#RussVought, a #Project2025 architect, is reportedly set to repeat as head of Office of Management and Budget after serving in the position for Trump's first term.

We recently unearthed private videos of Vought's plans for "traumatically" razing the civil service, siccing military on protestors, defunding environmental protections, and generally helping #Trump accumulate more executive power than any president before him.

#News #USPolitics #Politics #Government

propublica.org/article/video-d…

Videos Reveal Trump Adviser’s “Shadow” Plan for Second Administration

Private videos reveal Trump adviser Russ Vought’s “shadow” plans for using the military on protesters, defunding the EPA and villainizing civil servants.

^ProPublica

US POLITICS

Criteria: Selected accounts that post regularly on US Politics.
Admin: mastodon.online/@mastodonmigra…
Hashtags: #FollowPack #StarterPack #USPolitics #USPol #Politics

Click to upload USPolitics-list.csv: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

▶ Trump landslide mandate EVAPORATES, falls BELOW 50%

#PakmanDeal #Below50Percent #PoliticalShift #Politics #TrumpMandate

youtube.com/watch?v=srXlHfvCQD…

Trump landslide mandate EVAPORATES, falls BELOW 50%

🛌 Helix Sleep: Get 25% OFF and 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/pakman-- Donald Trump's supposed mandate evaporates as his popular vote total drops ...

^YouTube

🤦‍♀️ Could we PLEASE ELECT some ADULT politicians!!! (I know that's an oxymoron)

"Government spending in limbo as Conservatives, Liberals continue game of chicken in House"
"OTTAWA -
"The federal government is asking Parliament for approval to spend billions of dollars, but the ongoing stalemate in the House of Commons could prevent the Liberals from getting the green light."

#News #Politics #Canpoli

ctvnews.ca/politics/government…

Government spending in limbo as Conservatives, Liberals continue game of chicken in House

^CTVNews

Here's some really good, timely & concise advice from @davidallengreen

As Trump term two gears up:

1. Don't respond to catastrophism & projections into the future of disaster; it'll sap your energy to no good end;

2. Don't respond to illiberals' declarations about what they're going to do - that's what they want so they can 'own' you;

But:
3. Do respond to what they actually do.

The illiberal hope that 1) & 2) will sap your energy for 3) - don't let it!

#politics

emptycity.substack.com/p/the-i…

The illiberalism yet to come: two things not to do, and one thing to do

Suggestions on how to avoid mental and emotional exhaustion

^{d. a. t. green (The Empty City - a law and polity blog)}

▶ WTF?! Trump ANNOUNCES a WAR DECLARATION before Day 1

#DayOne #NationalEmergency #Politics #Trump #News

youtube.com/watch?v=tSGGo5KHWJ…

WTF?! Trump ANNOUNCES a WAR DECLARATION before Day 1

Trump just declared that he will call a phony “war” to justify a “national emergency” to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to begin the mass deportations of 11 mi...

^YouTube

Emboldened by Trump's election win, Neo-Nazis paraded through Columbus, Ohio today.

#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Breaking #BreakingNews #Trump

The Prison Industrial Complex

#activism #antifa #antifascist #blue #calmreading #changeiscoming #communitypower #coping #dystopian #empower #fightforjustice #genx #gilead #justiceforall #keepcalm #keepcalmandcarryon #makeyourvoiceheard #nevertrump #notmypresident #politics #powerinnumbers #resist #resistance #revolt #revolution #rise #riseroarresist #riseroarrevolt #socialjustice #speakout #standup #strengthinunity #takeastand #togetherwerise #tyrrany #uniteforchange #voiceofresistance

New: From the Justice Department to #immigration, here are some of the topics ProPublica’s reporters will be watching in a second Donald #Trump presidency.

#News #Journalism #Government #DonaldTrump #Election #Election2024 #Democracy #Politics

propublica.org/article/second-…

Second Trump Presidency: Issues We’ll Be Watching and How to Get in Touch

During Donald Trump’s second presidency, ProPublica will continue our focus on the areas most in need of scrutiny. Here are some of the issues our reporters will be watching — and how to get in touch with them.

^ProPublica

Despite Trump’s Win, #School Vouchers Were Again Rejected by Majorities of Voters

In several Republican-led states, popular sentiment on the voucher issue has been overridden by the efforts of special interest groups and powerful governors who have enacted sweeping voucher programs that often benefit affluent families.

#news #Education #schools #election2024 #voting #trump #kentucky #nebraska #colorado #government #politics
propublica.org/article/school-…

Despite Trump’s Win, Voters Widely Reject School Vouchers

^ProPublica

In case you missed it, here's our original investigation into how America’s most iconic gun-makers turned over sensitive personal information on hundreds of thousands of customers to political operatives: propub.li/40V37PI

#News #Data #Privacy #Guns #Politics #Business

Iconic Gun-Makers Gave Sensitive Customer Information to Political Operatives

At least 10 gun industry businesses, including Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington and Mossberg, secretly handed over names, addresses and other data to lobbyists, who used the details to rally firearm owners to elect pro-gun politicians.

