Demonstrations took place across the country, uniting a myriad of criticisms of the Trump administration under one message: "Hands off."

#news #npr #publicradio #usa
posted by pod_feeder_v2

Our near future. :P

From the article on the May Day riots of 1894:

foreignaffairs.com/guatemala/h…

xda-developers.com/windows-11-…

A federal judge this morning indefinitely blocked the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to sensitive data from three federal agencies.

The Department of Education (think: all of the personal information associated with student loans)
The Department of the Treasury (think: personal data associated with taxes, Social Security, etc.)
The Office of Personnel Management

Why?: U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman cited the Privacy Act of 1974. At the time, Congress was concerned that a single bureaucrat could instantaneously collect everyone’s personal information.

courtlistener.com/docket/69627…

I am no longer surprised about anything that club of total morons in the White House do. Really, I pity comedians, because it's basically become impossible to create a sketch that's even more absurd than what's happening for real.

There's one thing that keeps surprising me though, more and more: the lack of action by the people.

I mean, burning down your neighbor's car because it's a #Tesla can feel nice, but it doesn't help. It does nothing against the pack of utter looneys destroying the US. That needs a different kind of action.

Surely the American people have a basic knowledge of history, right? You must hear all those alarm bells going off right now, not?

Teaming up with rich industrialists, making journalists' lives impossible, ignoring laws and saying judges should keep their mouths shut, deporting people, getting cosy with dictators and quickly breaking down all kinds of democratic institutions.

#America, come on, you must understand where this is going! The nazis didn't start with the gas chambers, it took a while before they got to that point.

Act now, or you're going to end up like the German people in the 1930s. Or like the Russian people. Living under a dictator, in a society where every bit of criticism can get you in prison - or worse.

A few points from the Fascist Playbook, radixuk.org/opinion/the-mussol…

• First, create a clear national identity to celebrate, primarily by defining who does not belong to the nation, who is the “other”. This may be by pure ethnicity or place of birth, contribution to the country, perceived affiliation, etc.
• Secondly, create manifest, visible expressions of (muscular) action “for the people”. Economic arguments for action or actual value of actions are far less important than their symbolic populist value.
• Thirdly, embed one’s power, democratically or otherwise, by diminishing the role of other potential opposing forces in whatever is the national “balance of power”, with a particular focus on limiting an independent judiciary.
• Fourthly, focus on control of the media message. This means both being very slick, focused and professional in managing one’s own message, but also finding ways of undermining, and where possible, eliminating opposing media voices.
• Fifthly, a cabinet or government is less popular than a personal leader, so the personality of the leader is important. The leader must be seen as muscular, action-oriented, intelligent but not intellectual (intellectuals are never popular), a man of the people.

Give Agent Orange and his henchmen a bit more time, and the only way you'll ever get rid of him is a revolution. The time to act is now (or rather: yesterday).

#USpol #Trump #Fascism

A Pentagon official not authorized to speak publicly said its review to scrub websites of DEI content was too hasty and used search terms like "gay," which led to the flagging of Enola Gay images.

#news #npr #publicradio #usa
posted by pod_feeder_v2