a late start…time for the thread on Trump atrocities, or “Trumpocities”

[zn]

If federal authorities released as much water as Donald Trump wanted, it could have endangered people along the river and flooded fields.

As it was, he wasted billions of gallons of water.

Billions of gallons we cannot afford to waste. pic.twitter.com/0f6i95vCQw

— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) February 4, 2025

[zn]

Getting bad in the USA #COVID19 #H5N1 #AvianFlu #Science #Research #CDC #NIH #Outbreak #Virus pic.twitter.com/ntyw0Fg8GQ

— SharonBC,Canada (@SharonBurnabyBC) January 23, 2025

[canadaram]

I find myself oscillating between anger and depression with any Trump related news. It sounds like he’s working extra hard to achieve unfettered power.

[nittany ram]

Not Trump directly but Trump enabled behavior nonetheless…

Republican senator introduces bill to abolish OSHA and the act that created it.

https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1764922

[zn]

This is not a serious proposal for the US to own Gaza. It’s comical. Egypt and Jordan are not taking in 2.4 million Palestinians. Developers aren’t going to front $50 billion to rebuild Gaza. The US Armed Forces aren’t going to muscle Hamas out of Gaza. https://t.co/PmXkwHzdrX

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) February 5, 2025

[zn]

Musical interlude.

…

Oh, the rovin’ gambler, he was very bored
Tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell on the floor
He said, “I never did engage in this kind of thing before, but
Yes, I think it can be very easily done
We need to put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61”

[zn]

from Facebook

MAGA billionaire Elon Musk suffers a crushing setback as a court rules that he and his DOGE minions must be blocked from further accessing crucial government databases.

This throws a major wrench into their fascist plans…

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C approved a temporary restraining order to protect the systems.

Norm Eisen, attorney and co-founder of the States United Democracy Center, celebrated the ruling on Blue Sky, calling it a “big win by us at the State Democracy Defender’s Action and our partners, including Public Citizen.”

The case alleged that Musk and his unelected DOGE henchmen gained access to sensitive personal information about government employees and others without having the appropriate security clearance and oversight from Congress.

Thanks to the ruling, Treasury Department officials “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service.”

Under the order, Musk’s minion Tom Krause and former employee Marko Elez will have access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but they will be barred from writing/editing any changes into it and will only be able to read it.

“This Order shall remain in effect until such time as the Court rules on the Plaintiffs’ forthcoming Preliminary Injunction Motion,” it stated.

[zn]

Helaine Olen@helaineolen
My latest: The closure of the CFPB helps Elon Musk — but hurts the rest of us: “No one in the White House appears interested in consumer financial regulation. The tech titans seek to expand their monopolies w/o CFPB referees in their way.”

[zn]

Alt National Park Service
·
Our coalition has grown significantly, with people from all sides joining us because—let’s face it—no one voted for Elon Musk. The number of laws Musk’s staffers have broken in just two weeks is staggering. Every day, more laws are broken. We report them, yet nothing is done. We spoke out because we knew that if we didn’t, by the time they came for us, no one would be left to stand up.

…the Trump administration won’t stop. Things have escalated to the point where a U.S. District Judge has approved requests from anonymous federal employees to proceed under pseudonyms in multiple cases against the Trump administration to protect themselves from harassment and threats. Chief Judge James Boasberg of D.C.’s federal trial court granted these requests on Tuesday, citing serious safety concerns raised by their attorneys.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney in Washington has warned that his office will pursue charges against “anyone who impedes” Elon Musk or his staff. We are being rendered powerless to stop Musk’s actions.

The Trump administration is targeting USAID, DOE, OPM, DOJ, CIA, FBI—the list goes on. Our coalition is grassroots, growing each day as we remain committed to speaking out. America, remember: we are in this together. You never realize how much you rely on essential services until they’re gone. When that happens, there will be no one left to help.

We hope all Americans will soon realize that what is happening is not normal.

“Raise a glass to freedom—something they can never take away, no matter what they tell you. Tomorrow, there’ll be more of us.”

***

Alt National Park Service
·
We are fully aware that, in time, we will face retribution for the information we are sharing with the American public. However, we remain committed to standing as a line of defense. When resistance members block efforts by Elon Musk’s staff, they are placed on administrative leave, their personal belongings searched, and their offices and computers locked. Our coalition now includes over 50,000 federal employees from across the government.

We want to remind Americans why Elon Musk’s actions are illegal. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was not established by Congress but was instead granted authority through an executive order by Trump, making its operations illegal. It is not an official department of the federal government. This system could provide Musk with a mechanism to unilaterally restrict the disbursement of funds approved by Congress—a move that has historically faced significant legal challenges.

DOGE teams have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies. However, none of these agencies control the flow of money in the way the Treasury Department does. Access to the federal payment system has always been tightly restricted due to its inclusion of sensitive personal information about millions of Americans who rely on Social Security checks, tax refunds, and other government payments.
In fiscal year 2023, the Treasury Department disbursed over $5 trillion through this system in a process typically overseen by civil servants. The stakes are incredibly high, and it is vital for Americans to understand the gravity of these actions. Please continue to spread the word and raise awareness.

In fiscal year 2023, the Treasury Department disbursed over $5 trillion through this system in a process typically overseen by civil servants. The stakes are incredibly high, and it is vital for Americans to understand the gravity of these actions. Please continue to spread the word and raise awareness.

[Zooey]

This is just one of thousands of harrowing stories told about the U.S. Government abandoning Americans abroad in the USAID shutdown. This is Benghazi times a million. 1/

— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.bsky.social) 2025-02-12T16:58:47.793Z

[zn]

[zn]

[zn]

"In private, Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions," ⁦@gabrielsherman⁩ writes https://t.co/4sZLHtMiCv

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 20, 2025

…
“They’re Scared Shitless”: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump’s Grip on Congress
With the president smashing norm after norm, even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making.

By Gabriel Sherman

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-congress-political-violence

In the past week, Donald Trump has signaled a desire to rule like a strongman rather than a president constrained by constitutional norms. Last Friday, Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, scolded democratic NATO allies and met with the leader of Germany’s extreme-right AfD party. On Saturday, Trump declared on social media: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” This Tuesday, Trump blamed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the brutal war that was launched by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. “You should have never started it,” Trump falsely said of Zelenskyy, when in fact Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The US president then doubled down on the feud Wednesday, calling Zelenskyy a “dictator.”

