The
6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request from former
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to strike down a federal jury’s judgment
against her, which came with a $100,000 price tag.
The opinion came down Thursday, a little more than a month after a three-judge panel heard oral arguments on the matter.
Senior
Judge Helene N. White, appointed by President George W. Bush, delivered
the opinion. Judge Andre B. Mathis, who was appointed by President Joe
Biden, concurred. Judge Chad A. Readler, who was appointed by President
Donald Trump, concurred in part.
Davis’ lawyer
has argued that when she refused to issue a marriage license to same-sex
couple David Ermold and David Moore a decade ago, she was protected by
the First Amendment, which promises freedom of speech, religion and the
press.
The judges did not
agree, writing in their Thursday opinion that “Davis cannot raise a
Free Exercise Clause defense because she is being held liable for state
action, which the First Amendment does not protect.”
ha
ha. the bigot got rebuked. as she should have been. idiot and maga
boi jonathan turley started pimping this concept that your religion
allows you to discriminate against people and that's as squirrelly as he
looks.
i'm a christian. that does not give me the right to discriminate against any 1.
hate
merchant kim davis wanted to argue that she could, as a government
official, discriminate against people. she's a nut job. she's also
ugly. you have to wonder if that's why she's a hate monger?
Friday, March 7, 2025. Chump gets push back from the markets, JD Vance
insults our ally, Senator Elizabeth Warren delivers in a hearing, DSA
continues to attack the Democratic Party, and much more.
When this
site started, we covered Iraq every day. We have moved on but we will
cover Iraq as needed. When we covered Iraq, we covered the stories that
needed to be amplified. Which meant we called out the NYT reporting on
Falluja that was shoddy and incorrect. And we called it out in real
time and raised questions about it. It would go on to win a Pulitzer
but for those who know about Iraq -- and the use of White phosphorus --
it remains one of the most controversial bits of 'reporting' that THE
TIMES ever published from Iraq. The Pulitzer should have been returned
and that 'reporting' remains a nightmare though many try to avoid
criticizing it because the writer is 'on our side.' I'm sorry, when you
are 'reporting' on the killing of teenage males and you're letting the
US military vet your copy, you're not on my side. We also covered the
deaths especially when families were lied to and/or insulted. 'Brave'
Australians like Luke and Caitlin are always a laugh to me because the
words "Jake Kovco" were never typed by them. He's an Australian who
died in Iraq. There was an inquiry into his death. The government
failed him and failed his family. But, hey, Luke and Caitlin and you
other cowards, keep calling out the US government and pretend that makes
you brave while you stay silent about your own government.
I
bring this up because someone will whine -- and they probably still
will -- that I'm pulling in the next story for no real reason. You can
say that but, again, we covered Iraq here daily and did so for almost 20
years. This next topic is something we would have covered then and
we'll cover it now. Simon Thake (BBC NEWS) reports:
A
Sheffield man whose son was killed in Iraq has condemned "glib" and
"offensive" comments about overseas troops by US vice-president JD
Vance.
Vance said an American stake in
Ukraine's economy was a "better security guarantee than 20,000 troops
from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years".
The comments were criticised by UK opposition politicians, who accused Vance of disrespecting British forces.
Bill
Stewardson, whose son Kingsman Alex Green, 21, died in Basra in 2007,
said Vance's comments "lacked common decency" and called on him to
resign.
Mr Stewardson said Vance "epitomises everything that a statesman and a leader should not be".
He's created an international incident.
Grasp that.
Vice presidents do not normally do that.
And he's got no character. I get it, Miss Sassy was the Corporal
Maxwell Q. Klinger in Iraq. He didn't fight. He tries to act tough
but he was just typing away in Iraq. While others were required to show
courage.
And now he makes statements that insult our ally. If he had any decency or
self-respect, he would say, "My goodness, I am so sorry that my words
sounded that way. It was not my intent an, as a fellow Iraq War
veteran, I certainly appreciate everyone who served there so I would
like to say to Alex Green's family that I am sorry and wish I had used better and more precise wording."
He
can't do that. He can spark an international incident but he's not
mature enough and lacks the character required to say what is now
needed.
Automakers got a one-month exemption yesterday from the 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico—a glimmer of hope that sparked a Wall Street rally. But Target CEO Brian Cornell and other U.S. retailers say they could raise prices on fresh-food imports within
days. Canada and China have already announced retaliatory tariffs on
U.S. goods, with Mexico promising to announce its plan by Sunday. Stock
markets may reverse course and rally if investors cling to the hope that
the global trade war will be no more than a “little disturbance,” as
President Trump promised in his speech to Congress. Or not.
For
CEOs, what’s next is the stuff of existential debate. Who knows what
will happen in the coming days? But here are some takeaways from the
trade war so far:
The damage is real – If current tariffs remain in place for three months, RBC estimates that the U.S. economy will see zero growth this year. Goodbye Trump bump.
Hello, planning for a potential recession. For months, CEOs have talked
about tariffs as a tactic and negotiating ploy to squeeze concessions
from trading partners on other issues. Now, the threat is urgent and
real, with an impact that could ripple across different industries.
Cash-strapped consumers tend to cancel vacations, delay renovations, and
skimp on expenses like healthcare. Consumer spending accounts for
almost 70% of U.S. GDP—and Americans are nervous about the future right now.
When
President Trump announced tariff hikes on China, Canada, and Mexico,
his team reassured consumers that they wouldn't be facing the sharp end of the deal.
In fact, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went so far as to say he wasn't concerned about
the 20% increase the White House had placed on imports from China,
saying the nation "will pay for the tariffs because their business model
is exporting their way out of this inflation. They will eat any tariffs
that go on."
Likewise, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico wouldn't come to fruition, as "they have so much more that they sell to us than we sell to them."
He
added: "It’s not even close, this is not a battle that we’re ever going
to lose. The president knows it, he does have the cards, and he’s going
to protect Americans."
If
Lutnick was betting there would be little or no retaliation, it hasn't
paid off. Canada has since responded with a 25% hike of its own on
American exports, with Mexico adding it will announce tariff and non-tariff rebuttals later this week.
