting bribes to make statements in the European Parliament that would benefit Russia.
Nathan Gill, 51, from Llangefni on Anglesey, is facing eight counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
The court heard Mr Gill, who was a UKIP and later a Brexit Party MEP between 2014 and 2020, was alleged to have received money from his co-defendant and former Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court by video link on Monday, speaking to confirm his name, date of birth and address.
While FARTUS is still trying to turn the US Military into his own private force, he still has these guys and they are building. This is from The Guardian. “Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals. Exclusive: Terrorist group the Base appears defiant as new administration aims to deprioritize threat from far right.”
An international neo-Nazi terrorist group with origins in the US appears to be quickly rebuilding its global and stateside ranks, according to information obtained by the Guardian from its digital accounts.
Founded in 2018, the Base has been the intense focus of a years-long FBI counter-terrorism investigation that has resulted in more than a dozen of its members arrested. It has plotted an assassination, mass shootings and other actions in Europe, which made it a proscribed terrorist organization in several countries.
By 2022, it seemed to disappear. Yet its founder and leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, a former US special forces contractor residing in Russia, used the safety of Russian apps before the November election to recruit and reorganize during a tense political moment. At one point, he even solicited ex-American soldiers with an offer of $1,200 a month to put members through paramilitary training somewhere in the Pacific north-west.
The Base’s regrouping comes at a time when the Trump administration has made it a policy goal to move away from policing far-right extremism and during the appointment of Kash Patel – a Maga acolyte who lauds January 6 attackers and has peddled Qanon conspiracy theories – to helm the FBI. Experts say federal law enforcement ignoring far-right groups such as the Base could expose Americans to increased domestic terror threats.
Nazzaro’s efforts, so far, appear to be paying off: the Guardian was tipped to an audio message released in mid-February from an assumed new leader of the Base with an American accent, discussing the ambitious future of the group.
After criticizing other neo-Nazi organizations such as Blood Tribe for publicly protesting against drag-queen story hours in the midwest, the voice preached covert action and quiet preparations for armed cells throughout the US rather than flashy activism.
“Are we just going to be reactionary? Or are we going to be part of the solution? The military solution,” they said. “Because inevitably we’re going to end up in some sort of military situation, what are the choices?”
The voice then describes a “black scenario” where the US government soon collapses and there’s a need to “provide for your family” and for “white women”.
“There is no political solution, only a military solution,” they can be heard saying under heavy voice modulation. “So act accordingly.”
So, there have been various ways to express concern about what has happened these first 6 weeks under the FARTUS Triumvarite and Kakistocracy. MTN has this about recent contributions by hackers. “Hack at Department of Housing and Urban Development Trolls Donald Trump and Elon Musk | Report
The hack has ended, but the images are circulating on the internet.”
A hack at the Department of Housing and Urban Development this morning has now trolled Donald Trump and Elon Musk by playing a short, AI-generated video of Donald Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet with the title “Long Live The Real King” over the video. Below is a screen grab taken by reporters this morning at the Department:
The video was on display for a short period of time this morning before being taken down by Housing and Urban Development officials. The “long live the real king” message on the video likely refers to a recent statement made by Donald Trump stating “long live the king” after he said that he would be ending congestion pricing in New York City.
It is unclear at this point who is responsible for the hack this morning, whether it was done internally by a HUD employee, or whether authorities have any leads.
Well, it stands to irritate them more than many of our protests since internet surfing, trolling, and golfing appear to be the only presidential duty these days. I’m not sure how long it will take to stop all of this and try to rebuild our infrastructure, but this sure will kill a lot of people in the process. Just the firing of all the best and brightest of the top brass in the military is a huge loss of knowledge and leadership. The Republicans are working on those billionaire tax cuts already, so the bilking of the Treasury continues.
The U.S. Army Chorus sang ‘Les Mis’ at the White House Governors’ Ball. The U.S. Army Chorus ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ performance from ‘Les Misérables’ is going viral?
So, our lonely eyes turn to the Democratic Party. Nicholas Wu, writing for Politico, filed this report today. “House Democrats are ramping up their attacks on the GOP agenda. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged “maximum attendance” this week ahead of a tight vote.”
House Democrats are sharpening their attacks on the Republican policy agenda ahead of an expected Tuesday budget vote, with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries laying out a plan for pushback in a letter to Democratic colleagues Monday.
With one House Republican, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) already publicly opposing the plan and others privately dug in against it, Jeffries urged “maximum attendance” from his caucus to keep the pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson and his minuscule GOP majority. Democrats are also playing up the backlash some Republican members of Congress faced at recent town halls (some of it organized by liberal advocacy groups) as they try to harness grassroots resistance to the GOP.
House Democrats will gather Tuesday on the House steps, Jeffries said, to “make sure that the country can hear from everyday Americans whose lives will be devastated by the Republican budget scheme.”
Even Bernie Sanders is back on the road again. This time, he’s holding town meetings in deeply red republican states and cities. So, I’m going to use this article from the Nebraska Examiner. “Overflow Omaha crowd launches U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour. ‘We are living in two Americas,’ says the Vermont senator and former presidential candidate.” Hey, it’s an improvement over giving speeches on the floor to a camera.
U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders kicked off his “Fighting Oligarchy” nationwide tour in Omaha Friday night, drawing an overflow crowd of more than 2,500, with hundreds more turned away.
The progressive independent from Vermont spoke to supporters about what he said is division in the United States under the leadership of President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Sanders said he chose Omaha as his first tour stop because of its working-class voters who were swayed toward Republican candidates in the 2024 election. The former presidential candidate said he wants to encourage people, similar to those living in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, to recognize policies that could hurt them and their livelihoods.
He said that 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck while rich people are receiving tax cuts.
His tour continues Saturday in Iowa, aimed at promoting democracy and encouraging the working class to stand up to signs of oligarchy.
“We are living in two Americas,” said Sanders. “What we do now will impact our lives. [Americans] need a grassroots movement that says no to oligarchy.”
Kitty Brougham, 65, of Omaha was among those cheering at the Omaha Marriott Downtown at the Capitol District.
She said she wanted to attend the event because she was losing hope. She is the mother of Sammie Peterson, 24, a transgender woman, and is worried for her future.
“I am watching my country be taken away from me,” said Brougham. “I needed hope.”
Sanders’ call to stand up inspired Peterson as well. She said she has not been very politically active in the past but feels that now is the time. As she worries for her future, she finds the ability to speak out.
Sanders spoke for about 30 minutes, at one point reciting the Gettysburg Address and reminding supporters that America was built on pushback against oligarchs. He encouraged people to speak up and said they are stronger when they come together — regardless of political party.
Originally set for the Laborers International Union building, the event was moved to the larger Marriott to accommodate a turnout estimated at 2,580 in the ballroom and two overflow rooms. Organizers said hundreds of others were turned away due to space constraints.
Alexander Beavers, 13, a middle school student from Omaha, was with his family cheering from the front row.
“Trump already ruined the state,” said Beavers.
Now, if these folks’ comments could only show up on the front page of any of the legacy national newspapers.
I don’t look forward to MSNBC really making a big effort for anything if this is typical of their reactions. You may have been here when I did an interview as one of the original “Reiders” back in the day on Zerlina Maxwell’s podcast. I’ve been a fan of hers forever. I attended her book signing at Baldwin Books when she launched a tour of her book on the Evers. This has me both sad and mad. They’ve canceled her show. They’re also moving Jen Psaki to Rachel’s current and old spot. Two women of color out their shows. Alex Wagner will be an at-large reporter. That is sure to be tough on her young family.
