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

that's pretty good

Yeah that's better than nerd reich

Alfred, I raise my less sophisticated whiskey glass in your direction. Those are the meetings/calls/omens I dread in academia.

Nerd Reich is good idk

yah I can work with that one too

Thursday's lawsuit was filed by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). It is the first legal action related to Trump's measures to cut USAID.

In addition to Trump, the lawsuit takes aim at the US state department, USAID, the treasury department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The lawsuit argues that the president is violating the Constitution and federal law in attempting to dismantle the agency.

"Not a single one of defendants' actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization," the lawsuit says.

"And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency."

It calls for an independent acting director of USAID to be appointed, for USAID buildings to be reopened to employees, for the USAID website to be restored, for grants and contracts to be reinstated, and for mandatory evacuation notices to staff to be lifted.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y6701gl60o

My guess is that whatever gets blocked by courts for needing congressional approval will then become part of the demand for the next debt-ceiling negotiation.

yeah and that's only a month away and is literally the only leverage dems have

Various congress people being blocked from entering the Dept. of Education this morning by a very obvious nazi looking asshole:

https://bsky.app/profile/maxwellfrost.bsky.social/post/3lhlvcx6usk27

Wonder which Nazi tattoo that band aid is covering.

Surely this guy gets ID’d soon, right?

I don't understand— just move around him. It's one guy. Have these people never had any sort of physical confrontation in their whole lives? They're not going to get past these fascist assholes by asking questions and being polite. ENOUGH.

Apparently congress people also being blocked at EPA headquarters today. Jesus fuck.

someone in that thread already identified what company he works for (Triple Canopy, some paramilitary organization associated with Blackwater)

I heard another clip where Maxine waters IDed the guy as a DOE employee

I am assuming the Dems or some Dems are going to be arrested at some point during these standoffs, but maybe they're not quite there yet? i dunno

his name is Jim Harfield, she said

further video from Frost said there were also armed federal officers keeping them out

That would piss me off more as an elected official I’d be daring them to try and gun me down

Dems probably need to avoid getting arrested if they are also trying to slow down Trump cabinet hearings and block debt ceiling increases.

What

What what?

Yep, better stick with decorum and following the rules, clearly working out really well in the fast track to the fascist takeover.

Dems probably need to avoid getting arrested if they are also trying to slow down Trump cabinet hearings and block debt ceiling increases.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, February 7, 2025 8:21 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a bad take. "they better be polite so that they can try to do things the polite way" like fuck no, make noise, get arrested, get people mobilized to stop this shit.

idk, maybe you're right, I'm not arguing for them to be "polite", but they do have some legit power to put the brakes on things in congress, and that would evaporate if they aren't physically present to use that power.

Here's Maxwell Frost responding to people asking him to get arrested on bsky

I resent the online-only “activists” that are telling me to go force my way through armed federal officers. Number one, know who the FUCK you’re talking to. I’ve been arrested multiple times for what I believe in. Do some googles before you comment some dumb shit.

a little more

Number two, we must be strategic. Republicans have a 2 SEAT majority. They’d love nothing more than a few progressive members of Congress being behind bars for days/weeks while fighting federal obstruction charges. Use your brain. If you’re mad at this post, just unfollow me 👍🏾 okay, back to work!

Coward.

Ugh, just depressing. Once again the Dems fall back to "the process" as if this is 1996 or something. Fucking shameful.

wtf dude

But they would be out on bail anyways so wtf

dunno, I can now clearly see a scenario now where they gleefully just jail dem congresspeople and keep them locked up

^^^^^^

I don't know the answer, but after eight years of watching Dems fail to do fucking anything, it's always frustrating to me to watch them fall back "let's just trust the process". It's why we're here.

GOP: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
DEMS: Do some googles before you comment some dumb shit

it's never good enough is it

ha ha no it isn't

The original post: https://bsky.app/profile/maxwellfrost.bsky.social/post/3lhlzfk6xn22a

it's super easy to be a keyboard warrior

Fuck off with the condescension, some of us are sick of tweets and would like to see some meaningful action. This shit isn't hypothetical anymore.

I've mixed feelings, part of which is, yeah, I do think it's uncomfortable for me to demand that people get arrested while I eat my lunch.

Sorry, that wasn't cool. I'm just frustrated that people are just waiting for "the process" when we're well past that stage.

meaningful action is protesting right now and going to the agencies and demanding to be let in and then walking away if not

i don't see what getting arrested or forcing people to violence does right now--what goal would that accomplish? and like i said earlier they have likely thought about this be have decided now's not the time yet to get arrested

everything trump has done so far he is getting hosed in court.

the big touchpoint will be if he decides to ignore a court's order, which yes is coming and we need to be prepared for

that's the tipping point i would guess

getting videos like this more views by the general public is important, I think. I don't watch cable news at all these days, so I'm not sure what kind of coverage it gets; but it's not on cnn.com or anything. it is on huffpost

so, this is a coup. neither elon nor trump has any authority to make the cuts they are making. once the court orders start coming i do not believe they will abide by them. maybe i am wrong -- court orders have stopped some things already. but i think the doge stuff is central to his strategy to consolidate power and i don't think it will stop.

if you go into right wing world, all they are talking about is the waste and fraud doge has uncovered at USAID. this is where they want to keep the conversation. i am sure they will find all sorts of irregularities in the government books, but it isn't the point. this is going to be the dems' biggest messaging hurdle --- defending the integrity of the constitutional system without getting sucked into the whataboutism over this or that particular expense. budget cuts are one thing; this is another thing.

the cuts are too big to ignore. they want to defund a number of agencies and slash the federal work force

the USAID stuff is not gonna stick when they wanna fire half the FBI

Xp They find “irregularities” because they don’t know what they are looking at.

like measure out what the average person would think about and would be the bigger deal

"they funded condoms for Hamas" vs. "they fired half of the FBI"

Sure we can demand the Dems go to jail protesting.

Then of course we’ll yell at them when the Dems are in jail and can’t obstruct the nominations in Congress.

what is the procedural effect of say two Dem senators being arrested and held without bail on the confirmation process in the Senate?

getting arrested for protesting or civil disobedience (espec while being nonwhite) post Jan 20th 2025 does not mean the same thing it used to. "they would be out on bail anyways," you sure about that?

"i'm sick of talk, it's time for action! that's why i'm posting on the internet that someone else should do something!" come on now