China also whacked 15% onto imports of key U.S. farm products, including chicken, pork, soy, and beef, as well as expanding controls on doing business with U.S. companies.
It
seems the back-and-forth will raise prices for consumers, a further
burden on purse strings which have already been stretched over the past
few years by inflation and tight interest rates.
The
bad news for Chump is that FORTUNE, et al don't care whether you get a
honeymoon or not. They're not going to be intimidated. They're not
Barbara Walters or Liz Smith where you can screech and scream and get
your way. They're not the soft and weak 'news' reporters for THE NEW
YORK TIMES who had decades to cover Chump and never alerted the people
to the reality of him or of his family. Most readers of THE TIMES
couldn't even tell you of the proximity to greatness the Trump family
had before Chump was born but all that really happened is Trump
betrayed. That is the story of that family.
The bad news for the average American is that they're not the
focus of the financial press. (Though when they are, you can win a
Pulitzer -- the human costs of the leverage buyout of Safeway, for
example.) Their concern is Money. And Money's never respected Chump to
begin with and they're not going to lie for him. And whenever
Chump does something nutty -- several times a day -- with regards to our
economy, I'm reminded of what Chuck Schumer said in January 2017 about
Chump and the CIA, "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence
community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. So,
even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being
really dumb to do this." The CIA are actually much kinder than the
financial press.
Here's Lawrence O'Donnell from last night explaining the bosses that Chump has to listen to.
Lawrence
has done outstanding work for years. Everyone can't say the same. I'm
thinking of DSAer posing as a Democrat and I'm wondering what the hell
he thinks he's doing? Like a good DSAer, he's just attacked the
Democratic Party in a video and insisted that the party was not going to
save us from fascism. And then, 13 hours later, he did a video
slamming Dems for voting with fascists.
Well if they're not going to save us, as you already argued, why the surprise?
Oh, that's right.
You're not about truth and you're not about consistency.
You are about pimping lies and attacking the party.
Hate
to break it to you -- and you're old enough that I shouldn't have to --
no one is riding to the rescue. We have to roll our sleeves and do it
ourselves.
That's not me attacking the Democratic Party which is not fascist, by the way.
That's
me acknowledging the system we live in. It's a system DSA loves to
criticize but can't seem to effectively work with, work against or work
around.
The Democrats in
Congress are of many minds on how to push back on Chump. They test
things and they try to see what works. I wasn't a fan of the 'bingo
cards' -- I wasn't fan of them before this year either -- but it was a
tactic and they tried it.
If DSA had a brain --
even one -- among it's almost 80,000 national members, they might grasp
that we -- the people -- are the ones who push and push and push.
That means we push in our commentary. Against Chump.
Clutch
The Pearls was the automatic stance of corporate media long before
Cokie Roberts further pioneered it with "as a mother . . ."
The media can be a vengeful pack, but it is a pack that runs together.
Those
of us online can say much more -- and should -- about Chump than those
in elected office. We -- that even includes DSA -- need to be pushing
the dialogue to the left. You know, like DSA forever claims that they
want to push the Democratic Party to the left. That's what they said
back in 1982 with the plan that they'd build their own party and their
membership would soar.
Four decades later and they've gone from 25,000 members to almost 80,000 -- that's not soaring.
The
media has a honeymoon period where they are reluctant to critique and
assess the new president. It's the first hundred days. Chump has
already seen that honeymoon begin to fade.
Dems in office are fighting back. They need to do more. They are testing other avenues and responses.
But we're the ones who have to do the hard work right now.
And,
sorry to break it to you simple-minded DSAer, your attacks on the
Democratic Party do nothing to help anyone. Like Uncommitted, it's a
recipe for disaster.
Criticize the party. I do. But I don't call my political party a fascist.
It's not one, that language is not helpful, this is a time when supposedly we should pull together -- all of us.
Isn't that what Rashida Tlaib's groupies keep saying?
The time to pull together was before election day so there calls for all of us to pull together are laughable now.
But they keep making them . . . just like they keep attacking the Democratic Party.
I'm
tired of it. The mid-terms are important and so is the next
presidential election and we don't have time for DSA's desire to turn us
into a Socialist country to excuse their nonsensical and repeated
attacks on the Democratic Party.
We need to be
focused. And don't come at me with we all need to pull together when
you're on YOUTUBE calling my part a fascist.
Last night, Rachel Maddow spoke with Hampton Dellinger who demonstrated how one person could make a huge difference.
We
have power and we have strength. The Black community is effectively
responding with specific boycotts, for example. But then we usually do
respond as opposed to the male and female Karens of DSA. Marcia notes
three strong people standing out in last night's "3 patriots demonstrating real courage: Kayde Martin, Dr. Mary Brinkmeyer,
Pete Buttigieg."
We The People can't sit
back and wait to be rescued because that never happens. We have to be
out here fighting for our country and for our future. (If the vile
racism and sexism aimed at Kamala by our 'friends' on the left and aimed
at Black women specifically means you are taking time for yourself, you
continue to do that. You rejoin when and if it's good for you. I am
appalled that all this time later Tlaib's groupies cannot apologize for
their online attacks of Black women.) We need to model the courage we
want to see from our representatives. We need to make demands of them
as well.
But we really don't have time for
Socialists in political closets attacking our party with one extreme
judgment after another -- extreme and uninformed.
Here's Chris Hayes from last night calling for more from our party.
He's not kissing ass or pretending everything is turning up roses and rainbows. He's also not calling Dems fascists.
Welp, that isn't exactly going to plan. In Musk's incredibly high-profile role as the head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, he
has tried to impose massive cuts to spending that had already been
approved by Congress, and he's laid off thousands of federal employees.
This has not gone over well with the general public, and now Teslas
shares are down 40 percent from their peak after the markets closed on
March 5, according to CNN.
Shares have lost over a third of their value since Trump took office on
January 20, meaning it has lost nearly 90 percent of its post-election
bump.
Elon Musk told investors to expect Tesla sales to grow this year — but plummeting sales in several countries are complicating that goal.