^ProPublica

Senator Slams Gun Industry’s “Invasive and Dangerous” Sharing of Customer #Data With Political Operatives
—

In response to a ProPublica investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanded answers from the gun industry about its “covert program” to collect information on gun owners for #political purposes.

#News #Guns #Privacy #Politics #Business

propub.li/4er0KaE

Gun Industry’s Sharing of Customer Data Slammed by U.S. Sen. Blumenthal

In response to a ProPublica investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanded answers from the gun industry about its “covert program” to collect information on gun owners for political purposes.

^ProPublica

Merrick Garland wanted to avoid politics and protect the DOJ as an institution.

Thanks to his actions, or lack thereof, in one fell swoop, he has set the course to destroy the DOJ as an institution, make a mockery of what's left of the rule of law, and change politics as we have known it.

Ignominy.
#merrickgarland #politics

A few excerpts here from a beautifully written, deeply insightful, and ultimately inspiring essay by Chris Hedges…
___________________________________

In the end, the election was about despair.

Despair over futures that evaporated with deindustrialization. Despair over the loss of 30 million jobs in mass layoffs. Despair over austerity programs and the funneling of wealth upwards into the hands of rapacious oligarchs. Despair over a liberal class that refuses to acknowledge the suffering it orchestrated under neoliberalism. Despair over the futile, endless wars, as well as the genocide in Gaza, where generals and politicians are never held accountable. Despair over a democratic system that has been seized by corporate and oligarchic power.

Donald Trump is a symptom of our diseased society. He is not its cause. He is what is vomited up out of decay.

Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party live in their own non-reality-based belief system. Harris, who was anointed by party elites and never received a single primary vote, proudly trumpeted her endorsement by Dick Cheney, a politician who left office with a 13% approval rating.

The smug, self-righteous “moral” crusade against Trump stokes the national reality television show that has replaced journalism and politics. It reduces a social, economic, and political crisis to the personality of Trump. It refuses to confront and name the corporate forces responsible for our failed democracy.

The American dream has become an American nightmare.
___________________________________

FULL ESSAY ➡️ chrishedges.substack.com/p/the…

#USA #Politics #History #Economics #Israel #Gaza

🧵 3/3

Here’s Barack Obama, speaking in 2012...
______________________________________

“My administration has approved dozens of new oil and gas pipelines over the last three years. And as long as I’m President, we’re going to keep on encouraging oil development and infrastructure.

“Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states.

“We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”
_____________________________________

➡️ obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/t…

As I said above, when it comes to our climate and environment, we can't blame either the Democrats or the Republicans. We have to blame both. We have to blame capitalism.

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

🧵 2/3

From the Washington Post…
_____________________________

The Biden administration has now outpaced the Trump administration in approving permits for drilling on public lands, and the United States is producing more oil than any country ever has. The unplanned fossil fuel boom reflects an uncomfortable truth for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris: It is difficult for any president to stop the spigot of U.S. oil production, a leading driver of both the economy and climate change.

“If you were to show someone who came from Mars the line of U.S. oil and gas production over the last 15 years, they probably would not be able to tell whether a Republican or Democrat was in the White House,” said Jason Bordoff, founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
_____________________________

➡️ archive.ph/VnlWF

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

It’s obvious that a second Trump administration will be worse in almost every conceivable way from what a Harris administration might have been.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that a Harris victory would have been *good* for our climate and environment. We've been going in the wrong direction for at least 20 years under Presidents from both parties — and there's no reason to think that Kamala Harris would have charted a different course.

SEE ➡️ archive.ph/VnlWF

When it comes to our climate and environment, we can't blame either the Democrats or the Republicans. We have to blame both. We have to blame capitalism.

🧵 1/3

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

In 2001, I swore to defend the Constitution and the freedom of The People of the United States. 9/11 happened a month after I started basic training, and in 2003 I spent 5 months in the middle east doing my duty.

22 years later, The People thanked the service of veterans like me by voting in a draft dodging insurrectionist who has threatened to suspend the Constitution and who just loves to cozy up with our enemies.

You know what? You can keep your thanks.

#uspol #politics #veteransday

Aiming at the MAGA base and fringe Americans who were addicted to Fox News the trump campaign used the KISS method:

Keep It Stupid, Simple.

The more you know.

#politics #election2024 #fox #foxnews

tariffs, mass deportation – the pieces fit together

I think I’ve squared a circle. Doesn’t mean it’s real; just that I’ve found a way to square it.

Walk with me.

Let’s say you’re Trump and you’ve promised mass deportations and huge tariffs on China and other countries.

