state department discovers free speech by banning critics from entering country
The State Department, bravely protecting American free speech by making sure critics of disinformation can’t physically enter the country to talk about it.
In the latest defense of "American free speech," the Trump administration has decided the best way to protect it is to… ban foreign critics from entering the country. The State Department has denied US visas to five people whose great crime is working against disinformation and online hate, including Imran Ahmed of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and Clare Melford of the Global Disinformation Index. They’ve been officially rebranded as "radical activists" in the global "censorship-industrial complex"—because nothing says "we love open debate" like slapping dissidents with travel bans.
Also on the enemies list: former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, architect of the EU’s Digital Services Act, plus two leaders of German anti-hate group HateAid. Their sin? Supporting regulations that mildly inconvenience US tech billionaires and the right’s favorite disinformation firehoses. Macron and other European leaders are calling it "intimidation" and an attack on European digital sovereignty, while the Trump State Department insists it’s just defending American speech from the unspeakable horror of… foreign laws passed by elected parliaments.
In other words, the administration that screams about "censorship" any time a Nazi loses a blue check is now using federal power to blacklist researchers and regulators who track hate, disinfo, and platform lies. The targets call it an authoritarian attack on free speech and the rule of law, which is accurate but undersells the vibe: this is a loyalty test for US tech and a warning shot to anyone who thinks platforms should verify users or stop monetizing hate. But sure, tell us again how the real tyrants are the people asking Elon Musk to follow the law.
#killing-democracy#fascism#forever-grifting
democracy? sorry, we’re redistricting that away
A map of the United States, helpfully updated to show where voters still matter and where the legislature already picked the winners.
President Trump spent 2025 speedrunning the part of the authoritarian playbook where you don’t bother winning more voters, you just draw fewer of the wrong ones. Republican legislatures across the country spent the year furiously carving up congressional maps like a Christmas ham, hunting for every last seat they could steal by line-drawing instead of, you know, persuading people. Because nothing says “confidence in your ideas” like having to gerrymander the map into modern art just to survive the next election.
Trump is reportedly leaning on GOP states to squeeze out maximum advantage before next year’s contests, while Democrats get a few scattered chances to counter in the courts or in the handful of states they still control. In other words: Republicans are playing a coordinated, nationwide power-maximization game, and Democrats are playing whack-a-mole with a butter knife.
So 2025 becomes the year where the House of Representatives is less about representing actual people and more about representing whichever party controls the cartographers. But sure, tell us again how this is all about “election integrity” and not about pre-rigging the scoreboard before voters even show up.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy#full-stupid
support the troops, unless they need an abortion
VA hospital entrance, now featuring a new sign: "We honor your sacrifice, but not your bodily autonomy."
The Trump-Vance administration has decided that nothing says "thank you for your service" like denying raped veterans basic medical care. The Department of Justice quietly issued a memo declaring that the Department of Veterans Affairs is not "legally authorized" to provide abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, or serious health risk. The VA, ever the loyal foot soldier, immediately complied, snapping shut access to care that Biden-era rules had finally opened up for veterans in the post-Roe hellscape.
The internal memo, leaked and published by Democracy Forward, carves out a tiny, grudging exception: doctors can still act if a veteran is literally about to die from pregnancy complications. Miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or a clinician determining that care is "necessary to save a veteran’s life" might still be allowed — assuming, of course, lawyers and political appointees don’t overrule the medical chart. But counseling about abortion? Care in cases of rape or incest? That’s gone, because nothing screams "pro-life" like forcing a veteran who survived combat and sexual assault to navigate a patchwork of state bans on her own dime.
More than half of female veterans live in states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion. Biden’s VA policy was one of the few lifelines left; Trump’s team is cutting it off while the formal rule rollback slowly oozes through the bureaucracy. In other words, they’re not even waiting to finish the paperwork before slamming the door. As Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward put it, the move is callous and inhumane. But sure, tell us again how this administration "backs the troops" while it turns VA hospitals into enforcement arms for forced birth.