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has reached out with kindness and encouragement, both personally and in these social media streets. So very proud of The Reidout @joy.msnbc.com team, who are truly family, and all of our supporters & friends. See you tomorrow night at 7, one more time ‼️
— Joy-Ann Reid (@joyannreid.bsky.social) 2025-02-24T05:16:06.613Z
This is from The Independent. “Joy Reid’s staff had ‘tense’ meeting with MSNBC chiefs after learning her show was being axed in media, report says. Joy Reid hosted ‘The ReidOut’ for more than four years on MSNBC.”
MSNBC has canceled Joy Reid’s evening news show and held a “tense” meeting with her staff after the news was leaked to the press.
The final episode ofThe ReidOutwill air this week, The New York Times reports. Her slot will be replaced by a show led by a trio of hosts: Democratic strategist Symone Sanders Townsend, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele and journalist Alicia Menendez. They currently host The Weekend, which airs on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Rebecca Kutler, the network’s newly-appointed leader, made the call amid larger plans to overhaul MSNBC’s programming, according to the Times.
Now, media journalist Oliver Darcy reports Reid’s staff found out they were losing their jobs in a tense and emotional 30-minute impromptu meeting Sunday morning. Staffers were reportedly frustrated they learned about the show shutting down from media reports, rather than directly from leadership.
Reid has hosted a 7 p.m. show on the network since 2020. She had been with the company since 2014.
The network has also removed Alex Wagner from her weekday evening spot, and Darcy reports Kutler held a “similar” meeting with the show’s staff. However, Wagner is expected to stay with MSNBC as a contributor.
Now, many are mourning Reid’s departure.
“I owe the television part of my career to Joy Reid, as do so many other Black voices y’all never would have heard of if not for her,” journalist Elie Mystal wrote on X. “And *that’s* why she’s gone. They can treat black folks as interchangeable, but everybody Black knows that Joy was indispensable.”
I’m getting too old for this shit.
#BlueskyResistance #Voices4Victory #ProudBlurAdvertisement at a London bus stop. Ya gotta love the British…
— Libby Whittemore (@libbage55.bsky.social) 2025-02-24T14:58:45.189Z
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Finally Friday Reads: The Regime of Chaos and Death
Posted: January 31, 2025 Filed under: Broligarchy, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Corrupt and Political SCOTUS, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, MAGA Assholes | Tags: @johnbuss.bsky.social John Buss, Avian Flu and Egg Prices, Cabinet of Shame, FARTUS and Elonia, federal employees, Federal Purges, idiocracy, Inside Attacks on Federal Agencies, kakistocracy 6 Comments
“State of the Union.”John (repeat1968) Buss, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
The last ten days of our country’s life have been wrought with chaos, death, and higher prices. This is what you get in a kakistocracy because no one in charge knows what they’re doing. We’ve had the first in-air collision in nearly a quarter of a century. There was already a shortage of air traffic controllers and pressure on the FAA by Congress to allow higher levels of traffic when these steps were taken by FARTUS and Elonia to dismantle the FAA and related regulations. Elonia is making the rounds at all Government Agencies, ensuring chaos and disruption abound. This is from Public Notice. “DCA crash puts Trump’s appalling unfitness on full display. When crisis hits, he makes it worse.”
Donald Trump’s first actions back in the White House included demolishing an air travel security advisory group, forcing out the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for corrupt reasons, implementing a hiring freeze for air traffic controllers as part of a bigoted rampage against women and people of color, and sending blanket resignation offers to the remaining FAA employees.
Then tragedy struck. Nine days after Trump took office, a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet just above Reagan National Airport (DCA) airport, killing 67 people. A report indicates staffing in DCA’s air traffic control tower at the time of the collision was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
It’s America’s worst aviation disaster since 2001. And it shows the danger of wantonly destroying a federal government whose functioning remains vital for, among other things, keeping air travelers safe.
Does the new president have regrets about any of this? Of course not. Instead, Trump responded to the disaster by appointing an acting FAA head a day late and a dollar short, then held a dystopian media event where he signed an order pinning blame for the crash on Biden, Obama, and the Democratic Party in general.
Actually, Axios shows the facts that Air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists are overwhelmingly white men. I had an aunt who was an Air Traffic Controller in Boulder, Colorado, back in the 1960s. The training, testing, and demands on them were stringent, and even more so now.
President Trump rallied against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in air traffic control as having contributed to the deadly plane crash outside of D.C. Wednesday, but the data paints a different picture.
The big picture: Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and IPUMS show air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists are predominately male and white.
By the numbers: 78% are men, while 22% are women, per data from the U.S. Census Bureau and IPUMS.
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71% identify as non-Hispanic white.
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The data includes air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists working in air transportation or services incidental to transportation.
CBS News reports the latest update on the tragedy. One thing stood out given the shortage of air traffic controllers just made worse by FARTUS and Elonia.
One air traffic control worker was managing the helicopters and some planes from the Reagan National Airport tower at the time of the collision, a job normally done by two people, two sources tell CBS News.
Also, the pilots of the Black Hawk helicopters and the American Airlines jet were ALL WHITE MEN. The co-pilot of the helicopter was a woman, per The Guardian. They were all seasoned aviators.
Elonia is making serious trouble at the US Treasury. This is from WAPO. “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.” My role at the New Orleans Fed included managing the Treasury TT&L payments and Bond Sales. My grandfather held a much bigger but same position at the Kansas City Fed during two World Wars. I am seriously familiar with the amount of protection over FedWire and the other transmittal systems. I wouldn’t want anyone outside the Fed or a long-term Treasury employee near it. You have no idea how tightly those things are monitored. A breach would seriously harm the economy and undermine the US Dollar. You also have to have security clearances. To my knowledge, Elonia hasn’t and wouldn’t be approved under the usual circumstances.
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. President Donald 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. The exact nature of the disagreement was not immediately clear, they 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.
A spokeswoman for DOGE declined to comment. Lebryk could not be reached for comment late Thursday.
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. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions.
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. (Musk was seen on Thursday visiting GSA, according to two other people familiar with his whereabouts, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal matters. That visit was first reported by the New York Times.) His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.
Yes, there are likely some places where the “bureaucracy” could be reduced, but the databases on the bank transfers should remain strictly off-limits to anyone who doesn’t have a security clearance. Meanwhile, “Trump’s FCC chair investigates NPR and PBS, urges Congress to defund them
Brendan Carr described as “Trump’s Censorship Czar” as he launches media probes.”
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.”
I guess FARTUS can hawk merch, but Sesame Street can’t. These people are fucking insane.
Here are some other stomach-churning headlines.
- New York Times: Trump Administration Shocks Senior F.B.I. Ranks by Moving to Replace Them
- Michael Sainato /The Guardian: Independent regulators in ‘real danger’ after Trump firings, say ex-NLRB chairs
- ABC News: Federal employees told to remove pronouns from email signatures by end of day
- NBC News: Defense agency bans Black History Month and other ‘special observances’
- Biden-appointed Census Bureau director resigns midway through term — Census Bureau Director Robert Santos’ resignation will allow Trump to reshape the agency.
- Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost: New DOT Memo Directs Funds To Communities With Higher ‘Marriage And Birth Rates’
- Kate Kelly / New York Times: Official Email Urges Federal Workers to Find More Productive Jobs
- CNN: EPA workers receive emails warning their employment could be terminated
I am having a hard time not being overwhelmed at this point. This doesn’t mention the disastrous Senate Hearings for Tulsi Gabbard, RFK jr, and Kash Patel. RFK Jr looks more ready to be a California Raisin than head of HHS. And wtf is with Kash Patel’s eyes? This is from The Hill. “Top FBI officials brace for Trump shake-up.”
Top officials at the FBI are facing a shake-up by the Trump administration.
According to House Judiciary Committee Democrats, the five executive assistant directors of the bureau were notified they would be demoted.
“These changes will further jeopardize our national security, leaving the FBI with no experienced senior leadership and a partisan Trump loyalist heading up the Bureau’s response to increasing security threats from Russia, China, and other authoritarian adversaries,” the committee said in a fact sheet circulated to House Democrats.
The move targets the band of top officials who oversee the FBI’s five internal branches and are among the highest-ranking career positions in the bureau. Many report directly to the director and deputy director.
They oversee the FBI’s national security branch and criminal and cyber branch, among others.
The FBI and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
I wouldn’t want a kidnapped child’s case in the hands of any of these people. This article is from the BBC. “Five takeaways from Gabbard and Patel’s confirmation hearings.”
Several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees faced tough questioning from Republicans and Democrats alike during hours-long confirmation hearings on Thursday.
Former Democrat and military veteran Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, was grilled about her past remarks supporting government whistleblower Edward Snowden as well as her relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syria’s former dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, a former federal prosecutor and Trump administration aide, was pressed on his prior comments praising those involved in the 6 January Capitol riots as well as his ties to the QAnon movement.
Read the analysis at the links. I want to add one more thing that’s another mark on the path of the Louisiana Governor’s attempts to sideline professors he doesn’t like. Political firing of tenured professors is another MAGA mishap. “LSU law professor sidelined for political speech sues university. Professor alleges university is violating its own policies regarding tenured faculty.” This is from the Louisiana Illuminator.
A tenured LSU law professor removed from his classes pending an investigation into alleged political comments is suing the university, saying it violated his First Amendment rights and its own policies.
Ken Levy, a professor of constitutional and criminal law, alleges he was removed from his classes earlier this month after political comments made on the first day of his Administration of Criminal Justice course were reported to Gov. Jeff Landry, which he believes led to calls to the university administration about his comments.
In his affidavit, Levy says that he brought up Landry’s comments regarding fellow law professor Nick Bryner and asked his students not to record his lectures because he didn’t want to be targeted by Landry.
“If Governor Landry were to retaliate against me, then f*** the governor and f*** that. — all of which was a joke and clearly said in a joking manner to highlight my no recording policy in class and the First Amendment,” Levy wrote in the affadavit.
Landry called on LSU to discipline Bryner last year for his comments about President Trump the day after the presidential election.
Levy argues in the affidavit that the actions taken against him stifle not only his right to free speech and academic freedom but that of other faculty members.
Landry spokeswoman Kate Kelly referred questions to LSU. University spokesman Todd Woodward has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Levy is asking a judge to grant a temporary restraining order that would allow him to return to teaching as well as an order prohibiting LSU from taking further action against him.
In the suit, Levy also alleges LSU also violated its own policies regarding the punishment of a tenured professor.
These actions are fascist purges. I can only tell you that I feel much worse off than I did two weeks ago. Also, I just paid $9.06 for 1/2 dozen eggs. Do we have a task force on the Avian Flu yet? They have one in Canada already. Japan has one too. Here’s a few headlines on that from a few weeks ago. No word at the moment. Just wondering how many people will die from this disease because FARTUS is an idiot.
Forbes: Why The U.S. Could Be Making The Same Mistakes With Bird Flu As It Did With COVID-19.
The first severe case of bird flu occurred last month in a Louisiana man hospitalized after having had contact with sick birds in a backyard flock. In addition, the state of California recently declared a state of emergency as the bird flu virus continues to spread among livestock in the state.
To date, there have been 66 confirmed human cases of bird flu in the United States, according to the CDC. The current public health risk remains low, as no sustained human-to-human transmission has occurred.
Some obvious questions remain- like how did the U.S. allow a patient to get severely ill from the virus? Also, are we repeating the same mistakes we made with the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020? Here are some reasons we may be repeating history.
You can read the reasons on the link. I was a little slow getting this done today. I was one the phone with doctors and vets all morning and it took longer than I thought it would. Love you all and Stay Safe!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Mostly Monday Reads: Coping with Crazy
Posted: January 27, 2025 Filed under: Colombia, Democratic Backsliding, kleptocracy | Tags: @johnbuss.bsky.social John Buss, culture of misogyny, deadly racism, Democratic Backsliding, kakistocracy, Mediocre Trump, mediocre white man, Pete Hegseth weirdo sexual assaulter, White Christian Nationalism/Fascism 8 Comments
“It just comes naturally, “John (repeat1968) Buss
@johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Well, one of the most unqualified, mediocre white men ever started a full-scale attack on our troops and their morale as the American Defense Secretary. He’s lowering troop morale. My Daddy didn’t tell me many stories about his time bombing NAZIs while based in Ipswich, England. His favorite story was that the crew was on a mission one day, and the mission commander was Jimmy Stewart. Can you imagine hearing that voice issuing orders from your radio? My High School Russian History teacher was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge. He wrote a memoir and it’s sitting in the National Archives. The one thing that really defines the Boomer generation is the war and the stories of our family members, who were all involved in one way or another. My Grandfather was in charge of War Bonds at the Kansas City Fed. My other Grandfather worked for the Railroad, where troops and supplies were vital. One of my uncles was in the Navy, and the other was in Army Intelligence. They all had stories about that time. There were all kinds of people doing all kinds of things to save the American Way and its democracy.
If you ever find your way to New Orleans, I highly recommend the National World War 2 Museum. When the daughters and I took Dad there, it was very new. Dad was given hero treatment. They only had their European theatre displays up, but there are more now. Their big feature was the Higgins boats that stormed the beaches during D-Day that were made in New Orleans. Never in a million years would I expect some of the most honored war heroes to be erased from the textbooks of the military, the USAF’s military curriculum. This is from WSAF Channel 12 in Montgomery, Alabama. A historic city for many reasons, but a lot of it comes from essential changes that improved the status of black Americans. You undoubtedly know their story. “Defense secretary orders immediate reversal of USAF’s removal of Tuskegee Airmen from the curriculum,”
Newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed Sunday in a social media post that the U.S. Air Force will continue teaching about the famed Tuskegee Airmen.
In a statement posted Sunday afternoon, Sen. Katie Britt said she has “no doubt” Hegseth will “correct and get to the bottom of the malicious compliance we’ve seen in recent days.”
Senator Katie Boyd Britt immediately sent this out to what’s left of Twitter.
“Little Big Man” Walt Handelsman, https://www.nola.com/opinions/walt_handelsman/
Newsweek has more details here.
The Air Force says it has reinstated training material on the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) after a brief delay to revise it in line with the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Hegseth clarified that any attempt to cut the Tuskegee Airmen training material had been “immediately reversed.”
The decision resolves a controversy that emerged as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began his first day at the Pentagon.
