The Common Ills: 2025-02-16

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Wednesday, February 19, 2025. If you've got the time, we've got a lot of work to do to stop Donald Chump's assault on our nation.

Imagine being a governor in the US sucking up to Convicted Felon Donald Chump and swearing what Chump's doing is wonderful while also announcing you're preparing some form of 'relief' packages for the workers in the state that Chump's fired. Rachel Maddow addressed that last night on MSNBC.

Rachel notes some Chump voters with regrets. They didn't realize he would actually do what he said he would do. Rachel also notes politicians -- like the laughable Senator Susan Collins -- going along with Chump's policies but asking for an exemption from them for their state.

There are no exemptions coming. He can't argue in court that they were legal and fair actions if he exempts Maine and not Georgia. He has to apply these disaster policies across the board. The time to object, Susan Collins, was when he wanted your vote for a confirmation. That was the time to have a spine.

This is going on across the country. These are going to be massive layoffs and unemployment is only going to increase. If you fell for his lie about he'd lower grocery prices on day one because you were struggling economically? You think it's going to be any easier in the coming months, now that grocery prices have gone up, as you face a layoff at the government office you work, the university you work at, etc and suddenly you're on welfare?

If you're a Republican, you need to be calling this out. If you're a Democrat represented in the Senate by one or two Republicans, don't bury your head in the sand. Let your Republican senators hear from you. They are supposed to represent you -- regardless of party i.d. though you don't need to tell them your party i.d. -- and they're not doing their job.

They need to know that you're watching and you're objecting.

Polling already demonstrates that more Americans disapprove of Chump's actions than approve. That message needs to be sent to every US senator.

Even a useless idiot like Glenn Youngkin needs to hear it. Unless the laws changed, maybe it has, he can't run for re-election. If this is where he chooses to end his political career, great, the people of Virginia will be better off. But if he's eyeing a Senate run or a presidential run, grasping just how unpopular he's becoming and just how weak he looks might motivate him to stop kissing Chump's ass.

Might not.

But, if you're active right now, you need to be contacting your senators. The Senate has 100 members. 53 of those are Republicans. You want to reign in Chump? We need to peel off some support and the way we do that is making it very clear to Republican senators that we object and that they need to find their spines.

A nut job like Junior should never have been put in charge of Health and Human Services -- and they know that, the Republicans who voted for him. They need to be put on notice, they need to know that the voters in their home states saw what they did and that this craven disrespect for We The People and the Constitution is outrageous.

Consider the Republicans in the Senate infants born in January. They try to stand and they fall. It's our job to encourage them to stand upright.

Make them defend everything Chump is doing because they're signing off on it.

Senator Patty Murray (Democrat) is a former Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Her office issued the following:

ICYMI: Senator Murray: Trump Must Reverse Firing of VA Researchers Across the Country, Threatens to Decimate Lifesaving Work on Veterans’ Medical Care, Prosthetics, and More

ICYMI: FACT SHEET: Trump & Elon’s Layoffs Jeopardize Essential Services Americans Rely On, Threaten Critical Agency Objectives Keeping Americans Safe & Healthy

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, joined Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Gary Peters (D-MI) in pressing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to protect veterans, their families, and VA staff from unprecedented access to sensitive information by Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). According to a recent report by Military.com, DOGE employees accessed VA computer systems at the Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“We understand that personnel reporting to Mr. Musk have recently visited VA facilities,” wrote the senators to Secretary Collins. “Senators, veterans, and members of the public have serious concerns regarding Mr. Musk’s extraordinary and unprecedented activities and the lack of transparency surrounding them, including his potential access to and handling of sensitive or personal information.”

“Accordingly, we seek specific information regarding VA’s engagement with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency,” they continued.

Senator Murray and her colleagues requested a list of DOGE personnel who have visited VA facilities, the systems they accessed, and whether veteran data—including medical and service records—may have been viewed, copied, or transferred. They also requested that Secretary Collins reveal the nature of the agreement under which DOGE personnel are governed by in their engagement with the VA.

Senator Murray has spoken out forcefully against President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firing of VA employees across the country who are in the middle of critical research on topics including mental health, alcohol and opioid withdrawal, cancer treatments, burn pit exposure, prosthetics, diabetic ulcers, and more. Earlier this month, Senator Murray sounded the alarm over reports of DOGE at the VA and voted against Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary, making clear that the Trump administration’s lawlessness was putting our national security and our veterans at risk. Alongside 25 of her colleagues, Murray sent another letter earlier this month to Secretary Collins, demanding that he deny and sever Musk and DOGE’s access to any VA or other government system with information about veterans, and to delete any veterans’ information in their possession.