#pro-life#healthcare#killing-democracy
supreme court temporarily rediscovers posse comitatus
Live look at Chicago, which the White House insists is in open rebellion, as federal judges squint and say, "We’re gonna need more than Fox B-roll for that."
The Trump administration went to the Supreme Court demanding permission to federalize and deploy the Illinois National Guard to "protect" immigration agents in Chicago, because nothing says "normal law enforcement" like rolling in the troops over local objections. The Court, in a rare moment of remembering what the law is, said no—at least for now—pointing out that the statute Trump invoked only kicks in when the regular military can't restore order, and that tiny inconvenience called the Posse Comitatus Act still exists.
In an unsigned order, a 5–4 majority (three conservatives plus the three liberals) noted that the government "failed to identify a source of authority" to let the military execute civilian law in Illinois. Translation: you don't get to cosplay dictatorship just because you're mad at Chicago. Illinois and Chicago had already argued that this was less about "rebellion" and more about Trump punishing political enemies, and lower courts agreed there was no credible evidence of the "lawless chaos" the administration keeps insisting is everywhere Democrats live.
Naturally, Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch were furious that the Court didn't just wave through the deployment, with Alito announcing his "serious doubts" about the majority's reasoning—because if the president wants to send troops into opposition cities over protests, who is the Constitution to say no? Meanwhile, Trump's broader campaign to impose federal control on Democratic-led cities—D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, and beyond—rolls on, backed by a string of Supreme Court wins. But in this case, even this Court decided that using the National Guard as an ICE goon squad crossed a line. For now.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump screams ‘judicial coup,’ judges buy guns and cancel credit cards
Federal judges upgrading home security and dodging swat teams because the president can’t handle losing in court — truly the shining city on a hill the Founders envisioned.
In the latest episode of "Who Wants To Be A Fascist?", longtime Reagan-appointed Judge John Coughenour blocked Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional stunt to gut birthright citizenship — and immediately discovered what happens when you anger the guy whose fanbase thinks the Constitution is a deep-state plot. Within days, someone "swatted" the 84-year-old judge, falsely reporting that he’d murdered his wife and barricaded himself in his home, then followed up with a fake bomb threat in his mailbox. After four decades on the bench, Coughenour finally did something he’d never felt compelled to do: he took a gun home from the courthouse because the American president and his enablers had whipped up a mob against him.
He’s not alone. Judges across the country who ruled against Trump or dared defend judicial independence are now living like they’re in witness protection. They’re upgrading home security, changing driving routes, moving houses, freezing hacked credit cards, and warning their families to scrub personal info from the internet. One Trump-appointed judge received death threats after crossing Dear Leader; another judge, Stephen Bough, blocked a Trump deportation scheme and was rewarded with creepy 1 a.m. pizza deliveries to his home — and to his daughter’s house 800 miles away — because nothing says "respect for law and order" like weaponizing DoorDash. The U.S. Marshals are now treating surprise pizzas as potential intimidation ops, possibly from foreign actors, which is definitely a normal thing in a functioning democracy.
Meanwhile, the administration that lit the match is insisting it’s just telling the "truth." Stephen Miller calls adverse rulings a "judicial coup," Attorney General Pam Bondi sneers about "low-level leftist judges," and MAGA influencers daydream publicly about impeaching judges who get in the way of the agenda. Then White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson shows up to deliver the punchline: any suggestion that this relentless demonization might be fueling threats is "deeply unserious," and actually, Trump "cares deeply" about judicial safety. In other words: they slam the gas pedal on delegitimizing the courts, watch the threats spike, and then swear they’re just humble truth-tellers while the judges buy guns and move houses — but sure, tell us more about how this is all very normal and not at all how democracies die.
#killing-democracy#fascism
historic shutdown, tariff brain genius, and the vibes recession
Americans bravely simulating a thriving economy by maxing out their cards on rent, medical bills, and AI gadgets while Trump calls it the greatest boom in history.
