SIGNED JOHN HANCOCK

A prescient document that amazes when you realize how the framers thought it through ~250 years ago. 

The Declaration of Independence

AP ALERT - 1939?

 

Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding to programs with ‘improper ideology’

March 27, 2025

President Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.” The order puts Vice President JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.

WONDER WHAT'S GOING ON?

 HERE'S AN ALTERNATIVE FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION 

A BLUISH VIEW

for your consideration

A TERRIBLE IDEA

"Musk gives all federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face consequences"

Dear Mr Muskrat: This is what I did last week:

On Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri  -- on a new sheet of embossed government stationery, each day -- I wrote "fuck you" Muskrat 100 times in cursive. 

ON THE FRONT LINES [ 02/09/25 ] PUBLISHED WEEKLY

FEDERAL BUDGET

As Republicans in Congress look for ways to slash spending, some legislators are floating new taxes on college scholarships, an end to student loan repayment plans and a big hike in taxes on university endowments. The ideas affecting higher education are among many in circulation among House committees that are exploring ways to cover the cost of extending and expanding tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s first term.

Washington Post: NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

 

“The Trump administration this week eliminated much of the federal government’s front line of defense against foreign interference in U.S. elections,” (the Washington Post reports) [...]  alarmed state election officials and election security experts, who warned that safeguarding Americans from foreign disinformation campaigns will be difficult if no one at the federal level is doing that work.”

Trump’s executive order reauthorizing sanctions against international criminal court (ICC) personnel reflects a disgraceful effort to ensure that no American, or citizen of an ally such as Israel, is ever investigated or prosecuted.

 

US-Panama relationship was ‘very strong’. Then Trump upended the diplomatic playing board

 

Quote of the Day February 9, 2025 at 10:51 am EST
“I don’t think there’s any plans to invade Canada.” — National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, on Meet the Press.

THE CULTURAL WORLD ACCORDING TO TRUMP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is firing members of the board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and naming himself chairman. He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end events featuring performers in drag.

ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT

 

Parents pull kids from childcare as immigration fears hit US’s youngest

 

Childcare workers also nervous to go to jobs due to deportation threats as Ice raids rampant in Trump era

MEANWHILE

 

Early Traders Had Speedy Profit on Trump Coin
February 9, 2025 at 7:06 am EST By Taegan Goddard

 

“The curious trade came a little past 9 p.m. on Jan. 17 — a $1,096,109 bet less than two minutes after the soon-to-be president of the United States posted on his social media account that his family had issued a cryptocurrency called $Trump,” the New York Times reports.

“In those first minutes, a crypto wallet with a unique identification code beginning 6QSc2Cx secured a giant load of these new tokens — 5,971,750 of them — at the opening sale price of just 18 cents each, starting a surge in the $Trump price that would soon reach $75 per token.”

“This early trader, whose identity is not known, walked away with a two-day profit of as much as $109 million.”

2024 CAMPAIGN AD1

 

BEWARE OF WHAT LURKS BEHIND DOOR #2

 

JOURNALISTS! DO YOUR JOBS!

I am really sick & tired of these one way reports about Biden's brain waves. It's a constant drumbeat. There are other sides to this conversation about Biden's abilities that are not being discussed nor reported in context.

Listen to Trump's meaningless confused mental meanderings when he's not on prompter and try to find ANY truth in anything he sez when he IS on prompter. BESIDES he is a fucking felon. I mean, really! Can you say the same for Biden? No!

If I was still working at CBS News or ABC News, I'd be screaming my head off about the lousy, lopsided coverage. There is absolutely NO perspective in most of the reportage. 

The MSM spent the 2016 campaign discussing//opining about tweeted words like "confefe". It took 3yrs before Trump was called out for what he was/is: a sociopathic liar. Jesus Christ! 

Act like real journalists, not wildebeest who follow the leading animal over the cliff because they can't think for themselves. 

Shame on you! "The medium is the message" Of all modern day elections, 2024 is PIVOTAL to our future. Please don't fuck it up.   

HEROINE FOR OUR TIMES

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ENGLISH SENSIBILITY

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” 

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. 

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. 

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. 

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. 

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

HOW TO LOSE A GENERAL ELECTION

“If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” -- Donald Trump, on Truth Social.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced what it would take to win her vote to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. The demands includes passing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, defunding his “weaponization of government,” eliminating funding for Covid-related mandates and cutting off new aid for Ukraine.

