As Elon Musk leads his horde of young techie marauders on a lawless rampage through all the federal agencies that provide vital services to the American people, burning and pillaging as he goes, the question on sane and patriotic minds is: “Can someone stop him?”
But President Donald Trump does not care. He and Musk have egos the size of Mount McKinley (or is it Denali?) and they have learned a dark secret: if you are bold enough and are given enough power, you can ignore the Constitution, do whatever radical thing you wish and there may be no one who can make you stop.
Members of the House and Senate are the ones whose constitutional powers are being sundered, but Congress is in the hands of Republicans who have consumed gallons of Trump Kool-Aid. A majority of them are dunderheads who believe the right-wing fantasy of the dreaded “deep state.” The rest are odious cowards who refuse to risk their political careers by rejecting even the most outrageously unqualified and dangerous Trump cabinet appointees.
As for the Democrats in Congress, they are reduced to impotent gestures. Yes, they band together to give all-night speeches on the floor of the Senate that delay a confirmation vote for a few hours. They lead chants in front of small crowds of protesters outside closed federal buildings. But Musk does not hear them. He is too busy destroying aid programs that support American farmers and feed starving people in Africa.
The Justice Department could halt Musk’s demolition derby, but you may have noticed that the department responsible for defending the Constitution is now staffed by Trump’s lawyers.
But the courts! The courts will save us! Yes, several federal judges have ruled that aspects of the executive branch blitzkrieg are unlawful, but, if Trump and Musk ignore them, who will enforce those rulings? Trump’s servile attorney general? And, if Musk or some other Trump administration official somehow gets convicted of illegalities, will Trump not simply pardon them?
Hey, how about the conservative Supreme Court? That question answers itself.
So, it is left to the American people to look up from their cellphones, wake from their social media stupor, set aside what they have heard on Fox News and come to the aid of their country. I guess that could happen, but I am not betting on it.
“Blame It on the Bossa Nova” is a song written by Cynthia Weil (lyrics) and Barry Mann which was a 1963 hit single for Eydie Gormé, reaching number 7 on the Hot 100 in Billboard in March 1963. The song also peaked at number 32 in the UK, whereas “Yes, My Darling Daughter” became the biggest hit for Eydie there, reaching number 10.
The video scenes were taken by the TV series “Mad Men” (2007)
Stephen employs a metaphor to explain President Trump’s tyrannical behavior over the past week, MapQuest is resisting the president’s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico, and we have a preview of the entertainment Trump has planned as he takes control of an esteemed American cultural institution.
John Oliver discusses the first four weeks of Donald Trump’s second term as president, the strategy behind some of the choices his administration has made and why it is indeed fuck time. You heard us: It’s fuck time.
Why leave? Stay in place and make them get security to walk you out & make sure friends are there Will cellphones to video it for social media…because the mainstream media sure won’t post it.
The only reason I know about all of yesterday’s protests, and how big many were, is because of social media. Friends in other countries seem to be seeing more in TV than here in tRUMPistan or whatever he’s renaming it.
Where does Elon go to sleep at night, or is he just jacked up on ketamine and working 24/7?
Miltary getting itchy because they see benefits going poof? Active? Reserve? Retired?
Another point covered by Lawrence O last night: Elon railing on about 150-year olds receiving checks. So, apparently Elon doesn’t understand coding. (Neither do I but I don’t work in it. If I did, I would.)
Why 150-year-old figures may exist in the Social Security database
Social media commenters came up with one possible explanation for the 150-year age, and experts who have worked closely with the Social Security Administration told PolitiFact it was plausible.
Under an international standard called ISO 8601, a missing value for a date is coded as May 20, 1875, because that was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the “Convention du Mètre.”
For that reason, under some coding systems, a missing value for a date will default to 1875 — which in the year 2025 produces a round figure of 150.
“Some people, particularly some immigrants, really don’t know their exact birthday, so there would have to be some alternative means of verification,” said C. Eugene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank, and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department during the Reagan administration.
Another possibility is that a beneficiary’s record in the system may have multiple fields for birth dates, one of which is missing data because it’s not needed for calculations.
“Some records may have missing codes, while others may have conflicting information on age or date of birth, so the staff would have created queries to determine which fields are actually used,” J. Michael Collins, a University of Wisconsin professor of public affairs, said.
I recall when this woman was the last person to receive a Civil War pension.
The check arrived every month: $73.13.
Irene Triplett, who lived in a North Carolina nursing home, rarely talked about the source of the money. She was the last American to receive a pension from the Civil War — $877.56 a year from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“White House says Musk is not DOGE employee, has no authority to make decisions”
“Fisher’s filing, made in a case brought against Musk by the State of New Mexico, said that Musk was not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service, or the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, and added: “Mr Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.”
“Just 69 days after Trump announced the team, Ramaswamy is now leaving DOGE“
“A cheeky meme portraying Musk erasing Ramaswamy from history was privately shared by junior staff in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, a person familiar with the meme said. It depicted Musk as Josef Stalin and Ramaswamy as the chief of the Soviet secret police who was later executed and removed from photos.”
“According to Mr. Trump’s EO, DOGE will be a “temporary organization” that will focus on “advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.” The EO says that DOGE will come to an end on July 4, 2026.
On Monday, Trump said DOGE will have about “about 20 people” working in its office.”
“According to the U.S. Digital Service, the unit currently has about 230 employees.”
“The staffing of DOGE has been hard to fully map out. DOGE has not released a full staff list, and a number of Musk’s aides have been secretive about their role.
In January, Musk announced that he was looking to hire unpaid “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.” On DOGE’s website, it says that they are currently looking to hire paid, full-time “software engineers, InfoSec engineers, and other technology professionals.”
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump wrote. “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans.”
************
Hmmm, There were two heads, but Elon had one cut off, so now it’s just him…and he’s the one who wanted to call it DOGE, after that meme coin of a dog…the mark of the beast.
In tRUMPsky’s own words, DOGE was headed by two, who then became one.
Question for trail lawyers: Is it perjury to file a false response to a lawsuit? Does the fact that Elon is not mentioned in the EO give the government…um, or crime syndicate any cover in these lawsuits brought by states?
