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The Trump Presidency Timeline

Documenting the chaos since day one. 1107 entries and counting.

Category: killing democracy
killing democracy

president crime-fraud unit deploys to… a printing error

Trump, demanding a DOJ probe into a barcoded envelope system he absolutely does not understand, while the actual printer quietly fixes its mistake like it’s  not the collapse of western civilization.

Trump, demanding a DOJ probe into a barcoded envelope system he absolutely does not understand, while the actual printer quietly fixes its mistake like it’s not the collapse of western civilization.

Maryland’s election officials discovered a vendor screwed up and sent some voters the wrong party’s primary ballot. So they did the boring, lawful thing: void the bad ones, send new ones, and explain in detail how their safeguards prevent anyone from voting twice. The printing company is even footing the bill. Democracy functioning like a normal adult system? Obviously this cannot stand. Trump immediately jumped on Truth Social to scream that Maryland sent out 500,000 “Illegal Mail In Ballots” and demand a Justice Department investigation, because if there’s one thing this guy hates, it’s mail voting that actually works. Election officials calmly laid out how each return envelope has a unique identifier and how only one ballot per voter can be counted; Trump responded by calling Democratic Gov. Wes Moore “corrupt,” because why waste a manufactured scandal if you can’t smear a Black Democratic governor with it. So we’ve got: a routine administrative fix to a vendor error, fully transparent, no evidence of fraud, and clear safeguards in place — met by a president trying to sic federal law enforcement on a state’s election system to prop up his long-running lie that mail ballots are inherently fraudulent. The printing company made an honest mistake; Trump is using it as fresh kindling for his ongoing project of delegitimizing any election he doesn’t pre-rig in his favor.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

pentagon declares first amendment a 'privilege', demands chaperones

The Pentagon, now offering guided tours of the First Amendment’s funeral.

The Pentagon, now offering guided tours of the First Amendment’s funeral.

The Trump Pentagon, now proudly rebranded as the "Department of War" because subtlety is for losers, has decided that reporters may only enter the building with official babysitters. The New York Times just filed its second lawsuit saying this escort-only policy is "utterly unreasonable" and unconstitutional, which is a polite legal way of saying: these people are absolutely trying to suffocate press freedom. For decades, Pentagon reporters could walk the unsecured corridors, pop into public affairs offices, and talk to more than a dozen officials in a day. Now? To ask a single question, they have to email for an appointment, wait, get an escort, get walked in, ask the question, then get walked back out to a media holding pen like they're on a sixth-grade field trip to the war machine. Then repeat. Over and over. Journalism, but make it DMV. A federal judge already ruled big chunks of the previous policy unconstitutional and told the Pentagon to knock it off. The Pentagon responded by closing the press workspace, slapping on an "interim" escort rule, and then appealing when the judge said that also violated his order. The appeals court is letting the escort rule stand while this drags on, because apparently the one thing the Trump administration can move quickly on is limiting scrutiny of its Iran war, the capture of Venezuela’s president, and Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spree of firing high-ranking military officials. The Pentagon’s official line is that press access is merely "a privilege extended by the government"—a bold reinterpretation of the First Amendment that boils down to: we’ll let you cover the world’s largest military when and how we feel like it. The Times calls the policy "patently retaliatory" and "manifestly arbitrary and capricious". The rest of us call it what it is: the executive branch testing how far it can go in turning independent war reporting into a guided tour.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump’s ‘most pro-life’ president forgets to show up to his own abortion fight

Protesters outside the Supreme Court, still laboring under the quaint belief that the president and his Justice Department might actually defend the federal agency in charge of drug safety.

Protesters outside the Supreme Court, still laboring under the quaint belief that the president and his Justice Department might actually defend the federal agency in charge of drug safety.

Republicans are staring down midterms with an unpopular war, inflation, and Trump’s approval ratings sinking like one of his casinos, so naturally the base has chosen this moment to try to yank abortion pills out of the mail. Louisiana is suing the F.D.A. to gut telemedicine and mail access to mifepristone — the main reason abortion is still widely available four years after the fall of Roe. The case has rocketed up to the Supreme Court, bounced around the appeals courts, and for now the justices have restored access while the lawsuit grinds on.

And through all of this, the man who calls himself “the most pro-life president in history” has discovered a bold new legal strategy: hiding under his desk. Trump’s Justice Department — the entity that is literally supposed to defend the F.D.A. — has refused to file a brief at the Supreme Court, which experts describe as "shocking," because it is shocking when the executive branch just declines to defend its own agency in a nationwide health-care case. The administration is essentially winking to the anti-abortion crusaders while avoiding a paper trail that Democrats can wave around in suburban districts.

