Turning On The Giant Faucet Of Bullshit - US Politics February 2025

Rich people speakin their minds/
Getting so much resistance from the woke mind virus

Everybody look who's bowing down

Who let the doge out?

lol

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/americas/el-salvador-migrant-deal-marco-rubio-intl-hnk/index.html

In addition, Bukele “has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of US citizenship and legal residents,” Rubio said.

Bukele confirmed the agreement on X, saying in a post, “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.”

President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within, according to three people briefed on its contents.

The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal issues.

That work is underway already. The new administration has been trying to reduce the workforce by putting scores of employees on administrative leave and pressuring staff to voluntarily quit.

And roughly 20 people with Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” known as DOGE, have begun working inside the Education Department, looking to cut spending and staff, according to three people familiar with the situation and records obtained by The Washington Post.

At least some DOGE staffers have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, the people said, including a financial aid dataset that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.

many xposts to raymond - i apologize for being snappy earlier today! i was feeling very agitated about....well, you know. but i'm sorry to have acted in that way

Ugh, I know someone at the Department of Education and someone at USAid, so folks just proclaiming how stupid Musk and Trump are doesn't exactly help folks at those agencies with bills to pay and families to feed. I get your points, but despite those guys flaws they are causing serious real woes.

Yeah I don't think Musk got to where he is by being a total idiot, his public proclamations notwithstanding.

I think he's just absorbed a Trumpian "All publicity is good publicity" mindset. Both of them have zero qualms about saying objectively stupid things because they know they will 1. get covered, and 2. piss off people they dislike. What else is there?

I'm trying to make some kind of analogy where the media is a railroad track, and Elon Musk is a train, and every day people are tied up and left on the tracks, and every day the locomotive shows up wrapped in a different groyper meme. There's a lot to dislike about the situation, even before you realize that the Musk meme train is filled with stormtroopers commuting to work on the Death Star.

many xposts to raymond - i apologize for being snappy earlier today! i was feeling very agitated about....well, you know. but i'm sorry to have acted in that way

― z_tbd, Tuesday, February 4, 2025 12:06 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

All good! This is a supremely stressful time for everyone.

Doge is the Wagner Group of the administration and Musk is its Prigozhin. Hopefully he has a similar fate in his timeline.

Apologies if this has already been shared here

https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-legal-challenges-trump-administration-actions/

Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and a physician who has been on the fence about Mr. Kennedy, cast the deciding vote, after days of publicly agonizing over what to do. The final tally was split along party lines: 14 Republicans voted yes, and all 13 Democrats opposed him.

So full senate vote coming soon after committee vote. "publicly agonizing"...

i hope there aren't any national health problems during the next 4+ years

Cassidy got assurances there wouldn't be.

the purpose of any government, when you strip it all the way down to the essentials, is to protect the people from harm and provide a system of "justice".

just thought i'd throw that out there. sometimes i completely forget because it seems like their purpose is the exact opposite

so...anyone have any good resources on how to protect my own and my baby's health with an empowered rfk?

I'm getting every vaccination available to me over the next 1-2 months (Pneumococcal, Shingles, TDAP, and MMR). Also stocking up on the usual COVID supplies... quality KN95 masks, latex gloves, hand sanitizer. If bird flu hits, I don't want to be scrambling for that stuff.

The assistant commissioner of a division of the General Services Administration told staff early this week that layoffs across the federal government are “likely” after the deferred resignation offer expires Thursday, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post — the sharpest move yet toward forcibly removing many of the 2.3 million civilian federal employees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/04/federal-government-layoffs-likely-memo/

Vodoo get a good pediatrician if you don’t have one already

Best year EVER

The "LOL nothing matters" bravado and preening obliviousness it takes to have a White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2025 is leaving me literally breathless. But hey, Amber Ruffin's gonna tell jokes! She's funny.

Is Trump going to be there though? He didn’t go to any during his first term.