The full text of the senators’ letter to Secretary Collins can be found here.

###

We need to hold Chump and the Republicans backing his awful agenda responsible.

They're not the only ones we need to hold responsible. By all means, contact your Dem representatives in Congress. Stiffen their spines. Demand action.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

"Our job."

Refers to those who are not on vacation. Betty's "Quit trying to make it happen, Black women are not forgiving Tlaib" went up last night. Betty's not on vacation. If she needed to take time though, she should. Some people do. And it may be weeks, months or years. I don't blame you and you take every minute you need.

I get it.

We were stabbed in the back and disrespected. And we wrongly thought that people like Amy Goodman and Kyle Kuliniski and Katrina vanden Heuverl and Sam Seder and so many more 'friends' would come to our defense.

They didn't.

Because they weren't our friends. We were Black women who were Democrats.

They are Democratic Socialists.

The online attacks that we faced? Never noted by them to this day.

Because they agreed with those attacks. Uncomitted was a DSA 'movement.' They launched it and they wanted to do real harm. That's why Katrina asked THE NATION interns to write an editorial (I've harmed one offline with regards to the job market and made it clear that information on this is the only thing that's going to allow employment in the future the intern wanted) advocating that people not vote for Kamala. Katrina knows THE NATION needs donors to survive and that most DSAers don't have the kind of money THE NATION needs. So she hid behind the interns. She asked them to write the editorial and then she published it -- you remember an intern editorial on an election before? nope -- and popularized it on Twitter (because racists like Katrina don't want to come to BLUESKY) and could pretend that her hands -- and the hands of the Marxist she put in charge of the magazine -- were clean. Sadly for her, the donor class has not fallen for her b.s. Especially not now when I've got a recording of the intern outlining just what Katrina did behind the scenes. Oh, and Katrina, as I've said here before, I do know where your mom hid it. That thing you're still so desperate to find. What you ransacked her apartment for after she jumped off her balcony. I know. And I'm never telling you where it is.

Poor Katrina, even her own mother didn't trust her. Trusted me though -- enough to share just how embarrassing Katrina truly is.

But we saw what happened.

We turned out for everyone, election after election. We got Socialists like Laura Flanders giving us empty words of praise for that.

But when we had the chance to save democracy by election a qualified Black woman, the Socialists instead worked to defeat her. Again, that's why I don't believe the 'left' on reparations. I think it's just something Socialists advocate for but won't really do. If they really felt we were owed reparations, then the first place to start would have been voting for the Black woman and not the racist convicted felon.

It was a shock and it was a betrayal. I understand that. And the attacks on us were even worse -- and that's why Sam Seder, for example, won't cover those attacks, even now. They instead want to force Socialist Rashida Tlaib down our throats.

She, they insist, had to support "her people."

Did I miss something?

Bitch, wasn't born in this country?

She did what she did and it was a betrayal and, as Betty notes, we're not forgiving her.

She worked to elect Donald Chump.

That's not big deal to DSA-ers.

And that's why you need to be stopped.

Look around at the chaos you caused. I get it, you want to tear down the system. So this probably feels like a 'win' to you still.

It's not a win for the American people and that's why the DSA can't even get to 100,000 members and tries to hide in our party, the Democratic Party. Those days are over.

If we'd worked together, we could have continued.

But DSA -- call them Justice Democrats, they have so many names like a hooker who gets busted repeatedly. DSA didn't want to work with us. They wanted to put Chump in the White House.

Well they got what they wanted and they're not going to hide in our midst anymore.

If you're late to the party, I've not castigated the SEP or the PSL. Those are Socialists. Those are out and proud Socialists who organize and build and try to impact. DSA tricks and stays in a closet. Kyle knew calling his DSA slate of candidates -- his and Cenk's -- Justice Socialists wouldn't have gotten anyone elected. So he came up with the lie of Justice Democrats.

Your days of hiding are over.

The whole country is suffering now because of you. The American people had a right to know what you truly were. Now that you have put Chump into office, the American people have a right for you to come with a warning label.

Let's move to another topic. Julia Ornedo (THE DAILY BEAST) thought she was on to something:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is back in front of the camera with a message from President Donald Trump.