This is the Trump model in a nutshell: let red states and handpicked judges do the dirty work of stripping rights from millions of women, while the White House pretends to be too busy to notice. It’s not governance, it’s plausible deniability cosplay — using federal power by not using it, and hoping voters blame “the courts” instead of the guy who staffed them and then ordered his DOJ to stand down.

Source: nytimes.com

#killing-democracy#pro-life
killing democracy

trump sues himself for $10 billion, then quietly fires the case

Donald Trump, contemplating the legal nuances of suing his own executive branch for $10 billion and then declaring victory when he drops the case.

Donald Trump, contemplating the legal nuances of suing his own executive branch for $10 billion and then declaring victory when he drops the case.

Donald Trump has decided to voluntarily drop his "unprecedented" $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury over leaked tax records, which legal experts politely described as a constitutional dumpster fire. The case starred Trump, Don Jr., Eric, and the Trump Organization all suing an executive agency that Trump literally controls, then acting shocked when a federal judge asked whether this was an actual legal dispute or just the president trying to turn the federal government into his personal ATM.

The judge, Kathleen M. Williams, had the audacity to wonder whether the Justice Department lawyers defending the government were actually insulated from the guy who runs the Justice Department. Outside legal experts gently suggested the court might want to look into whether there was any "collusion" in settlement talks — because apparently we now need to check if the president is negotiating with himself in good faith. Faced with a Wednesday deadline to explain how this wasn't a separation-of-powers joke, Trump's team suddenly discovered the magic of "voluntary dismissal" and insisted the court no longer needed to weigh in.

So the administration never even answered the lawsuit, the president tried to cash out of his own government over a leak that exposed his finances, and when the judiciary started tugging at the constitutional thread, the whole thing vanished like one of his "infrastructure weeks." Nobody at DOJ, Treasury, the IRS, or the White House rushed to explain any of this, presumably because there's no elegant way to say, "Yes, the president tried to sue his own executive branch for personal gain, and no, we hadn't thought through Article III of the Constitution."
#killing-democracy#corruption
killing democracy

south carolina gop speedruns jim crow 2.0

South Carolina lawmakers carefully adjusting district lines with the precision of a surgeon and the ethics of a raccoon in a bank vault.

South Carolina lawmakers carefully adjusting district lines with the precision of a surgeon and the ethics of a raccoon in a bank vault.

The redistricting circus has rolled into South Carolina, where Republican lawmakers are debating whether to give Donald Trump what he really wants for the 250th birthday of American democracy: a congressional map that converts the state’s lone Democratic seat into yet another safe Republican fiefdom. The timing is perfect, because the Supreme Court just helpfully weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts, and the GOP is racing to squeeze every last drop of disenfranchisement out of that ruling in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, and now the Palmetto State. Veteran Democrat Jim Clyburn, currently the only non-Republican in the state’s seven-member House delegation, says he’s not going anywhere and notes he has addresses in multiple areas: “I live in three districts. I’ll decide which one to run in.” That’s less a flex than a survival strategy when the state government is trying to legally erase Black representation while insisting this has nothing to do with race, voting, or democracy – just a casual effort to turn the clock back to what Clyburn bluntly calls “Jim Crow 2.0”. Early voting for the June primaries starts May 26, while legislators simultaneously try to move House primaries to August, because when you’re gaming the system this hard, the calendar is just another weapon. Meanwhile, in the broader "Trump Presidency Is Going Great" cinematic universe: a Senate official quietly stripped security funding that could have helped bankroll Trump’s dream of a taxpayer-funded $400m White House ballroom; Trump personally helped primary out GOP senator Bill Cassidy for insufficient devotion; he’s bragging that the Iran war might delay his precious rate cuts; his administration’s rushed patriotic construction projects may be endangering workers; and FBI director Kash Patel is under scrutiny for treating a visit to the USS Arizona like a snorkeling excursion. But sure, let’s keep pretending the real threat to the republic is…school board meetings.
#killing-democracy#racism
killing democracy

maine’s favorite ‘moderate’ keeps helping the arsonist

Susan Collins, seen here contemplating whether this is a day for ‘symbolic opposition’ or reliable pro‑Trump votes.

Susan Collins, seen here contemplating whether this is a day for ‘symbolic opposition’ or reliable pro‑Trump votes.

