I work in a place with a pharmacy.I wonder how much work that created for anyone who works in a pharmacy when suddenly people's meds that they need weren't being paid for?
And how many doctors appointments had to be cancelled or rescheduled because insurance wasn't available?
Guess what folks?The idiot in chief don't give a damn about anyone except people with money!!Why are we even surprised??
People with money are dumber than dirt if they think they won't be affected from collapsing school, medical and social infrastructure systems. Unless they plan to move to one of their homes in another country, they had better get used to the idea that money cannot buy you things that are no longer there.
The idiot in chief has abdicated any real work and instead is letting brilliant sociopaths like Miller and Vought run the show. They in turn are using the brains of less brilliant but just as hard working sociopaths by the hundreds to think up more pain. P2025 is the guidebook.
They will go through it with a fine tooth comb and pick out all the organizations that fall into their idea of the "woke" category. They are not finished with this mess yet. Be ready for Federal Grant Freeze.2. And more importantly be prepared to respond quickly, loudly and clearly when it does happen.
I can't say that i would describe Miller as "brilliant"...since he's stumbled many a time himself in this 'unfamiliar governing stuff'. Miller himself is quite capable of over-reach. Team Trump doesn't seem to be especially talented at tap-dancing around the truth or gaslighting either, although one would think that it would be a definite pre-requisite for employment with Trump. Also necessary for a Trump employee is a willingness to be flattened by the bus that Trump will throw them under at a mere drop of blame pointed in his direction. (but I digress....)
Spokesblonde Karoline Leavitt cranked up her brandy-new lie generator, but the truth was not that hard to discern between all the evasions and "I'll get back to you" BS.
Brilliant in the sense that he’s gotten himself into a position where he can affect the lives of millions of people (some of whom revel in the chaos; others who are the crosshairs) and have a literal army of twisted lawyers and other professionals ready to usurp Government for Republican/MAGA control. One bad brain is not enough; we don’t live in a James Bond movie world. Dr. No had his minions, but they weren’t trained to have Dr. No’s extensive history of genius, depravity and criminality.
Vought has just embarrassed his boss, and his boss doesn’t abide being embarrassed. If he gets thrown under the bus it could be a hopeful sign that P2025 is in trouble. For the moment I’m awarding him the Yogi Berra “I really didn’t say everything I said” trophy for self revelation.
Raping and philandering take on new meaning with this series of events, followed closely by subsequent lying and denial. It all comes from the same lying, cheating, theft, all of
which are woven into the credentials of those who have 'been cleared' or ignored by courts.
This is something that is truly difficult to get my mind around—they really, really, really DON’T CARE, at all, not even a little bit, not one iota, smidgen, or bit how much pain will result. Nothing, nada, zero, zip. It is terrifying.
Apparently, the current Republican regime seems to think the only recipients of government social programs are Democrats. Perhaps they decided somewhere along the line that this was a good way to 'stick it' to the Dems. They really have no idea that Democrats have been subsidizing red states for decades or that a significant number of aid recipients are their own constituents. And while Musk, Trump's supposed number one supporter, laments how difficult it is to get smart employees because Americans are stupid (in his opinion), the Republicans are still doing their level best to continue the dumbing down of America by cutting school programs and college financing. The worst part of this is that the Republicans are clearly unable to connect the dots.
I had to hit my own internal Pause button a few times to keep from firing off some extremely angry words at the beneficiaries of Medicaid, SNAP, ACA, and all the other targeted programs who voted to put the orange convicted felon back into the White House. Instead, I'll just say that again, as I'm sure it will also be many more times going forward, the recent joke is a propos:
"I never thought they'd eat _my_ face," sobbed the woman shortly after voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces party.
"Keep your gub'mint hands off my benefits" indeed. The layered and twisted irony of that line makes my head spin and my gut boil like a bad case of food poisoning.
The biggest state economy in the US is California. Money tends to flow from blue states to Rex (the exceptions being Texas and Florida).