Democrats are in the minority in both the House and Senate, which means the federal courts and congressional Republicans are the only guardrails on Trump’s second term. So far the judicial system seems to be holding—though a Trump-packed Supreme Court is now destined to rule on all manner of alleged overreach in the coming months. (And it’s an open question as to whether Trump will actually abide by rulings that go against him.)

Republicans in Congress, however, have consistently folded—approving all of Trump’s Cabinet picks, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, with only a faint whiff of pushback on some of their boundary-scorching backgrounds. The confirmations predictably short-circuited many Democratic observers, but the rolling headlines of late have even some Republicans decrying the seeming erosion of checks and balances in recent weeks.

“These are the heirs of the Greatest Generation, and they turned out to be the worst generation,” says Stuart Stevens, who served as a chief strategist on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and has since left the GOP, joining the anti-Trump Lincoln Project as a senior adviser. “It’s tempting to compare Republicans to Prussian aristocrats in 1930s Germany. But Prussian aristocrats were more responsible. They were dealing with civil unrest and the threat of a communist takeover. Republicans today have historically low unemployment, a record stock market. What’s their excuse?”

Political survival is one. Senate and House Republicans know Trump will orchestrate the running of a primary challenger backed by Elon Musk’s unlimited resources if a member defies him. But this is not the whole story of Republican subservience to the president. In private, Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions.

“They’re scared shitless about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff,” a former member of Trump’s first administration tells me.

According to one source with direct knowledge of the events, North Carolina senator Thom Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about “credible death threats” when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary. Tillis ultimately provided the crucial 50th vote to confirm the former Fox & Friends host to lead the Pentagon. According to the source, Tillis has said that if people want to understand Trump, they should read the 2006 book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work. (When asked for comment for this story, a spokesperson for Tillis said it was false that the senator had recommended the book in that capacity. The FBI said it had no comment.)

From the moment Trump descended his golden escalator in June 2015 to announce his first run for president, he injected menace into his political rhetoric. On the campaign trail he talked about wanting to punch protesters in the face. During his first term, he praised Montana’s then representative Greg Gianforte for physically attacking Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” Trump said. (Gianforte later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and received a six-month deferred jail sentence.) When protests erupted after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020, Trump called protesters “thugs” and said: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The phrase echoed a remark made in the 1960s by a Miami police chief associated with stoking racial tensions in the city (Trump claimed he wasn’t aware of its origins). In a September 2020 debate against Joe Biden, Trump refused to condemn white supremacist violence and told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

January 6 further catalyzed GOP fear of Trump-inspired violence. Romney told his biographer, McKay Coppins, that an undercurrent of anxiety thwarted Republican efforts to formally punish Trump for his role in inciting the riot. “One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety,” Coppins wrote in his book. “When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict, the others urged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right.”

Former Wyoming representative and prominent anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney told CNN that House GOP members confided to her that they were “afraid for their own security—afraid, in some instances, for their lives.” Representative Jason Crow of Colorado told NBC News after January 6: “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues last night, and a couple of them broke down in tears—saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment.”

Republican Peter Meijer, then a Michigan representative, told Atlantic writer Tim Alberta in 2021 that one colleague seemed to nearly have a nervous breakdown over fears of being harmed by MAGA supporters if he were to vote to certify the 2020 election results: “He asked his new colleague if he was okay,” Alberta reported. “The member responded that he was not; that no matter his belief in the legitimacy of the election, he could no longer vote to certify the results, because he feared for his family’s safety. ‘Remember, this wasn’t a hypothetical. You were casting that vote after seeing with your own two eyes what some of these people are capable of,’ Meijer says. ‘If they’re willing to come after you inside the US Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?’”

Trump’s mass pardoning of January 6 participants has recentered those events in Republican minds of late.

“A guy sends a mob into your workplace to kill you, and you’re okay with that?” Stevens tells me, speaking about his frustration with congressional Republicans. Stevens says the clemencies send the message to Republicans that Trump will defend those who commit political violence in his name.

“I talked to Lincoln Project donors,” Stevens says. “These are powerful and wealthy people. And I can tell you a percentage of them are talking about leaving the country.”

“The Republican Party is united,” a White House spokesperson said.

Still, some say Republicans are using the threats of violence as cover. Bill Kristol, cofounder of the Never Trump outlet The Bulwark, tells me Republicans could ignore the threats if they wanted to. Kristol was subject to online harassment in early February after Elon Musk falsely promoted claims on X that Kristol received money from USAID, the foreign aid agency recently gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency.

“I never read the comments or notifications,” he tells me. “Senators can probably get quite a bit of protection if they need it, so I’m a little less sympathetic.”

[zn]

Ed Krassenstein@EdKrassen
BREAKING: Another American Plane Crash under the Trump administration today in Arizona. What’s going on?

We’ve had at least 9 plane crashes since Trump took office. Do you think this has anything to do with him firing many valuable FAA workers?

Repeat after me:

1/29 – Washington, D.C.
1/31 – Pennsylvania
2/5 – Washington
2/6 – Alaska
2/10 – Arizona
2/12 – California
2/16 – Georgia
2/17 – Toronto
Today – Arizona – Two planes collided in a fatal crash this morning at Marana Regional Airport, just outside Tucson, Arizona, leaving two people dead. According to the FAA, a total of four people were on board the aircraft.

[zn]

Your company was fined $1.7 billion for defrauding Medicare, so maybe shut the fuck up about our money. https://t.co/pcPmmedQkb

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) February 19, 2025

[joemad]

Kareem’s news letter

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

kareem@substack.com

What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Kierkegaard expounds on our knack for avoiding the truth.

President Trump Suggests He’s Above the Law in Social Media Post Invoking Napoleon: If you haven’t started worrying yet about Trump’s plan to destroy democracy and crown himself king, start now.

Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal: This would be a funny SNL skit if the consequences weren’t so serious.

Kareem’s Video Break: The joys of arriving home to a loved one.

Thousands rally against Trump in nationwide “Not My Presidents Day” protests: It’s great to see the kind of American spirit that started this country still on display.

A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances: This is one way Americans can express their displeasure.

Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling: The party that ranted against “fixed” elections just made election interference easier and more likely.

Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: Today, for the first time, I have two kvetches: The actor from The Night Agent makes a fool of himself—and how the new Bridget Jones movie is detrimental to women.

What I’m Watching on TV: Since January, Saturday Night Live has returned from the dead actually to be funny again—and relevant.

Kareem’s Sports Moments: Not sure what I’d call this, but it looked cool to watch.

Dinah Washington Sings “I Remember You”: This song is guaranteed to calm anyone down and make them sway with her singing.