Trump’s miracle economy update: GDP grew at a robust 4.3% in Q3, which we are only hearing about now because the historic Trump shutdown jammed up the Commerce Department so badly they couldn’t even release numbers on time. Nothing says "stable business environment" like a president who both tanks the first quarter with sweeping global tariff threats and then turns off the government’s lights so the statisticians can’t tell you how bad his ideas were.
Meanwhile, the supposed boom is powered by people spending more on hospitals, nursing homes, prescription drugs, and computer hardware to feed the AI hype machine. In other words, Americans are going broke trying not to die and training the algorithms that will replace them, but sure, "consumer spending is strong." Inflation is down to 2.7%, wages are still (barely) beating prices, and yet the cost of rent, electricity, and health insurance keeps chewing through paychecks so fast that only rich shoppers are keeping retail afloat.
Despite the topline "win," business and residential investment are falling, the job market is softening, and people tell pollsters they feel like their finances are circling the drain. Trump, naturally, insists everything is amazing; the latest NPR/PBS/Marist poll says only 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, his worst score yet. So the official numbers say the economy is growing, the president says he’s a genius, and most people say they’re one surprise bill away from disaster — but remember, questioning the vibes is fake news.
#killing-democracy#full-stupid#money
trump solves slavery in mauritania by deporting its victims back to it
Mauritanian immigrants in Ohio, waiting to find out whether America will let them work or just ship them back to the country where slavery never really ended.
In Ohio, a few thousand Black Mauritanian immigrants fled a country where slavery still exists and the government treats them like an unwanted underclass, only to discover that the United States under Donald Trump is running its own deportation lottery. After a perilous trek through Turkey, Colombia, and the Darién Gap, they land in Lockland, Ohio, where Fox News and the New York Post promptly declare them an existential threat because nothing says "serious journalism" like blaming blocked drains and low water pressure on refugees from modern-day apartheid.
The Trump administration, ever alert to any opportunity to punch down, notices the rightwing panic and happily folds these families into its "vast deportation web". ICE is now scooping Mauritanians up at mandatory check-ins and traffic stops, then shipping them back to a country where Black people are still enslaved and routinely abused. At least 90 people have already been deported since Trump’s inauguration, and over 19,000 Mauritanian cases are now clogging immigration courts—because when you flee a regime that jails musicians for complaining about electricity, America’s response is to threaten to send you right back.
Local volunteers are scrambling to get people bikes so they can get to low-wage jobs at food plants and factories, while immigration judges in Cleveland and ICE agents treat court dates like baited traps. In other words, people "just come here to work," and the administration’s answer is: great, now get in line to be deported to a country where you might be enslaved again. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about "law and order" and not a racist, performative crackdown on one of the smallest and most vulnerable immigrant communities in the country.
#anti-immigration#racism#killing-democracy
trump calls press 'enemy of the people,' cops take notes
A journalist in a press vest and helmet, moments before law enforcement demonstrates what "enemy of the people" means in practice.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation just dropped a fun little data point: in 2025, US journalists have been assaulted almost as many times as in the previous three years combined. The spike comes as Trump returns to office, ramps up mass deportations, and revives his greatest hit, calling the press the "enemy of the people"—because nothing says "land of the free" like turning news-gathering into a contact sport.
Most of the 170 documented assaults this year happened at protests against the administration’s immigration crackdown, where law enforcement decided that the real threat wasn’t unconstitutional deportations without due process, but people with cameras and press badges. Reporters and photographers were batoned, shot with pepper balls and "less-lethal" rounds, and blown up with explosive devices from a safe 40 feet away, just to make sure nobody gets too clear a picture of how "Operation Midway Blitz" actually looks on the ground.
A federal judge in Chicago had to issue a restraining order literally telling ICE and DHS "don’t beat the people clearly marked as journalists unless they’re committing a crime"—a standard that used to be implied by the whole Constitution thing. The government responded by insisting the area was in a "vise hold of violence" to justify indiscriminate force, and the judge politely translated that as: "That narrative simply is untrue." In other words, they lied to defend assaulting the press, then appealed the ruling because of course they did.