If Federal assistance was drastically reduced, it would disproportionately affect red states. Though, to be clear, there would be plenty of folks hurt in blue states too.
Same with green energy projects. If funding is cut from them, it would disproportionately hurt those in red states.
That is EXACTLY it. They believed their own lies (the ones where they told Trumpers that it's all the fault of the greedy lazy Dems who rely on Gov't Assistance) and then they used that as their motivation. What a ridiculous comical farce this entire "administration" is. I'm glad their actions keep backfiring beautifully on them.
I agree, but how many will learn from their mistakes in the next 4 years and still manage to make our lives miserable? The chaos in the meanwhile is already hurting people... and if we thought it was difficult for our economy to recover after the pandemic, what will we be left with in 4 years?
This isn't really about the Republicans vs the Democrats. It's about the wealthy and highly privileged vs the rest of us. These orders are not just targeted at the poor: they are meant to destabelize a government that regulates industry, which is their goal. It's just that the poor are an easy first target. I believe that these people actually think that the middle class identifies with the wealthy- and to a certain extent, they are probably right. After all, that's how they got Trump elected. But I think they also underestimated how many people they affected, either directly or indirectly. And they seem to have assumed that if they went all out, we would just accept their directives as a given and not speak up.
Well, we're speaking up. I agree with you that the people doing this (I hesitate calling them Republicans, because the Republican party is dead) are unable to connect the dots. They are living in their own imaginary silo and our job is to take that silo down.
I don't think that's the point. The point is to destabelize the government that regulates business and industry. And they see the poor as a starting point. They didn't think we'd care. But make no mistake: this was meant as a beginning. It is not the primary goal.
We must also acknowledge one of the scariest implications in all of this: Trump isn't legally or constitutionally allowed to do this! The money he's frozen was already allocated by Congress (who hold the purse strings) and the president can't decide where it's going to go. This is part of the separation of powers and Trump's brazen disregard of it is a constitutional crisis! Is Congress a separate and equal part of our government or is it just for show?
Although I have no hope of Republicans showing courage or even a spine, I do wonder if they're OK being relegated to an "Aren't they cute" status within the government. After all, many of them fell in line over voting for Hegseth due to fear of being primaried. What's the point of keeping their jobs if nothing they do matters? And if that's the case, I no longer want to pay their salaries.
This is where the rubber meets the road. Either we're a country of laws and we follow the Constitution (in which what Trump did is illegal) or we're officially a dictatorship.
Having worked for years to stop US support for death squads and dictators in South America and Central America, these developments. remind me that it is really our turn to deal with what we have been spreading for decades.
This is an excellent explanation of where we stand. And while the Administration boldly breaks the law and Republican Congressional members mumble about Biden, exactly what are the Democrats doing to fight back? Every single Democratic “Congress Critter” should be calling for a mass response of some sort from their district! Our strength is in our millions!
And every single one of us should be in contact with our Congress people, making sure they understand that this is not ok and that we expect them to stand up against it.
Exactly. He is creating the storm; the chaos and then he’s off playing golf. In the meantime, people and programs get hit and damaged. He gives not one whit for anyone much less for those poor bamboozled people who voted for him. He is The Joker writ large and it’s a very dark time in Gotham.
It's time for impeachment AND a conviction this time. No more aquittals. No more giving him a pass. The entire administration should be impeached--all the Cabinet members he's appointed, the VP, everyone. They're all complicit, and it's time. He's the most illegal "president" we've ever had. 34 felonies and criminal action during his second week in his second term. Unbelievable.
Note: we are not a dictatorship. When we cry outrage and let them know, they back off. Federal courts block things, which then get paused, delayed, battled in court, and/or rescinded. If we were a dictatorship, none of that would work.
We're just in the middle of observing someone who WANTS it to be such, but will not succeed, because our government is set up such that no one individual "in power" is the supreme leader--our governing is decentralized and spread out top-down among the levels (federal to state to local) and sideways across all 50 states. It was set up that way to prevent this very thing, and if he bothered to read up on what a POTUS can and cannot do, he'd find out that he really doesn't have the power he thinks he does/should.
