Glenn Thrush & Colby Smith of the New York Times: “The U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, over the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project, according to officials briefed on the situation. The inquiry, which includes an analysis of Mr. Powell’s public statements and an examination of spending records, was approved in November by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of ... [Donald] Trump who was appointed to run the office last year, the officials said. The investigation escalates Mr. Trump’s long-running feud with Mr. Powell, whom the president has continually attacked for resisting his demands to slash interest rates significantly. The president has threatened to fire the Fed chair — even though he nominated Mr. Powell for the position in 2017 — and raised the prospect of a lawsuit against him related to the $2.5 billion renovation, citing 'incompetence.'
“Mr. Powell, in a rare video message released by the Fed, acknowledged on Sunday that the Justice Department had served the central bank with grand jury subpoenas days earlier. He described the investigation as 'unprecedented' and questioned the motivation for the move.... The Fed chair warned that the investigation signaled a broader battle over the Fed’s independence. '... This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation[,' Mr. Powell said].”
ICE Barbie, the Gaslighting Gnome. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said hundreds more federal agents will be deployed to Minnesota as federal and local officials on Sunday doubled down on their competing accounts of what led up to the killing of a U.S. citizen by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis last week, and who gets to investigate. In an interview with Fox NewsBusiness’s 'Sunday Morning Futures,' Noem said the administration will send more officers on Sunday and Monday. 'There’ll be hundreds more, in order to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely,' Noem said.... Trump officials remained adamant Sunday that Good was responsible for her own death.... Tensions over the facts of the incident grew as the FBI, which has taken over the investigation, continued to block Minnesota officials from participating in the inquiry, forcing the local authorities to conduct their own review. Speaking to CNN’s 'State of the Union,' Noem said that Good was to blame for the shooting, even though an official investigation into the shooting has not been completed, and as video evidence raised several questions about the administration’s assessment of what happened.”
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “Eight years ago, I wrote an article for Slate arguing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was an out-of-control agency that had become a 'sinister' and 'draconian' force 'harassing and detaining people who pose no threat to the United States or its citizens.'... In the hands of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, ICE is a virtual secret police. Masked and heavily armed, ICE agents are sent to cities ... to terrorize immigrant communities and brutalize people who challenge their efforts to stop and detain anyone deemed suspicious. To expand its reach, ICE greatly lowered its recruitment standards.... To attract new officers, ICE advertises the chance to do violence to people deemed 'enemies' of the United States.... The result is an agency whose agents’ first recourse appears to be violence or the threat of violence.... During the first Trump administration, left-wing activists demanded that the nation abolish ICE. They were right then, and they are right now.” ~~~
~~~ David French of the New York Times: “The terrible divisiveness of police violence is why responsible leaders respond to every incident with extreme care.... But Trump isn’t a responsible leader, and he’s at his absolute worst in a crisis. He lies. He inflames his base. And — most dangerous of all — he pits the federal government against states and cities, treating them not as partners in constitutional governance but as hostile inferiors that must be brought to heel.... The administration’s claims [that Renee Good was a terrorist] are false — absurdly so.... The Minnesota videos show that it was never necessary for the officer to open fire.... There is zero indication that [the Trump administration] intends to conduct a rigorous investigation. All of its public energy is directed toward demonizing Good and defending the agent.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “The United States carried out major airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria on Saturday, following up on even larger retaliatory attacks last month to avenge the deaths of two U.S. Army soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter killed in a terrorist attack in the country. About 20 Air Force attack planes, including F-15Es, A-10s and AC-130J gunships, as well as MQ-9 Reaper drones and Jordanian F-16 fighter jets fired more than 90 bombs and missiles toward at least 35 targets on Saturday, according to Capt. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the military’s Central Command. The targets included weapons caches, supply routes and other infrastructure used by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, Captain Hawkins said.... In a statement last month, the Pentagon’s Central Command said the Islamic State had inspired at least 11 plots or attacks against targets in the United States over the past year. In response, the command said its operations resulted in 119 insurgents being detained and 14 killed over the past six months.” The AP's story is here.