Noem announced Monday the launch of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz threatening consequences for illegal entry into the United States.

“Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world,” Noem says in an ad she posted on X. “If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it.”

“Let me be clear: if you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down,” Noem went on. “Criminals are not welcome in the United States.”

Whatever she was on to is defeated by the headline (which she most likely didn't write) "ICE Barbie Launches New Ad Blitz With ‘a Message From President Trump’." She never once calls Noem a "Barbie" in her article. What is it with the "Barbie"? Chelsea Handler probably pioneered in during Chump's first term. But no one can build on that? "ICE Midge Launches . . ." -- "ICE American Girl Doll"? It's not only sexist, it's route. And, sorry to break it to you, (a) not everyone's a Barbie and (b) Barbie is a very popular doll and cultural icon. "Dog Shooter Noem" or "Dog Killer Noem"? They are more than sufficient. And actually capture her and what she does unless your point is to argue that grown women are "dolls" -- in which case, you don't belong in the press, you belong in Donald Chump's administration.

Not getting the point? Grace Hall (MIAMI HERALD) reports:

Admiral L. Fagah, the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. military, was recently ousted from her position as Commandant of the Coast Guard by President Donald Trump. Following her termination, Fagan was reportedly given three hours to vacate her government-funded residence on Joint Base Anacostia Bolling inWashington, DC. This decision made by Homeland Security officials under the directive of the president. The eviction came after she was initially granted a 60-day waiver to find new housing.

America, remember that Senator Joni Ernst voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense -- despite Hegseth having no qualifications for the job, despite him being a public drunk, despite him making a woman who accused him of assault sign an NDA, despite so many things. She could have stood up for the military, for the Constitution, for women. But she elected not to stand up and instead acted like a coward. That needs to be remembered. Can we start a go-fund-me to help provide Joni with a spine?

Staying with the questionable Secretary of Defense, Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) notes how the Senate failed their job with regards to Hegseth:

A national security expert tore into a Republican senator for his apparent failure to exercise due diligence in vetting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's finances during his confirmation hearing.

On Monday, Hegseth announced on the X social media platform that the IRS opened an audit into his tax returns, claiming that he owes more than $33,000.

This followed shortly after Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chair of the Senate Armed Service Committee and a strong proponent of military aid to Ukraine, admitted he was "disturbed" by Hegseth's comments in Brussels. Hegseth appeared to back off commitments to the United States supporting Ukraine's pre-2014 borders or eventual accession to the NATO alliance — both of which would represent big geopolitical victories for Russia.

Wicker went so far as to call Hegseth's speech a "rookie mistake."

The new tax revelations, [Marcy] Wheeler argued, only reflect worse on Wicker's decision to shuttle Hegseth through to confirmation. At the time, Hegseth also faced separate allegations of sexual assault and chronic problem drinking.

Joni and the others didn't do their job. He's not only a drunk -- promising he will not drink while he holds office -- he's also a tax cheat and that makes him vulnerable. Jennifer Bowers Bahney (RAW STORY) adds:

Military.com reporter Konstantin Toropin questioned the wisdom of Hegseth posting the notice on social media.

Toropin wrote, "The Secretary of Defense appears to have posted a document that shows he owes more than $33,000 in taxes following an audit. Aside from his calls to defy the IRS, this raises a myriad of questions from the quality of the vetting that was done to his vulnerability to bribes."

As the sheen comes off Donald Chump and the country slowly awakens to the nightmare reality he's delivered, we should all remember how Republicans in the US Senate failed to do their jobs because they refused to serve the American people, they were too busy prostrating themselves before Chump and, as a result, a huge number of unqualified people got confirmed. They have much to answer for right now. Should an attack take place in this country, they will have even more to answer for. As will Chump for nominating such a huge pool of unqualified losers.

Bryan Metzger (BUSINESS INSIDER) reports:

As the Department of Government Efficiency continues to make swift cuts to the federal workforce and government spending, a handful of Republicans have begun to push back.

They're not criticizing the existence of DOGE or decrying Elon Musk as an "unelected bureaucrat," as Democrats have.

In fact, they've each taken pains to emphasize their support for making the government work more efficiently as they've spoken up.

Yet in a stream of recent social media posts, interviews, and public statements, a growing number of Republicans have begun to criticize aspects of DOGE's work, saying that the cuts are too rapid and indiscriminate or warning that their particular states will suffer as a result.