Let’s say that mass deportation is incredibly expensive – maybe you’re aware that Hitler’s camps and extermination programme were eating 13% of Nazi Germany’s GDP in the middle of their wars of conquest.

Let’s say you’re also aware that this will take years and years and years, because there’s literally no way to do this quickly. Physically, I mean. 15 million people can’t be thrown out overnight, or even over months. It’ll be years.

Let’s also say you want to keep inflation down, particularly to keep prices from skyrocketing due to your tariff policies. Tariffs are, I remind you, a tax an imports that get paid by the importer, and which are passed on to the customer. They are inflationary, by design. At least, until and unless they torpedo the economy entirely, at which point, well, you’ve set off a second Great Depression, just like Smoot and Hawley.

Now, let’s say that it’s very important to you to keep wages down as well, because nobody wants to pay workers if they can avoid it. If you want to bring back a lot of manufacturing in an already-tight labour market, that’s going to raise labour costs. It just is.

So you assign an amoral monster like Tom Homan – author of Trump’s Family Separation policy – as the “czar” of immigration. He’s promising the largest deportation force in history and recently said his answer to preventing “family separation” is to expel the entire family – citizenship be damned.

(He’s also a contributor to Project 2025 and a visiting fellow at Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 absolutely is the agenda. All of it.)

Then you start talking to people you’re already very friendly with, the operators of private prisons. They are utterly ready and looking forward to the new policies. They see it as an opportunity to double – or better – the size of their evil industry in all its forms.

Your inner circle have already acknowledged you’ll have to build camps – lots of them, big ones. You’ll call them “prisons” or “detention facilities” or “military camps,” not “concentration camps,” you certainly won’t call them that. Let’s say “facilities.”

Prison “facilities” are already well known for requiring prison labour, and for their pennies-per-hour payment to inmates. Private prisons have pushed the envelope on this in many ways; prison labour is a profit centre. One I was working against, before the fascist era.

So.

Imagine, if you would, the very easy jump.

You’ve got to do something with these hundreds of thousands of imprisoned people, don’t you.

Imagine expulsions taking months, then years. Years at a time. Perhaps they stop working so hard on speeding up the process. Perhaps they slow-walk it, timed to, say, suit the availability of “facility” beds.

Of course you’ll put them to work. A rotating cast of “facility” workers – “prison workers” – worked slowly through the system so there’s no one there quite long enough to start organising.

Paid, technically. At pennies for the hour, as a token, a pretence that it’s not slavery. But, of course, it is. You recoup the pennies you have to pay by charging them for everything. Maybe even their bed.

And just like that you have highly profitable… North Korean-style labour camps, with entire families of workers imprisoned, for who knows how long while they are put to work as factory labour for the private prison companies which become the new internal outsourcers of zero-cost labour.

Slavery, though not by name.

Maybe you’ll tie camp expansions to increases in tariffs. Raise them in parallel, timed so that the internal outsourcing absorbs the cost of the new tariffs. And then look – no price inflation, no wage inflation.

And whole new class of people to look down upon forever, if you like.

It’s quite the plan. Very neat. Very clean. Given that Trump voters actively want “military camps” used against immigrants, it’ll be a very easy sell.

And very, very profitable. Slave camps always have been, really.

And all you have to be is an abomination upon the earth.

And all your supporters have to do is let you be one.

Is that the plan? I don’t know.

All I know is that all the pieces seem to fit.

#fascism #politics #uspolitics

Trump announces Tom Homan as incoming border czar

President-elect Donald Trump announced late that Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be his administration's "border czar."

^{Megan Lebowitz (NBC News)}

CISHET MEN: GET ON IT

I am not seeing nearly enough cishet men react proactively to this national wave of rape threats.

Most men listen only to men, particularly on topics like these. These men specifically only listen to men. Not listening to the opinions of women is the point, because as far as they’re concerned, we don’t get to have any.

Right now, these men are testing what they can get away with. They see but don’t care about how women react; if anything, they like the revulsion and anger, and look forward to more of it when they actually start “grabbing women by the pussy.”

But they do want to see how other men will react. They want to know what other men will say or do.

Passivity now, in the face of this, is permission. And your men friends are watching. If you don’t object, they probably won’t either. So if you’re against this – and you fucking well need to be – you need to get ahead of it.

And the next time, and the time after that? Every other time the fash test something? Because they will be testing everything they can?

It’s the same reality.

You have to get in front of it. Independently. Not just a thumbs up to a woman’s post. Preferably in your own words.

And you have to start right now.