Kareem’s Daily Quote
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian, philosopher

There is one universal truth that most religions, philosophy, and art try to address: People are so influenced by external sources—friends, family, traditions, peers, society, etc.—that it’s difficult for them to see the world as it really is. It’s like walking barefoot through a field of broken glass but having such poor eyesight that the world is blurry and all these outside influences are describing what’s in front of you so you don’t slice up your feet. You have to take a leap of faith that the people describing the path you should take have your best interests at heart and not their own.

In literature, there is usually a place in the story where the protagonist has “an opportunity for insight,” where the character sees their life for what it really is. It’s as if a pair of glasses was placed on their face and the blur is gone. They can see all the paths ahead with absolute clarity and can choose the right one for themselves. However, in literature, as in life, that window closes rapidly so we must then choose “insight into action,” where we then act upon this new knowledge—or, out of fear, we do nothing and return to the same pattern of life we had before, blindly stumbling after leaders who tell us where to go, ignoring our bloody feet.

In stories, characters often see their past mistakes and can change their lives for the better. As poet Richard Wilbur wrote, “The past is never past redeeming.”

However, as today’s quote warns, too often people prefer to be fooled than put the glasses on, see reality, and take responsibility for their decisions. During the 2024 election, many experts from across the political spectrum warned that Trump, based on his previous behavior, would Godzilla his way through the buildings of America’s foundation. They offered evidence, facts, and statistics. America ignored them. Now all those dire predictions are coming true: the economy is wobbly, our allies fear us because we have shown that we care for nothing but ourselves, our democracy is being pecked to death by people with the intelligence of ducks, medical research has been decimated. We stand for nothing except as a shiny trophy to Trump’s ego, like his wives. Unfortunately, he’s treating us the way he has treated them.

One clear example of this disconnect is Mump’s (Musk/Trump) destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the primary vehicle for U.S. foreign aid. The White House justified these cuts by issuing a statement titled “At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep.” In it, they accused USAID of being “unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.” A fact-check of the statement by The Washington Post showed that 11 of the 12 claims against USAID are misleading, wrong, or lack context. Yet, people will believe it with a resounding “Amen!”

As to popular opinion, a majority of Americans believe that the US spends about 25% of its budget on foreign aid. Most Americans believe that amount should be cut down to 10%. The problem is that in reality, the U.S. spends less than 1% of the budget on foreign aid. Why are so many people so wrong when they have the facts right on their phones? How much easier it is for Trump and the GOP to manipulate public opinion when that same public doesn’t value truth.

To alter Dorothy Parker’s famous quote: You can lead the hoards to water, but you can’t make them think. But we have to try, because our lives, our futures, and our country depends on it. Enough with this go-with-your-gut crap. Let’s not romanticize lazy thinking. You’re not really “listening to your heart,” you’re listening to the voices that brainwashed you since childhood. Don’t want to be fooled? Gather credible information, listen to voices from all sides, and use reason to form opinions.

Then go out and save our country.

President Trump Suggests He’s Above the Law in Social Media Post Invoking Napoleon (Time)

SUMMARY: Donald Trump set off a firestorm of criticism over the weekend with a tweet.

It might seem like nothing new, but critics say the President’s recent post is more than controversial—they say it’s dictatorial.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social as well as on Elon Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. The White House account on X also shared the message alongside Trump’s official presidential photograph.

MY TAKE: If you’re surprised by this statement, then you haven’t been paying attention to the news for the last six weeks. Trump has been making the case that he alone is above the laws and the U.S. Constitution. In making this statement, Trump has effectively crowned himself King of the United States.

In fact, we directly said that! Reported The Guardian: On Wednesday, following a letter issued by his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, that ended the transportation department’s agreement with New York over a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Said one NYC council member, “Doesn’t matter what [yo]u think of congestion pricing, federal government doesn’t get to make this decision. NY State passed a law, USDOT approved it. No matter what corrupt deal Donald Trump made with the Mayor, he isn’t king. Only fools concede to false power.” (For more fools, see today’s daily quote.)

Are you afraid yet, Trump supporters?

This fits with his behavior: Do things that are against the law and when those actions are challenged in court, complain that the courts are corrupt or don’t have the authority. Sadly, this has been working for him thanks to Republicans who care more about their careers than the country.

Last year, the Trump-stacked Supreme Court ruled that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their “constitutional authority” and presumptive immunity for other official acts, but that: “The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law.” I don’t take much hope in this ruling since it came right after expanding his immunity to avoid criminal prosecution. We can’t count on SCOTUS to defend the Constitution, even though that is literally their only job.

The prevailing thinking among Republicans in Washington, D.C. is that they can do whatever they want and people will let them because they’re too afraid or too weary to fight back. True, America has shown signs of fatigue in fighting this political virus that drains our resolve. But the Revolutionary War was fought for eight years! Eight years!

That persistence is our legacy. That commitment is our duty.

Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal (AP)

SUMMARY: The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that DOGE’s blind cost cutting will put communities at risk.

Three U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off late Thursday, with some losing access to email before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they were locked out. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

One of the hardest hit offices was the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which saw about 30% of the cuts. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance.

The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees.

“The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, referencing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. “They don’t seem to realize that it’s actually the department of nuclear weapons more than it is the Department of Energy.”

By late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members.

MY TAKE: So, you give the keys to the kingdom to unqualified computer people, aged 19 to early twenties, led by a megalomaniac too rich to care about the consequences, and here’s where we end up. Accidentally firing people responsible for nuclear warheads, managing nuclear waste so it doesn’t contaminate communities, and running the $750 billion nuclear weapons modernization effort. Both our national security and our domestic safety are now at severe risk.

When Robbins tried to rehire the NNSA staff, she was unable to locate some and others said they were weighing whether or not they wanted to return to such a chaotic agency run by unstable leaders.

Deputy division director Rob Plonski posted, “This is a pivotal moment. We must decide whether we are truly committed to leading on the world stage or if we are content with undermining the very systems that secure our nation’s future.”

Kareem’s Video Break
We should all be so lucky to have someone waiting for us with such eagerness. This kind of unconditional love is what makes coming home so meaningful.

“Not My Presidents Day” protests in Washington, DC
“Thousands rally against Trump in nationwide “Not My Presidents Day” protests” (Axios): The political reality of the Trump/Musk rampage is finally showing up. A recent Economist/YouGov poll has shown Trump’s approval rating and personal popularity both falling over the past two weeks: Today Americans are less likely to approve of Trump (46%) than to disapprove (48%), and less likely to view him favorably (46%) than unfavorably (52%). This is a significant change from just a few weeks ago. That public attitude was reflected in the numerous protest marches across the country decrying Trump’s policies. This is only the beginning, I hope.