In a social media post on Saturday, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy suggested his state would suffer if new hires at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were terminated.

"I am all for efficiency and ultimately downsizing the federal government, but firing large numbers of new FBI agents is not the way to achieve this," Cassidy wrote. "Louisiana specifically benefits from newly hired FBI agents. We need to add to our law enforcement, not take away."

Again, the sheen is coming off. Donald Chump no longer has the new car smell.

Meanwhile, the man who moved his ass crack hair to his scalp to cover his male pattern baldness, Alien Musk, is screeching in that strident manner he has that 60 MINUTES belongs in prison. In prison! Brian Stelter (CNN) explains:

His prison post prompted Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, to write to Musk, “Throwing journalists in jail over their reporting is what authoritarian governments do in countries like China, Russia, and Iran. Here in the US, you’ll have to settle for using your enormous public platform to criticize the media. As you’ve been doing. You know, counterspeech.”

This is not the first time Musk has encouraged prosecutions of people he dislikes. He has publicly hoped for criminal action against companies that “boycotted” X and asserted that a nonprofit group “should be prosecuted for interference in US elections by a foreign entity.”

Those posts last year led to an initial round of criticism that he wasn’t living up to his “free speech absolutist” posture.

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have come under similar scrutiny. Last month Trump signed several executive orders policing language at the same time he signed one titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.”

“Conservatives who just moments ago abhorred any form of censorship are now 100% chill with the government banning words,” USA Today national columnist Rex Huppke wrote last weekend.

In a high-profile speech in Munich, Germany last week, Vance accused European allies of censoring free speech at roughly the same time the Trump administration was banning The Associated Press from attending Trump Q&As and photo ops.

When progressive commentator Mehdi Hasan pointed this out on Monday, Vance replied on X; called Hasan a “dummy”; and said “I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!”

Hasan pointed out that Musk “just called for a ‘long prison sentence’ for CBS journalists, for edits he didn’t like. Did you not get the memo?” Vance did not engage further.

Here's Medhi Hasan addressing the issue.

We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

32 Democratic Senators Demand Trump Reject GOP Budget Proposals

“Republican budget plans do not focus on lowering costs, and in fact will raise costs for American families by forcing them to pay more for groceries, health care, education, and caregiving.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Budget Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), led Democratic senators in writing to President Donald Trump, demanding that he reject Congressional Republicans’ legislative plans to increase the cost of living for Americans after pledging to lower costs on “Day One” of his presidency. In total, 32 senators—over two-thirds of the Democratic caucus—signed the letter.

Last week, Congressional Republicans approved their 2025 budget proposals for floor consideration, their blueprints for a large legislative package that they hope to pass in the coming months.

“But the Republican budget plans do not focus on lowering costs, and in fact will raise costs for American families by forcing them to pay more for groceries, health care, education, and caregiving,” wrote the senators.

The senators explained that the Republicans’ budget plans will:

Raise food costs: The Republican budget plans tee up extensive cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Meals on Wheels.
Raise health care costs: The Republican budget plans also pave the way for 15 Republican proposals to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act coverage. These Republican cuts would raise health care costs for over 160 million Americans.
Raise education costs: The Republican budget plans set them up to pass cuts to programs that help families afford college, including Pell Grants and income-driven repayment plans, and tax scholarships for hard-working students.
Raise caregiving costs: The Republican budget plans pave the way to cutting programs that help families care for kids, people with disabilities, and aging loved ones. Cuts to these essential programs will make it impossible for many working families to live and work with dignity.

“If Congressional Republicans are successful at passing their proposals, it will mean that families will pay more for food, healthcare, education, and caregiving – while Republicans plot more tax cuts for billionaires,” concluded the senators. “We urge you to stand by the promises you made to the American people about lowering costs, including by committing not to sign any legislation that raises their costs.”

The letter is also signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mark Kelly (D-Az.), Peter Welch (D-Maine), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ruben Gallego (D-Az.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J).

###

The following sites updated:

TRUMP’S INCOMPETENCE WILL COST AMERICANS A LOT!

Trump AWFUL INTERVIEW with Musk INSTANTLY BACKFIRES

Why Hegseth is Trying to BAN Military Religious Freedom w/Mikey Weinstein

🚨 Steve Bannon GOES NUCLEAR on Elon Musk in SHOCKING Attack

Trump Loving Farmers Find Out

Veteran speaks out after job at VA terminated in DOGE purge

'It's morally disgusting': Trump torched for saying Ukraine 'should have...

