Pizzagate for Trump 2.0 Why Elon Musk’s 20-something vandals aren’t tagging federal buildings the way male dogs mark trees is a mystery. A major goal of the DOGE effort is to publicly demonstrate who’s in charge. Donald Trump still thinks he is. “It’s good to be the king,” said Mel Brooks as the king of France in History of the World, Part 1. Donald Trump thinks so too. He pretended to be a successful business tycoon on TV. Now he’s pretending to be king. As powerful as Trump’s job is, he’s still just the president. The question is for how long? Trump has conferred on oligarch Elon Musk authorities the presidency does not have. Plus, Trump has been too busy playing king to have figured out he’s empowered Musk to usurp the presidency while he’s out ransacking Washington, D.C. It is clear that the Muskovites are bludgeoning anything and everything they perceive as left of center. It is also clear that they have little idea how government actually works and no regard for rule-following. They approach their federal targets with the kind of conspiracy mindset that spawned Pizzagate.
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A tech bro treasure hunt, a dictator-funded AI moonshot, and much more from The Lever this week.
A counter-movement is forming A physician friend just yesterday asked me where her donations would have the most impact for stopping Musk-Trump. She was thinking of a couple of nationally known nonprofits. I didn’t have an answer but said I would try to get her one. There are likely many more of you who would send cash to fight the Muskovites if you knew best where to send it. Here are two lists of pending court cases against the Musk-Trump self-coup: Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions (Just Security)Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Executive Orders (Court Watch) But the two long lists of court cases linked above are a diverse mix of governments not set up for directed donations and private groups that may be. The name-brand nonprofits my friend mentioned are not among them. There are too many NGOs, and it’s hard to know where to focus fire. Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) spotlighted several groups involved in just one of the lawsuits launched against against the Muskovites, but also key players like Democracy Forward fighting behind the scenes: Self care is going to be important to keep from burning out.
Doctor Who has a unique way of renewing itself that other shows don't have, making each Doctor's intro feel like a pilot for a new show.
A critique of De Grauwe and Ji’s analysis of the UK reserve system, highlighting aspects of the UK’s fiscal framework they have overlooked
THE Pines Canasta group are the delighted recipients of playing card holders handmade by members of the Woolgoolga Men’s Shed. Problem solver and star Canasta player Hannele Perho, resident at The Pines in Woolgoolga, knew she had to find a solution to holding multiple cards in her hands while playing Canasta. Advertise with News of...
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CWA Coffs Harbour branch has donated almost $1300 to the Love Your Sister foundation from its traditional Christmas Markets in December. The two-day sale was stacked with homemade produce and hand-crafted goods. “It was a busy time for events and activities in Coffs, with our sale taking place on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 December,...
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Why not kick off Superbowl Weekend by watching some sports movies? I’ve put together a list of 10 personal faves for you. Hey…save some of that guac for me (no double dipping). Bend it Like Beckham – Writer-director Gurinder Chadha whips up a cross-cultural masala that entertainingly marries “cheer the underdog” Rocky elements with Bollywood energy. The story centers on a headstrong young Sikh woman (Parminder Nagra) who is upsetting her tradition-minded parents by pursuing her “silly” dream to become a UK soccer star. Chadha weaves in subtext on the difficulties that South Asian immigrants face assimilating into British culture. Also with Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Breaking Away – This beautifully realized slice of middle-Americana (filmed in Bloomington, Indiana) from director Peter Yates and writer Steve Tesich (an Oscar-winning screenplay) is a perfect film on every level. More than just a sports movie, it’s an insightful coming of age tale and a rumination on small town life. Dennis Christopher is outstanding as a 19 year-old obsessed with bicycle racing, a pretty coed and anything Italian.