Tyler Pager, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has been briefed in recent days on new options for military strikes in Iran as he considers following through on his threat to attack the country for cracking down on protesters, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump has not made a final decision, but the officials said he was seriously considering authorizing a strike in response to the Iranian regime’s efforts to suppress demonstrations set off by widespread economic grievances. The president has been presented with a range of options, including strikes on nonmilitary sites in Tehran, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.” Update. New link, which appears to be a gift link. An Axios report, by Barak Ravid, is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: So Trump is planning to use military force -- again -- against another country for abusing protesters even as he uses paramilitary goons (and previously used active military forces) in the U.S. to "crack down on" American protesters and even murder a woman who was merely observing. Can he not see the hypocrisy of all this -- or does he think we can't? ~~~
~~~ Farnaz Fassihi & Malachy Browne of the New York Times: “For a third night in a row, nationwide antigovernment protests rocked Iran, according to witnesses and videos verified by The New York Times, posted on BBC Persian and social media, even as the government intensified its crackdown and the military said it would take to the streets in response to the unrest. In Heravi Square in Tehran, thousands of people marched through the streets, clapping rhythmically and chanting slogans against Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, videos verified by The Times showed.” ~~~
~~~ Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: “Reports of a dramatic escalation in the use of deadly force by Iranian security forces have begun to trickle out of the country despite a severe communications blackout as authorities struggle to contain mass protests. The Center for Human Rights in Iran, based in New York, said it received eyewitness accounts and credible reports indicating that hundreds of protesters have been killed in Iran since the government cut off the country’s access to the internet on Thursday night. The CHRI said witnesses have reported that “hospitals were overwhelmed, blood supplies are critically low, bodies are being piled up, and the number of casualties is rising by the hour.” It said that many protesters have been shot in the eyes. In the past, Iranian security forces have shot protesters in the eyes with metal pellets and rubber bullets. The group also said witnesses reported the use of snipers, military rifles and surveillance drones.”
~~~ Benoit Faucon of the Wall Street Journal: “Iran will attack American military bases in the Middle East if the U.S. hits first, the country’s parliamentary speaker said Sunday after U.S. officials said the Trump administration was looking at preliminary options for striking Iranian military sites. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf also threatened that Iran would hit Middle Eastern shipping lanes and Israel. The U.S. maintains air and naval bases in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. Iran struck Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar last June after the U.S. dropped massive bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities.” MB: The link appears to be a gift link. It worked for me. An AP report is here.
Foiled Again! Jonathan Wolfe of the New York Times: “On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Institute clarified the rules governing the award, writing that the facts were 'clear and well established.' 'Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others,' the institute wrote. 'The decision is final and stands for all time.' The statement was released after María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader and the winner of last year’s prize, offered this week to give her Nobel Peace Prize to ... [Donald] Trump, who has long coveted the award. On Monday, Ms. Machado, speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, said that presenting the prize to Mr. Trump would be an act of gratitude from the Venezuelan people for the removal of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president who was captured last week by the United States.” (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ The AP's story is here. The statement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee is here.
digby posts some of the crazy stuff Demented Don did and said at Friday's meeting with oil executives. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: During this meeting where Trump behaved like the doddering imbecile he is, some of the oil barons shared their realistic assessments of the situation in Venezuela. Exxon's CEO, for instance, said that Venezuela is currently "uninvestable." It took Trump no time at all to pay them back for their temerity: ~~~
~~~ Ernest Scheyder & Patrick Jones of the Independent: “... Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block courts or creditors from impounding revenue from Venezuelan oil sales, held in U.S. Treasury accounts, the White House announced on Saturday. The emergency directive, issued on Friday, states these funds, held in foreign government deposit accounts, should be used in Venezuela to help create 'peace, prosperity and stability.'... Several companies, including Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, hold longstanding claims against the country.... The order ... declares that the money is the sovereign property of Venezuela, held in U.S. custody for governmental and diplomatic purposes, and is not subject to private claims.”
