#TheGremlinZoo #USPol #Citizenship
From CNN.com: Trump can’t end birthright citizenship, appeals court says, setting up Supreme Court showdown
uspol
Hey um remember those two astronauts who are still stranded on the space station
https://www.404media.co/nasa-dei-drop-everything-executive-order/
This week's comic: "Protecting the children"
#uspol #comic #cartoon #children #education #lgbtq #climate #health #healthcare #transgender
WTAF?
#CIA offers #buyouts to entire workforce to align with #Trump priorities
A CIA spox said in a statement the moves were meant to align the agency with the goals of Trump’s new ClA Director #JohnRatcliffe.
"Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the ClA workforce is responsive to the Administration's #NationalSecurity priorities. These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy," a CIA spox said.
#law #USpol
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cia-offers-buyouts-entire-workforce-align-with-trump-priorities-wsj-reports-2025-02-05/
“This is the administration trying to ramp up agreements with local law enforcement agencies to be a force multiplier for mass deportation.”
New from Francesca D'Annunzio: Police are signing 'task force' agreements with #ICE in order to ramp up the displacement of the undocumented. https://www.texasobserver.org/local-state-police-ice-287g-task-force/
#immigration #politics #USpol #Trump #news #HumanRights #CriminalJustice #police
Message for Americans:
Times are tough for many now, especially for migrants, #LGBTQI+ people, and people losing jobs. My thoughts are with you ❤️
#USpol #USpolitics
Maybe a song on this #JukeboxFridayNight #playlist from 3 January of #HelpingPeople will bring comfort? 🤗
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZe9K6g9lwnSM2obWuPG_QU-ONrQxlMwF
HT @stevenixon who's pulled these #playlists together for JFN community. 🎶 🎧 ❤️
https://www.youtube.com/@SteveNixon/playlists
Edited 325d ago
🍵 
I really need to find a new coffee shop.
I've been going to this Christian coffee shop run by a local large-ish ministry in Frisco, TX for a couple years, and I've always liked it primarily because they had good teas and snacks, although I never bothered with their books (dispensational theology, not my thing). They always have plenty of great seating with tables, and the music is quiet and calming. The prices aren't great, but that's everywhere nowadays.
In the past three months or so, I notice more and more the white boomers are congregating here and talking... absolute noise. George Soros this, AOC that, DEI, just an absolute alphabet soup of mindless #conservative dog whistles.
*sigh*
I'm out.
There's another Christian coffee shop in Plano apparently NOT full of idiots, but they don't have too many tables (so no room to sit down with a book and journal and/or laptop, etc.).
I don't honestly care about the religion of the coffee shop (I'd be totally down to chill out at a Sikh or Buddhist coffee shop or anything else), but the atmosphere is important to me. So many coffee shops are really loud, or just terribly corporate (scubrats!)
Seattle Children's Hospital has begun halting some gender affirming care and caved far earlier than most expected in the face of Trump's illegal executive orders.
There's a call to action below and protests are planned today and tomorrow.
https://monogr.ph/67a3f86c0b0ee042476f706c
#Seattle #ProtectTransYouth #lgbtq #USPol #Healthcare #calltoaction
Edited 321d ago
New from Francesca D'Annunzio: Under Governor Greg Abbott's multi-billion dollar border security bonanza, Operation Lone Star, the Rio Grande no longer holds back law enforcement efforts. Today's digital border reaches across Texas and beyond. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/
This story is presented in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
#surveillance #tech #SocialMedia #GregAbbott #police #border #privacy #security #USpol #politics #news
Edited 268d ago
🚨 The Hands Off! protests are tomorrow, Saturday, April 5 🚨
Find one near you -
https://www.mobilize.us/handsoff/
Can't attend in person? There's a virtual event:
"Hands Off! Disabled Community Fights Back"
2 - 4 PM Pacific Time
Virtual Event
Join from anywhere!
https://www.mobilize.us/handsoff/event/770700/
#USpol #HandsOff #Protest #Resist #Virtual #Disabled #Disability #Accessibility
I have family in the reserves who were just called up for deployment. They're not allowed to say where.