While
Tesla's Model Y continues to be a top seller and UK sales were up in
February, some of Tesla's sales figures in other markets looked grim —
the kind of year-over-year drops that should worry the CEO.
Germany: -76%
Tesla's
sales in Germany last month were down by 76% year over year, with 1,429
vehicles sold. Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority said overall
EV sales in the country grew by about 31%.
Tesla sales in France last month declined by 26% year over year:
It sold 2,395 vehicles, though that was an increase from 1,141 Teslas
sold in January. The country also experienced an overall decline in car
sales of 0.7%, Plateforme Automobile said.
Teslas manufactured in China: -49%
Sales
of Teslas manufactured in China also took a hit in February. The EV
giant sold 30,688 China-made vehicles, its lowest number since August
2022. That represented a 49% drop year over year in China. Tesla's Chinese rival BYD recorded a 90.4% increase in vehicle sales that month.
Steve
Wozniak is no fan of Elon Musk, he revealed—and that goes for the Tesla
CEO’s cars as well as his current stint as President Donald Trump’s
chief cost-cutter.
The
Apple cofounder excoriated Musk during a recent interview, criticizing
his management style at the so-called Department of Government
Efficiency (DOGE).
“I don’t know what got into his head,” Wozniak told CNBC.
“Sometimes
you get so rich at these big companies, when you’re on top, it goes to
your head, and you’re the most credible person in the world, you’re the
brightest, and you're gonna dictate what others will do.
“Bullying is the best way to think of it,” Wozniak said.
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate
Finance Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned
Dr. Michael Faulkender, President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Secretary
of the Treasury, on Republicans’ “magic math” for their plans to cut
taxes for the ultra-wealthy. Republican leaders are increasingly
supportive of using a “current policy baseline” for their tax package to
hide the true cost of their proposed $4.6 trillion tax package.
Congress’ independent scorekeepers have historically scored
legislation using a “current law baseline,” which assumes that temporary
tax cuts will expire and that extending those tax cuts will cost money.
A current policy baseline, on the other hand, assumes that temporary
tax cuts will not expire and that extending those tax cuts will cost $0.
When pressed by Senator Warren on whether this gimmick actually
produces additional revenue, Dr. Faulkender admitted, "I can't imagine
that it would.”
Last month, Senator Warren sent a letter
to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which provides
Members of Congress with revenue estimates for tax legislation. She
pressed for answers on whether JCT has ever used a “current policy
baseline” for official scoring purposes on the Senate floor, among other
questions, to set the record straight on Republicans’ “magic math."
Ahead of his nomination hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren also sent a 32-page letter to Dr. Faulkender, pressing him to explain his views on his potential Treasury responsibilities.
Transcript: Hearing to examine the nomination of Michael Faulkender, of Maryland, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Senate Finance Committee March 6, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman. So, President Trump had exactly one big legislative
accomplishment in his first term: a giant tax cut for millionaires,
billionaires, and massive corporations. In fact, it was so giant that a
big hunk of it lasted only eight years and still cost $2 trillion. Now,
the eight years are up, so Republicans want to do another tax cut for
the ultra-wealthy, which Congress’ non-partisan budget scorers say is
going to cost $4.6 trillion this time. Now, Congressional Republicans
say they care about the deficit, so they have a plan to fix things up:
repeal math. Here's their story: because they already had eight years of
tax cuts that ran up the debt, Congressional Republicans claim that 10
more years of tax cuts will be free. They named this gimmick the
‘current policy baseline.’ They should have named it “magic math.” It is
so nuts that when we need to figure out the cost of tax cuts, the
Senate has never, never switched to it over using real math.
Now, Dr. Faulkender, if confirmed, you will play a role in whatever
tax deal the Republicans put together. So let's talk about math,“magic
math” and real math. Dr. Faulkender, does renaming tax cuts produce any
additional revenue?
Michael Faulkender, Deputy Secretary-Designate, U.S. Department of the Treasury: Does renaming them–
Senator Warren: Yes, calling them something different. Does that produce any additional revenue?
Dr. Faulkender: I don't think renaming something changes—if it changes behavior, it has the potential to change revenues.
Senator Warren: Wait, so, are you saying renaming tax cuts produces additional revenue? Just renaming it?
Dr. Faulkender: I can't imagine that it would, unless it causes people to behave differently.
Senator Warren: Okay, I'll take that as no. Fair
enough? Claiming that somehow losing $4.6 trillion in tax revenues is
free is just plain nuts. Congressional Republicans are hoping they can
fool people long enough to deliver giveaways to their wealthy donors
before anyone figures it out. But at the end of the day, Republicans
cannot repeal math. A bunch of tax cuts for billionaires will cost $4.6
trillion.
But congressional Republicans don't like that answer. So, I'm
wondering, if they love magic math so much, I want to ask the same
question in reverse. If the Republicans’ idea of magically not counting
the cost of tax cuts for billionaires makes sense, what about not
counting the cost of tax cuts for ordinary people? That is, for
extending the Child Tax Credit?
Dr. Faulkender, according to Republicans’ magic math, if extending
the tax cuts is free, shouldn't extending a temporary expansion of the
Child Tax Credit also be free?
Dr. Faulkender: Thank you, Senator. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
increased the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, and so if we
allow that tax cut to expire, it would mean that the child tax credit
would go back to the $1,000.
Senator Warren: Right. So, the question I'm asking
is, using Republican “magic math,” if it is free to extend tax cuts for
billionaires, isn't it also free to extend tax cuts for poor kids?
Dr. Faulkender: Senator, I'm not familiar with magic
math, but what I do know is that the American people look at the
current tax code, what they paid last year and what they paid this year
as the current environment. So, the question is, when we talk about
extending it, I would argue that extending the TCJA is making sure that
the American people don't incur a $4.5 trillion tax increase.
Senator Warren: So, you do think that renaming the tax cuts will produce $4.5 trillion in revenue?
Dr. Faulkender: No, Senator, I didn't say that it
had any impact on the bottom line deficit. I'm just saying when you ask
me what a baseline is, to me, the baseline is what I'm currently doing.