After announcing this intervention, the country’s worst mediocre white christianist nationalist man in an office he’s got no busy holding making completely insulting and inappropriate decisions. This happens when people are hired based on skin color, religion, and favoritism from the boss. We get the rule of mediocre white men and their misplaced confidence that makes the rest of us do the work so the entire outfit doesn’t go down the shitter.
Trump is also announcing big changes for the military comprised of volunteers who may soon be volunteering their asses straight back to being civilians at all this moral-lowering hate. It wasn’t enough that he summarily ousted the first woman Coast Guard Chief on his first full day in the office. This is what CNN has in its big story today. “Trump expected to sign executive orders to reshape the military, including banning transgender troops.” This is the man who called people in the military “suckers” and “losers.” Let’s just call all this for what it is. It is racist. It is misogynistic. It defines every person by their sex and not by their gender identity or sexual preferences. In short, it demeans every human being who is not a white male christianist and strips them of their Constitutional rights..
President Donald Trump on Monday is expected to sign four executive orders that would reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces, gutting the military’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, and reinstating with back pay service members who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19, two White House officials told CNN.
The orders, which were first reported by the New York Post, come as Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as secretary of defense on Saturday. Hegseth has long stated he planned to implement major cultural changes to the military, including ending DEI practices and removing “woke” service members.
Moments after his arrival at the Pentagon on Monday, Hegseth told reporters that there are “more executive orders coming.”
This is a purge and a crusade. We need to know more to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our country.
That same FARTUS, the mediocre white man-in-chief, had a hissy fit at Colombia over the weekend. The BBC reports today.“Colombia yields on US deportation flights to avert trade war. Today’s lesson is not to surrender in advance. All those coffee-drinking Americans would not like the result more than Colombians. You have no idea how reliant we are on Colombia for goods. And to top it off, he couldn’t even spell the country’s name correctly in his Social Media Barf zone. You can read about that at the BBC link.
A looming trade war between the US and Colombia appears to have been averted after the Colombian government agreed to allow US military flights carrying deported migrants to land in the Andean country.
The spat erupted on Sunday when President Gustavo Petro barred two military planes carrying Colombians deported from the US from landing.
The Trump administration responded by threatening to slap punitive tariffs on Colombian exports to the US.
President Petro at first said Colombia would retaliate by imposing tariffs on US goods, but the White House later announced that Colombia had agreed to accept migrants – including those arriving on US military aircraft – “without limitation or delay”.
The White House hailed the agreement with Colombia as a victory for Trump’s hard-line approach, after the country’s two leaders had exchanged threats on social media on Sunday.
“Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement.
She added that the tariffs and sanctions which the Trump administration had threatened to impose on Colombia, should it not comply, would be “held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honour this agreement”.
She also said that President Donald Trump “expects all other nations of the world to fully co-operate in accepting deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States”.
- Trump’s threat to Colombia sends a message
- Follow live: Nearly 1,000 arrests in a day as Trump’s promise of mass deportations ramps up
- What the president has done since taking power
A cornerstone of Trump’s immigration policy is removing unlawful migrants from the US, with the promise of “mass deportations”.
It seems even the legacy media of the UK are weasel-wording his insanity. A “spat”? Look at those words as what we are talking about: human beings being herded around like cattle.
How do we cope with all of this? According to sociologist Jennifer Walter we must understand what is happening in this country and what to do about it. It is all about overwhelming our feelings, responses, and lives.
As a sociologist, I need to tell you:𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹.1/ The flood of 200+ executive orders in Trump’s first days exemplifies Naomi Klein’s “shock doctrine” — using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn’t just politics as usual — it’s a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.2/ Media theorist McLuhan predicted this: When humans face information overload, they become passive and disengaged. The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck, making it nearly impossible for citizens and media to thoroughly analyze any single policy.3/ Agenda-setting theory explains the strategy: When multiple major policies compete for attention simultaneously, it fragments public discourse.Traditional media can’t keep up with the pace, leading to superficial coverage. The result? Weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.What now?1/ Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can’t track everything — that’s by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.2/ Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.3/ Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.4/ Practice going slow: Wait 48 hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context.5/ Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload.Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.
You may read many sources to get you to focus on how they will continue to manipulate you if you let them. This one actually comes from the period of the first adventure of FARTUS (Felon, Adjudicated Rapist, and Traitor of the US) in 2018. “The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide” is posted on Verfassungblog. It’s written by Martin Mycielski, who studies Democratic Backsldiing
1. They will come to power with a campaign based on fear, scaremongering and distorting the truth. Nevertheless, their victory will be achieved through a democratic electoral process. But beware, as this will be their argument every time you question the legitimacy of their actions. They will claim a mandate from the People to change the system.
Remember – gaining power through a democratic system does not give them permission to cross legal boundaries and undermine said democracy.
2. They will divide and rule. Their strength lies in unity, in one voice and one ideology, and so should yours. They will call their supporters Patriots, the only “true Americans”. You will be labelled as traitors, enemies of the state, unpatriotic, the corrupt elite, the old regime trying to regain power. Their supporters will be the “People”, the “sovereign” who chose their leaders.
Don’t let them divide you – remember you’re one People, one Nation, with one common good.
You may read a lot more at that link. So, the most recent rabbit hole I went down deals with learning more about Global Backsliding. I thought I’d share some reads for you. The first comes from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Understanding and Responding to Global Democratic Backsliding. As the world faces a democratic recession, many of the most common explanations fall short. But looking more closely at antidemocratic leaders’ motivations and methods reveals valuable insights about different types of backsliding and how international actors should respond.” The paper is written by by Thomas Carothers and Benjamin Press. This is its summary page.
Over the past two decades, democratic backsliding has become a defining trend in global politics. However, despite the extensive attention paid to the phenomenon, there is surprisingly little consensus about what is driving it. The most common explanations offered by analysts—ranging from the role of Russia and China and disruptive technologies to the rise of populism, the spread of political polarization, and democracies’ failure to deliver—fall short when tested across a wide range of cases.
A more persuasive account of backsliding focuses on the central role of leader-driven antidemocratic political projects and the variety of mechanisms and motivations they entail. This paper identifies and analyzes three distinct types of backsliding efforts: grievance-fueled illiberalism, opportunistic authoritarianism, and entrenched-interest revanchism. In cases of grievance-fueled illiberalism, a political figure mobilizes a grievance, claims that the grievance is being perpetuated by the existing political system, and argues that it is necessary to dismantle democratic norms and institutions to redress the underlying wrongs. Opportunistic authoritarians, by contrast, come to power via conventional political appeals but later turn against democracy for the sake of personal political survival. In still other backsliding cases, entrenched interest groups—generally the military—that were displaced by a democratic transition use undemocratic means to reassert their claims to power. Although motivations and methods differ across backsliding efforts, a key commonality among them is their relentless focus on undermining countervailing governmental and nongovernmental institutions that are designed to keep them in check.
As international democracy supporters continue to refine their strategies of responding to democratic backsliding, they must better differentiate between facilitating factors and core drivers. Such an approach will point to the need for a stronger focus on the nature of leader-driven antidemocratic projects, identifying ways to create significant disincentives for backsliding leaders, and bolstering crucial countervailing institutions. Moreover, they should deepen their differentiation of strategies to take account of the diverse motivations and methods among the three main patterns of backsliding. Only in this way will they build the needed analytic and practical capacity to meet the formidable challenge that democratic backsliding presents.