But remember, we can’t prove a direct line from Trump’s years of media-bashing to cops treating reporters like enemy combatants. He only calls them liars, delegitimizes their work, brands them enemies of the people, and runs an administration whose policies and rhetoric "reflect hostility towards the press" and could be seen as condoning violence. Totally mysterious how we ended up with journalists getting shot and clubbed for doing their jobs. Must be a coincidence.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
trump solves immigration by un‑legalizing immigrants
A Venezuelan migrant stares at a dead CBP One app, discovering the Trump administration’s newest legal pathway: "have you tried not coming at all?"
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new innovation in immigration policy: if you cancel enough legal pathways, everyone becomes illegal. More than 1.6 million immigrants have lost their legal status in the first 11 months of Trump’s second term — people who followed the rules, used parole programs, visas, asylum, or Temporary Protected Status, and were explicitly told by the U.S. government they could live and work here. Now that same government is yanking their status preemptively and suggesting they kindly deport themselves, because nothing says "rule of law" like retroactively criminalizing compliance.
Immigration advocates point out that this is the largest effort in U.S. history to strip deportation protections from people who are here legally. Todd Schulte of FWD.us notes that no president from either party has ever made "revoking the work authorization and legal status for millions" a central governing goal. But Trump’s people are proud of it: USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser framed it as saving taxpayers from the "financial burden of unlawfully present aliens" — a neat little phrase that quietly ignores the fact that many of these people were lawful until Trump personally decided they shouldn’t be.
Not content with detonating existing programs, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is now "pausing" the diversity visa lottery because one alleged shooter entered via that route in 2017 — the policy equivalent of banning cars because someone committed a crime while driving. Meanwhile, the White House brags that Trump has done more to limit both legal and illegal migration than any administration in history, pausing and revoking visas like party favors in reverse. In other words, the plan isn’t to fix the system; it’s to shrink the definition of who gets to be legal in America until it fits neatly inside Stephen Miller’s skull.
#anti-immigration#killing-democracy
trump orders, whatley obeys: north carolina tries elective monarchy
Michael Whatley, proudly auditioning for the role of ‘Most Loyal Senate Intern to Dear Leader’ while North Carolina voters pretend this is still a normal election.
Michael Whatley is running for Senate in North Carolina the old-fashioned way: by waiting for Donald Trump to call and inform him that he’s already decided. According to Whatley, Trump phoned after Sen. Thom Tillis bowed out and basically said, “You’re going to run, you’re going to win, so congratulations” — because nothing says representative democracy like the president assigning Senate seats over the phone like it’s a mid-level promotion at Trump Org.
Whatley, former RNC chair and current professional Trump loyalist, has responded by Velcroing himself to Trump so hard you can practically hear the ripping sound. Onstage at a pre-Christmas rally, he declared Trump “the most transformational president in our lifetime” and pledged to be his “ally” in the Senate — not an ally to North Carolinians, mind you, but to “our great president.” In other words, it’s not a Senate race, it’s a loyalty audition.
Meanwhile, the MAGA base is deeply inspired by…someone else. Steve Bannon says Whatley’s “not MAGA,” grassroots Republicans are openly calling him “an awful candidate,” and Young Republicans at a tacky sweater party are pining for Lara Trump instead — because if you’re going to be a vassal state, you might as well get a real member of the dynasty. Lara, for her part, is using her Fox News show to boost Whatley while bragging about how they “cut the fat” at the RNC, which is a polite way of saying they turned the national party into a fully-owned Trump family asset.
So North Carolina’s “critical” Senate race boils down to this: Roy Cooper, a popular ex-governor who’s actually won statewide races against Trump’s numbers, versus a handpicked former party apparatchik whose main qualification is that he’ll never, ever distance himself from the president. If Whatley wins, Trump keeps his four-seat Senate cushion and his personal Praetorian Guard. If he loses, it’s one tiny crack in the facade of the imperial presidency. But sure, tell us more about how this is just normal politics and not a slow-motion attempt to turn the Senate into the Mar-a-Lago Board of Directors.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy
jd vance makes his play for ‘crown prince of maga’
An AmericaFest attendee raises a hand in prayer, presumably to the Constitution they’re actively workshopping out of existence.
At Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix — the traveling roadshow where authoritarianism cosplays as patriotism — Vice President JD Vance is already being crowned heir apparent to Trump nearly three years before 2028. He pulls 84% in a straw poll of the MAGA faithful, while Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis split the participation-trophy vote. In other words, the base has seen the future, and it looks like a guy financed by tech billionaires cosplaying as a blue-collar prophet.
Turning Point, now run by Erika Kirk after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, is boasting 1 million members and 1,400 campus chapters, i.e., an entire pipeline of youth activism devoted to making permanent rule by one movement seem normal. Attendees gush that they “wish Trump could just be king forever and pass it down … eventually Barron,” but swear they “don’t believe in having kings.” Because nothing says “constitutional republic” like openly workshopping your preferred hereditary monarchy between merch purchases and prayer sessions.
The grassroots story the article thinks it’s telling is that Vance “has the balls” and a “real background.” The story it’s actually telling is that the MAGA coalition is already gaming out a post-Trump succession plan, locking in loyalty oaths from the big youth propaganda machine while the base casually shrugs off the whole ‘no kings’ part of the American experiment. Vance isn’t just running for president someday — he’s auditioning to be the next steward of a movement that’s decided democracy is optional, but vibes and grievance are forever.
#killing-democracy#fascism#oligarchy
america, now proudly a regional power with nukes and daddy issues
Trump and Putin gaze at Europe like two arsonists arguing over who gets to light the match first.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, two men united by a shared love of status and a shared hatred of not being invited to the cool kids’ table, have converged on the same basic foreign policy: if you can’t earn respect, burn down the system that measures it. Putin does it with tanks in Ukraine; Trump does it with a "national security strategy" that reads like a Maga subreddit manifesto, denouncing Europe, the rule of law, and multilateralism while demanding "unrivaled soft power" based on nothing more than America’s "inherent greatness and decency". Because nothing says "soft power" like screaming at your allies and threatening them on behalf of Elon Musk’s favorite platforms.
The administration is busy trying to turn Europe from a rules-based, liberal democratic project into a patchwork of angry, ethnonationalist mini-Trumps: backing far-right parties, fantasizing about a "culturally white" continent, and punishing factcheckers and social-media moderators with visa bans for the crime of noticing that fascists lie. At the same time, Trump is hollowing out the very "massive military, diplomatic, intelligence and foreign aid complex" that once made U.S. influence possible, proudly downgrading America from architect of the postwar order to regional power with delusions of grandeur. In other words: Washington built the house, Europe moved in and actually followed the rules, and now Trump is outside kicking the walls and insisting everyone admit he’s still the landlord.
The result is a U.S. that liberal democracies treat like an "angry, incoherent drunk with a bazooka"—you try to keep it calm, but you definitely don’t respect it. The White House wants to remake Europe in Maga’s image while simultaneously retreating from NATO and global responsibility, a neat trick that mostly turns America into Russia with better fast food: not a leader, just a spoiler. From sanctioning Brazilian judges to help Bolsonaro (and backfiring) to threatening the EU for regulating X, Trump’s foreign policy is a masterclass in killing democracy abroad while setting the stage to do the same at home. But sure, tell us again how "America is strong and respected again".
#killing-democracy#fascism
live from dc: the trump-kennedy center for performing authoritarianism
Rep. Joyce Beatty, briefly allowed to speak in a country where Trump boards now solve dissent by hitting the mute button and calling the result ‘unanimous.’