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “The Trump administration blocked Minnesota officials from investigating the death of the woman shot on Wednesday by a federal agent, then quietly offered this explanation: Local investigators simply could not be trusted to conduct a fair inquiry. The investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, federal officials said, would be the exclusive province of the F.B.I., which is overseen by a director, Kash Patel, who has described ... [Donald] Trump as an unerring boss, and even a king. Mr. Trump had already declared the shooting justified. Vice President JD Vance has asserted that federal agents had 'absolute immunity' from prosecution. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has spoken about the incident as if it were a closed case: Ms. Good had 'weaponized' her S.U.V. to kill agents, she said, even though video analysis by The New York Times suggested it was more likely that she was turning her car away from officers.
“The extraordinary volley of public statements stood in striking contrast to the far more restrained approach to high-profile incidents taken by other presidents, who have typically called for calm pending the results of investigations. The all-hands effort to define Ms. Good as the only person who did anything wrong has cast serious doubt on the F.B.I.’s willingness to scrutinize the actions of the agent who killed the unarmed activist, according to former law enforcement officials who were once responsible for investigating comparable tragedies.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Same question: Can they not see the hypocrisy of all this -- or do they think we can't?
Marie: One of the porkies the Trump administration has repeated about the shooting was that the shooter Jonathan Ross, required hospitalization after Good "ran him down." About five hours after the murder, Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform, "It is hard to believe he is alive, but [he] is now recovering in the hospital." Recovering from what? Here is footage of Ross taken immediately after he killed Good. He's walking around briskly -- I'd call it strutting; I think he looks pumped -- without any apparent sign of physical injury:
Megan VerHeist of Patch, republished by Yahoo! News: "The Trump administration announced on Friday that it will suspend funding for food stamps and other hunger relief programs in Minnesota, as officials investigate what they described as 'widespread and systemic' fraud associated with federal benefits programs in the state. In a letter addressed to Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the administration would freeze just over $129 million in annual funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis.... The move is the latest attempt by the administration to cut off funding for state programs amid allegations of fraud." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah, poor people and their children should definitely go hungry because Donald Trump hates Tim Walz. (Also linked yesterday.)
That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you. — Renee Nicole Good’s last words to the ICE agent who killed her moments later
Fuckin’ bitch. — voice on ICE agent Jonathan Ross’s video after he shoots her ~~~
~~~ Charlie Sykes shares some opinions of what the Jonathan Ross's video shows. A useful read.
You Cannot Believe a Word DHS Says. Not Even “And” and “The.” Juan Benn of the Washington Post: “The Department of Homeland Security has changed its account of an immigration enforcement-related shooting in Maryland that left two men injured on Christmas Eve, a move prompted by a local police account that contradicted the federal agency’s initial statement. In the department’s announcement of the shooting on X, officials said officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were executing a 'targeted immigration enforcement operation' in Glen Burnie when they approached a vehicle and told the driver, Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, to turn off the engine. In the passenger seat of Sousa-Martins’ van, the department said, was Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel. Officers 'defensively fired' their guns at the vehicle, striking Sousa-Martins after he allegedly refused to power off his van and attempted to flee, ramming it into 'several ICE vehicles' before driving in the officers’ direction, DHS said.... But the Anne Arundel County Police Department issued a statement Friday that ... [said o]ne of the men was an ICE detainee and already in the agency’s custody when the incident occurred.... The other was injured by gunfire 'while operating a separate vehicle.'”
Official DHS Site Uses Infamous White Nationalist Song in Recruitment Post. Joe.My.God. re-posts the DHS post and details how the poster is the title of a white nationalist/neo-Nazi anthem of the Proud Boys. thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Kristi Noem should be hauled up to Capitol Hill for this. I wrote to my Senator, the fairly useless Maggie Hassan, who is on the Homeland Security Committee and demanded to know why my tax dollars are funding a hateful anthem and using the anthem to recruit federal employees. (Also linked yesterday.)