The concept that grabbed me was the type of backsliding and the first type, grievance-fueled illiberalism, which sounds pretty spot on for what we are enduring and fighting against now. You’ll notice our new technologies are helping these movements spread. It helps to see where else this has happened. I have no doubt FARTUS, and his close relationship with Erdogan are that of student and mentor.
Some backsliding leaders employ a grievance-centered strategy: they mobilize a widely held sense of frustration to justify dismantling the existing set of democratic norms and institutions, which they blame for having created the conditions that gave rise to the grievance. The grievances they embrace are diverse—ranging well beyond core economic conditions to include racial, religious, and ethnic marginalization and public frustration over corruption, crime, or general governance fecklessness.
A grievance-fueled illiberal drive typically begins with a political figure articulating and politicizing a grievance. In some cases, this grievance is widely and openly shared, especially in cases where corruption or misgovernance has disillusioned many with the existing political system and inspires a search for political alternatives. In Hungary, for example, Orbán and his Fidesz party came to power in 2010 by appealing to the widely held frustration among Hungarians with the previous Socialist government and its perceived mishandling of the economy and its inability to address the devastation of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. Similarly, in Brazil, Bolsonaro exploited widespread citizen outrage at the Brazilian political class for its pervasive corruption, which had been put on vivid display during the mid-2010s by a series of prominent scandals and investigations.
In other cases, entrepreneurial illiberal political actors articulate grievances that have festered below the political surface for some time. Advancing such grievances may, at first, seem taboo. But as they tap into that grievance, they normalize it and thus reframe what is politically possible. In Turkey, for example, Erdoğan found electoral success in the early 2000s by making appeals to conservative religious values, in a break from long-standing norms of the staunchly secular Turkish Republic. As he appealed to the latent sense among many Turkish citizens that religion had been unduly displaced from public life, he normalized increasingly explicit calls to revisit the principles underlying liberal democracy, including strict separation of religion and public life, respect for religious minority groups, and an equal playing field for opposition. Similarly, in India under the BJP, Modi has articulated a novel vision of Hindu nationalism and directly confronted the country’s liberal founding ideas by arguing that a single religious group should hold a special place in sociopolitical life. And in the United States, Trump appealed to racial and social class grievances that had long simmered below the surface of the country’s politics, normalizing discriminatory speech and stoking anti-minority sentiments as well as anti-elite anger. In still other cases, political leaders politicize frustrations that had not previously been salient. In the Philippines, for example, Duterte played up the threat of drug use and trafficking, which until his campaign had not registered among voters’ major concerns.35
The next phase of the grievance-fueled illiberal drive entails linking the grievance with democratic norms and institutions. In many cases where the grievance is explicitly directed at the governing class—as in Brazil or Hungary—this process is relatively straightforward. But in others, some political maneuvering and artfulness are required to make this link. In India, for example, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist organization, and the BJP, its political wing, spent years arguing that the country’s Hindu majority was being unfairly oppressed by the country’s long-standing liberal, secular political order and that correcting this wrong would require a wholesale reform of norms and institutions. And in the Philippines, Duterte argued during his campaign that drug use was enabled by political elites who didn’t do enough to punish them. He ran on a campaign of rooting out corruption and circumventing democratic norms and institutions that would stop him from solving the problem—namely by killing criminals.
If and when such drives yield an electoral victory, the government then sets about confronting the norms and institutions that have putatively perpetuated the grievance.
You may read more at the link if you want to. I’m beginning to feel like I’m assigning homework, which is not my intent. I think, though, we must embrace the concept that this was the plan all along, and there were a lot of organizations and people enabling our slide. My hope is that through knowing these things, we can deal better with what is going on around us. I still believe that knowledge is power.
So, it’s finally thawed out here. Temple and I can take our usual walks. There’s a lot of mess to clean up because most of the plants will need a good few whacks with my machete. I really hope that you are doing every self-care trick that you know and that you can discover new, more powerful ones.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Finally Friday Reads: First, they came for …
Posted: January 24, 2025 Filed under: Incontinentia Buttocks Cabinet picks, kakistocracy, kleptocracy, MAGA Domestic Terrorism | Tags: Crushing the Academic left, FARTUS, First, John (repeat1968) Buss @johnbuss.bsky.social, kakistocracy, mass deportations, Open Carry Birth Certificate, pardons of jailed domestic terrorists, Pete Hegseth weirdo sexual assaulter, they came for, Vive la résistance 13 CommentsFirst, they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
“Spoken like a true felon.” John (repeat1968) Buss @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
The snow is beginning to melt here in chilly New Orleans. The last bit I have to tackle is on the kitchen stairs. It’s been a trying week from many standpoints. I’m not sure when I first read the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller, which is reprinted at this link at the Holocaust Memorial. I imagine it was sometime in my early teens, but that’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is the headlines today that are horrifying and familiar to anyone familiar with the movies, the documentaries, and the stories from relatives of Germany before and during World War 2. No wonder the MAGAs are trying to ban The Diary of a Yong Girl by Anne Frank. Children and families are being snatched by ICE now.
So far, I have heard two over-the-top stories about the zealotry with which ICE, and soon, the military and other Federal Law Agencies are going after people. I read yesterday about Indigenous people getting scooped up in raids as well. We knew this would happen. This is from Newsweek. “US Citizens Are Being Told To Carry Birth Certificates Amid ICE Raids.”
United States citizens, including Native Americans, are being warned to carry ID with them after reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers questioning and detaining people this week.
One such warning came from the Navajo Nation President, Buu Nygren, in Arizona, following reports that some residents had been approached by officials.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE for comment via email Friday morning.
With President Donald Trump’s plan to ramp up deportations of illegal immigrants, ICE and DHS will likely come under increased scrutiny in the coming weeks and months as they seek to show force when it comes to immigration enforcement. Any overstepping could result in legal action against the agencies.
Nygren’s post on Facebook Wednesday came a day before ICE carried out a raid in Newark, New Jersey, in which a U.S. veteran was reportedly detained by officials, along with some American citizens.
According to the tribal leader in Arizona, there had been “several concerns and unconfirmed reports” that immigration officials had detained Diné people in urban areas.
“My office is looking into this matter and will provide updates as they come,” he said in the post. “I am working actively with our state leaders and law enforcement to protect our Diné people.”
The speculation of who FARTUS and his gang of White Christian Nationalists will come after first is obvious and just as he promised. I’ll start with them coming for “leftist” professors first. This is from the New York Times. It’s Michelle Goldberg’s offering on her Op-Ed Column. “Trump’s Plan to Crush the Academic Left.”
Creeley, at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, predicts that many state legislatures, local officials and university trustees are going to enlist, either out of enthusiasm or expediency, in the crusade to bring the academic left to heel. “I think you’ll see professors investigated and terminated. I think you’re going to see students punished, and I think you’re going to see a pre-emptive action on those fronts,” he said.
Just look at what’s happened at Harvard this week. On Tuesday it announced that, as part of a lawsuit settlement, it would adopt a definition of antisemitism that includes some harsh criticisms of Israel and Zionism, such as holding Israel to a “double standard” and likening its policies to Nazism. Though Harvard claims that it still adheres to the First Amendment, under this definition a student or professor who accuses Israel of genocidal action in Gaza — as the Israeli American Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov has — might be subject to disciplinary action.
In a further act of capitulation, the Harvard Medical School canceled a lecture and panel on wartime health care that was to feature patients from Gaza because of objections that it was one-sided, The Harvard Crimson reported.