Susan Collins is back asking Maine for a sixth term, still selling the same beloved brand of performative moderation: sternly worded statements for the cameras, votes for Brett Kavanaugh in the chamber, and photo ops lovingly cradling a MAGA hat in the Oval Office. She voted to convict Trump after January 6 and backed Ketanji Brown Jackson, sure — then turned around and helped him with a national voter‑ID bill and sat on her hands until the last possible second on a war‑powers resolution on Iran, all while Trump’s second term barrels ahead with immigration crackdowns, Medicaid cuts, and a slow-motion demolition of federal agencies. Enter Graham Platner, a 41‑year‑old marine vet/oysterman whose past racist, sexist, and homophobic posts — plus a now‑covered-up tattoo that looked uncomfortably Nazi‑adjacent — somehow make him the Democratic vehicle for channeling rage at Washington. He calls Collins’s Trump breaks “symbolic opposition” that won’t bring back Roe or reopen hospitals, and accuses her of selling out working‑class Mainers to Trump and the “Epstein class”, which is a hell of a sentence to read about a supposed centrist firewall against authoritarian drift. Trump, naturally, has spent years telling his followers Collins “should never be elected to office again,” only to pivot to calling her a “good person” once he realizes there’s no harder-right automaton to primary her with. She needs him to shut up; he’s constitutionally incapable of shutting up. So Maine now gets to choose between the veteran architect of conditional resistance — the senator who “shows independence only when her vote is not required” — and an angry outsider with a big boat of baggage, all while the White House uses people’s lives as kindling for its immigration and healthcare agenda. American democracy: still running on vibes and voter suppression bills.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump declares war on insufficiently groveling libertarian

Thomas Massie, moments before learning that in Trump’s GOP, voting with the party 90% of the time still gets you fed to the primary woodchipper.

Thomas Massie, moments before learning that in Trump’s GOP, voting with the party 90% of the time still gets you fed to the primary woodchipper.

Donald Trump has decided that Rep. Thomas Massie’s real crime isn’t voting against the "big, beautiful" debt-ballooning tax-and-spend bill or trying to stop strikes on Iran. No, the unforgivable sin was helping force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and occasionally thinking for himself. So the president spent months shopping for a warm body in Kentucky and finally landed on Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL whose chief qualification is being "100% behind the president" and 0% interested in debating.

The result: the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, with more than $32 million in ad spending, mostly from Trump-aligned and pro-Israel groups trying to carpet-bomb one of the only Republicans who still pretends the national debt and endless war are bad. Massie’s reward for voting with the party 90% of the time is being labeled a "pathetic LOSER," a "sick Wacko," and a traitor to the cult — sorry, "Republican Party" — in a district Trump won by a landslide.

Meanwhile, GOP leadership does its usual profile-in-courage routine. Speaker Mike Johnson shrugs from the sidelines, happy to maybe replace a pain-in-the-ass libertarian with a more reliable rubber stamp for Trump’s agenda. Rand Paul, Lauren Boebert, and a few others murmur support for Massie while carefully reassuring everyone they still "like" Trump, as if the problem here is a minor disagreement between friends and not a sitting president using his office to purge anyone who deviates even 10% from the party line.

Massie calls the race a referendum on the future of the GOP: younger voters who don’t want to die in another war versus older "Fox News demographic" voters who just want to vote for whoever Trump points at. The president, naturally, is betting that fear, cash, and blind loyalty will beat policy, independence, and basic democratic norms.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump orders, polis delivers: election denier early-bird special

Tina Peters, seen here workshopping new ways to "protect" elections by breaking them, warms up the crowd at a 2022 Trump rally.

Tina Peters, seen here workshopping new ways to "protect" elections by breaking them, warms up the crowd at a 2022 Trump rally.

President Trump picked up the phone last fall and delivered his usual subtle, policy-focused message to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis: free Tina Peters. Peters, the former Mesa County clerk who helped tamper with election equipment to "prove" Trump’s lies about 2020, was sitting on a nine-year sentence. Trump wanted his election-denying martyr out, and, shockingly, the guy who has spent years insisting elections are rigged suddenly cared deeply about the fate of someone convicted for actually undermining them. Polis publicly told Trump he wouldn’t pardon Peters — bold stand, very brave — and then quietly spent months in a political pressure cooker as the White House turned the screws. Federal cuts rained down on Colorado like budgetary tear gas while Democrats begged Polis not to fold to the orange extortionist-in-chief. On Friday, after all that principled resistance, Polis split the tiniest possible hair: no pardon, just a commutation. Peters’s nine-year sentence got chopped so she can stroll out on parole after serving less than two years. So now, as Trump stuffs the federal government with fellow election deniers and wages a coast-to-coast war over redistricting, one of the movement’s convicted foot soldiers is getting an early release courtesy of a Democratic governor who found a way to technically keep his promise while practically giving Trump exactly what he wanted. The message to future would-be saboteurs of American democracy is clear: do the crime, help the right autocrat, and eventually some blue-state technocrat will find a "nuanced" way to open the door.