He's trying, but we're not a monarchy, we're not a one-ruler system. It'll be exhausting, but the more we all push back, the sooner we can end this nightmare.
The thing that boggles my mind is how compliant and supine the Repubbie Representatives are about Trump stealing their power. WTH is up with that?
If I were a Rep I'd be fighting tooth and claw to retain the power that my constituents elected me to wield for their and the country's benefit. If Trump pisses off enough R voters these folks will lose their seat.
I think once SCOTUS crowned the grifter as king, all laws were abrogated, and when we keep wailing, “But it’s against the law!”, we demonstrate our glaring naivety.
“Government needs to be run like a business” is a bad enough idea on its own. It’s even worse when it’s screamed nonstop by people who have never run a legitimately successful business in their lives.
Don’t ever forget that his list of business failures includes businesses that were trying to sell steak, gambling and football. Because, y’know, those things are really hard to sell to Americans. 🙄
I share facts from you, Heather Cox Richardson, and others on Facebook, but I don't know if anyone reads them. Unfortunately, the people who need to know these things are often ones who can't even read at an adult level, and/or they choose not to because it takes too much effort. It's all about the leopards.
Thanks. I have one friend on Facebook who said that of course Musk wasn't giving a Nazi salute. He was giving his heart to people. (I think he did utter some b.s. like that, but I sure wasn't watching.)
Edit: but wouldn't he have to have a heart before he could give it to people?
As Marc Elias said in "10 Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy"
"8. Use your town square
Every one of us has a town square. It may include our social media accounts, our local book club or dinner table. Use your town square to speak out in favor of democracy and against what Republicans are doing. Do not shy away from difficult conversations; seek them out. Engage the curious. Educate those who seek information. We all have a role to play, so don’t assume your voice is too faint or your platform too small."
Anyone looking at Musk's face during the salutes can see he does not have an expression of appreciation or affection: it is of triumph over the people he has lied to and manipulated. And just plain nastiness. To me it looks like he's much rather give the audience the finger.
I was doing that too until I am separating from Facebook. I go out there once in a while to check on friends, but that’s it. I want a divorce from them.
I'd like to leave there, too, but I have friends and family from coast to coast. I know I get behind on emails, and nobody seems to want to talk on the phone any more.
Trying to delete my FB account but have been unable to do so. They don’t make it easy. Yes, I can delete my app, but I want to be counted as a person who has left FB.
Brenda, I'm not there yet (I am one of the people who keeps track of family, about the only thing I use FB for except watch HCR's video chats, and that's about to change. BUT when I do go off FB, I'm going to turn my page into a grey on black dirge against FB and just leave it.
Can't help you if you use the app. I access almost everything on a desktop computer. Last time I looked (it's been a while), it wasn't that hard. Why can't you delete it?
I’ve been on Bluesky for years. And it’s a great platform. I share there all the time. The reason I mentioned posting stuff on Facebook is that it gets to people who are not enlightened, like those of us on BlueSky and Substack.
Substack has turned into a bigger time suck than Facebook is for me. I'd like to check out Bluesky--was never a twitterer-but I have too much I'm not getting done around here already. May get there eventually.
I carefully curate what I read on Substack. I try them for free to get a feel, then generally do a month sub before spending. Did make a mistake with Meidas+ which (except for one guy) I find tedious and a bit overladen with testosterone. Their comfirmation letter said I could get a refund, but not response. But I have a nice small stable of Substack info resources, and enjoy the communities, which keeps my spirits up as well as adding to the info.
You are spot on about the testosterone level from Meidas+. The accuracy of their information isn't always 100%, and the constant playground taunting from Ben in particular is grating. How many people have the time or inclinations to sit through their 70-minutes podcasts??
I pay for 2-3, but my other subscriptions are free. I skim some and read others more thoroughly. So far I've subscribed to only political ones, but for sanity's sake, I should probably find another topic or two.
