Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Nevertheless
This is the kind of person that shapes all presidential coverage.
“Despite his sometimes strident and sometimes even violent rhetoric about the press, he loves talking to us,” the print reporter said. “And his team—they like talking to us, and they know that they’re going to have a huge audience.”"I actually think the team that’s coming in is not going to be as horrific as people might imagine,” the veteran White House reporter said. “It’s not going to be like the first Trump term, where nobody had any idea what they were doing.”
THEY LIKE TALKING TO US
Well What Are You Going To Do About It
Inbetween weepie invocations of Watergate and angry demands that people subscribe FOR DEMOCRACY, the supposedly respectable outlets will do nothing.
They showed they could be bullied so this is their reward.
Lunch
Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).
I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...
I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...
About Your Liberal News Network
You know, the one staffed almost entirely by "former" Republicans.
All the folks who exited NBC today. Seen together, hoo boy. Message received.
— Brandon Friedman (@brandonfriedman.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 4:14 AM
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Why Don't They Want To Hear The Voices Of Real Americans
That's how it was covered when Dems got a bit freaked out by Tea Partiers.
Monday, February 24, 2025
The Declining Days Of Regent Musk
Not that what follows will necessarily be better.
The Office of Personnel Management told government agencies today that responding to an email titled “What did you do last week?” was voluntary for federal workers. The new guidance from the agency, which sent the message on Saturday, contradicted Elon Musk’s claims that any worker who didn’t respond would be thought to have resigned.
Time To Get Back To Reinventing The Bus
Amazing stuff
In a row of six greenhouses on a remote stretch of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, Larry Ellison is trying to use his golden touch in tech to remake the way people around the world eat.Paywalled, but if you're wondering how it all went wrong:
The company behind his effort, Sensei Ag, is eight years in the making and has cost the world’s fourth-richest person more than half a billion dollars—far more than he spent buying the island itself. Early on, Ellison touted cutting-edge technology that would modernize agriculture, make a big impact for society and eventually help grow food in places such as Africa. The billionaire has told executives he sees the project as part of his legacy.
So far, it’s mostly been a bust.
Little of the revolutionary tech the company has extolled—sensors to monitor development, artificial intelligence to breed crop varieties and robots to harvest plants—is being used, according to people familiar with Sensei. The company has been beset by problems typical to tech startups, including executive changeovers, shifting goals and bad Wi-Fi. It has also stumbled from farming inexperience. The greenhouses, for example, weren’t built to withstand Lanai’s strong winds and their solar panels have broken down. Some of its top executives are tech veterans who have no commercial agricultural experience.
The 80-year-old Ellison and his Sensei Ag co-founder, celebrity doctor David Agus, [...]
Agus, a medical doctor with no previous agricultural experience, [...]
Sensei Marketing Director Jonathan Lee said last month the company is making major investments in technology to grow food better.
Things Are Going Well
But what if they failed to answer the email from Elon that they didn't get because their email accounts
were cancelled while they were fired?
W
ASHINGTON (AP) — Barely a week after mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration, some probationary staffers received unexpected news over the weekend: The government wants them back.
Beginning Friday night, FDA employees overseeing medical devices and other key areas received calls and emails notifying them that their recent terminations had been “rescinded effective immediately,” according to messages viewed by The Associated Press.
Effective Denials
I saw a lot of people, who should know better but who love nothing more than telling the hysterical libs that they're being hysterical again, claiming that these denials were convincing. Ah, well, nevertheless.
It appeared as if the State Department was taking steps to award Elon Musk's Tesla a $400 million government contract to buy armored electric vehicles to securely transport diplomats. The move to set in motion a lucrative contract to a company controlled by a high-profile ally of President Trump's seemed so bold it surprised even longtime observers of the norm-busting president.
When asked about it, the State Department issued a statement saying the plans are now on hold with no plans of fulfilling the contract, pointing out that talks with Tesla began during the Biden administration.
But NPR has obtained a State Department document detailing that Biden's State Department planned to spend just $483,000 in the 2025 fiscal year on buying electric vehicles and $3 million for supporting equipment, like charging stations. It represented less than 1% of the hundreds of millions of dollars likely destined for Tesla vehicles after the Trump administration quietly revised a State Department procurement document.
Don't Forget
If "we" do manage to get through all of this, don't forget the poweful institutions that surrendered instantly. For example, wealthy universities with large endowments who turned on their students and faculty and any ideal of academic freedom instantly.
Not all universities have those financial cushions, but many of the ones you hear about regularly do.
Just Do Nothing
The advice Democrats love most. It will all fix itself!
James Carville predicted that President Donald Trump’s White House team will “collapse” in less than a month.The famed Democratic Party strategist claimed that the downfall will hit as the president’s approval numbers continue to crater. Trump has implemented a multitude of executive orders and fired thousands of government officials all within his first month in office—moves that risk sending the economy into a tailspin.He advised Democrats to simply sit back and watch it happen.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
"Lies"
I wonder what broke Dash Sulzberger. I thought they couldn't call something a lie, because it was impossible to determine the state of mind of the person making the claim.
Suck It Up, Losers
None of these guys can comprehend that for a lot of people, no paycheck=no rent/mortgage payment. After 2-3 months if not one.