Source: nytimes.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump’s national mall tent revival state

The National Mall, now available in three classic styles: protest, inauguration, and soft-launch theocracy.

The National Mall, now available in three classic styles: protest, inauguration, and soft-launch theocracy.

Washington, DC spent Sunday cosplaying as a soft-launch theocracy, as thousands packed the National Mall for a White House–blessed prayer rally to "rededicate" America as One Nation Under God—specifically, their very particular, very Republican God. The stage looked like a mashup of a megachurch and a federal courthouse, complete with stained-glass founders and a big white cross, because nothing says "healthy constitutional republic" like turning your civic space into a themed worship park. The speaker list read like a who’s-who of Trump-era Christian nationalism: Paula White-Cain from the White House faith office, Franklin Graham, Pastor Samuel "America is done with God" Rodriguez, and a token Orthodox rabbi to keep the brochure looking diverse. Senator Tim Scott worked the crowd with "Are you a believer in Jesus?"—a neat little litmus test to hear from someone whose job description allegedly covers all Americans, including the more than one-quarter who are atheist, agnostic, or unaffiliated. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all lined up to lend the full weight of the federal government to a rally that functionally declares the Establishment Clause optional. Critics like Rev. Adam Russell Taylor pointed out that this was less "religious freedom" and more a public dedication of the state to a narrow, hard-right brand of Christianity. But the administration clearly prefers the Valley Forge fan fiction Hegseth invoked—George Washington "praying without ceasing"—to the actual Constitution, which says nothing about mandatory national prayer days and quite a lot about not turning the government into a church youth group with nukes. Rededicate 250 looks a lot less like a birthday party for American independence and a lot more like a dress rehearsal for a Christian nationalist state.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump goes to china, discovers new ways to almost start wars

Trump explains foreign policy to Xi Jinping using the same strategy he uses for real estate: say something wild, see who flinches, declare victory.

Trump explains foreign policy to Xi Jinping using the same strategy he uses for real estate: say something wild, see who flinches, declare victory.

Trump’s big sit-down with Xi Jinping appears to have produced a groundbreaking diplomatic achievement: a slightly less incoherent set of talking points about Iran, Taiwan, and trade, delivered in the same tone you’d use to haggle over a used golf cart. The Today Show walks through the “key takeaways,” which mostly boil down to Trump publicly flirting with war with Iran, casually treating Taiwan like a bargaining chip, and praising Xi like he’s applying for a job at Mar-a-Lago.

Diplomacy, in this universe, means Trump musing out loud about military options on television while standing next to one of the world’s most powerful authoritarians, then calling it a win because nobody actually pushed the red button on camera. Concerns about alliances, human rights, or long-term strategy are politely escorted offstage so the president can riff about how well he and Xi “get along” and how maybe, just maybe, the entire liberal international order can be swapped for a vibes-based trade deal.

The segment dutifully notes the risks of Trump’s improvisational foreign policy — Iran tensions, Taiwan’s security, global markets — while he treats them like plot points in a show he hasn’t finished watching. American democracy and global stability continue their guest-starring role as background extras in the Trump-Xi buddy comedy, hoping they don’t get written out in the next episode.
#killing-democracy#imperialism#national-security
killing democracy

ftc discovers bold new legal theory: 'shut up or go broke'

The FTC, bravely shielding America’s billionaires from the existential threat of being mildly criticized online.

The FTC, bravely shielding America’s billionaires from the existential threat of being mildly criticized online.

The Trump-era FTC, led by Andrew Ferguson, has apparently decided its real mission isn’t consumer protection but elite snowflake protection. After Media Matters reported that major brands’ ads were running next to pro-Nazi content on Elon Musk’s X, the FTC swooped in — not to ask why Nazis are getting premium ad placement, but to demand Media Matters’ communications records. Ferguson even bragged at a conference that his tools are "expensive when applied to you" so targets should just "knuckle under" — which is a fun way of saying: we know we’ll probably lose in court, we’re just here to bleed you dry.

