Noem Slammed for Pointing Assault Rifle at Law Enforcement Officer
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—is facing sharp criticism from veterans and firearms experts after appearing to point her assault rifle at a law enforcement officer during a video she filmed to promote her exploits.
“Noem is pointing the M4 muzzle at an agent with an open dust cover, indicating a chambered round. It’s the worst possible place to point it. No one stopped her, including the agent”
What Does MAGA Have Against Europe?
“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” Vance wrote. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quickly agreed: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Because a journalist—Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic—was accidentally included in the Signal chat, the texts went public, offering evidence of a theme that is fast emerging as one of the hallmarks of Trump 2.0: a visceral dislike of Europe
https://www.wsj.com/politics/what-does-maga-have-against-europe-96416042?mod=hp_featst_pos5
Vermonters Protest JD Vance: 'Go Ski in Russia'
Over a thousand Vermonters lined both sides of Route 100 in Waitsfield, Vermont, Saturday morning protesting Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting nearby Sugarbush Resort this weekend with his family.
Vance's ski vacation comes right after Friday's disastrous meeting where US President Donald Trump and Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
YOU'D THINK THEY WOULD GET THE MESSAGE.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/vermonters-protest-jd-vance-go-ski-in-russia
Trump and Musk Are Returning Us to the Age of the Robber Barons
For generations, the ultra-rich have been pushing to overthrow the Progressive Era’s and the New Deal’s utilitarian reforms. They have now found their moment.
Trump, Musk, and their ilk are returning the U.S. to the Gilded Age of robber barons, replete with railroad monopolies and no union protections. They are bringing us back to a time before the Progressive movement had instituted the first real wave
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-musk-robber-barons
Conservative free speech group draws MAGA ire by critiquing Trump move to bar reporter from Oval Office
In an official statement, AP said, "Today, we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from access an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon, AP's reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing."
https://www.alternet.org/fire-trump-ap/
If you want to understand the nature of our new regime, compare the fates of two federal employees who recently found themselves at least temporarily unable to keep doing their jobs.
One is a West Point graduate, an Army veteran and a former prosecutor who was asked by political appointees in the first Trump administration to join a diversity committee.
The other is a 25-year-old self-described racist. You can probably guess which of them Vance intervened to help out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/opinion/musk-vance-racist-education.html
Elon Musk, whose team has been operating in secrecy, asserted that he had uncovered waste and fraud across the bureaucracy, without offering evidence.
Trump plans an audacious grab for congressional ‘power of the purse’
Trump declared that if Newsom did not divert more of the state’s limited water supply, “we won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”
This is the cudgel of a monarch or heartless despot, precisely why the Founders invested the people’s representatives in Congress — not the president — with the “power of the purse.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/17/trump-impoundment-congress-power-grab/
"NBC reported that tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg will all have prominent seats on the platform at Trump's inauguration. The symbolism is unmistakable."
"Those seats are usually reserved for family members, former presidents, and prominent politicians. Giving those seats to billionaires signals loudly that this is a new era of oligarchy, without even an attempt to feign allegiance to pre-Trump notions of government for and by the people.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-populism-marcotte/
If the American public genuinely has grown weary of democratic governance and wishes to experiment with Fascism, they should pursue this goal by amending the Constitution rather than disregarding it.
Biden Ordered the DOJ to Stop Using #Private #Prisons. Thousands Are Still Being Held Inside.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others are looking into the discrepancy further.
The order restored an #Obama era policy first announced in 2016—and later suspended by #Trump administration—after a damning federal report found that private federal prisons were less safe and less secure than their publicly run counterparts. No longer would the Bureau of Prisons sign deals...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/12/warren-private-prison-us-marshals/
Is Big Pharma Over-Selling Depression?
It turns out that Big Pharma has been sponsoring research on treatment-resistant depression for some time. And despite only mixed supporting evidence from clinical trials, they’ve managed to foist new drugs on unsuspecting consumers that exhibit a host of side effects, some of them potentially dangerous.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/14/is-big-pharma-over-selling-depression/
The Right is Prepared For This Moment. Are We?
When we decided, earlier this year, to publish a special issue on the #Right, Republicans had not yet elected an avowed #Christian #nationalist as speaker of the House — one who was a key architect of Donald #Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, who had partnered with “two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner,” and who, in the first moments of his speakership, declared God had “ordained” his authority.
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-right-is-prepared-for-this-moment-are-we/
FO° Exclusive: The Far Right Soars in the #Netherlands and #Argentina
#Far-right candidates won elections in both the Netherlands and Argentina. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders won the most seats in parliament with an anti-immigrant, #anti-Muslim platform. In Argentina, Javier Milei won the presidency promising a radically #libertarian economic program.
#Kissinger’s Bombing Campaign Likely #Killed Hundreds of Thousands of Cambodians and Set the Path for the Ravages of the Khmer Rouge
The bombing resulted in the direct #deaths of hundreds of thousands of #Cambodians. With the #us keeping the bombings secret at the time comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But estimates on the number of deaths range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million. Most estimates put the death toll in the hundreds of thousands
America’s Economy is Dependent On Conflicts, Underpinned by Our #Military #Industrial #Complex
You won’t believe the numbers. With inflation taken into account, this year’s planned budget for the #Pentagon and the Department of Energy’s work on #nuclear #weapons is $886 billion. More than half of the discretionary budget is now spent on the Pentagon This means that areas like #education, public #health, job training, and protecting the #environment have to compete
I have an honest question for the forum at large.
How is it possible that 197 men and women duly elected by the people of their states are held hostage by 20 white supremacists, fascists, and racists who are incapable of compromise and consumed with their own agenda?
I really would like to hear other people's ideas on our dysfunctional House of Representatives today.
Liz Cheney Has Some Concerns About the 2024 Election
Cheney went on to talk about how concerned she is for U.S. democracy if Trump gets reelected. When asked if she’s ruling out running against Trump for president, she replied: “No, I’m not.”
If Cheney enters the fray, she will be joining 10 Republicans vying for the GOP nomination, three Democrats gunning for the Dem nomination, and two independents. But hey, the more the merrier, right?
#Cheney #gop #election2024
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/10/liz-cheney-trump-2024-election-threat-democracy.html
Trump Watches Cohen’s Testimony Destroy Him, Implicate Ivanka
“Ivanka.” Ivanka has been subpoenaed to testify and this is a question that she will be asked, especially now. It’s well known that in trials of this type, the lesser fish are interviewed first and then it gets to the barracudas and the sharks and finally to the big orange whale himself.
#trump #fraud #criminal
https://politizoom.com/trump-watches-cohens-testimony-destroy-him-implicate-ivanka/