The one institution we should be able to rely on for the truth is the federal government. Yet that’s also the one institution we can rely on the most for lying.
It is unconstitutional. This must be hammered over and over again. The president has no power to impound funds. People will be hurt as the newly empowered play their power games, and we want to mitigate the pain they cause, but the headlines should be “Unconstitutional Seizure of Power.” We know they do not have their s*** together; demonstrating that is useful but secondary. Attempting to aggregate all power to the Executive is simply unconstitutional.
This is why we have to keep writing our Senators and Representatives at least once a week about these concerns, and not just to Dems, but to the Republicans as well. Especially the Republicans. Also, contribute to orgs like the ACLU and Lawyers Defending American Democracy. A lot of states have lawsuits out too: check with your local state reps. It's simply not enough to just talk about our concerns with people who already agree with you.
One of my best friends in the world lives in a Red State, and literally didn't sleep from when the first memo became public until the wee hours of Thursday when they got confirmation that their payments weren't going to be affected.
I cannot say it loud enough or often enough; FUCK TRUMP AND EVERYONE TRYING TO MAKE THESE VILE PLANS WORK.
If you are a programmer who knows how to create mass mailings to one email address or if you’re a Python scripter, I am definitely not urging you to flood that email because that would be very naughty. And you don't want to be naughty, right? Right?
Repugs doing shitty things and turning it on the Dems or "the media". It's tiring and old. Day nine and I'm tired. I feel the need to keep informed but it's draining. I don't know how Jay or HRC or any of these people do it but it is much appreciated!
It should be clear to GOP congressfolk now that Project 2025 and Russell Vought are absolutely toxic politically. Yes, they want trillions scraped out of every corner to hand to their donor class as tax cuts, but the public reaction to this first gynormous overreach should instill some caution, if only for self-preservation.
Something that nobody has said a word about, but what is the price tag going to be for changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico in every aviation and nautical chart, every manual, every textbook, every map, every document, and every public display? Whatever it is, double it, because it is going to revert once Trump is gone. Government efficiency? Not so much.
We need to keep up the pressure. This is sn obviously BLATANT power grab by tRump and Project_2025's Russell Vought to help tRump consolidate power. Vought MUST NOT be confirmed and neither should Gabbard, Patel or Kennedy.
We are now living in a kakistocracy with an oligarchy as the cherry on top. WE MUST PROTEST AND RESIST.
If she had the kind of insight that could result in that, she wouldn't be in that job in the first place. At least with her, the chaos is in the open. A brighter press secretary could BS some people into believing what's going on is all right.
I work in a place with a pharmacy.I wonder how much work that created for anyone who works in a pharmacy when suddenly people's meds that they need weren't being paid for?
And how many doctors appointments had to be cancelled or rescheduled because insurance wasn't available?
Guess what folks?The idiot in chief don't give a damn about anyone except people with money!!Why are we even surprised??
People with money are dumber than dirt if they think they won't be affected from collapsing school, medical and social infrastructure systems. Unless they plan to move to one of their homes in another country, they had better get used to the idea that money cannot buy you things that are no longer there.
👏👏👏
The idiot in chief has abdicated any real work and instead is letting brilliant sociopaths like Miller and Vought run the show. They in turn are using the brains of less brilliant but just as hard working sociopaths by the hundreds to think up more pain. P2025 is the guidebook.
And it is happening right in front of us....we need to call it out LOUDLY.
It’s been rescinded but with no guarantees that funding will be released. The bastards.
They will go through it with a fine tooth comb and pick out all the organizations that fall into their idea of the "woke" category. They are not finished with this mess yet. Be ready for Federal Grant Freeze.2. And more importantly be prepared to respond quickly, loudly and clearly when it does happen.
it doesn't feel like it's being called out loudly.