“A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances” (The Guardian): The people are speaking out—this time through their wallets. A new Harris poll shows Americans changing their spending habits to express their moral views: “A quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics (Black: 35%, gen Z: 32%, Democratic: 31%).” The poll also found that 36% of Americans are choosing to remove themselves from the economy, cutting back on spending as a passive boycott. Said John Gerzema, CEO of Harris Poll, “Instead of demanding more, they’re simply disengaging with the marketplace and businesses who disappoint them.” I have also stopped shopping at businesses that voluntarily abandoned DEI programs.

“Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling” (AP): Remember how adamant Trump and his followers were about the 2020 election being stolen? How many of the advisors Congress recently confirmed admitted they still believe it was stolen? In response to nothing (since no evidence of election fraud was ever provided), GOP-led states across the country passed “election integrity” laws aimed at making it harder for the poor, students, and minorities to vote. Now, Republicans have removed all pretense that they care about election integrity. In a stunning display of hypocrisy, new Attorney General Pam Bondi (who claims the 2020 election was stolen) disbanded an FBI task force dedicated to investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. During each election, Iran, Russia, and China have exerted more influence through effective campaigns of disinformation. Bondi just removed our defenses against that. “Our adversaries are upping their game every day,” said former Department of Homeland Security cyber chief Suzanne Spaulding. “I’m worried that we are, at the same time, tearing down our defenses.”

Kareem’s Kvetching Korner
For the first time, I’m expanding my Kvetching Korner to include two items of little consequence that irritate me nevertheless.

Night Agent star who played JD Vance in Hillbilly Elegy condemns actors who get political (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: The [Night Agent] actor who portrayed JD Vance in the Oscar-nominated film Hillbilly Elegy before the latter man became the vice-president of the US has said his fellow thespians should “shut the fuck up” rather than express their political opinions.

…[Gabriel] Basso added: “We’re court jesters. We’re entertaining. We’re public servants. We’re there to perform, to entertain, and then all of sudden, the jester, because he’s in the courtroom starts to be like: ‘I might want to go sit on the throne!’”

MY TAKE: There are so many examples of bad logic here, but I’ll start with the most obvious. By saying actors shouldn’t give opinions about politics, he’s actually giving his opinion about politics. He’s saying that entertainers should not exercise their free speech rights because they are just show people. The more logical opinion would be to caution anyone from taking the political opinions of someone too seriously simply because you like the characters they play. But he attacks the speaker rather than the listener—and expects us to listen to him because he’s an entertainer. As is typical of many irrational people, Basso wants to stop free speech rather than educate the listener.

I also want to point out his odd metaphor about entertainers being court jesters who want to sit on the throne. In fact, the actors he’s ranting against haven’t tried to claim the throne but merely described who they would prefer to sit on the throne. There is some irony in the fact that Trump rose to fame as a reality TV star—a jester—who then claimed the throne—the presidency.

Famous people—like myself—may have access to a bigger megaphone, but it’s up to the people to use reason to weigh the merit of what is being said. Not silence them as Basso would prefer. He’s just given us ample reason not to listen to his opinions, though he’s free to offer them.

Why the New Bridget Jones Movie Is Bad for Women (and Why That’s Important)

The fourth movie in the popular franchise, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, is now streaming on Peacock. It’s a pretty standard rom-com with some touching and funny moments. But, while it purports to be a movie about empowering women in their fifties, it actually does the exact opposite.

All genre movies have certain requirements, which is why we love the ones we do. The mystery will have a body and the murderer will be uncovered by the end. The action movie will feature a tough hero/heroine who overcomes a formidable villain. The rom-com will have a cute meet, a pulling apart, and a reconnection. When these expectations aren’t met, we are disappointed, even angry. The challenge for the moviemakers is to find ways to be original within that tight structure.

The movie’s failure to provide much originality isn’t just a plot issue, it’s a deep failure for women. Jones is still experiencing understandable grief four years after the death of her husband (Colin Firth). One night, she has a convenient epiphany and wakes up the next morning ready to embrace life again. We should be cheering her on (despite the unconvincing suddenness) as she balances being a mother with going back to work and looking for love.

But here’s the problem: When the movie wants to portray Jones as attractive (and able to have a handsome 28-year-old fall in love with her), it does so by making her dance around like a teenager, complete with a Risky Business-like montage. She walks stiffly like an adorable classroom nerd, always has her mouth open as if she doesn’t understand anything that’s happening to her. She’s meant to be quirky and lovable but just seems childlike. Basically, she’s Zooey Deschanel in New Girl, only 25 years older. Why would acting like a non-threatening, passive dork be what’s attractive in a middle-aged woman? Rather, it should be her wit, intelligence, confidence, and the passions in her life that define her.

The movie wants us to believe she’s very smart and informed by giving us one scene where she rattles off questions for an interviewer to ask a politician. But we never again see her do anything interesting at work, nor does she ever read a newspaper or discuss current events. Instead, she dresses like a pixie and giggles. She also argues with her son’s science teacher because he criticized the boy’s diagram of the layers of the atmosphere for including Heaven at the top. It’s a science class! All of this diminishes mature women by telling them they must act like guileless children if they want to be attractive to men.

The story wanted to be a modern Jane Austen-type comedy of social manners, but Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice was fiercely intelligent, never pandered to expectations of what a woman should be, and would not be bullied. Yet, she was also filled with compassion for her family and everyone in her community. There are many admirable women in rom-coms, including Andie MacDowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually, Rachel Weisz in About a Boy, and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday.

The movie did the exact opposite of what it pretends to do.

What I’m Watching on TV
Saturday Night Live

When SNL first appeared in 1975 I was 28-years-old. Society was in turmoil with the Vietnam War, and the numerous protests about free speech, women’s rights, gay rights, and, of course, civil rights. Ten years earlier, The Smothers Brothers Show had tried to infuse social and political comedy into their variety show and were relentlessly censored until finally being canceled after one season. SNL took up the challenge to satirize politics and pop culture. For me, the show spoke to my age and my politics like no other ever had. Seeing performers like Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor satirizing racism on TV when most shows pretended there was no such thing (pretty much like today) was empowering.