Edit: Not being allowed to say where is common no matter where they’re going. I didn’t mean for that to sound ominous.
Edited 276d ago
Very interesting food for thought:
"Managing the Transatlantic Divorce: A roadmap towards a European way of war"
Warning: May make an uncomfortable read but IMHO we have to face reality as is, not as we wish it to be.
"I was fine with the rape and the fraud and the endless lies and the misogyny and the racism and the homophobia and the transphobia and the corruption and the police brutality and the caged babies and the terrorism and the attempted coup and the autocracy and the ending the rule of law and the threats to invade neighbouring countries and the building-a-golf-resort-on-top-of-a-genocide, but now he's giving Wall Street the jitters, so I'm not so sure about this guy any more." #USpol
Edited 265d ago
The House Financial Services Republicans and the White House (now deleted) tagged either a hacked or fake account in their announcements that Paul Atkins was sworn in as SEC Chair. The "Atkins" account immediately started asking for crypto.
Edited 267d ago
#GiftArticle link thanks to @20002ist & @kateiacy
As #ElonMusk became one of #Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies & donating about $275M to help him win the presidency, he was also using #drugs far more intensely than previously known [tho pretty obvious to the casual observer], acc/to people familiar w/his activities.
#law #USpol #kakistocracy #FederalGovernment #DOGE
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/us/elon-musk-drugs-children-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LE8.ddlK.-OF3BB7k5PGN&smid=url-share
Edited 208d ago
the #Democrats who censured US Rep Al Green aren't stupid. they're #collaborators.
make it a habit of calling them what they are.
The Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's GDP Now is estimating 2.8% GDP decline in the 1st quarter of 2025 and the 1st month of Trump's presidency.
I'm not a GDP growth at all costs person--I believe we have no choice but to stop the mad obsession with making that number go up--but I do think it's important to note that GDP was growing relatively rapidly (by modern standards) through the end of 2024. This change marks a significant turnaround that looks like it might erase a quarter's worth of growth and then some. Official data release is March 27. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that an administration whose only policy thus far has been to inflict pain on people would inflict economic pain as well.
2 quarters of this is a recession and 4 quarters of this is a depression by conventional metrics.
#USPol #USEconomics #economy #GDP
I'm not a GDP growth at all costs person--I believe we have no choice but to stop the mad obsession with making that number go up--but I do think it's important to note that GDP was growing relatively rapidly (by modern standards) through the end of 2024. This change marks a significant turnaround that looks like it might erase a quarter's worth of growth and then some. Official data release is March 27. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that an administration whose only policy thus far has been to inflict pain on people would inflict economic pain as well.
2 quarters of this is a recession and 4 quarters of this is a depression by conventional metrics.
#USPol #USEconomics #economy #GDP
Republican #House Speaker #MikeJohnson urged fellow Republican lawmakers on Tues to avoid #public #TownHall meetings with #voters after some events turned into angry confrontations over #Trump's moves to fire #FederalWorkers & defund government programs.
#cowards #PublicDisservice #Republicans #GOP #RepresentationMatters #USpol #Musk #DOGE #FederalAgencies #SocialSecurity #Medicaid #Veterans #children #seniors #disability #PublicHealth #weather #DisasterPreparedness
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-speaker-urges-lawmakers-avoid-town-hall-meetings-2025-03-04/
There is no way in hell I'm watching the #SOTU tonight.
I'd rather scrape my ass with jagged blades.
I’m not a psychologist.
But Trump’s malignant narcissism seems plain.
I’m not a lawyer.
But the collapse of checks and balances and the resultant constitutional crisis seems plain.
I’m not an economist.
But the hollowing out of the public sector for the benefit of corporations and billionaires seems plain.
I am an historian.
And the convergence of these forces has never ended well.
Midnight in America.
Welcome to the March/April 2025 issue of Texas Observer magazine! Editor-in-Chief Gus Bova introduces our latest by examining the "biannual dread” invoked by the Texas legislature and what we can do about it. https://www.texasobserver.org/editors-letter-introducing-our-march-april-2025-issue/
Edited 300d ago