I can't say that i would describe Miller as "brilliant"...since he's stumbled many a time himself in this 'unfamiliar governing stuff'. Miller himself is quite capable of over-reach. Team Trump doesn't seem to be especially talented at tap-dancing around the truth or gaslighting either, although one would think that it would be a definite pre-requisite for employment with Trump. Also necessary for a Trump employee is a willingness to be flattened by the bus that Trump will throw them under at a mere drop of blame pointed in his direction. (but I digress....)
Spokesblonde Karoline Leavitt cranked up her brandy-new lie generator, but the truth was not that hard to discern between all the evasions and "I'll get back to you" BS.
Brilliant in the sense that he’s gotten himself into a position where he can affect the lives of millions of people (some of whom revel in the chaos; others who are the crosshairs) and have a literal army of twisted lawyers and other professionals ready to usurp Government for Republican/MAGA control. One bad brain is not enough; we don’t live in a James Bond movie world. Dr. No had his minions, but they weren’t trained to have Dr. No’s extensive history of genius, depravity and criminality.
Vought has just embarrassed his boss, and his boss doesn’t abide being embarrassed. If he gets thrown under the bus it could be a hopeful sign that P2025 is in trouble. For the moment I’m awarding him the Yogi Berra “I really didn’t say everything I said” trophy for self revelation.
Do you believe Dumpster even has enough self-awareness to realize that he should be embarrassed? I doubt it.
Raping and philandering take on new meaning with this series of events, followed closely by subsequent lying and denial. It all comes from the same lying, cheating, theft, all of
which are woven into the credentials of those who have 'been cleared' or ignored by courts.
By definition, sociopaths have no empathy. He doesn't care.
This is something that is truly difficult to get my mind around—they really, really, really DON’T CARE, at all, not even a little bit, not one iota, smidgen, or bit how much pain will result. Nothing, nada, zero, zip. It is terrifying.
Apparently, the current Republican regime seems to think the only recipients of government social programs are Democrats. Perhaps they decided somewhere along the line that this was a good way to 'stick it' to the Dems. They really have no idea that Democrats have been subsidizing red states for decades or that a significant number of aid recipients are their own constituents. And while Musk, Trump's supposed number one supporter, laments how difficult it is to get smart employees because Americans are stupid (in his opinion), the Republicans are still doing their level best to continue the dumbing down of America by cutting school programs and college financing. The worst part of this is that the Republicans are clearly unable to connect the dots.
I had to hit my own internal Pause button a few times to keep from firing off some extremely angry words at the beneficiaries of Medicaid, SNAP, ACA, and all the other targeted programs who voted to put the orange convicted felon back into the White House. Instead, I'll just say that again, as I'm sure it will also be many more times going forward, the recent joke is a propos:
"I never thought they'd eat _my_ face," sobbed the woman shortly after voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces party.
"Keep your gub'mint hands off my benefits" indeed. The layered and twisted irony of that line makes my head spin and my gut boil like a bad case of food poisoning.
The biggest state economy in the US is California. Money tends to flow from blue states to Rex (the exceptions being Texas and Florida).
If Federal assistance was drastically reduced, it would disproportionately affect red states. Though, to be clear, there would be plenty of folks hurt in blue states too.
Same with green energy projects. If funding is cut from them, it would disproportionately hurt those in red states.
That is EXACTLY it. They believed their own lies (the ones where they told Trumpers that it's all the fault of the greedy lazy Dems who rely on Gov't Assistance) and then they used that as their motivation. What a ridiculous comical farce this entire "administration" is. I'm glad their actions keep backfiring beautifully on them.
I agree, but how many will learn from their mistakes in the next 4 years and still manage to make our lives miserable? The chaos in the meanwhile is already hurting people... and if we thought it was difficult for our economy to recover after the pandemic, what will we be left with in 4 years?
This isn't really about the Republicans vs the Democrats. It's about the wealthy and highly privileged vs the rest of us. These orders are not just targeted at the poor: they are meant to destabelize a government that regulates industry, which is their goal. It's just that the poor are an easy first target. I believe that these people actually think that the middle class identifies with the wealthy- and to a certain extent, they are probably right. After all, that's how they got Trump elected. But I think they also underestimated how many people they affected, either directly or indirectly. And they seem to have assumed that if they went all out, we would just accept their directives as a given and not speak up.