Where all the hackers who hate the South African princess of pain?
This practice was not uncommon at the time due to the possibility of receiving pensions as dependents of Civil War veterans; the pensions were known for their generosity. Some of these unions were in name only, while others lived together as married couples.
Helen Viola Jackson (August 3, 1919 – December 16, 2020) was the last surviving widow of a Union soldier and the last surviving widow of a Civil War veteran overall; she died on December 16, 2020, at the age of 101.[1][2][3] In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she married 93-year-old James Bolin (1843–1939), who had served in the 14th Missouri Cavalry.[1] Jackson was 17. She met him when her father volunteered her to help the elderly Bolin with basic chores.[2] With no other means to repay her kindness, Bolin offered to marry Jackson so she would become eligible to receive his pension after he died.[4] Similar marriages had occurred before.[4]
Jackson and Bolin were married outside his home in Niangua, Missouri. Following the marriage, the couple never made their marriage public, fearing damage to Jackson’s reputation. She continued to live with her parents.[5] Following Bolin’s death, three years later, Jackson decided against applying for the $73.13 monthly pension (equivalent to $1,600 in 2023) after Bolin’s daughters threatened to ruin her reputation.[4] The marriage was recorded in Bolin’s family Bible and other documents verified by Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War.[5][1] Jackson did not reveal the marriage until 2017 when planning for her own funeral with her pastor and they realized the historical significance of her combined longevity and secret marriage.[4] Prior to this revelation Maudie Hopkins, who died in 2008, was believed to have been the last surviving wife of a Civil War soldier.[6
“In a separate interview, Errol explained how right-wing poltics were at the core of his family’s history. Elon’s maternal grandparents relocated from Canada to South Africa in the early 1900s as they knew the Afrikaner government was a stronghold of support for Nazism outside of Germany.”
“They used to support Hitler and all that sort of stuff. But they didn’t know, I don’t think they knew what the Nazis were doing. But they [the grandparents] were in the German Nazi party but in Canada. And they sympathise with the Germans. ”
_Errol Musk, father of Elon…who also believes in breeding as many kids as possible
***
Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, has been married multiple times. He was first married to Maye Musk, with whom he has three children, including Elon, and later married Heide Bezuidenhout, with whom he had two children, and currently has a child with Jana Bezuidenhout, his former stepdaughter.
“Errol and Heide had two biological children together, but he also helped raise Jana, who was just 4 years old when he became her stepfather. Errol and Heide eventually divorced after an 18-year marriage.”
“But the Musk family was subsequently stunned when Jana became pregnant with Errol’s baby back in 2017. It led to a bitter falling out between Errol and Elon, with the Tesla CEO furious that his father had impregnated his stepsister.”
“Elon Musk’s dad, 76, confirms secret second child — with his stepdaughter”
The Musk patriarch, 76, welcomed the baby girl with Jana, 35, back in 2019 — but only confirmed the news on Wednesday, bragging to the Sun: “The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.”
(That was in 2022, so the kid is now 2 and he is 78.)
“The two already share a 5-year-old boy, Elliot Rush, born in 2017.”
“Errol admitted Jana’s pregnancy was “unplanned” and told the publication that they are no longer living together, citing their 41-year age gap.
“It’s not practical. She’s 35,” Errol declared. “Eventually if I’m still around, she might wind up back with me.”
“President Joe Biden is making a sweeping move to ban all future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea — a move President-elect Donald Trump is angrily vowing to reverse.”
“But that could prove difficult for Trump because the law Biden used, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, was written so a presidential action under its authority is permanent, differing from other executive actions. If the Trump administration were to attempt to reverse Biden’s actions, Congress would likely have to change the law.”
Was renaming the GoM as GoA to try to get around this? Is it because he really does plan to incorporate Canada in the US, and rename the USofA something else when DOGE is done destroying everything, and the US Constitution has been completely shredded? Will it even take 18 months as tRUMPsky outlined? Is New America or tRUMP’s America or tRUMPistan or whatever he decided to call it, is 7/4/2026 the new birthday?
“He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote-counting computers,” Trump told the crowd. “And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide.”
“On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida.”
“NEWSMarco Rubio says Trump is the ‘only’ leader to make Russia-Ukraine peace deal possible” “Rubio, U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov in Riyadh on Tuesday.”
*And by “Trump,” Lil Marco means Putin.
“Rubio said that the U.S. and Russians agreed on four principles during their meeting.”
“First, he said the U.S. and Moscow will work to reestablish their ‘missions’ in both countries so they can move forward with diplomatic relations.”
“Rubio also said the U.S. will appoint a high-level team to help negotiate and will begin to discuss geopolitical and economic cooperation that could help resolve the conflict.”
“He also said that the five people who were involved in the first meeting will remain engaged, so they know it is moving along ‘in a productive way.’
“Waltz said they discussed that it needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary pause.
He said there will be discussion of territory as well as security guarantees which will underlie any talks that they have. However, Waltz would not say whether the U.S. would agree to Russia retaining any Ukrainian territory it had annexed since it invaded three years ago, only that it was to be discussed.”
‘What the president did not find acceptable was an endless war in Europe that was literally turning into, has turned into a meat grinder of people on both sides,’ Waltz said.
*So, somebody breaks into your country/house (or nation’s data files), and then someone claiming to be the police (or a ~legitimate~ government representative) shows up and decides if you get to keep your land/sofa, refrigerator (Social Security).
“Jack Smith joins 900 ex-prosecutors to warn against Trump shutting anti-corruption office”
“Against this backdrop, we have watched with alarm as these values have been tested by recent actions of the Department’s leadership,” the letter continued. “Some of you have been ordered to make charging decisions based expressly on considerations other than the facts and the law, including to serve solely political purposes.”
“As governor, Hochul has the power to remove Adams, and she has come under increasing pressure from fellow Democrats to exercise it amid Adams’ numerous scandals, including an alleged quid-pro-quo with the Justice Department to drop criminal charges against him in exchange for Adams aiding the Trump administration’s immigration policies.”