Texas AG Ken Paxton and Missouri AG Andrew Bailey eagerly joined the pile-on, launching fraud probes into Media Matters after nudging from Stephen Miller, now Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, because of course he is. Courts eventually smacked these cases down, but the damage was done: donors fled, projects were killed, staff were laid off, and the message was crystal clear — criticize the regime’s favorite Nazi-adjacent social network and you might win legally but lose financially. Meanwhile, Musk’s X tried to antitrust-sue both Media Matters and advertisers who dared to not want their products next to swastikas, helping to crush GARM, the ad industry’s attempt to avoid funding extremist content.

The same playbook shows up in media mergers, where antitrust and telecom law are now just props in the Trump Show. The Paramount-Skydance deal only got past a captured FCC after a grotesque list of political concessions: Paramount reportedly paid Trump $16m to make a pesky 60 Minutes lawsuit go away, then axed Stephen Colbert after he referred to the payment as a "bribe", and promised tighter editorial control over CBS News plus dismantling diversity initiatives. FCC Democrat Anna Gomez called it "never-before-seen" government control over newsroom decisions and a First Amendment violation, which is lawyer-speak for "this is straight-up authoritarian garbage."

Behind the scenes, oligarchs like Larry Ellison are speed-dialing Trump to kneecap rival deals (Netflix-Warner Bros) while Trump’s DOJ antitrust division is described by its own former senior official as "pay-to-play regulation." Courts keep belatedly swatting down the worst abuses, but by then the watchdogs are broke, GARM is dead, and every newsroom in America is quietly asking: is this story worth a federal investigation and a few million in legal fees? Congratulations, we’ve arrived at the modern American model of press freedom: you can say what you want — as long as you can afford the lawyers.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#corruption#oligarchy
killing democracy

america’s pandemic plan: vibes and denial

Anthony Fauci, seen here trying to explain basic epidemiology to a country that thinks YouTube comments are peer review.

Anthony Fauci, seen here trying to explain basic epidemiology to a country that thinks YouTube comments are peer review.

The US is staring at a new hantavirus outbreak and the consensus from people who actually know things is: we’re not ready. Years after Covid, the country has fewer experts, weaker systems, and a public so marinated in Facebook brain-poison that a random influencer with a ring light can outgun Anthony Fauci and a stack of New England Journal of Medicine papers. We spent a century building public health capacity and about four years of Trumpism nuking trust in it, and somehow that turned out to be a bad trade. Former officials like Stephanie Psaki and Fauci politely explain that, statistically, there’s about a coin-flip chance we’ll get another pandemic as bad as Covid within 25 years, and our current strategy is: cut funding, attack vaccines, and let TikTok wellness grifters run comms. The US managed to invent one of the most effective vaccines in history at record speed, then followed that triumph by botching global distribution so badly that allies now regard us as the guy who shows up to the fire with a bucket, no water, and a lecture on American leadership. The same country that once led on HIV and global health now can’t get tests out, can’t get shots into arms, and is "steering away" from international cooperation because nothing says "preparedness" like nationalism plus budget cuts. The damage to alliances from hoarding vaccines and fumbling equity is, as Psaki puts it, "deep" and "long-lasting"—which is a very diplomatic way of saying that when the next virus shows up, a lot of countries will remember who treated solidarity like a PR strategy. But sure, let’s keep slashing public health and hope the pathogen respects our feelings.
#killing-democracy#anti-science
killing democracy

louisiana gop rebrands as the church of perpetual trump vengeance

Three Republicans walk into a primary: one backed by Trump, one backed by McConnell, and one backed by sheer delusion that this is about anything but Trump’s revenge tour.

Three Republicans walk into a primary: one backed by Trump, one backed by McConnell, and one backed by sheer delusion that this is about anything but Trump’s revenge tour.

