manifest destiny but make it arctic
Trump staring at a map of the Arctic like a toddler with a crayon, convinced that if he colors Greenland red it legally becomes his.
Donald Trump has once again discovered maps and immediately decided other people's land should be his. This time it's Greenland, which he says the US needs to "own" to stop Russia and China from doing it first, because nothing says defending the rules-based international order like threatening to annex part of a fellow NATO member "the easy way or the hard way." The White House is openly musing about buying the semi-autonomous Danish territory, while very pointedly refusing to rule out just taking it by force. So yes, we're now workshopping colonial conquest strategies against our own alliance partners.
Denmark and Greenland have responded with the radical position that their territory is not for sale and that military action would kind of, sort of, end NATO. Meanwhile, Trump insists leases and long-term defense agreements are for losers — "countries can't make nine-year deals or even 100-year deals," he says, they have to have ownership. This is extra adorable given the US already has a permanent base there and the right to bring as many troops as it wants, but sure, let's threaten war with Denmark because the landlord-tenant relationship offends Dear Leader's real-estate brain.
Trump claims, without evidence, that Greenland is "covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," which is a bold statement considering it's mostly covered with, you know, ice. But never mind: he's decided he doesn't want Russia or China as a "neighbour in Greenland" and NATO needs to "understand that" — translation: toss out the UN Charter, sovereignty, and the "inviolability of borders" so Donald can cosplay 19th-century empire-builder with melting Arctic real estate and rare earth minerals. America's allies have lined up behind Denmark to remind him that only Denmark and Greenland get to decide Greenland's status, but he's fresh off using military force to snatch Venezuela's president, so the whole "we don't invade people to steal their stuff" norm is already on life support.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio now gets to fly to Copenhagen and explain why the US president is threatening to nuke the transatlantic alliance over an island that already hosts a US base under existing agreements. In other words: NATO is scrambling to reaffirm basic international law while Trump is busy reinventing Manifest Destiny: Polar Edition. But hey, as the ice caps melt and resource fever rises, at least we know Washington's Arctic strategy is: if it looks valuable, annex first, read UN Charter later.
#fascism#killing-democracy
ice agent kills unarmed mom, trump white house posts the snuff film
ICE agents politely demonstrating that in Trump’s America, traffic disputes come with the death penalty and a White House media rollout.
Renee Nicole Good said "I'm not mad at you" and "that's fine, dude" moments before an ICE agent shot her dead in Minneapolis. So naturally, Trump's White House responded by blasting out the bodycam like a movie trailer, via right‑wing outlet Alpha News, to prove that the calm, unarmed American mom of three was actually a deadly threat. The video shows Good driving so slowly that the agent she "weaponized" her car against barely loses his balance, followed immediately by gunshots and someone calling her a "fucking bitch" as she dies. Truly the language of a terrified public servant in fear for his life.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin insisted that Good "weaponized her vehicle" and that the officer "was in fear of his own life", then helpfully told Americans to "watch this video" and "judge for themselves"—because nothing says we definitely didn’t execute someone for disrespecting us like distributing your own snuff film through a friendly propaganda shop. Vice‑president JD Vance chimed in to declare the shooting self‑defense, call coverage dishonest, and—without evidence—join the administration’s attempt to paint Good as some kind of "domestic terrorist". In other words: she annoyed armed federal agents during an immigration sweep, so clearly, terrorism.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to "get the fuck out" of the city where George Floyd was murdered on camera five years ago, thousands of protesters hit the streets, and some Democrats started talking about cutting DHS funding. ICE shooter Jonathan E. Ross, a 10‑year veteran of their special response team (because of course there’s a paramilitary unit), had previously been dragged by a car in a totally different case—so now any moving vehicle, at any speed, is apparently a green light to kill. But sure, tell us again how this is about "law and order" and "Christian" values, as the administration smears a woman whose last words were basically: it’s fine, I’m not mad at you.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#anti-immigration
global democracy taps out to trump’s birthday fight night
Dana White, Donald Trump, and Kid Rock walk into a cage fight—unfortunately, it’s not the start of them punching each other into retirement.
France has quietly moved the G7 summit back a day so world leaders don’t have to compete with Donald Trump’s birthday UFC extravaganza on the White House lawn, because nothing says stable democracy like the richest countries on Earth working around an 80-year-old president’s cage-fighting party. The summit in Evian will now run 15–17 June instead of 14–16, neatly dodging the date Trump reserved for his "big UFC fight" slash personal cult rally slash Flag Day cosplay.