She needs to kick him out. He’s wildly unpopular, and if she doesn’t, she looks like she’s siding with tRUMPsky…and he ruins everything he touches.
Now is the time to use whatever power you have for the good of democracy, because it’ll be gone before you know it.
“DHS moves to fire 12 CISA employees who policed ‘misinformation’ and pause ‘all election security activities’
“The dozen staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) previously were placed on leave — as President Trump’s team works to make good on his campaign-trail vow to punish officials who regulated Americans’ political commentary.”
“CISA has completed an initial review of its election security mission with a particular focus on work related to mis-, dis-, and malinformation in accordance with Executive Order 14149, Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” a senior DHS official told The Post.
*Well, it worked for Viktor Orban, and Adolf did say nobody would ever have to vote, again.
**We need hackers and military to put an end to this nonsense.
“Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) introduced a bill Friday that would establish President Trump’s birthday, June 14, as a public holiday.”
“The Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act proposes the recognition of both Trump’s birthday and Flag Day, celebrated on June 14, as federal public holidays.”
Well, who told her to do this or is she sucking up in her own?
Flags, the things he liked to hug and rub up against, like JD loves couches. But whatever floats your boat, I’m not gonna kink shame when they’ve done so many actual terrible and dangerous things.
“Joe Rogan Dethroned by Anti-Trump Podcast in the Charts”
“The podcast charts have largely been dominated by shows with a conservative or pro-Trump voice, and the likes of Joe Rogan, Shawn Ryan and Ben Shapiro have frequently appeared in the top 10. Trump himself appeared on a number of these podcasts, eschewing traditional media outlets, as part of his successful bid for reelection in 2024.”
“Less than a month into the new administration, the rise of the left-leaning MeidasTouch to become the country’s most popular podcast indicates a potential shift in tone currently resonating with Americans.”
Juuuust a bit outside. Short of something happening to Putin, I don’t know how this helps now. Without Kremlin leadership, I think they’d be more likely to eat each other.
“Since Feb. 4, the Trump administration has flown about 100 immigrant detainees to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a facility better known for having held those suspected of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Officials have widely touted the flights as a demonstration of President Donald Trump’s commitment to one of the central promises of his campaign, and they’ve distributed photos of some of the immigrants at both takeoff and landing. But they have not released the names of those they’re holding or provided details about their alleged crimes.”
“In recent days, however, information about the flights and the people on them has emerged that calls the government’s narrative into question. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have identified nearly a dozen Venezuelan immigrants who have been transferred to Guantanamo. The New York Times published a larger list with some, but not all, of the same names.
For three of the Guantanamo detainees who had been held at an immigration detention center in El Paso, ProPublica and the Tribune obtained records about their criminal histories and spoke to their families. The three men are all Venezuelan. Each had been detained by immigration authorities soon after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and was being held in custody, awaiting deportation. In some cases, they had been languishing for months because Venezuela, until recently, was largely not accepting deportees.”
“According to U.S. federal court records, two of them had no crimes on their records except for illegal entry. The third had picked up an additional charge while in detention, for kicking an officer while being restrained during a riot.”
“Jim Jones, head of the food division at the Food and Drug Administration, has resigned, according to a source familiar with the matter. The division is tasked with ensuring that the country’s food supply is safe, overseeing inspections and recalls.”
“In an emailed statement, Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group, said Jones’ departure will “set back efforts to make food safer.”
“There is no one on earth who can replace the chemical safety expertise that Jim brought to this job,” Faber said.
So aside from firing the people that the various departments need to keep things working and fucking up our former position of leadership on the world stage, what has DODO and his boss Leon Skum done wrong today?
“The Trump administration must reinstate Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris who was fired by President Donald Trump earlier this month, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled.”
“The government is “enjoined from removing Harris from her office or in any way treating her as having been removed, denying or obstructing Harris’s access to any of the benefits or resources of her office, placing a replacement in Harris’s position, or otherwise recognizing any other person as a member of the MSPB in Harris’s position,” Judge Rudolph Contreras of the the US District Court…”
New boycott: SOTU Address on March 4th. Call your Dem Reps & Senators to boycott the bullshit!
Also, LET THE GOVERNMENT SHUT FOWN IN MARCH. MAGAts made the mess. I’ve asked for a NO vote on the Republican reconciliation bill. But yeah, let MAGAts push for the cruelty and watch MAGAts who haven’t come to the FIND OUT portion of things yet…see if there isn’t a mob with pitchforks coming after their dirty asses then.
“Of the 444 counties classified as farm-dependent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), most of which are located west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies, Mr. Trump won all but 11 last November.”
“But now, some of these same communities are reacting with a sense of dismay and concern as they watch the Trump administration dismantle federal agencies and freeze Biden-era financing programs that directly impact their own economic livelihood.”
“Farmers who sell surplus crops to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for overseas distribution are fretting about future purchases and calling their state delegations. Business owners that qualified for USDA grants and invested in renewable energy technology and climate-resistant crops are unsure if they will be paid. Contract lawyers are getting involved.”
“At some point, Mr. Musk’s “sledgehammer approach” to government programs could become a political liability for Republicans, warns Mr. Wylie, the GOP strategist who is based in South Carolina.”
“GOP lawmakers who don’t assert congressional authority over budget matters and who simply applaud Mr. Trump for taking on the bureaucracy may wind up vulnerable in midterm elections, he says. If voters see DOGE’s actions impacting things like food prices and overdraft charges, “The risk is in two years … they get kicked out because they didn’t do their job.”
That’s adorable. There won’t be elections in two years if this allowed to continue.
Just talked to an elderly, Hispanic, Republican friend in Texas. She thinks her SS check increased this year because of tRUMPsky. She thinks he probably isn’t directly responsible to the bad stuff she’s starting to see happen. When I told her brother of those things are true, she said we just won’t talk about politics, so I let it drop but FFS!
“New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants the public to know he’s not going anywhere despite the mounting calls for him to resign — and he said it in such a way that triggered a fresh wave of outrage.”
“According to the New York Daily News, Adams, while speaking at a re-election campaign event at Rehoboth Cathedral in Brooklyn, told his supporters, “I was listening to some of Dr. King’s teachings, and he talked about the book ‘Mein Kampf.’ He said if you repeat a lie long enough, loud enough people will believe it is true, and that’s what you’re seeing right now. This is a modern-day ‘Mein Kampf.’”