Senator Warren: I’m not asking you that. I'm asking
you what it costs to put in $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Look, if
Republican “magic math” works, then why not extend it to everything we
spend money on? How about the money we spent last year on roads and
bridges or child care subsidies and the workers who process Social
Security checks? Of course not. No one is going to do that.
Congressional Republicans want to use “magic math” to pass giant tax
cuts, and then try to tell the American people those tax cuts cost
nothing. Hard-working Americans understand that $4.6 trillion for a
billionaire tax cut is not free. Congressional Republicans are trying to
sell magic math so they can help billionaires, and fortunately, the
American people are just not buying that.
###
Instead
of amplifying that, DSAers spent the last 24 hours calling the
Democratic Party fascists and that's why so many of us -- "us" being
members of the Democratic Party -- feel we can not afford or indulge the
DSA currently. They made their choice in the last election and it was
to attack the Democratic Party which brought us another term of Donald
Chump.
We can't afford the DSA and we certainly cannot trust them currently.
Billionaire
Jeff Bezos has decided to use his newspaper to propagate an outdated
story that Americans like to tell themselves: that economic freedom
equals human freedom. The myth of meritocracy might be designed to
inspire striving, but in a country with the greatest income inequality in the developed world, it does something more harmful. It threatens Americans’ health, gaslighting people to believe that unchecked capitalism delivers personal liberty, when decades of research show it shackles people to financial and emotional insecurity.
Bezos announced on February 26 that TheWashington Post’s
opinion pages will be “writing every day in support and defense of two
pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” The paper will not
publish any viewpoints opposing his priorities, he said, while adding,
“Freedom is ethical—it minimizes coercion—and practical—it drives
creativity, invention, and prosperity.” For an editorial section that
long prided itself as a marketplace of ideas, and a newspaper
historically dedicated to holding the powerful accountable, this edict
by a union-busting business mogul engaged in a pay-to-play scheme with a president who disdains the Constitution is bad for journalism and democracy and, perhaps most personally, Americans’ mental health.
I worked at The Washington Post from
2017 to December 2023, establishing the Opinion section’s first
documentary film unit and pioneering a column about mental health and
society. In 2021, I covered the January 6 attack at
the U.S. Capitol as part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for
Public Service. When I learned of Bezos’s editorial edict, I talked to
former colleagues and learned of “heartbreak,” confusion, and anger in
the newsroom. I also reached out to Post leadership for a comment
on what defines “personal liberties and free markets” and who would be
the arbiter of who deserved this freedom. No response.
[. . .]
The
system Bezos is championing has enabled the rich to get richer faster
and the working class to burn out more quickly. And the assignment he’s
given The Washington Post opinion pages is to make his story look good. There is a dataset that gives it credence: Since the 2020 pandemic, the U.S. economy expanded at
a solid pace, wages have grown, and more people are working. But if you
widen the lens to look at health, well-being, and human
flourishing—some people’s definition of life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness—the United States does “abysmally,” social epidemiologist
Richard Wilkinson, a professor emeritus at the University of York in
Britain, told me.
“The
costs of the way the society works are absolutely horrendous,”
Wilkinson said in an interview. “We must, at some point, get people to
address that.”
Poor Jeff Bezos, paying with his soul.
Hey baby
I want to know
From the 'a-go-go' to the disco
Where did you really go?
You finally made it
You're gonna make it rich
As long as some poor bastard in Africa
Is lying in a ditch
Soul
Soul
Soul
Soul
How much did ya
How much did ya
How much did ya get?
-- "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul," written by Chrissie Hynde, first appears on Pretenders' GET CLOSE album.
ap reports, 'Columbia
University senior Maryam Alwan was visiting family in Jordan over
winter break when she received an email from the school accusing her of
harassment. Her supposed top offense: writing an op-ed in the student
newspaper calling for divestment from Israel.' this is because of donald chump.
i'm so sorry for maryam alwan.
that's
why we needed to vote for kamala harris. she was not going to attack
free speech. she was not going to try to turn gaza into a high end
resort.
jill stein wasn't going to help anyone but donald chump. rashida tlaib wasn't smart enough to do the right thing.
people can be idiots.
and as a result gaza suffers now.
c.i. posted this video at 'the common ills' yesterday and i thought the man in it made a good point.
don't tell people not to vote. if some 1 doesn't want to
vote, that's their business. but how dare rashida and others be part
of a 'movement' that said: vote for jill or vote for donald or don't
vote at all and certainly don't vote for kamala.
they told people to stay home and not vote.
and now we suffer as a result.
those
of us who truly care about the palestinians and had an emotional
maturity of at least 21 y.o. knew that 'uncommitted' was not helping.
but then we knew it also wasn't about gaza.
it
was a dsa plot. norman solomon started it in early 2023 and got no
traction. then hamas attacked and israel responded in october of 2023
and norman relaunched it as 'uncommitted.' they used gaza to portray
their mission as noble and moral. it was the same mission norman pimped
to take out joe biden.
dsa
is the socialist group democratic socialists of america. they are not
democrats. they are socialists. norman's a member, rashida's a member,
her sister's a member, all of the justice 'democrats' are socialists
who are part of d.s.a.
they
can't accomplish much because they're always turning on each other.
currently, they're mad at aoc (who is a dsa). jamal bowman? they
attacked him after he was elected and did nothing to defend him when
aipac when after him.
amy
goodman brought them on to 'democracy now' over and over (see c.i.'s '2024: The Year of Betrayal From Inside The Left.') and let them
get away with posing as democrats while they put out the false narrative
that 'even democrats don't like kamala.' that was necessary to drive
voter turn out down because dsa was determined to teach the democratic
party a lesson.
the lesson
that they taught the democratic party is that dsa cannot be trusted.
they won no power by putting chump back into the white house.
some
people like c.i. had tolerated them. but now they've lost her and
other big donors to the democratic party so it's going to be interesting
to see what happens next.
i'm
sure cenk and kyle are already at work thinking up another name like
'justice democrats' that they can use to trick people with.
dsa?
that's their history. they're forever tricking people. they can't get
votes as open socialists. they've been doing this nonsense since
1982. back then, they were telling the press that in a few years they'd
be big enough to be their own party. they had 25,000 members then.
over 40 years later? and they have a little less than 80,000 members.
yeah, they really wasted their lives.
but those were their lives to waste. they had no right to put palestinian lives at risk.