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“He’s a very, very, very intelligent person. He’s got good energy, and he could be some form of something. I tell you, I think he’d be very good.” -- Donald Trump, talking to Glenn Beck about possibly picking Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Wants to Run the Government Like Elon Musk

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“I’ve probably been called the N word more times in the last two-and-a-half years than most — a hundred people combined.” — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, quoted by WSB-TV.

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Would you, co-moderator Martha MacCallum asked DeSantis, support sending American Special Forces over the southern border to take out the cartels that produce fentanyl [...]

“Yes,” he replied confidently. “And I will do it on Day One.”

“Would I use force? Would I treat them as foreign terrorist organizations? You’re damn right I would,” he continued.

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Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) “spent the weekend amplifying unfounded allegations by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars that the President Joe Biden administration was preparing to impose new Covid-related lockdowns this fall,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

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Fox News host Laura Ingraham even wondered aloud on Tuesday whether the U.S. could still claim to be better than the Soviet Union, given the indictments against Trump. Yes, really. -- RELIABLE SOURCES

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“Just Say That the Election Was Corrupt, and Leave the Rest to Me” -- Donald Trump

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By many measures, Americans have lost their sense of community and voluntary civic engagement — what Alexis de Tocqueville called the “science of association” that was the source of the country’s strength. The combined effects of social media and the pandemic have left us isolated — and hungering for our lost civic ties. But you can’t rebuild community in a news desert. -- Dana Milbank Aug 11, 2023. WAPO

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This week, Salem Radio host Charlie Kirk called for President Joe Biden to either be "put in prison" or given "the death penalty" for supposed "crimes against America."

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Florida’s Department of Education has approved classroom use of videos that spout climate disinformation and distort climate science, Scientific American reports.

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“Donald Trump is a long, long way from winning the GOP primary, let alone retaking the White House. But he always has revenge on his mind, and his allies are preparing to use a future administration to not only undo all of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s work — but to take vengeance on Smith, and on virtually everyone else, who dared investigate Trump during his time out of power,”  -- Rolling Stone 

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Nearly a year after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, about $9 million in aid raised by Casey DeSantis for her relief campaign still hasn’t been spent, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

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“Trump’s political action committee, which began last year with $105 million, now has less than $4 million left in its account after paying tens of millions of dollars in legal fees for Mr. Trump and his associates.” -- NYT

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Supreme Court Approval at Record Low 

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Justice Samuel Alito told the Wall Street Journal that Congress has no authority to regulate the Supreme Court. 

Said Alito: “I know this is a con­tro­ver­sial view, but I’m will­ing to say it… No pro­vi­sion in the Con­sti­tu­tion gives them the au­thor­ity to reg­u­late the Supreme Court — pe­riod.”

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“There was a time when even a fraction of Donald Trump’s record of lawlessness and depravity would have shattered a person’s political career, rendered his party ashamed of its association with him, and left him humiliated and seeking forgiveness. But that day is long gone, at least if you’re a Republican.” -- Peter Wehner

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Polling released by The New York Times and Siena College on Monday found that only 5% of respondents who get their news from Fox News believe that Trump has "committed serious federal crimes," with an overwhelming 91% saying he has not done so. Meanwhile, 83% of Fox News-watching respondents believe that after the 2020 election, Trump "was just exercising his right to contest the" results. And, perhaps most importantly, 85% of Republican-leaning poll participants who primarily watch Fox News say the GOP needs to "stand behind" Trump.  ....Of course, Fox settle[d] Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million over US election lies 

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The leadership political action committee founded by Donald Trump paid $108,000 to Melania Trump’s stylist in the first six months of 2023 for “strategy consulting,” the Daily Beast reports.

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Mike Pence told Fox News that Donald Trump personally asked him to “literally reject votes” on January 6. Mike Pence told Fox News that Donald Trump personally asked him to “literally reject votes” on January 6. 

Said Pence: “Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes which would have resulted in the issue of being turned over to the house of representatives.”

He added: “They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.”

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“A man is running to run the government he tried to overthrow while he was running it, even as he is running to stay ahead of the law. That sounds loony, except in the topsy-turvy world of Donald Trump, where it has a grotesque logic.” --Maureen Dowd

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A new CNN poll finds that 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaners say Joe Biden’s win in 2020 was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year and through last fall, even as there is no evidence of election fraud that would have altered the outcome of the contest.