‘Come through, boo’: Crockett implores Elon Musk to show up to DOGE hear...

Georgia Contractor Claims He’s Losing TONS Of Business Because He Drives...

🚨 New DNC chair unveils plan to FIGHT Trump | PoliticsGirl

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

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Trump Liar Karoline Leavitt ACCIDENTALLY LEAKS THEIR PLAN to Gut Social ...

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The Snapshot

Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Oh, look, while the DSA attacks actual Democrats, they ignore reality and what we can actually accomplish right now, if we roll up our sleeves and get to work.

If you ever not grasped why the DSA should stick to Socialism and stop pretending that they're Democrats, look no further than political closet case Sam Seder. Maybe when Socialist Michael Brooks was alive, he could strategize? I have no idea. But Sam's just another worthless JACOBIN reading Socialist.

He's done yet another attack ad (segment) on THE MAJORITY REPORT attacking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries because . . . Hakeem's a Democrat. Sam found time for the bad author "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism" -- an author who is a Socialist but managed to write a book about US politics that labels MAGA, Republicans, Libertarians, The Tea Party and "the left."

No where in the book does the Socialist identify himself as that nor all of his circle-jerk friends who are also Socialists. It's just "the left." They fake ass you over and over. Not by accident. They get together and make Cenk and Kyle heroes and talk about "Justice Democrats" which are really "Justice Socialists." I'm hearing from people in Greg Casar's district who are very upset to learn that they thought they were voting for a Democrat when they weren't. Greg might want to get ahead of that before mid-terms.

Mike took on a Socialist front last night. COMMON DREAMS -- not a Democratic site -- and Socialist Jake Johnson were pimping Aaron Regunberg's attack on Democrats. Because that's what Socialists do and that's what Aaron is. (Though he did run as a Democrat last year -- after two previous failed election cycles where he didn't.) Aaron's DSA and yet Jake Johnson didn't think you needed to know that.

Why could that be?

Maybe the answer's to be found in Alex Seitz-Wald's NBC NEWS report from 2023? Let's see:

The tensions are familiar to any student of radical movements in history. And ideological movements often stagnate when their allied party wins the White House, and the unifying effect of a common enemy is replaced by the inherent messiness of governing.

Justice Democrats, the insurgent group that recruited progressives like Ocasio-Cortez, slashed its staff this year after a mixed record in Democratic congressional primaries, while prominent leftists have used words like “crisis” and “purgatory” as they debate their future. The problems facing far-left groups have led some to focus more on organizing among labor unions and tenants, rather than inside electoral politics.

The national DSA has criticized and even threatened to expel its own members elected to Congress for apostasy on issues like support for Israel and a 2022 vote to end a railroad strike.

In July, state Rep. Mike Connelly left his Massachusetts DSA chapter after he was threatened with expulsion for, among other things, endorsing Democratic Gov. Maura Healy’s re-election and appearing at an event with the Prince and Princess of Wales.

“The ‘charges’ were, essentially, that I demonstrated a willingness to work with and support elected leaders and activists who are delivering results for working class and marginalized communities. I am guilty as charged, and proudly so,” Connelly said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

[. . .]

Renée Paradis, a member of the party's National Political Committee said opinion inside the DSA ranges widely, including those who want the group to be more active inside the Democratic Party.

But the consensus coming out of the convention, she said, remains that DSA should keep running candidates in Democratic primaries while building its own outside campaign infrastructure.

"Most working-class voters still heavily identify with the Democratic Party," said Paradis. "Bernie’s campaigns and DSA’s own electoral campaigns have shown that we can build socialist power while tactically using the Democratic Party’s ballot line.”

See, it's planned. They plan to rat f**k the Democratic Party.

We are not on the same page. They want to run Democrats out of Congress and replace them with Socialists posing as Democrats. They want to run Democrats in Congress out of leadership and replace them with Socialists.

Remember that when they're attacking Hakeem.

Remember that and remember what they're not doing as they try to get you to join their attack on Hakeem to take him out of Democratic Party leadership. You might need to read THIRD's "Editorial: Congress needs to do its job and we need to do our job" first. When you do, grasp that they have refused to tell you to target Republicans.