Thursday, March 6, 2025. Chump and his steady Alien Musk want to rip
the hard earned dollars out of the hands of American workers and give
them over to billionaires.
Last night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow gave an overview of the first six weeks in Chump Land.
Emily Prescott (KANSAS CITY STAR) reports,
"In a significant workforce reduction initiative, approximately 30,000
federal employees have received termination notices from Trump
administration officials. Among the affected agencies, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) has seen the termination of 4,200
probationary employees. A laid off USDA employee recently addressed
President Donald Trump in a viral message online, expressing
disappointment over being terminated for alleged performance issues."
And it's happening all around the country which is why, see Mike's ","
the GOP has decided no more townhalls. Though they can't take the heat
they are determined to hide in their DC kitchen.
With
Convicted Felon Donald Chump in the White House, the whole country
suffers. That's even true of members of the administration. For
example?
Last Friday
morning, former US Senator Marco Rubio woke up with the possibility of a
political future. That same afternoon, it all came crashing down in
the Oval Office as he realized he was working with a moron but he lacked
the guts to publicly break from Chump. With each day that passed, the
Secretary of State became more and more of a has-been on his way to The
Land of Forgotten. Tuesday night just drove that reality home as Chump
spoke to the nation and mocked Marco.
President Donald Trump made what seemed to be a joke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his address to Congress, but many observers interpreted it differently.
"Good
luck, Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong. No, Marco
has been amazing and he's going to do a great job. Think of it. He got
100 votes (...) And I'm either very, very happy about that or I'm very
concerned about it. But he's already proven - I mean he's a great
gentleman, he's respected by everybody and we appreciate you voting for
Marco. He's going to do a fantastic job," Trump said during a passage of
his speech.
Trump's
message was received with laughter by Republicans in the chamber, but
others focused on Rubio's expression, claiming it mostly showed concern.
William Vaillancourt (DAILY BEAST) notes Marco's dour and sour puss as well.
He turns 54 in May and his political career has pretty much ended. Do
we get how sad that is? -- as Lou Grant tells Mary Richards In season
one, episode twenty-four of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW "The 45-Year-Old
Man," Lou Grant (Ed Asner) tells Mary Richards (MTM), "I'm forty-five
years old. If I were in politics, they'd call me 'the kid'."
Yet,
although Marco's not even 54 yet, it appears his political career is
over, that it ends as a member of a corrupt and ignorant
administration.
Andrew
Wilson, deputy secretary-general of the International Chamber of
Commerce, is issuing a red alert about the trade wars sparked by
President Donald Trump in the last day.
The Wall Street Journal reports that
Wilson warned that Trump's tariffs against Canada and Mexico could be
putting the global economy on the path to an economic depression that
rivals the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"Our deep concern is that this could be the start of a downward spiral that puts us in 1930s trade-war territory," he said.
In
an interview with the Journal, Wilson said that at the moment the
chances of such a catastrophic decision were a "coin flip" and said that
the determining factor in whether it would happen would be "whether the
U.S. administration is willing to rethink the utility of tariffs."
The Trump put is done. The stock market has erased all of its meteoric gains notched since Election Day.
Hopes for deregulation, tax cuts, and other fiscal stimulus from President Donald Trump have been replaced by fears that his tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China will ignite a full-blown trade war. That outcome would most certainly hurt consumers and corporate profits—and revive the economic threat of inflation.
That’s
why Wall Street is suddenly worried again, instead of excited about
Republicans controlling the White House and Congress. There is no sign
of the so-called Trump put—the expectation that he will do what he can
to keep the stock market happy.
Instead, Tuesday offered a broad-based, though volatile, selloff after Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico went into effect.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all ended
Tuesday’s trading session in the red. The Nasdaq was up more than 1% at
one point Tuesday before giving up all its gains, while the Dow Jones
Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed 1.6% and 1.2% lower,
respectively.
He's
destroying the country. As Senator Elizabeth Warren notes, that is the
plan -- to destroy the country for working Americans and to take all
their hard earned money and turn it over to billionaires:
Senator Warren joined Boston
Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation ahead of
President Trump’s joint address to Congress
Warren: “The whole Republican plan fits on a bumper sticker: Billionaires win; families lose.”
Washington, D.C. – At a press conference today, U.S.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu,
Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and the Massachusetts Congressional
Delegation in delivering remarks on Trump’s agenda to benefit
billionaires while hurting working people ahead of Trump’s Joint Address
to Congress.
Senator Warren called the first six weeks of the new administration a
“sandstorm of chaos” meant to distract from President Trump’s goal of
jamming through trillions in tax cuts to billionaires at the expense of
health care, Social Security, and programs that benefit working
people.
Senator Warren was joined by her guest Doug Kowalewski, a former
National Science Foundation employee from Wellesley who, after six years
of service, was fired unexpectedly in Elon Musk’s and the Department of
Government Efficiency’s gutting of the federal workforce. Doug shared
his story at Senator Warren’s recent town hall in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Transcript: Press Conference with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation U.S. Senate March 4, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: We are all here today as
the federal representatives of the seven million people of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And we stand proudly with the Mayor of
Boston, who has been “invited” – I think that’s still a word – she has
been invited by the Republicans to come and defend Boston and to defend
the values that we fight for every day in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. So we want to be here, in part, to talk about what this
fight is about.
Over the last six weeks, Donald Trump has created a sandstorm of
chaos to try to distract us from his real agenda: Tax cuts for
billionaires, paid for by cuts to health care and Social Security. These
are programs that mommas and daddies and babies and seniors rely on
every single day.
Trump and his unelected co-president Elon Musk are dismantling our
government, piece by piece, so that it works better for those same
billionaires and worse for everyone else. The whole Republican plan fits
on a bumper sticker: Billionaires win; families lose.
Trump promised, you may remember, to lower costs “on day one.”