Sen. Bill Cassidy is finally getting his reward for the unforgivable sin of acknowledging reality in 2021: a Trump-backed primary challenge in a newly rigged playground designed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who helpfully swapped the state’s "jungle" primaries for closed party primaries right before Cassidy’s race. Cassidy says independents keep calling to say they tried to vote for him but couldn’t, which the governor surely considers a feature, not a bug. When your election system leaves voters confused and locked out, you’re not running a democracy, you’re running a loyalty test. Trump, now president again and still nursing the same grudge like it’s his emotional support animal, is boosting Rep. Julia Letlow while his anti-vax court jester, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., unleashes MAHA PAC to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace the guy who dared question their wellness-influencer surgeon general pick. Cassidy both confirmed RFK Jr. and now fights him, which is how you end up being attacked for insufficient devotion to both Trump and the bleach-and-crystals wing of public health. Meanwhile, $30 million gets torched on ads so Republican voters can decide which flavor of Trumpism they’d like: the loyalist backed by the governor, the loyalist backed by the White House, or the loyalist calling himself the only "true conservative." Hovering above it all is House Speaker Mike Johnson, who insists he’s close to everyone and therefore will support no one, a very normal stance for the third most powerful Republican in the country in a race that’s openly about punishing a colleague for an impeachment vote. The message from Trumpworld and its state-level enforcers is clear: policy, competence, and actual legislating are irrelevant. The only question is whether you will help rewrite the rules, purge the heretics, and keep the former president’s ego well-fed. Louisiana Republicans aren’t just holding a primary — they’re stress-testing how far you can tilt the system to enforce personal loyalty and still call it an election.
#killing-democracy#retribution
killing democracy

trump declassifies the x‑files to distract from his actual crimes

Classified Pentagon image of a hostile extraterrestrial craft, or, as non-insane people call it, a balloon someone let go near Japan.

Classified Pentagon image of a hostile extraterrestrial craft, or, as non-insane people call it, a balloon someone let go near Japan.

The Pentagon, under orders from President Donald "I alone can see the aliens" Trump, has dumped its first batch of UFO files on the public, supposedly because of the "tremendous interest" from Americans. Conveniently, this sudden passion for transparency arrives just as Trump is, as the article delicately puts it, "suffocating in scandal and calamity" over his unlawful adventures in Venezuela and Iran. Why answer awkward questions from Congress when you can point at a blurry dot over Japan and yell: look, a saucer?

This circus plugs straight into Trump’s favorite storyline: he’s the brave outsider exposing the sinister deep state — unless, of course, the files are underwhelming, in which case the deep state is now so powerful it’s hiding the truth from the president himself. It’s a perfect closed loop: heads he’s the heroic truth-teller, tails the conspiracy just got deeper. Meanwhile, his sidekicks are happily workshopping their own fan fiction: Vice-President JD Vance declaring UFOs are actually demons, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio hinting the government might be sitting on alien tech like a Floridian Bond villain with a security clearance.

The actual content of the release is, predictably, a gallery of grainy blobs, misidentified flares, and what appears to be a literal red balloon. Online sleuths debunked several clips before the ink on the press release dried, but the point was never evidence. It’s vibes. It’s distraction. It’s feeding a culture where people will believe in secret hangars full of little green men, but not in open, well-documented conspiracies like Wall Street wrecking the economy and getting bailed out, or presidents breaking international law. Why hide the real crimes in a secret base when you can do them in broad daylight while everyone argues about space demons?

#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump turns the fda into an empty chair convention

The FDA leadership suite, as envisioned by Trump: a bunch of empty chairs, a TV tuned to Fox, and a shredder labeled "career civil servants".

The FDA leadership suite, as envisioned by Trump: a bunch of empty chairs, a TV tuned to Fox, and a shredder labeled "career civil servants".

The Trump administration’s war on expertise has claimed yet another agency, as the FDA’s leadership now resembles a game of musical chairs where the music is just Trump rage-posting on social media. Acting drug chief Tracy Beth Høeg says she was fired after a full six months on the job – a tenure so short she barely had time to pretend she knew anything about drug regulation, which, to be fair, she did not. The acting vaccines chief, Katherine Szarama, is also out after 10 days, a blink-and-you-miss-it stint that didn’t even make it to the "updated LinkedIn" phase of the grift. The agency now has no permanent commissioner, no permanent deputy, and no permanent heads for two of its most critical centers. Staff reportedly learned their supposed leadership changes after Trump’s posts and the mysterious disappearance of Marty Makary’s photo from the lobby, because nothing says "serious regulatory regime" like governing by subtweet and hallway decor. Makary – whose tenure was already a bonfire of controversial vaccine decisions, rare disease rulings, layoffs, and morale cratered into the Earth’s mantle – has bailed, along with several of his allies. Into this vacuum of competence steps a new round of temps and industry crossovers, including a former pharma CEO now temporarily running biologics. Høeg, previously best known for casting doubt on Covid vaccines and trying to retrofit US childhood vaccine schedules to match Denmark, somehow ended up running the nation’s drug regulation center despite no actual drug regulation experience. But sure, rotate through five CDER chiefs in a year, purge anyone who doesn’t fit the latest political flavor, and hand the keys to whoever last impressed Trump on cable or X. What could possibly go wrong when the agency that decides which drugs and vaccines are safe is being treated like a reality show casting call?
#killing-democracy#anti-science
killing democracy

trump administration discovers new policy lever: thirst

Map of the Colorado River basin, helpfully illustrating where 40 million people are about to learn what "federal water cuts" feel like.