Well, we're speaking up. I agree with you that the people doing this (I hesitate calling them Republicans, because the Republican party is dead) are unable to connect the dots. They are living in their own imaginary silo and our job is to take that silo down.
I was just going to say - are they aware how many federal assistance recipients live in red states?
I don't think that's the point. The point is to destabelize the government that regulates business and industry. And they see the poor as a starting point. They didn't think we'd care. But make no mistake: this was meant as a beginning. It is not the primary goal.
We must also acknowledge one of the scariest implications in all of this: Trump isn't legally or constitutionally allowed to do this! The money he's frozen was already allocated by Congress (who hold the purse strings) and the president can't decide where it's going to go. This is part of the separation of powers and Trump's brazen disregard of it is a constitutional crisis! Is Congress a separate and equal part of our government or is it just for show?
Although I have no hope of Republicans showing courage or even a spine, I do wonder if they're OK being relegated to an "Aren't they cute" status within the government. After all, many of them fell in line over voting for Hegseth due to fear of being primaried. What's the point of keeping their jobs if nothing they do matters? And if that's the case, I no longer want to pay their salaries.
This is where the rubber meets the road. Either we're a country of laws and we follow the Constitution (in which what Trump did is illegal) or we're officially a dictatorship.
Having worked for years to stop US support for death squads and dictators in South America and Central America, these developments. remind me that it is really our turn to deal with what we have been spreading for decades.
Granada, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti,…
It is really our turn. Let’s do this. Some of those countries have even left us. Great examples of how to push back on dictatorships.
This is an excellent explanation of where we stand. And while the Administration boldly breaks the law and Republican Congressional members mumble about Biden, exactly what are the Democrats doing to fight back? Every single Democratic “Congress Critter” should be calling for a mass response of some sort from their district! Our strength is in our millions!
And every single one of us should be in contact with our Congress people, making sure they understand that this is not ok and that we expect them to stand up against it.
Exactly. He is creating the storm; the chaos and then he’s off playing golf. In the meantime, people and programs get hit and damaged. He gives not one whit for anyone much less for those poor bamboozled people who voted for him. He is The Joker writ large and it’s a very dark time in Gotham.
It's time for impeachment AND a conviction this time. No more aquittals. No more giving him a pass. The entire administration should be impeached--all the Cabinet members he's appointed, the VP, everyone. They're all complicit, and it's time. He's the most illegal "president" we've ever had. 34 felonies and criminal action during his second week in his second term. Unbelievable.
Note: we are not a dictatorship. When we cry outrage and let them know, they back off. Federal courts block things, which then get paused, delayed, battled in court, and/or rescinded. If we were a dictatorship, none of that would work.
We're just in the middle of observing someone who WANTS it to be such, but will not succeed, because our government is set up such that no one individual "in power" is the supreme leader--our governing is decentralized and spread out top-down among the levels (federal to state to local) and sideways across all 50 states. It was set up that way to prevent this very thing, and if he bothered to read up on what a POTUS can and cannot do, he'd find out that he really doesn't have the power he thinks he does/should.
He's trying, but we're not a monarchy, we're not a one-ruler system. It'll be exhausting, but the more we all push back, the sooner we can end this nightmare.
The thing that boggles my mind is how compliant and supine the Repubbie Representatives are about Trump stealing their power. WTH is up with that?
If I were a Rep I'd be fighting tooth and claw to retain the power that my constituents elected me to wield for their and the country's benefit. If Trump pisses off enough R voters these folks will lose their seat.
I think once SCOTUS crowned the grifter as king, all laws were abrogated, and when we keep wailing, “But it’s against the law!”, we demonstrate our glaring naivety.