Instead, he and co-President Musk have tried to fire the financial cops
that keep Americans from getting cheated. They have slashed funding that
supports research for cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s. And they have
fired thousands of hardworking public servants, including the people who
keep us safe when we fly on airplanes, the people who make sure that
nuclear materials are safely stored, and people who inspect our food.
One of those hardworking public servants is Doug. Up until two weeks
ago, Doug worked at the National Science Foundation — until out of
nowhere, he was fired along with over one hundred of his colleagues. And
I’ve invited Doug here to share his story. Doug, come on over.
Doug Kowalewski, Senator Warren’s Guest for Trump’s Joint Address to Congress: So,
after six years of service at the National Science Foundation, I was
fired two weeks ago from today. And me, along with 167 of my colleagues
were called into a Zoom meeting to get a mass termination firing with no
cause. And this doesn’t just impact me — this impacts all of
Massachusetts. A limited workforce at NSF or NST or NIH jeopardizes the
billions of federal investments that directly fund our top-notch
research and researchers in Massachusetts and powers our local economy.
So, I’m scared for our country. Millions of Americans who have
dedicated their lives and dedicated their careers to this country are
suffering because of unelected billionaires. I’m here with Senator
Warren to fight back against these illegal terminations and to stand up
for hardworking civil servants. Thank you.
Senator Warren: Thank you very much, Doug. And I
appreciate Doug being here. I just want to say, this is what happens
when you go to town halls. I had a town hall in Framingham a week ago
and Doug stood up and told his story, as have lots of other people in
Massachusetts.
I would say the biggest question at that town hall is: What can we
do? And Doug is living proof of what we can do. We can tell our stories
because they matter. We build a grassroots movement across this story by
not using big words and abstract terms, but by telling the story person
by person by person about what kind of work you do and what it means
when you just get called in and told, “You’re fired,” because it fits in
someone else’s political agendas, so thank you for being here, Doug. I
appreciate it.
Alright, I just want to say: Doug is standing up, he’s pushing back and that’s what we’ve all got to do.
Here’s the story: last month hackers looted Ethereum coins
worth $1.5 billion from Bybit, a Dubai-based crypto exchange —
apparently the most money anyone has ever stolen in a single caper. The
FBI believes that the North Korean regime was behind the hack. Most of
the coins have already been laundered into Bitcoin, and will eventually
be turned into real money that will be used to sustain Kim Jong Un’s
brutal dictatorship.
It’s quite a story, yet it has only
recently begun to get major coverage. The likeliest explanation of this
lag is that crypto-related fraud and theft is so rife that reporters and
editors have grown blasé.
But small investors continue to lose
large sums in crypto scams, like “rug-pulls.” And the biggest rug-pull
yet is underway: Donald Trump’s plan for a “strategic crypto reserve.”
What’s
a rug-pull? A textbook example just happened in Argentina, where Javier
Milei, the president, touted a new cryptocurrency called $Libra.
The currency’s price soared as thousands of small players bought in,
while insiders sold their holdings for huge profits. Then the price
collapsed, leaving small players owning worthless bits of code.
Does
this sound familiar? It should: the $Trump coin, introduced with great
fanfare by Trump in January, attracted billions in dollars from MAGA
fans, then quickly lost more than 80 percent
of its value. The great bulk of $Trump coins were initially bought by a
handful of “whales,” large investors, although it’s not clear whether
their intent was to scam small buyers or simply to bribe the president.
While
both Milei and Donald Trump deny that they personally profited from the
rug-pulls they enabled, I seriously doubt that anyone believes them.
And if Trump manages to establish a federal “strategic crypto reserve,”
paid for by US tax dollars, the scams associated with $Libra and $Trump
will look like chump change.
We're
being robbed. And that's why Chump is seeing the country turn on him
so quickly and his honeymoon ended before he even got in all the slap
and tickle he wanted with Alien Musk. Alex Kirshner (SLATE) observes the cratering of Chump's mастера секса Alien Musk:
Musk
has garnered lots of attention for this power move. Some is positive.
Most is not. Tesla, his biggest company, has become the subject of
widespread boycotting calls by his and Trump’s opponents. There are
frequent protests outside of Tesla showrooms. Barely a day passes
without the viral egging of a Cybertruck. Tesla owners are getting
international press attention for flipping their cars at a loss just to
get rid of them. “I’m selling the Nazi mobile,” one dissatisfied driver says.
The social internet might create an outsized impression of how common
those acts of resistance are, but they still seem at least reflective of
a shift. Public approval of Musk’s government obliteration really is low, and disapproval of Tesla itself is higher than ever.
Meanwhile,
Tesla’s stock price is declining rapidly. Musk’s largest company lost
24 percent of its value in February. It was the stock’s second worst month ever,
and then it fell another 3 percent on Monday, the first trading day of
March. What a coincidence it would be if none of that had anything to do
with the ever-growing, controversial public persona of its very famous
chief executive. Big left-of-center social media accounts are
celebrating their work: “Congrats, everyone—the Elon boycott is
working!” a Bluesky post from a mysterious account with 800,000 followers reads.
Public perception of the automaker and its billionaire owner seem to be
at an all-time low. One person even claims to have lost $70,000 in
business contracts because customers didn't like that he drives a Tesla
Cybertruck.
"I have a dilemma. I
started to lose customers because I have [a] Cybertruck," Yoni Menaker
wrote in what appears to be a now-deleted Facebook post, as cited by Torque News. "I got some bad reviews, and I am not sure what to do."
Menaker added he loves the vehicle and "it's the best truck" he's ever had.
The name Yoni Menaker is attached
to a company called Blue Angels Roofing, which operates in Alabama and
Georgia. A couple of negative online reviews scornfully mentioned the
company's use of a Cybertruck.
Blue Angels Roofing isn't alone. A medical spa owner in Massachusetts told
NBC Boston in February he's faced harassment and client cancellations
after purchasing a gold-wrapped Cybertruck to promote his business.
It's
not just small business owners facing backlash. Tesla's stock slide
from mid-December to late February wiped out more than $650 billion in
market value, according to a Barron's report.