Yours truly has a reputation for being tough on grading students. It is true. I am tough. And for a reason. Social science is hard. Getting a grade in it is not something you have a right to. You have to show that you master the material. You have to earn it! One of the […]
How ’bout them eggs, MAGA? Oh heck, look at this: The Trump bump in consumer confidence is already over. Tariff threats, stock market swings and rapidly reversing executive orders are causing Americans across the political spectrum to feel considerably more pessimistic about the economy than they did before President Trump took office. Consumer sentiment fell about 5% in the University of Michigan’s preliminary February survey of consumers to its lowest reading since July 2024. Expectations of inflation in the year ahead jumped from 3.3% in January to 4.3%, the second month in a row of large increases and highest reading since November 2023. “It’s very rare to see a full percentage point jump in inflation expectations,” said Joanne Hsu, who oversees the survey. Republicans have come off a postelection surge in confidence, she said, and Democrats and Independents also seem to believe that economic conditions have deteriorated since last month. Morning Consult’s recent index of consumer confidence, too, fell between Jan. 25 and Feb.
Apparently it’s now illegal for the press to cover live events that the government doesn’t want them to cover. Good to know: The Federal Communications Commission is investigating San Francisco-based KCBS for its coverage of immigration enforcement actions in San José last month, sparking concerns from press freedom advocates and drawing right-wing backlash to the radio station. In an interview on Fox News, Trump-appointed commission chair Brendan Carr said he opened the investigation after KCBS shared the live locations and vehicle descriptions of immigration officials on Jan. 26. “We have sent a letter of inquiry, a formal investigation into that matter, and they have just a matter of days left to respond to that inquiry and explain how this could possibly be consistent with their public interest obligations,” Carr said. First Amendment advocates worry the FCC investigation will have a chilling effect on news organizations reporting on the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
In two month’s time, 10 years would have passed since the Robodebt scheme was introduced into Australia via a flawed cabinet submission in April 2015 and the federal budget of that year. Robodebt was described in a 2023 BBC article as a “costly failure of public administration” within which “extensive, devastating and continuing” wrongdoing was Continue reading »
Will Australia’s Paris Agreement emissions reduction target for 2035 be consistent with a 1.5oC-world? The US wants a fossil fuel future; China wants renewables. Whatever … coal consumption is still rising. Australia’s contribution to a 1.5oC world Along with all the other nations that are signed up to the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Continue reading »
Since the beginning of the genocide in the Gaza Strip, numerous scenes have repeatedly appeared before cameras and the eyes of the entire world, depicting blatant assaults on humanity and constituting brutal crimes that are unforgivable under any law, jurisdiction, or pretext. These scenes include attacks on defenceless children, medical teams, women, and the elderly. Continue reading »
In recent decades, the West has witnessed a growing trend among increasingly hubristic US leaders to proclaim the United States as “indispensable.” This rhetoric reflects a mindset often seen in declining empires: the belief that their peak is yet to come, despite mounting evidence of decay. To counter such self-deception, ancient Roman leaders employed a Continue reading »
When Donald Trump proposed recently to “clean out” Gaza of its entire population, you might have thought what you heard was a plan to “ethnically cleanse” Palestinians from their lands – I mean, it’s right there in that word. But not according to most of the media. An analysis of the Dow Jones database of Continue reading »
Ridicule is a tonic these days 🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker says he’s going to rename Lake Michigan to “Lake Illinois.” Donald Trump is going to go nuts. Lmao!!! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/2BGI4NFiXh — CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) February 7, 2025 What would I do without Mike Luckovich?
Right whales get their rights back, abortion providers are handed a shield, Trump has an antitrust moment, and a tractor company is told to repair its values.
Break, throw, kick, scream As Paul Krugman said Friday, what the Musk and Trump are attempting is a self-coup with “the full support of every Republican in the House and the Senate.” “The president is openly violating the law and Constitution on a daily basis,” Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, told The New York Times: “We’re talking about the idea of whether the president has to follow the law at all,” Nyhan said. “That’s a sentence I never thought I’d have to say about the United States, but here we are.” The GOP has not only rejected democracy, as David Frum predicted tardily six years ago., but the American experiment itself. The very idea of it. All that’s left of the Republican Party is crumpled bunting. It’s not clear if their goal now is the return of the monarchy or feudalism. Oligarchy is too soft a term. Trump wants to be king. He’s always wanted to be king. But Musk? He and his Silicon Valley chums want to be gods. Ill-tempered ones at that. And a large faction of our neighbors, both the complacent and the violent, are prepared to allow it.