Vodoo get a good pediatrician if you don’t have one already

― Heez, Tuesday, February 4, 2025 1:05 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i have a good one. i wonder if they will have any resources

Is Trump going to be there though? He didn’t go to any during his first term.

Whether he shows up or not (he won't, but I bet Musk will), the fact that these bootlicking pieces of shit think a banquet to celebrate the fantastic work they do is the right move as the entire US government is being privatized and demolished by the people they follow around like Entertainment Tonight reporters is...well...it says quite a lot.

Xp get ready for vaccine tourism!

brb going to niagara falls every 6 months

Great time for my dad to need his VA benefits to come through, a thing he's been working toward for like a year but there are 100 steps you have to take including time to research your entire life history of medical records. I'm sure it will be fine. :/

I know everyone here hates Gavin Newsom but this is okay in my book

‘We don’t trust Trump’: California earmarks $50m to fight administration

Plan sets aside $25m for legal battles against US government and $25m for legal groups to defend immigrants

California’s Democratic-dominated assembly endorsed up to $50m in funding on Monday to defend the state’s progressive policies against challenges by the Trump administration.

The legislation sets aside $25m for the state department of justice to fight legal battles against the federal government, and another $25m for legal groups to defend immigrants facing possible deportation...

Schumer and Jeffries can’t think of anything better than proposing a new law that uses the MAGA slogan “Stop the Steal “ as the name for a new law that combines existing laws to block Musk from what he’s doing.

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lhetayjwjt2j

Each morning, a peaceful protest outside of the Office of Personnel Management headquarters at 1900 E St NW from 7:30 am to 8:30 am, with coffee and donuts.

Some dc group is doing the above . AFGE that has been filling lawsuits also just announced a noon Tuesday rally near the Capital . They said they are doing it lunchtime so people working nearby can attend at lunchtime and then go back to work

Noted labor writer and metal scribe K1m K3lly is noting on Bluesky that she's heard Department Labor is next in DOGE's sights, her source says they've been told to give DOGE access to whatever they ask or risk termination.

"Please tell the boys with the broccoli haircuts whatever they want to know."

"When Big Balls asks for your password, share it immediately."

The Trump administration is still freezing many climate and infrastructure grants despite two federal court orders barring it from doing so.

Nonprofits and state agencies still lacked access Monday to EPA grant awards funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. Two district court judges have issued orders to reverse such spending freezes — with U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan reinforcing her order from Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/epa-spending-freeze-court-orders-00202253

Like I said above, there are no laws anymore, just "Fuck you, stop me" or "Fuck you, make me", depending on the circumstance. But I'm pretty sure Elon Musk doesn't have Secret Service protection (yet). That window may close soon.

He just carries his son on his head everywhere instead for protection.

My uncle works for the dept of labor and is terrified he’ll lose his job. He’s close enough to retirement age, but after supporting two kids and still paying off his own mortgage and loans, there’s not a lot of wiggle for him.

Ugh, I'm sorry table. Hope he makes it through this madness okay.

so do we file taxes this year or is Elon in IRS too?

i'm pretty sure paying taxes is just something suggested to do now. like giving to charity. its not the law or anything.

The "Freedom Isn't Free" sect are always the loudest with the bitching about paying taxes.

Trump, Hosting Israel’s Leader, Says Palestinians Should Leave Gaza

“They have no alternative right now” but to leave, President Trump said shortly before he welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

will democrats say anything? will this be their first time trying to do anything to stop the genocide, now that biden is out of office?

i could be wrong but it almost seems like most elected democrats are fine with it, and they'd probably agree with trump if it would make the problem they made worse go away

thankfully we knew before the election that Biden's Israel policies were so bad that Trump could not possibly be worse.

its not like Jared didnt float razing Gaza and building high-end beach-front property or anything

Looks like a pretty sizable protest outside the Treasury right now, glad to see something.

Democrats are starting to say things. (Whether that’s enough, or whether they’ll go further, remains to be seen.)