The whole thing is basically a loyalty program reunion: Trump and UFC boss Dana White, whose political bromance goes back to the days when Trump gave the then-toxic UFC a home at his casino, are now using the White House as a 5,000-seat combat venue and campaign-stage hybrid. White swears he’s not part of the administration and is totally independent, which is why he keeps showing up at Trump conventions, arranging influencer outreach to young male voters, and turning UFC events into MAGA pep rallies with better lighting.
In his second term, Trump has leaned even harder into the blend of politics, sport, and bloodsport spectacle—dragging senior administration officials to fights, pitching the June 14 card as a centerpiece of America’s 250th anniversary, and using the UFC’s massive online footprint as a recruitment funnel. In other words, the United States is now such a functioning republic that the G7 has to plan around the emperor’s birthday cage match so no one has to choose between discussing global crises and watching the leader of the free world bask in the glow of choreographed violence on his front lawn.
#killing-democracy#fascism
secretary of smackdown suplexes public education
Linda McMahon explains that public schools are failing, moments before attempting to powerbomb the Department of Education through a flaming table labeled "civil rights".
Linda McMahon, Trump’s secretary of education and former WWE executive, has decided the real fake arena isn’t wrestling — it’s public school. She’s promised a "hard reset" of the system where more than 80% of American kids actually learn things, and by "reset" she means dismantling the Department of Education while shoveling taxpayer money into private, religious, charter, and homeschooling ventures. Because nothing says "educational renaissance" like defunding the only system that has to take every kid and replacing it with vibes, pastors, and grifters.
To get this done, McMahon imported at least 20 advisers from ultraconservative think tanks and advocacy groups who think public education is basically Marxism with lunch trays. Their dream? Shrink public schools down to a rump system for the kids with nowhere else to go, while the remaining schools get reprogrammed with a "patriotic" curriculum that offers an "uplifting portrayal of the nation’s founding ideals" — in other words, a Stars-and-Stripes sugar coat that downplays slavery, racism, and discrimination so no one’s feelings get hurt by history.
Meanwhile, the Office for Civil Rights — the place families turn when schools discriminate against their kids — got its own "hard reset": mass layoffs, gutted staff, and a new priority list that focuses on alleged discrimination against white and Jewish students and complaints about schools accommodating transgender kids. Students with disabilities, students of color, and anyone dealing with sex discrimination are being told, essentially, to take a number and then eat it. The department calls this "efficiency" and a rollback of "DEI"; everyone else calls it what it is: using federal power to strip protections from the most vulnerable students while turning public education into a taxpayer-funded church youth group.
But sure, this is all about "empowering states" to "carry the torch" of education. Just don’t look too closely at what they’re lighting on fire.
#killing-democracy#unconstitutional#forever-grifting
strongest economy ever adds 1/4 of biden’s jobs, says guy who shut down government
Graph of US job growth gently rolling over and dying while Trump insists it’s breaking the sound barrier.
Trump’s ‘rocket ship economy’ just posted its big finale for 2025: a mighty 50,000 jobs in December, capping the weakest year of job growth since the pandemic. That’s 584,000 jobs for Trump’s first full year back in office, compared with 2 million in Biden’s last year – but sure, the real jobs were the friends we made along the way.
In October, during the longest government shutdown in US history – a MAGA hostage situation dressed up as fiscal responsibility – the economy shed 173,000 jobs. Data collection at the Bureau of Labor Statistics was literally halted, because nothing says “rebuilding the economy” like turning off the people who count how bad you’re screwing it up.
Unemployment is at 4.4%, job growth is stuck in a “no hire, no fire” coma, and prices are still higher than Trump promised to magically fix. Meanwhile, Trump and his handpicked treasury secretary Scott Bessent are leaning on the Fed for more rate cuts, demanding cheaper money to juice the optics, even as Jerome Powell’s team worries about reigniting inflation. In other words: the White House wants the economic equivalent of Red Bull shots while the adults are quietly hiding the car keys.
Democrats like Elizabeth Warren are pointing out that 2025 was the weakest job growth in over a decade outside the pandemic, but Trump is still out there insisting the economy has “taken off” on his watch. And in a way, he’s right: it has taken off – straight into a wall of higher prices, weaker hiring, and a labor market that looks less like a booming Trumpian renaissance and more like a stalled engine waiting for the next manufactured crisis.
#killing-democracy#money#full-stupid
trump’s favorite hobby: suing the press into submission
Independent journalist stares into camera, somehow still believing in democracy while the president tries to sue the First Amendment for defamation.