For the past ten years, SNL has been a bit tepid. Most of the skits seemed poorly written as if they were content on amusing themselves rather than an audience. Sometimes there would be a gem of a sketch, but it was surrounded by too much dullness. Only Weekend Update was consistently funny. I only watched it on occasion, hoping for that same spark it used to have. I was usually disappointed.

That changed in January 2025. Three shows in a row—hosted by Martin Short, Timothée Chalamet, and Dave Chapelle—were actually funny all the way through. Chapelle’s opening monologue was one of the best in years. Short and Chalamet’s monologues were also funny. Add to that, last week’s 50-year celebration show featuring many stars from previous casts as well as guest hosts, and you have a resurgence of the irreverent wit and rebellious spirit that first made the show a hit.

If, like me, you’ve abandoned the show for its lack of energy and good writing, I suggest you give it another try, starting with these three episodes. I’m cautiously optimistic that it may be on the path once again of being a voice for generations in search of their country.

Kareem’s Sports Moments
Sometimes I wonder how people come up with the idea of trying something like this.

Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Dinah Washington: “I Remember You” (1959)

This album was released in 1959 and is one of my favorites. It’s especially effective when listened to on a rainy day while staring at the falling drops. I hope to get around to featuring every song from this album in the coming years.

Dinah Washington (1924-1963) was a blues and jazz singer known as “Queen of the Blues” as well as “Queen of the Jukeboxes.” (How I miss plunking a quarter into a jukebox and picking five great songs while I ate a hamburger and fries.) Her background was gospel music but her talent couldn’t be contained. For a while, she sang in the upstairs room of the Garrick Stage Bar in Chicago while Billie Holiday sang in the downstairs room. Jazz great Lionel Hampton hired her to sing with his band. After she started her solo career, she had 27 R&B top-10 hits.

“I Remember You” was written by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger, but Washington imbues it with such passion and conviction that it will embed itself inside you. I’ve been listening to it for 66 years and it still affects me.

[Zooey]

joemad wrote:

President Trump Suggests He’s Above the Law in Social Media Post Invoking Napoleon: If you haven’t started worrying yet about Trump’s plan to destroy democracy and crown himself king, start now.

Here’s a little uncheerful op-ed. Lots of active links in the original.

Democracy Is Done: The Rise of Corporate Monarchy
The Real Agenda Behind Elon’s Coup & Trump’s Chaotic First 3 Weeks
Shane Almgren
Feb 14, 2025
Alright, it’s finally time to answer the million-dollar question that’s on everyone’s mind: WHY IS ALL THIS INSANITY HAPPENING IN OUR GOVERNMENT ALL OF A SUDDEN???

If you don’t know what the ultimate agenda is, this first 3 weeks of Trump’s presidency sure looks like a chaotic, haphazard, nonsensical 3-ring circus dumpster fire.

Absolutely none of it makes any sense.

Only it actually does…in a terrifying sort of way.

The first thing to remember is that real life isn’t like a movie where the bad guys are all part of the same unified organization trying to take over the world. There are a number of bad actors with secret goals, and the one thing we may have working in our favor is that the ones we do know about clearly have different objectives, so it’s entirely possible they sabotage each other before any of them successfully pull off their own batty agendas.

First, we’ve got Project 2025, whose long game seems to be implementing a sort of far-right extremist, quasi-authoritarian political regime within the current American political structure, where Conservative ideologies are shoved down everyone’s throats whether they like it or not. The current immigrant roundup is part of this agenda, as was the ending of Roe v Wade, banning trans people, dismantling gay marriage (coming soon), insisting climate change isn’t real, and waging non-stop culture war issues on mostly non-existent problems (see: CRT, cat litter in classrooms, and anything involving pronouns. Most of Trump’s more controversial Executive Orders not involving Elon and DOGE are part of the Project 2025 agenda.

Then we’ve got the Christian Reconstructionists (see also: Dominionists and the New Apostolic Reformation), whose long game is re-jiggering the Constitution to make America less of a democratic republic and more of a Christian theocracy. Based on the teachings of R.J. Rushdoony—whose chief disciple Mike Johnson currently sits third in line for the presidency as Speaker of the House—this agenda acknowledges that

the secularists are actually correct that the Founding Fathers never set America up as a “Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and

the Founding Fathers got it wrong in that regard. America was SUPPOSED to be a Christian nation, and it’s their God-given duty to “fix” what the Founders screwed up.

This group wants to install Christian Nationalism and legislate Biblical morality (according to their very narrow interpretation of it). Project 2025 wants to outlaw gays. The Reconstructionists want to execute them. They’re basically the American Taliban for Jesus. Thankfully, they remain on the fringe and haven’t had much success implementing their backwards agenda, other than minor victories like mandating the Ten Commandments and Bibles in every classroom in places like Louisiana and Oklahoma where no one knows how to read anyway.

Finally, we’ve got a third group—the one that’s responsible for all the chaos Elon and DOGE are causing. Their agenda is actually FAR MORE extreme than either Project 2025 or the Reconstructionists. And the scary thing is, they’re already implementing their freakish plan at warp speed while most of the country is busy bickering about all the quaint Project 2025 garbage (and Trump’s usual unending fire hose of idiotic nonsense).

There’s a few key players we’re gonna have to cover some backstory for, namely Elon Musk, JD Vance, a guy you might’ve heard of by the name of Peter Thiel, and a guy you almost certainly haven’t, Curtis Yarvin. These guys are all connected in a mildly horrifying way and we’re about to unpack it all…

Once upon a time in the 90’s, Elon Musk founded a small company called X.com (No, not Twitter—a different X.com. Dude just has an inexplicable fixation with the letter X). X was a fledgling digital banking service that allowed people to transact with vendors and each other without cash, checks, or plastic.

At the same time Musk was building out X, another young entrepreneur, a German immigrant named Peter Thiel, was building a very similar money-transfer service right across town called Confinity. Rather than compete with each other, Musk and Thiel decided to merge their two companies in 1999, with Musk named CEO of the new company. Shortly after the merger, Musk was fired as CEO by the board, who replaced him with Thiel. After Thiel took over, the company’s name was changed to “PayPal.” You may have heard of it.

Peter Thiel
PayPal attracted some of the most promising young talent in Silicon Valley, and its early members wielded so much power and influence in the tech space that they became collectively known as the “PayPal Mafia.”