#fascism #politics #uspolitics

I just saw somebody say “your body, my choice”

And the woman responded, “your body, my freezer”

#politics #YourBodyMyChoice #RapeCulture #manosphere #misogyny #AbortionRights #WomensRightsAreHumanRights

i researched testosterone for my PhD & i can say without reservation that high levels of #testosterone are a powerful poison of rational thought

#ElonMusk suggests support for replacing democracy with government of ‘high-status males’

#TestosteronePoisoning #politics independent.co.uk/news/world/a…

welp. there were at least 67 bomb threats on election day against polling places that Biden mostly won easily in 2020

#BombThreats #ElectionDay #democrats #politics nbcnews.com/tech/security/elec…

2024-November-08 Friday

690 Americans Died Last Week From COVID 19

1,210,251 Americans Dead From COVID 19 In Total

#America #AmericanDeaths #Americans #Booster #Corona #CoronaVirus #Covid #COVID19 #CovidIsAirborn #CovidIsNotOver #Friday #LongCovid #Mask #Masks #Pandemic #PandemicIsNotOver #Politics #US #USA #USNews #USPolitics #Vaccine #Vaccines #WearAMask

The modern politician is less interested in being a hero than a superstar. Heroes walk alone; stars derive their status from approbation. Heroes are defined by inner values, stars by consensus. When a candidate's views are forged in focus groups and ratified by television anchorpersons, insecurity and superficiality become congenital. Radicalism replaces liberalism, and populism masquerades as conservatism.
-- Henry Kissinger

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HenryKissinger #Heros #Politics #Populism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #PuebloBonito #Ruins #360panorama #NewMexico

Just came to mind:

If you are able, pay down those credit cards to zero and then, if you can, close them.

STOP automatic payments.

CLOSE THEM / PAY THEM OFF.

NOW.

Have the payoff receipts in at least three different places.

Banks that own credit cards are going to have a goddamned free-for-all next year.

#Politics
#USpol

Elon Musk deployed his vast resources to help Trump get elected, and now he’s poised to remake the US government to serve his interests.

But that was only possible because far too many people chose to ignore who he was to tell a more appealing story of a founder moving humanity forward. They should be held accountable.

disconnect.blog/shame-on-the-e…

#tech #elonmusk #trump #uselection #politics

Shame on the Elon enablers

Media and politicians created a monster and lost control of him

^{Paris Marx (Disconnect)}

ok, seriously folks, WTF was the point of this?

#politics #USConstitution #14thAmendment

Iraq to lower the ‘age of consent’ for girls to nine

A new law proposed by ultra conservative Shia Muslim parties seeks to strip women and girls of their rights

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

#news #politics #Iraq #women #rights #ageofconsent #international #Muslim

Iraq to lower the ‘age of consent’ for girls to nine

^{Lilia Sebouai (The Telegraph)}

The good angel on my shoulder hates to see this and feels for these people.

The bad, pissed off vindictive devil on the other shoulder is LMAO and screaming You did this to yourselves SUCKERS!

Edit: It is very possible the info in this screenshot is not real. If so I apologize for posting it. I guess that bad, pissed off vindictive devil of mine is winning on too many fronts.

#politics #tariffs

"There are many explanations for Trump’s victory, most of them surely interrelated, but an unavoidable one is that this election was a referendum on an unpopular incumbent administration that failed to address the soaring cost of everyday life."

For n+1, Mark Krotov analyzes how the #DemocraticParty overestimated itself, underestimated #Trumpism, and lost the US presidential race: nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…

#Longreads #Politics #Election

Milestones | Mark Krotov

Some of Trump’s voters—namely the rich and the superrich—will get exactly what they wanted out of the deal. Most will not.

ⁿ⁺¹

A post-election message from Interim Editor-in-Chief @gusbova to our members, readers, and the rest of our extended community.

texasobserver.fundjournalism.o…

#journalism #Media #Texas #politics #USpol #fundraiser #nonprofit #future #immigration #news

"It will be a dark four years"
- Aure

Elon Musk’s daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson officially announces she is fleeing U.S. after Donald Trump win

Musk, who has previously said his daughter was “killed by the woke mind virus,” has been estranged from Wilson since 2022. That year, she legally changed her name and gender to distance herself from her father.
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol

themirror.com/news/politics/el…

Elon Musk’s daughter officially announces she is fleeing U.S. after Trump win

^{The Mirror US}

It's time for charities and for-good organisations to ditch X - a platform which helped grow and fund the Trump campaign - and move to alternatives where they aren't at the mercy of a single persons politics.

As a start, we're excited to be featured as an organisation which can help in this @BylineTimes article

There's a lot of hard work to be done, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work.

bylinetimes.com/2024/11/07/x-o…

#Fediverse #Charity #NGO #News #USPol #Politics #X #SocialMedia #Twitter

X-Odus: Charities and Campaigners to Abandon Musk's Twitter After Trump Endorsement – Byline Times

British nonprofits set to flee the platform after Elon Musk’s campaign for Donald Trump pays off

^{Josiah Mortimer (Byline Times)}