The Trump-appointed board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has decided that what America’s official memorial to a murdered president really needed was... Donald Trump’s name bolted on top of it. They voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center and, in a totally normal democratic flourish, slapped his name on the facade the very next day—because nothing says living memorial to JFK like stapling a gold-plated billboard for the guy who tried to overturn an election right above it.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, who actually sits on the Kennedy Center board by law, is suing, arguing that you can’t just rebrand a congressionally-created memorial by vibes and cult devotion; you need an act of Congress. Her lawsuit notes that during the board meeting she was literally muted after identifying herself and then informed she would not be unmuted—after which the board declared the vote “unanimous.” In other words, it’s not just a power grab, it’s a badly stage-managed one, more authoritarian dinner theater than governance.
This is just the latest episode in Trump’s takeover of the Center: earlier this year he reshuffled the board so it could elect him chair, then they helpfully adjusted programming to effectively cancel some Pride events. Now they’re trying to retroactively pretend Congress meant “John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts (Some Restrictions and Future Trump Branding May Apply).” Beatty is asking a federal judge to confirm the obvious: that the legal name is still the JFK Center and this cosplay-monarchy renaming stunt is “null and void and without legal effect.” But sure, tell us again how the real threat to American traditions is drag queens, not the guy carving his name into the national arts memorial like it’s another failing golf resort.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump's navy seals the drug war with more explosions
Nothing says 'rule of law' like turning an alleged drug boat into a floating bonfire in international waters and calling it freedom.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new legal doctrine: if you label something 'narco-terrorism' loudly enough, you can blow it up in the middle of the ocean and call it national security. U.S. Southern Command announced that a fresh strike on an "alleged" drug boat in the eastern Pacific killed one "narco-terrorist"—because nothing says due process like airstrikes on vessels "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes."
The hit was carried out, per SOUTHCOM’s proud post on X, at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Fox News’ answer to a law-of-war seminar. The Pentagon insists these boats are carrying narcotics to the U.S., which is very reassuring given the extremely rigorous standard of proof known as "we said so in a press release." On the same day, President Trump was issuing public warnings to the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, just to make sure everyone understood this isn’t law enforcement—it’s geopolitical theater with live ammunition.
In other words, the drug war has officially gone full Tom Clancy LARP: the Pentagon is running floating execution squads in international waters, the White House is saber-rattling at Latin American leaders, and the only apparent oversight is a tweet thread. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about keeping fentanyl off the streets and not about expanding presidential war powers wherever there’s ocean and a convenient label like "narco-terrorist."
#imperialism#killing-democracy
president ‘innocent acquaintance of epstein’ very upset about all these epstein files
Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, thoughtfully explaining that the real Epstein victims are bankers in tuxedos whose reputations might not survive Getty Images.
Donald Trump emerged from Mar-a-Lago to bravely defend the most vulnerable class in American life: “highly respected bankers and lawyers and others” who just happened to “innocently” hang out with Jeffrey Epstein. Standing in front of his gilded crime-scene cosplay, Trump complained that the newly released Epstein files might unfairly damage people who merely appear in photos with the convicted sex trafficker — you know, the sort of people who were on planes, at parties, and in his contact book, but are now apparently victims of overzealous photography.
Trump, who spent months resisting the release of those same files and has called the whole thing a “hoax,” now insists the scandal is just a distraction from his tremendous Republican successes, like “building the biggest ships in the world.” Because nothing says “totally not worried about what’s in those documents” like pivoting from underage sex trafficking to aircraft carriers in the same breath. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act — a law Congress passed almost unanimously and Trump signed — by releasing exactly one batch of documents and then taking a long contemplative pause, prompting survivors and lawmakers to wonder who, exactly, is being protected.
Bill Clinton’s spokesman is now openly accusing DOJ of selective releases that smear people who’ve already been cleared while mysteriously withholding everything else. In other words, even Clintonworld is begging the government to stop playing coy and just dump all of it. When Bill Clinton is yelling “release the files” and Donald Trump is whining that it’s all so unfair to the rich guys who “innocently met” Epstein at parties, you’re not watching a justice system work — you’re watching the elite panic about how much of their world got documented before the cameras turned off.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
trump heroically negotiates obesity drugs down from outrageous to merely ruinous
Trump officials proudly announcing they’ve beaten Big Pharma by helping them sell $1,000-a-month diet pills for only $149 to the lucky few.