They have refused to talk to, for example, Texas voters and remind them that John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are not "Republicans" as much as they are US senators. Their party identification shouldn't matter, they are there to represent all of Texas. And campaigns should have been mobilized to bombard them with the message "NO" on Donald Chump's nominees.

You have to drop back to 1992 for when my state had a Republican in the US Senate. But that's not the case for most states. Equally true, you don't have to do an e-mail saying, "Teddy, you're handsome and I love that fat belly even though I'm a Democrat" -- you don't have to mention your party identification. You are a constituent and if enough constituents raise hell -- regardless of party i.d., a senator will be prompted to listen.

The Sodalists hiding in their political closets are a lot like closeted actors -- constrained and unconvincing. Which is why they can't really participate in a worthy manner or make any real contributions.

But Democrats? We've been here before and we've pushed back and we've won. We did it when Reagan was in the White House, we did it when Bully Boy Bush was in the White House.

Socialists are the reason Chump gets away with so much. They threw everything at him including the kitchen sink in his first term. Everything was the worst, every Tweet the most offensive thing in the world. It didn't look good to swing voters. It looked like everything got attacked. Our problems are policy differences and vision differences. Senator Chuck Schumer rightly realizes that and that's why he makes the statements he does that send Socialist into a tizzy.

This version of Donald Chump is even more outrageous and unmoored than the previous one.

And we need to convey that to the American people.

But instead, we have Kyle and Sam and the other Socialists posing as Democrats and urging us to 'fight back' against Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.

DSA doesn't even have 100,000 members in this country. There's a reason for that: They don't know what the f**k they're doing.

Democrats know what they're doing.

As noted in the video, Chump's has a 46% approval rating and a 48% disapproval rating.

Chump is in his first 100 days .

What does that mean?

The Socialist closet cases can't or won't tell you. (To repeat SEP and PSL are Socialists and, unlike DSA, they don't hide in political closets. My beef is with the posers trying to pass themselves off as Democrats while they rat f**k the party.)

No president of the United States gets a bigger pass from the press and the people than they do at any other time. We're not even at day 30 right now.

Republicans in the Senate can do whatever they want right now because they're under the mistaken belief that Chump is so popular. They can skirt their legal obligations -- and have -- because they're too stupid to grasp that this is the high point. They're apparently also scared from violent threats that MAGA is making against them. They better be reporting those threats.

They are craven and they are letting Chump boss them around. Because they think he's so damn popular and that the MAGAs contacting their offices represent America. MAGAs do not represent America and that's why Democrats especially need to be contacting any Republican in the Senate that is from their state. It needs to be made clear that -- beyond the echo chamber -- people are outraged.

I'm arguing -- and have been for some time -- that we focus on the Senate. The reason being it's a statewide office. Susan Collins, for example, can't afford to lose the Democrats who've voted for her in the past. If you want to focus on the House, have at it. I think it's easier to build resistance in the Senate because the House exists as it does due to gerrymandering.

But that's what we need to be talking about. We don't need to be signing off on DSA's efforts to take out Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.

And that's not, "Don't you criticize him!" Call him out all you want. But grasp that he's not going anywhere and that this effort is about trying to take him out of leadership to replace him with a Socialist. Yet again, while Democrats fight to save the country, Socialists hiding in political closets are working overtime to take out Democrats.

By the way, everyone's e-mailing the public account about this or that takedown of TYT's Ana. I'm not interested. Not until the YOUTUBER tells the truth. Ana's a Socialist who hid in a political closet. Again, her end goal was destruction of the US system. That's why, when Chump offered that, it was so easy for her to join MAGA. It's not an accident. And if, at this late date, you're calling out Ana and not noting that she was a Socialist, that she was part of JACOBIN, etc, etc, I don't see you as brave. I don't see you as a truth teller. I see you as a trickster.

Chump is outrageous and he is destroying our government. That's reality. And it's the reality that Americans are seeing and that reality is going to destroy him.

Farmers are in an uproar. Ben Palen (KANSAS REFLECTOR) reports:

Back in November, I wrote a column for Kansas Reflector that discussed the likely adverse effects of President Trump’s proposed tariffs on U.S. farmers.

The piece noted that 398 million acres of cropland has been added to the mix around the world since the start of this century, notably in tropical regions such as Brazil and India. There is increasing competition for U.S. farmers in export markets. The United States alone cannot absorb all that we produce here.