BUT
I suspect this is the beginning of the end of Regent Musk, though that doesn't mean what comes next is any better.
Not bad, Senator Smith:
This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.
— Senator Tina Smith (@smith.senate.gov) February 23, 2025 at 12:41 AM
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Saturday, February 22, 2025
Stonks Go Down
I don't root for actual devastation, but the line going down (and the money boys reacting to it) is one of the few things that will catch Trump's attention. We shouldn't direct policy solely at making the line go up, either, but it's better than pure crony capitalism.
It demonstrates you can't rip out all the copper without some consequences that some of the "right" people care about.
It demonstrates you can't rip out all the copper without some consequences that some of the "right" people care about.
The Paper Of Record
NYT
Mr. Hegseth has previously said General Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the military.versus the AP:
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Mr. Hegseth said in an appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show” in November. He added that any general involved with D.E.I. efforts should be fired. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it,” he said. “That’s the only litmus test we care about.”
Hegseth had previously taken aim at Brown. “First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” he said flatly in a podcast in November. And in one of his books, he questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black.
“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote.
The NYT is always sanding off the worst bits, while giving themselves just enough plausible deniability.
Hegseth just said (wrote) out loud what is basic elite discourse thinking at the moment.
Friday, February 21, 2025
A Bit Odd Given How Frequently Members of Congress Fly
Guessing here, but I'd bet a majority of them board a plane more than 50 times per year! "Conservative guess!
Late last week, just as Presidents’ Day weekend was starting, Donald Trump and Elon Musk purged hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees — including multiple lawyers whose job was to help prevent pilots with drug and alcohol problems from getting in the cockpit, knowledgeable sources tell Rolling Stone.
...
While air traffic controllers were supposedly immune from the purge, some air traffic control support workers were terminated, the FAA worker says. Rolling Stone separately spoke with a fired FAA employee whose job involved ensuring flight paths account for hazards like cranes and new buildings, as well as another terminated FAA staffer who ensured that pilots are medically able and cleared to fly. No one wants their plane to cross paths with a crane, of course, but the latter role is important, too, given the nation’s ongoing pilot shortage.
Deadbeat
Elon had many obvious frauds that the press willingly did free PR for, including "free speech champion."
Somebody at twitter was suppressing all her posts in various ways.
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
Not only will Hochul not remove Adams, she's using it as an excuse for the state to do a power grab from the city, a tool of abuse for future governors!
It was a good 16 hours, Kathy.
It was a good 16 hours, Kathy.
Real One
If you’re wondering why I declined to talk to the NYTimes, then you haven’t been following my account for very long. They bear a direct responsibility for the current situation we find ourselves in, and I responded by laying out my position and that I would only talk to @jamellebouie.net
— Chris Kluwe (@chriswarcraft.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Thursday, February 20, 2025
The New Bond
Bond will face the new organization W.O.K.E., headed by a supervillain played by Laverne Cox, as it conspires to infect the world with a virus.
The James Bond film franchise will no longer be controlled by the Broccoli dynasty, after long-serving masterminds Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson announced they are stepping down.
The Bond films were launched by Albert "Cubby" Broccoli in 1962, before his daughter and stepson took over.
The pair will now give creative control to Amazon MGM Studios, which was formed when Amazon bought Bond's parent studio in 2022.
Seems Bad
As hysterical pro-abortion activists pointed out for years, abortion IS health care, and you can't have women's health care without it.
Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis.Once you override the judgment of patient and doctor, this what you get. Imagined centrist "compromises" always envisioned making things illegal without ever prosecuting anyone. How does that work?
The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found.
Who Knew The Civil Service Was Filled With Veterans
Everybody knew, Jesse, everybody knew.
Fox News host Jesse Watters made an on-air plea that the Trump administration be “less callous” when implementing when laying off federal employees after a military veteran friend was “DOGE’d” in Elon Musk’s Pentagon cuts.They're bad people because they mostly don't care about the consequences of smashing things, but there's something wrong with them otherwise in that they are unable to even conceive of those consequences. And, just to be clear, Mr. President King, Sir, my friend is white.
The host added: “He texted me and said: ‘Jesse, this is not good. I’m really sad. I’m upset.’ This guy is not a DEI consultant. He is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, put your life on the line, you should not be in the same category as people that are doing DEI.”
Sounds Bad
But racism is only counts when its done by imaginary left wing college students.
Dallas ICE prosecutor:
Since GlomarResponder was first created in 2012, the account has posted hateful, xenophobic, and pro-fascist content. “America is a White nation, founded by Whites. … Our country should favor us,” GlomarResponder wrote last month. “All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb fuck,” the account posted in September of last year. “Freedom of association hasn’t existed in this country since 1964 at the absolute latest,” GlomarResponder wrote four months prior, further clarifying the post was referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a reply to a comment. “I’m not a commie, I’m a fascist,” GlomarResponder posted a couple weeks later. “Fascists solve communist problems. Get your insults right, retard.”
Moral Clarity
Remember when warbloggers and other Iraq war supporters loved that term?
Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested Tuesday on a charge of disturbing an assembly in Huntington Beach, California, per the city's arrest log. The incident occurred at a city council meeting.Had forgotten Kluwe was a good one.
Kluwe, 43, was protesting the city's approval of a public library plaque that was designed to use words to spell out "MAGA," the acronym for President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, as an acrostic.
A video from the council meeting shows the former Minnesota Vikings punter beginning his protest by reading a prepared statement that called MAGA "explicitly a Nazi movement." Kluwe continued by saying he would engage in "peaceful civil disobedience," whereupon he left his spot at the lectern and approached the city council members' bench.
Kathy Hochul, Welcome To The Resistance
Good stuff, in response to Trump attempting to cancel NYC's congestion pricing.
More:Gov. Hochul: "Think about this next time you're stuck in traffic." www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFl...
— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) February 19, 2025 at 9:16 PM
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Governor Hochul: “At 1:01 p.m. today, The U.S. Department of Transportation emailed us a letter from Secretary Duffy, announcing their attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the State of New York… I don't care if you love congestion pricing or hate it. This is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington. And we are a nation of states. This is what we fought for. This is what people like Alexander Hamilton and others fought for: To set up a system where we are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington.”Even my least favorite Dem politicians can get my forgiveness pretty easily!
Hochul: “In the streets of this city, where battles were fought; we stood up to a king. And we won then. And in case you don't know New Yorkers, when we're in a fight, we do not back down. Not now, not ever. Because, who are we fighting for here? We're fighting for our residents, our commuters, our riders, our drivers, our emergency personnel.”
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Move Fast And Break Things
Boeing is a very respectable firm with a long history of the highest engineering standards.
President Trump, furious about delays in delivering two new Air Force One jets, has empowered Elon Musk to explore drastic options to prod Boeing to move faster, including relaxing security clearance standards for some who work on the presidential planes.
Susan Collins Is Disappointed
The reason to make snarky comments like that is to try to mildly embarrass all of the people who take her seriously every time.
WASHINGTON (AP) — To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule.
But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of U.S. Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
Senate Dems use "don't scare Susan Collins" as a reason to tell outside groups to shut up, as she perfected the ridiculous stunt of claiming she was going to do the right thing until Move On ran a mean ad, or whatever.
The wallet inspector gets rich every time.
Looking Into This
That there is more coverage of the price of eggs than the worrying reason behind it is, in itself, worrying.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired "several" agency employees who are working on the federal government's response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak."Accidentally" means the Nerd Reich fired them from a hotmail account before someone important enough stepped in.
The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings.
"Although several positions supporting [bird flu efforts] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," a USDA spokesperson said in a statement. "USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service frontline positions are considered public safety positions, and we are continuing to hire the workforce necessary to ensure the safety and adequate supply of food to fulfill our statutory mission."
Sacrificing 'T'
I expect centrist dipshits to follow the times. They always do, even as they portray lickspittle conformity as noble rebellion.
...adding for clarity: centrists did not cancel this concert, but they (the nyt, the atlantic, the various substack bros, jon chait) waged a war on trans people while believing, or pretending to believe, that trans people could be sacrificed - should be sacrificed - while maintaining achieved gains in LGB rights otherwise.
The Kennedy Center has canceled The Gay Men’s Chorus concert on May 21.Jeffrey Weisner, a member of the National Symphony Orchestra, took to social media and said, “We were scheduled to perform for the first time with Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington On May 21st as part of World Pride in Washington DC 2025. The concert was abruptly canceled without explanation and removed from the KC website. However, they forgot to scrub it from the search engine. Screenshots attached of the KC calendar and the search results. I know about this only because my husband Silvio is in the Chorus and was there when they were informed.”
Surely "everyone" will agree with my reasonable compromise, that nobody except TRANS EXTREMISTS could disagree with?
Ah, well, nevertheless.
Somehow this will be the fault of The Left but also good.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
I Remember When Bill Clinton Met Loretta Lynch On The Tarmac
That was a much bigger deal than, say, this, or the Bush administration's US Attorney scandal.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top federal prosecutor who supervised criminal cases at the Washington D.C. U.S. Attorney's office resigned on Tuesday, citing what she described as an improper demand by Trump-appointed officials to launch a criminal probe and pursue an asset freeze.
Immunity
Do rich people think that if they fly private jets then it doesn't matter if the rest of ATC doesn't work?
I know rich people can remove themselves from a lot of the consequences of their desired policies, but not all of them!
Global warming doesn't actually mean you just build a new beachfront house 400 meters back. You can't completely shelter yourself from pollution and disease and a fucked food system even if you can minimize your exposure somewhat.
Your little planes will still crash into the big planes.
Vacuuming It All
I suppose it is time for another stirring speech about the price of butter, or whatever...
Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
Monday, February 17, 2025
Looking Into This
For all the discussion of egg prices, I've been very surprised at the tiny amount of coverage of what is actually causing them.
Re-Parented
Gonna be great.
During his short-lived presidential campaign, Kennedy proposed creating wellness farms where young people could “get off” SSRIs and Adderall, a stimulant widely used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Those comments were first reported by Mother Jones.
A Washington Post review of Kennedy’s public appearances found he also promoted these centers as particularly beneficial for Black youth.
“Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, on SSRIs, benzos which are known to induce violence and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented, to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens. You’ll actually have to talk to people,” Kennedy said in a June 2024 episode of the 19Keys online show.
Lunch
Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).
I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...
I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...
Sure Why Not
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
What about the cost of living, Mr. President???
But It Will Work For Us
Clown show.
In polls and focus groups across an array of internal Democratic groups and allies, described to CNN, centering on talking about prices remains the most prevalent advice — and it’s where House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has kept returning to, flanked by signs at his two most recent weekly press conferences headlined “HOW IS THIS LOWERING COSTS?” and “REPUBLICANS BETRAY THE MIDDLE CLASS.” Jeffries conceded, when pressed by CNN, that voters hadn’t bought this argument from voters last year, but he insisted the difference now is that Republicans haven’t delivered.One problem with this is that even the dumbest voter wouldn’t expect them to have "delivered" after one fucking month.
This is an argument to make in their beloved midterm election ad blitz - if anything is left then - not while they are ripping out the copper.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
They May Cut Your Dick In Half, And Serve It To A Pig
I dunno, man.
KARL: More broadly, we’re in four weeks in this second Trump administration, what of all of that we’ve seen play out over these four weeks most concerns you?
JEFFRIES: Well, Donald Trump and Republicans consistently promised that they were going to lower the high cost of living, and they’ve done the exact opposite. They’ve shown no interest in lowering costs in the United States of America, which are too high. Housing costs are too high. Grocery costs are too high. Childcare costs are too high. Utility costs are too high. The cost of living is too high in the United States of America. This country is too expensive. But they’ve broken their promise. They have no interest in improving the quality of life of hardworking American taxpayers.
Instead, what they’re trying to do, while they distract the American people, is to jam the GOP tax scam down the throats of people all across this country, all in service of massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations. It’s a toxic bait and switch that is underway, and we will continue to push back forcefully.
...
Is there anything you are seeing that Trump is doing that you are in favor of, that you think is the right thing?
JEFFRIES: Let me say, as it relates to all of those issues, we’re just at the beginning. And the core promise that Donald Trump made is that he’s going to lower costs for everyday Americans. In fact, we were told that grocery prices would go down on day one, on January 20th.
Costs aren’t lower. In fact, costs are increasing. The price of eggs is skyrocketing out of control. Inflation is on the way up. That was the core promise that’s been broken.
With respect to immigration -- listen, we have to secure the border. We have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way, at the same period of time as Democrats, we’re going to protect dreamers, protect farm workers, and protect families who help our communities across the country thrive.
I WILL ALWAYS FIGHT FOR YOU!!!!!! (fired federal workers not included in offer).
But How Will They Pay For That
Not the most important thing here, but it is funny that this question mostly disappears when Republicans are in charge.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said Tuesday that Homan was “begging” for additional funds when he met with lawmakers this week. Graham’s committee adopted a budget blueprint for legislation to boost border security and immigration enforcement by $175 billion.If you point this out to reporters, they only hear it in the Peanuts Adult voice.
Saturday, February 15, 2025
What Is It All About Then
When covid hit, various international associations of lunatic right wingers were thrilled that the old and weak, the botched and the bungled, and of course the poor, would be culled.
The cult of elite rich weirdos is a eugenics cult.
They Know Even Less Than What They Say
When Trump made Rick Perry the Energy Secretary, journalists took to twitter to tell people how stupid they were for rolling their eyes about it because Perry was the governor of an oil state.
They covered the government for years and had no idea what it did, so it shouldn't be too surprising that the Incel Clown Posse doesn’t either.
Friday, February 14, 2025
Why Won't Hochul Remove Him
The NY state dems (including many NYC dems) would rather burn down Manhattan than let Jumaane Williams - next in line - be mayor.
Seems Bad
Well they WOULD say that WOULDN'T THEY.
The Department of Energy has paused the firings of hundreds of employees who work for a key agency maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, multiple sources tell ABC News.
Managers with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are frantically calling employees back and telling them that -- as of right now -- they're not fired, despite some receiving termination emails and phone calls on Thursday. Their badges are getting turned back on and access to federal systems is being restored, at least temporarily.
Hundreds of probationary employees were terminated Thursday night in the mass Trump administration layoffs. The move prompted concerns of a national security risk because the agency is responsible for maintaining U.S. nuclear weapons, transporting them, and nuclear counterterrorism, among other missions.
NNSA held an all-staff meeting Friday morning, announcing the DOE had agreed to pause the layoffs, due to the agency's national security mission.
Processing
A problem with tariffs is that there isn't an easy way to deal with the processing.
Feb 14 (Reuters) - Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ended duty-free entry for cheap Chinese goods entering the U.S., his administration put the order on hold after more than a million packages piled up at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.It was the result of a rushed, confusing policy change that proved unworkable on short notice. Government officials are now scrambling to implement the order in a way that won't cripple America's hyper-efficient import system.
It is above my pay grade, but I don't think there is a way that can implemented in any reasonable time frame.
Very Stable Geniuses
I don't think it matters that the ridiculous "DOGE" website is insecure in and of itself, but it does show that the Incel Clown Posse have probably left the entire Treasury open to hackers.