Map of the Colorado River basin, helpfully illustrating where 40 million people are about to learn what "federal water cuts" feel like.

The Trump administration has unveiled its bold new vision for the American West: dehydration, but make it federal policy. A 10-year plan for the drought-stricken Colorado River could cut up to 40% of current water supplies to Arizona, California, and Nevada — up to 3 million acre-feet a year, enough water for 6–9 million households. So, you know, an entire megacity or two. No big deal.

Arizona water official Tom Buschatzke described the proposed cuts as “sobering”, which is a tactful way of saying “we’re about to find out what happens when the Central Arizona Project goes to zero and Phoenix pretends it’s still a functioning city”. The feds are floating two options: jam it through under existing Colorado River law, which conveniently gives California the highest priority, or force the states to sign agreements while Washington stands there like a mob boss saying, "Nice little water supply you’ve got there, shame if something happened to it."

The upper basin states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico — are insisting that the lower basin states are the real problem, because nothing says "responsible resource management" like a century-long interstate blame game while reservoirs hit dead pool. California, Arizona, and Nevada tried to preempt the hammer by offering their own voluntary cuts, but the Bureau of Reclamation is still "evaluating" whether letting people collaborate beats just unilaterally turning the tap off every two years.

So the Trump-era water policy formula remains intact: decades of overuse, turbocharged climate crisis, a collapsing river that 40 million people depend on, and a federal plan that amounts to resetting the rules on a rolling basis while everyone argues over who has to be thirsty first. Governance by scarcity roulette — what could go wrong?

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#full-stupid
killing democracy

trump’s doj discovers exciting new field: federally mandated conversion medicine

Ken Paxton and Trump’s DOJ celebrating their landmark achievement in medicine: a clinic where the government decides who you’re allowed to be.

Ken Paxton and Trump’s DOJ celebrating their landmark achievement in medicine: a clinic where the government decides who you’re allowed to be.

Texas Children’s Hospital just agreed to pay $10m, fire doctors, shut down gender‑affirming care for youth, and fund what Ken Paxton is proudly branding the nation’s first "detransition clinic" – all to settle allegations that it improperly billed Medicaid. Nothing says "healthcare fraud enforcement" like extorting a hospital into building a state-approved ideological reeducation center for trans kids.

The hospital, which insists every investigation shows it followed the law, has spent three years and 5 million documents "navigating an unconscionable campaign of mistruths" from Paxton and friends. The Trump justice department then strutted in to announce this as its first big resolution in a nationwide crusade to end gender-affirming care, vowing to use "every weapon" to stop what the acting AG Todd Blanche calls "so-called" treatment – a neat phrase for care endorsed by every major medical association but not, tragically, by the guy doing Trump’s legal errands.

Trump already signed an executive order in January 2025 commanding federally funded institutions to "end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children," because scare quotes and moral panic now substitute for medical evidence. Texas, which had already banned gender-affirming care for minors in 2023, is now exporting its model: sue providers, subpoena records on trans kids across the country, then force hospitals into building free government-approved detransition clinics as the price of being left alone. State-sponsored coercion dressed up as child protection, with kids like Raven – who literally needs this care to stay alive – treated as collateral damage in the culture war.

So yes, under Trump, the federal government’s civil rights and health enforcement apparatus is now an anti-trans inquisition: threaten providers, terrorize families, and call it "protecting children" while you systematically strip them of life-saving care. The party of "medical freedom" has entered its "you will comply with our ideology or we will destroy your hospital" era.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#anti-science#trumps-america
killing democracy

pentagon rebrands as department of war, quietly fires the people who care about killing kids

The newly rebranded Department of War, seen here carefully calibrating the angle from which to insist it cares deeply about civilian lives while defunding the office that was supposed to prove it.

The newly rebranded Department of War, seen here carefully calibrating the angle from which to insist it cares deeply about civilian lives while defunding the office that was supposed to prove it.

Turns out when you rename the Pentagon the "Department of War," they take it literally. Pete Hegseth & Friends have quietly taken a sledgehammer to the legally mandated program meant to prevent the US from bombing quite so many civilians. The inspector general found the military has basically no staff, tools, or infrastructure left to run its Civilian Protection Center of Excellence or comply with two federal laws on civilian casualties. The data platform? Defunded. The steering committee? Stopped meeting. The experts? Forced out, reassigned, or, in one case, exiled to a "closet office" in Virginia like they’re a bad memory instead of the last speed bump before mass-casualty war crimes.