“I think that Harvard likely read the room, so to speak, from a political perspective, and decided to cut their losses,” said Creeley. In this period of capitulation, it probably won’t be the last school to fall in line.
Sara Dorn has written this for Forbes Magazine. “Deportations Have Started, White House Says: Everything To Know About Trump’s Plan. The “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history is underway as hundreds of “illegal immigrant criminals” were arrested Thursday and flown out of the U.S., the White House said, as the federal government, U.S. cities, and Mexico brace for a string of executive orders targeting illegal immigration to take effect.”
- The White House said deportation flights began Friday, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 538 arrests and lodged 373 detainees on Thursday, in addition to hundreds of “illegal immigrant criminals” who were flown out of the U.S. on military aircraft.
- ICE made 308 arrests Tuesday, Trump’s first full day in office, Border Czar Tom Homan told Fox News, similar to figures under the Biden administration, which made 282 daily arrests on average in September, the last month for which data is available.
- The administration says removals will pick up quickly, though: ICE and Border Patrol agents have been ordered to deport people who cross the border without authorization immediately and conduct “expedited removals” for people found within the interior of the United States, CBS reports, while major raids are expected in various cities.
- Trump on Monday signed a string of executive orders targeting immigration: The military was ordered to the border, migrants can no longer make advance appointments with border officials and they must wait in Mexico while their asylum cases play out.
- Trump also suspended the parole program for migrants from four countries and is attempting to restrict birthright citizenship for children of undocumented and non-permanent immigrants, though a judge on Thursday blocked the policy while legal challenges to the order work their way through the courts.
- While Trump has said the deportations would begin “very quickly,” the operations will likely require Congress to approve additional funding, as ICE already faces a budget shortfall to maintain existing deportation levels in the current spending plan that expires on March 14, according to NBC.
- There are also logistical hurdles like a limited number of beds to hold people in pre-deportation and planes to use for deportation flights, though Trump ordered the military to assist with aircraft and detention space—and removals are only possible if countries are willing to accept deportees, posing a challenge, especially for people from U.S. adversaries like Venezuela.
“To be fair… there were a lot of flies on the stage.” John (repeat1968) Buss
@johnbuss.bsky.social
In The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait writes, “There Is No Resistance. The response to the January 6 pardons shows that the president faces no effective constraints from within his party.” Very few will stand up to him.
To see how far the lines of normal have moved since President Donald Trump freed the January 6ers, briefly return to the closing days of the 2024 presidential campaign. At the time, a hot issue was whether Trump harbored fascist tendencies, as some of his former aides alleged. The very notion struck most conservatives, including some who have criticized him from time to time, as ludicrous. “Trump says crude and unworthy things and behaved abysmally after the 2020 election,” National Review’s editor-in-chief, Rich Lowry, conceded, “but the idea that he bears any meaningful resemblance to these cracked movements is a stupid smear.”
Looking to dismiss the case, Lowry then reached for the wildest example of fascist behavior he could think of: “Obviously, Trump isn’t deploying a paramilitary wing of the GOP to clash with his enemies on the streets.”
I think the one thing we can say about the days since he took the reins is that he’s definitely a fascist, and what he is doing is fascist. The lies and propaganda are over the top. I am tired of being gaslighted about Elon Musk’s Seig Heil. If you haven’t seen the films of NAZI German and the Seig Heil that starts from the heart, you know what it is. Holding your hand up in a wave is totally different.
While the Anti-Defamation League condemned the Seig Heil, Bebe Netanyahu defended him. This is from The Economic Times. “Israeli PM Netanyahu defends Elon Musk: ‘Falsely smeared’ over Nazi salute row.”
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk against accusations of making a Nazi salute. Netanyahu took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his support for Musk, stating, “Elon Musk is being falsely smeared. Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.” He added, “He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state. I thank him for this.”
The controversy began on January 20, during the inauguration of US President Donald Trump. Musk made a gesture that many social media users likened to the “sieg heil” used by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Musk responded to the allegations by calling them baseless and stating that the gesture was taken out of context. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Musk posted on X.
Meanwhile, “War crimes court issues warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister.” However, this is most important today. This article can be found at AXIOS with its analysis by Andrew Solender. Can we all start realizing the clear and present danger now?
A House Republican on Thursday introduced a proposed change to the Constitution that would allow President Trump to seek a third term in office.
Why it matters: The amendment has virtually no chance of becoming ratified but it is a marker of the depths of fealty the new president enjoys within the House GOP.
- Republican House members have rushed to introduce bills that would codify Trump’s vision for expanding the U.S. borders by acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal, for instance.
- The measure is an extreme long-shot: It would need a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress and be ratified by 38 states to be added to the Constitution.
Driving the news: Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said Thursday he is introducing a two-page joint resolution to amend the 22nd Amendment, which sets the current two-term limit for presidents.
- Ogles’ amendment would allow any president to serve a third term if their first two terms were non-consecutive.
- The text of the amendment would still prohibit a third term if the first two were consecutive — prohibiting former Presidents Bush, Obama and Clinton from running again — or a third full term for anyone who has served more than two years of someone else’s term.
What they’re saying: “It is imperative that we provide President Trump with every resource necessary to correct the disastrous course set by the Biden administration,” Ogles said in a statement.
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- “He is dedicated to restoring the republic and saving our country, and we, as legislators and as states, must do everything in our power to support him.”
- Ogles is a member of the Trump-aligned House Freedom Caucus who introduced legislation to allow him to negotiate a purchase of Greenland.
The world must think the entire country has gone nuts to let these freaks back into office. This is from King’s College London. “What Trump’s second presidential term could mean for the world. With Donald Trump now sworn in as the 47th US President, academics from King’s have been sharing insights into the implications of his presidency for the USA and the rest of the world.”
Donald Trump’s latest term as US President is set to transform American politics, according to Dr Georgios Samaras, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the International School for Government.
He said Trump’s influential circle, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, and the drive to safeguard free speech has placed Facebook, Instagram, and X in near-complete control of cultural narratives. He said some of these involve “hateful rhetoric, authoritarian themes and misinformation which is increasingly going unchecked.”
…
Professor Andrew Blick appeared on LBC with Andrew Marr, who suggested Trump is behaving like “an old-fashioned European monarch”.
In response, Professor Blick said the US constitution was designed with in-built checks and balances, such as a separate election of the President to Congress, two chambers in the Congress and the Supreme Court. However he said the problem with this was that Trump, or those close to him, seemed to have a hold of all these things.
Comparing the US to the UK, he said there are weaker protections within Britain’s constitutional system which means if someone has strong majority in the House of Commons there are less limitations on what they can do.
He added that the UK has already “seen the Musk effect before the Trump presidency even started” with the owner of X shaping the agenda of British politics, such as the government announcing reviews following a series of posts by Musk. “Without his intervention would that have happened?” he asked.
Professor Blick suggested Keir Starmer and his team will be worried about upsetting Trump and what the consequences might be, although he said the obvious differences between the two political leaders could prove to be Starmer’s “superpower”.
The people of the UK are clearly not amused. I still remember, as a kid watching Hitler Documentaries at school, how the German people fell for this nonsense. Now I know that being stupid, lazy, racist, and wanting to blame everyone else is an easy out. It just takes one nutter with that snake oil to make these kinds of people fall in line. And as the poem implies, it takes the rest of us to be complacent. It also takes legacy media and a corporate culture that values revenues and power over the people they sell stuff to.