Bug or feature?
If Only There Was Something We Could Do
The Trump administration is taking over New York City through an illegal "deal" with its Mayor to drop the prosecution of his corrupt ass, so insane that even the FedSoc attorney resigned, but sadly there's nothing we can do.
Hold on, I'm being told that there IS something "we" can do, that the democratic governor of New York can simply remove him.
Also I'm being told, alas, she won't because democracy or something.
Morning
It is kind of funny that journalists followed up Watergate with Whitewater. To balance the scales.
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Nobody Knows In America
Puerto Rico should probably look into being annexed by someone else (or independence, of course, but there is the little issue of defense).
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
Dem senators went with the "inside" plan - approach their colleagues (call them Lucy) with reason and kindness. Susan Collins will be with us if we don't scare her!
This plan involved voting for a lot of Trump's nominees and discouraging any outside campaigning against their colleagues.
How did that work?
This plan involved voting for a lot of Trump's nominees and discouraging any outside campaigning against their colleagues.
How did that work?
If you can't win, then it is good to achieve something in a loss: a clear statement of and explanation of opposition, and making sure every voter knows what shits these people are.
Misson Accomplished
That fucking newspaper. (paywalled, everything is paywalled).
Once you have decided that there are too many people identifying as trans, you have opened a negotiation with the right wing about how many of them to get rid of, and by what means. The polite, liberal Times position is "get rid of enough of them that I don't have to worry about my child being one" and "by discouraging transitioning." The Trump position is "get rid of all of them" and "by making them illegal." And the Trump position effectively includes the liberal position, though anti-trans liberals don't like to see it that way.
...
On the question of sports participation, the Editorial Board immediately contradicted itself:
The fearmongering is all the more disproportionate, given how few people identify as transgender. They are a minuscule less than 1 percent of the American population. And they are 0.002 percent of college athletes—a population that’s been especially incendiary in the culture wars.Why should there be room for fierce debate, or conversation, about the participation of 0.002 percent of college athletes in sports? Why should there be room for a 3,000-word front-page New York Times story on the topic? If you call as much attention as you can to how you think there might be a stray nail sticking up somewhere, why would you be shocked when someone shows up swinging a hammer?
Elder Care With Fun Group Trips
Prost ihr säcke.
Some 20 senators have their bags packed for the Munich Security Conference this weekend, but they are waiting on a final green light from Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) before heading to Andrews Air Force Base.So easy to ruin their fun.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Seems Bad
I guess Musk can just pull money out of your accounts now.
The Trump administration quickly made good on its vow to claw back federal funding meant to cover some of the costs of housing migrants borne by New York City, unilaterally reversing the transfer of $80 million that the Federal Emergency Management Agency made to the city last week.Your money isn't safe in that bank. Hopefully we find out which one.
The comptroller’s office noticed early Wednesday that $80 million had gone missing from city bank accounts. The Department of Homeland Security, which houses FEMA, confirmed later that day that the money had indeed been taken back, a significant escalation of President Trump’s attempts to freeze or reverse funding that had previously been appropriated by Congress.
Changing Times
This isn't new - he's been moving in this direction for a long time - but Lambert ran the premier "Tesla fan/Elon suckup site" for a very long time.
No Magic Wand
I - and most people - get that Democrats don't have the power to yell, "STOP, SIRRAH," and completely end the Trump agenda. But what they do have the power to do - at the minimum! - is get on TV and generally make as much news as possible to highlight what is happening.
They can do more than that, but they're complaining about being asked to do that!
If they don't do that, then the much hated "groups" are going to take over the discourse. Whining about that won't stop it. They don't work for you.
And if they're getting poll numbers saying "people like this, akshually" then the right reaction is to understand that people don't know what is happening, and understand it is your job to fix that, not tell yourselves that (Reagan*Thatcher)^100 is super popular.
Cleaning Up
I get that instant "fact checking" isn't always possible, and sometimes journalists will end up passing along things that important people say without ensuring that they are correct. This isn't good, of course, but I see how it happens innocently.
What is amazing is the outlets that went to check the "DOGE website" and saw that nothing was there, and then typed up "oh obviously this is what he meant, posting stuff on X" which is also not, in content, what he claimed.
Livid
You don't understand, they've got this.
A closed-door meeting for House Democrats this week included a gripe-fest directed at liberal grassroots organizations, sources tell Axios.
Why it matters: Members of the Steering and Policy Committee — with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in the room — on Monday complained activist groups like MoveOn and Indivisible have facilitated thousands of phone calls to members' offices.
- "People are pissed," a senior House Democrat who was at the meeting said of lawmakers' reaction to the calls.
- The Democrat said Jeffries himself is "very frustrated" at the groups, who are trying to stir up a more confrontational opposition to Trump.
- A Jeffries spokesperson disputed that characterization and noted to Axios that their office regularly engages with dozens of stakeholder groups, including MoveOn and Indivisible, including as recently as Monday
Zoom in: "There were a lot of people who were like, 'We've got to stop the groups from doing this.' ... People are concerned that they're saying we're not doing enough, but we're not in the majority," said one member.