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“Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to fiscal concerns, a deterioration in U.S governance, as well as political polarization reflected partly by the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Reuters reports. This will cost taxpayers millions & millions more in interest payments

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“During [ the ] Republican primary debate, Ron DeSantis [ ... ] promised that, under his presidency, Mexican drug cartels would be “shot stone cold dead,” and vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, “we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”

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OPINION: A MODEST PROPOSAL

 As of late it has become obvious, if it wasn't before, that more white nationalists are hunting and murdering black people simply because of their color. Maybe it's time for the Black Panthers, heavily armed, as is their right, to make a reappearance -- as they did in the 60's -- to remind those that hunt them, that retribution is possible and deadly. That might change the current socio/political equation.

For more information on the Black Panther Party, click here or here or here.

POLITICAL ADS DON'T HAVE TO BE BORING

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GIDDIUP JACK & FANI

 

REFLECTING ON THE SCOTUS OF 2023

Asked for my reaction to the recent decisions made by the SCOTUS, namely:

(1) affirmative actions based on race (2) web designer free speech issue re: LBGTQ & (3) student loans, this is what I think.

 

My current respect for the SCOTUS is low. Their recent decisions reek of partisan politics. Once upon a time I considered it a vaunted institution with gravitas until it entered the political arena, accepted and decided the Bush v Gore election which was strictly a state matter. 

 

IMO, it's now a failing institution, populated by liars, morphed into another grubby political entity, guarantied a lifetime of supreme rights and privilege without ethical standards and no checks and balances. From that position, it cannot rule with credibility. Moreover, fewer and fewer of its decisions appear more and more rooted in closely held personal views, thinly disguised as ponderous legal decisions.

So, you tell me, what opinions could I offer about decisions made under a political cloud? In principal, I think none of them have much merit based on the people passing the judgements. 

OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system: let's take them one at a time.

 

Free Speech: The aggrieved web designer who decided she didn't have to provide her creative services to a same sex couple. This case should have been rejected because it had no standing.

There was no gay couple, there was no request from anyone for a website that included LBGTQ information, the person named in the suit is a heterosexual man with a wife.

In other words, the decision was based on lies; it was a problem made up of whole cloth by a conservative political group using cutouts. That's why I would throw it out. 

But my own opinion is that a business open to the public should serve the public otherwise we will return to a country peppered with signage like "No blacks allowed" or "No Jews here". By its decision the SCOTUS simply created a new exception: “No gays will be served”.

Student Loan Forgiveness. If the executive branch didn't use the proper tool/law/regulation to order the forgiveness as an executive matter, then it should be rejected, as it was. But as an aside, I think it's a travesty for graduating students to begin their adult life behind a financial eight ball.

 

Affirmative Action: Quotas of any kind should go away. There are other means to separate the best cows from the herd without resorting to special treatment. But, as it is, this was a half-assed decision based on personal politics, ignoring legacy students, privileged high school athletes, children of wealth who are regularly admitted based on generous parental contributions to a stadium, building, auditorium or departmental chair.  

 

So these are my thoughts & reactions to the current spate of judgements passed down from a crumbling Mount Olympus. 

Go Donald!

Do you remember, as I do, Ivanka saying about her father: you will not find anyone who will work harder for the American people; that he will never give up. Well, god bless her little heart, she was right. Keep it up, Donald. You're the best at positioning the Democratic party for continued success.

AND IN THE CENTER RING...

CLICK HERE

The New Reality

POLITICAL NAIVETE IS NO EXCUSE

Even our forefathers were naive despite their best efforts to construct checks and balances of power.

In their naivete they considered only normal behavior (norms) based on a moral compass. But today we have an abnormal president with no moral compass & the columns, on which OUR Republic stands, are crumbling before his onslaught.

Many talking heads demonstrate that same naivete, HOPING for a cure, effectively saying, rather plaintively: "Gee, that's never happened before; Congress must stand up to the dictator."

The core of this country is -- as we know -- based on an IDEA called democracy and what we see is what results when the people take their democracy for granted and stop participating.

POLITICAL ALGORITHMS

I equate Bernie Sanders w [the] Donald Trump [movement]. Both are cries for help in a rotting political system of perpetual self service rather than a political system in service of the people/greater good.

Until someone/something changes that trajectory we will see a slow but steady drumbeat for revolution from both sides.

IMO, this is an extremely dangerous time for America in which we can stumble into a major war, distracting us from what is happening at home. Besides the obvious, a question is whether that would unify us as WWII did or divide us as the Vietnam conflict did, furthering the current climate.

Put it another way: The MLK movement of non violence didn't quite fit the American ethos so along came Malcolm X and The Black Panthers. That really got the conversation going. Do you see some similarities in the ebb & flow of our current politics?