Many farmers voted for Trump because he promised less regulation and greater prosperity for America’s farmers. The hard truth is that, like most of the folks who voted for Trump, farmers failed to do their homework about the reality of the new administration. All of this has occurred in the context of higher input costs and tight margins for virtually all crops.

We are now living and working in an environment where the only constant is chaos. Chaos produces uncertainty, and that leads to loss of trust. The buyers of U.S. farm products are not going to deal with nations that cannot be trusted. There are plenty of options in today’s world for those buyers to bypass the United States. Why on God’s green earth would they put up with the insanity that we have in Washington now?

It is almost laughable that some Republicans have come to the defense of Trump’s proposed tariffs, and that some of those same Republicans have promised to help the farmers who feel the impact.

Really?

We have an unelected multibillionaire who in effect bought the Trump presidency now running amok in Washington. On the one hand, we see unprecedented efforts (that is, without the advice and consent of the Congress) by some entity called DOGE to slash government spending, and on the other we hear some of Trump’s cronies promise aid for farmers. The two cannot be squared. Setting aside your political views, this is an unprecedented assault on the Constitution and the separation of powers.

Americans are seeing just how unethical he truly is and how he just lies to get his way. They're reminded of it when they go grocery shopping or fill up a tank of gas. The prices have not come down, they have gone up and he's a liar, exposed at every check out counter. He's unethical and running scams when he should be helping the American people. AP notes:

Donald Trump has leaned into his unofficial role as the "crypto president " in ways that can both help the crypto industry and enrich himself and his family.

Once a skeptic of cryptocurrencies, Trump has made a complete reversal and embraced digital currencies in a way no other elected official has done. He's promised to enact crypto-friendly policies and make the U.S. "the world capital" of digital assets.

He's also attached the Trump name to a crypto token and other crypto-themed products. The cryptocurrency industry, which spent heavily to help Trump win last year's election, has expressed mixed feelings about some of his crypto ventures.

Critics have said the ventures are ripe for abuse by people seeking Trump's influence. Trump put his investments and assets in a trust managed by his children and has pledged not to play any role in managing his companies while president.

With more on that topic, Jai Hamid (CRYPTOPOLITAN) reports:

In a mind-blowing interview with Coffeezilla, Kelsier’s Hayden Davis, the self-proclaimed launch strategist behind multiple political meme coin launches, openly admitted to insider trading, sniper wallets, and market manipulation—implicating presidents Donald Trump and Javier Milei as well as First Lady Melania Trump.

He detailed how meme coins like LIBRA were rigged from the start, how insiders had pre-launch access to tokens, and how every major launch was nothing more than a calculated financial game. “This is an insiders’ game. It’s an unregulated casino,” Hayden said, confirming that early buyers at a private dinner in Washington, D.C., were given access to Trump’s token before the public.

“I thought some of these meme coins could turn into something real,” Hayden added. “But the reality is, it’s just a game. The people who know how to play win. The rest lose.” Mind you this is the guy who launched the $LIBRA token that wiped $4.6 billion from the market in six hours.

Hayden shared that before Trump’s token launch, a small group of investors were granted exclusive pre-sale access at a valuation of $500 million. According to him, these buyers were let in before the contract address was made public, so that they could purchase at rock-bottom prices before the retail frenzy.

“They gave people special access to buy in before it launched,” Hayden said. “That’s what I was told.” When pressed on where this happened, he named Washington, D.C., as the location where the deal allegedly took place.

Melania’s token, Hayden admitted, followed the same playbook. He was directly involved in the launch and confirmed that his team sniped it. The goal, according to him, was to counteract external snipers, but in reality, it meant insiders once again took the best entry positions before the public.

“We weren’t the big sniper,” Hayden said. “That’s what we were trying to avoid.” But on-chain data tells a different story. A wallet tied to his operation received $1.5 million worth of Melania’s token from an address labeled ‘Melania D Liquidity 2.0.’ The tokens were then dumped, crushing the price and leaving retail investors with massive losses.

Bully Boy Bush was supposed to be Teflon coated but Democrats worked hard and exposed his true nature. We're doing the same with Chump. But we're not being helped by the DSAers who are more concerned with pushing AOC higher up the leadership chain than they are with saving the country.