Donald Trump retakes office and immediately remembers his first love: revenge against the media. Within a year, he’s barred the Associated Press from the White House press pool, defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, sicced FCC investigations on NBC, and sued the BBC for $10bn because nothing says "stable genius" like assigning Marvel movie budgets to your hurt feelings. ABC and CBS quietly cut multimillion-dollar settlement checks to the sitting president over defamation suits, which is definitely not chilling to every newsroom lawyer in the country, no sir.
Legacy outlets, already bathing in record-low trust, respond with the courage of a damp paper towel. CNN dismantles its race and equity team, NBC nukes the desks covering marginalized communities, and CBS hands the editorial keys to Bari Weiss, who promptly kills a 60 Minutes segment about a brutal Venezuelan prison holding Trump deportees. In other words: the big corporate newsrooms are discovering that when you build a business model on access to power, you eventually become its PR department.
Into this flaming dumpster strolls independent journalism. Marisa Kabas’s newsletter, The Handbasket, breaks the scoop that OMB quietly froze federal grants, then exposes Trump’s order banning trans women from US Tennis Association competition and the elevation of conspiracy nut Gregg Phillips to a top FEMA disaster role—because who better to manage national emergencies than a professional election denier. She sums up the moment: "I’m not answering to anyone." That, apparently, is now a radical stance in American journalism.
As national outlets "capitulate" to government demands about how to cover the administration, more than a third of journalists flee into independent work, trying to do basic accountability reporting while the White House and its billionaire media buddies work overtime to turn the free press into a loyalty program. The good news: independent reporters are building trust and audiences by actually confronting power. The bad news: they’re doing it while the government defunds public media, sues critics into oblivion, and turns regulatory agencies into Trump’s personal content-moderation squad. But sure, tell us again how the real threat to democracy is college kids protesting on TikTok.
#killing-democracy#fascism
doge saves taxpayers billions by wasting $10bn on not working
DOGE headquarters, where "efficiency" means paying thousands of people not to work while you dismantle every system that could possibly hold you accountable.
The "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) has discovered a bold new way to streamline government: spend $10bn paying people to stay home while you dismantle the agencies they work for. According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), the Trump administration parked more than 154,000 federal workers — about 7% of the civilian workforce — on extended paid leave in 2025, in what appears to be a massive, systemic violation of the Administrative Leave Act. In other words, Trump’s idea of efficiency is defund the work, keep the workers, bill the taxpayers.
Congress passed the Administrative Leave Act in 2016 to stop agencies from using indefinite paid leave to sideline whistleblowers and other inconvenient employees. The Trump team’s response? Simply refuse to implement the rules, then invent new flavors of paid leave that conveniently don’t count toward the law’s 10-day limit. As Stanford researcher Madeline Materna notes, these bespoke leave categories “totally gut the law” — because nothing says "constitutional governance" like rewriting statutes by memo and calling it compliance.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Deficiency Act says you can’t spend money on employees who shouldn’t be on leave, which makes this whole operation look a lot like a giant, slow-motion illegal expenditure. But accountability requires a GAO finding, a Merit Systems Protection Board that actually functions, and a Justice Department willing to prosecute its own political bosses. The Trump administration helpfully solved that problem by firing all the Democrats on the MSPB, leaving it without a quorum and creating what experts politely call an "accountability black hole" and what normal people might call a protection racket with HR paperwork.
Peer has gone to GAO and the Office of Special Counsel, but every potential path to justice runs through a broken or captured institution that Trump’s people already kneecapped. Managers can claim they were "just following the rules" — the same rules Trump’s crew rewrote to evade the law in the first place. So the federal government blew $10bn to keep environmental justice staff and thousands of others in legal limbo, understaffing agencies like the National Park Service, all while DOGE bragged about cutting waste. Government by Trump: turn the law into a suggestion, oversight into a farce, and taxpayer money into a slush fund for your war on the civil service, but sure, tell us more about "fiscal conservatism."
#killing-democracy#corruption
iran’s supreme leader blames trump for… iranians hating him
Iranians fill the streets to protest their collapsing economy and brutal theocracy, which the supreme leader bravely explains is actually just a fan meetup for Donald Trump.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has decided that Iranians flooding the streets over a collapsing currency, soaring prices, and decades of repression aren’t actually mad at him – they’re just out there “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy.” That “other country” being the United States, and that president being Donald Trump, who is now apparently the official scapegoat for every regime that’s run out of excuses and tear gas. Because nothing says “totally legitimate government” like insisting your own people are secretly on Team MAGA.