Besides Musk and Thiel, the PayPal Mafia included:

• Steven Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (co-founders of YouTube)

• Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman (co-founders of Yelp)

• Max Levchin (current CEO of Affirm)

• Roelof Botha (partner at Sequoia Capital)

• David Sacks (Founder of Geni.com and Yammer, Trump’s new “AI/Crypto Czar”)

• Reed Hoffman (founder of Linkedin, early investor in Facebook, currently on the board at Microsoft)

• Jack Selby (co-founder of Clarium Capital with Peter Thiel)

• Yishan Wong (CEO of Reddit, founder of Terraformation Inc)

• Premal Shah (founder of Kiva, on the board at Change.org)

Plus a dozen others. The PayPal Mafia churned out a Who’s Who in the Big Tech space, with nearly everyone involved becoming billionaires many times over. Today, it’s one of the wealthiest and most influential collection of individuals, not just in America, but in the entire world.

The “Paypal Mafia,” Fortune Magazine cover (2007)
In 2002, eBay acquired Paypal for $1.5 billion. Although no longer officially with PayPal after being ousted, Elon still held around 10% of the company shares and netted roughly $160 million in the sale.

So that’s the Peter Thiel-Elon Musk connection–they co-founded PayPal together.

Now let’s see how JD Vance is tied into this crew.

In 2011, Peter Thiel gave a talk at Yale where JD Vance was attending law school, changing the course of Vance’s life, as JD recounts it. Vance called Thiel “possibly the smartest person” he ever met, and decided to pivot from a career in law to one in venture capitol. In 2015, JD joined the Thiel-founded Mithril Capital, with Thiel as his personal mentor.

Vice President JD Vance
In 2016, Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” thrusting his name into the national spotlight for the first time. It was at this same time that Vance, unencumbered by any political aspirations or pretense and therefore free to speak his actual mind, sent his Yale roommate an email regarding America’s leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump, that read: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?”)

I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. – JD Vance
Vance left Thiel’s firm in 2017 and joined a D.C.-based investment firm. Then he launched his own VC firm, Narya Capital, in 2019 with financial backing from Thiel, billionaire VC capitalist Mark Andreessen, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

For reasons we’ll get to in just a minute, around the time the pandemic was starting to wind down, Peter Thiel decided it was finally time for him to own a U.S. Senator and start pulling some long-awaited political strings. He figured that since he’d funded Vance’s VC firm and essentially owned Vance already, he’d just migrate that ownership from the private sector to the public.

Because JD Vance had been an open critic of Donald Trump during Trump’s entire first term, Thiel invited Vance down to Mar A Lago to smooth things over in hopes of getting an endorsement from Orange Jesus. Thiel informed Vance of his plans to make him a Senator, so Vance scrapped all his previous principles, decided power was “more gooder” than having any convictions, kissed Trump’s ring, and earned the endorsement.

Thiel, for his part, poured an ungodly amount of his own money into Vance’s Senate campaign—about $15 million—marking the largest donation to a single Senate candidate in American history. In addition to his personal $15 mil, Thiel also recruited 10 major donors for Vance, including a couple old tech buddies from the PayPal Mafia who chipped in a million each.

So, if you ever found yourself wondering how the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a lawyer-turned-venture capitalist with no political experience or aspirations and a vocal critic of Donald Trump came out of nowhere and managed to snag Trump’s endorsement and win a Senate seat in his first foray into politics, there’s your explanation: Peter Thiel orchestrated, arranged, and funded the entire thing. A tech billionaire bought himself a Senator.

Now, the next question is: WHY?

This is where it starts to get scary.

It’s time to meet the final character in our story, Curtis Yarvin.

Yarvin is a software developer and tech entrepreneur who started the Unqualified Reservations blog in 2003 under the pen name Mencius Moldbug. He’s perhaps best known for founding the anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neo-reactionary movement (NRx).

Curtis Yarvin a.k.a. Mencius Moldbug
Like most people, Yarvin sees a ton of problems in society. But unlike most people, the problems he sees—and his solutions to those problems—are dystopian fringe at best, and democracy-ending suicide at worst.

In a nutshell, Yarvin’s Dark Enlightenment political worldview is that the REAL power in the U.S. resides in an informal collaboration of universities and the mainstream media (that he calls “the Cathedral”) which collude to sway public opinion. He admires the former Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping for his “pragmatic and market-oriented authoritarianism,” believes America’s commitment to equality and justice “erodes social order,” and advocates for an American “monarch” to dissolve elite academic institutions and media outlets asap.

A regular speaker at various Libertarian and techno-fascist conferences, Yarvin’s position is that democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful and should be replaced with sovereign corporations whose “shareholders” elect an executive with total power over the country/corporation. As Yarvin explains it, “Unencumbered by liberal-democratic procedures, the executive could rule like a CEO-Monarch.”

And just in case it still isn’t abundantly clear what Curtis Yarvin thinks is the solution to what ails America, here it is in his most straightforward phrasing: “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator-phobia.”

Yes, Curtis Yarvin is an unapologetic proponent of dictatorships since “there’s no real difference between a dictator and a CEO, and corporations under the rule of a CEO appear to work just fine.” As he puts it, “Nations like the United States are outdated software systems” that need to be “broken up into smaller entities called ‘patchworks’ which would be controlled by tech corporations.”

“If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator-phobia.” – Curtis Yarvin
As he put it in an interview with the NY Times on Jan 18, “Democracy is done.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

“Shane, this Yarvin dude is clearly off his rocker. Nobody in their right mind would take this “Corporate Monarchy” nonsense seriously. Why are you wasting everyone’s time explaining in detail the techno-fascist-manifesto ramblings of some internet pop philosopher who calls himself ‘Mencius Moldbug?’ Dude sounds like he’s living in some Matrix-meets-Hunger-Games dystopian fantasy world. Surely NOBODY takes this dude’s crazy ideas seriously!”

That’s where you would be wrong.

Perilously wrong.

Two of Curtis Yarvin’s biggest disciples and advocates for his technocratic ideas are…

Peter Thiel and Vice President JD Vance, the MAGA heir apparent.

“Democracy is done.” – Curtis Yarvin
The three of them have been friends since at least 2009 after Yarvin’s writings and ideologies became super popular within the PayPal Mafia circle. (If you’ve got an hour and a half to waste, here’s Vance on the Jack Murphy Live Podcast name-dropping Yarvin and spewing a few of his more sinister ideas.)

See, people forget that billionaires have political ideologies just like everyone else. And remember, most peoples’ political ideologies are generally tailored to improve the life of the person holding them. Democracy sounds great if you’re a peasant living under a king with no say in how things are run. But in what way would democracy improve your life if you’re a multi-billionaire who can buy politicians? Once you’re up that high on the food chain, democracy is no longer a step UP, it’s a step DOWN.