Senator Elizabeth Warren's office issued the following:

Identifying potential violations of strict data protection laws, senators demand information on DOGE’s infiltration of IRS systems

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell warning that personnel affiliated with Elon Musk infiltrating the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) systems could be in violation of strict taxpayer data protection laws that prohibit both the improper disclosure and inspection of Americans’ tax returns. The senators demanded copies of any memorandum granting IRS system access to any Musk-affiliated personnel, as well as justifications and records related to the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) inspections of taxpayer data. The senators also sought to learn whether DOGE personnel have accessed or interfered with any work by the IRS Criminal Investigation division or moved any IRS data, including tax return information, from IRS systems to external servers or recipients.

According to public reports, the White House is pressuring the IRS to agree to give software engineers working for Elon Musk at DOGE broad access to IRS systems, property, and datasets which include the private tax return information of hundreds of millions of American citizens and businesses. Potential access includes the IRS’ Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), which would give Elon Musk and his associates access to private bank records and other confidential, legally protected information belonging to American taxpayers.

“Even if individuals affiliated with DOGE are employed by Treasury, their access to tax information may not be legal,” wrote the senators. “For inspection of taxpayer information to be lawful, it must be made to or by an authorized person for an authorized purpose … To date, no information on DOGE employees or any others executing orders on Musk’s behalf have revealed any clear, stated purpose as to why they need access to return information, whether they have followed all required laws to gain access to IRS systems, and what steps the IRS has taken to ensure that inspection of tax return is contained to authorized personnel and not disclosed to any unauthorized parties.”

“No executive order requiring agency heads to provide DOGE personnel access to IRS records or information technology systems supersedes the federal tax code,” the lawmakers continued. “Software engineers working for Musk seeking to gain access to tax return information have no right to hoover up taxpayer data and send that data back to any other part of the federal government and may be breaking the law if they are doing so.”

“We are also extremely concerned that DOGE personnel meddling with IRS systems in the middle of tax filing season could, inadvertently or otherwise, cause breakdowns that may delay the issuance of tax refunds indefinitely. Any delay in refunds could be financially devastating to millions of Americans who plan their budgets around timely refunds every spring,” the senators concluded.

The senators requested the IRS provide clarity, including copies of memorandums, on the decision to grant Musk and DOGE access to IRS systems and a list of specific people who would have access to these systems, by February 21, 2025.

Senator Warren’s leadership has been instrumental in Democrats’ fight against Elon Musk’s takeover of government agencies:

On February 14, 2025, the Treasury and federal government watchdogs announced, following pressure from Sen. Warren, that they would open an investigation into Treasury Secretary Bessent granting Elon Musk and DOGE access to critical government payment systems.
On February 13, 2025, after reports revealed Elon Musk would take advantage of loopholes in federal ethics laws to avoid publicly disclosing his financial conflicts of interest, Sen. Warren led several Democrats in a letter demanding Musk publicly reveal how he could stand to profit from his role in the Trump administration.
On February 10, 2025, following Elon Musk and Project 2025 architect Russ Vought attempting to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Sen. Warren spoke at the CFPB headquarters and vowed to fight back, saying “Congress built (the CFPB), and no one other than Congress — not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, no one – can fire the financial cops.
On February 7, 2025, following Elon Musk and DOGE forcing their way into the Department of Education, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a coalition of Democrats in demanding the Department of Education launch an investigation into Musk and DOGE’s access to federal student loan data.
On February 5, 2025, as part of Senate Democrats 30-hour hold on Russ Vought’s nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke out against the serious consequences of Mr. Vought’s leadership and underscored the danger of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s power grab.
On February 5, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Democrats’ demand for the Senate Committees on Finance and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to hold hearings into how Elon Musk and DOGe gained access to systems that control payments to millions of American citizens.
On February 4, 2025, following Treasury Secretary Bessent’s inadequate response to his role in Musk and DOGE accessing critical government payment systems, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed him to provide the American public with answers.
On February 4, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren called on the Government Accountability Office to urgently investigate Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s decision to grant access to sensitive government payment systems to Elon Musk and other DOGE employees.
On February 4, 2025, at a rally in front of the Department of the Treasury, Senator Elizabeth Warren called Elon Musk’s government power grab an attempt to “seiz(e) power away from the American people.”
On February 3, 2025, at a press conference with Senate Democrats, Senator Elizabeth Warren sounded the alarm on the danger of Elon Musk having access to millions of Americans’ sensitive personal information, calling it an attempt to “take over this government to make it work better for themselves and worse for everyone else.”
On February 3, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren blasted Secretary Bessent for allowing Musk and DOGE access to the critical Treasury systems and the sensitive personal information in them.

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