As protests spread across Tehran and other cities, Iran’s rulers went with the classic authoritarian starter pack: nationwide internet blackout, blocked international calls, and security forces firing rifles and shotguns at largely peaceful demonstrators. Rights groups say dozens have been killed, including children, with families pressured to go on state TV and blame “accidents” or other protesters – and if they don’t cooperate, the regime helpfully offers secret burials. In other words: full fascist cosplay, just without the production values.
President Masoud Pezeshkian is out here mumbling that protesters’ concerns should be addressed, while the Revolutionary Guard and intelligence services are doing what they always do: mass arrests, beatings, and coverups. Protesters are even chanting in favor of the late shah, which used to be a fast track to a death sentence – a sign of just how badly the clerics have lost the plot. But sure, according to Khamenei, this is all just a big surprise party for Donald Trump, personally orchestred from Mar-a-Lago between golf rounds and indictments.
#fascism#killing-democracy
nothing says populism like a 400 million dollar white house ballroom
Artist’s rendering of the new White House ballroom, where ethics go to die under 40-foot ceilings paid for by anonymous billionaires.
The Trump White House has unveiled plans for its very own Versailles cosplay: a 20,000-square-foot, 40-foot-high, 1,000-seat ballroom grafted onto a brand-new 89,000-square-foot East Wing, because nothing says humble servant of the people like building yourself an indoor rally palace the size of a Costco. The project has already conveniently doubled in cost to about $400 million, but don't worry, it's "privately funded" by mystery donors who definitely aren't expecting anything in return from the sitting president.
In a fun little constitutional side quest, the administration already broke ground before submitting plans to the National Capital Planning Commission and without getting approval from Congress for building on federal parkland in D.C., which the National Trust for Historic Preservation points out is, minor detail, required by law. A judge declined to pause the construction, and now the plans are being reviewed by a board chaired by Trump staff secretary Will Scharf and stacked with Trump allies, because nothing screams "independent oversight" like letting the president’s own loyalists greenlight his $400 million ego bunker.
The new wing will come with a commercial-grade kitchen, streamlined guest entrance, and better delivery access to "reduce operational stress" on the historic building—in other words, the White House is being reengineered to function as a permanent Trump event space. Outside, activists protested; inside, corporate donors like Comcast (parent company of NBCUniversal) are on the list of top funders, though no one will say how much they gave. But sure, this is all just about "efficiency" and "symmetry," not about converting the seat of American democracy into a luxury venue for the Dear Leader’s next campaign fundraiser.
#corruption#forever-grifting
jd vance auditions to be trump’s mini-me fascist-in-chief
JD Vance, in full Trump cosplay, explains that the real threat isn’t an ICE officer killing a U.S. citizen—it’s journalists who have the nerve to report on it without clearing their copy with the vice-president’s fantasy terror network first.
JD Vance finally found a way to get Daddy Trump’s attention: not by helping run a military operation in Venezuela like Marco “Delta Force Cosplayer” Rubio, but by turning the White House briefing room into a one-man show trial for the press. An ICE officer kills Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother in Minneapolis, video strongly suggests she was driving away, the investigation isn’t done, and Vance’s response is to declare it an “attack on law and order” and to smear her as part of a mysterious “leftwing domestic terror network” he can’t actually describe. But sure, tell us more about how you’re the sober, serious one.
Vance, in full Trumpy cosplay (blue suit, white shirt, red tie, dead-eyed rage), ranted that the media’s coverage is an “absolute disgrace,” accused reporters of helping incite violence against law enforcement, and promised that “part of our investigatory work” is going to be “getting to the bottom” of this supposed leftwing-media conspiracy. In other words: the vice-president just floated using state power to investigate journalists for the crime of not immediately endorsing an ICE shooting as heroic self-defense. Because nothing says “toning down the temperature” like hinting you’ll sic federal investigators on the press.
He repeatedly asserted, as fact, that Good tried to ram the officer with her car, despite video and an active investigation that say otherwise, then shamed reporters for “repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive.” When asked who exactly is behind this grand leftwing terror network, Vance admitted they don’t know yet—but insisted it exists anyway and that the media is “participating in it.” So: no evidence, no names, no facts, just a ready-made pretext for crackdowns on dissent and a narrative where every dead civilian is either a terrorist or a prop for the “corporate media.”