Chris Hippensteel of the New York Times: “Mounting outrage over an ICE agent’s killing of a woman in Minneapolis spilled into streets across the country on Saturday, as crowds of protesters mobilized against what they called the excesses of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. The 'Ice Out for Good' campaign held demonstrations in small towns and major cities, including some that have been central targets of ... [Donald] Trump’s immigration crackdown.... In Minneapolis, the public reaction to the killing of Ms. Good has been swift and angry. Law enforcement officers have used tear gas against protesters outside a federal building near the Minneapolis airport. Gov. Tim Walz, who has urged calm while denouncing the shooting in stark terms, has alerted National Guard troops in the state to be ready in case of unrest. And President Trump has dispatched more federal agents to the city....” Hippensteel briefly describes protests in Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon; Houston, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; New York City; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Seattle; and Los Angeles, California. Includes photos.
Rebecca Santana of the AP has more on the Minneapolis demonstrations. And this: “Three congresswomen from Minnesota attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on in the morning and were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later. U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.” ~~~
~~~ Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: “A day after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quietly ordered new restrictions on congressional visits to immigration detention facilities. That order, put into effect Thursday by the Trump administration and revealed in court late Saturday, forces lawmakers to seek a week’s advance notice before conducting oversight visits to ICE facilities. That new policy appears to explain a conflict that unfolded Saturday, when three House Democrats from Minnesota were denied entry to a detention facility in the Whipple federal building in Minneapolis.... A federal judge rejected a nearly identical policy last month, noting that federal spending laws require unrestricted congressional visits to ICE detention facilities without advanced notice, a key part of congressional oversight responsibilities. In her new order, Noem said she disagreed with the decision of U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb. But she said she would work around it by using only funds from a separate law — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — to manage congressional visits, sidestepping the restrictions contained in annual spending laws.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So Kristi & Co., aren't just liars. They're flagrant lawbreakers, too. This so-called "work-round" is ridiculous. An appropriation is an appropriation. Constitutionally- and legally-mandated Congressional oversight doesn't disappear because the people who kick members of Congress out of a detention center are paid out of a paper-clip fund.
Smithsonian Further Whitewashes Whiney Baby Trump. Graham Bowley, et al., of the New York Times: “The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery removed wall text that referred to ... [Donald] Trump’s two impeachments — language that had upset the White House — when the museum recently replaced a portrait of him in its 'America’s Presidents' exhibition. The wall text described some of Mr. Trump’s political accomplishments.... It also included: 'Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.'... After Mr. Trump announced last year that he was firing Kim Sajet, who was then the National Portrait Gallery’s director, the White House compiled a list of grievances about her.... Among these points ... was the sentence about the impeachments.... The new wall text simply identifies Mr. Trump as the 45th and 47th president, saying he was born in 1946. According to the National Portrait Gallery’s website, the wall text accompanying President Bill Clinton’s official portrait notes he was impeached for 'lying while under oath about a sexual relationship he had with a White House intern.'” Update. New link, which appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ This link to a Washington Post story on the portrait and caption switcheroo appears to be a gift link. ~~~
Emily Badger, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration shrank the federal work force by about 220,000 workers through November, representing about a 10 percent cut, according to new data that offers the first clear view of the president’s blitz to remake the government’s labor force. This decline, which also accounts for limited new hiring, has reversed the last decade of growth for America’s largest employer, returning the federal work force to roughly the size it was when ... [Donald] Trump took office the first time. But the cuts went far deeper for some agencies and offices: They have had the effect of hollowing out decades-old functions of the federal government.”
Adam Sella of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Saturday paused a Trump administration policy halting an immigration program that allowed migrants from some Central and South American countries to reunite with their family members in the United States while awaiting visas. In a five-page order, Judge Indira Talwani of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts granted a 14-day stay of the Trump administration’s decision last month to cancel the immigration program, known as the Family Reunification Parole Program, while legal challenges continue. The order is the latest rebuke in a protracted battle between the Trump administration and the courts over a series of Biden-era immigration policies that Mr. Trump has attempted to cancel.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: And every one of those policies Trump has tried to cancel are ones that Biden put in place for humanitarian reasons. For Trump, as we've so often noted, cruelty is the point.