Thanks, Pelosi, for giving us this useless dipshit who just wants to have meetings with rich people.
People get mad when I say this, but the post-election strategy they agreed on was "do nothing, complain about egg prices, let Trump and the Republicans fall on their faces" and my guys that is not enough at the moment.
Even if you agree WAH THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO (this is not true), the "do nothing in until Labor Day 2026 then run a billion dollars in ads to replenish the boat funds" is not going to endear you to voters this time!
Good Enough For Journalism
MUSK: Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible.
In fact, our actions -- we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X and to the DOGE website. So, all of our actions are maximally transparent.
How'd they do?
He also claimed that DOGE’s work was being shared on its website and on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. However, the DOGE website has no information, and the postings on X often lack many details, including which programs are being cut and where the organization has access.
CBS turns "on X and to the DOGE website" into:
Asked about any personal conflicts he has and whether he's policing himself, Musk did not answer directly but said the DOGE website is explaining what it's doing, an apparent reference to the group's account on X, which details contracts that federal agencies have canceled. Pressed a second time, Musk said the public can question whether he's benefiting from DOGE's actions.
The New York Times covers for him similarly.
“We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible,” Mr. Musk said, referring to postings by his team on his social media site, X. “So all of our actions are maximally transparent.”
Musk, speaking in the Oval Office, sought to underscore his belief that “transparency is what builds trust,” and insisted that all of his team’s efforts were being made public on DOGE’s social media accounts and website.
KEITH: So we should note that DOGE is not an official government agency. Musk said that he checks in regularly to make sure Trump is OK with what he and his team are doing. And Musk insisted he is being extremely transparent, so transparent that everyone could see the conflicts if they were to happen. But I will just cite my colleague Stephen Fowler's reporting here. He says DOGE doesn't have a functional website where they show evidence to back up the claims.
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Whoopsie Doodle
Even the lunatics are going to have to put back some of the jenga pieces, but will they manage before the whole thing tumbles?
Russ Vought is an own-the-libs kind of guy, an ideological warrior who delights in watching the world burn. Shutting down the CFPB is his idea of paradise; now the rugged capitalists can get back to work making America great again without interference from meddling bureaucrats determined to punish success.
Then he heard about the APOR tables.
And If They Don't
Not knocking the judge here, but they all need to come up with a plan to deal with "fuck you, no."
We Loved Nancy Mace When She Was Being An Aggressive Bigot To Trans People
I know there's a lot going on, and I don't claim to have the full panopticon awareness of The Discourse, I'm getting a lot of "let's pretend that didn't happen" vibes about her speech last night. She usually gets a lot of attention!
Well
I suppose I'll keep what I think about this to myself.
Representative Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who in recent weeks has floated a run for governor, on Monday night accused her former fiancé and three other men of having drugged and raped her and other women, and of filming and taking lewd photographs of women and underage girls without their consent.I will say that none of the guys she is accusing are trans. ...here's a paywall free guardian link.
In a stunningly graphic speech on the House floor that had little precedent, Ms. Mace said the men, whom she named and displayed photographs of on a placard where lawmakers more typically display charts and graphs on policy issues, were involved in the “premeditated, calculated exploitation of innocent women and girls in my district.”
...
“During the last year, as I turned everything over to law enforcement, I was told I, as a victim, would be investigated,” she said.
...
“At this time, our office has not received any reports or requests for assistance from any law enforcement or prosecution agencies regarding these matters,” said Ms. Lane, who added that neither Mr. Wilson nor anyone in his office had heard of Ms. Mace’s allegations until she spoke out on Monday night.
She said that while Ms. Mace and Mr. Wilson had been at multiple events together over the last six months and the congresswoman had the attorney general’s cellphone number, “not once has she approached or reached out to him regarding any of her concerns.”
Monday, February 10, 2025
Fair
We deserve it.
NEW ORLEANS—Delivering the fiery, expletive-laden remarks at a postgame press conference after winning Super Bowl LIX, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni told Eagles fans Sunday, “I hate all of you, fuck you.” “It’s sad to think how much greater the Eagles’ legacy would be if it didn’t have a worthless fanbase filled with such total fucking pricks,” said Sirianni, who added that Eagles fans were loud, rude, and obnoxious assholes before he went on to announce, “This is for you,” and flipped the double birds. “The Eagles won this championship. You arrogant pieces of shit had nothing to do with our victory, and you don’t deserve to celebrate. Honestly, it would have been so much easier to accomplish without the support of you nasty-ass fucking slobs who don’t know ball. Shit town. Shit people. Blow me, assholes.” At press time, Sirianni expressed hope that rioting Eagles fans would burn down Philadelphia and die painfully in the flames.
And Then
I hope this judge is gaming this out rather than relying on the good chaps to be good.
BREAKING: A federal judge has determined that the Trump administration is violating his order lifting the blanket spending freeze on federal grant programs. He is orderin gthe administration to immediately unfreeze funds, including for NIH and the IRA. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 5:31 PM
[image or embed]
Meritocracy
Create a 'second' track and then just throw all the applications in the garbage.