Meanwhile, Trump—who supposedly wants to “tone down the temperature”—went online within hours to call Good “very disorderly” and accuse her of “violently, willfully, and viciously” trying to run over the ICE officer. This is the same guy who responded to George Floyd protests with rubber bullets and teargas, but now we’re all supposed to pretend this administration is worried about responsible rhetoric. Vance’s performance was less a press briefing and more a 2028 campaign ad: a younger, smoother, more disciplined Trumpism that skips the clown show and goes straight to the menace. Rubio may have the coup cosplay in Venezuela, but Vance just showed he’s ready to run the domestic propaganda and repression desk back home.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump discovers infrastructure, immediately vetoes it out of spite
House Republicans bravely attempt to stand up to Trump, then remember retribution is bad for their primary and sit right back down.
House Republicans just discovered there are limits to their love for infrastructure: specifically, when Donald Trump gets mad. The GOP-controlled House failed to override Trump’s first two vetoes of his second term—both of them on Republican bills that had sailed through Congress by voice vote, because nothing says "stable governing party" like unanimously backing a bill and then crumpling the minute Dear Leader gets jealous.
The first bill would have helped rural southeast Colorado communities actually get clean water by finishing a long-delayed federal pipeline. Trump killed it with a veto message about "massive" costs and "fiscal sanity"—a touching concern from the guy who ran trillion‑dollar deficits and hands billionaires tax cuts like party favors. Rep. Lauren Boebert, whose district needs the water, gently suggested this might actually be retaliation because she was one of four Republicans who forced a vote to release the Epstein files. In other words, Trump is allegedly blocking drinking water for his own voters because she hurt his feelings—but sure, it’s about the deficit.
The second veto was aimed at the Miccosukee Tribe’s effort to expand the lands it manages in the Everglades. Trump, who is furious they opposed his "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention camp, framed it as refusing to fund "special interests" that aren’t aligned with his immigration policies. Translation: if a tribe objects to your swamp gulag, no land for you. The House, which had supported the bill unanimously before, suddenly couldn’t find two-thirds of its spine to override. So the lesson of the day: clean water and tribal land are optional, but absolute loyalty to Trump’s grudge list is mandatory.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump bombs venezuela, grand rapids cops arrest the preschool teacher
Local police bravely neutralize the threat of a preschool teacher with opinions while the administration bombs another country for its oil.
The Trump administration helps kill around 100 people in an attack to snatch Nicolás Maduro, and back home the big security threat turns out to be… a 22-year-old preschool teacher with a microphone. Jessica Plichta joins a Grand Rapids protest against Trump's Venezuela adventure, gives a live TV interview, and—what do you know—out of roughly 200 protesters, she’s the one immediately grabbed and cuffed on camera. Because nothing says "land of the free" like arresting the person criticizing your war in real time.
Plichta had just returned from Caracas, where she visited communes, met activists, and claims she even spoke with Maduro, after Trump ordered Venezuelan airspace "closed in its entirety" to choke the country. She comes home, does report-backs, helps found Grand Rapids Opponents of War, then dares to speak against a rich man’s war for oil—and suddenly she’s hit with the usual protester starter pack: “obstructing a roadway” and “failure to obey a lawful command.” In other words: we couldn’t charge you with treason, so here’s a traffic ticket with handcuffs.
Local organizer Emerson Wolf points out this isn’t a one-off; Grand Rapids police have a charming habit of either arresting prominent activists during actions or dropping citations months later to criminalize dissent, all while pretending it’s about "safety." Meanwhile, ICE just killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, and protesters across the country are in the streets being told their "sacred free speech" comes with a side of bullets and misdemeanors. But sure, tell us again how this isn’t about crushing opposition to Trump’s foreign policy.
Plichta and Wolf both see Venezuela as a five-alarm warning about where this is heading: war abroad, repression at home, and a government openly willing to trade bodies for oil and rare earths. The good news for the would-be authoritarians is that every time they arrest a Jessica on live TV, they help create a thousand more. If they don’t want people marching in the streets, they might want to stop giving them such excellent reasons to be there.
#killing-democracy#imperialism#lawlessness
pennsylvania governor announces he’d like to keep cleaning up trump’s mess
Josh Shapiro announces he’s running for re-election, presumably so there’s at least one adult left to sue the White House every time Trump mistakes Pennsylvania’s budget for his Mar-a-Lago rewards program.