~~~ Mattathias Schwartz & Emma Schartz of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has found a powerful but obscure bulwark in the appeals court judges he appointed during his first term. They have voted overwhelmingly in his favor when his administration’s actions have been challenged in court in his current term, a New York Times analysis of their 2025 records shows. Time and again, appellate judges chosen by Mr. Trump in his first term reversed rulings made by district court judges in his second, clearing the way for his policies and gradually eroding a perception early last year that the legal system was thwarting his efforts to amass presidential power. When Mr. Trump criticized a ruling from a so-called 'Obama judge' in 2018, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. responded that 'we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.' But ... in the 13 appellate courts, there is increasingly such a thing as a Trump judge. The president’s appointees voted to allow his policies to take effect 133 times and voted against them only 12 times. Ninety-two percent of their total votes were in favor of the administration. That figure far outstrips support for Mr. Trump’s agenda from appeals court judges appointed by other Republican presidents, and from Mr. Trump’s appointees to the district courts.” The link appears to be a gift link.
~~~~~~~~~~
Venezuela. Collaborators! Anatoly Kurmanaev & Christiaan Triebert of the New York Times: “The government of Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, enlisted U.S. military support to return an oil tanker that left the country without permission.... That unlikely pact, the first publicly known instance of military cooperation between the countries since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, comes as Ms. Rodríguez seeks to assert her will on the oil-rich nation.... The tanker, called alternatively Olina or Minerva M, left a port in eastern Venezuela late last weekend without the authorization of port authorities or the state oil company in the chaotic hours that followed Mr. Maduro’s downfall.... The state oil company, known as PDVSA, said it was never paid for its crude.... Mr. Trump echoed the claim the same day, saying that the tanker 'departed Venezuela without our approval' and was returning to Venezuela 'in coordination' with Ms. Rodríguez....
“[Billionaire Colombian Alex Saab, who controls the company that owns the Olina], was indicted by the United States on charges of laundering money for Mr. Maduro’s government in 2019. He spent two years in a U.S. prison before being released in a prisoner swap. Multiple people close to the Venezuelan government have said that Ms. Rodríguez and Mr. Saab belong to different factions of the country’s fractious ruling coalition and that they have a tense personal relationship.”
Venezuela, Ctd. Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: “The United States has urged its citizens to leave Venezuela immediately amid reports that armed paramilitaries are trying to track down US citizens, one week after the capture of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. In a security alert sent out on Saturday, the state department said there were reports of armed members of pro-regime militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence that the occupants were US citizens or supporters of the country.... Speaking to the New York Times last week, Donald Trump said he would like to visit Venezuela in the future after having claimed the US was 'running' the South American country.... 'I think at some point it’ll be safe,' the US president told reporters.”
11 comments:
Sunday Sermon, Part I.
SMALL POTATOES?
I had been thinking that the Post Office’s slowly shrinking services were yet another example of our nation’s public resources under siege, when our president snatched the Venezuelan president Maduro from his country, killing at least 80 in the process.
The administration then hauled Mr. Maduro to New York to stand trial for the same drug trafficking that Mr. Trump had recently pardoned a former Honduran president for engaging in. In his address to the nation the following morning, Trump said we were going to “run” Venezuela for a while and exert control over its vast oil reserves.
Suddenly my worries about Republicans’ effort to transform the United States Postal Service and other public institutions, public lands, schools, even Social Security and Medicare into private profit centers seemed small potatoes.
But then I wondered: Are our public services really all that small? The numbers say they are not. As does Republicans’ eagerness to privatize what remains of them.
In 2023 Medicare expenditures totaled nearly one trillion dollars (MedPac.gov). Public lands comprise nearly forty percent of the nation. The Bureau of Land Management generated $280 billion in revenue in recent years, and the overall public recreation economy generates more than a trillion annually. Public schools account for another trillion in yearly expenditures. The Social Security Trust Fund has between $2.7 and $2.8 trillion on its balance sheet. The USPS is a comparative piker, with only $79 billion in 2024 revenue. Still $79 billion is a hunk of change. Like Venezuela’s oil reserves, there’s plenty of value in our public lands and institutions to attract predators.