Adams’ BS is the lie. Holchul needs to can him now, because he has gone full MAGA…which is useful for the n@zis to have a POC around…for a little while
I am seeing so many posts about how, why, what happened and really stupid stuff. SFB is not in this universe, He is senile,maybe carrying his father’s Alzheimer’s issues, very much nuts and a criminal. He is not normal, he is not like President Biden, a thinking and caring human. He is not like Harris, a thinking, a caring human. So frustrating to see so much that shows the posters have no concept of how far gone that idiot is.
These bullshit EOs need to be disregarded & Congress needs to do business as usual. Only Adolf can speak what the law is? No.
Definitely pushing the Constitution over a cliff.
Is he delulu? Well, he’s a narcissist to the nth degree, which means he’s operating in an alternate reality. But there are power-hungry asshats who are riding the delusion straight into a fully-fascist state.
Only the President can speak what the law is. Pfft!
Time for the military to lock him up in a padded room…or something, and see how brave those behind the scenes actually are.
Last week, the Washington Postsparked a media kerfuffle when it reported that talk-show-host-turned-defense secretary Peter Hegseth had invited MAGA provocateur Jack Posobiec to “participate” in Hegseth’s first overseas trip and that this was “triggering alarm among US defense officials worried about the military being dragged into partisan warfare.”
“”This article and pieces in other outlets noted that Posobiec was a 2020 election denier…””
“”They [the news articles] reminded readers that last year at a conservative conference, he had proclaimed, “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it.”
As it turned out, Posobiec, a podcaster and a senior editor at Human Events, an ultra-right publication, told Politico that he didn’t tag along with Hegseth. Instead, he accepted an invitation from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to travel with him as media to Ukraine for the secretary’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
All of this raises a troubling question: Why are Trump cabinet officials reaching out to a right-wing activist who has associated with white nationalists and who has pushed dangerous and debunked conspiracy theories (one Pizzagate believer showed up armed at the restaurant and fired an AR-15 rifle inside)?
Moreover, last year, Posobiec published a book that praised fascist leaders who used violence to suppress their opponents and that demonized modern-day progressives as “unhumans,” claiming these diabolical people are waging an “Irregular Communist Revolution” to annihilate American civilization.
The book was a hyper-othering of political rivals, loaded with rhetoric that could provoke violence. The “unhumans,” Posobiec and Lisec maintained, were behind the Black Lives Matter movement, in charge of academia, and in control of corporations, the media, and even churches. “They just want an excuse to destroy everything,” they wrote. “They want an excuse to destroy you.”
To defeat the “unhumans” (liberals, Democrats, and others of that ilk), the pair contended, the right must be vicious and adopt extreme and underhanded measures. “Our study of history,” they wrote, “has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans. It is time to stop playing by rules they won’t.”
In their book, Posobiec and Lisec described Franco, who was backed by Nazi Germany, as “a great man of history.” And they justified the brutality and violence of Pinochet’s regime: “The story of tossing communists out of helicopter hails from Pinochet’s elimination of communism during the mid to late 1970s. Wherever Pinochet was, there was no communism.”
In the midst of President Trump’s blitzkrieg against the federal government and his political foes, Trump’s most senior officials are embracing Posobiec. But Hegseth and Bessent are not the first Trumpers to do so. Before the book was published last year and before he became Trump’s running-mate, JD Vance gave a thumbs-up to this McCarthyite paranoia by providing a blurb that the duo used to peddle the book:
“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags. Today, they march through HR [Human Resources], college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people. In Unhumans, Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.”
***
OK, so now can the military disappear them or something? Defend the US Constitution.
ps – Generalisimo Francisco Franco, still dead.
Last edited 1 day ago by blueINdallas
anonymoustuff
1 day ago
if i was a Marxist, and i’m not, i would do everything Trump is doing to collapse capitalism
Not quite sure how the Nazi car maker managed to amass the billions? Did he just buy talent? If you judge by the blue bird of loathsome and the current bad dog-e, he is a complete incompetent. He and Orange Adolph are all destroy without any build. Both are known for cheating at their chosen games which hints at deep insecurities masked by lust for power and need for constant praise.
“depressing thread” in this environment means y’all are sharing salient content, thank you
anonymoustuff
1 day ago
as i’ve said i don’t know how to unring a bell so i don’t have much to add lately
youtube is unusable now also so no fun music, either 😭
anonymoustuff
1 day ago
post-inauguration, i begin my news perusal with trailmix go determine whether i have the disposition for a more thorough review of political developments
today was one of them “fuck it”
days
…and yet i got some perspective from y’all, so thanks again! 😊
USA negotiating with Russia sans Ukraine representation is going to result in proof that
Trump is beholden to Putin. Zelenskyy is apoplectic, frustrated. Be prepared for another few years of war.
The big mystery for me about Mayor Adam’s is how, exactly, the axe will fall. He’s a politically dead man walking. As Olbermann often quotes from some movie, “ You’re dead, son…..get yourself buried.”
David Horsey’s op ed Elon Musk to Americans: You’re not the boss of me | The Seattle Times
in case you didn’t get the message
“Blame It on the Bossa Nova” is a song written by Cynthia Weil (lyrics) and Barry Mann which was a 1963 hit single for Eydie Gormé, reaching number 7 on the Hot 100 in Billboard in March 1963. The song also peaked at number 32 in the UK, whereas “Yes, My Darling Daughter” became the biggest hit for Eydie there, reaching number 10.
The video scenes were taken by the TV series “Mad Men” (2007)
but back to the real world
Stephen employs a metaphor to explain President Trump’s tyrannical behavior over the past week, MapQuest is resisting the president’s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico, and we have a preview of the entertainment Trump has planned as he takes control of an esteemed American cultural institution.
John Oliver discusses the first four weeks of Donald Trump’s second term as president, the strategy behind some of the choices his administration has made and why it is indeed fuck time. You heard us: It’s fuck time.
First headline I saw this morning.