So, all these filthy rich, filthy powerful tech bros have jumped on board with turning America into a corporation run by a CEO with authoritarian power. According to them, the masses don’t need to be voting – the masses are idiots. (Or as Yarvin puts it, “The masses are asses.”) The PayPal Mafia has no interest in becoming beholden to the whims of a bunch of blue collar workers from Appalachia. If they’re gonna be free to live their best lives, they’re gonna need to unshackle themselves from the “masses who can’t even figure life out enough to afford groceries.”

Put bluntly, those who can write a check for a few $billion and not even notice it’s gone are not interested in the opinions of those whining about the cost of 12 eggs.

As Peter Thiel once wrote in a Cato essay, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” – Peter Thiel
Now, supposing they were actually going to attempt to pull this techno-coup off, what would that look like in practice?

Thankfully, Yarvin has had the plan mapped out for years with a little strategy he’s given the acronym RAGE: Retire All Government Employees.

It would look exactly like what we’re all looking at.

Elon’s “haphazard, chaotic coup” of federal agencies is anything but. This has been the plan all along by these Yarvin acolytes: gut the federal workforce—either by mass firings or incentivizing them to resign—crippling the entire government in the process, at which point Big Tech corporate solutions that just so happen to already be on hand can step in and take over the reigns of running our government.

Since you could never get away with doing this as a blatant hostile takeover, you just frame the entire exercise as an “audit to weed out fraud and corruption,” then watch the gatekeepers roll out the red carpets and cheer the whole takeover on!

I know it sounds like tin-foil-hat conspiracy, but LOOK at what’s happening in front of your eyes.

Isn’t it a little weird that JD Vance came out of nowhere to win a Senate seat? And weirder still that Peter Thiel managed to convince Trump to make this virtual nobody his running mate even though Vance was the most unpopular VP pick in polling history?

Wasn’t it a bit strange that Donald Trump told a bunch of Evangelicals at a rally, “Vote for me this one time and I’ll make sure you never have to vote again?” What the hell did that mean?

Isn’t it slightly too coincidental that Peter Thiel’s original business partner Elon Musk is currently running roughshod through the American government doing EXACTLY what Curtis Yarvin said needs to happen?

This isn’t conspiracy land at this point. These dudes told everyone what they wanted to do, and then they started doing it while we all watch dumbfounded. The Left is going, “Surely they can’t be doing what it sure as hell looks like they’re doing—taking over the government!” and the Right is just…cheering them on because it “makes the libtard snowflakes cry.”

So there’s your explanation.

Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Peter Thiel are executing a long-planned agenda to take over the government. Donald Trump is just a dementia-addled old man along for the ride, ranting about windmills and magnets and taking over canals, and content to just sign large pieces of papers for the TV cameras all day.

Hopefully, the chaos makes a little more sense now.

I told you you weren’t gonna like it.

[zn]

Rise Up for Justice, from Facebook

It’s taken a few days to trickle down, but I’m seeing post after post after post in the ag community social media channels of massive issues impacting U.S. farmers and the U.S. ag economy from Trump’s DOGE efforts, tariff wars and the USAID shutdown.
Here are a few:

*Cotton and grain growers are losing contracts to long-time Canadian buyers because, even with the tariff pause, Canadian buyers don’t trust the stability of U.S. export commerce with Trump in office. Plus, Canadians are just flat-out pissed and avoiding U.S. made/produced goods, including farm products.

. https://x.com/cturnbull1968/status/1886862409798967425
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/as-more-people-buy-canadian-these-farmers-are-reaping-the-benefits-1.7454750?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlvq9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQjCJyWmZpzKt4RV4ccxxy8EZgrC2ugndiAQHYrLBDN1PowXxmZQpdsa8g_aem_4dpgoIQTV6qsOOG05iHSgQ

* Chuck Grassley, of all people, is pleading with Trump to exempt potash from any Canadian tariffs because U.S. potash (a major fertilizer in agriculture) mainly comes from Canada. Impending tariffs will shoot farmers’ fertilizer prices sky-high.
SOURCES:

. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5123701-us-imposes-tariffs-on-canada/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlvu1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUwm-0UxQrKh9beJP4_rMOdfuqQcdAsZ86tZO9_V24o6eFffD637H18Vwg_aem_xANzPD27HTQN3FnCEvwytg

* Corn and soybean farmers are upset because Trump cancelled all of Biden’s Climate Smart grants that were supposed to help them offset their adoption of soil health improving new practices like no-till and cover cropping.
SOURCES:

. https://soygrowers.com/news-releases/soy-growers-urge-climate-smart-payments-to-farmers-to-resume/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlvwtleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUwm-0UxQrKh9beJP4_rMOdfuqQcdAsZ86tZO9_V24o6eFffD637H18Vwg_aem_xANzPD27HTQN3FnCEvwytg

. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-07/soy-farmers-urge-trump-to-resume-climate-payments-to-agriculture?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlvyBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZJnNMh2J-qCu2t4SRVGAlQAtsBdtzOH-IjlPa5ijnEszYhsTwvfjrpCpQ_aem_KME9CPiwwxHzQ4zN05vSxQ

* USAID’s cancellation cuts $2 billion straight out of U.S. farmer’s pockets from the Food for Peace program which purchased rice, wheat, corn and soy from U.S. farmers and distributed them to hungry nations. In some states and for some crops, USAID was their primary buyer.
SOURCES:

. https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2025/02/03/usaid-tie-agriculture-usda?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv0VleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHT9CxOBa543hQNzO-R_UpDC-iMYZkI35z2pB0Ytk8FHr5gSAWRRjZbfI7w_aem_zIxCXm8bZXMdzyuo1IB_Fw

. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/02/06/usaid-kansas-farmers?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv1FleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQjCJyWmZpzKt4RV4ccxxy8EZgrC2ugndiAQHYrLBDN1PowXxmZQpdsa8g_aem_4dpgoIQTV6qsOOG05iHSgQ

. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/government/2025/02/09/what-does-usaid-food-for-peace-shutdown-mean-for-kansas-sorghum-crop/78300587007/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv2VleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZJnNMh2J-qCu2t4SRVGAlQAtsBdtzOH-IjlPa5ijnEszYhsTwvfjrpCpQ_aem_KME9CPiwwxHzQ4zN05vSxQ