The FDA has approved an oral version of Wegovy, the blockbuster GLP‑1 weight-loss drug, meaning Americans can now go broke swallowing a pill instead of stabbing themselves in the stomach. Novo Nordisk gets a head start over Eli Lilly in the "who can extract the most money from a 100-million-person chronic condition" sweepstakes, with trial data showing patients losing around 13.6% of their body weight—along with any hope of ever seeing a transparent, rational drug pricing system.
Because nothing says serious health policy like a $1,000-a-month medication boom, the Trump administration has dutifully shown up to claim credit. Officials say they "worked with drugmakers" to negotiate lower prices for GLP‑1s, and presto: the starting dose of the new pill will be as low as $149 a month from some providers. In other words, the White House is bragging that after intense behind-the-scenes arm-twisting, Americans may now enjoy the privilege of paying hundreds of dollars every month forever for a pill that costs far less to manufacture than the injections that came before it.
Meanwhile, the FDA is fast-tracking Lilly’s rival pill under a shiny new "priority voucher" program to speed approvals, because we absolutely must cut through red tape when there’s a trillion‑dollar market to be captured. But don’t worry, we’re told this is all about expanding access and reducing costs, not creating a permanent profit geyser for a handful of drug companies while the government does PR for them. The system is working perfectly—for everyone whose quarterly earnings report matters more than whether patients can actually afford to stay on the drug.
#healthcare#money
all hail the uss megalomania
Artist’s rendering of the USS Defiant, seen here bravely defending Mar-a-Lago’s brand identity from the terrifying threat of insufficient flattery.
The president has announced a new generation of Navy warships that will be known as the “Trump-class”, because nothing says "serious constitutional republic" like slapping the leader’s name on nuclear-armed battleships. From Mar-a-Lago, naturally — the new Versailles of American decline — Trump unveiled posters of the proposed USS Defiant while his Navy secretary John Phelan helpfully auditioned for the role of state TV hypeman, promising a ship that will be the "largest, deadliest, most versatile and best-looking" on the planet. Very normal, extremely not-cult behavior.
In case the point wasn’t clear, this comes after the administration already renamed the US Institute of Peace after Trump and informally rebranded the Kennedy Center as the Trump-Kennedy Center without waiting for that annoying little thing called congressional authorization. Now the narcissism has gone fully nuclear, literally, with plans for a "golden fleet" of Trump-class battleships packing hypersonic weapons, lasers, and nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Historically, battleships were named after states and presidents got the occasional aircraft carrier after they left office; under Trump, we’re skipping straight to the "leader cult puts his name on the war machine" phase.
So the US Navy, once a symbol of institutional continuity and civilian control, is now being dragooned into brand management for a man who thinks World War II documentaries and campaign slogans are a procurement strategy. We’re told the Trump-class will "reach out and kill the archers" and "make battle groups great again"—in other words, it’s a boomer nostalgia project fused with a defense-contractor windfall and a personality cult, floating on a sea of taxpayer cash. But sure, tell us more about how this definitely isn’t what authoritarianism looks like.
#fascism#killing-democracy
trump discovers 18th‑century law, forgets 5th‑amendment exists
Nothing says “respect for due process” like outsourcing your deportees to a foreign mega-prison and calling it national security.
In a plot twist absolutely no one saw coming, a federal judge has ruled that when Donald Trump dusted off the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan men to a mega-prison in El Salvador, the administration was supposed to follow that annoying little thing called due process. Chief Judge James Boasberg held that the men Trump labeled as members of the Tren de Aragua gang were entitled to hearings before being shipped off like excess luggage, writing that the government must actually let them argue their case. Our law requires no less, he said — a sentence that reads like a subtweet of the entire Trump immigration agenda.