As Dexter wrote last night:
here’s the link for that Larry O’Donnell piece
Lawrence: Because of Musk and Trump, for the first time Social Security payments are not guaranteed
Why leave? Stay in place and make them get security to walk you out & make sure friends are there Will cellphones to video it for social media…because the mainstream media sure won’t post it.
The only reason I know about all of yesterday’s protests, and how big many were, is because of social media. Friends in other countries seem to be seeing more in TV than here in tRUMPistan or whatever he’s renaming it.
Where does Elon go to sleep at night, or is he just jacked up on ketamine and working 24/7?
Miltary getting itchy because they see benefits going poof? Active? Reserve? Retired?
Another point covered by Lawrence O last night: Elon railing on about 150-year olds receiving checks. So, apparently Elon doesn’t understand coding. (Neither do I but I don’t work in it. If I did, I would.)
I recall when this woman was the last person to receive a Civil War pension.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/04/she-was-last-american-collect-civil-war-pension-7313-month-she-just-died/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/white-house-says-musk-is-not-doge-employee-has-no-authority-to-make-decisions/ar-AA1zfuqF
“White House says Musk is not DOGE employee, has no authority to make decisions”
“Fisher’s filing, made in a case brought against Musk by the State of New Mexico, said that Musk was not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service, or the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, and added: “Mr Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.”
***
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-doge-executive-order-elon-musk-us-digital-service-it/
“Just 69 days after Trump announced the team, Ramaswamy is now leaving DOGE“
“A cheeky meme portraying Musk erasing Ramaswamy from history was privately shared by junior staff in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, a person familiar with the meme said. It depicted Musk as Josef Stalin and Ramaswamy as the chief of the Soviet secret police who was later executed and removed from photos.”
***
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-doge-executive-order-elon-musk-us-digital-service-it/
“According to Mr. Trump’s EO, DOGE will be a “temporary organization” that will focus on “advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.” The EO says that DOGE will come to an end on July 4, 2026.
On Monday, Trump said DOGE will have about “about 20 people” working in its office.”
“According to the U.S. Digital Service, the unit currently has about 230 employees.”
***
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/doge-elon-musk-report-people-staff-what-we-know-news-rcna191260
“The staffing of DOGE has been hard to fully map out. DOGE has not released a full staff list, and a number of Musk’s aides have been secretive about their role.
In January, Musk announced that he was looking to hire unpaid “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.” On DOGE’s website, it says that they are currently looking to hire paid, full-time “software engineers, InfoSec engineers, and other technology professionals.”
***
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/g-s1-33972/trump-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-government-efficiency-deep-state
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump wrote. “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans.”
************
Hmmm, There were two heads, but Elon had one cut off, so now it’s just him…and he’s the one who wanted to call it DOGE, after that meme coin of a dog…the mark of the beast.
In tRUMPsky’s own words, DOGE was headed by two, who then became one.
Question for trail lawyers: Is it perjury to file a false response to a lawsuit? Does the fact that Elon is not mentioned in the EO give the government…um, or crime syndicate any cover in these lawsuits brought by states?
Where all the hackers who hate the South African princess of pain?
Of course, it was all great when it was Confederates milking the system.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/civil-war/confederate/confederate-pensions.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_widows_who_survived_into_the_21st_century#:~:text=All%20were%20born%20in%20the,were%20known%20for%20their%20generosity.
What does Elon really know about American history? Only what was covered on the test?
Maybe there are still others?
Helen Viola Jackson (August 3, 1919 – December 16, 2020) was the last surviving widow of a Union soldier and the last surviving widow of a Civil War veteran overall; she died on December 16, 2020, at the age of 101.[1][2][3] In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she married 93-year-old James Bolin (1843–1939), who had served in the 14th Missouri Cavalry.[1] Jackson was 17. She met him when her father volunteered her to help the elderly Bolin with basic chores.[2] With no other means to repay her kindness, Bolin offered to marry Jackson so she would become eligible to receive his pension after he died.[4] Similar marriages had occurred before.[4]
Jackson and Bolin were married outside his home in Niangua, Missouri. Following the marriage, the couple never made their marriage public, fearing damage to Jackson’s reputation. She continued to live with her parents.[5] Following Bolin’s death, three years later, Jackson decided against applying for the $73.13 monthly pension (equivalent to $1,600 in 2023) after Bolin’s daughters threatened to ruin her reputation.[4] The marriage was recorded in Bolin’s family Bible and other documents verified by Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War.[5][1] Jackson did not reveal the marriage until 2017 when planning for her own funeral with her pastor and they realized the historical significance of her combined longevity and secret marriage.[4] Prior to this revelation Maudie Hopkins, who died in 2008, was believed to have been the last surviving wife of a Civil War soldier.[6
I’m reminded of the time Jackie O tried to re-name Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/elon-musk-embracing-south-african-34198513
“In a separate interview, Errol explained how right-wing poltics were at the core of his family’s history. Elon’s maternal grandparents relocated from Canada to South Africa in the early 1900s as they knew the Afrikaner government was a stronghold of support for Nazism outside of Germany.”
“They used to support Hitler and all that sort of stuff. But they didn’t know, I don’t think they knew what the Nazis were doing. But they [the grandparents] were in the German Nazi party but in Canada. And they sympathise with the Germans. ”
_Errol Musk, father of Elon…who also believes in breeding as many kids as possible
***
Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, has been married multiple times. He was first married to Maye Musk, with whom he has three children, including Elon, and later married Heide Bezuidenhout, with whom he had two children, and currently has a child with Jana Bezuidenhout, his former stepdaughter.
***
https://nypost.com/2022/07/14/elon-musks-dad-76-confirms-secret-child-with-stepdaughter/
“Errol and Heide had two biological children together, but he also helped raise Jana, who was just 4 years old when he became her stepfather. Errol and Heide eventually divorced after an 18-year marriage.”
“But the Musk family was subsequently stunned when Jana became pregnant with Errol’s baby back in 2017. It led to a bitter falling out between Errol and Elon, with the Tesla CEO furious that his father had impregnated his stepsister.”