Just watch out for yourselves! I can’t see this being reversed very quickly. The only thing the courts have slowed down is the obvious attack on the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. However, we also know that the Supreme Court has been corrupted. This is from CNN, as reported by Joan Biskupic, CNN’s Chief Supreme Court Analyst. “How the modern Supreme Court might view the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship.” Many court decisions are explored in this article, and I suggest you review them. It includes Dred Scott and Wong Kim Ark. These quotes from Justice Roberts from his confirmation hearings scare me. Will we actually revisit Dred Scott?
Chief Justice Roberts received no questions about the Wong Kim Ark case during his 2005 Senate confirmation hearings. But Dred Scott was raised, and Roberts responded by calling it, “perhaps the most egregious examples of judicial activism in our history … in which the Court went far beyond what was necessary to decide the case.”
“And really, I think historians would say that the Supreme Court tried to put itself in the position of resolving the dispute about the extension of slavery, and resolving it in a particular way that it thought was best for the Nation,” he added. “And we saw what disastrous consequences flowed from that.”
Since then, Roberts has also alluded to Dred Scott in terms of his own legacy.
“You wonder if you’re going to be John Marshall or you’re going to be Roger Taney,” he said in 2010, contrasting the great 19th century chief justice with the chief justice who wrote Dred Scott.
“The answer is, of course, you are certainly not going to be John Marshall,” Roberts said. “But you want to avoid the danger of being Roger Taney.”
We are so fucked.
The final thing that scares the shit out of me is what the pardons of jailed domestic terrorists that threatened abortion clinics will do to further radicalize the movement again. This is from the BBC. “Trump pardons anti-abortion activists ahead of rally.” It’s reported by Robert Greenall.
US President Donald Trump has pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists, including some convicted of blockading a reproductive health clinic and intimidating staff and patients.
The pardons were part of a round of executive orders signed by Trump on Thursday, one of several in the first week of his presidency.
Trump described the convictions as “ridiculous”, but abortion rights campaigners said the move was evidence of his opposition to abortion access.
The orders came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to come to Washington DC for the annual March for Life, which the president is due to address by videolink.
He’s the only US President who has attended the rally in person.
So, today’s big thing will be the Pete Hegseth Vote in the Senate. This is from The Guardian. “Senate to vote on Pete Hegseth confirmation for secretary of defense. Former Fox News host accused of sexual assault, financial mismanagement and excessive alcohol use appears to have enough Republican votes.”
The Senate will vote on Friday night on the nomination of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for US secretary of defense, but mounting concerns over Hegseth’s personal history and inexperience have raised doubts about his chances of confirmation.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host and army veteran, cleared a key procedural hurdle on Thursday, after 51 Republican senators voted to advance his nomination toward a final vote. But two Senate Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined their Democratic colleagues in voting against advancing Hegseth’s nomination because of their skepticism about his qualifications.
“After thorough evaluation, I must conclude that I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for secretary of defense,” Murkowski said in a statement on Thursday. “I commend Pete Hegseth’s service to our nation, including leading troops in combat and advocating for our veterans. However, these accomplishments do not alleviate my significant concerns regarding his nomination.”
Hegseth can only afford to lose the votes of three Senate Republicans, assuming every Democratic senator opposes his nomination, so it appears he is still on track for confirmation. Two Republican senators who had been viewed as potential no votes, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both supported advancing Hegseth’s nomination on Thursday.
In a floor speech delivered on Friday, the Senate majority leader, Republican John Thune, praised Hegseth’s qualifications and predicted he would steer the Pentagon in a new, forward-thinking direction.
“A veteran of the army national guard who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Hegseth will bring a warrior’s perspective to the role of defense secretary and will provide much-needed fresh air at the Pentagon,” Thune said.
And yet, Hegseth continues to be dogged by questions about allegations of sexual assault, excessive alcohol use and financial mismanagement of two non-profits that he led. On Thursday, news broke that Hegseth paid $50,000 in a settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.
Did I mention we are so fucked? Vive la résistance
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Posted: December 30, 2024 Filed under: kakistocracy, kleptocracy, Regime of Chaos, Republicans against democracy | Tags: @johnbuss.bsky.social John Buss, Biden's Federal Judge Appointments, Happy New Year, MAGA Bigotry, RIP Jimmy Carter 10 Comments
Thank you for your service, President Carter. John (repeat1968) Buss
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Yesterday, we lost a good man, a veteran, a fine president, and an outstanding public servant. I gave my very first vote to Jimmy Carter in 1976. I could not put the man who forgave Richard Nixon back in office. Former President Carter helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina and spent many days and weeks in the 9th ward. He led an amazing and good life. This is from the Carter Center.
Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
President Carter is survived by his children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Rosalynn, and one grandchild.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
There will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private interment in Plains, Georgia. The final arrangements for President Carter’s state funeral, including all public events and motorcade routes, are still pending. The schedule will be released by the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region at https://jtfncr.mdw.army.mil/statefunerals/.
Members of the public are encouraged to visit the official tribute website to the life of President Carter at www.jimmycartertribute.org. This site includes the official online condolence book as well as print and visual biographical materials commemorating his life.
The Carter family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Carter Center, 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307.
I found this article in the Washington Post intriguing. “11 facts about Jimmy Carter that may surprise you. The peanut farmer-turned-president, who died Sunday at 100, put solar panels on the White House and once spent 89 seconds inside a melting nuclear reactor.”
Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer who became the 39th president of the United States, was known for his no-frills lifestyle, early focus on climate change and concerns about growing divisions in the country.
During his single White House term, from 1977 to 1981 — almost one-third of which was clouded by the 444-day-long Iran hostage crisis — the Navy veteran brokered a historic peace accord between Egypt and Israel and pioneered renewable energy as a cheaper alternative to foreign oil. He was the first Democratic president since 1888 not to win reelection. As the United States’ longest-living former president, he spent decades working to advance peace and humanitarianism, efforts for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Here are some facts that may surprise you about Mr. Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia.
Jimmy Carter was the first future president born in a hospital
James Earl Carter Jr. was delivered on Oct. 1, 1924, in a 60-bed hospital in Plains. — becoming the first future president to be born in such a setting. A hospital birth may seem unremarkable today, but at the beginning of the 20th century, nearly all childbirths still took place at home, including the majority at the time of Mr. Carter’s birth. His mother, Lillian, was a registered nurse at the unit in which he was delivered, and his father, James Earl, was a farmer. Four years later, the family moved from Plains to a nearby farm — where his father grew corn, cotton, peanuts and sugar cane.
He was the first president to be inaugurated by a nickname
When Mr. Carter was sworn into office in 1977 on a family Bible held by his wife, Rosalynn Carter, he took the presidential oath of office using the name “Jimmy” instead of “James” — his actual first name, which he rarely used. Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, who also used their nicknames in the White House, opted to be sworn in using their full names during their inaugurations. After Mr. Carter was sworn in, the organizers of his inauguration ceremony floated a giant peanut-shaped balloon in a parade to honor his roots.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married longer than any other presidential couple
They were married for 77 years. The day after Jimmy took Rosalynn on a date to the movies — in 1945 — he told his mother that he knew he wanted to marry Rosalynn. A year later, when he was 21 and she was 18, they were married. “Over the years, we became not only friends and lovers, but partners,” Rosalynn said close to seven decades later, at Jimmy’s 90th birthday celebration. “He has always thought I could do anything.” The pair had known each other for all of Rosalynn’s life; she lived down the road in their hometown of Plains and was a frequent playmate of Ruth Carter, Jimmy’s little sister.
