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Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 04:00
This is written by Jay Michaelson a visiting professor priest at Harvard:  I’m posting in response to the many sincerely anguished claims that not enough is being done to stop Trump.  This is not reflected in the facts. – Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and State Democracy Defenders Fund, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) filed suit on Monday against the Treasury Department “for sharing confidential data with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by Elon Musk.”  Go to Public Citizen’s website to learn all about this lawsuit, which is very likely to prevail. – On USAID, appearing with other Democratic lawmakers outside USAID offices on Monday, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) shouted, “Elon Musk, you didn’t create USAID. The United States Congress did for the American people … like Elon Musk did not create USAID, he doesn’t have the power to destroy it. And who’s going to stop him?
Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 02:30
Join the fight or be political roadkill First: Get busy. Talk is cheap. Action is better (and empowering). Even if it’s just leaving a voice message with your representatives, filling out an online response form or sending an efax. To Republicans and Democrats. Regularly. Not one and done. No, it’s not as sexy as going to a big rally with your tribe or launching that nonprofit you’ve been rolling around in your head. Neither is hunkering down with an M4 in a cold, wet foxhole. Deal with it. The unsexy stuff matters: Back when we had a Democratic congressman here, I knew the staff and would call the office to gauge the temperature on hot issues. I’d ask how the calls were running on a bill progressives wanted passed. Ten to one against. “Where are the Democrats?” they asked, exasperated. They’d voted, reset their politics to cruise control and went back to complaining. Do that now and Musk-Trump-MAGA will eat you for lunch. But just as Trump is a blustering fraud, so is their mob-speak. Their goal here is simple: Bark loudly enough that the other dog rolls over on its back and pees in the air in submission.
Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 02:08

Netanyahu’s longtime confidant has been embedded in Washington for years. His latest mission? Cementing unconditional U.S. backing for the next phase in Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The post Israel’s Shadow Diplomat: How Ron Dermer is Orchestrating US Policy From Inside appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 01:38
I don’t know what inspired this flash of productivity, but I made this dinner in 2 evenings back-to-back with 194. Individual Meat Loaves.  This moment of achievement was in 2024, so I don’t remember this knocking my socks off. Speaking of knocking (get it–Knockwurst?) I used brats instead. I don’t understand a hot potato salad.Continue reading 193. Hot German Potato Salad with Knockwurst
Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 01:32

This past weekend my partner and I got together with a group of friends. We’ve been meeting every six weeks or so since 1982. Originally, this group of lesbians convened to talk about sex: what we were doing, what we wanted to do, what we fantasized about doing. But you know how it is with any relationship. Over time, it can come to embrace so many other things. That’s how it’s been with the group we call “Group” (or sometimes “A Closed Group with No Name”). We’ve seen each other through breakups, new lovers, job changes, housing worries, ailments, the deaths of lovers, caring for aging and dying parents, and now confronting our own age and the nearness of our... Read more

Source: King Donald appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 01:00
Implement a political version of Malwarebytes Musk is the living embodiment of AI: a broken, tech-bro tool that inserts itself into everyone’s life unsolicited and makes everything worse. — Alex Winter Donald Trump is acting like he’s a king the way he fooled the the New York Times (1976) into thinking he was a successful developer. The way he pretended to be a successful businessman on TV. It was a con job then. It’s a con job now. Before we go any further, let’s review Ezra Klein’s “Don’t Believe Him” commentary from the other day on Donald Trump’s efforts to snow people into allowing him to act like a king despite the real limitations of presidential power. Like every move in Trump’s life, it’s a “fake it till you make it” put on. I had not seen the video version until last night and found it a useful tonic. Consider watching it a “take a deep breath” act of self care. Take thirteen minutes, or bookmark this for later. This is from @ezraklein, taken from The Ezra Klein Show podcast.
Created
Fri, 07/02/2025 - 00:00

“We’re OK, Mama”
When I’ve had great banter with the server the whole night, and she comes up to us to ask if there’s anything else we need before she brings the check.

“OK, Mama!!!”
Giving praise to a friend for any minor accomplishment.

“Mama, are you OK?”
When my friend is going through a tough breakup, and he wants to dye his hair platinum blond and is now obsessed with catching the Knockdown Center Killer.

“OK, Mamá”
After my Venezuelan mother reminded me to text my aunt for her birthday.

“Mama…”
When my friend has been at this new job for only six months, and they tell me they want to quit without a backup plan.

“Oh, Mama!”
Johnny Bravo.

“Oh, Mama, we’re not doing that”
At a party after I get cornered by my friend’s friend from Florida who wants to talk at me about the success of the DeSantis administration.

Created
Thu, 06/02/2025 - 20:17

Michael and I chatted about Trump’s tariffs, emphasising the need to see them as political tools that standard neoliberal economics can never fathom. On the ongoing genocide in Gaza, we discussed Trump’s ‘final real estate solution’ envisaging a Palestine without Palestinians – the Zionist’s wet dream. Finally, I explained why DeepSeek was a major blow […]

The post Novara Media’ Michael Walker and Yanis Varoufakis on Gaza, Trump’s Trade Wars, and DeepSeek appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.