Predators have been feeding on our public institutions for a long time. Even the military has felt their bite. By 2013, Iraq War private contractors had cost taxpayers $138 billion. Private contractors in Afghanistan often outnumbered troops on the ground. Per multiple Inspectors General reports, use of private contractors was expensive, wasteful and contributed to mission failure (theguardian.com). So much for all that bragging about private “efficiency.”
That same bogus efficiency can be seen in the Medicare Advantage programs that charged taxpayers $83 billion more than standard Medicare would have cost in 2023-2024 (medicareadvocacy.org). No wonder insurance companies flood televisions with ads for Medicare Advantage programs.
When Republicans are in office, public services frequently take a hit. We know how 2025’s Big Beautiful Bill cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the poor, but many other attacks on the public’s well-being are equally expensive and inefficient. States that now issue school vouchers to all without regard to family income cost them more than traditional public schooling and show mixed, often poorer, academic results (theconversation.com). In 2023, Arizona’s governor estimated its voucher program “could cost nearly $1 billion, 53 percent of (that) funding serving only eight percent of its students” (newyorkreview.com), and The Arizona Republic reported that home schooling parents have used voucher funds for trampolines, trips to Disneyland, and riding lessons.
Nonetheless, in January 2025, President Trump, who never allows facts to get in his way, signed an executive order supporting the use of public money to pay for private schooling.
Part II
Like public education, the US Post Office is a bedrock American institution and offers similar cause for worry. Early in his second term, Mr. Trump again speculated about selling off all or parts of the USPS to private business (apnews.com). Wall Street likes the idea, of course (revolvingdoorproject.org). That near $80 billion in revenue has its attractions.
While the new Postmaster General David Steiner has scotched the idea of immediately privatizing the USPS (npr.org), to improve efficiency he has already curtailed some services. Evening mail pickups have been dropped in some areas, including our own. More critically, because letters will now be postmarked only when they reach central sorting facilities, the postmark will not reflect the date of mailing. Time-sensitive correspondence, like paid bills, taxes and completed ballots should now be mailed days earlier than before. (usatoday.com).
Profit is a powerful incentive, which the capitalist part of me understands and appreciates, but the socialist part always asks whom the profit benefits. Too often, it’s the few, not the many, and privatizers naturally have themselves, not the many, in mind.
Recently, Republican Senator Mike Lee introduced legislation to resurrect the practice of privateering, which allows private contractors to seize someone else’s property with the government’s blessing. When Josh Cowen titled his book on the Right’s campaign to privatize public schools The Privateers, his meaning was obvious.
Are our public properties, institutions and services small potatoes compared to the apparent lure of another nation’s oil? Maybe, but small or not, they are still ours—for now.
Karim Sadjadpour & Jack A. Goldstone, for The Atlantic, consider whether The Iranian Regime is About to Collapse
"History suggests that regimes collapse not from single failures but from a fatal confluence of stressors. ...Jack has written at length about the five specific conditions necessary for a revolution to succeed: a fiscal crisis, divided elites, a diverse oppositional coalition, a convincing narrative of resistance, and a favorable international environment. This winter, for the first time since 1979, Iran checks nearly all five boxes."
"The More Things Change …"
The story of the parent saying he would have supported his kids being massacred at Kent State if they have been protesting the government is fucking nuts. The justification of violence and oppression is not new. MAGA in power leads to scarier and scarier outcomes. Hopefully enough people can wake up before we get to the world these monsters desire.
Normalization
Stuart Anderson, for Forbes, writes that The U.S.-Born Unemployment Rate Rose After Trump Reduced Immigration
"Government data show the Trump administration’s immigration policies reducing the number of foreign-born workers did not help U.S.-born workers in 2025. The latest data indicate a substantial drop in foreign-born workers did not translate into better labor market outcomes for U.S.-born workers or encourage more workers to enter the labor force. The U.S.-born unemployment rate increased over the past 12 months. Trump officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, predicted fewer immigrant workers would produce significant benefits for U.S.-born workers."
In a photo essay, Franklin Foer, for The Atlantic, describes "Donald Trump’s destruction of the civil service as a "tragedy for an entire nation
"At the end of Trump’s first year back in office, roughly 300,000 fewer Americans worked for the government.