The timing is almost performance art. In February, senior Trump officials Elbridge Colby and Dan Driscoll floated killing or gutting the civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) program. The Pentagon then just started acting like it was already dead, because who needs formal approval when you’ve got bombs to drop? That same month, the US launched its deadliest strike on Iran since the war started, obliterating Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab and killing at least 175 people, most of them children. Meanwhile, Hegseth goes on camera to insist nobody in history has taken more precautions to avoid civilian deaths, which is a bold statement for a guy whose department can’t even keep its own legally required oversight committee on the calendar.

Officially, the program hasn’t been canceled; unofficially, it’s been starved, ignored, and buried under paperwork until it stopped breathing. The CHMR steering committee’s last meeting was in December, its implementation data is "incomplete and inaccurate," and combatant commands have already "divested" their civilian harm functions because why waste resources on not killing bystanders? As civilian casualties in Iran spike, outside experts warn that after gutting 90% of the workforce tasked with preventing this, future US operations will somehow be even worse. The inspector general has now given the Pentagon until June to explain how it plans to obey the law—a fun question for an administration that just rebranded the Defense Department into a vibes-based war ministry and treated civilian protection as a pesky obstacle to be neutralized.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

massie accidentally describes the trump cult correctly

Thomas Massie explains that his primary is a 'national referendum' while the Trump campaign helpfully reminds him who’s grading the exam.

Thomas Massie explains that his primary is a 'national referendum' while the Trump campaign helpfully reminds him who’s grading the exam.

Thomas Massie went on TV and announced that his Kentucky primary is basically "a national referendum" — which is a flowery way of saying Donald Trump has once again turned a local race into a mandatory loyalty oath to Dear Leader. Massie, a libertarian weirdo who at least occasionally remembers Congress is supposed to be a branch of government, is now being hunted by a Trump-backed challenger whose main qualification is presumably the ability to say "yes, sir" without laughing.

Instead of debating policy, the race is framed as: do Republicans want a guy who sometimes votes his conscience, or a guy who'll treat Trump's Truth Social posts like binding constitutional amendments? The fact that this question is being sold as a "referendum" tells you everything about where the GOP is: elections are no longer about representation, they’re about proving your personal devotion to one extremely indicted man.

So Massie calls it a national test. He’s not wrong — it is a test of whether one of the last semi-independent weirdos in the conference can survive in a party that now treats separation of powers as a bad attitude. If Trump’s handpicked replacement wins, the message to every remaining Republican is crystal clear: cross the king, lose your crown. Democracy, brought to you by the same people who think the oath of office is just the warm-up act for the rally.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

colorado governor speed-runs rehabilitation of trump election saboteur

Tina Peters, listening intently for the next conspiracy theory that might shave a few more months off her sentence.

Tina Peters, listening intently for the next conspiracy theory that might shave a few more months off her sentence.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has decided that the woman who helped compromise her county’s voting machines in service of Donald Trump’s very serious "rigged election" fanfic has done enough time. Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted of tampering with election equipment after she facilitated a 2021 security breach to prove Trump's lies, just had her nearly nine-year sentence chopped in half so she can be parole-eligible June 1. Democracy may be on life support, but at least the sentencing guidelines are comfy.

This act of mercy arrives after months of pressure from President Trump and his administration, who’ve been loudly insisting Peters is a "hostage" held by evil Democrats for "political reasons" — as opposed to the very non-political reason of breaking into voting systems to help an attempted coup. A state appeals court did rule the trial judge improperly factored her speech into the sentence, which Polis now cites as his high-minded constitutional rationale, while insisting it has absolutely nothing to do with the guy in the White House screaming that Colorado leaders should "rot in hell." Totally unrelated. Pure coincidence. Everybody relax.

Judge Matthew Barrett originally called Peters what she is — "a charlatan" selling election-denial snake oil — which apparently was too much truth for the appellate court, but not too much crime for Trump, who tried to pardon her in 2025 despite having no power over state convictions. That symbolic pardon is now halfway to becoming functionally real, thanks to a Democratic governor doing constitutional damage control that looks, from orbit, like rewarding one of the most brazen foot soldiers of the Big Lie. Accountability for trying to overturn an election was already hanging by a thread; Polis just took a pair of scissors to it in the name of principle.

#killing-democracy#lawlessness