* USDA NRCS is cancelling conservation contracts and leaving farmers holding the bag. These are things like fence improvements and upgraded water lines that boost farmer efficiency while also conserving the environment. Plus, the way they work is the farmer has to do the work first, then once they are done, the NRCS reimburses them. So now farmers that have spent the money to do the work are being told the NRCS won’t honor their contracts.
SOURCES:
. https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/02/usda-freezes-conservation-other-direct-farmer-funding/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv4JleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHT9CxOBa543hQNzO-R_UpDC-iMYZkI35z2pB0Ytk8FHr5gSAWRRjZbfI7w_aem_zIxCXm8bZXMdzyuo1IB_Fw

. https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/release-unlawful-federal-funding-freeze-causing-confusion-and-harm-on-farms-and-in-communities-nationwide/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv45leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQnYr4UJvnnQ3mJhIPWI0SZsHhQD0scPKjOgEXsNa4JiolMoFrzcqGVP-A_aem_3EJznI7cZmAUarE4X_2qMQ

* California farmers are PISSED because his “turn on the taps” PR move did nothing to combat California wildfires and instead wasted 2 BILLION gallons of water being held in reservoirs for summer irrigation.
SOURCES:
. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5287016/farmers-are-worried-after-trump-released-billions-of-gallons-of-water-in-california?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv6xleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZJnNMh2J-qCu2t4SRVGAlQAtsBdtzOH-IjlPa5ijnEszYhsTwvfjrpCpQ_aem_KME9CPiwwxHzQ4zN05vSxQ

. https://abc30.com/post/central-california-farmers-raise-concerns-trump-orders-dam-water-release/15862080/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv7hleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZJnNMh2J-qCu2t4SRVGAlQAtsBdtzOH-IjlPa5ijnEszYhsTwvfjrpCpQ_aem_KME9CPiwwxHzQ4zN05vSxQ

* U.S. crop farmers are freaked out over the trade wars since Canada, China and Mexico represent half – let me repeat that again, HALF, of all U.S. agricultural exports!
SOURCES:
. https://www.wdam.com/2025/02/08/trump-tariffs-could-impact-prices-mississippi-farmers-fence-about-local-impact/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv9JleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZJnNMh2J-qCu2t4SRVGAlQAtsBdtzOH-IjlPa5ijnEszYhsTwvfjrpCpQ_aem_KME9CPiwwxHzQ4zN05vSxQ

. https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/agriculture/020625-us-farmers-could-permanently-lose-key-markets-amid-trumps-tariffs-diplomacy-trade?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlv-lleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQjCJyWmZpzKt4RV4ccxxy8EZgrC2ugndiAQHYrLBDN1PowXxmZQpdsa8g_aem_4dpgoIQTV6qsOOG05iHSgQ

* Per Trump’s freeze on financial contracts, the USDA is withholding funds for the Organic Market Development Grant program and the Transition to Organic Partnership Program, which typically go directly to organic farmers or to non-profits supporting organic farmers.
SOURCES:
. https://www.eenews.net/articles/usda-pauses-2-organic-programs-leaving-farmers-on-the-hook-for-millions/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlwAdleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWJiAOHxX4h21nhob8gb41V7fIA1nzmbwTz1qdcmcjnwSyDYNFwSCSdiyA_aem_pUPwP5EH6ls8GHLHvkWA6Q

* The shutdown of USAID has been trickling down through multiple ag-focused agencies, including the Soybean Innovation Labs, which were hosted at land-grant universities across the U.S.. These research labs focused on developing new genetics and growing practices in soybeans critical to U.S. and international growers. They had to close the entire program, laying off 30 scientists and researchers in 19 labs across 17 states.
SOURCE:

. https://www.ibjonline.com/2025/02/19/u-of-i-soybean-labs-pending-closure-due-to-usaid-cuts-hinders-global-disease-research/#:~:text=Peter%20Goldsmith%2C%20the%20UI%2Dbased,Goldsmith%20said%20in%20the%20post.

* K State University lost up to $50 million that was pledged through a USAID Program over the next five years to advance research in “sustainable intensification,” an approach focused on increasing crop yields without expanding agricultural land use, expected to directly benefit Kansas (and U.S.) farmers.
SOURCES:
. https://thisistopeka.com/2025/02/k-state-losses-50-million-dollars/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlwItleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWJiAOHxX4h21nhob8gb41V7fIA1nzmbwTz1qdcmcjnwSyDYNFwSCSdiyA_aem_pUPwP5EH6ls8GHLHvkWA6Q

* China’s retaliatory tariffs (although not yet on crops, we shall see) are expected to have a major impact on U.S. ag machinery manufacturers, who were already struggling and have had massive lay-offs over the last 12 months. China imported almost $800 million of U.S.-manufactured ag machinery in 2020.
SOURCES:
. https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/china-targets-us-farm-equipment-tariffs-Deere-CNH-AEM/739278/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIlwKhleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZO6mXojUtPFW-g7qlRSdLePVuTVDH_bzwAIy7tmT4JNSxaWupMNrDErpQ_aem_6e82a1-6pvwHVQC3-4_ENA

And it goes on and on and on with new, major issues coming to light on a near-hourly basis. My heart hurts for U.S. farmers and U.S. farm communities, large and small, that are needlessly and thoughtlessly being impacted by this.

[zn]

[Zooey]

Not just “legal status,” but PERMANENT legal status.

So people here legally on a temporary work visa have no legal recourse for any kind of abuse, even if that abuse is illegal.

This is really bad. 📌 Tennessee bill would bar immigrants without legal status from bringing lawsuits.The proposed legislation would apply to a broad range of civil actions and prevent immigrants from accessing state’s crime victims fund tennesseelookout.com/2025/02/24/t…

— LeftwardSwing 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌈 🏳️‍🌈 ♿ (@leftwardswing.bsky.social) 2025-02-25T16:16:04.794Z

[nittany ram]

The senator flagged thousands of National Science Foundation grants for using words like “female” and “diversify.” A ProPublica analysis found numerous examples of projects caught up in his crude method for identifying research he calls “woke.”
————————————————————————
As an example of the above, Cruz flagged all grants in which the term “POC” appeared. Cruz assumed it meant “people of color”, but in medical jargon, it means “point of care” which is simply the location in which patients receive care such as medical procedures, lab tests, etc. So ignorance and racism have joined forces to halt potentially life-saving research.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ted-cruz-woke-grants-national-science-foundation

[Zooey]

Satire is dead.

In hand-to-hand combat, it was defeated by real life.

[zn]

[zn]

I do not think it's a good sign that this guy is the model for a swath of young men or that a faction of the U.S. right has gotten behind him. pic.twitter.com/4NLNN11vCw

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 5, 2025

[Author]

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