On March 15, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to target alleged gang members and promptly filled planes with people the White House insisted were part of a Venezuelan prison gang "invading" the U.S. ACLU and Democracy Forward sued, pointing out that maybe, just maybe, you can't use a John Adams–era law as a magic deportation wand. Boasberg certified the deportees as a class and noted that the men remained effectively in U.S. custody even while locked inside El Salvador's CECOT hellscape, meaning the court still had jurisdiction over the mess Trump created.
In a particularly on‑brand move, the administration ignored Boasberg's same‑day temporary restraining order and let the planes land in El Salvador anyway, then argued the judge was meddling in "foreign policy" — because nothing says strong executive leadership like blowing off a federal court order and calling it diplomacy. Now the administration has until Jan. 5 to either bring the men back to the U.S. or somehow provide real hearings that meet constitutional standards. In other words, the court just informed Trump that even when you're playing with 18th‑century laws and 21st‑century prison states, the Constitution still technically applies.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#anti-immigration
trump admin discovers new legal theory: if you starve the watchdog, the crimes disappear
The CFPB headquarters in D.C., currently serving as a very expensive prop in the Trump administration’s live-action reenactment of How to Kill a Watchdog Without Leaving Fingerprints.
The Trump administration has invented a bold new consumer protection strategy: destroy the consumer protection agency. Acting CFPB director and professional wrecking ball Russell Vought is refusing to accept funding from the Federal Reserve, claiming the Fed has no "combined earnings" because it’s operating at a loss. In other words, the administration found a creative way to read "you must be funded" as "lol, never mind."
A coalition of 21 states and D.C., led by New York AG Letitia James, has now sued to stop this little coup-by-accounting trick, arguing that Congress clearly intended "combined earnings" to mean revenues, not just profits. Because, minor detail, the CFPB is legally required to collect consumer complaints and share data with states so they can go after predatory lenders and scammers — which is hard to do when the agency is being financially waterboarded by the White House.
Under Trump, the CFPB has already been gutted: staff locked out, work paused, mass firings attempted (blocked by courts, because somebody has read the law). Now, with the agency warning it could run out of money by January 2026, the administration is trying to finish the job by pretending the Fed is too broke to fund it. Because nothing says "drain the swamp" like kneecapping the one agency that stops banks and debt collectors from looting people’s lives.
#killing-democracy#corruption
60 minutes discovers trump now has a 'kill switch' for journalism
CBS News courageously stands up to power by quietly backing away from it and asking if Stephen Miller would like some more camera time.
CBS pulled a fully vetted 60 Minutes investigation into El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison at the last minute, because nothing says "independent journalism" like shelving a torture exposé that might annoy the guy who controls your merger approvals. The segment documented how the Trump administration accused over 200 Venezuelan migrants of being gang members, deported them to El Salvador without legal due process, and parked them in a prison built for terrorism suspects—then refused to comment when asked. So naturally, new CBS News boss Bari Weiss decided the story wasn’t "ready" until they could put administration officials on camera to balance out the whole brutal-abuse-and-possible-war-crimes thing.
Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, whose piece had already been cleared by CBS lawyers and Standards & Practices after five screenings, politely called BS, saying the segment was "factually correct" and that spiking it now is "not an editorial decision, it is a political one." She warned that if the White House’s refusal to participate is enough to kill a story, the administration now effectively has a "kill switch" on any reporting it doesn’t like. Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance is chasing a giant Warner Bros Discovery deal that needs Trump regulators’ blessing, and senators Brian Schatz and Ed Markey are out here saying the quiet part loud: this looks a lot less like journalism and a lot more like corporate groveling before the "Mad King" to keep the mergers flowing.
Media critic Kara Swisher helpfully translated the corporate-speak: this is "entirely to please Trump," whose people reportedly want Stephen "anti-immigration zealot" Miller wedged into the piece for that fair-and-balanced fascism flavor. In other words, CBS had a hard-hitting report on Trump’s deportation machine and its partnership with a notorious foreign prison, and instead of airing it, the network decided to audition for state TV. But sure, tell us again how the real threat to democracy is some college kids protesting on a quad.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