That number understates the destruction. When Trump anointed Elon Musk to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, he did so in the name of clearing out mediocrities and laggards. The bureaucracy does harbor pockets of waste and paper-pushing positions that could easily be culled. But the administration showed little interest in understanding the organizations it was eviscerating. Any sincere attempt to reform the government would have protected its top experts and most skilled practitioners. In fact, such workers account for a disproportionate share of the Trump-era exodus. Many of them accepted the resignation package because they possessed marketable skills that allowed them to confidently walk away. The civil service thus lost the cohort that understands government best: the keepers of its unwritten manual, the custodians of institutional integrity.
Grover Norquist, one of the chief ideologists of modern conservatism, used to fantasize about drowning the government in the bathtub. The Trump administration has realized that macabre dream—not merely by shrinking the state, but by poisoning its culture. It has undone the bargain that once made government careers attractive: lower pay offset by uncommon job security and a sense of professional mission."
Bootlickers
Marie wonders if the Fat Fascist can appreciate the hypocrisy underlying almost everything he does, especially his chest beating about coming to the aid of protesters in Iran while viciously attacking protesters in this country, and instructing his FBI bobblehead to find nothing wrong with an ICE goon murdering a woman in cold blood and calling her a terrorist, responsible for her own death.
The answer: he doesn't see any problems with any of this, certainly no hypocrisy, because to Fat Hitler, anything he says and does is "perfect" (a word he pulls out to defend any actions he takes that are met with complaints, calls of wrongdoing or illegality, or protests of any kind) so by definition, there is no double dealing, deceit, or fakery involved as he strides, god-like across the face of the earth.
He lives in a bubble where everyone tells him how wonderful he is, how his every mumbled inanity is wisdom expressed with sagacious brilliance and eloquence that outstrips Jefferson, Churchill, Lincoln, and even Homer. Not only are there no adults in the room, there aren't even any smart children. They are all lackeys and lickspittles.
Even in his pre-dementia days, he would never acknowledge hypocritical actions or expressions because he saw his every move as the careful calculation of clever sharpie, intent on selling his cons, no matter how outlandish, to a sea of rubes and marks ready to be taken.
His innate misanthropy allows him to scam and steal without conscience and his virulent sociopathy frees him from concern for anyone but himself. Add to that a full blown dementia and you have an unstable imbecile whose concern for other humans falls far short of his angst at not having a Diet Coke delivered to his desk with appropriate dispatch.
"Elon’s Dream Come True
This unprecedented mainstreaming of nudification technology triggered instant outrage from the women affected, but it was days before regulators and politicians woke up to the enormity of the proliferating scandal. The public outcry raged for nine days before X made any substantive changes to stem the trend. By the time it acted, early on Friday morning, degrading, non-consensual manipulated pictures of countless women had already flooded the internet.
By Thursday, the chatbot was being asked to add bullet holes to the face of Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent in the US on Wednesday. Grok readily obliged, posting graphic, bloodied altered images of the victim on X within seconds."
I hope Europe finally starts enforcing their regulations on X and Grok because as we have seen with Fat Hitler if there is no pushback then they will keep making everything worse and going even further. It also says something about Rubio and FH's regime that they are attacking and punishing regulators and advocates for suggesting these kinds of actions should not be allowed in the public sphere. Again they are on the side of the sexual predators.
I was thinking that the events in Iran have muscled their way into the headlines with the Fat Fascist, something he hates. Only he is deserving of the world's attention. This made me wonder about his "interest" in the protests in Iran. Does this demented imbecile really, actually, truly give a fat Trump turd about what happens in Iran? Other than providing him with a chance to bomb somebody, or thrust his chest out an promise to do so.
Which makes me wonder...does his "interest" in what's happening in Iran stem from the fact that the world's attention is no longer solely on his fat ass and he desperately needs to shove his way into the events there so that at some point, if Iranians are successful in overthrowing the current regime, he can take credit for the revolution.
It's a mistake to think of anything Fat Hitler does as having to do with anything besides "What's good for Donald" and "How can I take credit for this?"
Post a Comment