The word “Orwellian” is overused but this is actually Orwellian. 404 Media reports: While responding to the most damaging wildfires in the history of California, FEMA employees received an order “for immediate compliance” this week that states they must immediately change their vocabulary to comply with the Trump Administration’s preferred terminology on gender and immigration. For example, FEMA employees are no longer allowed to call undocumented immigrants “migrants” or “undocumented individuals,” they must instead call them “undocumented aliens or illegal aliens.” FEMA can no longer refer to the idea of “integration,” it must begin to say “assimilation.” The subject line of the email was “For Immediate Compliance.” “While the chart presents examples of terminology that should be replaced, it should not be considered to be comprehensive, particularly in the immigration space. Please consult your program counsel for additional language if you are unsure,” the email says. It’s happening all over the government.
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Surprise! Now why do you think they’d do that? On Wednesday evening, one day into her tenure as U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi announced the end of the Kleptocracy Initiative, launched by the Justice Department in 2010 to battle high-level corruption worldwide and return ill-gotten funds to victims of financial crimes. The former Florida attorney general and legal counsel to President Trump during his first impeachment trial, who spent the last several years as a corporate lobbyist, also closed the KleptoCapture task force, created under AG Merrick Garland in 2022 to target Russian oligarchs violating U.S. economic sanctions imposed because of Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine. Through the initiative, the DOJ has prosecuted frauds worth billions, recovering embezzled funds and seizing assets like megayachts and luxury condos.
Tax cuts, what else? Yesterday Trump unveiled his priorities for his tax bill. Everyone needs to understand what’s going on here. It’s a massive tax giveaway to the rich and powerful, financed by deadly cuts to programs like Medicare and the ACA that help regular people. I explain it here — Chris Murphy Yesterday Trump unveiled his priorities for his tax bill. Everyone needs to understand what's going on here. It's a massive tax giveaway to the rich and powerful, financed by deadly cuts to programs like Medicare and the ACA that help regular people. I explain it here. pic.twitter.com/DmZ5undJF0 — Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 7, 2025 This is why they need to eradicate as much government spending as they can. Musk and the boys need their tax cuts and Trump wants to deliver on his promises: Obviously, this is just a wingnuts wet dream. But you can bet that the tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations will go through on a party line vote no matter what. They always do. The big question is how much they’re going to take out of the hides of the rest of us to make it happen.
The Oregon Zoo has an adorable new baby: The long wait is over. After more than 20 months of pregnancy, Rose-Tu, a 30-year-old Asian elephant at the Oregon Zoo, gave birth at 4:29 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Staff are keeping their distance to give the pair time to bond, but the calf appears to be a healthy, strong female, weighing in the vicinity of 200 pounds. “We couldn’t be happier with how everything is going so far,” said Steve Lefave, who oversees the zoo’s elephant program. “This was one of the smoothest births I’ve ever seen. Rose knew just what to do. She helped her baby up right away. The kid was standing on her own within 15 minutes and took her first steps soon after that.” Zoo staff had been on baby watch since Jan. 29, when Rose-Tu’s progesterone levels dropped to near zero, indicating labor should begin soon. Rose experienced early labor throughout the day on Feb. 1 and began showing signs of active labor a little after 3 p.m. Veterinary staff have yet to conduct their first check-up, but once Rose and her calf are ready, they’ll weigh the baby and confirm its sex.
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.
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?
Wildfires are terrifying. They are especially gobsmackingly horrible when you add in hurricane-style winds. I will never forget the day of the Marshall Fire when my daughter stepped out of the car and literally blew down the street, forcing us to race after her and catch her. In those environments, it’s easy to see how […]
Bondi made her first move and it’s purely about vengeance. Trump must be so pleased: Attorney General Pam Bondi spent her first day on the job Wednesday redirecting the Justice Department’s significant law enforcement authority toward addressing President Donald Trump’s grievances with the agency, making her allegiance to his agenda clear in a series of strongly worded directives. Despite pledging during her confirmation hearing that “politics will not play a part” in her decision-making, Bondi created a “Weaponization Working Group” to review instances of what she described as “politicized justice” – starting with the federal criminal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith. She also pledged to examine what she alleged was federal cooperation in the criminal and civil investigations of Trump in New York — even though they were carried out by state authorities, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Cuts are coming: Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency. “They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.” Project 2025, written by several former Trump staffers, has called for the agency to be “broken up and downsized”, claiming the agency is “harmful to US prosperity” for its role in climate science.
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.