The National Institutes of Health has suddenly withdrawn researchers’ applications for a prestigious grant that were submitted with a diversity notation — effectively disqualifying many early-career academics from underrepresented backgrounds.Probably this was a well-intentioned program destroyed by the particular moment, but it does highlight a not uncommon problem with two track systems which are put in place to supposedly help disadvantaged populations but actually hurt them. For example, "minority fellowship" positions which actually pay less and are not on the job track that normal positions are.
To Show They Can
Obviously there's no good reason to send people to Gitmo - there never was - but I expect this will get less fretting from our elite opinion havers than it did post-9/11. At least then they pretended they were super-terrorists. These days people barely bother to come up with reasons, and our elite opinion havers barely bother to pretend to care with weepy THIS ISN'T WHO WE ARE, HOWEVER pieces.
Feb 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge in New Mexico on Sunday granted a preemptive restraining order to block the U.S. government from sending three Venezuelan men detained in the state from being sent to a military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Good for the judge who had to be quick, because in Gitmo there's no access to a judge! FREEDOM!
Judge Kenneth Gonzales of the Federal District Court for New Mexico said during a video conference hearing that he was granting the order, said Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the men.
It's Tariff Week, Again
I imagine what is happening is that one thing Trump believes in, other than racism, is tariffs, so they keep trying to find ones that don't make the line go down.
Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.
Sunday, February 09, 2025
Oh No Not My Precious Money
These fucking people.
“While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama,” Britt told AL.com.
On Friday night, the NIH announced it was cutting payments toward overhead costs for research institutions that receive its grants, a policy that could leave universities with major budget gaps, The Associated Press reported.
Supervillains
A big criticism I have always had of these characters in movies and similar is that their motives rarely make any sense. Either it is nonspecific "I WANT TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD" stuff like Brain in Pinky and the Brain or some peculiar specific goal that isn’t even well-served by whatever evil plan that is being hatched.
But I get it now after seeing Musk. He is a true solipsist who sees the world as a video game and other people as "non player characters." He is trying to "win" and if he can't he will unhappily unlplug the whole thing.
There was a funny Bernie-inspired debate a few years back about whether billionaires should be allowed, with all the usual dipshits lining up in favor. Point to Bernie, I think.
The author of the linked piece has since said "ooops, my bad" which I think he has about every single major position he has publicly taken in his life. Points for growth, but has he considered shutting the fuck up?
Saturday, February 08, 2025
The Purge
Crime for members of the political appointees of the executive branch is now "legal" in the sense that there is no agency to prosecute it. Until reporting reflects this explicitly, journalists are just talking about a fantasy country.
Be Prepared To Lock Them Up
It's all on a server that also hosts CSAM by now.
A federal judge has restricted the Elon Musk-led government efficiency team from accessing a critical Treasury Department payment system.
The order, issued early Saturday, stops the access temporarily and demands the destruction of any downloaded information saying there is risk of “irreparable harm.”
Friday, February 07, 2025
Someone Complained
Funny.
Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday made public an order delaying tariffs on de minimis, or low-cost, packages from China until the Commerce Department can confirm that procedures and systems are in place to process packages and collect tariff revenue.I doubt it will return. There's no easy way to add in seamless tariff collection.
Seems Bad
I'm sure he's matured since.
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s squad that’s criss-crossing US government agencies, was fired from an internship after he was accused of sharing information with a competitor.
“Edward has been terminated for leaking internal information to the competitors,” said a June 2022 message from an executive of the firm, Path Network, which was seen by Bloomberg News. “This is unacceptable and there is zero tolerance for this."
Big Balls himself.
...
Online Chats
Two US law enforcement officials who investigate cybercrimes told Bloomberg they’ve been tracking online chat rooms that Coristine and others participated in for at least a year. The officials, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss their work, said they first became aware of him, under the usernames “Rivage” and “JoeyCrafter,” while investigating an alleged hacker who Coristine was communicating with in an online forum. The officials wouldn’t identify the hacker or the case they were investigating.
Seems Bad
Won't stop until a judge sticks someone in jail.
Krause’s position will give him control over the Treasury Department system responsible for disbursing more than $5 trillion in annual payments, including for Social Security, Medicare, tax refunds and thousands of other measures. Musk has demanded on social media that Treasury unilaterally stop sending these payments, accusing the department’s career staff of breaking the law.
Who Is This For
What, even, is the supposed joke?
Is that "the only problem"? What the fuck is wrong with you, man.Trump will finance the purchase of Greenland by selling time-share condos in Gaza.
— Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) February 5, 2025
The only problem: if a displaced Palestinian woman gives birth in Greenland, her infant will be eligible for birthright citizenship.
Seems Bad
There is the project 2025 stuff and the "everything that Trump has a grudge about" stuff, and he was convinced the problem with Covid was that people knew about it.
Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished. The data appear to have been mistakenly posted but includes crucial information about the risks of bird flu to people and pets.One thing he reacts to is the line going down, so the plunging Dow will often be our one big hope. Doesn't save us from everything, of course.
Thursday, February 06, 2025
Who Knew There Were Lines
A staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency whose access to U.S. Treasury payment systems was approved by a federal judge on Thursday has links to a deleted social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.