Josh Shapiro is running for re-election in Pennsylvania, which in the Trump era means he’s applying for another four years of being the guy who sues the federal government every time Donald decides to use the state budget as his own personal punishment fund. The once-rumored Harris running mate is now doing the 2026 version of a presidential audition: win a swing state that Trump carried in 2024 while dodging both MAGA rage and progressive fury over his very enthusiastic support for Israel as Gaza is turned into rubble.
Shapiro’s pitch is basically, “I got more school funding, protected abortion, and didn’t set anything on fire, please clap.” His reward for this pragmatic-governor routine? Progressives yelling that he’s too cautious, Harris writing in her memoir that he wanted to be co-president, and Shapiro calling that account “complete and utter bullshit” because nothing says ‘unity ticket’ like publicly accusing the former VP of lying to sell books.
More relevant to our ongoing constitutional bonfire, Shapiro has been one of the few Democrats willing to say the quiet part loud about Trump’s foreign-policy-by-kleptocracy. He sued over Trump’s moves to withhold state funds, called his tariffs “reckless” and “dangerous,” and went on Pittsburgh radio to describe Trump’s kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro as “crazy” and basically a giant nation-building boondoggle whose main deliverable is Venezuela’s oil funneled straight to Trump’s friends. In other words: Shapiro is running for governor, but the actual job description is ‘local firewall against an increasingly unhinged, oil-thirsty federal crime syndicate.’
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
trump and kristi noem declare war on disaster relief
Kristi Noem and Donald Trump, bravely protecting America from the menace of too many people helping during disasters.
The Trump administration, led on this front by Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, is reportedly workshopping a fun new concept in emergency management: what if FEMA just… didn’t exist? A leaked internal "workforce planning exercise" asked senior staff to identify which positions are essential and which can be tossed in the dumpster, accompanied by a spreadsheet targeting more than 50% staff cuts by October. FEMA’s public line insists this is just a "routine, pre-decisional" exercise, which is a very fancy way of saying: we’re only drafting the plan to gut disaster response, not swinging the axe on live TV… yet.
If this all sounds familiar, that’s because it exactly mirrors recommendations from Trump’s handpicked FEMA "overhaul" task force, which also wants to cut the workforce in half and scatter remaining staff out of DC. Meanwhile, roughly 2,450 FEMA employees have already bailed since Trump’s second term began, and the administration has been quietly kneecapping the Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery teams—the people who actually show up when entire towns are underwater or blown apart. As one longtime FEMA official put it, these decisions are being made by people who don’t know how anything works and don’t care, as long as they can prove maximum fealty to Trump.
Former FEMA and White House spokesperson Jeremy Edwards calls the move an affront to the law and common sense, which is adorable because law and common sense are precisely what this administration is trying to defund. Training exercises at FEMA used to be about hurricanes, wildfires, and floods; now the scenario is, "What if we sabotage ourselves in the middle of a climate crisis?" In other words: the agency that’s supposed to help Americans before, during, and after disasters is being methodically hollowed out so Trump and Noem can brag about shrinking government—right up until the next Helene, Milton, Maria, or Irma hits and there’s no one left to answer the phone. But sure, tell us again how this is all just a spreadsheet drill.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
trump’s favorite tabloid discovers antifa-islamo-marxism in nyc, promptly forgets it after a photo op
The New York Post, moments before discovering that yesterday’s jihadist-communist menace is today’s very fine mayor after a White House photo op.
The New York Post – also known as Donald Trump’s emotional support newspaper – spent the New York mayoral race screaming that Zohran Mamdani was simultaneously Antifa, ISIS, and Lenin with better skin care. First he was the vanguard of an antifa street militia supposedly overrunning blue cities. Then he was in league with a Muslim imam the Post framed as a 1993 WTC co-conspirator calling for “jihad” on New York. When that narrative got tangled in its own contradictions (hard to be a godless Marxist and a theocratic jihadist at the same time, but sure), the paper just pivoted to full Cold War cosplay: Mamdani as a hammer-and-sickle-waving communist set to turn NYC into the RED APPLE.