“Government needs to be run like a business” is a bad enough idea on its own. It’s even worse when it’s screamed nonstop by people who have never run a legitimately successful business in their lives.
And Dump is at the top if the list of people who’ve never run a successful business. How soon people forget.
Don’t ever forget that his list of business failures includes businesses that were trying to sell steak, gambling and football. Because, y’know, those things are really hard to sell to Americans. 🙄
I share facts from you, Heather Cox Richardson, and others on Facebook, but I don't know if anyone reads them. Unfortunately, the people who need to know these things are often ones who can't even read at an adult level, and/or they choose not to because it takes too much effort. It's all about the leopards.
You never know when the tide will turn for one person who is exposed to what you are sharing. Keep it up. It matters.
Thanks. I have one friend on Facebook who said that of course Musk wasn't giving a Nazi salute. He was giving his heart to people. (I think he did utter some b.s. like that, but I sure wasn't watching.)
Edit: but wouldn't he have to have a heart before he could give it to people?
As Marc Elias said in "10 Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy"
"8. Use your town square
Every one of us has a town square. It may include our social media accounts, our local book club or dinner table. Use your town square to speak out in favor of democracy and against what Republicans are doing. Do not shy away from difficult conversations; seek them out. Engage the curious. Educate those who seek information. We all have a role to play, so don’t assume your voice is too faint or your platform too small."
Is that from a book or a Substack essay or what?
Here you go: https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/10-things-we-can-all-do-to-protect-democracy/
Thanks. Bookmarked and emailed the link to myself, so helpfully I'll get back to it. I've been on here way too long today already.
They have a YouTube channel as well, Democracy Docket.
Anyone looking at Musk's face during the salutes can see he does not have an expression of appreciation or affection: it is of triumph over the people he has lied to and manipulated. And just plain nastiness. To me it looks like he's much rather give the audience the finger.
He'd try to sell it to them before he'd give it.
Here's a bit of fun about the Musker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FThFaziy-Y
Thanks for the link, Lynell. Such creative people!
I'm sharing everything on Facebook. It's the only way to get the message out to mainstream Americans.
Not the "only" way, but one way. Bluesky is another.
Great! But I'm not posting publicly, so I don't know how many people I'm influencing there.
I was doing that too until I am separating from Facebook. I go out there once in a while to check on friends, but that’s it. I want a divorce from them.
I'd like to leave there, too, but I have friends and family from coast to coast. I know I get behind on emails, and nobody seems to want to talk on the phone any more.
Trying to delete my FB account but have been unable to do so. They don’t make it easy. Yes, I can delete my app, but I want to be counted as a person who has left FB.
Brenda, I'm not there yet (I am one of the people who keeps track of family, about the only thing I use FB for except watch HCR's video chats, and that's about to change. BUT when I do go off FB, I'm going to turn my page into a grey on black dirge against FB and just leave it.
I am a technophobe, and somehow I managed to cancel my FB. Good luck. https://www.avg.com/en/signal/deactivate-or-delete-facebook-account
You can do it. It’s just not easy.
Can't help you if you use the app. I access almost everything on a desktop computer. Last time I looked (it's been a while), it wasn't that hard. Why can't you delete it?
I’ve been on Bluesky for years. And it’s a great platform. I share there all the time. The reason I mentioned posting stuff on Facebook is that it gets to people who are not enlightened, like those of us on BlueSky and Substack.
Substack has turned into a bigger time suck than Facebook is for me. I'd like to check out Bluesky--was never a twitterer-but I have too much I'm not getting done around here already. May get there eventually.
I carefully curate what I read on Substack. I try them for free to get a feel, then generally do a month sub before spending. Did make a mistake with Meidas+ which (except for one guy) I find tedious and a bit overladen with testosterone. Their comfirmation letter said I could get a refund, but not response. But I have a nice small stable of Substack info resources, and enjoy the communities, which keeps my spirits up as well as adding to the info.