While EV sales in the U.S. have grown
in volume — up 7.3% in 2024 — Tesla's sales fell more than any other
manufacturer, according to Cox Automotive. Sales figures in other
regions, including Europe and China, have also trended downward.
She
thinks she understands Chump. That's so cute. She doesn't. I don't.
Both of us can talk to where he's coming from but she actually thinks
she's got some skill -- that she shares with Clara -- on being able to
know what's important and what's not and when to ignore Chump's
statements and when not to.
She doesn't.
And
I say that because it's true and it also let's me answer a question for
people writing to the public e-mail account. I have not forgotten
_____. I'm just not interested in highlighting him. He also knew what
Chump was going to do and when Chump was serious and blah blah blah
When
Chump started his attacks on Canada, we called him out. We ended up
compling all the countries he'd verbally lashed out at. And while we
were doing that a YOUTUBER wanted the world to know tht was just Chump
bluster and those mentioning it were wasting time.
I
shrugged as someone who emphasized international relations for my
undergraduate and graduate work (along with campaign politics). There
were so many ways that could be wrong -- that person could be wrong.
But
we don't all have to agree. And though he was wrong on that, he was
right on other things so I continued to highlight him until I got the
angry e-mail about how he had covered this and Chump wasn't going to do
anything on this topic and this was a distraction and I needed to apply
my time better.
That's when we were done with him.
As
time has demonstrated, those of us educated in international relations
were right to raise flags immediately. But I could have been wrong
Wouldn't be the first time.
The difference is: I
don't ask anyone for money. Daily content here includes one piece of
writing a day by me. Except for when I went into my diabetic coma, I
have had something new that I wrote (most likely dictated) up here every
day for over 20 years. And never charged a cent. Never begged for a
cent.
So I don't really see where you can write
an angry e-mail to me telling me that I'm wasting people's time and
that I'm stupid because as soon as Chump's sworn in, he's going to stop
trashing other countries and he's going to this and to that.
At
any rate, that YOUTUBER is banned here by me. He could get honest. I
don't mean apologize to me. I do mean he could say on a new segment,
"Hey, when I told all of you to ignore the comments Chump was making
about other countries and the Panama Canal and all the rest, I was
wrong. It wasn't just distraction. It was the new foreign policy for
the US under Chump."
There are so many things each day that warrant and deserve coverage.
I
can't do it all and don't pretend to. I've noted that often on Mondays
when the snapshot includes a statement about how too much happened over
the weekend.
So I'm picking and choosing.
(And I'm aware that the community sites pick up many topics and I can
sometimes rule a topic because I know someone else in the community is
already covering it.)
And I'm not above
criticism -- though you'll never be able to criticize me more harshly
than I already do. But when I'm writing garbage here about how we need
to make Jon Stewart our party's presidential nominee in 2028? When I'm
doing that kind of political masturbation? Then I really need to be
slammed.
However, I'm not among the four
YOUTUBERS who did that. (And, yes, the one banned was one of the
four.) That is wasting time. And they didn't even know Jon's stances.
Which is why last month they were attacking him. Jon's a comedian and a
good one. He goes for the laugh. He's also overly concerned about
being seen as fair.
Monika's piece is worth
reading but it's also worth noting that she doesn't have a crystal ball
and it's really not for her to say what's important and what's not. She
can say that for herself -- I can say that for myself -- but if you're
gut's telling you something different, you should go with your gut. Do a
YOUTUBE video, write a post, whatever. If you think something
important is taking place that needs attention -- much more than it's
getting -- that's what you can do and should do.
Last night, Chris Hayes gave us all a scorecard on DOGE.
Kyle Schutt, a
software engineer embedded at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency, is making $195,200—the maximum salary allowed for a
federal employee. Nate Cavanaugh, a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur
playing a leading role in DOGE's GSA restructuring efforts, is earning
$120,500.
These revelations, uncovered by WIRED, stand in direct contrast to Musk's previous statements.
Last November, as he and Vivek Ramaswamy recruited for DOGE, Musk
insisted that working for the agency would be "tedious" and compensated
at zero dollars.
However, the investigation found that DOGE's budget has ballooned to $40 million, and its recruitment page now openly discusses "full-time, salaried positions" for engineers and other specialists.
"It
does seem worth understanding what these employees are being paid," Don
Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan told
WIRED. "Especially if they are being paid significantly more than
technologists who have been fired, given that many of the DOGE staff
have less relevant experience."
As
Chris Hayes noted on MSNBC last night, there is no transparency. They
don't even issue corrections. They just wait until they hope people
aren't looking and then they remove one of their lies from their lists
of claims.
There is no transparency and
there is no accountability. There is Alien Musk joking that sometimes
mistakes will be made. Thousands of Americans are out of their jobs and
that's the closet to accountability Alien's going to offer: Woops!
Millions
and millions of Americans are at risk because of these firings and
"Woopsie" and a bad joke is all we're going to get in the form of an
apology or an acknowledgement.
It doesn't matter to Alien Musk.
He's
not an American. Canada's got a move currently to strip him of his
Canadian citizenship but even if they did? He could still go home to
South Africa. The racist doesn't want to do that because the racist
system of apartheid that he was raised under and benefited from no
longer exists in South Africa.
But he can go elsewhere.
He's
not an American. He didn't grow up here, he didn't bother to learn
about the country and he lies daily to the citizens of this country.
He doesn't care what happens to the American people. He does care about stealing as many of our tax dollars as he can.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy flatly rejected the idea that Elon Musk’s Starlink is the key to fixing FAA’s struggling air traffic control system.
Duffy
delivered the slap down of the tech billionaire's satellite internet
network while speaking to Fox News on Tuesday about air traffic control
shortages and other issues plaguing the agency following a series of
deadly aviation disasters in the opening weeks of 2025.
All
Alien wants is our tax dollars. He's a welfare queen who has lived off
our tax dollars and the tax dollars of citizens of other countries.
That's 'his' wealth.
Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior
member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee,
issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s plans
to fire 80,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),
seriously risking the medical care and benefits that veterans have
earned and deserve.More than 25 percent of VA’s workforce are veterans
themselves.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are escalating their full-scale,
no-holds-barred assault on veterans–and putting the health care and
benefits they have earned in grave danger. It’s infuriating that two
billionaires think they can fire tens of thousands of people responsible
for administering the services and care that over nine million veterans
across the country count on. It’s flat-out immoral and a breach of the
sacred commitment we make to our veterans to take care of them when they
return home.
“Just yesterday, I spoke with a disabled veteran who worked
at the Seattle VA helping homeless veterans. He told me how devastating
it was when, without warning, without cause, and without explanation, he
was suddenly terminated from a role that meant everything to him and
was cast aside by the very system he had fought in combat to defend.
Now, there will be thousands more stories like his and millions more
veterans who will pay the price. Trump’s own attorney has said that this
administration thinks veterans they laid off for NO REASON may not be
‘fit to have a job at this moment’ —it’s an astounding
level of contempt for our veterans that’s reflected throughout this
administration’s thoughtless mass firings.
“These arbitrary mass layoffs, at the very least, are going
to mean longer processing times for disability or education claims
veterans are desperately waiting on, and longer wait times for veterans
to see a doctor–to say nothing of the serious threat to patient safety
or the threat of VA medical centers closing. Make no mistake: this will
only empower Elon to privatize VA by breaking it first. The consequences
of Trump and Elon’s sheer recklessness will reverberate for
generations—in more veterans sick and unable to get their benefits, more
veterans out of a job, and fewer men and women willing to sign up to
serve a nation that shows it will not keep their promises to them.”
ENDANGERING VETERANS’ ACCESS TO BENEFITS AND CARE—AND PATIENT SAFETY
Firing VA employees will–among much else–likely force veterans to wait longer:
To see health care providers;
To have their disability claims adjudicated;
To have someone to pick up their calls at the Veterans Crisis Line;
To have burial and funeral expense reimbursement requests processed;
And much more.
A number of staff supporting the Veterans Crisis Line–which
provides 24/7, confidential crisis support for veterans and their loved
ones–were among those fired by Trump and Musk.
In 2022, Congress also passed the PACT Act, the largest expansion
of
veterans’ benefits in two decades, which requires a significant influx
of resources and staff to deliver the benefits and care under the law.
Trump and Musk’s firings–and hiring freeze–badly undercut VA’s ability
to process claims under the law.
The mass firings and the ongoing hiring freeze, which prohibits new
disability claims raters from coming on board, will force the backlog of
unprocessed claims to grow above 254,000.
Firing long-time VA researchers also puts clinical trials
that veterans are enrolled in at risk and jeopardizes research that
could yield critical breakthroughs for veterans.
Ongoing VA research is examining treatment options for PTSD and
opioid addiction, as well as for cancer that was caused by veterans’
exposure to toxic chemicals, among much else.
According to VA,
in fiscal year 2024, there were 102 active research sites nationwide,
with 3,685 active principal investigators who led 7,278 active funded
research projects involving teams of researchers. In addition, VA
investigators authored or coauthored 11,732 published research articles.
Recent dangerous directives from VA last week, which they
have already begun to walk back, cause more harmful chaos and confusion
and also have detrimental impacts on the ability of veterans to receive
their care and benefits.
VA issued a blanket cancellation last Tuesday of nearly 900 contracts–supporting
patient safety efforts like chemical waste disposal and monitoring of
hospital air quality, systems providing secure storage of veterans’
private records, clinical recruitment efforts, and more.
VA also implemented a decision to reduce purchase card limits to $1–curbing
VA medical centers’ ability to purchase supplies and equipment they
need to serve veterans or to provide lodging for transplant patients.
While the Trump administration tries to rehire clinical staff they
have already fired and may ultimately walk back the purchase card limits
and contract cancellations, it is clear that they are acting before thinking–and the people paying the price are veterans.
BETRAYING VETERANS WITH ZERO JUSTIFICATION
Beyond indiscriminately firing workers who help get veterans the
benefits and care they have earned, Trump and Musk have also already
indiscriminately fired thousands of veterans who have served our country
in uniform. In firing probationary and other federal workers across
government, Trump and Musk have fired scores of veterans.
Veterans make up30% of the federal workforce, and the federal government is the largest single employer of veterans in the country.
Trump and Musk have already fired nearly 6,000 veterans, by one recentestimate.
Federal agencies uniquely work to hire and accommodate veterans with
service-related disabilities. Longstanding law requires, for example,
that veterans who are disabled or who serve on active duty in the Armed
Forces in military campaigns are entitled to preference over others in
hiring from a list of eligible, competitive applicants. In 2021, there
were337,000 disabled Veterans serving in the federal government, making up 16% of the federal workforce.
As veterans working at VA in Washington state who were recently laid off through no fault of their own have told Senator Murray:
“I swore an oath to serve our country—first in the U.S.
Army and then at the VA—only to be abruptly terminated by the very
institution that promised to care for those who have served. My
termination isn’t just a personal tragedy; it’s a stark reminder that
our federal government is dismantling essential support systems for
veterans and vulnerable communities. When cost-cutting means sacrificing
dedicated, disabled service members and committed federal employees, it
isn’t about efficiency—it’s about eroding the trust and dignity that
our nation owes to those who answer the call to serve.” — Raphael Garcia, former Management Analyst for VA, Seattle
“Working at the VA gave me purpose. I understood the
struggles veterans faced, whether physical, mental, or emotional. I took
pride in being part of something bigger than myself, in continuing to
serve even after taking off the uniform… The next chapter in my service
led me to working with unhoused Veterans. Limiting roles like mine,
means other VA employees will have to take on more and cutting into
valuable clinical time directly serving veterans. That’s why it was so
devastating when, without warning, without cause, I was terminated. No
explanation, no justification just a cold dismissal from a role that
meant everything to me. It felt like a betrayal, not just of my
dedication but of the values I thought the VA stood for. I had fought
through war, through cancer, and through every challenge life had thrown
at me only to be cast aside by the very system I had believed in.” — Scott Olson, former Program Support for VA’s Community Housing Program, Seattle