Trump, playing his usual role as Murdoch’s Washington bureau chief, dutifully blasted out a Truth Social post warning that Mamdani would bring “Economic and Social Disaster” to his hometown. Then – in the most on-brand move imaginable – the moment Mamdani actually won and showed up at the White House, Trump melted into a puddle of fake magnanimity, declared he’d feel “very, very comfortable” living in Mamdani’s socialist hellscape, and the Post slapped “I ♥️ You, Mam!” on the front page like the last month of red-baiting, race-baiting hysteria was just a quirky marketing campaign. Because nothing says serious concern about jihadist-communist terror like instantly forgetting it for a nice Oval Office handshake photo.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the supposed radical takeover was being fought tooth and nail by the Democratic machine itself. Schumer, Jeffries, and the state party chair all did the delicate dance of not really backing Mamdani while trying not to trigger a bigger insurgency, proving that while Trump’s side has the cartoonishly open propaganda outlet, the centrist Dems are still quietly doing their own gatekeeping in the background. In other words: the Post manufactures apocalyptic culture-war fanfic for Trump’s base, Trump weaponizes it when it’s useful, discards it the second he wants a new friend, and the party establishment keeps grinding away behind the scenes. But sure, tell us more about how the real threat to democracy is a New York mayor who made Murdoch sell a lot of newspapers.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump discovers a bold new way to fight fraud: starve poor kids
Trump officials bravely stand up to fraud by cutting off childcare for poor kids, because nothing says ‘law and order’ like punishing toddlers for a YouTube video.
The Trump administration has discovered an innovative new approach to combating alleged fraud in social programs: freeze $10 billion in childcare and basic-needs funding and see how many poor families you can push off a cliff before anyone finds the receipts. HHS abruptly blocked California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York from accessing money from three core safety net programs—CCDF, TANF, and the Social Services Block Grant—because they supposedly harbor “widespread fraud,” a claim helpfully inspired by a YouTube rant from an “independent journalist.” In other words, federal social policy is now being set by the comments section.
The catch: Trump officials are demanding extensive new documentation that states were never previously required to collect. If they can’t magically produce it on command, hundreds of thousands of families lose childcare within weeks. Experts are describing the impact as “catastrophic,” but sure, tell us more about fiscal responsibility while you detonate funding that keeps 1.4 million kids in care and helps millions more eat, dress, and survive. And just to make it extra punitive, every other state is being hit with new paperwork demands too—a de facto national freeze dressed up as an audit.
Childcare providers are staring down mass layoffs and closures because nothing says “pro-family” like forcing parents—mostly mothers—out of the workforce when their subsidized daycare vanishes overnight. Centers that already save empty paper towel rolls for art projects are now supposed to absorb a federal tantrum over unverified YouTube allegations about Somali-American daycares in Minnesota. The result: chaos, fear, and the potential collapse of childcare systems in multiple states, all because the administration decided that punishing blue states and low-income families is more urgent than, say, verifying basic facts.
So to recap: a right-wing outrage video, racialized fraud panic, and a White House that treats poor children as collateral damage in its ongoing war on Democratic governors. It’s not oversight; it’s governing by hostage-taking—and the hostages are kids who just needed somewhere safe to go while their parents work.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
america the beautiful, foreigners the billable
Behold the new ‘America the Beautiful’ pass: George Washington, and the guy who tried to overthrow his republic, sharing top billing on your mandatory loyalty card.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new way to say "go home" to the rest of the planet: a surprise $100 per person surcharge on foreign visitors at 11 major national parks, on top of normal entrance fees. Rangers are now doing citizenship checks at trailheads, cars are getting hit with $600 bills, and tourists are literally turning around at the gate. Because nothing says "welcoming democracy" like a paperwork checkpoint between you and the Grand Canyon.
Environmental groups point out that this fun new xenophobic cover charge is also probably illegal, since current rules don’t actually allow fees based on nationality and the bill to change that hasn’t become law. Minor detail the administration handled in the traditional way: by ignoring it. The Center for Biological Diversity is suing, arguing that the US is now marketing its parks as "world-famous landscapes, now with added grift." Even better, the rushed rollout has no signage, not enough passes, and staff so burned out they’re working multiple jobs — which is what happens when you gut a quarter of the agency and then hand it a border checkpoint cosplay at the park gate.
And because this is the Trump era, the new annual "America the Beautiful" pass now features a big, glorious portrait of Donald Trump next to George Washington. If you put a sticker over Trump’s face, the pass is invalidated — a perfect metaphor for the regime: the access you already paid for is contingent on visibly respecting the leader’s image. The image was supposed to be chosen by photo contest, but the actual winning photographer got tossed aside so Trump’s mug could go on the card instead. In other words: pay more if you’re foreign, obey the propaganda rules if you’re not, and hope the court notices that none of this is remotely legal.
#anti-immigration#forever-grifting
trumprx: now with 90% more press release than savings
Trump announcing his TrumpRx ‘savings’ program, flanked by drug executives who somehow don’t look terrified of losing any actual money.