You may read more at the link. Former President Carter was a man of principles and strongly held ethics. He stands in contrast to what gets put into the White House again next month. This is just out from the AP. “An appeals court upholds a $5 million award in a sexual abuse verdict against President-elect Trump.” No wonder this piece of trash is selling merch while supposedly preparing for his next 4 years running the country into the ground. How could people vote for a felon and adjudicated rapist?
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse.
The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room.
Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial earlier this year that resulted in an $83.3 million award. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.
In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump’s lawyers that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had made multiple decisions that spoiled the trial, including his decision to allow two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to testify.
The judge also had allowed the jury to view the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted in 2005 about grabbing women’s genitals because when someone is a star, “you can do anything.”
“We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the 2nd Circuit said. “Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
Meanwhile, we’re about to get steamrolled. Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice has this analysis today, as the Vivek and Elonia comments on American workers hit them below their belts. “Trumpers discover a type of bigotry they oppose (against themselves). Vivek Ramaswamy gives MAGAs a taste of their own medicine.”
Donald Trump hasn’t even been inaugurated yet, and his leading supporters are already tearing at each other’s throats like a pack of frothing and foul-smelling Klansmen over whether there are any good immigrants.
“Take a big step back and F**K YOURSELF in the face,” Elon Musk tweeted Friday night in defense of immigrants who worked for him, in response to a Trump supporter with a more hardline view.
The spectacle of billionaire Musk, techbro Vivek Ramaswamy, would-be Goebbels Steve Bannon, and gibbering Islamophobe and Trump-whisperer Laura Loomer all screaming and bellowing at each other is entertaining in a morbid way. Acrimony is inevitable in a coalition held together by bile, hatred, and racism. And if Democrats can get their act together, they may well be able to take advantage of MAGA dissension.
At the same time, it’s important not to not over-interpret the intra-Trumper feud. Racism is a lie, which means it’s always incoherent — and racist coalitions often therefore end up fighting amongst themselves about who’s in the in group and who gets targeted by the regime.
But historically, these arguments at the margins have often coexisted with massive human rights abuses. Ramaswamy and Bannon may disagree about the exact trajectory of MAGA. But they can still come together to hurt a lot of people — and that is exactly what they will try to do.
For MAGA, all bigotry is not created equal
This week’s round of MAGA on MAGA violence was ignited by Loomer, who was most recently in the news for her oddly close relationship to Trump in the weeks following the Butler shooting.
On December 23, Loomer attacked Sriram Krishnan, who Trump selected as an advisor on artificial intelligence, criticizing his support for H-1B visas. H-1Bs allow highly skilled workers to come to the US to work and are especially prevalent in tech, where they’re used by many Indian and Chinese engineers. Loomer tweeted that support for H-1Bs was “not America First policy.”
…
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo pointed out that the MAGA spat is the inevitable outcome of “Trump’s deep-seated and extreme transactionalism.” Indeed, Trump has few real policy commitments beyond self-aggrandizement and revenge.
Various people — Musk, Loomer, Bannon, RFK Jr., whoever — glommed onto Trump for fame or fortune or to advance their own agendas. Now they have to fight among themselves because Trump himself doesn’t really care enough to impose a vision, much less any kind of discipline.
That’s certainly part of the dynamic here. But it’s also important to note that the ideological divisions on display are in part the natural result of founding a movement on racism and bigotry.
Racism is as thoroughly debunked as any ideology can be. There is no consistent difference in intelligence or ability between different groups of humans; we’re all the same race. That means that “racial differences” are all made-up nonsense.
And that in turn means that two racists are likely to make up slightly different nonsense from each other. MAGA can hate all immigrants, but idolize Musk — or, if they hate Musk, they can idolize Melania. Ramaswamy can spew a bunch of racist tropes and apply them to Americans as a group rather than to other groups we’re more used to seeing get picked on.
Again, there is more to read at the link. Just in time for the man who botched COVID-19 with deadly results, we have a new Virus sweeping the country. This is from The Hill. “Norovirus outbreaks surging across the US: CDC data.”
Norovirus cases are surging across the country this winter, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
There were 91 outbreaks reported by state health departments during the week of Dec. 5, up from 69 in the last week of November, according to the CDC.
The highest number for the same period over the last several years was 65 outbreaks.
But the data are not comprehensive. Currently, state, local and territorial health departments are not required to report individual cases of norovirus illness to the CDC, and only 15 states participate in the National Outbreak Reporting System.
Additionally, the CDC pointed out some people may not seek health care for their illness, and most hospitals and doctor’s offices do not generally test for norovirus.
Norovirus is extremely contagious and can cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain within 12 hours to 47 hours after being exposed, the agency said.
Most people with norovirus get better within one to three days, but they can still spread the virus for a few days after.
Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States. Each year, there are about 2,500 reported outbreaks. They can occur throughout the year but are most common between November and April, the CDC said.
Just in time for the Republicans who want to dismantle the FDA. Speaking of today’s Republicans, this may or may not shock you. This is from AXIOS. “Nearly half of GOP voters support using military to put immigrants in camps.”Russell Contreras has the analysis.
Almost half of Republican voters believe the U.S. military should round up undocumented immigrants and put them into detention camps until they can be deported, a new survey finds.
Why it matters: President-elect Trump has suggested that he’ll use the military in immigration raids and turn to a 1798 law to put immigrants in camps.
- His base appears to support those plans despite the likely fierce opposition from most Americans.
By the numbers: 46% of Republicans endorse using the military in mass deportation raids and placing immigrants in camps, according to a nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) post-election survey.
- That’s more than double that of independent voters (19%) who agree with the idea.
- And that’s more than five times as Democratic voters (8%) who supported this policy.
What they’re saying: “There have been questions in the Trump era where I’ve thought…I can’t believe that we need to know the answer to this question,” Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, tells Axios.
- “I guess the good news is that three-quarters of the country rejects this idea that we should be putting immigrants in the country illegally into internment camps guarded by the military.”
- Jones said the bad news is that nearly half of people who consider themselves members of a mainstream political party do.
State of play: Trump said in his recent TIME “Person of the Year” interview that he would be open to using camps to hold detained immigrants in the U.S.
- Trump in the TIME interview suggested deporting 21 million people, which would likely require an increase in detention centers to hold people suspected of being in the U.S. without authorization before they’re deported.
Reality check: Study after study shows there are 11 million undocumented people in the country, not 21 million, as Trump has repeatedly and falsely said.
- There are roughly 24.5 million noncitizen immigrants in the U.S., including those here awaiting asylum decisions or otherwise here lawfully, according to the Pew Research Center.
This is the annual American Values Survey. You may read about their methodology at the link. Ask me again why I never leave Orleans Parish anymore. I try not to run into these kinds of folks.
Zoom in: The PRRI survey also found that American voters who hold highly authoritarian views were six times as likely to endorse putting undocumented immigrants into such camps than American voters who reject authoritarianism (48% v. 8%).
Lawyer Marc E. Elias suggests you watch him discuss how Joe Biden and Senate Democrats had a big victory in confirming federal judges with Brian Tyler Cohen.
So that’s it for me this year! I will see you in the New Year!
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Mama Lopez
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quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
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