You are spot on about the testosterone level from Meidas+. The accuracy of their information isn't always 100%, and the constant playground taunting from Ben in particular is grating. How many people have the time or inclinations to sit through their 70-minutes podcasts??
I pay for 2-3, but my other subscriptions are free. I skim some and read others more thoroughly. So far I've subscribed to only political ones, but for sanity's sake, I should probably find another topic or two.
Thanks again Jay. Always appreciate your clear and concise explanation of the Republican disaster.
The one institution we should be able to rely on for the truth is the federal government. Yet that’s also the one institution we can rely on the most for lying.
That for sure is true!!
It is unconstitutional. This must be hammered over and over again. The president has no power to impound funds. People will be hurt as the newly empowered play their power games, and we want to mitigate the pain they cause, but the headlines should be “Unconstitutional Seizure of Power.” We know they do not have their s*** together; demonstrating that is useful but secondary. Attempting to aggregate all power to the Executive is simply unconstitutional.
This is why we have to keep writing our Senators and Representatives at least once a week about these concerns, and not just to Dems, but to the Republicans as well. Especially the Republicans. Also, contribute to orgs like the ACLU and Lawyers Defending American Democracy. A lot of states have lawsuits out too: check with your local state reps. It's simply not enough to just talk about our concerns with people who already agree with you.
One of my best friends in the world lives in a Red State, and literally didn't sleep from when the first memo became public until the wee hours of Thursday when they got confirmation that their payments weren't going to be affected.
I cannot say it loud enough or often enough; FUCK TRUMP AND EVERYONE TRYING TO MAKE THESE VILE PLANS WORK.
Unlike the NY Times, I have never sanewashed the dotard, and I also made a list. It's not quite as pretty but it works.
It's easy to find on Substack if you want to check it out to see if you are potentially affected.
Also, the email the OMB wants agencies to respond to by their ad hoc deadline is:
FFAPlans@omb.eop.gov
If you are a programmer who knows how to create mass mailings to one email address or if you’re a Python scripter, I am definitely not urging you to flood that email because that would be very naughty. And you don't want to be naughty, right? Right?
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue"
lol!
Repugs doing shitty things and turning it on the Dems or "the media". It's tiring and old. Day nine and I'm tired. I feel the need to keep informed but it's draining. I don't know how Jay or HRC or any of these people do it but it is much appreciated!
Author Tom Clancy said it repeatedly: "Social Security is the third rail of American politics. Touch it and die."
Thank you for your reportage on this fustercluck.
It should be clear to GOP congressfolk now that Project 2025 and Russell Vought are absolutely toxic politically. Yes, they want trillions scraped out of every corner to hand to their donor class as tax cuts, but the public reaction to this first gynormous overreach should instill some caution, if only for self-preservation.
Something that nobody has said a word about, but what is the price tag going to be for changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico in every aviation and nautical chart, every manual, every textbook, every map, every document, and every public display? Whatever it is, double it, because it is going to revert once Trump is gone. Government efficiency? Not so much.
We need to keep up the pressure. This is sn obviously BLATANT power grab by tRump and Project_2025's Russell Vought to help tRump consolidate power. Vought MUST NOT be confirmed and neither should Gabbard, Patel or Kennedy.
We are now living in a kakistocracy with an oligarchy as the cherry on top. WE MUST PROTEST AND RESIST.
Can we call it an attempted coup? The American Heritage dictionary defines it as "A sudden appropriation of leadership or power; a takeover"
A number of writers have referred to it as a coup. I agree.
Leavitt is in over her head.
I certainly hope she ends up being fired.....
She’ll just be replaced by yet another moron, since there seems to be an endless supply of them right now!!
And the are all blonde and perky.
The exception, of course, was Communications Director #1, Sean Spicer. Neither blonde (or was he?) nor perky.
I’d rather see her have an epiphany, recognize her predicament and resign.
If she had the kind of insight that could result in that, she wouldn't be in that job in the first place. At least with her, the chaos is in the open. A brighter press secretary could BS some people into believing what's going on is all right.