Trump has discovered a bold new way to fix America’s drug pricing crisis: announce a bunch of secret deals, slap his name on a website, and hope nobody notices that almost no one will actually save money. Since Sept. 30, the White House says it’s struck deals with 14 drugmakers, trading tariff relief for "most favored nation" pricing on a mystery list of drugs and some cash discounts through a new self-pay platform called TrumpRx—because nothing says serious health policy like a QVC-sounding brand extension.
Experts point out that the deals mostly help people on Medicaid (who already pay next to nothing at the counter) and the uninsured, while doing basically nothing for the vast majority of Americans with private insurance or Medicare. Even then, the headline-grabbing cuts—like taking Epclusa from about $25,000 to $2,425 cash—still leave people paying thousands out of pocket. Those “cheaper” weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound? We’re still talking $250–$350 a month, i.e., unaffordable for a lot of the people Trump claims to be rescuing.
There’s also the tiny problem that almost none of this exists on paper. Brookings’ Richard Frank notes there are "virtually nothing" but press releases, no full drug list, no real contracts we can see, and a decent chance these are just old discounts rebranded as Trump’s historic victory over Big Pharma. Meanwhile, drugmakers quietly hiked prices on more than 350 brand-name medicines, health insurance premiums are spiking as ACA subsidies expire, and millions can’t afford coverage at all. In other words: Trump gets the photo ops, pharma keeps the profits, and Americans get a Trump-branded coupon site that still leaves them choosing between insulin and rent—but sure, tell us again how the deals are "the largest developments" in drug pricing reform.
#forever-grifting#healthcare
congress briefly remembers it exists
The U.S. Capitol, where lawmakers occasionally remember they’re allowed to say no to Trump before immediately apologizing for the inconvenience.
House Republicans accidentally help people, immediately apologize to leadership
Seventeen House Republicans temporarily broke from the "let them get medical debt" caucus and joined Democrats to pass a three-year extension of enhanced ACA subsidies — over the explicit objections of Speaker Mike Johnson. Because nothing says "functioning democracy" like having to use a once-rare discharge petition to force a vote on whether your constituents get health insurance or not. Johnson and leadership spent weeks blocking the bill, so members had to literally yank power out of the Speaker’s hands just to stop millions from seeing their premiums spike.
Meanwhile, the Senate rediscovers that Congress is supposed to declare wars
While the House was busy doing CPR on Obamacare subsidies, the Senate took a baby step toward acting like a co-equal branch of government, advancing a resolution that would require Trump to get authorization from Congress before escalating military action in Venezuela. Five Republicans joined Democrats to say, "Hey, maybe the guy who thinks foreign policy is a TV pitch meeting shouldn’t have a blank check for war." The vote was 52–47 — not exactly a landslide, but in Trump’s America, any pushback on imperial cosplay counts as a full-blown rebellion.
Legislating by hostage crisis, as usual
All of this is happening while Congress sprints toward a Jan. 30 government funding deadline, frantically passing spending bills to keep basic functions running — Justice, Interior, EPA, science, all the things the Trump orbit alternates between ignoring and trying to dismantle. In other words: lawmakers are simultaneously trying to keep Americans insured, stop an unauthorized foreign adventure, and avoid a shutdown, while the Trump White House and House GOP leadership do their level best to block health care and hoard war powers. But sure, tell us again how the real threat to democracy is people being mean about it on social media.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
commander in cheat: now with impossible math
Tamara Keith, bravely attempting to apply actual math to a presidency powered entirely by vibes and lies.
President Trump has discovered a bold new frontier in statistics: numbers that do not, and cannot, exist. NPR notes that Trump "loves to use figures and percentages" even when they are mathematically impossible — which is a very polite way of saying the guy in charge of the nuclear arsenal treats arithmetic like it's fake news.
In other words, the president isn't just lying about crowd sizes or poll numbers anymore; he's upgraded to a kind of quantum math where 200% of people support him, 150% of women love him, and 0% of his followers ever stop to ask, "wait, is that even how numbers work?" Because nothing says "stable genius" like repeatedly citing statistics that would get a middle-schooler sent back to pre-algebra.
This isn't harmless exaggeration; it's the whole point. If Trump can make up percentages with the same confidence he makes up election fraud, it trains his base to accept any claim he delivers with enough volume and grievance. Once you've normalized impossible math from the podium, fudging job numbers, pandemic death stats, or vote counts becomes just another "alternative fact" in the great MAGA spreadsheet of make-believe. But sure, tell us more about how he's a savvy businessman who "really understands the numbers."
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