The 25-year-old employee, Marko Elez, resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.
The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a "eugenics immigration policy" in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated.
"You could not pay me to marry outside my ethnicity," the account wrote on X in September, according to a Wall Street Journal review of archived posts. "Normalize Indian hate," the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
Probably the last one that got him fired.
Keep Them Busy With Petty Shit
Thinnest skinned dorks in existence.
On Wednesday, some employees at the General Services Administration found a creative way to express displeasure with the “Fork in the Road” offer to resign: a spoon emoji. During one video meeting in which members of the agency’s technology-focused branch were encouraged to take the offer, some rained down spoon emojis in an associated chat room. On Thursday, G.S.A. workers noticed that the spoon had been removed from the list of emojis permitted in their videoconferencing platform.
Team Pritzker
The finest representative of the big oaf community.
“Unlike Donald Trump, Illinois follows the law. The bipartisan Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law by a Republican governor, has always been compliant with federal law and still is today. Illinois will defend our laws that prioritize police resources for fighting crime while enabling state law enforcement to assist with arresting violent criminals. Instead of working with us to support law enforcement, the Trump Administration is making it more difficult to protect the public, just like they did when Trump pardoned the convicted January 6 violent criminals. We look forward to seeing them in court.”
Speaking Of Liars
The standard form of journalism is to privilege the statements of the people in power, then perhaps give voice to "critics argue" a few paragraphs later. What if you recognize you can't do that if your job is to inform readers?
News of mass immigration arrests has swept across the US over the past couple of weeks. Reports from Massachusetts to Idaho have described agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) spreading through communities and rounding people up. Quick Google searches for Ice operations, raids and arrests return a deluge of government press releases. Headlines include “ICE arrests 85 during 4-day Colorado operation”, “New Orleans focuses targeted operations on 123 criminal noncitizens”, and in Wisconsin, “ICE arrests 83 criminal aliens”.
But a closer look at these Ice reports tells a different story.
That four-day operation in Colorado? It happened in November 2010. The 123 people targeted in New Orleans? That was February of last year. Wisconsin? September 2018. There are thousands of examples of this throughout all 50 states – Ice press releases that have reached the first page of Google search results, making it seem like enforcement actions just happened, when in actuality they occurred months or years ago. Some, such as the arrest of “44 absconders” in Nebraska, go back as far as 2008.
All the archived Ice press releases soaring to the top of Google search results were marked with the same timestamp and read: “Updated: 01/24/2025”.
The distribution of Pinocchios from a glorified opinion columnist does not fix the problem.
I know we have this conversation every time Republicans are in power.
Yelling Is Good
I don't know what, precisely, roused the Democrats, but it was very clear their original post-election plan was to sit back and let Trump do unpopular things and wait until the midtermms. Give him enough rope, basically.
The plan was to go on TV every day and ask, WHAT ABOUT THE PRICE OF EGGS MR. PRESIDENT, while not standing up for their vulnerable constituents.
It isn't always clear what the minority party can accomplish/stop, but my view is sitting around looking like you aren’t even pretending to try does not actually endear you to voters. It certainly doesn't endear you to the people who might have YOUR backs when necessary.
They have to relearn this every time they lose.
And, no, I am not claiming that my very angry blog posts make a difference.
Sounds Bad
This is the kind of piece which people (understandably) use to defend the New York Times, but the real test is whether the political reporters remember they're dealing with people who lie about everything. Peter Baker probably thinks reading the news makes him biased, or something.
In the days after President Trump took office, as Elon Musk’s team began pressing for access to the Treasury Department’s payments system, officials repeatedly said that their goal was to undertake a general review of the system. They said they would observe, but not stop money from going out the door.
But emails reviewed by The New York Times show that the Treasury’s chief of staff originally pushed for Tom Krause, a software executive affiliated with Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, to receive access to the closely held payment system so that the Treasury could freeze U.S. Agency for International Development payments.
In a Jan. 24 email to a small group of Treasury officials, the chief of staff, Dan Katz, wrote that Mr. Krause and his team needed access to the system so they could pause U.S.A.I.D. payments and comply with Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order to halt foreign aid.
Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Seems Bad
Hope the white house press corps are having an exciting time.
Half of Virginia’s community health centers have been cut off from federal grant money, forcing some to stop providing certain services and others to close branches.
The commonwealth has 31 Federally Qualified Health Centers with over 200 locations — a majority of which serve rural areas with limited access to medical care. Annually, about 400,000 Virginians rely on the care provided by these nonprofit, community-based centers, according to the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.
Positive Steps
We're not in "lol nothing matters" territory quite yet.
A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, saying it’s likely unconstitutional and “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.”
The nationwide preliminary injunction from US District Judge Deborah Boardman is a significant ruling against Trump’s Day 1 order, which was swiftly met with legal challenges and put on hold days later by a separate judge.
The order “conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, contradicts 125-year old binding Supreme Court precedent and runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth,” Boardman said during a hearing on Wednesday.
Woopsie Doodle
Gonna be like this every day.
The C.I.A. sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries.The CIA is also getting Musk's bogus retirement offer, which is not legal and contains the fine print that if you don't get the promised money:
The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation — and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking them to identify them.
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