“Elon Musk’s dad, 76, confirms secret second child — with his stepdaughter”
The Musk patriarch, 76, welcomed the baby girl with Jana, 35, back in 2019 — but only confirmed the news on Wednesday, bragging to the Sun: “The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.”
(That was in 2022, so the kid is now 2 and he is 78.)
“The two already share a 5-year-old boy, Elliot Rush, born in 2017.”
“Errol admitted Jana’s pregnancy was “unplanned” and told the publication that they are no longer living together, citing their 41-year age gap.
“It’s not practical. She’s 35,” Errol declared. “Eventually if I’m still around, she might wind up back with me.”
As we give away Ukraine to Putin let’s remember those vote-suppressing Russian bomb threats in mostly Democratic battleground-state counties. Guess the FBI won’t be investigating anymore.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/election-day-bomb-threats-overwhelmingly-targeted-democrat-leaning-rcna179006
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-block-future-oil-drilling-625-million-acres/story?id=117359271
“President Joe Biden is making a sweeping move to ban all future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea — a move President-elect Donald Trump is angrily vowing to reverse.”
“But that could prove difficult for Trump because the law Biden used, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, was written so a presidential action under its authority is permanent, differing from other executive actions. If the Trump administration were to attempt to reverse Biden’s actions, Congress would likely have to change the law.”
Was renaming the GoM as GoA to try to get around this? Is it because he really does plan to incorporate Canada in the US, and rename the USofA something else when DOGE is done destroying everything, and the US Constitution has been completely shredded? Will it even take 18 months as tRUMPsky outlined? Is New America or tRUMP’s America or tRUMPistan or whatever he decided to call it, is 7/4/2026 the new birthday?
https://www.newsweek.com/2024-election-rigged-donald-trump-elon-musk-2019482
“What’s Behind ‘Rigged’ 2024 Election Claims”
***
https://www.politicususa.com/p/data-analysts-recommend-investigation
“Data analysts are recommending an investigation into the ballot counting system in Pennsylvania after Trump’s comments raised concerns.”
***
https://www.wric.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/776992724/analysis-of-2024-election-results-in-clark-county-indicates-manipulation/
“Record data available for Clark County Nevada, data analysts with ETA identified patterns consistent with election fraud.”
As we give away Ukraine to Putin let’s remember Russia paid millions to pro-Trump podcasters. Guessing DOJ not on top of this anymore.. https://www.npr.org/2024/09/07/nx-s1-5101895/doj-says-russia-paid-right-wing-influencers-to-spread-russian-propaganda
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-elon-musk-voting-machine-2017657
“He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote-counting computers,” Trump told the crowd. “And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide.”
***
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/donald-trump-keep-saying-dont-need-votes-election-2024-rcna163808
“On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida.”
As we give away Ukraine to Putin let’s remember Marco Rubio’s Senate Intelligence Committee found Trump/Russia collusion.. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-panel-finds-russia-interfered-in-the-2016-us-election
today’s meme…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14409355/marco-rubio-trump-ukraine-russia-peace-deal.html
“NEWSMarco Rubio says Trump is the ‘only’ leader to make Russia-Ukraine peace deal possible”
“Rubio, U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov in Riyadh on Tuesday.”
*And by “Trump,” Lil Marco means Putin.
“Rubio said that the U.S. and Russians agreed on four principles during their meeting.”
“First, he said the U.S. and Moscow will work to reestablish their ‘missions’ in both countries so they can move forward with diplomatic relations.”
“Rubio also said the U.S. will appoint a high-level team to help negotiate and will begin to discuss geopolitical and economic cooperation that could help resolve the conflict.”
“He also said that the five people who were involved in the first meeting will remain engaged, so they know it is moving along ‘in a productive way.’
“Waltz said they discussed that it needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary pause.
He said there will be discussion of territory as well as security guarantees which will underlie any talks that they have. However, Waltz would not say whether the U.S. would agree to Russia retaining any Ukrainian territory it had annexed since it invaded three years ago, only that it was to be discussed.”
‘What the president did not find acceptable was an endless war in Europe that was literally turning into, has turned into a meat grinder of people on both sides,’ Waltz said.
*So, somebody breaks into your country/house (or nation’s data files), and then someone claiming to be the police (or a ~legitimate~ government representative) shows up and decides if you get to keep your land/sofa, refrigerator (Social Security).
https://www.rawstory.com/jack-smith-trump-corruption/
“Jack Smith joins 900 ex-prosecutors to warn against Trump shutting anti-corruption office”
“Against this backdrop, we have watched with alarm as these values have been tested by recent actions of the Department’s leadership,” the letter continued. “Some of you have been ordered to make charging decisions based expressly on considerations other than the facts and the law, including to serve solely political purposes.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/17/kathy-hochul-eric-adams-new-york-mayor-00204641
“As governor, Hochul has the power to remove Adams, and she has come under increasing pressure from fellow Democrats to exercise it amid Adams’ numerous scandals, including an alleged quid-pro-quo with the Justice Department to drop criminal charges against him in exchange for Adams aiding the Trump administration’s immigration policies.”
She needs to kick him out. He’s wildly unpopular, and if she doesn’t, she looks like she’s siding with tRUMPsky…and he ruins everything he touches.
Now is the time to use whatever power you have for the good of democracy, because it’ll be gone before you know it.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/14/us-news/dhs-moves-to-fire-12-cisa-employees-who-policed-misinformation-and-pause-all-election-security-activities/
“DHS moves to fire 12 CISA employees who policed ‘misinformation’ and pause ‘all election security activities’
“The dozen staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) previously were placed on leave — as President Trump’s team works to make good on his campaign-trail vow to punish officials who regulated Americans’ political commentary.”
“CISA has completed an initial review of its election security mission with a particular focus on work related to mis-, dis-, and malinformation in accordance with Executive Order 14149, Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” a senior DHS official told The Post.
*Well, it worked for Viktor Orban, and Adolf did say nobody would ever have to vote, again.
**We need hackers and military to put an end to this nonsense.
https://thehill.com/homenews/5149827-trump-birthday-bill/
“Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) introduced a bill Friday that would establish President Trump’s birthday, June 14, as a public holiday.”
“The Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act proposes the recognition of both Trump’s birthday and Flag Day, celebrated on June 14, as federal public holidays.”
Well, who told her to do this or is she sucking up in her own?
Flags, the things he liked to hug and rub up against, like JD loves couches. But whatever floats your boat, I’m not gonna kink shame when they’ve done so many actual terrible and dangerous things.
His expiration date would make a great holiday.
Jigs will be danced.
We should plan a block party. What’s everyone bringing for eats and drinks? We’ll need a playlist, too.
ps – Saw a pic of a protest sign in DC. It was the GOP elephant with several swastikas.
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-rogan-dethroned-meidas-touch-podcast-donald-trump-2032673
“Joe Rogan Dethroned by Anti-Trump Podcast in the Charts”
“The podcast charts have largely been dominated by shows with a conservative or pro-Trump voice, and the likes of Joe Rogan, Shawn Ryan and Ben Shapiro have frequently appeared in the top 10. Trump himself appeared on a number of these podcasts, eschewing traditional media outlets, as part of his successful bid for reelection in 2024.”
“Less than a month into the new administration, the rise of the left-leaning MeidasTouch to become the country’s most popular podcast indicates a potential shift in tone currently resonating with Americans.”
Juuuust a bit outside. Short of something happening to Putin, I don’t know how this helps now. Without Kremlin leadership, I think they’d be more likely to eat each other.
F&ck You Russian Warship!
https://www.latintimes.com/11-year-old-texas-girl-bullied-over-familys-immigration-status-takes-her-own-life-575984
“11-Year-Old Texas Girl Bullied Over Family’s Immigration Status Takes Her Own Life”
“Students also threatened to call ICE to deport the girl’s family”
More blood on Donald John tRUMP’s hands.
***
https://meadorfuneral.com/jocelynn-rojo-carranza/
Here is the obituary…of an 11-year old. I hope all of those fucking, white nationalists and their 6th-graders feel remorse some day.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/13/immigration-flights-elpaso-guantanamo/
“Since Feb. 4, the Trump administration has flown about 100 immigrant detainees to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a facility better known for having held those suspected of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Officials have widely touted the flights as a demonstration of President Donald Trump’s commitment to one of the central promises of his campaign, and they’ve distributed photos of some of the immigrants at both takeoff and landing. But they have not released the names of those they’re holding or provided details about their alleged crimes.”
“In recent days, however, information about the flights and the people on them has emerged that calls the government’s narrative into question. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have identified nearly a dozen Venezuelan immigrants who have been transferred to Guantanamo. The New York Times published a larger list with some, but not all, of the same names.
For three of the Guantanamo detainees who had been held at an immigration detention center in El Paso, ProPublica and the Tribune obtained records about their criminal histories and spoke to their families. The three men are all Venezuelan. Each had been detained by immigration authorities soon after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and was being held in custody, awaiting deportation. In some cases, they had been languishing for months because Venezuela, until recently, was largely not accepting deportees.”
“According to U.S. federal court records, two of them had no crimes on their records except for illegal entry. The third had picked up an additional charge while in detention, for kicking an officer while being restrained during a riot.”
Time to dig out our Ukrainian flags again.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-food-division-head-jim-jones-resigns-rcna192589
“Jim Jones, head of the food division at the Food and Drug Administration, has resigned, according to a source familiar with the matter. The division is tasked with ensuring that the country’s food supply is safe, overseeing inspections and recalls.”
“In an emailed statement, Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group, said Jones’ departure will “set back efforts to make food safer.”
“There is no one on earth who can replace the chemical safety expertise that Jim brought to this job,” Faber said.
Welcome to the hellmouth!
So aside from firing the people that the various departments need to keep things working and fucking up our former position of leadership on the world stage, what has DODO and his boss Leon Skum done wrong today?
meme #2…
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/judge-reinstates-trump-fired-federal-worker-appeals-board-member-3
“The Trump administration must reinstate Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris who was fired by President Donald Trump earlier this month, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled.”
“The government is “enjoined from removing Harris from her office or in any way treating her as having been removed, denying or obstructing Harris’s access to any of the benefits or resources of her office, placing a replacement in Harris’s position, or otherwise recognizing any other person as a member of the MSPB in Harris’s position,” Judge Rudolph Contreras of the the US District Court…”
New boycott: SOTU Address on March 4th. Call your Dem Reps & Senators to boycott the bullshit!
Also, LET THE GOVERNMENT SHUT FOWN IN MARCH. MAGAts made the mess. I’ve asked for a NO vote on the Republican reconciliation bill. But yeah, let MAGAts push for the cruelty and watch MAGAts who haven’t come to the FIND OUT portion of things yet…see if there isn’t a mob with pitchforks coming after their dirty asses then.
Moron just said Ukraine “should have never started” the war. https://x.com/factpostnews/status/1891965209075425393?t=2P87gdMWoWnum48rZQ_ZwA&s=19
Now it’s going to be fun to watch republicans explain how Ukraine started the war.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0213/elon-musk-trump-voters
“Of the 444 counties classified as farm-dependent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), most of which are located west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies, Mr. Trump won all but 11 last November.”
“But now, some of these same communities are reacting with a sense of dismay and concern as they watch the Trump administration dismantle federal agencies and freeze Biden-era financing programs that directly impact their own economic livelihood.”
“Farmers who sell surplus crops to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for overseas distribution are fretting about future purchases and calling their state delegations. Business owners that qualified for USDA grants and invested in renewable energy technology and climate-resistant crops are unsure if they will be paid. Contract lawyers are getting involved.”
“At some point, Mr. Musk’s “sledgehammer approach” to government programs could become a political liability for Republicans, warns Mr. Wylie, the GOP strategist who is based in South Carolina.”
“GOP lawmakers who don’t assert congressional authority over budget matters and who simply applaud Mr. Trump for taking on the bureaucracy may wind up vulnerable in midterm elections, he says. If voters see DOGE’s actions impacting things like food prices and overdraft charges, “The risk is in two years … they get kicked out because they didn’t do their job.”
That’s adorable. There won’t be elections in two years if this allowed to continue.
Just talked to an elderly, Hispanic, Republican friend in Texas. She thinks her SS check increased this year because of tRUMPsky. She thinks he probably isn’t directly responsible to the bad stuff she’s starting to see happen. When I told her brother of those things are true, she said we just won’t talk about politics, so I let it drop but FFS!
https://www.rawstory.com/eric-adams-2671170098/
“New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants the public to know he’s not going anywhere despite the mounting calls for him to resign — and he said it in such a way that triggered a fresh wave of outrage.”
“According to the New York Daily News, Adams, while speaking at a re-election campaign event at Rehoboth Cathedral in Brooklyn, told his supporters, “I was listening to some of Dr. King’s teachings, and he talked about the book ‘Mein Kampf.’ He said if you repeat a lie long enough, loud enough people will believe it is true, and that’s what you’re seeing right now. This is a modern-day ‘Mein Kampf.’”
Adams’ BS is the lie. Holchul needs to can him now, because he has gone full MAGA…which is useful for the n@zis to have a POC around…for a little while
I am seeing so many posts about how, why, what happened and really stupid stuff. SFB is not in this universe, He is senile,maybe carrying his father’s Alzheimer’s issues, very much nuts and a criminal. He is not normal, he is not like President Biden, a thinking and caring human. He is not like Harris, a thinking, a caring human. So frustrating to see so much that shows the posters have no concept of how far gone that idiot is.
depressing thread today
These bullshit EOs need to be disregarded & Congress needs to do business as usual. Only Adolf can speak what the law is? No.
Definitely pushing the Constitution over a cliff.
Is he delulu? Well, he’s a narcissist to the nth degree, which means he’s operating in an alternate reality. But there are power-hungry asshats who are riding the delusion straight into a fully-fascist state.
Only the President can speak what the law is. Pfft!
Time for the military to lock him up in a padded room…or something, and see how brave those behind the scenes actually are.
What happens to cult of personality when there is no more personality?
oppression to keep everyone in line
chubby NK guy executed a bunch of people to keep everyone on their toes when his authority was questionable, for instance
You need the irreparable harm to prove the irreparable harm.
i was laughing about that “harm” blurb also, fellow Anon
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/jack-posobiec-unhumans-hegseth-bessent-pincohet-franco-fascists-maga-trump/
Last week, the Washington Post sparked a media kerfuffle when it reported that talk-show-host-turned-defense secretary Peter Hegseth had invited MAGA provocateur Jack Posobiec to “participate” in Hegseth’s first overseas trip and that this was “triggering alarm among US defense officials worried about the military being dragged into partisan warfare.”
“”This article and pieces in other outlets noted that Posobiec was a 2020 election denier…””
“”They [the news articles] reminded readers that last year at a conservative conference, he had proclaimed, “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it.”
As it turned out, Posobiec, a podcaster and a senior editor at Human Events, an ultra-right publication, told Politico that he didn’t tag along with Hegseth. Instead, he accepted an invitation from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to travel with him as media to Ukraine for the secretary’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
All of this raises a troubling question: Why are Trump cabinet officials reaching out to a right-wing activist who has associated with white nationalists and who has pushed dangerous and debunked conspiracy theories (one Pizzagate believer showed up armed at the restaurant and fired an AR-15 rifle inside)?
Moreover, last year, Posobiec published a book that praised fascist leaders who used violence to suppress their opponents and that demonized modern-day progressives as “unhumans,” claiming these diabolical people are waging an “Irregular Communist Revolution” to annihilate American civilization.
The book was a hyper-othering of political rivals, loaded with rhetoric that could provoke violence. The “unhumans,” Posobiec and Lisec maintained, were behind the Black Lives Matter movement, in charge of academia, and in control of corporations, the media, and even churches. “They just want an excuse to destroy everything,” they wrote. “They want an excuse to destroy you.”
To defeat the “unhumans” (liberals, Democrats, and others of that ilk), the pair contended, the right must be vicious and adopt extreme and underhanded measures. “Our study of history,” they wrote, “has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans. It is time to stop playing by rules they won’t.”
In their book, Posobiec and Lisec described Franco, who was backed by Nazi Germany, as “a great man of history.” And they justified the brutality and violence of Pinochet’s regime: “The story of tossing communists out of helicopter hails from Pinochet’s elimination of communism during the mid to late 1970s. Wherever Pinochet was, there was no communism.”
In the midst of President Trump’s blitzkrieg against the federal government and his political foes, Trump’s most senior officials are embracing Posobiec. But Hegseth and Bessent are not the first Trumpers to do so. Before the book was published last year and before he became Trump’s running-mate, JD Vance gave a thumbs-up to this McCarthyite paranoia by providing a blurb that the duo used to peddle the book:
***
OK, so now can the military disappear them or something? Defend the US Constitution.
ps – Generalisimo Francisco Franco, still dead.
if i was a Marxist, and i’m not, i would do everything Trump is doing to collapse capitalism
Not quite sure how the Nazi car maker managed to amass the billions? Did he just buy talent? If you judge by the blue bird of loathsome and the current bad dog-e, he is a complete incompetent. He and Orange Adolph are all destroy without any build. Both are known for cheating at their chosen games which hints at deep insecurities masked by lust for power and need for constant praise.
Depressing world today.
Little tiny ray of sunshine from AOC’s clap back on that jerk Homan.
Another ray of sunshine.
“depressing thread” in this environment means y’all are sharing salient content, thank you
as i’ve said i don’t know how to unring a bell so i don’t have much to add lately
youtube is unusable now also so no fun music, either 😭
post-inauguration, i begin my news perusal with trailmix go determine whether i have the disposition for a more thorough review of political developments
today was one of them “fuck it”
days
…and yet i got some perspective from y’all, so thanks again! 😊
😭
USA negotiating with Russia sans Ukraine representation is going to result in proof that
Trump is beholden to Putin. Zelenskyy is apoplectic, frustrated. Be prepared for another few years of war.
NEW THREAD
The big mystery for me about Mayor Adam’s is how, exactly, the axe will fall. He’s a politically dead man walking. As Olbermann often quotes from some movie, “ You’re dead, son…..get yourself buried.”